Game Matters

The art of the portfolio

David Silverman, of Cyberlore Studios, posted a good article on his blog giving advice to artists on submitting a portfolio to a game studio.  David's blog isn't well known, but if you're an artist looking to break into the industry you should check this out.

While I'm here (yes, at work -- a busy day, in fact!), I'll wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and Great New Year.  And remember:  set goals and achieve them.  You can't do one without the other.

Qualities of a bad game

In the book, Difficult Questions About Videogames, which asks about 75 developers, game press, and academics a list of, ...well, "difficult" questions, one of the questions asked is, "How can you tell if a videogame is rubbish?"

Most often we see the question in reverse, "What elements are common in good games," so this book tries to look at the other side of the coin, to perhaps reveal something unseen before.  Not a bad idea, IMO.

A large number of people answered with something along the lines of, "If you don't enjoy playing it," or "It's not entertaining."  Not exactly helpful.  A lot of people offered deeper answers, but not many nailed down specific qualities that most bad games have in common, such as poor feedback for actions taken by the player.

So, rather than come up with my own list, I'd like to see what others have to say.  Maybe we can come up with a good list, and if we do I'll post it as an update to this post.

The question is:  What are the common qualities of bad games?

The Genius of Half-Life 2

Just a few quick notes on why I (mostly) loved Half-Life 2...

o  The story was a big tease.  While I generally prefer more conclusive stories, I took the HL2 story for what it was, and enjoyed it.  Actually, there's not much of a story in any traditional sense, as Freeman doesn't experience a character arc (he ends the game no better off than he starts it), and the story is less about drama and more about setting, mood, and survival without a defined goal.  Still, it worked much like most X-File stories worked, leaving you hanging at the end, not sure about what really happened of any consequence.  If most games had stories like this, I'd be upset, but I'll cut HL2 some slack.

o  Gameplay variety.  I think variety is one of the biggest keys to a successful game, as no one likes to get stuck doing the same thing over and over the entire game.  Within HL2's 16 hour adventure, I spent an hour on a swamp boat, an hour riding a dune buggy, and hour controlling a horde of aliens, an hour teamed up with a squad, an hour in a scary village with the help of a preacher, and an hour hunting and evading scary three-story tripods straight from The War of the Worlds.  Throw in the gravity gun and an impressive variety of physics puzzles, and that's what I call glued-to-your-seat variety.

o  Realism.  In part thanks to physics, but also the intense detail of the environments, from swinging power lines, to the enemy AI, characters who are there to help you, to the believability of the game's fictional universe.  It all adds up to make this the most realistic game world I've ever played within.

o  Execution and polish. -- The kind that you rarely see unless the developer goes the extra mile, and there's no arbitrary, publisher-pushed deadline.

o  The Citadel.  A nearly always visible landmark and reminder of your oppressed existence.  And the game's only tangible goal, as you know from the beginning you'll eventually end up within this sky-high monolith.  And Valve delivered on the promise with a satisfying tour of the inner workings.

My only knock against the game is that my character was merely a heroic puppet, who earned nothing for himself. This is ultimately unsatisfying, and doesn't give the closure I crave in stories.  Still, HL2 is a landmark release, and sets the bar high for FPS games that follow.

The 2004 book parade

Although I've read some 150 books this year (over 60 on health, nutrition and fitness matters -- my new passion), less than a handful have dealt with the game industry.  Yet, in 2004 there's been a storm of books dealing with game design and development, and I've bought them all with the intent of speed reading through most, and going more slowly through the gems.  The stack I have is quite high:

o  Theory of Fun for Game Design -- Raph Koster has written the one I'm looking forward to the most.

o  Game Design (2nd Edition)

o  Digital Storytelling

o  Character Development and Storytelling for Games

o  Interactive Storytelling

o  Creating Emotion in Games -- 3D Realms has worked with the book's author, and I highly recommend his book, the first of its kind for our industry.

o  Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling

o  The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games -- Beautiful full-color 238-page book that shows pictures of practically all of the arcade machines from the mid-70's through the 80's.

o  Difficult Questions about Video Games -- I was interviewed for this, and managed to answer one question:  "What is gameplay?"

o  Game Design: Theory and Practice (2nd Edition) -- I read the first edition a few years ago, and it was one of the better general game design books.

o  Got Game

o  First Person

o  Half-Life 2:  Raising the Bar -- Not really a game design book, but a look into much that goes into the making of a game, especially from the art and story side.

There's my homework for 2005!  Plus, without doubt there'll be another dozen books that I'll need to keep up with...I'm merely a mouse on a spinning wheel.  It's interesting, IMO, that there are so many books about storytelling.  Could it be that we've crossed a threshold and stories are finally getting the attention given to gameplay, graphics and the GUI?  I hope so.

As I plow through this stack, you'll see mini-reviews on the right side under Recent Reads.  The best of the bunch will get more fuller reviews as blog entries.  I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the above list if you've read any of them, or if there's any I missed from this year.