Categories
Games Geek / Technical

Greg Costikyan on Game Criticism

Manifesto Games co-founder Greg Costikyan wrote about the game industry’s need for [tag]game criticism[/tag] literature. He makes a point of differentiating critical thought pieces from product reviews.

While reading it, I felt that this article is another result of the great gulf that separates individual members of the video game industry from each other and their works. As another example, when Costikyan was looking for venture capital for Manifesto and getting a lot of publicity, I asked Alex Seropian during a post-mortem of Stubbs the Zombie about his opinion on Manifesto Games, and again, I emphasize that it seemed like everyone was talking about it at the time. Seropian surprised me with the answer, “Manifesto games? What’s that?”

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Costikyan felt a need to rant about the lack of serious literature about games, except I could have sworn I’d seen advertisements in The Escapist for Manifesto. Any time I’ve referred to The Escapist, I’ve said “It’s like Rolling Stone, but for video games.”

If you read through the list of comments on Costikyan’s blog, you’ll see even more links to websites. One is Gamers Corner, currently on its 8th issue, and the other is Action Button. There are references to Kieron Gillen and Russ Pitts, among other writers. It’s not as bad as Costikyan may think when he said that there is “virtually nothing we can point to today as ‘game criticism'”.

I do agree that we need more of it though.

[tags]video games[/tags]

Categories
Game Development Personal Development

Thousander Club Update: February 25th

For this week’s Thousander Club update:

Game Hours: 409.25(previous two years) + 8.25 (current year) = 417.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 710 (previous two years) + 15 (current year) = 725 / 1000

I’ve been journaling about an appropriate EULA for the game. While the source code could be licensed under the GPL, the actual game data doesn’t need to be. An example of a game that uses a different license for its data from its source code is the well-known Dangerous Rooms of Death: Journey to Rooted Hold. It is obvious that it can be done, but at this point I’m not sure if I even want to keep the data proprietary. The art and sound effects were quickly put together to be placeholders so I could work on the game mechanics. I was planning on replacing them with better assets, probably outsourced or otherwise not made by me.

Since this game has taken me so much longer to make than it probably should have, I just want to release it and move on. Still, I could retain the rights to the data, requiring that if you want to redistribute my game, you would need my permission to do so unless you replaced the data with your own. In the future, I may need to release a game with proprietary data, and having the experience now can only help. Even if I only release the game for free, having the data licensed separately from the code leaves me with more options. Besides, releasing the data under the GPL or a similar license really doesn’t make sense.

I’ve been thinking more about the process I’ve been following to make a game, and it’s not going to work out. Essentially I’ve come up with an idea and then worked toward implementing it. Maw!Soft’s humorous Thousander Club Update from November of 2006 documented a list of prototypes done throughout the year. Since then, I’ve been reading a lot about the benefits of creating quick throw-away prototypes. Gamasutra documented the prototypes developed by the creators of Tower of Goo, and back in 2005 I’ve written about the interview with James Gwertzman of PopCap in which he claims that the development process is “extremely prototype-heavy”.

I still want to get to v1.0 with Killer Kittens to have a finished game under my belt. I was thinking about going back to work on Oracle’s Eye afterwards, but I think my time would be better put towards prototyping ideas. Oracle’s Eye is not exactly a well-formed idea, so I could just prototype with it, but the point is that I want to make a good game next, and it is clear that creating prototypes is the best way to figure out if an idea is a winner. I mean, it works for PopCap, and not doing it clearly doesn’t work for major publishers. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have billions of dollars to invest in a project for three years before finding out that the game won’t sell enough to recoup its costs.

[tags]game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]

Categories
Game Development Personal Development

Thousander Club Update: February 18th

For this week’s Thousander Club update:

Game Hours: 409.25(previous two years) + 8.25 (current year) = 417.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 710 (previous two years) + 0 (current year) = 710 / 1000

It’s not that I haven’t been coming up with ideas. I just haven’t transferred them from my notebook to my computer, and until they are in the master list, I don’t count them.

I finished working on fixing my build scripts. In less than 10 minutes, I can now go from a freshly pulled-down-from-Subversion project directory to a distributable tar.gz file that lets the player untar and play in any directory.

My next step was to fix the menu system. When I last worked on this project, I wanted to replace the menu elements with a library of existing code, such as Guichan, but since I would like to hit v1.0 sooner rather than later, I decided to work with what I have for now. It’s better to get something out there now and improve it later. Frankly, the only really bad thing is the volume control slider in the options menu. I tried to write a general purpose slider, but I do not have enough experience in writing GUI code to do it well. Since it has been months since I last looked at this code, I am not sure if I should be impressed or disgusted with what I managed to hack together.

Ignoring how badly I want to replace all of it, my main concern was that each time the player brought up the options menu, it would assume that the volume was set to the highest level. On startup, this is true, but if the player lowers the level, exits the options menu, and then returns to it, the slider will be reset to the highest position even though the audio level itself hasn’t changed. This is partly because the slider’s position is not coupled to the volume, and partly because my code to load the options menu was hardcoded to use the highest volume setting as the value to associate with the slider upon startup. It was a simple fix to get the options menu to load and pass in the current volume setting to the menu slider control when it is created.

Ok, great. That problem is solved, but while I’m messing with the volume slider, I should fix another problem. What if the player wants to mute the sound? Well, you could move the slider all the way to the left. You could, but up until now, because it was so decoupled, you wouldn’t get the volume muted. It would just be very low, which means you could still hear the sound effects. Another small change in the code fixed that problem, too.

What’s next? I would like to ad a credits page to my menu system, specifically to thank people who have helped me as well as give credit to font creators as per their license. I would also need to make a final decision on how the content of the game is going to be licensed. Once those two tasks are completed, I will have a v1.0 to distribute.

For part of this week the day job is sending me to Las Vegas for a prototype. If I get some time during the weekend, I should be able to squeeze some of my own development in, but otherwise I don’t expect to accomplish much. Then again, I could doodle on the plane and during downtime. I can mock up some screens for an improved Killer Kittens after v1.0 or for some future project.

[tags]game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]

Categories
General

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Or if you are alone today, Happy Ferris Wheel Day!

Just some interesting and related links:

Categories
Game Development Personal Development

Thousander Club Update: February 11th

For this week’s Thousander Club update:

Game Hours: 409.25(previous two years) + 6 (current year) = 415.25 / 1000
Game Ideas: 710 (previous two years) + 0 (current year) = 710 / 1000

I found that my build scripts were broken for the game. You know how if you leave a Nintendo controller out long enough that the cable somehow gets itself tangled? I always wondered how it happened. Now I wonder how the heck my code stopped working since it isn’t as if I changed anything to break it. Whatever. I set to work fixing it.

To build my game, I am building custom versions of libraries, such as libSDL and Kyra. Rather than use my system’s installed libraries, I want to be able to distribute my game without the player needing to worry about dependencies. To make the download size smaller, I was building the libraries so that only what I needed for my game was compiled. For instance, libSDL didn’t need to load BMP or TGA files since I was only using PNGs. To build these libraries and make sure they installed into my project’s subdirectory instead of into my system, I had to pass the install path name into the configure script.

It turned out that the build scripts were hardcoded to pathnames on my desktop. Now, we all know hardcoding things is bad, so why did I do it? Well, it turns out that you can’t pass relative paths into a configure script. They had to be absolute paths. I needed to pass “/home/gberardi/Projects/foo/lib” instead of “../../lib”.

So since I was just trying to build my game as quickly as I could, hardcoding it was fine. Since I started building it on my laptop, however, the directories I kept my projects in were different, and I had problems.

In a few hours, I learned more about using GNU Make, specifically how to pass around variables from one makefile to another. Now I can get the absolute pathname of the project, and using that, I can pass it around to subdirectory makefiles, which can then specify other subdirectories. Also, if I use any machine to build the project, it should work without a hitch.

Now I just need to get the game to build. Kyra is a real pain to deal with because the original maintainer did not keep the build scripts working for it. You cannot configure && make && make install. Or at least you couldn’t, until I learned about autoconf and automake enough to get it to work last year. Unfortunately, it turns out that I’ll need to jump into it again because it copies over most header files into the install directory, but not all of them. I’m sure it won’t take much to change the build to copy those files, too, but it might take me some time to figure out how to do it. In a pinch, I can hack a small script to copy those files separately from Kyra’s build, but it would be nice to have the library act self-sufficiently.

Kyra is just a tool, of course, and as nice as it has been, it may be best to switch to a much better supported tool, such as Allegro. Once I finish v1.0 of Killer Kittens from Katis Minor, I’ll make an effort to switch libraries. For now, I just need to get to 1.0.

EDIT: Oh, it turned out to be easier than I thought. Makefile.am just needed to be edited to tell it how to create the files, then automake needed to run to generate the Makefile.in. Simple. Now my game builds and runs just fine, which means my real work can begin in earnest.

Categories
Games Marketing/Business

Guardian’s Games as Art Debate

The Guardian’s Lindesay Irvine expressed reservations about best-selling author James Patterson’s move into computer games. Apparently Patterson is planning on working on games that will appeal to his current audience: women and middle-aged people. Irvine just can’t fathom the idea of these people going out “to buy PlayStations and get their thumbs around the controls”. Fine, but apparently Patterson is selling his games for the PC, mobile phones, and possibly for the Wii…all things that casual players own.

Also, ugh. Middle-aged women just wouldn’t know how to play video games? It’s an outdated way of thinking.

Patterson thinks that he may be onto an untapped market. People like his books, and they may think that they don’t like video games, but they may enjoy playing video games based on his works. Lots of people don’t think they play video games, but they do play Bejeweled without a second thought. They think that they aren’t gamers since, you know, video games are for immature males who just want to shoot things. In fact, Patterson says so himself:

It strikes me that the videogame area is an incredibly lucrative niche market, one populated by a small number of boys – and grown-up boys – who like to shoot things and spend a lot of money.

I’ll first say that he isn’t saying anything that the game industry hasn’t already accepted, or at least had the opportunity to accept. Plenty has been written about the hardcore audience and how they used to be considered “mainstream” until people realized that there was an entire mainstream audience that was being ignored.

But here is Patterson, intentionally or not, slighting that audience. If you’re an adult, you’re just being a child when you play games. And if you’re a female who already plays games? You know, a member of a significant part of the market? Well, clearly Patterson needs to reach out to you since you’re not really playing games. If you were, you’d just be an immature boy. Also, there has already been a lot of money spent outside of this niche. Casual games are making, what, billions now?

Patterson should be applauded for trying to bring out the gamer in people who think they aren’t gamers, but the 80s called and it wants its video game market perception back.

As for Irvine, he doesn’t get a free pass on his outdated perceptions, either.

I wouldn’t dispute that computer games have the potential to offer something more than the joys of pretend killing. There’s room for imagination in worlds like The Sims and the strangely banal parallel universe of Second Life.

The joys of pretend killing. Roger Ebert called, and he wants his perception of video games back, although good job on knowing the name Second Life. What about games like Maniac Mansion, King’s Quest, Myst, Tetris, and any other game where the focus is not on death and destruction?

Is this a Luddite response? Should I look forward to the Iris Murdoch quest where players race to collect symbols and Jungian archetypes, and the first Martin Amis first-person shooter? To the Henry James adventure where you attempt to escape from inside 3-D versions of his sentences? The Crime and Punishment actioner where you must get away with murder; to rescue fantasies where you can save Tess or Anna Karenina?

Just because you have an inability to see what someone can do with a new medium, it doesn’t mean that others will have the same problem, Irvine. The Guardian’s Alastair Harper argues that video games are just a new medium for storytelling.

Of course, this idea isn’t a new one either, is it? Lots of game developers, past and present, have thought of video games as just another storytelling medium, and many more see story as a significant part of a game. Lorne Lanning’s Oddworld is one result. The IGDA’s special interest group for game writers is another. Of course, other people might argue that games aren’t about telling a story and aren’t ideal for doing so, just as movies aren’t ideal for showing off a live performance. They excel in different ways.

I guess if anything, I find the entire “debate” old hat, but I’m sure there are going to be a lot of people who will read about Patterson’s decision to enter the video game market and learn about this debate for the first time. A lot of these people don’t yet realize that they already play video games because they don’t think they count. After all, they aren’t acting like immature boys shooting anything that moves and spending hundreds of dollars to support the habit. They just play Peggle or Tetris. Or Myst, or Wii Bowling. But not normal video games.

Perception doesn’t change to match reality fast enough, I guess. I guess I’m a bit upset by the generalizations that go unchecked by all parties, but I’m glad that video games are becoming at least somewhat more accepted outside of the hardcore market.

I’m going to go play Homeworld now. I could read a book or watch a movie, but a lot of them are ultra violent, although I admit that sometimes you can find something good like The Great Gatsby or Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. If I were to base my opinion of an entire industry based on what the top sellers are, I’d say that the movie and book industries are just full of gore and sex for the immature audience that consumes them. Trashy romance novels and movies about fart jokes? Please. Pot, you may continue calling the kettle black as long as you want, but understand why Kettle might make fun of you for it.

Categories
Game Development Personal Development

The Thousander Club in 2008

The last time I updated the Thousander Club entries, I had the following data:

Game Hours: 262.25 (previous year) + 146 (current year) = 409.25 / 1000
Game Ideas: 616 (previous year) + 103 (current year) = 710 / 1000

That was September 24th. Somehow throughout the rest of the year, I did not work on my game development again. I’ve had a few more ideas since then, but not significantly more.

It is now February, and I am just now getting back to game development. It’s been a long break, and while I think it has been way too long, the best I can do is move forward.

It’s a new year, and these are my new starting stats:

Game Hours: 409.25 hours out of 1000
Game Ideas: 710 ideas out of 1000

Two years and I still haven’t gotten to 1,000 ideas? I should be able to fix that soon. Adding hours in game development might still be more difficult, but I hope I can make significant progress this year. I’m due for some time off at the day job, and I hope I can take advantage of it.

Ready, set, go.

Categories
Games Geek / Technical

My Continuing Knighthood Story

The following story could be described simply. I was attacked by Viscountess Melissa twice. One attack was a failed attempt to conquer me, and another was a failed attempt to seize a vassal of mine. In return, I attempted to seize her best vassal, attacking her wall four times. I tried one more time for her second best vassal, and I was successful. Now her attack rating has dropped so she’ll leave me alone, and I get a relatively strong knight in my service once the rescue period has passed.

The next day, I received a Facebook message from a person playing as a vassal of Melissa who is apparently playing the game for her while she is away, or not. Whatever the case, I get a letter in character asking me to release the vassal I seized. I agreed, released the vassal, and received 100 gold coins as thanks.

Now, reading the above text was a rather dry telling of the tale. It mainly dealt with the mechanics of the game. Here’s how I saw it, though.

A courier entered my kingdom and presented a message from Sir Kellen, vassal of the Lady Viscountess Melissa and acting steward of the Kingdom of GodHand (OK, that part is comedy gold):

My Lord Baron Gianfranco

All the realms know of your nobility and valor. I have come to call
upon you but to ask of you one small favor on behalf of my liege the Lady
Viscountess Melissa for whom I am serving as Steward these past few
days.

It has come to my attention that the gallant Sir Gordon has fallen into
your service. I know not how such a thing should have come to pass
since all know a noble as gallant as you would not stoop so low. No doubt
some rebels in your court did seize him without thine knowledge.
However it came to pass, Sir Gordon is a great ally to my Lady and a dear
dear friend to us all. Would that you could find it in your heart to
release him from your servitude know that both our kingdoms would be
eternally in your debt.

Perhaps then we can talk of an alliance of our kingdoms or of at least
a mutual friendship and cease fire, my lord. Though my own holdings are
small, my Lady’s kingdom grows very strong. Though she has only been
playing for a short time, already she is ranked amongst the top 2500
nobility in all the Realms of Facebook. Rest assured her meteoric rise
shall continue in the coming weeks and with your assistance no doubt we
can see all of our kingdoms rise in glory to become the envy of all the
realms.

What say you my lord? Can our kingdoms begin this today to embark upon
an era of friendship and cooperation between our peoples? Or shall we
go a darker course?

I patiently await your most wise decision.

Sir Kellen
Vassal to the Lady Viscountess Melissa
Acting Steward of the Kingdom of GodHammer

Let it never be said that Baron Gianfranco has a stone for a heart! I sent the courier back to his liege with the following message:

Sir Kellen,

I am pleased to have received your message on behalf of the viscountess. It seems that perhaps a grave misunderstanding has occurred. I was under the impression that your liege had tried to conquer my kingdom, for her armies had to be dissuaded twice by my defending army. As retaliation, I sent my own forces in to take her best knight, but being that Sir Walter was too difficult to obtain without much bloodshed, I settled for Sir Gordon.

Assure the Lady Viscountess Melissa that I mean no ill will towards her or her kingdom, and that I was merely protecting my vassals from potential future attacks. Sir Gordon has been enjoying his stay in my tower in the past day, and already I can see why your liege would appreciate his return. He is a fine and loyal knight.

I do not wish to deprive such a brave soldier from the honor of serving his liege. In light of your most civil message of peace, I shall release Sir Gordon, and I hope, should our paths cross again, that we meet with tankards rather than swords.

Baron Gianfranco
Sovereign leader of the Capital of Gianfranco

I released Sir Gordon from his hold in the tower, and I presented him with the following message:

Sir Gordon,

It has come to my attention that you have mistakenly been spending the past day in my tower when you should be with your liege, the Lady Viscountess Melissa. I have released you, and you may return to serving the viscountess.

Baron Gianfranco,
Sovereign leader of the Capital of Gianfranco

Once Sir Gordon had been returned to his former liege, I was surprised to find the courier had returned with a payment of 100 gold coins as thanks from Sir Kellen. The amount wasn’t significant, but the gesture was. While I have no intention on joining into a formal alliance or swearing fealty to the viscountess, I am sure that our future interactions will be more peaceful. That is more than I could say for either Viscount Iain or Baron Nathan, each of whom are missing a major vassal as punishment for daring to attack me. Their vassals will be in my tower until their loyalty belongs to me. Lady Cami and Sir JD should make for good subjects in my kingdom. Fortunately, there is room in my tower since Knight TJ, formerly of Viscount Fred’s service, had decided that he preferred my kingdom much sooner than I expected.

And I have a feeling I would have enjoyed Ultima Online if I would have played it. B-)

Categories
Game Development Games Geek / Technical

My Knighthood Story So Far

Knight Corvus sent me an invitation to join him in his army, and I could not refuse. I joined him as a squire, intent on moving up through the ranks of Knighthood. Of course, I had my own castle to run, and soon enough, I had built up a formidable army of my own. The market was healthy, the workshop was busy upgrading my defenses, and the walls, palisades, and watchtowers kept it all safe. As a knight, I served as a strong arm for Knight Corvus. Once I gained the title of Baron, however, I knew it was time to leave my liege and strike out on my own.

I was sovereign now, but I was attacked by more than a few people attempting raids on my treasury. More and more of my friends joined my army at my invitation, and my castle was much more secure due to their help. Still, the raids kept coming.

Looking at the numbers, I knew that if I didn’t find a way to add more bodies to my castle, my army would be weak in comparison to other armies, especially in the face of alliances. I was continually attacked, occasionally losing money, but thankfully I never lost a vassal. I realized I needed to seize my own vassals if I was to stay ahead.

My first attempts were unsuccessful. Perhaps I was new to the kidnapping game, but I could not capture my first target. After multiple attacks on my part, I gave up. My next attempts were more fruitful. I pressed the attack on Knight Ajdin’s capital until I was to emerge victorious: Knight Chris was now my vassal. Though he is still loyal to Knight Ajdin, he has become a very productive member of my workshop. Perhaps by the end of the next day, he shall give no second thought to swearing fealty to his new liege.

Soon to join Knight Chris was Lady Lainey, formerly of Knight David’s service, and Knight Moti, who I am sure Knight Art shall miss. Then again, perhaps not. No attempts to save these vassals have come.

Knight Geoff has been somewhat more concerned about his former vassals. Knight Carl and Knight Tim are spending the next couple of days in my newly built Tower. Knight Geoff has attacked me multiple times in the past day, and though my defenses hold strong, I do not want to take any chances. There have been random attacks by other armies as well, and if fortune goes to Knight Geoff, he may find that my army has weakened before he arrives with fresh attackers.

My strategy seems to be working so far. I have not lost so much as a single piece of gold to a raiding army, and as I gain more and more vassals, I’m sure I will be able to continue to support my fortifications while also expanding my capital. Still, I fear that all of my efforts will be for naught. I do not have the heart to dedicate all of my waking hours to my castle, and in the face of strong alliances, I do not see how I can hope to become the highest ranking knight in all of the kingdoms.

For now, however, I will enjoy sleeping, knowing that Knight Geoff’s cries of anger are echoing in his streets. I left him his best knight, though, and I wish he would show a bit more gratitude at my generosity. Perhaps if our paths cross again, I will allow him to join my army as a reward for amusing me with his persistence.

Categories
Games Geek / Technical

Racism in Phantom Hourglass?

About a month ago I purchased The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. Since I don’t currently have a TV, my other consoles are useless to me, and the game sounded fun.

I came across the Isle of Frost, and it turned out that there were two races of people here. The Anoukis were apparently in control and had banished the Yooks to the more frigid areas. The more I talked to people on this island, the more I felt concerned for the Yooks. One of the Yooks had decided to take matters into his own hands and kidnap an Anouki, stole his identity, and lived in the comfort of the Anouki’s home. The Anoukis suspected that one of them was really a Yook in disguise, and you have been asked to figure it out.

After solving that puzzle, the Yook was revealed, and he left, but not before blasting me with some super breath that knocked me out of the building. When I went back to the leader of the Anouki, he thanked me for helping and then mentioned that I could go get my revenge on the Yook and also take out my aggression on any other Yooks I find. His words were dripping with hate, and the entire affair bothered me. So he asked me if I wanted to get revenge.

My options were either “Well…” or “Maybe…” Wow. Link would get squashed like a grape if he continues to be so ambivalent. Now, it turns out that it doesn’t matter what you say here, because Ciela, the fairy, decides for you:

“Hmmm….YEAH! Of course we want to get revenge!” What? No, we don’t! NO, WE DON’T! She does not speak for me!

But she does. You are sent to get revenge against the Yook who blasted you with his bad breath, and any other Yooks who get in your way. It’s all about finding the pure metal, after all, so it doesn’t matter who gets hurt.

I was sure that something would happen that would reveal the Yooks to be just as hateful of the Anouki. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this whole section would be a bit of commentary on Isreal-Palestine issue.

Oddly enough, the Yook aren’t just a different set of villagers in a different area. They’re enemies. You can’t talk to them. You just attack. And kill.

Once you do everything you set out to accomplish, it turns out that the Yooks were under some kind of mind-control. They actually prefer being where they are because their fur protects them from the cold. They apologize for trying to hurt you.

Apologize to ME? I killed a large number of you! Why aren’t you upset?

And why wasn’t I given a choice in the matter? Why did Ciela decide to take the Yook’s attack so personally and go along so easily with the Anouki leader’s call for revenge? I’m surprised I wasn’t asked to perform genocide!

It was a very strange situation, I thought. To me, the appeal of revenge and of hate was raised without a strong argument against it in the game. Why doesn’t Ciela become repentant? I don’t need a happy ending, and I felt the way the situation ended was a cop-out, but did anyone else feel a bit uneasy playing through this part of the game?