Current Inspirations
Portal - for the non-violent nature of it and the neat teleportation physics puzzles. And removing half of the stupid ways to die. And for this.
Mirror's Edge on iPad - for the simple swipe-based mechanics, showing us a new way to do a simple platformer. For showing us how to convert a FPS for touch. And for this.
Left4Dead - for uncompromising 4 player co-op on both sides. For re-inventing the entire zombie genre. For much fun and great instakills. And for this.
Myth - for showing us that you don't need to spend two hours building an army for a 10 minute fight. And building a kick-ass story around it. And for this.
And two movies.
Primer - for providing an all-round mind-fuck of a movie. and it's available for free (linked here) on low-resolution web video and of course, available as a DVD.
Inception - only just out and not long out of the cinemas so there's not a lot that I can say without introducing spoilers. So go and look at the trailer here and then go watch the movie. All I can add is "BRRRRANNNNNGGGGGGG". You'll know what I mean after you watch it.
Games in Education
I believe that my playing of games has contributed positively to my development as an individual. Traditionally advocacy for gaming has included the development of teamwork and leadership skills, understanding of competition, resource management and also a greater appreciation of geography, politics, religion and 'alien' cultures. Games, especially tabletop role-playing games, have been used in education for years as they are comparatively light on resources, encourage participation and are good for personal development.
I read this from BrainyGamer
This year, for the first time, a video game will appear on the syllabus of a course required for all students at Wabash College, where I teach. For me - and for a traditional liberal arts college founded in 1832 - this is a big deal.
...
I pitched the idea to my colleagues on the committee (decidedly not a collection of gamers), and they agreed to try Portal and read selections from Goffman's book. After plowing through some installation issues ("What does this Steam do? Will it expose me to viruses?"), we enjoyed the first meaningful discussion about a video game I've ever had with a group of colleagues across disciplines. They got it. They made the connections, and they enjoyed the game. Most importantly, they saw how Portal could provoke thoughtful reflection and vigorous conversation on questions germane to the course.And so we're playing Portal at Wabash College.
Portal is, for a single player game, utterly fascinating.
I yearn for a group of individuals who get together to not only play games but also to have meaningful discussion about games and play. To examine the meta-design of games and to discuss the reasons why they are fun.
BLOC54 – GameStorming
Equally useful for the development of tabletop game ideas, this method was used tonight to brainstorm some ideas for videogames in our local game development cluster.
Yellowcon 2010 (Warhammer 40K Tournament)
Warhammer 40K Tournament (Yellowcon 2010)
Sunday, August 29, 2010 from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM (GMT)Stormont Hotel
587 Upper Newtownards Road
BT4 3LP Belfast
United Kingdom1750 point tournament. Prizes for winner & runner-up.
Access the rules pack which will be necessary for you to play in the tournament
The first game will start at 10.30, but it will be best for players to be there from 10am.
We hope everyone really enjoy the day!!
The Fun Theory
When designing games I tend to think about what will make the game more 'sticky'. At the start, I can usually enthuse someone about a game by talking to them about it. You're the consummate salesperson for your game and design and in theory no-one can sell the concept like you can. To get people to play (or better still, to pay), you have to describe the game in such terms that it seems fun. This was a challenge with The 23rd Letter because it doesn't contain pictures and like it or not it's the visuals which usually interest someone in a game.
In theory, with the concept of Playbor (work that seems like play), you can make anything seem like fun. Whether this is Tom Sawyer fooling others to whitewash the fence or the complicated patterns from the Folding@Home project, you can get results by adding simple things like achievements, leaderboards and a dollop of fun.
I'm very interested in the motivations of people especially with respect to getting them to change behaviours. Work I've done with the University of Ulster was describing scenarios for changed behaviours and how you can take advantage of those for good (or evil). Needless to say that lots of companies are looking at this area because it goes beyond advertising. In this world, advertising is already dead and we're presenting people with things that would normally be described as 'not fun' and making them into 'fun'. That's actually a lot easier than getting someone to click through on a banner advert.
Can you get more people to take the stairs by making it more fun?
This is the essence of games.
Not everyone can appreciate the fun of a game like Left4Dead (one of the very best co-operative games on the market). And not everyone is going to appreciate games like Diner Dash or Farmville. But there is a feeling of enjoyment and achievement in all of these games which is what is common in games.
This is Jane McGonigal at TED talking about how games can be used to fix real-world problems.
My aim is to start a new company (working title: Alien Salvage) which will focus on the development of games which will have both learning and healthcare applications as well as being fun.
8 Bit Demakes
This article describes 8 bit de-makes - remaking some of todays popular games in 8 bit and 16 bit forms. Some of them still look amazing such as Little Big Planet and Mirrors Edge.
All of them are great but these two - you can see why I like them - they'd work really well on a 3.5 inch screen if you know what I mean 
Mirrors Edge is almost already there but looking at LBP - that would, could be a lot of fun.
Runnin and Jumpin genre mash
Earlier this week, we had a meeting of local iOS developers and we segued into a conversation about the development of game ideas ahead of a 'gamestorming' event we have planned for next week.
We talked about the development of game ideas and there was a look at the Mirror's Edge game in the context of being a game which essentially involves running and jumping. I decided to add a little pastiche here using the powers of Youtube. All of the games listed below bring different perspectives to the running and jumping genre.
The first running and jumping game was Donkey Kong (1981):
but possibly the most famous running and jumping game is Super Mario Bros.
A recent game by an Irish developer is Into the Twilight (iTunes link). It shows a different theme for running and jumping games.
and finally, I present Mirror's Edge for iPad which I personally think is streets ahead of the FPS released on consoles and PC. But where it wins is in the interface. Touch interface is perfect in this game.
I would not have played if…
A federal judge is allowing a negligence lawsuit to proceed against the publisher of the online virtual-world game Lineage II, amid allegations that a Hawaii man became so addicted he is “unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends.”
Smallwood claims to have played Lineage II for 20,000 hours between 2004 and 2009. Among other things, he alleges he would not have begun playing if he was aware “that he would become addicted to the game.”
Take some personal responsibility, lard-ass.
Review of 20 non-video games at Gamasutra
Gamasutra has an interesting set of articles on real-world game design.
[Game Design Essentials returns with an extensive review of some of the most interesting non-electronic games, from traditional cultural games like Chess and Go through pen-and-paper role playing titles like Call of Cthulhu, European games like The Settlers of Catan, and much more -- each with a unique design lesson.]
The only game I would add to the review would be Vampire: The Masquerade for it's (at the time) unique emphasis on character and the loss of humanity which does compare to the sanity-blasting nature of Call of Cthulhu after a fashion. But the exclusion of the game is undoubtedly because of the afterbirth of the tortured souls who first loved the game: the trenchcoat samurai. These individuals (and their cohorts, the velvet wannabees) changed the tone of the game and put a lot of people off. When you had a good group, however, you had a game which focused on social interaction, on playing roles like duty, love, passion, perversion - and making it acceptable though challenging to play.
Vampire revitalised the hobby (again) and this role is now being repeated by indie games which have a reduced need for long preparations and rely more on social interaction and 'storytelling' than strict adherence to the result of a dice (if indeed they have any randomising element).
Primer: One of the Best Sci-Fi Movies
Shane Carruth, writer and director of the lo-fi scifi flick Primer, has uploaded the entire film to Google Video so you can watch it for free.
The plot is quite complex - so pay attention and lay off the mind-altering substances, you won't need them. It's about time-travel. And it's tricky stuff.
Sunday afternoons are punctuated with the sounds of war.
Izaak had his Scout 3 training at Games Workshop yesterday and afterwards he decided that he was going to focus on building an army of Chaos Space Marines and that would be his tag in the future. This is not a worrying development at all.
Reunited
Today I moved about 150 kgs of my gaming collection to my house from my parents house. Keen-eyed geeks will be able to easily identify some of the game books here and some of you will even be upset at my organisation of the collection which, at the moment, is very coarse and will be improved as more of the collection is moved here. There's easily another 150 kgs over there.
You should be able to spot Traveller, Godlike, Star Trek, Blue Planet, Rolemaster, Middle Earth Roleplaying, Doctor Who, James Bond, Ars Magica, Call of Cthulhu maybe more.
I posted this pic on my Tech blog but when I think about it, it's just as appropriate here.
Hopalong Teddy
This isn't gaming related. But...
Our 7 month old puppy went to stay with The Pet Connection NI while we were on our summer holiday. Unfortunately some time in the second week his leg was broken. He had surgery to insert 2 pins to hold the leg together but he now walks with a pronounced limp which we hope will improve over time.
The Pet Connection NI deny liability.
We paid them a total of £292.50 up front to look after him for 16 nights. We have paid the Vets a total of £407.00 to date.
No form of compensation monetary or otherwise has been offered by The Pet Connection NI.
Threat of legal action prevents me from going into any more detail than these facts. I can say though that I personally will not be using The Pet Connection NI for dog boarding ever again.
The Tedster's Limp from Arlene Johnston on Vimeo.
Superheroes
In terms of special effects, I'd love to know how they do the superhero style special effects like in in Hancock
and more recently, an EMINEM video (forward to about 3 minutes):
and Push
I've not been posting much because I've not been gaming much. I need to do something about that for the latter half of 2010.
The Aliens Are Coming
Stephen Hawking talks about how we should hide from aliens:
I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach. ... If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans.
At least until we get our own massive ships after looting the Earth for goodies and go out on the prowl.
This is the plot for "The War of the Worlds" after all. Just the distances may be many orders of magnitude greater.
THE RAVEN
THE RAVEN is a short film, looking a little like a far future version of The 23rd Letter. This made it a lot of fun to watch and I'd love to see it made into a feature. I don't think it's necessarily going to win a prize for originality (especially seeing as we have Scanners, The Fury, Push out there) but it's nicely shot and the budget was miniscule.
Summary: Chris Black possesses a power that could lead to the destruction of the current regime, and they will stop at nothing to destroy him.
The chase is on as Chris runs for his life in this sci-fi thriller set in an alternate and futuristic Los Angeles.Director : Ricardo de Montreuil
Producers: Ricardo de Montreuil & Eliz Eskeranli
Writers: Ricardo de Montreuil & Antonio Perez
Cinematographer: Andres Sanchez
Composer: Angelo Milli
Special Effects Supervisor: Aaron Burns
3D Modeling and Animation: Juan Somarriba and Francisco Concha
Visual Effects and Compositing: Ricardo de Montreuil
Editing: Ricardo de Montreuil
Color Correction: Santiago Padilla
Sound Design and Mixing: Martin Seltzer
Budget: $5k
Format: RED 1920x1080
Special thanks: Filmosonido, CO3 and ConverseYou can find concept drawings, 3D models and production stills at THE RAVEN facebook site:
Contact: info@theravenfilm.com
2010 has been shit for gaming so far
Not much gaming this year so far.
But we did watch [•REC]2. Which scared the bejasus out of me just the same way [•REC] did. Except for the ending which I didn't like.
This week is going to be a dead loss as well so there's only hope for next week.
Tax breaks for UK Video Games Companies
So yeah, talk to me if you need game ideas. I'm rarin' to go.
That's what LateGaming is - it's an idea factory.
Asshat Paladins blog
Matt Borselli has a quick writeup of his experience with Crucible Design, and more specifically The 23rd Letter, on his blog, AssHat Paladins.
I enjoyed chatting about it - getting involved in my own narcissism obviously - and it brought back a lot of memories.
Part two will be out in a week or so so subscribe to his blog if you want to catch it.
Amazing content on Games and Reality
This is 28 minutes of chuckles and amazing insight on how everything we touch will become a game. Eventually.
Who is going to lead us?
ARG!
Not a post per se, but something to help me bookmark a link which may be interesting to others as well as me.
Content management and delivery tools for indie ARG producers:
Alternate reality games and other kinds of distributed story/play projects place heavy demands on their creators’ abilities to manage and deploy content. To meet these demands, many commercial ARG developers have built proprietary software packages that streamline and automate the process of managing and delivering content (for more on this [and much else -- including many useful resources for independents] see Christy Dena’s post, “Cross-Media Management Technologies”).
A few years ago, these kinds of systems were out of reach for most DIY designers and artists. This is no longer the case. Thanks to freely-available social media, mobile technology, and web publishing tools, ARG producers with shoestring budgets can now roll their own custom ARG management and delivery systems.
Because I still want to build one. When I get the time.
Dark Water Studios’ Dogfighter: Spring 2010
I don't normally go for PC games but I'm enthused by Dogfighter by Dark Water Studios, a Derry-based outfit who plan to release their game in Spring 2010.
I'd love an iPhone/iPad version of it.
DWAITAS: Episode 0
Our first character is Constable Bob Hawkins:
October 3rd 1889, Blackfriars.
Tonight has been slow. Apart from cuffing the ear of some pickpockets, Blackfriars has never been so quiet. It's like the night is expecting something to happen. You roust a prostitute and her John out of an alleyway and then you notice...a silver door.
It's roughly hewn and seems unreal, superimposed on the dank reality of Victorian London. As you draw near you can tell it's cold, colder than the air on this smoggy London night, colder than the chill from the Thames.
You reach out, conscious of the chill emanating from the plain silver metal and the door opens, sliding almost imperceptibly into the brickwork. Darkness beckons beyond and one step later, you're inside.
There's a low hum emanating from the very walls of the room itself.
The door opposite you flashes and standing suddenly is a lithe figure in a form fitting uniform - it looks like a young woman with some sort of dark paint over her naked body! Scandalous! The figure is wearing some sort of ball on her head and wheels on her feet. Her hands seem to be replaced with spiky, nasty weapons. Your right hand drops to your nightstick and your left grasps your whistle.
You take a step back and blow on the whistle but your back hits the door, which had silently closed behind you.
Our second character is Zanna Hughes, a late 21st Century Murderball player:
It's the top of the innings and Caligary, top player in the Eastern League is bearing down on a lone player, unsupported by her team but holding the ball, a silvery and slipper globe with a suspension field. He readies his chainsword and primes his illegal taser upgrade. A flick of his wrist and the taser fires at the fleeing figure. Missed! He's got fourteen seconds before she's even in the score zone and they're about to enter the Maze. All sorts of bad things can happen in the Maze.
The walls of the Maze close in - a chicane-like tunnel with holes and loops from which an opponent can leap. Zanna ducks and weaves from tunnel to tunnel trying to stay ahead - one false move and she could wipe out on the slippery surface or receive a horrible injury from a chainsword slash. The ball feels light in her hand so she grips it tighter. A dark tunnel ahead and she speeds towards it and through... into a strange bronze control room...and it takes a real effort to not crash into the console in the middle. Coming out of the door opposite is a stocky man in a black coat - he reaches for a hefty stick and blows a whistle...
Meanwhile, a dimension away Caligary slams into a silver door which materialised in a tunnel. He dislocates his shoulder, cracks four ribs and loses the match.
and finally, our Time Lord, The Lords Marshal.
Awake. A comforting low hum (with an equally comforting clank) emanates from the floor of the room. Your cheek is wet, your tongue confirms it is the coppery tang of blood. Pain. A throbbing pain in your right temple is likely the source of the blood.
You're in a room walled by roundels, everything is a bronze colour. The room you're in is empty other than you and a doorway.
You hear a high pitched whistle from the doorway. You instinctively reach for the book. The book.
This will be followed by "Episode 1: The Thief of Never"
WatchTower New England – Episode 3
Robotic Rampage Stopped By Raw Recruits
by Rhonda McAvoy of The Boston Globe
March 18th, 2002
The Prudential Center was subject to a brutal attack this morning at around 8am. Three robotic figures burst out of one of the iconic "Duck Tour" tour buses to go on a deadly rampage through downtown commuters. The three were finally put down by new WatchTower recruits, most notably the terrifying destructive powers of Sapphire and Trace.
17 Bostonians were killed during the attack, and over 80 were injured before WatchTower's new "B" team arrived on the scene. While it's unclear what roles the team members play, the two women on the team both used their disintegration powers to great effect, taking care of all three robots in under a minute, and saving us from further death and destruction.
The origin of the robots is still unknown, although an anonymous source at the WatchTower lays the blame at the feet of the Downward Spiral group, known to have been terrorizing important religious sites on the east coast. While many a shopper may worship the almighty dollar at the Pru, it seems unlikely that an anti-Christian group would attack there.
TARDIS
The Doctor uses an "old" Type 40 TARDIS. IT travels in space and time. It's bigger on the inside than the outside. It has a broken Chameleon Circuit which means it's stuck in the form of a police box.
Doctor Who, like Star Trek, has it's own sort of technobabble.
From the Whoniverse
The bulk of a TARDIS is made up of Block-Transfer Mathematics. This form of Distributed Cluster Algebra was first developed by the people of the planet Logopolis. It is based on the idea that the essence of matter is structure and the essence of structure is mathematics. Using the hexadecimal notations of Block-Transfer it is possible to create Space-Time Events through pure calculation. An event or object can be described by thinking the correct Block-Transfer equations and it will instantly become reality.
...
These calculations are powered by raw Artron Energy. Block-Transfer Mathematics can only be computed with an organic brain because the mathematics alter the nature of reality. This would cause a traditional computer to malfunction. The original equations can however be recorded in traditional non-organic storage media such as bubble memory
When I was reading a lot about Doctor Who (around the time of the FASA RPG) it was made plain to me that the inside of a TARDIS is a completely different dimension to the outside of a TARDIS and that indeed, the outside of a TARDIS was nothing but a doorway to the TARDIS. Which is why it can materialise and dematerialise - it's just a mathematical construct. This also explains why a TARDIS is functionally indestructible and it's doors impenetrable.
So, the question remains, how far can you push a TARDIS?
How big can the inside be?
How many doors to the outside can there be?
This is all leading up to a game I'm prepping for Graham, Jim and Rory. They'll encounter a TARDIS which is planetary in size, with a million doors.
Too much time, too little talent
Where I embarrass myself with Garageband and a Dr Who MID file.
DWAITAS
I've been reading a lot of Doctor Who stuff recently since receiving the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (DWAITAS) RPG. I haven't actually been reading the RPG though. I figure that the rules are secondary to the creation of compelling adventures.
I finished Tom Baker's "Robot" and "The Ark in Space" as well as the entire first series of the Doctor Who reboot (The Eccleston series). And I've been spending an indecent amount of time on the DWAITAS forums.
In the first episode of the Torchwood TV series, it's stated that Torchwood Four went missing some time ago. (It's a sly reference to Babylon 4, from the Babylon 5 TV series as it also 'disappeared'). My plan is to use the missing Torchwood Four team as the start of the adventure. Sure - they went missing - but it's where they went that is interesting.
Kage Baker writes about The Company. A future organisation that recruits people in the past and gets them to steal and hide items of famous antiquity which are then sold. This has similarities to the Warheads who move between dimensions and time periods stealing technology and valuables for their employer, Mys-Tech. Another inspiration is Gatecrasher and the Technet who ventured to 14th Century Peru to steal a unique mathematical model of the universe carved from rock crystal which was fated to be destroyed in an earthquake.
Clause 374 of the Shadow Proclamation stated that "theft of an artefact of great cultural value legitimises the use of lethal force to ensure the artefact’s recovery".
So - where does Torchood Four fit in? The Torchwood team, obviously removed from Earth somehow, find themselves without resources, without money, without ammunition, on an alien world. They do what they can but in order to find their way back to Earth and also in order to survive, they have to resort to selling their services; services which include a pretty good knowledge of history and mythology.
So, the team, rag-tag, beaten but not down, missing a few but gaining a few, battles on to get passage back to Earth.
OK, this means the GM has to apply some hefty Deus Ex Machina to keep them from hijacking the first time-machine they come across and travelling back to 2 minutes after they left. This could be handled easily by having their time-transporters be similar to prisoner monitoring bracelets. They might be indestructable, they might be keyed together, they might be able to channel 'motivation' from their unseen masters. Hopefully, though, the players won't decide to just return home - they'll embrace the freedom and get to play through the concept of the galactic government of the Shadow Proclamation - if there's government, then there's trade. And some of these places might be good to start.
The Doctor has arrived!
The new Dr Who RPG from Cubicle 7
It arrived. And I've been preparing.
I'ved watched five episodes of Torchwood (the Children of Earth miniseries) as well as four episodes of Tom Baker's Doctor (Robot) and a few episodes of Tennant's Doctor (Silence in the Library, Stolen Earth). I've got plans to watch all of Eccleston's Doctor over the weekend. I'd avoided most of the Doctor Who new stuff - having been soured of the Doctor by successively Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann and to be honest I'd never really warmed to David Tennant's portrayal - it just seemed a little madcap, a little too camp.
So, it's looking like Delta Green may be on hold for a while due to the holidays and some folks personal situations so I'm kinda keen to see what the fuss is all about.
I may have also ordered a copy of the Dr Who Technical Manual from Noble Knight Games. I already own a copy somewhere in the depths of my parents house - which, interestingly enough, I won when I was a kid from a competition which ran in the Daily Mail. It's the sort of fanboi hardback that every kid in the world should have. It even included things I'd never heard of - Movellans, CyberMats and other things from earlier in the many series that make up the canon. With over seven hundred episodes out there - it's a lot for anyone to take in and I'd previously only really watched part of Tom Baker, most of Peter Davidson and part of Colin Baker's runs on the role. But you can also view the contents of it right here:
The Doctor Who Technical Manual
Places to go for extra fun?
How about the Official Cubicle 7 Dr Who: Adventures in Time and Space online forum? There's already heaps of adventure seeds, character and kit writeups and discussions of campaigns that could be run.
Or maybe the Vortex Oracle for quick generation of Dr Who adventure seeds?
Once, Twice, Three Times a Detective
Dolgion Chuluunbaatar of Gamasutra writes about non-linear adventure games:
Of course, as a gamer I've run many detective games. These range from the high thrill, high horror, low schlock games like SLA Industries to the low key, psychic conspiracy thrillers like The 23rd Letter.
In the 80s, I remember playing Consulting Detective with the older kids and thoroughly enjoyed the level of detail, the requirement for immersion and visualisation and the reliance on observation and deduction. But it was not a popular game because to the average teenager, the game was hard. We were smart kids (most of us anyway), and yet we seemed more stupid in a group. Smart as we were, we were no Sherlock Holmes.
It is my belief that when running a detective game, you have to remember that the players are often less than the sum of their parts (due to confusion, interrupted narrative, last night's football results and the imminent arrival of spicy food and naan bread).
This means that even smart individuals may miss important clues, may not see the allusions and the inferences in the newspaper clippings, fag ends and hastily scrawled dying notes which litter the genre. We all have day jobs and families and we're not the super-obsessive compulsive consulting detective that the game might assume so the designer has to take the step of telling us once, telling us twice and telling us a third time to make sure we get the clue. We might misremember small facts, forget to keep copious notes (which, in my opinion, spoils the enjoyment of the game) or simply we may not be wired to think that way. Kevin Beimers of Straandlooper spoke about this aspect of game design at an event we held at Belfast Metropolitan College earlier this year. Clues need to be logical and discoverable.
There is also the problem when this translates into a video game that the game will often, by necessity, highlight items which are important. Games like Myst and Hector: Badge of Carnage thankfully escape much of this but it can be maddening to be tapping around trying to figure out exactly how to get something to work as a fan belt.
But we enjoy the discovery, even as it frustrates and confounds us. I've had almost as much fun watching someone play an engaging game as I have had playing it. So, why are there so few multiplayer detective games?
Are there any?