Pixel Theories | a gamer getting older...

The 10 Sins of game development pt. 5

#3 Musical Score

The problem: The game's score lacks identity, or worse becomes annoying during the course of playing the game.

Major culprits: The Settlers of Catan, Tiger Woods 07, College Hoops series

Avoidance: Creating or outsourcing for better tracks or scores from fully qualified musicians.  Every successful television show, movie, and video game has an excellent musical score.  This is not some mysterious coincidence, music helps drive the games' drama and emotion.   Music behind games like Halo and The Legend of Zelda: WindWaker, it's confounding why more developers haven't tapped more of their budget to find quality scores outside their own development studio.

#2 Balance

The problem: Multiplayer matches are dumbed down by the inclusion of super weapons that can be exploited during the entirety of the match.

Major culprits: Halo 2, C&C Tiberium Wars, Madden series

Avoidance: Major weapons with high reward should carry high risk when using them.  This is usually not the case as sniper rifles are generally easy to use, super weapons are easy to build, and sports NPC's never fatigue. Without true balance, gamers generally default to using exploits even if they disagree with the method. 

The problem with exploits is that they usually only allow one side to have an advantage over the other, thus players devolve further to learning how to cheat the cheaters.  This higher leaning of cheating keeps new players from enjoying the game, and withers away the mainstream base; which generally leaves a small percentage of hardcore players.  This support for this small composite of players is most likely too high which means that the developer wither starts to fix the game (Bungie) or they pull the plug on support (Ubisoft).  Either way a good game, and 24-30 months of development go down the toilet, because the game was unbalanced.

#1 Auto-Aim

The problem: Some idiot somewhere thought it would be intelligent to let anyone auto lock on to opposing players and NPC's without trying, thus defeating the purpose of playing the game.

Major culprits: The Halo series, COD 4, and every other FPS on the market.

Avoidance:  The problem with Auto-Aim is that it doesn't require skill or talent.  Skill and talent should be needed to use different weapons or skills.  If games don't require patience, balance, and skill, then matches basically boil down to one player holding down the trigger longer.  Eroding the gaming experience down to a bunch of idiots on-line holding down the right trigger for hours upon hours.

Though many developers feel that their game would be less commercially successful if they left Auto-Aim out.  It's not necessarily a fair assessment; the SOCOM series developed by Zipper Interactive was successful in it's first two iterations when it lacked this feature in multiplayer matches.  Though it still was in the game during it's single-player missions, via codes, the exclusion of aim-bots in multiplayer actually made the game a commercial success.

If you want to make a warm and fuzzy game for the kiddies with Auto-Aim that's fine.  However, if you're targeting a hardcore audience with plans for a large multiplayer base, then it's something you must exclude.  Auto-Aim takes the fun out of the experience and reduces the quality of the game; if this medium is to be respected then it should gain that respect based upon the requirement of difficulty and patience.

The 10 Sins of game development pt. 4

#5 Bad UI design

The problem: The User Interface is lacking HD quality, missing originality, or confusing users because of it's bad design.

Major culprits: College Hoops series, Too Human, Pro Evolution series

Avoidance:  Design UI's to be more efficient, ability to customize, and use selection trees if needed.  EA does a lot of things wrong.  The one thing they do right is UI design, and the Madden series is proof of that.  The background's are always interesting, you never get lost in sub menus and the quality of wallpapers are true HD.  By using the selection trees within their menus, players can easily navigate the game options and settings.  EA's UI designs are the standard for which all games should be measured.

#4  AI or lack thereof

The problem: Artificial Intelligence within the game leads your cohort NPC's into walls, continual crossfire, or stuck on corners.  The AI within the game is either too stupid, or beyond genius.

Major culprits: Gears of War, Mass Effect, Halo 2

Avoidance: Simple taking more time to play test AI at different difficulty levels.  For example, Gear of War is one of those games where your AI partner Dom is getting killed every thirty seconds on the Hardcore difficulty.  Though on the default difficulty he's not very helpful.  Granted, on harder difficulties more of the burden should be put on the player, but that doesn't mean that you should have to babysit your AI buddies either.  The drastic dichotomy of AI on different difficulty levels just makes some games either unbelievable or unbearable.

Bungie.net reveals more Halo 3 content on the way...

I'm not going to embed the video, I have limited bandwidth.  But you can access the video in Quicktime and WMV formats here.  And you can bet that the whole of the Mr. Bush's Internets are abuzz with what this teaser trailer is supposed to mean.  Though that would take some insight from people who have actually read the five books that give more meaning to the Halo Universe.  Luckily for me; I have.

From the Keep it Clean  and Pardon our Dust transmissions from the planet's Superintendent.  It would appear that the following game or content will be taking place slightly after the start of Halo 2 and before the events of Halo 3.  Where a Series I Spartan (there could possibly be more) will lead a massive force of ODST's (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) to take back the New Mombasa after the slipspace escape of the Prophet of Regret during the events of Halo 2.

The Proof is in the Pudding.  SPOILERS AHEAD!!!  You've been warned!

Halo 3 and many of it's overtones were reflections of the books.  References to glassing planets, shield worlds, and the massive Forerunner bots leaping to another planet were all events that correlate to the book: Ghosts of Onyx.  Where Jon's (known to many as the Master Chief) Blue Team is trapped inside a Dyson Sphere with a team of SIII, or Series III Spartans, and the Spartan program founder Dr. Catherine Halsey.

While Bungie dev's and Microsoft have always said that the books were always intended to develop the mythos of the Halo Universe. It's becoming more clear that they intend to tie the two together.  Even if that means coming up with alternate time lines or better explanations of why Blue Team never made an appearance in Halo 2, yet were in direct contact with Jon in what could be seen as a prequel to that game in the book: First Strike.

First, take a look at the Keep it Clean transmission.  This is a record of the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI, where a Communications officer is trying to get in contact with his C/O.  ONI is the UNSC's answers to our modern day CIA/NSA intelligence community. They are the home of the darkest secrets within the UNSC and the breeding grounds for the Artificial Intelligence and Spartan programs.

Then take a look at the Pardon our Dust transmission, which is clearly depiction a C/O of the heavy cruiser "Say My Name" approving a request from a Captain for troops that will no longer report to Fleet Command.  The Captain is using the transmission code "DARE.V.500341(S1)."  Where Dare is his last name, V. is his first initial, the number his registration, and the S1 for Series 1 Spartan.  And Spartans only report to ONI officers and UNSC Admirals "in the know."

Those who have read the books know that the S1 Spartan's have only been referred to as a "massive failure."  And approximately only a third of the soldiers that went through the SII program were combat functional after implants and surgeries.  This might explain why there may only a few of these S1 Spartan's left, and why they have been a relative no show within the books though many speculate that Chief Mendez, Jon's first C/O, was another likely candidate as a S1 Spartan.

What ties my hypothesis together is the fact that the teaser trailer reveals the white light emitted from The Prophet of Regret's ship when it left New Mombasa for installation 05.  Now Earth has been infected by The Flood (Halo 3) and New Mombasa is one of the last unglassed habitable places on Earth.  Moreover, New Mombasa was where Blue Team was fighting before they made the jump to Onyx, and it was also the starting point for the game Halo 2. 

After being blown apart from the slipspace New Mombasa is host The Flood, it will be up to every soldier within the UNSC force to be called into action; even the surviving first generation of Spartan's.

In the end this will only be a taste of what's to come.  My guess is that the DLC will be only a few levels of what may be a new spin of a gritty tactical shooter based within the Halo Universe.  What many have known as "Halo Blue," which was slated to release September 30th 2008.  Many fans of the books have always asked for games that have been more representative of the accompanying literature.  But considering that the the three games have eluded to the fact that Jon is the last Spartan left.  This new addition may blow all the holes in that theory for those who haven't read the books and finally tie the two mediums together.

Granted my theory has holes and the teaser trailer doesn't due enough to suggest what the new DLC will be exactly.  But this is Bungie, they always play it close to the vest.  My guess is an educated one and if I'm not right I'm damn close.

PAX Contest!

So here it is, the PAX contest.  It's late and there's not much, but it's yours for the winning.  This is also a thanks to the community members at cheapassgamer.com , they've saved me quite a few pennies over the last five years.  The contest is a 40-man tournament of Carcassonne on Xbox Live.

The Game - Carcassonne
Eight brackets of five players a piece.  The eight winners will be reduced to four in one on one, then to two, then to one.  Players will be placed in groups by seeding.  Winners will be required to take a screenshot of their game to advance in the competition.  First forty to respond are given priority, but the tournament may be expanded to meet demand.

The SWAG
Everything pictured.
Not pictured
- Pink Godzilla dev kit.
- VIP code for EndWar beta.
- Mirrors Edge prequel mag.
- PAX 08 program.

How to enter
1) Go to Cheapassgamer.com
2) Register for the forums.
3) Go to the PAX Contest thread, will be up on 9/21/08 no later than 8pm.
4) Contest starts next Sunday.

The problem with Too Human.

 

It's very simple.  Too Human is a game that's been in development for the last nine years.  That's 7 years longer than the normal development cycle of a game with this depth or focus.  But therein lies the problem, Silicon Knights, a former Nintendo owned developer, has had a tumultuous past with the hardware companies. 

Initially the game was supposed to release on Sony's PS2, then after a falling through with Sony, SK moved the game over to Nintendo's GameCube.  Then with deadlines quickly approaching for their parent company Nintendo, the Knights shifted their manpower towards releasing Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid:Twin Snakes.  In the shift Too Human was put on the back burner, and after the release of the two titles, Dennis Dyack ended his company's contract with Nintendo and looked for a new sponsor.  And eventually Microsoft Games Studio answered the call.

In addition to it's sponsorship problems, Dyack and the Knights have had problems on the software front as well.  After filing a suit in July of 2007, against Epic Games over disputes about a lack of support for Epic's Unreal 3 Engine; Epic followed by counter suing.

SK has had an interesting if not, muddled history in the industry and Too Human is reflective of that fact.  The game is based upon the legend of Baldur, one of the lesser known gods of Norse mythology.  Which may be the problem, you see when you have a character that no one knows you have to establish some form of a background or origin for that character.  However, Silicon Knights has gone with the "amnesia" aspect to Baldur's story, thus you are seeing everything as Baldur sees it.  This approach, doesn't end up paying off, you'll figure the story out half way through the game, though you'll still be confused by some of the game's tangent plot lines.

Furthermore, nothing is explained by the science-fiction twist on Baldur's story.  Are the devs trying to hint at some form of cyclical evolution, or are we simply being told a story in a different light.  Dyack and the Knights never touch on this at all within Too Human.  To gain a better understanding of the game you could've watched the five part dev diary on XBLM.  Which in it features the dev's home of St. Catherine's, Ontario, the employees of the Canadian dev, their wacky inter mural program, and the the mockumentary "The Goblin Man of Norway."  Which after watching you understand two things: 1) this is a variation of Baldurs story via cyclical evolution where at one time humans stood alongside gods at our supposed technological peak.  And 2) if SK had put as much forethought into Too Human as they had with this mockumentary this game could have been much improved.

Too Human boasts a lot of stuff you seen in other games: skill trees, armor variants, runes, weapon customization.  The compilation of just about everything that you could think of within the RPG/action-adventure chimera is part of Too Human's problem.  There is a lack of focus/scope within this game that has the user at a disadvantage from the time they start the game.  There is no tutorial, there is little explanation of how the skill tree works, or powers that are within the tree will function.  I have invested 20+ hours in the game and still don't fully understand the importance, or lack there of the game's charm mechanic.  These are serious issues that only new eyes to the game could address.  And in a nine year on and off again dev cycle, could've been easily dismissed, but that's really no excuse.  If you're going to tout you're game as "there's really nothing like it out there."  It would probably serve your purpose to have tutorials, or at least better descriptions of how the game's mechanics work.

Add that to the game's slippery combat mechanism, often your character, regardless of class is hacking through metal goblins or trolls.  There is no feel of organics to Too Human.  Slicing, hacking and bludgeoning mechanical opponents feels the same as it does going up against the undead.  Moreover, levels within the game feel unbelievably long, though the game does feature alternate game paths, which all lead to the same boss battles, these levels are far too long.  The formulaic hack, slash, explore, repeat, starts to feel laborious during the last level of the game.

And as players finally start to get the gist of the game and the story improves to the point where it carries the dreadful gameplay, the game ends.  It's unfortunate, but games with oddly long dev cycles like Too Human, face an uphill battle, especially with the turmoil and hype that this game had drawn.  If this game had been released back in 2000/2001, it could've won GOTY.  Now it's just another game that lacks an identity.  And in that need for definition, it disenfranchises players from what it could have been and where it still has yet to go.

Co-op is another story.  while playing with a friend via XBL.  The enemies will rival that of the player with the higher experience.  So if you're a level 10 and your friend is a level 45, all enemies will be around that 40-48 level.  And you will quite literally be "up shit's creek without a paddle."  As every time you spawn you'll get hit once, maybe twice, and you're dead.

While I can't full on recommend Too Human, you should still play it for what it worth.  Because to be frank, there will be a second and third iteration.  And the difference between games 1 to 2, and 2 to 3, will probably be excellent examples in what to do wrong, and what to do right in game development.

Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade - The review

Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade is over, and with it the end of summer itself, or at least here in the Pacific Northwest.  Essentially XBL's SoA was a five week stint of releases to the XBL Arcade, download and play the trial or full game, and get entered into a drawing for a windfall of 100,000 to 4,000 MS points.  Suffice it to say the bulk of the games released were worth DLing; and a few weren't.

Geometry Wars 2

Really enjoyed the first title.  Though I approached the follow up with trepidation.  Initially I enjoyed the demo, though it wasn't exactly a good preview of the full title.  Thus with only one mode available to test drive, I never downloaded the full game.  However, Metacritic is showing a score of 90 for the title.  Which is good, and right now it stands as the 13th best game available for the 360.  In the end this title is a split decision.

PT: PASS
The Industry: BUY

Braid

You've either played Braid or you haven't.  That sounds like a simple assessment, but the game is either worth the 15 bones to you or it isn't.  The largest complaint of people who haven't played Braid is the price tag.  They're concerned that the game may not be worth 1200 MS Points, and that it the game's puzzles could be solved within the better part of the day.  And they could be right.

I breezed through most of Braid within seven hours in one sitting.  At the end of the day I was only missing four puzzle pieces, but even if I had found them all in the that one sitting it wouldn't have meant that I have dominated the game.  Braid is one of those rare games that keeps on giving long after you've completed your initial run through of the game.  The game boasts five speed runs that are unlocked after you've completed the game, in addition to secret stars hidden throughout seven levels within the six worlds, not to mention the game's alternate ending.

Braid is an adventure that's worth the fare, but you can only find that out for yourself when your ready to pull out your wallet.

PT: BUY
The Industry: BUY

Bionic Commando: Rearmed

I'd been waiting for this game since it's announcement.  Fortunately for me, GRIN the Dev behind the remake did anything but disappoint.  BC:Rearmed boasts a complete overhaul of HD quality graphics while keeping true to the mechanics of the original 1988 NES game.  In addition, GRIN added a new mechanic for the game's hacking system, a multitude of challenge rooms, and an awesome remixed soundtrack.

If you've never played the original, you should know that it was altered (Capcom replaced all Nazi emblems and most of the references) before it's US release.  The original game has an intriguing background that is reflective of one of the many NES games that have had mysterious references that could be seen as either too political for children, or just flat out offensive.

BC:Rearmed is the perfect plat-former for the Gen-Xer's that have been waiting for a game that gives them that warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling.

PT: BUY
The Industry: BUY

Galaga Legions

Wasn't impressed with the demo, and honestly there were several other arcade titles that I'd like to see updated and released to the XBLM besides Galaga.  Granted it's a Namco property and they were bound to put it up on the XBLM at any some point.  They've done three iterations of Pac-Man and Galaga Legions is the second iteration of Galaga.  It's just unfortunate that it had to be a part of this promotion.  Legions just doesn't hold it's weight in comparison with these four other titles.

PT: PASS
The Industry: PASS

Castle Crashers

A long awaited title from the The Behemoth developers finalizes the Summer of Arcade.  Put on display at last years PAX; Castle Crashers garnered a lot of attention, that was followed by disappoitnement when The Behemoth announced delay after delay.  So it wasn't much of a shocker when the game launched that it had some connectivity issues and bugs.  It is possible that you may not experience any of the aforementioned, and if you do it's probable that you won't be too disappointed.  Simple fact is that Castle Crashers is a fun hack and slash in the same vein as Double Dragon and Fatal Fury.  Though this game has more humor and a longer shelf life.

PT: BUY
The Industry: BUY

The Bottom Line

Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade delivered in 3 out of 5 weeks for me.  Luckily Braid, Bionic Commando:Rearmed, and Castle Crashers are excellent digital titles that will deliver long after the summer will be over. 

The drawing is September 17th!  Good luck to those of you who entered into the drawing all five weeks!

For the Love of the Game (update)

Immediately after the game I knew this would be a national issue.  Officiating in this day and age is getting worse and worse.  I'm not asking for anyone to be fired.  But when ESPN decides to set aside close to 8 minutes of air time to discuss the explanation of the penalty with David Perry the National Coordinator for College Football Officiating on ESPN's College Gameday, it's obvious that it's just not us Dawg fans that feel this is a wrong turn for college football.  What's worse is that Perry's explanation of the enforcement of the penalty is more of the "CYA" answers that you'd expect of someone in that position.  My guess is that Perry probably watches little to no colege football at all.

Yesterday morning, Don Borst wrote a special on FoxSports.com in which he responds to the penalty and has received over 421 comments thus far.

So there it is, watch the video, read the article, and join the conversation.

CSS; yay!

Well I'm getting ready to use some ad revenue credit I've had with GoDaddy for some time now.  It's not much, may get me up for a day or so.  At the same time I'll be putting up the PAX contest.  Not really sure how the logistics of it will work since I don't have forums on the site.  But I'll get it up; promise.

Back to the CSS; it's new and things are looking a little more professional.  At the cost of me having to re tune most of the pages.

Se La Vi

So if you catch somehting that looks amiss please let me know.

For the Love of the Game.

The University of Washington has a long list of pedigree QB's who have advanced to the NFL.  There is no doubt in any expert's mind that UW Soph QB Jake Locker will be among them.  Some dare to say that Locker is potentially the greatest Husky QB of all time; and I agree.  He is an athlete of superior athletic ability than any football player I've seen on a collegiate football field, in conjunction with the humitlity and wisdom of a man years beyond his age.  I personally guarantee he will one day hoist a Lombardi trophy on the big stage.

His acceptance to UW two years ago had made him the heir apparent to the throne of the likes of Warren Moon, Mark Brunell, and Chris Chandler.  In the face of this rhetoric, Locker himself was quick to dismiss that his presence alone would mean winning seasons and bowl games.  Locker is also known as a player who devotes extra time during meet/greet and charity events.  His attitude and perseverance is one of what you'd expect a professional athlete who understands his role in a program and behaves accordingly.

So it's in great disgust that I had to watch the closing moments of the BYU v UW game earlier today.  Where with seconds left on the clock, Locker heroically scrambled for a touchdown to potentially send the game into overtime.  As he scored, Locker got up threw the ball into the air in rejoice and celebrated with his teammates.  As the ball hit the ground a goal line official threw his flag for excessive celebration.

Now let me describe to you what "excessive celebration" really is.  It's dancing in the end zone, eating popcorn on the field, or running to the middle of the field to showcase yourself.  Excessive celebrations are those which humiliate your opponent and isolate yourself from your team.  Jake Locker's display of emotion was the complete opposite of this.  And when asked in the post game interview about the flag Locker apologized for loving the game of football.

What kind of world do we live in where players have to apologize for their love of the game?

The flag is an apparent sign of the PAC-10's horrendous officiating; and worse a sign that "the powers that be" in this conference are ruining the sport.

Unfortunately for myself and every other PAC-10 fan, this is just the latest in this conference's bungles which have made them the joke of the NCAA.  Their inability to negotiate a deal with ESPN, ridiculous bowl game agreements, and of course, ludicrous officiating is why several big schools like Oklahoma may refuse to schedule big games within our conference until changes are made.

What a joke; a sick uncomprehensible joke. 

I'll post the link to Jake Locker's celebration when it becomes available on YouTube.

PAX DAY 3

Sunday

Taking the "johnny-come-lately" approach today.  Eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant, checking out, moving the car, and heading to PAX.  Really just thinking about the last Omegathon round and what the game will be.

10:00am - Halo Wars

Skipped saw it yesterday.

10:30am - New Xbox Experience

I stayed on Saturday to watch the Xbox Experience.  It was a lot of fun Major Nelson showed off some stuff we've never seen in the new dashboard/experience.  Previously to the demo he held up a no filming sign with a huge smile and joked that it would be on YouTube in 10 mins.  And while it wasn't quite 10 minutes, he was right. 

Check it out.

1:00pm - Omegathon Round 5

Jenga.  Two eliminated, two advance.  Everyone is psyched about the last round.

2:00pm - Expo Hall

Bought a PA shirt (paint the line 2) and got to try out the new LoTR Conquest game.  The exhibitor got pissed when I changed the options.  The default settings were for Minis Tirith, but when I switched it to The Black Gate, the guy almost had a heart attack.  wasn't really impressed with the demo anyway, like the Star Wars Battlefront games before it, LoTRC has loose targeting and feels like characters are constantly slipping on ice.  EA, I'll never understand why they would put something in a public demo that they wouldn't want played. 

5:00pm - Omegathon Final Round

My guesses for the Final Round were Tom Clancy's EndWar, or SOCOM: Confrotnation.  In the end Gabe and Tycho settled on VS Excitebike for the Famico system.  A game that was never released in the United States.  VS Excitebike is a two player version of the game where you can race against each other in up to nine consecutive races.  For the last round of the Omegathon it would be determined that the first to four wins would take the winner to Tokyo.  And in the end it was Joesph Urbansky or Joey Geko who took the win with a 4-0 victory.

End of Day#4

Headed home.