Bus Thoughts #4 - A real adventure

Imagine being handed a note before getting on a bus which reads that you'll have an adventure with someone on this bus, whether or not you like it, and then getting on that bus. Each person, of which there are about a dozen, can be interacted with or will interact with you, and you develop some form of relationship. Some people leave, some get on, then you get off at your stop and have a normal day.

Or you were supposed to. From then on your actions on the bus play a heavy role on your life, and curiosity, or survival, love or hatred drive you forward. Maybe not everyone shows up, maybe some people play bigger roles than others, but wouldn't that be a truly dynamic game? Scripted spontaneity. It's a beautiful idea.

Jump Jump Frustration Perfection

I love platformers, but jumping does not a super complete experience make. Sometimes you dodge, sometimes you have to be perfect for 1 - 15 seconds, and sometimes there's a boss battle, and good platformers can (and usually do) make all of these things fun. That's totally awesome. Still not a full experience.

There's a reason why I love (the idea of) Maplestory, which I actually hate. I love the idea of an MMORPG that takes place in 2D, involves platforming (but not really) as well as RPG, questing and etc. elements. So maybe... Okay well Maplestory is a pretty awful game but my point is platforming alone doesn't make a "full" experience, especially not in 2D. I love a good one, I really do, Super Meat Boy is fucking awesome and it's worth the five bucks (I'd pay 10 even, maybe) I paid for it but it's ultimately not everything. It's really high quality platforming, and that's it. That's not a bad thing, that's just how things are, and I appreciate and enjoy that. However, I'd much rather have deeper mechanics that blend genres and try new things. I'm all for doing old things really well, but that's not where my money is going.

Improve and innovate. Improve squared isn't bad, it's enjoyable, it's solid, it's refined, but improve x innovate is my favorite. That's when awesome things are born. Like Bastion.

Fusion Genesis and Ambiguous English

[09:28] Ross Adams: Ha, I just started writing about it's ambition as a positive
[09:28] Ross Adams: but then what I wrote turned out to be negative
[09:28] Ross Adams: so now it's that
[09:28] Emessai Zeal: P'fahaha.
[09:28] Ross Adams: I realised as I was writing, for all the ambition it pretty much fails
[09:29] Emessai Zeal: Yeah. XBLA games really do need to be focused.
[09:29] Ross Adams: For its persistent online world NOTHING players do influences the world, so what's the point
[09:29] Ross Adams: hehe, Steve Haberman has just given a copy away and is saying it's a good game :X
[09:30] Ross Adams: but he's also pimping us saying we're great, WHAT TO BELIEVE
[09:31] Emessai Zeal: Haha!
[09:31] Emessai Zeal: We can be great without sharing opinins.
[09:32] Emessai Zeal: With. Steve. That is.
[09:33] Emessai Zeal: We must share... opinions... but perhaps our opinions... won't be shared in that they're congruent... I love English.
[09:33] Ross Adams: You crazy

Bus Ride Thoughts #1 - Multiplayer on XBLA

I'm a huge XBLA guy. I'm sure most people who know me know that. But this is a blog so I have to explain myself.

I love reinvention. I love innovation. I love when games break established norms with design wide open, or when they find a way to refine and add to an existing mentality. And so for the most part retail is no friend of mine in that regard as publishers are afraid to spend so much money on risky ideas for big budget retail titles, but on downloadable markets is a lot more feasible for them. And I love my xbox, thus XBLA. It's also why I write for www.xblafans.com.

The only problem with downloadable market games, namely XBLA (because that's what I'm familiar with, not because PSN etc. don't have similar problems) is that multiplayer experiences are hamstringed by the smaller player base and inconsistent match availability.

It's really unfortunate that games like Modern Warfare 3 (because call of duty is just the name attached to it to keep the brand together) overshadow some truly magnificent XBLA experiences because it's so core and bottom line that most people can play it forever despite being very bland and straightforward from a design perspective. But perhaps as people become less interested in those games due to how similar they are they'll try more XBLA beyond just Castle Crashers, magnificent though that game is.

This has been the first installment in hopefully a long series of posts done from my phone while on the bus. Hope you enjoyed it.

Interview with Skulls of the Shogun Lead Designer

XBLAFancast – Skulls of the Shogun Interview Special

This was an awesome interview, really. It started off a bit rocky with some technical issues but those were edited out (I hope). Jake Kazdal, awesome guy, founder of Haunted Temple Studios and lead designer and art director on Skulls of the Shogun, was my special guest on this podcast and he was super excited. I love indie XBLA devs because they love their games so much. The first five minutes or so, questions or not, Jake was goin' on about how everyone has loved the game so far and how it's surprised people and I couldn't help but smile and imagine how awesome that must be.

Skulls of the Shogun definitely speaks to me, Band of Bugs was a nice start at the whole XBLA turn based strategy but it really wasn't very enjoyable, even though the mechanics were solid. Then there was Vandall Hearts, I believe, and that game was awful. Dry and bland and full of crappy everything regarding narrative/character, which, if not at least tried at, should be completely removed from one's game. No point in making a crappy story. There's such a thing as a shallow story that still has its place, but for instance a game like Bomberman would have a very difficult time adding in relevant story that doesn't suck, so in that case it's foregone. Makes sense to me.

Anyways. The point is that it seems to have some pretty solid mechanics. At first I was worried it was just a sort of throw your units at the enemy affair, but the "spirit wall" mechanic, which allows linked units to block incoming aerial attacks and generally be a moving wall, adds a lot of depth. Beyond that, the whole collision system is awesome, especially the caster he mentioned, the Crow, which can push and pull enemies and allies. That has me very excited.

I'm looking forward to this one early 2012, shouldn't be too tough to convince my XBL buddies to pick it up either.