Jimmy Chattin - I make better games.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

5 Chris Totten - How to Zombie

Necroludology: Discovering How to Make Zombies Scary Again

Zombies are a symptom of lazy game creation?
Too cliche?

Game Zombies Fail At:
·         first enemy fought in a horror game
o   They are horror components, thus do not guarantee a horror game
o   They are "Goombas" of games - easy cannon fodder
·         Power fantasies
o   masculine stress reliever to the point of silliness

Principles of a Zombie
·         Zombie as:
o   a personal antagonist
o   a natural disaster
o   a definer of space
o   a time limit
o   an effect on mental health

History of Zombies
·         Voodoo Zombies
o   Sorcerer will curse person to die, then take buried body as a slave without a soul
·         The word "Zombie"
o   Walking corpse creature - see “revenants” below
o   Spirit of a dead person
o   Ghosts and walking corpses
·         Ancient times
o   Goddess Ishtar threatens to have the dead consume the living
o   Revelations has the dead rise and terrify the living
·         Revenants
o   Common N. European legends
o   Corpse reanimated by spirits or by body's own will
o   Come back often for revenge or terror on the living
·         Draugr
o   Found in Scandinavian sagas
o   Guard barrows, often their own graves, filled with treasure
o   Can kill people and turn them into draugrs
o   Much like the modern zombie infection
·         Ghul or Ghoul
o   Middle Eastern legend
o   Sucks blood
o   Shape shifts into who they most recently ate
·         Jiang shi
o   Sleeps in coffins
o   Drains life force
o   Hops after victims
o   Greatly resembles vampires

Evolution
·         Frankenstein - science created revenant
·         Herber West-Reanimator - hoard of animalistic zombies
·         I Am Legend - viral outbreak of blood-sucking vampires
·         Night of the Living Dead - establishing walking corpses that eat humans to create more zombies

Personal Antagonist
·         e.g. The Walking Dead
o   Loved ones are what change
o   A progressive turning of a main character
·         e.g. The Keeper's Diary
o   Findable journals
o   Audience fills in the blanks
All problems are too big.  It is easy to imagine a zombie in the street, not a financial meltdown.
Watching a person turn without ever seeing them as the evil they become.

Natural Disaster
·         Dispel myths about zombie apocalypse
o   Don't be a hero - protagonists are not more powerful than zombies
o   Zombies aren't evil - no room for negotiation or rational thought; the Freudian ID
·         "A Weather System"
o   Zombie herds move as a system (The Walking Dead; World War Z)

Definers of Space
·         The shrinking fortress
o   zombies boarder a space
o   invasion reduces the space
o   Defining where the hero can go
o   *narrow space
§  confined, unable to move, choke points
o   **intimate space
§  can reach where things are by inherent abilities
o   prospect space
§  wide open space of exposer, lack of cover
·         * Farmhouses are stocked and homely.  But vulnerable with zombies outside.
·         ** Malls are wide with all stores open.  Invasion turns familiar shops into a perversion of spaces.
Let them become alternative architecture.
Let them herd the player into where you wish them to go.

Time Limit
§  Time is drama
§  Moaning will cause a domino moaning effect, with each zombie going toward the last moan
o   closer and closer the distance shrinks the longer the effect continues
§  Sound as a definer of how much time before being overwhelmed

Mental Health
§  Abjection
o   something that is normally appropriate, but is now perverse
o   a dead body moving around
o   a once living body not moving and cold
o   a loved one zombified to eat you alive

§  Reaction to Apocalypse
o   uselessness
o   crazy
o   imitation of zombie
o   despair
               
Conclusion
Understand the parts of being a zombie for the best zombie possible!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

4 Chris Pruett - What Makes Horror

Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog: Key Ingredients of Successful Horror Games

Theory: Horror games elicit emotion
·         Look at mechanics that can be used elsewhere to make emotion other than fear.
·         What makes horror games scary?

Common Traits of Scare
·         Vulnerable protagonist
o   Could be ordinary or inferior
o   Antagonists make short work of characters
o   Characters feel "real"
·         Information does not make sense
o   Clues surround imagination space
§  Clues come through narrative
o   Misinformation leads to twists in plot
o   Culture shock leads to preconceived notions of how things work that don't work
·         Level Design
o   Pattern of decent
§  Once dropping down, can't return (e.g. holes)
o   Recursion - passing through the same place, but the place changes through time
§  Recursion is not used much in Western games (more linear)
·         Cinematography / sound design
o   Control how the player sees the world
§  Cameras build tension and force shock
§  See "Fatal Frame 2"
o   Sounds build tension and leaves clues to the world
§  Sound may be more important than the visuals (see "Silent Hill" "Dead Sapce")
·         Difficulty
o   Common to all horror games
o   Running out of consumables (ammo, health, saves)

UBER TRAIT: LOSS OF CONTROL
·         A horror game is scary if it makes you feel you are not in control
·         Instill no confidence to resolve the current situation
o   Vulnerable protagonists - you can't go in and protect the character
o   Confusion - you don't feel grounded in a concrete set of rules
o   Descent - removing you from a place that is safe; narrowing of options
o   Recursion - understanding a place then having that place change removes confidence
o   Cinema - no single character is known as the protagonists until the end
§  e.g. Alien
o   Difficulty - unique to games
§  Makes or breaks a good horror games
·         The body reacts to sex and aggression identically
·         Stimulus - perception:
o   To stimulus to general autonomic arousal to particular emotion experienced to interpretation
o   To context to particular emotion experienced to interpretation
·         A hard game gives stimulus to increase personal physical state w/o context
§  Scary monsters, places, etc. can be mislabeled as fear because of difficulty

GAMES THAT FAIL
·         Dead Space
-      not a lot of descent and recursion
-      protagonist is a "bad ass"
-      difficulty is not inherent
+     sound and cinema

·         Alan Wake
-      strong protagonist (the gun)
-      not put under pressure
+     lots of negative space

·         Dream 2
-      only one spot to go to
-      no physical elevation change
-      flat journey
-      confusing story for being a confusing story
-      lack of clues forming a negative space
-      fights are not hard

·         Clocktower 3
-      character cannot easily die
-      very little difficulty
-      bosses have nothing to do with the game
-      story is nonsensical
+     vulnerable protagonist
+     plenty of recursion

·         Call of Cthulhu
-      core mechanics are broken
-      cannot select things due to camera
+     early game is hard

SUPER TERRIBLE
·         X-Files
-      squandered license
-      did not tie together aspects of copied horror games
+     fixed cameras
+     limited inventory

·         Cold Fear
-      mechanics are broken
-      ammo loss halts progress
-      saves are random and not on demand
+     structured plot

·         Obscure 2
-      characters are unbelievable
-      offensive game script
+     good art and cinema
+     innovative 2 player mode

·         The Ring
-      WHATEVER THEY DO HERE IS BAD
-      ONE OF THE WORST GAMES EVER

Play These:
·         Silent Hill Shattered Memories
·         Siren
·         Hellnight


Answers to Questions
·         Play with a friend to overcome too much fear and increase fun output when gaming.
·         Pick a game that works for you if you find it hard to play horror games.
o   e.g. don't pick zombies if you're super scared of zombies

Monday, November 28, 2011

3 Bernard Perron - A Paneled Discussion

Building the Pyramid of Scary Games: Interactive Figures and Scare Tactics in the Survival Horror Genre

Note trends; they have what is important to one’s experience and good ones travel through time.

Capturing the Experience
·         The Gaming Apparatus (a staple of our Era of Gaming)
o   contextualization
§  number of gamers
§  locale
o   hardware specs
§  platform
§  support
o   tech specs
§  resolution
§  sound
o   intervention
§  interface
·         Formal Characteristics
o   dimensionality
o   point of view
o   perspective
o   ...
·         3) Video-ludic Treatment of Horror (parameters that modulate the gamer's experience)
o   difficulty
o   “antagonization curve”
o   saving system
o   player character
§  genre
§  number of players
§  characterizations
-          inferior
-          ordinary
-          superior
-          supernatural
o   parameters setting the stage for video-ludic horror
§  general tone
-          parodic (making fun of itself)
-          horrific
-          terrifying
§  origin of fictional setting
§  horrific scenery
§  monsters
·         Categories of Fright
o   NA
·         Main Mechanisms of the Horror Game
o   NA

Intervention Mode
·         Indirect - point and click (do something not tied to actual action)
·         Symbolic direct - symbolic actions (controller; doing something like the action)
·         Mimetic direct - mimetic actions (kinetic, Wii; doing the actions)

In survival horror the player progresses alone in a strange universe; shadows shroud the presence of strange creatures.

Summary
·         Ludi Cine – a database of horror.
·         Pyramid of Horror – a stark look at how fear is instilled in the player through gameplay elements.

Team Squabies after Thanksgiving

It's been a long time since I've given a write-up on how Team Squabies is going with Mami. With Thanksgiving in the schedule, we've been a little slow recently, but you'll be impressed over what we've done since the last post.

What sticks in my mind is the animation roughs that have been fleshed out. The filler art of our protaganist moves now, but we have stories yet to be finished for including the movement in-game. Well on its way it is!

Now, Mr. Boyd has undoubtedly made the biggest contribution to the project in the past few weeks. In recognition that most of the team (5 out of 7) don't know Flash in any way, Mr. Boyd has put together some quite decent Flash tutorials that should be useful for the team. Minus the issues we're having getting people confident enough to work in code, this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. Past his tutorials, Boyd and I have hashed-out the start of using a new collision system. In rewriting our code, it's slow going with comprehending the concepts, but is far from impossible to handle.

You might have noticed that I included "7" people, not "8" from the team. We're losing our sound-guy next academic semester, and he's effectively moved on from the project. The consideration for replacing him is to hire an outside student to orchestrate our sound. Though it is still under consideration, we'll know if the new guy's on the team next semester.

Dang. One of the shortest posts yet! Expect more Nanocon speaker notes in a short while, and take care until then!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

2 Jeff Howard - Clive Barker


Demonik and the Ludic Legacy of Clive Barker

A Story World
Texts that are already inherently ludic (able to think clearly between bouts of insanity) make good games; gameplay concepts are implied in ludic texts.  Richly detailed imaginative worlds with internally coherent rule systems make a foundation players can relate to.  Using imaginatively productive "negative space" (gaps in a fiction) gives players incentive for exploration within the world.

Barker's Ideas
·         Rule systems and puzzle configurations can convey metaphysical ideas
o   "Making metaphysics out of hard wood"
·         Games as a metaphysically expressive medium
o   e.g. A puzzle-box opens a doorway to Hell
·         Ritualistic mysticism of play
·         Use personal injury/handicaps to express otherworldly effects better

Games:
·         have length
·         have complexity
·         have elaboration of mythology
·         are puzzles, a story, a philosophy
·         change based on the players perceptions
·         Scrying - seeing what you normally can't
o   look into one’s self and into the meanings in the environment instead of "how many guns you can muster"

Ludic Puzzles in Games
·         puzzles are with depth
·         allow players to re-configure a puzzles
·         Symbolically map the puzzles space
·         (optional) find appropriate peripheral

SUMMARY
·         A well-constructed game is a puzzle, a story, a philosophy.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

1 Steve Graham - Go and Metaphors


Life and death Problems and the Generation of Tension

GO:
·         GO is not a horror game
·         GO is ancient
·         GO is simple (2 color; simple dots)
·         GO is abstract (2 color; tiles that explicitly mean nothing)
·         GO is deterministic (not random)
·         GO is turn-based strategy
·         GO is a perfect information game (all info is known by all parties)
·         GO is a war game (surround and kill off opponent forces)

Horror:
·         It gives information in bits.
·         It is expected to be semi realistic.

GO vs Horror:
·         GO helps bring out intense emotion
o   Games such as Demon's Souls elicit emotion as well
·         Such tense emotion can drain a person
o   nothing is living, nothing is dieing, but what we attribute to the game is what affects us
o   the metaphors of the game contribute to the creation of a second world relative the the player
·         Metaphors of GO:
o   life and death
o   liberties
o   war

Creating Abstractions is Essential
                We connect dramatically simplified representations to real complexities.  Thus, abstraction creates imaginative play.

Elements of Abstraction:
·         Extended Avatar
·         Collection of pieces we have played are exposed to consequence
·         Small groups scattered about
o   body parts of our avatar
·         Patterns and objects slowly and gradually emerge
o   construction of avatar as a whole through small repeated steps
·         Risk permanent, partial death
·         Opportunity of unconditional, partial life

Metaphors and Empathy + Mechanisms
·         Life and Death problems
·         Complexity from simplicity
·         Forcing actions
·         Deadlines
·         Repeating patterns, repeated fights, and repeated threats

SUMMARY
·         Metaphors must be coherent with game play
o   players choose to associate these
·         Complex systems emerge as extended avatars
o   body parts
·         Game mechanisms - KISS
o   complexity emerging from simplicity
o   gradual and repeated construction
·         Bigger decisions with fewer resources need to be made
o   allocation of attention