Tales of the Rampant Coyote
Adventures in Indie Gaming!


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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
 
Kingdom of Loathing's Stats
Raph Koster got a chance to talk to the guys from Kingdom of Loathing (the indie, web-based, fantasy-parody MMORPG) at Comic-Con and got some interesting information and statistics from them.

Excerpt:

"These guys are determinedly indie: they sell merchandise, but they do it just about at cost. For income, they mostly rely on donations for the premium items, but they don’t engage in what most of the industry would call a real microtransaction business."

Anyway, you can check out the data here:

Kingdom of Loathing Is Doing Quite Well

Bear in mind that most of the accounts are free. I have no idea what the percentage of accounts that end up providing donations, though when I was playing with some folks at work a couple of years back, almost everyone in our group ended up donating money to get a "Mr. Accessory."

There's also an interesting discussion in the comments about the "summer slump" in MMORPGs.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:27 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
Monday, July 30, 2007
 
The Lack of Historical Perspective In Game Media
Is it just me, or do game reviewers and most journalist these days seem to think that videogames were invented with the Playstation 2?

One feature I simultaneously loathed and loved in the old Computer Gaming World magazine (now "Games For Windows") was the retrospective they'd run on the issues from 5, 10, and 15 years earlier. On the one hand, it was a great retrospective into the games of yesteryear. As a long-time fan of the magazine, I was also pleased to see articles mentioned that I still remembered sometimes a decade later. However, the tone of this sidebar column was often very mocking. The comments were often along the lines of, "How could we," (we meaning their predecessors, usually) "ever have enjoyed this crap?"

They made exceptions for the classics, of course. Any game that the majority of old-school gamers hold in reverence got at least a nod of cordiality. But with that exceptions, they heap little but ridicule upon the older games.

Why All The Hatin'?
I see this attitude all the time, in other magazines and gaming websites. Some of it I can chalk up to the fact that this is a young industry, with young writers willing to write reviews for the price of a pizza plus a free game. They might have a dim recollection of the days when Sega was producing consoles, but they all too often don't know or care what came before the time when they fell in love with video games.

Could it be because they are playing to the crowd? The crowd in this case consists of young men who are happily buying into it (literally) when the marketing machine that tells them anything but the latest model is beneath them. That, and of course as a teenager it's embarassing to admit to liking anything the generation before you might have liked.

Or maybe it's as Brian Green suggests, and that it is because we haven't achieved cultural legitimacy yet. This might suggest that even those who write about the medium still feel a subconscious shame about it. They may be attempting to build up the games they are now hyping by pushing everything that came before them down.

Maybe it is part of the arrogance of a young industry that is still growing by leaps and bounds. Maybe it will take a downturn in the industry for people to start looking back on the "glory days" of gaming. In fact, some of the nostalgia we 30-somethings have for the "good ol' days" comes from the innovation that came out of earlier periods. Not that it was all roses - cloning was even worse and more blatent back then than it is now. But at least for every "me, too" product that hit the shelves, you had something innovative and fresh and new to try out. Of course, the new ideas were new because it was a new medium, and most of the time the innovative games sucked worse than the clones. But at least they were trying.

Undoubtably, part of it is technology. The most ridicule-worthy movies of the past were the technology-driven ones, full of special effects that were probably cringe-worthy even back in the day. Top-tier video games and computer games have been chasing technology since the beginning. (It's interesting to note that one of the most uniformly successful game developers - Blizzard - has a reputation for staying far away from the bleeding edge of technology, but instead focusing on refined presentation and gameplay.) And that's not even mentioning the difficulty of trying to get older games running on modern hardware.

Why Bother?
Whatever the causes, I think we're shooting ourselves in the foot if we disregard our history. And I'm not just talking about the classic games that modern genres are based upon. I'm talking even the whole spectrum of the medium, from the really atrocious missteps to the clever ideas poorly presented to the flashes-in-the-pan to the cult classics to the gems that nobody knew about even back then. There are tons of lessons to be mined from these old games, as well as some really phenominal ideas.

Does it help to understand the genealogy of games and the evolution of genres? When talking about the toolset included in Neverwinter Nights 2, does it help to be familiar with not only the prequel, but also the similar tools in Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures, the Bard's Tale Construction Set, and Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set? I am not really a games journalist (I am just a poor game developer who writes about games), but I do think that having that broader historical perspective would provide writers with a stronger foundation, a wider games vocabulary, and a greater immunity to the misinformation spewed out by the hype machine that makes up the marketing arm of the game industry. Even as an old-school gamer, I'm constantly being reminded by the community here of historical precedents that even *I* was unaware of.

And as a game developer - sheesh. I keep seeing bad ideas repeated, and I see a gold-mine of clever ideas in older games that could probably be polished up and incorporated into modern games. There are entire sub-genres that could be revived and exploited (as those of us who played a bunch of what would now be called "casual games" on the Commodore 64 or Apple II can attest).

What do you think? Is understanding of the historical perspective of value? Why do you think there's such a derisive attitude towards gaming's past? Or am I totally wrong and it is just a minority of writers that like to rip on the past?


(Vaguely) related words of highly questionable historical value
* Fallout Over th Fallout 3 Trailer
* Innovation in RPGs?
* The History of CRPGs: Should We Go Back to Go Forward?
* A Couple of Classic RPGs
* Jet Moto Memories
* Scorpia's New Tale: An Interview With One of Gaming's Most Popular Columnists
* How the Neverwinter Nights 2 Review Happened

Click Here For the Secret Forum Discussions Where We Actually Plot to Take Over the World! In Code, Of Course...

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:22 AM (Permalink) 8 comments links to this post
Sunday, July 29, 2007
 
Trivia Challenge:
Okay, just for fun:

In what computer (& console) RPG might you encounter a mamba snake?

Let's see how good your memory (or Google-Fu) is!

UPDATE: Mavlock got it. Gateway to Apshai. Published in 1983 for the Atari 800 and the Commodore 64, and then ported a year later to the Coleco, Gateway to Apshai was one of the first "Action RPGs," appearing over a decade before Diablo appeared.



Movlock got it only an hour after I posted the question, too. You guys are good. I gotta come up with better trivia questions.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:29 PM (Permalink) 8 comments links to this post
 
Free Game: Rose and Camellia - In English!
Perhaps the most unusual fighting game ever... Rose & Camellia... is now available in English.

Rose & Camellia is a web-based fighting game. But unlike other fighting games such as Street Fighter or Soul Caliber, you are not some highly trained martial artist with a mysterious destiny. You are a low-born woman wed into the noble Tsubakikoji family, turned widow on the day after your marriage to the eldest son of the clan. The other women in the household refuse to recognize your authority.

So you get into slap-fights with them until they bow to your claim!

Rose & Camelia uses the mouse to control your attacks and defense. You have to move the mouse across their cheek to attack - poor aiming results in a missed shot, and leaves you open to a counter attack. Proper mouse movement during your opponent's attack phase allows you to evade and counter-attack them. Each woman of the household has a different critical hit spot on their face where you can do extra damage to them.

So get to slapping those ladies silly!

Rose & Camellia

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:44 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post
Saturday, July 28, 2007
 
$5000 Game-Making Contest Happening NOW!
Wow. We've got another indie game contest --- this time a Flash game contest with a $5000 grand prize! Plus three $1500 semi-finalist prizes. The theme of the game is the upcoming "Shoot-Em-Up" movie. The deadline is August 23rd, 2007, so you have to work fast!

It must be a new game under 3 megs in size, written in Flash, and it must include at least one art asset from the movie's asset package (available on the site).

Anyway - for more information check out the official site at addicting games, and the rules page.

Addicting Games Shoot-Em-Up Game Contest

Tip o' the fedora to Sexy Videogameland for the tip!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:21 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Friday, July 27, 2007
 
Stop Me If You've Heard This One...
So did you hear the one about the blogger with severe Attention Deficit Disorder?

He
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:44 PM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
 
What's the Difference Between Adventure, Puzzle, and Role-Playing Games?
I finally got around to downloading and playing DGM's "The Dungeon" alpha (if you wanna give it a shot, check it out here). Keep in mind that it is still only in alpha. It bears many similarities to the in-development "Deadly Rooms of Death (DROD) RPG" I talked about a couple of weeks ago. It made me think about my defining characteristics of a role-playing game (RPG). One of my defining elements was that there should be an element of randomness (or, to use more college-sounding terms, "non-deterministic" or "stochastic" mechanics) in an RPG. The Dungeon and the DROD RPG do not have this. So are they still RPGs?

I'm actually gonna have to stick to my guns here. That's not a qualitative judgment at all - there's nothing inherently superior to being a role-playing game over an adventure game or ... well, whatever cool new label we can give to games like DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold and The Dungeon. While they are puzzle games, they are far, far removed from games like Bejeweled, Minesweeper, or Pathstorm. These games share some definite similarities to adventure games and RPGs, but they also provide a very different "feel" from either.

So here's how I'd tell them apart, both in pedantic prose and an example encounter:

Role-Playing Games (RPGs):
These have elements of resource management, avatar progression, avatar identification / customization, and risk management. Risk management comes from stochastic mechanics - you may able to predict the approximate outcome, but there are no guarantees.

Example Encounter: The player encounters a ferocious Grickle-Grak. He gets into a fight, which ends slightly differently from his previous one-hundred Grickle-Grak fights.

Adventure Games (Interactive Fiction, Graphic Adventures):
These have no resource management other than typically unique inventory items, rarely any avatar customization or progression, and primary mechanics are fully deterministic. These are normally identified by a series of unique puzzles wrapped tightly within the metaphors and context of the story.

Example Encounter: The player encounters a ferocious Grickle-Grak. He uses his can of "Anti-Grickle-Grak Spray" from his inventory, which he previously obtained through the creative use of a peanut-butter sandwich, a golf club, and a portable tape player in the library. The spray makes the Grickle-Grak flee the scene, never to be heard from again.

Adventure-Puzzle Games (for lack of a better name):
These have strong elements of resource management and avatar progression, but deterministic gameplay. The puzzles are generally non-unique, often presenting a challenge in combination with each other that require careful sequential ordering of actions to resolve.

Example Encounter: The player encounters a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Fighting the Grickle-Grak will cost you 100 hit points. Fighting the Tweeter-Bee and then going through the door behind it will only cost you 20 hitpoints and one red key. What will you need more in the next room: the key, or the 80 hit points?

Bonus Game Types
Just to make sure you aren't playing a totally different type of game altogether, here are some other examples:

First-Person Shooter (FPS): You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Two rockets to the face should do it.

Casual: You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Match three candies of the same type to satisfy his appetite and make him your friend.

Real-Time Strategy: An army of ferocious Grickle-Graks zerg your base five minutes into the game.

Platformer: You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. You jump on his head three times.

Third-Person Shooter: Just like the first-person shooter, but the game helps you aim the rockets towards his face

Survival Horror: You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Unfortunately, he takes fifteen bullets to kill, and the game has you down to two. So he devours you in a an extended, gruesome death-scene.

Rhythm Game: You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Match his mad raps with the right beats to defeat him!


(Vaguely) related senseless expounding:
* But Is It An RPG?
* RPG Design: How Do I Get Past the Stupid Door?
* RPG Design: The "Brute Force" Problem.

UPDATE:
Due to popular demand, a forum thread devoted to this hot topic!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:07 AM (Permalink) 15 comments links to this post
Thursday, July 26, 2007
 
Frayed Knights Dev Diary: Task Resolution Revisited
Once I pulled at the thread known as the spell system, the entire foundational game mechanics of Frayed Knights just started unraveling. It was rough watching it go, because I'd spent a lot of time on it. But even as it happened, it felt like the right thing. Because deep down inside, I knew the reason that I'd had to spend so much time on it was because it wasn't working, and I'd kept forcing it to fit.

Morphing into a more class-based system was the right thing to do, especially as the player is controlling a party of characters rather than just one uber-character. However, this really meant rewriting my game mechanics from scratch. The old idea of comparing ratios of skill ratings just didn't fit, for multiple reasons. There's only one number to compare, and I didn't want the level ranges to have to become extreme in order for the player to notice a difference in probabilities. Also, since bonuses and penalties would apply directly to your level, they would become less significant very quickly as you rose in level. In other words, a +2 bonus would be monstrous at 1st level, but lost in the noise at 15th.

Va Va Va Voom! Look At Those Curves!
Warning: This is a sleep-inducing section! If you feel your eyes droop, skip ahead to the next section!

So I decided to redo the entire foundational mechanics of the game. Joy. So I had to decide how I wanted it to simulate my imaginary reality.

First of all, in order to preserve the usefulness of bonuses across all level ranges (because a LOT of the game will still be accumulating building up one-shot bonuses rather than progressive skills), I wanted the mechanics to operate based upon the deltas of effective levels rather than their actual ratios or values. So the difference of a level 2 facing a level 3 will come out to exactly the same probabilities as a level 12 facing a level 13.

Next was the distribution to consider. For a given delta between scores, what is the probability of success?

Being a traditionalist, I wanted to center the distribution at 0.5 when both scores are equal. To keep things moving a little more actively, I can skew that distribution a little higher, but that's a playtesting thing.

Next was what I wanted it to look like. The "D20" game system has something like this, where your target roll is determined by subtracting the defending score from the acting score, and adding it to 11. The probability curve is a flat line --- the higher the target number, the linearly greater the probability of success. The problem is that is has a fairly narrow range of -9 to +8 before you hit the end of the line, and bump up against the "automatic success / automatic failure" rolls of 20 and 1 respectively. So they have to constrain everything to fit within that range.

Some pen-and-paper RPGs use a bell curve to generate random values for task resolution, but that creates an even narrower range of useable values. Champions (the Hero System) uses this, with a system similar to D20's based on the difference of acting and defending scores, but in practice the only useful range is -4 to +3. The chance of rolling numbers outside that range plummet so far they aren't even interesting.

What I wanted was something resembling a parabolic curve. In practice, what this would mean is that if you are very close to your opponent's skill level, even a small difference will be very noticeable. But as the difference between your skills increases, the difference of a single +1 bonus has less and less of an impact on the direct probabilities. My idea was that a functional range should be around +/- 10, with +/- 5 being very common. But at even more extreme ranges, I wanted to see things be non-trivial. While a bunch of little ankle-biting goblins might not be a threat, I do want to see them be something that can hurt you.

Ideally, I wanted to see something where a difference of 1 yielded a +/- 5% chance, and where chances went to +/- 25% somewhere after a difference of 5. And where your probabilities went to only about 10% of success or failure at + or - (respectively) 15.

Not being much of a math whiz, what I ended up with is a really ugly 1 / ( x * square root (x) ) function to get me the sort of curve I was looking for. In fact, here's the actual code:

function DiceCalcChance(%val)
{
%add = 14.0;
if (%val>0.0)
%chance = 1.0 - (%add * 0.5 / (%add + (%val * mSqrt(%val))));
else
%chance = (%add * 0.5) / (%add + (-%val * mSqrt(-%val)));
return %chance;
}

I first wrote it in Python and ran several checks while I played with the formula. I used Python because its an interactive language. Once I had the function about where I wanted it, I translated it into TorqueScript. Here's a sample of the results:

---===== DICE CHECK =====---
1: 0.533333 **** -1: 0.466667
2: 0.584037 **** -2: 0.415963
3: 0.635344 **** -3: 0.364656
4: 0.681818 **** -4: 0.318182
5: 0.722005 **** -5: 0.277995
7: 0.78475 **** -7: 0.21525
10: 0.846568 *** -10: 0.153432
12: 0.874031 *** -12: 0.125969
15: 0.902906 *** -15: 0.0970944
18: 0.922539 *** -18: 0.0774615
20: 0.93233 **** -20: 0.0676703
25: 0.94964 **** -25: 0.0503597
30: 0.960744 *** -30: 0.039256

The formula seems to create the right curve, with a scaler I can use to try and tease values into the right ratio. I'll be the first to admit that there's probably a much better way of achieving very similar results. Feel free to correct me or make suggestions. One obvious alternative is to convert this into a table of results, with everything beyond 30 or so being treated equally.

So How Does It Work?
Okay. Let's say you are a level 5 warrior with a 7 in Might battling a level 6 warrior with Reflexes of 5.

Your attack rating is your level plus your strength, so it's 5 + 7 = 12.

Your opponent's defense rating is his level plus his reflexes, so that's 6 + 5 = 11.

When you attack him, you have a +1 level advantage, which means you have 53.3% chance of hitting on each attack.

Your own Reflexes score is also 5, and his Might is 6, and he is wielding a magical Sword of the Smack-Down which gives him an additional +3 bonus. So his attack rating is a total of 6 + 6 + 3 = 15, to your defense rating of only 5 + 5 = 10. That's a difference of 5, to his advantage, which means his attacks are going to hit you 72.2% of the time.

The battle could still go either way easily enough, particularly if you are both low on hit points to begin with, but over several successive attacks vict very likely to go to your opponent. I hope you brought friends.

What Else Did I Get Done?
Fortunately, I had been fairly smart about how I'd implemented the game system, and I'd put all calls to the mechanics in the "character" class. Between that, and not actually having too much of the game written already, ripping out the guts of the old system and replacing it with the new one was actually pretty painless.

Aside from this, I also worked on spells. The spell system is still far from complete, but I can now cast damaging spells at enemies. In theory, I can cast healing spells at enemies too, but I don't actually have any "heal the enemy" spells in the game. Healing will be a lot more useful when I can have the player target their own party members. Maybe tomorrow.

And Now With The Fluff
Some bits of background lore, for your enjoyment.

The party begins near the village of Ardin. Ardin was a quiet, sleepy hamlet that has recently received an influx of adventurers intent on exploiting the newly discovered dungeons and underground complexes in the area. As such, Ardin has been transformed into something of a boom-town.

The resentment that the locals feel for this influx of ill-mannered "tourists" is matched only by their avarice: the bands of adventurers are bringing plenty of silver coins to the local economy, and traders from the city are making regular stops in Ardin.

One thing has not escaped their attention: Many treasures brought back to town are not long-lost artifacts from before the mage war, but the expensive equipment of previous adventuring parties who never returned...


(Vaguely) Related Various and Sundry...
* Frayed Knights: Characteristics and Task Resolution
* RPG Combat Design
* Lessons Learned Playing Computer RPGs
* The First Playable "Level"

Discuss on the Forums! Or ... not...

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
 
Establishing the Legitimacy of Games
Brian "Psychochild" Green of Near Death Studios has published an outstanding article on RPGVault entitled "Taking Games Seriously."

In it, he discusses three types of "legitimacy" for artistic forms, how they impact freedom of expression, and how they are achieved. He takes it a step further and explains why you, the gamer, should care. Tired of games that are mere clones and sequels? That is because while games have achieved financial legitimacy, they have not yet achieved cultural or artistic legitimacy.

He also notes that while the legitimacy of computer and video games as an art form is inevitable and automatic, there are things that can be done to hasten it.

Comparing this to Roger Ebert's little rant from earlier this week was very refreshing.

Check it out here:

RPG Vault Soapbox - Taking Games Seriously



(Vaguely) related ill-advised illegitimate literature:
* Ebert Vs. Barker On "Are Games Art?"
* Games As Art: Media's Double Standard
* Do Games Matter?
* How Do I Get Past the Harpies?
* Game Design: Fixing Interactive Storytelling

Join the Discussion Already In Progress on Games As Art in the Forum!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:07 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
 
The Rampant Coyote Rocks the 80's
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's (still an incredibly stupid name) was released yesterday, so I snagged myself a copy and was even able to rock out a little on my lunch hour. All-in-all, it took me maybe 2 hours to 5-star everything on medium so that all the songs are available in two-player mode (I even got two "gold star" 100% sets on my first try). And I got the Viking and Coffin guitars. Medium isn't much fun for me anymore, but the songs were great.

I'm going to have to agree with the critics, here --- it's being billed as a full-price game, but comparing GH80's with Guitar Hero II really leaves GH80's coming up lacking. While I can forgive the lack of bonus tracks (Were they supposed to hunt down authentic 80's indie music?), the fact that there are 10 fewer main tracks is somewhat painful. No costume changes, fewer characters, and only minor color-scheme changes on the six venues (as opposed to eight). My problem is not that it's just Guitar Hero II with different songs. It's Guitar Hero II with... less of everything. That wouldn't be a problem if it was priced as an expansion, but as a full-priced game? Ouch.

I don't really expect much in the way of new features. Really, feature-wise, Guitar Hero II nailed it. The big addition Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is sporting... the "battle mode" thing... sounds like zero added value to my ears. But would it have killed 'em to have thrown in one extra venue unique to the 80's edition? And a few more songs? Granted, finding popular songs from the 80's that weren't all done with keyboards and a drum machine can be tricky, but I'm sure they could have dug something up. Maybe some Styx, Rush, Van Halen, Queensryche, or even Huey Lewis or the Cars?

All that being said - I AM one of those people who bought the game (and based upon what the dude at Wal*Mart told me, we are legion), so I guess it isn't priced too far beyond the pale. And what songs are on the list are really pretty fun. Maybe a little embarassing to admit that I like them, but I had a blast playing them --- even on medium. For the most part, I love the track list, and I really enjoyed the character costumes.

Some songs might be considered questionable choices, though I think Harmonix made the most of them. Really, the lead guitar still doesn't have much to do in "Radar Love" - even the White Lion version. It'll be a lot of fun doing the bass in coop though, I expect. And those iconic 80's songs, like "I Ran (So Far Away)" have little to do on the guitar but make sound effects with the whammy bar. A couple of the songs I really haven't heard since the 80's. I think "Balls to the Wall" was last played on the airwaves in 1984. While playing "The Warrior," we cracked up when we heard, "Your eyes touch me, physically..." Ew! GRODY to the max! Did we even listen to the lyrics back then?

Some songs are really embarrassing to admit to even listen to, but they are really fun to play. "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister is a perfect example. And dang it if "We Got The Beat" isn't a blast to play!

"Ballroom Blitz," "No One Like You," and Ratt's "Round and Round" were every bit as sweet as I'd hoped. The final selection, "Play With Me," is pure awesomeness and adrenaline. I've loved that song since I first watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

When it comes down to it, it's more Guitar Hero goodness, with more songs, mainly songs I grew up with, so for us 30-somethings who love the GH series its a no-brainer. I just wish they'd been a trifle more generous.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
 
Ebert vs. Barker on "Are Games Art?"
Roger Ebert, the notorious film critic who went on record many moons ago as stating that "video games are not art," has written an article countering arguments by famed horror novelist Clive Barker to the contrary.

To his credit, Ebert at least amends his statement by saying, "games cannot be high art."

Whatever the heck that is supposed to mean. I checked Wikipedia, and it seems that high art is pretty much restricted to "traditional" art forms, only recently allowing cinema into the old boys club.

Personally, I think he does have a point about interactivity, but I don't think that in any way prevents games from being art. Sharing the artistic effort with the audience definitely makes for a different experience from traditional media. But face it --- how many games REALLY put that much of the story in the player's control, anyway? I think games suffer from being overly linear in their presentation as it is, borrowing too much from traditional forms of artistic expression.

And how much cinema and literature are really "high art," anyway? Everybody likes to invoke Shakespeare, but that was four centuries ago! How about Stephen Kings' novels and the Harry Potter books - are those "high art?" I don't know, but I suspect that those will be artifacts of this generation's culture that will endure much, much longer than the words of pretentious critics of the day.

Anyway, you can check out Ebert's defense here:

Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker


(Vaguely) related nonsensical revelations:
* Games As Art: Media's Double Standard
* Do Games Matter?
* How Do I Get Past the Harpies?
* Game Design: Fixing Interactive Storytelling

Read or Post Comments on the Forum

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:00 AM (Permalink) links to this post
 
Game Development Competition Begins
The first "Game Development Competition," sponsored by MyGMGame.com and GreatGamesExperiment.com, has begun as of July 18th. The theme is "Comedy," chosen because it seems so lacking in major commercial games these days (ever since graphical adventure games were no longer in vogue, IMO).

The game must be made specifically for the competition. No registering a game you've already been working on for a year. That gives you only 2 months to make the game, so work quickly! All game making tools are allowed, including GameMaker. Major game development studios are forbidden - indies only! Full rules are available on the site, but I found them to be extremely open-ended.

A panel of judges will select the ten finalists in September, after which the winners will be chosen by public vote. This looks to be a regular event, which is - in a word - AWESOME.

The Game Development Competition

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
 
Indie RPG News, July 24, 2007
Indie RPGs - no budget, no publisher, no problem! Here are some of updates on some RPGs in development that you probably won't hear much about from the major gaming sites and magazines:

The Broken Hourglass
Well, let's see. We've got another "under-the-hood" article about skipping events for those modders out there who are already planning on turning The Broken Hourglass into their own little garden of creative delights. There's also a profile of all the non-human races, showing how they break down in terms of game mechanics.

Depths of Peril
Besides some new monster profiles at Soldak's site - providing an overview of the hulk and the scavenger - there have been a slew of previews of Depths of Peril this last month. There's a preview at RPG Codex, another at Hooked Gamers, a third at RPGWatch, another at GameBanshee, and a somewhat less flattering one over at YouGamers.

It should be noted that all of these previews are based on a "late alpha build," and so there is plenty that can change between now and the final release.

Aveyond II: Ean's Quest
The sequel to the best-selling "casual RPG" Aveyond has had its projected release date pushed back into November - though even that is only a "tentative" plan.

Game-In-A-Year RPG Front-Runners
The Dream Game competition first-quarter tallies were calculated earlier this month. The competition is still very, very early, and there's no guarantee that any of these games will make it to release. However, most of the contenders were role-playing games. The top six were very close, including:

#1 - Isles of Midgard, a massively multiplayer RPG (with a really cool website).
#2 - Frayed Knights - who let that lame thing into the contest? :)
#3 - Arcanoria - a fantasy MMORPG.
#4 - Pelorea: Tactical War - a "tactical RPG with a card system"
#5 - Fantasci: Hidden War - a "multi-genre" science-fiction RPG.
#6 - Inspire - not an RPG. An episodic multiplater 3D platform game

So there you go! I really hope we'll end up seeing all of these games in playable form in a few months! Especially that Frayed Knights game. Somebody bug that guy to get off his can and finish the game! Besides these, however, there are many other games (almost twenty more) that are actively competing and making good progress, many of which are RPGs. If these all pan out, there could be a ton of interesting indie RPGs getting released next year.


(Vaguely) related banging of two empty halves of a coconut together:
* Indie RPG In Development: Scars of War
* An Early Look at the DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) RPG
* Cute Knight Deluxe Available from Rampant Games
* Indie RPG News, June 26
* Indie RPG News, June 15

Discuss on the Forum! Or Be Square...

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) links to this post
Monday, July 23, 2007
 
Indie RPG In Development: Scars of War
Time to add another indie RPG to the list of inbound games I am really looking forward to. Gareth Fouche emailed me late last week with information on another Torque-based indie RPG that is currently under development. I thought it sounded pretty exciting, and wanted to pass the information along.

The game is entitled, "Scars of War." The name reflects the story and setting. You are a now-unemployed veteran soldier after a war, in a land still slow to recover from the conflict. Food and jobs are scarce. You begin the game by taking odd jobs from an old army contact. Soon, you are drawn into "a web of conspiracy and deception" far from home.

Gareth reports that the code is about 85% complete at this point, and that he is focusing now on content. As he described it to me, "Both character progression and combat are...well, they are fleshed out but not done. I have a skill system up and running. All the mechanics are in, and most of the skills are set... The mechanics all work and interplay." The game has been under development for over 2 years now, which is enough of an investment by now that he's got great confidence that it won't disappear into vaporware land like too many ambitious indie titles. Gareth is the sole developer on this project, wearing all the hats of programmer, designer, manager, and lead artist. You don't get much more indie than that!

Scars of War is a 1st person perspective fantasy RPG. If features real-time combat, not unlike that found in the Elder Scrolls games. Some of its other features include:


What? No "Ancient Evil" coming out to play? No elves? Where are my hackneyed fantasy conventions? What a rip off!

Actually, that sounds really exciting. Particularly when coupled with "a mature story aimed at adults." You know, for a good story that I can really sink my teeth into, I can forgive a number of faults.

One thing Gareth notes here is that experience points are based on task completion, not killing monsters. It sounds like he's trying to avoid the traditional "grind." So far, I've only played some Neverwinter Nights modules and one other RPG (Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines) that I recall doing this. It seemed to work, and minimized the "brute force" approach to beating the game.

While it's still too early to tell, I have high hopes for Scars of War. I will have to keep bugging Gareth for more information as time and development progresses.


(Vaguely) related shallow thoughts:
* RPG Design: The "Brute Force" Problem
* Aveyond!
* Indie RPG News (June 26)

Read or Post Comments on the Forum!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:17 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post
Saturday, July 21, 2007
 
Spoiler-Free Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review
I just spent about nearly 12 of the last 18 hours reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, having picked up my copy at the big midnight book-release party at Barnes and Noble.

I had high expectations. The book did not dissapoint.

The previous book (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) ended with the promise of a big war on the horizon. The new one picks up only days later, with the little calm before the storm, and then kicks into high gear in chapter 4, and rarely lets up before the final chapter. As a war story, it's pretty violent (for a Harry Potter book). There's torture and death - and not always with clean spellcasting, either.

There's also even more shades of gray than in any of the previous books. The good guys are far from perfect, and the not all of the bad guys are perfectly evil, either.

It's my new favorite.

As far as the Harry Potter release party - it was tiring, but was one of those experiences I wanted to have once - and let my kids enjoy once. Since this was the last book of the series, I doubt there'll be another event around the release of a piece of literature in my lifetime. Though I can certainly hope. There were tons of people in costume - mostly kids, but many adults were getting in on the action. I was wearing my Cloning Clyde t-shirt, which earned one comment from a young guy walking past me that "THAT GAME ROCKS!!!"

I started right off, after picking up my wristband to guarantee my place in line after midnight, encountering one guy sitting in the "Role Playing Game" corner of the bookstore reading to his baby daughter, who was next to him in a stroller. The book he was reading from was a Dungeons & Dragons manual. In very soft and comforting storytelling tones, he was describing details of a certain power forcing a morale-based saving throw. We struck up a conversation, and he told me about a new gaming store that recently opened that I was unaware of. We chatted for a little while, before I had to go check up on my kids.

I went around the store finding and trying to answer Harry Potter trivia questions, and found out my Trivia-Fu wasn't quite as strong about Harry Potter as I expected. The kids got to enjoy balloon animals, face-and-arm painting (many children wanted death-marks on their forearms). I guess it was a bad sign that one of the main prizes was the chance to move up to the front of the line.

The girls got really tired right after 11:00, and we were astonished by the size of the line. Even our guaranteed spot (getting there just as the party started) ended up taking us well over an hour before we could pick up our book.

Still, it was pretty fun, and I ended up picking up a guitar book and a programming book on ASP.NET while I waited. But I do not feel like our family missed out on anything missing the book-release parties for the previous books...
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:00 PM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post
Friday, July 20, 2007
 
Ten Days With Castaways: Virtual Villagers 2 Playthrough, Part 5
Over the last couple weeks, I have decided to chronicle my experiences with a group of villagers in the hit game, "Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children" (AKA Virtual Villagers 2) by Last Day of Work (and available from Rampant Games). Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't help but inject a little bit of role-playing and my twisted imagination to abuse the game a little. Or a lot.

Since the game allows you to rename your little villagers, and you begin with seven... stranded castaways... So here's the story of ten days on Gilligan's Island, as simulated by Virtual Villagers 2.

Day 9: The Island Survivor!
Aw, man. The Skipper, the first Esteemed Elder of our tropic island nest, kicked the bucket. His bones littered the village center when I logged in to check out how things were going. Old age finally caught up with him. At least he won't be smacking Gilligan around with his hat anymore.

Aside for a brief funeral procession, life in the village proceeded pretty normally. More than half of the original crew of the S.S. Minnow have gone back to that tropic port in the sky. I have two collections from the kids now that are shy of only one final item to fill out. The food table is overflowing, with over 10,000 units of food, so starvation is just not an issue anymore. We can just about neglect the farming at this point...

... And they do. The villager, left on their own, are gravitating towards research or fishing. Or rain-dancing. Or doing laundry. Or playing in the pond. Our little survivors now have lives of leisure!

Ellie May, however, will have none of it. There's not much to build these days, so she's not able to apply her "Master Builder" talents. She swaps between research and farming, and is soon an expert in both skills. This earns her the "Esteemed Elder" title, and another ugly-but-colorful totem to go next to that of the now-deceased Skipper and Gilligan.

Near the end of the day, both Gilligan and Mary Ann have died. Another funeral procession takes place. Since just about everyone left on the island was either a direct result of their... oh, shall we say, productivity... or partners in the same... I imagine there is much mourning for the Esteemed Elder and his sometimes-girlfriend.

Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell is the sole survivor of the original crew of the S.S. Minnow. I guess she's supposed to win the million dollars, but as she and Thurston often found, there's no place to spend it on the island.

Day 10: Now This is the Tale of our Castaways, They're Here For a Long, Long Time...
I'm just getting used to seeing skeletons to clean up when I first log into the game. As expected, Lovey didn't survive through the entire night. Game Over for the original crew. But at least she survived into Day 10.

Bob and Ellie May, the first children born to the island of the original crew, are now elderly as well. However, we achieve a breakthrough in modern island medicine (due in part to the tireless efforts of our two elderly master scientists), and they miraculously go from being elderly to being healthy! All the villagers rejoice!

A parrot flies into the village, and all the children learn to treat it like a pet. Apparently, this gives them parenting skills. So that one day, they can hope to be as productive as their ancestors, Gilligan and Mary Ann, one day.

A very strange thing happens at the end of the day. I get a message that says one of the children remembers something of the mystery of the island and the original villagers (crew). I guess this is some kind of collective unconscious thing, because the last child who'd have remembered anything died this morning. A ghost, maybe?

Or maybe my island villagers may develop some kind of voodoo cult! That'd be cool!

As the day closes, my village's population is 21. We've got a little over half of the puzzles solved, two technologies maxed out, no collections completed, and the whole worrying starvation thing licked. The original castaways have passed on, but their legacy is in really good shape.

Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children Thoughts (Conclusion)
Well, there you go. Ten days, playing approximately four sessions per day, ranging from 5 minutes to 30 minutes per session.

At the time I did this writeup, another week has gone by from day 10, and the SS Minnow Tribe has grown to nearly 70 people. We've got somewhere over 100,000 food, so the villagers don't need much work. All technologies have been finished long ago, so the tech points are mainly used for changing outfits at the clothing hut (something I didn't mention in the write-up, as I never used it after it was completed).

While I don't consider myself much of a "casual game" fan, I am a "Sim" game fan. The unique feature of the Virtual Villagers games is that they are designed to be played in short segments - often no more than 10 or 15 minutes per day. Things got a little more insane during the close-to-starvation segments of the game.

I won't pretend I came anywhere close to picking an optimal path for my villagers to progress. If you happen to get all hardcore over this game, there is a built-in, online leaderboard so you can check how you fare against other players. I'm pretty close to the bottom percentile in all categories.

But as you can tell, I had a lot of fun with it. And that's what it's all about! Congrats to Last Day of Work for a great game!


(Vaguely) related island wackiness:
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 4
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 3
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 2
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 1
.

Labels:


- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
Thursday, July 19, 2007
 
Frayed Knights Dev Diary: Emergency Redesign
I sit scowling and fuming at my computer, arms folded, my watch silently ticking the seconds away as I grapple with the the situation.

Two strikes.

Code Woes
First off, in a fit of hopeful optimism, I purchased the ArcaneFX content and code pack. It is built on top of version 1.52 of the Torque Game Engine, which is about .12 versions higher than what I'm working with. Wanting to take advantage of the 1.52 codebase changes ANYWAY, I began attempting to merge this with the latest version of the Torque Game Builder, as Frayed Knights uses a merged codebase of both (currently TGE 1.4 and TGB 1.1.2).

No such luck. Even with the notes I'd taken from the last time I'd done the merge, after about two-and-a-half hours of effort, I realized it wasn't going to happen. At least not with a reasonable amount of effort. The Torque Game Builder has no diverged on its own evolutionary course, no longer tied to TGE in any way, shape, or form except some past heritage.

There are, of course, always options. Merging an older version of TGB into the ArcaneFX code base. Or trying to merge the ArcaneFX changes (only) into my Frankensteinian TGB / TGE codebase. But for now, I've wasted nearly three hours of time. I've still got a game to write.

The Best-Laid Plans...
But I'd not yet wasted nearly enough time yet in Frayed Knights' development this week. The spell system for Frayed Knights, as designed in the ol' design document, was very sophisticated and open-ended enough for a much more generic RPG. It allowed a bunch of specialization for magic-users, with spells requiring different levels of four "branches" of magic ... Shamanism, Sorcery, Mentalism, and Conjuration.

The complexity and depth of the system had four problems:

* It was going to be a pain to balance
* It was going to be a pain to implement
* Maintenance was going to be tricky.
* It was going to be hard for the player to understand.

Minor problems, all, I decided when designing it. The first three would be accomplished because I'm obviously such a freaking genius and programming whiz. And the latter? It didn't matter. I kept lying to myself. "Oh, this will be great!" I told myself. "The player will get USED to it. They'll figure it out eventually. They'll come to love it over time as they appreciate its depth."

After getting much of the system implemented, it finally occured to me.

"This is crap!"

I can't even say it looked really good on paper. I had things sketched out in the design document, but as I was updating things as I fleshed out details, it was clear that even if the magic system I'd devised might be worthy in some kind of RPG, Frayed Knights was not that RPG. Frayed Knights is about making with the funny with a classic RPG system. Proving, in a way, that it's not about the game system, it's about the game. The story, the style, the personality.

The player controls four characters (on the average). Only one of them uses the deep (complicated) magic system. Is that really what I wanted?

"Whadayamean My Baby Is Ugly?"
And it went deeper. As I pondered ways of salvaging the system, I realized that much of the skill system was developed to support the magic system. Chloe (and all the NPC casters) had to somehow juggle at least four magical skills. So everyone else should have at least as many skills that they had to juggle that were important for their class... And then there were the "utility" skills that everyone should share... All stuff to mix it up to make sure there was plenty of customization in the game, so Chloe wouldn't stand out as a really odd case...

And then there was the advice DGM gave me in a forum post... about how the leveling-up system was coming off as sounding a little overly complicated.

I pulled the design document open again, and began poking around there.

It is time to revisit the game system. Yes, the one I've been planning and plotting about for months. The one that I've already got much code written for.

Going Forward
Okay. The wallowing in self-pity took a few more hours. Due to time pressures (I am STILL trying to hit my July 31 deadline of having the "first five minutes" completely playable... that's like 12 days away), I can't afford to stew very long. So I gotta get things back on track fast. Retrench, redesign, and replace.

It's gonna be a long night...


(Vaguely) Related Stuff About... Stuff
* Frayed Knights: Characteristics and Task Resolution
* Frayed Knights: Getting Around In The World
* Ways to Be A Better Game Designer
* The First Playable "Level"

Talk About It On The Forum

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 PM (Permalink) links to this post
 
Google Plans "AdSense For Games"
We've had AdSense for websites for a while now. But with the explosion in the casual / downloadable / web-games space over the last couple of years, good ol' Google is soon launching it's advertising technology for games.

This could be an interesting source of revenue for game developers specializing in free web-games, like Flash games.

This could also usher in an era of games choked with advertising and commercials. Right now, we don't know.

But here's the story so far:

Google Takes Its Ad System to the Video Game Market


Hat tip to A Shareware Life for the link!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:17 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post
 
Ten Days With Castaways: Virtual Villagers 2 Playthrough, Part 4
Over the last couple weeks, I have decided to chronicle my experiences with a group of villagers in the hit game, "Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children" (AKA Virtual Villagers 2) by Last Day of Work (and available from Rampant Games). Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't help but inject a little bit of role-playing and my twisted imagination to abuse the game a little. Or a lot.

Since the game allows you to rename your little villagers, and you begin with seven... stranded castaways... So here's the story of ten days on Gilligan's Island, as simulated by Virtual Villagers 2.

Day 7: Gilligan and Mary Ann - Swingers!
In case it you haven't read the reviews, the Virtual Villagers games process time and events even when you are not playing it (unless you pause it). This means that things can go out of control while you are asleep or off at work. So you need to be careful when you set up commands (or you need to pause the game, or let it run at 1/2 speed while offline). And if you neglect to take the game off of double-speed... well. This can happen to you!

I thought one more kid would be useful. Help around the island, stuff like that. Gilligan and Mary Ann were putting in the effort, with my encouragement, but nothing was forthcoming. I had stuff to do, so I clicked on "Parenting" as their skill to work on, and went on to do stuff for about three hours. I'd neglected to reduce the game speed down from double.

When I check it out again hours later, Gilligan the sex-fiend has managed to seduce most of the women over 30 on the island. He's got three children. Mary Ann is in the middle of getting the now 27-year-old Jethro to come hither into the ol' wedding hut, after having two children of her own from different fathers. I break that off in a hurry, seeing my population already pasty the danger threshold. How am I going to feed all these kids... Wally, Betty, Veronica, Archie, and Jughead?

Sure, Ginger and the Professor may be getting up in years, but they are still healthy. The Professor has been furiously working on new technology. But now we're faced with a very tough decision. Do we put that technology into medicine right now, extending the lifespan of our two elderly castaways by perhaps an extra five years? Or do we keep working on increasing farming, so that we can maybe feed this excessive population courtesy of the irresponsible Gilligan and Mary Ann?

In the end , the sacrifice is made... the older generation must give way for the younger. We keep working on farming. The Professor toils away, trying to figure out better ways of feeding the village.

Day 8: The Castaways Begin To Depart
The village is starving when I next check in on it, many hours later.

The Professor died near his post, a victim of old age and malnutrition. The villagers gather up his remains, bury him in the graveyard with a nice tombstone and flowers, and then go back to worrying about food. There is still nearly an hour left (1/2 year in villager time) before the crops will come in. Many villagers' health levels are dropping from hunger.

While I set the kids to hunting mushrooms once more, I find that the Professor left his legacy for the village. With enough tech points now, I buy the final level of farming. That enables the villagers to discover a solution to the algae-choked lagoon (and no, I'm not tellin'). Putting the entire village to work, we manage to clear the algae, which allows us to fish once again.

An... unlimited supply... of fish! The entire village dives in - literally - and returns with fish and shellfish of various kinds. The food supply quickly builds up to ample levels, and the threat of starvation is now forever removed from the tribe.

During this time, Gilligan also becomes an Esteemed Elder, his big ugly totem now joining the Skipper's. He's a master farmer, builder, scientist, and he's also ... apparently... a very skilled parent. He also knows a thing or two about healing. A true renaissance man, that Gilligan!

At the end of the day, Ginger joins her beloved Professor. A skilled doctor, researcher, and a master farmer --- not to mention famous movie star --- she is mourned by all, especially her son, Bob, who is now the preeminent researcher on the island, currently working on a cure for cancer using fish oil and coconut tree leaves.

Their legacy lives on....

Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children Thoughts After Eight Days
I have spent over a week of real-time on this village now. A funny thing happens with these Virtual Villagers games --- you have to spend so much time with the first and second generations of villagers just helping them survive that you do get a little attached to them. The game loses something when they start to die off.

Although it also loses something when the main threat to their survival - starvation - is removed. The game remains interesting - there are tons of goals and missions to be achieved still - but with that challenge overcome, things do become a lot more laid back and less compelling. You don't need to "play" the game anymore so much as just check in on it and guide it. Which is probably about right for a casual game of this kind... after all, it has been over a week.

(Vaguely) related stupidity:
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 3
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 2
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 1
* Dead Villagers
* Virtual Villagers 2 Developer's Diary
.

Labels:


- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
 
Iranian Game Developers Make Anti-U.S. FPS
So some Iranians made an FPS game with U.S. and Israeli troops as the bad guys called, "Rescue the Nuke Scientist."

Big deal.

Okay, the propaganda angle does annoy. I haven't played the game, and as far as I know it could be very offensive to me. But every single communications medium in history has been used for propaganda purposes. Including games. I think this just validates the contention that games must be protected free speech.

I don't relish the idea of yet one more medium that portrays Americans as "The Enemy" in the Middle East, but who else would you expect them to use to portray as the ultra-powerful enemy? And after all, we Americans have been blowing up our own military forces in our own games for years. Whether it was because they were sent there to "pacify" the Black Mesa facility in Half Life I, or we were locked in aerial combat in various flight sims, nuking ol' Abe Lincoln in Civilization or Rise of Nations, or we find ourselves on opposing side in multiplayer Battlefield games - we take pretty much equal glee in blowing up our own forces as anybody else's. We just need to take a look at our allies' uniforms (or the color of their names) before leading the base, and we're ready to rock.

Is that any different from, say, enjoying the wild naval adventures of Alexander Kent's Richard Bolitho novels, fighting on the "opposite" side of the revolutionary war (from an American point of view)? I think its usually a healthy thing to take a look at events and views from opposing perspectives.

Which brings us to another interesting point. Mohammad Taqi Fakhrian is quoted as saying that this game was created as a "defense against the enemy's cultural onslaught." What does this mean? Are Iranian kids playing Rainbow Six Las Vegas, Gears of War, and America's Army right now (while watching downloaded episodes of The Sopranos, Lost, and The Family Guy)? Is this an attempt by Iranian traditionalists to stop the "Western Drift" of the younger generations? Do they see video games as a means of reinforcing official state dogma? Or is it simply an angry reaction to being portrayed as bad guys in modern military games like Kuma\War?

And then there's the more important question that is undoubtedly on many gamers minds right now: Is this game actually any good?

Probably not, based on the gameplay footage (can U.S. soldiers walk through walls and pillars now? Cool!). That is more likely to earn gamer ire than political offensiveness.


Hat Tip to GamePolitics.com for the link!

(Vaguely) related vacant expressions
* Why Battlefield 2 Sucks
* Games As Art: Media's Double Standard
* I Would Have Made Deathmatch Maps of My School, Too!
* Games As Editorial Content
* Do Games Matter?

Wanna Talk About It? Visit the Forum!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:41 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post
 
Ten Days With Castaways: Virtual Villagers 2 Playthrough, part 3
Over the last couple weeks, I have decided to chronicle my experiences with a group of villagers in the hit game, "Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children" (AKA Virtual Villagers 2) by Last Day of Work (and available from Rampant Games). Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't help but inject a little bit of role-playing and my twisted imagination to abuse the game a little. Or a lot.

Since the game allows you to rename your little villagers, and you begin with seven... stranded castaways... So here's the story of ten days on Gilligan's Island, as simulated by Virtual Villagers 2.

Day 5: No Phone, No Lights, No Motorcar... Not a Single Thing to Eat!
Even without the birds, things do get a little tight between harvests. We're now up to 11 villagers from our original 7. Ellie Mae was born to Skipper and Lovey, and Gilligan and Mary Ann once again have a child... Beaver.

In retrospect, this might not have been the greatest idea. Our food runs out when there is still 90 minutes left to wait for the next harvest. There are only a handful of coconuts that have re-grown. Once again, the children are attempting to save the entire island by scouring the shore for mushrooms. We are constantly running out of food.

I put the villagers to work again, hoping to take their mind off their hunger. It seems that the villagers will do things like stop gathering food to worry about food. It sounds dumb, but then I think of the counterproductive behavior people often exhibit when under stress. You know, this is a smarter sim than I originally thought...!

We discover a gigantic gong stand. It should probably come as no surprise to anyone who's looked at the collection menu or the puzzle screen that at some point some big gong is involved, so I'm not going to treat it as a big spoiler or anything. There's a gong. It's what every village needs. It came with one quarter of a gong. I imagine there is small writing at the bottom that says, "Some Assembly Required. Some Pieces Sold Separately. Made in Hong Kong. It's a Hong Kong Gong."

Okay, I apologize for that one. I was reaching, wasn't I? Moving right along... I'm really looking forward to the professor inventing an arc-welder so we can weld the other three quarters together. Whenever we find them.

I personally supervise the next harvest. I am reminded that the villagers have incredibly short attention spans --- in the middle of harvesting the crop, they keep trying to rush off and grab coconuts which have finally grown back on the tree. The coconuts will keep, you stupid villagers! Worry about the harvest! There'll be plenty of time to pick coconuts later! They won't migrate or be carried off by swallows or anything!

Day 6: Skipper Levels Up In Their Tropic Island Nest
We build a new hut type, and start work on a sewing hut. Once again, we're running out of children, who do half the work around the island! So I encourage the villagers to take advantage of the honeymoon shack, and two more children are born - Wally and Veronica.

After building a new hut, we are finally able to open the crate on the beach and retrieve a gong piece. Go team us! We have half a gong now. The bottom half. We can now have big parties with Gilligan jamming on the gong, the Skipper on bass made out of coconuts, Mary Ann on keyboards made out of fish bones (assuming we ever get fish again), and Ginger on vocals singing, "I wanna be loved by you... boop boop, dee doo!"

The original cast is getting into their 50's. Still healthy, due to decent medicine research, but I begin to wonder how long it'll be before they go to the great desert island in the sky. Ginger and the Professor are already elderly. Maybe Ginger ought not to do the vocals anymore, after all.

Speaking of elderly, however, the Skipper has become an Esteemed Elder. He's a master farmer, master builder, and a master researcher. A totem of him was built right out in the field to commemorate his being the most respected man on the island. It's a big ol' ugly thing. I wonder if future generations are going to worship it as a god, and sacrifice virgins to it in the volcano or something?

Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children Thoughts After Six Days
It's still a battle for survival, with food supply being the single greatest factor in all my decisions. The fast and easy technology levels have been researched - which has been nice, as new technologies usually bring about new things for the villagers to do. But as that slows down, so does the new tasks, putting everything into a more regular rhythm.

I'm still putting much more time into the game in the course of a day than I did with the original game. It's still a pretty laid-back game overall (would that be an accurate description of all casual games?), but there are just more tasks to consider and a few more things to experiment with than before.

You can try out these games for yourself here - the demos give you a total of an hour of play-time to check it out:

Virtual Villagers: A New Home
Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children


(Vaguely) related stupidity:
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 2
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 1
* Tamagotchi Villagers
* Virtual Villagers 2 Developer's Diary
* Virtual Villagers 2 Is #1
.

Labels:


- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:35 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
 
Ten Days With Castaways: Virtual Villagers 2 Playthrough, part 2
Over the last couple weeks, I have decided to chronicle my experiences with a group of villagers in the hit game, "Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children" (AKA Virtual Villagers 2) by Last Day of Work (and available from Rampant Games). Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't help but inject a little bit of role-playing and my twisted imagination to abuse the game a little. Or a lot.

Since the game allows you to rename your little villagers, and you begin with seven... stranded castaways... So here's the story of ten days on Gilligan's Island, as simulated by Virtual Villagers 2.

Day 3: ...If It Hadn't Been For You Kids!
The castaways exhausted the supply of coconuts! Now the professor has nothing for his experiments!

Actually, the Professor continues his research just fine. If it wasn't for the likelihood of everybody on the island starving to death in a matter of hours, I'd have nothing to worry about. The adults are pretty much incapable of doing anything to feed themselves at this point. They can research new ways to produce food, but that's not going to feed them in the short-term. Or they can wait for the coconuts to regrow. I think the coconuts can support a population of two. If they don't eat like the Skipper.

The Professor does make a discovery! Minor spoiler (highlight the text to see): They discover irrigation. I send everybody but the Professor and Thurston to work on building up the dam to irrigate some farmland. But it is going to take too long to save them!

So now it is up to the two children of the island... Bob and Ellie May (yes, I've run out of character names from Gilligan's Island, so I'm borrowing from other sources) ... to save the entire village! They scavenge mushrooms. In the process, I build up a small collection of shells and butterflies - but it is the mushrooms that are key! The supply of food is still dwindles, but not quite so fast. The villagers complete the project, and we now have some farmland. Half the villagers turn to growing crops while the other half finishes repairs on another hut. The hut takes longer than the entire growing season... who thought huts were so complicated? I guess its a nice 3-story split-level hut with an automatic garage door opener and stuff.

The kids keep hunting mushrooms, and the village runs out of food while waiting for the crops to come in.

Then something weird happens. Thurston hears voices in the forest. I send him to investigate. He is never heard from again. We all prefer to believe that he found rescuers, and was finally able to leave the island. He just... ummm... neglected to inform the rescuers of the rest of the castaways on the beach. It must have slipped his mind.

Bob picks up the task of assistant villager, though he has a long way to go before he matches the Thurston's expertise at turning coconuts into vacuum cleaners.

The crops finally come in, and that eases the pressure of food significantly, but then the villagers have problems with birds eating many of the crops before the villagers can harvest them all. Something needs to be done about the birds! I personally favor the professor inventing a bow and arrow so the villagers can get some extra meat on their table... but that doesn't happen. Maybe later in the game...

Day 4: Good Thing We Had A Movie Star ...
The children are growing up. Considering how children have been the ones putting food on the table (and greatly increasing the rate of technological improvement with their little discoveries), I figure we need more young'uns. Gilligan and Mary Ann get busy again, and have a son named Biff. The Skipper gets together with Lovey, and the two have young Jethro.

Ginger has now become a master farmer - she probably learned some of it from having been in a movie about farmers once. As a master farmer, she manages to devise a way to keep the birds away from the field (I won't say how to avoid spoilers). With the villagers at a fairly low population (10), it seems they can at least keep alive with the regular rate of harvesting crops (and no interfering from birds, I hope).

The Professor (along with the teenaged whiz-kids Bob and Ellie May) has been focused on developing cold fusion using coconuts. However, as an interim project, they discover edged hand-tools.

Day 4 finishes up with Ginger, Mary Ann, and Lovey creating a very delicious stew. Tired of eating just coconuts and berries, the entire island had a celebration. The professor broke out the coconut-and-berry wine, and everyone got good and drunk before heading off to work again. Okay, I made that last part up. There's no alcohol, but there is stew.

Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children Thoughts After Four Days
Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children, just like it's predecessor (Virtual Villagers: A New Home), gets really busy after the first day or so with just trying to help the villagers survive after the first food source becomes exhausted. It's kind of amusing to see that the children are the keys to the survival of the village. In the second game, the addition of collectibles gives the children an even stronger role, as they also contribute significantly to the technological advancement of the village.

I skipped a few of the random events that occur in the village, only touching on a couple (including the one that removed poor Thurston from the game). Many of them require a choice - you can play it safe or take a risk. I tend to go for the riskier options.

You can try out these games for yourself here - the demos give you a total of an hour of play-time to check it out:

Virtual Villagers: A New Home
Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children


(Vaguely) related stupidity:
* Ten Days With Castaways, Part 1
* Tamagotchi Villagers
* Virtual Villagers 2 Developer's Diary
* Virtual Villagers 2 Is #1
.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:43 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
 
Barbie Takes Over the World... of Warcraft?
Okay, this is shameless promotion on the part of Mattel by comparing apples and oranges, but it's still amusing:

Could Barbie Girls Become the Largest Virtual World?

Now, there's a huge difference between 3 million free-account signups in the first 60 days of a launch, and 6 million active PAYING subscribers three years into an MMO's lifecycle.

Still... more fuel to feed the casual gaming fire, I guess.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:34 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Monday, July 16, 2007
 
Torque for the Wii!
The Torque Game Engine has now been adapted to work on the Wii.

The Escapist has the news.

That's the second current-gen console (after the XBox 360) for Torque. GarageGames continues to concentrate on being the "budget engine" of choice for multiple platforms.

According to the quote by Randy Angle of Pronto Games (the folks who ported the engine to the Wii and are developing a Wii game with the engine), "We chose to develop The Destiny of Zorro with the Torque Game Engine because of its proven reliability and our developers' familiarity with it" (emphasis mine). This sounds like an interesting (perhaps accidental?) long-term strategy for GarageGames. They offer their game engine at a price that makes it easily accessible by any fourteen-year-old with lawn-mowing money. Those who actually manage to succeed at it and who move on to bigger, more professional ventures and take their Torque preference with them. Are we going to see a "next generation" of higher-end commercial studios using Torque?


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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:32 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
 
Ten Days With Castaways: Virtual Villagers 2 Playthrough, Part 1
Over the last couple weeks, I have decided to chronicle my experiences with a group of villagers in the hit game, "Virtual Villagers 2" by Last Day of Work (and available from Rampant Games). Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't help but inject a little bit of role-playing and my twisted imagination to abuse the game a little. Or a lot.

Since the game allows you to rename your little villagers, and you begin with seven... stranded castaways... hmmm. That gives me an idea...

So here's the story of ten days on Gilligan's Island, as simulated by Virtual Villagers 2.

Day 1: So Sit Right Back, And You'll Hear A Tale...
I start with three (consenting...) adults and four children. The tribe is named "S.S. Minnow." The adults of the tribe are Mary Ann, Ginger, and Professor - though Mary Ann is only barely an adult. The oldest children - both male - are Skipper and Gilligan. Then there's little 9-year-old Thurston, and young Lovey.

I set Mary Ann to fishing duty right off the bat, as I figure not starving to death would be a good start for the game. The Professor (who's name - never mentioned in any re-run I recall - was "Roy") I naturally set to doing research. I assigned Ginger the duty of gathering firewood. She grumbles, but recalls playing a cave-woman in a movie once, and quickly gets into the role.

After making sure the jobs have "sunk in," I scour the island for collectables and mushrooms, and set the kids to gathering them up. I manage to score a rare, collectable butterfly right off the bat. Go Gilligan! He's making himself so useful. His mother would be proud. (Incidentally, according to always-reliable Internet sources, Gilligan's first name was "Willy." Uh-huh. O-kay.)

After a little while, the Skipper (who's name in the show is reportedly Jonas, not that I ever heard that without looking it up on the Internet) has his 14th birthday. This is good, as he can now contribute to the tribe as an adult. Unfortunately, as an "adult" now, he can no longer hit Gilligan on the head his hat, as that would be child abuse and would probably give this game an "M" rating, not to mention causing Family Services to come to the island and remove Gilligan from the home... oh, wait, I think I have just found a way off the island!

Right about this time, the Professor and Ginger get it on. The only place they can get any privacy is a horrible little broken-down hut on the beach, with a sunken ceiling and the walls caving in. I am not even going to speculate what caused the "honeymoon hut" to be in such a state! The Professor says, "Thank you, ma'am." and goes back to trying to figure out how to create cold fusion with palm fronds and coconut milk. Ginger emerges from the hut with a baby in her arms, after a grueling one-second pregnancy.

With Ginger now out on maternity leave for four hours (two years of game-time), the Skipper takes over her taxing firewood-gathering duties. After the fire is going, he sets to work building a new hut. Probably for him and his little buddy. For parties with Thurston, Lovey, and Mary Ann while Ginger and the Professor are having horrible arguments over finances.

We do have a couple of mishaps. All that diving into the ocean to throttle fish has given Mary Ann a case of the sniffles. I really don't see the Skipper as the healing type, so I pull the Professor off his normal research duties to try and play doctor. I mean, to act as a doctor. He manages to cure Mary Ann, so she happily rushes back to the ocean to go wrestle more fish for the tribe to eat.

Little Thurston likes running around the island. He's the best runner on the island. He asks to organize a race against everyone on the island, and I agree. Unfortunately, he sprains his ankle very bad, and decides he no longer likes running. Now wherever Thurston goes, he is... not running. Hmmm. He was always a lazy millionaire off the show. He's now got the lazy part covered!

Finally, another opportunity that presents itself. A crate washes up on shore, at the Professor's feet. I tell him to go ahead and open it. It is full of gears and cogs, and ups my tribe's technology
rating significantly. I use it to increase farming technology. So they don't have to rely on fish and coconuts so much.

Day 2: Gilligan's Love Child...
Thurston's a grown up, and he's a lazy drifter. Not like Gilligan, who is similarly useless but energetic drifter. The two of them are just bumming around the island. I set Gilligan to the task of picking up driftwood, which he pursues for a few minutes, and then gets bored and quits.

Thurston, on the other hand, I set to work as a healer. If he's not going to move fast, he may as well be of use standing still. I set him about the task of cataloging all the strange plants on the island. It takes a lot of babysitting to get him to do it, but eventually he succeeds and I get a reward for identifying all the plants on the island! On top of that, Thurston is now an "adept" healer. Good for us!

The sea is now choked with algae, and there are no fish to be found. I set Mary Ann, Ginger, and Gilligan to harvest coconuts. They get pretty good at it, and harvest plenty of food. The Skipper keeps on building. That's what he does - he builds. He gets the new hut completed, and is now working on fixing up the "honeymoon hut" to make it a nice place to take a girl. Or at least a more sanitary place.

I encourage "Willy" Gilligan and Mary Ann to get together. They don't need much. Hey, you always KNEW that was going to happen eventually on the show, right? Within minutes, Mary Ann is carrying Gilligan's love-child. Carrying, literally, in her arms. Must be something the professor invented to speed up pregnancies. Either that, or the "honeymoon hut" is actually a dicount baby-warehouse, and I've got villager sexuality figgered all wrong.

Our seven stranded castaways have now grown to nine, and Gilligan's Island is a happy, fun place to be and to have children. An island paradise.

Until day 3, when the dream becomes a nightmare!

... To Be Continued.....


(Vaguely) related uselessness...
* Tamagotchi Villagers
* Dead Villagers
* Virtual Villagers II Developer's Diary
* Virtual Villagers 2 is #1
* The Return of the Villagers: Virtual Villagers 2 - The Lost Children
.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:30 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
Saturday, July 14, 2007
 
The Top 100 Indie Games
GameTunnel.com has decided to put its 3+ years of monthly indie game round-ups to good use and showcase the top 100 games that they've rated in that time:

Game Tunnel's Top 100 Indie Games

This list has obviously invited some... shall we say, animated discussion. As these kinds of lists always do. I mean, they don't even have Void War in the list, which won a silver award and got the same rating as others in the top 100... :) Okay, I guess when the cutoff point came, more recent games got the nod over older ones. Phooey.

Anyway, nobody should mistake this for an "all-time greatest." Or "best-selling." It doesn't include some older (but even better) games. But for what it is worth, it's a really interesting snapshot into some of the better games to come out of the indie community in the last three years. And it helps show just how incredibly prolific the indie games scene has been lately.

My own personal list of the best indie games of the last three years? You can see a partial list RIGHT HERE. That's part of why things are so ecclectic at Rampant Games. Actually, there are a few more I'd like to have added. Avernum IV and the Geneforge games, and Minions of Mirth, ferinstance. And some free web-based games, like Flash Element TD, Vector TD, and Desktop TD. And there are way too many I haven't had a chance to play.

So what are some of the indie games you'd put on your personal "Top 10?"

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:02 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post
Friday, July 13, 2007
 
Transformers Movie Review
I think the Transformers movie was the movie Michael Bay was born to make.

He's finally found his calling. Kid's cartoons. All this time he's been making more grown-up movies, and they've not worked. But when he does a gigantic cartoon with some live-action mixed into CGI cartoon characters, and... wow. It works.

Transformers had a dumb plot, a ludicrous premise (taken from the TV show), and some downright silly characters spouting off kindergarten-level themes. And you know what? It worked. I had a total blast watching it. The robots started swinging swords and shooting guns at each other, jumping out of the sand to attack a middle-eastern town, or whatnot --- and it was all good fun. Wild action. Butt-kicking goodness.

It was a Saturday morning cartoon, pulled off nicely, and I found I still have a place in my heart for that kinda thing. I can't recommend the movie for anything other than its great CGI, but I have to admit I had a lot of fun watching it.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:48 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
 
About Me & NinjaBee
Some of the folks at the Utah Indie Dev meeting already know this, but for those who don't (and who actually care), but last month I accepted a position at Sensory Sweep, another local game studio (and one significantly closer to where I live).

It was totally amicable on both sides (as far as I know...) Steve's an awesome guy, and the Wahoo / NinjaBee is about the coolest place to work since the early days at SingleTrac. I highly recommend it. The worst part about leaving when I did was missing the next summer party... the last one was at a big ol' cabin in the mountains, when the whole company was playing games like Mafia and even Murder in the Dark at 3:00 in the morning. If you are a a talented artist, designer, or programmer looking into getting into the games industry, I can't recommend them highly enough.

As for why I left... I guess you could say it was a matter of timing. Since Steve and I are friends first, we kept each other in the loop as things developed. Sensory Sweep actually called Wahoo first to make sure it was okay to talk to me, and then made me a pretty attractive offer. I was recommended by a couple of guys here whom I knew --- one of whom I had worked with before at Acclaim, and trusted his opinion.

And yes, they agreed with my requirement (it IS a requirement now) that I continue to do the indie game development thing on the side with my business, Rampant Games.

So far, things are great. I'm on a brand new project which I am going to be completely unable to talk about for a good while (I think I can say it is multiplatform). It's taking some getting used to the change in "corporate culture" in a much larger company, but for the most part --- programming is programming, and programming games is programming games. I sit in my cubical, crack jokes with my team members, and figure out how to make cool things happen in something that may one day resemble a game.

If it weren't for the fact they will be moving to a new office that's a little further away next month, it would be ideal. I'm really getting used to a commute that's less than ten minutes.

The trick remains staying motivated to write games in the evening after spending the whole day writing them to pay the bills. I found my motivation to do indie games dropping a little at Wahoo / NinjaBee because I didn't hate my day job. Something about being desperate to vacate the 9-to-5 (well, too often, 8-to-6-or-later) grind can really help motivate someone to get that side business humming along. But that's not sufficient cause to choose a lousy day job. It just means I need to discipline myself better.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:15 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post
Thursday, July 12, 2007
 
Frayed Knights Dev Diary: Overheard At The Gaming Table
Much of game development is unfortunately not all that sexy. This week is an example - mainly butt-in-chair work to refine combat (and work on Apocalypse Cow). To make up for it, I've got some secrets as to the origin of the Frayed Knights idea you might find amusing.

Done this week
* Monsters now advance when the row in front of them has been wiped out. This had to occur visually, in the UI, and in the game logic. This was a bit more convoluted (and bug-prone) than I'd expected.
* Moved the target selection UI down to the "menu corner" so the player doesn't have to move the mouse so far to click on his selection.

Goal for next week
* Basic spell-usage
* Started feats functional
* Fix bug at end-of-combat that is not cleaning everything up properly
* Monster spawn locations working properly

After that, I'm going to move on to working on the fountain (from the first-five-minutes document) the following week.

The Secret Origin of Frayed Knights
Now that the reporting is out of the way, here's some fun stuff. At various points in our twenty-year-history of weekly gaming together (man, that is SCARY), members of our "dice-and-paper" role-playing game group (myself included) have taken it upon themselves to record certain things that we say during the game... and recite them (or email them) later to us for our immense amusement. Sometimes these things are only funny when taken in context. Sometimes, the things we say are far more funny taken terribly out of context.

This was the little germ of an idea that turned into Frayed Knights. It's also why I (and many, many other gamers) find comics like Knights of the Dinner Table and DM of the Rings so hysterically funny. The idea of the characters in the game making wisecracks and having good sitcom-style in-character dialog - such as we had in our "PnP" games - was just too personally amusing to me. I wanted to see if I could capture that in a game, somehow.

I doubt you'll find these nearly as funny as we do. But since our group had some of these quotes archived in a mailing list, I thought I'd share:


Overheard At The Gaming Table (or Gaming Living-Room Floor):

On the re-education of a genetically-engineered super-soldier:
Faris: So far, Sarge has learned about God, sex, and bowling
Jordan: That about covers it, don't you think?

On the nature of enduring friendship, after a narrow escape from a vampire's minion:
Faris: I can't forget that you threw up on me!
Jordan: I was hit by poison darts! Twice!
Faris: That doesn't change the fact that I'm WEARING your vomit.

Speaking of vomit: An expedition to buy cannons and powder for their ship ends in failure, but at least the innocent nature-priestess Bren learns something about the effects of heavy drinking... all over the princess:
Tristan (to the princess): Hey, you've got a Bren cannon!

On honoring an agreement:
Player 1: He can't have my body.
Player 2: No one wants your body.
Player 3: Hey, I'm negotiating here. If I give your body away it's gone, deal.

On dealing with potentially cursed artifacts:
Melissa: Let's go turn this in. Pass it off to someone with more hit points than us.

On alignments:
Fortunado: I'm not evil. I'm chaotic greedy.

On the nature of mortality:
Player: It's not whether you live or die...it's if your friends can resurrect you.

The real origin of Chloe's "snot golem" joke:
Wyle (attacking a golem): We'll beat the boogers out of it.
GM (me): This one's big.
Wyle: It has a lot of boogers in it.
GM (later): You guys are so gonna meet a booger golem.

On gamer lore:
GM: In the middle of the clearing there's a gazebo.
Party Members in unison: ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

On prioritizing of threats:
Jordan: Chloe, do you have wards against vampires around your home?
Chloe: Vampires? No, I have protection against fairies.

On the accessibility of RPG inventory:
Player 1: I pull out an everburning torch.
Player 2: Where do you keep that?
Player 1: In my pants.

On the superego:
Captain Smashing: I think our super-group should be named, "Captain Smashing and His Little Friends."

On a dragon's reaction after being denied a tasty paladin meal:
Demar: I didn't know a dragon's fingers could DO that...

Several Quotes on Yosef, a party member with more of a "shoot-first, ask questions later" attitude in a D20 Modern campaign:
Sandy: When you pulled out the shotgun on him, I thought you had a plan!
Yosef: The shotgun WAS the plan!

Lynn: You don't want to lower yourself to a common thug.
Yosef: I don't?

Sandy (after a messy gunfight instigated by you-know-who): We could have just followed him and got the license of his car.
Yosef: That would have been a good idea.

GM: *BOOM!*
Yosef: Oops.

Yosef (after an enemy has taken a lot of hits): How does this guy look?
GM: Pissed.
Yosef: Pissed is bad.

Tami (after another gunfight): Yosef has been taken off the talking-to-people list.

Yosef (after a frustrating encounter DIDN'T end in violence): I should have just shot him.

And some various one-liners:
"Anthropologists do it in the dirt."
"Sorry, we were waiting for Captain Kavorkian to come back downstairs."
"Are his boots safe to take?"
"I refuse to be part of Sandy's posse."
"Let me get my wand of BS."
"Wouldn't it be more successful if you destroyed the creature without getting shot at?"
"We could make this a bloodbath and pick up the pieces later."
"It's like...an evil Jigglypuff!"
"This is just so freaky wrong on so many levels."
"I apologize for my largeness."
"We're fighting Bunnicula?"
"I guarantee you something. No one looks cool in a cloak and jeans at the same time."
"Who is the pirate princess now? That's right, it's me!"
"If I make her head explode do I get an extra point?"
"Okay, we are not going to buy from Farmer Lucifer anymore."


(Vaguely) related odds & ends:
* Frayed Knights: First Five Minutes Walkthrough
* Frayed Knights: Background and High Concept
* Teenagers and D&D
* Spring and... D&D?
* When Magic Becomes Mundane in RPGs

Read and Post Favorite Gaming-Table Quotes in the Forum!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:41 AM (Permalink) links to this post
 
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Well, so far, the new Harry Potter is the best movie I've seen this summer. I don't know if that means its really good, or because I was really hoping for better out of Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man.

Part of it might be that this was my favorite book in the series so far (with Prisoner of Azkaban coming in a close second). This is where the series, in my mind, really started taking a turn for the dark and "grown up." Harry's universe was never safe, but now you get to the point where things really start getting into shades of gray. Sirius Black even makes a note of it to Harry, explaining how the world isn't divided into good people and bad people, but that everyone has good and bad inside of them. Those who once set him on a pedestal are now villifying him to serve their own ends. Poor Harry even discovers that his father wasn't the saint he imagined him to be.

Imelda Staunton was perfect as Dolores Umbridge. Uptight and obsessed with "sweet" on the outside, sick and twisted on the inside.

The one thing I really missed from the book was George and Fred's antics. Oh, they had their silly practical jokes represented well, and their explosive exit from the school. But they also used their sense of humor to lampoon the fear surrounding Harry, and to incite rebellion against the ever-more-draconian environment at the school.

I also thought the ending (after the big battle) was stumbling and unsure of how to finish things. But I vaguely remember the book being that way, too.

But hey, I try not to judge movies (or games) for what they aren't, but for what they are. And I really enjoyed the film. It made me want to go back and re-read the book. And the next one. Just to make sure I remember what's going on when the final book of the series comes out in two weeks...

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:57 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
 
Rock Band Preview / Interview, Guitar Hero News
In case you missed this little nugget of goodness, here's an interview with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, the guys who developed Guitar Hero. They are moving on, and they are definitely thinking BIG with their upcoming game, "Rock Band." I'm also thinking "expensive," but he claims the new controllers will be very reasonably priced.

Rock Band XBox 360 Preview

The cool thing here is that they seem to be planning on it (at this point, at least) being more of a platform than a stand-alone game. With the potential for hundreds (or thousands?) of songs being made available over time. Hmmm... yeah. Sounds like an expensive hobby indeed, depending upon the price of the song downloads...

Moving on, in case you missed the announcement on the final track list for Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's (still not a huge fan of the name, BTW), here it is. The bad news is that Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" is out. But the rest of the list is pretty sweet. I haven't heard the song "Balls to the Wall" in over two decades, so it'll be fun. Yes, it may induce flashbacks. Anyway, it'll be hitting the stores on July 24th... a state holiday here in Utah, but not celebrated by my company. So I'll have to pick it up on my lunch hour.

Also, the first tracks for Guitar Hero 3 (now titled, "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock") have been announced. Wikipedia has the full list (so far) compiled, which includes Barracuda by Heart (AWESOMENESS!), Rock and Roll All Nite by KISS, Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones, Rock You Like a Hurricane by the Scorpions (more 80's goodness!), Welcome to the Jungle by Guns 'N Roses, School's Out by Alice Cooper (an anthem that truly deserves to be in a Guitar Hero game...), and Slow Ride by Foghat.

It's all good stuff. I guess I'm gonna have to finally get a current-gen console. I've avoided getting one so far... I work with 'em during the day job, but still play PC games (or PS2 games) at night. But I think I'm gonna have to buckle for Christmas. I don't think I can go without Guitar Hero 3 or Rock Band... :) (And my wife & kids demand Viva Pinata...)

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:46 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post
 
Torque Game Builder 1.5 Now Available
The long-awaited version 1.5 of Torque Game Builder (formerly Torque 2D), GarageGames' 2D game engine, is now available. For details, take a peek at this announcement:

What's New with TGB 1.5 (Include bug-fix list)

The biggest changes seem to be in the addition of Behaviors for objects. This is actually pretty dang cool. This provides an extensible library of behaviors - responses to game and input events - that can be attached to any object. For example, there's a behavior to make a UI object grow when the mouse hovers over it, and another behavior to make the object respond to Asteroids-style controls.

For a programmer-type guy like me, this may not seem like a big deal. But for game developers with less programming experience, this could be a very handy thing. The behaviors allow a lot of basic game functionality to be developed without the need to write any code. I predict lots of old arcade-game clones appearing out of the community in the next few months. This is also useful in a team situation. The programmer can create some more game-specific behaviors, and pass it off to a designer and let the designer play with the logic using a simple GUI interface from that point on. Who knows? New behaviors may also be packaged into content packs (yay! We programmers can contribute!) to further extend the "out-of-the-box" standard game types available for rapid development.

The behaviors aren't going to do away with the need for programmers writing plenty of game-specific code, but it may make prototyping much easier (and give new game developers a little more to get started with).

They've also done some nice ease-of-development stuff like allowing the game directory to be ANYWHERE instead of off of the TGB install directory, and a reduced (compressed?) executable size. There are also the usual array of bug-fixes (no word on whether some of the video fixes required by casual portals of TGB-created game made it in).

While TGB had the usual issues on release, it seems to be rapidly growing into a mature (and very useable) product. While arguments still abound concerning its ease-of-use and other issues, it seems to be evolving nicely into a powerful game development tool.

(Vaguely) related doofiness:
* Torque 2D Game Builder Quick Review
* TGE Plus: Two Game Engines In One!
* Forrest Gump Meets the Avatar of Virtue
.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:23 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
 
MMORPGs Broke Jeff Vogel
Jeff Vogel, long-time indie RPG (role-playing game) developer, has an interview up at RPGWatch that is well worth reading. In it, he explains some of his more controversial articles, including his explanation for doing a Nethergate remake after blasting it as an example of why indies can't innovate.

He notes that his ripping on "level grind" and "trash monsters" was primarily aimed at flogging himself for past mistakes:
"I think that game developers need to be far, far more respectful of the time of the player. Leisure time is precious. We should not waste it. We shouldn’t burn time at the beginning making the player grind out levels before he or she can get into the plot. We shouldn’t burn time with faction grinding and trash clearing. We shouldn’t pad the game out with tons of B material."
Reconciling this with his publicly expressed love of MMORPGs, he explains:
"I was an addict. It passed.

"I spent an abusive amount of time playing Everquest. Then something happened. The switch flipped in my brain, and I didn’t care anymore. I was really looking forward to the World of Warcraft expansion coming out. Then it came out, and I just didn’t care.

"I’ll really seriously have to need an escape from reality before I pick up an MMORPG again. The whole business model is based on keeping you playing for months and months. And, since content is finite and expensive, that means wasting my time."
He also gives a little bit of a preview for the upcoming game, "Avernum 5." Where Avernum 4 was very hack-and-slashy with a huge world, Avernum 5 will instead focus on a very intricate and detailed plot.

Check out the full interview here:

Jeff Vogel Interview


(Vaguely) related Indie RPG Stuff
* Jeff Vogel Gives Innovation Another Chance, Plans Nethergate Remake
* Why Does Jeff Vogel Hate RPGs?
* How to Get Me to Buy Your Indie RPG
* Why Do RPGs Suck Now?
.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:40 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post
Monday, July 09, 2007
 
Indie Versus Casual --- What's the Difference?
Indie versus Casual. Not quite as big news as "Hardcore versus Casual," but it's still a heated topic. I'd planned on writing on this topic after Thursday's Utah Indie night, and then Patrick Dugan went and took my main point. Only he says it better than I would have. So I just get to elaborate on some bits.

What's really silly is that outside of our tiny little subculture of "non-mainstream" game developers, nobody really sees or knows the difference. In fact, most people I ask tend to think that "indie" and "casual" games are the same thing. That misconception pisses off those indie developers who do not make casual games, and is one of the causes of some of the heated discussions going on over at the indiegamer forums.

The rise of the "casual game" as a major game category in the last five years has caused a big ol' change in the industry and marketplace. As the indies have historically dominated that category, it's naturally caused a cultural rift in the (formerly) tiny indie games community. The numbers have swelled with newcomers whose universe begins and ends with pleasing their portal masters. Meanwhile the "real indies" sound like cranky old fossils whose ideas are soooo 2002, and who aspire to embarassingly low sales numbers.

Why the Animosity?
Why has the indie game community become so segregated? Besides the usual culprits of jealousy and elitism, the primary issue is the role of the portal. The game portals entered the playing field as a neutral entity. Many indies were pleased by the prospect of another venue to sell their games. But from the (non-casual) indie game developer's perspective, things gradually grew worse.

As time went on, the game portals followed the money to the explosive growth of casual games. And they became a larger influence. In the minds (and checkbooks) of many indie developers, the portals began taking away the traffic and customers that had once been their own. Big Box Mart had come to cyberspace, squeezing out the little Mom & Pop indie game stores. What's worse, where they had once been friendly and offered great deals to developers, the portals had begun to cop an attitude (at least, it was perceived that way in a couple of conferences they attended) and were offering "take it or leave it" deals that were far less favorable to the developers. Developers quickly found themselves earning half - or less - royalties on far fewer sales, in spite of the increase in the market.

Indie game developers now report many portals acting a lot like miniature publishers - even demanding publisher-level cuts of the profit in spite of the fact that they did far less than a publisher (no initial funding / risk, very little marketing, no manufacture or distribution of physical retail product), and were instead functioning more as a store. Their power lay in their size, a success story which begat itself, built on strong initial investor funding and upon the backs of the game developers who bowed to their demands.

In other words, in some ways they have become worse than the system the indies became indies to avoid in the first place.

The animosity arises from the belief that the casual game developers are empowering the portals. They see their own power and economic viability diminish as the portals become stronger every month. Russell Carroll, who still runs GameTunnel.com in spite of being the marketing director for a casual game portal, notes that the "casual" games on the indie games website do far better with almost NO marketing than the more "indie" games that are actively pushed by the site. And it's getting worse.

Can the Wolf dwell With the Lamb?
Color me naive, but Russell Carroll confirmed my belief last week that the portals are not necessarily "the enemy." He noted that many casual game developers really were "doing it wrong." I already talked about those mistake in the Utah Indie night article, so I won't go back into them here.

But the bottom line is that while the portals are definitely gaining the upper hand, there's a fundamental difference between how they can position themselves as "gatekeepers," and the role of traditional publishers in media in the 20th century. They don't have economy of scale and a lock on distribution like their media-mogul counterparts. What they have is money and big customer lists - two factors which definitely enjoy a positive effect on each other. But because the barrier to entry is so low, they can't ever enjoy an overwhelming monopoly.

And even though many portals have their own internal development teams, they are still dependent upon external developers. And they depend on good games that will sell. It stands to reason, then, that portals will compete (to some degree) for the affections of game developers - particularly the successful ones. That gives devs some bargaining power that I don't see going away.

With the big publishers jumping into the casual game arena themselves, the landscape of "casual games" is going to get even more confusing and varies. The arguments will increase, but hopefully so will the opportunities for communication and sharing of information. As Dugan puts it, "The truth is, indie developers and casual developers have a lot to learn from each other, the first thing being there is no meaningful difference between them, and the last thing being how to leverage good game design with good production execution and make games that are worth making and make money. This goes both ways, the casual scene would benifit from an indie approach to IP creation as well as more refined and diverse designer patterns; the indie scene would benifit from the casual approach to accesibility, interface design, and making the rules and fiction harmonize to a recognizable metaphor. "

Amen. I think there will be a never-ending supply of naive new casual game developers joining the fray and jumping at the chance to be taken advantage of. No amount of ranting and gnashing of teeth is going to stem that particular tide. What's important is that we, as a community, avoid segregating ourselves over arbitrary differences, and instead work together (or at least communicate) to best exploit our competitive advantages.


(Vaguely) related digital crapola:
* Utah Indie Developer Night, Summer 2007
* Downloadable and Casual Games Gain Momentum
* The Casual Game Industry Sucks, Too.
* Earnest Adams: Is It Time to Dump EA?
* I'm a Gamer?
* Why the PC Game Industry Figures are Baloney

Express Yourself on the Forum!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) links to this post
Sunday, July 08, 2007
 
Walk Cycle Resources
For those who find themselves working on animation for games (which might just be me): BlenderNation has a few links to some nifty walk-cycle resources on the web. Some of these could also be useful to people working on 2D sprite animations.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:55 PM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post
Saturday, July 07, 2007
 
Early Look at the DROD RPG
Adam Peterson and Mike Rimer were gracious enough to show the Utah Indie Night folks an early build of the new RPG under construction at Caravel Games. Based on both the "Deadly Rooms of Death" (DROD) engine and universe, it is tentatively entitled either "DROD Origins" or "DROD Beginnings" - they are still kicking the name around. Adam referred to it as more of a "strategy / RPG" - it borrows several trappings of RPGs to add some variety to the DROD experience.

The game looks, at first blush, like just another Deadly Rooms of Death game (and if you've never tried them, you can try out a free demo of DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold here). Except that there's a stats window which includes Beethro's hit points, attack and defense scores, money (I think it was called "Greckles"), and equipment.

The gameplay is fully deterministic, just as in the other DROD games. No randomness is involved, which actually kinda breaks my personal definition of an RPG. Monsters are largely static, though a couple of them do move around. The end result is that the game, like the earlier DROD games, is still firmly rooted into puzzle-game territory. The gigantic difference being that there are always multiple solutions to most puzzles, and much of what constitutes an "optimum" solution for you might depend upon decisions you've made much earlier in the game. Do you have tons of keys? Using a key to get into a room might be the best solution. If you are low on keys but have plenty of hit points to burn, your best solution may be to fight the monster to get into the room. Unlike other RPGs, "grinding" is of little value --- this game is more about resource management.

The movement and gameplay should be very familiar to DROD veterans. You still move around and position your sword (if you have one - you can fight monsters with your fists in the early stages of the game) as in previous DROD games. Most gear in the game has strengths and weaknesses, so there isn't a single "best" weapon for all situations. Also, the game doesn't conveniently place a number of keys equal to their appropriate doors - you may have to choose which doors to open, which to bypass through other tricks, and which to skip.

The monsters in the DROD RPG are, as mentioned earlier, mainly stationary, acting as barriers rather than characters. You have to choose to engage them --- usually. Their behaviors are suggested by their equivalent monster types in earlier DROD games, but since most lack movement they are not exact. For example, the floating eye always attacks first if you attack it in the direction it is facing, but you can get a free hit or two in if you attack it from another angle. The goblin will attack you if you turn your back on it. You can click on the monster to examine not only their stats, but the projected damage you will receive if you fight it at your current attack & defense levels.

Like the other games in the series, it will be releasing with full level-creation tools. Considering the rabid fan base these games already have, I expect there will be near-unlimited player-created smite potential for this game when it ships.

Naturally, the Caravel Games guys were pretty unsure of this game's eventual release date. They jokingly said "By the end of the year" or "On April Fool's Day," but then added that they weren't going to state WHAT year they were talking about. The engine is done, and the demo episode is completed, but they still have a lot of tweaking and balancing to complete.

After playing it for a few minutes, I was overwhelmed mainly by how much the game felt like another DROD game, in spite of breaking such new ground for the series. There is no question in my mind that this game is meant for fans of the series, and Caravel Games developers are creating something very focused on the desires of their audience. If you like Deadly Rooms of Death, you will likely enjoy the DROD RPG. If you don't like the series, this game is unlikely at this point to change your opinion. But if may prove to be a great entry-point into the series for new fans.



(Vaguely) related smiting of the English language:
* But Is It An RPG?
* Are Hybrid RPGs Just Poor-Man's RPGs?
* Journey to Rooted Hold
* Utah Indie Developer Night, Summer 2007
.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:04 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post
Friday, July 06, 2007
 
Utah Indie Developer Night, Summer 2007
Normally we have the Utah Indie Game Developer Meet later in the month. We decided to hold it earlier this month in order to have Russell Carroll - who was back in town this week - join us. Russell is the owner of GameTunnel.com - the indie game review site. He's also (more recently) the marketing director for Reflexive.com - a fairly major casual / indie game portal and developer.

As usual, I didn't see everything there was to see, or talk to everyone I wanted to talk to. I get into these big, long conversations with people that end up taking a quarter of the night. So I can only offer some snippets of conversations and the two games I saw out of the six (I think) that were showing.

Casual Versus Indie
Russell explained that his time with Reflexive has turned him from an energetic young indie game fan with no clue into an energetic young indie game fan with some actual experience now. He notes that he's really confused by the rift between "indie" games and "casual" games amongst developers (Joe Gamer often doesn't see a difference, from my perspective). There are a lot of indie developers out there who are full of ill will towards the casual game movement - and more specifically the role of the portals.

Russell told me that on his site, the indie game reviews and monthly indie game round-ups collectively only account for a small percentage of game downloads and sales from GameTunnel.com. Curiously enough, the "Free Game Downloads" button which takes you to the casual games section - which doesn't get pushed or mentioned on the site (it's just THERE) - accounts for 80% to 90% of the game downloads and sales on GameTunnel.com (and their returns have been DROPPING). I detected a hint of frustration there. When pressed, he suggested the following reasons (none definitive, just his ideas):

1. The spread of blogs has decreased the value of written-word reviews

2. Google rankings have been screwed up for a year - they tend to give the top spots to bigger sites which have tons of reviews ... but none for the specific game in question... pages ahead of an actual REVIEW for the game. They also tend to send the link to the main page of GameTunnel.com instead of the review itself.

3. The audience - which is still sizeable - may just not be the same audience that is looking for games to buy / play. A lot may be other game developers (like me) looking to see what's going on with the competition for the month.

Mistakes Indies Make With Portals
Russell also reiterated things that he said in his "Marketing For Indies" talk at the Independent Games Summit. Interestingly enough - both then and now - he's not saying things that necessarily serves PR for his own company (and I have to hand it to them - this isn't unique of Russell. Everyone I've heard from at Reflexive - in emails and forum posts - has been pretty straight-shooters).

One of the top mistakes indies make, according to Russell, was to jump in with a "publisher" for digital downloads. There are certainly times and places to go with a publisher. But Reflexive - and most other portals - often work directly with the developer, and the only difference the publisher makes from their perspective is who they make the check out to. (In his talk, Russell have some examples of where a publisher IS a good idea - such as taking a game into foreign markets, mobile devices, or of course retail).

One of the other big mistakes indies make is failing to follow up with inquiries and submissions. The squeaky wheel definitely gets the grease. Too often developers submit a game, and then just wait forever to hear back from the portal / publisher / whatever, and never bother to follow up with a second email or phone call, content to just sit back and wonder what's taking so long. True, some portals might not ever get back to you. But usually they are swamped with work and submissions, and it just takes the second (or third) contact to remind them to get back to people.

Another mistake indie developers often make is failing to take advantage of the portal... in all senses of the phrase. True, almost all major portals now demand that you remove your website URL and any direct links back to your site. They don't want you to steal their customers and traffic that easily. But you are still able to steal their traffic. The portals know this, and expect this. But indies don't take advantage of it. That's how Reflexive got THEIR traffic in the first place. All it takes is offering free levels or hints / tips "online" for the game... and make sure that your own site has the top ranking for searches for these things online. As he said in his talk - you are losing money by not abusing the portal.

One other thing we discussed was the commoditization of portals. One of the things indie developers complain about regularly is how they are being commoditized by the portals. But the truth of the matter - and Russell agrees - is that the portals can be commoditized by the developers just as well. In fact, one developer of a successful series of casual games has specifically done just that. He offering his game first to portals that treat the developer the most fairly. Specifically, he made the portals that offer the deeply discounted games in exchange for paid memberships (a practice that greatly favors the portal at the expense of the game developer - though arguments can go either way) wait a couple of months before selling his latest game.

The thing is... if you create good games that can sell... you are in the driver's seat maybe more than you realize. The portals are obviously going to push for their best advantage in making a deal with you. Your JOB as the developer and holder of the rights to your game is to make sure that it is to the greatest MUTUAL advantage.

Games Games Games!
One last bit from Russell - he stated no less than three times that he is committed to making an indie RPG himself. Hmmm.... I wonder who he will get to review it for him on his own site...? :)

I also had the chance to speak with Ron Lowe and Tom Jensen of Game Crafters. They had a successful graphic adventure game about... oh, fifteen years ago. They wanted to do a sequel back in the day, but their company imploded. Now that the legal issues have been sorted out, they are looking to get back into games and create the long-awaited sequel. In fact, they have the engine and design done for the sequel. They are mainly hunting for artists and some kind of idea of the "lay of the land" in the indie game development arena.

I spoke with Adam Peterson and Mike Rimer of Caravel Games (the creators of the very successful "Deadly Rooms of Death" series). After having left it on the back-burner for a year, they are back in active development of a Strategy / RPG spinoff of the Deadly Rooms of Death series. There is a lot more to say about this one (I interviewed them at some length, and played through several minutes of the game), so I'll save this for a later post. It'll be "Big Preview" time. I couldn't get them to commit to any kind of release date (like what indie really COULD be pinned down to a release date?), though they joked it'll be out on April 1st. What YEAR, they won't say (though they really, really hope it'll be out within the next 12 months).

Herb Flower and Paul Witte of Mythyn Interactive were there to show off the latest version of their Massively Multiplayer RPG, LinkRealms. I gotta say... this game is looking really awesome. Paul said they hope to go into closed beta in as little as 2 months. Herb and I chatted at length about the game. The big thing for LinkRealms is that it will emphasize user-created content (including lack of censorship) and actual *gameplay* in a medieval-fantasy environment. Sort of an Ultima Online cross-bred with Second Life thing.

I got the chance to speak briefly with some other folks, but unfortunately wasn't able to see everything. I'm especially disappointed that I didn't Victor's latest Flat Red Ball project... which apparently was the best of the lot so far. He's set a goal to bring a new game (using his Flat Red Ball engine) every single indie night... and I think he's only missed the goal once. So Victor - if you happen to be reading this - could you send me a copy of the demo pretty please? jayb at rampantgames dot com would work great :)

All in all - the night was loaded with awesomeness. It really felt way too short to me.


(Vaguely) related stuff with words and occasional punctuation:
* What Game Portals Want
* The Casual Game Industry Sucks, Too
* The Casual Game Industry Sucks, Two
* Utah Indie Developer Night, Fall 2006
* Utah Indie Night, Spring 2007
.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:14 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post
Thursday, July 05, 2007
 
Frayed Knights Dev Diary: It's All in the Details
This week included camping and Independence Day celebration, so indie game development this week was a little on the slow side.

So there I was, trying to clean up combat, animate the bad guys properly, and I noticed on my fairly beefy machine (a dual-core AMD 3800+ machine with a gig of RAM and a pretty decent video card) that the framerate noticeably crawled when all four bad guys were on the screen at once. This wasn't so noticeable inside the dungeon itself, but when the portal was in view (with all the trees and outdoor geometry) it was painful.

Hmmmm... and I'd intended to have as many as twelve enemies at a time. This could be a problem. My best suspect was the sheer number of polygons. A quick analysis of the skellies (I'm using the DrewFX Skeleton Pack) in the ShowTool made me realize the problem.

Details, Details
In 3D games, there's this thing called Level-Of-Detail (abbreviated LOD). This is where a model actually has several different detail levels, and the game picks which one to display. Traditional LOD, which the Torque Game Engine uses, bases the detail on the distance from the camera (or - in Torque's case - the actual size of the model on-screen. Which is kinda cool). There's just no sense in having a detailed 5,000 polygon model for something that is only taking up 20 pixels of screen real estate.

There's another form of LOD sometimes called "Dynamic LOD" or "kLOD" which renders the detail levels of everything on the screen based on framerate. So if things start slowing down, the game will "dial down" the detail level on everything to improve performance. Unfortunately, Torque doesn't have this (that I know of), and doing it right usually requires some standardization across all of your 3D assets.

Since all four skeletons are front-and-center, they were all appearing at the highest, or near-highest, level-of-detail. This introduced somewhere around 12,000 extra polygons to the scene. And of course, there were the swords, too.

That might explain a slow-down. The next thing I tried to do was to find out if there was a way to force the skeletons to a particular level-of-detail. Methods exist in the Torque Game Builder (TGB - formerly Torque 2D) to do this, and a similar method existed for structures. But for DTS (Torque's format name for generic meshes) objects? I remembered playing with the slider bar in the old Torque demo to see the progressive LOD changes in Kork, so I thought (and still think) such a beast may exist, but I could find nothing documented. Nor did anybody on the forums know anything about it. Nor did digging through the source code.

So I rolled my own. A process which took less time than I'd spent trying to find the answer in the first place. I simply added a variable to ShapeBase, and caused the rendering loops in ShapeBase and Player to override the results of the normal L.O.D. call with this value if it has been set to a positive or zero value. Of course, nothing is this simple with engine-level changes. Besides making sure the variable was initialized properly, and accessible in C++ code, I also had to add console functions to access it via TorqueScript, and to pass it from server to client.

Unfortunately, the Skeleton pack skeleton's lowest LOD still clocks in at around 1800 polygons - still pretty beefy (and pretty awful-looking close-up, I might add). I was still noticing the framerate hit, though not as badly. Then I took a look at the sword.

Now That's a Big Sword!
I had to modify the weapons (from the Tridinaut Medieval Weapons Pack) once before to fix the pivot point so they wouldn't mount above the skeleton's hand. This took an import, as almost nobody likes working with Blender (even though it's... like, you know, FREE and stuff). I'd imported from another format --- always a chancy operation --- and either through a fault in the import or my own stupidity, I'd lost the level-of-detail information and only exported the sword at the highest LOD. Which clocked in at over 450 triangles. To make matters worse, I'd neglected to turn off double-sided polygons, which doubled the final poly count in-game to over 900 polygons. So the four swords were contributing nearly an extra 4,000 polygons to the scene.

Add that to the mess of LOD-less trees and so forth in the forest visible through the portal. Ouch. I'm still not convinced that tells the whole story, but by fixing the swords and forcing the skeletons to a passable (but not the lowest) LOD, I've lessened the problems. I'll need to go back and see if I can re-import the weapons with their detail level information intact.

And a Dash of Gameplay on the Side
On the less technical side, I implemented resting. Not taking-a-nap-in-the-dungeon resting, but pausing during combat to catch one's breath and regain endurance. I've changed some UI elements around to make combat less irritating to play. Under construction (but not complete as of the time of this article) is a system to "advance" the ranks of monsters if an entire rank in front of them have been wiped out.

In case you are interested, here are my goals for the month of July:


Chatter Away on the Forum!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:07 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
 
More Pathstorm Tips & Tricks...
More tricks to wrapping your brain around the delightful logic-puzzle of Pathstorm, here are a few more hints from Brad Edwards, one of the developers from CaveBug (you can check out the previous tips here):
So there you go. Some tips for storming Pathstorm!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:18 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
 
Young's Law of Twenty-Sided Dice
The comic is, as usual, great. But it's the commentary that put it over the top. Shamus Young's law of Twenty Sided Dice:
There are a limited number of “twenties” in any given d20. That is, no matter how many times you roll a d20, you cannot roll another twenty once the supply has run out. These twenties can only be replenished by rolling a corresponding one with the same die. Thus every gamer is duty-bound to protect their supply of good rolls. If a friend rolls a twenty using your die, not only have they stolen your good roll, but they have doomed you to the extra one required to replenish the twenty.
It can apply to other dice, too, so long as a high roll is desired. Just substitute the highest value for "twenty" in the law. Mathematically, this is pure garbage. But we all have our superstitions.

I came across this one in college. I forget what game I was playing... Risk or Supremacy or something. I was having a horrible bad-luck streak. it was getting to the point where my opponents were taking pity on me because my luck was so horrible. You know it's bad when that happens.

Since the game required several dice (six-siders), I began picking and choosing the ones that had just rolled the lowest. Now, I knew in my brain that the laws of probability dictated that they had exactly the same chance of rolling low AGAIN as any other die on the table. The laws of probability do not keep detailed records of the past. But I was desperate.

And it worked. I rolled all 5's and 6's.

And then it worked again on another turn.

And again.

In another turn, I rolled about average, but at least it wasn't particularly low.

And so I kept doing it. For twenty years, now. Like many superstitions, I probably ignore the times it doesn't work and only note the times that it does. Gamers - especially RPG players - often do this kind of thing. Anything to convince our brains that we have some measure of control over the randomness that influences something we care about.

So I continue (periodically) to "prime" my dice by rolling them until they roll 1's.

Labels:


- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:25 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
 
Escaping The Dungeon: Can RPGs Get Out of the Fantasy Rut?
Gee, it seems like only a couple of years ago that a friend of mine was trying to get me to join him in Auto Assault's beta... Oh, wait, it was only a couple of years ago. And now they are sticking a fork in it. It's done.

I expect Woody of GUComics to post a "zapper" comic any moment now. Once again, we see that doing an MMO is not a license to print money. There's still only one World of Warcraft, yet there are several major (and expensive) MMO's that have turned up their toes to the daisies.

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about. There's something else that bugs me here. Why did it fail? Why is there room for dozens of Tolkienesque fantasy MMORPGs out there of various sizes and flavors, but not even one post-apocalyptic Car Wars-esque MMO? Was it the genre? Or the implementation?

Why didn't I try out the game when the buddy of mine was pushing me to join him in the beta? I don't know. Why haven't I ever tried out World of Warcraft? Just lack of time, and I was already playing another MMO at the time, and didn't have the time to devote to a second or third one. If I'd had the free time, I think I would have tried both Auto Assault and World of Warcraft.

One of the reasons developers are resistant to releasing a non-fantasy-based RPG (single-player or MMO) and "innovating" in that direction is the belief that non-fantasy RPGs do not sell. A belief that seems to be sustained by the market's reaction to any RPG that doesn't feature some sort of elves, orcs, and wizards (though they may call them by different names). Non-fantasy RPGs (what few of them have been released) do not sell well, as a general rule.

Sure, there have been some exceptions. Some licensed properties (like Star Wars and Vampire: The Masquerade) have done okay (though not okay enough to keep Troika in business following its release). And then there's Fallout. And Deus Ex, but I still think of that one as more of a "hybrid" RPG / FPS - and it had a much more traditional setting for an FPS. And the Final Fantasy games have done their darnedest to escape the "Tolkienesque" descriptor after the first couple of offerings, but they are still strongly rooted in the Sword & Sorcery thing. Their brand of fantasy just happens to include airships, rockets, rifles, and giant, mounted chickens.

So are RPGs stuck in the dungeon? Is the Dungeons & Dragons legacy so powerful that audiences have trouble disassociating the role-playing game from its fantasy origins? Or is it just a case of where most non-fantasy RPGs have just... well... sucked. And sucky games don't sell. Well, without several millions in marketing behind them.


(Vaguely) relating foolishness:
* The Most Important RPGs of All Time
* Why Do RPGs Suck Now?
* The Evolution of Computer RPGs

Read or Post Comments on the Forum. Or Not!

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:35 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post
Monday, July 02, 2007
 
My Ancient Text Adventures.
This was sorta inspired by some comments by Corvus and Rubes in the "Why RPGs Suck" thread, and all the talk about Zork inspired by Matt Barton's awesome History of Zork article.

I only completed writing two text-adventure games in my life (not including the one about the harpies)... both when I was a teenager. Both using all custom code in BASIC for the Commodore 64. I never really knew about code-reuse back then - nor were there many tools for doing so - so "shared code" involved me printing out code from one game, and then using the printout to re-write it for the new game. Ah, the joys of BASIC programming on "home computers" in the 1980's knew no bounds...

My first full-fledged text adventure was called "The Dungeons of Doom." It was as horrible as the title. It had some colored text and sound effects (plus a horrible little musical intro), and some of the worst adventure game design ever imagined. It had a two-word parser, though I put in some code to eliminate some extra words, like articles. So it would correctly handle the command, "open the door."

Dungeons of Doom primarily consisted of monsters that had to be defeated with special weapons, plus a couple of additional puzzles to get said special weapons. One of the special weapons was a spear of lightning. This weapon was so powerful it would kill any monster in the game. But it could only be used once, and was then destroyed. What seemed very clever to me at the time (hey, I was 14 or so!) was that it was the only weapon that could kill the minotaur in the maze. So if you actually did use it to kill any other monster, you were hosed. Even your saved game (I think I allowed only one saved game) would be stuck with the game in an unwinnable state.

In a nod to the solution to the dragon puzzle in the "Colossal Cave Adventure," the dragon in the Dungeons of Doom could be defeated by putting a muzzle on it. I left the actual trick of how you managed to get the muzzle on the dragon up to the imagination. I think the text description read something like, "In an astonishing display of cleverness, you manage to muzzle the dragon!"

My next adventure game, "The Secret of Red Hill Pass," was much more ambitious, complex, and had a much nicer parser. It still wasn't something that would give Zork a run for its money. But it would parse out the verb and object of the sentence with a reasonable degree of accuracy, and would even (IIRC) parse out some adjectives to distinguish the green door from the red door. It had somewhere around 100 rooms, tons of inventory items floating around, and even a thief - though he wasn't nearly as mobile (or as useful) as the one in Zork.

I don't remember as much about that game, though I was much more proud of it than Dungeons of Doom. I do remember, after I was done with the game, trying to figure out what the real secret of Red Hill Pass was. Other than the fact that there was a mysterious, logic-defying dungeon complex underneath a manor overlooking the pass, there really wasn't any.

As a side-note, Red Hill Pass was resurrected in a persistent Neverwinter Nights module I ran for friends a year or so ago. Nobody else knew what it was named after, but smiled every time the players entered the map.

Neither game was played by anyone outside of my circle of friends. I wish I still had the code for them. The code would no doubt be horrible to behold, but it would be fun to get a better look at my formative coding years. I suspect I'd have a lot of fun playing them, but I'm not sure anybody else would.


(Vaguely) related nuggets of adventuresomeness:
* How Do I Get Past the Harpies?
* A Twisty Little Maze of Passages, All Different
* Losing Your Limits Without Losing Your Mind
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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post
Sunday, July 01, 2007
 
Pathstorm Hints & Tips
I managed to get Brad Edwards, one of the developers of the indie game Pathstorm, to fess up on some strategies, hints, and secrets about their game. Read on for winning strategies!

Brad also tells me that the newest version of the game is now available, which includes (for those who own the full version) a level editor and the ability to share levels with friends and the community with an email utility. Way to make the game even more of a value!

If you are stuck in Pathstorm, or could use some tips to nail the higher-difficulty levels (and there are TONS of levels), here are some hints:
Haven't tried PathStorm out yet? Give it a try for free: Pathstorm.

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- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:32 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

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