I have moved

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that I have moved here!

I'm in the process of tweaking the new site but hopefully you will enjoy reading it.

Thanks for following so far, Paul.

Survival of the Fittest

So as some of you might remember one of the original reasons I set up this blog was to track my fitness, the blog has evolved to be a little more than that, but unfortunately the fitness side has been sidetracked somewhat, until now!

I've entered the 2010, Men's Health Survival of the Fittest race that takes place in Nottingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff, I'll be taking part in the Nottingham race with a few friends.

It's a 10km race with 10 obstacles like crossing a river on ropes, an army assault course and a step climb in my football teams home stadium, Nottingham Forest's City Ground. You can see more information at the official site should you want to take part.

I've got until October to get myself in shape, I'm 3 weeks into training now and it's fair to say that I have a long way to go.

Facts, figures, charts! They never sold a newspaper!

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the impending death of games as we know them. Murmurings about how the big 3 year projects will die a terrible death as we give way to the surge of new games and ideas via online stores like the app store, and even talk and hard evidence of Facebook as a gaming platform.

Now I welcome new gaming ideas and innovations as much as the next game designer/raving fan boy, but do people really think that these will be the downfall of massive AAA titles? I'm not so sure.

Just the other night I was having a good catch up chat with an old friend who has been in the games industry for a loooooong time, and we both agreed that there is certainly change in the air, I think most of us know this. In the next couple of years we're 100% certain that gaming's business model will see some massive changes mainly down to the previously mentioned digital distribution and new digital platforms, but another big factor is how much easier and cheaper it is to produce games again.


We're seeing the welcome return of the bedroom developer with fun little five minute games, 2D sprites and highscores! and do you know what? I like it. But the point I was getting to was that the death of multi million pound epics, your GTA's, Halo's and Call of Duties of this world, for me simply isn't going to happen. And I'll tell you why...

For years we have been striving for movie style production values, games that put us right in the thick of the action, where we relive the Normandy landings or the heist scene in Heat, and finally we are starting to get there. Yes it costs a monumental amount of cash to produce these games, but have you seen how much money they rake in! Modern Warfare 2 pulled in a phenomenal $550 million in it's first five days on sale, the best five day launch of ANY entertainment product ever, that includes books and movies. I have no idea what the sales figures are like now, but you can guarantee it's just as astonishing as the first week sales.


Now this simply isn't going to wither away and die, especially when the games being produced are arguably getting better and better and better. This sort of income is clearly the lifeblood of most major publishers and developers and they wont just stop producing these games as A) that would be madness and B) the public so ravenously lap up these great games, and whilst this is the case someone will provide them.

Now what awesome little games like Doodlejump, Pocket God and geoDefense bring to the table is pure gameplay and the ability to have your five minutes of fun, switch off and think nothing more of it until the next time you want a quick blast. Which is great and some would argue is what true gameplay is all about. But clearly these games cant replace the epic scenarios we see in some modern games today.

My take on this new wave of gaming innovation is that it will live alongside the more established and typical production methods. You only have to look to companies like EA to see proof of this, yes they have the clout to dip their fingers in many pies but they also have a board to please. So whilst EA are still developing their big hitting IP's further they are also developing mobile and social networking games as seen with their recent acquisition of Playfish.

For me what it boils down to is that there has never been a more exciting time to be a gamer, you can take your massive games and plough hours upon hours into them, but fantastically gaming seems to have rediscovered it's form and we can also play contemporary games like it's 1989.

Player Investment (Clever Title Pending)

I'm pretty sure that most of my friends and colleagues will attest to the fact that I prefer to get my points across in a frank but considered manner.

Be that as it may, I tend to avoid buzzwords or catch phrases but recently one has caught my eye, not least because it interests me immensely.

Player Investment.

Now yeah it's been kicking around a while but it's definitely coming to the forefront of modern game design. Almost all modern games have a sort of standard player investment system in place, thanks to Microsoft's achievements and Sony's trophies. But developers are taking this and sprinting off with it, and with good reason too.

Games like Halo, Call Of Duty, World of Warcraft and many others are all supplying us with that carrot that tantalisingly teases us and keeps us ploughing hours upon hours into our games, which previously we would probably finish then leave on the shelf, trade in or flog to a mate.

A few years ago I began to play World Of Warcraft for a number of months in an effort to improve my understanding of the whole MMO genre, I was totally new to the experience and I found it very enjoyable. That said I didn't get hopelessly addicted and I was able to walk away without turning into a gibbering wreck.

The one thing that I have noticed in recent years is how other games have latched onto some of WOW's (and other RPG/MMO titles) fundamental mechanics. I think you could put up a strong argument suggesting that it's down to games like WOW, Ultima and Final fantasy etc that we find ourselves devoutly attempting to climb the ranks and brag to our friends and peers in games that you wouldn't normally associate that kind of system with.
Games like Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3 and numerous others. Can you imagine this back in the days of Quake 3, back then you didn't need any proof of your gaming prowess, you'd just let WASD and the left mouse button do the talking. And even that has changed with the introduction of Quake Live!

Don't let that last little rant fool you though, I definitely approve of all of these "Player Investment" mechanics. These relatively simple systems have been taken and used very successfully to ensure that we're still playing that "one more game" before we log off at the end of a Wednesday night whilst the wife and baby are asleep.

I already briefly mentioned Halo 3, for many there was always a strong desire to reach level 50 ( I never persevered) but Bungie are also taking this much further with Halo Reach, check out this link to see some of their impressive and I think exciting plans.

I guess one negative that does come to mind is that whilst all of these developers attempt to turn their games into huge time sinks, it leaves little time to mess around with other games so in that respect it could well be a very bad thing.

At the end of the day our desire to prove our superiority over others has well and truly been tapped into and I honestly believe that gaming in general is much more interesting for it. I just wonder where does it go next? I don't want to play one game for a year until the next one comes out, though the cynic in me tells me that's exactly what some developers want.

Heavy Rain vs Road Avenger

So recently I played through Heavy Rain and a great game it is. One thing that did strike me was how much it reminded me of an old school classic, Road Avenger on the Mega CD.

For those not familiar with it, the game saw the player play an interactive anime movie by pressing the correct sequence of buttons in time to the on screen activities, you played the roll of a sort of Mad Max crossed with Kurt Russel in Death Proof in a speeding red sports car. The title does a great job of getting the protagonists activities across.

Now clearly Heavy Rain is light years ahead of Road Avenger in terms of tech and art etc, but design, hmmmmn not so much.


Some might say well Heavy Rain is on foot and so has more in common with the likes of Space Ace and Dragon's Liar, which is a fair comment but Road Avenger was better, it felt like the timing was right and that the actions you had to perform were more in context with the on screen action. Most importantly if you messed up it felt like it was your fault, which I'd say is one of, if not the most important things in any video game.

Heavy Rain also does this pretty well, granted there are times when it slips up a little, but for the most part the quick time events seem well authored and sensitive towards the onscreen action. Consequently they can have you on the edge of your seat.

Now I don't know if it's purely rose tinted glasses which has me making this comparison and please don't get me wrong I'm not holding Road Avenger up as a beacon of gaming achievement, and I'm sure that the timing I mentioned previously probably doesn't hold up as well as I remember. But I guess the point I'm attempting to make is that it's refreshing to see developers taking influence from other and often ill thought of areas of gaming's history and importantly improving the formula.

Road Avenger may or may not have given Quantic Dreams some inspiration, the highway section on Heavy Rain certainly suggests to me that it did, but I think it's also fair to say that other similar games of old, like Dragon's Lair etc would have popped up in the Quantic Dreams studio at some point.

Heavy Rain was a brilliant breath of fresh air, but elements of it are ingrained deeply in gaming's past.

Something I intend to bring into play as I continue to expand my repertoire.

Result!

I just found out that I was runner up in the Eurogamer God Of War 3 competition, apparently I've won a GOW3 T shirt and poster.

Well happy with that!

So as I've mentioned a few times I'm looking into learning more about the code/script side of game development.

Recently I came across Flixel essentially a library of Action Scripts put together by the chaps that produced the excellent Canabalt and Gravity Hook HD.

For some reason I seem to have taken to using Flixel and Flex Builder, maybe it's because it's a little more straight forward than coding in C++ and doesnt feel so extensive. But a large part is because of the great effort the Flixel guys have put into making things easy for new starters.

So thanks to the Flixel team and hopefully I'll be able to make more use of my ideas and have something to show soon. Work and being a Dad aside.