Tanagashi

Elements of game design, part 1.

2012-01-28T13:29:00.001-08:00

"Game design" is really a vague term. It incorporates many things. As Wikipedia states, it is a stage of production, where the foundations of setting, gameplay, visual and audio style are created and refurbished. Some people also call the further creation of a game "game design", but again - the term is perceived differently by different people, that's why it is so unspecific. I'd probably agree with those who think that this phrase can describe the whole process of creation of the product, but also agree that the most important part is done by the team at the beginning. Afterwards artists, animators, programmers mostly have to follow the rules the team has set in the first phase.
Aw, well. There sure is some magic in the creative process and if I try to explain it to myself, the effect will be gone. All right.
People always play. Johan Huizinga even wrote a book about this phenomena, "Homo Ludens" (Playing Man). In it he goes about showing the way people incorporate play in their everyday life - in communication, relationships, private lives. I think that video games at first were just digital games, but now they are mostly a cross-breed of play and books, movies, plays. Another way to create a new layer of reality on top of the common one we live in. Some people blame those who get emerged in those fake stories too deeply. But is it different from reading too much books or watching films? The reality we sense is just as "fake" as the reality of Half-Life series. That is to say that our brain assembles a collage of outer world using the information that streams in through our sensory systems, and does almost the same thing when a preson reads a book or plays a game. But I am getting distracted.

Anyways, what is game design all about? Creating a logical, consistent world that a player can immerse himself into. The world can be as small as a street in Frogger, or as big as Azeroth in Warcraft franchise, size doesn't matter. It is all about how believable it is. Then, you have to create adequate play mechanics, i.e. - gameplay. Player can't do random, unrelated actions throughout the game. Set of his action must be limited, but wide enough to still be interesting. FPS - walk around and shoot, RPG - walk around, collect loot and spend points at talent tree, RTS - command units on a map. The genre is defined by this set of actions player perform, distinguished by type of gameplay.
So, yes. Games in a certain sense are just like people. Similar in general, but different and unique in details. Unless we are talking about the stuff EA, Activision or Nintendo releases, of course.

The Void

2012-01-16T17:07:00.000-08:00

Another not-so-very-well-known Russian game I am going to tell you about is The Void. Russian version was released under the name Turgor, which is a fancy word for "tension", but English release was renamed, probably due to the marketing reasons.
The strangeness of the said game lies in both setting, design and gameplay. This is a story of some purgatory-like place called the Void, that lies between the absolute death and the upper world. The most important thing in the Void is Color, strange liquid that possesses power to create and destroy life. It is the source of all life in this strange place, and it is scarce. Inhabitants of the Void are grotesque Brothers, that bear resemblance with paintings of Dali, and their Sisters, beautiful half-naked women that attract Color to this world.
Protagonist of the game is a newly born Brother. You travel from one ward of the Void to another and interact with the inhabitants and items lying within. But mostly, you collect Color by harvesting sprouts emerging from the ground, trees that you previously sprinkled with it, local animals. When this colorful liquid is gathered, you can put it inside of many hearts inside of you, and grow it into another one, that can be used to interact with everything. Putting different colored liquid in your hearts grants you different bonuses. For example, blue grants you speed, red increases damage you inflict, and green hardens your defenses.
Produced Color is used to interact with everything. You can revive dead trees and force them to produce more of the same color. You can draw different symbols to ask Sisters different questions, or attack hostile Brothers in different ways. You even use it to travel between wards of the Void on a global map. The game truly revolves around it.
I know, it must be really confusing, if you haven't played the game. I'll try to put this in a different way. The main philosophy that Ice-Pick Lodge, creators of The Void tried to fulfill in an interactive form, is "you receive back what you gave away". If you have been enraged by someone, you are filled with anger, until it escapes by itself or you blow it away by, say, shouting at someone. Or, if you have been nice to another person, you can expect friendly treatment from them. Real life relationships are quite similar to mechanics of this game. Of course they are much more complicated, but the metaphor is quite good, I think.
Game can end in many ways. The simplest one is when the global timer ends, and the Void collapses. Then, you can enrage one of the other Brothers and be killed by him. More positive one is when you give one of the sisters enough color for her ascension to the upper world. And the last one, is when you ascend yourself. This game is not one of those "win no-matter what" ones that dominate the market nowadays. Each ending is interesting by itself and ends the philosophical tale of the Void in a proper way.
Visual style of the game is rather distinctive. It is a blend of surrealism and art-noveau that is subjected to decay and dilapidation. At first the landscape is rather dull - some kind of surreal caves with curved stone paths, debris of scaffolding and dead trees. But as you progress further through the wards of the Void, more and more interesting details start to appear - menacing towers, old communal flats of St. Petersburg, verdurous gardens and strange battleships are just some elements of bizarre mosaic that is set before players eyes in this game. Also, when you revive the trees they start to glow in pretty colors, making the world a prettier place.
Gameplay in general is a bit repetitive. You do the same actions over and over again to achieve you goals and you can easily become bored after some time. But I think that overall experience is wort it and some occasional glitches. If you take a look on the other games made by studio (Pathologic, Cargo - the quest for gravity) you'll notice that while their concept is strange, but interesting, they lack proper optimization and some inadequate things can occur. This is pretty normal for the independent studio consisting of eight people.
I am sure that majority of gamers will not like The Void. It is too strange and unconventional, features naked women and basically is an underworld farmer simulator. But you should at least take a look at that, just for curiosity's sake.

2012-01-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'll just write down a couple of things that happened recently.
First of all, we had this "vehicle project". Over Christmas break we had to create a series of concepts of a vehicle, that can drive on land, fly and or swim. That was the first project where we had to actually be creative. All previous tasks required us to find a reference and re-create it digitally or on paper, while this one allowed to think completely freely. It is a nice change from constant drawing of rel life objects, I think. To learn from observation is very important, but you also have to let your own ideas out once in a while. I hope we'll have this type of projects more often.

As for my own concepts, I just decided to create a vehicle with wheels that can change into vtol propellers. I experimented with shapes and forms of the silhouettes at first, and came up with a 1950's sports car with strange futuristic wheels. It looks a bit funny, as you can see from the picture.

Another interesting thing happened today. There was a lecture about flight training and simulation (thanks, Mike!). I've seen some footage of these simulations before, and always wondered why does the graphics always suck? I mean, flight simulators are being used mainly by the military, and they usually have cutting-edge technology. A lot of modern technology that we use every day, including computers and the internet were originally developed for military purposes. So what's with the awful graphics?
After speaking with the lecturer from the Royal Aeronautical Society, it all came clear. He admitted, that comparing to video games visuals of the simulations suck, but not because military lacks computational power or something like that. If you take a look at the games industry, you'll notice that graphics are constantly updated, because new products are being constantly developed. But, when military or civil aviation wants to by a simulator, they see it as a long-term investment. A simulation machine costs a lot, and it is used over the period of 5-20 years. On top of that, software and hardware is being updated only once in 5-10 years. No wonder why visual component of the simulation looks like something from the past.
Well, another mystery solved.

AC

2011-12-31T05:55:00.000-08:00

I've finished playing Assassin's Creed: Revelations a couple of games ago. To be honest, I am a big fan of these games.

One of my hobbies is tree climbing. I usually head to the forest and climb pines. The top of the tree is usually located at the height of a 5-6 story building - the view is magnificent, I adore the smell of resin and foliage is magnificent, and the overall climbing experience feels awesomely good. AC games allow me to climb tall buildings without a probability of me falling down and hurting myself in real life.
The other thing is the setting. It is impossible to visit middle age Jerusalem or renaissance Venice. But these games show you artist's rendition of them. During the final game I was astounded by Constantinople that Ubisoft's artists recreated - so many patterns, arabesques, beautiful garments, rugs, churches and mosques... It is truly art.
And the third thing is the plot. I really love how they intertwine real history with the story they try to tell. They introduced so many characters, most of whom were real people and made so many plot twists so that it is really interesting to follow. Unlike many games that need some kind of story as an excuse for shooting enemies, AC creates an interesting symbiosis of gameplay and story. I even feel like I am reading an interactive version of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" sometimes.
But this is not what I am writing this post for. There are so many different topics to discuss, that it is almost impossible to cover all of them in one sitting. What struck me after playing the last part is the concept of age.

There will be some major spoilers ahead, you have been warned.
Ubisoft have been "milking" Ezio Auditore for three games already. Frankly, I don't like this idea - in the last two games he is not young anymore, yet still moves with the speed and vigor of a man in his twenties. Still, there is something there.
Ezio first appears in AC2. You can see his birth, then his later teens, and big chunks of his life until he is about 40. In AC: Brotherhood, you play as Ezio during his forties. And, finally, in AC: Revelations Ezio is nearing 60. So, basically, you see a man's birth, and then follow him as he changes form an carefree young hooligan to a wise mentor of an Assassin brotherhood. Ubisoft managed to create a very detailed biography of a man indeed - you follow him on his journey across Mediterranean, and see this slow and gradual development of a person.

But a different thing made me think. The last game also shows you several memories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, protagonist of the very first game. Several first memories are from the time when he was in his twenties. Then he is shown as a forty-something. Next memory reveals an old man in his eighties. And the final memory is from the time where he is probably around ninety. This time there is no gradual change. We are shown only small outtakes from different parts of lives. First there is a young man at the peak of his physical abilities. Then there is a middle aged person. And finally, there is an old bent man who can only walk using his cane. And finally, he dies.
You know, I knew that people grow old and weak as their life unwinds. I knew, but I never understood the meaning of this. Behind every old person is a story of his life. He was young once, just as me now. And I too will become old sooner than I want, if I'll be lucky enough not to fall from a tree. Now I guess I finally understand that, all thanks to a game.

On game journalism.

2011-12-01T15:46:00.001-08:00

Every sphere of human activity attracts creative people – more or less. You can find works of poetry and literature about not so romantic and beautiful things like garbage disposal or taking care of terminally ill patients. People find inspiration in mundane or unattractive tasks and create original content of their own.

As with video games, everything is a bit simpler. Games are a product of collaboration of artists, programmers, writers and many other people. They are aimed to entertain and tell stories. It is quite easy to draw inspiration from them. And, as with movies and books, major part of the content based on games is reviews.
My first encounter with game reviews happened about six-seven years ago, when I stumbled upon Russian magazine «Игромания» ([Ygromania], means Game-mania). It consisted mostly of reviews, upcoming game previews, interviews, industry news and tutorials, and much more of other interesting info. It also had a couple of disks attached that contained video-reviews, gameplay videos, reports from game expos and other game-related info. As a teenager who was willing to play modern games, but couldn’t because of the old PC I was fascinated by the amount of information I could approach. This magazine was a fuel for my passion for games – even if I couldn’t play the game, I could understand the idea behind it, gameplay aspects, visual style, all thanks to the reviews and videos. I still keep those magazines and disks I bought years ago back at home.

Later on I started to get the content I wanted online. It lacked the awesome smell of printed pages, of course, but it was possible to get a broader view on the subject, and the information was fresher. Some authors were more biased than others, some were clearly paid to give a positive review (yes, IGN, I am looking at you). As well as in the magazines, you could see the different styles of writing. I noticed that some of the Russian reviewers liked to use literary devices, constructs and humour. I still remember a review of another EA Sports game that was written as an open letter to the developers. You’d never expect to find a specimen of epistolary genre in a magazine, right? Western reviewers mostly aimed to simply deliver information, which is not always a good choice. It makes text “dry”, and nobody wants to read a simple enumeration of facts. Everyone can play a game and list its advantages and weak sides. This is the main reason I don’t read and watch reviews nowadays. They lack creativity.

Those authors who become relatively popular today either produce a massive amount of content like some of the guys on IGN and Gamespot or have some distinctive traits that make them stand out, like Ben “Yahtzee” from Escapist magazine who tries to find the bad sides of the game, or JonTron on Youtube who makes really strange and random videos. There is a Russian reviewer who goes by nickname Madison. He is popular among non-gamer auditory as well as among games simply because his reviews rock. The guy somehow digs up the worst and unpopular games ever and makes hilarious “Let’s play” vids. The review is not about the game, it is about how you tell about it.
I made small game and anime reviews myself and posted them in my own blog in Russian. It was inspired mainly by the above mentioned magazine articles and my will to write something after contacting a work of art. I tried to maintain a balance between objectivity and my personal thoughts by giving my opinion on a certain aspect and trying to put myself in someone else’s shoes right away. My subscribers left mainly positive comments on the articles I wrote, but I got tired of this after a while. There is only a certain liberty in game journalism. You need to limit yourself and keep the text in the boundaries of a review pattern. Now I just write brief, a couple of paragraph long impressions of the game. It is still sufficient for me.

As for the game journalism at large, it doesn’t look it is going anywhere. There are noticeable individuals who make some awesome stuff people are willing to read and watch, but the majority of the articles are just a grey homogenous wall of text. Games are slowly taking a solid place among the cinematography and literature and more and more talented people are being drawn into the vortex of game worlds and stories. Maybe there is still a genius somewhere out there, who is oblivious of them, but he will turn our industry upside down in the future. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Game review

2011-11-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

Since we have to create a presentation of the game, I thought about writing a proper review here. The game I'm going to talk about today is not very well known in the west. As a rule, only a couple of games that are created in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe are heard of in the Western Europe and America. Yes, many of you may know Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and Il2. But what about The Void, King's Bounty and others? Yet there are many great and outstanding games you've never heard of because they lacked publicity of another Call of Duty.
To cut the story short, meet Space Rangers 2 - game with unique gameplay and original style. It is a sequel to 2002's Space Rangers. The sequel is better, of course, has a different plot, prettier graphics and a lot of improvements, but otherwise is completely the same as the first game. That's why I decided to tell about the second game directly.
Anyhow, Space Rangers 2 were first developed in Russian, and then translated to English. It was published in 2004 through 2006 in different countries and now has one official expansion (called Reboot) and one fan-made non-commercial expansion (called Revolution, exists only in Russian). When it comes to the genre, this is where the problems start. The game is so diverse and player has to do so many different things, that it is really hard to describe in one sentence. Well, let's try to do this gradually.
The game is set in the distant future, year 3300, when humanity has already developed space-flight and colonized other solar systems. They've met four other races and established relative peace and trade routes with them. Maloqs are big and angry warlike aliens, Faeyans are technologically advanced race, Gaalians are peaceful and smart Buddhist-like race, and Pelengs are sly overgrown frogs. The first game was set during the first Galactic war with a sixth race that attacked humans and other races. The war was eventually won by us and all five races enjoyed a long period of peace. It was all cool, as it happens in games like that, until the inhabitable space was invaded by robots called Dominators that killed everything in their sight. Government-funded military couldn't contain the threat and private rangers were hired. This is where you come in.
You are a ranger, that is authorized to fight invaders with anything possible. You have to fund this warfare by yourself, though. In the beginning of the game you choose a race, background (like former military or a pirate), and equipment you want. You start with a poorly equipped cosmic ship and almost no money. This is where the adventure begins.

You can land on an inhabited planet and talk with the government in order to buy star maps or get special missions that are well-paid. You can buy resources cheaply on one planet and sell them for a high price on other planet or station. You can become a space pirate and attack defenseless ships. You can become a bodyguard and accompany other ships. You can smash asteroids and sell minerals that fall out of it. Or, you can fight robot invaders and sell the tech that they drop. The whole game is a finely tuned system that works even without a player. Every NPC and planet has it's own attitude towards you ranging from hostile to most welcoming. Pirates attack trade and diplomacy ships, warrior-vessels defend star systems form invaders and pirates. Science stations develop new technology. Hell, you can even become ill. Impressive, huh?
The gameplay is turn-based when in the outer space. You see everything from top perspective. One day is one turn. In between turns you set up actions you want to perform - to fly somewhere, pick up a cargo, attack or talk to someone, land on a planet or station. Once on a planet you can talk to the government via a dialog box or buy resources and equipment. You need proper weapons to fight alien threat and engine to run away from them, right? But to do so, you need money.
Money is earned by the means already mentioned above - trading, selling equipment you've picked up or executing government assignments. The latter is the most interesting one. Assignments can be divided into three groups. First one is the least interesting - a delivery of an item of some sort to a planet in a different solar system before the due date. Second and third are much more cooler.
A planet might give you a planetary quest. You have to arrive on a planet before a due date and play a text-based quest. Yes, just like those text adventures from 90s. Screen is divided in several parts - main part for the description of what is happening, lower part for your options and smaller parts for inventory and related image as a design element. Quests itself are really different, from a game of checkers or ski-resort simulator to James Bond like infiltration missions and virtual reality games. To be honest, this is my favorite part of the game.
Also, if a planet was recently liberated from the robot invaders, you can get a planetary battle assignment. This is a primitive strategy where you get a base, a couple of plants and have to capture the bases of the robot invaders. Yep, you construct your own robots and send them to battle AI-controlled abominations. You can even control a separate robot as in FPS. Now you get it why I mentioned it is hard to tell what genre the game is?
Well, I hope I didn't confuse you. Space Rangers 2 is a great game, and for the most part still looks great despite all the years since almost all the animations are pre-rendered videos and everything else are 2d sprites. Music is also quite good. I even ransacked the source files to get it out and listen to it separately.
The only problem for you, dear native English speakers, might be the translation, The game has a lot of text dialogues, and in the original language it was filled with puns and jokes. As you probably understand, after the translation the text became more dry and less funny - a great loss, considering that the amusement that it provided added up to 20% of the overall entertainment and satisfaction from the game.
Otherwise, I recommend to take a look at the Rangers. I remember playing hours non-stop. Such a pity it wasn't very popular outside of Russian-speaking countries.

Personal gaming history

2011-11-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

When I look back in time and take an introspective look on my life, it seems clear to me, that I was meant to be a gamer. I always enjoyed fiction – every night before going to sleep, my parents were reading me a book and I deeply enjoyed these bed time stories. Books were like windows, through which I could see another world, different and magical. Heroes did things that I wished I could do – go on adventure, do magic, invent things. Movies and cartoons were just like books, but more vivid and visual, obviously. But they still were nothing more than a window in the imaginary world.
I played, invented and made up things, discovered the world around me. And I drew, a lot.
But then, my father started to bring me to work. First time was when I was probably four or five, I don’t remember exactly. And how could a little kid entertain himself in an office apart from disturbing everyone around you and drawing? Fooling around on computer, of course. Local computer geek installed some games like Aladdin, Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom and other lesser ones. I played, and I played a lot. Finally, I didn’t just looked through the glass of the window – I was an active participant of the story. I still remember the damned red-hot coal of Aladdin, blue walls of Wolfenstein, PC-speaker noises of Commander Keen. Later, when I started to attend school, I visited dad after the lessons in order to play games. Our family’s income was average, but it was hard for my parents to raise both me and my younger sister, so we didn’t have much money to spend on entertainment. The only way to play games for me was to visit my dad in his office and use his work computer. I also had an old SNES that my cousin gave me as a gift, but I only had a couple of games I was interested in. I had a plenty of chances to play on more modern consoles like PS and Xbox, but I didn’t really like them. The gameplay seemed to consist mainly of random button mashing and the thumbs hurt like hell afterwards. I even had blood under my nails once after a night of Tekken duels with friends of PS2. The controllers usually lacked the precision of mouse and keyboard and the games were less complicated and intelligent compared to PC titles. This is why I prefer PC even now.
Our first home PC appeared somewhere in 03-04. It wasn’t the best, since dad needed it for work primarily. Honestly, it was a nightmare for a gamer to have a computer like that – 18Gb of HDD space, GeForce 2 MX400, 512Mb of RAM, some kind of older Pentium 4… Still better than some museum artefacts I stumbled upon while working as a part-time system administrator though. I violated it in every way possible – overclocked the GPU and processor, stored most of the data on the remote storage like CDs and memory sticks, turned off unnecessary OS processes like explorer.exe in Windows. It ran most of the games on lowest settings but even so they resembled slideshows from time to time. When games started to take up several gigabytes of disk space, it became really difficult. It even came to the point when I couldn’t run the game simply because my GPU didn’t support newer shader version. Still, I played a lot – Starcraft, Half-Life series, Heroes of Might and Magic, Space Rangers, space-sims some MMORPGs, a lot of quests and some other games. I also had a privilege to play Russian and Ukrainian games in their original language. They make some awesome and original games, and unfortunately only several like Il2 or Stalker are known in the West.
I was also into the DnD-like games and we’ve spend a humongous amount of time together with friends, using nothing but pens, papers, a set of dices and our imagination. Actually, these are the first games I developed – you have to invent the world with all the creatures that there are, create a balanced system that will be the engine of the game, draw some concepts and maps. And voila – a game is ready to be uploaded to your brain. Dices are sold separately.
I spent the money I earned from various part-time jobs on a Wacom Tablet and a PC in 07-08. Finally I had a decent gaming rig. Oh yes, I played and played. Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Crysis, Mirror’s Edge, SC2, Turgor, Splinter Cell, HL2 Episodes, Portal, Team Fortress, Fallout 3 and NV – all these and many other glorious and awesome games were now available to me.
I also put my new tablet in use. I now understand much more about colour, lighting and painting because of it. I also learned how to model. I spent a lot of time doing some small modifications and putting custom content in Valve’s Source Engine based games (Half-Life 2, Episodes), played with CryEngine and Unreal. I also took up programming as an extra-curricular activity, but didn’t achieve much. At least I became a fairly good illustrator and finally became closer to the creation of the stories others can indulge in.

So, it looks like my traits combined with the technology available today make me who I am – a guy who wants to create worlds. I wrote short stories and drew a lot of conceptual art. I still do. But now I simply use computers as the means of achieving this. I hope I’ll succeed. If not – well, I can always go to Brazil and become a shepherd. Or become a professional masseur. Whatever will feel suitable.

History of Video Games - 00's

2011-11-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Oh my, I’ve fallen behind on my blog entries. Well, okay, we’ll do it live!
Finally, we have arrived to the modern times with decent graphics and cool visual effects. I do not complain about the older games, no, but nevertheless I am glad that you can distinguish NPC from a table now. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo release their next gen (and not so next gen) consoles, and PC slowly becomes an inseparable part of an average household. Portable gaming that was born in the nineties mainly by Nintendo flourished with the appearance of several other handheld consoles and mobile platforms such as cell phones and tablet PCs closer to the end of the decade.
Technological advancement is really noticeable by comparing just some titles. For example, games that were released in 2000 – Deus Ex, The Sims, Diablo II, Shogun: Total War. All of them have successors (or, in the case of Diablo, going to have really soon) that are quite similar, if you compare the gameplay, but look drastically different because of the graphics. Come on, if you try to compare the looks of Deus Ex and Half-Life 2, you’ll notice how far the technology went in four years.

In just ten years the computational power of entertainment systems multiplied several times. From 00 to 08 we could see double increase in performance every two years. And if the technological growth in the previous years was mainly due to the discoveries and improvements in other areas of technology, the phenomena of the last decade happened mainly due to the entertainment. A vicious circle – people want better graphics, so they spend more money on better tech, and because of that a newer technology is being created, only to be consumed again. This growth slowed down in the 08^th, when the Economic Crisis hit us hard. Crysis, a major milestone in video game graphics still looks quite good despite being released four years ago. Hell, it even was released with the graphic settings that were not available for the majority of gamers, because DirectX 10 wasn’t yet common then.
But there is also another reason for the halt in development of the better looking games. It is called consoles. They are de-facto inferior to PCs when you compare the computational power of VGA even at the moment of release. Also, game developers try to release cross-platform games, since there are more console gamers and, well, they don’t work for free and want to earn money too. And since the last generation of consoles was released in 2005 and only slightly improved versions were released then, it is only natural that developers have to create less advanced games so that they can be launched. Yes, if the game is initially cross-platform, then two different versions are usually created. But more often the game is just being ported without any visual enhancements, especially if the title was originally developed for the consoles. That’s sad, but at least I don’t have to buy a new PC every two years.
From the gameplay point of view, a lot has changed since the previous decade. The genre borders faded. Almost every shooter or first-person-something now has the mini-map from strategies and objective list from RPGs. Hybrids like FPS+RPG (Mass Effect, Fallout series) became very popular. Platformers gained one additional dimension in Assassins Creed and Mirror’s Edge. RPG’s met the Internet and their love child is MMORPG’s. Every game that is more complex than a mobile phone casual no-brainer thing has the traits of two or more genres. How cool is that?
All in all we live in a very interesting time. Sometimes it seems like everything is already achieved, but then games like Portal and Braid prove us wrong. What will happen in the next decade? For one thing I know is that it is going to be interesting.

History of Video Games - 80-90's

2011-11-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are again, continuing our voyage through time where we take a look at the development of video games. Eighties is one of the most interesting chunks of time. Success of some games, like Space Invaders, encouraged companies to invest in the new gaming industry. By the beginning of the decade, you can find video game arcade machines pretty much in every developed country. Electronic entertainment became a part of everyday life - you could see arcade machines almost as often as we can see ATMs now. Must have been quite cool.
This fast growth gave birth to some interesting games like, for example, Asteroids, released in 1979 as a cabinet and 1981 for Atari 2600, or Pac Man, released in 1980. These and some other games are referred to as “classics”.
Another cool game that draws attention is Tetris. The most interesting thing about the game is that American, who got this game from its creator, Alexei Pajitnov, technically didn’t have the right to sell it to publishers in USA and Japan. Alexei worked in an Academy of Science in Moscow, and distribution rights of all the software that was created in it belonged to Academy. They didn’t allow the distribution of Tetris outside of USSR, but it was already too late – both Japanese and Americans had the copy of the game. Probably, the world is lucky that this happened because Tetris is one of the most played games in the history.
Eighties are also known for the consoles of that period. One of the coolest was Nintendo Entertainment System, with games like Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy and many others. Nintendo still milks these titles, and most likely will continue to do so. At least it is good to know where does it all come from.

NES’s successor, SNES maybe wasn’t the greatest console of them all, but it is rings some bells in my memory, because it was the only console I ever owned. I did played games on other consoles, but I didn’t have any other. I’ll tell you more in another post.

The Golden Age of Video games, how it is often called, ended in mid-80’s. It set a lot of standards for the industry, that are used even now. Most of the genres were created – adventure, platformer, RPGs, strategies, racing games and primitive shooters. Most of the genres are different now thanks to technological advancements, but some, like visual novels and platformers are principally the same.

90’s were much more interesting, mainly because of the PCs. Yes, some awesome computers were created and used for gaming in the previous decade, like ZX Spectrum, but only in the nineties PC gaming started to flourish. Sure, consoles like Play Station were developed, but who cares? Definitely not me.

Oh yeah, I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, Quake, Starcraft, C&C and many other games. I was born too late to experience the dawn of console gaming, but I got here just in time to witness and become a part of the rise of PC games.
The industry back in the 90s finally started to resemble what it looks like now. You still could create a successful game development studio with just a couple of friends (like Id Software did, for example) in the beginning of the decade, but you had to invest millions in the end (like Gabe Newell and others did to create Valve). Oh yes, twenty years ago was exactly the time where it finally got interesting.

Alright, I think it is enough. We’ll continue our voyage in the next post.

History of Video Games - 50-70's

2011-11-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

Today, our mandatory task is to write a post about a birth of what we know now as video games. Awesome, I always liked history - no need to do repetitive calculations, just remember some facts and try to follow the logic of people who took part in those events. Also, you can think of yourself as of some kind of surgeon, who dissects the fabric of time and scoops out the tumors of events using nothing but a scalpel of books and web-resources and forceps of pencil and keyboards. Neat.
Well, lets get back to the topic.
It is a well known fact, that computers were created for the reasons that are far away from entertainment. The first concepts of a machine that could perform calculations appeared even before the XX century. But it was the WWII that pushed the calculation machines out of the womb of a scientists mind. Such a shame that a lot of ground-breaking technological advancements were created for the military, and only later adapted for peaceful purposes. But I am off-topic again.
Human beings love games. We embedded elements of play almost in every aspect of our life. So it is no wonder, that some men had an idea of using a then-enormous calculation power of the machines in order to have fun. There is a debate about which game was the first. Some sources claim that it was an analogue circuitry missile simulation game made in 1947. Others think that MIT's "Bouncing Ball" developed in 1950 as it was a first simulation programme that used only a computer and the screen. But personally, I think that 1951 is more suitable to be called a year of birth of computer games, with the appearance of Nimrod (a computer specifically designed to play Nim) and Checkers (game for Pilot Ace computer).

By the end of 50ss there weren't so many games to play yet. They still tried to simulate real games, like Tic-Tac-Toe and Tennis (grandfather of Pong). 60ss, however, brought some changes. First arcades and home entertainment systems start to appear. Engineers experiment with game mechanics and controllers. For example, a light gun is created. But it was only until 1972 when the fist console to ever show up on the market appears - Magnavox Odyssey (previously known as the Brown Box).

70ss probably marks the beginning of the gaming industry. First coin-operated arcade machine was developed in Stanford University, and after that the idea becomes popular. More and more gaming machines were being developed (introducing legendary games like Pong and Space Invaders) until it reaches critical mass. Video game arcade salons are being opened. Many big game development and publishing companies are being established (like Atari) and some companies that already existed start to re-purpose themselves (like Sega).

Things look great from this time on, and they will continue to be even grater. Technology is rushing forward, allowing more sophisticated games to appear. But we'll speak about this next time, in the next post about the 80's.

First Post

2011-10-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, hello there. My name is Nikita Olhovskis, and I am a first year student of Game Art and Design course at De Montfort University, Leicester. I came here from Riga, Latvia. For those of you, who are not very good at geography, Latvia is a relatively small country, one of the Baltic States in Eastern Europe. Estonia and Lithuania are the neighbors. Ethnically I am 1/4th Russian and 3/4ths Ukrainian. My native language is Russian, so don't be surprised if you see some weird Engrish in my posts.
I chose this particular course for several reasons. Yes, I am fascinated with games. Modern video games, especially AAA titles are not pure gameplay today - there must be a consistent, logical and detailed world, even in the small online games. The developers create another universe, with it's own story, characters, emotions. Games start to make people feel not only the joy of shooting a big gun or destroying stuff, but also make them empathize with the heroes of the story, make them joyful or sad. Games now can become a better tool for telling people emotionally filled story, than the movies or books just because of one thing - the viewer is not a passive spectator anymore - he is a part of the story.
I guess I won't survive long enough in the competitive business of game development for long, will I?
Nevertheless, there were different fields of knowledge, I wanted to become a part of. I considered becoming a doctor, a journalist, a neurobiologyst. My interests are not limited to games - I also like physics, neuroscience, cooking, massage, performance arts and a lot of other stuff. Come on, I can even speak five languages. The universities I looked at are scattered across the globe. But I chose this course. Why? Mainly, because it offered a realistic approach to the learning process and it is relevant to my interests. Everything, that I will learn here is based on a real experience gained while working in the field. At least I hope so.
My dream job is an Artists position at Valve Software. I really like what they do, but, unfortunately, they are located in the US, so it will be a problem to move there. Even so, if I had an opportunity to get there, this job demands a lot of skill from me - I will have to produce a lot of quality concept art, usually in team. I need to be familiar with a lot of different 2D and 3D software. The vacancy page also mentions a lot about communication skills.
Well, as I don't really have problems with the latter, but the drawing and sculpting skills should be improved. Some work I do now is good, but I need to grow as an artist and sculptor before I can even dream to approach the job like the one I mentioned here. Luckily, the Game Art and Design course will help me to develop my skills. Well, if I will not be too lazy. But this is the path I chose to follow. Might as well try not to procrastinate too much.
All right, I hope I didn't make you yawn, if you are still reading this. Thank you for your time.

P.S.: I have a livejournal blog (tanagashi.livejournal.com), in Russian, if anyone is interested. There is also a deviantart page with some of my works (tanagashi.deviantart.com). Cheers.