The Land of Strange Gods: September 2015

In the muddy and murky waters of game design, at least in the way we do it, there is constant change. When I look at Avenging Angel Demo v1.0 and compare it to what is now on the desktop, the difference is huge. I tried to keep track of how many “darlings I have killed” for my own amusement, but that ludicrous wank proved itself utterly and completely unnecessary and foolish. A lot of stuff was discarded they didn’t fit the world or the story we were trying to tell. A lot of bad ideas thankfully died in their sleep. The most difficult ones to discard, for me personally that is, have been the ones we simply didn’t have the resources to do. The ever-present guideline of “does this make this game better” has proven its usefulness time after time. Do we need Quick-Time events? Can we deliver a particular piece of story, or story-related information through gameplay? Can we trust the player to understand the mechanics?

We did a few public outings of Avenging Angel demo in 2014, and we observed how people played the game in that environment. Well, it has to be noted that a crowded, noisy and hectic “expo” is not the best case scenario for gameplay testing, but all those hours of gameplay, with the three of us looking over the shoulder and making notes, were highly valuable. We quickly found out that the average player has the attention span of a gnat. The “god finger” pointing where to go and what to do is expected. Even the really underpinned visual clues were largely ignored. Mind you, these expos were gaming events and the audience were players. We were not tucked at the back of a local mall, somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the cheap “fashionable” rags, plastic bead jewellery, bikini wax joints, and catering the game to a completely off-the-mark target group. I am not going to make a lament about the contemporary game mechanics. The audience dictates what is expected. Period. Some game designers go against the tide and fight those windmills, and I salute them all, however, it is a boss fight I will gladly pass. If a player wants an in-game nanny, so be it. If the sense of accomplishment of figuring something out on your own is out of the window, can we make good use of those mechanics to something perhaps more innovative and interesting? Our take on the subject were the “Bird Drones” in the sky indicating areas of interest, and “Goggle Glass” (By the way, it is not Google Glass), an in-game augmented reality monocle providing basic HUD information and objects player can interact with.

To me personally, a game is essentially like reading a book. The story and gameplay blend into a seamless experience and I find myself (hopefully) swept away by it all. While I understand the business model and importance of mobile games, they are not my cup of any beverage as a consumer. That is right, I used the “C-word". Mobile games are like a quick, dirty hand job at the back alley, a pep-bar, or a consumable. Well, most of them are. I did enjoy Deus Ex: The Fall on iPad and Republique is a great game. The long forgotten Shadow Cities was also something great, but I never considered it to be a “game”. It was a great chat that happened to have game-like features as well. More importantly, the chat was filled with great people (I knew and know most of the heavy hitters and usual suspects personally in real life). One would do very well in remembering that this is my personal view on games. I am mirroring my own attitudes towards them. I have absolutely nothing against mobile games per se. I have been tapping the screen of my iPhone lately playing Fallout Shelter. Is it a good game? No. Is it fun in five minute dosages? Yes. Is it an effective marketing tool? Hell, yeah.

The greatest games ever made have been true epics and their genetic code can be derived, more or less, from JRPGs. Again, my opinion and my opinion only. If someone thinks that Flappy Bird is the greatest shit ever to come out of entire game industry, that’s fine too. At some point, I would like to take a crack at mobile. I have already been a part of a team designing utility apps for Android. I think we have only scratched the surface of the true potential of mobile application. On the educational side of things, augmented reality and virtual reality applications paired with mobile solutions can not only help re-structure and prioritise resources, but can also elevate the standard of education. If that is “gamification”, then sign me up.

But games, as consumable things, are an entirely different beast to me. They are more than consumables or utilitarian frameworks. They are worlds within a world. They allow extraordinary things to be experienced. From sniffing flowers to playing tag with bazookas, the games allow you to be what you want to be in that context. Someone recently complained about the sheer volume of games being published. What the fuck is the problem? I say “thank you” repeatedly to Valve’s Steam and other publishing platforms. Sure, with these volumes the hit-to-miss ratio with games also shifts. Somehow I manage to find interesting content and good stuff. Business-wise, yeah, it is really hard to get your message across. As an indie, one does not only compete against other indies, but the triple-A titles as well. All game development companies are after your time and money. The only solution I find is to make “better” games. If “better” means giving an audience what they want, bring it on. If it means innovative and new ways to re-invent gameplay, even better. Combine the two and we should have something interesting. Easier said than done? Yeah. Something to strive for? Definitely. We set out to make a good game and that goal has never wavered.

While we have looked at other games for inspiration, we have tried to find our own voice by making Avenging Angel. I think we have a distinctive design language. It does not feel like hundreds of other titles I have played. Whether these are good or bad things, that is up to debate. It most definitely looks like us. It took me twenty odd years to dream and write that world. To see Dark Amber Softworks crew breathe life into it, is a dream come true. It feels wonderful. It feels like fulfilment.

This is my personal list of influences, in no particular order:

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Deus Ex (The first one on PC)

System Shock I & II

Bioshock

Myst

Riven

Stephen King’s “Darktower"

Mika Waltari: “The Etruscan”

Mika Waltari: “Johannes Angelos”

Every single Quentin Tarantino movie

Battlestar Galactica (original and re-imagined)

Opeth’s entire back-catalogue, “Ghost Reveries” in particular

Everything by Devin Townsend

Everything by David Sylvian

Everything by Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree

Everything by Danny Vaughn

Robert Fripp and King Crimson

Jeremy Soule

Harry Gregson-Williams

Cliff Martinez

Bear McCreary

Lustmord “The Word as Power”

Puscifer

Tool

Peter Gabriel’s “New Blood”

Celtic Frost

Triptykon
Steve Hogarth + Richard Barbieri "Not The Weapon But The Hand" (The single most powerful and important album of the recent times)

H.R. Giger

Gustave Doré

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Eliel Saarinen

Martin Bircher

Lasse Hoile

The Daily Grail webpage for fringe activity. This is a treasure trove of really interesting (if sometimes cooky) stuff. An endless source of inspiration.

Cruzine webpage

Inhabitat for design ideas and inspiration

Automatism, a blog by Lori Langille, which is also an endless source of inspiration when it comes to interior design, lighting, and all things aesthetically beautiful

The Land of Strange Gods

Thursday, September 24, 2015

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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The Power of Three (Part Two)

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