Source: CX Partners
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
The Changing Nature of Game Interface
(Quoted from Artful Gamer)
When I play any game, using a standard NES/PS2/PS3/Xbox/GameCube controller layout — my fingers and thumbs find their places... As soon as I settle down to play the game, my fingers are no longer fingers to me. They are a part of the game — my fingers become something like my mouth when I am speaking — they spring into action when Mario needs to bound over a Chain Chomp or needs to go down a green pipe... My fingers never become a part of my foreground or focal experience — in other words, my fingers become repressed parts of my bodily experience.
... There is something very focal in interacting with touch-based devices, because my finger does not fall into the background as easily.
Returning to my anecdote: does my friend’s 2 1/2 year old son experience his favourite iPod Touch game as a ‘real’ world? Or is his experience like mine — somewhat disembodied and self-conscious? Is this an inherent problem with touch-based interfaces, or do some of us already experience bodily repression that allows us to ignore our fingertips when we touch the display?
When I play any game, using a standard NES/PS2/PS3/Xbox/GameCube controller layout — my fingers and thumbs find their places... As soon as I settle down to play the game, my fingers are no longer fingers to me. They are a part of the game — my fingers become something like my mouth when I am speaking — they spring into action when Mario needs to bound over a Chain Chomp or needs to go down a green pipe... My fingers never become a part of my foreground or focal experience — in other words, my fingers become repressed parts of my bodily experience.
... There is something very focal in interacting with touch-based devices, because my finger does not fall into the background as easily.
Returning to my anecdote: does my friend’s 2 1/2 year old son experience his favourite iPod Touch game as a ‘real’ world? Or is his experience like mine — somewhat disembodied and self-conscious? Is this an inherent problem with touch-based interfaces, or do some of us already experience bodily repression that allows us to ignore our fingertips when we touch the display?
Why Can't Video Games Make You Remember The Dead?
What made it real, though, was the fact they could die. One stray bullet, whether by accident or some careless command from you, the player, and they were dead. And not video game dead, where you could magically revive them, or they'd be "unconscious" and would return for the next mission. Actually dead. They'd be stricken from the game, their progress lost, and to replace them, you'd need to get a fresh young soldier and do it all again.
To lose a player like that is heart-breaking. And because of that, you remember it. You remember the characters you liked most, the ones who helped you out in the most important missions. And each time you enter a new battle, those old characters are still with you, their loss serving as an example, making you more aware, more cautious of what's around each corner.
...
As games seem so intent on conjuring all kinds of other emotions, from excitement to humour to fear, it'd be nice if they could look past the act of pulling a trigger and deal with some less pleasant, but no less important emotions as well. Like remorse. Regret. And remembrance.
To lose a player like that is heart-breaking. And because of that, you remember it. You remember the characters you liked most, the ones who helped you out in the most important missions. And each time you enter a new battle, those old characters are still with you, their loss serving as an example, making you more aware, more cautious of what's around each corner.
...
As games seem so intent on conjuring all kinds of other emotions, from excitement to humour to fear, it'd be nice if they could look past the act of pulling a trigger and deal with some less pleasant, but no less important emotions as well. Like remorse. Regret. And remembrance.
Quoted from Kotaku
Daisuke Ishiwatari
Just making a note here, of someone whose music, illustrations and character designers I respect. The guy behind Guilty Gear series.
Daisuke Ishiwatari (石渡 太輔, Ishiwatari Daisuke?, born August 14, 1973 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a Japanese video game developer, illustrator, musician, composer and voice actor. (from Wikipedia)All in one, man!
Chaos Rings
Though I don't have iPhone (well I don't see the need to anyway), this game looks pretty neat for an iPhone game. SquareEnix rocks!
Board Game
Some food for thoughts in designing a Board Game.
Sources of Tension: http://www.bgdf.com/node/277
Game Types: http://www.bgdf.com/node/276
Sources of Tension: http://www.bgdf.com/node/277
Game Types: http://www.bgdf.com/node/276
Machinarium
While looking for inspirations for my FYP, I recalled this game, which has already been published some time ago. Played the demo, it's... awesome! (visually and storytelling-wise)
There's a pretty in-depth review about the game, certainly something worth thinking about when doing a point-and-click game.
Some excerpts from Jakub Dvorský's interviews:
Would you do a game without dialog again?
I'm a really bad writer. It's hard to tell a story without dialog, but it's our way.
More accessible for everybody i.e. children can't read.
Plus, when I was growing up (in the Czech Republic),
it was really difficult to read english point & click adventure games.
Dreamed of adventure games without any language.
--- (from here)
And something that's similar conceptually from the previous game I was in, Waker:
I think that he does pretty well is interesting failure conditions. So, if you don't actually find the solution, something engaging still happens. What do you think of failure -- not failure, but partial solutions and failure and stuff like that? How do you consider those?
JD: I think it's important because it's obvious that you can't do everything right for the first time, so it must be funny to fail, basically. For the next game, we to try a new approach. We want to create a very playful game, which will feel like a toy that you can play with so you won't be focused only on the solution or finishing it but on playing it. It should be more about playing with the game, more than to solve it as soon as possible.
Yeah, because that particular scenario seemed like it was possible to figure out because you see these effects that are happening and they kind of lead the player along the way. A lot of adventure games wind up becoming just “try everything on everything else,” just click everything. Are you trying to move away from that?
JD: Yeah, a little. And also, it's nice to create difficult puzzles, because I think nowadays in some current adventure games, it's so easy to solve the puzzle. In the older adventure puzzles, it was very hard to finish the game without a walkthrough because there was an infinite amount of items in the inventory and an infinite amount of options to do.
Nowadays, everybody's trying to do it differently in the opposite way. So, now it's very obvious what to do and it's very easy to solve it almost without anything, so we try to make it something in between, and make it somewhat hard. There is no infinite amount of possibilities in each level because you have only a couple items in your inventory at a time, and you're not allowed to go to certain locations.
---(from here)
What advantages or attraction do you see with the point-and-click genre over others that have kept you producing these adventure titles?
JD: The narrative part -- the story, puzzles, characters and the whole micro-world itself -- are the most important things in adventure games. I prefer these things over game mechanics and tactics, which are the main elements of first-person shooters or real-time strategy games.
What can users expect to see in Machinarium that they didn't see in your previous games, or perhaps in any other titles in the genre?
JD: Compared to our older games, Machinarium will be bigger and more detailed. [It will have] a stronger story line, more logical puzzles, an inventory, and a couple of other new features, like mini-games and animated communication between characters. The main character, a little robot, will be able to walk freely around the locations and be telescopic.
Compared to other titles in the genre, I think we try to put a bigger emphasis on details and things which aren't in the main focus -- subtle animation jokes, music composed carefully for each location, and every building, character, or item in the game having its own history and meaning. We also try to think a little differently when designing the puzzles.
(from here)
GAMBIT: Waker/Woosh
Finally the game that I've been working on for the 2 month-internship have been launched (28 Aug 09, yea I'm a bit slow to update). And up-to-date, there are already a number of websites that "picked" (or a nicer say, "featured") our games! Here are some of them: (These are just for my personal collection =D)
- Philip Tan's (our Executive Director) blog
- Geoffrey Long's (our Game Storywriter) blog
- Resolution Magazine
- ZDNet Asia News
- FreeGamesNews
- IndieVault (Italiano!)
- XSp Blog
- Flytrap Games
- FunEffect
- Omy News Sg
- BonteGames
- 1001 Juegos (Spanish!)
- JayisGames
- GayGamer
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun
- GameAxis Online
- RazorTV Interviewing XJ!
- Youth.SG
- Unigamesity
- Liberal Education Today
- Mike Darga's Game Design Blog
- IndieGameMag
Play these games!
Let me know how your experience differs from one game to the other!
Let me know how your experience differs from one game to the other!
Kudos to Rini who almost single-handedly handled all the art assets for Woosh! Also for Brandon for his godly, awesome artwork! Rich for the awesome audio (really love it, man!)! Xuejin for being a crazily funny Producer! Anna and Kevin for the awesome and smart level designs! Yuanqin and Changyou for working so hard getting all the stuff in and working! Eunice for picking all the bugs and making sure we're on time for every Milestones! Sara for being a great guidance for all of us! Big thank you all! Our game rocks! =D))
