The Fields of Battle
Back in 2010, I became a founding member of the Talon Strike Force, a then FPS gaming clan built around the game MAG, which I’ve talked about several times (and continue to use as a base point for most online games in general). Just prior to this, I had been in a clan called Raven’s Eye, under the tag “EYE,” and had had some genuinely good times with them. What surprised me was when the leader, KrusaderX, decided that he’d had enough of it all and didn’t wish to lead the clan any longer, but instead of transferring leadership to another, decided to disband the clan completely in order to preserve the “name” of the clan.
At the time, I was quite annoyed, but at the same time I wasn’t all that worried. Though many of these people had been my friends and virtual brothers in arms, I’ve always had a knack for adaptability, and was sure that something would come along. As such, when RocketRob99 contacted me about forming another clan, I completely supported him, and so became the first “Talon,” though the name had not quite yet been decided on. Soon after, we were joined by another former EYE, DeathloksRevenge, and the three of us put together the Talon Strike Force, under the tag “TLN.”
A lot has happened over the years since then. For quite some time, I was very involved with the clan, and knew almost everyone in the game by name and voice. I could hand-pick a squad of players with whom I knew we could defeat anything in our path. And I think that that is what contributed most to my later problems. I started to get a little too cocky, a little too big-headed. My pride grew too much, and I began to see many in the clan as “beneath me,” which is just a terrible attitude to have.
Eventually this culminated in a split, as I foolishly followed my pride away from the clan, abandoning the team that I’d spent so much time building up. As the weeks passed, and the group that left the Talons eventually sputtered to a halt, I realized how stupid this all was. I realized how a clan is less about “skill,” and more about camaraderie. You play games with others because you enjoy their company, you can laugh and have a good time, and you know that, win or lose, you’ve got some pals to prop you up.
In those months between, as I got busy with “real-life” and other things, I realized that I had really screwed up. I’d betrayed the people who had looked up to me, and I’d left my friends behind in pursuit of some arbitrary “glory” that I’d come to realize was never there to be obtained in the first place.
I took the time to type out a letter of apology, mostly to Rob, describing my feelings as well as my personal regret. Though he was more than willing to let me back into the fold, I’ve come to realize that things have changed a little bit.
The saying “you can’t go home again” has a universal context. The fact is, once you leave a place behind, even returning to it never quite feels the same. Something is always just a little off. Friends have had experiences and relationships have changed while you were away. While they may still respect you for some things, in other ways you’ve become the visitor, and no longer one of the tenants. This happened to me when I left Talon, it happened to me when I moved up to Orem, and then when I moved back to St. George, and again now that I’ve moved to Salt Lake. Returning back to my old friends, my old haunts, and even my old high school… It never feels the same, and I don’t think it should.
Life is about progression. It’s about moving forward, no matter how slowly you have to go. You can look back fondly on the things behind you, (or look back with a tinge of regret), but the fact is that you’re here now. It’s now now, not then. You’ve got to take stock of who you are, what you’ve got, and what you can do with it. There’s no sense in constantly longing for those things that you can’t possibly get back, but instead you can spend your time forging new strides, and building new relationships.
As far as Talon is concerned, I’m slowly getting back into the mix. I picked up Battlefield 3 a couple of months back, and have slowly been building up my skills again, utilizing the thousands of hours that I’ve played over the years. I’ve been getting myself back involved with the clan again, and things have been going well.
Now, before you think that this is all a sad tale of loneliness and heartbreak, understand that it’s not. I’ve actually been legitimately busy over the past nine months, and the fact is, this summer is the first time that I’ve had some extra hours to actually play a few games for a legitimate amount of time. It’s an odd experience, almost from another era in my life, which is perhaps why these feelings of nostalgia seem so potent at the moment.
But the thing is, there’s life lessons to be learned in any endeavor. There’s things to take away from every situation that you find yourself in, and the fact is, no matter what social circles you navigate, you’re always going to run into the same dramas, the same highs and lows, dressed up with slightly different shades. If you can take the time to learn from each one, and use that knowledge to help better resolve problems in the future, well… That’s all anyone can really ask for, isn’t it?
Alright, that’s enough long-winded soapboxing for me. I’m off to Taco Bell, to have me a burrito.
Updating the Site – Gaming Escapades
As I’ve looked over the site through the past few months, working on different projects and updating things here and there, I realize that the site could do with a full overhaul. It’s probably not going to be crazy, but I want to make a site dedicated more to displaying the projects that I’ve worked on, as well as allowing me to update things a little easier.
Hopefully, I won’t completely just break the site, (backups just in case!), but I’ve decided to take that on as my goal over the summer. The first start will be the use of this cool throwing star logo that I’ve put together. It’s not too flashy, but works so well as a symbol. It’s just… me. So it’ll be sticking around.
And luckily, I’m interning at a place where most of what I do is web-related kind of stuff anyhow, so that’ll at least be helpful in getting my stuff put together correctly.
On the gaming front, I’ve been really getting into League of Legends over the past couple of months, along with a number of guys from my MGS Cohort. With the summer leaving us with just a little more spare time than usual, we decided to play through a few 5v5 rounds last night, and we were on a three-game hot streak right off the bat. I realize that I tend to prefer ranged attack damage (AD) champions like Caitlyn, Graves, and the like, so for the past couple of weeks I’ve started moving towards melee characters. I started with Pantheon, and then Olaf and Gangplank, who I think best matches my skillset.
Gangplank is a bit more of a “leader” type character than Olaf or Pantheon, simply because he can affect a wider area, can influence the attack speed (and thus, effectiveness) of his teammates, and his ultimate ability allows him to be affect the battlefield even when he’s quite a ways away.
(It’s been really helpful to be able to slow down chasing pursuers when a teammate is getting ganked. Drives opponents nuts sometimes.)
Anyhow, just doing my best to wrap my head around this game. Been playing for a good amount of time now (just hit level 22), but LoL is one of those games that is just a continual work in progress. But with Dota2 out and rumors of a Blizzard competitor rumbling about, this seems like a good game type to understand well.
Keep calm and rock on!
Final Presentation – Alpha Goal Complete
The past three months have been quite the whirlwind experience, and though we’re quite obviously not completely finished with the game, it’s gratifying to see the progress that we’ve made in such a relatively short amount of time, not to mention the improvements that were made just in the past two weeks as we made our way to the “Final Alpha Presentation” deadline.
Every member of the team put in an extraordinary amount of work, sacrificing time and talent in the pursuit of our goal, and as we presented our game today before the executive producers as well as the teams from “Cohort 1″ who have already been through this process, that hard work and dedication showed immensely. Through a clean and concise presentation, the team was able to share with our fellow students the great amount of progress that we’ve made, as well as garner some excellent suggestions from the previous Cohort that may help us to improve the game as we enter into the Beta phase.
The response was overwhelmingly positive, which was quite helpful. We hope to continue this momentum forward as we continue into beta, both improving our skillsets over the summer, as well as keeping in mind the final deadline later this fall.
Ka-Poof Poof Forever!
[Personal Note - I am extremely proud of this team. Through difficulty with code, to learning new techniques, each and every member of "The Origamers" has truly put their sweat and tears into this project. From the willingness to pick up slack in any way, shape, or form, to the implementation of talents and skills (and time!) that were necessary to get this game to Alpha, I'm very impressed with the dedication that was shown over the course of this semester.
I'm very excited to be a part of this project, and am grateful for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you. You guys rock, and you know that. (If you don't, then you better, because this team is easily one of the very best that I've ever had the privilege to work with.)
Thank you so much for all of your hard work, and I hope that you have an amazing summer. I look forward to getting right back into the groove of production come August! - Karratti]
Implementation & Other Fun Words
We’ve been working hard to continue our forward motion as we’ve began the implementation of the art assets into the game. Misha and Ashley have been hard at work as they implement models and textures into the game, with Jorge putting his efforts into combing through the tutorial level before Ashley adds her textures. Pace, Kevin and Anurag have been combining the code as we rush towards Wednesday’s presentation. It’s been a rather busy number of days.
After finally deciding to scrap the turns entirely, process has become much smoother, allowing us to focus more on making sure that the code is working properly and that the game is actually fun. After the “update” presentation last week, we’re putting all efforts into making sure that our talent and work shine through as we quickly approach our alpha deadline.
Anurag’s menu has been cleaned up and textured by Ashley, and has now been fully implemented into the alpha build with clean new buttons. One of the more interesting parts of that process has been the refusal to allow the cursor to leave the screen as the player moves it about. (Thus resolving a problem that we’ve noticed in a number of Kinect titles.) Excellent work.
Josh and Brandon began to do some impromptu research today, wanting to see if there is consistency of thought as it comes to the “posing” of the three different animals (cat, rat, ox). Brandon’s theory was that, if asked, most people would have a rather consistent “pose” when asked to represent each animal. Though there were a few outliers, (as well as a couple people who were just kind of rude about being asked while walking on a university campus), the overwhelming response was that most people had the same “pose” in mind when tasked with acting as a certain animal.
This information will be utilized in Wednesday’s presentation, to explain the universal nature of “posing” as an animal, which should be a useful resource.
Though there is still a good amount of work to be done, we’re overall very pleased with the direction that we’re heading.
Ka-Poof Poof!
Visual Calibrations
After deliberating between Josh, Ashley, and Brandon, (and with input throughout the process from the rest of the team), we’ve now cobbled together the final “visual goal” for the game. With a target “papercraft landscape” borrowed from the papercraft-inspired work of Jeremy Kool, we extrapolated different elements of the HUD to help focus the player’s attention on the most important aspects to him/her.
At the top left, we’ve got the player’s current time which, along with the count of collectibles (top right), will be put through an algorithm to determine the player’s score for the current level. On the right side, we’re including a “map indicator” which will show the player how far along the track his current position is, as well as what character he is currently playing as.
In a stroke of genius, Josh suggested that the tutorial messaging system should be relayed via the use of “fortune cookie fortunes,” which should provide a distinct feel and keep the player invested in the narrative at hand. We’re currently looking into how to best use Unity to animate that to the best effect.
Finally, the “card shuffle” at the top of the screen will show the player what his current ideal pose should be, as well as what sections are coming up next, so he can plan accordingly. While this will certainly take a little balancing and testing, we’re hoping this HUD will quickly give the player all information that he’ll need at any point during the level.
Plus, the whole thing looks pretty damn cool.
As other updates, we’re having some difficulties with “turns” in Unity, as there’s no real spline system in place for the game. This problem, which some of us encountered during prototypes last semester, has proven to be a rather painful thorn in our side. In order to keep from running up against a wall and not meeting our Alpha deadline, we’ve decided to implement a straight track only, which should alleviate the current situation. While Pace, Kevin and Jorge will continue to examine the viability of adding curves into the game at a later date, we’re shifting this into the backburner in order to meet our current goals.
On a lighter note, however, Anurag’s opening menu and pose system is being implemented smoothly, which is excellent. Currently, he and Josh are working to implement the three poses, as well as balancing them properly and narrowing down the specific “pose window” that the player will need to hit in order to change. (As it stands, the player can change his pose instantly on the fly, which is a little concerning for us because if the changes are too easy, they lose much of their purpose and impact. There was also a minor concern that if the movement is instant, then a “jump” motion may in fact result in a transformation simply as a part of the body motion, so that examination is currently in progress.)
Overall, good spirits and good motion. We’re looking on-track to meet Alpha next week.
Ka-Poof Poof!
Pre-Alpha Update
With two more weeks to go until our Alpha deadline, we’re still heavy in development. Each of the different tools is ready to be put into use, and our level is currently being placed into the game as we move forward into the heavy iteration stage.
Ashley has been putting in many, many hours as she gets the level and environments looking better and better, and with this tutorial section in by the end of today, we’ll be able to begin the delicate dance of adjusting for speed, movement, poses, and changes, all as we barrel towards May.
During our “company-wide” update today, we had a refocusing, better understanding our goals in having a “playable” section. It was helpful to run into this kind of situation early rather than later on during development, specifically because we’re able to put our efforts to better use as we move forward, and we shouldn’t have too much of a backtrack.
Gameplay is moving along, and we’re looking at a quick march as we hasten our way to the end of the semester.
Unfolding The Characters
As we ramp up on the path towards Alpha, our artists are getting the characters ready for UV mapping and textures, and their work is looking incredibly impressive. After the original prototype designs that were created for presentation concepts, and after narrowing down the look into “papercraft” instead of origami, the overall “look” of the characters has really began to solidify.
As was mentioned in a previous update, we’re focusing on the cat, rat, and ox, all in a paper-like feel and texture. While Misha has been putting extensive effort into perfecting the models themselves, Ashley has been splitting her time between the ox model as well as helping with level and environment design, which has kept them both quite busy.
Things have been quite demanding on our artists for the past little while, and it doesn’t look like it will be getting any easier anytime soon. (Sorry!) Fortunately, Ashley and Misha are two of the most talented people in the program, so they’ve looked at the challenges ahead, taken a deep breath, and are forging onward with smiles on their faces.
As well, Josh has been putting together the final concept for the level design, which should be ready on Wednesday, but we’ll put that in the next update.
Some Are Better Posers Than Others
As we make our way halfway through our current sprint, we’re utilizing the system that Anurag and Jorge have put together for use in detecting our poses, and have come across a significant point – That of pose tolerance.
Jorge explained to us today about a session that he attended at GDC last month, where a developer was relating the difficulties that the Kinect has in understanding subtle differences between words when trying to detect speech from the player. Because of the wide range with which voices can relate the same word, it can be even more difficult for the Kinect to understand what the player is trying to do when trying to implement subtle shifts.
“Fast” and “Fist” are very similar, as are “Shot,” “Sit,” and “Spin.” The problem can become even more compounded as the words become more complicated, especially when tolerances are implemented to handle the discrepancies between the voice patterns of different voices.
(Alas, HAL is still not quite a reality, so Dave would not only have to deal with an antagonistic personality, but some tough language barriers as well.)
In that same vein, Jorge brought up the potential problem that we might be coming across in the coming weeks, being that if our poses require the player to be too precise, it won’t be very fun. The poses need to be different enough that we can account for the tolerance of two different players of varying skills.
Case in point, as we were working on the “cat” pose today, Josh was very precise in his pose, owing to his dancing background. The positions were crisp and clean. Anurag, while not quite as crisp in his version of the pose, was still able to get the positions correct after some adjustment. However, when Karratti got up to duplicate the same movement, his lack of such training became quickly evident, as the pose was more muddied and muddled.
Anurag was careful to explain that, while the percentages displayed using his tools showed the “success” factor that the poses would eventually utilize for use in the game, the tolerance needed to be determined once, and then compensated for utilizing the other variables. What this means is that, as soon as the level concept is ready for implementation, the tolerance for each pose will need to be quickly set and then adjustments will need to be made based on that tolerance.
All in all, the concept isn’t all too complicated, it’s just a lot of little math problems to put together as we approach Alpha on May 2nd. We’re still on track, and our direction looks solid as we approach the end of this 2nd Sprint.
Dynamic Path Branching – Epic Pose Zones
While examining the paper prototype that we’ve put together for use as our level design, something quickly became apparent – The change gates were not necessarily compulsory. Theoretically, one could never make a change, and still finish the level as quickly as if she had hit every change gate exactly on-time. While this may have been attractive for young gamers, it presented a more fundamental problem – There was little replayability outside of just loading up the game and choosing a different character to be first. Considering that the poses and transformations were to be one of our main “hooks,” this presented a problem.
As the leads consulted together, we talked about different possibilities. The first was a “looping” mechanic that would bring the player back around to the change gate if he missed it the first time around, giving him opportunities until he finally did the motion correctly. While this initially made us smile, we could see how this may become frustrating.
Other ideas included more complex and branching levels, encouraging exploration in order to find the “best path,” but such trial and error seemed a little less than compelling.
Finally, Josh and Jorge put together an interesting idea of using Temple Run as a model, with the transformations taking the place of the turns, and thereby giving us a model to increase the speed of the game. With this idea, we’ve decided to implement the mechanic behind the “looping gates” into something different and unique.
In what we’re calling “dynamic transformations,” the player will theoretically be able to play the entire, single-track level without ever changing. Instead of forcing the player to change, the player will instead be rewarded for changing, with an optimal form as the “fastest” in a certain part of the level.
By example, the Ox is the fastest swimmer, and so will move the fastest through a water section. If the player instead chooses to remain a cat, he’ll flail his way across the area, but will lose considerable time, unless he changes into the ox, at which time he’ll speed up. By the same token, if the player is trying to get through a small tunnel, the rat is her best bet, but the ox can just crash his way through it at a slower pace if she so chooses.
This dynamic system should allow for incentives to learn the poses and time the movements accordingly. As well, it will allow players of any skill level to play the game without being frustrated by having to “redo” sections if they miss a change gate. The entire level, in essence, will be a change gate.
During this discussion, the idea of “Epic Poses” came up, which seemed like an interesting addition. Borrowing an aspect of rhythm games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, when the player hits an “Epic Pose Zone,” the game will slow down a little, and the player will need to correctly match a sequence of poses in succession. If he’s successful, this will trigger an “Epic Event,” which may include influences of anime “combat” scenes, or something to that effect. This will offer the player an awesome reward, as well as a significant shortcut which should help times, and encourage more skill instead of just barreling down the track.
Finally, the track has been determined to utilize three “slots,” and for the player to jump from one to the other instead of being free to move all over the track at will. Especially considering the speed that we’re aiming for, this should help the player to remain focused and invested in the gameplay instead of fighting against the Kinect to get it to do what it wants to do. As well, this takes some of the focus off of the steering and places it back onto the transformations, where it belongs.
We feel that this is a productive change, and though the “branching” system is simply cleverly hidden within the new design, it feels a little more fluid than it was. Also, this should significantly reduce the size of assets for the art team, though it may invariably increase the number of required animations. We’ll have to go down this path a ways and see how it goes.
Designing A Level By Hand
For our first chapter, we’re looking at focusing on the story of The Rat, The Cat, and The Ox. Though we’re still finalizing some of the details for that, the basic idea is that the player will have a “default” state, (in this case, The Rat), and will pose in a “pose zone” to refold herself into a different character. That different character will gain access to a different path, and will have his own new ability. (By example, The Ox will be able to bash through things, whereas The Cat will be agile enough to leap through difficult terrain.
Ashley did some excellent work, putting together a paper/cardboard prototype for us to work with, giving us a way to quickly iterate on the level design as we go. We’re currently beginning on the first 1/3 of the level, to see how best to implement distances and speeds before we create the rest of the tracks and branching paths.
The Spirit of Paper Modeling
As we’ve been working through the beginning stages here, we’ve come to realize the limitations of using origami as our art style. Origami, by it’s nature, is generally less than precise, usually just evoking the image of its subject instead of being a “styled representation.” As well, considering how most of the time the player will be looking at the character from behind, it would be better if we had a more “fleshed out” character.
In speaking with our EP, the leads discussed the idea of removing origami completely. We started thinking about what was compelling about the mechanic in the first place, and decided the thing that we liked best was the “paper transformation” mechanic, and the idea that each “character” was a moldable creature. We started looking at different paper-like styles, and eventually found some rather interesting papercraft models that better emulated the ideas that we’d been coming up with.
So, as we’ve iterated on this process, and with the approval of the leads, this is the direction that we’re going to take the project. That should allow our characters to be more expressive, more vibrant, as well as offer us a chance to engage with the the papercraft community to get some insight into ways to model our characters with a more unique style. (This should also offer some unique possibilities for integrating the backgrounds and paths into the style, as well.)
Alpha Build Progress
Our team has been busy, despite having GDC followed immediately by Spring Break. Here’s where we’re standing:
Concept art is in full swing, and we’re expecting to have some great pieces on Wednesday to show the direction that the art is taking.
We have a playable pre-alpha build that is going quite well. While much of the team was in San Francisco, the ones who stayed really kicked it into high gear, and we now have a working playable ready to go for Wednesday’s update.
After discussing with the team leads, we’ve decided to forego the five-level structure that we had originally intended on, and instead are planning on an episodic release, focusing on five distinct “chapters” of the game. This will allow us to really polish the first level, and make everything feel right and play well, and if we have time left over, (or if there’s a demand), we can release a second level later on down the road without compromising the quality of the first.
Our first chapter is going to focus specifically on the story of the Rat, the Ox, and the Cat, and they’re journey to the Jade Palace.
All in all, things are looking good, and we’re on track with our first sprint.
Video – Roger Tests The Game
This is our Executive Producer, Roger Altizer, having a blast with our pre-alpha build, all set up and working with Kinect. Things are looking great!
Green Lighted!
Zodiac Racers has been green lighted, and that means it’s all-systems-go as we focus our attention towards creating a kick-ass game for IGF this fall. A heavy brainstorming session will begin on Monday, 27 February, where we’ll be iterating upon the prototype that led us here. We’re expecting things to go well as we begin research for the beginning of full-scale production!
Smiling
Not really sure how many people actually read this thing, but considering the VAST number of posts that I seem to write, I kind of consider this to just be my own little portion of the Internet.
Today, I was assigned as project lead on one of our program’s three Thesis games. That’s actually pretty awesome. At the time, I really didn’t think a lot of it, especially considering I’ve been a a lead in all but title for three prototypes so far, as well as the lead designer on a game for the Utah Natural History Museum. (If you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend checking it out. We’ve been told it’s the most popular part of that exhibit.)
In any case, I was speaking with a colleague of mine who happened to see me in a behind the scenes shot of Unicorn City, which is an independent gaming film that’s soon to be coming to theaters. (Hilarious stuff, by the way.) He asked me what I had done on the film, and I explained my previous work as a grip and electrician, which he thought was so interesting considering where I’m headed now.
But as a friend of Bryan Lefler, (one of the producers), my colleague asked him about my work. He mentioned who I was and that I was in the program, and the related response was so interesting:
“Oh, you know that guy?”
“Yeah, he’s the EAE program.”
“Have you ever seen him smile?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, he was a super hard worker, but I don’t think I ever saw that guy crack a grin.”
“Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not smiling, actually.”
When my friend relayed that to me, I laughed, but the comment kind of stuck. Considering that I was filming that movie a year and a half ago, I guess I didn’t take into account the way that I was being perceived.
When I talk to my friends now, especially those who’ve only really known me since I started the program, most of them seem to see me as a generally positive guy who’s rather easy-going. I don’t like to think that I’ve really changed all that much over the course of just a year, but could it be that my personality was so dark?
I keep coming back to it, trying to figure out what it was. Was I just annoyed with the heat? Was I annoyed with the work? Was it the wage? Or was it something else? I just can’t really put my finger on it.
Perhaps I just wasn’t going in the direction that I should have been. Maybe I needed a change, and my face recognized it before I did. I don’t know.
In either case, that was then, and this is now. Time to move forward, and keep that smile on my face. Try to avoid the apparent scowl that was a permanent fixture in 2010.
New project, new responsibilities, and hopefully some awesome results down the road.
Here we go.
Dealing with Multiple Projects
So, I had honestly thought after we’d finished Aquaducks, we were done. I figured that we’d be able to move on to the next prototype and just let the museum run the two games for the next month. I didn’t realize that I’d be continuing to manage my old team while at the same time keeping track of my new people as well. Maybe this is all just on my head – It’s been a busy past few days.
Pace and Christian took the time this week to get all the ducks ready to go, removing the vector images in favor of rasterized ones so that the bunch of ducks will play nice with Flash and Actionscript instead of bogging down whenever all the targets are moving on-screen.
From what I understand, our game has been quite the hit. Even though there are a number of minor improvements that the workers have noticed and even recommended, overall they are still quite pleased with the response. The pick-up-and-play nature of the game really seems to resonate with the kids whom the museum chiefly caters towards, and so I’d consider that a marked success. While I’d like to take the time to revisit the game a little later, I think it’s in good shape for now.
But we’ll see. Pace has got the latest updates up and running, so hopefully we can let it be and get the rest of our work going on prototype 4 before we need to go back to the old game. Just got a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks, and though that may look like a lot of time, I’ve been in school long enough to realize how deceptive a calendar can be. Work to do, not much time to do it in.
Thanksgiving Thoughts
I realize that this may be only tangentially related to the rest of this blog, but I found it interesting nonetheless. Having just made it through Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really interesting to gauge the reactions to what I’m currently doing with my life. Family is always such a strange indicator in any situation, but when I tell my aunts, uncles and cousins that I’m studying video games, I got one of two reactions:
A) “Wow! That’s really cool!” OR
B) “Wait, really? They give degrees in that?”
Now, I’m not exactly a stranger to explaining my schooling to others. While studying film, I had a good share of conversations where I would have to explain my work and job opportunities to my extended family, chiefly because what I was doing was not a “traditional” job path in any sense of the word. Numerous times, I was asked if I had a “backup plan in case that doesn’t work out.” At the time, I was so confident that that was the path for me, but now, here I am headed in another direction.
But as one family member pointed out yesterday, there’s definitely a correlation. It’s not as if I’m going in a completely new direction, but instead it’s more like specializing a little more. I was a film producer at one point, and now I’m working towards production in games. There’s a lot of similarities.
Oh well. That was just something I’ve been thinking about this weekend, and with no school, I don’t even know why I’m taking the time to write this out. (Maybe I feel a little guilty that I hadn’t written this week. Or maybe I did. I don’t remember.)
Anyway, back to the grind on Monday. Better get back to enjoying the holiday while I’ve got the time, right? Plenty of time to think about this stuff next week.
Time to Ride the Wild Kart
Riding the wave of the last prototype, here we go into the home stretch. Four more weeks to go, and one more prototype to get finished. The one thing that I think is going to be tougher for me to deal with on this one is simply that I won’t exactly be the team lead for this last one. I think that, especially among the producers, being the “game designer” has been something that we hold onto, to at least keep an outward sense of legitimacy to our job title.
It’s not that we’re suffering from low self-image or something, it’s just that to the rest of our team, it’s much easier to see the producers as the project lead when ideas get run by them. Take that away, and I guess I’m a little worried about whether that respect is going to disappear. (But, thinking about who my teammates are, I think those worries are a little unfounded. I’ve got some really good people on this last group.)
In any case, it looks like Adam Zaelit is going to be taking the reins as the designer for Wild Kart, the game that we brainstormed up today. We wanted to make a game that was simple to understand, but still exhilarating, while at the same time heavily featured the haptic interface tactors in a unique and interesting way. (I don’t care what other people say, I refuse to call them “skin tugging devices.” Maybe I’ll call them… HIT sticks? I like that. Using it.)
Well, I’ve got to get this presentation done. Off we go.
First Published Game!
So, my first published game is up and running, on display at the Utah Natural History Museum… That’s just crazy! The more that I think about it, the nuttier it is. I mean, the most similar feeling is probably when I made my first film my sophomore year. (Oh Super Office – The memories.)
Roger mentioned that having a published game is a really big deal, and though that may be the case, I guess I’m still trying to figure out what that means. I guess I get to actually apply the title of “Producer” for real now, yeah? I’ll have to figure that out later. For now, I’m just glad that we got the project all finished and good to go – and that the client was happy with the final product.
Now, on to the next one, I guess!
Being On the Same Page
One of the most interesting aspects of working with this group has been that each member of the team has brought not only a unique perspective to the project, but that everyone’s looking to make the same game. Instead of us all trying to pull the game into different directions, we’re all locked in, headed towards the same goal.
We all have our weaknesses, but at the same time, we all have our strengths, and we’ve been able to make up for one another’s shortcomings rather well, which is something extremely impressive, because things don’t always work out that way.
I don’t know if my team is going to ever read this, but I’m really happy with the way things are going, and though we’ve still got a lot of work to do, I’m extremely confident that we’re going to get there.
Nathan Drake Has a Few Missteps – UC3
Uncharted 3 is a great game. Don’t get me wrong. I was really excited to play this game, because I absolutely loved the first one. If you run over to my portfolio, you can even see the scene that I did for one of my classes that was pulled right out of it. Uncharted 2 is still one of my favorite games of all time.
So, perhaps that’s why I’m so disappointed by UC3.
[THERE'S GOING TO BE SOME SPOILERS HERE, JUST AS A WARNING.]
I think that my biggest problem with this game is that, for most of the first half, the motivations were incredibly unclear, so by the time that an actual personal motivation for Drake showed up (Sully kidnapped), I was just so lost that I didn’t much care anymore. The game honestly felt as if they’d simply decided on a bunch of different “action sequences,” and then just strung the lines of the story through the loops. There didn’t seem to be any real compelling factor to the game, but instead it all just felt like a bunch of cool destruction sequences put in some arbitrary order.
The entire boat sequence made almost zero sense in the context of the story. You go from chase scene to drugged out chase scene, to Marlowe telling Drake that he’s spilled the beans on everything, to suddenly being kidnapped by a random pirate who was only just introduced, and then I’m stuck pursuing this character for the next two hours all for some “surprise twist” that you could see coming a mile away? Come on!
UC2 had a rhythm to the story, and the story worked because Drake’s motivations were always understandable. He wasn’t just running through a building shot up by a helicopter for no reason – He was searching for a temple and got caught up in an unexpected snag. There was ebb and flow to the story that was just lacking in UC3. Compare the travel through the city of Nepal against the travel through the frieghter and ship graveyard (because they’re both about the same length). In that length of time, uc2 had two memorable scenes, re-introduced characters, and built up intrigue and drama.
Uc3 had you fight a ton of bad guys, and run towards the camera a bunch as water kept flooding in without any real reason to, all because you’re going to end up right in the same place you started after it’s over!
There’s just a number fundamental story problems with UC3 that make me wonder if perhaps the game was more under the gun than its predecessor. Plot threads go unresolved, there’s no real wrap up, and there’s no pay off for most of the character arcs. That’s a problem, and it’s difficult to ignore.
And don’t even get me started on the ridiculously sticky cover system. The person who decided that “roll” and “stick to cover” should be mapped to the same button in a shooter where much of the scenery is cover deserves to be shot. I can’t even tell you the number of times where I was trying to dive out of the way of yet another mystically spawning enemy, just to have Drake stick to the wall and stand there taking bullets in the face.
All in all, it was a pretty good game. But the flow and feel from UC2 was just missing here. So much potential, and so much wasted. That’s just so very unfortunate.
Finally Nailed That Pitch
I nailed it! I put in the time, and for the first time since we started the program, this is a pitch that I’m proud of.
For the past couple of prototypes, I really haven’t been able to pull off a really good pitch. I think one of my problems is that I get a little over-anxious. I get worried so much that I won’t be able to pull it all off, and so I get a little nervous. As well, I haven’t really taken the opportunity to practice exactly what I’m going to say, so many of my pitches come off a little “last-minute” and rushed. Not necessarily because I haven’t been preparing, or that I don’t know the material, but because I haven’t actually practiced the actual pitch/presentation.
When I was in my film undergrad, one of the most beneficial things that we got to do was auditioning for roles with the Theater department. As a film student, we were required to take an acting class, and become a little more comfortable with being in front of the camera, and not just behind it. Of course, that didn’t exactly make us into actors, but we were able to see things from the other side of the lens, and see what actors go through.
The one thing that helped the most with these kinds of situations was rehearsing the scene. Taking the scene, trying it out, and seeing what works and what doesn’t… These are things that are essential to a good performance. And the thing of it is, no matter what kind of presentation you’re giving, it’s truly a performance. The one who is pitching is in the spotlight, and everyone’s looking to them to “entertain” them.
It took me a while to realize that. That I needed to be able to enrapture the audience, get them excited, and make them smile at the idea that we’re creating. But this time… Totally did it. Now to go to work to make sure that the actual presentation is just as good.
The Creation of the Aquaducks
So, I just spent about four and a half hours working on the pitch for our new game. I absolutely love this concept, by the way, but you can read all about it on the project blog. But mostly, I just have a really good feeling about this pitch, and I’m really hoping it goes well.
It’s actually looking towards almost 2AM, and it may have just been the lack of sleep mixed with the crazy ideas of it all, but I came up with a team name (and possible game name?) that just had me laughing out loud. It’s early in the morning, so I haven’t had the chance to run this by my group, but it’s such a great idea that I’m going to use it anyway.
The Aquaducks. Perfect mix of water conservation, a little irony, and just the right amount of humor. I can’t stop laughing about it.
In any case, just had to put that up there, because it’s seriously early in the morning, and I have to tell someone. Alright, all done.
Blasting Through Arkham City
This one isn’t really a review, (Though as a spoiler, the game is awesome!), but really just more of a reflection a little while after completing the game. For me, I’ve always looked to enjoy the games I play in a more relaxed environment. Unfortunately, that kind of opportunity has become more and more infrequent as I get more and more involved in these projects.
Those days that I used to have where I was able to just sit down for a few hours and relax playing a game are really just inconsistant. Instead, I find myself either sacrificing sleep to play for a few hours in the early morning, or just getting an hour here or there when I get the chance. The problem with this, at least from my own perspective, is that I like being on the cutting edge, able to discuss with people about the newest games purely so that I know exactly what’s trending now, and how that might apply to my designs in the future.
This is why I was a little disappointed at how quickly I rushed through Arkham City. The game was extremely good, but I found myself almost pressured to blast through the game as fast as possible, which made for a slightly less-than-satisfying feeling when I got to the very end of it all. I just felt like I should have really taken my time a little more. I should have gone through it a little more calmly.
I think that this little lesson is something that I need to take a look at a little more. Perhaps I need to just calm myself down a little more, and allow myself to continue to study the games that I play, but not be so concerned with knowing more about the newest stuff than everyone else. I just need to cool off a little, cause I feel like I’m missing out on the actual enjoyment of the game. Yeah, I’m “beating” them, but I need to focus more on the enjoyment of it as opposed to worrying what others might think of my not knowing everything.
Plus, I’ve always got New Game+ to give it another shot, right?
