Left-Handed Game Design.

Truth in Game Design on Gamasutra

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:20:00 +0000

I have been working on an article called Truth in Game Design, and it was featured today on Gamasutra. I'd love to hear what you think.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4263/truth_in_game_design.php

-Scott

XBLA Games Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:10:00 +0000

I don't often discuss my work projects here, but I thought I'd pass along a few links to some of the games I'm working on that have been recently announced.

Scrap Metal
Scrap Metal is an awesome top-down combat/racing game I produced in partnership with Slick Entertainment (N+ guys). I just returned from a trip to Las Vegas where I represented the game at CES.

Video Games Scrap Metal Heavy Metal Trailer HD

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Links:
Game Website: http://www.scrapmetalgame.com/
Kotaku: Scrap Metal Hands-On: Calling All Twisted Metal Fans

Lazy Raiders
Lazy Raiders is a Action Puzzler made in partnership with Sarbakan Game Studios. The game has an innovative mechanic where the player rotates and flips the world in order to help the main character navigate towards hidden treasures. It is in someways reminiscent of my IGF student showcase game, Ballistic, so it was fun to take what I learned from that project and help Sarbakan make a polished and fun title for XBLA.

Video Games Lazy Raiders Debut Gameplay Trailer HD

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Links:
Game Website: http://www.lazyraiders.com/

Music of The Beggar by Jack de Quidt

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:59:00 +0000

After releasing The Beggar, I was floored by a piece of mail I received from a talented musician and avid game player named Jack de Quidt. Jack was inspired enough by the game to author some alternate music, and I think it's fantastic.

When I put the original music together for The Beggar, I made a decision to keep the first half of the game devoid of music, so as to offer a contrast to the up-beat music that emanates from the castle area (representative of the difference in wealth core to the game's theme). While I am happy with the current implementation given my limited musical background, Jack's version shows what is possible when you let a trained ear interpret a mood. If you have any need for original music in your indie project, I would highly recommend contacting Jack at jack.dequidt+AT+googlemail.com or on twitter at twitter.com/jackdequidt!

For your listening pleasure, I have made Jack's version, as well as the "Castle Theme" that can be found in the game, available for download:

Download: Jack De Quidt - "The Beggar"

Download: Scott Brodie - "Castle Theme"

The Beggar Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:23:00 +0000

I am humbled by the positive response to The Beggar, which was released this past week. It's great to see that players and reviewers alike are discussing the themes, and sharing their experiences playing. Here are a few of my favorite write-ups. I highly recommend checking out the comment sections of each as well:

Jay Is Games (Kyle E. Moore) - http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/07/the_beggar.php

IndieGames.com/blog (Michael Rose) - http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/07/browser_game_pick_the_beggar_s.html

Fly Trap Games (Edwin) - http://www.flytrapgames.com/2009/07/30/political-sim-portrays-life-on-the-streets/

Rock Paper Shotgun (Alec Meer) - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/07/31/gaming-for-change-the-beggar/

I'd also like to take a moment to thank a few people who gave me critical inspiration and feedback while developing The Beggar. Thank you to Daniel Cook, J Epps, Jason Rohrer, Brandon Furtwangler, Brian Murphy, and my lovely wife/seagull artist, Kate :). I don't know if I could have pushed through and finished without your support.

The Beggar Released

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:36:00 +0000

I've just released my new game The Beggar. While I have a lot to say about the game and what it is exploring, I'd like the game to speak for itself for now. I hope you enjoy it and take some time to consider what your choices have meant. (The Shockwave plugin can be a pain, so if you are having trouble simply grab the download version)

I'd absolutely love to hear your comments about your experience playing, and I've tried to make it as easy as possible for you to do that. You can provide feedback directly on the game's comment page, use the "Post Stats to Twitter" function available on the end game screen, send a message to @brodiegames on twitter, or if all else fails, just drop me a note at scott+AT+brodiegames+DOT+com.

UPDATE: new version (0.91) with some minor tweaks and bug fixes now available.

Preview: The Beggar

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:24:00 +0000

I've been working diligently on my weekends on a new web/downloadable game. By its form and goals you might call it indie, casual, or even "art game." I don't know if those labels are appropriate, but I'm excited to finally be able to share it with you soon nonetheless. I'm calling it The Beggar, and I'll be releasing it free sometime next month. More details coming soon.

Emotion Study #1: Trust

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:56:00 +0000

Why trust for my first study? The simple answer is that I've had the chance to think a lot about how trust can be explored in games because it is a central part of the play of Aegis Wing, my first title released on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Definition
Trust: a. the trait of believing in the honesty and reliability of others; "the experience destroyed his trust and personal dignity" b. reliance: certainty based on past experience; "he wrote the paper with considerable reliance on the work of other scientists"; "he put more trust in his own two legs than in the gun"

What is it?
I would describe trust as a feeling of confidence or certainty attributed to something else. It is most often expressed most intensely in multiplayer games, where some aspect of the game requires teamwork or reliance on another agent.

How is it generated?
Trust & mistrust are obviously linked, and most trust mechanics ask a player to interpret to what degree they have confidence in something else, and why that is.

Trust Mechanics

Mechanic #1: Separate management and usage of a resource - In Aegis Wing players were forced to give up the management of their ship movement in order to gain added attack power by choosing to attach to another player's ship. The decision to attach asks the player to make a vote of confidence in the other player's ability to manage their ship movement. The mechanic does not need to involve multiple players, however the meaning generated from something like this will resonate more when a human relationship is layered on top of it.

Mechanic #2: Hide or partially expose game information - Many mechanics that have hidden information ask players to make a vote of confidence in their own understanding of the current game state. The classic game of memory is a simple example, where the player makes a decision based upon confidence in their own memory to find a matching card. A more resonant example is Poker, where players must decide how much they trust the other player's betting patterns and tells.

Resonance Knobs
Here are some useful ways these types of mechanics can be adjusted to resonate more with the average player.

Make both the manager and user of the resource players. Human relationship decisions almost always resonate more. (my guess is this is a knob that will persist across most emotions)
Repeat the choice cycle often so that the player has a long history to evaluate when making a vote of confidence.
Offer players the ability to shake other's confidence in them by offering incentives to them to betray. By offering this option, when players do not take advantage of it, it can build a stronger trust bond.

What other mechanics can generate trust? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Emotion Study Series: Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:05:00 +0000

At nearly every game conference I've attended, there is some speaker who invariably makes a plea to designers to focus on evoking new emotions in their games. Whether as a response to the lack of meaning in the speaker's recent gameplay experiences, or in an effort to justify that game design is an artform, emotion is held up as the holy grail that will lift us out of our nerd shackles and bring us to the game design promised land. I think they are on to something, however I find that I never walk away from these conferences with a concrete set of tools that will help me execute on creating emotional experiences in my own games. I've done a lot of thinking on the subject recently, and I'd like to change that.

In this and subsequent articles I will attempt to outline specific ways unique emotions can be evoked through studies of individual emotions and the mechanics that evoke them. My hope is that each article will provide some concrete mechanics that can be used as tools to help designers craft player experiences more intentionally. My first article on Trust can be found below. But first I'd like to take a brief detour to explain conceptually how I believe game mechanics lead to emotional responses in players.

Emotion through Meaning

As described in Rules of Play by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen, through play, meaning can be evoked when a player interprets the feedback (stimulus) they receive as the result of a game action.

That meaning manifests in the player as a feeling we typically refer to as an emotion. For our purposes, it's helpful to think of emotion as the shade and intensity to which the meaning created through play resonates with the player. Shade implies what a player is feeling, and the intensity defines the degree to which that emotion is felt. Emotional resonance is a topic for a post of its own, but there are a variety of factors which affect how much an emotion resonates (context, awareness, etc.). The definition isn't perfect (and is a little too clinical for my taste), but it helps frame some of the general variables we can use when designing mechanics to generate specific meaning.

We can see then that the Game Designer has a wedge to deliver emotional responses by generating meaning through designed mechanics (action/response sets). If the Game Designer can understand how the play the player experiences will be interpreted, then it is possible to understand what type of emotions will be evoked. In practice most meaningful play has a range of interpretations, which as a designer is a desirable outcome, as each emotional experience will belong uniquely to the player.

I hope that through studying mechanics and their interpretations, we can develop a set of concrete tools that can be repurposed to craft unique experiences for players. My first attempt linked below tackles some mechanics that can explore the trust emotion.

Emotion Study #1: Trust

Ogre Battle on Virtual Console

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:27:00 +0000

I wouldn't normally point you away from Xbox LIVE Arcade, but I found a good reason to turn on your Wii again: Ogre Battle on Virtual Console. As the article points out it's pretty cheap too, given how hard it is to find a real copy.

Project Horseshoe 2008 Report: Multiplayer Game Atoms

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:03:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of being invited to Project Horseshoe this year, and I'm finally able to share what the other designers and I worked on over this amazing weekend in Texas. My workgroup's report is now up on the Horseshoe website, and it deals with making game grammar work with Multiplayer game scenarios.

Link: http://www.projecthorseshoe.com/ph08/ph08r5.htm

I think there is some great stuff in there thanks to the brilliant people I was paired up with, and I'm definitely curious to hear any thoughts you might have on our findings. The other workgroups also did some great work, so I would suggest you check them all out here.

Social Design Principles of Aegis Wing

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Raph Koster posted an article recently outlining a number of tactics designers can use to improve the social aspects of their games and virtual worlds. This sent me off on a path thinking about the social design of Aegis Wing, and which of these tactics we unconsciously employed to create the (IMO) pretty successful social experience that occurs during 4-player co-op multiplayer.

When we set out to design Aegis Wing, there was a very clear vision that everyone on the team quickly rallied behind -- we wanted to find a game that would connect people in a positive way, taking advantage of the unique strengths of Xbox LIVE. I think to start, having a clear vision of the aesthetic experience we wanted the player to have helped us identify the set of tactics we were going to employ. From Raph's list, I see a few that we identified right a way as core to our social model:

Mechanics where users do things to each other or with each other. Obviously, the attach system in Aegis Wing was always at the core of the design. Asking the player to make a physical connection with the other player, as well as asking them to sacrifice mobility for added firing power adds a very compelling system of trust to explore with other players. These bonds that players make in game were popular, and my only regret is that we didn't exploit this further with a more robust set of rules for connection.

Newbie helper, greeter, and mentoring programs. Despite Aegis Wing's hardcore shooter exterior, the game is actually well balanced to support groups of players with differing skill levels. For example, I've heard stories of young children attaching to their parent's ships, allowing Dad to drive while little Johnny cleared the way by turreting. I also found it fascinating to see many of the top leaderboard players offering to provide "escorts" through the insane mode for newbies. The collaborative nature of the game really encourages this behavior, and it is the primary reason I feel co-op is the way to go if you are looking to broaden the appeal of your title.

Player-voted awards for roleplaying, helpfulness, etc. I think our achievements were really well designed overall, and they incent players to test out the more team-oriented behaviors. I think having some way for players to display how helpful they are (maybe some sort of reputation statistic based upon how often they "drive" for other players?) would have punched this up a bit, but having these outside rewards helped build a community culture around cooperation.

-

Most interesting to me is evaluating what tactics from the list we didn't use, and how we could have used them to improve upon the social experience further.

Design spaces intended for public and private events and Allow users to mark off spaces as theirs. The Xbox.com forums for Aegis Wing were surprisingly active, and what we found was that players were using it to compensate for the fact that the game itself did not have very good tools for just meeting up or scheduling group play sessions. I think providing players with easier messaging and scheduling tools, along with more robust lobbies may have made the Aegis Wing social experience stickier.

Quests to take you to vistas, quiet places, and badges for exploration and lay out traffic patterns with crossroads rather than one-way flow. Early on Matt Monson advocated for a more non-linear mission structure. The thought was it would increase replayability, and provide a more clear sense of space, as players would only be matched up with other players who were looking to complete the same mission. We had to remove this structure due to the amount of game levels our short schedule could support, but I think having a more open mission structure would have allowed for more crossroads to emerge that would have better encouraged this type of meta-social interaction.

Social minigames. I see a lot of ways this tactic could have made the lobby waits more bearable. Some sort of preparatory choice that could be decided upon while waiting for the next level to start would have made hanging out in the lobby more of a game activity versus a stop-gate before the "real" game actually began.

Permit not just group identity, but belonging to multiple groups. Another high level goal for Aegis Wing was to make the player feel like they were a part of their very own Voltron team. I do think this happens moment-to-moment, but the game does not provide any clear sense of group identity. I think something like a group leaderboard where teams could expose their combined scores would have been great fun, and would have encouraged replayability as well. We definitely missed the boat by not giving players a mechanism in the game that recognized group accomplishments specifically.

-

I think article is a great read for any designer working on a multiplayer mode. I really enjoyed contemplating the value of this list -- from my experience using some or all of these tactics is vital if you want to create a social atmosphere around your game.

Matsuno Article

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:20:00 +0000

GameSetWatch has a great article up outlining the career thus far of Yasumi Matsuno. I'm a huge fan of his work (Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story), so it's good to see that he is finally getting some much deserved press. The article gives a nice recounting of his path through the industry. Go read it and then seek out any games he's made asap.

(Also interesting to note from the article is that he is not with SquareEnix anymore. I'll have to dig around and find out if he is just taking a break or working elsewhere...)

[Update: It looks like Yasumi has either joined or consulted for Platinum Game's MadWorld. Wasn't really looking forward to this one, but it will be interesting to see how his magic works on a brand new genre. Link: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172821]

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Brodie) — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 03:28:00 +0000

[The following is an early article I wrote regarding Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, one of the more influential and memorable titles of my childhood. The post doesn't quite fit on this blog anymore, but I wanted to keep it shared here for those interested.]

When the question, "What is your favorite game of all time?" is asked to me, I will usually elicit one of the two following responses:

If I'm in a hurry or don't feel like explaining myself: "Quake Series, Final Fantasy 7, NBA Street Vol. 2, or Super Mario Bros."

If I'm speaking to someone who I think might be a more avid gamer: "Without a doubt, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen for SNES."

I have these two separate responses because the 2nd (true) response always invariably must follow with an explanation. The game only shipped a total of (had to look this one up) 25,000 copies in the United States, and I was only exposed to it because the local video rental store had a copy of it. I believe I rented it a total of 6 times, before finding the ROM later. I found a copy once in a Meijer and it was retailing for around $68 dollars due to the cart's rarity, but no amount of kicking and screaming would convince mom that this was a necessary purchase. I haven't looked in a while, but I'm sure you won't find a real copy on ebay for less than that.

The reason I bring this up is that so few have played this amazing game. To me it ranks above all others for reasons I will enumerate shortly, and it is a travesty that many gamers haven't had the opportunity to play it. I won't bore you with a ton of back-story, but if you are interested in learning more about the game (which, in order to be my friend, you must), check out some older reviews at the various game sites (I would recommend one, but none of them do the game justice).

What I'm about to set out to do is explain why this game is deserving of the title of my "favorite game of all time", and why it was ahead of its time in terms of gameplay concepts. If this inspires any of you to go out and give it a try, then all of this typing was worth it. You can find it easily now for the PS1 (they did a remake port, although there are problems with it that I won't go into), or just search for the ROM online (piracy is bad, however).

Gameplay

Ogre Battle's one sentence description would read something like this: "Lead, build and recruit a massive army of characters to do battle in a non-linear, unique blend of turn-based RPG and Real-Time-Strategy gameplay." After creating a leader for your army, you set out in a series of 30 or so maps organized into a non-linear campaign with 13 possible endings. Each is littered with cities to liberate, items to find, and an enemy castle that the player must reach to defeat boss general inside. The game is best described as a_highly_modified Early nineties Turn-Based RPG. You recruit a huge cast of characters over the course of the storyline. Unlike, say, a Final Fantasy title, you can acquire something like 100 characters for your army. A typical level starts you at your home base, and asks you to deploy your troops. Each unit has a movement type, which can be affected by the terrain. You direct a unit's movement using a cursor and planting a destination. Then the game takes over and the units start to move over time (ding ding, the real time portion). When an enemy and friendly unit get near enough to each other, they will initiate combat, stop all other unit movements, and move to a separate battle screen. These battles are automated turn based battles that the player may interrupt to flee, change attack strategy, or cast huge magic attacks via "Tarot Cards". Think Summons in FF.

The only flaw of the game is that the maps are quite large, and the game does not allow you to save in the middle of a battle. Thus, you were forced to play about hour long sessions without the ability to save. Playing the game on an emulator with a save state ability fixes this flaw.

Innovations ahead of its time

The primary reason I would recommend the game to other designers is to experience the way the developers (The now defunct Quest, published by Atlus through Enix) were able to create such a deep character development system with such a simple set of variables.

Some characters are non essential, but many are special NPC's who can interact with other characters in the game, but are really just hybrid characters created from various combinations of all the other abilities in the game (a rough estimate would be about 50 unique characters). The brilliance behind the game is the emergent way in which you can mix and match your characters through the organization screen, and the way in which other characters will affect the development of any others in the army.

The character class has a selection of 6 stats that affect how each character deals and takes damage in battle, one equipment slot that allows for additional boosts from items found around the map and at cities, an alignment stat (more on this in a sec), a cost (use for one battle integer) and two attacks. The two attacks represent what attack the character will do when placed in the front or back of a formation. The player can place a character in a grid of 2x3, with the exception that larger characters like dragons or gryphons take up multiple slots within the formation. As characters fight in battles, they gain experience and earn the ability to change their class (changes their attack types and future available classes). This simple set of properties per character ends up offering the player an exponential amount of choices that makes for an incredibly deep and rewarding game experience.

The previously mentioned alignment statistic is where the game was ahead of its time. Where games like Black and White, Fable, and KOTOR are being praised now for their ability to allow players to develop characters towards good or evil, Ogre Battle calculates good or evil for each character in both the enemy’s army and yours! This change happens battle to battle and over the course of the game, affecting how characters interact with NPC’s and enemy characters during encounters, what classes the character can eventually become, and what types of units a character can recruit into the army. It really is amazing to see how these simple lists of stats interact to create a unique cast of characters each time you play the game.

In Closure

It seems like I'll never be able to avoid long posts, but I feel this game deserves to have its brilliance listed out for those who may have never experienced it. The game definitely has a few flaws: as mentioned, it does not allow you to save very often, which can be frustrating especially considering there are a plenty of random elements to the gameplay. Also, the game has a fairly high learning curve, and to fully appreciate the game you should probably play through it more than once.

But despite Ogre Battle's flaws, it does an important thing right -- it captured my imagination and created an experience that had a profound effect on me as a player. It taught me an early lesson that games are most powerful when they can present a compelling possibility space for the player to explore.