Hey guys
Obviously I don't use this blog any more, and perhaps you have noticed I don't even use my Tumblr, as I've decided Tumblr is mostly just endless walls of meme images and wishy washy inspirational balls.
Anyway, I've started a new blog, which is more consistent and probably more entertaining, updated weekly at minimum with new articles.
http://iammanofdoom.blogspot.com/
Looks it's still on Blogger and everything! How convenient.
Follow if you will.
Cheers!
Wednesday 8 February 2012
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Been a while
Hey guys
I don't know if anybody's really bothered but obviously I've stopped updating this blog now. I've moved over to Tumblr, which is way way easier to use and more in line with my limited attention span.
So here's my contact stuff in case anybody was still interested in what I have to say.
http://manofdoom.tumblr.com/ (Blog site)
http://twitter.com/#!/ManOfDoom (My Twitter)
http://manofdoom.weebly.com/ (Main site with actual content)
I don't know if anybody's really bothered but obviously I've stopped updating this blog now. I've moved over to Tumblr, which is way way easier to use and more in line with my limited attention span.
So here's my contact stuff in case anybody was still interested in what I have to say.
http://manofdoom.tumblr.com/ (Blog site)
http://twitter.com/#!/ManOfDoom (My Twitter)
http://manofdoom.weebly.com/ (Main site with actual content)
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Newness
So I've started this daily blog now where I create something everyday and post it up on the old interweb. That Sanity Meter article was the first item and since that it's been mostly art and fiction. But everyday something new shall be presented to you all!
http://manofdoom.tumblr.com/
Also I've made some decisions regarding Dread, and have decided to completely change much of the focus of the game. It's still a Metroidvania but It's currently kind of boring so I'm removing a LOT of stuff and adding it a whole lot of different stuff that should make it more interesting to play. More details soon!
http://manofdoom.tumblr.com/
Also I've made some decisions regarding Dread, and have decided to completely change much of the focus of the game. It's still a Metroidvania but It's currently kind of boring so I'm removing a LOT of stuff and adding it a whole lot of different stuff that should make it more interesting to play. More details soon!
Thursday 11 November 2010
Sanity Meter Improvement
So I'm a big fan of survival horror games, and I've noticed that in recent years there's been the implementation in some of a 'Sanity meter', which gauges the level of stress the player is under based on certain scripted interactions player actions. These tend to do things such as apply filters to the screen, make strange things happen. These were most notably used in the games Eternal Darkness and Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Neither, in my view, really did what they could have with the mechanic.
Eternal Darkness implemented very strange gameplay effects such as screens instructing you to reset your console, simulating the muting of the television, and your character spontaneously exploding. Whilst these were certainly creative, they were often unintentionally ridiculous or funny, and actively reduced immersion by reminding the player they were engaged in a video game.
Call of Chtulu on the other hand, chose to use sanity effects to improve atmosphere and tension, giving an audible heartbeat and breathing, visual blurring and shaking, and distortion to give a sense of dizziness. Whilst I am more in favour of this kind of mechanic, I feel they could have gone much further and expanded upon the sanity concept, given especially that sanity (or eventual lack of it) is a key element in Lovecraftian storytelling.
Another problem is that the game is actively telling the player 'You are going mad.' This second person narration is not exactly immersive, and it would be far more effective for the player to begin questioning what they are seeing on their own, rather than being directly told something is wrong.
Okay, so enough with what's wrong with the current usage, and onto how I feel it could be improved.
Firstly, there should never be a direct representation of player sanity in the game, so an actual gauge showing your level of sanity is totally out of the question. I would also rename the mechanic, referring it to as a Stress Level. This could have varying levels and ways of increasing or reducing it. Just so we've got some context to work with.
Stress Level 0- No effect on gameplay or atmosphere, everything is about as normal as it can get for a horror game.
Stress Level 1- Player character is agitated. More haunting ambient sounds and variance in volume of sounds. Audible heart beat and breathing.
Stress Level 2- Player character is distressed. More persistent stress effects, variances in brightness and lighting for areas. Enemies look more threatening or become larger. Very slight overall visual distortion.
Stress Level 3-Player character is terrified. Basically everything from previous levels but introduction of hallucination effects also, as described below.
Now, Levels 0-2 are similar to what we've seen before, and Eternal Darkness attempted hallucinations with extremely mixed results. However, we never want to tell the player that there is a change in sanity, so everything is presented as though that is supposed to be that way. Hallucinations should also not be telegraphed. Walking into a room and seeing that you're walking on the ceiling is not scary, it's comical. Walking into a room you'd previously considered safe and seeing it filled with enemies is scary. What if you killed them and then after the fight was over you realised they had been innocents who looked like enemies? Regret, confusion, general questioning of what is presented to them.
It is essential that this is never telegraphed to the player, and that they actively question what is real rather than any clear differentiation being made. This allows the player's imagination to do much of the legwork, and as we know things are always scarier when you don't understand them, so the player must be provided with as little information regarding this as possible in order to maximise the experience, perhaps even intentionally misleading them if it will improve the overall game experience and immersion level.
Overall this is my idea for how the 'Sanity Meter' system could be improved. Some other ideas for mechanics following the hallucination theme.
Nonexistent enemies
The game could play sounds that indicate enemies to be present in times of stress, causing them to look around and try to find these nonexistent foes. Alternatively the player could see a large number of secretly fictional enemies surrounding the PC, then when they attempt to attack them they vanish, causing the player to waste ammo.
Puzzle operations
A complex puzzle may become near impossible when the character is sufficiently stressed, important images become rearranged and replaced by irrelevant visuals. Numbers on a keypad keep moving and changing their meaning. Words typed in may appear to be incorrect and make it seem as through the player is typing in sinister phrases to throw them off.
That didn't just happen
A player may enter a room and instantly be killed by a powerful enemy, before gameplay resumes at the point just before the PC entered the room. The PC may walk through a door and appear in the room they just left.
Enemy effects
The enemies or threats in the game may begin to look even more terrifying and take on symbolic forms relevant to the PC.
Eternal Darkness implemented very strange gameplay effects such as screens instructing you to reset your console, simulating the muting of the television, and your character spontaneously exploding. Whilst these were certainly creative, they were often unintentionally ridiculous or funny, and actively reduced immersion by reminding the player they were engaged in a video game.
Call of Chtulu on the other hand, chose to use sanity effects to improve atmosphere and tension, giving an audible heartbeat and breathing, visual blurring and shaking, and distortion to give a sense of dizziness. Whilst I am more in favour of this kind of mechanic, I feel they could have gone much further and expanded upon the sanity concept, given especially that sanity (or eventual lack of it) is a key element in Lovecraftian storytelling.
Another problem is that the game is actively telling the player 'You are going mad.' This second person narration is not exactly immersive, and it would be far more effective for the player to begin questioning what they are seeing on their own, rather than being directly told something is wrong.
Okay, so enough with what's wrong with the current usage, and onto how I feel it could be improved.
Firstly, there should never be a direct representation of player sanity in the game, so an actual gauge showing your level of sanity is totally out of the question. I would also rename the mechanic, referring it to as a Stress Level. This could have varying levels and ways of increasing or reducing it. Just so we've got some context to work with.
Stress Level 0- No effect on gameplay or atmosphere, everything is about as normal as it can get for a horror game.
Stress Level 1- Player character is agitated. More haunting ambient sounds and variance in volume of sounds. Audible heart beat and breathing.
Stress Level 2- Player character is distressed. More persistent stress effects, variances in brightness and lighting for areas. Enemies look more threatening or become larger. Very slight overall visual distortion.
Stress Level 3-Player character is terrified. Basically everything from previous levels but introduction of hallucination effects also, as described below.
Now, Levels 0-2 are similar to what we've seen before, and Eternal Darkness attempted hallucinations with extremely mixed results. However, we never want to tell the player that there is a change in sanity, so everything is presented as though that is supposed to be that way. Hallucinations should also not be telegraphed. Walking into a room and seeing that you're walking on the ceiling is not scary, it's comical. Walking into a room you'd previously considered safe and seeing it filled with enemies is scary. What if you killed them and then after the fight was over you realised they had been innocents who looked like enemies? Regret, confusion, general questioning of what is presented to them.
It is essential that this is never telegraphed to the player, and that they actively question what is real rather than any clear differentiation being made. This allows the player's imagination to do much of the legwork, and as we know things are always scarier when you don't understand them, so the player must be provided with as little information regarding this as possible in order to maximise the experience, perhaps even intentionally misleading them if it will improve the overall game experience and immersion level.
Overall this is my idea for how the 'Sanity Meter' system could be improved. Some other ideas for mechanics following the hallucination theme.
Nonexistent enemies
The game could play sounds that indicate enemies to be present in times of stress, causing them to look around and try to find these nonexistent foes. Alternatively the player could see a large number of secretly fictional enemies surrounding the PC, then when they attempt to attack them they vanish, causing the player to waste ammo.
Puzzle operations
A complex puzzle may become near impossible when the character is sufficiently stressed, important images become rearranged and replaced by irrelevant visuals. Numbers on a keypad keep moving and changing their meaning. Words typed in may appear to be incorrect and make it seem as through the player is typing in sinister phrases to throw them off.
That didn't just happen
A player may enter a room and instantly be killed by a powerful enemy, before gameplay resumes at the point just before the PC entered the room. The PC may walk through a door and appear in the room they just left.
Enemy effects
The enemies or threats in the game may begin to look even more terrifying and take on symbolic forms relevant to the PC.
Wednesday 27 October 2010
Duck with Strawberry Jam
Yesterday I attended the GameCity5 Strawberry Game Jam. Myself and a bunch of other guys hung out in a restaurant for a while and made some games, although I didn't get to talk to everybody as much as I'd have liked as nobody was really sure what was going on. Anyway, we jammed for 3 hours, and I came up with this-
Where's my Ducklings?
The theme, as you may have guesssed, was Duck. I'm quite proud that due to my utilisation of GameMaker, I was the only one to create a fully functioning game, although the other guys came up with really interesting prototypes as well. I had a blast and would totally do it again if given the opportunity.
In other news, work on Dread presses on and is going well. I'm also considering reviving Thalidomide and PsychoNoir as well, as I see those as having some real potential and not being especially difficult to work into full games. But Dread of course comes first, so we'll have to see.
Where's my Ducklings?
The theme, as you may have guesssed, was Duck. I'm quite proud that due to my utilisation of GameMaker, I was the only one to create a fully functioning game, although the other guys came up with really interesting prototypes as well. I had a blast and would totally do it again if given the opportunity.
In other news, work on Dread presses on and is going well. I'm also considering reviving Thalidomide and PsychoNoir as well, as I see those as having some real potential and not being especially difficult to work into full games. But Dread of course comes first, so we'll have to see.
Friday 1 October 2010
Returning to an old one
Hey chaps! There's been little word from me recently largely because there's been nothing to talk about. I'm still searching for work as a priority rather than game development, however my wife has started back at Uni this week so I'm expecting to have a lot more free time in which to fit in both job hunting and developing my game design expertise. I've recently got a hold of (re-been gifted with) a book on XNA and C# development, an avenue I'm interested in pursuing as although GameMaker is awesome I can't help but want to make things more advanced than what I'm working on ATM. Reading through it has been very interesting, and as I love to learn I wager I'll be doing a fair bit of experimenting with it over the coming months and perhaps even releasing something.
My aim over the next year is to recover through game development and creation of other materials all the money I have invested into my pursuits so far. Fortunately, as I'm not one for spending a lot of money, this only amounts to around £70, however this is a big goal for somebody who has never sold something of his own in his whole life. How I'm going to do this is rather vague at the moment, but I have a few ideas swimming around on how to do it.
I've also returned to one of my old projects recently and have to say I'd forgotten how enjoyable it was and how much work I'd put into it. Thus I am reviving it and intend to have it released by the end of the month. It's called Dread, and after many abortive attempts at creating a metroidvania I scaled it down just about as far as I could, resulting in the concept for Dread. Everything else about it I shall keep a surprise.
Expect more updates related to game design and development soon friends!
My aim over the next year is to recover through game development and creation of other materials all the money I have invested into my pursuits so far. Fortunately, as I'm not one for spending a lot of money, this only amounts to around £70, however this is a big goal for somebody who has never sold something of his own in his whole life. How I'm going to do this is rather vague at the moment, but I have a few ideas swimming around on how to do it.
I've also returned to one of my old projects recently and have to say I'd forgotten how enjoyable it was and how much work I'd put into it. Thus I am reviving it and intend to have it released by the end of the month. It's called Dread, and after many abortive attempts at creating a metroidvania I scaled it down just about as far as I could, resulting in the concept for Dread. Everything else about it I shall keep a surprise.
Expect more updates related to game design and development soon friends!
Wednesday 11 August 2010
Doing stuff but without a lot to show for it
Hi guys
Been ages since my last update. I've been doing a whole bunch of different things but haven't finished any projects. Mostly I've been experimenting with new techniques and mechanics, in particular I've been playing around with 3D and Multiplayer. I've also checked out a whole bunch of other engines and develeopment programs but have come back to GameMaker again every time, although Construct does look promising.
Anyway, in terms of my experiments things are pretty good. As I said I've been focusing on 3D and multiplayer, both new ground for me. 3D gives a whole new spin on things and a new way of seeing the world, as well as the opportunity to utilise new game mechanics and atmosphere. I've been working mainly on a project currently called Dogmeat, a 3D horror game which to be honest I'm struggling to get into alpha, not because of teachnical issues but because I'm not sure where to go with it, so clearly I need to get more design done on it.
In regards to multiplayer, I had an idea for what I considered to be a totally amazing game, but then realised it was way beyond my current technical capabilities, and decided to to a proof of concept experiment for it. That's my other project atm, a splitscreen multiplayer game, also horror themed.
I've also continued playing around with procedural generation but have nothing much to report other than I'm trying to make something small and replayable with it.
Other than that, I think as I've called this blog my 'Game Design Dungeon', I should really write about it a bit more, and I'm planning on doing so in the near future. May as well actually give some thought to what I consider a real interest.
More soon chaps and chappettes!
Been ages since my last update. I've been doing a whole bunch of different things but haven't finished any projects. Mostly I've been experimenting with new techniques and mechanics, in particular I've been playing around with 3D and Multiplayer. I've also checked out a whole bunch of other engines and develeopment programs but have come back to GameMaker again every time, although Construct does look promising.
Anyway, in terms of my experiments things are pretty good. As I said I've been focusing on 3D and multiplayer, both new ground for me. 3D gives a whole new spin on things and a new way of seeing the world, as well as the opportunity to utilise new game mechanics and atmosphere. I've been working mainly on a project currently called Dogmeat, a 3D horror game which to be honest I'm struggling to get into alpha, not because of teachnical issues but because I'm not sure where to go with it, so clearly I need to get more design done on it.
In regards to multiplayer, I had an idea for what I considered to be a totally amazing game, but then realised it was way beyond my current technical capabilities, and decided to to a proof of concept experiment for it. That's my other project atm, a splitscreen multiplayer game, also horror themed.
I've also continued playing around with procedural generation but have nothing much to report other than I'm trying to make something small and replayable with it.
Other than that, I think as I've called this blog my 'Game Design Dungeon', I should really write about it a bit more, and I'm planning on doing so in the near future. May as well actually give some thought to what I consider a real interest.
More soon chaps and chappettes!
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