Seth Gorden

Seth: “What if every bullet you fired hits the floor & spends 10 minutes evolving into a fast paced creature that will chase you down for revenge?”
Brandon: what?…..
Brandon: no…
Seth: it’s from petermolydeux… the twittering molyneux impersonator
Brandon: ahhhhhh
Seth: amusing, because they’re all like… “what? noo…”
Brandon: but instead of it chasing you it will hit your dog, because that will be more emotional and powerful
Seth: yeah
Brandon: but then later you can choose to save the world or your dog
Brandon: or get some cash
Seth: there’s one that says “Pong had a superior interface and clean controls… but did you have a dog in that game?”
Seth: something like that, I already closed the page
Brandon: isnt the ball a dog?
Seth: I always thought so. Game industry founded on animal abuse.
Seth: The paddles are of course, representative of harsh words, which hurt the dogs feelings, and she runs away.
Seth: Looking for a new master.
Brandon: I thought it was each paddle was calling the dog
Seth: To find only a world of harsh humans with no conscience and noregret
Brandon: and you had to be there to pat the dog or else he would run past you and run away
Seth: haha
Seth: that is a more cheerful
Brandon: indeed
Brandon: happy pong

As some of you may know, Octodad is a clever game where you are a secret octopus, living the life of a human. Not just any human, but a good human who loves his family. How many games are this humorous and kind-hearted in premise? Very few.

I am privileged to report that Octodad’s project director, Kevin Zuhn, also works with me every day as an environment artist on our super-top-secret arcade game. He’s a smart designer, casual comedian, and an all-around good fellow to work with. Also, he hooked me up with an Octodad t-shirt. It is rad.

If you haven’t done so already, go play Octodad here. It is rad.

On Gamesauce, I recently watched a video about motivating casual players in online games.

The  term ‘casual players’ has seemed a misnomer

to me for some time, and I’m starting to figure out why. At first, ‘casual’ described a kind of play, moreso than a person. But as we love our labels, soon we assigned it to people, deeming them casual whenever their play style did not reflect a thorough knowledge and comfort with the history and mechanics of video games and how to play them.

There is a particular passage in the video linked above that talks about player grouping in online multiplayer games. Apparently ‘casual’ players don’t do it. In the examples given, this refers to clicking a ‘Group’ button from a very accessible user interface. Most of their players never click this button, even when instructed to do so. It turns out that their casual players assume that when they sign on to a game with their friends, that believe they are already grouped. Some make their avatars stand close together in the game when clicking the ‘Group’ button, and timed their clicks so that they pressed the button simultaneously. This, of course, has nothing to do with how grouping works in the game. The presenter in the video spoke about this only long enough to describe their observations and how it affected development of their online game. But let’s dig a little deeper.

(more…)

While I never run out of commentary or complaints about various aspects of the gaming industry, it doesn’t always make for the most stimulating blogging experience. To remedy this, I’ve decided to create and update a new page on this site, which I have dubbed Retro Lane. Therein, I will begin posting on happenings in the gaming world that really do get me excited. Please visit the page, and read about some retro-inspired projects and posts. Go ahead. It will be good. Like old times.

Continue to Retro Lane

Warren Spector is my new favorite designer, as per the Gamasutra interview I just read.

When asked about the limited processing power of the Wii for his current project Epic Mickey, he said this:

“Constraints always push you to be more creative. I mean whatever the constraints are, whether it’s the constraints of a license, the constraints of a piece of hardware, I mean, no creative act is made better by being constraint free.”

And isn’t it the truth? This man gets it. A few fun facts that support this idea:

The Nintendo Entertainment System revitalized the Video Games industry in America after the Video Game Crash of 1983. It had only 56 colors and a central processor that ran at 1.66 MHz. That’s less than 2 mega-hertz, people.

The most successful game console to date, Nintendo’s Gameboy, had only four shades of gray and central processor that ran at 4.19 MHz. It sold well over 100 million units worldwide.

It turns out that a few bright colors and a couple mega-hertz were enough to revitalize an industry. A few shades of gray were enough to set sales records that top any console since created.

But why was it enough? (more…)