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7 May 04
I hope everyone had a good week. I know mine was especially good. If you're in the US, just a friendly reminder that Sunday is Mother's Day. You know what they say, "If momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy." So make sure the mothers in your life feel appreciated.
It is Friday. That means it's time for a Friday Highlight. In case you are new or have forgotten, highlights are where we look at a strategy or tactical game and try to pick out the best things about it. These are the things you would try to emulate if you were making a similar game.
Speaking of similar games, today's highlight candidate set off a slew of them. In fact, it created a place in the market for a whole subgenre, the Tycoon game. It may not have been the first tycoon, but it is the best selling. Yes, I'm talking about Rollercoaster Tycoon (RCT).
RCT was Chris Sawyer's baby. In an age of huge dev teams, he kept control and most of the work to himself. This has an obvious advantage that hearkens back to the early days of gaming, focused design. The original idea was to make a game about creating cool rollercoasters and the final game was exactly that. Though you could do many things in your park, the center was always the coaster. In fact, you could argue that everything else about the park existed only to let you build newer, bigger and better rollercoasters.
The next highlight is almost as good. The basic goal of the game wasn't to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women. No, your goal was to make everyone happy. You're creating a fun place to go so all your visitors will enjoy themselves. Everything about the game was done with that in mind. You have to take care of their physical needs, sure, but that's so everyone can focus on having a good time. You want everyone to leave with an empty wallet, but mostly you want them to leave with a smile on their face.
Moving on, I won't claim the interface in the series is the best ever, but it does command a powerful tool set. You want to see who's happy; it can do it. You want see areas not covered by patrols; done. You want everything to disappear so you can direct your custodians to the dirty areas; yep. The modular rollercoaster design allows you to make almost any coaster you can imagine. You control theming, colors, signs and ride placement to make each park your own. You can even name all the rides so you can see updates like the patron who says, "I want to ride on the Vomitor." or "I get sick just looking at the Centrifuge 2000." There are so many options most any player can find something they enjoy doing.
Finally, the game allows users to share and become a community. You can share your park or a custom scenario or the best coaster you built. The official website hosted design contests. Some of them had the winners voted by the community. Requests for rides or scenery from fans often showed up in the next expansion pack.
Today's game probably won't be as big as RCT, but it might inspire a cult following. We have another Russian game for you. It's Cops 2170: The Power of Law (official site) from MiSTland South. It's a cyberpunk Tactical RPG. The turn based battles will be the heart of every mission. The developers are promising more realistic combat distances, large scale street wars and cool high tech toys (oh, and cyberrats too). It's supposed to be released this month; we'll see.
Jason
Comments?
6 May 04
I think we were having some technical difficulties earlier, but they seem to have been worked out now. I was going to say tonight that if anyone had trouble accessing the site to send me an email. Then I realized that would be silly. If you couldn't access the site, you wouldn't see the message. So I sent out a blast email. I hope no one was offended.
I did get an interesting reply from Innocence (head of our Danish contingent). He thinks we need more lively discussion regarding the topics I discuss. In case you haven't noticed, at the end of each column there is a "comments" link. If you click on that, you can add your take on what I've been writing about, or even refute me completely. You do have to be logged in (and registered, of course), but since that only takes and email account and less than a minute of your time, you can be ranting at me in no time.
Today, I wanted to expand on an earlier topic (see aren't you glad that I put all the old topics in searchable form on the news site). It's about plot. If you recall, my earlier point was that if you use a realistic setting you can get away with almost no real story. The more fantastic the setting the more story you need for your players to enjoy a game set there. Now I'm going to add a corollary to that. It's pretty obvious but someone needs to say these things. The more story you have and the more necessary it is to the game, the better it has to be written.
So if you're setting your titanic struggle on the planet Glorblaick between the slothlike Katt'ak and the reptilian SSthanth, you better be telling a darn good story. It's pretty self evident, but people have nothing invested in the SSthanth. You have give them a reason to care. Again Homeworld is a great example of this. The back story is deep, involving and moves you. I often wonder how it affected people who got the later releases of the game. I'm pretty sure they didn't get the full written manual so chances are most of them didn't read the elaborate story behind the story. Sure you could follow everything without it, but it wasn't nearly as emotional.
You can have cool units and an elaborate combat system displayed on the latest graphics engine, but if players don't get involved, the game will fail. No one tells people about the game they couldn't get into. No one sets up fan sites for it.
The other thing you need is an interesting set of characters. Now the characters could be the races themselves or heroes and villains from each race, but they have to be complex and intriguing to the player. Good characters make players care about what happens to them for good or ill.
So why am I pointing all this out? Simply, some game development teams don't write well. They probably know that's not one of their strengths. Yet they still insist on setting their games in outlandish settings without following it up with the written good. Please stop. Use a familiar setting. Some people argue that Silent Storm has poor dialogue, but it's set in WWII, so it doesn't detract from the game. If you're having trouble deciding on a familiar setting (WWII is starting to wear thin), might I suggest the old West. The western has many standards and cheesy dialogue is almost expected. You could be saving yourself almost 2 points (out of 10) on a review. Of course, if you have the writing skills, go to town (or the moon, or Mars or Glorblaick).
Today's game is Age of Mythology (official site) from Ensemble Studios. Ensemble took everything they learn from their earlier age games and added fantastic units from mythology. They did it in a way that adds depth. What units you get comes not only from the side you choose, but also the gods you worship. You get to choose minor deities as you advance through the ages to further customize your force. Each god also grants a specific god power. So even two players playing the same race can end up with very different armies. As an added bonus the game is one of the most highly polished RTS's I've played. Both it and its expansion are available now.
Jason
Comments?
5 May 04
Going from separating fantasy from reality leads naturally into a discussion of work and play. We all know the expression about all work, but I would argue that play is even more important than that. It's really an argument of the adult vs. the kid in each of us.
America was built around the concept of work hard and play hard. That can mean that the road to success follows a similar path in this country. If you want to succeed you need some very adult qualities, reliability, workmanship, a sense of duty and being able to compromise, communicate and work with others. But you also need some childlike abilities, creativity, flexibility, a sense of wonder, adventure, joy and excitement, imagination and an ability to laugh at the humor life brings us.
Just as work reinforces the adult values in us, play recharges the child in us. I've known a lot of people who've let the child in them die. You know, they're not the ones I remember as happy or fun people. Of course, the other extreme is not much better. Being called childish usually means selfish.
That's why I think gaming is such a good hobby. Games are play and bring those good qualities. Games also can encourage adult qualities. Strategy and tactical games reward clear thinking. They don't usually provide instant rewards, but reward effort and planning and execution. Team based games reward good communication.
Games continue to gain greater acceptance. People are getting less and less shocked at the size of games industry. Those wannabe kids who used to annoy me at the arcade have grown into the next generation of athletes, music and acting stars, and apprentices. They grew up with games around their whole lives. Gaming is normal to them and they ignore any stereotypes about gamers because everyone they know has played games. They'll be the ones that force everyone else to recognize that interactive entertainment is better than passive entertainment.
Today's game some still argue is the finest strategy game to date. It's Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (official site) from Firaxis Games. It picks up after the Civilization games. You've launched your colony ship toward Alpha Centauri. On the trip the team has broken up into various factions based on ideologies. When they arrive, each faction strikes out on its own to prove its ideology is best. Along the way they have to overcome the alien environment as well as each other.
Jason
Comments?
4 May 04
I wanted to talk briefly about Fantasy vs. Reality. No matter how realistic the graphics games fall firmly in the fantasy category. Just like TV and the movies, games are fantasy. I shouldn't have to point this out, but it seems that otherwise rational people seem to forget this. Just like pool halls and comic books, games are getting their turn on the public whipping post.
Manhunt was just released for the PC and Xbox, so we'll likely see more of it in the near future. I'm sure experts will come on and condemn this level of violence. The problem is that fantasies speak to our inner needs. They speak to the part of us that exists in dreams. If you connect to a certain game, it does something for you. Whether that's releasing tension or anger or just making you feel powerful, you gain from your interaction. Personally, I'm more concerned about what happens when people don't have a release at all.
I'm not really interested in going into why certain fantasies work for certain people. I would like to point out the particular case of children. Two things really. One, children are still learning the difference between fantasy and reality. Parents should make sure they understand the fantasy behind any games the child plays. When children demonstrate they understand that what they can do in a game is different than what they can do in real life, that's when parents can trust their kids in their gaming tastes. Second, parents should make it clear to their kids that they (the parents) understand that the game is fantasy. Parents shouldn't get all upset that kids play through violent interactions in a game. Parents always retain the right to forbid certain types of games in their house, but they should make it clear that it's because they don't like those games not because they are afraid of their children or their fantasies.
Today's game is firmly in the fantasy category. It's They Came from Hollywood (official site) from Octopus Motor. Yes, it's a real time strategy take on 50's monster movies. You play one of twelve monsters trying to destroy the cities of the world. Perhaps its greatest feature is support for the PC Dance Dance Revolution pad for rhythmic city destruction. It's due out this year.
Jason
Comments?
3 May 04
There's an unwritten assumption that underlies everything here at Talk Strategy. Since I'm a writer, I can't let that go. I was reading an article in the paper today about children. The author was deploring the state of kids today and blaming TV. TV, the article claimed, was totally passive and removed the need for imagination. Everything is supplied for kids so they don't have to imagine anything. The point was that reading inspired imagination, and that kids would be better off with more reading and less TV.
Let's start with where I agree. I agree that reading is great and children should read as much as possible. I agree that lack of imagination is a very bad thing. Dreams and hopes come from the ability to see things that aren't here yet. If you can't imagine a better life for yourself, it's very hard to get there. It's very easy to despair when you can't see a way out. I also agree that TV can be a very passive activity.
Now, we get to where I have problems. Have you ever watched a young child getting ready to watch and watching their favorite program? Passive is not a word I'd use. Kids often jump up and down, scream with excitement. Some shows they know the words by heard and sing and speak along with the program. When music comes on, they jump and dance around. If it's a superhero show, they might run around like they have super powers. If they have friends over (or sometimes a sibling), it can be more active and loud. I think passive sitting is something we adults force upon them. I wouldn't blame TV for something we do.
That's not my point however. The underlying assumption here is that games inspire imagination. Sure some provide a world and story for you, but you fill in the rest. Just look at Raydude's or CSL's stories. They filled in far more than the game provided. They were living in the worlds of those games. They became the characters.
The point is that a sneak attack on your Chinese base in Generals by the GLA isn't some abstract tactic performed against a group of polygons under your control. It's an affront to the great army of the people. Such offenses will be met with overwhelming force. Strategy games especially provide fertile worlds for your imagination to play in.
Take something different, like Grand Theft Auto 3. Here was a nameless character who had freedom of action in a large living city. Beyond the story, the actions you chose where based on the character you created in your head. Did you go on rampages? Kill people for fun? Hire prostitutes? Mine didn't. He was an honorable thug. The betrayal hurt him more than the fact someone tried to kill him. He only did what he had to do to get ahead.
So maybe it is beyond obvious, but it takes imagination to turn a game into a creative and immersive experience. Good games make that easy.
Today's game will hopefully be a good game. It taking its series into the unknown, true 3D. Yes, it's Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (official site) from Frontier Developments and Chris Sawyer. You can pan and zoom and ride your coasters. We'll have to see if park creation is as easy. Look for it at the end of the year.
Jason
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