Binary Swan

Things have been a bit quiet on this project since the initial flurry of activity after my announcement. I was encouraged by people’s replies and looked forward to getting down to work once I started receiving submissions. However at this point submissions have been thin on the ground so I have been working away at whatever I can on my end. Once more submissions start coming in I will be able to dive into converting them into commentary tracks very quickly. I have recorded and set up my introductory track which will be positioned just outside Vault 101. It contains some basic information about the project and how the player might wish to engage with it. Obviously this information may change once more commentary tracks are included. I’m also constantly trying out new designs for the “commentary nodes”. I am trying to make them distinctive enough to draw attention to themselves as there would be little point having some great commentary in the world if it could not be found. Here are some examples.

The balloons seem like a good way to draw attention to the nodes during daytime with lighting effects serving a similar function in darker conditions. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to contact me via email or in the comments section.

I am still very enthusiastic about this project and hope to be given the opportunity to work harder on it very soon. If you are interested in making a commentary track for the game all the information can be found on the Wasteland Commentaries page of this site.

My new Fallout 3 modification project, The Wasteland Commentaries has just kicked off and I’ve created a  page just for it, found at the top of the blog. I have been working on how to present the audio commentaries in the world. I have tested a few ideas for how the commentary “nodes” will look and have come to one that works quite well. Here is how it looks in-game during both day and night:

I have used an Enclave style table surrounded by some rescaled force fields to draw the players eye.  If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to best set up the nodes please leave a comment below. I am currently considering the following:

• a smaller table to match the size of the holotape model;
• placing above the table such as a light source to further draw attention to the location of the commentary track

I also have been thinking about how to best present the commentaries in the game to ensure that they function to promote the contributors ideas as best as possible. Here are a couple of thoughts that I have had:

• The title of the audio track should be an introduction to the topic you are discussing and if possible draw attention to the part of the game in the vicinity of the tape that you wish to discuss
• I am hoping to see people employ multiple recordings / tapes to guide the player through certain spaces. For example including 1/4, 2,4…. at the end of a tape title might encourage the player to search the area. You might also give clues in your recording as to where the next tape might be therefore directing the player on a path through the environment that best illustrates the point you are making.

Again if you have any further ideas that I might be able to pass on please leave a comment or send me an email.

I’ve been really enjoying ‘Splosion Man which, like The Maw, shows off Twisted Pixel’s ability to distill then refine the core gameplay mechanics that define a now ‘classic’ gaming era. Those who have given it a try on Xbox Live Arcade would certainly have noticed something else: the achievement for killing 15 scientists. I usually give only a passing thought to achievements but I found this particularly interesting because of the title “Get them out of our schools”, an ironic comment regarding the attitudes of some members of society. This clever slice of social commentary, however brief, is one of the first uses of the achievement system that has appealed to me in a thought provoking way.

I have often found the intrusive nature of achievements akin to breaking the fourth wall in a film. They remind the player that they are playing a game as they advertise the other levels of statistics and tracking existing above that of the game itself. But I also think that they have an, as yet untapped, potential to enrich our gaming experience above and beyond Twisted Pixels modest example. Just as NGai Croal spoke of the potential of the achievement system to encourage “Off-Label Gaming”, playing a game contrary to the developers original intent, I would like to see achievements used to elicit other responses from a player. Could achievements make a social or moral comment regarding the action on screen? Take this simple example:

The first pedestrian killed randomly in GTA leads to the achievement “No Return Now”, with the description, “You murdered someone in cold blood”.

The effect of such an ‘achievement’ lies in how the system is viewed by the player. Through its direct form of address it might question what is being achieved in the game and the nature of playing a game . There would also be a sense of permanence as it becomes part of the player’s Xbox Live profile history.

This idea is not without its issues, it could be seen as clumsy game design if handled poorly, an idea that the developer lacked the skill to incorporate into their game. One might question the ability of a single line of text to provide effective commentary about an action. At the heart of it is whether such a system is the best way to address such ideas within our medium due to its uniform presentation across all titles.  But achievements also sit separate from the game text because of that uniform presentation, akin to ad pop ups on a website. They could become a broader commentary system layered above the game, a place for developers to present other thoughts about their subject matter that relate to the game text but are not the focus. To illustrate my point I’ll leave you with another example:

“You are playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and you play through the early scene where you are the political leader that is executed. This section of the game blatantly addresses the ideas of empowerment in the shooter genre and it sets up one element of the narrative for consideration later on, then it ends on a black screen with your death.”

Then an achievement pops up:

The description reads: A Reality Check.