Every game I've worked on I have designed a section with Mine Carts. Every game I have worked on has been released without a section with Mine Carts. Why?
Ever since I saw Temple of Doom as a kid, I've always been fascinated with the idea of getting an homage to them into a project. The whole sequence when you first see it is mind blowing - the whole rollercoaster ride feel, the danger from other carts, collapsing sections, selecting the right route.
The simple fact is Mine Carts don't actually have that much gameplay - they are quite simply a visual spectacle, but there is little interaction. You are a essentially a fixed point moving along a rail. Any kind of shooting is essentially a form of "Virtua Cop". Switching tracks or collapsing sections are extremely hard to telegraph at speed, and likely result in instant death - never fun.
Sure, a fairly good Mine Cart section could be done, but will it ever beat the thrill of seeing that sequence in Indiana Jones for the first time as a child? Simple answer: no...
Still, it won't stop me trying. It's gotta happen at least once - damn it, I need to satiate my inner child!
Monday 18 August 2008
Thursday 14 August 2008
How to get a job in Game Design
Design is by far the hardest discipline to get into as it's difficult to show aptitude and requires a lot of knowledge in different areas. I see lots and lots of really poor applications, but very few good ones.
What I would look for in a candidate's application is:
* A level built in a world editor such as Source's Hammer (Half-Life 2) or Unreal (you get the world editors free with the game).
* A well written and presented design document for an interesting game.
* A well written design specification for a particular game mechanic.
* A well written level design overview (perhaps using Sketchup - which is now free http://sketchup.google.com/download/ ).
* A game demo written in something like XNA ( http://creators.xna.com/ ).
What I definitely don't care about:
* Reviews of existing games.
* Screenshots of 3D models.
* Screenshots of levels (I'd want to see the level itself or at least a video - preferably with commentary to explain design decisions).
* Articles about games and sociology. This seems to be a huge topic in academic circles. In commercial terms, unless it is knowing your market better, I couldn't give a shit.
All in all I want to see applications where it is obvious that some effort has been put into them. Also people often seem to mistake what the design role is. Certainly the days of level designers building all the geometry are fading. These are generally art centric roles now. Design is now much more concerned where it should be - focused on gameplay.
It is essential that an designer has a decent portfolio of work to show a potential employer. We need to know how well rounded you are, where your strengths lie and your aptitude for particular things. We also want to see real passion for games and games development.
What I would look for in a candidate's application is:
* A level built in a world editor such as Source's Hammer (Half-Life 2) or Unreal (you get the world editors free with the game).
* A well written and presented design document for an interesting game.
* A well written design specification for a particular game mechanic.
* A well written level design overview (perhaps using Sketchup - which is now free http://sketchup.google.com/download/ ).
* A game demo written in something like XNA ( http://creators.xna.com/ ).
What I definitely don't care about:
* Reviews of existing games.
* Screenshots of 3D models.
* Screenshots of levels (I'd want to see the level itself or at least a video - preferably with commentary to explain design decisions).
* Articles about games and sociology. This seems to be a huge topic in academic circles. In commercial terms, unless it is knowing your market better, I couldn't give a shit.
All in all I want to see applications where it is obvious that some effort has been put into them. Also people often seem to mistake what the design role is. Certainly the days of level designers building all the geometry are fading. These are generally art centric roles now. Design is now much more concerned where it should be - focused on gameplay.
It is essential that an designer has a decent portfolio of work to show a potential employer. We need to know how well rounded you are, where your strengths lie and your aptitude for particular things. We also want to see real passion for games and games development.
Piracy & Used Games
The great piracy debate has been around for years. I was forwarded an interesting link to a blog where a developer had questioned a bunch of pirates as to what makes them do it:
http://www.positech.co.uk/talkingtopirates.html
Personally I used to pirate the odd game on the Amiga when I was a wee lad. I wouldn't ever pirate a game now - the biggest reason being that it's pissing in my own pond. Being a game developer you have to set a good example to your audience.
The reason why I pirated was simply price and it was so easy to do - like making a copy of a tape. When I were a lad I didn't have much money, so copying off your friend was an easy thing to do - all it required was a (pirated) copy of XCopy (how ironic). These days it's a little trickier (for consoles at least). It requires dedicated hardware to create discs, chip modifications or weird work arounds to get things running. The business of piracy makes some serious money for those involved. It certainly doesn't have the same "romantic" vision of the bedroom copying days.
As a member of the industry I do find it hard to justify the price of modern console games. Even I struggle to be able to afford them. If they were cheaper then I would most certainly buy more of them - it's as simple as that. When a game costs £50 a pop, you have to be damn sure that you are going to get your money's worth out of it (and I don't just mean in terms of number of hours - I mean quality of experience).
The excuse for these high prices is often the level of piracy that occurs forces them to hike costs, but this is a vicious circle. This ends up pushing more people to pirate games.
This has also caused the rapid growth of the second hand market, to the point where you can only make a £5 saving on a used game. This is ridiculous - and extremely bad for the whole industry. Developers and publishers are quick to blame retailers for this problem, but does it actually lie with publishers pushing for such high retail prices? It certainly fosters a market. If you only made a saving of £1 or £2 on a second hand game, then why would I buy the used copy over the new one?
Perhaps the industry needs to look hard at pricing and think about ways to get the costs of the products down (without increasing shovelware). I truly believe if we managed to get a game to the cost of a DVD - maybe a blueray (about £20), we'd get a lot more customers that pirate or buy second hand to "opt in" and buy the brand new copy, in the end giving us the developers and the publishers more profit.
Who jumps first?
http://www.positech.co.uk/talkingtopirates.html
Personally I used to pirate the odd game on the Amiga when I was a wee lad. I wouldn't ever pirate a game now - the biggest reason being that it's pissing in my own pond. Being a game developer you have to set a good example to your audience.
The reason why I pirated was simply price and it was so easy to do - like making a copy of a tape. When I were a lad I didn't have much money, so copying off your friend was an easy thing to do - all it required was a (pirated) copy of XCopy (how ironic). These days it's a little trickier (for consoles at least). It requires dedicated hardware to create discs, chip modifications or weird work arounds to get things running. The business of piracy makes some serious money for those involved. It certainly doesn't have the same "romantic" vision of the bedroom copying days.
As a member of the industry I do find it hard to justify the price of modern console games. Even I struggle to be able to afford them. If they were cheaper then I would most certainly buy more of them - it's as simple as that. When a game costs £50 a pop, you have to be damn sure that you are going to get your money's worth out of it (and I don't just mean in terms of number of hours - I mean quality of experience).
The excuse for these high prices is often the level of piracy that occurs forces them to hike costs, but this is a vicious circle. This ends up pushing more people to pirate games.
This has also caused the rapid growth of the second hand market, to the point where you can only make a £5 saving on a used game. This is ridiculous - and extremely bad for the whole industry. Developers and publishers are quick to blame retailers for this problem, but does it actually lie with publishers pushing for such high retail prices? It certainly fosters a market. If you only made a saving of £1 or £2 on a second hand game, then why would I buy the used copy over the new one?
Perhaps the industry needs to look hard at pricing and think about ways to get the costs of the products down (without increasing shovelware). I truly believe if we managed to get a game to the cost of a DVD - maybe a blueray (about £20), we'd get a lot more customers that pirate or buy second hand to "opt in" and buy the brand new copy, in the end giving us the developers and the publishers more profit.
Who jumps first?
Top Ten Games
Top Ten Lists - everyone's favorite pastime. Well, I thought I may as well do it myself (well if it's good enough for Warren Spector on his blog (http://junctionpoint.wordpress.com/2008/02/) then I think its probably good enough for me).
So - the list:
1. Half-Life Series
Bit of a cheat to begin with. I can't decide between Half-Life 1 or 2. The first was the game that really got me into game design by giving me the chance to edit my own levels in a real fashion - it eventually led to me getting a job in the games industry. The sequel however took everything in the first game and turned it up to 11. A beautiful and consistent world - a compelling story and believable, likeable characters. I particularly like the dystopian, Orwellian themes going on throughout City17, the wonderful character and audio design of the striders, and the incredibly well made set pieces that encourage emergent play within constained areas.
If it is purely on the game alone, it would have to be Half-Life 2, but I owe so much to the first game that it will always have a special place in my heart. If I'm really cheating I'd have to add deathmatch and Counter-Strike in with these as well. The joy of first entering the games industry really hits home on your first lunchtime, where you realise you have a large LAN and a room full of avid gamers. The number of deathmatch and CS sessions in the early days boggles belief!
And for a final cheat I'd also throw in Portal. In-fact - I should probably rename this Valve. Without a doubt in my mind they are the finest developers in our industry.
2. Civilization
If the award were to go to the game which has sucked up the most hours of my life, then Civilization would be the hands down winner. I have literally played civ for 20 hours straight some days (ah the joys of being a student). This game has really reached its peak with Civ IV, a really well crafted and balanced revision of the original.
This is a game to appeal to the power freak in us, it isn't for everyone. It's not high action, it's not frantically paced. Instead it sucks up hours as you micro-manage cities and carefully build your empire. I'm so power mad I have to play it on the easiest setting with the largest world. For me this game is not about the challenge, it is about constructing my perfect empire. I like to play the waiting game, building a massive powerful empire, then when my tech is so far advanced from my neighbours (i.e. tanks vs catapults) then it's time to crush them.
3. Syndicate
Playing this for the first time on the Amiga blew me away. A superb dystopian future world, realtime strategy gameplay and cyborgs with guns - does it get much better than this?
For me the persuadatron was the real gem of the game. I liked nothing more than attempting to persuade every single person on the map - thus resulting in an army of devotees following you around and a wall of machinegun fire everytime you pressed a button.
4. Dune 2
Another RTS, but probably the godfather of the genre. Again this is a megolmaniac's dream. The perfectionist in me relished the opportunity to build the most awesome defensive spectacle of a base I could - no matter that the way to win the game was to amass units.
Sure, there have been better RTS's since, but nothing has quite captured the same element of magic as the original in my eyes.
5. Legend
This is a bit of an obscure one - an RPG for the Amiga. Basically it had four characters: assassin, mage, troubadour and berserker, each with their own skills. The dungeons were designed to use interplay between each of the four character's skills. Some of the puzzles were particularly devious.
What was really fascinating was the magic system, which allowed you to construct your own spells out of runes. Through a simple system of basic mechanics you could create some complex behaviour - fantastically done.
6. Final Fantasy VII
The one everyone quotes and with good reason. The thing about FFVII for me though is the Materia system. I couldn't give a shite about the story, the characters or really the world itself for that matter (though I did well up a bit at the famous death). It's the purity of the battle system and the way the Materia system works that really sells the game for me. They haven't achieved as good a system since - at least not one that I have played.
It was the first and so far, last JRPG that I've gotten into and played to completion. I've played a few others since, but the mechanics haven't really gripped me in the same fashion.
7. Resident Evil
I was tempted to put Resident Evil 4 in place of the original, but I can't quite bring myself to do it. The original was truly great. It brought the element of horror and the first genuine jump moment for me into a game. Sure the acting was utterly terrible and the dialog worse, but it didn't mar the atmosphere of the game.
The fourth incarnation is by far a more polished and enjoyable experience, but the original has a special place in my heart - a fond memory of playing through the game with my flatmates at the time, lights down and eyes glued to the screen. Good times!
8. Call Of Duty 4
This is the most recent addition to the list, and I was initially tempted not to put it on. These "all time" lists tend to make it feel that you have to put older experiences in place of newer ones. However, COD4 is such an amazingly polished rollercoaster ride, so far beyond any "war" experience I've had before, it fully deserves to take its place in the top ten. In fact, I suspect it may climb higher in the years to come.
It succeeds so well at created scripted sequences that you believe in - particularly the fantastic "All Guillied Up" mission. There are so many lessons to learn from this game, that for the first time I'm inclined to play through the whole game again at home with my design anaylsis hat on. And I'm looking forwards to doing so!
9. Battlefield 1942 (Desert Combat Mod)
My earlier comment about the games industry and the realisation of a LAN and avid gamers most certainly applies to this entry. The Desert Combat Mod became a regular lunchtime and afterwork fixture.
This game has more frantic, laugh out loud moments than any other. It's particularly poingnaint for me as my wife started playing this game when we worked together as well. I could hear her laughter from the other side of the room during lunchtime sessions, and there was always a good post match discussion down in the smoking area on completion. Just a fantastic, fun game in the right scenario.
10. Wipeout 2097
This really crystalises the games becoming cool moment for me. Up until the orginal wipeout games still had a geeky vibe. All of a sudden Sony come out with this ultra cool looking game, with Designer's Republic designs and thumping tracks and slapped me in the face. I felt at this point the games industry had turned to a new direction and would soon become an industry to be reckoned with.
However, the original Wipeout had its issues. It was unforgivingly hard. A tiny tap of the edge of the circuit resulted in an immediate stop. It took the second revision - 2097 - to make it really playable and give it that real mass-market appeal. I can still look at 2097 and appreciate its asthetics now - and they still haven't managed to better the experience in the series since (though they did get a lot closer with Pure and Pulse).
So - the list:
1. Half-Life Series
Bit of a cheat to begin with. I can't decide between Half-Life 1 or 2. The first was the game that really got me into game design by giving me the chance to edit my own levels in a real fashion - it eventually led to me getting a job in the games industry. The sequel however took everything in the first game and turned it up to 11. A beautiful and consistent world - a compelling story and believable, likeable characters. I particularly like the dystopian, Orwellian themes going on throughout City17, the wonderful character and audio design of the striders, and the incredibly well made set pieces that encourage emergent play within constained areas.
If it is purely on the game alone, it would have to be Half-Life 2, but I owe so much to the first game that it will always have a special place in my heart. If I'm really cheating I'd have to add deathmatch and Counter-Strike in with these as well. The joy of first entering the games industry really hits home on your first lunchtime, where you realise you have a large LAN and a room full of avid gamers. The number of deathmatch and CS sessions in the early days boggles belief!
And for a final cheat I'd also throw in Portal. In-fact - I should probably rename this Valve. Without a doubt in my mind they are the finest developers in our industry.
2. Civilization
If the award were to go to the game which has sucked up the most hours of my life, then Civilization would be the hands down winner. I have literally played civ for 20 hours straight some days (ah the joys of being a student). This game has really reached its peak with Civ IV, a really well crafted and balanced revision of the original.
This is a game to appeal to the power freak in us, it isn't for everyone. It's not high action, it's not frantically paced. Instead it sucks up hours as you micro-manage cities and carefully build your empire. I'm so power mad I have to play it on the easiest setting with the largest world. For me this game is not about the challenge, it is about constructing my perfect empire. I like to play the waiting game, building a massive powerful empire, then when my tech is so far advanced from my neighbours (i.e. tanks vs catapults) then it's time to crush them.
3. Syndicate
Playing this for the first time on the Amiga blew me away. A superb dystopian future world, realtime strategy gameplay and cyborgs with guns - does it get much better than this?
For me the persuadatron was the real gem of the game. I liked nothing more than attempting to persuade every single person on the map - thus resulting in an army of devotees following you around and a wall of machinegun fire everytime you pressed a button.
4. Dune 2
Another RTS, but probably the godfather of the genre. Again this is a megolmaniac's dream. The perfectionist in me relished the opportunity to build the most awesome defensive spectacle of a base I could - no matter that the way to win the game was to amass units.
Sure, there have been better RTS's since, but nothing has quite captured the same element of magic as the original in my eyes.
5. Legend
This is a bit of an obscure one - an RPG for the Amiga. Basically it had four characters: assassin, mage, troubadour and berserker, each with their own skills. The dungeons were designed to use interplay between each of the four character's skills. Some of the puzzles were particularly devious.
What was really fascinating was the magic system, which allowed you to construct your own spells out of runes. Through a simple system of basic mechanics you could create some complex behaviour - fantastically done.
6. Final Fantasy VII
The one everyone quotes and with good reason. The thing about FFVII for me though is the Materia system. I couldn't give a shite about the story, the characters or really the world itself for that matter (though I did well up a bit at the famous death). It's the purity of the battle system and the way the Materia system works that really sells the game for me. They haven't achieved as good a system since - at least not one that I have played.
It was the first and so far, last JRPG that I've gotten into and played to completion. I've played a few others since, but the mechanics haven't really gripped me in the same fashion.
7. Resident Evil
I was tempted to put Resident Evil 4 in place of the original, but I can't quite bring myself to do it. The original was truly great. It brought the element of horror and the first genuine jump moment for me into a game. Sure the acting was utterly terrible and the dialog worse, but it didn't mar the atmosphere of the game.
The fourth incarnation is by far a more polished and enjoyable experience, but the original has a special place in my heart - a fond memory of playing through the game with my flatmates at the time, lights down and eyes glued to the screen. Good times!
8. Call Of Duty 4
This is the most recent addition to the list, and I was initially tempted not to put it on. These "all time" lists tend to make it feel that you have to put older experiences in place of newer ones. However, COD4 is such an amazingly polished rollercoaster ride, so far beyond any "war" experience I've had before, it fully deserves to take its place in the top ten. In fact, I suspect it may climb higher in the years to come.
It succeeds so well at created scripted sequences that you believe in - particularly the fantastic "All Guillied Up" mission. There are so many lessons to learn from this game, that for the first time I'm inclined to play through the whole game again at home with my design anaylsis hat on. And I'm looking forwards to doing so!
9. Battlefield 1942 (Desert Combat Mod)
My earlier comment about the games industry and the realisation of a LAN and avid gamers most certainly applies to this entry. The Desert Combat Mod became a regular lunchtime and afterwork fixture.
This game has more frantic, laugh out loud moments than any other. It's particularly poingnaint for me as my wife started playing this game when we worked together as well. I could hear her laughter from the other side of the room during lunchtime sessions, and there was always a good post match discussion down in the smoking area on completion. Just a fantastic, fun game in the right scenario.
10. Wipeout 2097
This really crystalises the games becoming cool moment for me. Up until the orginal wipeout games still had a geeky vibe. All of a sudden Sony come out with this ultra cool looking game, with Designer's Republic designs and thumping tracks and slapped me in the face. I felt at this point the games industry had turned to a new direction and would soon become an industry to be reckoned with.
However, the original Wipeout had its issues. It was unforgivingly hard. A tiny tap of the edge of the circuit resulted in an immediate stop. It took the second revision - 2097 - to make it really playable and give it that real mass-market appeal. I can still look at 2097 and appreciate its asthetics now - and they still haven't managed to better the experience in the series since (though they did get a lot closer with Pure and Pulse).
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Evolution, Innovation or Revolution?
I hear the word Innovation bandied around a lot in games of late. Innovation is held up as the ideal for every new game mechanic or feature. I'd suggest that most things are actually evolutionary not innovative.
Now I've always defined Innovation as the introduction of something completely new, but I've been told that this is revolution. Is it? Many have said the Wii remote is a revolution. I would say it is an innovation.
Revolution is the complete change of a paradigm to something new. So something I would consider that the Wii remote has completely changed the interface for one console, but the other consoles haven't yet thrown out the traditional pad, and I presume aren't necessarily likely to immediately. Therefore the Wii has had a large impact as an innovation but it is not a revolution. 3D would be classed a revolution, but motion sensing isn't quite there yet.
Personally I believe innovation has its place in games, but evolution is the main driving force of development. People take other ideas and improve upon them. The best ideas survive and carry through into other games - survival of the fittest just as Charles Darwin described.
Innovation shouldn't be held with such ridiculous esteem. Many innovative ideas aren't actually going to survive. Those great ideas that do (the Wii-mote) will enter the next cycle of evolution and again the fittest will survive.
Now I've always defined Innovation as the introduction of something completely new, but I've been told that this is revolution. Is it? Many have said the Wii remote is a revolution. I would say it is an innovation.
Revolution is the complete change of a paradigm to something new. So something I would consider that the Wii remote has completely changed the interface for one console, but the other consoles haven't yet thrown out the traditional pad, and I presume aren't necessarily likely to immediately. Therefore the Wii has had a large impact as an innovation but it is not a revolution. 3D would be classed a revolution, but motion sensing isn't quite there yet.
Personally I believe innovation has its place in games, but evolution is the main driving force of development. People take other ideas and improve upon them. The best ideas survive and carry through into other games - survival of the fittest just as Charles Darwin described.
Innovation shouldn't be held with such ridiculous esteem. Many innovative ideas aren't actually going to survive. Those great ideas that do (the Wii-mote) will enter the next cycle of evolution and again the fittest will survive.
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