Not another Robot...

So it seems I am here again designing yet another videogame for my MA course, yet this time it is different. The difference being that this is my very final project and that the work I am doing as we speak is the most important work I have done so far in my life. In short, this had better be a class A piece of work for my portfolio so I can get a job in the industry.

The project I am currently doing is my advanced practice three and for it I am designing and building an isometric puzzle game featuring a little robot. Without giving too much away the main idea for the game is that this robot can use an electric grapple to move objects and this forms the basis of the puzzles. Story wise the robot wakes up in a city that is desolate with no understanding of who he is, he is seeing the world for the very first time and it is up to you to guide him around the city solving puzzles and discovering what happened to this place. The overall look of the game is fairly illustrative with little texture and plenty of block colour.

I have currently designed and built my main character and have been constructing scenery in Maya.

Here are a few pictures...enjoy :)

Tokyo Game Show 2010 part two

Another day in Tokyo and more games are shining through the crowd and its nice to see that there have been some more Kinect games announced that stray away from the mini game base and are trying to do something different with the technology. It's is also great to see some truly wondrous traditional Japanese games appear as well.

My favourites of the last 12 hours are below, let me know your thoughts on them please.

The Last Guardian

The Last Guardian is one of those games that I have been waiting for years to come out. Now with an estimated launch of christmas 2011 those long years are slowly coming to an end! Check out more screens and a trailer here

Ni No Kuni

Legendary film makers Studio Ghibli have teamed up with Level 5 to produce a game that looks absolutely stunning. These screens are from the PS3 yet the game is also coming to the Nintendo DS. More info here.

Yakuza: Of The End (with zombies)

I don't really know what to say to this... see what Kotaku thinks.

Panzer Dragoon on Kinect?

Apparently creator of Panzer Dragoon is creating a game for Microsofts Kinect...with Dragons in it! Find out more here. 

Parappa The Rappa creator "Haunts" Kinect

The game is apparently going to be a puzzle game that uses the Kinects abilities. More info on the project can be found here.

So there you have it, my favourite announcements of the past 12 or so hours and a varied bunch they are. I haven't gone into too much detail about the titles and I am waiting for more info to form a coherent opinion on them. Any opinions? Comment below!

Tokyo Game Show 2010 part one

Well Tokyo Game Show is upon us once again with its masses of big announcements from Japan. The show doesn't officially start until tomorrow but as usual there have been a few of them today and they have indeed set the mood for this years show. Now hopefully we will get that fabled announcement of Shenmue 3...

Below are a few of my favourites from today and links to relevant news stories.

Devil May Cry 5?

Check here for more info and a trailer.

Shadows Of The Damned

This is the collaboration between SUDA 51 and SHINJI MIKAMI... check the trailer here.

Alice: Madness Returns

Now this is a game I am excited about. More images here.

Asura's Wrath = God of War of Japan?

There is also a trailer for this new game. Let me know what you think of it after viewing the trailer here.

Why Shutter Island Is The Best Silent Hill Movie Not Based On Silent Hill.

Spoiler Alert

If you have not seen Shutter Island and want to DO NOT READ

Most of my blogs on here are either to do with my progress as a games designer or to do with my news stories with ifmenhadwings. Its not often that I like to be overtly critical of something that I have seen unless I am actually reviewing it, yet after watching Shutter Island last night I feel an overwhelming desire to speak my mind.

The reason for this is quite simple, Shutter Isalnd is the closest thing I have ever seen to what I feel a Silent Hill movie should have been like. Now I’m not saying that Silent Hill the movie was a particularly bad movie, on the contrary I quite enjoyed watching the paper thin plot and fantastical scenery, yet it never really touched upon what makes the original Silent Hill games special. It’s also something that I feel has gotten lost in the many incarnations of the game on modern consoles such as the scandalous Silent Hill: Homecoming.

The thing that I speak of is madness.

Similar to Lovecraftian tales and Poe like horror Silent Hill 2 isn’t a game about a man who goes to a creepy and scary town with horrific creatures and monsters in it. It is a tale about a man who is trying to avoid his own madness by suppressing his own guilt, and through this the apparitions of monsters and the town come to be. Shutter Island offers a similar palette of story with our “hero” Teddy Daniels going to an island to investigate the disappearance of a murderess who killed her children by drowning them in a lake behind their house. A simple enough story to wet the appetite, but it isn’t before long we, as viewers, start to notice that things are not right and the madness starts to shine through. Walking dreams give us glimpses of horror that seems to tie our protagonist to this island in a more prominent way than just a Marshall on a case. In Silent Hill 2 this is done through the encounters that James Sunderland has such as Maria who is the spitting image of his late wife. These moments of surrealism use strangeness to lure the viewer or player out of their comfortable shell to give them a glimpse of the truth, never to little but never too much.

Depicting madness must be no easy feat as many of us have never been there and if we have usually not for very long. But these two tales share so much in terms depicting madness that they have both captivated audiences worldwide. Both protagonists are fighting for a cause that represses there own guilt and are only left in peace by their demons when they accept their actions as well as their fate. In both these cases realisation is the door to the truth for the viewer, which often leaves them shocked as they have become accustomed to their protagonist’s quest and goals. In Silent Hill 2 it is when we find out that James Sunderland killed his own wife and in Shutter Island it is when we find out that Teddy’s wife is the person who killed her children and that he killed her before going mad and becoming an inmate at the Island.

Both cases do not base themselves on cheap shocks or overly gory moments to produce that sense of dread. Silent Hill 2 in my opinion is the least distinctly horrific in terms of visual design in the series (apart from shattered memories perhaps) yet is quite easily the scariest. The same with Shutter Island, many a horror film I have watched of late and most are gory, slash fests that leave little or no indent in my life., yet Shutter Island frightened me.

At the end of the day, new developers of Silent Hill games do a great job of instilling horrific imagery and great graphics in the series, yet somehow miss the point that people are more afraid of madness and uncertainty than a bloody severed head. The same with the Silent Hill film, the look was there indeed, no one could deny that. Yet something was missing from the film entirely, the thing that made Silent Hill 2 shocking, powerful and sad.

...madness.

Where Have I Been?

All right, sorry there have not been any posts for a little while on the blog. Things have been pretty busy of late and have seen me struggling to juggle all the various bits and bobs that I do. But with that behind us I am making significant progress on some of my projects and have just managed to gain some more so I can concentrate on jobs like this very blog and ifmenhadwings.

First off for those that do not know, I am currently developing and designing an iPhone game. This said iPhone game has been making some pretty slow progress of late due to various other work and so on. But over the last week it has suddenly gone from being a quiet and ever present pain in the back of my head to yet another exciting prospect in my design life. This is mainly due to my programmer buddy getting back off holiday and wanting to get the game done in a month, which is awesome, and another good friend agreeing to do my animated cut-scenes for me. double the awesome! So as you probably can tell I am thrilled to be back on with the chase and have currently completed designing my first three worlds as well as completing all of the sprites for each of them.

Unfortunately at this moment in time I cannot show you the progress of the game due to the commercial side of things but what I can do is keep you up to date on the progress of the aptly named Aliens Stole My Cat! so come back soon for more info!

Wings News: Sony Betarooms impressions and Killzone 3 Hands-On

On friday evening me and ifmenhadwings headed out to the Sony Betarooms in Birmingham to experience some of the gaming giants bigger games coming out in 2010/11. This included 3D and the Playstation Move as well as some of the larger titles on Sony's palette. If you want to here about my experience with 3D then go here to view the article, for the Playstation Move head over here and finally for Killzone 3 pop on to here to check it out.

The rooms were interesting and it was really good to get some hand-on experience with some of the new technology that is going to be erupting on our market pretty soon. It was a small event which was good as it allowed us to get on the games and have a really good go without horrendous queues. Overall a really good time was had as well as some great insight into where the games industry could be heading.

Want To Be a Games Designer? Read These!

Following up on my last substantial blog post that was about looking outside of the box when researching I have decided to form a list of text books that I have read that I think are invaluable to creating videogames on every level (as well as creating many other things in the design spectrum). I will also throw in a few books that I have not yet read but have had recommended to me. If anyone reads them before I do or has read them already let me know what you thought of them please. On that note lets see what books I think are important.

1# FLOW.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In terms of design this textbook, as I discussed in my last major blog post, discusses the psychology on how to understand as well as to achieve happiness. This may seem a bit ‘hippy like’ to some but if we take and step back and look at the larger picture the information inside becomes invaluable when designing a game. Videogames are meant to ignite enjoyment, achievement and a sense of fulfilment. These are not possible without the understanding of happiness and how the human mind achieves this state. It also will allow you to understand how to take control of your life and to identify the many elements that can take that control away from you. In the process you may even end up happy yourself…

2# The Writers Journey. 

Christopher Vogler

If you want to design your own games then this book is excellent when it comes to writing stories. It gives us a systematic understanding of how stories affect people as well as how to write them. Game narrative as a rule is more complicated than writing for a film or writing a novel yet these guidelines will allow us to understand the psychology of consumers when posed by certain types of stories. With a little intelligence and risk this should help you create stories that are worth playing through whether they are 4 minutes long or 60 hours.

3# Homo Ludens. Johan Huizinga

A brilliant theory book that looks into the reasons man needs to play. Homos Ludens itself means, “Man the Player” and discusses the importance of play in culture and society. I guess the questions may arise in yourself of how can you create a truly remarkable game without knowing the real reasons that one needs to play? Or you may gain some insight into the human need to enjoy themselves through games? Maybe the realization that videogames are an important cultural medium will give you confidence? Any of these things may occur when reading texts that investigate the reasons why we want to play videogames and in turn will help you create better and more substantial games. Anyone can make games that may be true, but knowing why and how they work will help you make better games.

4# Creativity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Another great textbook by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi that looks into the theory of flow in order to understand creativity. This book in itself may not explain how to make better games but what it does do is help you understand the creative process as well as help you enrich your work with a great creative ethos.

These are the books that I have recently read and have helped enrich my creativity as well as help me focus on my own work. In terms of my work ethos it’s also made me want to create exceptional pieces of work for others to enjoy and not myself. In light of this I have also started seeing games design (not games art) as I huge jigsaw puzzle that needs to be pieced together to see the whole picture which gets me highly excited when embarking on a new project.

Other books that I have been recommended are below. I hope to obtain these sometime this month so I can have a read of them before I go back to finish my MA in September.

1# The Laws of Simplicity – J Maeda

2# Universal Principles of Design

3# Emotional Design – Donald Norman

4# The Design of Every Day Things - Donald Norman

5# Hows and Whys of Level Design – Sjoerd De Jong

Wings Review- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011

Some exciting Wings posts starting off with my review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011 which you can view here. But keep an eye out for later on this week when I will be writing and posting my StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty review for everyone to read. There of course will be news stories throughout the week but I will post on here when they have been submitted to those lovely chaps over at Ifmenhadwings.

See you...

Differences in research – The obvious and not so obvious

One day you hand in that final piece of work for your first MA year before it seems to fast forward to the day that you receive your module marks to suddenly discover that you are in fact in the middle of the summer and that the beginning of your final (and most important) term is only three months away. Three months away? Surely that is plenty of time to enjoy the glowing summer months, to stretch ones feet and bask in the warm weather? Not so it seems when I realised a few weeks ago that I would have a dissertation to write as well as plan a final practical project that must showcase my work in a professional and academic manner. So with this impending doom lurking over me I decided that it would be a wise idea to start researching into material that would benefit the direction that I have already started to take, and thus the first question arises. What books and materials should I pursue in the name of video-games research?

This at first seems like a simple question. Obviously I want to look at material that is relevant to my design discipline and in the case of games design this could mean a number of things. Naturally my first port of call would be to look at various “Games” themselves be that video-games, board games, playground games or role-playing games, before moving onto literature that has been published surrounding my given subject. Chances are these have been written by professionals and academics that have a word or two to say about how a game should or should not be designed. Now there are plenty of great and interesting books out there that are written by well-respected games designers, narrative designers and level designers that are worth reading to gain some insight into how the professional world works.

 One that springs to mind is the collaborative text book “Game Writing: Narrative Design for Video-games” edited by the renowned Chris Bateman, which showcases many different ways to implement narrative into video games successfully as well as talk about the problems that narrative designers face when writing for a game, a great title to draw points out of for what has and hasn’t worked in the past. Another title that I found interesting was that of “The Ultimate Guide To Video Game Writing and Design” by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten which not only talks about writing for games but the design of them as well, a decent book which again serves as a guide of sorts to creating video-games.

Yet this is where I start to have a problem with my research direction. Many people may feel that this sort of research is enough and maybe at an undergraduate level it is, yet at a master’s level of study surely we should be pushing these writers theories or at least pursuing our own ideas into what creates a ‘better’ video game? This thought process is a new branch of independent thinking for me where instead of looking further into the subject for research inspiration you dare to look away from the discipline to search for new points of interest to aid you in your design work.

So we embark on a research journey of not so obvious research material. One of my main influences to turn away from using games and video games texts as my only research came in the form of an interview in ‘Edge magazine’ with Jenova Chen, lead designer at Thatgamecompany.  During the interview Chen talks about his design philosophies and why he thinks they are highly relevant to keeping his games unique and his creativity at a maximum. “People who write games design books make traditional games, so its not really theory. I find things that are already proven, more well-developed – architecture, psychology or sociology – help games design more”. It is from this quote that my mind got thinking about how games are made, why they are made in certain ways and what is to say that we as games designers have to conform to what has been done in the past. Surely as a design discipline that at times even borders on art we should be looking at new and involving ways to make games and push the boundaries of what we played when we were growing up.

So from that point onwards, without dismissing traditional games design texts and games themselves completely, I have been looking into more philosophy and sociology to help me understand what people will find fun and emotionally engaging. Looking outside of games themselves will also help me avoid making games that have already been or games that are similar to those that are already on the market. People don’t want another game like Gears of War when they already have Gears of War, Gears of War 2 and they are looking forward to Gears of War 3 coming out next year.

Thus I ventured online and started to look at texts that I had spoken to a friend who has a masters in philosophy about a few years back and branched to new texts from there. The first two that I have picked up are that of “Flow” and “Creativity” both by renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The first text talks about the theory of ‘Flow’ and how and why people are (as well as not) happy. This so far has provided me with a huge amount of insight into what people find engaging and why they feel certain emotions which, as well as helping myself, allows me to craft stronger ideas for better games.

The second text ‘Creativity” talks through how ‘flow’ can help explain the creative process and show how creativity can enrich people lives. This obviously applies to myself as well as giving me insight into important psychological processes that affect all of us. There are also a number of other books such as “Homos Ludens” by Johan Huizinga, “Emotional Design” by Donald Borman and “The Laws of Simplicity” by J. Maeda that I am looking at picking up and reading to help build up a research base that I can then refer to when I start my dissertation. I also believe this research will help me when building up my practical project and the direction I want to head in with that.

At the end of the day it is always important to see what designers before you have done so that we can analyse what is still relevant and what is not. Yet it is even more important for us as designers to stray beyond the path and explore other streams of thought so we can design stronger, more fun and individual games whether large or small for people in the future to enjoy.

Wings News! IllFonics Nexuiz first downloadable title to be powered by CryENGINE 3

Afternoon everyone, first up today is a quick news story on Nexuiz a new Arena based First Person Shooter thats going to be gracing us this winter with its blasting presence. If you want to know more about it as well as a few screen shots head over here to check it out. 

It will be interesting to see how it is received.

Enjoy.

Dead Space Ignition and Dragon Age 2 Wings news stories

Two new stories done today folks, one on the prequel to Dead Space 2 called Dead Space Ignition. Visit here for more info. Second story is on the newly announced sequel to Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2! Check If Men Had Wings here for more info on this story.

Enjoy.

So Why A New Blog?

So, I have started a brand new blog to chronic my thoughts, ideas and general games design gibberish in a seperate place to that of my reflective diary, To Play or Not to Play. Why you may ask, must I have more than one blog displaying and discussing my work? Well let me explain a little bit. Over the past few weeks I have been doing quite a bit of work out side of academia developing an iPhone game as well as writing news articles, reviews and previews for a gamer website If Men Had Wings. With this additional work on top of my current academic design research I feel like I have started a new beginning of sorts, and with this feel the need to start something new and seperate to accompany my new fully video-game orientated lifestyle.

The basic gist then is that this new blog is going to cover my entire life in games design, professionally and academically week in week out. This will include on going projects as well as ideas, theories, critical responses to games and their designs, links to stories I have written or have found interesting and of course things that amuse me in the world of games.

So keep posted and subscribe to my feed if you are interested in video-games and the design of them, and thanks for visiting.