THE WAY OF THE DENKI: GARY PENN’S GAME DESIGN RULES
After some years working without much in the way of games media attention, it’s good to see Denki striking back as the release of its debut Xbox Live Arcade game Quarrel nears. Case in point, a two part studio visit feature by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, the latest of which reveals some of studio head Gary Penn’s golden rules for games making.
Penn, as I noted before, was creative director for DMA Design as it formed the first Grand Theft Auto and, more recently, helped design the Xbox 360 sandbox sleeper Crackdown, and these rules I found especially interesting:
Feel
“This is about trying to create products that feel good – they are substantial, they aren’t sloppy, the controls feel responsive, and you feel in control. But it also makes you feel good, so there’s some emotional resonance going on there. It’s not some deep meaningful need to create a game that exploits the emotions of love or hate, it’s just… hey, you know… feel something, feel good. Smile.”Alive
“We try to make products that feel alive. And that kind of operates on two tiers – informative and attentive. You’re never in the dark for too long, the game never feels like it’s crashed, which can still happen when you get this… dead air they call it on television, it’s horrible when you get that in games. It’s making sure the game is keeping you informed at the right times, with the right kind of absorbable information. The main thing we think of is, we as developers are performers, we’re building toys, the tools of play, for players who are also performers. Performing on your own is tedious, but performing in front of an audience is much more interesting. That’s where the attentive element comes in – if the product has life, it’s evocative and attentive, it says ‘hey that was pretty cool, I like the way you did that’.Twist
“There has to be some sort of meaningful twist in there. And that doesn’t mean it has to be wholly original, it just has to have something that distinguishes it from everything else. It can be a twist in the concept, a twist in the execution, and it has to kind of manifest throughout the product.
The full feature (and its first part) give more perspective on the studio’s process.
Gary Penn on the rules of game design [Guardian, via Infovore]
Previously:
Denki re-emerge with XBLA boardgame mashup Quarrel – Offworld
Denki does recruitment right – Offworld
Phil Spencer and Major Nelson talk Crackdown 2 – Offworld
See more posts about: Denki, Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
A LOOK BACK AT THE COLONY, THE GAME THAT BROKE CLANCY’S WILL
Developer David A Smith sends in this two part look back at his work on 1987 Mac adventure The Colony, a game that would take MacWorld’s Best Adventure Game of the Year award, and would spur a fortuitous meeting with Tom Clancy. Says Smith:
The video is a bit rough and focuses on the challenges of getting real time 3D on very slow machines, but you might find it entertaining. It is in two parts, separated by a system crash – code decays as it ages.
This led to a gig building a virtual set for the movie The Abyss with Jim Cameron, which turned into Virtus Walkthough in 1990. I also met Tom Clancy who contacted me while he was playing the game. He never asked for hints – just cussed me out. The game was somewhat … difficult. We later founded Red Storm Entertainment together.
The Colony (part 1) 1987 [part 2, via David A Smith]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
THE YOUNG MACHINARIUM: ANOTHER EARLY LOOK AT AMANITA’S LATEST
As I mentioned in my guide to the 2009 IGF, Jakub ‘Amanita‘ Dvorsky’s latest Flash adventure Machinarium is the natural evolution from his earlier Samorost games: as intricate and expressive as those games were, but now mechanically more complex, with the addition of inventory-based puzzles, and more focused on the navigation through the world, rather than rotely pointing and clicking to progress.
Dvorsky has uploaded the latest look at the game and (minor spoilers aside), it’s a must-watch, and drives home why my bet is on Machinarium making a number of top 2009 lists.
Machinarium home [Amanita Design]
Previously:
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
See more posts about: Machinarium, Offworld Originals
MOSS CREATES A MONSTER: SOMETHING AWFUL TAKES ON RETRO-CLASSIC-COVERS
Not content to let Olly Moss have all the fun with his ongoing series of classic Penguin book design inspired videogame covers, the Something Awful forums have started their own thread which, when I checked yesterday, hadn’t quite produced Something Amazing, but now is up to some 23 pages of jaw-dropping work, particularly those above.
Not everyone picked up on Moss’s proclivity to zero in on a single game-defining visual pun (the TF2 and Killer 7 covers which nail the style over the substance), but all are quite gorgeous in their own right.
Massive bonus points to any developer/publisher with moxy enough to take the meme to its logical end and let stuff like this propogate retail shelves by the end of 2009.
Make video game covers classy [The Something Awful Forums]
Previously:
Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers – Offworld
Olly Moss brings a touch of class to Black Mesa – Offworld
Olly Moss's Man With The Golden Gear – Offworld
And then there were four: Olly Moss takes on Silent Hill – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
IPHONE KATAMARI GETS EXQUISITE ADDITION
By now the audience is deeply divided over whether the iPhone’s I Love Katamari hit or miss its rolling target, even after an update took great strides at correcting much of its control issues (Takahashi himself, for whatever it’s worth, told me in 2007 that the original’s symmetrical dual-analog control was an inseparable feature of the game: draw your own conclusions about his non-involvement with later versions from PSP to Xbox 360 and on).
But I was very pleased to wake up to a new update that adds an even more essential omission from its first release: the Exquisite Collection book of everything you’ve rolled up in the course of the game. It’s always been my favorite part of the series (outside We Love‘s solar system view, which I still maintain is just about one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever interacted with [no luck finding a YouTube video/flickr pic]).
There’s something so essentially humanistic about its encyclopedic list of every object in the universe (well, you know, give or take), and it’s always reminded me of a particular favorite childhood book, Words (viewable online, somewhat akwardly, here) — part of the Little Golden Books series, and a primer on what it means to be a person on Earth.
Not to insinuate that it’s worth purchasing the game for that alone, and I Love‘s book is necessarily more brief than its console counterparts, but I’m happy to see Namco continuing to bolster the game with new, and unmissable, features.
I Love Katamari [iTunes link]
Previously:
Katamari rolls onto iPhone – Offworld
Autonomous Katamari-Roomba clean sweeps in 71 minutes – Offworld
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
POSTER-IZING CLASSIC LUCASARTS ADVENTURE ART
Spotted via the now regularly useful VG Arts tumblr, LucasForums user ‘Laserschwert’s attempt to scan classic LucasArts adventure box covers and manuals and turn them into clean, poster-sized reproductions for printing and hanging:
I’ve always been a fan of both painted artworks/posters and the classic LucasArts adventure games, and so I’m trying to preserve those classic artworks by Steve Purcell, Bill Eaken and the likes, cleaning them up, painting out overlaying text or stickers, plus taking the extra step to make these babies printable in poster size (or make them work as posters AT ALL).
Fantastic work done on Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Sam and Max, and (best of all) Day of the Tentacle.
LucasArts Posters [LucasForums]
Previously:
Chronicle holding LucasArts book signing – Offworld
The humanity of LucasArts' virtual world forerunner Habitat – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LISTEN: YMCK’S BOWSER-BUSTING HARDCORE MARIO REMIX
Unfortunately I can’t embed this one here, but do yourself a favor and listen to Tiny Cartridge’s recently uploaded 8-bit thrash-core remix of the Super Mario Bros. Bowser-battle theme.
The remix is by Japan’s premier chiptune group YMCK, part of their selection done for Skip’s downloadable ‘Art Style’ game PicoPict that went live at the end of January.
Cartridge went to a lot of hard work to both earn and rip the tune, and it was worth it: it’s almost single handedly sold me on picking up the game myself as soon as I can.
“Super Mario Bros. Part 4” by YMCK. [Tiny Cartridge]
Previously:
DSi getting more downloadable Art Style, Tetris Attack – Offworld
Nintendo's DSiWare makes holiday debut – Offworld
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
LISTEN: SIMON MATTISON’S CHIPTUNE DUB AND BUD MELVIN’S BANJO-BLEEPS
Chiptune musician Simon Mattison describes his latest ep, Leaves, in an only partially decipherable poem:
the result of a unique tradition
returns to be is a 56k modem.
a free impro(bable) session
is author’s interest in high style groovy arcade
planets,all-in-all, loads of a label.
but very-very deep and quality.
has a young electronic music spectrum
in high style and smooth sound carpets
But what you need to know: it’s nicely dub-influenced bleeps, done up on LittleGPTracker, a version of littlesounddj for obscure Korean handheld GP2X.
For other stylistically left-field chip music, try Bud Melvin, particularly the 657,644 album found on his site, who regularly overlays his Game Boy music with live banjo which, for all its anachronism, actually works. See especially Sun Salutation and Gajanana, two tracks written for a never-created Game Boy Color game based on the adventures of Hindu elephant god Ganesha (!).
Leaves by Mattisson [archive.org, via Disquiet]
Previously:
Maerleon Cedraeon submerges with Electroplankton – Offworld
Four times the DS-10 – Offworld
Listen: 2D Boy's free World of Goo soundtrack – Offworld
Listen: Pixelmod Records' Merry Pixmas Compilation – Offworld
Listen: Leeni's 8-bit kabuki 'Underworld' – Offworld
Listen: Pause offers free indie game soundtrack downloads – Offworld
Listen: Bizarre give us 46860 Choices – Offworld
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
TT/HELLBENT GOING PURE LEGO WITH DS LEGO BATTLES
I’ve got a heavy fondness for all games (and all things) Lego, so this morning’s announcement that TT Games is returning with a new DS game that skips the license and explores Lego’s toy history comes as a very welcome surprise.
TT is partnering with Hellbent Games (who have previously primarily been support-side, helping to bring games like Supreme Commander to the Xbox 360) to create Lego Battles, in which you’ll team up players from the classic Lego Castle, Lego Pirates and Lego Space series to “build their own Lego bases and battle teams” — though just how hasn’t yet been explained.
Beyond there, there’s still more TT/Lego in the works — rumored to be a Harry Potter game — and Netdevil is still plugging away at the forthcoming Lego Universe MMO.
Until that officially opens its doors, though, you can get a taste of online collaborative building/demolishing via Blockland — a game that shed its trademarkable skin shortly after its first release, but is still plugging along with its generic definitely-not-Lego colored blocks.
Previously:
LEGO Universe MMO Coming Along Nicely – Boing Boing Gadgets
What's it going to build then, eh: 'A Lego Orange' imagined – Offworld
Were LEGO Space minifigs based on 2001? – Boing Boing Gadgets
See more posts about: Lego, Offworld Originals
HANDCIRCUS PREPARING MORE ROLANDO FOR THE IPHONE, LITE VERSION INBOUND
More brilliant iPhone news for the day: in a new interview with excellent UK portable site Pocket Gamer, HandCircus developer Simon Oliver has told the site that 2009 will see the return of Rolando, one of Offworld’s top 20 games of the past year, and certainly amongst the top tier of games for the platform, as well as more original works:
I can’t say too much about this now, but you’ll see some more activity on the Rolando front in 2009, and I’ve got a couple of new game ideas bubbling away at concept stage right now. I look forward to sharing them with you later on in the year!
Oliver says he’s still got “a ton of ideas waiting to get explored” with the game that didn’t make it into its debut, and if you haven’t played that debut yet, it’s time to do so now [iTunes link] (or, for the frugal, have a go with the free Lite version that publisher ngmoco has just announced is “coming v.soon“).
More Rolando coming in 2009 [Pocket Gamer, Rolando home]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando – Offworld
Rolando gets papered – Offworld
See more posts about: Hand Circus, Offworld Originals, Rolando
