Lighting for Game Design

Here’s an article on the principles of lighting a game for game design. It’s very different from lighting things for illustrative/art purposes.

It talks about how simplified and concentrated lighting can be way more effective in leading the player than artistically lit environments, or lighting that ignores the fundamentals of game design (Condemned for example, breaks these rules to such utter frustration, that I found myself throwing the controller not because of player deaths, but because of running in circles unable to progress).

http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2129

Mirror’s Edge Demo Up

The Mirror’s Edge demo is up on PSN, and should be available soon on Xbox marketplace.

It’s graphically impressive, but not nearly as impressive as when I first saw it. I do like the look and style of it, gameplay seems rather interesting, though it might be my expectations, but it didn’t impress me nearly as much as I had hoped. Download the demo and try it out yourself.

You know what’s interesting, when I first started up this blog, the domain name mirrorsedge.com had not been taken. I am seriously kicking myself for not grabbing it when I had the chance…

Child’s Play from 1up.com

This is a very old article, but it’s still one of my favorites:

Would today’s tykes tolerate the classic games you grew up with? Kids do say the darndest things in this uncut version of an EGM article—now with a bonus game not included in the original story!

Your average gamer these days is in his late 20s—young enough to still find new ways to destroy brain cells, old enough to worry about bills and 401ks, and wise enough to reminisce about the good ol’ days of videogames. But was the age of Pong, Atari, Mattel handheld football, and Donkey Kong really all that great, or are we just blinded by fuzzy, warm nostalgia?

That’s the question we asked—and answered—back in the November issue of EGM, in which we rounded up nine children of the PlayStation generation—ages 9 to 12—and forced them to play a variety of titles from the late’70s to the mid-’80s. Now read what the little scamps had to say, plus check their comments on a bonus game—Super Mario Bros.—that got cut from the EGM article. If you grew up with these classics, prepare to feel very old.

Note: Everything written here was actually said by these kids. Really. The only change we made was to remove the more gratuitous usages of the word “gay”.

So much gaming, so little time.

It’s going to be a crazy two months ahead. Due to the approaching Black Friday, games are being pushed out in time for the holiday season, and the buyer frenzy. Just on DS and PS3 alone, we’ve got a mass amount of titles that will make you either flinch in agony as your time is whittled away, or leap for joy at all the drooling goodies.

We’ve got Little Big Planet coming out on the 21st, in addition, on that very same day is the new DS Castlevania – Order of Ecclesia. Let’s not forget Rockband 2 is being released for PS3, which I happily preordered.

On November 11th, is supposedly Dragon Quest IX for DS, Eternal Poison for PS2, Castlevania Judgement, and super-drool Mirror’s Edge! And the day after that is Valkyria Chronicles! A week from that day is Tomb Raider Underworld!

Some of you may already have Eternal Sonata, Dead Space, and Bioshock on your radars too.

Personally, I’m going to skip Eternal Poison and Castlevania Judgement. I’ll have to let a few of these games pass “Day One GET” in favor of my wallet and my time constraints. I’m still trying to play Uncharted!

I’m definitely going to get Valkyrie Chronicles. Played the UK demo, and I’m supremely impressed with the game mechanics.

Mirror’s Edge is an obvious DAY ONE GET. What I am kicking myself for though, is the fact that when I registered this blog, mirrorsedge.com was available, and I didn’t take it. Why? I’d say a sudden lapse of stupidity.

Another GET is Tomb Raider Underworld. I’ve always loved Tomb Raider, and seeing it improve so much over the last two games has really injected new love for the series for me. May not be a Day One Get though, but definitely one of the higher priorities.

I’m also a huge Castlevania fan, and can’t wait to see what this new DS installment will bring to the table. The new combat system sounds interesting, and I’ve always wanted to see a female lead since Dracula X.

Little Big Planet is already preordered. I don’t have to say anything else. The reviewers have said their word, and I agree. Beta showed me the light.

The demo for Eternal Sonata didn’t impress me very much. I really like the art style. It’s beautiful. But it doesn’t seem to add much to the RPG genre. Nothing interesting at least. I was really anticipating this game when I saw it on the 360, but after playing the demo, decided that I’ll buy it “when I have time”. I have enough RPGs to tide me over for potentially the next 5 years!

If I can’t purchase all my wants, then hopefully, someone else will for my christmas present.

More Soul Calibur 4 Characters unveiled

The latest addition to the Soul Calibur 4 roster, a demon-girl named Kamikirimushi. Not much else is known about her right now other than the fact that she carries a giant mace.

Sticker Gunk : How to Remove it Without Destroying Everything Else

You’ve all experienced it. You go to EBgames or Gamestop to buy a game, and the only copies they have are gutted, with the sticker on it. Or you go to buy a pre-owned game, which is guaranteed to have a sticker on the case. And then after you buy it, they put this giant sticker on it to seal it as proof that it hasn’t been opened (blame piracy for that one).

You take it home, and try to peel off that god-damn sticker as carefully as you can and it throws you a bomb before it can be thwarted – it tears, leaving behind a papery sticker gunk residue. You then spend the rest of the day picking at the gunk until it virtually destroys the case’s would-have-been-shiny-finish, and have also dented the insert underneath. You try applying tape to it, but it does nothing! Then the sticky parts collect dirt and eventually turn black, making your game look thoroughly used!! Maddening!!!

But! There are ways to remove it without so much as breaking a sweat! You can apply this method to DVD cases, manga, and other stickers stuck on shiny surfaces!! How?! Read on!

Save Points are Pointless? – Modernizing the RPG

So I recently started playing The World Ends With You, a DS game by Square Enix. In recent years, Square Enix has been trying to address some of the age-old gripes that traditional role-playing games have been plagued with. Today, we’ll look at some of these classic issues and see how they are addressed.

One such issue are save points. They’ve been around for quite some time now. RPGs on PC have typically been “save anywhere”. I believe Final Fantasy 1 for the NES was the first game to incorporate save points, in that you could only save in inns, and if you had a tent that you could use in the overworld map. It wasn’t until games like Tomb Raider that truly integrated save points into an action game as being part of a level. There have been countless debates now on whether save points are a good system.

No More Potions! – Modernizing the RPG

So I recently started playing The World Ends With You, a DS game by Square Enix. In recent years, Square Enix has been trying to address some of the age-old gripes that traditional role-playing games have been plagued with. Today, we’ll look at some of these classic issues and see how they are addressed.

I Wish I Bought More Potions…

In most classic RPGs, as you march towards your goal (the end-boss of the level), you’re getting weaker and weaker. Little minions pick at your HP until you’re about half left or worse, nearly dead. Then you have no power to fight the boss. You grind, you go back and manage to get though with a good portion of your health in-tact, and then you annihalate the boss because of your grinding. That’s no fun. So they balance the boss and make him tougher. Next time, you stock up on health restoring items, and drink potions after every battle. That kind of maintenance is tedious at times. Is an RPG really about constantly healing up? Perhaps, if you’re the hardcore RPGer.

Grinding Sucks – Modernizing the RPG

So I recently started playing The World Ends With You, a DS game by Square Enix. In recent years, Square Enix has been trying to address some of the age-old gripes that traditional role-playing games have been plagued with. Today, we’ll look at some of these classic issues and see how they are addressed.

Eliminating or reducing Grind Time

Grinding is tedious. It’s repetitive, and it’s boring. But sometimes, when you encounter a boss you can’t beat, or there’s a piece of equipment you want to buy but can’t afford, you have to go back and start running in circles to fight weaker monsters to level up. It’s a huge waste of time. This is a virtually unavoidable problem in typical RPGs.

No Random Encounters – Modernizing the RPG

So I recently started playing The World Ends With You, a DS game by Square Enix. In recent years, Square Enix has been trying to address some of the age-old gripes that traditional role-playing games have been plagued with. Today, we’ll look at some of these classic issues and see how they are addressed.

No More Random Encounters

You know you hate it. You like to battle monsters in standard RPG fanfare, but sometimes, it gets tedious, especially when all you want to do is get from point A to point B without another repetitive, droning random encounter.

Soul Calibur 4 Bonus Anime Characters!

The Soul still burns! Recent news has gotten me much more excited about this new installment of Soul Calibur. I haven’t been this excited about a video game since Soul Calibur 3. Yes, even more excited than Final Fantasy XII. That’s saying a lot considering I am a big FF fan.

An additional interest that got me even more excited than the already cool Star Wars bonus characters are the new all-female bonus characters created by famous manga-ka. Namco did a similar thing with Soul Calibur II when they added Spawn and Necrid designed by McFarlane. Though it appealed to the North American market, they weren’t a very welcome addition in Japan, or for most Soul Calibur fans anyway.

So let’s introduce the four new characters designed by Mine Yoshizaki, Oh! Great, Yutaka Izubuchi, and Hiroya Oku!

Playstation 3 is your best bet.

To start, I’m not a Sony fanboy. I try to use other brands if I can. I just did a quick mental inventory of my electronics, and interestingly enough, I don’t own any Sony products except for my PS3 and my little 21″ trinitron tv. Sony products are typically overpriced, not all the time best quality. That being said, I do however, recommend that you get a Playstation 3, if you intend to get a Blu Ray player.

You may recall that HD-DVD lost the format wars. Obviously, the only thing left is to buy a Blu Ray player. But The problem with Blu Ray players is that they don’t have some of the neat features that HD DVD had, such as picture in picture among other things. Of course, these features would be introduced with newer Blu Ray players, and players that support firmware updates.

Unfortunately, the current market is lacking in that.

I *heart* Vieras

Sometimes, you’re hooked on figures, other times, you do something else like play video games. I’ve gotten a pile of video game that I have yet to play which date back to 1999! (not surprisingly, this was also when I met my girlfriend who is now my wife). I had purchased Final Fantasy XII when it was first released. The special edition version from EB games/Gamestop that had the bonus DVD and cool metal case. I even bought the special edition strategy guide I’m so hardcore!

So why is it that only now that I start playing FFXII, a Playstation 2 game, on my Playstation3? Backlog.

Folklore : Specific Shortcutting Strategies

The final article on Folklore, we’ll cover shortcuts specifically used in Folklore. A few of these strategies can be applied to other games as well, but there certainly are a few clever ones specific to Folklore itself, and with that makes me appreciate the thought and effort put into making this game from a small concept to a reality. Looking at the staffing, they had only a handful of artists for environment modeling, yet they had over 20 artists for animations, and another nice handful for character modeling. Obviously, shortcuts had to be taken otherwise the project would not ship on time and on budget.

Folklore : Industry Shortcuts

Every development cycle requires that the team takes as little resources as possible to create the maximum amount of content and playability. As a result, many clever techniques must be used to reduce workload. Some call it “cheating” some call it “shortcuts”, but I prefer to call it “efficiency”.

Folklore is no different in this instance. It, like many other games, does as much as it can in order to create as much content as possible in the least amount of time. After all, in the game industry, there are tight deadlines to meet, and lots of overtime that is required to cover it. This post will cover some of the “tricks of the trade”. Knowing what these are will give you a better insight on how the rest of the game industry functions.

Folklore : Art Production

Art production is a very key factor in the whole process of making a game. It’s important to know and plan out the art assets correctly to avoid potential problems near the end of the project.

Continuing on with my previous post on Folklore’s development process, let’s focus a bit on the art assets. The biggest telltale sign of the Folklore team’s first environment would have to be the Faery Realm. The reason this is so is evident in their first demo, which features the Faery Realm, and Warcadia. Sounds like the obvious of course, but there are other things that point to that, and the reason I’m going into it is because it sheds light on their production process.

Folklore : Development Process

I’m getting incredibly close to finishing Folklore for the Playstation 3, so I felt it was time I did a review on it. However, rather than presenting a typical review, here is more of an in-depth look at how they actually made the game, and how these practices should be used more in the game industry. Now, this is all purely speculation, but by applying industry experience to it, I think some of my speculations should be fairly accurate.

Darth Vader and Yoda in Soul Calibur 4?!

The weirdest news today, is that Darth Vader and Yoda will be appearing in Soul Calibur 4. It’s so weird and illogical, but yet is a welcome addition, as it seems the response is generally shock but still positive on the NeoGaf forums.

As you know, I’m an avid Soul Calibur fan. Though I’m not as big of a Star Wars fan, the thing I liked most about Knights of the Old Republic was swinging that light saber around and the cool sound it made. Being able to play as a Jedi, and Darth Vader at that, is just too cool, even if it did seem entirely out of place. I’m sure many people are asking “Why Star Wars and not Dante?” No idea, but who knows? Namco Bandai could be pulling a Smash Bros. on us and introduce even more characters as we get closer to the release date. This is still a very welcoming surprise though! Soul Calibur 4 will be released on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. I own a PS3, so if you would like to challenge me online, don’t forget that.

My Wife is a Gamer

I never really thought that my wife was a gamer. She never plays Soul Calibur, or Final Fantasy, or Zelda, or Half Life. She’s just not interested in games. But she actually is, though in a very different sense.
There’s something to be said when a woman plays video games… (please, the image on the left is not true about female gamers) actually, there’s something to be said when a woman decides to do anything – especially when it comes to my wife. When she gets into something, she goes hardcore on it, and gets really focussed. This seems to transfer to her gaming habits as well. Most of the time, she has no interest in video games, but recently I got her MySims for Wii and I just can’t get her off that machine! I checked out the play history one night, and it showed 11+ hrs were clocked on MySims for the day. ELEVEN! It’s taken me 6 months to clock 29hrs on Final Fantasy III DS!

flOw

So it’s finally the weekend again, and my wife is doing overtime at work. Soon I know that I’ll be doing overtime too. Last night though, I decided it would be good to try out flOw, one of the Playstation Store downloads.

FlOw is a game about piloting an aquatic organism through a surreal biosphere where players consume other organisms, evolve, and advance their organisms as you swim deeper in. As you play, you grow and evolve into an elaborate, and often aesthetically appealing form. At the end of each level you unlock a new organism to grow and play around with. Controls are simplistic to the point of almost non-existent. Literally anyone can pick this game up and play. All you do is tilt your controller and your little organism will move in that direction. Press a button, and that organism’s ability activates, ranging from a speed boost to going temporarily invisible. There is a built in dynamic difficulty adjuster too, so anyone and everyone will have an enjoyable time playing it no matter what skill level.