#contextsofgameandplay

Honestly, over the break my schedule has been all over the place. I started working full time on a project that involves making a Training simulator on a Hololens. As a result, I was not that flexible with time. This a was relevant to our biggest issue, where our free times did not align well. As a result, we worked at different periods.

Our question was “How do walking simulators work in VR?”. Where for our Jam we tried to make a VR Kayak experience. I lost track of the time spent and went through multiple iterations. By the end I had failed to achieve the intended goal and had to pivot into a speed boat.

The issues I faced throughout the iterations:

1. The kayak would clip through objects.

2. The kayak would not move.

3. The kayak would move but not rotate.

4. The Kayak would glitch out.

For this weeks readings we’re meant to be playing (and reviewing) three different games. So, what have I been playing this week?

Blizzard’s Overwatch

My main game for the past year or so, there is something so compelling about everyone’s favourite hero shooter. For me it’s a combination of competitive matchmaking, the wide variety of play styles available with the different heroes and the fact that it feels like one of the first shooters to come out in a long time that isn’t at all cynical in tone. Virtually every single FPS I’ve ever played in recent times has had a dark, cynical edge to it - when the setting’s futuristic, it’s typically a cyberpunk dystopia or some kind of gladiatorial blood sport laced with black humour. But Overwatch, in spite of it’s villains, shows a more optimistic view of the future: one where the technology is shiny, the world isn’t crumbling apart and not everyone’s chasing that bottom line. While there are still problems in the world - there’s still people fighting one another after all - overall, it’s a brighter and more pleasant future.

It might be wishful thinking, but you never know. 

It’s never too late.

Dinosaur Polo Club’s Mini Metro

Admittedly haven’t finished this one, just played about an hour. It’s in fact developed in Wellington, so it’s nice to play some Kiwi games every now and then. Anyway, in this one you have to progressively build up a metro system, based on various cities around the world. You unlock levels in a sequence, and quite fittingly, the last (and supposedly hardest by that measure) level you unlock is Auckland. I had to laugh at that one.

So, as time goes on you need to manage your different lines, and balance various aspects of their infrastructure - you have a limited number of river crossings for example, and people want to get to various different stations - you want to get them there as quickly as possible and ensure that your stations aren’t overflowing with passengers. It’s relaxing and at the same time quite engaging - you’ll need put thought into your urban planning.

PlatinumGames’ NeiR: Automata

I’ve achieved two of the five endings for this one, and have started on the third. Calling them “endings” is a bit misleading: in the second one you replay the first one’s story with a different perspective, different mechanics and a far more in depth story. It changes how you see the “Villains” in [A]. The story has been quite emotional, dealing with androids who are becoming less and less certain of what they’re fighting for and why. The third ending continues on where [B] left off, and from what I’ve seen so far, has much and more story to explore. I also got the troll ending [O] by messing up and leaving the play area in the beginning of [C]. This must be the Yoko Taro I’ve heard about, a man both scathing and mocking of the games industry. Apparently he writes the most messed up ending first then works his way back from there, so I’ve no doubt he’s got some depressing, heartbreaking stuff on the way. This is also the same guy who, when asked about a (later proven fake) controversy about protagonist 2B’s butt, had quite an amusing response:

“Due to the 2B butt controversy, many outrageous drawings are being made. Collecting them to share individually is a pain. It would be great if we can group them together to make it easier to distribute them every week.” – Taro Yoko

Since there are no assigned readings or themes this week, Jenna has tasked with exploring three of our own game and play endeavours aligned with our chosen area of contextual study.

My area of research is as follows:

I am highly interested in exploring the idea of morality through actual meaningful choice. I feel as though the accountability held in ultimatums is not taken to the gravitas it could be, nor blurs the lines enough between what is right and what is wrong.

As such, the things I have done this past week have much to with character choice and the effects of particular choices within games.

Persona 5

By Atlus

Persona is an RPG series set in cities and high schools in modern day Japan. It focuses on the growth of adolescents who, upon the awakening of their "Persona" abilities, overcome various trials together.

The heart of the Persona series is the clashing of ordinary events such as school life, friendship, and love, with the extraordinary such as urban legends, strange rumors, bizarre occurrences, and glimpses of the dark side of society. Its mysterious charm has fascinated fans all over the world.

Throughout the series, "Persona" refers to a hidden "personality" or the "other self" that lurks within oneself. Personas manifest themselves as legendary gods and demons, and hold otherworldly powers. The adolescents who awaken to the Persona ability wield their powers to confront and overcome many perils that stand in their way.

My god I have waiting for this game to release for the longest time. As a fan of the Persona franchise, I’ve been itching for a follow-up since the last game release on Playstation 2 in 2008. As a general rule-of-thumb, each Persona game follows a group of high-school students who lead normal lives, then are suddenly thrown into a supernatural situation where the must save the world, yada, yada, yada. 

The difference is that each character has a unique Persona (manifestations of their psyche) that evolves and changes not just by level, but by their interactions in their daily lives. As normal students, they attend school, form relationships with other characters and complete different tasks. What makes Persona unique is that the gravity of the player’s actions is reflected in their normal lives as rumours they hear around town, meaning that the environment becomes dynamic and evolves with them.

This concept is nothing new in terms of the ‘karma system’ (much like my other favourite franchise Infamous), although in this case it doesn’t brand the player character as good or bad. Where Infamous (from the name implied) brands the player as a role model or anti-hero, Persona keeps it more dubious. Regardless of what you do, you are rewarded with a result which is exactly the kind of morality chart blurring that I’m so interested in.

I can’t really say too much more about the game since it’s literally just came out, but I hope to find more expansion on the aforementioned dynamics.

Stories Untold

By No Code

My god (again) when I watched a playthrough of this by my favourite YouTuber I was floored the entire experience. Hear me out: yeah, I didn’t actually play it, but it felt like something I didn’t have to physically go through myself. I am DEATHLY afraid of horror games, no matter how non-horror they actually are; this was a simple narrative driven, episodic, retro story game and I think I jumped about five hundred times.

Text adventure games are things that I’ve always found extremely fascinating: HOW DOES A COMPUTER RECOGNISE ANYTHING YOU TYPE? Logistically, it probably isn’t that difficult with algorithms for trigger words, but regardless, this illusion of ‘drive-your-own-adventure’ has been something I find so incredibly alluring. I always know that my end fate is sealed, but the fact that I have to type in my own death wish somehow seals this guilty presence in my mind: I just typed in the words for my character to die. 

The fact that I typed in ‘E-N-T-E-R-H-O-U-S-E’ - when I fully knew that killer was inside - brings this level of immersion so much greater than moving an analog and pressing ‘A’. It gives you a sense of accountability, that your choice has been conducted for the greater good (i.e. completing the narrative).

What really sold me on writing about this game was its overall aesthetics. After recently seeing the trailer for Stranger Things 2, I couldn’t believe the almost exact title screen replica. It was exactly this kind of imagery that Finley and I had been discussing about our Game Jam project, where we really wanted to visit a retro, cyberpunk look which we felt really enhanced story driven gameplay. Hey, Stories Untold basically validated this choice.

A beautiful game driven by the illusion that you have to do what you have to do; there is no good and evil, just finishing the story

This weeks discussion was pretty interesting, if somewhat brief. We talked about the readings, (really they should be called watchings) discussing how we felt about the various presentations, but the real meat of it was the quick fire prototyping we did. Using the paper prototyping method described in one of the readings, myself, Aldo and Alex (Sujay joined us later) had to create some kind of game based on a social issue in one region of the world. We got Scandinavia, and so we spoke about recent events in the region. We decided to create a game based on a fun bit of trivia that I new about Iceland, which, while technically not in Scandinavia, is a nordic country so we decided it counts anyway.

So basically, Iceland is a pretty small country, with just 300,000 inhabitants and a whole lot of breathtaking (and nigh uninhabitable) landscape. Over a third of it’s people live in it’s largest city, Reykjavík, and it has a particularly peculiar way of naming people. Your last name is derived from your parents first name, so if your father was Magnar, your last name would be Magnarson. 

This makes keeping records difficult and would make telling if you’re related a chore, but not thanks to an app which lets you check if you’re related before you hook up, rather than have an awkward situation at the next family gathering.

Anyway, we tried to make a game in which you have to find someone with things in common with you, compatible gender and sexual orientation. There was also a “political opinion” gauge, if you were too far from someone politically, you’d alienate them - so hardline left couldn’t go out with right wing, neutral could go out with anyone, etc.  You get a gender, orientation, politics and two interest cards, and go around in the circle, getting to ask one person a question about them, and they would have to reveal the answer. You’d need to have at least two things in common and nothing against you in order to try get with somebody, and which point you’d roll two dice each to see if you were going to be cockblocked by your genes. This prototype turned out to be basically impossible to win in the group of four that we played it in, as the factors would stack against you, so it was back to the drawing board.

As a result, we binned the gender and sexual orientation factors entirely, as they were too great a complication and they made the game nigh on impossible in smaller groups. (maybe it’s in the future, and we’re so sexually free that no-one cares about it anymore) We then decided that there would be two categories for interest, with 5 options each: Entertainment and Lifestyle (so things like movies, books, music or sports, art and work) to retain compatibility checks, there would still be a political scale - however, it was no longer necessary for either person to reveal their politics if it wasn’t brought up. You’d ask about their interests (or politics) and listen to what others said about themselves in order to find someone you were compatible with. Politics would be an inherent risk - it could give you a common interest, or it could totally alienate the other person, so player receiving neutral were automatically desirable. Then you’d to the dice thing, and hopefully prevent any awkward moments the next day.

Love the game, not the weather. ‘Creativity and Process’ is the theme this week and the readings are more so videos than anything; perfect for me since I watch everything on Youtube at 2x speed. 

In terms of understanding Creativity and Process, a dictionary definition probably isn’t necessary; ‘Creativity’ is your thoughts and the ‘Process’ is by which these thoughts and ideas are executed.

Indie Prototyping, Braid, & Making Innovative Games

By Jon Blow

This video is a recording of content coming from the Independent Game Summit (IGS) in 2007. It talks largely about prototyping (in fact both accessible readings do), particularly - as in the name - about the indie side of things.

Blow makes this extremely clear in the beginning, stating that prototyping between indies and non-indies exists in opposite realms. He explains that this is due to the fact the the former group focusses more on the idea of ‘exploration’, i.e. in terms of not only ideas, but skill and limitation as well.

A good prototype, according to Blow, is one that keeps its original intention in mind at all times. It isn’t, after all, a fully developed game. Rather, it exercises both technical and gameplay elements by taking specific mechanics and implementing them in different systems. For example, while a 3D game may be the end goal, it is perhaps best to explore particular intentions of the whole in a 2D scale. These smaller elements when tested one by one can be fully realised and translated into a fuller final product. 

The idea of “What if?” emerges in this week’s content, where the presenter encourages questioning in order to evolve worlds and boundaries of previous instances. Pixar Studios advise a similar construct as discussed in a previous blog post of mine.

What is important is the separation of the prototype from the rest of the game in order to let it organically evolve on its own. This can lead to design decisions stemming from the development process themselves, instead of a forced pathway leading to a set conclusion. Because of this, prototypes don’t necessarily have to be ‘good’ all the time; they are actually successful as they test processes and allow for future implementation.

Blow ends his presentation by advising belief in the greatness one’s prototype; a lump of coal could become a diamond over time. Such things have happened with many of his games, particularly Braid, where time mechanics were spawned from a completely different beginning.

Play Without Pixels: Paper Prototyping for Game Development

By Indienomicon Expo 2014)

Another video about prototyping, this time at the Indienomicon Expo in 2014. The presenter here focusses more about ‘paper prototyping’, which is prototyping ideas but with art supplies and related material. Where the previous reading suggested more of a digital approach, this conversely encourages a tactile environment.

The reasons for the above are numerous. For one, art supplies cost much less than full digital development where the developer may have to invest in particular software or hardware to explore concepts. This bleeds into paper prototyping which is usually quicker as well: time, after all, is also money. Since paper is versatile, it is easy to manipulate into a number of different ideas on the spot, where as digital coding has limitations on its system and user knowledge.

The most interesting point the presenter brings up is that through the process of paper prototyping, it is actually possible to gauge how ‘fun’ a concept is. He uses the MDA framework as an example of this (already covered!) in that first-hand the interaction with the system allows us to see all layers of the potential final product.

He finalises the presentation reminding the viewer to always be constantly playtesting in order to ensure that one meets their aesthetic goals. It is always important to step back from a process that one is extremely consumed with to ensure that tangents or unnecessary altercations are occurring that cloud the idea at its core.

IGS 2007: Jon Blow - ‘Indie Prototyping, Braid, & Making Innovative Games’

This GDC video is quite old, but still relevant. Jon Blow discusses a prototype for a game that he made involving casting spells through drawing gestures. It ultimately didn’t end up getting anywhere, but he was able to reuse the code in a game he later released. He say that he then resolved to constantly prototype, and he demonstrates another prototype he made, a game of pool where you could see what your shot will do in advance. He says “I consider that a successful prototype though. It didn’t do what I wanted, but I got a feeling out of it that I’d never gotten out of any game I’d ever played before, and it’s something I can maybe build on…” He elaborates that it was some of this game which later turned into some of

Braid

’s mechanics - in braid it is possible to rewind, but unlike a lot of other games, it doesn’t have much in the way of limits - you can just use it, for up to half an hour into the past. He worked on keeping the mechanics simple and easy to understand, and kept messing with the time travel mechanic to keep it fresh as the levels progress. In the end he didn’t directly use the “predicting the future” thing from the pool game he made earlier, but the ideas gained from it stuck with him. Even with Braid, he attempted to implement it’s ideas into a different kind of game, making a strategy game called Braid Tactics, also involving time and alternate universes. He considered it another good prototype, even if it didn’t feel so good to play and was confusing, even to him as it’s designer. He goes on to discuss the difference between being an indie developer rather than one working in a large studio - you become more attached to your work. I guess this one is especially pertinent to us, as we’re going to need to very rapidly prototype the game we intend to make - it’ll be important to do so quickly in our limited time.

Play Without Pixels: Paper Prototyping for Game Development - (Indienomicon Expo 2014)

This one seemed mostly about using alternate methods of developing your ideas into video games, however it seems that the pen and paper method can only get you so far - it’s fine from things like turn based strategy games, card games, etc, however they’re not so good for prototyping games such as first person shooters or platformers, which require much more “real time” input. As a game artist (I use that term kinda loosely, whenever someone asks what I do in my Studio group I just say “ art guy “ with intentional air quotes) I understand that doing things on pen and paper is very useful - up until this point the majority of my concept artwork has been done on paper, rather than digitally, but I’m going to need to move to more digital tools before too long. Doing things on paper means that they can be rapidly produced and easily understood - and you can do it almost anywhere. You also can’t just whip out your laptop to start taking notes everywhere - or at least, one would hope not. Often the point of drawing ideas on paper is the opposite of trying to get a polished end result - they’re sketchy, meant to convey an idea rather than elaborate on it. 

John Cleese on Creativity

In this presentation, renowned Monty Python co-founder John Cleese talks about creativity, and argues that it is more of a process and mindset than an inherent “talent”. I’m of a similar belief, as I generally think the word “talent” doesn’t really mean much. Talent is little substitute for hard work and careful thought - there are people in this world who can go from idea to artwork very quickly, or play compose a tune while they play it, but these people didn’t start out that way, and it was ultimately their own perseverance that lead to their “talent”. I hope that someday there comes a point where I can just think of something and draw it as I really envisioned, but that day won’t come without me putting in a bunch of practice.

Anyway, Cleese talks about being in an open and closed mode mindset, and talks about them as being useful for different situations. In open mode, you’re receptive to new ideas and information - he cites the example of the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, who rather than dismissing the contaminated petri dish as a failure was open enough to realise that it was causing some peculiar effects on the culture he was trying to develop. Had he dismissed it as a waste of resources without properly considering it, modern medicine would likely be far behind where it is now. He also talks about the usefulness of closed mind thinking - it’s less taxing, and is useful for focusing on developing something before you go into open mode in order to critique it and take feedback. One method that I myself use to solve problems that are especially frustrating is to take a step back to reset myself - rather than focusing on the problem at hand, I go for a walk, have something to eat, get a beer or something to take it off my mind a little, in order to refresh. A lot of the time it works - getting caught up in my own frustration keeps me in (what I guess I’ll call) closed mode, rather than being open to solutions.