Making up Rules

Building a Demo for a Portfolio

2009-12-08T04:13:00.000-08:00

A crucial part of a game designer's portfolio is a functional game, a tangible piece of evidence that you can do the things your resume and cover letter say you can do. But you worry that your demo won't stand out from all the other independent games out there, so you fear that your demo will be dismissed as a 'clone' and you will not be hired.

So how could you fix that? How could you develop something unique without joining mod teams that may fail from team drama that happens way too often? In this article, I propose one solution.

Start small.

That's right. Start small. Develop that clone, and get it working with as few bugs as possible. Don't bite into the entire watermelon. Just bite off a small piece and work on that. Keep it simple and functional and *fun*. For a designer, a fun game is more important than a pretty game.

Build on that game, one feature at a time.

Doing this will help you learn many aspects of full time game development. You'll learn to branch off experimental code from working, compiled code, so you don't break the entire build after adding another hundred or two lines.

You'll learn to schedule tasks and how important iteration is. Try something that doesn't work? Delete the branch and start again from the core game.

Play test each new feature before adding the next.

This one is extremely important. You need to discover if that added feature adds to your game, or takes away from it. Does it fit into the flow of gameplay well? Is it interesting? Do you encounter the feature enough while playing? Too often? Not often enough? Such questions can only be answered through constant play testing.

Save separate builds of your game to not lose your work.

This is also crucial from a data standpoint. Full time studios do this so they don't lose weeks, months or years of work. You'll be creating backups of not only your work, but previous builds that may lack a bug you're encountering in your current build. When you are in the debug stage of development this will save you many moments of pulling your hair out.

Starting small and adding features gradually will help you break down a larger project into more manageable chunks. It will let you have a working, compiled build for your portfolio instead of having excuses for 'It's not ready to play yet but it will be.'

Studios do not have time for excuses. They want tangible results. Deliver them.

Unreal Development Kit

2009-11-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

Epic Games recently released the Unreal Development Kit, a closed source recent build of Unreal Engine 3, completely free.

What a great, great idea. I've used Unreal Editor 2.0 and 3.0, and there's *thousands* of tutorials, video demos, articles, samples, etc. for Unreal Engine, so it will make an excellent prototyping kit.

Using Unreal Kismet, UDK's visual scripting system, I can quickly prototype quick concepts for play testing, and timing of systems.

If I need to get right into the script code, UnrealScript looks very much like Lua, so it is very easy to learn, plus the aforementioned samples and tutorials can quickly get one up to speed on all sorts of game mechanics.

You can get the Unreal Development Kit here.

The Sims 3 and Cognitive Models

2009-06-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

I've been playing The Sims 3 lately and I've been quite enjoying it. The Sim games as well as Sim City are an excellent method of taking a player's cognitive model of something and challenging it or altering it.

What exactly is a cognitive model, you might ask? Well, one definition states:

"A cognitive model is an approximation to animal cognitive processes (predominantly human) for the purposes of comprehension and prediction."

In other words, a cognitive model is a model in our heads of how a system works, or at least how *we think* it works. If I were to ask you to describe how a typical human's day goes, you'd probably say something like:

"Well, he wakes up, goes to shower, eats some breakfast, goes to work, eats lunch then goes back to work, comes home, spends time with his family, does some extra work at home, eats dinner, then goes to sleep."

That is your cognitive model of how you think the human's daily activity system works. How can that be translated into a game?

In The Sims, each object 'calls out' to the sim, stating their function. 'I am the refrigerator, I am the microwave, I am the bed,', etc. So the sim's Ai will navigate to each object based on their item type in order to fulfill one of the sim's Needs.

In real life, we do the opposite. Our eyes scan the area for all the objects, and our memory sees the fridge and goes 'Okay, that's a fridge, I know that if I want to not be hungry I should eat, and I can find food in the fridge because I remember storing food in there.'

Such a memory-recall system is quite complex as you would have to code a memory for every single object and character (known as a Sim in the sims), in order to have a system that mimics real life. As you can probably assume, that would be an enormous undertaking technically, not to mention for CPU cycles.

What can we take from this?

When designing a system that will emulate a cognitive model that your players have, Don't limit yourself to literally mimicking how the system works in real life. If you can emulate it with better optimization and a smaller, more manageable development time, then all the better, so long as it still fits the player's cognitive model of how that simulated system works.

The Game Development Process

2009-06-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

2d Platformer part 4

2009-02-19T22:34:00.000-08:00

Quick update on the platformer game. The following features have been implemented and work:

Interactive Main Menu, complete with mouse rollover highliting and clicking
Pausing and unPausing
Pushable crates that fall with gravity
Toggling switches that open doors for the player to get past
Transitions to later levels

I am next going to work on falling platforms as an obstacle for the player, along with more enemy types. I will keep you posted.

2d Platformer Part 3

2009-02-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

Tada! The first public screen shot of the platformer in action, though I am using placeholder artwork for now.

A lot of work has been put into the game lately, and I finally fixed the monsters not stopping on edges of platforms. Currently I am working on:

- Animation for the enemy sprites

- Gravity for enemies

- Ability for enemies to go up and down slopes on platforms.

I will keep you posted.

In other news, I recently joined the Game Designer's Special Interest Group in the IGDA, and there's a lot of people in the list who have worked on some of my favorite games, so that's been an exciting opportunity.

I am part of the Wiki development team for the SIG, and I also head the Portfolio Help initiative, so good opportunities to network with and discuss portfolios with other game designers.

More to come!

2d Platformer Game Part 2

2008-12-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

A quick update on the progress of the 2d Platformer game:

- Playing around with the size of each level, testing both horizontal and vertical layouts

- Play Testing various enemy types and taking notes on the game's complexity curve

I'm having trouble with getting certain enemies to stop when they reach the edge of a platform. For some reason they are not responding to the obj_reverser object that reverses their direction when they pixel collide. I'll keep looking into it, though.

Once that's done I'll be scripting the shooting code for enemies that shoot projectiles in the direction of the player. Luckily the projectiles are limited to a horizontal path so the code shouldn't be too complex.

I'll keep you posted!

2d Platform game

2008-11-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

So, I've started work on a 2d Platformer game with gameplay similar to the old Metroid games, with some twists. I will be documenting my progress on the game's development occasionally in this blog.

The tools I am using are:

- Yoyo Game's Game Maker 7.

- Adobe Photoshop for art

- Audigy for sound effects

The current features are in and working:

- 2d animated sprites of the player and some basic enemies, all using placeholder artwork

- collision detection with solid tiles, moving solid tiles, and player-movable solid tiles

- gravity

- collision-detection-based transitions to other levels

- Interactive HUD with vital player data (lives, number of items collected, etc)

- jumping onto enemies to kill them a la Mario

- death by incorrectly colliding with enemies as well as falling outside of the level

- sound effects (using placeholder)

Features I am currently working on:

- Main menu and welcome screen

- Player able to pick up a bat and swing it at enemies to kill them

- enemies shooting darts at the player to kill him/her.

Features to be worked on later:

- save states

- in game windows of text, which will allow an in game tutorial

- More to come

Game Design Challenge - Week One

2008-11-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

So at the Game Career Guide website they have a feature called the Game Design Challenge. They tell you to come up with a design of a game based on the constraints they list in the challenge, wether it be a specific genre, platform, story, material, etc.

A lot of fun and a very good idea for any game designer, wether n00b or veteran. So, I am going to do these challenges, but for my first week, I am going to do a challenge I created myself, and the challenge is this:

Make a game based on a real life stinky or unwanted job.

So my design is thus:

Garbage Day

Genre: Action

Platform: Nintendo DS

Graphic style: Psuedo-3D Isometric

Art style: Cartoony to add to the light tone of the game

Pitch summary: Drive down suburbia and empty those overflowing garbage cans! But watch out! Suburban life can be busy and even dangerous.

Gameplay summary: Use the D-pad to guide your garbage truck down the streets and empty as many garbage cans in a limited time as possible.

Obstacles:

Biting dogs

Children playing in the street.

Skateboarders

Convicted felons

Too fully packed garbage cans that must be manually emptied

Controls:

D-pad moves the garbage truck and the driver when the driver is out of the truck

A is context sensitive:

- When inside the truck, causes driver to get out of the truck

- When standing near the driver's seat door, causes driver to get in the truck

- When near a overflowing garbage can, empties the can into the back of the truck

B causes the driver to run in order to avoid obstacles

Dual Screen contents:

- Top screen is the isometric game world view

- Bottom screen is a realtime rendered topdown map of the area, with a glowing trail of where the player's garbage route is

- A garbage truck icon overlayed ontop of the glowing trail indicates current position of the player on the trail

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What is YOUR design?

Updates!

2008-11-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a loooong time sive I've blogged, as you can tell! Totally my fault. I suck at blogging, but, I'm learning!

So what have I been up to? Well, right now, I'm improving my portfolio. Being a designer is interesting, because if I show 3D models, or music samples or atwork.. that doesn't really prove that I know about system design and game balance. So, I did some research, and learned the best kind of portfolio a designer can have is completed games. And not video games (though those would be a bonus) but physical games, like with dice, or a board game or card game.

So, I'm working on a card game, and the only thing I'll give away is that it's based on the cyberpunk theme.

And what I'm learning is.. it's a heck of a lot of fun working on it. That's good, because I really want to enjoy my job. When I'm having fun I work harder, (I work hard anyways, I am very loyal and hard working and willing to go above and beyond) and figuring out the rules, card archetypes, factions and story and such is just So. Much. Fun.

And I'm learning a lot. I'm learning about how to balance a set of factions so one faction isn't more powerful, because players would just choose that faction and ignore the others. Quickest path to the cheese, after all. So it's all about balance, and whenever I create a specific card, I create a card to counter cards like the one I just previously created, to ensure both balance and strategy.

I'm also learning how a good deck can affect the outcome of a trading card game, and how to create a set of cards that includes both rare powerful cards, and common cannon poop cards.

When I work on MMORPG designs, I do the exact same things as the steps mentioned above, and it's great fun. I can see why game developers must have a passion for games. That puts you in the mindset of fun, and games are supposed to be fun, right?

More to come, later.

GDC 2008

2008-02-23T23:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I have just returned from the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and it was a blast. This was my second time attending (2007 being my first), and I did a ton of networking this time around.

Many 'breaking into the industry' books claim that networking is key in making a name for yourself in the game industry. I could not agree more. I actually met my old boss from Saffire there and caught up with him, and because of that I learned he is thinking about forming his own studio and if so, he'll need staff. I wouldn't have known that had I not come to the GDC.

I also spoke with recruiters from Bioware, Blizzard and Electronic Arts, discussing possibilities and what each seek in candidates. It was good to know that for the most part their requirements were the same. All three are very prestigious companies with high quality products.

I attended the IGDA Disabled Gamers group meeting, and met their editor-in-chief and chairman. The editor-in-chief asked me to be part of an interview with Emotiv, a company that is creating a mind-game interface. 16 small dots connected to each other are fit onto your head wirelessly and you literally are able to play the demo video game with your mind and emotional state. I wouldn't have beleived it had I not got to try it myself. I was able to lift rocks, fix broken bridges and even bend trees and lift a mountain, all with thought.

If you're interested in hearing more, you can find the story about it here.

All in all, GDC is a fantastic experience, and I advise anyone serious about entering this industry to attend it. You'll meet great people and see amazing products.

World Immersion

2008-02-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

For my first post I'm going to discuss player immersion into the virtual world that designers have created.

For example, Pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies was, for me, very immersive. I felt like I was part of a *world*, where politics, social connections and trade mattered. I rather liked having to go to other players to acquire or sell items, weapons, or armor. Players are a lot more intelligent and lively than an NPC is, and I made some great friendships in doing such.

Now, take a class-level based system, like World of Warcraft or NGE SWG, and, again for me, the immersion is lost. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster ride and if I'm not leveling then I'm wasting time because nothing else you do really matters in either game. In both games rare loot drops will always be better than crafted gear. If you aren't wearing the 'greatest' armor of your level tier then you're either A: a 'n00b', or B: Roleplaying that you like a specific set of Armor. (I have done the latter, and I am not against it at all.)

I also notice in class-level based RPGs compared to other designs that the pacing of play seems to jump drastically.

If you aren't max level then you are working to get there, or killing time randomly until you resume the grind of reaching max level.

In a skill based game, at least for me, the pacing was what I wanted it to be. And not because of play schedule, but I only needed to acquire the skills I wanted to do the things I wanted to do.

That is much more immersive in my opinion than 'r u max lvl yet?'

Your thoughts?