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Game Maker's Toolkit Newsletter - August 2016
🕑 Added 2016-08-31 22:02:59 +0000 UTC Cutting it fine, but here I am at the end of August with my newsletter for the month! Let's a gooooooPost Script
The comeback of the immersive sim
Confession time: before making this video I had never played System Shock 1 or 2, never really heard of Ultima Underworld, had only played one level of Thief, and didn't know what "immersive sim" meant. As you can imagine, this one required a lot of research!
It started out as a video about the original Deus Ex, and what made that special. But as I read interviews with Warren Spector and Harvey Smith, it became obvious that the game's ties to Looking Glass and this design philopshy of the immersive sim couldn't be ignored. Soon enough, that became the entire video.
I like to sometimes give a reason for why I'm talking about this subject now, and the upcoming tsunami of new immersive sims provided a very nice introduction.
The writing process was relatively painless: I figured out early on that I wanted a structure of "history of immersive sims" - "designs tenets of the genre" - "death of the genre" - "looking forward" pretty early on. And I always like putting ideas in nice bite size lists so it was important to categorise all the benefits of the genre in five clear sections (agency, systemic, emergent, consistent, reactive).
Each of those deserve a video on their own, to be honest. And I probably will look at each of those in more detail in the future. Outside of immersive sims, I mean - Spelunky, for example, has terrific emergent gameplay.
Anyway, I'm pleased with this one. It's a whirlwind tour but I think it gives a nice introduction to the genre and the games. Harvey Smith retweeted it, so that's pretty awesome.
Shovel Knight and nailing nostalgia
Once again, this started out as something completely different. It bounced back and forth between being about Mighty No 9 to Hyper Light Drifter to nostalgia in general. But every one of those iterations kept referring to Shovel Knight until I realised I could do a whole episode on that fantastic game.
Again, it's all about structure. Here, the structure mirrors the 4 points at the end: talk about Shovel Knight's multiple sources, the benefits of retro games, the more modern design in SK, and then the fake NES visuals. It was a joy to play lots of retro games to fill in the footage.
The 8bit title screens at the start were really fun to make. If you're curious, they're based on: Rockman 6, Ninja Gaiden, VICE Project Doom, Ikari Warriors, Super C, and Shatterhand. As for the glitching out game: I hooked up an NES to my capture card and wiggled a cartridge until it went nutso. That was one thing I couldn't do in an emulator!
I almost - almost! - put a bit about Stranger Things in there. The Netflix show completely nails the 4 principles I mention: it borrows from loads of places, it has all the hallmarks of an 80s movie but updates the gender politics and subverts some tropes, and it uses CGI and modern filmmaking instead of being slavish to the Spielberg aesthetic. But I dunno, I didn't feel right using a non video game example. What do you think for future?
As for the reception - well I said I'd get in trouble in the comments for talking about gender roles, didn't I?
Sneak Peek
So what's on my mind at the moment? That's a more honest way of talking about upcoming episodes, I've decided. Here's what I'm thinking about it, it may or may not translate to a video.
Arcade racers. Motorstorm, Mario Kart, Burnout, Pure. They're fun and hardly anyone talks about them in terms of design. One thing I'm thinking about is boost - lots of games feature different boost mechanics to reward or encourage different kinds of play. Got any good examples?
Tony Hawks. I did that #7favegames thing on Twitter (Zelda LA, Mario 64, Far Cry 2, Broken Sword, Resi 4, Tony Hawks 2, Spelunky) the other day, and it reminded me that I need to talk about Tony Hawks. It's just fab all round.
Resident Evil 4. I've done a video on RE4 but I only mentioned the game's dynamic difficulty. I want to talk about pacing, about encounters, about inventory Tetris, about variety, about tactics.
Chill games. Hello Games said No Man's Sky is a chill game - what's that all about? I want to look at this weird sub genre, and figure out their strengths and weaknesses. Specifically games like Endless Ocean and Afrika.
Oh, and for Boss Keys: I'm playing Oracle of Seasons and I've come up with a way of visualising the complexity of a dungeon - in any Zelda game. It's cool and I can't wait to share it with everyone. It took me like five Zelda games but I'm really starting to see how these dungeons work now.
Mark's Month
It's been a quiet month! No crazy trips or anything, just a nice relaxing month making videos and playing games.
So No Man's Sky... I liked the chill thrill of bumbling about the galaxy looking at planets. The joy of finally securing a new ship and having some actual cargo hold. Learning new alien words and being able to converse with a fish dude.
I didn't like the nagging nuisances of the survival systems - they rarely lead to frantic, heart-pounding, do-or-die decisions. Just "hup, better top up my life support" faffing. I didn't like the similarities of the planets, animals, and, plants - it totally killed my desire to explore. I didn't like the endless treadmill of upgrades and star systems - it felt like doing chores.
Overall: I'm glad this game exists and I enjoyed my time with it but i have to say I was left wanting.
Deus Ex Mankind Divided: that I'm enjoying more. I'm going to come back with a full post for you guys later but for now I'll say that I just love doing side quests and exploring Prague. I broke into a bank, chased mercenaries to retrieve a file, accidentally ended up in someone's apartment. It's rich and well put together. I wish the whole game was set here: with even more depth and stuff to do.
What else did I play? Titanfall 2 was pretty fun but I didn't play the first one so maybe it sucks. Abzu is lovely and Furi is hard as hell but clever. Those two will in the Playlist tomorrow.
As for next month: I'm downloading The Turing Test, which looks like fun. A dark Portal-like thing. Dunno much about it but I'm down. There's a new Ace Attorney game, which is hella exciting. A new Civilization game which is hella exciting. And I'm curious about ReCore.
I also may have a speaking engagement! But I don't want to say too much because I keep having exciting things that fall through for various reasons. If all goes well, I'll let you know more soon.
Comments
Game Maker's Toolkit
I actually do have a custom 3DS with video out. I used that for the Ocarina of Time 3D footage in Boss Keys, and Kid Icarus footage in Star Fox Zero. It's not my main 3DS. That does leave Vita - luckily there hasn't been anything I want to capture yet. The main thing I've had trouble with is the Wii U gamepad. SF0 luckily let you show the gamepad view on the TV so that worked well. For other games like Zombi U I had to rely on official trailers that showed the Gamepad view.
Nolen Murphy
I've always wanted to ask. Do you ever feel limited in your ability to talk about certain games/topics in videos due to the inability to capture certain handheld footage? I always feel like the handheld scene gets significantly less attention in gaming discussions simply because capturing footage is a pain. You could get a custom 3DS I suppose, but it can get expensive. Plus, it destroys the portability of the console, which is a bummer. And that still leaves the Vita sadly.
Game Maker's Toolkit
Cheers!
Julian Sterling
Interesting thing about chill games is that they don't actually have to be "chill" necessarily. Emotionally. They can be dark or sad or scary. I'm thinking of yume nikki in specifically, which is definitely a chill game I think. It's interesting that you can create a game that is relaxing mostly by the nature of the pacing and goals set for you but is not necessarily a happy good time.
Will Ready
Speaking of ResiEvil 4, here's a great article I just read about Horror game mechanics. It only mentions RE4 for a moment, but the article is really applicable to what you're talking about (variety, pacing, inventory, etc.). I figure you'd appreciate it: <a href="http://kotaku.com/why-horror-is-scarier-with-weapons-1786148635" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://kotaku.com/why-horror-is-scarier-with-weapons-1786148635</a>
Ossian Olausson
Tony Hawks video thing would be dope
Ricky Romero
I've been playing a lot of Diddy Kong Racing lately and am loving it. The powerups work great in that one. (no mystery boxes, consecutive pickups get you better items) And you get a bigger boost if you let off the throttle first. Drifting is good tooΒ β you can tap the brake during a drift to turn really tightly. π
