Design Blog

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Video Update

Got some new videos up today. Dead-end Freeman: Reload now has a walkthrough video. It's a fair amount larger than the others, since this map is bigger so be careful if you have a slow connection.

I also uploaded higher quality videos for all of the maps on the Big Huge Games RPG I was working on. A bit of explanation is necessary here for these videos since they are not simply higher quality videos of the small flash movies but entirely different videos of the same dungeons. I lost the higher quality versions of the small flash videos when my hard drive crashed. Since I'm not really working there anymore I had to ask someone else to take videos for me. This may result in the videos being a little jarring or fast because they had to be flythroughs. Hopefully you won't have too many problems with them.

That's it for now, gotta get back to this design test...

Labels: big huge games, update

posted by Saikyo at 8:12 PM

Monday, April 6, 2009

Big Huge Update, Murphy's Law

I've uploaded some big changes to the Team Projects section with the addition of the Big Huge Games RPG. This section was so big it needed a separate page to hold it all. Several videos and a lot of cool screenshots are included.

Murphy's Law seems to have struck today as I was planning a larger update only to have my external hard drive abruptly stop working before I could upload the higher quality videos. I did move the high quality image sets to another computer before it died, but I only have the lower quality flash videos available right now. I'm looking into getting the data recovered but it might be too expensive for me to afford depending on the damage. I'll try to get them uploaded at a later date, but that's only if I can recover them at all.

There were also some minor fixes to the CSS scripting and to the front page although I doubt too many people really pay much attention to those things.

Labels: big huge games, update

posted by Saikyo at 8:53 PM

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Resume Updated

Did a quick update to the resume section of the site to reflect my work at Big Huge Games as well as a LinkedIn profile link. I was planning a larger update with some images of the stuff I've been working on, but I'm having to double check some procedures to make sure I'm not breaking any rules.

I'm trying to get this resolved as quickly as possible, hopefully I can add the new stuff in a few days.

Labels: big huge games, job, resume, update

posted by Saikyo at 2:04 PM

Sunday, March 22, 2009

On RPGs...

I'm working on adding the unreleased RPG that I've been working on at Big Huge Games to my resume page in the future, but before I do, I wanted to talk about some of the things I've been learning from working on one.

Now as a bit of background, I mostly played JRPGs before getting into this industry. As a bit of background, the JRPG or Japanese RPG genre is named as such because the majority of titles with this style of design come from Japan. Now there is actually a significant distinction in design between JRPGs and their counterpart Western RPGs, one which I had been aware of before starting this job, but never really took the time to explore until I started working on a Western RPG myself.

The main differnence in design between the two is that Western RPGs are traditionally drawn off of the old Dungeons and Dragons style tabletop RPGs and usually contain a high degree of character customization including having stats such as charisma, strength, or wisdom. Additionally because of this focus on the player being the character in the game, these games traditionally have more than one way to solve a given quest. If the player wants to open a special locked container, he could intimidate the person with the key, steal the key, pick the lock, or even make an acid potion to eat through the lock.

JRPGs on the contrary tend to contain fully developed characters who's stats and abilities automatically grow as the player goes through the game. These types of RPGs traditionally focus more on telling a specific and special story that is tailored to the characters given to the player to control. While there is usually some level of customization available it tends to lean more towards the aesthetic or battle influincing changes such as new clothes or a different set of fighting skills.

The difference between the two design styles of the game never really stuck me that strongly until my work on the Big Huge RPG. First of all, because I was working on a western RPG I was asked to play as many of them as I could, so I played some Neverwinter Nights, some Mass Effect and some Fallout 3, all of them well known and well reviewed RPGs. I was still playing some great JRPGs at the same time including Disgaea, Odin Sphere, and Final Fantasy, so there it became easy to compare the two RPG styles. Additionally working with quest designers to implement quests in the game also brought many other things to light that I had not previously considered while playing JRPGs.

Now just to be clear, I like both genres even though I have mostly played JRPGs in the past, I don't intend this post to be a declaration of loyalty to one genre or another, simply a design analysis of what seem to be the strong points of each and the reasons why.

The western RPG system has many positive aspects to it. The most important one that I see is replayabilty. Because there are usually multiple ways to solve any given quest over the course of a given game I found myself wanted to play games like Mass Effect multiple types in order to try more than one solution to the problem. Additionally, because the character customization allowed me to pick from six different classes, each that had a different playstyle I was encouraged to play the game more than once simply for the combat aspect (which I did). In the JRPG genre the solution to extend playtime like this usually comes in the form of a "secret" or "bonus" dungeon that has content much more difficult than the rest of the game which requires some level of grinding to complete. Even though I tend to play more JRPGs it's rare that I bother to play them more than once. The story and events don't change on the second playthrough so it doesn't seem worth it. Even though some of the events in a wester RPG will be the same on the second playthrough there is usually enough different content (usually as a result of the way I'm playing) to keep it interesting for a second time through.

Now this model has some problems as well. In a JRPG the designers know pretty much exactly how things are going to play out in terms of events and dungeon order. There are far less unknowns to deal with in quests as well which means that the designers can focus more on other aspects of the game such as the combat or item systems, or even the cinematic presentation of the levels. Western RPGs have to worry about odd scenarios such as:

- Many western RPGs are free roaming, how do you scale dungeons so the player is not overwhelmed?
- If the player can solve the quest in multiple ways, how does that affect the world and subsequent quest? Each of these scenarios might have to be built.
- How do you balance the different methods of solving problems in the game world? If a player with a high charisma score can talk his way out half the problems in the game, will he be frustrated when he is forced to fight a boss and is not strong enough?

These are all problems in the RPG style that need to be dealt with in addition to the normal tasks such as building the levels, and scripting the main storyline events. As a result of this I tend to feel that JRPGs feel more solid and cohesive overall. There seem to be more bugs and glitches in western RPGs that I've played as well, possibly as a result of the massive variation that can be spawned as a result of trying to create dynamic worlds that can respond to so many player inputs. A final problem with creating so much extra content is that not all players will experience it. While I did play Mass Effect through twice, I'm hard pressed to play it a third time, which means I've only really experienced 1/3 of the combat styles in the game, and I still haven't explored all the solutions to each quest. This happens sometimes in JRPGs as well, but the amount of alternate scenarios and bonus content is far less in general. The designers have to realize that a large chunk of the work they are doing will not ever be experienced by the majority of the player base, even if they play the game more than once.

So all in all, I can't say I have a preference between the two types of RPGs. They each have their own merits and deterimets and it's going to be up to the player which type of experience they prefer. However, as a designer I think it's worthwhile to be aware of these types of differences while working on a game in order to maximize the effectiveness of the experience provided to the player.

Labels: big huge games, design philosophy, RPGs

posted by Saikyo at 9:33 AM

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Back to the Blog

So first off, it's clear that I need to post here more often. There have been a ton of things going on recently that are highly relevant to my design work and thoughts on design.

Now that I've got that out of the way, onto the important stuff:

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COLOR OF DOOM WINS AT IGF

Color of Doom ended up as a winner in the 2009 Independent Games Festival Student Showcase. I'm pretty proud of this and I think it shows how much work everyone on our team put into the game. The fact that it won makes me really want to take the whole game concept further. My original concept for the game turned out very different from what our group went with, and while it obviously turned out great, I still feel like I'd like to do something more with the original concept and story.

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BLAZBLUE COMING TO THE U.S.

I've been really psyched up about BlazBlue recently. It's a game by the studio that did Guilty Gear and I've been a fan of their games since the first game hit the U.S. in 1998. The new game is an HD 2D fighting game for both the PS3 and XBox 360 with a simultaneous release in Japan and the U.S. on 6/25.

I've been immersing myself in the game system and videos from the arcade version that are populating youtube recently. The game has some great new characters and design systems that give it a fresh look that is both very new and different, but also keeps itself similar enough to Guilty Gear that it's easy to see relations.

This would all be a great thing, except for the part where I don't own a 360 or PS3! I'm still not sure which is better as there are many things going for each console. The 360 has the exclusive Guilty Gear 2: Oveture, but the PS3 has free online play to name a few differences. I still have a few months though, which is great, because with student loans to pay off, I need to save money in order to buy it!

I'll talk more about the game systems in another post.

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BIG HUGE... PROBLEM?

So it's been announced on a few websites so far about THQ closing the company I work for if a buyer is not found within a certain timeframe. Due to NDAs and the like I can't say too much about it, but it's definitely something that I think about a lot. Maybe I'll be able to talk a little more about it in the future, but for now all I'll say now is that it's a reminder that the game industry is very volitile and ever-changing.

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GDC A LITTLE OUT OF REACH

It makes me sad, but given my current financial outlook I won't be able to make it to GDC this year. Last year going with the Guildhall folks was a blast and I would have loved to have gone this year as well. However given the section right above this one, I felt it was better to opt out in this case. Hopefully my situation next year will be more condusive to going.

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There's a lot more to say to catch up for the last two months, and definitely more to say. If anything I feel like I should be updating here more than once a month.

Labels: big huge games, blazblue, color of doom, GDC, guildhall

posted by Saikyo at 5:04 PM

Monday, November 17, 2008

After 4 weeks of work

I finally manage to get around to posting on this blog again. I definitely need to shoot for once a week from now on, otherwise I'll start feeling too complacent.

So first how the job has been after 4 weeks, in a word: AWESOME.

In more words: SUPER AWESOME

Seriously though I think working at Big Huge Games is a fun and interesting place to work where I can do all the stuff I studied for back in Guildhall, except now I get paid for it! The only odd part is that now I seem to be much more of a money hoarder than before even though I have income coming in instead of going out, it's a very strange effect.

I mentioned before that I can't say much about the game I'm working on due to the NDA I signed, but will say that I work with great people in a relaxing and casual environment that is pretty amazing when I remember that in addition to all this I'm working on stuff for a video game and getting paid for it.

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I promised I'd talk about YANPA this time so here's the idea.

YANPA stands for: You Are Not the Player's Adversary

It's a funny acronym that I always try to remember when working on a level. The goal of the game is not to torment the player or to make a puzzle that the player is going to have to try very hard to solve (although this second one may be part of it). The point of the designer is to provide fun. Now I said previously that I don't really agree with the entitlement mentality that some people have. I believe that as a designer, the player is entitled to the chance to have fun, and that the designer should make every effort to provide that fun to the player. However I don't think that the player deserves to win because he bought the game or regularly pays a monthly fee (in the case of MMOs). Winning with skill is part of what creates fun, and it's the designer's job to work that fine line between fun and frustration to create a challenging experience for the player without becoming the adversary of the player.

The term YANPA was coined by an instructor I had when I was in college at ASU taking the first iteration of a "programming for game design" class taught by some graduate students. Admittedly, the class was fairly rough and I didn't have the best of experiences in it, but I did learn some important lessons about game design that I still keep in mind today.

I hope the instructors for this course have been improving their teaching methods and class structure in order to get more students interested in game design.

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Next time: Left 4 Dead and why it is one of the most awesome games I've played this year.

Labels: big huge games, design philosophy, entitlement, left 4 dead, YANPA

posted by Saikyo at 4:31 PM

Monday, October 20, 2008

First Day / Design Thoughts

My first day of work at Big Huge Games just completed and I came off with the impression that this job will be pretty fun. I'm still learning a lot of things about the game (not that I could really say much about it on a public blog due to NDA) and I'm looking forward to working on it. Unfortunately I got very little sleep the night before due to my air mattress getting a hole in it and me spending half the night trying to find, and then fix it. Sometimes I feel like have very awkward luck.

I had a conversation with my lead near the end of the day that I wanted to expand on a bit. It comes from the idea about making games easier for players to complete. In general I think that games (with the exception of a lot of MMOs and the notable Ninja Gaiden series) have been lowering the difficulty scale so that it becomes accessible to more people.

Back in the day of the arcade, games were made difficult on purpose to get the player to keep shelling out more quarters, but the idea that was presented here was that nowadays when a player buys a game he is giving the designer all his quarters up front. So he's entitled to beat the game.

... Honestly I don't agree with this.

Now I understand that yes the player is paying money for the experience and entertainment of playing the game. Further, if the game is too difficult for them and they cannot complete it, there is a chance that they will feel that they didn't get their money's worth.

I look at it a little differently though. First of all I don't think that purchasing a game should entitle the player to experience 100% of it. Certainly 100% of the game should be available to the player, but to believe that the game designers should try and please every player is absurd. If you pay to watch a movie and then don't like it, you can't get your money back, if you buy a basketball court that doesn't mean you can suddenly become an NBA player and putting money into a slot machine sure as heck doesn't mean you're gonna get a jackpot. In the end though, people still enjoy movies, basketball and gambling.

I believe that part of being a game designer is being able to anticipate the needs of the player, and that good design is one that takes a challenging, but not adversarial relationship with the player. (I'll talk about YANPA in my next blog entry.) The designer shouldn't be a person who tries to frustrate or foil the player, but I don't think that he should be a person that sacrifices the challenge that defines video games for the sake of reaching a few extra people.

Labels: arcade games, big huge games, design philosophy, entitlement, YANPA

posted by Saikyo at 4:58 PM

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

New Job

Sorry about the lack of updates recently. The reason is because I've recently accepted a new job as a level designer at Big Huge Games and have been busy working out the details of relocation.

However just because I have a job now doesn't mean I'm abandoning this portfolio. I'll continue to update this website with my side projects as well as more information about the current projects that I have up.

Additionally, I'm hoping to have more stuff for this blog as well. It is a "design" blog after all and I want to start talking about my thoughts on game design in the future as well.

Labels: big huge games, job, side projects

posted by Saikyo at 1:45 PM