Our Adventures
Our Adventures: We were there
Sweet, sweet, sweet Pete: give InsaneBear some good publicity. Now he has to do it. He has to!
Author: Cody
InsaneBear’s 2 year anniversary!
It’s sort of hard to believe, but today marks this website’s two-year anniversary. It’s certainly seen some ups and downs since Ryan and I started it up back in 2009, but the important thing is that it never stopped regurgitating news or providing substantial rants reviews for you, dear readers. And we certainly appreciate your continuing support! Jacob has asked me to assure everybody that your loyalty will be rewarded; our plans for world domination have been progressing nicely and our most devout readers should all be receiving their private islands very soon (that’s in bear years, though, and the conversion calculations can get very complicated).
Our Adventures: PAX East Day 3 liveblog
Game mechanics and mechanism design panel: There’s a really annoying guy sitting right next to us. Should be awesome.
-The panelist didn’t really introduce themselves, sooo, we’ll call them bald guy and guy with long hair.
-What is game theory? How to make decisions when the consequences of your decision depend on the decisions someone else makes. Using game theory, you can map out every possible outcome of a game.
-You should care about game theory because you’ll win games more and make better games. It applies out of the games industry too. He gives Wall Street as an example. Knowing game theory can really help your career advancement.
-”Single player doesn’t count.” Game theory depends on other people’s decisions.
-Now they’re analyzing rock, paper, scissors with game theory. Checkers and chess can be “solved” too. But the more possibilities available in a game, the harder it is to solve. Chess has yet to be “solved” because there are between ten to the forty and ten to the fifty power possibilities. I’m not entirely sure the point of what they’re talking about since a super computer is necessary to solve the ultimate solution to any of these complex games.
-”Zero-sum games” require a winner. “Non-zero-sum games” allow for multiple winners. As an example, the Olympics award multiple medals. Poker, a zero-sum game, involves a set number of resources that end up in one person’s hands.
-A symmetric game gives each player the same number of possible strategies. Asymmetry gives varying strategies. Street Fighter is an example of this. If you perform a move one frame later than your opponent, even if it’s the same move, it’s a different strategy. I’m really confused about the usefullness of this theory if it requires a super computer to “solve” a game.
-”Perfect information” hides no information from the player. Chess is a good example, because it’s turn-based and you can always see what your opponent is doing. Imperfect information would be like an RTS that blacks out part of the map.
-The difference between these two concepts should be important to game designers because the game completely changes based on the information available to players.
-”The prisoner’s dilemma” – Two people are in jail. If they cooperate and work together, they both get the same amount of jail time. If one person defects and rats out his partner, he gets off scott-free and the other guy is in jail for even longer and vice versa. If they both defect, then both of them get a longer sentence.
-”Three player games are almost universally broken.” If two smart players cooperate against the third player, that third player has zero chance of winning no matter how good he is. If one of those two players defects in the middle of that cooperative agreement, he has the greatest chance of winning.
-Video games have structures that enforce cooperative agreements. If one player agrees to give another money later in the game, he has to or he’s cheating. In the real world, enforcement is much more difficult.
-The “Nash equilibrium” – There’s some sort of complicated math charting saying that you only make things worse for yourself by changing your strategy during a game. If both players retain their strategies throughout, then there can only be a draw. They said something about Monopoly that seemed to bash it for being a game of endurance since the outcomes are essentially determined unless somebody gives up.
-”Meta-games” – A game where you make a new game. And they didn’t really go into much detail on that.
-”Mechanism Design” – It’s a a meta-game. DDR is a game that encourages players to dance. Technically, you could play with your hands and not dance, but the game is encouraging you to play another “game.”
-This can be applied to MMOs and other games as well. Achievements are an example of mechanism design. They call achievements lazy because they don’t actually affect the game. For example, if you get an achievement for carrying a garden gnome around the entire game, it’s meaningless. But if at the end, you notice a collection of gnomes with one missing, and they start to dance when you place your gnome with them, you somehow feel more rewarded than you would if you get an arbitrary number of points.
-MMORPGs are the kings of mechanism design. Developers will give you a reward just as you’re about to get sick of the game in order to keep you playing. Raids are an example of a social obligation that keeps you invested in the game.
-There isn’t enough mechanism design in table top RPGs. D&D isn’t a very good game (apparently). Individual player rewards are completely meaningless because the game becomes broken if all players aren’t around the same level. There’s also an issue with the complexity of combat versus social actions. You only role one die for charisma checks, but you role many dice in combat. Good point.
-Table top RPGs tend to be more fun when things go wrong for the player. If things go smoothly and players always win, like the game design encourages, it’s less fun.
-Failure needs to be encouraged.
-Casinos are the best example of game theory in the universe. You cannot beat the house, but you’ll still play.
-Umm, he’s saying stuff about Wall Street right now. My primitive intellect doesn’t understand it.
-And that wraps things up. They said some interesting stuff in this panel, but I really didn’t understand a lot of it. It also seems highly impractical for anybody without a super computer.
Our Adventures: PAX East Day 2 liveblog
Keep checking back for updates.
Just because you have an idea doesn’t make you a game designer panel: Starting a few minutes late here, so I missed the who’s who.
-Answering some twitter questions: “Can I be a game designer even if I don’t have an idea?” Yes. Can you be a creative director without an idea? No. Creative director is Miyamoto–the guy who comes up with the idea. Game designer is the nuts and bolts guy who makes levels, etc. But it’s important to note that everybody can come up with ideas. It takes more than that.
-Next question: The guy wants to become a game designer to create this one game he has an idea for. The panel says that “nobody cares about your idea.” It’s “mental masturbation.” It’s hard to convince other people that your idea is more important than theirs. Build it yourself, even if it’s only a conceptual board game. If you can’t explain your idea to someone else to the point where they can then go explain that idea to someone else just as well, then you won’t get very far.
-”Vertical slice” concept – demo a level that shows the core concepts of your game.
-Any idea you have needs to be fueled by your passion, but actually have a chance of making money as well.
-Next question: “Is programming the most necessary skill stat for a game designer?” You don’t need to have that scientific basis to be a designer, but you do need to know enough to string a system together logically. You need a tool to prototype with, but it doesn’t necessarily be have to be programming knowledge. It certainly helps, though. -C++ is the most useful language because it works everywhere. Actionscript 3, Python, Pigame.org, Unity,are all useful programs for beginning level coders. But if you’re not a coder, you might be better served focusing on your trade and finding a friend to code for you.
-”I don’t know anybody who was hired as a game designer.” You can work your way to the top, even if you start in the mail room, but nobody will hire you as a game designer right away. “Yeah, but don’t be a dick.” “No, I totally disagree with you. Be a dick…” “Okay, so be a diplomatic dick.”
-”Go out there and be completely gutsy.” You can’t just get a job out of college. You need to network.
-Next question deals with how useful design school is. You can learn great writing or level design skills at school, but school’s generally don’t teach the intangibles necessary for a game designer. The games you’ve made are more important than your education in getting hired.
-Academic institutions are a great resource for indie developers. Indie development is bigger now than ever before. “Especially if you don’t like eating.”
-If you’re going to start your own studio, you need to decide that your game will not fail no matter what. “If you haven’t made that decision, you are fucked.”
-Didn’t hear the next question because some smelly mooks next to me are talking over the presenters…classy.
-They’re discussing how important math is to game design. They give Limbo as an example of a game that probably didn’t require a lot of math in designing mechanics. Communication is the most important skill a designer can have. You need to be able to communicate effectively with all different departments of a studio.
-”What techniques do you use for brainstorming?” – “Putting people in a room where they can’t do anything else.” Coming up with initial ideas isn’t that hard, but coming up with ideas when you’re stuck is hard. “Take a few days off and do anything else.” “My last great idea, which happened a while ago, happened in the shower.”
-Question about getting your idea off the ground. Boardgamegeek.com Game jams. These are things where people just get together and make games.
-”How did each of you get your start in game design?” – “I was on a clusterfuck project that went to hell in a handbasket.” A bunch of people left and everything was going wrong, so he had to take up additional responsibilities. “Do you think failure is integral to game design?” “Oh yeah, oh yeah” (in Kool-aid man voice). Just get back on the horse. “You don’t want to get back on the same horse.” “Yeah, find a new horse.” Another guy made a board game with friends in college, which eventually led to a QA position and onward from there.
-How do you know your game’s going to be successful? Get it into as many hands as you can and listen to their feedback. If you have something really really bad or good, you’ll know. The scary part is when you’re in the middle, because that’s when you or your friends won’t be honest in their feedback. You need to understand the difference between the potential of your game and the current state of your game. Polish doesn’t necessarily fulfill potential if the mechanic is just mediocre. If you believe you have something really good but other people aren’t seeing it, find out why they aren’t seeing it.
-”Is there a time to ignore criticism?” “Almost never.” Obviously the number of people giving negative feedback influences whether or not you should act on the criticism, but you should never pick and choose what you listen to. “One of the biggest insults you can give to somebody at Zygna is ‘You seem really attached to that idea.’”
-Next question deals with someone who’s worked at a company for a couple years as a QA guy and he wants to know how he can get noticed as a designer. Don’t just say you have ideas, build solutions and demo them. Make yourself helpful to the designers. QA is almost the best way to get into design because you’re constantly looking at problems and giving solutions to games. Don’t just find a problem and give one solution, though. If you can give multiple solutions to your designers then you’ll have a design job within a year.
-”What’s the biggest dead baby you’ve ever had?” – I should clarify, that a dead baby in this context is an idea that had to be killed off. “When you make a game try to do one thing really well before you try to do many things really poorly.”
-”What if I have tons of ideas but no technical skill?” – If you have no skills you suck. Get programming or art or QA skills. If you don’t have any skills, then find friends who do and then make a game with them. You’ll learn skills in the process.
-What sort of things in an entry-level designer set off red-flags? If you have no communication skills, if you’re close-minded, or if you make eye contact (scratch that last one) then you won’t make it.
-”How does a marketer make it into game design?” – Marketing is creating something that everybody wants, so the skills lend themselves to game design well. At Zygna, almost all design decisions are influenced by market trends. So a marketing background is very useful, but it doesn’t tell you how to fix the problems in your game.
-If you’ve got all the skills but you don’t have a job, what do you do next? Make a game, preferably a somewhat original one. There’s nothing wrong with making it small. “I look good naked.” You don’t need any context for that.
-”At what point is getting into code a good idea?” After the vertical slice. Get your core mechanic down before you deal with code.
-Parting comments – “Do one thing and do it right.” Don’t overwhelm yourself with a million features. Gives Braid as an example.
“If you’re interested in making games, make games.” Do it all the time.
“Start doing what you’re doing and don’t stop.” He promises an island off of Bermuda if you do this.
Our Adventures: PAX East Day 1 Liveblog
Keep checking back throughout the day for updates!
-Just arrived at the “What the heck is a community manager?” panel, a little late, so I missed the speakers’ names.
-Naughty Dog’s community manager is talking about his responsibilities. Involve fans through forums. Multiplayer feedback,etc.
-Insomniac’s CM is speaking now. Started out programming the website. As time went on more people came under his responsibility and they were able to do more things like podcasts and such.
-Capcom’s CM is talking now. He became the CM because he always wanted to work on Street Fighter. All of them have talked about gaining the respect of the rest of the team–programmers and artists and designers don’t always understand just what a community manager does, but once they do, it’s a big happy family.
-CMs help determine what goals are realistic when developing a game. Weigh cool ideas that fans suggest vs. what’s financially feasible.
-One of the hardest things a CM has to do is explain to fans why certain features can’t make it into a game without going into technical details.
-The GiantBomb crew subtly walked in a minute ago. I told Ryan to take a picture but he wouldn’t. They left, so this must be a lame panel. Also, Jeff was wearing a bandanna over his face.
-CMs need to sift through fan feedback to find the constructive feedback hidden amongst a sea of rage.
-Insomniac’s CM “just ignores petitions.” They pay attention to emails, tweets, FaceBook comments, and other direct forms of communication.
-Arena net’s CM is discussing how the feedback that’s most likely to get a response is the logical, unemotional feedback.
-Capcom’s CM often uses forum polls to gauge interest in ideas. He also says that CMs make themselves easily available to fans who want to voice their ideas. That’s their job.
-Naught Dog’s CM is talking about the backlash that came from an Uncharted 2 patch that changed damage modeling months after the game released. He says the best way to deal with backlash is to just be open about why changes were made.
-Insomniac’s CM says that personally responding to forum rants can really calm the storm. “Being honest is really key.”
-Capcom’s CM differentiates CMs from PR. CMs don’t have to tow the company line. It’s their job to speak for the fans, so if something sucks they need to acknowledge it sucks.
-Crazy fan stories time! “I’ve ended up in a furry video chatroom once.” – Insomniac’s CM. Now he’s talking about people who call the offices everyday to try personally complimenting the writers. CMs have to handle situations like this nicely.
-Arena net’s CM is telling a story about a fan who found out that she was having a bad day, so the fan sent her a present a couple days later. Thankfully it wasn’t a furry costume.
-Insomniac’s CM is now talking about how if you want to write about games for a living, you need to start out by hanging around forums, writing, and getting to know the community.
-Naughty Dog’s CM highlights the importance of developing an individual voice.
-Arena net’s CM says journalism is one route to community management, as it’ll develop and hone your writing skills.
-Capcom’s CM says he was in the “right place at the right time.” He hired one guy right off of Xbox Live because he was a regular in the community and he ended up bringing some awesome art skills to the table. It’s a matter of some luck, but also persistence.
-The moderator comments that the CMs at Media Molecule got noticed through the levels they built.
-Now onto the question of upward movement from the CM position. Insomniac’s CM says his passion is interacting with the fans and that he isn’t in it to advance into a development role. The CM field is growing, though, and more positions are opening all the time.
-Arena net’s CM says “Different community managers have different roles at different companies.” Community management is a new field even outside of video games, and nothing’s really set in stone yet.
-Capcom’s CM says CM is “secretly the best job in the video game industry.” CM is marketing, but most marketers don’t realize this. “This is not only an awesome job, it’s the future.”
-Insomniac has five CM positions. Naught Dog has just the one, but they’re looking to hire another person. Arena net has three CMs, each working on a different language. Capcom has four CM spots.
-Q&A: This should be interesting. “Red shirt guy” – He’s a CM himself. Wondering who the panel speakers answer to in their respective companies. Do they set marketing strategies?
-Insomniac’s CM is independent, answers to president. ND’s CM answers to co-president. “We’d love to be integrated with marketing plans.” Arena net answers to customer support department. Capcom’s CM says “Be aggressive, go as far as you can.”
-Next question: How do you deal with corporate pressure?
-Capcom’s CM says “prove that you can have success and they’ll leave you alone.”
-Next question – Asking what you can or can’t say when the people above you try to restrict your speech.
-Insomniac’s CM offers that if you absolutely have to submit to the higher ups, just be honest with the community and say that you can’t say anything about the issue at the time.
-Next question: There are loud noises so I didn’t get the gist of the question.
-Yeah…
-Next question: What’s the next step to communicate with fans after Facebook, Twitter, etc.
-ND’s CM says to give the fans a way to express their voice–forums, wikis, etc.
-Arena net’s CM says you need to have a focus for each outlet you’re using for exposure. “Why do you have a Tumbler, why do you have a Facebook?” Don’t spread yourself thin.
-Capcom’s CM says “Don’t open outlets you’re not going to feed.” It looks bad if you have unupdated outlets.
-Last question: Didn’t hear it, but Insomniac’s CM said “We’re probably responsible for announcements of announcements.”
Our Adventures: Traveling to Mecca
Well, not the actual Mecca, but my personal Mecca, Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. I’ll be gone all weekend and hope to return full of brats, cheese, and the joy that comes with seeing the Bills lose. And yes, this trip totally coincides with Tokyo Game Show. I swear I don’t plan my vacations out to avoid covering trade shows! It just happened that way, and unfortunately, I won’t be able to cover all the breaking news coming this weekend. In fact, the good times have already begun, and I’ll provide according links below. But until Monday, maybe even Tuesday, you’re on your own, dear readers.
Author: CodyOur Adventures: Impressions of Witch Hunt DLC
So being that Morrigan was my favorite character in my favorite game of 2009, I was understandably excited when BioWare announced the “Witch Hunt” DLC and promised answers to some of the mystery surrounding the outspoken Witch of the Wilds. In fact, I was so excited that I went ahead and purchased my first piece of downloadable content ever…yeah. Unfortunately, the $7 I paid for this brief add-on would have been better spent on just about anything.
Author: CodyOur Adventures: Going to college
Hey, so I totally wanted to put a feature up this weekend and all that good stuff, but I’m in a bit of a whirlwind right now with the move to college. I’ll try to get things back up to snuff within the next few days.
Author: CodyWrite About Games 2.0: Giving it a chance
Come on, people. It's not like you have to carve it in stone!
So normally I would have terminated such an underutilized section of the site with extreme prejudice with InsaneBear’s quarterly refinements, but I’m going to go ahead and give this second chance of a section a second chance of it’s own. I know all of my current readers are creatively bankrupt bums with nothing to say here, but I’m hoping some of the chaps I meet at college might be interested in this sort of thing. “What exactly is ‘this sort of thing?’” you ask? Well, it’s a place where any registered user can write their own rant, rave, or any other reflections on video games. Doesn’t matter what the topic is as long as it’s tied to video games some how. Could be a scholarly essay, could be a charming poem. Be as creative or straight-forward as you want. Say what’s on your mind. Just say something! I’m hoping somebody with a passion for video games feels compelled to say something about our favorite pastime. Share it with the IB community!
Author: CodyInsaneBear is away on business
And by that I mean I’m going on vacation and not coming back until August 23rd. Yeah, yeah, I know I just shut the site down for a whole week two weeks ago, but this is just one of those things. But keep checking the site, as my good man Ryan will be posting a podcast real soon. And upon my return, it will be my first priority to whip up a mighty good feature. Until then, you should probably go outside and enjoy what little bit of the summer we have left.
Author: Cody
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