Games – Too Big, Too Hard?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 4, 2010

Unable to resist an easy double entendre, GamePro EVP John Davison writes about how we now have solid evidence of something gamers are frequently loathe to admit:

Too Big and Too Hard

The upshot of the article is this: Now that game developers are including stats reporting in their games, they are learning our actual gaming habits. While we talk a good talk about wanting long, epic experiences that really challenge us, most of the time (90%) we play a game for four to five hours and then give up.

I remember the then-president of Infogrammes Bruno Bonnell telling my studio this belief more than a decade ago, so this isn’t actually a big surprise to the industry. It’s probably not a big surprise to most gamers, either. Really. How many games do you have on your shelf which you’ve not only never completed, but never played more than a few hours of? Yet you still buy more games…

Now, Davison’s take on the issue isn’t the inevitable “dumbing down” of games. (IMO, that’s already happened!)  But his conclusion is that this will encourage game developers to make increasingly modular games (read: More DLC) that reward behavior other than the basic hardcore gaming path.

Me? I consider myself an optimist, yet even I think Davison’s view is a little on the rosy side. If it were strictly up to the designers, sure, but I suspect most publishers think like Bonnell did eleven or twelve years ago, when he told us we were wasting time and money making bigger games.  I think the average publisher will take this data back to the developer and demand, “Cut this game in half. We’ll sell the first half for full price, and then break the second half into four pieces that we can sell as additional downloadable content! We’ll make twice as much for each game! Muhahahah!”

That won’t b the case, I guess, if some brave pioneers make hella money doing exactly as Davison suggests. Publishers may generally be conservative, uncreative, money-grubbing suits, but the successful ones didn’t get there by being idiots. They’ll follow the money.

But I want to take another step back, as I do have a little bit of an issue with the premise. With a couple of notable exceptions (like, for example, Portal, and some old arcade games), my favorite games with the fondest memories were never short and usually not all that easy, either.  Most clocked in at 30 hours or more (some at over a hundred) of game-time.  Those games I only spent a few hours on and eventually gave up on? It wasn’t necessarily because I, as a gamer, am a wuss. Though I’m sure that’s part of it.

But sometimes it’s simply that the game really isn’t all that good. If I’m getting bored after four or five hours, why would a game designer assume it’s my own fault?

This is the same kind of thinking that led publishers to declare RPGs “dead” in the mid-90’s – that the market had changed and was somehow at fault. Then, with the explosive success of games like Diablo, Baldur’s Gate, and Final Fantasy VII, they announced not that they’d been wrong the whole time, but simply that “the market had changed” once again, and was now it was more accepting of games from the role-playing category.

Hmmm…. you didn’t stop for a minute and consider that the market being inundated with low-quality product from said category might have had something to do with it? That maybe the market wasn’t accepting of your product because your product was bad?

Now granted, some of these statistics are coming from very good, popular games, so my counterpoint doesn’t exactly explain it all away. And I’m the first one to say I’d rather be delighted every minute of an eight-hour game than slog through a bunch of filler in a hundred-hour game. Besides, any gamer can tell you that time is subjective when you are playing a game.  When you are playing a great game,  you don’t know where the hours go, anyway.

Filed Under: Biz, Design - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Interview: Indinera Falls of Aldorlea Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 3, 2010

Quite some time ago, I interviewed French indie developer Indinera Falls of Aldorlea Games. At the time, Aldorlea Games was the new kid on the block, with Indinera making his first forays into turning his hobby into a small business. What a difference a year and a half can make!  Aldorlea Games has made quite a number of games at a very consistent rate.  They have six games planned for release between now and the end of 2010, which is nothing short of amazing.

And if I sound jealous, it’s because I am. Just a little.

RPG fans and indie developers alike should find a lot to enjoy in this interview!

Rampant Coyote: We last talked to you when Aldorlea Games wasn’t even a year old. Many months – and a lot of game releases – have passed since then. What has changed during this time? Have you learned any new lessons since then? Are you doing anything differently since then?

Indinera Falls: Depending on the viewpoint things have changed a lot or a little! I am still making games that I love and hopefully players love too – so that remains the same.

Aldorlea Games, however, has grown a lot and is now more established than it was back in the LF days.

I’ve tried different styles of games, different approaches and all have been very useful for me. You do not design a “Millennium” style game in the same way you design an “Asguaard” type one, yet both are enriching on many levels.

Rampant Coyote: Looking back – which of your games so far has been your favorite? Why?

Indinera Falls: I like Asguaard, Laxius Force II and Dreamscape best.

Asguaard because it is so huge and has a moving story, Laxius Force II because I believe the plot and characters are quite unique, and Dreamscape for its innovative concept and more arcade style gameplay. I also tend to like larger games more, hence why Asguaard remains my favorite.

Rampant Coyote: Do you actually get any time to play games yourself? Is there anything you’ve been playing lately?

Indinera Falls: I get little time to play at all, to be honest. I am very involved in the making of my games and also very passionate about it.

I typically try other games that may interest me though, especially other indie RPGs, like The New Queen from Warfare Studios, which is the last I tried.

Rampant Coyote: There are a lot of commercial RPG Maker-based games out there now. Now a few of them are by your company. But that’s a lot of competition out there. How do you make each of your games unique and make them stand out from the crowd?

Indinera Falls: I try to make sure they have a different feel in gameplay and story. Of course a similar ground remains which makes them all fall in the RPG category, but I believe there has vast differences between a Laxius Force and a Dreamscape for instance.

Characters are also a great way to produce an unique game: I always take care to have interesting stories and exciting characters. Production values are also something I pay a lot of attention, particularly musics and artworks, as I believe those two are very responsible for the overall feel of the game.

Rampant Coyote: Aldorlea Games produces RPGs at a pretty amazing rate. How do you keep so many games in your pipeline, and release games so quickly? How much are you personally involved in each game? How many people are involved in developing each game now?

Indinera Falls: I probably release them quickly because I like them and I like making them – a true passion.

I have been immensely involved in all the games from Laxius Force to Dreamscape – doing most of the work as lead producer and writer.

Our latest game though will be mainly the work of Eridani – her story, her world and her characters. I am of course still very much involved as always with any Aldorlea game.

As for how many people are involved, it can vary. We use artists, scripters and others to help get the look and feel we need.

Rampant Coyote: There are a lot of fantastic big-budget mainstream RPGs out now – with more coming soon with plenty of marketing hype for each one. You’d think that there wouldn’t be any room for a small-budget, 2D RPG like yours, but – from what I can tell – the audience for these tiny indie games keeps growing. Would you agree? If so, what do you think accounts for it?

Indinera Falls: I think those audiences are different. Games like mine cater to people who like 16-bits types of RPG, back in the days of the Genesis and Super NES.

Those games happen to be my favorite too. While there are obviously fewer people interested in this sub-genre, those who like them won’t get them in the big budget stuff, and that’s where we come into play. Also, I believe indie makers for the most part have more genuine stories, with less marketing constraint and editor’s control.

Rampant Coyote: Related question – so what would a game like the upcoming Laxius Force III have over something like Fallout – New Vegas or Final Fantasy XIII?

Indinera Falls: It will have a mad, enthralling, huge story with totally unique characters. Expect to enter an epic confrontation against the Order, the Grand Commendanter and his countless allies.

I haven’t played the latest big budget games to be honest, but I think Laxius Force still has a more daring story than most games. People who like this kind of stuff can already mark August 18 on their schedule!

Rampant Coyote: So what games are coming from Aldorlea Games in the next 6-12 months?

Indinera Falls: We have planned:
Ella’s Hope, April
Cora Flint, June/July
Laxius Force 3, August
Millennium 3, Fall
The Witch and The Warrior, November
Legend, December (X-mas?)

Then I cannot really tell what will happen in 2011, I typically just plan the year. A couple of the above are again either joint projects with Eridani or mainly hers as Aldorlea continues to grow.

Rampant Coyote: Ella’s Hope is due out in just a few days (Note: It’s out now – interview lag!). Tell us about it. What’s it about? Any particular game mechanics you’d like to call attention to?

Indinera Falls: Ella’s Hope is our new magical tale, created by Eridani and it has just been released. It is the story of a young girl, namely Ella, who has a mysterious background. She is given the chance of something unique and must aid people throughout her world with the help of many friends.

The game offers four choices at the beginning so that every RPG player can get the best of gaming experiences: from the veterans (like myself) to the beginners or the more casual oriented players. Notably, the game also has visible monsters and a very developed, fairly non-linear storyline. There is also an exam and final ratings and you do not get to see the results until the end of the game.

I think it’s a fantastic tale for all to play! With its solid RPG elements and charming settings, I hope many will love it as much as I did.

Rampant Coyote: If you could give advice to other indie RPG developers – especially those struggling to get their first games out – what would you suggest?

Indinera Falls: I would suggest they show passion and dedication, set themselves achievable goals (not some kind of extraordinary game taking 10 years to finish) and make sure you beta-test the game thoroughly.

Rampant Coyote: Any final thoughts?

Indinera Falls: Well…. Thanks for the interview. I keep learning and I always try to make each new game better than the one before, so I hope I can keep up with this trend!

Indie RPGs may not have the fanciest graphics around, but they have cool stories, characters, gameplays, and I wish more people who give them a chance so that they can join the groewing numbers who are turning to these types of games.

There is a vast world to discover, and we invite anyone interested to check http://www.aldorlea.com and see for themselves!

(To check out the games mentioned in this interview, you can check out Aldorlea Games, Warfare Studios, and of course Rampant Games)

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Interviews - Comments: Read the First Comment

Manual Labor

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 30, 2010

The “Golden Age” of CRPGs unfortunately hit around the time I was a poor, starving college student. I had more time than money. Maybe that was why I ended up getting into my games much more than I do now.

Nowadays, I’m able to find out what I was missing back in the day, but I have a lot less patience for games than I did back then.

Now, going back and playing old games that I’d last played fifteen+ years ago is not such a big deal, once I squint a little bit and get used to the older graphics. But going back and playing older RPGs from the 90’s that I’d never really played before – that has been a special challenge. They are fairly opaque, non-user-friendly, confusing, and…

… and, oh, what’s this? The manual. They don’t make those any more, do they? Except for little slips of paper in the CD case which mainly just warns you of epileptic seizures, tells you in dense legalese how many rights you do not have over your purchase, and offers you more ways to spend your money. No wonder nobody reads ’em anymore. They have become a joke.

But back when I discovered the hobby, memory and disk space (we used floppies back then) were at a premium, and so much of the cool detail of the game was found in… tah-dah! The manual. In the Temple of Apshai, it even went so far as to have the description of all the dungeon rooms and treasures in the manual itself. Even as late as the D&D Gold Box series (late 80’s to the very early 90s), the manual(s) contained journal entries with a lot of additional information and clues to help you in the game. By that time, the amount of text wasn’t the problem, but the lack of screen real estate at 320 x 200 for displaying text usually was. Some manuals even went so far as to be written entirely from an in-game perspective, going through great contortions to explain the controls without completely departing from the contextual fiction (as some in-game tutorials do today).

You weren’t expected to be able to jump in and start playing without having at least read part of the manual first.  That’s something to remember when visiting the past through older games – if you are lost and confused, it’s because you failed to RTFM. It’s amazing how a half hour of frustration can be prevented with five to ten minutes of reading.  But because they were so essential, many of them placed such a high priority on being at least somewhat entertaining and just another facet of the gaming experience.  But the thing I have been getting reminded of is how the game manual was not just a necessary evil back then – it was part of the experience.   The whole package was part of the experience, not just what appeared on your screen. Richard Garriott understood this when he was insistent on packing in a cloth map with the game.

Now, I’m not going to argue that the modern approach – to teach you as you go, and make learning the game part of the in-game experience – is inferior. It’s in many ways a natural extension of the above approach. But there are some problems.

I think in many ways, modern CRPG design has been driven by the need to avoid needing a manual. This means – for many designers – that anything complex enough to require an explanation needs to be eliminated. “Streamlined.” While there are many kinds of games – especially for inexperienced or “casual” players – for which this is a virtue, it’s not a one-size-fits-all universal truth. Many gamers take great pleasure in plumbing the depths of complexity. I tend to find myself somewhere in the middle-range myself. But “interesting” systems – with enough complexity to prove “meaty” to gaming veterans, full of all kinds of exploration and interesting decisions within the rules of the game themselves – can be a lot of fun.

In a related issue – it seems that in some ways the existence of the manual was liberating to designers. Not that they always put this liberty to good use some seemed to actively abuse it. but I think in some ways designers today are hamstrung by knowing that any new, wild feature or interface they introduce to a game is going to be 3x harder to implement if they also have to support it by in-game explanations, tooltips, tutorials, and all the code to support it to show how it works. Being able to hand-wave it away and “let the manual explain it ” might have helped foster some innovation that many complain is lacking today. It’s probably far from the worst culprit, but I believe it was an influence.

Another problem I sometimes run into with modern games (not just RPGs – in fact, RPGs are usually better at this than many console action games) is the lack of documentation – or lack of familiarity with documentation – outside of the tutorials. If I set the game down for a few weeks and then come back to playing it again, I may have forgotten all those tricks taught in the tutorial, and I find myself trying to hunt down that information again. Most of the time it’s not a problem, but there have been a few games that rely so heavily on the in-game tutorials and explanations that what passes for documentation proves horribly inadequate. Having a really cool in-game tutorial doesn’t excuse you from making a decent manual, developers!

A fourth issue is one I only notice in retrospect – and that is really how I want to play a game. It’s a little weird. And maybe its just me. But with RPGs and some other games, I like to be immersed. It’s not just about powering up the console or the web browser for a quick endorphin hit caused by matching pretty colors or inflicting virtual destruction to my environment. I want a little virtual world. I want more to the story. I’m the kind of guy who committed speeds, ranges, and damage levels of various missiles in Wing Commander to memory. I’d hunt down additional information – little bits of story that I might have missed – about the characters in Persona 3. I think I was more entertained by the community talking about various dungeons in EverQuest – and what hints they gleaned of the intended history by the designers – than by the game itself.  Back before we had the web, the game manuals helped provide a little bit of extra “world” that I could experience when I couldn’t actually play the game. It was a way to find out more about my game than what actually appeared on the screen. More importantly, I think, was that they implanted the suggestion of much more going on than what I could experience on the screen, inviting my imagination to participate.  After all, I’m sure the game designer(s) had a LOT more going on in their heads that they wanted to share. This helped form the connection and make the game bigger than its puny technological limitations.

With the web being as it is, and the fact that we can practically store the Library of Alexandria on a thumb drive now, it seems there are a lot of opportunities for game developers to really elaborate on their worlds and stories beyond the limitations of the game itself. And many do. I love ’em for it. But many don’t, or leave it to their fan community to do the job for them.

Now, as I evangelize the old game manuals here, please bear in mind that I’m talking about the best ones. There were a lot of really crappy, poorly-written manuals back in the old days, too. So – while I’m not really pleading for the return of the massive paper-copy manual of the old days, I do think in some ways the necessity of it proved the mother of invention back in the day. Including some things we could be losing today, as the realities of modern game business (and the expediency of indie game development) allows us to chuck babies out with bathwater.

Oh, and if you happen to find yourself frustrated playing one of the old classics, be sure you take the time to RTFM!

Filed Under: Design, Retro - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Linkrealms: Spellcasting Chickens!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 29, 2010

I was supposed to get this up last week. Better late than never I guess.

Let’s talk about the indie MMO, Linkrealms. And chickens.

I got a chance to talk with Herb, Dan, and even a tiny bit with Paul – the Linkrealms team – last week at the Utah Indie Night. Quite honestly, I thought Linkrealms looked about ready for prime-time more than a year ago. But these guys have held off because – while the technology and content is all there – the game wasn’t yet “fun.” It was a great software toy, but in spite of looking like a weird hybrid of Ultima Online and Second Life or something, they were not happy with the gameplay. There was a lot you could do, but nothing compelling you to actually do anything.

So, here we are, many moons later, and Linkrealms is still in beta. Still looking awesome. But now they are addressing issues of “fun.” And not just fighting-things fun. Their answer?

Chicken-breeding. And cockfighting, apparently. To be fair, wolves are also on the list, with the suggestion that other types of pets may be forthcoming after launch.

Quite frankly, they’ve created the most sophisticated magical chicken brains ever seen in a game. Pet brains are wired by a combination of breeding (with something like 4.5 quadrillion breeding possibilities) and training. Other pet characteristics are also caused by breeding. Pets can compete in tournaments, or accompany you on adventures. And they are not-just normal pets, either. Herb talked to me about how they can be taught to cast spells, etc.

One of the tools for training / controlling your pets is through food. Herb told me there are currently 28 different kinds of feed (“scratch”) in the game, all with different effects on your bird. He demonstrated what he called the “Spanish Fly Scratch,” which – a few minutes after consumed, leaves your chickens feeling frisky and ready to create your next generation of chickens.

He also showed a tournament between fighting chickens. Something else players can enjoy. Nobody call the Virtual SPCA, ‘k?

The other little treat he showed me was the developers-only screen showing the neural network-y looking  of every chicken’s brain. Or networks, rather.  This is used for development and debugging, so the player can’t actually have access to it. But it showed what was going on during a tournament, and illustrated the complexity of what they are working on.

I suggested that the whole fighting-pet tournament / breeding / training thing is complex enough to warrant its own stand-alone game. Herb agreed, but there are no plans to release it separately. It’s just all part of Linkrealms. There’s a heck of a lot going on with this game!

It’s pretty amazing what these guys keep doing with the game. Hopefully, the changes and fun-factor will be completed soon, and will soon go into release. While nobody will confuse it with an AAA MMO, the quality and sheer quantity of content may confuse a lot of folks who may not recognize it as an indie release that’s largely the work of only three people.

In the meantime, you can check out the screenshots and videos of the game in action at their site:

Linkrealms official site

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Utah Indie Game Night - Comments: Read the First Comment

Interview with Matt Barton

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

Wow.  I seem to be invoking Matt Barton’s name a lot this month.

But Gnome’s Lair has an interview with Barton, the author of Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games, which I’ve talked about a couple of times now (perhaps in more detail than I think most people would care to have me repeat…) It talks a little about his books, his weekly “Matt Chat” series on YouTube, the reconciliation of his career (as an English professor) and his hobby, and quite a bit more.

Gome’s Lair: Interview with Matt Barton

Hat tip to RPG Codex for the link!

Filed Under: Interviews - Comments: Comments are off for this article

My Hopes In the Coming Zombie Apocalypse

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 28, 2010

If and when the zombie apocalypse happens, I hope it consists of slow zombies (like in Shaun of the Dead), and not the fast zombies like in Left 4 Dead. The reason being is that I’m not as fast as I used to be, and so if zombies are slow and shuffling, it’ll be easier to keep up with my horde as we’re cornering prey. And, as a bonus, victims will use up all their ammo on the younger and more athletic zombies who are SLIGHTLY faster than me, and be down to nothing but melee weapons by the time I get to dinner.

Just sayin’.

Filed Under: General - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Eschalon: Book 2 Release Date Announced

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 27, 2010

The sequel to the very popular “old-school” indie RPG Eschalon: Book 1 will be arriving soon.

According to Basilisk Games, the Windows version will be available on Wednesday, May 12th. The Mac and Linux version will follow two weeks later, on the 26th.

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: Comments are off for this article

More Departures from Infinity Ward

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

So, is this a case of a parent company killing the goose that laid the golden egg?

Five More Out at Modern Warfare Studio Infinity Ward

It’s really tough to tell who’s at fault here – I’m sure the courts will be deciding that for a while. I don’t know if West and Zampella were being total jerks and forcing the issue. But part of me does look at Activision and say, “Hey, you know, this is what happens when you decide to put all the value in your IP and none in your people.”

UPDATE:  It gets worse. Infinity Ward employee group suing Activision over unpaid royalties.  Dunno if it’s true or not (we won’t know for a while), but it is more than just plausible. It is unfortunately too common.  The flip side is employees getting laid off just before they become entitled to royalties / bonuses / profit sharing.

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Anti-Videogame Legislation Goes to Supreme Court.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 26, 2010

I hope this one gets smacked down hard with the resounding THUD of finality:

As Court Reviews California Violent Game Law, ESA Promises To Fight

Filed Under: Politics - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Review: Dungeons & Desktops – The History of Computer Role-Playing Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

For my birthday, my wife gave me the book,  “Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games,” by Matt Barton. Not to be confused with the very amusing freeware game, Desktop Dungeons.

The Articles Level Up!

I’d previously enjoyed the series on the History of the Computer Role-Playing Game by Barton in Gamasutra. If you haven’t read ’em yet, I recommend checking them out. For the most part, the book is a pretty major expansion on what he wrote in these articles. So if you want to know if you’d like the book or not, there’s no better preview than these articles:

History of Computer Role-Playing Games, Part 1: The Early Years

History of Computer Role-Playing Games, Part 2: The Golden Age

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games, Part 3: The Platinum and Modern Ages

Is It For You?

Ya gotta admit, the history of computer role-playing games (CRPGs) is pretty freakin’ niche. But I’m tickled that this awesome little hobby of ours warranted a book documenting its history. The book sticks with its focus – it is principally about the games themselves, though it’s free with throwing around anecdotes about their development, marketing, and people involved. But this is a book about the games – what they were, how they played, what they were about, what their influences were, and how they were received by their audiences. Single-player RPGs that played on honest-to-goodness general-purpose computers are the subject of the book, though it does touch on some of the highlights from the massively multiplayer RPG and console sides of things, as their histories intertwine with each other.

Within that focus, it’s a pretty comprehensive. If you are a CRPG fan, and if this is of interest to you – especially if you’ve been around long enough to remember the “golden age” of CRPGs from the late 80’s through the mid-90s – then you simply must read this book. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I’ve hot some nitpicks, but seriously – this is The Book if you are an old-school CRPG fan. And for indies harboring RPG-making plans, it is a Must Read.

Okay, now that the basics are out of the way, allow me to delve into a bit more detail.

The book consists of twelve chapters and an index. I geek out just a little over the index. I mean, you’ve got an index with the letter “U” filled with thirteen “Ultima” references, plus “Universe,” “Unlimited Adventures,” and “User-generated content.” That alone should tell you whether or not the book is for you. But anyway, moving on. The details!

Chapter By Chapter: What Does It Cover?

Chapter one is an introduction to computer role-playing. Besides introducing the rest of the book, Barton tackles the ever-slippery subject, “What is a computer role-playing game?” attempting to differentiate it from other, similar game categories. While his will hardly be the final word on the subject, he takes a pretty good stab at it. Ultimately, he notes that it all comes down to “family resemblances” rather than strict categorical definition.

Chapter two discusses the origins of computer RPGs, including the usual suspects as Strat-O-Matic baseball, tabletop wargaming, J. R. R. Tolkien, renaissance fairs, Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop role-playing games, Colossal Cave Adventure, and others.

Chapter three deals with the “Dark Ages” of Computer RPGs – principally the era before home computers and the commercial computer game industry. His name for this stage of history is fairly apt – in many cases, we have very little information about these games, as their code has been lost to the fickle enforcement of university system administrators, known only through the dim memories of a few players.

With the dawn of the home computer and an actual consumer market for computer games formed in its infancy, we get Barton’s “Bronze Age” of computer RPGs, the subject of the fourth chapter. Many of the games of this era are barely remembered today, and were often the product of one or two people who distributed them in local computer stores in Ziploc bags with photocopied instruction pages. Some of the recognizable titles include Richard Garriott’s Akalabeth: World of Doom, Eamon, and the Temple of Apshai series.

The Silver Age, covered in chapter five, starts pretty much with the publication of the first Ultima and Wizardry around 1980, and continues until 1985. Besides the early games of those two series, this era includes some memorable titles such as Stuart Smith’s Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Sword of Fargoal, and Dungeons of Daggorath.

The Golden Age begins around 1985 (Barton tends to break up his ages by trends and influences, rather than strict dates), and is so huge it covers four chapters. This spans a pretty wide era, up through the early to mid 1990s in general. This is the era where CRPGs came into their own. The “Gold Box” D&D series, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, the middle Ultimas and Wizardry games, Might & Magic, The Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, and many others are set squarely in this era. Chapter eight finally breaks down and details the console RPGs of this era, and both the influences they received from western CRPGs and their influence upon the same.

Chapter nine is a sad one. Entitled, “The Bigger They Come,” it principally documents the fall of the most prolific RPG-publishing powerhouses of the golden age era – Origin, Interplay (pre-Black Isle), and SSI.

Chapter ten, “The Platinum Age,” overlaps a lot of the same time-frame as the previous chapters. But it discusses the new players on the field and the new styles of games that emerged during the 1990s. Starting with Ultima Underworld (which I see as being not far past the middle of the golden age myself, but then everybody agrees it was ahead of its time), it covers the rise of the Elder Scrolls series, the advent of Diablo and other “action-RPGs,” Baldur’s Gate and other infinity-engine games, Fallout, the Krondor series, and several others, culminating in the early 2000s.

The modern age, covered in chapter eleven, is a bit stranger. It begins with games from the earlier part of the last decade – the Vampire the Masquerade games, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, and so forth. This is the part that really begins skipping a few notable titles. Some of it may be excused as the games caught up with the time of his writing, around 2007.  But it also seems like he was in a hurry to move on to discussing more console games (starting with Final Fantasy VII, which admittedly hit the computer & console RPG genre with the force of a nuclear explosion),  and the rise of the MMORPG.

The book concludes with chapter twelve, “The Future of a Genre.” I have some disagreement with Barton over some of his points here, but gazing into an unclear crystal ball and predicting the future is always subject to argument. I have a few. Barton’s view of the future of the genre doesn’t quite line up with mind. He sees an evolution in a particular direction necessitated by the MMORPG and console jRPGs leaving only direction open.  I don’t see it that way.

He also includes a very short guide for people who may want to try out these older games – principally a short introduction to emulators and “abandonware,” and advice for developing a tolerance for retro-gaming.

The End…?

If by some chance the book ends up with a second edition in a few years, I’d expect to see a new chapter entitled, “The Indie Age.” The big RPG makers of the last era seem to be retreating from the field. RPGs are once again becoming the “dying genre” – just like they were before the genre exploded into back into significance in the mid-late 90s after a somewhat quiet period. But this time, I’m seeing indies carrying the torch. Too bad Barton doesn’t seem to mention ’em at all, but that would be a daunting task even for me!

Bottom line (again): I loved the book. If you are a serious computer RPG fan who doesn’t believe the genre began with Oblivion or Diablo II, and especially if you are at all involved in making or reviewing RPGs, you should give it a read.

Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games

Filed Under: Books, Mainstream Games, Retro - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Interview: Steven Peeler of Soldak Entertainment

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 25, 2010

Steven Peeler of Soldak Entertainment has an interview over at the “videogaming programming” blog, Random Tower of Games.

I was especially amused that the interview questions were numbered, starting with number 0. Programmer humor.

An excerpt:

“The interesting part of games being an inspiration is that a lot of times for me they give me good ideas because they lack something. The dynamic nature of Din’s Curse is my response to a lot of games that feel hollow because nothing ever progresses. Like the woods are on fire, but they will stay that way forever or a quest asks you to hurry but hurrying doesn’t really change anything.”

Here ya go:

Steven Peeler Interview at Random Tower of Games

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Interviews - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Utah Indie Night – Spring 2010

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 23, 2010

Holy cow — at this rate, we’re going to have to start renting a convention hall!

I think this quarter’s Utah Indie Night was the best-attended ever. Greg Squire is probably going to have a better report on the actual numbers and the full list of games shown, but for the first time ever we had BOTH floors of NinjaBee’s offices filled with games.

I used the meet-up for work with Kevin, as we were discussing a revamp of the minotaur level.  So I missed the presentation on the Global Game Jam. There was lots of cheering and applause. And Swag. Fortunately, I’d brought a couple of friends (John & Frank, both former mainstream game devs) to the event, and John snagged me t-shirt. On top of that, we had some lively discussions in the car on the way down to and back from the event.

As we spent part of indie night going over Frayed Knights, I ended up showing it to a few people. We weren’t officially showing it or anything, but some folks made some comments and offered suggestions. Once again, the spell “Power Word: Defenestrate” was a hit. I need to make more spells like that one, obviously.

The games ranged from simple student projects (now Utah Valley University is offering courses in game development, too, I’ve found…), to the very slick professional commercial stuff.  And everything in-between. I started rushing through the games to try and see them all, but I still failed. People were starting to pack it up by the time I got to the second floor. It’s like a micro indie E3 now!

UVU students Kurt Spears  and Abe Raigne (did I get your names right? My handwriting is so bad I can’t read it) were showing off a student project called “Elements.” I really liked this one. It is a two-player game that uses the game Reversi (more commonly known under the brand name Othello) as a core mechanic to fuel a larger “meta-game” that’s kind of RPG-like. You have spell points and hit points, and three spells of your element (fire and water). For each piece you reverse on your turn, you get a spell point that you can use to damage your opponent (and heal yourself as well? I don’t remember). Anyway, it seemed a clever idea.

I was also amused when I spoke to them about possibilities, and they showed a true paranoia over scope creep. Good for them!

Another “meta-game” built over classic game rules was Flexitris. It is all about variants on Tetris. You can change the rules of the game during play. I saw some rules which had “glue” between various pieces that formed bonds after the pieces landed, changes in the board size, changes in the line-building rules, and more.

Don Jordan had finally completed his first Android game, a Tic-Tac-Toe game with stones. While Tic-Tac-Toe isn’t exactly world-burning gameplay, it taught him how to develop and deploy games for the Android phones. And he is putting together all of the pieces together for a business, website (coming soon), and sales channel. He has another game in design right now. Congrats Don!

LinkRealms was there. I’ve got a lot to show and tell about this one. So much that I am going to put it in its own blog post. In a nutshell – I thought this game looked ready to ship two years ago. They aren’t done with it yet. They are adding more and more stuff to make the game *fun*. And more focused. They are also removing content that doesn’t fit their focus. But mainly, they are trying to pack in some fun activities. And their latest … well, here’s a hint. Spellcasting Attack Chickens. The most advanced Spellcasting Attack Chickens ever witnessed in any game, ever. Period. More later.

Nick Murano was showing off an aerial combat game made under Unity called “Broken Skies.”  With a bizarre junkyard-sculpture fish skeleton thingy as the player’s ship, fighting around islands. Cool and bizarre. He’s an artist and 3D modeler, and didn’t have access to a programmer, so he built the game purely out of built-in Unity behaviors.  Pretty impressive stuff!

I think my favorite game of the evening was one called Ostrich 911. Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe it. Co-creator Kevin Roberts described it as a “First-Person Walker.” It’s a game about riding an Ostrich – in 3D, first-person perspective. Except half the game is getting to your Ostrich. Then it’s racing your Ostrich (who can jump, double-jump, glide, and crane its neck around to look at you strangely if you aren’t moving) through a bizarre landscape with things like falling logs, collapsing bridges, platform puzzles, and magic mushrooms that are highly addictive and bad for your ostrich’s health. The game is scored and timed. Kevin told me that if you take too long to finish the race, when you get to the end you find that your truck’s tires have been jacked.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is exhibit A for the glory of indie gaming.  Now if these guys can get their Ostrichs together with the flying fish and floating islands in the sky for Broken Skies, we might have a seriously bizarre, humorous game of 3D Joust on our hands.

Bryan Livingstone showed off Massive Freecell, a Facebook Freecell game loaded with extras. It is a massively multiplayer social solitaire game, he bragged, savoring the depth of the oxymoron.

SONR is a game in-development by Jon Turner, originally an entry into a TIGSource competition. It’s a side-scrolling action / strategy game using spinning, swarming attack and defense particles. And followers. And abstract graphics. I’ll be interested in seeing how this one comes out.

I spoke with Jason Faller of Silverlode Interactive – makers of the “massively multiplayer RTS” Saga – for a little bit, butting into a conversation with him and NinjaBee president and generally all-around cool indie guy Steve Taylor. They’ve got a philosophy of a “game a year” now, leveraging off of existing assets and properties. They have one coming up that I’m not sure how free I am to discuss, as they are in discussion with publishers about it now. But… it sounds awesome. How’s that for cryptic?

Udder Chaos was being demonstrated by Flat Red Ball’s Victor Chelaru. While demonstrated on a PC with XBox 360 controllers, it’s planned as an XBox 360 release (maybe both?). It’s a shooter involving aliens abducting cows. They had me at the cows. It’s designed for multiplayer on the same screen, particularly for four players blasting away to save their barnyard.  It’s still got a little work left on, but the graphics were already nicely polished.

Eric Wiggins was showing off his work-in-progress Unity adventure game, “Ayrik’s A Feeble Saga 2.” It’s still early in development, but you can try it out yourself here using the Unity player. It’s being built upon the foundation of the first game, “Ayrik’s A Feeble Saga.” That one, he explained, was more of a tech demo used for his resume. But it’s playable right now if you wanna check it out.

I briefly spotted another student game called, “Beefy Greeks.” But I have little further information. And that, ladies and gentlemen, represented only about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the games showing at this season’s indie game night. Utah indie game development is on FIRE! It was a thrilling evening, marred only by my feelings of guilt by having yet another indie game night where I’ve not released a new commercial game…

Filed Under: Utah Indie Game Night - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

Jeff Vogel on How He Saved the Games Industry Overnight

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 22, 2010

Long-time indie RPG maker Jeff Vogel makes some dang good points:

“If you asked me why I used that same old clunky game engine and why I am still using it, I would give this answer: Because I am really smart and cool and awesome. And if more people emulated me, the game industry would not be near so messed up.

“Now, mind you, I don’t write the same game again and again. That’s like saying an author who wrote ten books wrote the same book each time because they are published using the same paper and ink. Did I write a whole-new story? Then it’s a whole new game.”

You can check out the rest of his article here:

The Bottom Feeder: How I Saved the Gaming Industry Overnight By Being Awesome

Origin was probably most famous / notorious creating a new engine for every Ultima release. Except – well, they kinda faked it with Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle, which really wasn’t another part of ANYTHING other than a way to get another game out of their engine, and appease their new corporate masters, EA. And previously they made two more RPGs (the “Worlds of Ultima“) out of the Ultima VI engine, but those weren’t officially part of the “Ultima” cycle – just kinda spin-off side-quests for the Avatar. And then the two Ultima Underworld games used the same engine (albeit enhanced) – but again, those were also spin-offs, and weren’t in-house projects.  So even they weren’t quite adamant about their stance.

Many folks claim that what eventually sank the long-standing Might & Magic series was a failure to significantly update their technology. I never played the later games, but from what I hear that wasn’t the only problem…

And then, there’s the story of how the rush for new technology destroyed a pitch meeting for Ultima Underworld III…

Because the story of video games over the last three decades has largely been the story of advancing technology, there’s definitely been an assumption that a new game means new technology. That’s gotta change. And it looks like it is. The technology should fit the game, not the other way around. And as the indies (like Vogel) keep demonstrating, there’s a lot of awesome, unrealized potential in these less-than-cutting-edge engines.

Filed Under: Biz, Production - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Games as Art? I Thought I Saw That Horse Twitch!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

An actual chat yesterday

Me: I am surprised that Ebert jumped back to repeat himself on this subject. I guess he wanted the publicity it gave him last time.

Friend: Can’t blame him, really. It’s an interesting discussion point and gets him all kinds of free publicity all at once.

Me: I can blame him! He’s talking out his butt about stuff he knows nothing about! Oh, wait, I do that all the time. Nevermind…

But here are some more comments on the subject:

Orbit Books: Can a Video Game Be Art

Grumpy Gamer:  Roger, Roger, Roger

ThatGameCompany: Right. Moving on [My Response to Roger Ebert]

The money quote in the last one, by Kellee Santiago, is this: “It’s time to move on from any need to be validated by old media enthusiasts. It’s good for dinner-party discussion and entertaining as an intellectual exercise, but it’s just not a serious debate anymore. As a rapidly growing medium, we game developers have so many other issues deserving of our attention.”

Okay, I can’t resist throwing in my own woefully under-informed opinions about.  Roger Ebert has forgotten more about movies than I will probably ever know. On the subject of movies, he’s definitely an expert. On the subject of other media — it’s questionable. On the subject of games, I suspect just about everybody reading this post is far, far better-informed than Mr. Ebert. Some of us have some small experience with art in other media – some of us may be artists, or musicians, composers, or at least taken a humanities course in college or something.

But does that make us qualified to judge games as art?

Hell, yeah.

Sorry if I’m gonna take the low road here, but the whole concept of being “qualified to judge art” to me is a big pile of steaming elitist snob BS. And that’s a view Ebert apparently espouses, when he argues that definitions are arguable, and when he later counters Ron Gilbert’s offer to have The Secret of Monkey Island go toe-to-toe on artistic principles with the Pirates of the Carribean movie by saying “Pirates of the Carribean was not art.”

I guess only critics – and only those critics receiving some kind of magical validation of public opinion – are allowed to be the gatekeepers of art, huh? I guess that makes their job sound more important.

But  I’m still calling BS on this.

In my last company we had job titles like, “Art Lead,” “Senior Artist”, “Art Director,” and “Artist.” For all these artists filling our halls doing their art thing, it does feel strange that we are categorically incapable of creating art. And if my fifteen-year-old pours her heart into creations in her art class (mind you, she’s getting pretty good!), should I inform her that her creations are not art because she’s not passed them through some validating Authority? And if by some chance her creations do get blessed with the sacred label of Art, do they lose that status if I pay her for her creations? Or – heaven forbid – put them in a game?

It takes some serious logical contortion for that to begin make sense.

And you thought trying to define “indie” was bad!

Maybe we need to separate the idea of game mechanics – the rules of the game – from the game itself. Which is, to me, like separating the paint from the painting. The game mechanics of chess may indeed not be art. But a beautifully designed chessboard? Absolutely. And don’t bother prattling on about the “craft” versus “art” distinctions.  In Brenda Brathwaite’s board game Train, the entire point of the game – it’s art and meaning and emotional impact – comes from the connection between the mechanics and the context, which are not fully revealed until the very end. Since it’s already been pretty heavily publicized already, I don’t know how effective that “surprise twist” may be anymore, but it was a pretty potent statement, and emotionally powerful for both the designer and the original participants.

I agree completely with Kellee Santiago. It’s fun to argue over this, and the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. But it doesn’t really matter. Like other upstart artistic media, it’s really just a matter of time and mainstream penetration before it becomes validated enough by the establishment so we can have our own critics acting all snobbish and pretentious and turning their nose up in the air over those other new media appearing on the scene.

Hell, I’m all ready and rarin’ to go to rip on those Facebook “Social Games.” Let me try it out. “Oh, pish-posh, those social games may make all kinds of money, and everybody plays them,  they aren’t art, you silly uneducated heathens!” Hah! I can do it,too!

So why do I bother? Why is it even worthy of taking note? Well, #1 – it’s fun to debate. But #2 – before our country had much bigger fish to fry, various government legislators were constantly slinging around all kinds of anti-videogame bills with the assumption that games were not a worthy form of expression deserving the protection of the first amendment. I guess the idea was to nip it in the bud before it became too established of a medium. As our country has proven that it will pass the most horrible of legislation if it’s marketed as being “for the children,” I have a vested interest in assuring enough public validation of the medium to protect it from trigger-happy Congress critters seeking some bullet points under “Family Values” for their re-election campaign.

Other than that, it’s hard for me to really give a fig what Roger Ebert has to say about a subject he knows nothing about.

Filed Under: Art, Biz, Movies, Politics - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Game Design: How CRPGs Warped My Brain, Part 4

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 21, 2010

Okay, it’s time to wrap up this series on the lessons in RPG design that I learned from CRPGs over the years. Four parts is plenty. I’m gonna have to skip a lot more games in this part, but the truth of the matter is that as the era gets later, I’m having trouble identifying games that I found personally very influential. It’s not that they were all identical – far from it – but it does feel like they retreated to safer territory along trails blazed by their predecessors.

That, or they just haven’t been validated by time yet, and so I am just not fairly giving them their due. Either way – here’s the last group of CRPGs (so far) to warp my brain. If you haven’t read the previous installments yet, you can click on these links to see  part 1, part 2, and part 3.

The Elder Scrolls Series: From these games I learned both the joy and limitations of procedural content generation. The bizarre thing for me is the realization that while the games have unquestionably advanced and improved in every measurable way, they’ve also become a little less compelling for me to explore with each iteration. I’m still trying to figure out the lesson to be learned there. Though I did learn what it really takes to be a bloodthirsty assassin.

Diablo (& Diablo 2): These games taught me three lessons:

1. Crack really is available in digital form,
2. Persistent characters in a multiplayer environment is actually pretty cool,
3. Dungeon-delving with friends online is extremely fun and cool, but…
4. … any stranger you game with online is 98% likely to be a total douchebag, or a total idiot.

Suikoden and Final Fantasy VII: These games were my first and second foray into the console  jRPG arena, respectively, and I was a jaded Professional Game Developer™ by this time. As a hardcore western game fan, I had been more than just skeptical about these goofy-looking, “cute” Japanese imports. When I finally played these games for myself, I learned that while they violated nearly everything I expected a CRPG to be, they were still a compelling style of RPG.

But I also figured out something even more important. It was pretty easy to tell (back then) that these games had Ultima III in their family tree. But they were as different from the early Ultima games as… well, the contemporary western cRPGs. You had several western cRPGs representing different evolutionary branches, and then these jRPGs going off in a totally different direction… how many unexplored potential variations could we have? These games gave me a glimpse of just how broad this little genre could really be.

EverQuest – The reason I have avoided World of Warcraft like the plague. From this I learned that even the most banal, context-free, repetitive gameplay can be like CRACK when you can experience it with friends, and get cool persistent toys that you can show ’em off in a shared world.

Baldur’s Gate II (and the whole rest of the “Infinity Engine” series) – This game (and its relatives) very nearly toppled Ultima VII from its throne in my mind. One day I’ll have to play both games back-to-back in a real face-off.  I don’t know if it really taught me anything new, but it really did validate many of the lessons of Ultima VII to me – a big, fairly open world.  TONS and TONS of things to do (though the world wasn’t nearly as interactive). Quests on every streetcorner. Story pretty much everywhere.  These are Good Things.

Fallout 1 & 2:  As a latecomer to these games, the lesson I learned was a hard one about the nature of the mainstream games business rather than game design. You see, I assumed that the critical and commercial success of Fallout would lead to more games of its kind, as publishers attempted to follow its success. More hardcore RPGs, more turn-based RPGs, more non-fantasy settings, more open-ended world design with pretty notable consequences for your meaningful decisions, all that awesome stuff.

I was wrong. Publishers don’t generally follow just any success. They seek to follow – and overtake – the biggest dogs of the field. I don’t know Fallout’s sales numbers, but I am pretty sure they were in a whole different league than Diablo. Guess which game ended up representing the “evolution” of the genre in the minds of the guys in the suits?

Note – since becoming an indie, I have become much more business-oriented. I understand the suits, and in theory might even agree with their decision – for them. But as an indie, I say, “Why get into a massive, expensive battle royale over the biggest slice of the pie when there are these smaller but still substantial slices that almost nobody is calling dibs on?”

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption – From this game, I learned that a well-realized, flavorful setting, atmosphere,  and a reasonably intriguing plot (plus a groundbreaking – if buggy – multiplayer system) can cover (masquerade?) a multitude of flaws.  And boy, this game had flaws.  Didn’t matter. I had a blast playing it anyway.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines – Ditto on what I said for VtM: Redemption. This one also taught me the value of a really kick-butt ending (one of the several was – *spoiler warning* – Teh Awesome ). If the player sticks through to the very end of the game, the ending is what sticks with him  and leaves the lasting impression. Make it a great one, devs!

Final Fantasy XII – I’ve never finished this one. It was tedious. Which is a lesson all of its own. If your game (and story) is too packed with ” filler,” or if you go overboard in the beginning of the game with hand-holding the player, the best production values and biggest budget and most famous name brand won’t save your game from being a tedious, boring mess that alienates players.

Persona 3 (&4): After FF XII, these games restored my faith in the potential for Japanese RPGs to deliver an outstanding and off-beat RPG experience. Like most jRPGs, these games were highly linear along the principle plotline.

Wizardry 8: I was a latecomer to this one, too.  One lesson I took away was that even the best combat systems can become tedious if they are too plentiful, random, and lengthy. Maybe I shoulda learned that in the Gold Box days, but if so, I forgot. Most of the lessons I took away from the game can be found in my final write-up on my Wizardry 8 play-though. The most important lesson I took away from Wizardry 8, I think, is that the old-school RPG approach so often lampooned by modern gaming journalists were still fun in 2001, and were still fun to me several years later. Maybe not as popular with the mainstream crowd, but still fun.

And, ending with some indie games:

Avernum Series: Spiderweb Software’s been carrying the torch since before anybody came up with the term, “indie game developer.” From these, I learned that the indies still got what the mainstream game publishers have lost.

Nethack – From this game, I learned that there are legions of gamers who are way more hard-core than me.

Depths of Peril: While not a ginormous commercial success, Depths of Peril enjoyed significant critical praise (some of it from me), and earned a devoted following (and I’m happy to note that Din’s Curse followed in its predecessor’s footsteps, and may be the better game) . But DoP taught me that there is a hell of a lot more that could be done with the RPG genre if developers have the cajones to experiment, break new ground, and use established and successful past games not as a template for game design, but merely as a foundation to build and expand upon.

Cute Knight (Deluxe): From Cute Knight Deluxe, I learned that I am manly enough to not feel threatened getting in touch with my feminine side if the game is fun enough to warrant it. And judging from the success of this game and the Aveyond series, I learned that there is apparently a big potential market out there for RPGs among people – women and men – who probably wouldn’t know what the term “role-playing game” means. They don’t care about the terminology – all that matters is that these games are FUN.

So there you go. A whole slew of RPGs – most good, some bad, some in-between – which had an influence on me. And others, based on the comments I’ve received on this series of posts. Trivial and silly as it may sound, but most games take significantly more investment on my part than any movie, TV show, book, painting, or music, which gives ’em equal or greater cred in my mind with any of the aforementioned media for corrupting my youth and twisting my head.

For which I’m grateful.

 

The Rest of this Article Series:

How CRPGs Warped My Brain, Part 1

How CRPGs Warped My Brain, Part 2

How CRPGs Warped My Brain, Part 3

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

A Slay Retrospective

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 20, 2010

Alec Meer on Slay

A quote: “Slay is quick and vicious – one wrong move, most especially buying Knight or Baron when you don’t have the infrastructure to support them, and your viral spread across the centre of the land evaporates into small, useless chunks.”

I was a late convert to Slay. I didn’t even know it existed until ten years later. And I was hooked. It’s a deceptively simple game (with even more simple graphics), that can be played fairly quickly. But it is wickedly addictive. I’m still impressed by it.

I don’t have an iPhone — I bought the PC version. I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth out of it.

You can check out the free demo of  Slay here.

Filed Under: Strategy Games - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



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