It's Not Worth It

In preparation for the arrival of the the September issue, I flipped through the August issue of Game Developer Magazine. I reread Steve Theodore's latest Pixel Pusher article entitled Fight the Good Fight. He puts forth more strong arguments against the self inflicted practice of crunch time, many of which I strongly believe and attempt to convey to others around me, unfortunately, not to much avail. A couple of the things he stresses is pacing yourself and then learning how to manage your own time so you can foresee problems before they get out of control. However, the message that comes at the very end of the article hit closest to home, especially as I look to expand my own family.

There has never been a game that was worth a single divorce, but anybody with a few shipped titles on their resume could name you a title or two that cost that much.

That's why it's up to us to grapple the crunch monster. Growing out of our frat house work habits isn't just good advice - it's a deadly serious duty. The family wants you home from the trenches, safe and sound, not just another anonymous game industry hero in the small print of Mobygames. Don't disappoint them.

Fun Friday: Guitar Hero vs Rock Band

With the impending release of two rhythm game heavyweights, someone has created two sites with YouTube clips of most of the songs to be featured in Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. I'm still partial to Guitar Hero based on the track list. See the mind blowing video below for some Tenacious D awesomeness (and with dancing robot for the win!) But I have to admit that the drums, as well as some of the menus and player customization stuff in Rock Band, look pretty sweet.

Does One Game Make a Franchise?

On Friday Evening, I finished Bioshock while saving all of the Little Sisters. By itself, it was a very emotional and powerful ending but the themes of fatherhood hit particularly close to home. The game was phenomenal from start to finish and it will easily be the game of the year.

Earlier today, Take Two held their earning call and praised their hit title. Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said of the game's success "Clearly, we have a new hit franchise on our hands." This stuck me quite odd. While the game is clearly a critical and financial success, I don't see one game as a "franchise." Zelda and Madden are franchises, long running series that have been successful year in and year out.

I understand that this talk came from the people responsible to the shareholders that want a promise of more success to come. Games that transcend the banality of our industry are not immune from the franchise mentality that plagues this industry. Shareholders want high returns on little investment, they want sock prices to go up. Unfortunately, they want to capitalize on this success.

But it has not always worked out. Great games are not always the launching pads for viable franchises. For many reasons, consecutive titles in a "franchise" fail to meet expectations: KOTOR, Maximo, Prince of Persia. On the other hand, the major franchises have all started all small, developed a cult following and progressively improved from year to year: GTA, Final Fantasy, Tony Hawk, even Halo. Bioshock set the that first franchise step pretty high and its going to take quite an effort to maintain that level of excellence.

Fun Friday: Medal of Homer

The Simpson's TV show lost me somewhere around 1996. I just totally lost interest in the show. Needless to say, I have stayed away from the games as well. Although I have to admit that this new game that is coming out in a couple of months looks like it could be a lot of fun and captures what made the series great when it first started. And this trailer is hilarious. I may have to check this out, even if EA is publishing it.

Ode to Cut Scenes

God of War. Final Fantasy. Metal Gear Solid. Shadow of the Colossus. Resident Evil. Awesome games that have a common thread: they all have somewhat lengthy, pre-rendered cut scenes. While many people seem to hate them, I am in the minority that do not. Stephen Totilo on the MTV Multiplayer Blog, questions the following long standing belief:

Years ago — before it was in vogue to hate health bars and boss battles — it was cool to complain about cut-scenes. The flashy, melodramatic movies that appeared between chapters of game play undermined games by interrupting interactivity. They misrepresented the graphics in the games they were in. They told bad stories. They needed to be skipped, and, wouldn’t you know that the worst kind of cut-scene was one that an A or X button couldn’t eradicate in one tap.

So that's where the majority is coming from. But I have always felt that a really well executed cut scene was a reward at the end of that level I just completed. And these rewards just get better and better as the game crescendos up to a final climatic cut scene, gushing an orgasmic finale to an exquisite gaming experience.

My favorite example of this if God of War. Throughout the game the back story is beautifully told through artistic and stylized cut scenes that become available to watch in succession after completing the game, as if it were a movie. And it's a gorgeous movie at that, rivaling any animated movie not made by Pixar. I think God of War II lost the plot a bit in this department but still was quite impressive.

Stephen makes another great point, many of the greatest moments in gaming history have taken place in cut scenes. In addition to his great examples, there is Aeris's death in Final Fantasy VII and the Cyborg Ninja's hallway rampage in Metal Gear Solid. These are all pivotal moments that should not have been missed.

Moving forward, it is clear that developers are adopting a more interactive approach to cut scenes, like in Resident Evil 4. Also, as real time graphics rapidly approach what can be achieved in a pre-rendered scene, the lines will continue to blur, like in Bioshock or Heavenly Sword.

If there is one thing that games have yet to truly achieve on a regular basis is great story telling. Vivid cut scenes can fill that gap and, I for one, look forward to them. So, in the meantime, bring on the popcorn and watch some well earned cut scenes.

News Round Up

PAX and the holiday weekend threw off my posting schedule, so here’s a rundown of things that have caught my attention over the last couple of weeks as I play catch up.

• Manhunt 2 is Dated for a Halloween Release: I was off by a couple of months as far as the release of a ‘modified’ version, but I think they have achieved the desired effect – buzz.
• Guitar Hero III Achievements Unveiled: I love achievements but these suck. I know, I know, you should have to achieve something to earn them. But for the love of all things holy, I can understand a few, but not the majority of them. I initially thought that these achievements were fake. Firstly, they are way too specific and require unnatural skills at the game. Secondly, some of them have errors in them, like the ‘Now That’s Impressive’ achievement that states 750,000 points on a song with a 1 million point image. Thirdly, there are no achievements for progressing through the game past the bosses, like Slash and the recently announced Tom Morello. Finally, I noticed that there were 59 achievements. Juiced (a THQ game) had submission problems because they had 60 achievements but was then passed, maybe because of Guitar Hero. But, come on, look at the requirements for Tone Deaf and Button Masher. Seriously?
• Sequel to The Ship is Coming to 360: I love the premise of this game. You are given a name and must find this person on a cruise ship full of people and kill him – all while avoiding the unknown person who has yours. Quite a departure from most online multiplayer games, this one requires some stealth and skill, not just run and gun. Awesome!
• Pit’s Intro in Super Smash Brothers Brawl: I don’t care about SSBB. Not one bit. But if Nintendo finally went ahead and created a new Kid Icarus game, I would finally have enough reasons to own a Wii. It looks like they have the assets. Come on Nintendo, let’s get this done.
• Zero Punctuation Reviews Bioshock:

THQ: DS Past and Future

My first week at THQ was spent testing Ping Pals. In French and German. I'm surprised I made it past that week but fortunately I was snatched up by another team. For those who aren't laughing their ass off right now about my first testing gig, Ping Pals was an ill advised chat game that was no better than the DS's built in Pictochat. Although according to the project manager it was one of our greatest financial successes, it was met with ridicule and review scores averaging at about 0.5 out of ten. The developer, Way Forward, has gone to develop many DS titles and has two on the way that may the most anticipated games of the Holiday season barring Phantom Hourglass: Contra IV and Duck Amuck. In an interview a couple of weeks back with Stephen Totilo, creative director Matt Bozon explains some of the rationale that went behind that ill fated title.

They had just a handful of weeks to make the game. "We needed dev kits desperately, and here was a chance to get them."

But the problem with "Ping Pals" wasn't just time. The DS already had an IM program called "Pictochat" that came embedded into every DS. Did anyone raise their hand and ask about that? "I did that on day one," Bozon said, laughing. "THQ had their plan, and they were going to run with it.

This is quite typical of our philosophy but hey, we had a billion dollars in sales last year, so they must be doing something right.

One of those things right was picking up the publishing rights to Drawn to Life. It's an ambitious project that has the unfortunate timing of being released in one of the most crowded launch seasons ever. Hopefully people will still pick it up and encourage to take more chances like this and we can develop a sequel to smooth out some of the rough edges. In the mean time, check out the first official trailer. And yes, you can draw penises if that's your thing.

Fun Fridays: Super Belated Edition

Seeing as it is Tuesday, this is definitely late. But that's okay because fun is awesome even when it's late. Last Friday, I was unsure what to add as my Fun Friday post and then I read my email. Amazon sent me the above recommendation that made my day. Apparently, a generic, licensed racing game should appeal to those who enjoy incredible, 200+ hour RPG's. Who knew? Wait, isn't there something else coming out on September 25th?

Back Home From PAX07

I'm back from the Penny Arcade Expo! I had a lot of fun in Seattle (my first time visiting) despite my feet and calves throbbing after three days of being up on them, showing off our games. I have to say, I expected the place to be bigger. My only other major expo experience was E3 in 2006. Otherwise, the people were all really cool and the atmosphere was one of a kind. I met a lot of really interesting people, including the folks who were demoing N+ and Kim from Bioware, who was demoing Mass Effect. We got a chance to quickly talk about testing such a massive game

My highlights for the show were playing N+ and Castle Crashers. They are very unique and satisfying experiences that are a perfect fit for Live Arcade. I watched people play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption over their shoulders; it looked amazing on the massive plasma screens they were playing on. I'll definitely be picking this game up if I get a Wii. The Mass Effect demo was amazing. Despite some who were disappointed or not awed, I think it really showed off the little details that are going to make this one of the greatest games ever.

I spent the majority of my time demoing our upcoming Wii game, de Blob. Originally developed by students in Utrecht, it puts the player in control of the rebellious Blob who is acting out against the evil Inkt Corporation by literally painting the city red, or whatever color you want. It was on the inside of our booth, so I don't think as many people saw it who could have, but it still managed to draw a large crowd when they did see it. I even had a few people tell me that it was their favorite game of the show which made me very happy. It still has quite a while in development and test before it hits store shelves, so I hope that marketing can get the word out in the mean time.

Testing in the Open World: Crackdown

"Everyone knows that testing a game thoroughly is essential to its quality," is the debatable first sentence in a Gamasutra post from Microsoft's Gamefest concerning a forum on how they overcame testing the massive size of Crackdown. While the article is sparse in detail, it provides an overview of what steps were taken to ensure that the game was thoroughly hammered. Essentially, due to the overwhelming scope of the game world that was compounded by the fact that much of the game rose in the y-axis as well, much of the testing was automated. Environmental bugs, including the placement of items and graphical seam issues, numbered well above the 10,000 mark. I have not seen many multi-platform games get that high in total, let alone one bug type.