Dodo Blog

So I’m playing Shadow of the Colossus in its new PS3 incarnation.

I reach the first colossus. I stab it in the heel, clamber up its leg, across its back and onto its head to deliver the killing blow. The colossus falls. Sad music plays…

*pling!*

“Throphy Unlocked! Valley Wanderer”

Why, Sony? Why?

If ANY game deserves to be free of the immersion-destroying abomination that is trophies/achievements it is this one.

The greatness of Ico and Colossus both lay in their minimalist elegance which could be felt in every aspect of the game. Interrupting it with a pop-up to let you know that “hey, you just made incremental progress!” is not only redundant, it completely destroys the atmosphere the game worked so hard to create.

Now while I would personally argue Trophies should never have been added in the first place I am aware that there are many who enjoy that kind of thing… so, all I’m asking is that Sony please add an option to PS3s to disable Trophy notifications, so that those who want to play without, can.

Xbox and Steam already have this option. Why doesn’t PS3?

There is an option called “Do Not Display” in Notification Settings, but it only works for friends signing in and invites and such. Either make this option include ALL notifications, or create a separate one for trophies.

Your games deserve it.

[also posted here, with comments]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything other than links…

I’m just about done with Guppy, my watercolour fish-simulation game. Still need to work on sound effects and music.

Meanwhile, I made a short experimental game about the deciphering of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs and I’ve started working on a new prototype: Hellas

It’s a game about Greek mythology which takes place on the surface of a vase.

I’ll probably do some new interactive animation posts as well in the near future. I have some games I want to analyze, but haven’t had time to do the writing and video capture.

Stay tuned.

What the title said:

A look behind the scenes of Tangled,

Andreas Deja starts blogging,

and Valve explains how the Meet the Medic short came to be.

More good stuff:

Molyneux, Mechner, Chahi et al discuss the making of their classic games,

Google zooms all the way in on the world’s art,

DICE explains the moves in Mirror’s Edge,

and Gambit talks to various Looking Glass alums.

RPS has an interesting spoiler-filled interview with the writers on Portal 2. They go into the how and why of the characters and story, and how people on the team were given free reign to try ideas and expand upon the basic premise.

Again, SPOILERS… Avoid if you haven’t played Portal 2 (and still want to):

Jay: … there’s never a, “Hey, you go do that so this crashes into that.” It’s just someone’s like, “Oh, Wheatley’s taking over now? Oh, I’m going to go try this!” And there’s that ethos at Valve where the passion goes through. If someone wants to contribute in that way, they will happily work on it for hours and hours, because they’re like, “This will be so cool when it’s in the game.”

Chet: It doesn’t take as long as you’d think. It would take a lot longer if somebody mapped it out, handed it to an animator, and said “Animate this.” But instead when you’ve got the animator say, “Oh, I’ve got this cool idea. I want to do this thing,” they tend to work a lot faster because it’s something they want to do. That makes a big difference.

I think trusting developers to bring their creativity to the table rather than just giving them a list of things to do is always going to give more interesting results.

When you get to be involved in the entire creative process, contributing ideas, then collaborating with other disciplines to put them together, that’s when game development is at its most inspiring…

The Hobbit starts filming and they’re doing online production diaries like they did for Kong. Not sure I’ll watch the later episodes so as to leave some surprises for the actual film, but it’s cool to see the cast return… and Jackson at the helm. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

More links for your enjoyment:

J. Shea explores believability in fiction,

Victor Navone ponders animating limited characters,

Double Fine joins the podcasting world,

and Gamestorm collects indie design sketches.

Some links to start the year…

Adam Saltsman goes into subtle detail on creating Canabalt,

Eric Guaglione shows an early 3D test of Roger Rabbit 2,

the University of British Columbia knows how to stitch panaromas,

and Peter Kelly (ILM) has Useful Tips on animation.

Happy 2011!

Whether you’re animating realistic humans or creatures, or even cartoony characters, the only way to get it right is to know how things move. This is where research comes in. If you’re doing movement you’re not familiar with, especially if it’s an animal (real or fantasy) getting video footage or – even better – studying them in the wild or at the zoo is the best way to really get to know what you’re trying to recreate.

If you’re animating humans, act it out, shoot your own reference! Or if you don’t want to break anything, look at athletes…

Part of it is studying the anatomy to know how the bones and muscles work, the rest is body language and character, studying all the little mannerisms that make that person or animal unique.

Incidentally, if you’re animating birds, animator Brendan Body has done much of the work for you! He goes into a lot of detail analyzing the mechanics of flight.

Putting in that work up front and really thinking about it will not only make the end result more believable, it’ll make your job easier, less time spent going in circles wondering why it’s not working, more spent creating a character…

A few links I can’t believe I haven’t posted yet:

A charming game about possessing furniture and scaring people,

Irrational Games lifts the curtain on development,

a kick-ass documentary about indie games in the making,

and your brain on metaphors…