Originality FTW: 2 free indie games

I’ve lost all my bookmarks. As a consequence, I’ve lost many blogs that I’m not sure I’ll find again… As an added consequence, links to articles that jumpstarted my thoughts have been lost too… (UPDATE: found them with a little research, in fact :) )

There are 2 free games I’ve downloaded some time ago that I only recently found the time to play with. These are Eversion and Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden.
I found Eversion through Chris Survival Horror Quest blog here [Also, go check his article on Game score vs game sales which is vaaaary interesting]
As for BSU&JG, it comes from here.

Eversion is a platform “save the princess” game cute as hell with a twist: on some parts of each level, you can use the Evert key to change somewhat the level, and gives you access to some parts. I’ll leave the surprise for now, but there will be spoilers later in the article with my thoughts.

Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is a RPG created with RPG Maker. You play as Charles Barkley, renowned basketball player in our world. But in BSUaJG, Barkley unleashed some years ago a Chaos Dunk during a match, which caused the death of millions of people, made basketball a forbidden game, and saw the lynching of quite a number of basketball players. But… Recently, an organisation unleashed a Chaos Dunk, for which you are blamed. It is time to change the world.


Spoilers and thoughts ahead, now. You have been warned !
One last time: [SPOILERS] !


Let’s start with Eversion. The Evert key changes the landscape towards a grimmer world. It starts cute, with bright colors, an innocent music, and so on. Then, the first time you hit the Evert key, the world gets a bit blander. Enemies don’t smile as much. The music isn’t so joyful. But clouds can be walked on, now, and so you can finish the level. Everything is fine, right?

Nope. It will only get worse. Monsters finally get hideous, additional hazards appear, the music gets disturbing, and then disappears totally, making you react to the slightest sudden noise (and there will be). Background turns to red. The text and score gets crypted. You get the idea.

The game itself is moderately difficult (very difficult for people like me who are bad at platformers), but you have infinite lives to plod through. You learn from your mistakes, and continue. Each level you finish, you can start from if you stop the game. So, it’s made to make you continue, and come back. Also, death is part of the equation, as some of the crystals you collect on your way are placed such as you can only suicide yourself after collecting them (or else, I’m really terrible at platformers, which is also a possibility).

Even if you manage to finish the game (took me an hour or so), it is not a happy ending unless you have found all the crystals in the game. Which requires a lot of going back, everting back and forth, and dying; yes, each crystal you collect, you get to keep, even if you die. And everting points being invisible until you step on them… Have fun, Explorers and Achievers !

What I find interesting in the game is that everything is aimed towards the mood and setting. You start with something you know (cutesy Mario-like platform) and see it turn into something very dark and disturbing. Which, as Chris says, may be the key to many successful horror movies or games. The Evert key, of course, the occasional details (In the 3rd or 4th world, hitting a smiling block is necessary to change the world and advance. The block’s eyes POP when you hit it…) but also the dark screen after each death. It starts innocuously (“Ready!”). Then, as you progress, you get a black screen with no words. Then a sudden “game over” (but you can still play), a “Ready! To die” and so on. Much thought was given on the immersion of the player, and the setting of the mood.

And… You can not stop wanting to see how far it will go, even if the game may be frustrating with its insta-death mechanism.

I didn’t get the happy ending yet, but sadly spoiled myself with youtube inadvertently. I won’t spoil you, though. I’m cool like that :).


...
I guess Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden will wait for a later post !

[Insert Blank Slate Joke here]

I know, I know, the closing of Tabula Rasa is sooooo 2 months old. But I’ve got things I have to get off my chest… Because, you see, I LIKED Tabula Rasa !
Of the different MMORPG I played (which to date, are DAoC, WoW and GW. I’ve made a lot of above-the-shoulder EQ watching), it’s the one I enjoyed the most. But I came in late, and only enjoyed it for its last 2 months…

There are many good articles on that game, like Mike Darg's serie on it (part 1, part 2, and part 3)

Some from people that were part of the team, like Adam Martin, or some that were just in the same company, like Scott Jennings

And, to my mind, it was a good game, at least in the end, with design decisions that I’d like to see again…

1) Immersion
I’m not an immersion fanboy. But still, having monsters *pop* suddenly out of nowhere, or having NPCs standing in one place day in and day out is always kinda grating for me. Even if knowing that Joe Blacksmith is always there to buy my junk makes my life easier.
But here, they really had an attention for details: Banes were teleported from dropships, tripods were dropped from the sky as metal “seeds” that bloomed in a mechanical monstrosity, pyrosaurs were born in a lava blast.
And striders clawed themselves from the ground… Gods above, if I have to remember a single “wow” moment, it will be the time a strider clawed its way from right under my feet. At the time, facing a strider alone was almost sure death for me. You can imagine how I ran…
NPCs did rounds in the camp. They chatted with one another when they crossed paths. They fought with you in the entire map instead of only in camps. Planets were coherent. No tundra near a jungle here, nu-hu.
The game was consistent. Everything had a reason to be. And, the little spawning animations were awe-inspiring in their own right, and had the added value of giving you time to prepare yourself at least mentally.

2) Dynamic maps
Control Points… Bases which could either belong to your army, or to the banes, which needed to be conquered, or defended from invaders. CPs were always great moments for me. Because almost every time, I wasn’t alone doing it. Granted, sometimes, there were just NPCs, but I was part of a team, part of a squad. We wouldn’t let these goddman banes take our goddman bases, or keeping their goddamn nodes on our goddamn planets, nosiree. And sometimes, taking these points unlocked quests, or instances.
Yes, the constant assaults of the Banes were perhaps a bit too frequent, yes, as Richard Bartle said concerning WAR “RvR is never resolved, so it is pointless”. Yes, there was a statu quo.
I didn’t say it was perfect.
But it was an incentive for people to play together without forcing you to group.
Dynamic story points would have been interesting (like in Asheron’s Call, if I understand correctly). For example, a huge Bane base with heavy defence needing a massive and cohesive player army to bring it down, which would have been a unique moment in play. I know it’s much more work for developers, but if they did it in AC or EQ, why can’t they do it now?


3) A good incentive to group
Yes, you could solo. I did a good part of the 36 levels I gained that way. But I did all instances in groups, mainly PUGs.
In most games I tried, when you group, XP per kill is divided by the number of people in the group. Quite fast, you gain a trickle of experience, and even if you kill more mobs per second than before, it’s still not enough to leverage. In TR, you had a “group bonus” to XP that got bigger the more you were. True, XP was still divided, but with the bonus, it was close to when you soloed. And as you plowed through monsters more quickly, you had a rage bonus on top of that.
Not to mention that the different classes played quite well together.

4) The community
… You just laughed, didn’t you?
Ok, it’s not a design decision, and I’m aware that it was linked with the fact that the game was doomed and thus only fans stayed. But still, I encountered many helpful people when I had questions, I never had any trouble in finding a group, and 95% of the time, I had fun with that group. That’s far more than I can say about WoW for example…

5) The cloning system
Not used as intended, but it allowed me to play with friends that had been playing for far longer. As they had clones at lower levels, we could play together even if we weren’t at the same level.
Still, I think I’d prefer something à la CoH and their mentoring system (the sidekick gets boosted to the level of the master, or the other way around, I don’t really know) to help people play together whenever they want. As I said, ot used as intended ^^
Also, it allowed you to level alts without having to redo the whole game (something that some people really loathe as they are here only for the “endgame”)

6) The weapons
I really felt that all weapons were different and had their pros and cons. Some did AoE damage, others had a long range, or ignored armor. Not only that, but you did not use 2 different weapons the same way (auto attack, anyone?). Everyone could find their preferred style, and everyone was different. Just because you could use a higher tier weapon did not mean you had to, as lower tier weapons could still pack a punch.
Also, I liked the fact that you could have 5 different weapons on quickwield buttons, enabling you to adapt to a good range of situations

7) Dynamic fighting

No auto aim, here. You aim at your enemy, and then you shoot. Some weapons needed a longer time to aim than others, and you had to decide whether to stay unmoving, aiming faster, or moving, so the enemy could not draw a bead on you. Yes, you used action buttons, but at the same time, you did aim and shoot. I was far more “awake” than in most MMOs. And the fact that the more enemies you killed, the greater the experience multiplier was a real incentive to continue.
Also, as soon as you were out of combat, the regenerative qualities of your character were greatly enhanced, enabling you to go back into the action quickly.

8) A dedicated team
I know, that’s no design decision… But it is still important !
Even though the game was doomed, the developers continued to issue bug fixing, and to add content during the last throes of the game instead of just letting it die. You have got to respect that… Alo, they did pay attention to their customers, from what I’ve read. I mean, adding gloves and a boxing arena because some players did pistolbutt one another for fun? I find that cool.

9) Choices in quests
Choices, dammit ! You did a quest, and you could have 2 different outcomes based on your decisions. Would you take the young pacifist to be trained as a soldier, or let him become a shaman, serving his people in a way that more befitted him?
Did you poison the bane to make him talk, or try to gain its confidence?
That way, your character lives ITS story. It’s not exactly the same as Joe Soldier on your left..
True, there weren’t many choices, and some had no reason (the Bane that asks you to give him the serum, because the disease kills banes as well… I have no reason to feel empathy to these creatures, why should I begin now? It’s a shame, it could have been a very interesting dilemma). But there were choices, and that is a step in the right direction.

Damn, 9… 10 would have been so perfect !

Others have talked far better than I did of the downside effects of being able to fight quasi non stop, with no downtime: (I’ll update as soon as I find the links again…)


So I’ll leave you with the fact that I hope the people working on that project have been able to find something else to work on, and that they will be as dedicated. Let’s just hope their next project does not see its core idea changed twice, and a too early release (meaning “compared to the moment a fun core was found”)

The Girlfriend Experiment (Part 2)

After the first experiments, she asked me to find her “cute” games (which got a friend’s reaction “doesn’t she want good games instead?”). So, what was the next type of game she tried?
Horror/Survival…
Women <___<… EXPERIMENT 3: Horror/Survival

Left 4 Dead (PC):
So… On the left, a game where you must aim and shoot at zombies using a mouse. Running zombies. With creatures with special powers. On the right, a girl who gets easily lost and never aimed with a mouse. A girl who gets easily scared. Or grossed.
Can you guess the result?
I saw, during that experiment, a lot of ceiling. And a lot of floor. I heard screams, too. But she kept on, and kept on, and kept on. I think it’s the game she played the longest time “alone”. I only took the mouse once because she was completely lost.
What is sure is that she had a LOT of fun. She even, ultimately, insisted that I buy it. She hasn’t played it again yet, but she wants to.

What I learned:
- The keyboard is VERY complicated for her. She kept using one finger to move instead of three, and lost much time (and health) because of it. Using the arrows was less alien than WASD, but still.
- She clearly loved to freak in front of the running horde, and hates boomers…

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)
They were two. And they screamed like banshees. My ears do still hurt, but it was a fun session.
In RE4, the zombies are slower. And the game is far less forgiving than L4D. And the fear is different too. It’s the fear of turning around and seeing something that crept on you while you were not watching.
She was more in control than in L4D even if the aiming mechanism of RE4 is very strange.
She wants to play again, too. But she did not keep on as much as in L4D

What I learned:
- Clearly, the Wii controller is easier to get…

EXPERIMENT 4: Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
This time, it was a cute game. With the Disney characters. How wrong could it get?
Well, plenty. The main problem came from the controller: there were far too many buttons for her to keep track of, and so she was constantly forgetting what did what. And, truth be told, the pacing of KH at the beginning is very very slow… She lost her concentration more than once, and I ended playing a good portion of the beginning. She hasn’t played it again yet, and does not show any intention of doing so. Or, if she can meet Mickey. And we all know (at least, those who played it through) how difficult that can be.

What I learned:
- Too many buttons = too much complexity. As of now, it’s the only game she has played on the PS2, and the only one she had shown any interest in. I must find that post on another blog where the author said that each generation brought more complex controllers, as if there were no new gamers out there (beside the young generation, who understand things far more quickly than we do, dagnabbit!!)
- “Cute game” does not mean “I’m sold”
- The pacing of a game, especially at the beginning is VERY important to keep someone interested, ESPECIALLY someone who does not play often and lose concentration quickly…

Well, this is starting to get TLDR, so stay tuned for part 3, where we’ll speak of Mario Kart Wii and Boom Blox. I tell you, Wii is the console to get people gaming !

The Girlfriend experiment (Part 1)

As I said on Wiqd blog, I have a great girlfriend, cute, bubbly, brilliant, you name it. And I really like being with her.
What’s the point of this? She’s not a gamer. She almost never played any game, a few Adventure or city building games here and there, like Caesar 3 or Monkey island. But it’s now been years since she played any. And she’s willing to try again, as she sees it’s a major hobby of mine.
So, I have at home an almost complete newbie of the female kind. What an interesting test subject, isn’t it ?

EXPERIMENT 1 : Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)

I started with SSBB, figuring the Wii controller was easier to get than others (Must find the link of the blogger who was saying that controllers got more complicated with each generation). SSBB may not be the best game to ease someone back in that hobby, but it has a secret weapon : Kirby.
If you don’t know who Kirby is, it’s him, on the left, cute as hell, with the ability to gobble his enemies and steal their powers. He can also fly, and has starred in many games since 1992. He’s also a strong character in SSBB, in my opinion.
Long story short, the first games were a slaughter for her… She would make him jump and then fly, happily laughing at the noise he makes while flying (a sort of « Poit ! Poit ! Poit ! »), not caring one bit about the fights going on downstairs.
Then, she discovered she could eat people. That became phase 2. She would try to gobble everyone, once again laughing while doing so, and would do nothing else, trying to see the different haircuts it gave to her character.
But when she really tried to fight, we were far too strong for her…
It left her wanting for more.

Experiment successful.

What I learned :
- She would not play without me, or at least without other people playing with her. Games are more of a social moment for her
- She would not always play the game as it was intended

EXPERIMENT 2 : Mini-games (Rabbid Rabbits 1, 2 and 3 & Wario party) (Wii)

To that day, the third game is her favorite game, I think, particularly the snow race. She clearly has a hard time getting the games, but improved herself over time (by comparison, another friend, who was a gamer but stopped a long time ago, understands more quickly what’s to be done, but reaches an improvement plateau much more quickly). She loves it and wants to play it every time we see the friends who possess those games.

What I learned :
- She needs time to understand how a specific game works. Wario Party games are horrible for her, for example, leaving her no margin for error and no time to improve
- I get pounced when I win too often <___<


Bear in mind, I'm not saying every new gamer is like she is. But I find it interesting that she needs much more time than I do to understand a game and then play it.

Part 2 will deal with horror/Survival games, with Kingdom Hearts and with PC and PS2 games...

Replay it again, Sam ! (part 2)

Welcome to the second part of this post ! The first part was about replaying a game in a short window of time. The following reasons are better suited when some time has already passed…

Nostalgia
Or “Hey, remember when..?”

Replaying a game after some months, or years have passed, means that you liked something about the game. Was it the design? The characters? The world? Whatever. But something compels you to come back again, to something you already mainly know.

But… How long will you play? Most people I have asked answered that they will only dip their foot in the pool, so to speak, and rarely go frolicking for a long time. One evening, maybe a weekend, rarely more. I even know some people who keep save games located just before a particular event they liked and will only play through that event.
In the end, you just want a quick trip down Memory lane, but you do not need to go through all its mazes: you already know them, after all…

Challenges

Here, you come back with a clear challenge in mind, self imposed. In the first part, I had announced that this would be “Perfection”, but perfection is only one of many challenges you can set yourself.
I remember playing Max Payne 2 again with a friend, but only some levels (the dream sequences, mainly), trying to do them as fast as possible, looking for that extra second to spare…
I remember seeing a walkthrough explaining how to go through Chrono Trigger while retaining Chrono at level 1…
“Can I do it?”
Big question. But people like to try, to brag, or just to know that yes, they can.

The duration has no impact: you have a goal, you want to reach it.

Conclusion

So, what did we learn?
First, let me state that this article wasn’t just about me: I asked some friends and people for their input (that’s how “Perfection” became ”Challenges”; thanks for that, E-Link! ), which mainly confirmed what I thought.

1°) Many people will play immediately through a game again if it unlocked content (playable or not), and if the length of the new playthrough isn’t too long.
2°) Many people will play immediately through the same game again when they can retain their data, to see how strong their character is. BUT most will stop a long time before the end.
3°) Replaying in higher difficulty appeals to some gamers, but not all. Less so if it’s the exact same game, and only the enemy’s strength varies.
4°) Players are adept at creating their own challenges when a game offers none anymore
5°) Sometimes, players like to come back to something they know, just to see if it’s still the same…

Food for thought, and discussion, I hope ;)

Replay It again, Sam ! (part 1)

Recently, I started to think about replayability, mainly because I have a game idea that needs you to live the same day again and again. But why do people replay games? And what games do they replay?

I have identified 3 types:
- Unlocking content
- Play in Higher difficulty
- Nostalgia
- Perfection

Unlocking Content

Many developers entice you to finish their game at least once in order to unlock some additional content. It can be higher levels of difficulty (I will tackle this later), more content to play in/with, replaying the game while keeping your data from the previous game, or bonus content.

More content to play in/with (Dynasty Warriors, Smash Bros)
Here, each playthrough grants you additional characters, weapons, areas, what have you, with which to play again
It worked for me in Smash Bros Brawl and Dynasty Warriors 5. It did not in DW4
It worked in the first 2 because they could be played in their entirety in 20 minutes to 3 hours. And, I did not play through the exact same content from one character to the next.
While in DW4, it was the same scenario for each character of a same kingdom, and it took more than 10 hours to finish

So, I don’t mind replaying something identical to unlock something if it does not last more than a few minutes (it can also keep me glued for hours because “I’ll just do one more). If it lasts more than half an hour, then it must be at least slightly different from one go to the next.

Replaying your game while keeping data from the previous (Some Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Lufia)
Also known as “New Game +”.
Here, you killed the final boss. But why not play the adventure again retaining all your godlike powers?
It did not work for me for either of these games. I need a challenge to keep being excited, and there was clearly none (although trying to kill Lavos at different moments in the game was quite interesting.
Most of the time (And I’m not the only one I know) I’ll try the new game + for a couple of hours, and then the game will go in the shelves…

So, I do mind brrezing through a game without any challenge. I won’t mind it if it opens interesting new avenues of Gameplay.

Bonus content (God of War, Samurai Warriors)
Here, we are talking about elements around the game itself: scenes cut from the final game, concept arts, designers’ anecdotes.

Whatever they be, I make it a point to look at them all. I’m impressed by what can be done in a game, and will always be a sucker for behind-the-scene kind of data.
As for art, well, I like it, so what’s more to say?
Would I replay a game for that?
Once again, it depends on the length. 2 to 3 hours for each replay seems to be my limit.

Play in Higher difficulty

Starting fresh (God of War, Kingdom Hearts, Duke Nukem 3D, Alone in the Dark)
Here, you play through the same game from the get go. But the enemies are stronger, you do not have the same amount of ammo, not so much health, etc.
I rarely play games where I start fresh at a higher difficulty. I’ve already lived the story once, and don’t want to do it again so soon. Truth to tell, if the initial difficulty I’ve selected is too low, I’ll start again at a higher one. And most of the time, I won’t be able to play it at a higher difficulty. Not good enough, you see?


Keeping your previous data with you (Diablo, Titan Quest)
Ah, the infamous Hardcore Level…
You keep the character you previously played with all his enhancements, but the enemies are stronger too (and so is the loot).

Titan Quest is the only game I did this. And Diablo would have been too, had I been able to play it at the time. Why? Because the story isn’t really important the second time. You play for the phat lewt, and to improve your character still more. That said, I’m not sure I would go through the 3rd difficulty Level…

Different content (TimeSplitters 2)
An interesting approach I only saw in that game: the higher the difficulty, the longer and more difficult the levels. There are more things to do, more ground to cover, more enemies, of course…

As a consequence, I’ve played it in normal, and then hard, when I discovered this feature… But in the end, the story stats the same…

This is starting to become a bit long winded, so we'll cut it in 2, shall we?

meme: 10 things that will tell you I wrote that fiction

I found this meme here, by way of freakonomics, a blog I often read because of their interesting stance on economy and the world in general.

So, 10 things that will tell you that I wrote a piece of fiction:

1. The characters have more depth than the story itself.
I do not know why, really. But I love creating characters. I like to think about who they are, what they like and dislike, the way they talk, their idioms, their habits. And I make a point of showing it here and there. One of my character didn’t care for one bit what happened to his body as long as his clothes were intact. Another had never seen a movie in his life, and could not recognize Sean Connery.
Most of the time, the character that start in my head as simple outlines are the ones with the most depth in the end, while the ones that starts almost complete stay that way.
2. There is a distinct change of pace and style at the middle
That is because I tend to start a story, write without stopping for days on end, then put it on a shelf for months, and suddenly, decide to get back to it. Most of the time, I will finish it around the anniversary date of its start. The problem is that there are some incoherencies in the style that crop up, because I’ll have changed in the meantime. I really should finish them sooner…
3. It’s dark.
Even if it is a fanfiction of My Little Pony, I’ll find a way to show the darkest side of the ponies, their insecurities and put them through the grinder. When they’ll be out of the grinder, they will be better off than how they started. No, not when. If. I find it makes a compelling story to see the characters struggling
4. If it’s not dark, it’s funny and strangely familiar
When I’m not making my characters suffer, I tend to write about everyday hurdles (e.g, having a hiccup) and the way it can really make our life a little personal hell (but it’s aways funny when it’s others)
5. Rooting for the underdog
Most of the time, one side of my story will be grossly underpowered compared to the other side. Most of the time, they will be the characters I, and you, like best.
That doesn’t mean they will win in the end, though…
6. Color coded for your convenience. Not.
There is no clearly defined Bad Guy and Good Guy. Each has a reason for doing what he does, and, in his opinion, does the right thing. Sometimes, one of the good guys is a ruthless bastard, and one of the bad guys is a romantic anomaly…
7. Dynamic point of view
I tend to focus on a character for a chapter, following him around. Then, in the next chapter, I’ll jump to another. It can be the man next to the prior focus, or shift to a different time and space.
8. You can hear them think !
Most of the time, you will have access to the innermost thoughts of the character I’m writing
9. White is the new black
I… Sadly tend to have white characters. Sometimes asian. But rarely black, latinos or oriental characters. I do not know how to write them properly, or fear stringing clichés one after the other. The problem is, I do not know many people of these ethnicity…
10. Male only, sorry
I do have female characters, don’t get me wrong. They are just rarer than male ones. And are rarely the mains. I’ll have to work on this one !