Liquid Crystal

A trailer has appeared for Fumito Ueda and Team Ico’s next project.  Cleverly titled Trico, it is the third game developed by the team and looks to continue the “companionship” theme seen in their earlier projects.

Ico

Ico, their first game, presented players with the task of protecting and escaping with a young, often defenseless girl named Yorda.  She hindered progress, yet was necessary to progress.  A complicated set of emotions emerged from the frustration of keeping her safe while going on the treacherous journey together.  It was character development at a minimalistic level.  Not many games feature deep character development without the use of spoken dialogue.

Shadow of Colossus continued the theme with a horse named Agro, the hero’s sole ally.  Staying in line with the frustration (and depth) that comes with a realistic ally, Ueda noted that, “a real horse … doesn’t always obey. It’s not like a car or a motorcycle, it won’t always turn when you say ‘turn!’” Yet, Agro is essential to taking down some of the faster moving colossi.  After the fall of these titans, there’s a feeling of accomplishment and joy from working together with Agro, crushing any previous resentments towards the horse.

Trico, at this point, looks to blend Agro’s functionality with Yorda’s fragility.  The creature gently lifts the boy back to safety and transports him to a range of different areas.  Arrows can be seen sticking out of the creature’s side, impling there will be some sort of conflict.  I can only imagine the feeling of watching this creature become gravely injured after bonding with it.  Is Ueda developing a tragedy?

There’s an intangible quality about writing on paper.  It conforms to whatever dimension the mind is thinking in. The pressure and stroke of the pen add a layer of depth to various thoughts, while playful tracing and dotting help link ideas together.  It’s less about communicating ideas with others and more about creating a visual playground for your thoughts.  After all, not all thoughts are as clear as we’d like to believe.

I’ve been developing these ideas through the aid of many spiral notebooks. Each one is packed with a stream of thoughts in tangible form, yet the information they contain is next to useless.  The contents include formulas, matrices, ideas, and basic illustrations; most are scribbled upon to work out solutions.  The development journal also serves as a second display and allows me to escape the digitalized realm of the computer for one with more finesse.

How do you develop your thoughts? I’ve read stories similar to mine, while I see others working their thoughts out with Lego blocks or by letting their minds go while gazing at stars or tiles.

A screenshot from a previous rendition of dlr

Creativity cannot be scheduled.  It can come from all the time in the world or from no time at all.  Some thrive in open environments, while others build from restriction.  I’ve never really formally announced a game since beginning this blog.  I threw a post up earlier this year which mentioned the game and its lofty goals, but since then I’ve silenced the wire.  Since development can change so quickly and frequently, I don’t see the point, but with a project finally nearly completion, it’s time to say something.  So let’s get started.

For the past six months, I’ve been working on a project tentatively named “dlr.”  The original goal was to create an abstract playing field with few, if any, preconceptions and ever evolving gameplay.  Each game would be a new discovery.  Players could find games or make their own based on all of the random elements at work.  Unfortunately, it was a concept which was too difficult for me.  The project later evolved into a design where players would decipher patterns, but it was too complex and lacked the intuitiveness I was looking for.

Then several things happened.  I purchased a MacBook and decided to turn the experience into an exercise in minimalistic computing.  I had also tried Drop7, a falling blocks puzzle game with numbers.  While it wasn’t an amazing experience, it was a thoughtful one.  It made me re-evaluate the use of random variables and score.  Normally, I love scores.  In Wii Fit, I continuously practiced and worked my way to a perfect “555″ score in the soccer game.  I was initially enticed by Drop7’s simplicity, but learned it was anything but.  With so many variables, it’s nigh impossible to develop a gradual build up of skill.  I haven’t given up on Drop7, I’m still working hard to decipher some kind of logic behind it.  If nothing else, it’s helped me build a foundation for dlr.

With these lessons fresh in my mind, I set out to find the fun in dlr.  I peeled off layer upon layer of complexity and made the code flexible so I could try new ideas at a fast pace.  On a late night, I had found the fun I was looking for.

With the prototype of dlr nearing completion, the main hurdles ahead are balance and flow.  I hope to have a release candidate sent to Apple for evaluation by early summer.  Yes, it’s going to be for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

There’s been a lot of talk about simplifying gameplay.  Taking away features or buttons doesn’t necessarily lead to a simpler design, so what does?

Focused Design
Know exactly what the game is about.  What words can describe the design?  Virtua Fighter can be reduced to: fighting, attack, throw, block, and balance (in this case, rock-paper-scissors with unequal rewards).  The series has stayed true to these basic words throughout its many renditions.  Keep the number of words short; the fewer words, the more focused the design will end up.  If working on a team, this is especially important as it will help everyone understand the exact goal of the design.

Shadow of the Colossus is another example of a focused design which consists of exploration, boss battles, and puzzles.  The world is barren and void of life, constraining (in a good way) and directing the player into hunting down and defeating these giant creatures.  It’s a game that’s exclusively a series of boss battles and there’s no doubt that the entire design was based around these astounding colossi.

The Mega-Buster is a trick.

Minimalism
Mega Man 9 did something brave; it stripped most of the baggage that built up over the years.  It was pleasing to finally see the nonsensical mega-buster removed.  It was a gimmicky element that gave the player a false sense of building up strength.  In the end, it was still a shot, only slightly annoying due to having to hold a button down in anticipation of the next target.  With or without the mega-buster, it’s the same game!

When there are added abilities that are integral to the design, a stacking system can keep things simple by eliminating the needless input of switching through menu selections.  Metroid: Zero Mission continuously adds abilities, without needing to resort to a menu to switch them.  A simple, short ranged beam eventually becomes long ranged, gains the ability to freeze targets, can shoot through walls, and multiplies in strength throughout the game.  All of these abilities stack and negate the need to go through a menu, keeping the game’s flow going without pause.

Make the game work, not the player
David Sirlin made an excellent point in his critique of Street Fighter 4; despite trying to simplify the game, there’s still a “wall of execution” between the player and controls which prevents total engagement of the actual fighting.  It feels amazing to pull off a special move just in the brink of time.  Often though, it’s less about thinking about the special move, and more about getting the controls to trigger it.  The same goes with throws and counter-throws.  The window of input is less about fighting and more about some ridiculous exercise in precision.  When it comes down to it, Street Fighter 4 is more of the same: still fun, yet still with its barriers.  Consider this: where is the player’s mind when playing a game in a crucial situation?  Are they knowing what they want, but fighting to perform the said action? Or maybe they are flabbergasted and overwhelmed with the possible moves laid before them?  The human mind often works in threes.  Again, remember the value of rock-paper-scissors.

Starcraft is essentially Microsoft Windows in outer space.

Intuition
With Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo, Blizzard takes what people already know through using Windows or Mac OS X, and ingeniously applies it to a more entertaining design.  Pointing, clicking, and dragging via the mouse are all skills people quickly get acquainted with in the interface of today’s operating systems.  These games are essentially “fun” operating systems due to their intuitive and quick to learn design.  Blizzard didn’t create anything new, they simply applied what people already knew to the structure of their game design.  Due to this, Blizzard has seen phenomenal success in drawing new players into the mix while creating games that are easy to learn.

Another Game Developers’ Conference has come and gone. It didn’t provide me with the inspiration for a new game idea, but it did help me reevaluate and adjust the development on my current project.  Here are some of my favorites:

The Kidnapping
Satoru Iwata had a couple of anecdotes of Shigeru Miyamoto’s method of making games. One involved Miyamoto picking random employees who weren’t on the development team and then watching them play the game. Now playtesting is hardly a noteworthy practice, but its what Miyamoto does (or doesn’t do) that is of particular interest. Instead of asking the player questions or interacting with them, he quietly observes what’s going on. Many of Nintendo’s games are easy to pick up and play without instruction, perhaps this is why.

Finding the Fun
The other anecdote explained the importance of prototyping. Developers at Nintendo are often split into small teams. There they begin developing an idea and are told to, “find the fun.” These prototypes can be very simplistic; this gives the team a chance to focus on the core gameplay that will be the experience. Isolating and developing this core gameplay will lay the foundation for a larger project and serve as a guiding light.

Making the “Impossible” Possible
Hideo Kojima’s keynote walked through the history of Metal Gear. During the early development of the series, he was faced with a seemingly impossible barrier. He was initially assigned to develop a combat game on the old MSX hardware. Faced with severe limitations of the hardware, the number of possible elements had to stay small. The answer? Create a stealth action game. While Kojima was faced with hardware limitations, it’s a story that can played out in a number of different scenarios.

Fez!
Finally, there was Fez. I’ll let the trailer do the talking…

FEZ TRAILER 2 from fish on Vimeo.

This is really cool.  There haven’t been many quality 2.5D games as of late.  Super Paper Mario was a cumbersome experience at best, while Fez is still a ways off from release. In the meantime, there are videos like this one to help us dream of the possibilities that could exist…

Thanks to Peter Sjostrand for creating this awesome video!

To anyone who wishes to become a master of their craft: take a step back and examine the basic fundamentals of your art.  Understand why things work the way they do.  In this particular case, I took the basic element of computer graphics, the pixel, and studied its division.

Pixels can be divided into three sections: red, green, and blue.  Each of these colors can hold different values (0 to 255) and use the illusion of color vibration to create new colors.   In the example, I’ve created an enlarged example of subpixels, showing off complex colors such as green, orange, and pink.  If you blur your vision for a second, you get a better sense of how color vibration works.  Note that all of these colors are created using red, green, and blue set to different values.  In other words, the colors are all pure and there and all the mixing is done with your eyes.  Due to the fixed layout of these subpixels, a bleeding phenomenon can occur in certain cases.  On the right, you’ll notice a blue line.  This is an artifact of the pink color.  Since the green is muted, the blue is out by it’s lonesome self.

It turned out to be a pretty thought-provoking study, though I’ve struggled to figure out how to apply this knowledge.  Maybe someday I’ll come back to it.

When choosing your favorite games of the year, what should the criteria be?  Is it about innovation, refinement, or the emotion it brings out in you?  Each title I’ve selected is easy to get into and lures you into a deeper, specialized concept such as precision coupled with continuous improvement, tension, or discovery.  Enjoy!

Mario Kart Wii - Simple, fun, yet hard to master.  Casual racers will have fun just learning to drive, but more “professional” drivers will be thrilled as they successfully pull off precise maneuvers and juggle multiple threats.  In Mario Kart Wii, you’re not just driving; you’re aligning yourself to the next boost pad, performing a trick in midair that will give you another boost, landing near an opponent and slipstreaming behind them, and then finally throwing your vehicle into a corner with a power slide.  Oh, and don’t forget to watch out for others who will try tirelessly to knock you off course.  And then there are the environmental obstacles…  Mario Kart Wii is an addictive adrenaline rush that gets away with its flaws because of its core gameplay is tested, tweaked, and proven.  In addition to the gameplay, the online ranking system and ghost races help bolster the “just one more” mantra.  The game is packaged with a plastic wheel; thankfully you can choose to play it with a number of alternatives such as my favorite, the Wiimote and nunchuck.

Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice - The Ace Attorney series is more of a visual novel than a game, but they cleverly dish out a little information here and there, doing a superb job at building up tension through storytelling.  When you finally present the damning piece of evidence, the limited interactivity proves its worth in a thrilling climax in the courtroom.  And then there are the characters…  While some are overly cheesy and make a total mockery of the courtroom, the characters are memorable and their dialogue is filled with witty (and some objectionable) humor and allusions.

Dragon Quest IV - By today’s standards, Dragon Quest IV is a limited adventure.  Your options are few and the world is relatively small, but these are also its strengths.  By leaving out so many extras, Dragon Quest IV engages the player through their learning and mastery of its simple mechanics.  The world might be small, but there are plenty of secrets to be found.  The storytelling is still phenomenal in how it divides the the quest into small, digestable chapters, only to come together in a grand finale.

Galaga

Two years ago I captured some photos of various videogames using the long exposure technique. I was mainly interested in the idea of light painting and the patterns that would emerge from all the dancing pixels. In addition to the dazzling array of lights, I noticed that each shot told a story.

The intensity of a boxing match in Mike Tyson’s Punchout! is captured in a way standard screenshots and movies cannot. While we can feel the impact of the blow from a well shot photograph, the barrage of punches in a long exposure shot turns the bout into a supernatural feat.

Galaga transformed more into a traditional light show.  Many of the graphics remain firmly planted in 2D, though the legions of sprites toward the top of the image begin to give the illusion that they are breaking into the third dimension.

The ghosts in Ms. Pac-man begin to take on a more see-through, apparition-like appearance with eerie colored trails of light filling up the pathways.

I apologize for the image quality, this was more of an experiment for me.  In addition to these, I took a photograph of Bubble Bobble, but it’s not quite ready for display at the moment.  I would like to do Mario Bros. and Balloon Fight in the future.  Are there any games you’d like to see shot?

Sam is a Bogart-esque dog with an elaborate vocabulary, while Max is a psychopathic bunny. Together, they are a pair of freelance police who star in a series of comics, games, and even a short-lived TV show. If you’re new to the series, it might take a few rounds to get a hang of how things work in their unconventional world.
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