I want make a game, game, game and again game

Via the Corvus shared feed, on Destructoid, I found out about a great piece of art called "game, game, game and again game". When I played I must say I was freaked out. Not because I thought it was totally weird an schizophrenic (it is), but because I've had a similar idea for an aesthetic a while back. I sort of tried to do it, but I eventually got distracted from the project, school and all that. It was about squish bugs mainly, and I was going to give the bugs personalities of sorts, so you could have the ants talk like communists revolutionaries, flies as hedonists, and some other bug as a total nihilist ("Oh what's the point of doing anything if some giant hand is just going to squish me") Still even though he took it a different direction, I totally applaud his efforts while simultaneously feel overwhelming jealousy that he got their first. I bless and damn him at the same time!.

The game is more about semi-non-linear exploration of ideas then anything else, and the mix of text, images, video, and game mechanics definitely makes this a most play. It's definitely a Punk Game to say the least.

I find myself drifting into the abstract

"Ariel, what going on? You've haven't said anything in awhile."

"You have a very contemplative face on."

"What's your thought process right now?"

It's true. I hadn't said anything in awhile and the small what some space of my Japanese car made my silence totally conspicuous. I was totally concentrating on some internal thought processes. I needed it to recharge, since I was totally jamming out a music festival earlier and
I was still reacting to that. Even though I liked it and had a lot of fun, social situations and large groups do tire me out in nonphysical kind of way.

"There's nothing sinister about my silence. I just trying to forget I have a body right now"

"Umm, please don't. You're driving."

"No, no. I'm concentrating on driving, trying to forget I have a body"

"Oh I see. You feel like that you are part of the car. Or that the car is a part of you."

"Not exactly. I'm trying to forget I have a car to. I am just concentrating on the road. And not what the photons hitting my eyes that my brain is interpreting is a particular road, but the Idea of road."

*pause*

"Wow. That is some pretty deep shit."

Let us play... for honor!

I learned a new drinking game last night. It's not like most drinking games. Drinking games are usually either: (a) Everybody drinks at the same time, like drinking every time someone says "the Force" while watching Star Wars (b) Drinks are used as a penalty, like beer pong or some such or (c) or drinking is used as an obstacle to overcome such as flipcup. This one is different though. I forget the name (figures), but I remember the rules and they're quite simple.



You need one deck of cards. The dealer has to flip the top card of the deck onto the table, encouraged to do it with a flourish. Before he does any other player may announce that he will drink to the next card. Anyone but the dealer may do this, and any number may announce. The game will not proceed until someone does. When the card is put down face-up, anyone who announced they were going drink must drink sips/gulps/seconds half of the amount of the card rounded down. Aces you drink nothing. J, Q, K, you must drink 6,7,8 respectively. The dealer may pass the deck after three rounds but is not required to. After 3 rounds though, any player tell the dealer to "take a sip and pass the deck."



Brilliant. Most drinking games are about forcing people to drink. This game has totally flipped that around, which of course means that light drinkers can play with even your most grizzled alcoholic. So what's the point? Honor. Pride. That kind of stuff. It's about social status. I find that kind of intriguing. It is a game that doesn't just have a social context, it takes that advantage of that social context instead of just adding it on top. The mechanic also interests me enough to think about coding it. Hmmm, stuff to think about

Ting-a-ling

No more damn Vonnegut.



I wrote my senior paper in high school on Timequake.

Damn.



(Ting-a-ling is a reference to that book in case you didn't know. It's not is most famous book.)

Guerilla's know how to do it

(via BoingBoing) This caught my eye. A guy is putting on a Guerrilla Drive in and marketing it in a very interesting way. By broadcasting an access code on an AM frequency from a secret location, which you use to get updates on where its going to play. That's just friggin cool. Too bad it's on the wrong side of New York for me to go. Clicking on the links led me to the DIY instructions on starting your own. Myself, I'm going to Google for any near me, but I somehow doubt it.



Also I wonder if it is possible to harness this spirit for games. I've been every now and then considering how to create community events with games. I've talked about fun for the audience before. Games are supposed to unite people, players and spectators. I've considered the idea of Big Screen gaming events before. People taking turns playing console or computer games. Perhaps I should start this guerilla style?

The Bet

I have this thing about observing games and play wherever I see it, and most importantly observing the people how they are acting and reacting. Like it always amuses me to see people buying lottery tickets. Recently I experienced an interesting sort of game. Recently a pair of my friends got married. Now, they dated in high school, but it definitely was not a continuous relationship since that time. Then again, even when they were apart all they really seemed to think about were each other, so who knows?



When faced with the sudden surprise announcement, after convincing us that it was not an April Fool's Joke, the other guys were of course conflicted. Would this work? How long will it last? The questions about the fate of these two hung in the back of our minds while we celebrated the beginning of the marriage process. Naturally, after those two left the rest of us started placing bets.



Basically we, three, each put down a bet. One bet that the marriage would last for a year or two before divorce, another bet between two and three years, and I optimistically bet three to four. If no one was right, all the money would go toward a party or something. We had talked about how much we wanted them work but our brains telling us that it wouldn't last. The other two reflected it seemed kind of cold to take bets on that. I firmly protested just because we act this way in the Magic Circle of a Game is not indicative of any lack of respect for two, on the contrary we wanted them to last! We all in fact wanted to lose!



That sent reverberations through my skull. A game we all wanted to lose. An interesting idea, no? It may or may not unique in that respect, especially with the way some people play certain drinking games, but it is certainly not common at all. It seems to come about when there is a cost outside of the game to winning. I'm not sure if that's the only time though. I'd have to think about that some more. The point is that I wonder if one can design a game to be like this. Some games are of course moddable so that this is an out come like a Vampire game where everyone takes the Flaw Dark Fate. Not that Vampire games are 'won' as such, but its close.



What would be more interesting was if the alternate endings in Wing Commander III, which were accessed by losing certain missions were somehow better. Like better ships at the end, or somehow more satisfying and less tragic.



I wonder what a game designed from the ground up to encourage losing would look like.

Carving out the Underground

That Patrick is definitely on to something (and perhaps on something :D). Punks are where its at. Punks are what's happening. Let's rebel against convention. Tear down anything we can. Graffiti anything we can't. Groupthink drains the vitality of life. Color outside the lines and make a difference. Many more cliches besides. To really feel it though, you gotta find and participate in vibrant community of like minded people. A few punks jamming in their basement is cool, a concert invigorates the soul. So where are the groups of game making punks, cranking out games to express themselves. Oh the punks are out there, Super Columbine RPG!, flow, and the rest of usual suspects, but why does it feel so scattered. It feels like they are justs blips of brillances, I want a whole damn guitar riff of crazy games to blow my friggin mind.



There are attempts in the right direction, but they all seem to fall short somehow. Slamdance might have worked but it pull a courted game because of fear of backlash, the exact opposite of what we need. Manifesto has got the right gusto but somehow it feels too commercial for what I'm talking. They're going to be important distributor and marketer, functioning like indie record label, but that's only part of the puzzle. I'm talking about a community that'll be cranking out game to piss people off that Manifesto will be clamoring to put on their page.



TIGSource is closest thing actually. I've looking at the Indiegamer forums, frankly they are just oo insular for my tastes. Actually, you what's closer, the community of game design + theory bloggers. The problem with them (us? Do I posses the hubris to count myself among them?? Alas no...) is that they don't produce enough. Lot's of great ideas but very little experiments. They don't need to be complete, 40 hour games. Hell, they don't even have to be polished casual games. Just games with a lot verve and ideas.



There was a website, called Bestgameever.com I think, where they wanted to make a game every week roughly. A bit extreme, but that's the kind of thing I thinking of. Creativity should be busting people at the seams just trying to get out. We shouldn't be afraid of putting up incomplete works. We probably should be against sharing some code or designs neither. Sharing is caring! Seriously, though, some collaboration would be cool.



There's more to this. Developing our own aesthetic that's our medium's, the way noir developed for film (yes I know noir was inspired by novels but inspiration is okay, the point is the the style as whole). One besides retro please. And yes, pixel art does not automatically make a style retro. Some other ideas, but hey, who likes long winded blog posts.



Not me.



Man, I really hoped to end this post on some sort of inspirational note, telling everybody to go out and break something or be an individual. I really mucked that up.

Philosophy Majors...

So I'm was studying with few other people in my Philosophy 297 class which is entitled, "The Metaphysics of Truth" and we worked our brains so much on some nuances of a particular theory of truth we all got really hungry. So we ordered pizza instead of wings (the best foods available) because every time we were about to decide wings, we spiraled into this debate about what is the "nature of wings," "what is it?" "what makes a wing, a wing?" "whether boneless wings are subtype of wings or something else closer to chicken fingers" were all things we discussed until a wave of hunger hit one us reminding us of the immediate problem of feeding ourselves. There's a moral here. I think its don't let philosophy majors make a fast decision.



Nothing about games here, just something funny that happened.

Fun for the audience

The other day I was wondering why more computer games, especially multiplayer games, don't have a spectator mode. It's implemented in a primitive way in some FPS games (HL, Unreal Tournament) but I wish to see it more developed and widespread. A problem I see with computer games is that they lack the community aspect of console games and any other type of game; board, card, sport, etc. To watch a FPS fight or a racing game bout, the would be observer must become a full participant, and there is only so much room. Of course, there is also the needed skill to have fun playing with your opponents. Crowding around the computer screen is a possible solution, but c'mon, computer screens are only so big.

I became aware of this particular problem at a LAN party, where there was a big screen setup so that everyone at the party, even those not participating could be simple onlookers. I was at once both excited and disappointed. I was glad that I got to watch and cheer my friends on, but disappointed with how crudely the tech was. I wanted to watch the fight, not simply cycle through the views the players. To be certain sometimes it was supremely satisfying, but other times I wanted to take control of the mouse, just so I could see. Wouldn't it be great if I was a newbie and I just wanted to watch some advanced players do what they do. Hell, I could chat it up with some of the others watching the game and have some running commentary going. I think this would be totally cool for racing and fighting games. You have that mimicry fun of cheering in the stands for your favorite, or all of them if you prefer. Honestly, I think the key here is to design the system so that spectators use up much less bandwidth then players.

But what about single player games? Consider this. Imagine playing first person rolepaying game on the computer. I know, I know, I've been using the first person perspective a lot in this post, but it so neatly illustrates the different perspectives of the player and the audience. You've got a cord running from the TV you have so nicely set up into the computer and your friends are watching you play this game. And this would not be just a clone of what you're seeing. First person perspectives tend to get disorienting after too long on a TV for some people. What they see is a more cinematic view. Cutting from various angles as the world calls for it. Possibly also a frequency setting so that you can go from something that's like a Kubrick tracking shot and/or John Ford landscape shot (long takes) to something that is more from an MTV style of editing. Uncluttered by all the UI elements that you as player need to properly play the game, your friends on the couch get to follow and cheer you on your various exploits. You've just turned a couch full of friends into a merry band of minstrels singing songs of how brave you are. And who doesn't like a band of ministrels? Maybe more some elements from sports TV and have stats and other various pieces of info displayed in a easy to read and digest manner on the screen on a part time basis. Sports know how to present their game on TV and get people excited to watch it; it might be wise to learn a little from them.

Slamming Slamdance

Of course the internet is abuzz with this Slamdance controversy. It is a pretty serious affair. I am a firm believer, not only in freedom of speech, but that every artist deserves a forum for their expression. Skipping over the discussion of "what is a artist?" and whether SCMRPG! is work of art, the fact that they were actively courted by Slamdance and then kicked out of the festival is just despicable. I cheered from my computer chair as other games withdrew in protest. It is well documented how the Comic Code strangled the comic book industry's voice for decades. It wouldn't be too wise to submit another medium to that prison.

So when I first read Jason Rohrer's The Death of Slamdance I disagreed. You have to stand by your principles for them to mean anything, I thought. It would be sign of weak morals if you backed out of your decision to back out. But I got to thinking that line of thought was far too stubborn to be right. It's a little too Dubya for me. I mean, what's there to gain from continuing to stay out of the competition? They've already garnered a ton of publicity for their actions, they've draw attention to the issue; they've accomplished all the goals that an action like that can plausibly have. To continue along that course would be to condemn what could otherwise prove beneficial to our mission*, the Slamdance Games Festival. We should open the avenues of discussion. People from both sides should talk about why this occured, what caused it, and what can be done to make sure this never happens again. If its regretful decision they should be able to talk honestly and candidly about why this decision occurred. If they can't, then we should probably rethink attending next year, but we should at least give them a chance to defend their position, no? They probably won't take it but whatever, it's only fair we at least give them the opportunity. Can't hurt, right?



* which is making awesome games of course!

Messing Around with QuiteBASIC

So this QuiteBASIC thing is pretty cool. The nostalgia of programming BASIC hit me so hard after messing around I had to put on a Thundercats tshirt while watching Ninja Turtles, playing Pogs and listening to Run DMC. Seriously, I remember picking up a a dusty battered old book in the library circa 2nd grade ('92ish?) called How To Program Games In BASIC. Gosh I loved that book. Technically it didn't open the doors to programming for me, that honor belongs to this Batch File Programming book my dad got me. However, I really got interested after scouring that book. I wonder if I can find the code back from those days...

Anyways, I made a crappy Etch-A-Sketch clone, if you're interested click. The program's long so I don't feel spamming up my front page with 208 PRINT "blah blah" and 215 PLOT s, y, "some color or other"

I think I'll put together a few simple games or something in QuiteBASIC as I think that would be cool.

Recent Purchase

While I was at EBGames today I got Age of Empires III. You see I'm going to LAN Party called HallowLAN in a couple of weeks. In a fit of RTS hubris, I decided that I'm going to participate in the Age of Empire III tourney they are having. I don't anticipate a high level competition the majority of the focus is on FPS games for this LAN. 'Course I don't have a partner but I imagine that I'll be able to find one at the party.

It'll certainly be pretty interesting to see if I can learn this game pretty well. I'm a on-off RTS player but I'm pretty decent. I'll use a montage or something to get ready for this

I also got a used Meteos and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for DS fun.

Musing about game structure

I was thinking about positive feedback loops that one Craig likes to write about this morning.

I mused that most good games are about optimizing a chosen positive feedback loop that is in the game. The fun part lies in the skill in avoid disruptions to that loop. It occured to me that many thoughts on game balance are misguided in that you are not trying to minimizing the positive loop found in a game system. That creates a game that is approaching a point where every move is just as valid as any other. Games of alea aren't as bad as that since the whole point is that one move is better than the others it's just you're not sure what it is.

The goal for game balance is increase the difficulties in maintaining any one positive feedback loop. Add many valid and roughly equal positive feedback loops that are mutally exclusive (i.e. you can fast or tough units). And some wonky negative loops to balance it out, that's what big N did with Super Smash Bros. and its one of the most balanced fighting games I've ever played. Make the positive feedback loops hard to learn and hard to predict. Design it so that multiple systems have to be managed in sync to maintain a positive feedback loop like 4x games do.

Oh, and this is why it's easy to design multiplayer competitive games. Each competitor is trying to maintain a positive feedback loop but they're usually mutally exclusive (you can't both be winning).

MIA no more

Well, I got surprised by an onslaught of ton of work to do at my job as well as school. It ate up almost the entirety of time. I have since been able to balance my time better(sort of, I'm still behind on some homework) so I'll be posting more updates soon. As soon as I read up on all the things I missed. Hmmm, this might be awhile...

Ode to my DS

I have a DS. It is blue and I love it.

I like having two screens. It's like having two windows with which to see into a world instead of one. Wow! Though sometimes it feels like one is a basement window that doesn't show much of anything. Or a skylight, I suppose.

The stylus is cool. It came with two but I lost one on the first day. With the remaining stylus I can draw shapes, move avatars around, or maybe some other things cannot fathom as I write this. I always wanted to throw things around using the stylus. I should make a Three Stooges game where you throw pies and poke Curly in the eyes. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.

My blue DS matches my blue Gameboy DS. Even though I have both, I still get usage out of the both of them. Sometimes the SP is more convienant. We all still have tons of fun together. They have totally out of control drunken parties though.

My DS has been envious ever since the DS Lite came out. I think it has self-image problems. To help I call DS Lite an anorexic snobby bitch. I told DS that I like its sexy gut. DS appreciated that compliment more than a girl when I told her the same thing. Girls are wierd. DS's are less so.

There is a vibrant homebrew scene for the DS and I can't wait to get involved. My extensive research shows me there are tons of apps out there, that are awesome and sweet. There is a port for my favorite language in the universe for the DS and that alone gets me excited. Also, there is a drum machine program, so that in between games I can lay down some phat beats and freestyle with my homies. My DS is gangsta.

If you have a DS, make sure to tell it, "I love you" every single day. It helps the DS's self-esteem and ensures optimal gaming experiences.

Random Pic: Dance Party!

I got a kick out of this. I don;t know, maybe you guys will. Whatever.

*yawn*, oh and giant robots

Goddamn have I been tired lately. Like due to having to wake up very early for work this week. Hopefully, after this weekend I can go back to sleeping in late. So this update is going to be a bit random, but I 've been wanting to update for awhile and well, I'm devoted to all 5 readers I got. (how do I know I only have 5 readers, well... I don't.)

First off, my current project involves mechas fighting. I almost typed a "mecha fighting game" but I'm hoping it's going to be more than that. My main motivation was that there is an appalling lack of good giant robots in games, and moreover, they're either ripping on the Mechwarrior series without any interesting changes or FPS with different skins.

So its a 2d side scroller at the moment. I'm trying out a new kind of interface I thought up. It involves having floating command boxes around the mecha. The choice of the commands will be based on the internal state of the pilot and the context that the mecha is in. I'll put up a prototype somewheres when I get something playable.

I'm thinking I want procedurely generated levels; i've been playing a lot of Roguelikes recently. Or I was until work sucked up my waking hours this week. And school is coming up, ready to absorb more of my time. Oh well, maybe I'll meet some fun, interesting girls. The trick, of course, is finding those interested in me. A trick I haven't learned yet, but none of that angsty bullshit here! This is a blog for chrissakes!

I've been reading Dinosaur Comics recently. It's pretty funny. It also inspires me to accomplish something similar with games. I'm thinking that I'd have 16 images or so and I'd try to make as many games with those graphics as possible. Could work.

Does everyone have a moment in there scholastic career where they have writer's block, but then write about the writer's block, and then all of a sudden everything becomes easier? Mine was in 7th grade. I think this is like the blog version of that, but I couldn't care less.

YouTube presents: YASD, a Nethack fanfilm

While sipping on the YouTube Kool-Aid today I have found a pretty neat little fanfilm about Nethack. I find that it captures the tension of Nethack. As well as the ridiculousness of being killed in a most stupid (though admittingly fun sometimes) way that tends to happen in Nethack. Enjoy.

Maintaining Momentum 'n' Motivation

Because alliteration is key, anyways...

Motivation is a bastard thing and it always seems to elude me. It's pretty fucked up actually. But I do find myself needing it when I want to code up some games. Motivation being a pretty key thing I hear. I am working on a programming environment that is conducive for creating and maintaining motivation. It's rough and it's far from perfect but I am on the right track.

First off, I use Notepad++ to type up all my code. Why? One word: tabs. Yes the main reason is that I use this for the tabs. I've been considering using PsPad and I guarantee you that if I start install the thing and I don't see tabs anywhere I'm clicking the little [X] in the corner and deleting it off my hard drive immediately (read: eventually). It is a dealbreaker. What I need to be able to do is to divide my time between different projects as effortlessly as possible. The most important part of it is the ability to switch between files as easily as possible. I tend to work on a project until I reach an obstacle or problem that I cannot solve immediately, but I'll usually have an idea for another project or more likely, a different part of the project I'm on. So BOOM! I switch on over to take advantage of this bit of creativity. Now here's the cool part, even as I'm 'distracted' by this other task, my mind is still working on the former task, so that when I hit an obstacle/problem with the new task, I'm ready to switch to the first task. I find it maintains energy. Also, keeping the file in view, prevents me from feeling like I abandoned the first task and the demotivating guilt that comes with it.

Oh and multiple windows instead of tabs pisses me the fuck off.

Second, background noise. Usually music of some sort, but recently I've discovered movies to be excellent background as well. I had a most productive session the other night with Tank Girl playing in the background. So not only did I get tons of coding done, I realized that I had forgotten that Naomi Watts was in this movie. (as a brunette but whatever, her hair could be snot green and she'd still be hot in 9 different ways*) Productive!

Third, as here is the part I am working on, fast results. I realize that for a project to reach completion, for me, I need to have moved pixels around on the screen by the time I reach 125-150 lines. Python + Pygame has been really good to me for that purpose. However, I still have a tendancy to work on the design stuff of a game a lot, with no real good way to test it so I end up working on something not seeing a lot of results. And that equals death. I have directory full of projects that died in that fashion.

Fourth, while hanging out around downtown it occured to me how much I respect those who can freestyle rap. I attempt it a lot, and while I'm getting better, I'm not good yet. However in attempting it, I understand the skill it takes to make a good freestyle rap. I guess, I want to be able to apply that spontaneous creativity to me making games. This is really a combination of point one and three, but this is the inspiration for all this, so I guess rappers are my guides in producing art (so are film directors but that's not exactly relevant right now. They take forever.) However you feel about hip-hop, you should be able to admire the way that they can keep producing stuff. (Sure, you may say most of its crap, but I'd counter that most of ANY genre is crap and at least rap fans don't wait 3+ years for a sophomore record)

Five, I've been naming my various scripts after fruit. That is neat.

Six, I've been gathering all my commonly used functions and objects together for better reuse. Yes, yes, yes, nothing new or special, but it's something I keep forgetting. But I'm getting better. I've been starting to collect them in pineapple.py. Pineapple is delicious but not on pizza. (Hawaiian pizza? Yuck, put pepperoni, bacon, burger, chicken, meat, dead animal flesh as toppings on my pizza. Extra cheese is also acceptable)

Seven, never quiting the editor but quiting Firefox. This does wonders. Blogs are fun but it does tend to suck you in.

Eight. What eight? There is no eight. Eight is where I conclude this blog post because I'm trying to code and this has taken far too much time. I'm going to code. or bed. something

Oh and P.S. Does anyone else have a habit of pressing Ctrl+S while typing and Blogger starts publishing way before you've finished? It's so automatic for me to save randomly as precautionary measure. It feels wierd not doing that now. Like I'm unprotected.

*I don't generally prefer blondes (Mandy Moore is hotter as a brunette), but Naomi Watts is definitely much hotter as a blonde than brunette.

Break it down now

I suppose that I should give myself (and any of you who wandered on to my shadowy nook on the intarweb) a overview of what I hope to write about in this blogs as regards to game design and theory. I am an experimenter before theorist. I love reading and absorbing theory, however I do not have any of my own, really. Really what I do with games is try to break them down in my head into various pieces. Sometimes I'll call those pieces: devices, layers, patterns, metaphors, loops, or whatever. It usually depends on what I'm looking for at that moment. My goal in going through all this trouble is to eventually be able to rearrange and synthesize this game pieces into whole new games. Well, more accurately, new experiences but I'll get to that in a sec.

What I like about reading about theory is that every good post is another lens with which look at games and see how they fit together. Being able to pinpoint where, how, and why a game works or does not work in various ways is very powerful. It's probably why I like a lot of 'bad' movies, because I am able to pull out some brilliant technique or find something enjoyable about a bad movie and focus on that. Ultimately I am creating a magic bag of building blocks with which I can make various games out of. 'Course, when I gather all these pieces, what then?

I want to create fantasies. I want to make someone feel like they are somewhere else. I want to create an experience. I want to ellict specifc emotions. The way I see to do that, is that I can reach into my bag of tricks (Felix the Cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat) and pick out the ones that support the theme or idea I want to express.

See I have this idea (theory even??), that each infinitesimal piece has an emotion, a feeling, and/or an idea it can convey. The sideways only movement of a Space Invaders/Galaga type game, the health bar, a d20, all of those pieces has a voice that communicates to the player. And all those voices, with the proper designer, can become a chorus.

I think I overused "I" in this post. I'll try to be less ego from now on and a little more id.