IndieGameVideos

I just started a new site!
www.IndieGameVideos.com is a portal for indiegames, focussed on showcasing the games through gameplay videos. In general I tried to get the whole presentation and navigation a little above the relatively low standard found on many similar sites, which often don`t do much more than throwing masses of mini-thumbnails at their visitors. So, I hope it`s fun to browse through the sections at IndieGameVideos.

Also, as usual I forgot to add my latest work here, better late than never:

Website updated

Finally, my dusty website got a new gallery update;)

Final logo

…almost forgot, the winner is:

Aion (China)

Now that`s a bit embarrassing.

After all the talk about MMOs lacking innovation, I am up to say Aion is a really great one, although it can only be described as classic by all means.

Still, out of the MMOs I have covered here so far, it`s easily the one I liked the most, and I am looking forward to it`s western release in excitement.

I think the keyword for Aion is improvement.  They hardly try to do things different, but they try to do it better. This is true for almost each department.

Of course the game starts with the character creation, and it`s save to say I already fell in love with it at this point. It`s just incredibly detailed, you really have a good chance ending up with a toon looking the way you wanted it. The only downfall is the lack of an option for eyecolors, but I heard it`s already patched in the korean version. One noteworthy feature on the creationscreen is the option to preview the character wearing high level armour. Really helpful to get a good sense for the bodyshape.

It`s also pleasing to see your creation looking exactly like you`ve built it ingame, sounds simple, but isn`t exactly granted on other games.

Once you do your first steps into the world, you`ll have a first look at the design and artdirection, another strength of Aion.

Technically it may not be the absolute top of the genre, nitpickers go ahead and count a few lowres textures here and there. But man is it beautiful.

Almost every scene is crafted with a lot of love, and everything feels alive. You see butterflys flying, NPCs are usually animated (and turn to you when you talk to them), dark woods are filled with all kinds of glowy little things, and looking to the sky you have a good chance to spot some giant creatures majestically crossing by. Playercharacters also feature lots of unique animations depending on their gender and the region you are in.  There`s anims for rain, getting sweaty in the desert, standing idle in a lake, and so on.

I dislike to do the comparement, but it reminded me a lot on my first steps in WOW.  You explore the first regions with wide opened eyes, and just wanna see more of it.

Another keyword for Aion is user-friendliness. This is most evident on the interface. In example the way quests are handled is just right, and you will instantly miss it on any other MMO. When you pick up a quest it starts flashing on the top/right of your screen for a few seconds giving you a chance to check it to add it to the onscreen tracking. No need to go to the journal and pick it up there. Wanna reread the text? Click on the onscreen entry and get directly to the correct journal page. Can`t find the place you need to go to? Click the name on the text and get it marked on the map, the radar and an info about coordinates on the chatwindow.  It`s just greatly convenient.

Combat seems to be very generic the first few levels, but turns out to be quite cool later on. One good thing are the chainskills, which simply means some skills only work as followup to others. It adds to the flow, and adds a small tactical component once you have more than one followups chained to a single starterskill. The other thing is simply the quality of skills. They ask you to think a little about your timing, and the order of using them can be situational.  The only other game coming to my mind offering similar well thoughtout skills is guild wars (both NCsoft, coincidence?).

Can`t write about Aion without mentioning wings, although I`ll keep it short. You get them at level 10, and you feel very special once you do (although everyone does, so you are not any special at all). Flying works perfect, controls are good. Just know you can not fly everywhere, it depends on the region you are in. Gliding is possible everywhere though, so it helps shortcutting some ways by jumping off a high cliff or something.

Characterbalance will almost certainly be a huge topic. At low levels it`s frankly totally out of place. I made it my personal difficulty-selector. If I wanted a tough challenge I played a scout class character, if i wanted to go easy I picked a priest class ( mage or warrior `d do the same job here). That statement is for levels 1 to 16, I can`t judge the higher levels, but it`s said to balance out to a degree. However, I tried almost every class/subclass and have to say I liked playing them all in PvE. Actually the classes at disadvantage have been the best fun.

There`d be a lot more features (almost all leaning towards “classic” rather than “innovative”) to cover, but to cut it short, everything feels very functional and complete.

Hopefully NCsoft manages to release Aion soon for western markets, it`s such a sweet game it`d be a pitty if they would mess up by coming too late. Right now it would really stand a good chance for success, but competition is tight on the genre, and noone can afford to hang behind.

For further info on Aion I recommend jumping over to http://www.aionsource.com/forum/.

Boonclaw

So, I forgot to mention I`m currently working on a flashgame (hopefully more than one if things go well). Teamed up with a former workmate a month ago, now we are close to finish the first title, and I think it`s a pretty decent one.

Anyway, of course it took us about as long to get to an agreement about how to name the team. Now that this is finally-temporarily settled I got to work on a logo and thought I could post a few designs. The usual inevitable troubles aside, it`s quite fun. Playing with bones rocks. Cellshading rocks. I should rerender everything I`ve ever done with a cellshader.

Personally I like the ones without a frame most, and I prefer the graffiti style font, makes it look less heavy metal. However, it`s work in progress, so no idea which one -if any- of them will do it.

A perfect MMORPG, it is not

Looking at the games covered on my little blog yet recently worried me.

Two out of two are MMORPGs, which initially felt totally wrong since it doesn`t seem to reflect myself as a gamer. I`d rather see myself as a console player, being into action games, racing, action adventures, and so on.

Rethinking the issue I fortunately found MMORPGs being perfectly fitting in here since the blog`s title is “a perfect game, it is not”, and I can hardly think of a genre being farther away from perfection.

Now, should the tone of of my two MMO-impressions posted yet be on the positive side, that`s mostly because I am incredibly pleased by every improvement I find, -which is something both of them may rightfully claim to offer.

However, despite my opinion of MMORPGs being anything but perfect, I still love the genre for it`s promise, for the potential to grow. I guess it`s save to predict shooters in five years will -more or less- be what they already are, but MMORPGs?

So, what`s my prob with today`s MMOs, the games millions of players love and sometimes almost dedicate their lifes to?

Well, first of all, and admittedly on an overly critical view, I wouldn`t consider MMORPGs  being games at all. 

A mate of mine likes it to devaluate “Eve Online” as being nothing but a huge Excel-file with a shiney layer of graphics above it covering the math. Unfortunately he is right, but even worse…continuing the thought it applies to almost all current MMORPGs.

In the end they all boil down to throw math against math, damagevalues against resistancevalues. The influence players take on all of this is hardly more than the time they are willing to spend in order to push up their math. Yes, position and approach to an encounter have a small impact, but honestly, usually the outcome of a fight is pretty much predefined before you even start it. And the tactical approach quickly turns into a pattern to be repeated over and over again.

Anyone up to argue about all games being built up on math, on a close look? Let`s just say there`s a difference between math being used as a framework for a game (eg. physics for a racer) as opposed to math being the game itself.

Let`s move on to the goodies, the reasons why so many people -including me myself- love the genre.

As I see it, reasons can be boiled down to two (later edit…three) major points.

The first of which being quite obvious, social interaction. It doesn`t matter if one prefers playing in a group or tends to solo as much as possible. You see and you are seen. You seek PvP or you try to avoid it. You measure your characterlevel against others. You take a brief look at the chats going on. Social interaction is a constant factor, and every MMO player appreciates it to a certain degree.

The second reason which keeps us playing is easily as strong: Achievement.

Next level, better armour, new skill, MOUNT…and so on. Achievement is a great motivation, and certainly a core element of most gamegenres. Plus, combined with the social aspect it makes for bragging rights, something that seems to be quite desirable for many people, but that`s just a sidenote.

Let me get back to my cheeky statement about MMORPGs not being games. Here is my point: Games are entertainment, not achievement. Achievement, as stated above, can be a big part of a game, but it`s not a game in itself. On most MMORPGs it unfortunately seems to be the one and only known principle.

It`s not about what I do that gives me satisfaction on a MMORPG (eg. taking the perfect line on a turn, to stick with the racing example), it`s almost only what I achieve. I know I may be exaggerating a little here, but it helps making the point. So here we have it, what I miss is anything worth to be considered as gameplay. Decent puzzles, playerskill-based fights, maybe jump&run, something entirely new and unique to MMOs…just anything.

Oh well, my mistake, I missed something most MMORPGS indeed offer, exploration. Make it three core reasons to play MMOs then.

Anyway, it`s obvious that one reason for missing gameplay innovations within the genre is to be found in technical restrictions, or what most developers still seem to see as such. Games like Spellborn show that issues like slow connection speeds / transfer rates not being capable of realtime events can be solved though. It`s a pitty it takes a relatively small team with a mediocre budget to bring up the first innovations in ages,especially considering how many “big ones” tried and failed there. Anyway, shows us there`s a glimpse of hope.

But it`s by far not only the industry to be blamed for stagnation. Players themselves are hindering progression by being unwilling to honor improvements, they are rather sticking to the small universe they know already, even if it`s outdated, digging their own graves of boredom.

This seems to happen everytime a genre receives an incredibly well selling, mass-appealing game. Eg. Counterstrike had a very similar impact on the shooter genre. And yet, though slowly, shooters evolved quite well, so again, there`s hope.

Anyway, i decided to write my own  personal “perfect” MMORPG. I`ve silently set sail, left the harbour unnoticed, and -pitty- thus will get lost on sea unnoticed as well.

To give you a final laugh, first thing I did was removing one of the core systems of every MMORPG, characterleveling;) May sound weird, but I think it`s a curse that needs to be removed. More on that later maybe.

The Chronicles of Spellborn

Second look at a game, MMORPG again.

I almost feel a duty to drop a few lines about this one, it just deserves some attention.

Last time I have been on about Age of Conan and it`s fighting system, how I was eager on it before release, disappointed when it actually launched, and happy again when I tried it a few month later.

Well, the Spellbornstory is much shorter. I have been following it`s development for quite a while, had high hopes especially for the fighting system again, and it delivered.

To me it`s an outstanding achievement. I`ve been desperately waiting for a MMORPG to deliver appealing battles for years, and where many failed, the Spellbornteam deliverd. Which deserves an extra applause considering it`s a relatively small team (as far as i know), and on a tight budget.

The system itself is probably a bit hard to describe, but they managed to implement active aiming, active dodging, and both without cutting down useable skills. It requires movement and actions similar to a shooter, but keeps skillusage alive. Additionally your skillset requires some thoughts and planning to make it flow well in battle, which I really like, reminds me on GuildWars a little.

The second great thing about Spellborn is how equipment, such as armour, is free of stats. Players can wear what they want, and look the way they want, anytime. Mages can use huge blades, warriors can use daggers, it`s just looks. Although I feel that this “mindset” of what a MMO can be like isn`t implemented with final consequence, it`s a big step to the right direction.

Spellborn`s graphics are a somewhat mixed bag. If you want to complain about it you can find plenty of things which don`t look that great. Lowpoly models, weird LOD kicking in way too early on characters, cheap shaders, and so on. BUT…the general artdirection and love for the scenery really makes out for those downfalls. The atmosphere is just right. Oh well, and to name a technical highlight, the skydomes (which actually don`t draw skies but huge caves) look awesome.

Unfortunately it`s not all shiney. The whole gamestructure is incredibly hardcore, oldschool RPG. Questdescriptions require concentrated reading, and even then some things remain puzzling. You get send across wide areas, running around till your shoes are bloody. Mobs are quite agressive and hard to avoid. Attributes and some skills can be a bit confusing at times. Cut short, there are almost no aids for players. Some might appreciate that, but I am quite sure the mass of players tends to be annoyed from the first quest on. It almost feels like SIL doesn`t want to welcome new players, and would be rather interested in pulling everyone off with a tough start. Based on my impressions from two servers, I am worried they succeed there.

And I can`t stress enough what a pitty that would be, the game is really like a rough diamond…maybe it needs some polish, but the core gameplay is very promising, it`s fresh and more innovating than any other MMORPG the last years.

I for one wish the development team the best of luck with their game. There is a free trial available, so maybe you want to take a look at http://www.tcos.com/en/index.html

UT Mapping…

…gotta hate it!

Oki, so I recently started looking into the UT-editor and gathering some basic info about the engine because, err, it`s popular.

So far I really like the material editor, fancy little tool. For now that`s more or less all I want to comment on.

Well, and that doing levels seems to be quite complicated these days. Either the editor isn`t exactly comfortable, or the mercy times of Quake3 mapping are over. Or it`s just the lack of sparetime, how is one meant to create nice stuff besides working for a living and playing games all day?

Anyway, I thought it`d be a good idea to start with something really small, on such a reduced ambition I already decided to ditch it, at least temporarily.

The second attempt fits my mood and interests much better, so maybe there`s a chance to keep going. For some additional personal encouragement I`ll post the first steps, kinda making it an official thing. Should be a little harder to trash it then.

So, the outlines: CTF/TDM. Huge cave setting with some mediaevil/fantasy ruins.

Yet it`s just the start of the cave. I`m doing it a bit different than recommended on most tutorials, guess I`ll know soon if that`s a good idea or not. Once ready the thing shall receive some vertexpainting for material assignment, and then be split into smaller pieces.

Let`s see how many month until the next update on this;)

Fading Art (?)

Some people think games are art, some don`t.

I for one certainly do, I`d even say it`s possibly the greatest one of all. Developmentteams involve all kinds of Artist, such as Drawers, 3D-Artists, Writers, Directors, Composers and so on. I am not exactly sure weather or not to add programmers to that list, nor do I know if they would want to be seen as Artist, but considering what they can do for games they should be there too.

Anyway, my point is that when you lock down masses of artist into one office for years, the result of their efforts is certainly a piece of art. Weather a good one or not is another topic, but no kind of art is free from that concern. To those who prefer seeing games as entertainment, that`s fine, but doesn`t exclude art. Music or movies share both aspects as well.

Where games possibly even exceed other arts, is the freedom and number of possibilities they give to their audience. They don`t only offer the perspective a movie director had in mind. They don`t only show the one single frame a painter wanted to draw. They don`t tell the linear story of some hero. Games let you choose where to look,  where to go, at which pace you want to proceed, which views to enjoy, which destiny to follow. Well, at least some do.

Now here`s what bugs me.

Great Art is meant to be eternal, more or less. Good music endures for centuries, as well as paintings, sculptures, whatever. Now maybe I am wrong, but I think to a certain degree all artist strive for creating that one, eternal masterpiece. Before I started with all that 3D stuff I did music, and I know for sure I`ve always been after that one, classy melody which touches your soul and will never be forgotten. Pointless to list examples since it`s different songs for everyone, but most people have a couple of songs they will love till they drop dead.

Now how is it going with games? Masses of Artists join forces, create true masterpieces by all means, in visuals, in sounds, in story, in evoking feelings (although this is still the one thing most games fail to deliver), and for what? Release after years of work, one or two month of massive sales, usually only a few month (give it a few years if you prefer) of having players enjoying the game, and then be forgotten. Hardware changes, technology gets old, yesterday a masterpiece, today nothing but trash.

Given the greatness crafted by some games today that`s really a pity. I mean even a single frame/screenshot of some of those games can have more art to it than some “preserved” art has at all. Still, when we look at it a few years later all we can see is that the polycount isn`t sufficient anymore, and the lighting doesn`t keep up either. It`s not that my view would be any different there, but I am a bit puzzled about it. Take an old music recording, noone would tag it as utterly useless old crap just because recording techniques have changed over the years. Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin…whatever, those recordings are still as good or bad as ever.

Yes, we have retro-games, and even museums of gaming history. But if you are honest, noone really appreciates it for what it is now, it`s more like looking back to good old times with a smile, on a negative point of view sometimes even with a “can`t believe we played this crap”-attitude.

Of course I am aware a big part of all this is in the nature of games as described above. A game`s experience is not static, it can`t be reproduced. And even if it could, it would possibly take hours to get to that isolated scene you want to see again. And even if you still have a good savepoint for that scene, you would miss the way you had to endure to get there in the first place. It`s just not as simple as finding that old song on youtube, picking up a picture, or watching a DVD. Thus I guess no matter how much games improve, it will always be something to fade away quickly.

Glad I have a pointless sights section…

Dev Diaries, don`t!

Possibly a personal prob of mine, but I am getting sick of all those boring Dev Diaries. It`s just fine to offer commented gameplay or something, but why do I have to watch nerds talking about their game instead of showing it?

I think it all started with Ubi being smart enough to give Assassins Creed a face by showing us Jade. Clever move, and she “performed” really well, It`s been fun to watch. Before that we occasionally got to watch the more shining representants of the industry, the Peters, Wills, Johns, whatever. Always nice listening to them because they really breath games, or at least manage to make it look like that.

However, since about a year they show us every boring Devfreak they can find. I suppose some analysts found out Jade added to sales, and now everyone trys to copy that success, without success.

The gameindustry is not about human stars, it`s about it`s product, the games.  If I browse for gamevideos I hope to find exactly that,  and I`m pretty sure that`s true for 90% of players, be it casual or hardcore.

On the other hand being involved with development I`d also appreciate proper background info.  This means statements exceeding “Hello, I am Mr. Devnerd, and the game I work on it rocks”.

So, please give us either gameplay movies or good info, but don`t waste time with shallow phrases trying to copy Hollywood while lacking stars.