tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27871572238454363182011-12-10T20:48:31.859-08:00An adventure in hypothetical video game design.Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.comBlogger2681100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-85193195368409695752011-04-08T15:28:00.000-07:002011-04-08T15:28:39.545-07:00

Reference: The Sonic Cycle I've since completed my research on the history of Sonic's public image. Posting about it on this blog is the last priority. Fortunately, there's a little bit of breather room in my immediate schedule, so I'd like to share a small part of my findings. My all-time favorite game, Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, has a very interesting place in the history of Sonic. It

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-30230900677683197362011-03-18T21:37:00.000-07:002011-03-18T21:37:14.263-07:00

So we've disappeared for a while. Part of that's because we've been busy at DigiPen. But part of that's also because my perspective on game design has undergone quite the metamorphosis over the last few months. I previously thought game design could exist in a vacuum. That's what this blog was about. I thought I could simply come up with the perfect idea and the rest would fall into place.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-10497835975190281352011-02-14T21:35:00.000-08:002011-02-14T21:35:43.345-08:00

I've been taking advantage of a long-term school research project to brush up on my history of the Sonic franchise. And not just the official history - what games were released when, who the developers were, stuff like that - but the history of public opinion towards Sonic. I've hunted down a great number of articles from magazines, newspapers, and (of course) internet sites, all reacting to a

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-8540498072212044682011-02-02T19:39:00.000-08:002011-02-02T19:39:36.011-08:00

Whoops! It's been more than a month since the last post. Don't worry, we haven't died or anything. DigiPen sure does try, but we aren't down for the count just yet. The first semester of college is usually a wake-up call for everyone. We learn new concepts, get overwhelmed by challenges, and (hopefully) resolve to make ourselves better for the trials ahead. It's been no different with us. We

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-27961702981673520672010-12-30T14:21:00.000-08:002011-01-06T23:01:02.545-08:00

So I was doing my after-Christmas game shopping, and GameStop was having a sale on strategy guides, one of which was Sonic Colors. I normally don't bother with strategy guides - they're very nice and all, but they cost about as much money as a decent used game and don't offer as much as good ol' GameFAQs. I was amused by the fact that there was a Sonic Colors guide for some reason, so I opened

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-63049369741713623852010-12-25T04:29:00.000-08:002010-12-25T04:30:43.353-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! It seems we're taking full advantage of the winter vacation here, so let's just assume we'll be back sometime after the New Year. With one DigiPen semester down, the future looks pretty bright. Here's hoping 2011 will be a year of more progress for us at the Sonic Project. Thanks to all of you for your support.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-68936107538085270872010-12-14T01:43:00.000-08:002010-12-14T01:43:04.035-08:00

The overwhelming shift in flavor presented by Sonic Colors has made me self-reflect. As we churn through finals week at DigiPen and get ready to say farewell to our first semester, I find myself looking back on my last six years of creative work. I've always been blocked by this Project when it comes to the story. I can't fathom how to come up with appropriate events for the Sonic universe, ones

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-50937956639451212262010-12-08T08:30:00.000-08:002010-12-08T08:30:43.044-08:00

Reference: Sonic Adventure Outlined: Sonic My opinion on Sonic Colors? It's great! The gameplay, while being derivative of Sonic Unleashed, actually emphasizes good pacing to make sure the player doesn't get drained too quickly. The writing takes the lighthearted, humorous flavor and makes it hilarious (while being very, very good). And what's more... There's actually a story being told. Sorta

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-65533936763909159632010-12-04T15:31:00.000-08:002010-12-04T15:31:20.257-08:00

Reference: Look and Feel Why yes, it is indeed crunch time at DigiPen. Check back during the winter break. But wait! A curious thought has stricken me that I find intriguing. To give you some context: It hasn't been very clear what this game was going to look like. I've recognized this in previous posts. But in secret, the general idea (speaking for myself, really) has been: "Sonic Adventure

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-66433386739252818102010-11-17T01:41:00.000-08:002010-11-21T14:40:08.772-08:00

Okay, here's one of the things I promised to do: Summarize a storyline from Sonic Adventure. With this material available, we can go through the story step-by-step and see what worked and what didn't, and then see the patterns that make the story successful. It's far easier to look at it on paper than to recall it completely from memory. The idea for the format is that every major beat of the

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-78720270492156171312010-11-11T12:22:00.000-08:002010-11-11T12:22:35.032-08:00

Time for an update for the sake of updating... We're in the home stretch for the first semester at DigiPen. For us freshmen, our individual game projects are now underway. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Still, I have a few other things in the works that could be very helpful to the Project. First, I'm committing to paper the sequence of events in Sonic Adventure. I feel that it would make a

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-46923329106932936172010-11-02T12:39:00.000-07:002010-11-11T12:22:57.795-08:00

There are a couple of Sonic fan-engines out there that we can look into for prototypes. But, really, those won't get us very far. We'll be able to see what those designs look like so far, but we won't be able to test for the other characters until we can start writing our own code and content. Still, if we think in terms of what we might be able to test - what these games might look like in

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-28572313091193815352010-11-01T12:42:00.000-07:002010-11-11T12:23:07.058-08:00

It's time to step things up around here. If we're going to design a Sonic game, we need to actually do some freaking game design. So how do we prototype something like this? How do we create something to test and iterate upon? The sooner we can put gameplay ideas into a physical space and throw them out into the real world, the sooner we'll see progress in the game's design. We might need to

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-3389997263087395702010-10-30T13:01:00.000-07:002010-10-30T13:01:52.360-07:00

It was a strange twist of fate that brought me to the Game Design Club yesterday, but I'm infinitely glad I went. Up until then, I'd been having a crisis of confidence. See, in the first semester at DigiPen as a Game Design student, you don't actually get a ton of game design. You get game history, but the bulk of your work is in the basic computer science and programming classes. Now, I've

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-50179545831487086392010-10-22T12:06:00.000-07:002010-10-22T12:06:01.668-07:00

Paraphrased from McKee: "In story, unlike life, you are allowed to go back and correct mistakes. Once you have created the core frame of your story, you can then go back and plant the seeds to make those events logical." This general statement follows an example of a story in development. The writer has a scenario, but no story. His screenplay is just portraiture. Then an illogical idea comes to

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-67821303254171353102010-10-19T17:48:00.000-07:002010-10-19T17:48:49.071-07:00

Reference: Dilemma and Risk; Inciting Incident Sometimes I learn more from school than my instructors intend. One of my classes likes to talk about stories, but not with the McKee structure. Rather, it looks at stories through the major dramatic unities, as codified by the classic Greeks. First question: why are we so focused on the ancient Greek theater? Not everything that was written there

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-5149563343222741222010-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:002010-10-15T08:15:52.591-07:00

So hey, I downloaded the demo for Sonic 4 from PSN last night. I played through the first level. If any of you were reading this blog on, say, August 10th, you might remember me talking about stuff like Gravity and the Loop. The point being that classic Sonic's movement physics were what set his character free and allowed for an incredible physics-based experience. Now, given that, when I tell

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-13733180409037508762010-10-01T23:47:00.000-07:002010-10-01T23:47:48.046-07:00

Lately, something's been happening that can only be described as "a change in the winds." And it has to do with horror games. There's been a lot of discussion about the best horror games and their decline in recent years... and it seems as though the momentum's shifting the other way. It feels as though horror games are about to make a comeback. This has gotten me thinking. The common knowledge

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-17988457580568848232010-10-01T17:57:00.000-07:002010-10-01T17:57:26.835-07:00

Now here's a brilliant idea that should've been implemented ages ago: A page that both of us can edit at will to put up all of the half-decent ideas we want to hash out without making full-blown blog posts. And so it is. You'll see up in the navigation bar a "Brainstorming" page, where Knucklesdude and I can write up quick little entries on ideas we kinda like. These are ideas that sound pretty

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-72584074467032935302010-09-28T20:14:00.000-07:002010-09-28T20:14:32.797-07:00

Reference: From Understanding Comics: The Six Steps in Games; Break for Soul-Searching 250 blog posts. It took me that long. At long last, I can ask the all-important question, "Why am I doing this?" It's the final step in the journey Scott McCloud describes in Understanding Comics, the one I've undoubtedly been going through. I've been doing this long enough - being asking long enough - that I

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-78481038276060934882010-09-26T19:12:00.000-07:002010-09-28T19:38:14.949-07:00

Reference: Look and Feel While we're working out the basic aesthetic decisions, why don't we actually work out a title? Let's give this game a name. "The Sonic Project" has been an okay working title up to this point. And this isn't to say that the title we pick now will have to be the final one. But it'll do wonders for our imaginations if we start thinking of this as an individual game (

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-82399967083474112212010-09-26T16:45:00.000-07:002010-09-26T16:45:21.231-07:00

Here's my idea for a remake of the game Shadow the Hedgehog: Taking a page from the likes of Star Wars: Battlefront, the "Story Mode" becomes a "Campaign" mode. The levels become locational points on a world map. Black Arms (in red) and G.U.N. (in blue) control territory on the world map, and are at war to eradicate the other. A while later, Eggman (in... orange?) joins the fray as a third

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-31877963718829764292010-09-25T17:03:00.000-07:002010-09-25T17:03:09.026-07:00

I've always wondered how this blog might have prepared me for my education at DigiPen. At the very least, it has been a great disillusionment - that is, I don't suffer any illusions about game design as a job or the realities of game development. But does it go beyond that? This project has been a top-down study: learning from the surface and sloooooowly working down to the core. DigiPen's

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-63525760097382889082010-09-21T16:46:00.000-07:002010-09-21T16:46:47.733-07:00

Knucklesdude and I had a wonderful live conversation during school today. In it, we managed to identify and solve the roadblock we've been experiencing for the last... several months or so. The conversation came to the discussion of conflict and villains. The unfortunate fact was that Eggman, as far as we had imagined him thus far, was not a very interesting villain. He didn't provoke any new,

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-9059036185841771982010-09-20T15:38:00.000-07:002010-09-20T15:38:13.621-07:00

Reference: From Understanding Comics: The Six Steps in Games I've been a little hung up lately. Part of it is performance anxiety - with the air of professionalism that surrounds DigiPen, it's hard to put forward an idea when you know it will have to be brutally tortured into its perfect form. That's the price of being an amateur. But there's a greater problem facing us here. We've spent a lot

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-4492301233370357162010-09-19T22:45:00.000-07:002010-09-19T22:45:12.407-07:00

I have finally completed the first God of War game for the PS2. It's definitely one of those games, the ones you need to play to get a greater insight into how action/adventure games can be truly superb. It also has a wealth of behind-the-scenes content as a reward for beating it, most of which has to do with the pre-development phase of its production (lots and lots of concept art, prototyping,

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-66027397959505336422010-09-17T08:21:00.000-07:002010-09-17T08:21:22.875-07:00

Woah, gotta start writing stuff down! I won't remember anything if I don't! Coming up with a story is within my grasp, now. I've done it. But you know what makes this particular kind of story extremely difficult? Trying to keep causality in mind - making sure that the different storylines have significant effects on each other. Well, here's an idea that might make that thinking process a little

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-79571156392165883972010-09-09T19:31:00.000-07:002010-09-09T19:31:15.277-07:00

Reference: Symbolism Being with three other gamers going to a school for game development means that there are a lot of excess games to borrow and expand your knowledge with. One such game was Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth for the DS, which became my introduction to the Phoenix Wright series. Not only is it fun to play these borrowed games (I've delved into Persona 4 and God of

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-36784309290806430552010-09-09T18:26:00.000-07:002010-09-09T18:26:58.568-07:00

Knucklesdude and I have officially started our education at DigiPen. For me, it has been an incredible and enlightening experience, even if the massive workload hasn't hit us quite yet. I'm getting classes in math, computer science, programming, game history, psychology, and even structured writing. I stand to learn a lot this semester. Will this effect the design efforts here? Well, they'll

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-29458957180226264132010-08-27T12:05:00.000-07:002010-08-27T12:05:21.053-07:00

Let's be more direct today: What made Tails and Knuckles such special characters to play in the Genesis games? They had new ways to traverse the same levels as Sonic. A platform or path or playstyle that was almost impossible before becomes accessible when playing as Tails or Knuckles. The key is relativity. The same levels, but new paths. Such was the case in Sonic Adventure. Same levels, new

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-16241502876736767422010-08-24T23:50:00.000-07:002010-08-24T23:50:43.209-07:00

When you stick with a bad game long enough, it stops hurting to play it. You learn tricks to get you through the bad gameplay. You get used to the story, dialogue, and presentation. You allow yourself to get into it a little. I reached this point with Sonic 2006. I stopped letting the cosmetic issues annoy me. I looked for things that were somewhat good or at least had potential. And it put me

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-52486610256831360402010-08-24T22:24:00.000-07:002010-08-24T22:24:40.837-07:00

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) for the 360 and PS3 was another game that I experienced as a rental. I was at a friend's house, and we went to the local video store for games, so I insisted I finally find out what this Sonic 2006 business was all about. I played it well into the night and got through about 75% of each character's storyline. It was the first gaming experience I ever wrote about, and it

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-33007912631985851532010-08-22T17:24:00.000-07:002010-08-22T17:24:01.129-07:00

I've been working my butt off for the past year or so to understand narratives. All kinds of game narrative and narrative devices - implicit and explicit - coming from a classical study of prose, theater, and film, rooted in Robert McKee's Story philosophy, expanded through my own productions of novels, plays, and movies, and eventually applied as an acid test for every game I play and movie I

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-67202088843726646742010-08-21T04:40:00.000-07:002010-08-21T13:04:38.756-07:00

When did Sonic Unleashed come out, anyway? November 2008? Man, what a storied journey it's been since then. I bought the PS2 version of Sonic Unleashed soon after its release. Then the Zero Punctuation review tore it to shreds. Then - because I lacked the console myself - I rented the game for a sleepover at a friend's house... and discovered that Yahtzee had been correct. But I still had a

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-11601738787033835082010-08-18T17:18:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:18:58.586-07:00

Reference: The Approach If you're seeking to emulate or be inspired by a great work, then you should seek to blow the original work out of the water with your own. That's what I was told, anyway. And it made sense to me, but I didn't genuinely understand it. Until now. Sonic Adventure had great interlocked story design that was aided by brilliant gameplay mechanics like the Adventure Zones,

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-35778433148790479812010-08-18T17:01:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:01:57.203-07:00

Reference: A Matter of Hours; Adventure Zones, Take Two; Sonic Adventure 2 and the False Dichotomy Okay. Now that I've fallen in love with Sonic Adventure all over again, let's talk about how this could be a bad form to follow. If you adhere to the idea that the physical structures and story structures of Sonic Adventure are worth following, you run into a problem: it becomes nearly impossible

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-15465752604688882032010-08-15T00:48:00.000-07:002010-08-15T00:48:47.140-07:00

By the way, I'm turning 18 years old today. I'm spending it pretty much alone, miles away from anyone I really know... but I'm in my new apartment, so it's still pretty good. As with all chronological milestones, it makes you reflect and look back on the past year, comparing that to your current situation. But this last year has been pretty heavily defined by The Sonic Project. ...I've stuck

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-27484639355444291392010-08-15T00:36:00.000-07:002010-08-15T00:36:03.572-07:00

Reference: The Neutral State I swear, this idea of the neutral state of gameplay has done wonders to help us visualize and brainstorm. The idea that there's a space that the player occupies alone with fewer challenges totally explains why Sonic Unleashed for the 360 and the Storybook series are so... lackluster. But even though it's just backlash from the "all-action-all-the-time" method of

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-1906796732236835852010-08-14T03:00:00.000-07:002010-08-14T03:00:43.805-07:00

There's no getting around it - Sonic Adventure is a story that explores the characters' motivations by following their actions and interactions. Why is Tails loyal to Sonic? What makes Knuckles hostile to Sonic and Tails, even though they're technically allies? Why does Sonic go to rescue Amy? Why does Gamma let Amy go free? Why does Gamma turn against Eggman? Why is Eggman interested in Big's

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-38955078145750209302010-08-14T02:47:00.000-07:002010-08-14T02:47:32.358-07:00

After doing that event-by-event thing for Sonic Adventure in "A Matter of Hours," I'm really warming up to the idea of its proper Adventure Zones. In order for all those interconnected plots and subplots to have any hope of affecting each other, they needed to all exist in close proximity to each other. To exist in a nearly microscopic world. It wouldn't make any sense for them to be more than

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-48729422642016135782010-08-14T02:24:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:09:28.147-07:00

Reference: The Neutral State; Sonic Adventure and Atmosphere; Post-Analysis: Storytelling and Emotional Movement Arrrrgh. That event-by-event analysis of Sonic Adventure I did three days ago has got me on another roll. So many thoughts, so little sleep. But let's first finish up the train of thought from the last post. Between my own studies of Robert McKee's Story, the principles of immersion

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-20040082271771291782010-08-13T02:28:00.000-07:002010-08-13T02:28:19.582-07:00

Reference: Level Design: Action and Progression; Omega: Ten to One; On Stealth: Not Predator Gameplay Every now and again I'll find myself pacing around my room at two in the morning, growing more and more hooked on a design concept that turns out to be extremely helpful. Tonight, I've been going over a lot of that information in my head. In particular, the idea of a gameplay's "neutral state"

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-72834862699420529082010-08-11T14:16:00.000-07:002010-08-11T14:16:15.391-07:00

Reference: Episodic Structure; Sonic Adventure and Subplot Now, in direct counterpoint to the previous post, let's once again bring up the topic of parallel storytelling. Take a look at Sonic Adventure. If you compare the earliest depicted event and the latest depicted event in the game, the whole freaking thing takes place over the course of two or three days. It feels a lot longer with six

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-33027127318928299202010-08-10T22:40:00.000-07:002010-08-10T22:40:43.458-07:00

References: Dramatic Gameplay (Gamasutra); Dilemma and Risk; Psychonauts - Climax (Gamasutra) In reading Robert McKee's Story and spending time on movie projects besides, I've come from a somewhat classical film background. Now, when you try to apply lessons and principles from film structure to games, people will argue forever and ever on it. There are a few things I won't budge on when it

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-82486981917413929402010-08-10T00:40:00.000-07:002010-08-10T00:44:35.257-07:00

Hey, I'm back! I've had a wonderful time getting settled in my new place up in Washington, but I'm ready to get back on the Internet and resume all of my work. Let's start with a little speculation about classic Sonic. If there's one element of Sonic games that's truly iconic, it's the loop. You go in, clear it if you have enough speed, and come out a bit faster. But the loop itself is merely

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-56244665982106686862010-07-28T13:56:00.001-07:002010-07-28T15:07:05.506-07:00

Firstly, I must say I've gotten hooked on the phrase "Adventure Zone" for the hub worlds. Adventure for implying exploration and referencing the best 3D titles to date, and Zone for giving it a warm nostalgic feeling. Adventure Zones are free-roaming territory that the player ventures across to reach the next stage or cutscene, to progress the story. They also breathe fruitful life into our story

Knucklesdudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08450208227943673507noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-86910609651716404112010-07-23T13:25:00.000-07:002010-07-23T13:25:51.409-07:00

It's July 23rd, 2010. Precisely one year ago, I started this blog and wrote my first posts on it. How far have I come? I'm nine days away from moving to my new apartment in Redmond, Washington, so that I can pursue my education at DigiPen Institute of Technology in their Bachelor of Science in Game Design program. I have a place to live, I have financial aid, and I have registered for all of my

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-80953551422969443232010-07-20T18:01:00.000-07:002010-07-20T18:01:52.040-07:00

Reference: Second Thoughts on Igneous; How "different" should Sonic be? Now I realize that Sonic Unleashed did something truly... misleading in its design of Sonic's daytime gameplay. It made Sonic all about massive speed, making speed both the norm and the goal of the gameplay. For the entirety of this Project (an endeavor that officially turns a year old in three days), I've struggled with

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-49768046254302524872010-07-18T15:10:00.000-07:002010-07-18T15:10:45.299-07:00

Our discussion brought up a great deal of ideas about Omega's storyline and first level. Omega's first level is a carnival. It starts out as some innocent thing, a local fairgrounds event for some fun and excitement. Omega follows something there (a signal, a robot flying in that direction, who knows) and ends up among the crowd. His exploration of the grounds might be put in the hands of the

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-49606120371529958702010-07-18T14:53:00.000-07:002010-07-18T14:53:08.143-07:00

We got a lot done in these last few discussions. The most important thing, though, might be our establishment of the major overall plot for the entire game. Ready? Eggman is taking over the world by storm. Yes, Eggman is trying to take over the world again. But instead of holding it ransom by calling upon a major destructive power with questionable loyalty (Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2,

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-73338001044189787222010-07-18T14:44:00.000-07:002010-07-18T14:46:21.188-07:00

Reference: On Stealth: Not Predator Gameplay; Pace and Instinctive Action; Level Design: Action and Progression We're back on track, Knucklesdude and I. And the discussions continue to be truly fruitful. He brought up a concern about Rouge's gameplay, and two hours later he convinced me it was a valid one. He was concerned about the relative pace of Rouge's stealth gameplay compared to the

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-11887796572190660772010-07-17T13:13:00.000-07:002010-07-17T13:35:00.514-07:00

What makes the most memorable Sonic games stand out is their pace: forcing the player to make quick strategical decisions that make or break the character's fate.Notice: I didn't mention platforming, and I didn't mention running speed; I didn't mention level design, and I didn't mention Sonic being that character.We can create six more characters, each with very unique styles of play, but at the

Knucklesdudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08450208227943673507noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-75849108901852069112010-07-14T23:32:00.000-07:002010-07-14T23:32:47.109-07:00

Reference: The Approach; Regaining Control Of all the gameplay that boggles my mind at the moment, Sonic himself brings me to a standstill. I'm better now than I've been for most of this project - asking the right questions concerning everything I've taken for granted up to this point - but that still leaves the question of what I'm going to do with him. I've been playing a lot of Prince of

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-24079598412258218842010-07-14T12:57:00.000-07:002010-07-14T12:57:42.686-07:00

I've had trouble contacting Knucklesdude lately, so I'm forging ahead until we can regain lines of communication. Omega's gameplay could go a number of places at this point. I've contemplated countless control schemes and level structures, but none of them are really finite as of yet. So for now, I've decided to make sure I communicate exactly what has inspired Omega's gameplay at its core.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-88234805108325831782010-07-14T12:22:00.000-07:002010-07-14T12:22:28.445-07:00

I don't remember where I read it, but it's probably in a number of places: One of Batman: Arkham Asylum's lead developers made a significant remark about the game's stealth gameplay. Paraphrased: "You look at a stealth game, it's all about hiding and being in weak positions. We call this Predator gameplay - it's all about being in strong positions and looking down on the weak ones below." Very

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-65321615540083239692010-07-14T11:57:00.000-07:002010-07-14T11:57:17.613-07:00

Russ Pitts of The Escapist has written up a brilliant editorial on Warren Spector and Epic Mickey. He notes how this game has been the culmination of a great deal of game design and development philosophy that Spector shared with The Escapist and others in past years. These days I go to Gamasutra for my game design philosophy articles, but this is one very densely packed piece of work that I

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-88197193092537181892010-07-07T00:49:00.000-07:002010-07-07T00:49:01.509-07:00

I'm all better now. My friend Dan Felder and I just went to hear from Tom Bissell, the author of "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter." The book itself looked entertaining and informative, though I wasn't able to buy it that moment. It was a very intriguing experience overall, and we spent the following four hours or so talking about... a great variety of things. Again, I feel a lot better now.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-43708734890012579742010-07-05T14:32:00.000-07:002010-07-05T14:32:51.447-07:00

Reference: Held Back? You pose a question in the dead of night, hoping to wake up with an answer the following day. It's a common process, and one that helps me understand the nebulous problem I posed last night. So, just what is my problem? I don't know how to improve gameplay mechanics. Not really. And as a game designer, that's a big freaking problem. I can improve game storytelling, mind

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-62134441042501733122010-07-04T22:08:00.000-07:002010-07-04T22:08:46.911-07:00

Something's very, very wrong here. Why is it that we have such a hard time being creative with the Sonic universe? I help other people with non-Sonic projects, and they and I work completely fine. But we get to Sonic, and... things are so tangled up that I can't imagine how to start making the dsjfl;ajgkl;asdhgl story. Sonic doesn't have much of a life outside his gameplay, does he? We don't

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-69601991887681145862010-06-21T11:54:00.000-07:002010-06-21T11:54:23.762-07:00

Besides story, level design has been the foremost thing on my mind when it comes to the Project. How do I go about designing them, and what skills and methods are required for the task? So it was at 2AM last night that I found myself pacing back and forth in my bedroom when a rather mind-blowing thought struck me. I found a question - a general method - that explained a great deal of level

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-58853894626962640522010-06-17T18:33:00.000-07:002010-06-17T18:33:23.798-07:00

You know, I was going to talk about the Final Story and more ideas we had during our discussion... But then I realized two things. One, that would be spoiling it if it ever saw physical production. And two, there's still the chance it might not be our final idea! So I won't talk about it right now. I'll keep it in secret documents. Nyah.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-77983255764532170042010-06-17T15:52:00.000-07:002010-06-17T15:52:02.743-07:00

More from my discussion with Knucklesdude: Sonic '06 had the right idea with Kingdom Valley. Sonic's level ends with him racing through a ruins in the middle of a parted ocean. The gameplay itself was botched in its execution and handling, but it was the right idea. Something like that is a task Sonic is uniquely qualified to perform with his speed and skill. And at the end of a game, gameplay

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-75962327176001863892010-06-17T15:39:00.000-07:002010-06-17T15:39:33.172-07:00

Reference: Dilemma Knucklesdude and I have been talking for the last few hours, and this is what we've come up with for the story so far. Sonic is going after Eggman. He has one internal dilemma, between his conscious and unconscious desires. His conscious desire is to be merciful to Eggman, in the hopes that Eggman will ease up on his plotting efforts. His unconscious desire is to put an

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-3242995062692207582010-06-17T00:20:00.000-07:002010-06-17T00:20:27.995-07:00

I've come to an important realization. I don't just want to make a great Sonic game. I don't want to make a game that merely references what people previously loved about Sonic. I don't want to make a Sonic game that matches the caliber of the Genesis titles or the Adventures... I want to make a Sonic game that blows Sonic out of the water. I want to make a game that is better than the

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-32756212832449199722010-06-17T00:15:00.000-07:002010-06-17T00:21:23.875-07:00

I had an idea for Rouge's storyline. Whether or not it's the one we go with remains to be seen, but it's something I've come to like. Rouge is GUN's highly-paid agent, right? Basically, she gets paid to run difficult missions for them. But she asks for a huge fee. And she can be rather high-and-mighty about her rank in the organization, so... She gets fired. The scene in my head is between

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-63140479812394444432010-06-16T12:06:00.000-07:002010-06-16T12:10:28.498-07:00

Reference: Causality; Small World-Building; Gameplay/Story StructureI sat around last night, thinking about how I would be writing out my blog posts. That is, taking all the information I have written, and in my head, and making them into readable blog posts. I decided I'm not going to waste any time. Reading previous posts, I notice that many of them are very specific ideas, which make it more

Knucklesdudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08450208227943673507noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-31924514046760707022010-06-15T20:10:00.000-07:002010-06-15T20:19:34.144-07:00

The nickname is Knucklesdude, the real name is Roy Scott. I share many similarities with this blog's creator, Newbiespud. When I was much younger I got a Dreamcast and my first game for it was Sonic Adventure. It tied me in instantly. I was blown away by the action, the characters, the world, and the adventure that had a very unique atmospheric feel. This is the game that tied me into Sonic

Knucklesdudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08450208227943673507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-1670330080788597402010-06-14T17:46:00.000-07:002010-06-14T17:46:12.684-07:00

The Sonic Adventure style of parallel storytelling has a major challenge. At some point, Sonic has to intersect with the other characters. How do you justify that, especially with a character like Rouge who is operating in an entirely different space? This has blocked me for a long time. But after pondering some more last night, I've realized that you just need the right question? How can

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-50659353009025532712010-06-14T17:41:00.000-07:002010-06-14T17:41:36.639-07:00

Reference: Defining Flow: Part 1, The Player and The Game The major weakness in hypothetical game design is, of course, level design. Level design represents the culmination of every gameplay concept laid down beforehand, and it requires a lot of coordination and reiteration. Even then, there are more concepts within the craft of level design itself. But thinking back to my investigation of the

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-84045786767785753862010-06-13T03:29:00.000-07:002010-06-13T03:29:45.136-07:00

To everyone who is graduating or has graduated from anything in the last two months or so, I offer my congratulations. It's a magical ceremony, and it deserves all sorts of celebration. I myself graduated from high school, ending a very strenuous four-year chapter of my life. Now I have DigiPen Institute of Technology to look forward to. So. This is my 200th post. In about a month, I'll have

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-19930546529722124852010-06-07T17:53:00.000-07:002010-06-07T17:53:43.711-07:00

Things have been slow lately. And there's only one reason behind that. I'm officially graduating from high school. Tonight. I'm ready to put these four years behind me. Its been a grueling ride, and I'm all too ready for a formal event to put a button on this experience. And after this post - after graduation - I'll be due for my 200th post on this blog. Interesting times. I'll see ya later.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-85491035824876024992010-06-01T09:58:00.000-07:002010-06-01T09:58:43.846-07:00

Okay. Right now, I have an idea for what the main storyline is like, and I think it can go pretty far. The levels that Sonic goes through are all part of Eggman's plan. Eggman wants to beat Sonic once and for all, and Sonic is going through stages and bosses specifically designed by Eggman to challenge him and finally defeat him. This can justify the odd and deliberate nature of Sonic's levels.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-51897358101862096892010-05-28T09:54:00.000-07:002010-05-28T09:54:56.457-07:00

Reference: Psychonauts - Climax; First Levels A saying from Hollywood goes like this: "Movies are about their last 20 minutes." The ending of the movie will make or break the film. It doesn't matter if the first 90 minutes were fantastic or terrible. If the final movement, the final act of the movie is fantastic, the audience will leave overjoyed. If it's lacking, it will put a sour taste on

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-74259445546377441232010-05-26T11:19:00.000-07:002010-05-26T11:21:25.973-07:00

One question that McKee offers for helping imagine characters and story events is: "If I were this character in this situation, what would I do?" If you're trying to design an Inciting Incident, the question is: "If I were this character, what's the worst/best thing that could happen to me? How could that become the best/worst?" It's helpful, to be sure... but it doesn't spark any gameplay ideas

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-21363563363044224482010-05-24T09:18:00.000-07:002010-08-10T22:10:11.366-07:00

I had $10 of my own to spare, so I got Psychonauts off Steam and played it through to the end - 10-11 hours over a weekend. Psychonauts is brilliantly told. The gameplay is directly tied to the story, along with being very creative to boot. It's full of intrigue, humor, effective plot twists... The storytelling is intricate and meaningful. Until the ending. I won't spoil it here, but the

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-88161065237727526932010-05-19T15:24:00.000-07:002010-05-26T11:20:46.581-07:00

Reference: Dilemma Another glance through Robert McKee's Story reveals another idea that helps me create my narrative: The characters are being put at greater and greater risk. Risk of what? Not just dying, but losing their object of desire. It's granted that these protagonists are taking willful action because they're after something. An object, an ideal, it doesn't matter what. All that

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-82186698993618017432010-05-17T14:56:00.000-07:002010-05-17T14:56:42.656-07:00

Alright, I've finished all of the character studies. Now what? The creative juices still aren't flowing. No story idea has popped up that I feel really confident in. I don't even have a moment. There's not enough. I don't know enough. I haven't decided on enough. Not yet. I need more information. Maybe I can formalize a different sort of study. A study of NPCs and world elements. Anything

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-77895788088197466182010-05-14T13:11:00.000-07:002010-05-14T13:11:14.564-07:00

All this character study has brought up interesting structural ideas for the story mode. What if, after completing a level, the character was placed in a small story-driven space which they were free to move and explore in? Something that isn't judged by the normal rules of level-based gameplay, but still functions by the same rules. And they wouldn't be connected by time or space - they would

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-47420955808130502472010-05-14T10:04:00.000-07:002010-05-14T10:04:49.767-07:00

At last. Man, this took forever. Characterization: Rouge the Bat is a highly intelligent thief. She can manipulate people, crack through security systems, and solve complex practical problems with relative ease. She has a borderline obsession for jewels, and she delights in relieving people of their other personal treasures without them even realizing. While she doesn't share a pure love of

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-43304445135800831242010-05-10T15:05:00.000-07:002010-05-10T20:09:38.268-07:00

  Characterization: He is E-123Ω, the last of Eggman's special E-100 robot series. Omega is a highly advanced combat robot specializing in heavy weaponry and medium- to large-scale combat. He is nearly emotionless, save for utter rage at Eggman for sentencing him to purgatory, forced to remain in Shadow's sealed hibernation chamber until Rouge came along and opened it in Sonic Heroes. He's made

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-78534110490944278362010-05-10T12:42:00.000-07:002010-05-10T20:08:13.639-07:00

Shadow took a long time. And in the end, no matter how many tangents I pursued, the correct answer turned out to be the simplest. Characterization: Shadow deliberately maintains a serious attitude, mainly in counterpoint to Sonic. He tries not to show how he feels about things. He takes situations calmly, seriously, and professionally. That's just how he gets things done. There was a time where

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-12664269325007556132010-05-10T09:44:00.000-07:002010-05-12T22:06:54.728-07:00

Every time I do this, I'm surprised at the answers I get. This time, we have Amy Rose's character. Characterization: If Sonic is your average teenage boy, then Amy is the image of the teenage girl. Amy Rose swings between several absolute states - at times she's overbearingly sweet and kind and loving, and out of nowhere she can summon up murderous rage (and a big hammer). Sometimes she's a

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-5923642003263813672010-05-07T16:15:00.000-07:002010-05-07T16:16:14.169-07:00

Reference: Inciting Incident We interrupt these character studies for an important bit of speculation that I need to write down before I forget it for time and all eternity: In Story, Robert McKee describes the Controlling Idea of a story, the message that the whole movie builds up to. It can be summed up as a sentence with two parts, a Value and Cause. The Value is the message of the film ("

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-53976853093175137642010-05-07T13:08:00.000-07:002010-05-07T16:16:52.326-07:00

Knuckles is a character I haven't paid much attention to until now. This is a good time to rectify that. Characterization: In the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, Knuckles is the brute of the bunch. He has strength to punch through boulders with, he can glide, he can dig, and... he can't run as fast as the rest. On his own, Knuckles is a proud loner, a rough mountaineer type who lives off

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-44635048704859714412010-05-06T13:01:00.000-07:002010-05-07T13:14:48.283-07:00

Studying Miles "Tails" Prower's character has turned out to be surprisingly challenging. Characterization: Tails is a young inventor; no more than 10 years old, and a genius for his age. He's not a "nerd," either - he only pursues practical knowledge that can be used to make people's lives better. Creating software to simplify tasks and creating machines that maximizes performance... Seeing

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-51840136327499710092010-05-04T13:01:00.000-07:002010-05-04T22:55:36.209-07:00

Here's my initial inquiry on the central character, Sonic the Hedgehog. Characterization: Sonic is the energetic teenager. He runs faster than anything else on the planet, and he's proud of it. He has a very carefree attitude when it comes to people. He's very competitive; he's an athlete, if anything. Snarky, and content to just "roll with it." True Character: Sonic has a very, very strong

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-30979131406088398152010-05-03T13:09:00.000-07:002010-05-03T13:10:01.721-07:00

Reference: Life in Sonic's World; Dramatic Gameplay There's this debate going on in my head about how complex the story should be. Should I go for something simplistic to please the retro fans or should I go for the all-out drama I'd like to see? It remains undecided because of two opposing forces in my brain that's driving me nuts. On one hand, I want to go as large as possible. In some

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-12155907728348815422010-05-03T09:50:00.000-07:002010-05-03T09:50:08.831-07:00

Reference: Defining Flow: Part 1; Flow: Small Corrections Boy, I thought I was busy before... I'm finishing up my last month of high school, arranging my future living conditions up in Redmond, preparing to perform in Charles Mee's Big Love in three weeks, working on multiple video game concepts, and sharing my ideas on Gamasutra. It's madness. But anyway, here's another thought on flow that I

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-57203521209645597172010-04-23T13:11:00.000-07:002010-04-23T13:11:06.338-07:00

Taking a look into character in Robert McKee's Story brought up a couple of interesting points for my character study. Event design is directly linked to the exploration of true character, so I'm on the right track as far as exploring what may become my story. But unfortunately, there's something I failed to account for. I'm investigating characters for the Action/Adventure genre of story. In

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-35742622427432062752010-04-23T09:19:00.000-07:002010-04-23T09:19:16.788-07:00

I think I'm starting to mature when it comes to creating ideas. Not every idea you put out is going to be in the final product, and I think I'm starting to accept that principle. Now that I'm moving past that delusion, it's time to start looking for the grand inspiration for this game in earnest. As Robert McKee says, logic is retroactive in story. It doesn't matter where you start, so long as

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-89633525199646307862010-04-22T13:18:00.000-07:002010-04-22T13:18:57.510-07:00

Reference: Flow: Small Corrections Now that I think about it, Sonic Unleashed (for the PS2 and Wii) had gameplay that supported a spectrum of skill rather well. Not as well as Forza Motorsports, but surprisingly good nonetheless. So what if Sonic's gameplay was something like that, but more refined? Slowing down a bit and getting into the feeling of running fast? Put more emphasis on running

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-24891314600686451732010-04-19T22:29:00.000-07:002010-04-19T22:29:43.140-07:00

Reference: Defining Flow: Part 1; Defining Flow: Part 2 I've been up in Washington for the past five days for DigiPen's Accepted Students Open House. Suffice to say I'm very excited about going, especially now that they're moving into a new campus next year. But while I've been here, I've been staying with a relative who has an Xbox 360. And I've had a few experiences up here that might be

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-90910473954001493412010-04-13T12:51:00.000-07:002010-04-13T12:52:37.328-07:00

Quite often, the only things that makes creativity difficult are the things you've taken for granted and haven't thought all the way through in some way. The main story - Sonic's storyline - has been eluding me for some time now. And after poking around in McKee's Story a bit, I think the problem may be that the conflicts I previously imagined for him are all one-dimensional. I need to explore

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-6098381031359767032010-04-13T10:00:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:00:37.950-07:00

Reference: On Sonic's "Core" - The Illusion Thereof I've entertained a number of game ideas besides this one. One idea I had for a game was a Mario and Sonic crossover adventure. Mario and Sonic have competed in Brawl and in the Olympic Games, but what about an action/adventure game where they worked cooperatively? I know I'm not the only one who has fantasized about that kind of superstar tag

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-86264047669008996292010-04-09T21:04:00.000-07:002010-04-09T21:04:34.448-07:00

I'm trying not to make a post for every new game I come across, but I think Final Fantasy XIII deserves particular mention. I've got a lot to say on the subject - enough to make this post as lengthy and wordy as Final Fantasy is known to be. So I'll sum up my thoughts the best I can. ... For the past month or so, I've rigorously studied the relationship between story and gameplay on a

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-74288035711069438512010-04-08T13:23:00.000-07:002010-04-08T13:24:04.425-07:00

Reference: The Player and The Game The point of game design is that the player-protagonist and the game-antagonist are in conflict, and the game's structure revolves around the action/reaction dynamic between them. I've learned as much over the course of this study. But maybe stealth gameplay is an exception to the rule. Maybe. You, the player-protagonist, are hiding in the shadows, avoiding

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-42480210214814534362010-04-08T13:06:00.000-07:002010-04-08T13:06:22.898-07:00

Reference: Flow There's a lot that's already been said about flow. Hopefully, I've helped to add a little bit more. If anything, two interesting ideas have made themselves apparent: Flow can arrive in different degrees. Flow is a mental state, but it is not a binary experience. You can be "somewhat flowing," and you can be "really flowing." Flow should not be constant. Flow can be exhausting.

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-28113577975306125452010-04-06T13:15:00.000-07:002010-04-06T13:16:13.779-07:00

Reference: Flow; Dramatic Gameplay Within dramatized gameplay is the actual gameplay itself. Every once in a while, the player should be required to change tactics, but between those moments should be straight gameplay that is ideally inducing the flow state. Since flow is an exhausting state of mind, there should be a bit of cooldown before the shift happens and flow begins anew. And so on up

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-76370834614155657112010-04-02T13:01:00.000-07:002010-04-02T13:01:27.955-07:00

Reference: Rhythm and Tempo; Flow We now have a basic idea of what the story/gameplay structure should look like within a level, with the game-antagonist reacting at certain points to change the nature of the current gameplay. So how is that accomplished? How do you dramatize gameplay? At some point or another, you want the player to stop, think, and care about what they're doing and how

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787157223845436318.post-14527638772312705452010-04-01T13:20:00.000-07:002010-04-01T13:21:33.524-07:00

For those of you that might read the last two posts and think, "Hey! He posted on April 1st and didn't do an April Fool's joke! What's gives?"... Well, let me say Happy April Fool's Day. I hope fun was had by all, but I've been busy worrying about things like my high school's student Film Festival tonight, in which I am a contestant for a cash prize. Besides, the internet is full of April

Newbiespudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08111802645244401893noreply@blogger.com0