Musings and Ramblings

Final Fantasy 6 (3 in the US) is just one of those games. Most fans of the series are split between 6 and 7 being the best it ever offered, and for good reason. While 7 had some great graphics for it’s time and was a lot of people’s first RPG, 6 offered a stronger overall cast, a couple solid plot twists, tons of content to explore, and more importantly, motivation to do so. While some of those statements are admittedly biased, a lot of the things that made the game as great as it was seem to have slowly been forgotten as the series went on. I’d like to point out a few of those qualities.

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Saying that the Final Fantasy series of games is the most popular story-driven JRPG franchise ever isn’t a huge stretch. However, many fans have noticed the stories in the series getting less and less engaging with each new installment. I have to ask myself though…what changed? Why did this decline come about? What did the older stories have that the newer ones don’t, and what, if anything, has replaced it?
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So a few weeks back, I was in a conversation with someone about their love and my hatred of Superman. Her argument was that Superman is black and white. You always know what to expect of him, you could always count on him, and he was always sure of himself. I argued that those very characteristics make him a boring character. Perfection simply isn’t something people can honestly relate to, and when that’s your defining characteristic, it becomes difficult to tell interesting stories.
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I got into a Facebook game called Castle Age several months back.  My brother and sister were playing it, my friends were playing it, and a lot of the gaming industry seemed to be talking about this new “social gaming” trend, so after a couple false starts with other games, I thought I’d give it a try.  Over these past few months, I’ve kept up with it.  I’ve invited over a hundred random people I don’t know to friend me on Facebook, I’ve talked friends into joining, I’ve seen other friends leave the game, and while I’m far from the strongest player, I’m strong enough that I’m satisfied where I am.  But the more time passes, the more questions I find regarding this kind of experience.
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Three months ago, I was still in student mode.  Having been in school for nearly 2 years straight, I took the month off between graduation and GDC.  At GDC itself, I knew that I would be spending the majority of my time learning from those more experienced than me (not that that’ll change once I’m working in the industry), so in some ways, certain realities didn’t hit me.  Since then, some friends and I began working on a XNA game that’s been going slower than expected.  While the work hasn’t been anything overly professional, it’s taught me a thing or two about developing and life outside of it that I never thought would happen.

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Part of the problem with having a pass for everything at GDC is that there’s always something you can be learning.  We’re not just talking about stuff you can sit in on and be bored to tears but listen for your own good.  Every person I know who’s attended lectures, even if those lectures didn’t pertain to their particular discipline, was completely amazed.  If anything, the translators for the Japanese speakers are hit and miss.  I really think there might have been more to grasp from Akira Yamaoka’s presentation, but I got the impression that a lot of it might have been lost in translation.

Having all these sessions that I’m excited to attend and really want to learn about is great and all, but there’s one small problem:  Am I learning too much instead of looking for a possible job?  After all, that is my “official” reason for coming to GDC.  I have had the opportunity to talk to several people from different companies and really have some meaningful conversation with them, but the fact that I’m looking for work doesn’t always come up, and is something that gets one small mention before we move on to more interesting topics.  Is it such a bad thing that I’m not directly and purposely looking for work? Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday ended the tutorials and summits here at GDC.  After my experience with the Game Design Workshop during day 1, particularly the poor results of the Emotional Peanut Butter Cup exercise, I was skeptical about going back.  However, we ended half way through the last elective yesterday and I’m not one to leave people I’m teamed with hanging, so I went back.  My teammate and I both had great ideas going into the day, and we already had half the game in place, so we were able to get into play testing really quickly.  We iterated through it a few times before joining up with another team and integrating their rule set with our own.  By the time we were done with the exercise, we’d created rules for the game which really added some dramatic moments and an overall fun game. Read the rest of this entry »

So I’m finally here…GDC.  With an All Access pass nonetheless.  This conference has been my own personal Mecca ever since I got interested in entering the game industry six years ago.   Knowing that I’ll actually be there for every word instead of simply reading the summary of a handful of keynotes is like a dream come true.  It really is a horrible attitude to have about the whole thing.  There’s simply no way that the conference will be anything like I was expecting, and I’m finding that out fairly quickly.

So the first two days of the conference are the Summits and Tutorials.  There’s a ton of them, but I decided to learn a thing or two from working side by side with experienced designers in the two day Game Design Workshop.  The day consisted of the main session and two electives, each of which gave a group of people a design challenge and a set amount of time to come up with a solution.  You’re never with the same group, or even the same number of people, so the dynamic of the group and the lessons to be learned change from elective to elective.
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One of the things I’ve always harped on about sequels is that they should be able to stand alone. You should be able to read Lord of the Rings without having read The Hobbit. Same with Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Even TV series, such as Firefly or Samurai Jack, should be something that any new viewer can pick up and not feel completely lost. If you can’t draw the viewer / reader / player / consumer in after any major break in the story, then you still have some work ahead of you. Not that I don’t like series that build on the previous episodes or installments. It’s more that there needs to be enough to intrigue the consumer within that particular installment without them having seen what came before it.The last couple games I’ve picked up have only solidified this opinion for me.
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Well, lets get this thing started!  I’ll admit, it’s not the prettiest site at the moment, but I’m hoping to change that in the next couple days.  For the time being, enjoy!