GameblurgKids Talking About the Future

Do you remember your teenage years where that one guy seemed to be a natural at dating women? Do you also remember when the same guy would hook you up with the bottom of his tier list? You know, the girl that pretty girls keep around to boost their self esteem. This is the same reminiscent feeling I get when my friends start recommending Japanese games for me to play.

The situations between a blind date and a stereotypical Japanese title are extraordinarily similar: It’s a blind date, but you have her number so you take the time to know the girl over the phone (previews). You trust your friend’s judgment as he hypes her up (promotional videos).

“She’s great man. She’s got a car and a big….heart,” your friend says. Naturally, you get excited after previewing her and hearing good things, only to find out things aren’t what they seem.

Finally, the date arrives (release date) and you lay your eyes on a stumbling disaster. She can fill two seats with relative ease (loading times), her teeth have gaps (unspoken dialog) and her face brings Shrek to mind (choppy visuals).

You’ve invested so much time learning about her favorite colors and why she doesn’t like the toilet seat up, only to find out that she sucks, and you could care less about her or her toilet seat preferences.

The main problem is, you never received what you were promised after enduring promotional video after promotional video. These antics have carried on for years (Konami, Square Enix) and have plagued fans of their franchises when they discover that the final product doesn’t hold a candle to the promotional material that they’ve been watching years before. All of the cute computer generated movies mean nothing when you find yourself monotonously grinding level after level while trying to become the “one” and save the damsel in distress.

With titles like White Knight Chronicles and Yakuza 3, we’ve been set up for disaster before the second quarter of the year, but we’ve learned from out past mistakes, Japan: find another sucker, because you won’t fool us again.

When an artist grabs a paintbrush, whatever hits the blank canvas afterward is his responsibility. If he is suddenly crippled in the middle of a project from a lack of inspiration and begins to “think instead of paint”, the painting may become a disaster.

An artist can’t let uncertainty and fear stifle him during in the middle of a project. An artist must continue to explore his mind and fill creative space with the results of his daydreaming.

Videogame designers go through a similar creative process. In fact, it’s an exact replica of what any designer in any medium goes through.

I think what I learned from Mr. Miyamoto is kind of the methodical, calm, creative approach. It’s not just willy-nilly ad-hoc creative approach – just closing your eyes and swirling the paintbrush.

He was very methodical in his approach to the process and highly iterative, and I think it was the secret to his success.

In the September 2009 edition of Game Informer, Howard Phillips recalls specific qualities that one must have during the creative process in order to create a successful product.

An important factor in creating art is losing fear. Don’t fear the results of a vague and blurry experiment. Stop being so afraid to daydream at work. Lose fear in blotching your paintings. If anything will benefit from just “swirling the paintbrush”, your work will. Give yourself to your dreams, calm down and start doing whatever the hell you want.

All I want is a pretty world to excite my imagination. Ideally, if I can dive into a game and forget what time of the day it is when I come back to reality, I’m a happy camper.

A lot of times, people think they want realism when what they really crave is internal consistency within a given universe.

In the January edition of Game Developer, Zen of Design author Damion Schubert subtly but swiftly dissects what gamers really want in their games.

A beautifully crafted game will envelope you in a culture of its own. Just as long as you aren’t peeking around the corners at work looking for zombies, you should be fine.

Dear Electronic Arts,

I’ve recently come across news that Electronic Arts is in search for new breeding grounds to create new gaming product and that among choices like Louisiana and Florida, Georgia appears to be in contention.

Whether you need a development center to make your new fancy Facebook games or work on more Madden builds, Atlanta is a premiere place to do so. We offer economical incentives, our landmarks are better and we’re not New Orleans. As a caring resident of Atlanta, I have offered my assistance to make your decision much easier.

You’ve got your eyes set on Savannah? Well, luckily for you, we’ve got our eyes set on Atlanta. What’s easier, EA? Convincing gaming personnel to move out of the comfort of their own states into old, hot and steamy Savannah or a luscious, booming city like Atlanta? A smarter man would take the latter.

Spanish moss is overrated, EA and to Savannah, so are morals. According to Urvaksh Karkaria of the Atlanta Business Chronicle “Georgia is apparently offering EA a downtown Savannah warehouse equipped with fiber optic and other infrastructure to support a game development center that would focus on product testing.” Really cute, Savannah. “The state is believed to have offered EA a free lease on the warehouse.”

There is no comment from Georgia economic development department spokeswoman Alison Tyrer, but if this is true, this move is clearly foul (unless the building is to be relocated into Metro Atlanta, which would then turn in a savvy business maneuver instead of desperation).

Among some of your other choices are Louisiana and Florida? May I ask why? Do they have the CNN center there? No. Our sports teams’ colors are obviously better than both of these states in question (Savannah doesn’t have any of these “professional sports teams” in question. Big surprise). New Orleans is obviously infested with zombies. Are you really ready for that hostile work environment? I didn’t think so. And Florida? Luckily, there are no zombies in Florida: just old people.

Although you might be a few years too late (Freaknik is long and gone and the phrase “Hot-lanta” is now taboo), there is still positive incentive to create your development center in Atlanta.

Atlanta has a world class transit system to meet your transportation necessities.

Does the sound of “Cartoon Network” bring smiles to your collective faces? I know it does. You can get used to that, you know?

Coca-cola, anyone? We have plenty. Stay caffeinated/paranoid throughout those long 12+ hour code crunching sessions by just waltzing down the street to your favorite cocai…er caffeine dealer.

I’m confident you’ll make the obvious and smart decision and choose Atlanta as the homeland to create some of your new, exciting intellectual properties.

So how about a free tour for Georgia residents? No? That’s fine. We understand. That would be way too many people. Just for Gameblurg staff then? Right. Here’s our contact information whenever you guys want to hook that up.

Sincerely,

Mauricio Bowers

With 2010’s arrival, many people are expecting a huge year in gaming. The abundance of delays that occurred in late 2009 it made 2010’s 1st quarter look strong enough to make us forget about 2009 completely. We here at Gameblurg have some predictions both big and small for this upcoming year and we would like to share them with you all.

1. The PSP Go will receive a much needed price drop and actually have a good year with titles like Valkyria Chronicles 2 and Metal Gear Peace Walker.

2. PSN will start releasing classic PS2 games for download in the PS store.

3. Many other companies will begin to develop and release more titles for XBLA after the success of Shadow Complex.

4. Gears of War 3 will be announced at this year.

5. Halo Reach will be the final chapter in the Halo Saga.

6. Red Steel 2 will actually be good.

7. PSN will finally get cross game chat and many other features their users have been begging for, but at a price ala PSN Premium.

8. The following games will have new trailers, but not have a release date: The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy vs. XIII, and Metal Gear Rising.

9. The launch of Project Natal will be as big a console release.

10. Square Enix will declare all their projects cross platform present and future.

11. Apple will make another strive towards gaming by releasing a game edition IPod touch.

12. Duke Nukem forever will continue to not see the light of day.

13. The Wii will make a rebound in Japan this year.

14. The success of Playfish and it’s social network gaming dominance will inspire many small companies to take similar paths, and EA will purchase these companies.

15. Band Hero will continue as a brand in 2010 with a subtitle: Hannah Montana.

16. White Knight Chronicles will not only have a minimal level press coverage and advertisements, but it will not sell over 500,000 copies.

17. Gameblurg will be one step closer to world domination (more of a fact than a prediction).

I have a friend who simply can’t resist bad dialog. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t ignore the laughing sensation of shallow one-liners during a videogame’s epic action scenes, or some stereotypically corny “hero-line” during a game’s climax. And it doesn’t ruin anything for him. In fact, he enjoys it. “It’s awful,” he proclaims. “But although it’s bad, it’s a “funny” bad.”

At the time, I didn’t think I could hear anything dumber. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t figure out why something so stupid confused me. Does that make me stupid? Funny is bad. Bad is good? Should I try to make bad games with the hopes of them being “funny”?

Unfortunately, I might be guilty of the same shallow pleasure (admittedly, I am a big Vin Diesel fan). It’s interesting that not only my friend and I, but millions of other idiots like us enjoy similar garbage.

It’s just ironic (and a little disheartening) that we disregard our “standards” and ignore what a complete package is supposed to be just as long as there is one thing satisfying underneath the pretty bow and wrappings.

What’s more disheartening is how pretentious my approach was when addressing my friends’ opposing taste (no matter how moronic they may appear). Sometimes, you (or, I) forget that it’s okay to relax and just have fun enjoying a simple action sequence because of the spectacular visuals and forget about the aggravating glitches that may follow.

That’s the key: bad is acceptable for you when the good is overwhelming enough to blanket the bad. For example: Smooth and sleek gameplay mechanics (good) vs. Main character with a mullet (bad).

Sure mullets are well…mullets, but good gameplay is hard to come by so just ignore the fact that you’ve got it follow some moron around, staring at the back of his ridiculous mullet for 10 hours.

Take this Bayonetta magazine advert for instance:

To a fan of the upcoming game, the logo alone is enough to spark a smile, but thanks to the Sega’s Public Relations department, the stale line “I just dropped by to say die.” is completely accepted and/or ignored. The horrendous copy is irrelevant to those who begin to drool over the pretty pictures and the game’s release date.

Could it be that every once in a while, it’s perfectly fine to hop off of our high horse (when no one’s watching) and indulge in our guilty pleasures (reading/watching Twilight, humming Miley Cyrus tunes in your place of work)?

Deep down, we all love to enjoy our own version of cheap, trashy fun (enter dirty girl/clean girl analogy here) on a level that doesn’t require serious thought.

It’s revelations like these that almost make me want to learn how to create terrible games on purpose. Almost. It would be a purely for the money though. Who needs pride when you have Vin Diesel?

Edit: Kenneth just sent me a link to this trailer for Dante’s Inferno. Skip to the end of the video and you’ll have a beautiful example of what we’re discussing here.

The Xbox 360 has received a bump in hardware sales throughout the past 2 months which brings the question: Where has this sudden rise come form? Is it the booming software sales? No. It is because of its strategic product bundling? No. The responsibility of the recent Xbox 360 surge lies on the shoulders of the audacious Jane Lynch.

The witty actor (who’s credits include The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) and Role Models (2008) ) stars in a slew of Microsoft’s “It’s More Fun Time” commercials, promoting Xbox’s ability to generate “fun” in the family household. What you don’t notice is Lynch’s gifted ability to sneak into your heart with her brash sarcasm and sly humor.

In order for the other companies like Nintendo and Sony to compete with the mammoth “Jane wave”, they could be a shoo in for a celebrity frontman/woman of their own.

A nice wholesome lady like Lisa Lampanelli, or a strategically placed f’bomb from an equally hilarious Katt Williams will have the family excited about purchasing consoles for this holiday season! Or you could just yank Jane from Microsoft. She’s funny as sin, and we’d be hard-pressed to blame you.

Our finger of disapproval doesn’t shake without friendly suggestions to follow, and if there’s anything we’ve aimed to teach you today is this: our world is jaded and celebrities sell stuff.

Recently, the taste of a rumored Dead Space 2 stimulated the curious sensations of the gaming blogosphere via mysterious silhouettes and messages.

A sequel to a creative title garners my personal excitement, but whenever the bar is set high, there’s always the heartbreaking possibility of expectations being crushed by the notorious sophomore slump.

Thus, there are issues we’d love for Dead Space producer, Visceral Games, to address in its upcoming title.

For instance, there’s something mildly distasteful about operating a slow protagonist in a fast-paced environment, much like the alien-infested atmosphere Dead Space creates. Sluggish melee options, clunky avatar movements and slow reloading time all constitute to a lack of fluidity during gameplay.

There’s also something disgusting about delivering cheap scares at awful camera angles. In a horror movie where survival games may draw inspiration from, this idea is cute, but in an interactive environment where I fend for my life/sanity, this idea further aggravates me, especially when I’m handicapped by gaudy camera positions.

During the down time of the ship’s exploration, the lack of the main character’s involvement in the story’s progression leaves me with a dull, empty feeling as random superiors bark orders at me. At some points during the game, I became very passionate (passionate, angry, same thing) during the intense skirmishes and it would be nice if my character could share similar emotions in the middle of these exhilarating situations with me.

Games that reach so far into the creative box for ideas have the tendency to leave the simple, practical elements of creating a game behind. A third person shooter in an accelerated atmosphere should not be plagued by a sluggish protagonist who is further handicapped by technical miscues and poor story involvement.

The sophomore slump can rip a franchise’s survival hopes to shreds, and could even threaten the potential of a intellectual property as strong as Dead Space, but with the right glue, Visceral Games can mend the few broken miscues and create another stimulating, fruitful roller coaster (preferably, without the headaches).

Assassin’s Creed 2 historical highlights captures my interests much like attractive artifacts would at a museum. Initially, I didn’t know how to take this. I’m not used to stopping and raising my eyebrows at small facts and tidbits in a videogame.

I’m used to enjoying exhilarating, emotional roller coasters that force me to cringe at the sudden appearance of zombie waves or throwing my controller at the screen when I’m “un-fairly” sniped from afar.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a different kind of monster: It makes me pause and ponder instead of pausing and breaking things (which is pretty good for the longevity of my controllers). As I walk around, there’s something new to embrace about the culture of the European Renaissance that is re-imagined for the sake of the game. You can step among the Palazzo Vecchio and learn about its cultural impact. As you step passed other historical structures, even more historical beings like Leonardo da Vinci (famed painter, inventor, philosopher) and Pope Alexander VI (notorious for corruption and immoral nepotism) exist behind their walls, choosing to aid or negatively impact your quest.

Like an interactive museum, each step leads away from one artifact and towards another. You can experience what it was like to hear the call of the town herald recite news and other announcements because an overwhelming percentage of the town may be illiterate.

You can also experience what it’s like to engage in a free-running rooftop pursuit of a random pickpocket who decides that your money would look much better in his pouch instead of your own.

The culture captured in Assassin’s Creed 2 bears the responsibility of revealing the environment of the Renaissance during the late 15th and early 16th century in Italy, and so far, the game has done a convincing job depicting the chronicled atmosphere.

Now, if the story didn’t awkwardly run dry and the combat system was just as engaging as the atmosphere, we might have a really good game on our hands.

This month, Game Informer celebrates their top 200 games of all time in unique fashion. The lure to these covers is that they strip away the normal routine of displaying teasers to the inside content and instead, reveal a simplistic showcase of their main focus (In this case, the games that have inspired creativity in the videogaming universe).

There’s no colorful background to disctract readers. No font is plastered along the pictures to minimize its appeal. The only portion of the magazine cover that remains is the featured artwork.

An artist emphasizes minimal design on the cover of items that bears content in an attempt to allow the content (images/words) to impact viewers and the December covers of Game Informer embrace this approach, and succeed with elegant success.

Pretty pictures lie below. Enjoy!
(Via Game Informer)

The good people at Epic Games have decided to release the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) for a reasonable price: free. The Unreal Engine 3 is used by videogame development teams worldwide and is considered a standard tool by many veterans inside of the videogaming universe. This gift is a dream come true for modders, students and developers who couldn’t afford the UDK before. So download and enjoy and thank you Epic.

There is a big reason why the competitive fighting game genre has few premier franchises: it’s surprisingly difficult to rewrite what Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken have planted in the minds of players worldwide. How do you put a different touch on a world that other franchises have a stranglehold on?

Fans of fighting games have slim pickings. Compared to the other videogame genres to choose from, fighting gamers have a specific allegiance to franchises that run deep. Who can blame these players? These franchises have been around for a long time for a big reason: they have consistently done the hard things really well.

This may not come as surprise to industry veterans who have succeeded or tried to emulate the magic of a fighting game, but to those who don’t lose sleep over programming woes, the problems of creating a sophisticated fighting game with good balance, unique characters and an enticing culture run deeper than the average eye can tell.

Although the surface of a conventional fighting game is simple (one-on-one battles), its inner workings require much thought. Large rosters are a nice thought but the size of a game’s roster becomes irrelevant when their powers are not balanced.

The problems are rooted deep when approaching the road to solving balancing issues. Imagine in front of your game console of choice and you find yourself inside of the character menu, but your selections are influenced deciding if it’s feasible to endure an uphill battle because of their lack of offense and exploitable defense.

When you create a game with overpowered, or “God”, characters, some characters become invisible because of their uselessness. Why not create a 5 man fighting game if they can overpower the rest of a 25 man “roster”?

A fair physics engine must be in place in order for any player to experience a fair fight using his/her choice of characters. A balanced roster erases unfair advantages and introduces strategy. Now, instead of merely choosing the best characters, the player must rely on his/her own skill in order to pull out the win.

Regardless of a roster’s balance, it must not only be diverse, but full of fun and unique characters. Because of the genre’s conventions, escaping clichéd ninjas and martial artists is imperative to creating a special and distinctive experience. If we dive outside of the realm of customary fighting game characters, we could begin to experiment with new personalities:

Now that we have our working physics and interesting characters to exercise those mechanics with, they all need a fun world to play in, and that’s where the culture lies. From the powers that are at your “deposition” to the atmosphere that you and your opponent do battle, the predominate behaviors, attitudes and design characterize a title.

What characteristics your game presents are an important part in establishing an identity. Take the Mortal Kombat franchise for instance: the game showcases overzealous blood and the dismemberment of body parts in an attempt to pitch the idea of deadly bloodshed.

While a sleek “user-interface” will induce a calming effect, a ragged and grungy arena menu will suggest aggression and intensity. Language, music, art also play vital roles in determining the “feel” that will help a game to survive in past its initial release date.

Creating a new fighting game franchise goes against the heavy hitters 10 years worth of headaches and troubleshooting that an inexperienced team hasn’t began to think about. With a full plate of fixing physics hiccups, constructing a list of characters and cultivating a new environment in a crowded genre is a task only for a determined team to shake and reinvent a tired genre for the better.

Starting a brand new fighting game franchise without a license is like trying to find an alternative for the pencil and pencil: things that are “in place” are hard to replace because we’re so used to them.

But remember, someone started drafting iPods when the world was addicted to CD players.

Sure it feels like a recruitment call and a brainwashing tactic rolled into one gorgeous advertisement, but you’d have to admit that if Microsoft manufactured an army, you’d enroll faster than you could say Sony Entertainment.

Via IGN

The launch of a videogame doesn’t have to be just its date and a few late night TV ads. The event can spawn into colossal beginning for a successful franchise. With a few well executed risks, a successful launch can set it up for unprecedented success.

Imagine this:

The brisk morning light peeks through a gloomy Britain sky, awakening you from your dreary slumber.

The day is no longer exciting to look forward to as free reign as become a choice of the past, abducted by a totalitarian government who has become obsessed with the restriction of pedestrian movement.

On this morning, a knock rattles against your front door and in a moment of desperation to stray from the monotony of the normal morning routine in an autocratic Britain, you rush to answer the door.

As you pull the door ajar, a man in uniform stands in your doorway from the British Freight Company who requires your signature to receive your mysterious package.

You follow instructions and unveil the box’s contents: a Guy Fawkes mask. This mask is the very mask that appeared months before on national television, preaching revolution to an oppressed nation. The very oppressed nation that you live in.

As mysterious as the mask’s presence is, its message ignites a feeling of hope and faith, and suddenly, it begins to articulate into a goal: freedom.

Soon after, you peer down your street and witness similar countless instances occur in front of your very eyes. It takes one mask to engulf the lives and thoughts of hundreds of thousands across your world in Britain in order to create an atmosphere of drastic change.

Now, let’s keep the event that transpired, but leave the futuristic landscape that V For Vendetta (2005) has created for us, and return to reality.

What if those masks were something else? A plastic Master Chief helmet? Leisure Suit Larry hair gel?

Imagine being a fan of a franchise and being one of these recipients. To carry badge of allegiance and support, and generate excitement of your favorite game’s release at the sight of its symbol would entice enthusiasm through the many fans for the arrival of their game.

Publishers, instead of the normal Tuesday release date, the week before its release, when the UPS representative shows up to your customer’s door, and unveils the perfect reminder that he/she is about to be apart of one of the biggest events in their life is something to put thought into.

Think of more creative ways to involve the most important people, the customer, in your product’s lifeline.

Good games with a mediocre launch might flourish on its own worth, make decent return and survive the wave of competition, but a good game with a memorable launch will devour that wave of competition.

Should I draw stuff? Program stuff? Organize stuff? Your goals need to be put into perspective, and David S.J. Hodgson and Bryan Stratton’s book, Paid to Play: An Insider’s Guide to Video Game Careers is a great start to organizing to skills and interests and harnessing them into a profitable career in the videogaming universe.

Many professionals inside of the gaming universe have followed a road well traveled. Initially, fans of the media merely play videogames.

After a large amount of time invested into various videogames, some fans begin to gauge a abnormal interest while thinking about them. They become knowledgeable about what they’re doing, and want to dissect their celebrated hobby at a deeper level: things like learning what makes videogames attractive to begin with, or learning what makes a bad videogame.

At the height of this curiosity, we gain an intense desire to know, at what was once a meddling inquiry to the mind becomes a healthy obsession about a subject that you genuinely care for, and alas, a career is born.

Although there are those who have stumbled into their careers without giving it much thought before college, those who do know that they want to enter the videogame industry as a professional have an interesting dilemma: what should I do?

Should I draw stuff? Program stuff? Organize stuff? Your goals need to be put into perspective, and David S.J. Hodgson and Bryan Stratton’s book, Paid to Play: An Insider’s Guide to Video Game Careers is a great start to organizing your skills and interests and harnessing them into a profitable career in the videogaming universe.

Paid to Play provides a vast overview of what many jobs entail that surround the concept of creating a videogame. Do you have the patience for hours and hours on end for a programming task? Do you really care about the proper color palettes that need to be applied to your character’s 3D models?

If you’re confused or overwhelmed in a world crowded with many interesting jobs, Paid to Play is a great starting point to figuring out where exactly your interest lays, and where your career can begin.