I have just finished my first game which I have named WorkSleepDream. It is a very simple game but I am happy with it. Along with some other development diary type stuff will contribute to the folio assessment for my first ever programming subject. The game was coded in the SwinGame API using Pascal. SwinGame has been developed over time within my university and Pascal has been the language of choice for my subject which is aimed at introducing the basics of procedural programming. Having never done any programming prior to 10 weeks ago I have really enjoyed the process of learning, designing and implementing this the code for WorkSleepDream.

Work Sleep Dream is set up to represent three states we exist in when we go about our day and how we can move between them. Nothing too fancy.

I would love to see any kind of feedback in the comments as I still have a few weeks before I have to submit my folio.

I hope you enjoy.

Download:

WorkSleepDream (compiled for Windows)

Playing as Faith I will save my sister.

Playing as Mario I will defeat Bowser.

Playing as Darsil, the stealthy Dunmer mage I will fulfill the prophecies and defeat Dagoth Ur to save all of Morrowind from his cult-like Sixth House.

Or maybe I won’t but that is because I have made my own quest, that will be fulfilled on the streets of Liberty City.

There are so many points when we play videogames that we know we will win. They exist to make us feel good, to get lost in a world like our childhood fantasies. To end in victory. If games are an extension of our imagination then they will carry that assumption of success unless deliberately exorcised by conscious thought. It is because of this that I feel the game industry as yet cannot bring itself to make a good piece of horror gaming. The escapism that so many gamers find is equivalent to the catharsis provided by classic moments of horror cinema where the audience might just scream out loud. We have no need to be cast adrift like the audience after Psycho’s shower scene no matter how many times Infinity Ward designed AI kills your floating gun portal to it’s world. We will be back in that world, connected and fighting on to eventual victory. There might be some twist, we might even die. But we will not lose.

Horror is about feeling out of control, accepting that the world might be a place where you cannot win and where you might not be able to escape. By referencing the many audio and visual artifacts of the cinematic traditions games can create unnerving moment after unnerving moment, repeated over and over. But this ends with your escape, alive and successful, no less empowered than the triumphant return of Abe to Rapture Farms to liberate his fellow Mudokan. We need to source another segment of our conscious experience in order to create true pieces of horror gaming. If games come from our imagination where we are in control then maybe we need to search our experience for something altogether different. Maybe we need to remember our nightmares and what it means to have one. Those moments of our dreams we are out of control and yet still on an amazing journey.

Anyone well versed in this particular film subgenre would be aware that it is not the zombies that are the greatest horror. Zombies may produce the most ’shocking’ moments, but it is the degenerative humanity in the survivors that is most horrific. Sure, there are moments of cooperation but invariably it is the selfishness or inhumanity of a survivor that leads to the groups eventual downfall. I cannot recall any game in recent years that has successfully replicated this. The Survivors in all these games are players or npc’s that are alligned with the you from the start, they never betray you to save their own skin.

As gamers we are not exposed to what makes Zombie films so interesting. The Boss Battles in Dead Rising show that people can abandon humanity in the event of a zombie apocalypse but it doesn’t go far enough. The ‘bosses’ are always antagonistic, there is never a suggestion that they might work with the player. Left 4 Dead is designed carefully to reward cooperation and survival, it wants the players to win and to feel like a team. If you have seen George A. Romero’s “…of the Dead” films then you might be aware that Cooperation and Survival are themes presented alongside Selfishness and Heartlessness. I would love to see betrayal as a realistic option for particular moments in Left 4 Dead games but that is not the direction Valve is going.

These titles can be great action games, but they represent a missed opportunity. Zombies have become the World War II of gaming because they are the thematic filter that allows for the action genre to advance in mechanics and design.  All I can do is hope that game designers  recognize the full range of experiences possible in the material they are using.

Amanita Design have a great passion for telling stories through this gameplay format but they also know that many gamers today have never had much experience with this genre. Beyond all the visual splendor of the world of Machinarium I love that such a simple element like the cheat book minigame demonstrates an awareness of the game’s place in it’s own culture.  Through the cheat book there is a point of entry for  gamers like myself and it speaks these words directly to me, “You are not ready to properly beat this game yet, so here is a way to progress using an approach you are more familiar with”. I am a player who won’t be able to complete Machinarium through my skill alone, but I will be able to experience the rich world and interesting story nonetheless. Machinarium is a positive and challenging experience for any twitch gamer who wants to expand their horizons. It is a great entry point for anyone who wished to learn that point-and-click does not always mean aim-and-fire.

The screen goes black, a stray bullet had struck me in the head. I am dead

The moment to moment action in the new Operation Flashpoint game, Dragon Rising is what makes this game an amazing experience. There is an ever present possibility of death, independent of choices made and you never feel the hand of the developer in these events. They have set up the base conditions and your presence is what causes the scenario to play out. Dragon Rising provides the intial (and expected) escapism and empowerment on a videogame letting you play soldier. Your actions are shown to be integral to each victory, you are the active force in this world. But you also inherit the realistic chance that as a soldier, your death is only one bullet away. Operation Flashpoint avoids many other gaming traditions aimed at reminding you of your empowered existence. There is no swell of orchestral music when you order a charge and no canned character dialogue for when a team member dies. The game succeeds because it does not try to elicit emotion or reaction from me in any way except through gameplay and given the large open nature of every mission, and unscripted AI, this comes at unexpected times. I do not need a large explosion or vista to reward me for being successful, overcoming the challenge of the game is it’s own reward. When a mission is complete there is no cutscene to form my character’s story, there is only the things I have just done, the moments that have just passed. The screen simply fades to black until I next take up the role of the soldier and define my experience by actions. The game does not try to force feed the empowerment fantasy to the player, anytime you act in a way that results in feelings of agency they feel earned and are much more effective.

Far Cry 2 trumps Tron 2.0 in moments pure emergent gameplay. I know that the course of a battle is up to how I approach it and the decisions I have made. Recollections of my gaming here are stories of my decisions and the consequences, the moments that I was uniquely present and privileged as the game’s player. Yet as many will know Far Cry 2 is not without it’s flaws, with the diamond system being my case in point. For all the polish of this sandbox of an African nation there are moments of inconsistency such as the presence of over 200 identical cases that only the player seems to know about, the magical ability for diamonds to be deposited into my “account” once I eliminate a target or the feeling that the world does not exist without your presence bringing it into being. Tron 2.0 is a very different game to Far Cry 2. Notably as in my feeling as the player in that I am not free to define myself in the world. Yet whilst I am only the unseen controller of Jet, I am convinced of the validity of this world because I am never given any reason to think otherwise. This is because it is consistent, all the way to it’s core.

Many elements of Tron 2.0 felt archaic and obvious when I started to play the tutorial level. I was receiving sequential exposition from programs (NPC’s) about how to move and act in the world, it was as robotic and dry as any tutorial I have experienced. But, as I moved through the area it started to make sense, I was inside a computer system and everything would have to be calculated and strict. This realization provided me with a frame to judge other design decisions I encountered. As I moved played the game I noticed more and more that everything seemed to fit. For example:

• Energy and Health are “downloaded” which is exactly like Half Life, except that it makes sense;
• As a program I increase my version number by gaining buildpoints and define my playstyle by running  upgradeable subroutines. Translation: I level up by gaining experience from collectibles and missions and select my equipment depending on the challenges in front of me;
• I am able to download emails flesh out the narrative and world of Tron 2.0 but this act depletes my energy stores as a program;
• When asked to find an alternative route around obvious opposition, the small vent part of the level is defined as a backdoor in the system.

Every layer of Tron 2.0 act in the service of consistent presentation, from the delightfully self aware writing and the easy justification of having a HUD whilst you are digitized into a computer to the single occasion when a program yawns because it had been taken out of sleep mode. It is this consistency that makes this game fun, it allows me to get lost in the fantastical story and it is what is missing at times in Far Cry 2. The use of diamond cases in the game is an acceptable one given the context but it is obvious in its function of enabling the player to progress and act effectively in the world. I am not disputing the element itself, just the fact that it is not consistently presented, it is a collectible whose representation as a case of diamonds feels incidental. As a result I cannot seem to ever get lost in the world of Far Cry 2 even though I have alot of fun.

I thought I might put together a video of some Tron 2.0 gameplay for those unfamiliar with the game:

The Grand Theft Auto series has left an undoubtable mark on how we think about game design. It exists as the benchmark of the “open world” genre both in technological and culture terms. I have recently returned to GTAIV as a refresh in preparation for the release of The Ballad of Gay Tony episode on Xbox Live. This playthrough has  been interesting because it has come with my awareness of the path of Niko as well as the parallel story of Johnny from Lost and Damned. I find that I am able to pick up some more subtle plot elements during this playthrough and have a keen sense of when the two stories intersect and drift apart.

This prompted me to think of the level of forethought and planning that went into the crafting of GTAIV’s narrative. With the release of The Ballad of Gay Tony Rockstar will have provided the medium with a unique artifact, a video game narrative that can be experienced from the perspective of a single or multiple characters, in any combination or in isolation. Roman’s kidnapping for the Russians is a routine job for Johnny but has profound repercussions for Niko. Johnny has no emotional investment in the character of Roman, but my experience was drastically different and this is because of my previously established affinity for him when I was Niko. The combination of  perspectives on the narrative morphed my experience of the events of the “mission”. My affinity for Roman grew as a result of this event because I gained further insight into the masks he puts on to cope with different situations.

I also questioned the level of complicity that I as the player have with the characters I play. I was conflicted about my actions in the narrative because I was a callous kidnapping biker but I am also Niko, Roman’s cousin who would defend him until the last. Is it even relevant to consider myself as being both these people in the game world when such strong identification would lead to conflict? In Grand Theft Auto IV I previously had limited control of the order that I experienced the narrative moments, through choices in missions. With the emergence of these new episodes I now have control over how the alternate lperspective interact. I am crafting my own experience of the games three pronged narrative in much more open way. The exciting moments I am having with the game on this playthrough are now centred around this new navigation of the narrative. I am excited to see how certain moments in the GTAIV saga will be further modified once The Ballad of Gay Tony layer is available. I hope to answer this quest in the future: How would the story of Liberty City be changed for me in the event of a synchronous playthrough of the three characters stories?

Regardless of the outcome we should revel in the way that GTAIV as a game lets these elements be layered on top of eachother with the different stories, experiences and perspectives of the three characters all interacting to create a unique and meaningful experience.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is a fun game to play. There are explosions that are meaty and things that fall down. Walls can have holes in them, whole bridges can collapse if you so chose. It speaks to feelings of empowerment evoked in so many titles in the action genre. I have previously made mention of Red Faction in my post about how actions within a game environment can change, by altering its composition, how we react to and experience it.. Upon reflection I think that the “world-destruction” element of the game’s design whilst providing a very enjoyable experience in altering the game space also contributes to Red Faction’s main failing.

Now, Red Faction is a fun game to play, but it has a story that is done a service by being called “throw-away”, as if you actually had something to hold in the first place. You can take a look at any review of the game and they invariably make mention of the flawed narrative that overlays a brilliant gaming experience. But, you are not drawn into the world of the Red Faction struggle, the plight of the people of Mars, or the machinations of a cold and sadistic EDF and this flaw is seldom an issue because you can still enjoy the title anyway. And the source of these flaws seems readily identifiable; the weak voice acting, poor writing and a lack of meaingful character development (I have to strain to remember the name of the Alex’s brother, the reason you drawn into the “resistance”). These elements are recongisable because the open world / sandbox genre of games now contains examples of narrative done right, or at least better. Grand Theft Auto: IV springs to mind.

However, in Red Faction: Guerrilla even if they had gotten the narrative right, it would not have made a lick of difference because the very nature of the gameplay would acts as a barrier. Upon completion of the story, you as Alex Mason have liberated the sectors of Mars, destroyed the EDF power base and freed the Martians. If this conclusion came at the end of compelling narrative developments you have might believably felt pride in your special achievement, helping those whose survival you care about. However, you have also destroyed the very infrastructure of Mars in doing so, and therein lies the problem.

The destruction engine of the game results in an open world of ruins. Moving around a ‘liberated’ Mars evokes a sense of despair even if the people around you seem oblivious. The Red Faction has shot itself in the foot by eliminating the means by which they might be able to improve conditions on Mars now that the EDF has been defeated. The destructive changes to the world of Mars in Red Faction: Guerilla, which lie solely in the hands of the player, clash with the possible feelings of achievement already noted. You would be inheriting a junkyard. But, because the narrative is weak, you have little attachment to the struggle of the story and therefore the destruction can be labelled as fun and your actions are meaningless. This possibility speaks to an area of concern of mine in contemporary games design, that the interaction between game design and narrative is not being full realised by developers.

The success of Red Faction: Guerrilla financially leads me to believe that a sequel will be in the pipeline soon. If Volition take the criticisms of narrative that are so prevalent and fix them for a follow up the result might not be a better gaming experience. This is because the flaws we all seem to spot so easily do not address the relationship of narrative to gameplay in the game and the consequences of one upon the other. Is it simply a matter of the immaturity of the games industry? Or, are actions games doomed to always be the mindless “popcorn” experiences that can also be seen in modern cinema?