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Prince Of Persia: Balancing Open World With Story
Posted by Mike Fahey at 7:30 PM on November 21, 2008
Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes, narrative designer Andrew Walsh, and level designer Michael McIntyre discuss the challenges of balancing a rich, immersive story with the open-world nature of the new game. Past PoP games have been strictly linear affairs, making it much easier to know how long the characters have been together, what they've already accomplished, etc. I think their solution is rather interesting, but of course I'll have to see it in practice.
Welcome to my third annual post on new media for the Half-Life fan-created remake Black Mesa (formerly known as Black Mesa: Source). It doesn't appear to be any closer to release than it was when I wrote about it in 2006 and 
Capital Wasteland/A survivalist nightmare/Google Maps can help.
In March of last year, British English teacher Lindsay Hawker was found murdered in a bathtub full of sand on an apartment balcony. The suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, has since gone missing and has evaded arrest. Software maker Famista has created an online pachinko slot machine game called Slot Detective that publicises suspects of high-profile cases like Hawker's. Instead of trying to line up cherries, players try to line up mug shots. Jackpots turn up details about the suspects, police tips and reward info. Famista's Takashi Saito points out, "We thought this could be a way to contribute to society. If you play the game, you'll remember their faces." Japanese police are less than thrilled — same with Hawker's family. "We have not been consulted about this - the first we heard about it was through the Sky News website and we are not happy about this," said Julia Hakwer, Lindsay's mother. "I also want to know if this is a commercial venture, as if it is, then it is in extremely poor taste. The whole thing is distasteful and not befitting Lindsay's memory." According to Famista, some players have been "scared by the fierce look of the murder suspects."
Ah, unrequited love — a classic theme in all sorts of media, and gaming is no exception. There's a wonderful little post over at auntie pixelante on the issue as it relates to games — and why it is so powerful. As far as I'm concerned, the whole player-game relationship is founded on unrequited love (and at least, unrequited adoration). The article takes a look at a Wii game called Art Style: Orbient, it's a meditation on the 'so close, yet so far away' phenomenon that is all over the place in classic games and newer iterations:
Jane Pinckard of game girl advance has come up with four future trends of entertainment, and they all apply to gaming — while her ideas aren't necessarily 'new,' she does really boil down some of the tensions and innovations facing the industry right now. She points to four trends — tension between immersion and transparency, asynchronous instant communication, credible advertising with integrity, and tools as the content. This last issue is one that's come up a lot, and I really like her take on it — the move from passive consumer to active user:
Gamasutra's Christian Nutt sat down with Insomniac CEO Ted Price at their recent community event; the discussion centered heavily on Resistance 2 and the Insomniac development process. Price has a lot to say about how Insomniac deals with requests and suggestions from the user base, both on their own community as well as elsewhere (and gives us a ringing endorsement with "Well, sure, Kotaku is a good source."). A particular challenge was and is getting a handle on how best to design for online modes, since it's a bit of a 'black hole' for developers:
Do not take this as precedent, that Kotaku is going to get involved in every level taken down on LittleBigPlanet. But the demise of Azure Palace seems newsworthy for a few reasons -- one, it's well made (a little too fly-and-grab for me, but still a good level); two, there seems to be no apparent reason for it; and three, it's the big stink in any forum now discussing the heavy-handed moderation on LittleBigPlanet.
While I'm a fan of the fresh and innovative, I'm more likely — depending on time and monetary constraints — to run screaming for the safe, the familiar, the ... boring games on my shelf? Well, there's something to be said for the comfort of the familiar, and Tom Cross takes a look at why there's something to celebrate in the less ambitious, safer and more familiar games out there. Cross looks at Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age. What it is about those well-worn, "uninventive" titles?:
Dave Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, sat down with Valve's Gabe Newell to talk about how to shoehorn your way into the industry — and what's the industry going to look like in a few years, anyways? Are game degrees a waste of time? Is specialisation going to be the name of the game, as in film ? And how can you avoid shooting yourself in the foot when trying to get said foot in the door? On specialisation, Newell had this to say:
Gamasutra's Chris Remo has a nice interview up with Mirror's Edge producer Nick Cannon on the design ethos and process of putting together the game; a lot of the interview is taken up with design considerations and the nuts and bolts of how the game was built, but there's plenty of interesting chatter in throughout. On the issue of the codification of genres and a rigidity in design that seems to be passing, Cannon has this to say:
You'll see it mentioned all the time when talk of game delays or patches comes up. "Oh, we're just waiting on the approvals process", or "we're just waiting for the patch to be certified, then we're good to go". Those kind of excuses/explanations sound great from the developers end, but to us? It's meaningless, because we have no idea how long those processes take. Or, we didn't. We have at least some idea now, thanks to the always-helpful "Ask Capcom" letters section the company runs every week.
Is there some rule among game developers that all creepy space aliens have to look like vaginas with teeth? If so, what makes you think you can throw a half-dozen of them into a pinball game and have the best possible WiiWare title ever?
I don't think I will be able to resist the call of EVE Online much longer. At CCP's Fanfest convention in Reykjavik, Iceland, the company has revealed further plans for the upcoming Walking In Stations expansion, which for the first time will allow players to get off of their ships and socialise a bit. Where will they socialise? In player created bars and shops, apparently. Players will be able to purchase blueprints, install them in empty sockets in space station promenades, and customise them with different NPCs, rules, vendors, and custom dialog. Space stations will also have mini-games available to play and wager on. It's so Deep Space Nine you'll think every inanimate object is secretly Odo. 
Yesterday Sega announced the 
It may not be as mindblowingly impressive as the amazing 
By far the coolest thing I've seen come out of Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe was the Joker's fatality, which you may remember from 
Of all the things Far Cry 2 does well, few are done as well as the game's use of fire. Things in the game burn as they should, and fires - as they'll do - once lit, out of your control. Start one and it's as likely to come after you as it is your enemies. Yet, 
Mirror's Edge may have shooting, but it's not a shooting game. Main character Faith is agile, but fragile and vulnerable. If she's going to leap across a huge space in buildings, she can't do it with a gun. Faith needs to put it down, first. Website Kikizo asked developer EA DICE if it considered letting players throwing the gun across the gap to use later. According to the game's producer Manuel Llines:
Whew, the election is over, and even here in Oz we are nursing a bad election hangover. America has elected a new commander-in-chief, and his face is being stamped on commemorative mugs and dinner plates, as well as flash games. Super Obama World has the President-Elect hop through the great frozen state of Alaska. Beware the lipstick pigs and Saks Fifth Avenue clerks!
We're a decade on from the undisputed greatest year in video gaming, a year in which we saw the release of the Tim Schafer designed Grim Fandango just one of 1998's many, many highlights. Schafer, perhaps feeling the sting of nostalgia of the release of Grim Fandango, has graciously released the classic adventure game's original design document, submitted to LucasArts for in 1996.
Aw, bless. This one really tried to be offensive but it comes across like a three year old trying to get a rise out of his grandparents by shouting "POO!" in public.
Telltale Games has been churning out the episodes of their Sam & Max and Strong Bad series; GameSetWatch talked to Mike Stemmle, LucasArts veteran and current Telltale writer and designer, about the Telltale design process, the veteran-friendly atmosphere (unsurprisingly, the Telltale ranks are full of other LucasArts veterans), and the potentials for non-licensed IP. On the inner workings of Telltale, Stemmle has this to say:
