One-button action-game: Canabalt

I haven’t posted in a while, but the following game has finally brought me out of my current post-drought: Canabalt (WideScreen version)

Found this on Raph Koster’s blog, and it has probably been posted elsewhere as well, but I really need to post about this game myself. It’s to blame for the most fun I’ve had in any game I’ve played in recent months, despite being a 2D sidescrolling platform-game made in only 5 days, with pixel-artwork, requiring only the occasional press of a single button to play.

My entire lunch-break at work went past in a Flash (hoho) while playing this game, where you take on the role of some random dude who starts running from within an office building or some such, jumping over a couple of chairs – and then out through a window and onto the rooftops, where he promptly takes off running again all by himself, leaving it up to you to bring him (with your one-button press) from rooftop to rooftop. Your character will gradually run faster and faster, and if you avoid the various crates (which will slow you down if you hit them, intentionally or not) scattered across the rooftops, eventually he’ll run so fast you’ll have a hard time reacting to what appears on your screen, whether it be a window you need to jump through (into a building and out another window on the other side), debris from a rocket(?) you need to jump over, or buildings collapsing under your feet.

Long story short, I’ll be playing this game all weekend to try to beat my co-worker’s record run of around 11370 m… my own record stands at a puny 6838 m :(

Games like these really bring me back to the good old days, when the gameplay mattered and graphics was something you did as an afterthought… nowadays it seems to be all about presentation, Presentation, PRESENTATION! As long as the graphics are good and the interface fancy enough, it doesn’t matter if the gameplay sucks hairy donkey-ass, as the screenshots will look still look good and sell many boxes.

Last bit of advice – do not under any circumstances play this while at work. It can be hazardous to your productivity. Or so I’ve been told.

About the Laws of Online World Design – Part III

This is the third installment in a series of posts I’ll be making about The Laws of Online World Design, as explained in this introductory post. I will start at the top of the list, and work my way down until I’ve poked and prodded every law in the list, not skipping any unless I really feel like it. In this, Part III of the series, I’ll concentrate on the following law:

  • Persistence means it never goes away

Continue reading “About the Laws of Online World Design – Part III”

About roleplay-servers in MMOs

Two articles that popped up on MMORPG.com in recent days both touched on the same subject – roleplay servers in MMOs.

The first one, by Dana Massey, denounce roleplay servers as unenforceable, virtually identical to regular servers and generally a major pain in the ass for those who have to moderate them.

Sanya Weathers wrote a follow-up of sorts, a more interesting (IMO) article concerning the difficulties facing a developer when setting up (and maintaining) roleplay-servers in MMOs.

If you haven’t already, go read both articles, then come back here – I’ll wait.

*hums a tune to himself whilst waiting*

Done? Okay: First off, I’ll say straight out that I think the first article mentioned is too subjective, too extreme and too obviously meant to provoke – roleplayers in particular, I guess. This article doesn’t really give me anything, as I have quite the opposite view when it comes to the continued existence of roleplay-servers. I guess I’m part of the target audience for that specific article!

I find Sanya’s article much more interesting though, as she tries to lay out clearly the problems with roleplay servers from a developers point of view, and ways in which to make those problems less (of a problem). At the end of  Sanya’s article, she lists a number of things which she sees as the minimum required feature-list any MMO-developer should offer for roleplay-specific servers. Having been on multiple sides of that table already, both as a player and as a designer, I started thinking a bit myself, about what features a dedicated roleplay server ought to, well… feature.

Read on for my thoughts on the matter.
Continue reading “About roleplay-servers in MMOs”

About the Laws of Online World Design – Part II

This is the second installment in a series of posts I’ll be making about The Laws of Online World Design, as explained in this introductory post. I will start at the top of the list, and work my way down until I’ve poked and prodded every law in the list, not skipping any unless I really feel like it. In this, Part II of the series, I’ll concentrate on the following law:
Modes of expression

This is the second installment in a series of posts I’ll be making about The Laws of Online World Design, as explained in this introductory post. I will start at the top of the list, and work my way down until I’ve poked and prodded every law in the list, not skipping any unless I really feel like it. In this, Part II of the series, I’ll concentrate on the following law:

  • Modes of expression

Continue reading “About the Laws of Online World Design – Part II”

Stop the press!

Holy crap, BatmanGuybrush! This is awesome news:

One of the best kept secrets in game development history has been revealed. Telltale Games and LucasArts have put out a joint press-release announcing two brand spanking new Monkey Island-projects. The first one is an episode-based, five-part series by Telltale – Tales of Monkey Island – and the first episode is due out as early as July 7th!! Even better:  Ron Gilbert is/has been involved on this project (snipped quote from Telltale forums: “some design and story brainstorming, consulting, etc.”).

The second project we’ve (the public) known about for awhile already, though more details are available now. It’s a re-make of the original MI-game for both X-Box360 and PC, titled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. It’ll be out later this summer, and features full voice-over with the original voice-actors from MI3. We’ll also be able to switch between classic & new style in-game at the press of a button. Awesome stuff.

Put on your eyepatches, polish those wooden legs and prepare for a fantastic summer!

Edit: Just realized this almost reads as an advertisement/”press release” in itself. I’m just excited, that’s all. =P

Edit 2: Ron Gilbert has some stuff to say about all of this, plus he’s got some interesting observations and anecdotes (and screenshots) about the original Monkey Island game. Check it out.

Forty-two

I haven’t really been giving this blog the attention I should lately, and I beg pardon for that – though I blame life, the universe and everything. I do have some more posts brewing, but not sure when I’ll have time/will to finish them up and hit the publish button. Anyways, enough excuses, have a small update about… stuff.

Scarygirl

I was linked this awesome flash-based platform-game by a co-worker yesterday, and even though the game has been live since the middle of April and is probably old news to many, I just have to throw out a link for it here myself:  Scarygirl.

The main character in the game, i.e. Scarygirl, sorta looks like a mix between one of the characters from The Night Before Christmas and Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl. Which makes her damn cool. The actual game isn’t too shabby either – it’s as if the developer (Touch My Pixel) took bits and pieces of old classic platform, puzzle-and adventure-games (Treasure Island Dizzy came to mind. So did Mario AND Giana Sisters, and Commander Keen) and then combined them into this awesome, totally new Flash-based experience. From what I’ve seen so far, everything about this game is very well made – be it visuals (by artist Nathan Jurevicius), audio, story or gameplay – it’s all gorgeous. Granted, I’ve only reached level 3 so far (out of something like 14?) but I’m hoping the rest of the game keeps up the standard set in those early levels. Try it out yourself!

Any less real if it’s virtual?

Gamer.no has an interesting article about a talk/presentation held by Jon Bing, a prominent Norwegian writer/law professor at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (NRCCL), at the Norwegian Game Conference on the 23rd of April this year.

He argued that there is no significant difference between virtual and real experiences, that looking into a monitor is no different than looking out a window and that a lot of people are already living in their own fantasy-worlds without the help of technology. He stated examples like an MMO developer being forced by courts to reinstate virtual items for a player who got his account hacked, and how a Chinese Legend of Mir 3-player – Qiu Chengwei – stabbed and killed a real-life friend of his (are virtual friends any less real?) after said friend sold a virtual sword of his on eBay. What happens in those games are already a part of real life, Bing said.

Other topics he discussed were virtual reality, and integrating technology with the human body, for instance through microchips, speakers, microphones, input devices like keyboards etc. which could for instance let us be the cell-phones ourselves and not have to carry around a separate device. Interesting, but a bit scary, especially when thinking about the potential for abuse by Big Brother (TM). You can leave your cellphone behind today (though few people do), but if the cellphone is a part of your body – what can you do?

Read the entire article on Gamer.no for a more detailed summary of his talk (Norwenglish version, courtesy of Google)

The Dresden Files

Forgive me, Rincewind, but you’re no longer my favourite wizard (though you are still my favourite wizzard, mind).

Some time last year, a friend of mine and I were discussing Fantasy authors/series, and he suggested Jim Butcher‘s The Dresden Files to me. It took me a while to actually pick up the first book, but after I started reading it I didn’t put it back down until I reached the last page, and I’ve since then reached book 9 in the series (with two more to go before I catch up to the author and have to start waiting for books… *grumble*).

In short, Harry Dresden is the most awesome wizard ever. And Jim Butcher, buddy; you’ve just climbed to position #2 on my list of favourite fantasy authors (position #1 is still securely held by Pratchett).

I Would Play It If…

Saw the following meme/game thingy at MMO Gamers and thought I’d jump on the band wagon since I have nothing else to write about at the moment. The goal, according to Bio Break (where this little game originated), is to finish the following statement with a simple response, substituting different games into the sentence:

“I would play [TITLE OF MMORPG] if…”

Here are mine, listed in random order:

  • I would play World of Warcraft if it didn’t require as much time as it does to keep up with my always-raiding friends
  • I would play Ultima Online if I travelled through time back to 1998, or 1999, or 2000, or 2001, or 2002. And maybe 2003.
  • I would play Eve Online if it were more like Elite, and if you could fly seamlessly between space and individual planets
  • I would play the Wheel of Time MMO if it actually gets made and released, no matter the quality of the game itself. I am a WoT fanboy, after all.
  • I would play City of Heroes/Villains if I could only come up with a decent design for a superhero/arch-villain
  • I would play EverQuest 2 if I hadn’t already played a trial version of it, during which I found out that I hated the visual style of the game
  • I would play Runescape if I was 12, or if no other MMO existed
  • I would play Warhammer Online if it didn’t look and feel like a slightly twisted version of World of Warcraft (yes, I see the irony there…)
  • I would play Lineage 2 if not for nightmares of horrible, horrible GRRIIINDIIIiing
  • I would play Lord of the Rings Online if I ever should feel like having a mug of ale in The Prancing Pony
  • I would play Darkfall if I hadn’t already had my fill of getting ganked by random PKers ten years ago – and if it was actually for sale

In other news, round 2 of our (mine and Babak‘s) little blogging contest starts on the 17th/18th of May and will as usual last for one month. We use this as a method to “force” ourselves to put on our blogging hats more often, and hopefully it will lead to a whole bunch of new blog posts from the both of us.

My approach to game design

On the 1st of March, Danc (Daniel Cook) posted a very interesting entry in his Lost Garden-blog about game design styles. He lists a number of different styles he has observed in game designers, then describes his own definitions of what each style consists of and what shortcomings/limitations it may have.

The styles he listed:
Copycat: make a game like another game that is interesting.
Experience: Make a distinct moment of game play that looks and feels interesting.
Narrative: Make a story that is interesting
World: Make a place or world that is interesting
Systems: Make systems and objects that are interesting.
Player Skills: Make verbs for the player that are interesting.

He ends his article with a couple of questions, one of which I’ll tackle here:
What style of game designer are you? Do you fit into one of these approaches?

On the 1st of March, Danc (aka Daniel Cook) posted a very interesting entry in his Lost Garden-blog about game design styles. He lists a number of different styles he has observed in game designers, then describes his own definitions of what each style consists of and what shortcomings/limitations it may have.

The styles he listed:

  • Copycat: make a game like another game that is interesting.
  • Experience: Make a distinct moment of game play that looks and feels interesting.
  • Narrative: Make a story that is interesting
  • World: Make a place or world that is interesting
  • Systems: Make systems and objects that are interesting.
  • Player Skills: Make verbs for the player that are interesting.

He ends his article with a couple of questions, one of which I’ll tackle here:

  • What style of game designer are you? Do you fit into one of these approaches?

Continue reading “My approach to game design”

World Builder – the movie

Woah. I just finished watching World Builder, a short film about a man building a realistic-looking virtual world using holographic tools from inside a “holodeck” of sorts.

World Builder by Bruce BranitWoah. I just finished watching World Builder, a short film about a man building a realistic-looking virtual world using holographic tools from inside a “holodeck” of sorts.

You should watch the entire thing; not only is it a quality production from start to finish, with an innovative approach to how world-building can happen in the (hopefully near) future, it also tells a surprisingly good and emotion-stirring story despite only lasting for 9 minutes and 15 seconds.

(
(World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.)

It was created by digital effects artist Bruce Branit, who co-created one of the first short films (405) to get distributed widely on the Internet back in 2000 and has since had a finger (or ten) in visual effects everywhere from movies like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sin city and Serenity to TV-series like Moonlight, Lost and Pushing Daisies. Watch a reel of his work here.

One to watch, most definitely!

About the Laws of Online World Design – Part I

This is the first installment in a series of posts I’ll be making about Raph Koster’s The Laws of Online World Design, as explained in this introductory post. I will start at the top of the list, and work my way down until I’ve poked and prodded every law in the list, not skipping any unless I really feel like it.

In this, Part I of the series, I’ll concentrate on the following law:
Design Rules

This is the first installment in a series of posts I’ll be making about Raph Koster‘s The Laws of Online World Design, as explained in this introductory post. I will start at the top of the list, and work my way down until I’ve poked and prodded every law in the list, not skipping any unless I really feel like it.

In this, Part I of the series, I’ll concentrate on the following law:

  • Design Rules

Continue reading “About the Laws of Online World Design – Part I”