High Dynamic Range Lying

Fans of Kojima Productions’ games have suspected for years that the various games directed by the Metal Gear creator were somehow connected, but for a long time, that connection remained below the surface, hidden only in easter eggs.

With the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, Kojima has shown quite a bit of his hand, revealing connections to other games that most uninformed gamers might miss completely.

In this week’s column, we take a look at the World of Kojima, and finally connect the dots that have been milling around in all of our minds for years.

NOTE: Parts of this article will reference later portions of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Those who haven’t finished the game should steer clear from the rest of the article until they have finished the story portion of the game.

Continue reading ‘Bringing it All Together: The World of Kojima’

Western developers and media have been, for the last several years, foretelling the fall of the era of boss battles. In an industry that, in years past, was dominated by a simple level structure, the very designers of these games are turning their back on this tradition in favor of a more asymmetrical and perhaps more beneficial pattern.

Asian developers still bother to design evil and devious boss creatures for their games, sometimes spreading them through the game at a rate higher than a single one in each level. Japanese role playing games are famous for gauntlets of boss fights, while Capcom has become famous over the years for having players replay boss fights later in the adventure.

Continue reading ‘Boss Design: Trial and Punishment’

We hear it all the time from our enthusiast gaming friends. We see it everyday on the gaming forums. We can’t avoid it in the game stores.

“This game has aged badly.”

As if it were a fine wine, gamers talk about older games as if their properties were somehow different in today’s gaming environment than the moment they first jumped onto shelves. These games do not change. Some mold, or break, or crack; but they never age. Electronic media is binary: it works or it does not. Why then do we speak of games as if they each grow thick white beards over time?

Continue reading ‘Old and New: Aging Games and You’

WIth the beta for Metal Gear Online wrapping up, players have been squeezing as much play time as possible out of the last couple days before the game goes into hiding once again. Despite being an online competitive shooter, the game has a personality all its own, reaffirming that even when taking notes from other games, it is still firmly rooted in the world of Solid Snake.

Gameplay is not the only death sentence an online competitive game can contract. Especially today, the genre is highly competitive, with fickle players and a demanding community. Having a well designed infrastructure, reliable servers, and a wealth of community features are just the beginning if a developer wishes to compete with the best and most experienced developers in the industry. It is quite obvious that Kojima Productions is new to the online gaming space, as they make a number of these elementary mistakes.

Continue reading ‘The 8 Online Design Commandments’

Depending on who you ask, this generation of gaming has either gotten more expensive than ever before, or is still cheaper than the 16-bit era. Cartridge based games did not have standardized pricing, and titles like Chrono Trigger retailed in the United States for upwards of $89.99. For those who desired nothing more than Chrono Trigger in their Super Nintendo (mostly elementary and high school students), the shock was unbearable.

Continue reading ‘Pay to Play: Game Pricing and Fleecing Customers’

Story has become an increasingly important part of gaming over the years, with more complex storylines, a large cast of characters, and more inventive ways to convey the narrative. Single player games, especially Japanese developed ones, still have large chunks of narrative in between gameplay, and many developers still refuse to let go of cutscenes and extended exposition.

In single player games, gamers usually have higher tolerance. The experience is more relaxed. Other than the player’s time, there are no other constraints. Multiplayer games, on the other hand, are a completely different kettle of fish. When presented with story element, player become impatient. While some are always impatient when faced with story, even the most patient of gamers screams for a skip button in multiplayer games.

Continue reading ‘Framing the Action: Implementing story in Multiplayer games’

I’m sure all console gamers remember a time when we all played games from a single TV. There was a time when the gaming party was commonplace. In elementary school, we called our closest friends over in droves, even if the number of people outnumbered the number of controllers. We would even play single player games as multiplayer games, trading off controllers after defeat, spreading the gaming love as thin as possible.

Continue reading ‘Online Gaming: killing our community, or bringing us together?’

A war is brewing in the world of gaming. The success of both the DS and the Wii has ensured that, if nothing else. The blight on the industry that we all call “casual gaming” has made its mark on the world, and it continues to drive sales, beating out “hardcore” titles in sales week after week. Games like Brain Training and Nintendogs have been driving massive sales for Nintendo, effectively making the DS into a money printing machine.

Continue reading ‘Bridging the gap: Making casual games appeal to enthusiast gamers’

As much as I love console gaming, there will always be a special place in my heart for PC gaming. Many of my milestones in life could be attributed to it: my first competitive gaming clan, my first high school dorm-wide tournament, and my first 40 person co-operative gaming experience. The list goes on.

It is becoming more and more obvious to both developers and gamers, though, that PC gaming is slowly changing. Where complex strategy games and western RPGs once reigned, relaxing puzzle games and twitch shooters now stand. Just hearing about Peggle on professional PC gaming enthusiast podcasts speaks volumes about the state of the industry.

Continue reading ‘Playing from Work: Why Browser Games are taking over the PC’

Games are a strange beast. Unlike other entertainment forms, they are both highly technical and technologically driven, but they’re also very artistic and visually driven. One of the most difficult parts of a game is creating a compelling and interesting visual style.

As most people are naturally visual, games often live or die by the visual impressions that people first have of them. Some are often turned off of perfectly well designed games because of their “childish” looks, while other games have turned off potential buyers because of a particularly dissonant or “bad” art style.

Continue reading ‘What do you look like? Designing an Iconic Main Character’