DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

Like many others, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons when I was at my teen age. When I became Game master that was the first time I ever was a ‘designer’. And it’s interesting to see the mistakes I made when creating my first campaigns.

I remember to create overly complex maps, with kilometers of content wherever you look, just in case players would choose to go into a different direction that the one they were supposed to go. Well, they never did and it was a waste of time.

Also, my first campaings lacked of a clear motivation for the players. I generally gathered them at any inn, and say ‘There is an old man talking about a dungeon not far away from here. There’s a princess involved. Will you go there?’. Sometimes my friends, just to see me get angry would say ‘Well, we won’t go there. What else do you have?’.

Another problem was to keep my audience’s attention. Being honest, I invested so much energy creating content to fill those kilometers of game space, that the content itself was quite dull: Monster after monster, all look-alikes; dark room after dark room; boring reward after another... My ‘level design’ sucked. No wonder my friends, after some time playing, got bored and started doing weird things like setting the whole place on fire, just for the fun of it.

After some unsuccessful experiences with D&D (I should also add that my friends weren’t really RPG gamers, just teen guys killing time until they grew up enough to chase girls) some of us moved onto Call of Cthulu. That game offered better tools to create misterious ambients and player motivations, and things improved.

CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE VIDEOJUEGOS UCM

Last week I was invited to a videogame congress at Madrid. Some lecturers were university teachers and some others were videogame developers, including me. It’s always an interesting experience to talk in front of an audience, but I’m getting used to it.

Somehow I feel the videogame culture is slowly getting into society. Hopefully someday we won’t be seen like nerds working on violent and mind-altering products that surely will destroy kids and ultimately the whole society, but professionals or even artists creating the leisure of the next generations.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: SPIRIT TRACKS

As happened with the previous DS Zelda game, I’ve enjoyed Spirit Tracks and again I had the feeling I should have payed more for the game. I finished the game, but (again) I missed some of the optional challenges (Train parts, Rabbits and Life Hearts, mainly).

The best: The truth is Zelda has not that many mechanics nor they are too complex. In fact designers use a limited amount of simple but effective features to make you feel the game is deep and complex, when in fact it’s not that huge. The key is to scale them wisely to always provide the feeling that you’re experiencing something new, and forcing the player to re-play certain features (Train driving, mainly) to increase the total playtime.

The so-so: For Phantom Hourglass I was forced to check an internet walkthrough a minimum of 20 times. In Spirit Tracks I only had to do it 6-7 times. Still too much, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I’d say that the difference between both games is not because the challenges are easier, but for the self-referenceness of the game: Once you know how the puzzles work in a Zelda, they’re pretty much the same in the rest of the saga.

The worst: Graphics. Particularly during cutscenes where the camera gets so close to the characters. I suspect they’re not using higher quality models in those situations, and they look really shitty. I know, the DS is not a PS3, but still...

ENCOURAGING PIRACY

I always thought online platforms for downloading games, such as Steam, are a good way to limit piracy while keeping a superior client support. But like anything else in life, you can ruin the best ideas by making them overcomplex.

Let’s take a look at the process I was forced to follow for playing Bioshock 2. I decided to buy a PC copy using Steam, but everytime I tried I got a different error message. There was a support service, but I had to create another account, this one only for the Steam Support Service.

Ok, I did it and I managed to send a report about the issue. On a reasonable time period (no more than 24h) I got a response including several potential solutions. I couldn’t make Steam work for the purchase, but I eventually bought the game using the Steam website.

Ok, now I own a brand new online copy of Bioshock. It took the whole day to download the code, but I finally got it all. Just when I thought I could start playing, another obstacle: If I ran the game without creating a ‘Games for Windows LIVE’ account I wouldn’t be able to save the game.

Why are they doing such a thing? I know why: They want a new user for their service, and they want to validate the copy to ensure it’s not a pirate one. But Hey guys, I’m using Steam to play the game. That should be enough. I eventually avoided creating a new one when my Xbox LIVE account was accepted, so I started playing.

In the meantime, some people that I know have been playing a pirate copy for days and free…

VIDEOGAME ANALYSTS

I’ve just read some news about videogame analysts claiming the reason of Take-Two’s current problems are because of ‘Lack of discipline in Dev Cycles’. In other words, they failed to deliver their games on a regular basis, and each development takes too much time.

Based on that logic, Blizzard should have closed their doors years ago, since they only deliver their games ‘when they’re ready’, and not a minute before. And the current EA management admitted that they ruined some of their best IPs when they released games every year.

Somehow I’ve got the feeling these ‘videogame analysts’ are able to explain everything using a bunch of ‘I-know-it-all’ premises they apply to any industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling milk, refrigerators or games.

Now, have you ever seen a videogame analyst? I mean: Who the fuck are those guys? What did they study to become a videogame analyst? And are they doing any good to the industry? Who pays them? If I’m ever explained any of these questions, maybe I’ll pay any attention to those so-called ‘experts’. In the meantime go to Hell.

STAREDIT

Well, another thing I'm trying to do is to raise up my expertise with level editors. I've decided to start with the basics, and I'm working on StarEdit, the level editor of Starcraft (1998). Although it's old, it's surprisingly complex. I tried to master it years ago, but I failed. Now things are different, and so far I'm doing much better.

For now, I've just completed a multiplayer map. You can download it clicking here, and then move the file to the relevant folder (C:\Archivos de programa\Starcraft\maps).

In fact, if you can take a look at it you'll be doing a favor to me if you provide some feedback about it. So far I couldn't beat the AI :D. Not surprising since I'm not particularly good at that game. Anyway, I'll try now to make a singleplayer map. Endlessly more difficult. Let's see.

GEARS OF WAR 2

As mentioned in previous posts, I’m using my time to catch up with all those games I couldn’t play while I was writing the novel. So I’ve just completed Gears of War 2.

Great game, by all means. They’ve kept the basic guidelines of GoW’s combat system (quite good), and they made some interesting decisions to enhance the final result. Instead of moving the focus of the sequel on new weapons, like many other games do, they added a small group of not-particularly-impressing new weapons and instead they chose to add many Hollywood-style sequences to the game, thus making it similar to an adventure movie.

That’s something I’ve seen in other games, such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (holy shit, it takes longer to say the game’s name than finish it). In order to avoid repetition in the combat situations developers add from time to time small game mechanics (vehicle chase, vehicle conduction, using a turret, jumps, handle a crane…) which are only used at that point in the game, and makes you feel the game has so high production values that it’s worth more than the money you paid for it. Maybe it’s a trend in following titles. We’ll see.