Designing a game

It's a dream many of my generation live with: design a great game. I will start a series right here in an attempt to put together a great game design. This part will discuss the goals of the design.

The first question to ask is: What makes a game great?

This question is, of course, extremely tricky to answer. A single game will likely not be able to capture every aspect, but just taking things from popular games that already exist, we can start with a simple list:

• Accessibility - reach across genders, age categories, and pcs
• Atmosphere - especially in horror games
• Attachment - sense of responsibility for the character or its actions
• Cooperation - playing with others, offline or online. Forming clans or guilds
• Competition - competing against others directly (pvp) or indirectly (ladders)
• Customization - the look of the character, the space they own
• Distinction - someone playing the game can (and most of the time, will) have a different experience from someone else who has played it.
• Freedom - the ability to make choices and affect outcomes
• Graphics - technical (Half Life) or stylized (World of Warcraft)
• Rewards - some of the items listed above are their own rewards, but all great games have an excellent reward system. This item could be as simple as a sense of achievement, but it's something to keep in mind
• Social Interactions - chat, speech

And just to clarify, these are aspects a good design can control. The more technical aspects that can contribute to a gaming experience, such as gameplay, is a more technical issue. The goal of this game, then, is to specialize in as many of these areas as possible. And I say specialize in this case, even though it is contrary to maximum coverage, because I want to ensure that each aspect is a refined piece in the overall design, and not some mechanic that's just thrown in because we had to have it. For example, I wouldn't consider hotseat play to be satisfying for competition in Civilization 4. The game just takes too long for hotseat to be reasonable. However, in Jones and the Fast Lane, it works just fine.

The Summer Lull

One of the benefits of a MMO is that gamers don't have to suffer that lull that comes every summer - the two to three month vortex when few great games see release. If you think about it, almost everything is planned for Q3 or, every publisher's favourite, Q4, to try to cash in on the Christmas. Every system comes out in quarter three, Halo 3 is quarter four, Final Fantasy XII is quarter three, and the list goes on.

But in the bleak doldrums of quarter one and two, World of Warcraft will still be going strong with new content in every patch (I can only assume other MMOs do the same). It does make me wonder though: if the movie business releases their blockbusters in the summer months, when kids are all off from school, can't game publishers also capitalize on these, our most precious resources?

Ported games: Are they worth playing?

This has been an issue in the industry quite some time, but after trying Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone from Atari, this humble blogger has to step up and verbally bitch slap somebody. Now, I will say up front that I am a D&D whore. I will play almost anything that has slapped the Wizards of the Coast trademarked franchise on it. I've played, and still own the Gold box games. I was ecstatic and absolutely giddy when I first played Baldur's Gate. I think Neverwinter Nights is one of the best games I've ever played. And I am enjoying Demon Stone, but it is so painfully a port of a console game, it practically shoves a console down your pants and forces its joystick in your mouth.

Now, I'm not sure how it is for the rest of the game-playing universe, but I really enjoy tweaking graphics options. I enjoy finding which secret combination of resolutions, shaders, and detail quality will maximize my experience. But I do not enjoy having to quit to tweak them. Since consoles have none of these options, the graphics menu is a simple menu in the launcher. That's right. With none of the video options being available in-game, you have to restart the game to tweak every little detail. Also, what is the first key you hit when you try to skip the intro splash screens of various developers and publishers (it's the ESC key, right? If it's not, pretend it is)? That's right, the ESC key. However, because the enter button is the port of whatever joypad button skips these screens, that is the key you have to use. The controls are a bit clunky as well, but bearable so far. The graphics are really nice, but while they upped pretty much everything important, the little life bar section for your party looks like it just came out of a sewer. The contrast is so disgusting it's bothersome. They spent how long enhancing the 3D models and they couldn't improve this simple sprite map? I really can't imagine what gamers have done to deserve this half-assed effort.

There are a couple of other annoyances (such as not being able to quit right to the desktop from most parts of the game), but all in all it is pretty much a D&D version of the Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers game. Defeat monsters, buy new special moves and combos, buy new equipment, etc. The characters seem different enough to be interesting but I've only played two levels so far (a full review to come later).

Who do I blame for this? Atari. The whole job of a publisher is to ensure that the game is a polished product. They should make sure that gamers have what they need to fully enjoy the game. They are in charge of quality control and should not take their reputation lightly. Because Hasbro could really take their Neverwinter Nights franchise elsewhere, and Hasbro should threaten to do so if they keep seeing ports like this. I would like to say that we as gaming consumers should not buy the products, but that would probably just mean we'll get no ports at all. They'll never correlate the drop in sales to poor product quality.

Ra

Ra is a fun, fast, and accessible board game. It fits nicely in under an hour (perfect for some lunch-time gaming), and can accomodate three to five players. The rules are easy to learn, but the strategy is deceptively deep.

I have friends who know a whole lot about board games. They claim Reiner Knizia is a genius in game design. I don't know much about him, but just from playing Ra, I would have to agree. The game is simple to explain: You are trying to get the highest point total. You score at the end of each of the three rounds (called epochs). You get points during scoring by winning tiles through auctions. There are some tiles that go away at the end of the epoch, some tiles that only score at the end of the third epoch, and the mechanics of scoring are different for different types of tiles (for example, you only get points for pharoahs if you have the most of them). Not having some tiles by the end of an epoch can be detrimental. Depending on how many players are in the game, you get a certain number of auction tiles, each with a unique number on them, to bid with. When you win an auction, you get the last auction tile that someone else won an auction with for the next epoch, and you place your winning tile in the middle (so essentially, every auction also includes an auction tile). On your turn, you're down to three simple options: Add a tile to the auction track, call an auction, or use a special tile. An auction can also start if you try a "Ra" tile, and when the Ra track fills up or when everyone has used all their auction tiles, the epoch ends.

This will take you 15 minutes to learn. However, the evaluation of how much each tile is worth to you and your opponents takes in so many factors that the strategy is not immediately obvious. When should you call an auction? Since you have to take an auction if you called it, and no one else wants it, it becomes a risky proposition. How much should you bid on an auction? Are your opponents going to outbid you for the same auction? Does your opponent want the auction badly enough that you can force him to use a higher tile? You have to consider these things and more when you're playing this game that involves only fourteen tile types.

If you've never tried a board game outside of Sorry!, Monopoly, or Risk, you really need to try this game.

Powergame

The Powergame section is only recommended for readers who have tried the game, and are looking for some tips. Any comments on the strategy of this game are welcome.

I've played quite a few 3, 4, and 5 player games. The winning point total for 5 player games is usually around 40-45, for 4 player games it is around 45-50, and for 3 player games, you will likely need 50+. Three player games are generally more erratic as there tend to be rounds that are abhorrently short, but since you have four auction tiles, it's not terrible to be aggressive early in the epoch.

In general, if you and your opponent are the only ones left in an epoch, it is not a good idea to let them run it by exiting the round too early. It is generally safe to do so if there are only two empty Ra spaces left on the track. In fact, you should try to get your opponent out of the way so that you can run it as early as possible. It's a tricky balancing act like everything else in the game.

Controlling pharaohs is key in a 3 or 4 player game. You need to develop either pharoahs or go heavy in monuments if you want to win. I find the key in most games, no matter how many players, is to have a huge last epoch. Many game that I've won included 30 points in the last epoch, and monuments are excellent for this. If you are going for the monument strategy, then you will likely want high auction tiles going into the last epoch.

I generally dislike rivers because floods can get sniped or stolen very easily. However, if you can build them up in the first or second epoch, you can score big. If you are banking on a flood then you need to acquire yourself a God tile and then try to get in a 1 on 1 situation.

Don't bet on civilizations too early, unless the price is right. Since the second civilization isn't worth any immediate points, you can probably steal one cheaply later in the round.

Nintendo DS Lite: Not Just the IPod of Gaming

So once again Nintendo has maimed Sony in the arena of innovation. While the PSP is on life support, the Dual Screen is about to reach the height of its popularity with the combo-release of the sleek DS Lite and New Super Mario Bros. Forget that the polar-whiteness of the machine makes it look like a marketing idea stolen from Apple. Whereas the IPod didn't really have that much to offer in terms of innovation for MP3 players, the DS Lite is different from any handheld before it.

I borrowed a PSP for the week and was not convinced I needed one; I played the DS Lite for 5 minutes and I was convinced it was the best handheld ever. The drastic difference in attitude was precipitated by the overwhelming sense of innovation that the DS Lite had to offer. The touch screen simply changed the way you played a game. While Sony was busy sticking with its Playstation paradigm of copying Nintendo's innovations and making it better, Nintendo was busy with its own agenda to evolve the gaming world.

I can just imagine it now: Two perfectly lit board rooms, each with a large oaken table in the middle. One room contains the Sony executives and engineers, and the other houses Nintendo's masterminds. They are both staring the GameBoy Advance SP, wondering how they can improve on it. In both rooms, executives identify that the screen is too small and therefore, too limiting to the experience. A Sony engineer pipes up with a simple idea: "let's make it bigger". Simultaneously, in the other room, the Nintendo engineers respond with: "let's make two of them."

I encourage you to just try a game that uses the touch screen. Something like the mini-games in the New Super Mario Bros., or Meteos (a brilliant puzzle game). Try the wi-fi connectivity with a single cartridge. It will recall the wonder you felt the first time you played a video game.

Guild Wars

I played this game for about a week before I gave it up. Let me clarify: I really liked this game, then one monumental experience completely wrecked it for me. I was being my usual Mesmer/Necromantic self, having fun in the arenas at around level 9 or so. At the time I really had no idea why some of my teams had a long streak and some didn't, besides sticking together and reviving and all that, until someone mentioned something about droks armor.

Now, this was about a month or two ago, just after Factions (although I didn't have that installed), so they might have balanced this already, but I cannot go back. Anyway, I'm in a group with a W/Mo 6, and she is breezing through opponents all by herself. We won almost every match flawlessly, until we faced this other group, who had a W/Mo 9 with droks.

The fight went something like:
We killed 3 of their party once while they killed 3 of us twice. Game over, right? Nope. My W/Mo goes and re-kills the 3 of their party members (no joke, they couldn't kill her 4 on 1) after some chain-ressurection, and thus armies of good and evil began their eternal battle. Fifteen minutes of sword swinging and healing later, the W/Mo 9 finally wins. Why? Because our teammate had to go. They could've just sat there fighting forever.

Thus, my conclusion that this game is absolutely retarded (which sucks, cause I liked it a lot initially). I can't think of another PvP game where there is just no way to win unless your opponent leaves. And I've played some really long DoTa games.

Free Downloadable Games: The Last Frontier

Let me paint this gloomy scene:

I am in Brampton (possibly the dullest suburb in Canada) at my in-laws, sitting in a small room, bored from hours of reading. There is something that passes as a computer in front of me (a 700Mhz Celeron) with a DSL Lite connection. Even the Yahoo! Chess interface (the old one) runs slowly on the "computer", so what is a gamer to do?

After some time researching many (slow-loading) pages, looking at unfinished products (about 99% of the free gaming remake projects out there are unfinished), here are some connections if you ever find yourself in such desperate times:

• RetroRemakes - This site has tons of free options. Their
  scope is basically limited to remakes of really old games, and their list isn't completely up to date in terms of projects that have been abandoned, but I found myself playing The Legend of Shadow (Legend of Kage remake) for quite some time. I did run into a play-stopping bug as it slowed down to about 8-frames a second for no apparent reason halfway into the second area though. And of course, there is no save feature, so I resorted to...
• Space Quest 0 - Yes, Roger Wilco's lost adventure! This is such a throwback; you have to type. That evoked both a sense of horror and joy. Yes, you will actually have to type "search body" into the console if you want to make your way around this game. I didn't play this game too long, but the humour was spot-on and it didn't have any technical problems.

I downloaded, but did not get a chance to try the LodeRunner remake I found on SourceForge, but generally SourceForge is a bust for these kinds of things. Although I hear the Star Control 2 remake is solid.

Do you have an inside scoop on any free offline gaming that doesn't require much processing power or a real video card?

Industry goes boom?

I found this news article on Gamespot rather humourous. Especially the part where they refer to this analyst, Michael Pachter, who is predicting doom for the industry. Gee, if he didn't just prove that he knew nothing by predicting that the sales for this month would be way higher than they were. I love that logic. "This guy was totally wrong about this topic. But here is what he says about this topic in the future". I predict oil prices will go down over the next year. Way down.

This article led this Slashdot poster to believe that MMORPGs might be the cause. Of course, this inference is meaningless. What is interesting though is that if this is true, consoles will have to have a fast response on this front. They need to make MMORPGs work on consoles (except for Nintendo, whose consoles are niche and are clearly for people who enjoy having friends over to play). Good luck guys.

I think what is more likely is that consumers are just holding out on the current generation consoles until all the players are on the field. People are saving up months ahead so that they can get a PS3, or they are waiting for the 360 price drop that is imminent. I have often talked about starting some kind of PS3 fund this year, and I was only half-joking. I'm sure many people are doing the same. What are your plans for the next generation consoles?

Heroes of Might and Magic V

This game is bugged as hell, and not all that different from its previous iterations, but still a lot of fun to play. I haven't tried the multiplayer (which, I hear has more issues than the singleplayer mode), but don't look for this game to rock your world. This game is more of an insidious widowmaker than a sanity thief.

Heroes V is supposedly more like Heroes III than Heroes IV. Whatever that means. I was a Heroes III nut (I bought and played all the expansions), and I am one of the rare few who liked the fourth iteration better (I hate having to hire heroes as a creature-delivery service). The truth is, you'll feel like you're playing the same game with 3D graphics. You'll be leading armies of creatures aligned to your town type and destroy patches of creatures or decently-intelligent foes on a square-based grid. The strategy is the same as the previous games: get your production on and control the map.

For the RPGers in all of us, you level your hero throughout the campaign, eventually leading to cool abilities (for example, the ultimate ability for the Ranger is that your creatures will always have luck applied to their attacks). The skill trees and ability trees are two mechanics that seem to have undergone a change for the better. However, you still don't carry your items between scenarios, which is still annoying.

Presentation and general polish is where the game falls short. In fact, if you bought this game before the 1.1 patch, you might have been tempted to concoct some desperate plan to evade store policy and return it.

The game teases you with many great tooltips. You can right-click to find out vital information about buildings and units. For example, right-clicking on a Grim Raider reveals that it has the ability Lizard Bite. But what could Lizard Bite mean? You're on your own. How a strategy game could be missing creature abilities blows my mind (check the my resource recommendation at the end to find out what it does). Not to mention that there is just no description on some artifacts. Who told them they could release it like this?

The music is standard, the voice-acting is spotty in some cases, and the 3D, rotating/zooming camera pretty much just gets in the way. Unless you're willing to move your camera every turn (and trust me, you won't be), you're bound to miss out on some precious resource or building because trees have occluded it. This is a bit of a minor issue, but the 3D terrain also gets in the way of some battles that involve sieging a town. You almost always have to zoom all the way out in these battles. The occlusion is also a problem when trying to target a small unit adjacent to a big dragon in some cases.

I won't even bother telling you about the story. It completely sucks. Everyone's all crazy about Queen Isabel, but she's a stupid loon and almost completely unlovable. I would be rebelling against her as well, the witch.

A couple of the new features, like a cinematic combat camera, I turned off by the time I was on the second scenario. When you are already going to devote 40 or so hours to a game, you probably won't want to waste the couple of seconds every creature action to have the camera zoom in on your creatures.

Bringing up the save dialog takes way longer than it should. My computer isn't the fastest thing on the face of the planet, but it should really be able to handle saving.
Some of these issues have been fixed with the 1.1 patch, but it seems to mainly focus on multiplayer bugs. I don't have the patience to try turn-based multiplay, even for my beloved Civilizations 4, so I don't think I'll delve into this one.

So, in summary: long, sweet, but it'll annoy you just enough so that you won't be playing it until you lie passed out at a cybercafe.

Powergame

My personal view on the factions, in order:

1. Necropolis - These guys are beaters. They're probably terribly unbalanced in multiplay. They will have 2k of skeleton archers in no time, while keeping their population up with a level 2 summoning spell. Plus, they can recruit at will and convert them to undead. Beaters.
2. Dungeon - Black dragons and elemental chaining. First-level shooters with a decent ability. You can basically own anything with destructive magic in the early-mid game. The only faction with a level 2 walker that can actually be useful, albeit only if they're upgraded. You can also get cool combos off like land your Grim Raiders beside a unit and send your double-striking minotaur guards at them for two free attacks.
   
3. Sylvan - With the right skills/abilities, lots of ancient treants and master hunters, you should be able to dominate. Their level 2 walker is useful on very rare occassion, and only if you have at least 30 of them and they're upgraded.
   
4. Academy - Ranged level 7 critters is actually not that big of a deal, unless you're defending or applying a siege or fighting mobs. That being said, Titans are waaaay better than Colossi, so upgrade soon. They suffer in the second and third tier but make up for it in the higher tiers.
5. Inferno - Sure, gating is good (especially with the ultimate ability), but their level three walkers are useless until upgraded. If you're desperate and you want to recruit from other factions, you're out of luck because your own succubus mistresses will destroy them. Large stacks of imps are crazy good against enemy heroes though.
6. Haven - Archangels are a bit of a pimpsmacking, but this faction is so vanilla it's hard to pay attention. Cavaliers/Paladins are also allstars, but I hope I never have to play this faction again.

The best magic schools, in order: Dark Magic (good at all levels, espcially with the master of X abilities. Especially brutal late game), Destructive Magic (dominates early-mid game, especially with Master of Ice and Master of Storms), Light Magic (mass haste is good, and ressurection is nice, but not cost-effective), and Summoning Magic (unless you're undead. Then this could be better than destructive just for Raise Dead).

The best link I've found relating to this game is Celestial Heavens. They have a really cool skill wheel and up to date information! Oh, and of course there's a wiki. There's always a wiki.