Finally was able to make things role again.
This time I am finishing a sort of Portfolio/Resume web-page for me and my girlfriend, since we work in the same areas mostly.
She is working with the site too and we intend to show our works here.
This is what the beind the seens looks like:
It will be up and running pretty soon.
I found myself playing a game of checkers, and constantly losing. My opponent, who happened to be my girlfriend, was always telling me I was missing all the right moves, instead dooming my pieces to death and leading her to a great amount of joy in mocking me because I was getting my ass kicked.
The thing is, this happens to me on video-games too, some more than others, and more on some specific genres. It also happens on different levels of intensity, in some games I find it hard to come with strategies to overcome difficult game mechanics, sometimes I can master those mechanics to my own advantage perfectly. But in the end, the good/bad experiences ratio is pretty low. So, why does this happen? Am I too lazy on some games, or am I just not cut for them?
There can be a huge number of reasons for this to happen, and in my case I think its obviously the laziness and inadaptation on some games or genres, what can be an obvious way to act in a game for someone might not be that obvious to another person. And something that was said to me that I also believe is true, is separating the addiction from fun. When I get to a point that to master a game or be really good at it becomes more practice and obligation than fun, I’ll probably put that game to the side and move to another one.
But now you are probably asking, what does that have to do with game design? Keep reading.
So, game designers must have a deep analytical thought and usually see things that “normal” people don’t see when analysing a game or developing one. They need to set possible strategies for the player to use, or design the game so the player can come up with their own strategies, make decisions that influence gameplay and/or the course of the plot, set difficulty levels so the game can be fun and challenging for dedicated players but also easily enjoyable for the more casual ones, or mix things up (of course this kind of decisions will deeply depend on the game direction, on whether the game is to be intentionally hard, or if its just a casual game or a bit of both).
Designing a game is a fundamental and meticulous step in producing a game, where all key aspects of gameplay, plot, characters, environment, etc. are predetermined. It takes a lot of knowledge, experience and dedication to design a game, especially a good one, and that troubles me in some ways. Why you ask? Lets go back to the title of this article.
Being that a game designer needs to have a knack for detail, can someone who hardly gets the hang of the main strategy on a game be one? Should a game designer easily understand how any, or at least most, of the games he plays work and quickly develop strategies and tactics to overcome the challenges of said games? Definitely yes! But I also believe you can be a game designer and not be a perfect analytical thinker. Let’s see how can that be.
Probably most of the actual game designers today have played thousands of games since they first touched a computer or game console. This adds to the experience point, where they have played so many games that somethings like knowledge of basic mechanics for different genres, functional user interface, creativity in storytelling, and probably a little bit of the psychology behind the games, is obtained.
Other part of game design comes from life itself. Day-by-day experiences enhance the overall knowledge of… things, so to speak. During most of our lives we make mistakes, learn from them or not, make more mistakes, learn again, be successful on something, learn with that too. We are constantly learning from our experiences, and with that we can get various ideas on how those experiences affect us. That is one of the greatest tools of a game designer, know how to integrate an experience or experiences in his game, that will affect the player in someway. And life experience is the first step to improve that tool.
Another one is creativity. Some of us are born with a natural gift for creation or are stimulated since the early days with things that boost our creativity and some only get the creative itch when they are older. The design process of a game also needs, and definitely a lot, of creativity mixed with all the other more technical and functional aspects of the design. Creativity is what will make those details unique and appellative, that will generate the best user experience in the end. So creativity is a big plus.
Now, those are things you can acquire naturally through the years of experiences from your life activities and interactions, and being able to get the hang of games easily can be one of them. And though I believe those will definitely get you in a good way to be a game designer, we’ll definitely need more technical knowledge on more subjects. Programming, 3D modeling, animation, sound design, graphics design, logic, storytelling, psychology, math and physics, are some of the areas that game designers should know a thing or two, or even be specialized in one of them at least, because from the single person indie producer to the team based mega company, you will either be developing most of your games, or working with a team of specialists for each of these areas.
What I want to say with this is that, from the basic, naturally acquired knowledge for making games, it is most likely that you will need knowledge on a set of more specific subjects, being it acquired in school, professionally or in your spare time, to successfully build your top games.
So, not being able to understand quickly the mechanics to overcome a challenge in a game or the game itself shouldn’t be a problem when dealing with designing a game. As I said it can be something that is acquired naturally, and that is definitely a plus in your skillset, but that skill can also be trained and acquired, because in the end, it is just another tool on your tool belt for the game designing job. And if you really think you need to improve that skill, start playing those games and carefully analyse them while playing, after all game designers end up doing that too.
Take it as an RPG, maybe you will miss a few details on the first run, but in the end you level up and the next time you analyse your game you will spot more details and understand that strategy you were missing the first time.
Most of the advice I read about people asking how to become game designers is: “start making games!”. And that couldn’t be more true.
Since you love and have been playing games most of your lives, the chances are you’re already able to build a game from start to finish. Of course it won’t be the next Metal Gear of Final Fantasy, but will make you know that you can do it and can go further in the game designer journey.
It is something that crosses my mind from time to time when I play on my PS3 or PC (which is not that regular as I would like it to be lately) because I don’t get that feel of wanting to get inside the game, be the character, live the game, that you get on a really immersive title anymore. So I ask myself, where did that feeling go?
The first two things that come to my mind are: age and the state of the industry.
Lets start with the first one. I played my first Final Fantasy game when I was 11 or 12 years old, it was Final Fantasy VIII. I had never played an RPG before, and the first thing that popped interest in me was the battle system and the character evolution. It was awesome to me back then, it really caught my attention and I wanted to keep playing and evolving the characters. Then the story itself was doing the rest (though I didn’t fully understand some details back then) it made me feel I was in it, and when I wasn’t playing I wanted to be one of the heroes (Squall and Zell were my favorites) and I imagined how that would be in my head. Then what does age have to do with it, can’t I just want to be Zell and kick ass right now? From my experience, when the years were passing I felt less and less apt to just imagine things and be creative just like that out of the box (I found myself daydreaming a lot, and now not so much). I started to worry about more things than just having to go to school and play games: “I have to find a job”, “I need to help my parents with the bills”, “What will I do with my life in the future”, well that kind of stuff, leaving the creative part of my mind with little room and time to “come out and play”. It’s more complex than this but I guess you can get the point now.
I didn’t stop playing games, I just played less and the titles that made me want to finish the story just weren’t making me jump of joy and emotion.This aging point gets me to another one that is not age specific per se, it is related to the “aging of times”, or in other words, younger generations. And this leads in the end to the state of the industry point I mentioned before. I’ll try to get to these two points at the same time since they are connected.
My neighbor (a 16yr old kid) was asking me for advice the other day, on what game to buy for the PS3 since he had nothing new to play (I lendt him Deux EX Human Revolution, and he hated the game, too many things to do on a “shooter”) and then I searched for some good and cheap games, and I came to a troubling truth: I couldn’t find an awesome, immersive, complete game for him, not because there weren’t any, but because he didn’t like them! You never asked yourselves why games such as Call of Duty and FIFA or PES are games that seem to not evolve much but sell freakishly well, especially within the younger generations? Because they are fun, encourage competitiveness, and lack a deep complex story-line with intricate characters and twists that blow your mind! Of course not every kid just wants to shoot, score goals or race in their games, but the majority does. Metal Gear Solid was one of the best games I played of all time, I remember playing the demo over and over until I got the full game. It was a game that had so many things to get you attached to it that I can’t even start counting. I have it stored in my PS3 to play again some day, but when I said this to my neighbor he laughed: “Why do you want to play a game that is so old, and that you have already played?” I couldn’t come with a logic explanation for two reasons, because there are so many reasons to relive the game and because he wouldn’t understand if I tried to explain. He never played MGS4 because “it’s too boring, I just want to shoot people!”. Now you can be already thinking, “hey but not every kid is like that” or “maybe he just doesn’t like stealth games and you are generalizing it too much”. Maybe, maybe not. It’s just that it feels, most of the gamers I know don’t just prefer to play a game that goes straight to the action, but they discard any other options immediately. And I notice this on the younger ones, and on those that hadn’t played any games until they were 15 or 16 years old. Though the ones that played from younger ages not only have a list of great favorite games (appellative, complex, immersive) but also “specialized” in a specific genre and they ended up being really good at those types of games. But that is for another time.
Now, what does this generation thing have to do with the industry?
Although there are way more reasons to justify the quality, or lack of it, of games today, one of them is definitely the target audience. The games I mentioned before, like Modern Warfare and the likes, sell so good because they managed to hit a target audience that prefers instant action and gratification (although sometimes playing these games online can be frustrating) and because they are simple. Think about it, playing FIFA, Modern Warfare or Need for Speed is easy. Mastering them on the other hand is not. And that is the part of the competitiveness that makes people go for these kinds of games rather than one that makes you think more for no immediate rewards, even worse when there is no one on the other side to brag when you win. The kind of reward that a game with a complex set of characters and story-line gives you is totally different from the kind given to you by an “instant action” game. I believe the audience that prefers instant gratification is much bigger than the rest.
All of this makes the industry produce more for that target audience, and if it sells, why the hell wouldn’t they produce even more? Sometimes I feel that no more really story driven immersive games will be made again, but that is just my stupid subconscious speaking when I am sleepy.
Lets get back to me one more time before I’ll let you go to bed or play a little bit more.
One example of a game that could have a good story but that the game-play ends up ruining it, is inFamous. I got so bored of playing it that I didn’t have the will to go through the same process again and again, to know what would happen to the characters, to the city itself, to that world. I sacrificed a probably good story because I felt I was wasting time by doing the same things over and over.
Now, for instance, Darksiders looks like a game that you end up doing the same thing over and over again, but… why does it stick in my memory all the places I’ve been through in the game? Why do I remember the lines of the characters? Why, being a hack n’ slash type of game, I feel I did more than just that? Why do I feel compassion with War from the beginning as he is being accused of something he didn’t do? That is what I miss the most, a game that is so immersive that I don’t feel like I am playing it, I feel that I am the game. The game-play feels so natural that sometimes I don’t even remember I am playing it, it feels I am living the story itself, that I’m not just controlling the character, that I feel like him, her or them.
Maybe I just need to look better, and get myself some extra hours to find and play these games, because I’m sure there are some hiding from me under some rock in a dark corner of the video-game world.
A month a go I posted about the flyers I was making for my local rugby club. So today I’ll let you with more a few more of those:
More to come later as they come out.
Thanks
Hey again.
Lately I’ve been working on a set of ideas, one of which is almost ready to upload, for this group of marketplaces (and other stuff) called Envato.
So what is Envato? Like I said, is a group of web places where designers from almost every area can put their works for sale. From graphic design to photography, through code snippets full PC or mobile applications, music, motion graphics, games, etc. It’s full of awesome works by thousands of designers, and I’m trying to be one of those. Envato also has a website dedicated to freelancers, one just for tutorials and more.
I will try to upload the first project until the end of the year (but then it needs approval, so, if approved, it might take some time to be online), it just needs a little tweaking and it’ll be ready for release.
Here’s a link for my (sill empty) profile page, and later I’ll let one here for my portfolio on GraphicRiver.
See you next time.
Blurred Journal 