Dodo Blog

A series of posts on the use of interactive animation in games…

Last time I wrote one of these I believe I said something about weekly entries… Well, so much for that, but I’ve got a couple of new ones:

… starting with Assassin’s Creed 2.

I’ve talked about Assassin’s Creed before, but the sequel takes things a step further…

Where AC1 had you tagging along automatically with groups of monks at the press of a button, AC2 is all about proximity*. ANY gathering of NPCs can shield you from the eyes of the guards. Just standing close enough to or walking with a small group will make you effectively disappear. Your enemies are looking for a lone assassin. Blend into the crowd and you can travel freely.

Moving from group to group, pretending to chat with random pedestrians, weaving through the crowd, you can approach unseen – strike – and be gone…

[Incidentally, there was an interesting talk at the Paris AI Conference about how groups form in conversation, adapting to new arrivals, etc. They don't go quite that far here, but you could layer these systems on top of each other to great effect.]

Hiding in plain sight and adhering to social norms to avoid drawing attention to yourself is not something games experiment with a lot and it’s good to see someone taking this on.

Speaking of which, Spy Party continues to look interesting as well…

* more AI than animation, but it is body language.

Plastic Animation Paper 4, the tool I used to create my short film, recently became freeware. If you have a Wacom tablet and want to do some 2D animation, it’s a great piece of software… and now it’s for gratis.

If you’re new to games, or consoles were more your thing in the 90s you may not have heard of Looking Glass. They were a game studio that pioneered a genre that came to be known as the “Immersive Sim”, focusing on deep player interaction with a detailed and consistent game world using a unique blend of narrative, artificial intelligence and physics simulation. Famous for titles like Thief and Ultima Underworld, its influence can still be felt across the games industry.

Right now there’s an excellent series of interviews on Rock Paper Shotgun about the rise and fall of this particular school of design and its continuing legacy. Smart people talking game design philosophy. Great great stuff.

A few more links for general education and enjoyment:

More good advice from Games Industry Mentor,

Carlos Baena does a recap of some of his animation writings,

how to animate a 2D platform game with Earthworm Jim,

and Temple of the Seven Camels still golden.

It occurred to me recently why I don’t generally like sci-fi that much, and conversely why I love a good historical setting.

I want a world I can believe in, that subtle sense that these places are real, and you could go there if only you could charter a plane, or a time machine… Sci-fi is always so neat and tidy. I just don’t buy that anyone would live there.

Fantasy has this problem, but not as much because it tends to have one foot firmly in modern or medieval times which gives it something to work with. Though you can tell the difference between your average high-fantasy and The Lord of the Rings. There’s a depth and truth to Middle Earth that most don’t bother with… but it’s not about volume. People mistake Tolkien’s achievement for being one of sheer effort, but you don’t create an interesting world just by throwing pages of backstory and concept art at it.

It’s in the little things. The worlds that get away with it are the ones that put in those carefully observed details that make them human.

It’s the petty politics of Vampire Bloodlines, it’s the space marines in Starcraft bringing beer to a demolition (“Thank god for cold fusion!”), it’s the way the X-Wings in Star Wars look like they could use another paint-job…

The universes that transcend their fictional origins are the ones that feel ‘lived in’, their inhabitants just getting by in a place that is entirely real to them.

Worth checking out:

Shaylyn Hamm creates a female cast for TF2,

Ken Robinson talks about creativity and education,

and Batman likes videogames.

Gave my website a long overdue overhaul. Gels a bit better with the blog now. See if you can spot the not especially well-hidden animation references.

Worked some more on the swimming game. It has random rock formations and ambient friendly fish now…

I’m not in the habit of plugging sites that sell things, but I’m willing to make an exception for the re-release of one of my favourite games of all time on GOG.com: Appeal’s Outcast, for $5,99… Seriously, get this game.

There still hasn’t been an open world adventure quite like it.

Three years since I moved to France this month! Also, more nifty links:

Good animation advice from Bobby Pontillas on breathing,

some wonderful art of pixels and Wild Things,

moving drawings at the Pencil Test Depot,

… and notes, slides, and other materials from GDC…