Messing Up My Perfect Game Taxonomy!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 26, 2010

Gareth explains what, in his opinion, constitutes the RPG-ness of a game:

Mass Effect 2 Part 2: An RPG?

Really, Gareth? You wanna throw down? You think you can argue against my awesome well-established (well, for three years anyway) defining characteristics of an RPG? Huh? The science is settled, brothah! It’s …

It’s…

Well, it’s been mildly useful, anyway, for my own purposes.  Though I have some issues with it too.  But as much as I like to draw my line in the sand and say, “If you step beyond this point I will no longer recognize you as an RPG!”, the truth is I like to see games going outside the “box” that was largely built by marketing folks anyway to reduce their need or their customers’ need to think.

Still doesn’t mean I’ll call it an RPG, though. I mean, I’ve had years to make up my mind and I’m still a little on the fence about categorizing Deus Ex. Which is probably about right – it’s the kind of game that shouldn’t neatly fall into any category. Does the fact that I get all hand-wavy and vague when talking about it as some kind of RPG outlier (as in Mass Effect, and I expect Mass Effect 2 based on these discussions) make it any less of a classic? Hell, no.

As Gareth suggests, I also believe that appealing to the  “roleplaying” term in the category name is a false god. I mean, if it was only about playing a role, then Falcon 4.0 was the best computer role-playing game I’ve ever played. I’ll tell ya, I was totally and completely immersed in my role as a hot-shot F-16 jockey in the middle of a hypothetical war in Korea.

And as far as making your own character from scratch versus playing a specific character in the game – well, as I am apologetically calling Frayed Knights an RPG, you know where I stand there. Lest we forget, back in the heyday of Dungeons & Dragons, conventions were filled with “tournament” play with pregenerated characters. If pen-and-paper D&D ever fit the definition of a “roleplaying game,” did it lose it with pre-gens because players couldn’t create their own character from scratch? Nah, that’s silly.

Hell, I’ve roleplayed in a game of Monopoly before. I AM the race car!

The problem is that while these categories have their problems, they are also a pretty useful shorthand for people explaining what they like. Violate my definition of RPG in one direction, and I find your game completely unappealing to me. Violate it in a different direction, and I may still embrace it and even call it the MOST ORIGINAL RPG EVAR!!1!11

Oh, hey, did somebody mention Cute Knight Kingdom? Or Depths of Peril?

I think we’d all be happier, though, if these very original variations on the RPG Genre were not suddenly being touted as The Future of RPGs.  That’s the sort of thing that gets folks mighty defensive.  After all, I really love mint chocolate chip ice cream, but if that became the future of all ice cream I’d learn to hate it really fast.

I still haven’t played Mass Effect 2, and I’m not planning on doing so anytime soon. This isn’t a statement of principle – I happen to like a good shooter, and I love a good RPG, and it sounds like it’s a game that figured out an awesome balance between the two. But I haven’t finished the original yet (and I’ve been told ME2 is better if you’ve played through ME1 first), and I am also cutting back on new non-indie games until I can get Frayed Knights finished.

But to me, it sounds a lot more like a “shooter with RPG elements.” To which I say, “Cool!” I may not label it an RPG. Or maybe I will. So what? RPG fans all value different aspects of the broad (and growing) category of RPGs. The important part, really, is that developers are still out there making quality RPGs that also value those aspects – be they mainstream or indie. I still see that – from guys like Gareth (which of us is gonna ship our game first, huh, dude?) and others. So for me, all is well in the RPG universe, and I have the luxury of arguing these kinds of category boundaries from a peaceful, intellectual level.

Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

Secret CDProjekt Message to Fans of The Witcher

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 25, 2010

Alright, maybe some folks don’t think this is cool, but I do. And others, it would seem.

Buried in their trailer for The Witcher 2, CDProjekt has inserted a secret message in a single frame near the end of the video for their fans. This is the text (as lifted from GameBanshee):

This message is for our biggest fans. Analyzing our stuff pixel by pixel, bit by bit. It’s good to see you again! 🙂  BTW: Simple minded people think that nobody is reading those days, dear reader of this, we think that we can agree that it is bullshit, huh?  Same as the fact that single player RPGs are dead, or PCs?

We sold 1.5 mln units game from dying genre on dying platform – so we somehow cannot agree;-)

Before we start talking about TW2:) please let us thank you for your great support and appreciation. It always motivate us and make us happy.

We started working on TW2 right after release of TW. Our goal was to create all the things which made TW so great in TW2 even better. We are very proud of TW but let be honest it was our debut. We never made any game before, and we practically learnt as we worked. So there were many things which could be done better, you know it as good as we 🙂

But the vision, the main concept remain the same: game with mature, captivating and unlinear story, and full of spectacular combat. A game created by a team of independent thinkers immune to corporate priorities, who don’t care what’s trendy at a given moment.

The core vision of the game hasn’t changed. What has changed is the quality and the maturity we can deliver.  That’s largely because, we’re more experienced and also due the fact that, we’ve created our own technology.

Do you remember how we made significant improvements with the Aurora Engine in the original game, but it still had its limitations? Now we’ve created technology designed specifically to create non-linear games with extensive plotlines and a living world… well, there’s no point in expanding on that too much – you have to check our tech yourselves!

Nevertheless, we have many reasons to believe that you will like The Witcher 2!
See you soon and stay tuned 🙂

I love the dig about selling 1.5 million copies of a game in a “dying” genre on a “dying” platform. They may not be indie (anymore), but they have the attitude right.

Neither RPGs nor the PC are dead, nor dying, folks.

Hats off to CDProjekt.

Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Is Old-School Becoming the “New” New-School?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 24, 2010

One of the amazing things about indie games is how some of the old-school aesthetics are coming back into vogue – and not just among the pure “indie” titles. Yeah, any budget-busting AAA title is going to have the most up-to-date 3D graphic effects money can buy, but a lot of the big success stories of the last year or two have been from games that wouldn’t have looked all that impressive or out of place  five, ten, even twenty years ago.  Think about what’s happening on the handhelds, the iPhone, web-based gaming, downloadable console games, downloadable indie computer games, and the social gaming phenomenon.

So is retro the new cool? Not exactly. But once upon a time I mourned the loss of 2D graphics in games, claiming that much could still be done with modern technology with all-but-abandoned perspectives. And now – I’m being proven correct. Go, me. Now why didn’t I cash in on it?

But amongst indie games, particularly web-based games, it goes even further. Some pretty awesome stuff has been done with fat pixels and clever ideas. The games may look and sound way, way old-school. But…

Yeah. BUT..!

Old-school covers a lot of dimensions. Not just graphics. Not just gameplay. It seems what’s happening now isn’t so much a return of old-school, but a return for some lessons. A chance to explore some territory that was abandoned in a race in the mainstream industry for the fastest return-on-investment.  While in the grand scheme of things the less-than-40-year effective history of video games is pretty short. But it’s also been an incredible breeding ground of ideas in that time, many of which are waiting to be revisited and explored.

Because they can. Thanks to online distribution, and a growing acceptance of games that don’t need to have expensive, cutting-edge graphics or multi-million dollar production values, it’s possible for small developers to take the risks and attempt to innovate from a foundation long abandoned, rather than being limited to building on one of last year’s hits.

And for me, the innovation and refinement is the point. Let’s be honest here – in a lot of cases, the reason these older types of games (think – platformers, side-scrolling shooters, or the party-based & turn based first-person dungeon crawlers – a personal favorite) were abandoned. Often, it was because the market was saturated, and we players got bored with them. Simply going back and doing a minor, low-budget rehashes of  well-worn themes when it’s getting easy to go over to GOG.COM or XBLA and play the originals in their full retro glory isn’t going to score many points with me. (But it may find its niche…)

What I’m seeing and hoping to see more of isn’t a turning back of the clock. But I think our “little” hobby needs a remedial course in some lessons taught in the old-school. So I’m glad to see school is back in session!

So here’s my question for the old-school gamers out there: What would YOU like to see come back? What lessons out there would you like re-learned? What old-school design idea would you like to see revisited with new technology by a new generation of game designers?

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Retro - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights: A God Complex

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 23, 2010

This post has nothing to do with my previous post, but I was just tickled by the similar titles. I am easily amused, apparently.

Speaking of being easily amused, one source of minor amusement around our tiny little Frayed Knights development team has been the number of temples in the game. Starting with the Temple of Pokmor Xang, god of boils, blisters, pimples, and apparently pus –  which was in the (now horribly outdated) pilot release, we’ve got two more in development as adventuring areas.

Last night, Brian and I decided that I had been overusing the word, “temple.” So we’ve officially renamed some of our dungeons.

The Temple of Pokmor Xang remains unchanged. It’s in the pilot, and a slightly updated version will remain in the final release.

The Fane of the Rat God is in act two. And I love the name. “Fane of the Rat God.” I mean, it totally sounds like an old-school D&D module, doesn’t it?

And we’re currently finishing up the Chapel of Anarchy.  It is broken up into an outer, more public entry / worship area and a more-sacred inner area. The inner area was formally referred to as the “Anarchy Sanctum Sanctorum,” but that’s a pretty longish name, and the shorter acronym was highly unfortunate, so most of the time the whole structure was referred to as simply the “Chapel of Anarchy” instead.

Why do I have a preoccupation with attacking houses of worship of evil (or at least not-too-friendly) deities? Is it some kind of  deep-seated psychological issue? I hope not. Not that I’m a shining example or anything like that, but I do actually take my religion seriously in real life.

But as far as fiction is concerned, I think it’s my influences. Unlike my wife, Tolkien wasn’t my gateway drug to fantasy. Nope, for me, it was  Robert E. Howard and the whole “sword-and-sorcery” counterpart to Tolkien’s “high fantasy.” And I loved reading stories of his most famous character, Conan. The mighty-thewed one was regularly taking on dark, monstrous “gods” and their cults – with names like “Thog” and “Jhebbal Sag.” And evil, corrupt priests. And temples and sacred towers full of loot for our enterprising barbarian and his occasional cohort.

Incidentally, if your opinion of Conan is based purely on pop references, games, and a couple of lame movies, you really need to read the books. Less than half are by Howard himself, but the other authors (a bunch of total unknowns that you have probably never heard of like L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson, Harry Turtledove, and this Robert Jordan guy…) often did a pretty good job as well.

As far as the gods of Frayed Knights, you all know about Pokmor Xang. If you played the pilot, you have heard of Neutoxis, the goddess of disease. The Rat God is Nom the Devourer. Nokram is a goddess of battle, of whom Florentine is a follower. The Chapel of Anarchy was not devoted to any one god — the “chief deity” of the cult changing almost as often as their leadership, when they actually recognized any (usually only after violence and some unexplained accidents helped followers to see the collective will of the gods). There are others in my notes, but as they don’t have an appearance in the game yet I’m just leaving them as subject-to-change background material for my own entertainment. It’s a silly, inconsistent pantheon – which is exactly as it should be.

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

A Messiah Complex…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 22, 2010

Warning – Fallout 3 spoilers follow. The game is now 18 months old, which by mainstream computer game years is ancient. But a lot of folks haven’t played it but may still intend to do so unspoiled and unsullied. If you are one of them, please read no further.

I finally finished Fallout 3 last week, as my new computer could finally run the game and only crash once every hour or so instead of every three minutes. I took plenty of time, and even took the “explorer” perk so I could check out much of the additional content beyond the main storyline. I played it without any of the expansions, like Broken Steel, which I understand “corrects” the ending of Fallout 3.

But I still wanna rant. If you have played the game, too, you may already know what I want to rant about (though the title of this post probably gives it away).  IMO, it’s not a trivial thing to write a good martyrdom story.  There’s a lot more to the story of Jesus than “oh, and then this guy chose to die to save others, the end.” I didn’t like it in the Matrix movies – where the whole martyrdom thing was at least handled better than in Fallout 3, but the later movies sucked the joy out of the first movie anyway – and it really has to be handled very carefully in a game  where you are playing the would-be sacrificial victim.

Ya really gotta, you know – foreshadow and stuff. The story needs to lead inexorably to this one moment where the hero must do his thing and make his sacrifice. Or hers. It shouldn’t be sprung at random, nor should the player be railroaded arbitrarily into being a sacrificial hero or a live jerk. (Especially when alternative solutions may be apparent to the player).

The point of the heroic death story is to reinforce the whole Spock-ism about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one.  How it works in traditional media, however, is that the story is told from the perspective of someone else, so the audience can see the impact of the sacrifice from the eyes of those that it benefited. At least that’s been the way it has been handled in every movie, book, and show that I am familiar with. But in a game, if you are playing the poor bastard giving his or her all… it’s game over, pal. Maybe you get to see a nice epilogue, but that’s it. You switch discs and are playing another game five minutes later.

Really, to throw the principle of self-sacrifice into a game where the player is the sacrificee, the whole ultimate sacrifice thing is going to be very hard to pull off. The sacrifice of a couple of points of Endurance or Agility is going to be a lot more meaningful, because as a player you actually have to live – or at least play – with the consequences. And you need to see significant benefits coming to NPCs in the game that the player has already established relationships with. Having strangers run around saying, “Yay, we’ve received a 0.1% increase in our prosperity index, thanks to the hero!” isn’t going to cut it, either.

I’m not saying games should eschew stories of self-sacrifice: far from it! But making it not fall flat on its face is a lot tougher than it looks.

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

My Favorite Forum Post of the Weekend

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

There was some great discussions going on this weekend about the new Might & Magic inspired indie RPG Underworld, a work-in-progress old-school-style RPG The Secret of Lamidia, and Hanako has solicited some suggestions for a “deluxe” version of Cute Knight Kingdoms.

But this was my favorite post of all. Of course, I’m biased.

Filed Under: Frayed Knights, Indie Evangelism - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Game Design: Capturing That Old-School RPG Flavor (New & Expanded)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 20, 2010

This is a reposting of a fairly recent post from the old blog. But I keep finding myself referencing it for the awesome links, so I figured it was worth updating to the new system… with some brand new links on the subject.

“Old School” computer RPGs means different things to different people. For some people, it means going back 10+ years to games like Baldur’s Gate and Fallout 1. For others, they think of the 16-bit Japanese console classics that didn’t always make it to western shores. Still others might invoke names like Ultima, Wizardry, and even Apshai.

But then there are others who think of the early days of dice-and-paper gaming – when Dungeons & Dragons was new and gaining steam, and of the very early (often non-commercial) computer games that attempted to capture the excitement, enthusiasm, and off-the-wall creativity of the hobby when it was new. While some may lift their noses in derision of such primitive sport, saying that RPGs have evolved to a higher form of gaming since then, some of us feel that the efforts to streamline, mainstream, and – yes, improve – on the computer / console role-playing experience have made collateral damage of some really cool and entertaining ideas.

But it’s never too late to bring ’em back.

I thought I’d share some extra-nifty links related to “old-school” fantasy RPG design (appropriate for both dice & paper and computer RPGs). This doesn’t necessarily mean these are good ideas – but they are definitely ideas worth considering when trying to capture the spirit and flavor of classic dungeon-delving experiences around the table and at the monitor. Some of ’em favor the more elderly definitions of “old-school,” from the days where being able to hit an orc with a sword via a random die roll was still considered a novelty. But there are some cool ideas that could both capture the old-school flavor AND could use a modern make-over here.

Old-School Adventure Design
First up:

Old School Dungeon Design Guidelines at Grognardia.

Based on some forum discussions at Knights & Knaves and ENWorld, this list felt a little bit like reading a classic D&D module. Or – even better – playing in one of those old games. They got away with a lot of crap back then that wouldn’t fly today, but it worked because it was a new, exciting, thrilling hobby without any boundaries.

The 50/50 gambling idea with permanent changes (item #5) never did thrill me. And in a computer game, with access to save files (so any non-online game), it’s pretty unusable. I guess back in the era, if you got lucky, your character became all that much more powerful and more likely to survive. If not, you just hastened the character’s inevitable demise and your chance to roll up a new one.

One of the cooler aspects of the recent indie game Knights of the Chalice was the incorporation of elements from the second feature mentioned in this article – difficulties enhanced by circumstances, not just beefed up monsters. Of course, as a game based on the 3.5 OGL rules, there was beefed-up, templated monsters as well. But having monsters take advantage of terrain, cover, and area effect possibilities (even if pre-scripted) is very cool.

Stepping outside the dungeon, some of the additional elements I wrote down while studying some old modules for research for Frayed Knights included:

* Really strange fantasy names (still a popular option)

* An old hermit who could be useful, dangerous, or both.

* Riddles were popular by adventure creators (though I guess that falls into the same category as #4 – Puzzles, tricks, and obstacles). Not so popular with players, though.

* An evil high priest (“EHP”) or wizard running the show for the bad guys. These days, its more likely to be a drow, dragon, or mind flayer.

Dungeon Puzzles
Next up: Brian “Psychochild” Green posted the results of a brainstorm of puzzles for use in an old-school “maze-style” computer RPGs. Most of these have appeared in some form or another in older games. This one is a great resource for computer RPG designers or a Dungeon Master coming up with ideas for next Saturday’s game:

Brainstorming Puzzles In Dungeons

It’s a pretty impressive list. Man. Teleport / tile-flip movement traps – I remember those. Ick.

Design Lessons From Gary Gygax’s Dungeons & Dragons
Finally, this one is less old-schooly but still useful. Lewis Pulsipher has an article about the design and gameplay lessons learned not from modern video games, but from old dice & paper forays into the world of D&D:

All I Really Needed to Know About Games I Learned from Dungeons & Dragons

I don’t know if I agree 100% with all of his points, but it’s a useful checklist of core concepts about what made Dungeons & Dragons (and gaming in general) fun.

UPDATE: Now With 66% More Links
Since writing the original article, I was reminded of a couple more articles that may be of value to the billions and billions of people (okay, at least one or two) who are fascinated by the subject of old-school RPG design, just like me!

Progressing Through the Adventure
Melan has a post I’d almost forgotten about from the 3.0E days – breaking down the actual map / adventure flow for old-school adventures from the Dice-And-Paper world.  His point: “I hope that these brief demonstrations helped underscore the gist of my argument: good map design contributes to the fun of an adventure, and it is not a total crapshoot – there are clearly identifiable design principles which (admittedly from a gamist/”old school” standpoint), when followed, benefit a given creation.”

Dungeon Layout, Map Flow, and Old School Game Design

I’m just grateful that he took the time to abstract out the map flow of these games so I don’t have to. That looks like a lot of work.

More Games and Links Than You Can Shake a +2 Stick At!
And finally, Gamasutra has an article that should probably be part of a textbook for anybody planning to be a developer of computer and / or console RPGs:

Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs

While not strictly focused on “old-school” RPGs, it goes into length about the “legacy” of each game – the design principles they employed which may (or may not) have been passed down to later games in the genre. It’s useful for mapping out something of a “family tree” of the more popular cRPGs, and to see how design ideas have been borrowed, changed, and lost.

So there ya go. Everything you ever wanted to know about old-school RPG design flavor? Not hardly – I know you really wanted more! But hopefully that’s a good start.

Filed Under: Design, Retro - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights – Nepharides and the Wizard War

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 19, 2010

Time for an update on the development of Frayed Knights, the tongue-in-cheek indie RPG in development at Rampant Games. This time, we’re gonna talk some not-quite-ancient history: The Wizard War.

The Wizard War “ended” about three hundred years before the beginning of the game.  Nobody’s really certain when it really began. Stories tend to begin when the war finally engulfed the original storyteller’s life. What is understood is that it began – and ended – with the arch-lich Nepharides.

Spellcasters of great power can sustain their lives well beyond a normal human’s allotted time. Some wizards are rumored to have been able to sustain their lives almost as long as that of the elves, who have been known to reach the ripe old age of a thousand years. But some spellcasters are powerful enough to take this one step further, and not just extend their lives, but replace them with an undead existence. The process to do this is rumored to require some pretty horrible acts of torture and murder, so it’s not an option for a wizard with an ounce of humanity.

Still, most liches are pretty content to use their ill-gotten existence beyond mortality towards quiet pursuits that don’t bug the neighbors. Sure, there’s the occasional raid for slaves or victims to be used in experiments or food, so one really wouldn’t like to be living next door to one. But in general, a lich that has been around for more than a generation or so doesn’t tend to make a kingdom’s Most Wanted list too often.

And then there was Nepharides. Nepharides is by far the most famous lich, the “arch-lich,” and managed to give an already despicable group a bad name. Well, a worse name. At some point, Nepharides decided to wage war on the entire world. While the thought has no doubt occurred to many people throughout history, Nepharides was both ambitious enough and powerful enough to make it happen.

Nobody is entirely sure what his objective was*, which made it far more difficult to fight him. He wasn’t even fighting over geography – he’d spend weeks attacking a stronghold, occupy it for only a few weeks, and then abandon it (usually – but nor always – razing it when he left so it could not be used by his enemies). His armies kept moving, destroying everything in their path.

He amassed legions of followers, however, whose objectives were somewhat more concrete and predictable. It was against these the forces of good were able to launch an offense. As Nepharides’ chief officers and most powerful weapons were based on magic, so too did the forces of good rely upon wizards and other spellcasters to counter the awesome magical might of their enemy.

While many evil monsters joined Nepharides’ forces – often for no other reason than the chance to kill, destroy, and loot – goblins, strangely, chose to side with the forces of the humans, elves, and dwarves. Rumors claim they originally sided with Nepharides, but the other monstrous races bullied the goblins so badly that they defected. But for whatever the reason, the majority of goblin tribes joined the “forces of good” and were even instrumental in turning back the tide.

Since the war, many goblin tribes have gone back to their old ways of raiding, thieving, and even killing. But some still retain cordial-if-distrustful relationships with their former allies, continuing to enjoy some level of trade and cooperation.

The Wizard War was fought for over a generation, by human reckoning. By the time it ended, there was very little left of the old world’s geography. Kingdoms had been laid to waste, and nations not wiped off the map existed in name only. The destruction of Nepharides by Kalder the Great did not usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, though the euphoria over the victory lasted almost a decade. But the vacuum of power and the lack of a common enemy soon brought about many violent struggles with battles that proved every bit as destructive as any of the Wizard War era.

Kalderia – the kingdom founded by Kalder the Great – fared better than most. As the hero and victor of the Wizard War, many flocked to his banner, and helped him secure a nation that even now spans the better part of an entire continent. And he proved to be an able peacetime leader as well. The nation granted him by virtue of his military victory was secured by diplomacy.  His heirs may not have always fared quite as well on the leadership front, but somehow the legacy has remained, and the kingdom has prospered with only a few significant military struggles in its nearly three-hundred-year history.

While the Wizard War has been over for generations, its legacy remains and in some ways the world has never fully recovered. Everyone grows up hearing stories of the war. The fear of the return of Nepharides or another like him remains in the heart of everyone, subconsciously, even if publicly dismissed.

* But those who play the full game will discover the truth. And former beta testers for the pilot have a way of finding out right now…

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Original, Hardcore RPGs? Nah, Those Won’t Sell!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 18, 2010

Pardon me while I snicker just a little. I don’t mean anything by it.

Sony Regrets Not Publishing Demon’s Souls In North America

“Despite Sony’s close relationship to the game’s production, the company determined Demon’s Souls was too demanding and unusual to connect with Western audiences. Atlus, known for localizing niche Japanese games in North America, acquired the publishing rights.

“Likely to Sony’s surprise, Demon’s Souls went on to receive exceptionally positive reviews, and strong sales for a lightly-marketed game, selling more than 150,000 units in its first month alone.”

Okay. I haven’t played Demon’s Souls. I don’t have a PS3. I’ve read a few reviews and figure that if the day comes that I get a PS3, this will be a game I want to try. Anyway – bottom line, I’m not qualified to comment on the game itself. So I know what I’ve been told – it’s an action RPG known for being punishingly hard… or, as some reviewers call it, “old-school hard.”  Though it’s definitely not “retro” in any way beyond difficulty, it did some weird things with how defeat was handled, etc. It’s just… “different.” It was viewed as being suitable only for a “niche audience.” And hey, in all honesty, I would have probably made the same assessment. It received pretty much nothing by way of marketing in the west, but word-of-mouth and high review scores helped it succeed in spite of all that.

What message does thus tell us, as game developers, and game players? Besides the fact that Atlus should continue to be celebrated for its genius in recognizing the value and appeal of these kinds of games (and will we see a Persona 5?!?!?) and bringing them to our shores?

My take-away, especially after seeing this kind of stuff from GDC this year, and after hearing much the same rhetoric twelve years ago, back when RPGs were a dead-or-dying genre that all the smart money knew to avoid, is this:

The big publishers really don’t know jack about what their audience wants. They really only know what they’ve been successful in selling to them in the past.

This isn’t really a slam against the big publishers. As an indie, I really don’t know for sure what my potential audience wants, either. I have some guesses and requests which I may try and fill, but it’s still a crap shoot. The thing is – I can afford to take the risk. If Frayed Knights fails – ah, well, I’ll hopefully still have my day job. I’ll survive financially, though I may only be making quick & dirty web games after that… But in the meantime, we have the indies like Gareth Fouche, Vince D. Weller, Elder Prince, Steven Peeler, Indinera Falls, Jason Compton, Thomas Riegsecker, Georgina Bensley, and Jeff Vogel  taking chances with games and getting a bit more exploratory with gameplay, setting, and story. There are never guarantees.

While the big money is – to some degree out  of necessity, I feel – fleeing to the safety of well-known, proven designs, this isn’t because of some genius of marketing or oracular vision. This is simply a case of going after the most low-hanging fruit possible. And they’ll continue to miss opportunities that smaller publishers – and the indies – will be able to take advantage of. It’s just how these things work.

But I still have a tough time resisting the urge to snicker. Just a little.

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Mainstream Games - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

The Sound of Silence

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

You know who we haven’t heard from in a long time?

Our favorite paranoid EX-lawyer, Wacky Jack Thompson.

Can’t say I miss him. Actually, it’s been nice not hearing much of anything on the whole nanny-state videogames-are-crime proposals. Too bad it’s taken two wars, an economic meltdown, massive unemployment not seen in 30 years, and a divided nation over proposed healthcare reform bills to get there. But hey, if you want to find a silver lining in the hurricane clouds, there it is.

Filed Under: Politics - Comments: Read the First Comment

Please FINISH Your Game…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 17, 2010

I discovered Chris Hecker’s indie game rant from last week, and I was pretty impressed. Of course, Chris is always a fun speaker to listen to.

He also summarizes a bit of it on his website.

This was kind of an interesting talk for me. I’m not quite as plugged in to the Game Jam / Ludlum Dare / Game-In-A-Day scene, so I guess I didn’t recognize the problem. I just got jealous about how these guys can totally crank out games in less time than it takes me to write a design document. And I write tiny, simple design documents!

Here, Chris makes the plea for quality over quantity, which he defines as, “Exploring a mechanic to the depth that it deserves.”

As for me — I think there’s a big difference between a project and a product. I think the Game Jam concept is an exercise in awesomeness and has value for any game developer regardless of skill level. There’s a lot of skill carry-over between that and creating a full-fledged product fit for public consumption (whether commercial or not).  It’s the difference between a test of concept and a finished work; between making something for yourself and making something for others. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with stopping at the first level – but as Chris suggests with the scale animation, a lot of that doesn’t have as much value as a single well-made example of the other.

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Shamus Young – On Questing…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 16, 2010

Ya know, this always bugged me, too…

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Rube Goldberg Music Video “This Too Shall Pass”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

Okay, yeah, I’m slow, I live in a cave, and I hadn’t seen this until this weekend. So here it is for all the other cave-dwellers:

Interesting side-note – as I understand it, these guys basically had to kinda-sorta “go indie” with outside sponsorship (marketing) from State Farm to do this thing after their record label pulled the plug on embedded views of their previous videos.

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Why Mainstream RPGs Are FUBAR

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 15, 2010

Gareth has the principle commentary:

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, Part 1

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, Part 2

The important note to make about the second one is that it was made from the perspective of a Japanese RPG developer. Final Fantasy = JRPG, Tomb Raider = WRPG? WTF?

Okay, I get it.  Maybe. The old labels – the marketing boxes that games were always trimmed to fit inside – never sat well with me in the first place. Slapping the “Real-Time Strategy” or “First-Person Shooter” label on a game might have been helpful getting games to find their audiences, but I think they were bad for games in general and stifled innovation. So I’m hesitant to call heresy too loudly here.

But it’s one thing to push the boundaries of what a game type can be, and it’s something else entirely to flee to the comfort of homogenized mediocrity. Even if said homogenized mediocrity has kick-butt visuals and an epic movie-quality story and acting.

Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

The Toilet Seat Distinction

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

My wife and I went to Lowes’ a couple of weeks ago to find a replacement toilet seat. The old one had broken one of its joints. In spite of being a home-owner for the last dozen years, I’ve never had to replace a toilet seat before. Float balls, handles,flappers, etc., sure, a couple of times each. But never a toilet seat.

As we found the correct aisle, we walked past shelves full of new toilets. I was struck by the… well, the marketing. The ad copy. For… toilets.”Power!” “Reliability!” “Comfort!” Comfort and power. Reliability and comfort. Comfort and power. Power, comfort, and reliability. These were toilets we are talking about here! I mean, really, when taking care of the basics of human nature these devices address, cleanliness and reliability are about the only things in which I am at all interested. I guess until you actually have to shop for a new one, you never really think about it.

And so I became a little nervous about our toilet seat choice. I thought I would have to pick from, like, maybe a half-dozen, and here I was staring at row upon row of crowns for the porcelain throne ! Was I making the RIGHT toilet seat choice, or was I picking something that would now be inadequate to our needs — needs I didn’t realize we might have until I was overwhelmed by a wall of possibilities? Ye gods!

I ended up choosing a simple one that looked like it would fit and match, and was nicely in our anticipated price range. Bingo. It installed just fine. WHEW! Very soon, I will completely forget about the ordeal or the seat itself, which is one of those fixtures of home life that you really, REALLY don’t want calling attention to itself. But for now, I can say I’m fairly pleased with my toilet-seat purchase.

Okay, this has nothing to do with games. About the only thing I can say to bring this anecdote remotely on-topic is this:

I sometimes find myself sometimes struggling with the flood of indie computer role-playing games appearing in quantities undreamed of five years ago. This is a good thing. But they aren’t all brilliant gems, though even the mediocre ones often have sparks of inspiration and threads of greatness that redeem them and make them worthy of a gamer’s time (and dollars). They can be tough to keep track of, and it can sometimes be hard to know which one might be most worth your time demoing. Especially with so many of them built upon the same engine (RPG Maker).

But they are at least a hell of a lot more distinctive than toilet seats. And I don’t ever expect toilet seat manufacturers to offer a try-before-you-buy policy.

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Monaco Takes IGF Grand Prize!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 12, 2010

Pocketwatch Games’ new title, Monaco, took the Seamus McNally Grand Prize at the 12th Annual Indie Games Festival at GDC this year. It also won the Excellence in Design award.

Congratulations Andy and Pocketwatch Games!

Competition was at record levels this year, with 306 entries in the main competition, and 172 student showcase submissions. As much as I – usually privately – rail on the judges of this thing, they do have my sympathy – and they’ve been trying to make the process more transparent. But really – how the HELL do you judge from all that?

Other winners included Limbo by Playdead (Excellence in Visual Art, Technical Excellence), Closure by Closure Team (Excellence in Audio),  Heroes of Newerth by S2 (Audience Award), Continuity by Ragtime Games (Student Showcase Award), Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor by Tiger Style (Best Mobile Game), Tuning by Cactus (IGF Nuovo Award), and Max & The Magic Marker by Press Play (D2D Vision Award).

Links and more information can be found here.

What? Where was Dejobaan’s “Aaaaaaaaaaaaa! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity“?!?!? They wuz robbed! Ah, well. Again – the competition was FIERCE this year.

And you can watch the video of the full awards ceremony here. This has proven pretty awesome in previous years, as indies really refuse to take things seriously. Or at least traditionally. It’s in their blood:

Congrats winners!

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