State of the Industry

Yesterday I was "doing market research" on the IGDA forums when I stumbled onto a thread about how to best revolutionize the game industry. This thread had a link in it which eventually led to a chain of links. I was eventually led to a session transcript from this year's GDC where game developers were talking about what they think is wrong with the industry. This turned out to be the most fascinating read in a while for me, and I strongly encourage anyone interested in the short, mid, and long term health of the game industry to read it too. I'm serious. If you're reading these words right now, click on the link and bookmark it (it's a long read, and few people will read it all in one sitting). I'll still summarize a couple points:

• The industry needs to find sources of money other than the traditional game publisher
• We need more male archetypes in games. Right now we have the soldier, the criminal, and the athlete. Or some combination of the three.

There was also a passage that I found particularly interesting. During the Q&A session after the talk, someone asked the panel how a young student can hope to break into the game industry and be successful. Here's an excerpt from Jason Della Rocca's response:

I mean, you may not have all the skills of a full level pro designer, but now is your time to go do something freaked out and whacky and innovative. Don't make another Pacman clone, or another Breakout, I mean, how many freaking Breakouts on there--I mean--every other student project is a Breakout clone. So when you're working in a student project, use that as an opportunity to innovate and do some just wacky crazy stuff, and maybe that is what's going to make a difference to you." And sometimes they'll say, "Holy cow, that's really cool, I've never seen that." And maybe that's your ticket in.

When I read that, I flipped out, because that's almost exactly the story behind Katamari Damacy. That game was originally some Japanese game design student's final project, and next thing you know, he has a deal with Namco. Incidentally, Katamari Damacy is among the best games I bought last year, and I've been thinking about ranting on that game for a while now.

Anyway, even if I went on, there'd still be plenty more information for the curious game enthusiast, but I'll stop anyway. This talk might be between game developers, but the implications affect the entire ladder of the game industry. From the hot shot game publisher CEO who decides what games are made, all the way to the 13 year old kid who's using his parent's money to buy a game they probably won't monitor.

Breaking news: Needle found in haystack

Back in April I posted a rant about how annoyed I am with beggars and pan-handlers in general. I have since been on a quest to find an honest beggar. Well my quest ended today. As I was on my way home from work, some guy was asking for change so he could take the subway. I was going there anyway, so this was no detour for me at all. When I offered to buy him a ticket, he told me a friend of his was asking for change elsewhere too. They figured they'd get the money faster if they split up. We made generic small talk while walking towards the subway station and I bought a strip of 6 tickets. He seemed genuinely thankful when I gave him 2 tickets and we parted ways.

It's not much, but it's proof. Of course, it would be pointless for me to go over how many beggars I've encountered between my last rant and today. Suffice it to say he was the first one who didn't change his story to something completely different so I'd "have" to give him change. I really can't wait to meet an honest person begging for food money. I sure hope there'll be a restaurant nearby, 'cause a bag of groceries doesn't have the same psychological impact.

Namco DOES care!

It has come to my attention this week that Namco has been working on an update to their Tekken 5 game. Tekken 5.1 hit arcades in Japan this week and is scheduled for a North American release by the end of the month. This update addresses some problems that were found and complained about in the original T5, and also goes ahead with several engine changes, as well as tweaking almost every character in the game. This has sparked a TON of conversation within the Tekken community, with some people welcoming the announced changes with open arms, and others saying that Namco has gone too far.

The point I'll elaborate on here (if I started talking about every single change, I'd never see the end of it) is the abolition of "Tech Traps". In most recent Tekken games, when you're knocked to the ground, you have the option to hit a button as soon as you touch the ground to immediately roll on your feet. You could never block during a tech-roll, and if your opponent knew that you were going to tech-roll, he could hit you with a move that could potentially guarantee him ALOT more damage. This adds an interesting dynamic to the gameplay because, in a game with such damaging juggles, you sometimes WANT to stay on the ground, even after having half your life knocked off. One character in particular can turn a half-life juggle into an 80% combo if you tech-roll. Well that's gone now, because as of Tekken 5.1, you can now block while tech-rolling. You no longer have guaranteed damage when you know your opponent will tech, and alot of people are quite worried about this.

Some would even go as far as saying that it's retarded. What *I* find retarded is how quickly they can jump to ANY conclusion regarding this new dynamic. Removing tech traps from Tekken doesn't make the game inferior. It just makes it different. It's impossible to know whether this will have a positive or negative impact on the game until everyone's abusing it. THEN we can know for sure. In the mean time, all I see is people whining because something is different and they feel this change is un-necessary.

The main thing I see with this release is that Namco actually DOES care. When Steve's infinite was discovered prior to the console release, I told myself that this would be a true test of Namco's esteem for their hardcore fans. When the console version came out and Steve's infinite was still there, I took that as proof that Namco doesn't give a fuck what its fans think, because the community made ALOT of noise about that. It was impossible for Namco not to have known. No matter what you think of the actual changes in T5.1, this update is definitely an olive branch being held out by Namco.

The only BIG question mark concerns the console version. What do you do with that? No matter what Namco does, it involves a significant amount of risk. If you DON'T release T5.1 on console, you will have a situation where fans can no longer practice for arcade competition at home because the games are so different. If you DO release it on console, then there's the problem of making fans pay for an update to a game they already have. Their best bet is to release it as a "Greatest Hits" title, a bit like Sega-AM2 did for VF4:Evolution. Even then, some fans might be so resentful of the changes in T5.1 that they won't buy the game, even if it IS a "Greatest Hits" title.

Time will tell whether this was a good move on Namco's part or not, but I myself am very curious to get into T5.1 and see for myself. The changes all seem to aim for longer rounds with more opportunities for comebacks. That's ALWAYS a good thing in my book if done right. The timing of this update definitely has an influence on my opinion, because I was starting to get my fill of T5. The game is so juggle-dependent that I was starting to find it repetitive. Whenever I have 25% life or less, and my opponent launches me, I know the round is lost and I just hang onto my controller in case he messes up his juggle. It sucks to know the outcome of the round so long in advance. Hopefully, there won't be too many new doors open for OTHER ways to inflict sinful amounts of damage on your opponent.

Anniversary Rant

On this, the one month anniversary of my last rant, I feel it's time to set the record straight. I've been letting myself go as far as blog posts are concerned, and I hope to get back on track. But first, an update: For the second half of June I was on vacation. As great as it is to love your job, it really doesn't compare to being on vacation from a job you love. I was actually pretty busy at first because I was working on an unrelated project I had previously agreed to (that's the only reason I even GOT vacation like 3 months after I'm hired), but once that was over, I punched in some serious R&R. I also took a "technology holiday", which is why I didn't post anything here. The thought of doing anything even remotely technical was revolting at the time. Kinda like a surgeon who cuts his meat with a scalpel when he's away from work. I barely did any browsing, and I ceased to exist entirely on MSN...

I gotta admit I kinda freaked out yesterday when I realized I had let an entire month go by without an update. The problem certainly isn't that I've run out of things to say. I've had rants backed up for a while now, some of which I'm saving for when/if I have a true readerbase to speak to. I guess I've just had trouble finding that special balance between having the time to blog, and the energy to do it. But that shit's over now. Blog on!

Game on for Nintendo!

DS owners everywhere, our prayers have finally been answered! Half-decent games are actually starting to come out for our handheld. There was no doubt in my mind that it would eventually happen. Castlevania: DoS was reason enough for me to look forward to playing something kick-ass on my DS, but it turns out that I won't have to wait until the Christmas season. Kirby: Canvas Curse came out a couple weeks ago, and even though it seems to be a clone of Yoshi Touch & Go, the review did a good job of making it stand out and earn my respect for it as its own game. Unfortunately, it's just not my kind of game. If it was, I would probably already own Yoshi T&G by now. The game I'm REALLY talking about is Meteos, which game out at the end of June. The gameplay is very similar to Bejeweled on the surface, but the differences are significant.

You have to align different-colored blocks to form lines of 3 or more. You can only slide the blocks vertically, which will take alot of getting used to for people with lots of Bejeweled experience. For more details, you can read the review, but suffice it to say that Meteos has everything I want in a DS game: Personality, challenge, strategy, and the ability to play for a minute and still have a worthwhile experience. I encourage everyone who's into puzzle games to get themselves a copy, because we have to make DS development profitable. Besides, I'm quite convinced that all DS owners are so starved for games that they'll jump on any bone that's thrown at them. Meteos is definitely a big juicy one.