I've updated the blog's template today and hidden a few posts that were essentially 'Oh, how terrible, I haven't posted anything in so long, etc. etc..'

So here's what I've been up to:

My most recent gaming obsession has been Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which I have been thoroughly enjoying, though I currently find myself in a quandary - having begun with the intention; 'Run through on Story Mode, get as many achievements as possible, knock out all the guards I can and get as much XP as possible...' I find myself in a position where I have to ask myself which of these personal objectives will I have to abandon first in order to progress in the game...? So I'm taking a break.

Happily, I became so caught up in the world of Deus Ex, I have begun reading William Gibson, and Neuromancer, which has been on my 'to read' list for some time, and which has clearly informed a lot of the ideas in Deus Ex.

American McGee's Alice was begun last night - I got 15 minutes in and then managed to get myself stuck on a wall - thus is the curse of the Testing mindset when you've been in QA for too long... you'll do anything except what you're supposed to in a game, just to see if you can...

Something I am quite enthusiastic about in terms of my ongoing education is CodeAcademy's 2012 project 'Code Year', a lesson a week in Javascript, all run from within the browser - each Monday (closer to Tuesday UK time) I get an email with a link to the next lesson - this week it was lesson 4, Primitives.
Given that ICT is being phased out in schools, in favour of actual Computer Science (and, thanks to the Raspberry Pi and so forth, with any luck, it shouldn't take too long for schools and students to reorient themselves) I think there's no better time to be learning to program! I am teaching myself other languages by other methods, but being taken through step by step within a browser as a remarkably intuitive and stress-free way to learn. I'd encourage anyone who was even a little curious to go, take yourself through some of the early lessons (all still available on the site) - just give it a go.

Speaking of giving things a go; I think it's time for me to click 'publish'.

TTFN

S

Loved – a... recommendation.

I’m not sure how to review the Flash game/'short story' Loved... in a lot of ways it’s what I hoped Company of Myself could be – it’s abstract in the same way, but it feels more thought out, and as a result – in my opinion – flows better.

But what is it? I’ll give a brief idea and send you on your way – you’ll either like it or you won’t.

By Alexander Ocias and described as a ‘confrontational’ platformer, Loved is that: as with traditional platformers, it’s 2D and all you need are the arrow keys to move and jump, and avoid certain obstacles which, of course, kill you on contact. However, this world is watched over by a domineering voice, giving you choices and instructions, which you can choose to obey or disobey; the black and white world will become more defined, or dissolves into brightly coloured squares, depending on how you play. Again, like Company of Myself, it has a grim sort of humour to it, which always appeals to me. It attempts to force the player to consider what they’re doing, as a player, as a character in the game, as a person to a certain extent – it’s... interesting, to say the least.

After first play through, choosing a ‘middle’ route – neither obeying nor disobeying all the time, the ending was... abrupt. It’s not a long game, but parts of it are quite challenging – requiring consideration as well as good hand eye-coordination. I think the abrupt ending was probably a penalty for my lack of commitment to a path... The endings seem to differ depending on various things.

Like Company of Myself, Loved is a game that encourages self-reflection – if you just try to blast though it, you won’t get as much out of it as if you actually try to soak up the atmosphere and think about what the game is trying to show you.

As I say, I’m not sure how to review this; it’s not a perfect game, but certainly worth a go. I’m going to try again, choosing consistently either the path of rebellion or obedience – see where it leads me.

Company of Myself - a review

With complete disregard for the aforementioned Plan, I will now review a little Flash game I was directed to via twitter.

Company of Myself is a really simple little puzzle platformer created by Eli Piilonen with artwork from Lika Marcetic and music by David Carney. A melancholy hermit muses on his loneliness and self-imposed exile while his psychological journey is reflected in his journeys between entering a series of rooms and getting through them to their green door exits.

The mechanics are nice, simple obstacles can be overcome by running your character through certain movements with the arrow keys then resetting the level with space bar and watching a shadow form of yourself run your previous movements alongside you.

I didn’t discover any glaring bugs, though the game won’t thank you for creating too many shadow selves in a level (where you get the opportunity).

The atmosphere of the game is thoughtful; minimalist but well crafted and the running commentary through each level has a nice, understated sense of humour to it. For the most part it coheres very nicely. However; as much as, for the most part, I loved the atmosphere and the writing, the final ‘twist’ in the afterword did somewhat leave a bad taste in my mouth; at best it needs a rewrite, but to my mind it’s unnecessary all together.

Only twenty short levels Company of Myself took me a very short time to complete (hence no 1 hour review) but on the positive side has no time to get repetitive and most levels have a different way of using the mechanic to get through the level – some require a lot of forward planning, some require a strict sense of timing and still others just require you to throw yourself at it. However, it would have been nice to see extended levels revisiting the different kinds of puzzle that this kind of mechanic is capable of producing and improving their complexity.

All together, even though the game works well, it is perhaps too minimal and self-contained; I can’t help but feel that with more or longer puzzles I would have left me feeling more satisfied – or maybe taking out some of the elements which are only used in one or two levels and making a separate game with them. There is a level with a ‘checkpoint flower’ that resets the level from a different point – but it is one flower in one level – it is far too short a game to be learning new tools so far in – it also makes for a somewhat uneven difficulty curve.

Still, I would recommend this game: its shortcomings only really grate because I see so much potential in it; and there are far worse ways to spend some idle time in front of your PC.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village - a review

I’m still enjoying a few remaining puzzles in this game, however; I’ve finished the story and feel like if I don’t remember to update this blog, it will become forgotten entirely (again).

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a puzzle/adventure game by the Japanese developer Level-5 for the Nintendo DS.

The story begins as the Professor, an apparently world-renowned puzzle-solver, and his assistant Luke are called to the village of St Mystere by Lady Dahlia Reinhold to solve a mystery written into the will of her husband, the late Baron Reinhold; it challenges any would-be heirs to find ‘The Golden Apple’, promising that any who do will inherit his fortune. The aim is to navigate the story and solve this mystery among others; though it would probably be a very short game indeed if every resident of St Mystere didn’t insist on giving a puzzle to be solved before they will speak to Layton or Luke.

The first thing that hit me about this game is the art; charming and beautiful in a way that’s both as distinctly Japanese as Studio Ghibli but with a wonderful European flavour . The game is presented in the style of a point and click adventure with still pictures to be clicked on in order to find hidden puzzles and ‘hint coins’ (a currency to be bartered for clues - when it’s just not your kind of puzzle) with beautifully animated cut-scenes throughout.

The story is simple, but sweet and is interesting enough of itself that I wasn’t skipping past it to get to the next puzzle – helpfully also, there is a short recap every time you start the game, so you never forget where you are.

Of course, your appreciation of the game will still be somewhat limited if you’re not a puzzle fan. If you are a puzzle fan then you’re in luck. There are, according to Wikipedia, a total of 135 brain teasers throughout the game. These are of so many assorted kinds; from numbers, to shape recognition, to chess, that there is a puzzle for every sort of problem-solving brain. You will need certain puzzles to be solved before you can progress through the story, but far from all of them – they’re just there for your enjoyment and to collect items for further puzzles (or to assemble a handy coin-finding robot-dog) – and thanks to the aforementioned hint coins, there’s no need to resort to frustrated internet searches for the solution if you really don’t get it.

The criticisms I have of this game are really very small in comparison to its obvious virtues; Luke’s ‘English’ accent for example sounds a little too much like Dick Van Dyke on helium for my taste, and towards the end of the game, wandering around the village and pointing at everything you see in hope of finding those one or two missed puzzles does become tiring.

However, for any puzzle fan in need of a game to fill a few spare hours, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Fahrenheit - better late than never

So I started playing Heavy Rain and was, with a couple of little niggles, enjoying it. I kept being asked, if I was enjoying Heavy Rain, how did I feel about Fahrenheit? (Indigo Prophesy in the US to avoid confusion with anything else that might have the word ‘Fahrenheit’ in the title.)

... I’d never played Fahrenheit. Why not? Who knows, just hadn’t. Something I’m very interested in is narrative in video games, so seemed too obvious to have missed. So I dutifully borrowed a PS2 and a copy of the game and began to play.

Having finished Fahrenheit, I’m going to write my thought now in semi-review form – mostly getting my thoughts in order in order to get a better idea about using the video-game format as a way to tell stories, and in preparation for Heavy Rain when I complete that and hopefully write a review here. Bear in mind that I am still only part way through Heavy Rain, so I’ll make a few comparisons to that game and the way the controls and so forth have evolved, but can’t comment on it as a whole yet.

Fahrenheit is like Heavy Rain in that it’s an ‘interactive drama’ – like a film which periodically asks for some input – sometimes you can alter the course of the narrative; sometimes not. You can move around the room when you have control, inspect and interact with certain objects and some more involved actions are overlaid with variations on the Quick Time Event.

Story-wise, Fahrenheit begins very well.

The action begins right away – all the worst of the violence is out of the way in the opening cut-scene as you watch your character, Lucas murder a man in a public toilet; lurching towards him like a marionette with tangled strings. Then you gain control. This opening scene is almost pitch perfect. Enough choices to have you really deliberating and all the emotional beats are there.

I’m someone who can become immersed in a story very quickly and Fahrenheit is a game that really draws the player in; if you’re open to it. After finding myself the murderer in the middle of a crime scene and feeling that panic, I then found myself in the role of the police detectives called to investigate the murder. Somewhat jarring. Do I do the best job I can in each role? Or am I too invested in Lucas’ fate to want to assist in his capture?

The sanity meter (a measure of the character's happiness - become too miserable and it's game-over) is a nice touch, if the player needs some reason to wander around the apartment and essentially ‘role’play’ the part. I feel like Maxis’ The Sims probably prepares a person more than adequately for some of it – even before playing Fahrenheit, in Heavy Rain I did seem to find myself wanting to use the toilets, and the fridge and so forth, though it has no real purpose in that game – the small touches that make a better rounded whole.

The odd thing about it is that once the game has played through, the way it’s made almost encourages you to think about it like a film rather than a game. For all the emphasis on player agency (the ‘interactivity’ part), the story becomes very linear. There are three endings and only a limited way you can change how the story unfolds – most of your actions are based around progressing along that story and keeping your character away from the teetering brink of sanity (sex and coffee are key).

The scenes which don’t work towards driving forward the strategy, especially if they only involve more Simon Says, feel quite redundant though – almost to the point where the character of Tyler feels redundant. I used him a couple of times to re-attempt a conversation I had failed with Carla and it was interesting to be able to go over the laundrette crime scene twice, but even that wasn’t much help.

Tyler's scenes are there to provide some relief or minor puzzle solving between the Lucas scenes I suppose, but didn’t feel like it flowed.

While Heavy Rain attempts to make your movements evoke the physical pressures and demands on screen, Fahrenheit feels more like a movie that tests your hand-eye coordination before letting you progress to the next scene. Not that it doesn’t try; but after the first couple of scenes, it’s all ‘Simon Says’ with the analog sticks and alternately pressing L1/R1 at different speeds. I do like the ‘rhythm game’ feel of some of the analog stick movements – though few and far between; such as if you decide to play the guitar in Lucas’ apartment. On the other hand, apart from a few innovative uses like that towards the beginning, by the end it feels like a normal, slightly irritating QTE – easier to design and program than the ability to control fight scenes directly.

The game really begins on at its highest point, and it’s a nice ride for a while, but as it enters the point where it should be building to its climax, as a friend of mind said; ‘the dog ate the script’ – and it quickly becomes too ridiculous. But the beginning is far too promising to just write it off – as an experiment in narrative, it’s wonderful – Quantic Dream just needs to take the time to craft their story.

In short, I have high hopes for Heavy Rain; make a little more of your medium and create a better-rounded story, and you’ll be fine.

Where was I...?

Well, the office is more or less set up… not comfortable, but it’s a place to work. New computer is a horror story I won’t put here. I didn’t want this to be a personal blog where I whine about my life.

I want things to change in my life though – I want them to move forward. To this end, I’m attempting to acquire useful skills for a career in the games industry. I’ve been learning programming, scripting, modding – reading every book on game design I can get my hands on… along with some sketching and short story writing (slow going, but I’m making the attempt)

This blog is part of that – I want to document my efforts, and also to put here my observations, on design generally, as well as games.

My observations on Ikea, briefly, so I’m not leaving people in suspense: the way it’s arranged makes me think of the way sets are arranged for other media; film, theatre, games, whatever. It needs to be aesthetic, it needs to be practical to your specific purpose but it also needs to appear as though it would be practical as a living space, even though it isn’t really used for that. (in the case of Ikea, it not only to highlight the furniture itself, which they’re trying to sell, and lead the potential buyer to imagine how it could be placed in their own home, but to draw you through the store, round that one-way system they have. It includes those little detours where they build a flat.) Very clever. There are books that have been recommended to me about this… it will have to be investigated further.

I have been playing games – I started Prince of Persia for PS3. It’s ok, I’m playing it on casual – it’s far less frustrating than many other games due to the idea that you can’t actually die...
I’ve renewed my subscription to World of Warcraft – gotta love those seasonal quests!
I’ve been watching J. play The Force Unleashed – I’ve not been impressed enough to pick it up myself – what’s the point of being a bastard when that’s what the game expects? It also looks pretty repetitive, though the first little bit playing as Darth Vader looks fun.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is awesome – J’s already played through, so now we’re gonna go through together – maybe I’ll collect achievements or something to make it a little different… though I won’t get them all unless I play it through on each difficulty, which I don’t plan on…

Anyway, that’s more or less what I wanted to say last time, but got cut off… Next time will be better, I swear.

Friday

So… I had this interesting conversation this morning.
Stop me if you’ve heard it all before, but… maybe when companies are trying to reach out to the female market, that’s the wrong group to be aiming for.
Thinking about it, girl-gamers are very different people from other girls who perhaps aren’t interested in games (or simply don’t identify themselves as gamers). We’re talking about 50% of the population. You aren’t going to find one single factor that links all of them apart from the fact that they’re all female.
So, what are these companies looking for? Do they want more girl-gamers? People who maybe sit on the fence at the moment? Borrow games from other people but aren’t committed to seeking them out for themselves? There seems to be a trend for “casual gaming” at the moment – is that people who don’t play games otherwise? Older audiences? Younger audiences? Don’t get me wrong, apparently Barbie Fashion Show sold very well, but it really doesn’t interest me...

Anyway, home time... I’ll do some research on this topic and blog more another time... the question interests me...

Also it’s my birthday today, I don’t have to be deep or purposeful^^