The psychology of avatar customization,

Patrick Redding on co-op narrative and NPC interaction,

intriguing insight into Valve’s design process,

and a cool new animation blog and podcast.

Enjoy responsibly.

Graphics are placeholder. Haven’t decided what to do for visuals yet…

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/06/interview-without-a-vampire-bloodlines-b-mitsoda/

This is old, but I was re-reading it recently and there’s some great points about game writing in there… Bloodlines is one my favourite games, a real diamond in the rough; unfinished in places, but community patches have solved most issues and at its best it rivals classics like Deus Ex for character interaction and atmosphere.

Again, SPOILERS…

The heart of a good story are its characters. They don’t have to be likeable, but they have to be interesting and above all believable. Sometimes a character will say or do something that just seems wrong… People change, certainly, but you know that character would not make that choice at that point in their life…

For example, when Anakin turns to the dark side in Star Wars Episode 3 it seems hard to believe that despite all his fear and anger he would suddenly murder innocent children in cold blood. Darth Vader? Sure. But Anakin’s not there yet.

It hurts the believability of the character and makes it harder to buy into the story as a whole. If you want people to care about your story you can’t betray your characters.

But enough about movies… What of the troubled relationship between story and interaction? Staying true to character in games is a tricky one:

PLAYER/STORY-CONFLICT

Often referred to as “ludo-narrative dissonance“, it’s a fancy way of saying: the actions the player is encouraged to take do not mesh with the fiction of the game world. You play a likeable hero, but the gameplay is based around murdering hundreds of people. You’re out to save the universe, but you do it by stealing everything that isn’t nailed down… that kind of thing.

Not a new problem, but it has become more noticable as game stories develop a certain degree of subtlety. Nathan Drake may be a lovable rogue during cutscenes, but in the hands of the player he’s a ruthless killer. GTAIV may let you have a pretend social life, but on the way to your date you probably ran over twenty pedestrians.

It’s a difficult problem. The games that get it right – where what the player is thinking and doing matches the character – are all the more powerful for it.

The IGDA has suggested solutions, but their implementation remains limited. Making games and having a life should not have to be mutually exclusive.

[I should probably note I haven't done any crunch lately... my concern is directed at the industry in general]

The first is also available in English.

Prince, LBA and Flashback are still among my fondest gaming memories and it’s a treat to read about their creators’ thoughtful and eclectic approach to design.

“Don’t dissipate the energy and passion of the original idea by becoming your own critic too early in the process. (…) start taking the necessary steps to turn your idea into reality, while you still feel the clarity and strong desire of that first inspiration” Jordan Mechner

“Story prolongs the enjoyment of the player, but it does not create it.”
Frédérick Raynal

Edmund McMillen’s has tips on indie game development,

and Adam Saltsman advocates accessibility.

Charlie Brooker makes a compelling case for games as a medium,

Bioware has tips for those looking to break into the industry,

Gausswerks rethinks some games that could have been great,

and here’s a nifty open-source tool for analyzing video reference!

Deleted scenes are deleted for a reason.

Maybe this is controversial, but I felt Peter Jackson got a little carried away with the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings.

Now, I *love* Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with the exception of The Two Towers I find the cinema version vastly superior to the extended cut.

For all the ‘missing’ scenes they add, they don’t make the story any better and pacing goes out the window… All they end up doing is pander to the die-hard Tolkien fans that were never going to be satisfied anyway with anything less than a word-for-word adaptation.

It’s telling that writing this I can’t actually remember any scene from the extended Fellowship or Return except for the Bilbo-narrated intro which replaced the much more interesting scene between Gandalf and Frodo. And I only remember it because it annoyed me so much.

Towers I liked, because here was a scene – the capture of Osgiliath – that was not only entertaining in itself, but significantly added to three of the major characters in the story, exploring the relationship between brothers Boromir and Faramir, and their father Denethor. A few other scenes stood out (the burial song, the exchange between Sam and Gollum in the sewers), but this one sequence really showed the difference between adding and padding…

If you’ve got a scene that doesn’t help the narrative or develop the main characters, or worse, states the blindingly obvious… it probably shouldn’t be in there.