Published by Charles Joseph February 29th, 2008
in Notes.
SCATTERSHOTS OF PLAY - POTENTIAL OF INDIE GAMES
with Kellee Santiago, Jonathan Mak, and Pekko Koskinen
This was the first talk at the Idie Games Summit and unfortunately I came in a little late. When I sat down the panelists were discussing the difference between ‘intrinsic rewards’ and ‘extrinsic rewards’. As far as I could understand, things like points or levels are extrinsic rewards, in that that they are separate from the fiction of the game’s world, while something like a beautiful explosion, or a character’s dance, is an ‘intrinsic reward’ because it takes place inside the gameworld. This reminded me a lot of Alex Galloway’s writings on the diegetic and non-diegetic in games, and led into Jon Mak’s subject which was “input and output”.
His central point was that when all is said and done games are simply software where people use something to input a command and expect an output. He said that he was really interested in the way that a very simple game can be an incredibly rewarding experience if the output is interesting. Bringing up Everyday Shooter on the projector as an example, he showed the game stripped of all it’s complex visuals, and pointed out how boring it was. Then with a few key strokes he added the visuals and showed how much more interesting the experience became. His point was basically that while gameplay (input) is very important, designers mustn’t overlook how the output is expressed, through visuals, sounds, etc.
Finally, Pekko Koskinen started by saying that while most people there had gathered because of video games, it should always be remembered that games are not a medium. Indeed, he pointed out that games can be found in any medium, from human language to sculpture (I guess he meant board games) to screens. He then mentioned a really intriguing project that he was working on: a massively-multiplayer theatre piece taking place in a Finland. All this led to his final point, which was that in the process of making a game most people focus on the product of the endeavor being the game itself. What we design when we design gameplay though, are behaviors. Therefore we should think of our product as being the players themselves, rather than being games.
+-+
This is a summary of one of the panels that I attended during GDC ‘08. It’s pieced together from notes, so if you have any specific questions just ask them in the comments and I’ll answer as best as I can remember.
Published by Charles Berkeley February 27th, 2008
in Readings and Links.
Published by Charles Joseph February 24th, 2008
in Readings and Links.
Last week’s New York Times Magazine had an article about the scientific discussion over play in both humans and other animals (mainly mammals apparently!), namely: what is the biological purpose of play?
Link
If we are to believe Johan Huizinga, that all of human culture arises out of play, then questions about the function of play are not simply curiosities, but central to understanding some of the very things that we use to define ourselves as human.
Published by Charles Berkeley February 14th, 2008
in Games.
…of growing up with weapons in Kentucky. This is a really simple game. No depth at all. I love it.
Dodge the Bullet
Published by Charles Joseph February 12th, 2008
in Readings and Links.
When we talk about ‘depth’ in games we usually mean combinatorial richness. The number of elements in a game that can affect each other in a non-trivial way. For instance, Sid Meier’s Civilization is a deep game because there are so many things that can affect the course of play, ensuring that no two playthroughs are the same. On opposite end of the spectrum you have games like Ron Gilbert’s The Secret of Monkey Island, where you have to move through a set sequence of events in a set order.
This is not to say that one type of game is better than the other. Guitar Hero is a great game even if it has no combinatorial depth whatsoever.
Over at the Guardian Unlimited’s games blog, Keith Stuart has written an interesting article about depth in video games, where he argues against the type of depth displayed in titles like Devil May Cry as “out-dated”. This kind of game, where mastery is a matter of quick reflexes and memorizing long strings of button combinations was more the aesthetic of the arcade scene. Now that games are a comfortable part of the average living room we need to look for different kinds of depth for the “21 century”. He suggests narrative depth (which seems like a 19th century kind of depth to me) and “structural depth”, where individuals configure their experience in a vein similar to classic western RPGs.
Is he missing the point, or is our friend from across the pond on to something?
Published by Bob February 10th, 2008
in Games.
http://www.divshare.com/download/3748406-477
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and you don’t know how tempting it is to make another game about suicide just for the occasion. Instead, however, let’s put a slightly more optimistic face on the grim occasion, and try a more upbeat game of inevitable failure. See, in all the work I’ve been putting into my dialogue-driven games, I realized that there was one already existing genre of games that I’d been ignoring entirely, and one that had potentially the greatest potential for narrative, gameplay and emotional connection:
The dating-sim!
Continue reading ‘The Designer’s Dilemma: Geek Love’
Published by Charles Joseph February 7th, 2008
in 300 Words.
Passage is a perfect game.
Not perfect in the sense that it is better than all other games. It’s perfect in the sense that it has nothing extraneous. Every element seems to have the incredible weight of necessity.
Beyond its elegance, the brilliance of Passage is that it uses the language of video games to subtly reinterpret familiar situations, giving the player a new perspective on games they’ve already played. The maze that is always below you is a stand in for the confounding gauntlet of professional choices we all have to navigate. Points and treasure chests represent the material riches of life that don’t always come easy. Life-long companionship is the thing that we irrationally desire even though it doesn’t seem to tangibly benefit us.
The graphics of Passage were made to fit within the constraints of Kokoromi’s Gamma256 show. However, they work on an additional level. The themes of the game, the choices between love and riches and adventure, are just the sort of choices that are now being grappled with by those who have grown up playing video games. Passage’s visuals are poignantly ironic, a nostalgic throwback to a time when its player’s worries were more superficial, but used to speak to their contemporary concerns.
Eric-Jon Rossel Waugh once wrote that in Silent Hill 2 you almost always get the ending you deserve. No more accurate thing can be said about Passage, and that aspect is simultaneously what makes it so much a game and so much like life.
You can’t win in Passage, you and your companion will always die, alone or beside each other. The game’s final moments lay bare how much of our sense of meaning and value are wrapped up in time and death. No moment is extraneous in the face of oblivion.
Published by Charles Berkeley February 5th, 2008
in Readings and Links.
Published by Charles Joseph February 4th, 2008
in Current Events.
So I’ll be speaking at the next Gaming Seminar hosted by NYU this coming Friday, and the topic will be ‘Independent Game Designers’. I’ve been thinking about what I want to talk about and it occurred to me that it would be really useful to know you all want to hear. I feel like the folks that read this blog represent a great cross-section of different perspectives on games and game design and your input is as valuable as any I could get. Here are a few ideas for topics that I’ve been tossing around:
- Independent vs. Indie.
- Innovation and independence.
- The history of independent game design.
- Designing games for specific audiences.
- The process of building an independent game (i.e. Casablanca).
- The experience of building your first game.
- My education as a game designer and the reality of starting a career in game design.
Is there anything that catches any interest in any of you all? Is there something that I’m not thinking of? I’ll be working on the presentation throughout the week and any feedback you guys have on these initials thoughts or otherwise would be greatly appreciated. Of course, I hope to see you all there!
Author’s Note: How about them Giants?
So about a week ago, I found myself in the midst of a heated discussion with an avid sports fan (Matt Parker) and amateur saber-metrics wannabe (think: high school calculus meets baseball statistics). Anyway, over Kentucky Fried Chicken in the middle of Manhattan, Mr. Parker, myself, and Charles Pratt (who knows very little about sports) discussed the role of psychology in an athlete’s performance… specifically who would win this match: a team of college basketball players who had practiced together for two years or a team of all-star professionals who had never played together… with one caveat: the players must all be the same age to regulate physical development (say 21 years old). In other words, it’s Duke vs. the all NBA rookie or 2nd year team. Who wins?
Continue reading ‘Frontlines of the Non-digital (Super Bowl Edition): Executing As a Team Under Pressure’
COMMENTS