['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

   

Still haven't thought up a brilliant enough concept for your Halloween costume? Honey, it's not too late! Just find a box, tape, wire hangers, markers, a pair of pliers, paint, and a coffee can (does ground coffee still come in big aluminum cans?), and you too can dress up like a TRS-80 Model III computer for the big party tonight!

This spread comes to you courtesy the October 1983 issue of Family Computing, one of several consumer-oriented magazines in the early '80s covering 8-bit computers. It was written by Joey Latimer, who contributed a lot of stuff like this to Family Computing during its existence -- cute articles with kid appeal, quick little program demos, and so forth. "The TV screen or monitor can be decorated to look like a computer game, graphics, program listings, or anything imaginable," he writes. "Don't be afraid to invent your own fantasy game."

I'm surprised that I have not mentioned Family Computing in this column yet, especially since our family subscribed to it back in the day, from its 1983 inception all the way to 1988 when it changed subjects and became Home Office Computing. It was published by Scholastic, which launched it nearly simultaneously with a kid-targeted magazine titled Microkids (later K-Power). K-Power lasted until late 1984, after which it was incorporated into Family Computing in its own separate section -- but even before then, Family Computing was definitely written in a kid-friendly tone, differentiating it from the slightly more tech-oriented approach of rivals like COMPUTE!.

A full Family Computing archive has been scanned in by DLH and should still be available via torrent if you're curious. I would not call it an exemplary magazine -- like I said, its coverage was always pretty beginner-oriented and readers like me had a tendency to "graduate" from it quickly -- but it does have one unique selling point: it offered type-in programs and coverage for orphaned systems like the TI-99/4A and Coleco's ADAM long after all official support for them disappeared.

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[In a change of pace from his usual GameSetWatch column, Mister Raroo treats us to a Halloween tale of gaming gone horribly wrong. As an added bonus, the story features guest artwork by death metal vocalist and illustrator Sean McGrath. You should think twice before you head to your favorite game store around Halloween, or you might suffer the same bad fortune as Mister Raroo. But don't worry, Mister Raroo's tale is only fiction. Or at least, we think it is. Now that we think of it, we haven't heard from him in a while. You don't think this chilling tale could be real, do you?!]

A Desperate Warning

Please hear my tale, dear readers, for it is through writing these words that I am attempting to confirm what is left of my sanity. I am still not completely sure that the events which transpired last night actually happened, as the mind is capable of strange and cruel fabrications. If it weren't for one horrible piece of evidence, I would write the whole thing off as nightmare. If only it were that had I ventured too far into the supernatural realms we visit while we sleep!

But no! I fear there is no escape, for even if it were all in my imagination, is there any refuge from the visions that fill our minds? When a moment arrives in which my throughts finally provide me with a brief respite from this terrible affliction, I hear her voice whispering in my ear. What a horrendous punishment! Why has fate chosen me to carry this burden?!

All my life I have had a fascination with the macabre, an attraction that has permeated into my interests and hobbies. My friends and colleagues did their best to warn me that too much attention to grim pursuits would come back to haunt me. I always sloughed off their words, but now it seems their ghastly predictions have come true. It's one thing to enjoy an occasional visit into the shadowy recesses of the world, but the horror that lurks in the darkness is nigh unbearable when there is no escape from it.

It is only now that I am a prisoner that I see the error of my ways. When we lend our minds to the ghoulish world, it can take hold of us and steal our sanity. Dear friends, it is with but a thin thread of reason that I am even able to focus and write these words! So please, hear what I have to say, and take heed of my warning! For if you follow the same path I have tread, you may be the next vicitm of this abnormal, unnatural curse and you will be unable to free yourself from the horror that is this relentelss video game psychosis. Beware!

An Unfortunate Encounter

Last evening I made a venture to my local video game store, The Game Haven. Its rows of shelves overflowing with almost any game imaginable, the establishment truly lives up to its name as a haven for someone as enamored with games as myself. However, oddly enough, I cannot recall how I arrived at The Game Haven, nor can I remember how I returned home. All that stands out in my memory is the unnerving series of events that occurred.

As I walked through the entrance, I thought perhaps I had arrived too late and the store was closed, for all the lights were off and there were no customers in sight. It was so dark inside that I couldn't see but a few feet in front of me. I turned to leave but a faint, weary voice called to me. "Please, come in."

As a frequent patron of The Game Haven, I was familiar with the store's layout, and had little difficulty navigating in the low light. More than the lights being out, however, I felt that something was certainly amiss. The store's shelves were nearly empty and covered with a thick layer of dust, while a musty, thick scent filled the air.

When I finally made my way to the source of the voice, I was surprised to find a shrivled, fragile woman sitting behind the counter. In my many visits to The Game Haven I had never seen her, nor had I heard the store's owner and operator, Howard, make mention of her. As if in response to my thoughts, the woman said, "You were expecting Howard, I'm sure." She paused a moment before her lips curled into a crooked smile as she added, "He won't be able to join us this evening, I'm afraid."

Something about the way the woman formed her words made me feel uncomfortable. She looked me up and down for a moment then finally asked, "What type of game are you interested in? I'm sure we can find something to suit... your fancy." She let out a hollow laugh that echoed into the void of darkness enveloping the store.

Going on appearances, I figured there was little chance the woman knew much about video games. Howard knew my tastes well and was a walking encyclopedia of video game knowledge, always ready to offer up suggestions on what games I should try next. But as for the mysterious woman who sat before me, I had little faith that she would know the difference between Pac-Man and Mega Man. Still, I decided it couldn't hurt to inquire, so I said, "I'm looking for something to play this Halloween. Maybe something along the lines of Luigi's Mansion or Grabbed by the Ghoulies."

The woman's expression suddenly became more serious, and she leaned over the counter toward me, whispering, "Oh, so you're looking for a little scare, are you?" She then let out a loud cackle and closed her eyes, quickly mumbling something to herself in a language that seemed impossible to form with the human tongue. I was so taken aback that I stood frozen for a moment. I finally snapped out of it and tried to respond to let her know that I wasn't necessarily looking for a game to frighten me, but her eyes opened wide and a chilling, deep voice bellowed from her chest. "Your choice has been made!"

It is at this point that all memory of my weird visit to The Game Haven comes to an end, though I will never be able to forget the stare of the old woman, whose eyes seemed to gaze far beyond my own and into the confines of my inner self. It was as if she was able to see further into my being than I even knew existed, and I am afraid that it is in these unreachable corners of my soul that she now resides! How I am even able to write these words for you to read, dear friends, is unknown to me, for I fear she has taken control of my mind and its thoughts! Perhaps she is allowing me to warn you of my fate before you make the same mistake!

The Night of the Demoniac Game

My world drifted from one scene to another, as if I were in a dream. The old woman's voice was still reverberating in my head when I found myself in my living room, sitting in front of my television set with a video game controller in my hands. What I played, my friends, was not any type of video game I have ever seen, nor was it anything I would imagine even the most vile of game developers would have the ability or courage to create. I dare not describe the atrocities that I saw last night, for you still have your innocence. But I will say the scenes that transpired before me were enough to drive even the strongest of minds mad, and I now long for the time before which my eyes witnessed such sights.

There was no sense of time, and as the night progressed it was as if I were no longer holding a controller in my hand, simply playing a video game. Instead, everything melted away into the gloominess surrounding the screen, and the monstrous images that were unfolding before my eyes became the only bit of existence I knew. I was not playing a game, I had became part of it, and I fought with all my might to keep my mind from mercilessly trying to spare me the horror by causing itself to crack.

No matter how many times I tried to turn away from the madness that was enveloping me, I was powerless, as if some invisible force were holding me in place and forcing my eyes open. Perhaps it was for the best, for as the night wore on I felt an increasing dread as some presence crept up around me. There were eerie rustlings and shuffles coming from the darkest parts of the room, and I was certain I was not alone. As my eyes stared straight ahead, the doom that engulfed me increased, and I fear that had I turned to face what unimaginable entity was inching nearer to me, I would have gone mad on the spot!

My body and mind were overcome with an exhaustion the likes of which I never knew was possible, but the night seemed to rage on endlessly and I couldn't escape it. At one point I loudly cursed the old woman, for I knew she was responsible for my torture, but this only worsened the intensity of the game's cruelty, as if in response to my desparation. Finally, at long last the night unexpectedly and mercifully began to melt into dawn, and with it my consciousness faded as well. I felt myself racing toward an infinite blackness. My sense of being was extinguished, and my world ceased to exist.

The Morning After

The soft, faint sounds of bird songs woke me up this Halloween morning, laying in front of my television set with a game controller nearby. I quickly sat up and looked around the room. Everything seemed normal and as I remembered it, though an uneasy silence filled my home. I checked every room of the house, but there was no sign of my family anywhere.

I returned to my living room and pressed eject on the game console to inspect the disc, only to find that the disc drive was empty. Yet the game I was forced to be a part of seemed too real to be only a loathsome dream. Even now my mind's eye cannot see anything but the ghastly scenes from last night, and I beg that you never know the harrowing sights I have witnessed, dear readers!

As I stood in the center of the room, I suddenly felt the breath of a voice whispering in my ear, causing me to exclaim in fear. However, when I turned around to see who was standing beside me, there was no one to be found. I thought it must be my weary mind playing tricks on me, until it happened again, repeating the same phrase over and over. It took me a few moments to make out what the unholy whisper was telling me, and my heart all but stopped when I realized it was the voice of the old woman. "Your choice has been made. Your choice has been made. Your choice has been made!."

It was then, my friends, that my gaze fell upon something that made me rue my affection for the morbid interests I had so often filled my life with. Sitting on the coffee table was a scrap of paper, upon which was scribbled the words that confirmed my worst fears. Should it be I have lost my mind and gone insane it would be a blessing, for it would mean that my night of unthinkable terror had not actually happened.

But no, I now know that the hideous images I watched against my will were not merely the hallucinations of a crazy man. I picked up the paper and saw it was a receipt from The Game Haven. As I read the simple words that were scrawled upon it, I could hear the voice of the abhorrent woman: "Thank You For Your Business. Your Choice Has Been Made!"

[Mister Raroo is a happy husband, proud father, full-time public library employee, and active gamer. He currently lives in El Cajon, CA with his family and many pets. If you happen to catch him when he's out trick-or-treating with his family this Halloween night, you'll most likely find him dressed as Sir Topham Hatt. You may reach Mister Raroo at mister.raroo@gmail.com.]

[Sean McGrath is one of the founding members of gore afficionados Impaled and is rumored to have ties to the infamous Creepsylvanian group Ghoul, though any evidence to verify this fact remains inconclusive. He has generated artwork and logos for many bands, including Strung Up, Municipal Waste, and Voetsek. Omake time! You can view larger images of Sean's artwork for this story by clicking here, here, here, here, or here.]

Posted by Bill Sannwald at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days, as well as any notable features on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The delights in this edition include a cave spelunking game with low resolution graphics, a Western-themed shooter with bullet time effects, a 2D platformer focused entirely on the aspect of exploration, a point-and-click adventure with delightful watercolour art, and a fighting game about two bandits out on a search for gold.

Game Pick: 'Excavatorrr' (Arvi Teikari, freeware)
"In Excavatorrr you play as an adventurer who is searching for rare treasures in an unexplored network of caves, equipped with only a pickaxe and some starting items strewn on the floor. Maps are procedurally generated every time you start a new game, and there is also a score submission feature that you can use to upload your high scores online."

Game Pick: 'GunFu Deadlands' (Christiaan Janssen, freeware)
"GunFu Deadlands is a 2D arcade shooter in which you play a cowboy out to prove that he is the quickest sharpshooter in the West. Similar to Max Payne and the recent Call of Juarez series, our hero has the uncanny ability to react faster than everyone else, although he can only use bullet time in short bursts."

Game Pick: 'Gretel and Hansel' (Makopudding, browser)
"Gretel and Hansel is a short point and click adventure loosely based in the world of Hansel and Gretel. Gretel overhears their parents discussing some 'money-saving ideas', and decides to embark on a pebble-collecting mission as per the story. It's definitely worth playing for the watercolour art - every little bit from the backgrounds to the character models was hand painted and scanned in."

Game Pick: 'Small Worlds' (David Shute, browser)
"Small Worlds is an exploration game created by David Shute for JayisGames' latest Casual Gameplay Design Competition. The controls for your character can be a bit frustrating at times but everything else about the effort shines through. Even if you take all the wrong paths, this adventure is still a rather short one that will only take roughly about fifteen minutes of your time to complete."

Game Pick: 'Bullets of a Revolver' (DieFox, freeware)
"Bullets of a Revolver is a fighting game for the most part, but also has dodging, dueling and dancing minigames thrown in from time to time. It tells the story of two bandits on their quest to discover the location of the fabled Golden Cave. There's also an arcade mode if you simply want to get into a fight, or Versus mode for those want to play against a friend on the same keyboard."

Posted by timw at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last April, Retro Gamer and writer 'Reverend' Stuart Campbell spent four pages on Matthew Smith's Manic Miner, specifically discussing the classic platformer's non-Spectrum editions and all the extra levels introduced in those ports.

Inspired by the article, the homebrew programmers at Headsoft, who also coded the excellent Warhawk DS, gathered all those stages from the commercial Manic Miner ports and released the collection for free on the Nintendo DS (playable with an emulator or homebrew device).

"The tale of Miner Willy and his incredible adventures in the mines, and then the mansions, of Surbiton is legend. But like all legends, it doesn't tell the whole story. Most people know Willy simply as a digger who got lucky and lived happily ever after in decadent luxury. Far fewer know the secret - suppressed for quarter of a century by the government - of how he also saved Planet Earth from alien invasion.

It wasn't until an eccentric but dedicated historian writing a paper for a renowned academic journal (Retro Gamer issue 63) pieced together the complete saga of Willy's heroic exploits from fragments of scattered evidence - in the form of obscure retellings of the 'Manic Miner' folk fable in ancient languages readable only via long-obsolete machines - that the whole truth was finally revealed."

Manic Miner In The Lost Levels features a total of 50 stages, arranged in three sections. The Lost Levels portion includes 20 levels that were added (or modified) for the Manic Miner versions released on Oric, BBC Micro, Dragon 32, Amstrad CPC, and GBA.

After completing The Lost Levels, players can access Willywood, a standalone 10-level game with original stages designed by Headsoft. They can also unlock 20 bonus stages that are "a mixture of original levels and classic levels from both Manic Miner and other related games" by finding secret areas scattered around Willywood and The Lost Levels.

You can download Manic Miner In The Lost Levels at Headsoft's official site.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are already several robots constructed for the sole purpose of playing Guitar Hero and hitting every note using the game's guitar controller (we won't get into why these even exist in the first place), but this latest music game automaton is a different beast; it's built to dominate Rock Band for the iPhone.

Tinkerer Joe Bowers used ambient light sensors to detect the bright colored notes, which send data to an Arduino that tells a series of servos/synthetic fingers to tap the system's touchscreen. It's just a shame the squeaky fingers drown out whatever song happens to be playing.

With some trivial modifications, I'm sure this Rock Band robot could also work on Tap Revenge 3, another popular (and more fun) music game on the App Store.

[Via Hack a Day]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Notable Japanese indie developer Nigoro (Rose & Camellia) is now called Asterizm, and Brandon Sheffield talks to its principals about philosophies, design concepts, and taking retro 2D platformer La Mulana onto WiiWare.]

Nigoro was an Japanese independent game developer that has released a number of humorous -- and well-regarded -- Flash games over the last few years.

Titles like the slap-fest Rose & Camellia, and the skirt-flipping game Mekuri Bancho put the company on the indie map, but La-Mulana -- described as "a freeware free-roaming platformer game designed to look, sound, and play like a classic MSX game" -- is what really got them into the public eye.

The company has since become Asterizm, a proper (but still indie) corporation based in Japan, and is releasing La-Mulana on the Wii's downloadable WiiWare service, with a graphical upgrade that remains true to the genre.

In this interview, conducted during the Tokyo Game Show, we spoke with Vice president Takumi Naramura, and president Shoji Nakamura about what makes the company tick, the origin of Nigoro, and game influences:

MSX Love

How did the group first come together?

Takumi Naramura: For the most part, it got its start with the people that had come together to help with this game website I created. Three of these people liked to make games, and those three became the core staff in our outfit.

What was the site called?

TN: MSX3. [This site is not around anymore, but it had MSX game strategies, MIDIs, hardware info, and was generally the sort of 8-bit computer retro-tribute site you saw a lot of in the late 90s/early 00s. The site design was also modeled after Hydlide 3's screen layout.]

How has it been moving from an indie outfit to a professional company?

TN: I think it would've been nice if we could continue to make games as a hobby for the rest of our lives, but the fact is that all of us are in our thirties, and I think the staff has some serious talent they've built up. Looking at it that way, it sort of seems like a missed opportunity if we didn't use our skills to go to the next level.

We made the shift because we had built up a reasonable amount of confidence that we could succeed at this. It was sort of a natural process. There's also the fact that the Internet and the idea of downloadable games has spread well enough that even an outfit like ours can sell games, which is important because we don't have the sort of capital you'd need to sell packaged software.

What do you think about Flash as a game construction medium? What are the good and bad points of it?

TN: The greatest advantage it has is that anyone can play a Flash game, and -- more important on our end -- nearly anybody can develop a Flash game, too.

The bad part from our perspective is that, no matter what we're trying to make, we run into obstacles with the environment that we constantly need to find workarounds for -- controls, graphics, sound, you name it. It's a limited environment.

What's the engine or codebase did you use for the development of LA-MULANA?

Shoji Nakamura: We're making a new engine for the Wii in C++.

Will that be your engine for future games as well?

TN: Not wholesale, no, but some core aspects of it -- sound effects, game map displays -- will certainly be made general enough for re-use.

Bancho Mayhem

I was playing Mekuri Bancho [a flash game in which a delinquent, or “bancho” runs through a school flipping up girls’ skirts] last night and…

SN: Oh, thank you very much!

Can you explain the recent popularity of bancho games? Like Kenka Bancho and so on.

TN: In Japan, you really don't see anybody like that anymore. You could sort of call them "lost heroes" in the popular mind. (laughs)

SN: We had lots of banchos in our childhood. Well, okay, not lots -- two or so, anyway! (laughs) So it's a childhood thing.

Many of your games have some humor, but I feel that not so many games in Japan use humor very often, or effectively. Why do you think that is?

TN: I think they're afraid they'll go too far with it and people will get angry at them; it'd become a media thing. They don't want to risk that sort of thing, even if they want to include aspects like that.

I think that one of reasons Nigoro has gotten overseas popularity is because of the humor.

TN: (laughs) That's just what we aimed for.

The first time I heard about Nigoro was for Rose & Camellia.

SN: The slapping game!

Have you considered porting some of these Flash games to the iPhone or something? Many of them are gesture-oriented, so...

TN: I'd like to. We don't have the time nor the people right now, but I'd like to.

SN: Probably we will, but not now, anyway.

These kind of small Flash projects -- I think they're quite interesting, because you can focus on one interesting idea and make a small, self-contained game around it that is quite enjoyable. Is that your intention, to make these sorts of games?

TN: We're actually pretty bad at that. Like a lot of developers, we have a tendency to create these huge levels and all kinds of enemies to populate them. But as we've been making Flash games for two years, we've trained ourselves to keep that focus you mentioned, through games like Mekuri Bancho and so forth. So, in that way, it is our intention, yes. If we can keep finding ideas for them, we'll keep on making them.

LA-MULANA

With LA-MULANA, I'm curious to know why you decided to change the art style from 8-bit to 16-bit.

TN: Well, for one, while we all like the graphics and sound you get with old games, but we felt that if we continued to pursue that, we'd just be looking to the past and not challenging ourselves to try anything new.

Another reason is that a pretty large contingent of gamers, especially younger ones, are simply not interested in games that look "old." To them, "old" graphics mean bad graphics. So we felt it important that this be presented as a wholly new title.

The indie-game audience was probably interested in it in the first place because of its graphics. Still, the new graphics don't look “new” in the sense you’re saying.

SN: Yeah.

TN: Perhaps we aren't getting our cues from classic games any longer for the visuals, but I think the taste of the original has remained unchanged. It's 2D graphics Nigoro-style.

SN: We call it "32-bit" graphics. (laughs)

It probably is, yeah. Sorry I said 16-bit. (laughs) It's sort of like Symphony of the Night-level.

TN: The graphics and sound are different, but the gameplay is definitely still rooted around the old style of platformers. That's Nigoro's name ["256" or 8 bits], after all. That's our roots.

That's true, yeah. I was thinking it looks almost 24-bit.
SN: (laughs) Like the Neo-Geo and so on. I love the Neo-Geo.

Me too. Some of the new screenshots remind me of -- you know Top Hunter? (Neo Geo arcade game)

SN: I love that game!

Me too. So, the Flash games that you've done -- the visual influence for those seems different from game to game. It seems to target a different kind of old-style feeling for each. Like, Nazca-type of anime, or Rose & Camellia has the old Japan interpretation of European art. What is your visual inspiration for each type?

TN: Well, starting at the beginning -- Death Village was our first Flash game, and that visual style was inspired by American comics. Since Flash games can be played by anyone worldwide, we wanted to try and attract a foreign audience with that.

With Rose & Camellia, we came up with the idea for the game first, and we argued over what story-based reason there would be for the ladies being polite enough to take turns slapping each other instead of going all-out and having a wrestling match. The shojo-manga (girl’s comics) backstory you see in the game was the very first thing that popped into my mind.

With Mekuri Bancho -- in old Japanese anime, you saw scenes all the time where students would flip up their teacher's skirt and stuff. That would show up in all kinds of shonen manga (boy’s comics), but never these days because of political correctness, so it's sort of a nostalgic thing for people our age.

That's how we came to build a game off it. As you can tell, I get a lot of inspiration from all the games, movies, manga and so forth that I looked through when I was a kid. You can trace pretty much all of my illustration work off one thing or another.

Indie Community

Some time ago I got several indies together in Japan to talk, and they’d never met each other, which was depressing. There should be some kind of forum for you to discuss things, because in my opinion, a big problem with the Japanese game industry is that nobody talks to each other. That's why so many of the big Japanese games are falling behind really fast. I think this is because they are not talking to each other, not sharing their ideas and not having new development practices. So I think the indie community would be a really great place to start doing it.

TN: Well, you have some breakout successes in this field, like Cave Story and our own LA-MULANA, but the fact is that nobody goes into the indie game scene with the idea that their stuff will ever sell. They give up on that from the get-go. I think it'd be great if we could overcome this with LA-MULANA and break through, and if we're able to do that, then maybe at that point we can try to help create a forum like that.

It'd be nice to have, since that'd be a more comfortable place for people to discuss ideas.

TN: Kind of a depressing story, I know, but...

It makes me sad because when I was a kid, games from Japan were the best, period, on console at least. Now that's not true at all.

SN: We'd like to do something about that. But first we have to get bigger. (laughs)

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from 5th Cell, Insomniac and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Gazillion Entertainment: Project Manager
"We are seeking a Project Manager to be a key member of the Game Operations/IT Team. This is a full time permanent position and will report to the Director of Project Management - IT and Gaming Operations. Projects will vary from internal IT back office applications to key portions of a worldwide gaming operations infrastructure."

Insomniac Games: FX Artist
"FBI, ATV, CTU, ATF, SRPA, ETA, HR, TSA, OPEC, MIA, RSVP, RIP, CSI, WTF, WHO, FX, IMO, LOL - these are all acronyms- some real and some made up that everyone knows. Well we are looking for an FX wizard. We’re talking about creating those mind blowing fxs! Insomniac Games is looking for an artist to create effects to work and assist in gameplay, environment, and the cinematics of the game."

2K Games: Senior Publisher Producer
"Develop quality software products, from concept to release, as well as providing and maintaining the creative vision of the products for 2K Games. All candidates should be self-motivated, highly organized, and possess strong leadership and team-building skills. A Producer is a leader, above all else… capable of taking charge of a project (or external team) and unifying the project or group effectively toward a specific set of goals. This role requires the simultaneous management of multiple products."

5th Cell: Senior GUI Designer/Artist
"5TH Cell is about bringing together professional, talented game developers and artists to create award winning products. Our mantra is ‘Advancing Entertainment’ and we truly strive to both innovate, and creatively push the envelope with all our titles. Our team believes in the products we develop, and together with top partners, we are building a track record of successful original IP including Scribblenauts, Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest."

Nexon America: Online Community Specialist
"Be part of a creating and driving the communities around Nexon’s great lineup of games! Nexon needs a Community Specialist who can plan and execute social networking and media initiatives to increase positive player engagement within the Nexon gaming community. The perfect candidate is someone who is professional, goal-oriented, and a born leader. We’re having a ton of fun, and we need someone who can help our community do the same!"

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first game I thought of after reading Roro, Roll!'s title was Sony's LocoRoco, and while this indie project is nothing like the PSP platformer, it's almost as cute! Developed by a team of four calling themselves Cobbler, Roro, Roll! has you spinning a circle of fuzzy creatures to protect the planet's last sapling from waves of hungry Domo-esque enemies.

Depending on their color, each Roro group serves a different purpose -- red Roro automatically send out shots and can unleash a focused beam; blue Roro can grab enemies and send them wherever you want on the graph paper arena; and yellow Raro look like they can stop time. As your sapling grows into a tree, you can bolster your spinning army with new Raro.

I have no idea when Cobbler hopes to put Roro, Roll! out, but this trailer was created for the upcoming 12th Annual Independent Games Festival. This actually gave me an idea for my own similarly titled project, Mr. Raroo, Roll.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With Halloween tomorrow, now seems the time to get out the obligatory pumpkin post! Rather than share any pumpkins other video game blogs have already covered, I wanted to feature a couple carvings from my hometown, Cincinnati.

Emily Barrett uploaded this photo of a handsome Boy carving, and while it's more of a daytime design that doesn't hold up when you stick a candle in it, that doesn't make me love it any less. This is much more creative and colorful than the pumpkin I made this year, which basically just has a cat face.

And the other design Barret posted, a Brutal Legend pumpkin boasting two different scenes, one on each side, looks fantastic at night:

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember those 15-pixel interpretations of Noby Noby Boy, Parappa, And Street Fighter created for GameCity Squared? London-based design collective Alaskan Military School created those three "hyper pixel minimalist" clips as a preview of a much larger set, which you can now see complete above!

The Megamix begins with those familiar examples but shows a total of 12 games in its four minutes, like a quick clip of Nintendo's classic Punch-Out, a memorable scene from World of Warcraft, and even the docking sequence from Elite. See if you can name them all (without cheating and reading the Youtube comments)!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

Continuing to blast out the GameSetLinks as the weekend rapidly approaches, this set includes the continuation of the Phantom of Akihabara fiction, translated by Kevin Gifford from a Japanese game magazine, and another reminder that there is still very little good fiction which includes video games as an integral part of it. I wonder why?

Nonetheless, other things in here include Legend Of Neil worship by Lev Grossman, Robert Ashley interviewed, the local alt.weekly on Tim Schafer's new game, indie interviews, miniature reviews, and more besides.

Go go gone:

Sandeep Parikh (You Know, the Guy Who Does Legend of Neil, With Which I’m Obsessed): The Nerd World Interview - Nerd World - TIME.com
Legend Of Neil seems to be terribly divisive as a game-related web parody series. Lev at Time loves it, though!

Beacon game review | Necessary Games
A nicely nuanced look at the latest Ludum Dare winner.

Mike Darga's Game Design Blog: Designing Your Audience
'Aside from bugs and generally shoddy development, the biggest cause of /ragequits is developers and players not agreeing on what the game is supposed to be.'

“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 7: “A Well-Adjusted World” @ Magweasel
I am still madly in love with this - it's just beautifully written and translated.

Press Pass: Wasting Time With Robert Ashley of "A Life Well Wasted" > Kyle Orland > 9/24/2009 5:00 PM | Crispy Gamer
'We talk with the former Ziff Davis freelancer about his unique podcast and what it says about the direction of game journalism.'

Intuition Games » Blog Archive » Here’s my problem with Fun.
'Sure reviewers will throw in ratings for graphics and music, but that’s mostly naive. Their response to the game directly hinges on if the total package was entertaining.'

San Francisco Bay Guardian: Brütal odyssey
Schafer gets profiled by the local alt.weekly, always nice to see a different perspective.

Indie Interview – Chris Walley of Escapist Games | indievision
Interesting that he's concentrating on XBLIG - but the Blitz to XNA semi-converter is a great idea.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ever since Universal picked up the rights to develop a full-length film based on Asteroids, I've kept an eye out for examples of anyone attaching a plot to the simple, vector-based game, like the hilarious Asteroids radio drama that Kid Stuff recorded in the early 80s.

Nigel Upchurch's music video above, set to The Juan MacLean's "No Time", is a more modern interpretation of of the arcade title, following the adventures of a wandering ship as it searches for a like-minded, triangle-shaped ship, finds its soulmate, and starts a family. It's an Asteroids love story!

I also recently came across this excellent fanmade poster for the hypothetical Asteroids film, designed by Maxellito. The text, "Alone into the ship triangle to cross the universe", doesn't really make sense, but neither does an Asteroids movie!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't usually pay attention to strange-sounding WiiWare games that I've never heard of, especially when they're mobile ports, but after hearing my friend describe Konami's Tomena Sanner as "like Canabalt but with more dancing", I knew this title required a thorough investigation.

Tomena Sanner's primary parallel to Canabalt is it's a single-button action game in which you guide a running character, businessman Hitoshi Susumu. In addition to controlling his jumps, that button is used for attacks, upending cars, dunking basketballs, bowing toward a jogging group of Shaolin monks, and more.

Susumu races through nine levels, hopping over T-Rexes and swinging around trees while trying to show up on time to "the ultimate dance party". The esoteric game features a four-player versus mode, an endless level mode, a turbo mode, and online rankings.

Konami will release Tomena Sanner stateside in the first quarter of 2010. You can see screenshots and find more information for the quirky title on Konami's official site.

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[Continuing his 'Sound Current' audio interviews series for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska catches up with the musician behind much-awaited IGF-winning Eastern European independent adventure game Machinarium, discussing the creation of the soundtrack to the just-debuted game.]

The Czech musician Tomas Dvorak, who also goes by Floex, is the composer of Amanita Design's new game, Machinarium. Previously he composed for Samorost 2 and used audio from the game in the creation of an award-winning original soundtrack album.

Machinarium is an adventure story surrounding a world of robots. The environments are dusty, organic, analog. The music too mirrors the duality of the art design, composed of elements both acoustic and synthetic, like an upright piano playing as a voice synthesizer belts out the melody of an old fashioned operetta.

In this interview with the composer for the game, Floex tells about his background as a visual artist who has found his way into the world of music for films and games. The discussion offers a glimpse into the surreal and mysterious creations of Amanita Design, and more specifically, serves as a guide to the unedited six track soundtrack preview, which is freely available online.

How did you feel when embarking on Samorost 2, your first game project? The soundtrack has gone on to receive an award a lot of recognition.

Composer Tomas Dvorak: It felt good. I was making small audio loops for the first game, maybe a maximum of one minute. If you have these short loops, they have to be abstract. If they're too concrete, then it becomes boring or annoying after hearing them ten times. Out of these loops I had all this material, so I decided to make a CD soundtrack out of it.

Is the story something that provides direction for your compositions, for instance in the making of Samorost 2?

I would say not so much. The story is rather simple. For me what’s very important is the atmosphere of the scene. I am always surprised by the process of "trying to find right mood for the scene".

Sometimes my approach will feel like too much of a cliché. What I’ve found out is that before I start to do some music, I should wait a bit. I look at the scene and try to get a sense of the atmosphere. Sometimes it’s better not to look at the scene, but to think about it. It can be best not to start immediately making something.

There are many elements which in the end can be inspiring to build the proper atomsphere. It can be the the instrumentation, sound and space design, the melodies and harmonies used, rhytmical structure... and it’s good for me to think about all of these things before I actually start to compose.

Was there anything in particular that you recall contributing to the atmosphere of Samorost 2?

For me, it’s a dreamy, surreal world. In the Czech Republic, everyday there is a small story for making children go to sleep, called "Vecernicek." I think Samorost has a bit of this childlike feeling. I like very much the world of fantasy and an approach that comes from something unconscious. This is something that is very close to my view of art.

I also like crazy Japanese movies, like those of Katuhito Ishii. I don’t know if you know “Funky Forest”? It’s a kind of fantasy which as a European I’m not used to. I’m astonished and surprised. It goes over all the barriers of what is imaginable.

You observe this kind of thing at Amanita?

Yes, there also, although still more in this European sense. They are very playful with what they do. I think that as long as it does not lose this playful approach, it will work.

Amanita design team (composer pictured center)

How did you meet the game creators at Amanita Design?

There are two art schools in Prague. I’m a musician mainly, but I studied at the Academy of Visual Arts. Jakub [Dvorsky] studied at UMPRUM, which is more for graphic design.

The way we met was, I was in an art residence and a friend of mine brought me this game, the first Samorost, saying, “I didn’t know you were involved in this project. It’s really cool!” And I said, “It’s some kind of misunderstanding. I have nothing to do with this.” But there was my name on it.

The thing was, there was a second Tomas Dvorak. There’s a guy with the same name as me, and he was making the sound for Amanita at the time when Jakub was making the first Samorost in school. From that time onward, I got to know Amanita very well, especially because this story was repeated several more times with different people. In a few months, Jakub Dvorsky wrote me with an offer to join their team. It wasn't hard to convince me.

Is it a strange situation, the fact that there are now two Tomas Dvoraks at Amanita?

It makes for a lot of confusion, but it’s also kind of funny. Samorost 2 was a very small team—just four people. But there were two Tomas Dvoraks, and we are both in the same category of sound.

When you first met in person, were you afraid that maybe he would look just like you?

No, he looks different. Sometimes people think I’ve made some things that I didn’t, and that’s not fair to him. That’s the only problem.

When you are working with the other Amanita game designers, does this collaboration take place in the same location or is everything happening online?

I see them online. We’re not all from the same places: Jakub is from Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Adolph [Lachman], who is drawing, is from Pardubice. The second guy behind Amanita, [Vaclav] Blin, who makes the animations is from Prague. In this meeting three months ago, a lot of us saw each other for the first time.

A soundtrack preview has been released with six of your tracks. How did you go about choosing these songs?

I personally like to make songs that are more melancholy, full of deeper emotions. The music in the last part of the game is probably closest to this mood. It’s also more acoustical, including the piano. For that reason, I put a few songs from that part on the preview. Mostly in the soundtrack there are compositions, which are more playful. These two kinds of songs are on this preview.

“The Bottom” is situated in the narrative context of the very beginning of the game, where you are introduced to the robot. Was this the kind of plot element that you might take into consideration?

Yes. It’s important because you’re starting. It’s an introduction, before the city. The music is very abstract and ambient, including elements of found sounds. The other Tomas Dvorak was sampling sounds a lot, especially the metalic ones... so sometimes I would take stuff from there and used it as musical elements. I also borrowed a analogue synthesizer from my friend (a Roland Sh01) with a sound that’s very dirty and unstable. It doesn’t hold a tune. You can hear it on “Black Cap Brotherhood Theme” and the background of “Glasshouse with the Butterfly.”

The robot falls down to “the bottom,” so for me it could be taken as the real start. The song contains some of my basic ideas about the soundtrack. I am using steel strings, melodical gongs like those from Java. The Oriental feeling of the instruments I don’t see so much ethnically. It’s a feeling that’s not only not European, but out of this planet.

In the most general sense how would you say the process behind the music for Machinarium has differed from the previous Amanita game's score?

This time I could do more what I wanted. I didn’t have to worry about the length of the compositions, and they could be more complex. The project itself was much bigger. It made me think about a different approach to the soundtrack, one that was more musical. I was seeing how far I could go, being strong with the image, before reaching this barrier where it’s too concrete. Maybe after playing you could have more fun by listening to it independently.

The song “Game Boy” is on the soundtrack preview and it has a playful feel to it. Do you remember where it appears in Machinarium?

I was making this one for a scene in the game, but it was maybe the only one which was refused by Jakub. He said it’s too happy and doesn’t fit with the rest, which is actually true, so we put it on a radio in the game. You can tune the radio and listen to a few songs. Originally it was meant for the scene with Mr. Handagote, (this is actually a Japanese word). This is a name for a character that is repairing something in one of the scenes with a melting iron.

The new Handagote theme is also on the soundtrack preview. How did you change your approach to the song so that it would be more appropriate to the world of Machinarium?

I was trying to find out how far I could go with the melodical parts of the soundtrack. There’s always this tension between abstraction and melody. This is one that achieved a balance, so that you can listen to it independently, but also play it more times without it getting annoying. This was one of the hardest tasks on the soundtrack but in the end I think I succeed.

How would you describe "Clockwise Operetta"? Is it based on the genre of musical theater?

I don’t like operetta too much. The irony is there's a robot singing in this song. The sound is made by an old Apple speech synthesizer. Nowadays you have speech synthesizers that sound very clear, but this one is very old. I like it because it really has this robot feeling. I made up some imaginary text and gave it to the speech synthesizer to sing. The tune was then totally re-composed.

Another theme that inspired “Clockwise Operetta” is the sound of ticking clocks in the background. I don’t know if you know the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange? I wanted it to have a little of that feeling, of not being taken seriously. It’s making fun a bit of classical operetta music. Instead of a real singer, it’s a robot that sings this tune with the piano and clarinet.

Where does “Clockwise Operetta” appear in the game?

There’s a part where there are some bad guys in the central hall of a house, where there are these clocks, and the robot has to deal with them. The scene is not dramatic, on the first look, but something not very good is happening.

The theme appears in different arrangements in some parts of the game. In the room right next to the one where “Clockwise Operetta” appears, there's a remix where I put the track through a Spectral Blurring effect (originally developed by Michael Norris). It’s like you are hearing the music in a dream or from a memory.

Are there these kinds of musical variations for other tracks?

For some of them. It’s an interesting problem in this game, because there are two sorts of arrangements. One is where the music appears later in a different context. For example, it’s connected to some character or development in the game. Second, there are some themes which are connected by location.

However, it doesn’t happen so often. For each of the scenes there are different tunes. Sometimes I would try it, but then the arranged music would not work for the scene. In that case, I would prefer to make something totally different.

The last song on the soundtrack preview is “The Castle.”

It’s also one of my favorites. It’s from the last part of the game and is a little sadder, because it’s in the house of the bad guys. The idea was to make music that would have a little bit of a castle feeling, but as dirty as everything else. You hear a harpsichord, a very typical instrument for this baroque castle music. There is double bass and violoncello, but dirtified and degraded with effects. The feeling is like you would hear it from some old record.

If you would look at my arrangement in Logic, which is software I use to make music, the arrangement does not have so many tracks, maybe five or six. Yet the song has different colors. While it might sound acoustical, it’s actually made from MIDI and the change is being made by different effects applied on the tracks over time.

The song is in two parts. One is more rhythmical, with these concrete instruments (the pizzicato from the string instruments). Later, in the second part, it's collapsed into more ambient stuff, but you can still hear the melody from the original part through the granular effects. It’s derived from the original tune, like maybe if you went to sleep and heard it from a dream. They’re like different faces of the same tune.

I wanted to make music that is a little bit surreal but still fit in with the general idea of this soundtrack. Compositionally this song is minimalistic, because there is a phrase that is repeating, while also developing into different chords. It’s still abstract, because the phrases and chord development is longer, more horizontal - like if the melody would be coded into harmonical progression.

The phrase is exposed in different interpretations through the sound. I like this kind of approach.

Have you had the chance to play the finished version of Machinarium?

Only in parts, mostly to get the idea of what is happening in the game. No one had time to enjoy it, especially during these crazy last few weeks. For me, the craziness ended maybe 14 days ago when I was finishing the mastering of the soundtrack. Now I would like to find some time to have a rest and enjoy playing it.

Are you proud of the way the game has turned out?

For me, it’s very special because the game is unique and visually it’s very close to my feelings. Also, I think Adolf was really important in making the game beautiful images, putting a lot of time into each image. He is able to take his painting experience and apply it to the digital world. Not all people with a painterly eye can use the computer.

I’m very happy with the general feeling of the game because I think it’s quite original in comparison with what is happening elsewhere in this field. For me it’s a little bit different because it’s not only about the gaming experience. As with Samorost, it’s very much about the atmosphere. It’s a bit like an interactive animated movie. You are in this world and you are having emotions and feelings connected with the game. Yeah, I’m happy with the results.

[Images courtesy of Amanita Design.]

Posted by jeriaska at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As a gift to its toiling employees who've just completed and shipped out Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time for PS3, Insomnia Games commissioned a set of custom Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark vinyl toys. To give you an idea of their sizes, the Qwark figure is a massive 15 inches wide!

Design house CreatureBox concepted and digitally sculpted the toys, while three-dimensional model company Gentle Giant produced the physical figures. Unfortunately, CreatureBox says it's unsure if it will ever release the set to the public. At least we can enjoy these photos (and hope for a greedy Insomniac employee to anonymously auction off the toys on eBay)!

[Via Super Punch]]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Designed for a "mature audience", Trauma explores the dreams of a young woman who was injured in a car accident and is recovering in a hospital. Players learn about the woman's identity and how she's dealing with the loss of her parents through her different dreams. The point and click adventure game presents a series of photographs that players can zoom in, pan around, and investigate with different mouse gestures.

Developer Krystian Majewski, currently a student at Köln International School of Design, describes Trauma: "It builds upon this established formula by introducing a gesture-based interface, real-time 3D technology for dynamic level layouts, unique photographic visuals and a level design philosophy that focuses on creating a rich experience rather than an elaborate puzzle challenge."

Majewski hopes to make the Flash game available online for free before the end of 2009. You can read more about Trauma and sign-up for newsletter updates here.

[Via TIGForums]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Berlin-based developer Brightside Games released a new trailer for its IGF 2009 Student Finalist project Zeit². Billed as a shoot'em up with time travel elements (think Retro/Grade, except not in reverse and without the rhythm elements), Zeit² allows you to speed up your progression through stages or jump back in time to shoot alongside yourself.

Since the IGF 2009 build, Brightside has improved the horizontal shooter's graphics and added a "new special weapons system." The studio also promises six game modes (Arcade, ChapterScore Attack, Survival, Wave, Time, and Tactics), more than a dozen enemy types, and 10 bosses.

You can read more about Zeit² at Brightside's official site.

[Via IndieGames]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

What's this back here? Oh, some more links, that'll be it. This time, we start out with Stanford's Cabrinety Collection, which is still rooting around in its awesome game archives and scanning some of the most notable boxes and ephemera, this time settling on Avalon Hill video game nirvana.

Also in this set of links - Kiri Miller on the shared Rock Band experience, an interesting discussion on indie game pricing, the Tale Of Tales folks sit down with Area\Code's Frank Lantz, the people behind the Dingoo handheld chat about it, and more besides.

Duck duck goose:

An Abundance of Avalon-Hill | How They Got Game
'Today's focus is the cover art of Avalon-Hill's Microcomputer Games Division, though I promise the art and games are more intriguing than their publisher's bland name.'

A Day with the Score-Oriented: Rock Band Tournament Play Kiri Miller / Brown University |
'After a while, something about this cacophonous hotel conference room filled with fidgety teens playing plastic instruments began to feel very familiar to me. I realized that it reminded me of my All-State clarinet auditions in junior high and high school.'

The Perma-death interview. « Groping The Elephant
'Australian blogger Ben Abraham has been gaining attention for his decision to partake in an “iron man” play through of Far Cry 2, no reloading when his character dies the game is over.' Interview!

Games Aren't Numberss: A Defense of Indie Prices
'We consider a high price tag on an indie game as overpriced because it is overpriced. It's overpriced on a big budget game as well, but the publishers' marketing departments have ways of making us forget about that.'

'Randomness: Blight or Bane?' - Play This Thing!
Greg Costikyan's excellent GDC Austin talk, in text form.

Interview: Justin Barwick of Dingoo | Bytejacker
It's a bit of an emulation piracy-fest, this handheld, but interesting chat anyhow.

Tale of Tales » Interview with Frank Lantz
'We were pleasantly surprised by Frank Lantz’s brief presentation at the last GDC. Especially because we found ourselves agreeing with somebody who was saying the exact opposite of what we are always going on about.' Hurray!

Defcon :: View topic - PAX 2009
Very old, but just noting it because I mentioned in my Australian talk on indie games recently that Introversion's 'Last Of The Bedroom Programmers' tagline wasn't completely appropriate for them any more, and here they mention that they're retiring it, heh.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More than twenty years after the handheld was originally launched, the Atari Lynx is receiving a new and original title, Zaku, thanks to publisher Super Fighter Team, the same saints that recently localized and released Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong for the Genesis/Mega Drive.

Developed by PenguiNet (using an official Lynx development kit), Zaku is an Air Zonk-inspired horizontal-scrolling shoot'em up filled with giant sprites of flying toasters and penguin-piloted crafts for you to blast out of the sky. The game runs at 60 frames per second and features 16 stages, multiple difficulty modes, and more than 20 music tracks.

Super Fighter Team claims that Zaku's game card is the first to be produced in "the authentic manufacturing style used by Atari while the Lynx was on the market" (not counting official game cards, of course). Recent Lynx fan-releases typically come on an exposed circuit board.

Zaku is priced at around $48-52 after shipping and handling, and each order includes the game card, a full-color, 31-page English and French instruction manual, and a cardstock game box with a slot to hold the game card. You can see screenshots of the game and place an order at Zaku's official site.

[Via Digital Press]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

If you're looking for a simple, cheap, and fun game to get you in the Halloween mood, try out Skullpogo, a new iPhone/iPod Touch release from Chevy Johnston (Beacon) and Justin Smith (Enviro-Bear).

This was actually released as a downloadable PC title last year, but the concept of bouncing off pigs, zombies, and bats was "remade and souped up" for the App Store debut, adding tilt controls, new power-ups and enemies, online high scores, and more.

Johnston describes Skullpogo as "the ultimate coffee-break game":

"It is all about the gameplay, and thus offers no cinematics, no flashy cutscenes, no RPG elements, and no lengthy loading screens. When they've got 100 Apps on their iPhone, I want people to choose Skullpogo because it's: 1) Quick to start up. One-press and you're playing! 2) Fun in premise, easy to play, yet skillful to master. And 3) I can't think of an excuse not to want to battle hordes of the undead with nothing but a pogo stick."

You can grab Skullpogo from the App Store now for $1.99.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For Chaim Gingold, working closely with renowned game designer Will Wright on the evolutionary god game Spore was just another step in the evolution of his own identity as a game creator.

Gingold was the lead for Spore's integral Creature Creator editor, which allowed users to bring virtual beings to life. But his current project, the independently-developed iPhone game Earth Dragon, is less about creating, and more about destroying, albeit in a fun, cute way.

Here, Gingold tells us how these days, the destructive capacity of big mythical monsters is completely underutilized in video games, what his work on the high-profile Spore taught him about creating an iPhone game virtually on his own, and why he thinks with Earth Dragon, it's best to "make Donkey Kong, not Super Mario Bros:

After you left Spore, what did you end up doing, and why did you decide to start making independent games?

After I left Spore, I traveled around the world for a bit, ate a bunch of Masala Dosas, and then returned to Berkeley to start making games. Why did I decide to go the independent route? If you're at a big publisher the chance that you get to make a game you want to make is basically zero. And even if you are Will Wright, you still have to fight hard.

When I left, there was some discussion of me starting my own project, but I realized two things. First, I don't have Will's Jedi powers of persuasion, so forget it. Whatever I made would probably get thrown way off course. And second, why should I make something for someone else? There are designers that require a large development team to make things, but since I can code, I don't need that. This kind of thinking does have some negative side effects, though...

I spent about a year writing prototypes for a PC game whose working title is PK. Earth Dragon actually began life as a prototype for PK, and I eventually prototyped Earth Dragon, and wrote its level editor, inside of PK. PK generated a ton of interesting ideas and prototypes. The architecture editor I developed, for example, is light years more advanced than Spore's Building Creator.

The iPhone felt like the solution to this problem I had, where after working for over four years on Spore, which was a great education for me, getting to write so many prototypes, design the editors, and work closely with Will Wright, I had no sense of proportion for what kind of PC game I could actually pull off. I got to the point where if I was at a big publisher, you'd start to throw people onto my dev team, and I looked around, and they didn't magically show up.

I turned around, and realized that the cavalry wasn't coming, like it did on Spore, and I took a step back and reminded myself that I'm doing an indie game. I am the cavalry, and I'm not smarter than Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler put together - what am I doing?

My job now with PK is to figure out which parts of it are most interesting to me, and how I can build a marketable product out of its core ideas and discoveries. That was a difficult realization to make, and I realized that I probably needed to take a creative break and work on some smaller stuff. With the iPhone it's a lot harder to go off the rails in terms of scope because of the platform's constraints, which at the time I thought would be the perfect antidote for me.

Why iPhone? What attracted you to it?

As a player, I've bought and played more iPhone games in the past year than games for all other platforms combined for the past three years. I don't want to spend $50 on a game that takes 40 hours of my life. Sure, at one point I happily did that, but games just don't fit into my life that way anymore. And they feel rather repetitive to me. Part of what's going on here is that what we call casual gaming is basically taking over the world. I will spend $15 on World of Goo for a handful of non-stop hours of fun I've never had before.

I don't want to play Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda yet again. I'll happily spend $3 on a game that provides an hour or two of novel, fun, experience. And these games, and the whole indie gaming world, are providing far more interesting gaming experiences than I can get anywhere else. iPhone games, and the indie scene, are becoming the creative center of gravity of the gaming world, and I'm excited to be part of it. It feels like a whole new golden era of video games.

The shorter forms and lower price points on the iPhone -- and new distribution channels in general -- are also really interesting -- they fit into my life better, and they also seem to encourage more experimentation on the part of developers. With games we have our epic novels, Lord of the Rings, that sort of thing, but we don't have our short stories, or our New Yorker length fiction pieces. We're starting to see what that might mean. Jason Rohrer's Passage, for example, is like a lovely poem. Adam Saltsman's Canabalt is like a short piece from Heavy Metal. These short forms excite me as a developer and a player.

As an interactive designer, the iPhone is like crack. It's like being a kid, and walking into some otherworld fantasy toy store. The iPhone hardware is a marvelous playground for designers. Ever since seeing Jeff Han's YouTube video of his multitouch setup and the demo software written by a bunch of NYU grad students, and playing with it in person, I've had a burning desire to write multitouch software. I'm a total interface nerd.

And with the iPhone you don't just have multitouch, you have an accelerometer, network capability, location awareness, it's portable, a camera, and a decent GPU. What do you do this thing? I'm really excited about where this medium is going, and the possibilities it presents. With consoles and PC's it's like ok, great, more triangles and CPU, big deal. With the iPhone you get something totally different, plus less triangles and CPU power, which is a creatively refreshing constraint.

Also, I love how easy it is to playtest with the thing. What motivates me as a designer, and creative person, is the experience of making things -- solving problems, figuring things out -- and creating experiences for other people. I love watching people play not just my software, but play with anything. It's endlessly fascinating to me. I'll even playtest other people's games and software on my unsuspecting friends, to see how they react and why.

Now, as an interactive designer, playtesting is pretty key to my job. Ask anybody who is still playing Spore what they do with the game, and chances are they spend at least half of their time making stuff in the game's creative tools. My team got something like four years to playtest and develop the editors, and I firmly believe that all that playtesting is what got us to such a fluid, easy to pickup, and fun to interact with set of editors. And all that observation and iteration made us smarter designers.

Working alone, it's surprising how hard it is to drag people back to your office to playtest your game, so you can figure out if you're headed in the right direction or not. But the iPhone is a whole different story. You can playtest as often as you have your phone on you -- which is almost always. That is just amazing to me. I can indulge my playtesting addiction as often as I want.

The ease of distribution with the iPhone is also a big plus. Apple really nailed it. And the development tools are easy to get, and super friendly. Coming back to the question of scope, the iPhone also encourages developers to think small, and grow successful ideas, which I thought would be good for me. I had an "a-ha" moment listening to Neil Young talk about Rolando at GDC last year, that this is one of the most profound transformations digital distribution is bringing to games. My mantra while developing Earth Dragon has been "Make Donkey Kong, not Super Mario Bros." Think small! If people like it, you still care, you can pile in the other million ideas you have later.

Tell us about Earth Dragon and why it differentiates itself from other titles. What gameplay mechanisms are you particularly proud of in the game?

I'm really happy with how juicy the game is, and how vivid, funny, and spatter-ful it is. People love it, and they just laugh and laugh. You've got burning cows, exploding people, castles crashing down onto archers -- it's just a riot of playful violence. I'm really happy with the tone of playful intensity Earth Dragon's violence has.

Earth Dragon has the most intense level of cartoon violence Apple allows. And Apple has come back to us and said, fine, but people are going to have to be at least 12 years old to play this game. Basically, Earth Dragon is so intense that you if you're less than 12, forget about it, you should go play a different game. It's a good thing, too, that the iPhone and iPod touch screens are made of glass, because they protect you from the spray of blood and other matter that is generated while playing. The glass shields you from the game's juicyness, and is easy to wipe down after you're done playing. I wouldn't make this kind of game on any other platform -- it would just be too messy and awkward, not to mention unsafe.

I'm really happy with Earth Dragon's touch and feel. I had to get the flying feeling really good on the iPhone, and be easy to learn in play tests, before I committed to continued development. One of the exciting things about designing for this platform is that everyone is basically inventing the platform's game conventions together. It's an evolutionary explosion of design. How you control characters, whether you should even be controlling individual avatars like we do on consoles, how you perform actions, appropriate length and difficulty, the types of games that make sense, and so on.

It's an exciting place to be designing things. In Earth Dragon, I wanted to get a feeling of flapping and flying around -- you flap the phone to flap the dragon's wings and go up, and tilt side to side to glide around, and it feels really nice, and you have this slightly inexact feeling of control, but very satisfying feeling of flying and swooping around the screen. And that leaves touching the screen for smashing things, breathing fire, and diving onto people who probably aren't expecting a dragon to come screaming down from the sky, straight at them. It's a control scheme that just wouldn't be possible on any other platform.

Earth Dragon's theme is pretty unique, not just for the iPhone, but for games as a whole. Earth Dragon is basically Rampage with dragons and castles, but specifically designed for the iPhone. You're a super cute and super powerful dragon who takes on entire castles, and levels them. No survivors. I wish we had more giant monster games - it seems like a totally underrepresented video game genre to me. Being really big and powerful, and smashing your way through cities is really fun, not to mention therapeutic.

Katamari is the most recent game I played that really hits this feeling. Apocalyptic destruction in these types of games requires a certain playful or ironic tone that Katamari, Rampage, and Earth Dragon all have. Otherwise it can just feel kind of sadistic, which is how a lot of violent games can feel to me, like Grand Theft Auto or Gears of War. Games with a lot of graphic violence turn me off.

Make it playful enough and people will enjoy inflicting massive destruction while laughing their heads off. They're laughing at their own violence, thrilled at their own destructive powers, while feeling kind of sorry and silly at the same time. It makes a great demo -- setting people and cows on fire, and then smashing them to bits. You can kidnap the princess, or just set her on fire. Either way, it's funny. It's totally the kind of game you want to show off to your friends.

The castle smashing levels have a compulsive quality to them I'm really proud of. Jane Ng, the artist I collaborated with on this project, told me that she would often get sucked into playing the game while she was trying to test something. I've had to tear away people from the game, including myself, which is a nice feeling. Even though the game is kind of short, I'm super happy with the game's pacing, the rhythm with which things happen and the game unfolds.

If the game is received well enough I'd like to make a procedurally generated infinite play mode, where the levels just kind of regenerate underneath you, kind of like how Pac-Man CE on the Xbox 360 has this endlessly unfolding and compulsive play quality. That kind of pacing can be dangerous -- we might never be able to finish making it! I also want to release the castle editor I made for my Mac, which is a surprising amount of fun, on the iPhone. If the game sells well enough I'll totally be motivated to do that.

Are you worried about standing apart from other titles in the iPhone store, since it's so crowded?

Yes, I am worried about standing out in the super crowded App store. I do have a kind of naive belief that as a designer I bring something unique to the table that other people won't, and hopefully there are enough people out there who want to play with my weird software that I can make a living making the things I want to make. This dovetails nicely with my other naive belief that despite the volume of stuff on the App store, people will tell their friends about software they like, and it will find its way to appreciate, paying customers. I guess I'll find out shortly.

I'm not trying to win the iPhone lottery and get into the top 10 or something -- for me, it's about being able to make a living doing what I love.

What's your longer-term plan? To keep making iPhone games, or try other things?

I have about a gajillion ideas that the iPhone is the perfect platform for, and I'm really digging the shorter games that it makes possible. I have a ton of ideas sitting in my personal prototype vault that I've never been able to figure out what to do with, but I think many of them would work nicely on the iPhone, which is exciting to me. And I'll probably be able to work a lot faster now that I've got my development bearings here.

I do want to return to PK, the bigger PC game I was prototyping - since I'm really in love with a lot of the prototypes and ideas that it generated. I've also realized that one of the things I love about designing in a team environment is the quality of teaching and mentorship it has, and I'd really like to devote time to teaching one day. I'd also like to get some hens, because with hens you can get fresh eggs from your backyard, and they eat your kitchen scraps.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[GameSetWatch is partnering with game criticism site Critical Distance's Ben Abraham to present a weekly 'This Week In Game Criticism' column, rounding up inspiring writing about the art and design of video games from commentators worldwide. This week: discussions on Cursed Mountain, Neopets, and humorous riffs on Uncharted 2.]

Let's start this week with Michael Clarkson, who talked about a Wii game that no one else seems to have even heard about, let alone given the same level of thoughtful critique. In ‘Touch The Void’ Clarkson discusses Cursed Mountain, saying,

"In its best moments…Cursed Mountain truly inhabits the persona of a man whose entire existence relies on his understanding of space and distance, whose whole world is the howling wind and the biting cold and the lonely rock of a mountain that must be ascended, even if it means brushing up against the realm of the dead."

If there were a “blog of the year” award, I’d be putting forward Robin Burkinshaw’s ‘Alice and Kev’ for it. The story of two homeless Sims in The Sims 3 finished up this week and, while the story on the blog is done, you can download that character of Alice and continue it on for yourself. A fitting way to end and one that embraces the potential multiplicity of stories in video games.

The Experience Points blog posted a sequel to an earlier post about game endings with ‘Dead Ends Part 2’.

Chris Dahlen’s Edge column turned to the topic of Modern Warfare 2’s Capital Wasteland-esque setting, as revealed in one of the more recent videos of the game. Quoth Dahlen; “this summer, small clutches of angry Americans fantasized about shooting up the city for real” and they should have just played Fallout 3 or waited for MW2. Talk like this always reminds me of this song by The Herd. Dahlen also wrote about the Sonic The Hedgehog comic book in a more recent, delightfully-tangential-to-gaming column.

Do you fancy an interview with some of independent gaming’s best composers? This GameSetWatch interview is for you, then.

Lewis Denby talked about ‘How possibly to do good games journalism maybe’, and I read his four part article. Which was good. In it, Denby seems to suggest that games journalists’ opt out of “reviews” for more in-depth features and while it’s not a new suggestion, he certainly makes a better case for it here than I’ve seen elsewhere.

Michael Clarkson talks about the experience of writing the recent Critical Compilation for GTA IV, and goes into some detail about the process. You might not think it, but applying organisation and classification to even something as seemingly straightforward as video game articles is fraught with danger. It’s all too easy to have one’s efforts seen as a colonizing incursion or read as an attempt to form ‘the last word’ on a subject. Clearly, we’re still learning and missteps will be made, but I for one value Clarkson’s efforts in this area regardless, as well as our readers' patience and assistance.

In what is my pick for this week's (or rather, last week's) must read, David Carlton thinks about why games categorize genre according to technical issues such as ‘first person’ or ‘third person’, whereas most other media use a content approach – i.e. sci-fi is often about exploring the themes of technology, humanity, and fear of the unknown. He uses Justin Keverne’s comments in the Brainy Gamer Summer Confab volume 3 as a springboard. The money quote comes when he looks at The Beatles: Rock Band as a non-fiction video game:

"The picture that I’m getting from this is a game that, on a non-mechanics genre level, is profoundly different from the vast majority of video games. At its core, the Beatles game is a non-fiction game in the sense that most video games are fiction games"

I find his suggestion terribly exciting, and the prototype of a whole new way of thinking about games entirely. Like I said, must read.

A good friend of mine is in the middle of a final year university project, and she’s writing about the online game / sim / casual game Neopets. Her thesis is that many people of her generation (that is, roughly 18-25 year olds) got their first experience with online worlds and online gaming via titles like Neopets, and I think she might be right. She talks about the Neopets ‘Battledome’ in an early post, and more recently about “The Gambling Controversy” that erupted in the Australian media in the early 00’s about a certain feature of Neopets. Mary’s a fantastically good writer too, so even if you never played or heard about Neopets, it’s worth a look.

Inspired by this rather insipid article from IGN Australia, Tracey Lien offers some much better tips on how to encourage girls to be more interested in video games. Her biggest and best Pro Tip: “Stop being so patronizing”.

Ian Bogost talked about Kickstarter’s relationship with art as a commodity. It’s a bit tangential, but it’s entertaining and insightful and I’ve wondered since its inception if it will be able to sustain its donation/support model for the long haul. Incidentally, if you’re interested, Borut Pfeifer talks about some of the stats for projects that succeed on Kickstarter. Since we’re on a bit of bender for articles about the website, let’s also mention that Deirdra Kiai has started a project for her new indie game ‘Life Flashes By’ this week.

Next up, Jason Nelson released a new weird art game that looks and plays exactly like all his other weird games the other week. It’s a bit of a pity really, as once is genius, twice is prodigious, but three near-identical works is stretching the bounds. Or that’s how I kind of feel about the new game, anyway.

Elsewhere, Jesper Juul talks about ‘objectionable content’ in games, saying:

"…video games are still being hampered by the strange idea that they, somehow, should be the only clean and non-objectionable art form in existence. This shows up in Apple’s rejections. It shows up in the fact that the platform holders continue to decide what is published. It shows up in the fact that Australia does not have a mature rating for video games.

And yes, I do think it is holding video games back, as an art form."

This is something I’ve tried to raise before in recent columns, but was misunderstood about at the time. I’m just glad that someone has gotten the point out there eventually.

An article by Steven Totilo on Kotaku investigates the Xbox massage toys that are predictable cash-cows of the XBLA Indie Games. It’s like a case study in backlash.

Matthew Kaplan wrote this week about what he sees as Namco’s ’irresponsible marketing‘ of the latest Tekken game.
He says:

"What IS rather dangerous about the ad…is that it places just as much emphasis on those real-life fighters who, with brutal honesty, declare that their draw to fighting has to do with being a “bully” and the pleasures of destroying another human being as they do those who have seemingly honorable intentions…"

Which, having not seen the advertisement in question makes me go, ‘Hmm’.

I have this theory that in a production environment where a team is big enough not to know everyone’s name, the end product will probably only ever be as good as the lowest common denominator. I mention this because a feature on the Lesbian Gamers site picks up on the juvenile depiction of Commander Dare in Halo 3: ODST. Some of the examples they highlight are enough to make me cringe. In summary:

"Commander Dare might as well be Doris Day from pretty much any Doris Day movie. Slap Helfer in a gingham apron, lipstick and have her waiting on her man Buck with dinner and a smile at 6pm. That’s about all the power Dare has in game, so why dress her up in armor and pretend this is anything other than what it is, a ploy and a bad one at that."

Someone linked to this short story on the UK’s The Register website, and I found it highly entertaining. The connection to gaming? Well, it’s in there somewhere.

This week, Lyndon Warren expresses that he thinks “Atton might be gay”. He is talking about Knights Of The Old Republic II, of course, and how a fan-made reconstruction of some of the content omitted from the retail version of the game adds some very real evidence that he may be right.

Lastly, Hardcasual skewers the “Nice guy who murders people” trope in their piece on Uncharted 2. Seriously – why do games still do this?

[Critical Distance (RSS/Twitter) was set up in April 2009 "to serve the burgeoning field of games criticism by highlighting the excellent writing being produced by video game bloggers and journalists".]

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A 35-year-old man identified only as "Jan H." says he thought he was playing Silent Hill when he shut off the electricity at Sophia Hospital in the Netherlands last April.

Though no one was severely harmed during the 45-minute blackout, elevators were stuck and workers at the hospital had to manually respirate patients in the intensive care unit.

In a court trial that ended last Tuesday and found him not guilty as he had "no idea of the true consequences of his deeds", Jan H. claimed he suffered a psychosis when he infiltrated the hospital's basement.

According to a report from Dutch tabloid De Talagraaf translated by 24 Oranges, he believed he could acquire a toothbrush by pulling the levers and switches that controlled the building's electricity.

As strange as it sounds, this seems in line with Silent Hill's goofy puzzles, like stealing a pair of tongs from a bakery so you can reach an out-of-reach key in another room, then using those keys to get into a book store (Silent Hill 3). And just to get this out there, Konami, if this is some sort of twisted promotion for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, that is so not cool.

[Via Letselliot]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Two years after Keita Takahashi initially revealed he was commissioned to design a playground, details are finally coming out on the Kamatari Damacy creator's fantasy project. UK gaming event GameCity and the Nottingham City Council announced that Takahashi will design a children's playground for Nottingham City at Woodthorpe Grange Park.

"We're delighted to have Takahashi-san on board and very much looking forward to working with him on this unique collaboration," says Councillor David Trimble (Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture & Customers). GameCity and the NCC noted that the park site's "natural rolling hills" could potentially add to the playground's design and enable "interesting and playful landscapes."

To develop ideas for the playground, Takahashi is spending a month in Nottingham consulting with school children, local communities, and the NCC Landscape Architect. Who knows, maybe he'll come across a local gamer that demands a super-long Noby Noby Boy slide.

When asked to describe his ideal playground in May 2006, the Namco Bandai designer commented, "One that's soft, and with lots of big blocky shapes, and a place [kids] can't really get hurt - very colorful - where kids can roll around and be free. But it's probably okay if they occasionally get hurt too."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the projects I regretfully neglected to mention in yesterday's post about Ontario funding locally developed games was Office Yeti. Metanet Software already announced the title a month ago, but its concept warrants repeating here:

"Office Yeti, which we’ve been prototyping lately, is a single-player action/puzzle/simulation game in which players assume control of a yeti who works in an office.

But, you may be asking, how did HR come to inadvertently hire a yeti? Why a Yeti, and not a Sasquatch? Is this all some sort of hilarious inside joke?

For now these questions will all remain unanswered; the important point is that you’re a tiny little character in a tiny little simulated office building full of even tinier characters and objects, all of which are going about their business more or less oblivious to the fact that you are, to put it bluntly, non-human. Just like in an office in real life!"

The N+ developer recently added a teaser image (above) to Office Yeti's official site, which puts a bright tie on the hairy creature and sends him into the big city. The Yeti seems ready for his office job... But is his office job ready for a Yeti?

The other Metanet project in the works, Robotology (which I brought up a few weeks ago), also received a new teaser image showing the Department of Robotology's coat of arms -- it looks like a group of mechs that attach to form a Voltron-esque robot and fight giant space monsters. I assume the game's nothing like that, but one can dream.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

Continuing a month or so's round-up of neat links (and on that front, we're going to have a new weekly column starting tomorrow that'll help defray things when GameSetLinks goes on hiatus at times!), here's some pieces you might have missed, starting with a Petz developer discussing the making of a fashionable franchise addition.

Also in here - a British childhood with a friend's influential dad, TV game oddness, physics-based Flash games, and a number of other esoterically compiled links that may or may not bring you joy. Hopefully the former.

Pen knife apple:

Expertologist » Dogz and Catz Living Together, Mass Hysteria
Wow, one of the creators of Petz Fashion: Dogz and Catz holds forth. And you know what - care goes into a game like this, too.

Elder Game: MMO game development » The Tragic Story of The Cussing NPCs
'The following story is an imagining of what may have led to the sad tale of the cussing NPCs in Champions Online. It is all conjecture based on past experiences with very similar issues.'

A Youth Well Wasted / Chapter Three « Collect
Ah, childhood nirvana: 'My best friend’s Dad was the Vice President of Sega Europe. Thanks to this I was afforded certain perks.'

CHEGheads Blog » POW! – The Original Online Game? - National Center for the History of Electronic Games
Wow, interesting TV game info here... and not the kind of TV game you're thinking about.

You've got to have faith | Dopass.com
'So, for the management teams of our industry, I have a question: How can we prove to you we've learned from our mistakes if you never allow us to be in the position to make those mistakes again?'

Byteside » Blog Archive » Margaret Pomeranz on R18+
Hey, a film critic (a prominent Australian one, apparently) willing to talk about games (and ratings) cogently. How nice, Mr. Ebert. (Via Critical Distance.)

Top 5 Physics-Based Flash Games | Bytejacker
I know, Top 5s, but Bytejacker are smart indie folks (watch their video show!) and I hadn't played most of these neat physics games.

A Tree Falling in the Forest: Apple's Attempt to Reinvent the Game Business: Selling the Razors Edition
'The iPod is a great platform and the technology is great, but when we consider our leverage on the existing platforms relative to where the music business sits today, I think it is an offer we can refuse.'

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Organizers for the 2009 European Innovative Games Award (EIGA) ceremony -- taking place on November 6th in Frankfurt -- announced its short list of award candidates picked out by the EIGA jury from more than 70 submissions.

EIGA 2009's categories include Innovative Technology, Innovative Games Design, and Innovative Application Methods and Environments, and the event will also give out three sponsorship awards valued at €5,000 each ($7,407).

In the Innovative Technology category, the nominees are the Nintendo DSi system by Nintendo of Europe, the Icon digital playground equipment by Kompan, the CryEngine 3 game engine by Crytek, and the Positive Gaming iDANCE exergaming setup by Positive Gaming AB.

The full list of the nominated games, along with links to find more information about them, follows:

Innovative Games Design

• Maus DS (no relation to the seminal graphic novel) - Braingame Publishing (Germany)
• Imagine Earth: Exploring the Balance - Serious Brothers (Germany)
• Greed Corp (previously covered at GSW here) - Woedend!Games BV (Netherlands)
• Swords & Soldiers - Ronimo Games (Netherlands)
• Max and the Magic Marker - Press Play (Denmark)

Innovative Application Methods and Environments

• Animal Class 2: European Map - by GameMiner Ltd (Finland)
• The Great Flu - Ranj Serious Games (Netherlands)
• SilverFit - Silver Fit BV (Netherlands)
• Icon - Kompan (Germany)

Sponsorship Nominees

• Nemesis 2030 - Bigpoint (Germany)
• Levee Engine - TGC (Germany)
• White Label Community - TGC (The Games Company Worldwide (Germany)
• Marble Isle Quiz System - Three D SERVICES (Germany)
• Backdrop: Behind The Curtain - Franz Stadal (Germany)
• NotPron Yet - Will Weber (Germany)
• Phobos - Mediadesign Hochschule Wolpertinger Games (Germany)
• Paccus HAWK Hydraulic Feedback Joystick - Paccus Interfaces (Netherlands)

You can find more information on the 2009 European Innovative Games Award ceremony, including nomination criteria and slated speakers, at the event's official site.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Though Super Happy Fun Fun's iPhone port for Big Buck Hunter Pro doesn't include the green and orange shotguns the hunting series is known for at movie theatre arcade corners across the country, this touchscreen-based adaptation does include a feature that lets you find a nearby machine with those plastic peripherals.

The iPhone game uses the handheld's GPS capabilities to locate nearby Big Buck Hunter Pro Online units, which Arcade Heroes says can potentially lead you to a full-sized coin-op version. You can also track both your iPhone and arcade leaderboard online standings with the app.

Below, you can see gameplay footage of Big Buck Hunter Pro for iPhone, as well as previews of mini-games and the Arcade Game Finder:

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Battle Klaxon' is a bi-weekly GameSetWatch-exclusive column where traveling games journalist Quintin Smith fights to win a bit of glory for the beautiful, brave but overlooked games that people are missing in their lives. This week: fascinating Russian PC survival horror game The Void.]

Czech puzzler Machinarium looks to be the PC's solitary darling for October, which is a crime and a sham and a shame and other such nastiness. Let me tell you about The Void, another Eastern European PC game that's out this week in the UK, a game that's stranger, more interesting and more ambitious.

'How strange?'

Well, you play a mute, incorporeal soul trapped between life and death in a land which looks like a nuclear bomb test site redesigned by a feng shui master, and your only means of interacting with the world is the removal and application of colour from a first person perspective.

'Oh... that's... and is it good?'

Yes it's good! I wouldn't be writing about it in this column if it wasn't good! The Void is just as deserving of a fat slice of your time and money as Machinarium, perhaps even more so if you believe a game which tries to realise the potential of our hobby through ideas is more worth supporting than an exquisite construct of familiar, fading genres.

It's easy to use the word 'familiar' as a snub after playing The Void because of just how comfortably The Void sits in the unknown, which is a reference to more than its life-after-death setting. You can almost see the Russian developers [who also created the acclaimed PC title Pathologic] grinning out from the shadows like a whole squadron of Cheshire Cats, delighting in your discovery of all the bleak imagery and weird ideas they've brought to (the after)life.

At its (unbeating) heart though, The Void is a game about high tension resource management. So let's talk about that first.

Progressing through the grim world of The Void with the aim of finding a means to re-unite yourself with the body and memories you supposedly left behind is a straightforward, if peculiar process. You do it with a currency of colour. Each area of the game contains a somnolent female character known as a Sister, and after you've gifted her with enough colour she'll let you through. There are also a number of horrifically warped men known as Brothers wandering around, beings so ugly they look like someone was playing Pipemania with their body parts in the womb. Badly.

As with real life big brothers, your goal with the Brothers is to do what they say while figuring out how to subvert them. That means following orders, expending colour somewhere in a certain way, until enough you're strong enough to tussle with them, which you do by flinging even more colour in their direction. The final use of colour is in travelling and maintaining your soul's sentience- meaning colour is also your vehicle, your food and your health.

This actually resembles Ice-Pick's previous project Pathologic, where you played a healer in a plague-ridden town. In Pathologic completing the story missions where you researched the plague or prevented anarchy from breaking out was relatively easy. The challenge came from keeping your character fed, watered, liked, protected, healthy, and well-rested while you ran about doing your good work, and inevitably three hours into the game you were controlling a sickly man with bloodshot eyes who sold razorblades to children so he could afford more coffee and maybe repair his galoshes with the change.

Likewise, The Void is a game where resources are all you ever need and the challenge is in learning how to claw them out of the world and in trying and failing to keep your grip on what little you have. So, one of your first lessons in The Void is that those skittish egg-shaped creatures can be lured over if you create a pool of colour, allowing you to snatch colour out of them while they feed.

Soon you find out that colour hidden in the ground can be excavated by brute force, and later you learn to lure it out by song. You also learn that different shades of colour have different effects both when you store them in your body and when you expend them, you learn certain colours are poisonous to certain Sisters, and you learn new ways to use colour that have you returning to old chambers in an almost Metroid stylee.

I guess comparisons with such joyful franchises as Metroid aren't wholly unwarranted. While The Void is fundamentally a difficult and daunting game which so often crosses over from being creepy into being downright scary, it does have the capacity to charm you due to it creating such a tangible space for you to explore and exist in. The idea of charm might seem ridiculous when you first start playing the game and are chewing over such friendly pieces of advice as "Until you have learned the Commandments, and followed and seen the Revelation, you are an enemy," but the subtle emotional attachment does begin, even if it's not always a positive one.

It's largely down to this ecosystem of colour you have to study. Through necessity you learn the movements of predators and how to tend whole gardens of colour, and as you master your surroundings you might never feel comfortable, but you do start to feel at home. You could compare it to living in a dodgy area of town. And while the game's inhabitants never become any less monstrous or stony, a small cast of characters means you do get to know everybody's quirks and mad personalities.

The Brother known as Mantid never stops being appalling- I mean, he's a slim man who moves about like an insect on the spears he's skewered by. But you do get to know him. You get to know all of your enemies, and your undead soul dreams of their destruction. Which is an interesting enough idea in itself- the bosses in the game, The Brothers, who are your ultimate enemies, are the same people giving you your quests and warnings. Quite aside from the neat idea of being able to turn on them at any moment, when you do you it's a more interesting fight simply because these are characters you've gotten to know.

Also of note is how The Void's unique setting affects the role-playing you do. Rich McCormick, who was reviewing it for PC Gamer UK, said to me that "as you're a soul in an alien land rather than an analog of yourself on SCI-FI ISLAND or something, you perhaps play closer to your actual thought processes." Meaning the game forces you to make decisions and form opinions with none of the bias other games would impose on your through your character, or the setting, or the tone of the game. There is simply you, and this new world you must feel out piece by piece.

He went on: "it's at such a disconnect with the typical good/neutral/evil decision making dichotomy in a role-playing game, but it's perhaps the purest role-playing game I've played. You're forced to duck when infinitely more powerful forces float overhead, but you can flip them off when they turn around, or act as their little enforcer, or simply bumble around as you (perhaps) would."

Probably the lesson to take away from The Void is how powerful an experience can become by taking a step back and removing elements of game design which almost seem set in stone now. For example, forcing the player to make moral decisions without a character to pass their sins onto. Making them survive in a world without telling them the rules. Telling them there's a time limit, but not how long it is. Letting them stick their nose into areas long before they're "meant" to.

Through all of this The Void becomes a game about fumbling in the dark with both hands in front of you, with you routinely drawing them back to find one covered in an unidentifiable, damp substance. It's a design ethos that makes for a game which is as harsh and awkward as it is fascinating and worth playing.

I was reading a review of Borderlands this morning where it was discussed how neither the reviewer nor his friends bothered reading any of the quest-giver text, instead relying on nothing but objectives and waypoints. They couldn't see any point in reading this stuff, and certainly didn't get any pleasure from it.

Conversely, The Void is a game where all players will find themselves opening their journal and re-reading what's been said to them in instruction, advice or warning, simply because the game cannot be trusted to guide you or catch you if you fall. This need to read over what's been said strengthens immersion because it's no longer a case of you and the game, it's a case of you and what the characters have said, of you and the world.

Of you and the void. Of you, alone.

The Void -- which is available in Russia, Poland and Germany under names including Turgor and Tension -- is currently retailing for £20 from several fine UK-based retailers. If you're not in the UK, then ordering from the British publisher will get a PC physical version, according to recent forum posts. No confirmation on a digital release just yet.

[Quinns is a freelance journalist who has fun working for Eurogamer,, contributing to Rock Paper Shotgun and reading Action Button. You can currently find him in the damp Irish city of Galway or at gmail dot com.]

Posted by Quintin Smith at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

[We round up the week's top news and reviews from sister iPhone site FingerGaming, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and dealing with the most important new titles and happenings for Apple's handheld gaming system and phone.]

This week, FingerGaming covers recent releases like EA's music simulation title Rock Band, the Volkswagen-sponsored Real Racing GTI, and Gameloft's remake of the 16-bit platformer classic Earthworm Jim.

Here are the top stories from the last seven days:

- EA Releases Rock Band for iPhone
"iPhone Rock Band trades in the instrument-shaped peripherals of its console versions for a touch-based interface that allows a solo player to perform the guitar, bass, drums, or vocals portions of each song. The game also includes a four-person multiplayer mode."

- Gameloft’s Remake of Earthworm Jim Premieres in App Store
"Gameloft’s iPhone adaptation of Earthworm Jim features redrawn graphics, remastered sound (including rerecorded voice acting for Jim), and a modified control scheme that uses touch-based controls for the platforming levels and tilt controls for the wormhole bonus stages."

- Top-Grossing Game Apps: Rock Band Takes Top Chart Spot in Premiere Week
"Last week’s chart leader Tap Tap Revenge 3 is down to fifth place this week, with rival rhythm title Rock Band taking the top chart position in its first week of release."

- Capcom Reveals Ghosts ‘N Goblins: Gold Knights for iPhone
"Capcom has unveiled the latest sequel in its Ghosts ‘N Goblins franchise -- and it’s an iPhone exclusive. Ghosts ‘N Goblins: Gold Knights will be the first title in the series to offer two playable characters, and will feature all-new levels and enemies not seen in previous games."

- Soul Trapper Author Inks Three-Book Publishing Deal
"Soul Trapper’s future may remain uncertain on the iPhone, but Publishers Weekly reports that franchise author F.J. Lennon has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to produce a series of three novels based on the Soul Trapper universe."

- Top Free Game App Downloads for the Week
"The color-matching puzzler Line Up Free finishes as the App Store’s most popular free game download for the second week in a row. Fling Free moves up a spot to finish second, while a free points promotion lands Storm8’s Kingdoms Live at third place."

- Volkswagen Launches New 2010 GTI Through Firemint’s Real Racing
"Firemint’s Real Racing GTI is more than just a free Lite demo of the developer’s popular sim-styled racer Real Racing. Car manufacturer Volkswagen is sponsoring its release, and the app marks the official introduction of the upcoming 2010 GTI automobile brand."

- iPhone Oddities: Friskies’ Wonderland Quest
"The iPhone's library is host to good games, bad games, and a select few oddities that could never be released on any other platform. Example: Wonderland Quest, a hidden-object game published by Friskies. Yes. The cat food brand."

- Top-Selling Paid Game Apps for the Week
"Skee-Ball moves up to take second place in today’s results, while Tap Tap Revenge 3 tops the charts for the second week running. Backbreaker Football also moves up a spot in this week’s chart, leaving Cartoon Wars at fourth place."

- Com2uS Releases Online Multiplayer Sniper Sim Sniper vs. Sniper Online
"Com2uS injects new life into the sniper genre with the release of Sniper vs. Sniper Online, adding a new element of suspense to a standard gameplay formula with an online multiplayer mode and in-game voice chat."

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, more zombie news you can use! Electronic Arts and Valve are putting that $25 million marketing budget to use, producing a video guide for surviving "the L4D2 virus" outbreak. The lessons are obvious, going over undead identification and useful melee weapons, but who knows, maybe there's someone out there that hasn't already picked up these tips from hundreds of zombie films, shows, games, comics, etc.

The bumbling British actors and fart jokes give the video a Shaun of the Dead feel, but the writing and setup are far less hilarious. You'd think Valve of all developers would have no trouble producing an entertaining promotional clip. If you're looking for a better presented collection of rules for dealing with zombies, you would be better off watching Zombieland or reading Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide.

[Via RPS]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After receiving favorable reviews for its gorgeous PSN puzzler Critter Crunch and early praise for upcoming DS strategy/puzzle hybrid Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, indie studio Capy (or Capybara Games) is trying its hand on the popular zombie genre, according to a government funding document dug up by sister site GamerBytes.

The project description doesn't reveal a platform (presumably on a handheld or a digital download service) or an expected release date for Zombie Tactics, but it has some useful details:

"Zombie Tactics brings a mixture of strategy gameplay elements into the horror genre, dropping players into the heart of a devastating zombie apocalypse with nothing but their wits to get them out alive. As players fend for themselves, they will search for other survivors to add to their team, scavenge for weapons and supplies, and fight their way to freedom through an array of city settings."

This document was posted last February, so if Zombie Tactics is still alive (or un-alive, hur hur), Capy has already had a significant chunk of time to work on it. Another interesting interactive game in the same listing of funding recipients: DrinkBox Studios's About A Blob, a game following "an innocent little creature that grows and grows until it defeats mankind and consumes the planet."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Definitely not as frightening as the Silent Hill cosplay we featured last May, this "amigurumi" nurse bunny is so cute, you almost forget about the blood-soaked rags wrapped around its face. Fortunately, this crocheted version doesn't have arms, so you won't have to worry about the nurse bunny pulling a scalpel from behind its back.

Craftster Moon Yen also made similar amigurumis design for Pyramid Head (with a removable helm!) and Resident Evil 4's chainsaw-wielding Dr. Salvador, both shown after the break. These three "Moon Bun" creations are part of the 31-piece set the artist created for October, which is filled with other creepy creations like Count Dracula and Resident Evil 2's Licker.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

So, this set of GameSetLinks are actually a combination of about four weeks' worth, so don't be surprised if some of them are a little ancient - but I'm doing this at least partly because almost nobody else does, so hopefully, you haven't seen most of these linked elsewhere.

Some of the neatness includes a great Nintendo localization interview, Spiderweb's Jeff Vogel on DRM, the AV Club's excellent mini alt.game reviews, a good interview with Farbs on (the pictured) Captain Forever, and more besides.

Toot toot:

Action Button Dot Net reviews 'Reset'
Just wanted to point to because it's a neat indie game and a typically avant review, which I quite enjoy.

gedblog » Blog Archive » Losing iReligion
More iPhone Gold Rush participants washing against the rocks, I'm afraid. Interesting updates and comments discussion.

The Bottom Feeder: Some Kind Words About DRM. For Once.
An interesting perspective from Spiderweb's Jeff Vogel: 'I've tried to be ethical in all the ways I want as a consumer. The result? My games get pirated like crazy, and I have to charge a lot to stay in business.'

Braid » Blog Archive » Hiring another programmer.
Full-body motion tracking, eh? Natal-icious! (I guess it could be something else...)

1UP's RPG Blog : Mario & Luigi Interview: Bihldorff's Inside Story
Treehouse is hands down the most under-rated localizers around, because people conflate them with Nintendo's 'magic' somehow.

Kill Screen - A Thank You and an Apology » Updates — Kickstarter
Ah, so Jamin and Chris reveal the full list of KillScreen contributors - looks like a blast, folks.

Sawbuck Gamers, October 12, 2009 | Games | The A.V. Club
By far the most interesting mini-review section in games, thanks to impeccable picking of titles.

We Have a Winner! Captain Forever Creator Farbs Talks to DIY [Interview] | DIYgamer
A nice interview with IGF China winner Farbs about the extremely neat Captain Forever.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Just a note that GDC 2010 has just announced new summits on social gaming and iPhone games, as well as the return of the Indie Games Summit and more, and you can submit now if you have lectures suitable for any of the eligible Summits, neet.]

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced that the call for submissions is open for the 2010 event’s suite of Summits, which take place on the first two days of GDC in San Francisco, March 9th-10th 2010.

This year’s GDC Summit line-up includes two new events in the form of the Social & Online Games Summit and iPhone Games Summit, alongside the GDC Mobile/Handheld, Independent Games, and Serious Games Summits, which are all accepting submissions through November 13th.

The multi-track Social & Online Games Summit is focused around current and new opportunities for games on social networking services such as Facebook and MySpace. The Summit brings together leading thinkers and businesspeople to examine how social games have expanded the audience of gamers to encompass tens of millions of mainstream users, many of whom are not conventional gamers.

It will also cover how online worlds have conquered the children’s gaming market, and how the casual gaming space is also feeding in to the next generation of mass market multiplayer games.

The iPhone Games Summit, first held at Game Developers Conference Austin 2009 to significant acclaim, marks its San Francisco debut at GDC 2010. This Summit will bring together top iPhone and iPod Touch developers from around the world to share key information and discuss the future of Apple’s increasingly important game platform.

The Summit will include a first day dedicated to detailed sessions from some of the iPhone game industry’s top technical architects, with the second day of the iPhone Games Summit focusing on vital business and marketing strategies behind successful game companies in this extremely competitive market.

"GDC is in a constant state of evolution, just like the game industry itself," says Meggan Scavio, event director of the Game Developers Conference. “This year's exciting slate of summits speaks to the rapid growth of online & social network games, and the increasing importance of the iPhone as a gaming platform."

The two new summits represent a notable addition to the already comprehensive selection of GDC 2010 Summits, which take place immediately before the three-day GDC 2010 main program. Other Summits also held at GDC 2010 will include one or two-day events on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Game Localization, and the IGDA Education Summit.

GDC 2010 Summit submissions can be entered at the official submissions page. More information and registration specifics on the 2010 Game Developers Conference can be found at the official GDC 2010 website.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Leading up to Left 4 Dead 2's Xbox 360 and PC release on November 17th, Electronic Arts has partnered with Kongregate to launch a four-week-long 10/23 - 11/20) meta game on the social Flash gaming portal.

During Infected Fury Month, a portion of Kongregate users is turned into zombies, while another group is designated as survivors. After learning the meta game's basic mechanics on a Left 4 Dead 2 branded section of the site, the zombies can earn points by infecting other players to turn them into the undead, while the survivors pick up points by training others to become survivors.

Infecting/training new players is accomplished through chat or by visiting a player's Kongregate profile page and hitting a Left 4 Dead 2 button. Survivors will have a glowing silver shield displayed on their avatar while the zombies will have their avatar and profile pages grayed out and spattered with blood.

Through the branded Left 4 Dead 2 area, Kongregate members will also be able to read situation updates, track which chat rooms are populated with zombies, and watch the infection spread. They can also switch their avatars into Left 4 Dead 2's four survivor characters or one of the boss infected (e.g. Charger, Wandering Witch).

"Infected Fury Month demonstrates the truly effective benefits of viral branding on Kongregate. We have over six million highly engaged gamers who will love getting involved with other players this way," says Kongregate's chief revenue officer Lee Uniacke.

"As Kongregate players experience yet another fun way to interact within the community, we’re building additional consumer excitement for next month’s launch of Left 4 Dead 2 on Xbox 360 and PC. Users on our site will be deeply enmeshed in the fiction of Left 4 Dead 2 by the time it hits store shelves."

With Valve planning to spend $25 million advertising Left 4 Dead 2's launch, I expect a lot more unusual promotions like this one.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Arkedo, one of my favorite indie developers since Big Bang Mini and Nervous Brickdown for DS, released 02 Swap! over the weekend, its second Arkedo Series experimental game on Xbox Live Indie Games.

While 01 Jump, the first Arkedo series release, was a simple but very enjoyable retro-styled platformer, 02 Swap is a match-four puzzler similar to Nintendo's Puzzle League series, except it features a blue cat carrying a stick with a gloved hand on it.

According to Arkedo, this is the first of its games to actually feature a story, with the plot consisting of you helping "King Kat" get his castle back. I'm not sure how matching colored tiles accomplishes that goal, but with the game priced at $3 (a free demo is also available), I doubt anyone interested in 02 Swap will mind.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

Yipes! I take a week off and the mags just pile up on my doorstep! Let's get right to business with my take with this installment of Mag Roundup's biggest event:

Game Informer November 2009

Cover: Epic Mickey

Heavens be! This is quite a redesign indeed. I talked a bit about Game Informer's new website earlier, and I still like it a lot -- the sort of thing that 1UP was meant to be to Ziff's magazines back when it launched in 2003, something that didn't quite happen due to a lack of urgency and many other reasons.

With that in mind, I want to concentrate my discussion this column on the print mag itself. What I like:

- The general design now takes far more advantage of the wide-body page size than before. Feature content spreads out to the far edges all the time; those edges become a natural place for long sidebars that are interesting but not important enough to interrupt the main text with.

- Things look a lot cleaner, with white the color of choice nearly everywhere except in the main feature.

- There is no back-cover advertisement and instead the front-cover art wraps around. I hope to the heavens that this is permanent. The cover this issue is unequivocally awesome; hopefully devs will be as kind to GI with their art assets in future installments.

- The Skate 3 sub-feature is a lovely piece of clean design, although the ending ("So grab your board, get your friends together, and get ready to hit it") is a bit PR-y. The Epic Mickey piece is designed more in the old GI tradition, but that's not necessarily a bad thing -- the look still fits in with the rest of the mag, and it's killer reading, mainly thanks to Warren Spector's intelligent enthusiasm and the sheer, er, epicness of the project.

- The back-page quiz (which I am guessing was a lot of work to compose and not all that popular with readers) has been replaced with what I hope is a regular procession of "neat game trivia" -- in this month, a graphical examination of the "Nanosuit 2.0" from the upcoming Crysis sequel. This is a vast improvement on what was there before.

What I don't like:

- Connect, the front-page section, seems more disjointed than before. Maybe this is because the design is more unified now, which makes it all seem to blend together to the eyes. You have a hard-nosed multi-page feature about the marriage of Hollywood and games next to a GamePro-style silly top-ten list, across the page from a Maxim-like humor piece, segueing to a couple pages of hard news, moving to another hard-nosed multi-page feature. This is one of the things I don't like about GamePro's front section, too. I'd run the thing to segue a bit more smartly -- changing tones so quickly from one article to the next is a bit jarring.

- The titling in sub-sections of Connect is hard to follow. Some sections have light-gray-on-white titles that are easy to miss; others (like the rumor section, which I thought had been removed until I finally noticed it) have only a small and easily overlooked orange box identifying them.

- GI Spy, the page where Game Informer editors publish pictures of themselves with PR ladies and B-celebs, is still around. However, it's now a quarter-page strip that extends over the bottom of three pages of the letters/reader art section. It's not quite nonexistent like how I want to see it, but at least it seems much less obtrusive than before.

Overall, while I understand that the real revolution lies in GI's reforged bond with its online site, I also think the print mag's new design is a positive step toward making it look more refined, modern and professional. That's important, of course, because GI is the giant of the game-mag business and you could say it needs to act that way. It's not a world-shifting redesign by any means -- the writing style is still the same, and the mag often errs on the side of verbosity too much for my tastes -- but it is doubtlessly the breath of fresh air that both GI and the biz really needed.

PC Zone November 2009

Cover: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

The cover feature is nice, something I don't say too often about PC Zone -- it's a massive amount of neat info and neater art, although I'm sure it's old news to PC gamers by this point.

But the real treat here is "Around the World in 8 Simulations," an absolutely hilarious feature where author Steve Hogarty tries to take a virtual world tour using as many sims as possible, from Flight Simulator X to obscure European truck and train games.

I'm a little loath to spoil the best joke from it, but here it is: He uses Assassin's Creed as a "horse simulator" to travel from Damascus to Jerusalem. "We whip a brown horse hard out of Damascus," Hogarty writes. "Doing this in Assassin's Creed is highly illegal, and we attract the attention of some guards who'd clearly rather chase a man on a horse than guiard the thing they're supposed to be guarding. A few gruesome tramplings later, and with more than a couple of dramatic leaps over fallen palm trees, we arrive at Jerusalem. We find the spot where we reckon they'd build an airport in about 822 years, and wait."

The article goes on to note the seemingly short distance between the two cities in the game (they're really 134 miles apart), and calculates that horses can therefore travel at about 1500 mph, faster than a Concorde. Wow! No wonder they're fighting all the time over there -- transport to the front lines is a breeze.

PC Gamer December 2009

Cover: WOW: Cataclysm

A remarkably packed issue, although nothing in here is mega-huge. The cover piece, basically a BlizzCon postmortem with the gang at Blizzard, is neat, but way neater is the next feature, unadvertised on the cover -- a peek into the world of Arma 2 online maniacs who play on max realism. It's fascinating stuff -- a look into a world that I'd never get to check out otherwise -- and the sort of thing a print mag is undeniably the best at.

Official Xbox Magazine December 2009

Cover: Assassin's Creed II

A pretty straightforward issue; Assassin II is a play-report from the first three hours and L4D2 is...well, more L4D2, which Future mags have been covering the way CNN covered the balloon boy while I was away last week. (Not that L4D2 should be compared in any other way with that story, of course. I'm not mean.)

Speaking of, not to echo G4 of all things, but yes, the Assassin II print ad is the best game ad ever. Of the past three or four years, anyway. Brilliant outside-the-box thinking.

PlayStation: The Official Magazine December 2009

Cover: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

This cover doesn't seem much at first, but I think it's the first time P:TOM (or, really, any mag lately that ain't Tips & Tricks) gave the cover to a strategy guide. A strategy guide for one of 2009's hottest games, and one that is surely going to be the must-have online console title of the year (at the very least), but still, a strategy guide. Who'd-a thunk? It's a nice-looking piece, too, all done up like a dossier and everything.

OXM did just a quick piece on Inversion this month, but P:TOM has a much fuller treatment, a feature that picks up the game's gravity-bending themes and riffs on it by forcing you to turn the mag around in assorted ways to read all of it. Nice job.

Play October 2009

Cover: MagnaCarta 2 or Splatterhouse

I got the MagnaCarta 2 version in the mail, which doesn't quite have the force of last month's cover, but wait'll you see the centerfold...er, 2-page spread art that kicks off the review! Yowza! The text is Halverson at his best, of course -- he compares the game to Phantasy Star (the first one)!

In a bit more serious note, I've been waiting for someone to write a status report on Splatterhouse, that famously delayed and tussled project that debuted on the cover of EGM what seems like a decade ago. Doug Perry has the honor of penning it, and the results are in-depth, engaging, and (in a good way) un-Play-like.

I noticed this month that Play has gotten rid of the annoying bullet graphics in the "Parting Shot" review summary boxes, something I complained about since their inception in July '08. Good on 'em.

Retro Gamer Issue 69

Cover: Final Fantasy

Not my most favorite issue of RG, chiefly because none of the making-of bits (Die Hard Trilogy and Syndicate) grabbed me and I've read enough Final Fantasy retrospective features over the years to last me several lifetimes. Yes, even if they did interview the designer of Dissidia to wrap this one up (very appropriate choice, there).

Top highlight: the Coin-Op Capers piece on Space Harrier, an arcade game that absolutely deserves this sort of exhaustive treatment. Bravo.

Tips & Tricks November/December 2009

Cover: Wii Sports Resort

It's already been mentioned on their website, but some surprisingly good news in T&T land: starting next issue, they'll publish eight installments a year instead of six and will throw in a fold-out poster and an extra full-on strategy guide per issue from now on. Reassuring news about a print mag that I never expected to hear reassuring news about. Good job on Chris Bieniek and the rest of the gang, no doubt.

By the way, T&T does not seem to offer subscriptions any longer. Makes sense, I suppose. T&T always lived and died by the newsstand, and pushing heavily-discounted subs is not conducive to high newsstand sales -- especially when said low-cost subs aren't subsidized by advertising, of which T&T has very little of.

Girls of Gaming 7

Dang it, I spent $12.95 on softcore porn again! I love how I can immediately tell when it's Dave Halverson writing the little blurbs accompanying the sexy girl art -- all of a sudden, they're written in the first person and start including clauses like "industrial strength earplugs drilled into my tympanic membrane."

All kidding aside, there is one piece of art that I really liked, a Mirror's Edge-themed page by Rob Duenas. Unfortunately, it was done in authentic, headache-inducing red/blue-separated 3D. Why?

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[We round up the top console digital download news of the last week from GamerBytes, including brand-new game announcements and scoops from the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, PSP Minis and DSiWare.]

This week has been all about the two extremes - the casual and the hardcore. On one hand, you have games like Tower Bloxx Deluxe, Picture Books, and Domo minigames, while on the other you have Panzer Generals, Trine, Lost Winds and the Oddworld series. If you're in either of those camps, you'll be pretty happy with this week's offerings.

This week has also been a fairly big week for Xbox Live Indie Games - a lot of good, quality games have been released. So if you're one of those fellows who never wanders into those waters, we've got a handy guide or two for you to look at.

Here are the highlights for the last seven days:

GamerBytes Originals

Old XBL Indie Games Drop In Price - What You Should Pick Up?
"As of today, the 200MSP price point no longer exists on the Xbox Live Indie Games, so what should you pick up for a single dollar?"

Store Updates

XBLA Update - Tower Bloxx Deluxe, Panzer Generals, Magic TG DLC
NA PSN Store Update - Trine, Oddworld, Lumines Price Cut & DLC, Mahjongg Artifacts And Vempire
EU PSN Store Update - Red Bull X-Fighters, Cheap Everyday Shooter
NA Nintendo Update - Lost Winds 2, Shootanto, Rygar And 5 Domo-Kun DSiWare Titles
EU Nintendo Update - Picture Books, Protöthea, Shinobi, Dragons And A Little Bit of... Dr Kawashima

Microsoft (Xbox Live Arcade, XBL Indie Games)

Indie Watch: The Alpha Secret Base Collection
"We take a look at the 5 games recently released by the Japanese Indie developer."

Indie Watch - The Square Faced Cat Says SWAP!
"Arkedo have released their second Xbox Live Indie Game - SWAP!: a puzzle game with a simple and fun art direction."

Toki To Go Ape Spit On Xbox Live Arcade?
"Golgoth Studios have taken it upon themselves to recreate Toki, a classic 1989 arcade game, and one nobody expected to make a return."

Capsized Coming To Xbox 360
"The two-man team at Alientrap Software have announced their next project, Capsized, will be coming to the Xbox 360 in 2010."

Sony (PlayStation Network, PSP Minis)

First Footage Of Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond
"On this week's episode of GameTrailers TV, the first footage of Matt Hazard's XBLA and PSN game was revealed."

Calling All Cars Calling It Quits Online
"A new update to Calling All Cars reveals that the online mode will be taken down early next year."

Savage Moon Comes To The PSP
"Fluffy Logic, via the PlayStation Blog, have revealed that their PSN title Savage Moon will be getting its own new campaign on the PSP."

Nintendo (WiiWare, DSiWare)

Muscle March Coming To The West
"The German USK rating system has updated, and it included a welcome surprise - the reveal that Muscle March is coming to the West!"

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Playing off of Demon's Souls infamous difficulty, Japanese publisher Enterbrain recently put out a DVD of comedy duo America Zarigani (American Crayfish?) attempting to clear the PlayStation 3 game. It's a very Game Center CX-style affair, with the two comedians locking themselves in a room with just a camera, a PS3, a monitor, a copy of the From Software game, and a coffee machine to keep themselves awake while they try to plow through Demon's Souls.

Like many other similar Japanese video game shows, their playthrough is fun to watch even if you don't understand what they're saying. Comparing what's going on in their game with their reactions, I'm sure you can pick out the yells of frustration against their celebratory cheers. If you happen to live in Japan, you can grab a copy of the DVD from Enterbrain's online shop for ¥5,040 ($54.67).

[Via Eastern Mind]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Andy Helms' latest video-game-themed set for his Dude-a-Day project gives us six great sketches from Double Fine's Psychonauts, depicting the dark platformer's hero and other Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp characters in black and green marker.

Past the break, you'll find more a few more illustrations from the cult favorite game, including conspiracy theorist Boyd Cooper and certified dentist/villain Dr. Caligosto Loboto. And if you haven't seen them yet, treat yourselves to the Helms's previous Dude-a-Day sketches for Castle Crashers and Metal Gear Solid.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These Hallmark Innovations cards have been available for some time now, but I didn't come across them until just recently. This set wishes their lucky recipients "Happy Birthday" with a design from a classic arcade game, an appropriate corny joke (the Galaga one is borderline vulgar!), and a familiar tune from the classic title.

This video recorded by Hot Mess only shows the Tetris, Pac-Man, and Galaga pieces, but there are also cards for Dig Dug, Frogger, Centipede, and Kung Fu, the last of which plays a clip of "Kung Fu Fighting", of course. How long before technology brings us to the point when Hallmark sells us cheap greeting cards with the full playable game embedded inside?

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's the end of another week, so it's time to go through the top full-length features of the past week on big sister site Gamasutra, plus some GameCareerGuide features of the week.

There's some pretty neat stuff in here - including interviews with Rocksteady and the Runic Games folks, the latest detailed NPD U.S. game sales analysis, and some nuanced discussion on violent gameplay, as well as the latest Game Career Guide Challenge results (featuring the pictured Edgar Allen Poe!) and a new Challenge.

Blasting caps:

Working by Torchlight
"Runic Games' Travis Baldree and Max Schaefer talk to Gamasutra about next week's debut of PC action RPG Torchlight, plans for an MMO incarnation, launching into 2009's PC market, community empowerment, and essential design concepts for the action-RPG genre."

Kill Polygon, Kill: Violence, Psychology, and Video Games
"It's true, many video games have violent elements in them. But what does that mean? We talk to Silent Hill producers, abstract indie game creators and the Grand Theft Childhood book co-writer to look at the pluses and minuses of violence as a tool for expression in games."

NPD: Behind the Numbers, September 2009
"Gamasutra's latest comprehensive NPD analysis looks at the U.S. console retail figures for September 2009, with spotlights on the music game genre, hardware price cuts, Wii, console DLC and more."

Beyond The Button Press
"What opportunities are there for games that innovate using audio? LucasArts' Jesse Harlin takes a look at what new audio control possibilities technology has brought us, in this article originally published in Game Developer magazine recently."

Rocksteady's Sefton Hill Unmasks Batman: Arkham Asylum
"Director Sefton Hill of Rocksteady explains how his studio stayed true to Batman's "strict rules" when creating Batman: Arkham Asylum new immersive world."

Sponsored Feature: Who Moved the Goal Posts? The Rapidly Changing World of CPUs
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GCG: Results from Game Design Challenge: Literary Inspirations
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Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a quick note about some slides (and a taped lecture) related to independent game trends and stats that I [Simon Carless, Independent Games Festival chairman and Gamasutra publisher] presented in recent weeks in Asia and Australia, and are now available to everyone thanks to the magic of the Interwebs and file/videosharing devices.

As some of you may know, earlier this year I presented a lecture called 'Independent Games & Sales: Stats 101' at the Independent Games Summit at GDC 2009 in San Francisco. I made info on it available via my Gamasutra Expert Blog. Rather pleasingly, the full IGS 2009 lecture slides, hosted on Slideshare.net, have now had more than 10,000 views, and it seems to be one of the few comprehensive overviews of the space.

The lecture was fairly well-received at GDC, especially in terms of its content, though I rather overstuffed things for a 30-minute talk, especially in terms of calculation minutiae. So when I was invited to speak at the Digital Distribution Summit in Melbourne, Australia (at the pictured BMW Edge conference hall) in September, followed by GDC China in Shanghai in October, I decided to simplify and update the metrics, while adding a section on trends/routes to success.

I've now put versions of two slide decks online. Firstly, there's 'Indie Game Metrics - October 2009' [Slideshare.net link.] This updates my March 2009 estimates for markets like Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, iPhone, and PC digital download, and ends with a couple of slides on important trends in the indie market - and it's fairly easy to understand without hearing the accompanying narration.

Obviously, this area is tremendously difficult to be accurate in, since there's no universal tracking system for digital game downloads, and little motivation for many of the stakeholders to hand out specifics. But as previously, I carefully cite real numbers revealed by developers or Leaderboards, and then give overall - and quite approximate - ranges for each market.

(If you believe I'm off base on any of these estimates, or have concrete examples to share - on or off the record - please contact me and we can talk about it. Overall, I really think that sharing data like this will help indies grow and flourish from a business - as well as creative - perspective.)

Secondly, I also made available 'Western Indie Game Trends' [Slideshare link]. This starts off as a basic introduction to the space for any Asian attendees of GDC China (the lecture was simultaneously translated). It then turns into a more detailed look at seven 'rules' for digital distribution success, as I see them - from defining your developer through being community-friendly, doing outreach, connecting with your peers, and more.

Much of the second slide deck, followed by the first slide deck, can be seen in video form, since the nice folks at Film Victoria recorded my Digital Distribution Summit talk and placed it on Vimeo for free streaming. Since this was the first time I'd given this talk, I'm a little bit scattershot for the first few minutes, but if you'd like to see 90 minutes worth of these slides with some extra explanation, go check it out. (I also recommend the other Digital Distribution Summit talks, particularly consultant and ex-XBLA strategist David Edery's excellent keynote, which is a really charismatic look at the market and much more overarching trends within it.)

Finally, it's also worth noting that I uploaded a couple of interesting GDC Austin slide decks to my Slideshare space, with the permission of their creators, including the talk from 2D Boy's Ron Carmel (on 'After The Finish Line' of shipping your game) and from Wolfire's John Graham (on effective indie game marketing). These should also be up on our GDC Vault archive sometime soon.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['@ Play' is a monthly column by John Harris which discusses the history, present and future of the Roguelike dungeon exploring genre. This time -- a look at the art of item design in Roguelikes.]

It has been a little while.... This column is an in-depth examination of some of the most popular items within the two most-common categories: potions and scrolls, both of which we might term "one use" items for the fact that utilizing them consumes them.

Exploring a monster-filled dungeon is not what we might consider a healthy activity. If the game were just about looking around, mapping territory, and killing monsters until the player's inevitable demise, the game might be interesting in an simplistic kind of way, but it wouldn't have that roguelike spark. No, the player must get something out of the exploration. That something is treasure.

Treasure is the carrot held in front of the player's face, leading him on into ever-more dangerous situations. The majority of treasure in most roguelikes is found laying around the dungeon. Some of the treasure is food, and the need to find more is what prevents the player from building levels indefinitely on the easier levels, but the good stuff is what pushes him downward. Unlike the trend in most RPGs these days, equipment is often a larger component of player power than experience level in roguelikes, and it is randomly generated.

The justification for treasure

Why is it so satisfying to find treasure? It cannot be denied that, without it, many roguelikes would be a lot less interesting. I suggest the reason that the expectation that players will find treasure, or other things and opportunities of value, in those dangerous places they explore is related to the exploration urge evolved out of humankind's tribal pre-history. But I digress.

The randon treasure generation is the biggest scrambling factor in a roguelike. Monsters are random, but still appear in the same proportions on each level. Dungeons are random, but even with traps most of the time the maps are not themselves very interesting. But a single item of treasure, in a good roguelike, can have the power to change the game significantly, and the variety of powers they grant, intersecting with each other and the monsters and dungeons, is what allows different plays of a single roguelike to seem different from each other.

The biggest problem with giving players lots of treasure to find is in determining how powerful it should be. If it's not powerful enough players may consider, why bother? If it's too powerful then it's unbalancing, and it is more the treasure that is the reason for success than the the player's skill. It might be useful to examine the basis for treasure in the source from which RPGs arose: fantasy literature. Bilbo's ring, for instance, enables him to overcome many of the dangers in the latter half of The Hobbit. Setting aside the ultimate identity of that ring revealed in The Lord of the Rings, a lot of the characters in that book kind of equate the ring's powers with Bilbo himself. They say that there is something more to him than meets the eye. That thing is, literally, the ring. But he found the ring through his own wit and guile, so it does make a kind of sense to say that. And even with the ring, Bilbo is in danger and must use it wisely to escape from dungeons, dragons and wars. In other words, Bilbo's possession of the ring is a manifestation of his ingenuity. So the treasure found in a roguelike, since it is gained by the player's own wit and guile, is a manifestation of it, and it is the job of the designer, as creator and custodian of that world, to have it be fitting.

We've already given an overview of the primary types of roguelike treasure in a general article some time back. It is interesting that, although Rogue is over twenty years old now, the major item types provided by that game remain the major types used in nearly all roguelikes. This is the first of a number of columns that examines the primary types in detail. In this first column, we look at one-use items, which are used a single time and are then gone.

Disposable Magic: One-Use Items

The primary one-use item types, other than food (usually a simple case) are potions and scrolls. Some games also provide for random food items like berries and mushrooms. Shiren provides herbs, which are good for a small amount of food value when eaten, but generally function more like potions. This can be seen in the way that a good number of herbs provide special effects when thrown. ADOM has herbs which are unique in that their functions are not randomly scrambled, but are the same from game to game. (ADOM's herbs have other unique and interesting properties however. They are one of my favorite things about that game, but they are a special case that doesn't fit in with the general roguelike categories.)

Scrambled one-use items are among the more difficult to identify items in a standard roguelike. The biggest problem with identifying one-use items is that, once the item is gone, it isn't there anymore. You only get once use with which to discover its purpose. And a few of these items are situationally useful, to the degree that the player may be helped considerably by using the item effectively, at the proper time or with specific preparation. And a few one-use items can cause a great deal of trouble; Rogue's potion of blindness can be a game-ender if used at an inopportune moment.

Many games auto-ID potions and scrolls upon use, but Rogue and the Hacks do not. These games require that the item's visible effect be detectable by the player, and are obviously the purpose of the item, before they'll auto-identify. Some items have effects that are so obscure that they never auto-ID this way, forcing the player to either name it themselves from experience or expend an Identify scroll on it. Others only identify sometimes (like detection scrolls when there is something to detect), and some will prompt the player for a temporary name in some situations.

The one-use-only property of potions is one area where roguelikes differ from classic Dungeons & Dragons. By-the-book OD&D and 1st edition AD&D state that found magic items are unknown, but potions may be tasted and thus given a chance of identification without consuming the thing. In those games some potions have multiple uses, and others have functions that require the liquid not be drunk at all, but instead applied to an object or the skin, or in some cases the bottle merely unstoppered. The classic roguelike play style is directly inspired by these versions of D&D, and both Rogue and the Hack-like games provide for item uses beyond the basic "quaff." In Rogue and Nethack throwing potions at monsters is an option for getting effective use even out of "bad" items. In Rogue, this may cause the item to affect the monster; in Nethack, a thrown potion breaks and may subject nearly creatures to a reduced "vapor effect." Nethack also allows for dipping items into potions, and even mixing them together, each option of some strategic worth. Both games, also, contain Scrolls of Scare Monster, which are wasted when read. Their true value appears only while they're resting on the floor. But even so, most potions are still meant to be drank.

There are usually many one-use items to discover in the game, and unlike random wearables (such as rings and amulets) the player usually will get a fairly substantial hint for what it does upon use, so, scrolls of identify are generally best used for other things. Significantly, identify scrolls themselves are random one-use items in most games. In many games, before any items can be identified by using them, the player must trial-and-error to discover them. Games that support selling items to shops often provide identification hints by offering items to shopkeepers, a tactic I refer to as "price ID." The usefulness of this strategy ranges from slightly unbalanced in Nethack to nearly essential in Shiren's Final Puzzle dungeon. Because this trick provides one of the few ways to narrow down object functions that doesn't use the thing up or require knowledge of Identify scrolls, it is particularly useful when applied to one-use items.

What is the functional difference between the two classes?

• Potions are much more likely to have an effect when thrown. The only roguelike (or roguelike series) I know that provides thrown item effects for scrolls is Shiren the Wanderer.
• Potions are, basically, chemicals, and this avenues for useful non-magical potions are much greater than scrolls. For some games this is a significant difference: should a potion of magic detection locate a flask of oil? In Nethack, the most useful and potion is water. It is similarly useful in ADOM.
• Potions may also be more versatile in their uses than scrolls. In addition to being thrown, it may be possible to dip items into them, or to mix then together. Nethack uses hard-coded potion mix results according to type. The Color Alchemy patch randomizes potion results, making them mix according to potion color and subtractive color mixing. ADOM puts a lot of work into its alchemy system, defining a number of mixture "recipes" randomly at the start of the game, and granting the player knowledge of them as he advances in the Alchemy skill.
• While scrolls may have many varied effects, potions usually work on the subject's physical form. Note, however, that this is not always the case; some detection effects may be implemented as scrolls, and others potions, in the same game. (D&D did this too sometimes; there is a line of potions for controlling various types of creatures. These potions work by the user drinking them; their influence then extends outward from the drinker, apparently.)
• If the effect requires any further input from the player, particularly selecting an item to work on, the item will almost certainly be a scroll.

Here's a list of some of the most notable items in the class, from various games, and their interesting properties.

Potions

... of Healing (and Extra/Full Healing, Cure Light/Moderate/Serious Wounds, and so on)

Other than weapons, potions of healing may be the most common item among all roguelike games. While most roguelike characters heal quickly (usually returning to maximum hit points after at most a hundred turns of rest), the danger presented from facing multiple opponents at once, or surviving an encounter with a single powerful monster, sometimes necessitates a way to restore hits rapidly.

One of the most interesting gameplay choices in these games is the traditional max-HP-boosting trick of healing potions. If you drink one when you're at full health, many games will let the player push against the ceiling, giving him a tiny, permanent maximum HP increase. This seems like the better use of these potions at first, since the main method of gaining maximum hits in most games is gaining an experience level and those are rather harder to achieve, but the best move depends on your situation. Weaker healing potions are probably best quaffed for max health, especially later in the game, but the stronger ones can be so effective that they may come in handy when escaping from a superior foe, which the restrictive vision rules of Rogue make essential. Another obscure use of these potions is to instantly alleviate status effects like confusion and poisoning. Stronger types generally cure more types of these ailments. This use is of great importance in Nethack when facing certain rare, but very dangerous, Demogorgons situations.

One thing about healing potions is that giving the player an abundance of them can be less damaging to the design than you'd think. They require a turn to use, and a foe that really outclasses the player will probably put him right into trouble again with the next hit. Shiren the Wanderer has an item, the Chiropractic Jar, that instantly heals the player completely and restores most status ailments. These items have multiple charges and are not usually rare, and yet the game still has a reputation for lethality. This happens because the player must have both time to use the item, and the presence of mind to use it, and also because for their commonness they are still a limited resource, so the player tries to conserve uses. This often proves to be deadly.

... of Restore Ability
The only one of D&D's six attributes to make it into Rogue is strength, which influences bonus damage done to monsters. The game begins players with a score of 16, and it also tracks "maximum strength," which also starts at 16. There are monsters, traps and items in the game that can lower strength. All of these effects leave maximum strength alone. But unlike hit points, strength does not regenerate naturally over time. In Rogue, only the potion of restore ability, which resets strength to its maximum score, can undo damage done to it.

Like the danger of losing armor value, the danger of strength loss is mostly specific to a limited region of the dungeon, that which plays host to rattlesnakes, which by far cause most of its attribute damage. One consequence of Rogue's sight rules (only one space around the player is visible in corridors and dark rooms) is that there are certain times when it is impossible to avoid taking a hit from a monster, which means sometimes strength loss is unavoidable. This makes restore ability potions fairly important.

When I say "maximum" strength, what I mean is the player's current maximum capacity for it, which is considered to be its value when all attribute damage has been restored. Most other roguelikes provide more stats, with different functions, but they usually expand Rogue's ability restoration potions to work on all of them.

... of Gain Strength (and other stats, and Ability)
In Rogue, a potion of gain strength increases the player's strength score by one. If it was already equal to maximum, then both strength and maximum strength increase by a point. If the player has taken some strength damage though, then the result is that only one point is restored.

This means, if strength is later lowered, that drinking a restore ability potion will return strength to the new maximum. Having high strength is a subtle, yet significant, advantage, so it's fairly important to save these for when the player is at max strength.

The trick to these two items lies in the inescapably of strength loss. Most characters will take at least a point of strength damage during the game, and often more. Both types of potions are generated randomly; it is possible that none of one type will appear in the game. If your strength starts getting dangerously low and you haven't found a restore ability potion yet, is it a good idea to increase your damage done by one point by drinking a gain strength potion, or is it better to continue waiting, hoping to find a restorer to drink first? Keep in mind that the player doesn't even know which potion is which at first, and often one potion type, poison, will drain strength. At their best, roguelike games are full of these kinds of choices.

ADOM has probably the best-developed statistic system of the major roguelikes. Whereas most games satisfy themselves with, or something like, D&D's six stat system, ADOM has nine, and provides individual potions for improving all of them... and potions for temporarily boosting them, and potions solely for raising their maximum. (It also has the diabolical Potion of Exchange, that swaps them around. This can easily ruin your game if drank carelessly.) Additionally it has potions of Gain Attributes, which are more general but do not raise maximums. Of particularly awesome note: ADOM's system has no hard limit on how high stats can rise, although it becomes much tougher to increase them as they go up. Interested readers are directed to the Stats chapter of the ADOM Guidebook.

... of Gain Level
Another example of a difficult choice is deciding just when to drink a potion of gain level.

As is normal for role-playing games, each experience level requires a rapidly-increasing number of experience points to earn in order to achieve it. Some games, following from old-school D&D, even use a doubling progression. Harder monsters are worth more experience points, it is true, but in many roguelikes they don't quite keep pace with the higher point totals needed, meaning levels games come more and more slowly. Rogue, particularly, is infamous for monsters that generally get harder faster than the player gains ability. Rogue characters thus get put into ever increasing amounts of danger as they delve down, and every experience level counts.

As a consequence, the longer the player waits before drinking a potion of gain level, the more value he'll get from it. If it's used early, the experience points gained will be dwarfed by the amount received for killing even one monster. On the other hand, the longer you wait the less the portion of the game you'll have made use of it, and if you get killed the advantage is lost.

... of Poison (and Sickness)
This is an example of a bad item, one that has no good primary purpose. Nearly all roguelike items have a good secondary purpose; bad potions can be thrown at enemies for example. Even the worst item can be useful if a nymph happens to steal it instead of something better. But the "usual" method of using potions, drinking them, will cause you grief if you try it with poison.

Take note, poison is not, in itself, fatal. That is a no-no in games where the player is expected to identify things through use. If the player must rely on using unknown things, then none of those things can be immediately deadly! This doesn't mean using the item cannot be deadly if the player's state is bad (low on strength when drinking a potion of poison), or if used in a non-standard way (zapping one's self with a wand of death), or if a member of a very limited class of items (wearing Nethack's amulet of strangulation, and even that can often be survived if the player prays.) Items also cannot make the game as good as lost. Rogue's worst one-use item is the Potion of Blindness, a long-lasting potion that removes even the game's slight one-space vision range, but it does wear off after a few hundred turns at most.

... of (something) Detection
While not obviously useful to new players, detection means are potentially one of the most useful objects in roguelikes. Monster detection allows you to choose your fights, item detection enables you to direct your exploration, and map detection points out useful escape routes. Note that detection items are in a gray area between potions and scrolls; different games allocate this power to these classes differently. Rogue has types of both! Food detection is a scroll, while magic and monster detection are potions.

... of Confusion, Blindness, Paralysis
These items are bad when drank, but sometimes good if thrown at monsters. Saying "bad" is relative to the situation; in Rogue, a potion of blindness can be useful when entering the Medusa floors.

They primarily exist as an identification foil, to add danger to identifying things by use and to make random potion drinking in moments of danger an inviable strategy. One-use items are fairly easy to identify

... of Thirst Quenching (and Water, Holy Water and Unholy Water)
Each of Rogue's item classes has a do-nothing item, to throw off people who think all items must have some function. For scrolls it's blank paper, and for potions it's thirst quenching. The others are the wand of nothing and the ring of adornment. It is notable that Nethack still has all of these items, but with special uses for three of them.

Scrolls

... of Identify

The scroll of identify is, after healing, the most common of roguelike items. In many games they are also the most-often generated item.

Here is something I find very interesting. Scrolls of Identify are very common, but I am aware of no roguelike game that will purposely misidentify something. Nethack's cursed scrolls of Identify identify fewer items, not lie to the player about what things are. D&D has dangerous objects that purposely resemble useful things, and the diabolical potion of delusion that, depending on a group's play style, could cause the DM to lie to the player about what is happening to his character. Roguelike games, while tricky in the knowledge games they play, do not tend to go that far.

... of Enchant Weapon/Armor
These items are the scroll versions of the potion of Gain Strength. That potion increases the player's damage-dealing abillity by increasing his physical attack bonus. The scrolls increase weapon attack bonus and decrease enemy hitting chances, while the player is using a specific piece of equipment.

All of these items improve the player's state indefinitely. They do not expire naturally, but must be undone by enemy attack, unfortunate item use, or trap. That makes these items extremely useful. Although a single point of bonus is a rather subtle effect in a single encounter, over time the benefits are profound. If the player is lucky enough to find several of these the game will become much easier, maybe even too easy. Most games guard against this possibility by limiting how high strength can be raised, or how far an item can be enchanted. It is kind of a cheap way around the problem, since it means a whole class of item suddenly becomes useless just because the game designer thinks the player is getting too powerful, but it is frequently used.

A particular note... in Rogue, scrolls of Enchant Weapon are unusual in that they increase one of a weapons two pluses. That game distinguishes between pluses to-hit and to-damage, and the scroll decides randomly which of the two values is increased. Some Rogue variants split Enchant Weapon into two separate items. And some go the other way, and combine the Weapon and Armor scrolls into a single "Enchantment" scroll, which asks the player which item will be subject to the item's power upon reading.

In most roguelikes, these scrolls function immediately on a relevant item in use at the time. If no weapon or armor is in use, the scroll's effect is wasted. Nethack uses this as the basis of a subtle trap; one of its bad scrolls is that of Destroy Armor. If you're reading unknown scrolls, you might want to wear armor in order to take advantage of an unknown Enchant Armor scroll. But what if that scroll should be Destroy Armor instead? Another possible trap, used by other games, is the scroll that asks you for an item to operate on, but that doesn't tell you what for.

As an extra ability, these scrolls also lift curses from the item they operate on.

... of Vorpalize Weapon
What does it mean, to "vorpalize" something? No matter what one might have gleaned from its use in video gaming, vorpal is actually a nonsense word. It can be traced back to Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, where it is applied to a sword and can be assumed by context to mean powerful. Role-playing games have adopted it. although there is no consensus about what it should mean.

Rogue contains a scroll called Vorpalize Weapon. When read, it makes the player's weapon flash violently for a moment. It applies a pretty good enchantment to the weapon, and additionally chooses one of the monsters in the game to be the weapon's target foe. The next monster the player attacks of that type will die instantly. There is a drawback however. If the player tries to use a second Vorpalize Weapon scroll on the same weapon, it is destroyed!

The ideas here is to punish the player for being too greedy. Of course, the player doesn't know how greedy is too greedy until he loses his weapon. In practice, this becomes another of those little things players must learn as they play, another fact that must be acquired in order to eventually win. If this seems rather a harsh way of teaching the lesson... well, Rogue really isn't that long a game.

Nethack will destroy a weapon or a piece of armor if it is over-enchanted. When a weapon is enchanted beyond its safe limit, it vibrates warningly. A further enchantment has a very high (but not for certain) chance of destroying the weapon.

... of Confuse Monster
To a new player, this is one of the more enigmatic items in Rogue. Upon reading the only immediate effect is that the player's hands begin to glow red. This causes the next monster the player strikes to become confused for a short while. That is all. In principle this is a powerful item, although reading it in advance of combat usually creates a risk of it being wasted on a weak monster.

... of Scare Monster
One of the most mysterious items in the game if the player doesn't know its secret. It is also the only one that can be identified without picking it up. In fact, especially in Rogue, it is best not to pick it up until you've gotten at least some use out of it.

... of Genocide
The scroll of Genocide, often thought of as a Hack item, got its start in one of the later versions of Rogue. When read, it wipes out one entire type of monster from the game.

Items that powerful, in a good roguelike, will have a tradeoff, and in Rogue it is that other types of monsters become more common, to fill the generation hole left by the eliminated species. Plus, according to the Rogue Vede-Mecum at least, there is only one of these generated in a game, preventing the player from wiping out too many monsters.

... of Maintain Armor
This scroll, which prevents armor pluses from being reduced, is one of the most useful items in the game. Seriously, it is almost overpowered! It is a late addition to Rogue's item list, appearing in V5, and it is one of the rarest items. There is a good reason that many later roguelikes do not include it.

Armor can be harmed both from enemy attack (by Rust Monsters or Aquators, depending on the version of Rogue) and from traps. One of the many little devious facts about Rogue is that even permanent advantages can usually be undone due to unwise play, or even bad luck. Getting your strength up can be undone from a single unlucky encounter with a Rattlesnake, for example. The balance between the possibility of the player getting super strong armor, from finding a suit of plate mail and a number of Enchant Armor scrolls, is that Aquators will easily weaken armor, and rust traps become progressively more common in the deeper dungeon.

These armor ruiners can be overcome by working on building an emergency set of armor (which is balanced due to the fact that it costs two turns to switch to it, and the possibility of putting in cursed armor which cannot be removed easily), by using unrustable leather armor (balanced by its being the weakest in the game), putting on a ring of Maintain Armor (balanced by increased food consumption), and reading a scroll of Maintain Armor, which... has no drawbacks.

It has no drawbacks! Except perhaps due to it only affecting a single suit, which is nowhere near as bad a drawback as the other things. If you put this on plate mail, you have just made one of the few unequivicably good decisions you can make in Rogue.

Nethack's analogue for this is reading a scroll of Enchant Armor while confused, which provides rustproofing, and is similarly powerful (although possible to remove in rare cases). Shiren has Plating scrolls, the effect of which can be removed by a certain monster (which nearly never happens). Both are, in my opinion, subtle failures of design.

Thanks to Keith Burgun for the artwork!

Posted by John Harris at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

[The Odd Gentlemen, the developers of time-twistin' XBLA platformer The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, talk to Game Developer and Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield on inspiration, the increasing artistic and commercial success of indie games, and just who their audience might really be.]

Next year, The Odd Gentlemen will release its debut game, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, on Xbox Live Arcade. To be published by 2K Games, it's an indie title that has its roots in the same University of Southern California interactive media program that birthed thatgamecompany, developers of flOw and Flower.

The pie-collecting puzzler's mechanics hinge significantly on a twist: players may record moves and then set a clone to consistently repeat that action, a new take on time-bending gameplay in a climate very favorable to it.

Here, co-founders Paul Bellezza (producer) and Matt Korba (creative director and lead designer) talk to us about inspiration, the increasing artistic and commercial success of indie games, and just who their audience might really be -- among other topics.

Why do you think there's been so much interest and use of time mechanics recently?

PB: I think there's just a time zeitgeist going on in the indie community. When we started this game, there was really nothing out. There was Prince of Persia and there's Blinx. And over the last few years, we've seen this other stuff come out and try different things in their own different way.

I think there are just cycles that everyone goes through. People realize, "Oh, we have the technology now to record these things and play them off in different way, and it's not too complex," so everyone plays with that. And I think with a lot of people working in Flash and stuff like that, it's pretty easy to sort of grab a concept, prototype it out, and put it on the web.

I think there's going to be whatever the next big thing is, and once people realize that's popular, everyone's going to want to try to jump in there and shape it their own way, too. It's been an interesting road watching all these time games come out and looking at our game and being like, "Okay, well I still think this is very different and moving in a different way." So, overall, it's been a good thing. But yeah, it's kind of crazy.

With this kind of time mechanic, how well can you actually control the experience and what people are going to do?

MK: It's extremely hard. If you imagine trying to design a level where not only can the user clone themselves as many times as they want and go wherever they want, it's very hard to think about things seven steps in advance. Most players only think of things one step ahead.

We thought about it like chess. Most players, they can think one step ahead, so we designed the game to be like that, but you can do eight steps ahead and all that stuff.

We got really good about thinking like, "Well, if someone does this, then this happens, then this happens, then this happens..."

It's extremely challenging to make it feel challenging and rewarding when the player has all these options and can do all these things, then still try to rein that in and make it a playground experience -- but still a challenging sort of puzzle. Our biggest breakthrough was when we came up with the ideas of the puzzles that didn't have a really set solution. That was the coolest part for us, seeing all these people do it in a different way.

Did you find yourself trying to or trying not to create puzzles that required eight steps?

MK: No. There are no puzzles in the game that should require more than one step. If you can think more than one step ahead, that only helps you out, but if you can't, we very much designed it to give the player a feeling that they are doing things eight steps ahead or whatever -- when really you would only have to take a step ahead.

Flash has been evolving into 3D and in other ways. Do you see that in any way necessary or particularly interesting? It's been a really good prototyping tool in 2D, but I don't know if 3D has quite the same capability.

MK: It really depends on how accessible the 3D is. I think a lot of the reason you see these cool innovative games in a 2D form is not necessarily -- although in some cases it might be -- because people wanted to make a platformer. It's just if you don't have an engineering team, the easiest thing to do is take a really cool idea and mechanic and put it on a platformer.

We started out with Winterbottom like that, but then we ended up staying like that because there were just a lot of things that just wouldn't work in 3D. There were a lot of concepts about actually watching things loop and remember what they do, and in 3D space, it's a lot harder to even recognize your motion anymore.

More indie games are coming out in the commercial sphere and making an impression. Why do you think that is -- both from the creation side and also from the consumer acceptance side?

MK: I think people are sick of space marines. I think that we've had a long time of this whole like -- and it's still happening -- "Let's get to photoreal. Let's push the photoreal thing." Starting with the PlayStation 1, we've had this huge move away from the cooler Genesis, small-man teams, "Let's do all this crazy stuff", to "Let's make real. People are paying for technology."

I think people are just ready for a change. From the consumer point, I think that they've played a lot of shooters recently, a lot of action games. They're really just ready for something new. I think the IGF two years ago... you started seeing these crazy things coming out, and getting a lot of press, and getting all this attention. I think it's just the right time for a lot of this stuff to happen.

From a developer's side, I think people just have ideas, and we can pull them off now. Because of Xbox Live, because of these channels, they're not a huge risk. We can create these things and make a living and play around with the stuff that we, as artists, want to play around with. I think also from the publisher's standpoint, now with these channels, it's commercially viable.

You can test out an IP there, right? You can grow it into that big tech monster $30 million game, but if it doesn't work on the small scale, it won't work on a big scale. Maybe that's how they're looking at it -- I don't know. I think that the beauty of online distribution is you don't have to pay all the costs of goods anymore. You don’t have to pay to print all these CDs. It really just helps us all out. The stars are sort of aligned, I think.

MK: I think really because of digital distribution and just because of better tools that are available... Like, a lot of people make a lot of games in Game Maker now. Before, there weren't any engines... Especially [developers] like the TIGSource community. Kids couldn't just make a game. Now, there are a lot of tools that let people do that, so people can get really creative. I think over the past couple of years, you see these developers in the online space, just teaching themselves how to code and putting as much shit out there.

Of course, in doing that, the only way you're going to get better at something is doing it over and over again. People have been able to actually take ideas and actually execute them and make something. Because of that and digital distribution, you're going to see a lot more crazy shit. People want it. We all want it. We're all bored as shit with all the major games for the most part. So, it's a great time right now.

I recently spoke to Spelunky creator Derek Yu about game vignettes that are being made now that are just going for a certain emotional tone. If you've got one thing to say, you can actually say it in a five to ten minute game.

MK: That's the other thing that I'm sort of just remembering now. People are tired of 80-hour games. The people like us, like Paul, myself, and everybody else, we grew up playing games but we don't have time to play 80-hour games anymore. So, I think the other thing about these indie experiences and these vignettes is you get something that's really good and really satisfying in a short amount of time. That's really all we have time for.

If we play like the 80-hour epic game, maybe we get a few levels into it or a few hours into it, and then we're done. But these shorter games or these little experiences, that's great. I can sit down, play one in a night, and then be done with it and still be thinking about it the next day or whatever.

PB: It's like they get really impactful in 10 seconds, whereas you might play a Final Fantasy game, and you don't give a shit until the eighth hour mark. That's when it really connects to you. Who needs that? Exactly like you said, you can make a poignant, small experience that gets to the core of what you want to feel and experience it. It's wonderful.

Before, it's like you were willing to give that investment because there weren't other places to go where you could get that kind of stuff. Every game was like that. "Oh, it takes about three or four hours to get into it. You get through the tutorial, and you're fine." Fuck that. You can get the games that hit you in the head with it the minute you turn it on. That's awesome.

It's been interesting watching people actually play your game because it's attracting such a diverse audience. With these kinds of distribution platforms, you can actually introduce new people to your ideas.

MK: That's the thing, too. I think a lot of these people would really love these games and like these games. They just need to be exposed to them. We have all these stereotypes like, "Oh, fraternity brothers. Madden. Guitar Hero. That's all they care about." But really, is that all they care about or is that all they've been exposed to?

I know when I was teaching a game design course to high school kids from around the country at USC, and this was maybe two or three years ago, those kids hadn't even heard about Kotaku yet. And we do a lot of assuming that all these people get their news like we do, that they go online and read this thing, but I think there are a lot of kids that still just go to Wal-Mart and pick out their games. So, it's like, "Are they really like the stereotype or do they just need to be exposed to something different?"

How was the transition from student game to getting to where you can sell it as a commercial product?

MK: We got pretty lucky. We had the game at IGF and did very well. We went on to do all the festivals, Indiecade, Wired's NextFest, Tokyo Game Show. Basically, if there was a festival that year, we submitted and got in. We ended up with a lot of eyeballs on us.

We got a lot of pitches from a lot of different publishers. We went around and pretty much met with everybody. Everybody loved the game and had their own plans for what they wanted to do with it, but we ended up going with 2K because they really seemed like they got it. It was like, "Yeah, we need to just set these guys up and leave them alone." They knew that the best work would come out of "seeing if they were just able to do the stuff that they care about the most".

For someone to understand that on the publisher side was a big deal. So, we worked out something with them. We got our company started. Basically, right after graduating, we had a little bit of time, and then we went from graduating and working on the game in the basement to having our own company and working with employees. That was...

PB: [laughs] A good interesting learning experience together. We had to set that all up. It was pretty fucking stressful.

MK: There was a lot of stuff that transfers from "Hey, we made this game" as students, to "Hey, we want to keep that closer." There a lot of stuff that's just totally different. It's not cool anymore to work on the game at three in the morning and sleep until the next day and wake up whenever you want.

When you have people that you have to work with on a schedule, you all need to communicate and have set hours. It was a huge adjustment period, taking the stuff that worked really well in a student environment and realizing, "Hey, that's not really valid anymore. This is another beast altogether."

What did you do about a business guy?

MK: Paul and I had to learn.

PB: Yeah, basically a lot of Wikipedia. A lot of talking to people who started their own business. A lot of advice and a lot of winging it.

MK: Meetings with [thatgamecompany's] Kellee [Santiago].

PB: Yeah, we met with Kellee a lot. Actually, she was really a good sounding board for us.

MK: Pretty much anybody that we could talk to, we would talk to. The thing is it's kind of a weird thing because there's not that many people in the same situation going from school... There are a handful of people. We definitely talked to those people that were in the same boat.

We tried to just get advice from as many people as we could. We did a lot of reading. We made a lot of mistakes. The best way to learn is just to do it. So, we were just doing it, and we were constantly making mistakes and trying to fix them. And frantically trying to get everything together for our opening day of the company was really just... Just simple things like trying to open a company bank account. You just don't think about what the means exactly. And insurance, and all that kind of stuff.

Does it take time away from doing the things that are more creative?

PB: Always. You have no free time because when you're not doing your critical path and working on the game, it's juggling all the other stuff. I'll come in and 7:30, and I'll spend an hour and a half doing just basic business shit, like making sure payroll [is sorted out] and make sure the budget is actually balanced, to make sure we survive.

If I don't spend that time doing it, it gets lost behind and it gets super, super stressful. I had to get really disciplined, just making it happen. If it gets neglected, it's really hurtful, so it just has to be done.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['The Magic Resolution' is a bi-weekly GameSetWatch column by UK-based writer Lewis Denby, examining all facets of the experience of playing video games. This week, Lewis looks to another writer to showcase just how thought-provoking even mainstream games have become. Enter Robin Burkinshaw's 'Alice and Kev'...]

When I started my column earlier in the year, I had a solid idea of the sort of thing I wanted to write about. So often is the gaming press focused on picking apart and observing the mechanical specifics of a product that, frequently, the very nature of the experience gets lost in communication. And that's a shame because, at their very core, video games are about giving in to infinite possibilities, letting go and allowing yourself the pleasure of intense human reaction.

I assumed I'd be talking about plenty of games. I didn't expect to be talking in any great length about a piece of writing about games. But Robin Burkinshaw's Alice and Kev is one of the few accounts of a gaming experience that wholly captures that magic, and demonstrates just how intense people's reactions to video games can be.

Alice and Kev is Burkinshaw's online diary of his time playing The Sims 3, during which he guided a homeless man and his daughter through the various stages of their lives. It's at once poignant, hilarious and disturbing, and it just recently finished.

It was an ambitious project for Burkinshaw, who originally updated the blog daily but, by the end, simply couldn't keep up that momentum. Still, he didn't need to. By that point, the story already contained a vast number of chapters, and new readers were arriving every day.

"While there are quite a few gaming diaries like this about people's experiences playing a game, I think the reason this one has spread so widely is chiefly down to its subject matter," says Burkinshaw. "The Sims 3 is the only big budget game that is all about people and relationships, rather than some kind of fantasy or science fiction. It's the only game I can think of where its happenings are recognisable to just about anyone."

What's most striking about Alice and Kev is the humanity displayed by the pair of digital creations. The Sims 3 allows players to define various traits in their characters, and guide them to various degrees as they plod along with their lives, however mundane or exciting they might be.

Alice and Kev was indeed guided to some extent. But its brilliance emerges during those times when Burkinshaw let go of the controls somewhat, and allowed the pair's relationships to develop of their own accord, based on the character traits he had assigned at the start of the game.

"I was playing the game, but not the obsessive levels of efficiency I might do normally," says Burkinshaw. "I was trying to help and guide them, but I also wanted to see the effect of the personality traits I chose for them. So if they started to do something on their own, I would let them finish, even if I was about to command them to do something else. Sometimes I would guide them towards a situation, then let them take care of the details. Other times, they would set something in motion, then I would start giving commands to carry things on along the same lines."

Feeling Charitable

Perhaps the most remarkable point in the story sees a teenage Alice, who for the first time in her life has a few meagre coins thanks to a dismal part-time job, begins selflessly donating her wage to charity. On the Alice and Kev blog, Burkinshaw discussed how this development - one orchestrated by the character herself - forced him to re-assess his own, real-world actions.

"I said that seeing Alice give away everything when she had nothing made me examine my own life, and that's true," he says, looking back. "I can know the underlying logic that led to the game making her wish to give to charity, but seeing the little character I have been caring for give the appearance of acting so selflessly is still enough to make me stop and think about how I'm using my own life."

Indeed, it's moments like this that show games like The Sims 3 in a whole new light. No longer are they merely pieces of entertainment, driven by the masses' obsession with reality television and playing God. They are, potentially, windows into our own psyche: important creations that lead us to question our own ethics and encourage deep, sensitive thought.

Burkinshaw even went as far as using the blog to encourage readers to make charitable donations.

Though reluctant to speculate too heavily on the effects that may have had, his statistics show an encouraging trend. "I know from my web stats page that about fifteen thousand people clicked on the link to the 'charities' page on the blog. I know that when I put the link to the donation page for the 'Homeless Truths' radio station run by homeless people, there were over a hundred pounds of donations made over the next few hours.

"The blog wasn't begun as a project to raise awareness of homelessness, but I will be very glad if it has that effect. It's certainly made a difference for me, at the very least.

"I have learned a lot about homelessness since starting this, from the comments on the blog, from people that have emailed me, and from the charities that have contacted me. I've learned the places where the lives of Alice and Kev hit upon things that are true, but also the perhaps more depressing instances where things would probably have been worse for them in the real world."

Gaming Growth

Aside from such fantastic, unexpected results, the passion with which readers have followed and responded to the Alice and Kev blog is simply astounding. A number of readers initially assumed the story to be a comic piece, but quickly, it became apparent that Burkinshaw was telling an ultimately serious story. It has its gloriously amusing moments, but at heart, this is a tragic tale.

One reader, just a day into the story, commented: "This is already soul-wrenching."

Towards the end, after a particularly moving incident, another reader claimed to be "honestly upset" by the story's latest development.

"I can’t believe it," they added.

By this point, an abundance of readers from around the globe were analysing the characters of Alice and Kev, and discussing the reasons why their lives may have turned out this way.

Video games have grown to astonishing degrees since their inception decades ago. A medium that started out as fun, few-minute diversion has sprinted through a variety of guises, and today, the range of titles that offer something more than pure entertainment is staggering.

The general gaming public still tend to flock towards the epic blockbusters, the games that offer spectacular action sequences and brutal gunplay, or those that stick more rigidly to gaming's initial formula. Many assume that, for a deeper playing experience, it's worth looking exclusively to the independent studios who can express themselves without worrying about making several million dollars in return.

But the awesome popularity of Alice and Kev, the stories Burkinshaw managed to tell, and the ways in which The Sims 3 adapted so fantastically to his thought-provoking storytelling speak wonders. This is a hugely commercial game, the latest in the third best selling interactive franchise of all time. That such a popular piece of entertainment, not usually considered as a deep and meaningful storytelling device, can still influence and affect people so profoundly - while still entertaining millions on a more typical basis - is a truly wonderful thing.

The Sims 3 was his canvas. But however large a role the game itself played, and whatever his original intentions, Robin Burkinshaw should be exceptionally proud of his work.

[Lewis Denby is editor of Resolution Magazine and general freelance busybody for anyone that'll have him. Wander over to his website for a blog, more information and contact details.]

Posted by Lewis Denby at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days, as well as any notable features on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The goodies in this edition include the long-awaited release of Amanita Design's award-winning adventure game, a new puzzler from prolific Flash game developer Skipmore, an 'asynchronously multiplayer' game (as the creator of the program calls it), a low-res remake of a seizure-rific arena shooter, and the freeware remake of an old platformer from the early '80s.

Game Pick: 'Machinarium' (Amanita Design, commercial indie - demo available)
"The setting: a world full of robots - some wise, some musical, some addicted to oil. Our hero: The underdog, kicked out of his home town by bullies, his girlfriend kidnapped. The plan: Save the town, rescue the girlfriend, have fun doing so. Machinarium is an adventure puzzle outing which is insanely beautiful. There's also plenty of humour abound, clever puzzles to decipher and situations to solve. This is a world you're going to want to visit."

Game Pick: 'Mamono Slayer' (Skipmore, browser)
"Though the hero in Skipmore's latest effort may wield a sword, the game is essentially a collection of lock and key puzzles designed to prevent the player from finding the legendary blade that will save the kingdom. The act of attacking an enemy only involves pointing your weapon at them as they walk towards the knight. Mamono Slayer is a short game that shouldn't take longer than ten or fifteen minutes to play from start to end."

Game Pick: 'Hell Is Other People' (George Buckenham, browser)
"It has an awesome name. It is an awesome concept. Hell Is Other People is an 'asynchronously multiplayer' according to creator George Buckenham. The path that each player takes is recorded and future players are then pitted against their recordings. This means that no two games are the same. It means you are technically playing against humans - albeit humans who aren't actually aiming at you. It's a beautiful idea which starts off pretty easy and soon develops into a full-on war."

Game Pick: 'Mouse No. Probably A Rat' (David Scatliffe, freeware)
"Mouse No. Probably a Rat is a remake of Oddbob's Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!, featuring similar squid controls and the same spread shot used to destroy the alien robots mushrooming out of everywhere. There are less epilepsy-inducing effects in David's creation, but it is just as difficult to survive for an extended period of time as some enemies will pursuit you relentlessly around the screen while others will continously spam the arena with bullets until they are obliterated by your patented electro beam."

Game Pick: 'Miner 2049er Again' (Danny Boyd, freeware)
"Miner 2049er Again is a remake of an old classic, where you play as a miner who has to clean up all the spilled chemicals on the floors of a mining area by simply walking over them. The game was never designed to be easy to play - even falls from moderate heights can hurt, but you must persist or the cave will never be safe for other miners to work in again.."

Posted by timw at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paramount Digital Entertainment revealed another Stephen King game, Pet Sematary for iPhone/iPod touch, though this is based more on the 1989 film starring Dale Midkiff and Tasha Yar than the horror novel. I wonder what the reasoning was behind developing a mobile game for a 20-year-old movie that hardly anyone ever thinks about except for when TNT/Sci-Fi/Chiller airs it to fill up an afternoon block?

In the game's 15 stages, undead birds, cats, dogs, and humans are roaming your neighborhood, terrorizing your neighbors. Your off-screen character is perched on a roof with a rifle, picking off the zombie-fied pets with each tap on the handset. It looks like you'll have other weapons at your disposal, like a machine gun, too.

Unlike the planned The Dark Tower project, Pet Sematary is available now through the App Store for $.99. You can see more screenshots from the game below.

[Via @fort90]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival are reminding entrants that there's one week left before the Nov. 1st main deadline, revealing over 100 entries and new specifics on the Nuovo prize.

Entries to the 12th Annual IGF's Main Competition are due by 11.59pm PST on November 1st, with submissions accepted for easy digital submission from game creators worldwide, in multiple PC, computer and console formats.

Games selected as finalists for the world's leading independent games competition will be available in playable form on the GDC 2010 show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010.

As well as the Main Competition entry deadline on the 1st, organizers are reminding that games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by November 15th, 2009, and entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

Over 100 games have already been submitted across all IGF 2010 competitions, and since the vast majority of Independent Games Festival submissions tend to occur at the last minute, organizers are expecting a record amount of entries this year.

To ensure the highest-quality judging, over 140 leading game industry figures -- from 2D Boy's Ron Carmel through Crayon Physics' Petri Purho and beyond -- have been recruited. In addition, IGF 2010 Main Competition entrants are guaranteed written, anonymized judge feedback -- an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the Festival.

Organizers are also revealing new details on the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which is intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games." The Nuovo Award, which was won by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles.

For IGF 2010, the Main Competition judges will recommend games to be considered in a shortlist for this award. But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures -- to be announced in the near future -- will decide the finalists and winner for the Nuovo Award in juried form, mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards and both award shows are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference. GDC 2010 also includes the 2010 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fourth year, and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games world.

Sponsors so far confirmed for the 2010 Independent Games Festival include Official Download Partner Direct2Drive, Gold Sponsor Unity, and Platinum Student Showcase sponsor DigiPen Institute Of Technology. For a complete list of Independent Games Festival 2010 event information, please visit the official IGF website.

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fairview Press and author Steve Deger recognize that the rambunctious, video game-obsessed boys of today pay little mind to their parents, but maybe they'll accept guidance from a ninja? (On a side note, since when were ninjas blonde, other than Michael Dudikoff and Snake Eyes?)

Positioned as an ideal gift for that brat in your life, The Boy's Book of Positive Quotations is part graphic novel, part quote anthology with "more than 1,000 ninja tips and tricks from the real-life heroes boys know and respect," with advice from rock stars, BMX'ers, surfers, skateboarders, tech gurus, graphic novelists, and ultimate fighters.

The reason I wanted to post about this book, though, is that two-second snippet of a made up fighting game in the above trailer, 15 seconds in.. I would totally play that game!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Bungie, Harmonix and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Harmonix Music Systems: Senior Technical Artist
"Harmonix is seeking a Senior Technical Artist to research and develop techniques that will increase the efficiency of our artists and allow us to continually advance the bold artistic style of our games. Located in Cambridge, MA, Harmonix is the developer of award-winning and widely-acclaimed music and rhythm games like the recently-released The Beatles: Rock Band."

Bungie: Senior Network Engineer
"Bungie requires the skills and services of a ruthlessly competent Senior Network Engineer to help us build on our already-dizzying heights of netcode excellence. Do you obsess over the number of bits required to replicate a unit vector?... Have you ever estimated the upstream and downstream bandwidth requirements for a socket into the Matrix? Bring us your brilliance, bring us your fire! Together we will conquer the speed of light and distill order from chaos."

Kaos Studios: Environment Art Supervisor
"We are seeking an experienced Environment Art Supervisor with the skills and passion to drive the designing, organization, modeling, texturing, dressing and lighting of realistically-grounded game worlds. Candidates should have a very strong sense of visual design and an amazing attention to detail. Candidates should be able to build and light environments from scratch by relying on a combination of photo-reference and concept art."

NCsoft: Console Programmer
"Seeking a new opportunity? We are currently hiring top talent for a soon to be announced project based on a successful Activision owned IP. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, including royalty plan and relocation assistance."

ZeniMax Media: UI/Scripting Programmer
Want to work on the next great MMO? We need you! We've assembled a great team of dedicated smart game developers, but are still looking for some great talent. ZeniMax Online Studios is part of ZeniMax Media, renowned developer and publisher of interactive entertainment products. Together our divisions and studios have created world-renowned games such as Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, DOOM, QUAKE, and Wolfenstein."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[In his latest in the 'Sound Current' series written specially for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska catches up with the Rockman chiptune soundtrack producer and some of the remixers, revealing the official Capcom project to remix classic Mega Man tunes.]

Last year at the Tokyo Game Show, three musicians joined us for a Rockman 9 Arrange Soundtrack interview. This time the trio return to introduce their latest musical offering from the Mega Man series, new to store shelves in Japan.

Chiptuned Rockman is a compilation of twenty tracks remixing music from the game franchise in the style of 8-bit chip music. Inti Creates sound director Ippo Yamada explains arriving at the idea of Chiptuned Rockman with producer Hally.

He is joined by Ryo Kawakami, whose music for Mega Man 9 includes the Magma Man and Plug Man stage themes. Mega Man & Bass co-composer Akari Kaida also returns, having arranged music from the Super Famicom game for the chip music compilation.

Two additional members of the team of twenty artists also offer their throughts on contributing to the album. Hiroki Isogai is an in-house composer at Inti Creates, responsible for Mega Man 9's Jewel Man theme. Cave shooter composer Manabu Namiki has remixed music from Mega Man: The Wily Wars for "Chiptuned."

The CD features both a cross-section of 16-bit plus game tracks given retro revisions, as well as classic NES themes treated to brand new improvisatory riffs. In this group chat, several of the arrangers offer a sense of how the compilation came about and how it intends to bridge the gap between the oftentimes divided worlds of contemporary console gaming and chip music.

Yamada-san, thank you for joining us here today. You have a brand-new CD out. Could you tell us about what went into the creation of Chiptuned Rockman?

Ippo Yamada, sound director of Inti Creates: We’ve taken classic Mega Man game themes and fully remixed them in a chip music style, collected together in a compilation album. Twenty artists are participating this time, resulting in a really colorful overall presentation.

The sound creators include Manabu Namiki, Nobuyuki Shioda, Mega Man 1’s Manami Matsumae, and also Inti Creates musicians. There are also a host of chiptune artists whose arrangements are on the album. They include Virt, Chibi-Tech, Goto80, also Japanese artists Dong, USK, naruto and K->.

In a previous chip music interview, Kuske of Kplecraft, who is featured on this compilation, stated that videogame and chiptune enthusiasts often don't mix. Was there anyone who helped envision the concept for this album, which seems to cater to both these communities?

IY: Yes, in fact there’s someone who specializes in this category of music, who’s called Hally. He’s serving as producer on this album, and he’s a pretty famous chiptune artist. He was like, “Chiptunes and Mega Man, seems like a natural combination, don’t you think?” It appeared to be the basis for a collaboration. With the Tokyo Game Show coming up, it looked like there was the chance to surprise everyone with this Mega Man chiptune album.

Ippo Yamada introduces Chiptuned Rockman

How do you find the process of creating old school game music personally, such as in the making of Mega Man 9?

IY: Well, I’ve been working on game soundtracks for some time, since late in the days of the NES. You could say I don’t suffer any kind of allergic reactions to chip music. In fact, it was great fun working on Mega Man 9. I felt I wanted to create more music just like this, but unfortunately I only ended up writing one track. That’s just a consequence of being pressed for time.

It’s definitely a fun genre. The common conception in terms of chip music is that it’s limited in its expressive capacities, but I think that if you listen to this album you might be surprised by what’s in store for you. Thought it’s NES music, it’s tremendously expressive.

Here you’re working with a number of musicians from outside Japan. How did these collaborations come about?

IY: Hally was able to introduce me to people from the United States and Sweden, and they turned out to write really great music. Even though they were all really busy, they managed to find time to participate. Virt in particular had a lot going on. We were worried that we wouldn’t make the deadline, so he ended up having to pull a few all-nighters.

Namiki-san, could you tell us a little about your approach to your track on the compilation, "Megawater_S Stage, WILY TOWER 4 (Area-2A03 Navy mix)?"

Manabu Namiki: I observed that several of the other tracks were going for an aggressive, loud sound, so I decided on something a little different. I tried to make mine simple and straightforward. It has a modest sound, but very true to the atmosphere of NES games. Also, I retained the melody from the background music of the Sega Genesis game. The melody is just about entirely unchanged.

Manabu Namiki at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show

IY: I've spoken a little bit about Chiptuned Rockman, so now I would like to introduce a few of the arrangers. Could you tell us which song you chose to arrange?

Hiroki Isogai, Inti Creates composer: I chose “Ground Man” from Mega Man & Bass. I decided to stretch the rules of the NES sound card, adding sound channels to the track beyond the actual capabilities of the hardware. At its most complex, there are about 15 sound channels present.

Ryo Kawakami, Inti Creates composer: It would take 3.8 NES consoles to reproduce that sound!

HI: I guess that’s true. From the start I was working in MML, and I think that took up half my time. That was the most difficult part overall. I would be interested in making this kind of music in the future, but I'd need to search out a more efficient method.

IY: You weren’t aware that it was Kaida-san responsible for the original composition, were you?

HI: Yes, but you know my instincts told me to choose the track. Kaida-san remixed my “Jewel Man” theme last time, on the previous arrange album.

IY: You decided to return the favor.

Akari Kaida: I’m flattered.

IY: Kaida-san, your track is also from Mega Man & Bass?

AK: I arranged [Naoshi] Mizuta’s opening stage music theme. Among those who have played Mega Man & Bass, everyone’s experienced the opening stage. It seemed to me like the most accessible choice. The compositions from the game and the chord progressions have such a colorful style and appropriate use of tension, I wanted to preserve that essence.

Akari Kaida at TGS

IY: Is the track made up of three waveforms and one noise?

AK: I had to deviate from the standard form a bit.

IY: When you follow the NES sound card specifications it can be difficult to get a feel for the chords. That’s where you’re forced to get creative. Of course, the Super Nintendo has more sound channels to work with, so how do you convey the same melody on the NES?

AK: What gave me trouble working in the NES specs and what led me to customize my arrangement a bit is that you have to make do with a bass sound with a velocity of 127. The PSG sound which is usually used for bass is either on or off, so without delay effects you’re kind of stuck. Some people are very sensitive about authenticity when it comes to chip music, and I was thinking about this while working on the song. I’m certainly mindful of these concerns.

IY: I think above all the point is to preserve the atmosphere of the NES. We’ve each arrived at our own distinctive interpretations. For instance, Kawakami-kun has arranged a song from Mega Man 4.

RK: That’s right. Wily Stage 2.

IY: I get the sense that this is a song with a lot of fans.

RK: Yes, I’m a fan of the song myself. I’ve spoken with [character designer Hitoshi] Ariga, who also shares an appreciation for it. Based on this project’s theme of arranging 8-bit songs once again in the style of chip music, I spent awhile mulling over the possibilities. I observed that others were being very creative with their treatment of retro sound effects, so to be different I wanted to focus on the element of composition.

While the original melody can very distinctly be made out on the arranged track, it has the image of being a variation on the original. I imagined how this song could transform in shape and return to its previous form in a style modeled after formal musical structure. You might be able to tell I like irregularity. (It’s in the 7/8 time signature.) Purists, please find it in your hearts to forgive me.

IY: I get the sense that this remix is firmly in the Kawakami style. It starts just the way you seem to like, with a strong melody line and irregular time signature. It ends with something I felt wasn’t necessary, but you insisted on a final recap of the strong melody line. Did you have this song in mind from the start?

RK: Yes, right off the bat. The song has a lot of strong points. Phrases with distinctive characteristics are very useful when making arrangements.

Inti Creates composers Ryo Kawakami and Hiroki Isogai

IY: The phrases have personality, don’t they? That’s a lifesaver when you’re remixing a song. You can go off and explore, knowing there’s a strong foundation to return to. Did you come across any obstacles in writing this arrangement?

RK: I’d say it was a bit tough making progress at the very start. In terms of the constituent components of the music track, it’s got two square waves, a triangle wave and noise, using DPCM. Though these actually conform to the 8-bit specifications, my goal was for it to sound a little as if I were breaking the rules. That was the concept behind the track.

IY: This time Kawakami worked on the post-production, single-handedly doing all the mastering on the album. Was it tough being handed all those responsibilities?

RK: Yes, in addition to arranging a track, it was a lot to take on. I received some great advice from Hally, which was very helpful, because there are so many kinds of techniques employed by the various artists on the disc. The mastering is a tad chiptune-centered, but after all that's in line with the concept for the album.

Would you have any concluding remarks about to close this year’s discussion on the music of Mega Man?

AK: On this chiptune compilation album are several Mega Man games I’ve never played. Perhaps you have no experience with Mega Man & Bass. Here is a chance to experience the music from this game and others, reinterpreted in an 8-bit style. Those who haven’t had much exposure to chiptunes, please give it a try and see how it makes you feel.

RK: I think this is a new kind of album, and an original approach to remixing videogame music.

HI: It’s really good, so please give it a listen.

Yamada-san, any message for listeners overseas?

IY: There’s a huge Mega Man fanbase outside Japan. For those who have kept up with the music of the series, I hope you will seek out this album.

Ippo Yamada interviews Chiptuned Rockman participants

[(c)CAPCOM CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This article is available in Japanese in video form (Yamada, Group). Samples of the album are online on the official website. Chiptuned Rockman can be imported from Amazon.co.jp. Images courtesy of Capcom. Translation by Yoshi Miyamoto. Photos by Jeriaska]

Posted by jeriaska at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have a new desktop background thanks to Capybara Games artist Vic Nguyen. The Critter Crunch developer posted this new Autumn wallpaper (which doubles as the company's site background) on its website yesterday for fans to download. The pixelart is closer to the sprites from Critter Crunch's mobile edition than the high definition graphics in the PS3 release, which is just fine with me.

If you haven't grabbed Critter Crunch from PSN, by the way -- and I suspect may of you haven't -- you really should! It's a beautiful puzzler with hand-animated creatures and gorgeous backdrops (Brandon Boyer recently likened the scenes to "Ghibli barfing rainbows"), and it's only $6.99.

Capybara actually put out a free Critter Crunch demo that you can download from PSN. You can also watch a trailer for the game past the break:

[Via brandonnn]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuna Technologies' (Cletus Clay) Andrew Crawshaw created a line of sketchbooks geared toward developers who like to quickly draw their portable game ideas, cutscenes, level layouts, title screens, and user interfaces before creating digital mock-ups or prototypes. Each sketchbook includes full system templates and exact-size screen boxes for the Nintendo DSi, iPhone, or PSPgo. Many of the screens have gridded layouts and room for storyboard ideas.

"As a videogame artist and designer, I often find myself sketching out ideas for games; what a game could or should look like, what should be on the screen, how big everything should be, how one menu screen should transition into another… anything and everything," explains Crawshaw. "It occurred to me that having a ready-made template would speed things up. I could concentrate on being creative, knowing that my ideas were being drawn at the correct size and resolution."

"So for a number of years I’ve put together templates for games devices and their screens, printed them out, and started scribbling away. Which is great, but eventually you lose track of them all. You doodle an idea one day, and then before you know it, it’s lost under a mountain of other paperwork. What I really needed was one place where all my ideas about games for specific devices were kept together in one handy place. And that’s why I designed these sketchbooks."

The sketchbooks run from £8.25 to £9.50 ($13.50 to $15.56), and are available to purchase through self-publishing site/retailer Lulu.com. You can see photos from inside the products below:

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sega can add one more feature to its list of things it does that Nintendon't: ushering you closer toward lung cancer (that's right, I'm one of those jerks that's judging you for smoking).

Banpresto, the same company that brought you the excellent Pac-Man series of lighters, revealed two new Zippo designs fashioned after its Genesis/Mega Drive and Saturn consoles. While these hardware modifications and miniaturizations render the systems incompatible with cartridges and discs, they now accept cigarette-based media.

That cool (or nerdy, depending on which crowd you ask) factor comes at a cost, though -- a ¥10,500 cost to be exact ($114). That's the price of a later day Genesis, as Andriasang points out, and you don't even get a Sonic the Hedgehog game as a pack-in.

Expect these to hit Japan and import shops this December. I'm pretty sure that we'll see this line of Sega Zippos expanded, as it would be criminal if the world had to go without a Dreamcast lighter.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grasshopper Manufacture head Goichi "Suda51" Suda enjoys a reputation for creativity that sets him somewhat apart from other designers -- his games are never mammoth blockbusters, and yet titles like Killer7 and No More Heroes have earned acclaim and an enduring seat in gaming culture for their wild unconventionality and distinctive tone.

Here, GDMag EIC Brandon Sheffield catches up with the always-intriguing Suda to discuss both his current projects and his approach to theme in games like No More Heroes -- including a discussion of the lesser-known Michigan -- the fate of that EA/Mikami project, his fashion sense and what he wanted to be as a kid.

Some basic questions first. What's going on with the EA/Mikami game now?

Goichi Suda: It's under development. He's the one working on it.

I also heard a rumor that the original No More Heroes was planned for the Xbox 360 -- is that true?

GS: Yeah, it was a game that I had in mind for the 360 when I first wrote the project document.

Will that ever happen?

GS: Well, as it is now it's fully a Wii title, so the idea of remaking it for another controller... It's just really suited for the platform, as it is now.

So is that a no?

GS: It's not something I'm thinking about, no.

It seems like it'd be a good idea.

GS: Mmmm...I dunno. (laughs)

One thing I thought was funny about No More Heroes is that the main character's motivation is that you're trying to sleep with a girl.

GS: It sure is.

In a lot of games, you rescue a princess, but this is much more direct. Why did you decide to do that?

GS: Well, when you think about the Travis character, he's an extremely up front, in-your-face guy. He acts totally off of his instincts. That's what makes him so susceptible to Sylvia's advances, you could say, so that's why it becomes his goal. He can't say no.

When developing the game, what made you decide to go so direct like this? I think it's a good thing, by the way.

GS: Why he became that sort of character, you mean? Mmm... well, as the title No More Heroes could suggest, I wanted a hero unlike anything seen before -- someone who's more like you and me, someone who sees the world more casually. I wanted to make a hero that could really be an extension of ourselves. That's how he wound up so cool like that.

I ask because there aren't a lot of games that make direct sexual references like that. I wonder why not -- it seems like a very natural human thing to do, but games don't touch upon it much.

GS: That's a good point, and I don't know why either. Maybe it's because there are so many crazy guys in Grasshopper. (laughs) Of course, part of the charm of the game is all the characters that show up in it. Travis isn't the best hero you could think of, but the thing about him is that he thinks he's the best hero in the world.

My impression is maybe that a lot of companies are afraid of addressing any kind of actual sexuality.

GS: Certainly, yeah.

Is that something that's important to you, or did it just happen to come along?

GS: It just sort of came along, I suppose. It's not like we're that good at it ourselves. (laughs) Grasshopper is all about making violent, hard-boiled games; that's our first priority. Maybe that's why.

Do you have many game design ideas that you've thrown away or not been able to implement?

GS: There are aspects that I've had to take out of games in progress, sure. That's especially the case for if you're working on something licensed, because if the licensor demands something, then there's not much you can do. I wouldn't say I've ever completely thrown away any of my own original ideas, though.

I'd like to talk a bit about Michigan. I've heard it's not your favorite game, but...

GS: Did I say that? I didn't really say that, I don't think.

So is it a favorite of yours, then?

GS: Well, everything I've made I like to some extent, and that's especially true for the output of Grasshopper itself. In fact, I'd like to make Michigan again, or something like it. There's a Spanish horror film called REC [Ed note: it was remade in the US as Quarantine], and when I watched it, I realized it was pretty much Michigan, right there. I still have a lot of ideas along those lines, and I'd love to work with Spike sometime to make a new Michigan or a remake.

It seems like the original would be a natural for the Wii, since it was released on the PS2 originally. Maybe you could make a downloadable sequel for the 360 or something.

GS: Yeah. (laughs) I'll be discussing things with [publisher] Spike.

I actually proposed to a US publisher the idea of just releasing the PS2 version in the U.S.

GS: Oh!

But Sony said it couldn't happen.

GS: Oh, why not? Too violent?

The European guys allowed it to be published, but the U.S. guys said there wasn't enough gameplay. Personally I think the game presents very interesting moral choices. You can watch the newscaster die and it doesn't really matter because you just get another one, or you can save her, or you can just film her panties or something like that. It's really...

GS: Definitely. I think Michigan had a really innovative sort of game concept.

It seemed to me like it was a kind of commentary on voyeurism, like a commentary on the way that we view people on the screen as not really people, necessarily. Like, they don't really exist because they're removed from us. It's just an avatar character, not a real human, and the game was an examination of that concept.

GS: Well, I didn't think that deeply into it. (laughs) It's really an investigative-reporter kind of game.

Honestly, I think that that's kind of what art is about, when you just create something and other people put their own meaning into it. I can see that as a critique of voyeurism, while to you, it's just something you made.

GS: Art? Mmm...

When you created that, did you have any kind of goal in mind, or was it just "I want to create a game with choices" or something?

GS: Certainly, your individual morals play a thematic role in the game. Being able to make these choices that directly affect the future was one of the things we were aiming for, and I thought it turned out to be pretty innovative.

I thought it was particularly interesting that if the reporter dies, you just get another one right away, as though the previous one's existence was not really important.

GS: Certainly.

I noticed that you always dress well. You used to wear D&G; now you've switched to Hysteric Glamour. Do you think it's important as a designer or company head to be an icon or to have a fashion sense?

GS: There's a personal drive to look nice, sure, but I think it's not as important as presenting a positive image to the kids and the young people that look up to those in the game industry, that want to be the game creators of the future. We're in the business of creating dreams, sort of.

Did you want to become this sort of icon when you were younger?

GS: Not at all. (laughs) I wanted to become a sushi chef or an astronaut.

Game designer is close to that.

GS: It sure is.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hardly anyone seemed to notice it, but .detuned, a "personalized, interactive music experience" from German demoscene group .theprodukkt (Farbrausch), released on PSN late last week for only $2.99.

With the experimental PS3 download, you can play different tracks from your music library and manipulate a surreal scene in real-time with the Sixaxis controller, which in turn tweaks the currently playing song. And that's how you end up with the dancing guy's head transforming into an elephant's head.

It looks like most of the comments I've read on .detuned run along the lines of "Were they smoking 3 bowls, acid, mushrooms, crack, and payote [sic] to make this game!?", but if you're into demoscene projects or if you just like seeing more PSN releases like Plastic's Linger in Shadows, pick it up!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Those of you who missed Giant Robot's Game Over/Continue? show and its ARTXGAME projects -- collaborations between notable artists and indie game designers -- you'll have another opportunity this weekend!

Starting Saturday ad running until January 24th, the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles will host "Giant Robot Biennale 2", an exhibit celebrating the magazine's 15-year-long history. Along with installations by Giant Robot's friends like James Jean and David Choe, the show will feature works from more than 50 other artists and the ARTXGAME group (a.k.a. "the Attract Mode Collective").

The ARTXGAME projects include collaborations between Kyle Pulver (Snapshot) and Jotto, Derek Yu (Spelunky) and Hellen Jo/Calvin Wong, Petri Purho (Crayon Physics Deluxe) and Souther Salazar, Anna Anthropy (Mighty Jill Off) and Saelee Oh, and Cactus (Clean Asia) and Deth P Sun.

You can read more information on the exhibition at Giant Robot publisher and co-editor Eric Nakamura's blog.

[Via @attractmode]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Homer in Silicon' is a biweekly GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Emily Short. It looks at storytelling and narrative in games of all flavors, including the casual, indie, and obscurely hobbyist. This week she looks at Tale of Tales' horror game The Path.]

A few weeks ago I wrote of Terry Cavanagh's Don't Look Back that the game works because it is hard. Because it is hard, some people only see the end on YouTube.

But the difficulty fit the story; and there are times when a game has to make demands on the player that will, necessarily, cut some people out of the audience.

Would The Path work if it weren't so slow?

This is the thing you run into, reading reviews of Tale of Tales' Red Riding Hood story. People love it, hate it, want to recommend it but aren't sure how; but descriptions of the piece (which arguably isn't a game) by and large agree that in gameplay terms, it has some problems, and the most serious of them is the agonizing pace. You have to explore the woods with one of six red riding hood avatars, but they are dawdlers, all of them.

If you make them run, the camera angle shifts so that you can't see as much of the environment -- and yet even running isn't speedy. There's a lot to find in the game: strange areas of the forest full of memorable and suggestive imagery, things for the girls to look at and think about, fleeting small animals and trees with lacy stylized foliage, and finally, for each of them, a different form of Wolf. And yet for all the content that there is, most of the total play time will be spent trudging between things, rather than inspecting them.

To compound the issue, this isn't a game -- or work -- or space -- that you can approach systematically. The woods are confusing, as woods ought to be, and you can make progress at first only by serendipitous discovery. I hate grinding, so I suppose I ought to be all in favor of a piece that cannot be worked through systematically. But I find I hate even more a game situation where I have to wander aimlessly hoping to find something useful to do. That's boring.

In fact I spent a lot of time with the Path being really bored. It took me a long, long time to find my first wolf and even longer to get him to interact with me, which somewhat undercut (I thought at the time) the nature of the fairy tale: a threat isn't that threatening if you practically have to harass it into doing you any harm. I kept getting frustrated and wanting to quit. Another fatal sign: the sluggishness of progress made me not want to go look at some of the optional content that I knew existed, once I had worked out the fastest way to get each girl through to her ending.

So what is "The Path" gaining through this kind of pacing?

I've come up with a few possible answers.

One is that the work is effectively hazing the player, removing from the audience anyone who isn't sufficiently devoted. Which might seem like a strange approach, but the thing that compels a person to keep playing "The Path" (especially if that person isn't playing to review) is a kind of morbid curiosity: a desire to find out what happens that is stronger than every disincentive, even when it's clear that "what happens" is something very unpleasant.

Another is that the texture of the game would be wrong without its long dull periods; that it would be missing some sense of anticipation. This I think is closer to being right, though I should admit that I've been skeptical since "The Turn of the Screw" about the aesthetic appeal of suspense via boredom.

The third answer is this: being a teenager is itself often intensely frustrating and boring. The constraints on your actions often seem stupid and arbitrary. Privileges come slowly. The world is irritating not least because you are marginalized by it. You are often made to feel like a person-in-waiting. "The Path" brings that feeling home through both its pacing and the girls' internal monologues -- especially for Ruby, who is at what I recall as the most excruciating stage of adolescence. Curiously, this reminds me of another game about being a teenager, Stephen Bond's "Rameses", which also bores the player on a regular basis and with intent. (On the other hand, "Rameses" is maybe twenty minutes long even so.)

I like the last answer the best because it fits my reading of what the game is about. If you've read anything about "The Path" before, you'll know that it's a very evocative, allusive piece, and that no two players have the same idea about what exactly is going on. The framing material on the developers' website suggests that the six Red Riding Hoods are sisters and that each one literally dies at the end of the story, but some of the endings are so peculiar, and so far from being obviously fatal, that many players look for some more metaphorical explanation of what is happening at each stage.

My own take is that the six girls are all aspects of the same person, and that they die only in the sense that something happens to change that person radically, to end one personality and inaugurate the new one.

I don't share the view expressed by some players that all of the girls are raped; I think there can be sexual imagery and implications in a scene without that signifying an actual act of sexual violence. Overall I think these scenes are not all about rape or about sex or even always about other people, but about the relation between Self and Other that is constantly being revised during the process of growing up. This is the reason that it never especially bothered me to be complicit in the destruction of the girls: at each stage it felt as though I was moving things in the direction that they themselves wanted, and although the results might be traumatic, they were also the means of growth.

In fact, it is, I think, possible to see some continuity between the characters, and view the older ones as partly reactions to the younger -- but that would make this article more spoilery than it already is.

Ultimately what stands out to me about "The Path" is the sense of how fragmented one is in adolescence, and how confusing that can be, and how annoying. I think the work risks alienating a significant portion of its players through its pacing, but perhaps the pacing accomplishes something that is at least artistically relevant, by capturing the impatience and frustration of adolescence. The player's need for action mirrors the girls' own impatience to change, to encounter adventures, to grow up, to get free of their current mode of existence.

That doesn't mean that I didn't want to scream in irritation during some of the walking sequences. I wish there were a way to do this piece without torturing the player quite so much. But maybe there isn't. It says something for "The Path" that I still found it overall worth... let's not say playing. Worth working through.

Interactivity: it can make a story powerful in new ways, but it's not a guarantee of fun.

[Emily Short is an interactive fiction author and part of the team behind Inform 7, a language for IF creation. She also maintains a blog on interactive fiction and related topics. She can be reached at emshort AT mindspring DOT com.]

Posted by Emily Short at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Doom's monsters likely haven't scare you in well over a decade, not since Quake's zombie rottweilers and gigantic, blood-stained Shamblers took over your nightmares in the mid-90s.

These pieces from Brandon Duncan, though, are a reminder that those monsters still lurk in the dark recesses of your memory, ready to pop out when you least expect it and send you running backwards out of a room while firing your shotgun with no regard for aim or your limited ammo.

Duncan says the Doom series was "a huge inspiration" to him, and you can see it in many of his illustrations. He drew from his teenage memories of the game's monsters scaring the crap out of him to create this "Doom Bestiary" set:

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Though it crashed my browser the first two times I tried to load the game after seeing it linked by friends on my Twitter feed, I made a third attempt at playing Small Worlds this morning and was rewarded for my persistence.

It's a wonderful little exploration/platforming game in which you guide a three-pixel tall character through tiny but distinctive, slow-revealing environments. I won't spoil the premise (or my interpretation of it, at least), but there is a goal to Small Worlds despite your initial aimless wanderings, and each area offers a fantastic soundtrack that's worth playing the game for alone.

Developer David Shute created Small Worlds as a submission for JayIsGames' Casual Gameplay Design Competition 6, which had a theme of "exploration" this time around. You can play more submissions from the game design competition here.

[Via Metafilter]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've ever wanted to convey your love for France's capital and a certain video game company/console at the same time, now you can! Online shirt shop TeeFury is selling a phallic Pataris tee design that synthesizes the country's Eiffel Tower with Atari's logo for only $9.

Like TeeFury's Sitar Hero shirt that we featured a couple months ago, this deal and limited edition shirt (available in Navy for guys, Red for girls) is available for sale today only, so grab it if you're interested before the store pulls it out of your reach forever.

Now I have "Bonjour, Paris" from Funny Face stuck in my head.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[In an editorial originally published in Game Developer magazine magazine's October 2009 issue, editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield considers whether the "evil" part of "necessary evil" really applies to game publishers, specifically discussing U.S.-based publishing processes.]

Publishers. Are they a necessary evil? Developers seem to portray them that way at times, and even the "necessary" part goes away in the indie and online spheres, where a developer can self-release. But evil? I'm not sure.

It's often been said that publishers are only out to make a buck, and the larger they get, the more that can be true. Take, for instance, this quote from an interview I did with Sierra stalwart Mark Hood about his time at Vivendi in the early 2000s:

"It basically became sitting down on a panel with eight people, probably three of whom were from the game industry, and the other five were either from a cosmetics company or hair color or water and power company, and they would be approving our games. It was like the same questions would come up every time. 'Well, how is this like Diablo? Tell me how this is like Diablo.' 'Well, it's not like Diablo. It's not at all like Diablo. It's completely different.' 'Oh, well, no. You need to give us a game like Diablo.'"

The situation has hopefully changed since the Activision merger, but in that scenario, the game is seen in terms of numbers. How much will this make us? The larger a company, the more likely it is that your executives will think this way, whether they came from another game company, or a restaurant chain.

Bury Me With My Money

Someone has to think about the money, and I'm sure you don't want it to be you, who would rather just get on making a good game. The trouble comes when the money and the creativity appear to be at odds. I'm optimistic, and feel there are ways that the money issues and creativity can fall in line to create something excellent that also makes its money. Somebody greenlit Halo, and Call of Duty, and Resident Evil 4's three restarts.

Developers and publishers often have a curious relationship. The best analogy I can think of is that of parent and child. The publisher or parent thinks it knows best, because it's been there before (shipped more games), and because "it's my money, so you'll live by my rules."

The developer or child is rebellious, and thinks it has all the answers. In many ways, it does know more than the parent, and is closer to what's innovative, but maybe hasn't figured out how to hone that energy yet. I could take this analogy further, with talk of advice, feedback loops, and misunderstandings, but ultimately, publishers have the money and the marketing, while developers have the creative spirit and know-how.

Because I Said So

What makes a good publisher then? It seems to vary based on your market. In the case of the iPhone, I've heard developers say that having a publisher is largely useful for marketing. Some might say they take a good game and promote it. Others might say they take a game that would've sold anyway, and exploit it. It all depends on how your deal went, I suppose.

For MMOs, a publisher is most likely to be the one serving your game, taking care of customer service to some extent, and performing marketing. In general, a third-party publisher isn't going to do much to your game aside from localize it.

It gets more complicated in the console arena, of course, and that's where the back-and-forth parental relationship can come into play. Ultimately, a publisher is only as good as its employees. Some of external producers at the publisher can actually really help focus your work. In a recent Game Developer postmortem, Sucker Punch mentions that marketing helped the studio trim the fat.

Publishers sometimes do know where the money is, and money allows you to make more games. What's unfortunate is when they can't see past GTA and Guitar Hero to see an actual new idea, forgetting that GTA and Guitar Hero were, at one time, new ideas, or at least clever new amalgams of old ones.

I do think publishers can definitely help make a game better. On top of marketing and feedback, publishers often also offer external QA, take care of any legal issues that may come up, and pay the bills. But that's only if they're willing to take a little risk, and actually trust the developers they're working with. Incidentally, since both companies should really be doing some proper due diligence on each other, trusting each other shouldn't be part of the "risk" bit.

IP Freely

As a developer, your job becomes knowing how to give publishers what they want (more guns!), while also making the game you want (time travel!). As publishers, the risk assessment work should mostly be done at the top end. After that, there needs to be a lot of monitoring -- after all they should get the game they pay for -- but also a lot of trust.

If you're trying to make a risky game with new ideas, it's best to wrap the concepts in the familiar. Making new IP is always going to be a battle. But if you stay strong, and both parties really listen to each other, it can be a battle that winds up getting you a better-playing and better-selling game.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Bit.Trip series developer Gaijin Games released a collection of songs from its first rhythm-based WiiWare game Bit.Trip Beat, a soundscape the studio describes as marking "the beginning of CommanderVideo’s aural journey from the ethereal to the corporeal."

Though half of the chiptune-inspired songs in the ten-track album are shorter than 40 seconds, the release does include the game's two tunes from noted micromusician Bit Shifter. Each of the Bit.Trip games feature a guest artist -- Core includes songs from Bubblyfish, while the upcoming Void promises tracks from Nullsleep.

The entire album is currently available to purchase and download from CDBaby, but Gaijin Games plans to have the Bit.Trip Beat soundtrack for sale through Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, and other services on October 27th.

[Via Gaijin Games]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, another big PC game has made the leap to Facebook! Celebrated game designer Sid Meier announced Civilization Network, a Facebook edition of the game integrating the site's social networking features into its strategy gameplay, launching some time next year.

"Ever since we finished Civilization Revolution last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks," says Meier.

In Civilization Network, players can join to create and expand a civilization, coordinate strategies for battles, share technology to jump ahead of rivals, lobby friends to form governments and win elections, spy on enemies, and work together to great Wonders of the World.

Firaxis plans to offer a closed beta and will reveal details for signing up soon. In the meantime, you can follow updates on the project on Civilization Network's Facebook page.

[Via @libe_goad]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['The Game Anthropologist' is Michael Walbridge's GameSetWatch-exclusive column about communities built around gaming. This week is about the rise of the unaptly-named MOBA genre and the intense rivalry between two of its titles in beta, Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends.]

It is not the first time it has happened with a new game and its community, but perhaps it has never been so obvious: the player-base for Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends is clearly composed of transplants, particularly fans of the Warcraft 3 mod, Defense of the Ancients. While both games’ developers have made it no secret that they have strong links to DoTA, the question still remains as to what difference that makes to the actual players.

But first, a review: Defense of the Ancients and the games it has inspired (including this years’ DemiGod) combines RPG battling with an RTS interface in a tower-defense world. Basically, you are playing an RTS where you control only one character that levels up, earns money and purchases consumable and equippable items. Teams consist of five player-controlled heroes on each side, with computer-controlled towers and creeps assisting, usually in controlled paths called “lanes” by players.

At the beginning of the game, the creeps and towers are much more powerful than the heroes, but by the end it is the heroes that will make the difference for victory, ending the game by destroying the main building in their opponents’ base. The term Multiplayer Online Battle Arena has been coined for the genre, but isn’t widely used (yet), perhaps partially because it doesn’t recognize any of the genres it came out of and partially because it doesn’t sound cool enough to most gamers (really).

Heroes of Newerth more strictly follows the conventions and strategy of the old DoTA, whereas League of Legends is different enough to consider it an attempt to progress MOBAs, making it much more friendly to newcomers while at the same time expanding the possibilities, giving even more complexity and depth to strategy-making than DoTA ever did.

(This is not the point of the article, but in case of contention, one argument: consider that in DoTA, the team with the better kill-death ratio wins over 95% of the time, whereas in LoL that percentage is much lower. Pushing and base-hammering is much more important there. And in LoL, I onced played a game where my team got 12 kills but were killed 44 times, yet still won—impossible in DoTA or HoN.)

Heroes of Newerth has solidified the commitment of DoTA players, while League of Legends seems the best chance for the genre to come out of niche and into mainstream.

As for player communities, there is a stark difference despite the fact that most DoTA players have been eager to try both. Some matches go with little communication amongst teammates or between teams, but the majority has some communication of sorts. The features make a difference, as at this date HoN has in-game VOIP while LoL does not, but most of the communication, even in HoN, is done through text.

In League of Legends, I asked a question at the beginning of the match.

Me: Why are people here not as rude as they are in DoTA?
Me: Always wondered that
Teammate: Really? I’ve seen some pretty rude people here :/
Me: I’ve met my share, sure
Me: Still, on the whole it seems a lot better here
Teammate: Now that you mention it….
Me: Lot less trash-talking, etc.
Teammate: Yeah, good question

LoL isn’t devoid of trash-talking or the blame-game; this is still an online video game. Still, the banter tends to be cleverer and makes more out-of-world references. Everyone is trying hard here, but fun seems to be a bit of the higher order, with less seriousness and more comradery than is seen in HoN.

With Heroes of Newerth, “noob” (or nub) is the word of the day. In fact, it is so much part of the order that the names for lobbies have the option for “pros only,” “noobs allowed,” and “Noobs only,” the first sign that HoN caters to every part of old DoTA norms.

Regarding the differences in player bases, the what is easier than the why: the players are much more respectful and mellow in LoL, with much less cursing, badmouthing, or any other form of disrespect than is found in DoTA or HoN. Curiously, Blizzard’s Battle.net doesn’t keep track of any stats, yet both LoL and HoN do, especially to keep track of “leaves”, as vs. Tower Defense games are usually over half an hour each and the disconnection of a hero upsets the game.

If both games have stats, why are LoL players more preferable?

Though the basics are the same and many of the improvements over DoTA are similar, the differences in game design and features between HoN and LoL are what account for the difference in player bases; this is especially salient considering the fact that many players are trying both games and that the games share much in common. And on either side, it is a team game.

To be fair, both games are in beta and not fully developed, and there is especially much to be seen with what LoL will do. In HoN’s defense, consider one possible factor: HoN uses a lobby system where the players host and start their own games, whereas LoL only has one of its promised options available, which is purely rank-based randomized team-arranging.

You can team with a friend or friends, but your opponents and, if applicable, other teammates, are not chosen or even seen before the game starts. HoN game usually feature drafting, where all ten heroes are chosen in sight of both teams. In LoL, you don’t see the other team’s choices. This could mean LoL is only friendlier because players bear less responsibility and stats are not yet visible. Once LoL incorporates some of the features HoN and DoTA have, the players could become just as anal, booting any player with a losing record, all the time.

Your stats are invisible in LoL: it’s much more okay to lose. Stats can only be seen by friends. In HoN, your stats are a mark of shame or honor everywhere you go. Public channels, private channels, and in the game lobby before it starts, your kills, deaths, wins and losses are all tracked.

Yet, it is a team game where your stats are highly influenced by the competence of your teammates. This is why teammates are more snarky with each other. People want to be accepted and able to have the opportunity to improve. But if your stats suck, you are shunned. It’s unfortunate that this part of DoTA was preserved. LoL may yet preserve it.

Still there are other possible reasons, some of which have been covered in this column. The difference in cultures created by the community managers and forums. The different art styles. The difference in rules and tower power (again, LoL is more about pushing, and HoN is more about the kills, though kills certainly help in LoL).

There isn’t enough room here to show how the game design choices influence the community. But the development of these two MOBAs will hold plenty of lessons in game design and community management/creation. The only ones that are currently verifiable are already known: gamers don’t know what they want and there are drawbacks to giving them exactly what they ask for, and team-based games that are more about showboating and less about teamwork produces more insults.

Even more fun to watch are various beta forum threads about the opposing games; this is one extremely narrow genre with exactly two titles generating console-war like arguments. In other words, we may just have a couple of hit games. And the MOBA genre, or whatever its name ends up being, is on the rise.

If you don’t believe that, consider a brief industry snippet.

Posted by Mike Walbridge at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

[We round up the week's news and reviews from sister iPhone site FingerGaming, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and his cohorts.]

This week, FingerGaming covers recent releases like the gravity-flipping platformer Soosiz, iPhone Buster Bros. adaptation Pang Mobile, and the accelerometer-controlled action game Dark Nebula.

Here are the top stories from the last seven days:

- Ngmoco Releases Free, DLC-Supported Version of Rolando 2
"Ngmoco is quick to follow up on Apple’s recent announcement that free apps may now include paid content via in-app purchases. The company has released Rolando 2: Chapter 1, a free download that includes the game’s first few levels, with the remaining stages available as paid downloadable content."

- Soosiz: An Inventive Gravity-Flipping Platformer
"Touch Foo is a new face in the App Store, and its debut iPhone title is something special indeed. Soosiz is a side-scrolling hop-and-bop platformer with a planet-hopping mechanic borrowed from Super Mario Galaxy."

- Top-Grossing Game Apps: Tap Tap Revenge 3 Sees Big First-Week Sales
"After a recent and successful debut, the 99-cent Tap Tap Revenge 3 ranks in as today’s top-grossing App Store title. EA’s FIFA 10, priced at $9.99, falls to second place, as Need for Speed Undercover climbs up two spots to take third."

- First iPhone Noby Noby Boy Screenshots Released
"Via Noby Noby Boy’s Facebook profile comes the first two in-game screenshots from the upcoming iPhone port of Noby Noby Boy. And they’re about as inscrutable as you would imagine."

- Top Free Game App Downloads for the Week
"LabPixies’ match-three puzzler Line Up Free comes out on top in this week’s free app chart. A free point promotion puts Storm8’s social game Vampires Live at second place and iMobsters at seventh."

- Battlefield 2 Lead Designer Releases Dark Nebula for iPhone
"Gaming industry veteran Anders Hejdenberg is now focusing his efforts on the newly formed iPhone development studio 1337 Game Design. Hejdenberg’s Dark Nebula: Episode 1 is the first 1337 Game Design title to debut in the App Store."

- Buster Bros. Comes to iPhone with Pang Mobile
"Buster Bros. has previously been translated to the iPhone unofficially in titles like Buster Boy, but the series now has an officially licensed App Store release with Player X’s Pang Mobile."

- Top Selling Paid Game Apps for the Week
"Tap Tap Revenge 3 steals the top chart spot away from last week’s champion title Cartoon Wars. Skee-Ball rises up to finish second in today’s sales results, while Backbreaker Football makes its chart debut this week at fourth place."

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NYC-based "cross-media" developer Area/Code (Parking Wars, Drop7) last night revealed Spore Islands, a Facebook game spin-off of Electronic Arts's Spore, with an open beta.

In the game, you create a creature to inhabit your personal island (and your friends' islands), then evolve the creature to "survive, reproduce, and dominate their environments." Essentially, a slideshow, or an "observation", lets you watch how your species fared against others on your island. You have a limited number of observations per day, though, and you can watch a new one every four hours.

In between observations, you can upgrade your creatures attributes (e.g. stamina, strength), abilities, diet, animations, and accessories (hats, horns, markings) with DNA tokens, which you either earn over time or purchase with real money.

It's pretty fun, even if the first creature I designed is completely unfit to survive in the inhospitable island I've dropped him in. Poor Reginald!

[Via @flantz]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Following its well-received comic book adaptations, Stephen King's beloved The Dark Tower book series is expanding further to another new media form -- video games. According to a video posted on the author's site, a new project titled Discordia will debut on November 30th.

Those expecting an action title that has Roland firing away at Mutant lobsters or an RPG taking your Ka-tet across All-World will likely be disappointed, as the project looks like an online interactive game (my guess) centered around the Tet Corporation's secret war with North Central Positronics and Sombra Corporation, both companies under control by Insomnia/The Dark Tower villain Crimson King.

The game also focuses on a new character, NCP's CEO Arina Yokova, a Russian national with mob ties and the leader of the Crimson Crescent. While the posted trailer doesn't indicate whether the books' heroes -- Roland, Susannah, Eddie, and Jake (and Oy!) -- will act as playable characters in the game, their portraits appear briefly in the clip.

Whatever releases this November, it will probably be the first in a series, as suggested by the "Chapter One (For Callahan!)" note toward the end of the trailer. Callahan, for those familiar with King's books, refers to Father Callahan, the troubled priest in 'Salem's Lot who later reappears The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla.

Robin Furth, King's personal research assistant and the author of The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance, is listed as director for the game, which is promising considering she also worked on the comic book adaptations with Peter David. Metro DMA is handling Discordia's production.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Painted on a 12"x24" canvas, this "2nd Wave" piece pays homage to the Robotron: 2084, surrounding the arcade game's hero with Grunts and Brains. Artist Donna Pike is selling the one-of-a-kind pixel painting signed, titled, dated, and with a certificate of authenticity for $200 through her Etsy shop.

Pike has produced several other arcade paintings that I wouldn't mind hanging on my wall -- Food Fight, Donkey Kong, and Dig Dug -- though only the Food Fight artwork is currently available on her online store. Through the magic of the internet, however, I managed to summon images of those pieces and embed them after the break.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

Back on a very tentative GameSetLinks schedule, but still with a great deal of work to do, this set of links is headed out by something I happened to see on cable TV recently - a really REALLY cheap deal for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 plus a full band kit, directly from MTV/Harmonix. Wonder how many warehouses of RB1 they have left, then?

Which doesn't mean to say the franchise isn't doing well, of course. Also in here - neat triangle diagrams, personal game addiction experiences, Halloween game costume wackiness, the New York Times on iRacing.com, and plenty more.

Cha cha cha:

RockBand79.com - RockBand Xbox 360 PS3 Game $79
They're advertising this in infomercials on MTV2 right now - Rock Band 1 and 2 and full band kit for $79? Ouch, somebody has a lot of leftover stock.

Blurst: No More 8-Week Games
Interesting changes here: 'We’re returning to Plan A. We are halting development of our 8-week projects and beginning longer-term development on Off-Road Velociraptor Safari.'

I Kept Playing — The Costs Of My Gaming Addiction - gaming addiction - Kotaku
A remarkably honest discussion from a Kotaku editor about a life semi-sacrificed to EverQuest, and a rare spark of humanity in game blogs/media in general. (Not that I'm expecting them to talk about emotion, but I like it when they at least consider it.)

Vintage Computing and Gaming | Archive » VC&G’s Halloween Video Game Costume Ideas (2009)
Another fun yearly novelty Halloween update from VC&G's Benj Edwards, heh.

For Virtual Racers, a League of Their Own - NYTimes.com
I've been fascinated by iRacing.com (from the ex-Papyrus devs) for a long time - here's a great NYT piece on it.

Taking Inventory » Blog Archive » The 15th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
"Haven't seen a lot of people post about this, so a reminder - IFComp entries are available for playing and judging..."

The Big Triangle « Words on Play
"Oo, game mechanic triangles - fun!"

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Developed by a team at Carnegie Mellon University as a proof-of-concept for playing tabletop role-playing games with Microsoft Surface, SurfaceScapes provides a set of features designed to immerse both game masters and players with virtual representations of their game environments and characters.

"We are taking traditional tabletop role-playing games to the next level, adding a new layer of immersive and intuitive gaming to the Microsoft Surface Table and assisting both GMs and players in enjoying exciting and engaging adventures," says the CMU group.

The setup doesn't yet look as impressive as traditional Dungeons & Dragons setups with detailed miniatures and elaborately constructed scenes, but it does have the advantage of animating movement/combat/spells and providing audio feedback. With a Microsoft Surface table typically priced around $12,500, however, it could be a long time before anything like this shows up at your weekly D&D sessions.

[Via Microsoft Surface Blog]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tad Corporation's run'n gun platformer Toki will see a complete revamp with high definition graphics for Xbox Live Arcade and PC, courtesy of French developer Golgoth Studio. The six-strong team formed last year and seeks to "keep 2D gaming alive within this 3D world", a noble goal that's produced wonderful results!

Unlike the other most recently resurrected platforming series, Rocket Knight, the Toki remix keeps the original arcade game's 2D graphics, and from the looks of this first trailer, its level designs, power-ups, and enemies are near identical. There's also lots of monkey-spit to go around, too.

You can see more screenshot comparisons between Tad Corporation's Toki versus Golgoth's Toki at the studio's official site.

[Via Shard]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[In the latest in his ever-intriguing 'Sound Current' column, Jeriaska visits a recent Tokyo-based live concert for Atlus' Persona RPG series, with a full write-up of the live event dedicated to the fan-favorite game series.]

Recently the publishers of the Persona soundtrack albums organized a live concert of music from the role-playing game series. "Live in Velvet Room," presented by Aniplex Records, took place at the Wel City Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It marks the second gathering of its kind in the span of a year centering on performances by the artists featured in-game.

The program included nearly thirty tracks, with two encore sets, a representative sampling culled from the Shin Megami Tensei universe. With some heavy expectations to contend with, the event organizers provided a spectacle aimed at satiating the most emotionally invested of Atlus devotees.

Sound producer Shoji Meguro himself was on stage for every performance, kicking the battle themes into high gear on electric guitar. Brief talk sessions offered each performer their moment as emcee. It was a chance to briefly get to know singers Yumi Kawamura and Shihoco Hirata, though the program never lingered long before conversation yielded to beats.

Characters from the game also made larger-than-life appearances on a giant monitor above the stage. Igor, Teddy, Tanaka and company were given concert-specific dialog, supplied by the original voice actors, fully in character. Implicit in the entire affair was a recurring theme of the amalgamation of real and imaginary worlds.

This report from Wel City details the strategies employed by Atlus and Aniplex during the live event. The summary extends to an overview of the songs performed and a viewpoint on the roles they have served in furthering the narrative styles of Personas 1, 3 and 4.

In the lobby of the Wel City hotel, cosplaying attendees had canvas bags prepared for those who had preordered concert tickets in advance. They carried glossy ads for Persona 3 Portable, its original soundtrack album and a recent DVD release covering the previous year's concert in Akasaka. Also included were light sticks resembling the familiar blue Persona butterfly. When the lights dimmed inside the hotel auditorium and the theme of the Velvet Room came up on the speakers, the seats were illuminated by the glow of blue wands.

The previous year Persona 4 had been relatively new to shelves, and music from the game had led "Live in Velvet Room at Akasaka Blitz." This time, however, it was the portable games Persona and P3P more immediately on attendees minds, and the concert got started with two vocal themes from the games.

First, however, on a video monitor located above the stage, there appeared the interior of an elevator bathed in blue light. One of the few points of reference uniting the Persona installments, the Velvet Room will appear in such forms as a jazz lounge or the rear of a limousine, depending on the situation. As might be expected, the first to appear on the screen was series regular, Igor: an intently staring old man, seen tucking a handkerchief into his breast pocket.

Once Igor had welcomed the audience to the Velvet Room, he was joined by two of his female assistants, Margaret and Elizabeth. A moment meant to be disorienting (the two play the same role in separate games), “What are you doing here?” they demanded in turn. This prompted a brief debate about who should tell the members of the audience to turn off their pagers and cellphones.

This back-and-forth, which was met with laughter and applause, marked the first of several instances over the course of the concert where the interplay between real and fictional contexts was used to comedic effect. Only brief pauses as the vocalists introduced both themselves and their representative game installments would punctuate the unyielding musical momentum of the concert that followed.

Yumi Kawamura of Persona 3 entered in an outfit modeled after Igor's suit and tie. Together with male vocalist Lotus Juice, they got things underway with two moodier musical offerings from the game series: "Dream of Butterfly" from Persona for PSP and "P3 FES" from the Playstation 2 title's expanded edition. Atlus has uploaded videos of both opening themes, and watching the two together offers a sense of their shared styles, alternating between passages marked by tension and repose.

As the Persona series has gained an audience, the scenario writers have increasingly taken their time in allowing otherworldly presences to encroach upon the everyday lives of their high school protagonists. The first Persona wastes little time before the principle characters invoke their beastlike allies in battle, the Personas.

The lyrics to the game's “Dream of Butterfly” revolve around dreaming and wanting not to wake. An implication of the opening scene of the first Persona is that the ritual that starts off a chain of paranormal events is enacted out of the characters' desire to escape reality.

Seeing as arguments dominate the relationships of the party prior to the arrival of the Personas, battling otherworldly forces is perhaps the key to bringing them together. The song might even be taken to suggest that the students of St. Hermelin have an unconscious desire to see the familiar markers of their everyday existences corrode.

In Persona 3, the recurring image of the gunlike Evokers and the refrain of "Burn My Dread" paint a self-destructive image of human desire. Meguro makes the most of Kawamura’s strengths as a vocalist with the song's characteristic alternation between serenity and angsty, guitar driven passages (as with "Butterfly"). Making leaps between tenderness and aggression, the transitions are accomplished without seeming disorienting. Both songs "Dream of Butterfly" and "FES" mirror an uneasy division between dream and reality that is a predominant motif of the Persona series: a note of suspense to start off the Wel City concert.

Following the opening themes, Kawamura took a moment to introduce herself to the audience. Reminding everyone of the impending return of P3, she sang "Want to Be Close," "When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars" and "Living With Determination." The songs, performed back-to-back without pause, were intended to elicit memories of sprinting through the halls of Gekkoukan High School and afternoon train rides around town. These vignettes from the game were projected onto the overhead monitor, distorted through image software filters, as if seen through the hazy lens of memory.

Moving right along, vocalist Shihoco Hirata ushered in Persona 4 through a musical introduction that for many accompanied their first glimpses of the game. "Pursuing My True Self" appeared both as the background music for the teaser trailer and with the opening animated montage in the game. The lyrics, turning on keywords "unconscious" and "relationships," introduce the central themes. Alongside the performance, images of animated sequences depicting Chie Satonaka and company mingled with the strobelike effect of entering the Midnight Channel.

Hirata, who became something of a celebrity in Japan following the breakthrough success of the Persona 4 soundtrack album, was exceedingly gracious in introducing herself and sound producer Shoji Meguro. In a pattern mirroring the previous set, the band launched into a medley of three vocal tracks, “Signs of Love,” “Heartbeat, Heartbreak” and “Your Affection,” which transitioned one into the other with only a momentary pause in between.

As the Persona series will typically expect players to invest somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hours into a given installment, it was likely that many of those in the audience knew the source material by heart. While the performances were based on recording sessions blessed with the luxury of multiple takes, the live renditions therefore had to be spot on so as not to disappoint. Hirata managed to provide both momentum and grace to her songs, which contain some tricky flights into glass rattling higher registers.

Upon the completion of the Persona 4 set, the montage of battle gameplay displayed on the overhead screen gave way to the image of Tanaka, host of the "Amazing Commodities" home shopping TV program. In a demonstration of business savvy completely appropriate to the character (and implicitly a well calculated move on the part of the event organizers), Tanaka announced that tonight he had a special offer for Persona t-shirts and posters for purchase at the booths located in the lobby.

A non-vocal musical interlude followed as Meguro took center stage, making calculated use of the whammie bar on P4 battle theme "The Almighty" and Persona 3's hip-hop flavored "Mass Destruction." The series took a risk on infusing its RPG musical palette with hip-hop in the days before this convention was adopted by other franchises. Musicians Lotus Juice and DJ Waka attempted to drive home the point with an English-language beatboxing interlude and P3's "Burn My Dread." More in keeping with industry standards, the roles of vocalists Mayumi Fujita and Shuhei Kita have been to infuse the animated series Persona: Trinity Soul with familiar JPop conventions. Both have been recruited to provide vocal tracks for Persona 3 Portable.

Several of the slower anime songs that appeared the previous year were removed from the Shinjuku concert program to make room for Kita's opening theme "Soul Phrase" for P3P. The choice of a male vocalist to counterbalance Kawamura's role on the Playstation 2 game is in line with the male/female mirroring that is a key feature of the PSP port.

When the game goes on sale in Japan in November, players will be able to choose between unnamed male and female protagonists. The art and music style of the entire game will undergo transformations depending on the gender selected. For instance, Igor’s attendant Elizabeth is swapped out in favor of a male substitute named Theodore, social links develop around different characters, and several visual cues change from blue to red after the eye color of the alternate character. Never before heard musical themes are also scheduled to accompany the female protagonist's quest, providing material for the Aniplex original soundtrack going on sale later this year.

While the geographical setting of the Persona series is firmly grounded in Japan (Revelations: Persona aside) many of the vocal tracks are inexplicably sung in English. However the three ending themes that followed were primarily Japanese-language, beginning with P4's "Never More." One can never tell how much the atmosphere of the game would have changed without Hirata’s participation as vocalist. On songs like this one, however, it's hard to play down her role in taking a series with a predominantly unsettling subtext in a new direction. The brightness of the song, complemented by the art design's yellow-dominated color scheme and upbeat personalities, offer in a snapshot P4's emphasis on hope and friendship.

Kawamura and Hirata switched roles as primary vocalist and backup for "Kimi no Kioku/ Memories of You," a bittersweet coda for Persona 3. The third end theme, this time for Persona for the PSP, also posed something of a discordant resolution. Titled "Voice," and sung by Kawamura, the song alternates somewhat uneasily between major and minor chords. Perhaps an expression of the impermanence of their victory, a central character from Persona is destined to return to do battle in Persona 2 Innocent Sin. Again, Atlus has made both ending themes available online for structural comparison.

Following "Voice" was the intentionally less disconcerting "Reach Out to the Truth," another tribute to the game's theme of harmonious friendship. Hirata’s control of vocal pitch may be partly attributable to her training in classical piano, and the song's melody is set in sharp contrast with its rhythmic rap-influenced passages.

Just as it seemed that the concert had drawn to a close, the image of the P3 protagonist lying on the ground appeared on the overhead screen, together with the words "The Plume of Dusk in your pocket is radiating a warm glow. Would you like to use the Plume of Dusk?" The audience clapped and chanted as offstage the musicians prepared for another encore set.

In a moment of levity that turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of the Velvet Room concert, Kita emerged dressed in coke bottle glasses and a bald cap in impersonation of the Persona series' pharmacy owner, together with Hirata in the school nurse’s outfit. The two sang the Satomi Tadashi song, which goofily offers a rundown of all the healing items on sale in Persona for PSP and their medicinal uses in battle.

The concert concluded with the rock track "Battle for Everyone's Souls," fittingly containing the melody of the theme of the Velvet Room, bringing things full circle. As the musicians took their bows and Igor offered some closing remarks from the screen overhead, the curtain closed on another year of Persona live music.

[Persona series original soundtrack albums can be imported from Amazon.co.jp. Images courtesy of Aniplex Records.]

Posted by jeriaska at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Atria Books, an imprint of publisher Simon & Schuster, signed a three-book deal with Realtime Associates' F. J. Lennon for a series of novels based on Soul Trapper: Episode 1, his "interactive audio adventure" for the iPhone.

In the game, you play as a drifter that uses a Soul Trap device to find, capture, interrogate, and dismiss ghosts scattered across Los Angeles. Soul Trapper takes around three hours to complete, and offers several audio-based minigames throughout its Choose Your Own Adventure-style gameplay.

The iPhone title sold around 25,000 copies since releasing last fall, and could potentially spawn tie-in games with Atria's planned trilogy. Also, the Creative Artists Agency was recently pitching a Soul Trapper film manuscript that was reportedly likened to a "darker, edgier Ghostbusters."

[Via Publishers Weekly.]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Other than the launch of 1UP's new game music-dedicated blog, this week's big chiptune news is the site launch and partial lineup released for New York City's three-day chip music and arts show Blip Festival.

Running December 17th to the 19th at Brooklyn's Bell House, the festival will feature celebrated acts like Bit Shifter, Disasterpeace, Leeni, Little-Scale, Nullsleep, and The J. Arthur Keenes Band.

I've included all of the announced artists after the break, but first I wanted to mention that Blip Festival's organizers (Manhattan arts organization The Tank and NYC art collective 8bitpeople) are looking for donations to help fund the event:

"... The same economic forces that are making fund-raising difficult for other organizations have affected the Blip Festival as well, and a significant grant we have traditionally received supporting previous festivals is not available to us this year.

Rather than scale back, we are moving forward with plans for an even greater variety of international performers, tighter performance integration with the design of Blip Festival's iconic pixel wall, and more related parties. But, times being what they are, we now need to call upon our friends and fans to kick in a little to help us out."

Blip Festival's organizers hope to raise $5,000 by mid-December and are offering unique incentives to reach that goal: an exclusive 8bitpeoples mp3 compilation, limited edition shirts created by chip music visualists, tickets to an exclusive Blip Festival post-show performance, an LSDJ Game Boy cartridge preloaded with .sav files from Blip Festival artists, an exclusive Blip Festival 2009 ROM flyer, and more.

Artists scheduled to perform at Blip Festival 2009 so far (more artists TBA):

• Bit Shifter
• Chromix
• Disasterpeace
• Failotron
• Fighter X
• I, Cactus
• Je Deviens DJ En Trois Jours
• Leeni
• Little-scale
• Nullsleep
• Rainbowdragoneyes
• The Hunters
• The J. Arthur Keenes Band

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've neglected to write about gravity-defying platformer VVVVVV here thus far, but I have a good excuse to bring it up now! Terry Cavanagh, the indie game developer behind well-received, free titles like Don't Look Back and Judith, announced that he's taking a different approach for his next release in order to pay for IGF submission fees.

"My original plan with VVVVVV was to look for a sponsorship, but it’s grown too big for that to really be realistic," says Cavanagh. "In any case, I find it hard to imagine it with a sponsor’s logo on the front, surrounded by ads."

He continues, "So, recently I’ve decided that I want to try something else -- I’m going to sell VVVVVV as shareware. It’s a big, scary decision to make, but it’s pretty much the only shot I have at this point at continuing to do what I love into the future!"

Cavanagh explains that he's made developed games as a full-time job for the past two years, and he's long since run out of his savings from previous work and his money from a loan taken out a year ago. He expects he'll need to stop making games full time and begin dealing with his debts "very soon."

Though the Irish developer is unable to take advantage of the U.S.-only Kickstarter platform, he's offering similar donation rewards, promising game copies, beta access, and in-game credits depending on the size of your contributions.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

It's actually been almost a month since the last GameSetLinks, and I'm not even remotely caught up on the RSS feeds of doom. But hey, nobody else really seems to link a lot of these interesting longer-form pieces, still, and with Eric C. taking care of the smart pop culture visual-ish links, I can do some of these, right?

This largely somewhat ancient set includes Justin Hall on morphing his biz model, Mika Salmi on 'media as service' and how it relates to games, Jane McGonigal on making a game of injury recovery, and a variety of other fun things.

Hun gry hippos:

just in teractive: GameLayers from PMOG to Dictator Wars
Justin Hall gives useful feedback about the failure of his company's Firefox plugin game and why he shifted to Facebook.

Two New Columns; Three Big Projects « Save the Robot – Chris Dahlen
Interesting, cos former GSW and current Edge Online columnist confirms he is one of the guys behind upcoming boutique game mag Killscreen, alongside the WSJ's Jamin Brophy-Warren and others. Look out for it.

The Xbox Massage-Makers: Money, Sex Toys & Indie Backlash - Xbox Live Indie Games - Kotaku
In case you missed, a well-researched Totilo piece about XBLIG and massager fun.

Crispy Gamer | The Jones Report: It's Hard Out There for a Game Journalist
I agree, but there's more good writing about games out there than ever before. So... I don't really know that it matters. Feel free to shout at me now.

Time To Change The Lens: Media As A Service | paidContent
Really interesting editorial by Mika Salmi that touches on Facebook games being software as a service - which they indeed are.

Avant Game: Super Better - or how to turn recovery into a multi-player experience
Super interesting - pretty sure there is a best-selling book in this.

You, Me, the Cubes, Kenji Eno, and Tokyo Curry | GameLife | Wired.com
Notable because you mustn't miss Eno's new WiiWare game - and it's nice to have game-related articles about curry.

The Undeniable Case For Pink Floyd: Rock Band | Edge Online
A rockingly good idea from Chris Dahlen, and one I would pick up in an instant.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Inspired by real-life forensic facial reconstruction, in which forensic artists recreate someone's face using their skull to get an idea of what they looked like alive, David Friedman enlisted his wife, an "amateur forensic reconstructionist", to draw the faces of three fictional but famous skeletons.

Above, we have Grim Fandango's calaca-style hero Manuel "Manny" Calavera, still grinning wide even with layers of skin stretched across his tall skull, and now with a fancy mustache. Friedman has also posted reconstructions for Skeletor and Jack Skellington.

If you remember The Excavation Of Mushroom Island, Logan Zawacki did something similar, except in reverse, showing what the excavated skeletons of Bowser, Birdo, Piranha Pete, and other Super Mario Bros. characters looked like. You can see 13 of them here.

[Via Super Punch]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wiley's Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture book series aims to show the relevance of philosophy in your life by expounding its ideas with familiar faces and examples from TV shows, movies, music, comics, and other media. Each edition focuses on a different pop culture phenomenon like Family Guy, 24, Lost, Twilight, and now Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough seeks to accomplish more than just examine the Square Enix series' philosophical issues and compare Mages and Moogles with Machiavelli and Marx; it also claims to give you "a psychological advantage -- or at least a philosophical one -- against your Final Fantasy enemies."

Promising essays written by "academics from around the world", the paperback tackles major moral theories, nihilism, madness, environmental ethics, shintoism, and the purpose of life. It also asks entertaining questions like these:

• Does Cloud really exist (or should we really care)?
• Is Kefka really insane?
• Do game characters fear death?
• Are Moogles part of a socialist conspiracy?
• Does the end of the game justify the means?

You can read an excerpt and find more information on the 240-page book at Wiley's product page for Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't seen those "Human Tetris" videos from Japan (or the U.S. game show equivalent Hole in the Wall), the concept centers around an approaching wall with a cutout that players can fit through if they strike and hold the right pose.

Tampa coin-op studio Titan 4 Games built Silhouette, a gesture-based video game based on that concept, using Softkinetic's 3D gesture recognition software platform iisu. The middleware uses a 3D depth sensing camera to translate players' movements into the game, posing an on-screen character to meet an incoming wall.

Titan 4 Games expects to launch "new products based on the iisu technology", presumably including Silhouette, in the first half of 2010.

[Via Arcade Heroes]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[We round up the top console digital download news of the last week from GamerBytes, including brand-new game announcements and scoops from the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, PSP Minis and DSiWare.]

Well, this week we'll be seeing the hardcore card battle game Panzer Generals and the incredibly casual game Tower Bloxx Deluxe for Xbox Live Arcade, and finally, finally, Trine is making its way to the United States on the PlayStation Network.

But over the past few days, there's been a bunch of other neat news in the console/handheld digital download space, including our regular monthly XBLA and PSN sales round-ups, new info on Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth for WiiWare, and Globulous coming to DSiWare.

Here's the top stories in the digital download space over the last seven days:

GamerBytes Originals

In-Depth: Xbox Live Arcade Sales Analysis, September 2009
"GamerBytes editor Ryan Langley examines September 2009's Xbox Live Arcade debuts and continuing successes, with charts and leaderboard data -- to find out what digital XBLA titles are flourishing into the Autumn."

In-Depth: North American PlayStation Network Sales Analysis, September 2009
"Following our look at Xbox Live Arcade, we now look at the top 10 digitally downloaded PlayStation 3 games for PlayStation Network."

Store Updates

XBLA Update - Axel & Pixel, Sam & Max: Beyond Time And Space, Hasbro Bargains
NA PSN Store Update - Mushroom Wars, Buzz Jr. Monster Rally, Topatoi, Detuned, Tomb Raider: TLR
EU PSN Store Update - Mushroom Wars, Wipeout HD Bundle, Detuned, UNO, Yeti Sports
NA Nintendo Update - Pulse Pinball DSi, Gravitronix, Final Fight 2
EU Nintendo Update - Little Tournament Over Younder, Heron: Steam Machine, Viking Invasion, Wakugumi, Return Of The Jedi

Microsoft (Xbox Live Arcade, XBL Indie Games)

Lead & Gold Shoots From The Hip
"New developer Fatshark are looking to break into the digital realm with a new team-based multiplayer game. The twist? It's set in the Wild West."

Indie Watch: Weapon Of Choice Lowers Price
"Nathan Fouts' top rating Indie Game Weapon Of Choice has dropped its price from its original 400MSP ($5) price point to the now affordable 240MSP ($3)."

XBL Indie Watch - Go! Go! Ninja Bros
"Indie Developer Dot Zo Games have been pushing out a few Xbox Live Indie Games over the past couple of months - but today's release truly shines above the rest."

Sony (PlayStation Network, PSP Minis)

Madden NFL Arcade Hits In December, First Screens
"Back in August, the topic of a Madden NFL Arcade game popped up in an earnings report. Now the game has officially been announced, and the first screens are here."

Nintendo (WiiWare, DSiWare)

First Screens Of Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth Emerge
"The latest issue of Famitsu Magazine has revealed the first information of Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, a dramatically overhauled version of the original Game Boy game."

Dragon's Lair Coming To DSiWare
"After some potentially less interesting WiiWare titles like Word Searcher, Digital Leisure is going into the back catalog, and serving up some Dragon's Lair on DSiWare."

Have A Globulos Party On Your DSi
"Web developer GlobZ have now revealed that their popular web game Globulos will be coming to DSiWare, complete with all the turn-based sports you'll ever need."

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Software 3D Dot Game Heroes isn't ripping off paying tribute to just The Legend of Zelda; no, the game also gives a nod to dozens of other classics by recreating their Japanese packaging illustrations in its loading screens.

Along with recalling boxarts from popular video game series in Japan like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, the loading screens feature cover/cart scenes from games like Ghosts 'n Goblins, The Tower of Druaga, and Wizardry, as pointed out by Japanese blogger Maxell011 (NSFW images in the sidebar).

You can see more boxart and loading screen comparisons below:

[Via Neo2046]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

[Microsoft and Sony are readying their answers to the Wii in Project Natal and the "wand." With this midstream change in strategy, are we essentially about to enter a new console generation? Our own Kris Graft investigates...]

We are on the verge of console wars phase 2.0. I'm referring specifically to how the big three console makers -- Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo -- are preparing for a three-console motion-sensing controller war. And strangely enough, all three solutions are completely legit. Who could have predicted that five years ago?

Of course, it was Nintendo that fired the shot heard 'round the world. Remember when Nintendo unveiled the "Revolution" back in 2005? Coming off of the missteps the company took with the N64 and GameCube, it was common opinion that the company had officially lost its mind -- psychosis was seemingly confirmed when Nintendo named it "Wii."

But over 50 million Wiis sold later, Nintendo's proclamation that it would create disruptive technology didn't seem like empty words, but a real concept engineered and marketed pretty brilliantly. Now, Microsoft and Sony are readying to launch their answer to the mass market question that Nintendo addressed three years ago with the Wii.

With Microsoft's Project Natal 3D camera/multi-array microphone and Sony's motion control wand/camera solution, industry watchers expect new input devices to help extend the life of the current console generation well beyond the typical five-year lifecycle. High-definition consoles are dropping in price, and once Project Natal and Sony's motion controller arrive, we could essentially have three "Wiis" on the market.

Are Sony and Microsoft wise to implement such a major strategy shift at this point in time? And why are they even trying such a paradigm shift? The answers depend on a few important unknowns -- but let's go through what Nintendo's competitors bring to the table, before passing judgment.

Microsoft's Project Natal

Microsoft is investing a lot of time, money, and resources into Project Natal. The company has said that it plans on essentially re-launching the Xbox 360 when Project Natal is ready to hit market, as if to say, "Forget what you knew, this is what we're about now." Microsoft is really going for a fundamental change of strategy in terms of marketing and game development as it aggressively targets a wide scope of gamers and non-gamers.

Two major unknown factors for Project Natal's success are launch games that are easy, fun, and show off the new hardware to positive effect (Wii Sports put into practice just how important this is), and the specifics of the device's marketing strategy (Will games be packed in? Is there going to be a revised Xbox 360 to launch alongside Natal?).

If either of these aspects are poorly executed, it'll be exceedingly difficult to overcome the public mindset that the Wii is the motion controlled gaming machine for the masses. Not only that, but Microsoft will also have to convince potential customers that they need a 3D camera for their Xbox 360, and talking the average Walmart shopper into that proposition is a tough task.

A third major unknown factor is price, which is still up in the air. A Variety quote from Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division honcho Robbie Bach made me a bit nervous: "Relative to Natal, we’ll see how the pricing cost works out. But people should except that it will go through the usual price curve."

When you start talking about "price curves" for add-ons, I have to wonder just how much this thing is going to cost? The quote could mean nothing at all -- all electronics follow some kind of price curve. But again, when you're up against Nintendo, whose Wii and its motion-sensing controllers have appeared in everything from Tropic Thunder to nursing homes, you've got a pretty big wall to climb, so you better price this controller for the masses at a mass market price.

(Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter recently told IndustryGamers that he believes Project Natal will cost just $50, and Sony's wand to be no more than $100.)

That said, the fact that both the Wii and Project Natal are capable of sensing motion is pretty much where the similarities end, as far as the two technologies go. Project Natal works really, really well for certain types of games, especially thanks to the depth sensing capabilities of the infrared camera in Natal, and major publishers who've signed on at this state are convinced that Microsoft can make something happen.

Sony's Motion Controller

Sony has said that it plans on releasing its motion controller sometime in the spring of next year. We still know relatively little about it -- like Project Natal, we don't even have an official name for the device. At this point, Sony doesn't appear to be planning an all-out re-defining of its console, but Sony Computer Entertainment chief Kaz Hirai has said that he intends the motion controller to be a "second standard controller" for PS3.

Already, Sony has said certain games, such as LittleBigPlanet, will get software updates that will add motion controller capabilities, something that Project Natal will likely not offer, due to the difficulty of making such changes, Microsoft has said. Also, Capcom said that it will release a version of Resident Evil 5 that will support Sony's wand controller.

Sony is walking a careful line, trying to offer a solution to make games more accessible, while not alienating PlayStation's large base of core gamers. The company has been clear about the inclusion of the hardcore PlayStation gamer in its "magic wand" plans. It's a focused and rather safe strategy that will potentially turn the PS3 into a high-def Wii with additional camera-related effects possible - although the games will need both a PlayStation Eye camera and the motion controller, making its setup more complex than some of the other solutions.

Like Microsoft, pricing, marketing, and software will be crucial components for Sony's motion controller to be successful. Are we going to see a PS3 motion control console bundle? Will games be packed in with the device? What kind of third-party games will we see? It looks like Microsoft and Sony both announced this hardware relatively early compared to game development, in order to start the hype early.

Now What?

Nintendo Wii's sales numbers are declining, and now there's the concern that the company might not be able to hit its Wii unit sales target for this fiscal year. Sony and Microsoft looked to the Wii at the height of the hype and have developed their direct answers to the Wii, but with Wii unit sales in decline here in the U.S. and Japan, should Microsoft and Sony worry that people are now "over" motion control?

Nah. People aren't over motion control any more than they are over traditional controllers. They're all just input devices, and what matters is implementation. The landscape of the games industry is littered with peripherals that failed because they didn't have good software to go with them, or because they were too pricey, and many of those failures were nowhere near as capable and flexible as Project Natal and Sony's motion controller appear to be. And both of the companies seem to be extremely committed to these new devices.

Nintendo has no real reason to change its strategy to counteract competitors' moves. It's still the hardware sales leader, outselling Xbox 360 and PS3 regularly (although the PS3 outsold the Wii in Japan in September thanks to Sony's price cuts). Nintendo has already taken a crucial step in keeping the Wii competitive by lowering its price $50 to $199.

If all goes well, Microsoft and Sony will initiate more growth in the industry, and bring new gamers into the fold with lower-priced consoles and more accessible input methods. All three console makers offer different motion control-based strategies, and don't necessarily overlap in what they will ultimately offer consumers.

But the impact that Sony's and Microsoft's controller have on the industry might be limited because the fact remains that they are both afterthought add-ons. They're supplemental controllers that were not at the core of the company's console strategy from the get-go. This contrasts against the Wii remote, which is a central part of the Wii console experience. If Sony and Microsoft really want their controllers to set some kind of standard, they're going to have make like Nintendo and take some real risks that will have them rise to heaven or sink to hell, as Hiroshi Yamauchi might put it.

We'll probably see some fantastic interactive experiences coming from both the Sony motion controller and Project Natal. But just how necessary is it to introduce these new control methods mid-cycle? Why are Sony and Microsoft doing it?

Analyst Doug Creutz with Cowen and Company recently told us that he thought Project Natal is "a technological solution in search of a problem." Although Creutz in particular found Sony's solution more practical, the same argument could be said about both Sony and Microsoft's new devices.

So the question is "why now?" Microsoft says it's introducing Natal to "break down barriers" of gaming. Sony says the motion controller is meant to "add to the PS3's interactive capabilities." This is certainly the most proactive that we've seen Microsoft and Sony at this point in a console cycle. But after these motion controller launches, is it really the same console cycle?

The answer is that for Sony and Microsoft, motion controllers are their next-gen consoles. And it's a damn sight easier than launching Xbox 720 or PS4. They can debut these peripherals without needing to engineer completely new boxes for consumers, potentially bundle them over time, and they have a much better chance at getting exclusive games, thanks to the specificity of the hardware (something that's happened a lot for the Wii). Thus, both hardware manufacturers and publishers like EA see these controllers sparking new interest in Xbox 360 and PS3, which will delay the next dreaded console transition for another few years.

Are these new devices expensive to develop and support? Sure. But it's still cheaper than launching a whole new system, and that's why Natal vs. PS3 Motion Controller vs. Wii MotionPlus (another incremental hardware upgrade we haven't mentioned!) is really the next-gen console war by another name. Now it's just a matter of sitting back and watching the arms flail from the comfort of my couch. My limbs are getting tired just thinking about it.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

IGF finalist Eufloria (formerly Dyson) releases on Steam and other major outlets like Direct2Drive tomorrow, and in preparation for the "ambient real-time strategy game's" debut, developers Rudolf Kremers and Alex May have released a new trailer and demo for the title.

Aside from its name change, the game has changed much from its free IGF release, now featuring new play modes, unit types, AI, and more. This commercial edition also has a new user interface and a soundtrack with over two hours of music composed by Brian "Milieu" Grainger.

You can download the demo from Eufloria's official site. If you decide to pick up the game, there's still time to get a 25 percent discount by preordering on Steam, too.

[Via IndieGames]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The end of another seven days, so it's time to go through the top full-length features of the past week on big sister site Gamasutra, plus some GameCareerGuide features du jour.

These would include some genuinely interesting interviews with Randy Pitchford (about Gearbox and Borderlands) and Rex Ishibashi (about his work heading up EA Japan), as well as pieces on Osiris and game design, the necessity to iterate in game creation, making games for Android, and several other neat GCG pieces.

Here we go:

EA Takes Japan: An Interview With Rex Ishibashi
"Publishing giant Electronic Arts is getting more aggressive in Japan once more, thanks to Eastern-targeted games such as Tsumuji, and Gamasutra speaks in-depth to EA Japan veteran and head Rex Ishibashi on the market and the company's plans there."

Making Better Games Through Iteration
"Though it may seem self-evident, rapid iteration is a great tool for creation small games, and Mobile Pie's Will Luton discusses how his team made iPhone title B-Boy Brawl iteratively, after initial failure through too much rigidity."

Sponsored Feature: Fluid Simulation for Video Games (Part 1)
"This sponsored feature, part of Intel's Visual Computing site and written by Dr. Michael J. Gourlay of the University of Central Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, begins a multi-part series that explains fluid dynamics and its simulation techniques."

The Birth of Collecting: The Osiris Archetype In Games
"Jason Johnson looks to the mythological Egyptian god Osiris to draw an inconspicuous parallel between the story of the supernatural being and the practice of collecting objects in video games."

Developing Games for Android
"Amid the iPhone game development gold rush, developer Derek James checks out the hooky, Java-based Android OS from Google, discussing advantages and disadvantages."

The Illusions We Make: Gearbox's Randy Pitchford
"Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford knows what he likes and what he does not. Here, the outspoken designer describes the studio's latest game, Borderlands, as the game he's 'been wanting to make for 10 years.'"

GCG: Educational Fantasy
"Lindsay Grace discusses the challenges facing educational game design, and how the practical matters of education intersect the enveloping fantasy we expect from games."

GCG: Postmortem - Lies and Seductions
"In this postmortem, Petri Lankoski discusses the making of Lies and Seductions, an adventure game inspired by the novel Dangerous Liaisons."

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Nintendo's relative disinterest in online multiplayer, achievements and user-generated content sometimes perplexes -- but Shigeru Miyamoto tells our own Leigh Alexander why the company's stance makes sense.]

Nintendo's particular approach to innovation often seems on the surface to fly in the face of widely-popular trends.

For example, the Wii's motion controls were met with bemusement from the traditional market at first -- only to become perhaps the era's most significant development in the mainstreaming of video games. Now the core consoles are playing catch-up.

And these days, when everything must be multiplayer, social and networked, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the most multiplayer-focused Mario yet, focuses solely on living room local play, thanks to the vision of legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

At a roundtable in New York yesterday, attended by press outlets including Gamasutra, Miyamoto was asked for his opinion on many prevailing industry trends, and his answers helped illuminate a company that often surprises, and is always an individual.

No Achievements? No Leaderboards?

Miyamoto was nonplussed when asked why Nintendo games have also generally decided to take a pass on the explosive trend of social features like leaderboards and online achievements.

"I'm not particularly well versed in the Xbox 360 achievement system," the designer admitted. "I spend most of my time working on my own games, and don't have a lot of time to look at what other people are doing."

But as far as the meat of an achievements system -- gaining rewards for accomplishing extra tasks -- Miyamoto says it's something he's always done. "The idea of playing the game in a particular way and having it unlock a special prize that rewards you... it feels like something we've been doing for the last 15-20 years," he said.

The doesn't mean Nintendo is disinterested in further developing internet-connected experiences, Miyamoto said: "We do have an interest in doing things that take advantage of networked devices."

"We could've made an online multiplayer Mario game... but the effort and resources you devote to putting a game like that on line will then result in you balancing out the resources [and sacrificing] something somewhere else in the game," he added.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is oriented specifically around the face-to-face experience -- "That being said, in the future there is definitely the possibility for exploring what can be done with more remote connected gameplay," Miyamoto said.

No Digital Distro Rush?

The simplicity of New Super Mario Bros. Wii gives it an updated old-school feel, and on either rival console, such a game would perhaps be a good candidate for release as a digital download.

But not only is Nintendo going strictly for the disc-based route, it's joyfully embracing physical software with a special red box for the game -- the first red package ever for a Wii game, for which the standard is always white.

"The business overall is still very much a package-based business," said Miyamoto. "I'm the kind of person who likes to have a physical object, rather than a digital product. I prefer to have something physical I can hold in my hand, particularly when it's a nice red package like this!"

No User-Generated Content?

Many reporters in attendance at Miyamoto's roundtable wanted to know when a Mario game would feature user-created content options, such as a level editor and the option to share and play creations online, given the prolific user-generated content trend and the success of LittleBigPlanet.

"It is an area that I have a lot of interest in," said Miyamoto. "I think the sidescrolling Mario games in particular are very well-suited to that type of idea... early on, we did have a lot of discussions about how to enable that type of level creation."

That was the impetus behind recent Flipnote Studio on DSi, he added. "I think that those types of interactive experiences are going to broaden, and we'll see a lot more user-generated content going forward," said Miyamoto. "I've always had an interest in those creative tools."

And What About That Help System?

Miyamoto also spent time demonstrating Nintendo's controversial "Super Guide" pop-up hint system for New Super Mario Bros Wii -- after eight deaths, the player has the option to turn on the feature that demonstrates solutions to the player in the form of a help video. Players can even be walked through a difficult level in its entirety, and continue from there.

It's not obligatory to use it, of course, and Miyamoto said the presence of the help system actually serves as an additional motivator for players who like a challenge. "If you die eight times in one level the Super Guide block appears... but I find if that happens, I feel guilty that I let that happen."

"I've already done this bad -- now I definitely have to clear this level on my own," the designer laughed. "And people who clear every level without ever having a hint block appear will get a special something on the title screen after they've finished."

The Super Guide never shows the way to secrets, bonuses and collectibles, and players who gather all of those are rewarded, too. One highlight of the demonstration day yesterday was getting to see the special bonus videos users can unlock when they gather Star Coins.

Developed by the game's testers, they show feats of highly-skilled playthroughs, like making it through a whole level without ever touching the ground, or two buddies tandem-tossing a third player through the entirety of a level -- while still ensuring that third player collects all the level's rewards.

With such a feature, gameplay demonstration videos that the hardest-core players might have dismissed as hand-holding actually serve the purpose of tickling the imagination -- it's easy to imagine users creating and uploading their own gameplay feats via YouTube.

Nintendo's stubborn tendency to pave its own road despite what trends the market favors may puzzle traditional consumers from time to time, but the result is often a sense that virtuosos like Miyamoto know things the rest of the world doesn't. This uniqueness is perhaps the biggest factor that's enabled Nintendo to quietly steal this console generation -- and in many ways, pave the path for the next one.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[‘Design Diversions’ is a biweekly new GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Andrew Vanden Bossche. It looks at the unexpected moments when games take us behind the scenes, and the details of how game design engages us. This time - a discussion of careful health management in two recent high-profile games.]

Live forever or die until you do. Nobody wants to die, but death is inevitable.

Death is when you drop the controller and sigh—or fling it across the room. Frustration is the consequence of loss. It means starting over, acknowledging failure, and trying to learn from your mistakes.

Most games that have you take on someone's life also have a way to measure it, a short space between life and death often called a health bar. In whatever form it takes, it is a measure of how many mistakes the player can make before having to start over. It’s a simple concept, but it can lead to some rather complex player choices and is often fundamental to the pacing of an entire game.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Half Life 2 are different games in many respects but one thing they have in common is tightly controlled pacing centered around the loss and recovery of health. While Ninja Gaiden uses a regenerative health system and Half Life 2 uses a more traditional system of scattered health items, the different systems create a surprisingly similar feeling of tension and require similar feats of endurance from the player. Both use health to determine how skillful a player has to be at staying alive and both force split-second critical thinking.

No More Quarters

Health is seeing some of the same sorts of changes that lives and continues did when videogames moved from arcades to home systems and designers had to rethink the utility of that system now that players no longer needed to exchange money for life. As regenerating health becomes more widespread, it is offering new possibilities for designing how health is handled, and what system best serves the pacing needs of a particular game.

Regenerating health is most commonly associated with the run and hide cover system common to first and third person console shooters, but it has other applications as well. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 may have regenerating health, but it because this regeneration doesn't occur during combat, it doesn’t encourage this sort of behavior. NGS2 actually plays more like a game with static health for these reasons.

The static model of scattered health packs at determined intervals, popular in games such as HL2, requires the player to survive a specifically determined amount of combat before getting the opportunity to heal. It’s an informal checkpoint system, in contrast to NGS2’s formal health system that heals the player after every fight but retains permanent damage that is only healed at save points.

A Life or Death Tempo

In practice the different systems create similar pacing, with differences shaped to the unique nature of each particular experience. In HL2, medkits are there to give players a reason to explore and investigate their environment. HL2 makes physically picking up the health items part of the gameplay. This makes the world more interactive, a natural progression for game that had so much care placed in its physics engine. Tangible health helps bring the world around the player to life.

NGS2, on the other hand, is almost exclusively action based, even more so than the Xbox 360 original. There is so little exploration in the game that it would be a pointless task for the player to pick up health after combat. NGS2 does have some health items hidden in nooks and crannies, but they aren’t really required and of course are not the only way of restoring health. NGS2 is less a living world and more an action movie. It comes to life through cinematic camera angles and fast paced action, both of which play poorly with exploration.

Tension

HL2, or any other game based around a static health system, is really only regeneration by a different name. It’s simply that regeneration only occurs when the designers want the player to. In HL2 it creates a tension of endurance. You know that as long as you press forward, there will be more health, but you don’t know when or where it will be. You don’t have to stop and wait, but you do have to be careful. HL2 wants players to constantly move forward, but it doesn’t let them get overconfident.

NGS2 has a combination of permanent and temporary damage that allows the player some leeway in damage taken but still penalizing sloppy behavior on an individual fight. Each encounter with enemies is treated as a discrete fight, at the end of which the character is healed. However, each attack does a small amount of permanent damage that you have to live with until the next save point.

Without this system, it would be possible for a player to do very well or very poorly against a wave of enemies and still end with the same result. In NGS2 you can’t do anything but move forward (because of the way health is designed) but you still must be proficient at blocking and dodging.

The Psychology of Danger

The point of showing the health bar to the player is to provide information about how much danger you are in. It’s an important tool for making judgments and weighing risks. A single, massive health bar would make the first fights boring and the last ones exhausting. The system as it stands provides a more varied experience of ups and downs, reliving tension while still keeping the player on their toes.

Forcing the players to deal with low amounts of health is part of the beauty of the system. Players act differently when they’re close to death. It forces more careful behavior. For example, in HL2 low health might force you to explore new areas looking for health because you messed up and took too much damage. In NGS2, low health will encourage defensive play and might force the player to use items to get out of trouble.

Encouraging critical thinking out of players is part of the reason to have health in the first place. With the combination of permanent and temporary damage, you experience it nearly every fight, and as your permanent health decreases, you experience it more often. It also forces the player to be able to perform well against sustained challenges. Screw up too much on the first fight, and you won’t be able to survive the next.

Who Wants to Live Forever, Anyway?

There’s a lot of leeway here, but also a fair amount of strictness. It’s not enough to just survive. This pacing, these demands made on the player, the minimum requirement of performance, all of this is a direct consequence of the health bar. A huge amount of gameplay is defined by a deceptively simple system. In fact, I often found from my own personal experience that I took drastically less damage at low health than at full. At full health, it’s easy to get lazy, but when it’s life or death you simply play better.

Enemy design, and the damage of their attacks, the number of waves between an end of combat heal, and the number of encounters that lie between one save point and the next all have to be carefully paced to make this system worth anything at all. So in this sense, the bar itself is rather simple, and works effectively because of the design around it. This design is not really any different from a health pack model. It’s simply an automatic restoration rather than a manual one.

This design is based on emotional feedback. The serenity of landing a constant stream of hits. The satisfaction of eliminating an enemy. Wariness over surrounding foes. Frustration over being hit and having a combo interrupted, which a block could have avoided. Confidence at high health, fear at low health. Tension during battle, relief afterwards. All this, through a little blue bar.

[Andrew Vanden Bossche is a freelance writer and student. He has a blog called Mammon Machine, which discusses videogames and how he couldn’t eat for a week after playing Saya no Uta, and can be reached at AndrewVandenB@gmail.com]

Posted by Andrew Vanden Bossche at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Our own Brandon Sheffield sat down with Nippon Ichi president and COO Souhei Niikawa and Disgaea team development lead Masahiro Yamamoto to discuss the SRPG-focused company's new PSP game, as well as its philosophy and operating practices.]

For over 15 years, Japanese developer and publisher Nippon Ichi Software has been releasing hardcore-targeted RPGs, particularly strategy RPGs like the successful Disgaea series.

Most recently, the team behind Disgaea has announced its newest game, Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku (which Siliconera translates as Absolute Hero Modding Project), a PSP dungeon-crawling action RPG that -- like many other Nippon Ichi games -- features plenty of randomly-generated content.

We talked with NIS president and COO Souhei Niikawa and Disgaea team development lead Masahiro Yamamoto to discuss the small company's attitude toward game development, its RPG success, and why throwing characters is such a big deal in its titles:

Your focus has been on RPGs, particularly Disgaea. Where will you focus going forward?

Souhei Niikawa: Well, RPGs remain a popular genre for the hardcore audience, so I think that RPGs will still be a central part of our strategy.

Disgaea is certainly an important title for Nippon Ichi. We'll continue to grow that game by doing what's best for that particular series. Placing our fortunes on nothing but Disgaea wouldn't be right at all. For example, we want to grow this new game in the same way that we've grown Disgaea. We want to make games that are different from Disgaea, of course, but sell just as well as that.

A lot of Nippon Ichi's character designs have "moe" and "loli" elements. Will that continue? Has for the market for that become smaller?

SN: We made games for the people who play them. If the audience's needs shift away from moe or loli, then we'd certainly go with a different design. We still think there's a demand for that, though, so it will probably continue. From the creator's perspective, we think it's very important to keep trying new things, and as a result, we naturally don't want to stick with any one thing for too long.

What made you adopt that style in the beginning? Did it start out with what the development team liked?

SN: Yes. Well, it's undeniable that a large part of our audience is what people would call game otaku, or hardcore game fans. So we want to make what they want, but at the same time, we're all pretty hardcore too. So, there's that. (laughs)

The first Disgaea really seemed to be designed around picking up and throwing characters. That influenced the rest of the dungeon design and combos in battle. Would you agree with that?

SN: Certainly. Well, not just with Disgaea, but it's been an important aspect of a lot of our games, including this one here. It's been that way from around that time.

It's sort of a Nippon Ichi trademark.

SN: Yeah. We're all about throwing people. (laughs) Using that as a vital tactical tool.

Where did the idea for that come from?

SN: The original task before us was to figure out how this game would be different from the rest. We needed some strong and unique gameplay aspect that would give this project some sort of individual hook. I think it's something that's worked, as you can see how the series has progressed from 1 to 3.

Masahiro Yamamoto: I don't really remember the individual process that led to the pick-up-and-throw idea, but we were coming up with all kinds of ideas to put in the game and make it unique.

The original Disgaea is full of original little ideas like that, but it's undeniable that the throwing system is the idea that stuck out the most in gamers' minds once it came out. It's the result of that kind of thought process.

Just thinking about it by itself, it's hard to conceptualize how it'd be fun. How did you decide that the feature was so important to have?

MY: Well, we're a very small company, and none of the teams behind our projects is particularly large. That structure allows individuals to test out assorted ideas pretty quickly as they come up with them, then show them around to see what the rest of the team thinks.

I don't think that teams the size of what you have for Final Fantasy would be able to try out such risky things within development. I think that's one of the merits of having a small company like ours; it's easier to try new challenges, and that's how a lot of features in our games are born.

You go through a lot of iterations.

MY: I think so, yeah.

How much content is too much for one game? With the item world, you could keep going forever. How do you know when to stop?

SN: I guess you could say it's when we feel like there's nothing left to add to the gameplay.

MY: Oh, we never really stop. (laughs) We put so much stuff into each project, and eventually we get to a point where we ask ourselves, "Do we really need all this?"

When a majority of staffers start answering, "I'm not sure" to that question, that's when we stop. (laughs) That's pretty much how it works.

We really think that having a lot to explore in our games is very important -- especially with the Disgaea series, where it's become kind of a hallmark. Of course, we definitely can't take that approach with all of our titles; instead, we find different ways of making the games engaging and fun to our audience.

I was wondering if you're concerned that if you give too much, there might not be any need to buy sequels.

MY: That's not really much of a worry to us. The way we see it, in fact, most of audience goes through our games pretty quickly, especially the really hardcore people who support the Disgaea series. It's really something, the amount of time they put into playing our stuff. I wouldn't call it a big worry.

Nippon Ichi is pretty much the only game company in Gifu Prefecture. Do you think your company has any regional flavor since you're isolated from other developers?

SN: Well, the Internet is everywhere, and we're a game company, after all, so it's certainly not an inconvenience or anything.

I would say [our flavor] is not in the location so much as our style of company. Since we're kind of out in the country and have small development teams, that helps to add individuality to our games.

In Tokyo, you have a lot of developers who have gone from company to company, quitting one job and picking up another one right off. I think the fact that we've not experienced that as much helps us keep consistent in the sorts of games we release.

Do your staffers come from all over Japan?

SN: Yes. We don't really headhunt from other companies or anything. Sometimes we hire new grads who apply to our company; sometimes we get people who have previous experience with other game companies.

Finally, when you start a new game, from what point do you begin -- an idea, a list of features? What is your jumping-off point?

MY: In the beginning, there's only an outline, a very general idea of what kind of game we want to make -- what kind of world we want, for example. Then things just expand off from there, and eventually we figure out what sort of genre would be best, like how this game turned out to be a dungeon RPG. That's how things begin.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days, as well as any notable features on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The delights in this edition include a whipping game (for real), a blurry vertical shooter with gorillas in it, a game that features a jumping shark, a new release from the popular Flash game development team Nitrome, and an experimental project from Hempuli that explores the issue of drug addiction and their side effects.

Game Pick: 'Angry Gorilla Machine Monsters' (Andrew Brophy, freeware)
"Angry Gorilla Machine Monsters may be a simple shmup where gameplay is concerned, but the work Andrew has put into the presentation makes it well worth a go. His signature blurring effect is there in full force, complimented by some brilliant design choices. After my fifth go, I was still coming up against enemies I hadn't seen before - the baddie deployment is completely random. Short but sweet, give it a shot."

Game Pick: 'WhipCrack' (Scott Peterson, commercial indie - demo available)
"Whipcrack may appear to be another space shooter (or space whipper, as the case may be) but there's a lot more going on here - it's actually more of a puzzler in shooter clothing. The task is to destroy aliens, give them to your master Recycler Twelve to harvest the energy, then use that to rebuild the downed communications tower. If you're a little dubious about the Xbox Live Indie Games collection, this may well change your mind. WhipCrack is a great twist on the shooter genre."

Game Pick: 'Miami Shark' (Mausland Entertainment, browser)
"Miami Shark is all about causing destruction by leaping out of the water and eating men, women, children, swans, boats, helicopters, planes and space shuttles (amongst other things). It's wonderfully simple and really, could there possibly be anything more brilliant than pulling an entire jumbo jet out of the sky with your teeth? I think not. You have to give this a try - it's too hilarious to pass on."

Game Pick: 'Cave Chaos' (Nitrome, browser)
"You know those situations you sometimes find yourself in where you're in a cave and it suddenly starts falling down around you, and your only chance of survival is to run on a 2D plane, dodging falling barrels and the ghosts of various dead creatures? Cave Chaos is like those times - but in a game! See, those situations in real life are incredibly stressful and just a little bit scary, but playing this game takes all the stress out of it and actually makes it really fun."

Game Pick: 'Addicsjon' (Arvi Teikari, freeware)
"Addicsjon is another experimental project by the developer of G-E-N-E-R-I-C and FallOver, where you are in control of a drug addict who automatically tries to collect any pills he sees. Your objective is basically to guide him towards the white flag in each of the five levels included, although that can prove to be difficult as the protagonist doesn't really feel like cooperating with the player at all."

Posted by timw at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've already posted detailed accounts of all the games from Sense of Wonder Night 2009, Tokyo Game Show's exhibition of innovative and experimental indie games from around the world, but if you would like to see the actual presentations and Q&A sessions from the event, SOWN's organizers have posted videos from each of the 10 game presentations.

My favorite presentation from the bunch was Swarm Racer 3000 (video above) from Joseph White and Lexaloffle Games as it's an easily understood but still impressive concept, has a choice soundtrack, and the crowd seemed to come away impressed with the demonstration. The point of the game is to expand and contract your swarm to collect gems around the stage as quickly as possible while avoiding lasers and manipulating objects to get through safely.

Here's a list of SOWN's featured games with links to their respective developers' sites (games marked with an asterisks have playable builds available):

• Ball Carry, by Takuya Ono
• Shadow Physics, by Enemy Airship
• Incompatible BLOCK, by Jun Fujiki *
• You Only Live Once, by Marcus Richert *
• Swarm Racer 3000, by Joseph White
• para rail, by Kuniaki Watanabe and Onitama
• Transcend, by Zach Aikman
• ecolpit, by misi
• Hazard - The Journey of Life, by Alexander Bruce *
• His and Her Disconnected Conversations, by Himo *

Another presentation I enjoyed -- despite the game's text being in Japanese -- is Himo's His and Her Disconnected Conversations, in which you follow multiple conversations and match people with who they're talking to. As you read the different conversations, the different couples reveal different stories (e.g. love stages and argument stages over the course of a relationship). There's also a component that allows you to create and submit new conversations:

I also liked Takuya Ono's keyboard-controlled puzzler Ball Carry, even if it is a super simple concept that the developer admits is "something someone should have thought about long before" he did:

[Via IndieGames]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ahead of the game's multi-platform release on October 27th, Activision and Target will paint racecar driver Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 1 Chevrolet with a DJ Hero theme for his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race tomorrow at Charlotte, North Carolina's Lowe's Motor Speedway. When I think of DJ'ing, racecars aren't what immediately come to mind, but I guess there's a weird crossover in the audiences there?

Target has been a long time sponsor to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Truex Jr.'s Nascar racing team. The retailer also plans to set up a Target DJ Hero station for 10 days across the street from Lowe's Motor Speedway, inviting people to try out the turntable game. Truex Jr. will try his hands on the game himself during a special session at the kiosk tomorrow from 3:30 to 4:00.

"Playing video games has always been a favorite activity of mine, and I can't wait to get my hands on DJ Hero," says Truex, Jr. "We've had some great partners on our Chevy this year, including two of Activision's biggest hits, Guitar Hero Smash Hits and Guitar Hero 5. ... I know NASCAR fans are going to love both the game and our car."

Activision isn't the only game company that's surprisingly dressed up a racing car in the past month; as part of the LeMons: The Lamest Day 2009, an unusual racing event held at Garretsville, Ohio two weeks ago, 2slowracing outfitted a 1987 BMW E30 with The Behemoth's (Castle Crashers) plump Chicken mascot, inspired by Behemoth forum member Ajaykarat. It's beautiful:

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Realtime Worlds, A2M and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

A2M (Artificial Mind and Movement) Lead Level Designer
"A new major action/adventure production is starting in Montreal. Still in early development, the project offers a chance to contribute to a new IP. We are looking for an innovator in level design to create truly engaging levels."

BioWare Austin Gameplay Programmer
"BioWare, the newest member of the incredible family of EA studios, has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the award-winning Baldur's Gate, the Neverwinter Nights series, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Original BioWare-created IPs include Jade Empire, the critically acclaimed Mass Effect and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS. BioWare is hard at work on the epic fantasy RPG Dragon Age; and Star Wars: The Old Republic, our massively multiplayer online game being developed at BioWare Austin. "

Trion San Diego Senior Tools Programmer
"The Senior Tools Programmer is responsible for developing in-house tools and technologies to support development for the next generation of server-based gaming. Ideal candidates will have a broad range of game development experience including previous experience with Win32 tool development using MFC."

Activision: Lighting Technical Artist
"Seeking a new opportunity? We are currently hiring top talent for a soon to be announced project based on a successful Activision owned IP. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, including royalty plan and relocation assistance."

Realtime Worlds Game Designer
"Realtime Worlds, creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown, are looking for a contract UI artist to join our team on our next ground breaking online game, APB. This role will focus specifically on the design and creation of User Interface graphics, helping to create a modern and innovative interactive experience."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The latest issue of Gamesetwatch and Gamasutra sister publication Game Developer magazine includes a postmortem of Sucker Punch's Infamous, written by studio co-founder Chris Zimmerman.

Infamous, an electricity-themed open-world action game, was the first original property from Bellevue-based Sucker Punch since 2002, and the company's first title rendered in a relatively realistic visual style -- a distinction that led to surprising snags along the way, as revealed below.

The following excerpts from Game Developer magazine's recent postmortem, published in the October 2009 issue, illustrate how Sucker Punch grappled with the "cost of realism" and an early lack of vision, then focused on iteration to successfully launch the game.

Initial Lack of Vision

With the move into a considerably new tone of game, Sucker Punch started off with a hazy view of the game's underlying core -- which cost the team months of productivity early on:

"For the first year of the project, we really didn’t have much of an idea of what kind of game we were building. We were sure about some things -- that you played as a superhero, that the game took place in a city, that it was a T-rated game -- but beyond this, we weren’t sure of much. We described the game as a combination of Animal Crossing, the Sims, and Grand Theft Auto -- an action game with pervasive simulation elements."

"It isn’t surprising that this description didn’t exactly enlighten people -- we should have realized that our inability to articulate a crisp vision for the game meant that we didn’t have a clue what we were doing.

"Eventually, we wised up, realized how lost we were, decided that we were doing an action game, and started working on basic game play. Things progressed quickly from there; most of the innovative little gameplay scenarios were set aside, to be revisited once the core of the game was tight. A few of them even ended up in the game—like pedestrians spontaneously taking pictures of the hero. Overall, though, our lack of focus cost us months and months of work, pursuing what ultimately turned out to be discarded ideas."

Underestimating The Cost Of Realism

The switch to a different kind of game also had an impact on production, as Sucker Punch found that the realistic look targeted by Infamous required an entirely different -- and more expensive -- appro