WORST GAME DESIGN CRIMES

Here´s a list made by PC Gamer of the 13 worst game design crimes. I could add some more, I think :D

MCPIXEL

Well, it has been some time since I finished a game, but another one bites the dust! This time it was McPixel, an indie game I recently purchased on Steam.

The basic premise is simple: You control McPixel (a McGiver look-alike) and you have 20 secs to find a bomb in the scenario and defuse it somehow. The method is simply clicking on the different elements you can see, and sometimes combining them.

On the bright side the starting point is fresh, the design is simple but effective and there are plenty of pop references (which I generally enjoy a lot). Comedy is everywhere, and non-politically correct, my favourite one! Also there are some good design twists and game modes reusing the limited production capabilities I´m sure developers had.

On the minus side there are no interface elements highlighting interactive objects, which force you to a non-enjoyable pixel search. Also pixel art is difficult to understand sometimes due to low resolution, and most of the time you just try stuff and see what happens, you rarely feel in control.

All in all if you like indie games I recommend it. I also recommend it if you like designs which try something different. I won´t say it´s a perfect game, but at the very least is refreshing, something you won´t find in Call of Duty 37, or any number the franchise is on.

HOW TO BE A GAME DESIGNER

Here´s an interesting article from Penny Arcade about how to become a game designer:

I agree upon most of the points except for the order: I´d say making games is by far the most important thing you can do to become a decent game designer. Nothing compares to the direct experience of doing that, fail and succeed.

ECOFISH

This looks like a good moment to mention Ecofish, a small indie game created by just 4 guys 10 months ago: Eduardo 'Barkley' Jimenez (coder and project lead), Toni Ros & Manuel Usero (graphic artists) and me. We released it originally on iOS (Apple store), XLIG and recently on PSM, the store for Sony mobile devices and PSP Vita.

My part on that project was game designer (along with Barkley, the coder), level designer and kind of scrum master / tester / producer. It was a pleasure tele-working with them, and was also very helpful to ease the pain of working at my employer back at that moment. A pity I couldn´t invest more time, since I could barely spend a couple of hours on working days, so I had to book most of my weekends almost exclusively for this project.

Anyway, I feel proud of my participation on that project, I think it´s among the best pieces of work I´ve done in my career and (particularly the level designs) I can say I was practically the sole owner of them (so if you don´t like them you can certainly blame me for it :D). I recommend anyone interested on indie games to give it a try. More info here.

HOT COFFEE

I just found an interesting article of how the whole Hot Coffee crisis happened after the GTA San Andreas release. You can read it here.

Truth is, this may have been a turning point for Rockstar. That company was famous for challenging the boundaries, but after the Hot Coffee mod discovered hidden sex mini-games seems like the company learned the monetary value of taking some risks, and since then they haven´t exactly tried to innovate in terms of content. GTA 4 was more of the same in my opinion and I suspect GTA 5 will follow the trend. We´ll see.

A GAME STUDIO IN THE CLOUDS

Thanks to a friend, I took a look at a very interesting Gamasutra article, which I share now with you all (Click here). It´s about how to run a videogame studio without a central office but spread around the world based on teleworkers. Enjoy!

VIDEOGAME REVIEWS

Actually it´s no surprise since everyone in the videogame business knew about it, but seems like it´s has been made public in the last weeks: The objectivity of certain websites is under question, since they regularly receive gifts, travels and other presents from publisher PR departments.

Anyway, make your own opinion. Here is one of the articles explaining the current situation.