Stealing the value of games
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Earlier this week, I went to my storage and noticed that I've had a break in. Someone, has stolen my entire video games collection I had there. NES, SNES, PSX, Nintendo 64, and the Dreamcast games. Over 100 games and several consoles with additional hardware.
So... That kinda sucks.
What bothers me in addition to losing my valuables there is that the remaining part of my collection, the GBA, NDS, GCN, 360 and PS3 feels of "no use", except for the actual gaming fun.
The collection is ruined anyway, right?
Thanks Mr. Grinch.
Games via digital distribution is both great and aweful for this. The games I own from Xbox Live, PSN and Steam; I can't lose them. That is, untill the services are shut down. And that WILL happen. I hate thinking about that. Not because of the money I've spent there, but because I'll lose the games eventually. The PS3 HDD will crash eventually and if there is no PSN to get them from again, what will I do? I suppose there will be "some way" to get them, but still...
The bad thing about the games you get via digital distribution is that they don't actually have any collector's value, if you ask me. Just downloading a bunch of zeroes and ones without any limitation in availability. Not by numbers nor by location.
I had a Sonic 10th Anniversary release imported from Japan via China, gosh darn it!
Okay, I've complained enough now. I guess I should try and squeeze some game design into this by using a crowbar.
Hrmph...
Now, got it! Don't take away from the player, because you risk having them being upset. It's allowed to kill the player in game, of course. It's allright to drain some mana if he casts a spell. This is simple economics; having the player pay for something.
However, think long and hard before punishing the player. What will happen? I for one, for example, don't think it's okay to take away score from the player, if the game is about getting on a highscore-table.
If the player has worked hard to gain something (like me with my collection...), it's not okay taking it away. That's why I don't like when role playing games steals XP and levels. I can get it back, but all it takes is time. The same thing goes for score in a highscore game.
If it's possible to get a star on each level by completing it fast enough, the player should never be able to lose a star, as a consequence for doing something bad. If I've gotten a star on 38/50 levels after a lot of hard work, and I all of sudden lose 15 of them because I died on a Star Stealing Boss, the remaining 23 won't feel as valuable anymore.
It's never okay to punish the player and thereby making the game feel boring or too irritating.
Okay, enough obvious complaining and forced game design.
"The Clue!", one of my all time favorite games. It's about making break ins, stealing stuff...
No more GRIN
GRIN are closing their doors in the main office as well.
"It is with a heavy heart we announce today that GRIN has been forced to close its doors. This as too many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cashflow situation."
http://www.grin.se 12/08/09
Not smiling anymore
It feels weird; the company that got me into "the biz" are shutting down.
It was a learning experience with both ups and downs and I don't regret taking a job there. Heck, I was lucky that there were people there at the time, seeing potential in me. I got to do a work sample like everyone else and sure, I think I did good but still, it was all about what they thought and what I did just happened to be what (at the time) the Lead Design in Gothenburg liked.
Oh yeah, I should post my work sample here.
I left GRIN over a month ago, but it was still nice having the name of that company on the resume. It sucks that they are closing for several reasons, one being that my CV is less heavy with a company that has shut down.
What the higher ups are gonna do now, I don't know. But hopefully they'll start some new company; helping Sweden keeping a good reputation in the game industry.
To all the people I worked with at GRIN:
Thank you all and good luck in the future!
Subscribing to Indie Games
Indie Games are usually released for free. It's not about making money but about the love for creating games, or maybe more often it wouldn't sell anyway and once an indie developer is approached by a publisher; heck yes, they'll sell it!
Anyway, I think it would be nice for people to be able to subscribe to Indie Game releases. Imagine a client similar to Steam, adding perhaps one game per week chosen by a Indie gaming community. Maybe by voting or perhaps by a knowledgable jury?
Personally I don't play as much Indie Games as I want to, and a lot of what I play honestly isn't all that good but if there was a service for me to easily get my hands on free quality Indie Games, I would definately sign up! It would be a good opportunity for more people to experience this kind of games; people that don't normally visit Indie Communities to download games. I might be wrong here but I don't think it's easy for just anyone to get "into" the Indie scene.
There aren't all that many distribution channels for indies to "normal people", except for the biggest and most succesful games.
http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Indie/ (19/7/2009)
This is just me thinking out lout again. Over and out.
Difficulty Systems 101
Normally gaming sites like IGN and Gamespot aren't the most resourceful place to go to to learn game design but stranger things happens.
IGN recently posted a quite interesting read about different approaches to difficulty in games. You might want to disregard the lack of respect for production time and cost, etc. with comments like:
It's a wonder then, when so many titles can be finished in a week or less these days, that more developers don't simply implement a system like this.
- James O'Connor, IGN AU
But it's an overall nice text. I find it wonderful that these giant mainstream sites discuss topics like this.
Head over to IGN and their "Difficulty Systems 101" at:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/100/1003282p1.html (15/7/2009)
Featured on Gamasutra
I'm very pleased to have found out that my Terminator Salvation analysis which I also posted on Gamasutra's Blog is now featured and is shown on Gamasutra's Frontpage. I'm thrilled!
GaiKai – Streaming High End Media
A while back a service called OnLive was introduced. Immediately afterwards several other companies came and said:
- Hey, we got something similar!
One of them was Dave Perry with GaiKai. The idea is that you can play games by streaming only the video and audio, having a super computer somewhere do the actual computing. Hence, you can play demanding games like Call of Duty on a low end netbook if you have the bandwith.
If this works well, it could pretty damn well revolutionize the entire gaming industry.
Perry has just posted a video of him demoing the GaiKai service. If it's the real deal and no Wizard of Oz-thing it's friggin' amazing!
http://www.dperry.com/archives/news/dp_blog/gaikai_-_video/
Gaikai Technology Demo (JULY 1, 2009) from David Perry on Vimeo.
This is just a simple demo of our Gaikai video game streaming technology working in a Firefox browser with no installs, no plug-ins. These retail games (selected because we think they are cool) are all being played on a remote server with a 800 mile round trip to my PC.
The games are unmodified and are completely virtualized so we can run multiple different games on the same server at the same time. One of the reasons the iPhone has over a billion downloads now, is because they made access really easy (click to download, click to play), we have managed to get our technology down to just the single "click to play" so you can play anywhere on the web (home, work, school, on the road), and the games can come to you (on a Facebook canvas page, Myspace, Flash sites etc.)
We will start buying bulk servers soon and after that, we will begin closed beta in California, so make sure to sign up at: www.gaikai.com if you want to help us out. My blog is at: www.dperry.com
(Links and embedd, 1/7/09)
The iPhone Platform
Is the iPhone the new indie game developing platform? It could very well be.
Indie game development has for a long time been pretty restricted to PC by self distribution via communities and other channels on the Internet. Indies haven't been able to get their games on the consoles by Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony.
This is finally changing with Microsoft's Community games and Apple's AppStore for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.
Pic swiped from http://gizmodo.com/5287426/the-iphone-is-a-pretty-damn-big-platform-to-develop-games-for (24/6/2009)
This is how the 40 million iPhones and iPod touches, a figure given by Apple at the WWDC Keynote, stack up against actual consoles.
- Gizmodo (11/6/09)
Sure, the DS has sold way more units but the only way for you to get your game on there as an indie is to create a "homebrew" and hope for people with Flash-cards to download and try it out. And I can tell you that there aren't 100 million of users with Flash-cards. And amongst those who've actually have one, the chances are slim for them to try out your product.
The big thing with the AppStore is that you can distribute your games in a pretty unrestricted manner. You just have to pass Apple's check, basically meaning it shouldn't crash or contain pr0n. When it's out there, it's on the same terms as with all the big companies.
Of course, it's harder for you pump $100'000 into advertisment but it's still there. Try making your game famous on the PC; it aint all that easy either.
In about 5 months I've downloaded and tried 107 apps to the iPhone. 51 of those were games. That's way more than I've done with the Xbox. Why? Because it's simpler, easier access and it's fast.
This isn't the case for most people, but for people like me it's also nice to know that 60% of what I pay for the game goes directly to the developers.
If you want me or other people to try out your game by accident, I think there's a greater chance of that happening on the AppStore than on the PC.
Now, you do as you wish but I want to make games for the iPhone.
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/ (24/6/09)
Duke Nukem Never(?) and a Poetry Game
Hi y'all!
First of all; still the bestest of friends with Evernote. Using it constantly and it works like a charm. My favorite elephant, ever!
Anyway, I guess most of you've heard the news. They're all over the web now. 3D Realms are shutting down. The company that brought THE game Duke Nukem 3D.
I was actually surprised to hear about it. I was, in all honesty, one of those who thought that Duke Nukem Forever was actually gonna be completed by them. Now, not to say that the game won't see the light of day. Some other dev-team might pick it up. The game still has the same publisher if it were to be finished.
It saddens me that they're shutting down. They've been in business for 22 years, so they're somewhat of an icon for me.
Some facts: http://duke.a-13.net/
There is only one duke
When things are looking down, you have think positive right? So even if I might not be getting Duke Nukem Forever any day soon, I'm still a very happy camper.
Two of my all time favorite games are getting remakes for the XBLA:
- TMNT: Turtles in Time
- Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
It looks AWESOME!
Awesomeness
Today I Die
URL's from 7/5/09.
IGN Video: Industry Advice
Interresting video for many, me included about what veterans in the gaming industry think is important if you want to get into the biz and how they did.
From: http://media.video.ign.com/articles/956/956263/vids_1.html (2/3/09)
More eps to come, so keep your eyes on the site.
DICE 2009 Keynote: Gabe Newell
I recently read a really interresting article on IGN, covering DICE (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain).
The series of talks at the DICE Summit for 2009 opened this evening with the keynote address given by the co-founder of Valve, Gabe Newell. The head of the studio responsible for such hits as Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead spoke about the new ways in which game developers and publishers must view their products.
What Newell says that I find brilliant is that developers shouldn't view games as a final projects to be shipped, but services!
As Newell put it, "When you want to promote your product, you're going to use your customers to reach new customers."
I recommend reading IGN's summary of the speach. I find it refreshing and intruiging to hear of this way of looking at the products, especially from Valve. 'Cause really, hardcore PC gaming is pretty much limited to Valve and Blizzard.
Both companies have a great reputation for listening to their fans and supporting their games for a long time.
Gabe"The Man" Newell
PS. Let's pretend this blog hasn't been quite dead for a while. Cheerio!
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