Spy Party

Spy Party is a multiplayer game for the PC involving patience, subterfuge, and careful observation.  Player 1 acts as the Spy.  The Spy must avoid detection by blending in with the NPCs who inhabit a small room.  Player 2 is the Sniper.  The Sniper’s goal is to kill the Spy (with only one bullet in his gun).

What makes this game interesting from a game design perspective is how effectively it creates tension.  Only with careful mimicry of the AI movement can the Spy hope to achieve victory.  But, the Sniper’s laser dot is visible to the Spy, so he/she knows when the Sniper is analyzing their movement.  The first reaction for the Spy is usually to jerk away, but Spy Party is no twitch shooter.  Such an action will only alert the Sniper to the Spy’s identity, resulting in death.  Staying calm is the key to victory for the Spy.

At PAX, the game seemed very well balanced.  I saw both Snipers and Spies achieve victory.  It’s still in development, but I’d expect Spy Party to win some sort of indie award down the road.

One of which was play Steel Battalion.  I remembered the game coming out, but for some reason the idea of paying $200 dollars for a controller didn’t appeal to me.  PAX took care of the price tag for me and I got a chance to sit down and play the game to discover that it was immensely enjoyable.  There is a button specifically for wiping the windshield on your mech.  How cool is that?

It’s especially interesting, because in this case the complexity of the controls of the game paradoxically made the game more fun.  The gameplay itself wasn’t especially great, but because the style of control made it seem like a simulator instead of a video game I had a blast.  If you get the chance, check it out.

Other PAX thoughts:

• Anamanaguchi, JoCo, MC Frontalot, and Paul and Storm are fantastic.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:  Turtles in Time is still fun.
• Bear Pile = good times.
• PAX is filled with some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

Games, he said, are art.  They have won in some sense, they have already proved their worth to society.  Those who don’t see them as such now will soon be irrelevant as cultural advisers.  Every new medium, according to Spector, goes through an initial period where they will be discounted or even judged harmful.  Games are now emerging through this period and are gaining widespread acceptance from grandmothers, corporate executives, and elementary school children.

The problem facing game makers and game players is to be accepting of these new groups.  If we fail to embrace new members of different cultural groups into our hobby then we too will become irrelevant.  He closed by mentioning that one day a new medium, entirely different than games, will emerge and we will be the ones to judge it harshly.  What will this new medium be?  No one knows (VR?  AR?  Some kind of interactive AI?), but Spector seemed to think that at least one person at PAX will probably be at the forefront of creating it.

As a side note, both Ron Gilbert and Warren Spector mentioned in their speeches that Star Wars had a profound effect on their careers.  It inspired them, they both said.  I wonder for how many other developers this is true; my guess is lots.

This year, I’m going to try and give a day-by-day account of PAX.  Things I’m especially looking forward to:

• Anamanaguchi
• LAN Parties
• Warren Spector’s Keynote (one of my favorite games is Deus Ex)
• That warm fuzzy feeling from being around thousands of other gamers

See you there!

Achievement Unlocked

In a broad sense, achievements represent a new way of keeping score in games.  In the past, games like Donkey Kong assigned a number to how good you were at playing.  Today’s games are often too complex to represent skill in a single number, but achievements have filled in the gap.

Achievements are perhaps incomplete as ways of comparing players.  Often, achievements represent how much time a player is willing to invest in a game rather than pure skill.  Still, with both the Xbox, Steam, and the PS3 all using them its hard to argue they aren’t relevant to game design.

All of which is lampooned well in Achievement Unlocked.  In this game, you earn achievements for things like exploring the menu, killing yourself in specific ways, and even just starting the game.

You can play Achievement Unlocked here and its new sequel here.  They are both quite fun, and as a bonus will get you thinking about how achievements are changing the way we play games.

Interactive education is personalized education.  Video games are already addressing this issue.  The whole reason I got into computer science (and therefore science and math too) was games.  Many others owe the same debt.

The challenge for game designers is two fold:  make games educational and make educational games fun.  Indie game designers have been enormously successful in revitalizing the platformer and puzzle genres – will educational games be the next genre chosen?

Knytt Stories Tutorial

One particularly good example I’ve found is in the game Knytt Stories.  A player, even if they are not familiar with platformers in general, is given complete instructions on how to play the game in less than five minutes.  In addition, the atmospheric stylings and soothing music native to the Knytt universe are still present.  You have fun while learning.

If your game requires a tutorial, it should be quick and entertaining.  Knytt Stories does both and is a good example to be copied for other independent developers.

Bees

In addition to it being relaxing, I also especially like the controls:  the designers found a good way to move in 3D space by using only the mouse.  Also, the graphics are wonderfully simple and work great for the context.  A very beautiful piece of software.

• Didn’t have internet for a while but I did have my computer.  I took the opportunity to boot up Deus Ex again – still an amazing game.
• In preparation for my trip next week I downloaded some new games for my iPhone:  namely Katamari and Shining Force.  Shining Force was one of my favorite games as a kid and I’m stunned they ported it for the iPhone.
• Work continues on Adrift for iPhone and my C++ projects.  They’re starting to shape up nicely now – I’m really getting a feel for the iPhone platform.