A Theory of Fun

If you are even THINKING about designing games, you MUST pick up "A Theory of Fun" by Raph Koster.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Mr Koster!

Reading this book, I couldn't help but agree. EVERYTHING I've been talking about, that I've been working on for these past 3 years was talked about in this book. Even more surprising, there were parts that I DIDN'T think about, and immediately disagreed with. The book CHALLENGED me.

But God, sometimes I feel like nobody gets the point, and this leads me to ask myself if there actually is a point. And it's just great to talk to people (since books are really a one-sided dialog between the author and reader) who SEE the point. Hell, even better than I see it. A lot of my efforts stem from hope more than knowledge. But I know that I will never find that knowledge unless I search for it.

Man, it's been a great week with books.

The last 3 days, I read "Rebel Without a Crew" by Robert Rodriguez. Another EXCELLENT book. As you all know, I came to this medium heavily inspired from comics and movies. I used to draw incessantly as a child, and in highschool I immediately started making movies when my parents bought a video camera. I felt a real connection with Rodriguez. There are some parallels in our stories, growing up unprofessionally making stuff that we wanted to do (although I had simple video games on top of the movies and comic books), fighting against the administrations of formal education, working multiple part time jobs at once, going to school, and working on our passions. While reading all this, I was like "this guy's been there, he understands". His advice about solving problems creatively versus using "the money hose" should be heeded more. And his first peice of advice in his "Ten Minute Film School" - don't say you WANT to be a filmmaker, make movies and say you ARE a filmmaker. GENIUS. I've been telling people all along - you want to make games? well then quit saying you WANT to and MAKE GAMES!

Reading books like these make me feel like I'm on the right track, that my pursuits aren't in vain. That this is a noble pursuit, worthy of my energy. And which is great, because really, at this point in my life while I'm still full of fire, I can't concieve pursuing anything else.

haha

Fantasy versus Reality

books books books

Too many books to read!

Still 100 pages to go in "The Illusion of Life".

Started "Rules of Play", but not totally focused on it.

Picked up "A Theory of Fun", as well as "Rebel Without a Crew"

And, to brush up on the classics, bought a pocket "Moby Dick".

This is only the tip of the iceberg, I want to get Chris Crawford's book, brush up on Richard Rouse, go back over "The Study of Games" and "Life of Poetry", as well as few other game design books here and there. I also want to read "Raising Kane".

On top of that, I want to really pursue the classics. I know I should play more games, but usually I just don't get nearly as much enjoyment out of them as I do books or movies. I have 202 movies enqueued on my Blockbuster Online account. Put on top of that time I try to spend on drawing, piano and music composition, and my programming side projects, and I'm one busy dude.

Oh well, my college years trained me for that. Rolling stone and such.

Gamer's Manifesto

Hey dude, I'm with ya. Hopefully I can do something about these conventions, a lot of them that came from a mixture of inadequate technology and just plain lazy game design. Unfortunately, it's a big mountain to climb. And a lot of it isn't the audience, it's the reviewers.

I'm not going to say too much here, for fear that it will bite me in the ass later. Let's just say that to a lot of publishers, reviews are just as important as sales. With the hardest of hardcore gamers ending up being reviewers, I'm not sure how much push a casual market (I should say "non-gamer" market), is really going to have.

To be honest, I don't really like that. Usually, the best forms of art weren't critically acclaimed until well after their sale date. Especially popular culture ones. Remember, Dickens, one of my favorite authors of all time, was pretty pop-culture. So was Shakespeare.

Yeah, it was quite an eye-opener on how much a heavy hand a few people have in works made for the many. And I'm not too happy about it. And unfortunately, those of you who felt left out, are the ones who are going to suffer over it. Uggh.

retraction

Alright, I do remember before that I compared Katamari to Citizen Kane.

I retract that statement.

Katamari is a bit like ice cream. Really, really good ice cream. Ice cream is great. It's easy to eat, very enjoyable to taste, and you can eat it about anytime.

But, like ice cream, sitting down to a session of Katamari can only last for so long, before the experience just gets kinda blah. Akin to ice cream melting in your bowl, and just not being that appealing any more - Katamari gets kinda repetitive pretty fast. The pacing is very good, that's not an issue I have with it, but after a while, it's the same thing over and over and over. Yes, I know, this is not any different from most games. Especially my all-time favorite - PacMan. But Pacman is ice cream too.

Another thing with Katamari. Man does it taste sweet. But there's no substance. You roll around, you're happy, you laugh. But other than that, it doesn't really affect you. Katamari is a GREAT dessert. It's the Tiramisu of games.

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And that's saying something. Because, in reality, are games really much more than desserts? I'm not too sure, honestly. My hope is yes. My fear is no.

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What brings this up, is that I finally watched Citizen Kane this week (thank you Blockbuster Online). I watched it about 3 times.

The first time, I just didn't understand why the movie was such a classic. It was good, it was entertaining, but I didn't really see WHY everybody made such a fuss about it - except for a few clever cinematography and editing tricks. I used to be impressed by editing tricks, but my friend John Paul, who works as an editor in movies, told me once that the minute the audience realizes something is clever, the editing failed. You're not supposed to notice it, it's supposed to add to the scene, not detract.

But then, I watched it with the commentary, and I started to realize something. The movie never got old. It's one giant mystery, you don't REALLY know what's going on in Charlie Kane's mind. And you never solve it, so every time you watch it, you are constantly engaged in it. And another thing, it didn't seem to set out to be a "classic". Orson Welles just wanted to tell the story he wanted in the most effective way possible, not the way it was done before. But when asked why he did things a certain way, like shoot the scene between Leiland drunkenly admonishing Kane with an extremely low angle, he just replied "I don't know, it looked better that way". And it did.

I think that was the real kick in that movie. It wasn't trying to be as much as people make it. The movie is too entertaining for that. It touches on just about every emotion known, from joy to fury, from humor to despair. Welles was a genius, but mainly because he just wanted to use the medium to the best of his ability, to get the emotion across.

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I see another parallel in the life of Walt Disney. Currently I'm reading "The Illusion of Life" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. They talk a lot about Walt and the early days, how they really didn't know what they were doing, but they knew that Walt wanted animation to be different from what was currently done.

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How appropriate, after looking at E3 stuff, I just got into a debate with a coworker about these very things. Unfortunately, now I'm just mentally tapped, and don't want to talk about it anymore. I'll probably continue later.

Before I go, I post a challenge for you. Come up with a design for a game version of Citizen Kane. Don't worry, I'm doing it to. Let's see what we can come up with.

YAY

Finally! the E3 build is done and sent.

wow man, first E3 period as a game developer. I had NO IDEA how much stress was involved. Seriously, we were working like 14 hours Sunday trying to get the E3 build out the door. Didn't go home until 2 AM. Granted, my stuff was done hella early (did some little changes to the character select that MAJORLY improved the look). But I wasn't gonna leave the team, and besides, I had nothing better to do. Plus, I'm kinda excited. This is the first time other people are going to see it.

But no, I'm not going to E3, and what's interesting, most of the people I work with aren't either. In the large scheme of things, E3 just isn't that big of a deal. On the other hand, I'm really excited and nervous to see what people think.

The game? Well it's finally been announced. Shrek SuperSlam for the Nintendo DS. Developed by Amaze Entertainment and published by Activision in collaboration with Dreamworks.

Perfect game for me too, for two reasons. A - not hardcore gamer, so making a "pick up and play" game for a handheld is, as I believe, the perfect game for a non-gamer. It's about evoking the emotional reaction quickly and effectively. I think we're pulling this off pretty well with the zany slapstick action mixed with fighting that we are constantly working on to be balanced and fun. B - There are 3 types of games I really love. 1 - Diablo Hack'n slash. 2 - Turn-based strategy (I love Front Mission 4) and 3 - fighting games. I LOVE fighting games.

Not that I'm into violence that much. But I think fighting games are a microcosm of strategy. The good thing is that since I'm so passionate about fighting games (and not just Streetfighter like a lot of people on the team, I'm much more into 3D games like Tekken, DOA, and SoulCalibur, but as you all know MK2 has a special place in my heart), anyways, since I'm so passionate, I'm very vocal about the moves of the players, the AI, constantly trying to make it fun to play. And I'm very picky, and unforgiving.

But I'm also very passionate. I've always heard the phrase "well if you don't like it, YOU try to do better." Well, that's what I'm trying to do.

Anyways, we'll see how it goes. The nice thing is they loved the build, and I was able to go home early yesterday and take today off. A nice couple days of rest. I hope we get some press, but I doubt it, the game journalists don't really seem to care about handheld games.