On this page I collect different things, views and methods on how to get into game design or how to get good results in game design. I also learn here, because I am get myself into game design at the moment – besides having made some games or prototypes in history.
Game Designer Jazzuo makes lofi games. They are more close to art than to anything else. His approach is low-designed, but upfront in attitude and I bet he will have a great future as game designer or something else in between. He uses the Game Maker software to get his stuff done. The game works are somehow cool, but even more attractive are the works with his character “John Package”.
First one
Card Trick
Jazzuo made an own doll in Game Maker he calls John Package. He controls John using mouse and keyboard, while speaking into the microphone. Because he didn’t had registered fraps (that making videos software) he limits the videos to 30 seconds, but nevertheless the quality is good, the videos are crazy and funny and I somehow really like them. And if you listen carefully, you will also hear the sound of the spacebar (or keys), that are moving the mouth open and close. Using the constraints in a clever way to get things done and to state the idea over perfection. Thumbs up for Jazzuo. (I hope he some day cleans up his website a little bit.)
Cory Arcangel describes himself as a “29 year old computer nerd from Buffalo / New York”. He works as artist in between media, game and concept art. But most of all he has a very fresh view on things that does speak from his minimal, modified works.
For a long time he is now into hacking things, especially vintage gaming hardware in favor of the Nintendo Entertainment System. He started out doing things with Beige, a “programming ensemble”, that meanwhile also turned into a record label. (You will best check out the incredible old-school Beige website to to get an basic understanding what they are about.)
The works of Cory are artifacts, some kind of derivates or moddings, that play with context of the original work. Who is Cory Arcangel? Is he a hacker? Is he an artist? Is he an actionist? Or just a nerd that likes to play? Let’s roll with the interview.
Cory Archangel performing Born To Run Glockenspiel Addendum live
Hello Cory, what is your basic concept to hooking on things?
This is hard to pin down. I really have no general interest: each project tends to be different, cause I like to tinker with stuff. Take it apart, put it back together again, etc, etc. The art part of it in many ways is a separate interest. They collide, cause basically I want these things I make to in some way to affect people. Therefore I can’t just tinker, I have to tinker with something people care about.
What does the hackers attitude mean to your life apart from building works and artefacts?
Hacking to me means having fun, playing around, practical jokes, being clever, maybe even being a bit of a wise ass.
This is awesome. Some oscilloscope connected to a PC soundcard to create a demo. Meanwhile there are not so many platforms anymore that haven’t been demoed yet. Finding new platforms is indeed a work that should be performed by demomakers. Think of plotters, robots and/or media facades, because now we have oscilloscopes:
“The oscilloscope is connected to PC soundcard and is in X/Y-mode, with right channel connected to X and left to Y input. Z (brightness) input is not used.”
You can download and listen to the audiofile in flac format
or wav to manipulate. Check the according Website on pouet.
Maybe quite cooler in style is this one. It also has the original sound and is not dubbed like the example above. And it sounds like… Right! FM-Synthesis.
I had an inspiring session with the guys around soup.io, that is a fabulous tumblelog project from Vienna. I began experimenting with it a lot and soon wrote my own tumblelog to continue the experiments. This now grew old. Useless to say, I used Ruby in Rails to get stuff done. =)
Digital Tools now presents a new section: the Digital Tools Microcontent. It’s fast paced side of the this site, where I post at least 3-5 short, but interesting entries during the day. It is a valuable source for all your tools heads out there and will serve as a daily source of creative input and inspiration. A collection of random thoughts and things I find fitting in the creative coding universe.
Ill styled quick first design.
Digital Tools Microcontent is also integrated into this page. Just look at the right side… at the sidebar. Also RSS-Feeds are available! I am also thinking on syndication and / or more community features to add. Feel free to feed back.
Whoow. There is something huge coming up. A new technique called Trixels to play platform games on 3D-based game engine.
The video shows the gameplay of Fez, a work in progress from the independent game developer Phil Fish. In this game a 3D engine is used to get an original 2D platform game look and feel – but extended in 3 dimensions. Think like a Rubicks cube. Platforming, orientation and puzzle solving will get into very new dimensions and depths. Gaming, level design experience and surprises were not possible in that form before and compared to this, first person perspective games are a failure (at least for platformers).
The technique here was developed/invented by Renaud Bédard (correct me when I am wrong), called Trixels Technology. He writes about it in his blog:
“First, everything is rendered 3D, at all times. The 2D views are just orthographic (a.k.a. isometric) views of the world from a direction or another. Since the Z component disappears, the character considers the whole world as 2D and can go from very far objects to very close objects without distinction.”
“Each visible pixel-art tile that you see while playing the game in 2D view is part of a 3D cube, which we call a trile. Each trile is a 16×16×16 volume which is formed of 4096 potential trixels. Obviously, not all trixels are rendered, else it would be incredibly slow… so only the border trixels are considered. But in the data storage, it’s basically a 3D presence array which tells the renderer if a trixel is present/on, or absent/off.”
I am really wondering how he built the clouds. Fez is still in progress, initially designed by Phil Fish with a very certain taste for colors and cute artworks. He is part of the Kokoromi collective and the gaming experience with the switching perspectives reminds me a little on Zig Zag, but not in isometric but a real 3D view.
Now, I think I am not the only one who waited for such a technique for a long time without knowing. Most of the 1st person 3D games are boring as hell or did not proceed to a good platform gaming experience. Metroid on the 2D: fine, Metroid in 3D: boring. Most of even the fun games (that ones with candy colors and blue skies) really don’t work in the first person perspective. Or until now I did not see any title yet that convinced me. Trixels Technology will be the solution to this.
Fez screenshot with kind permisson from Phil Fish.
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Why are there so few interconnections between application design and interaction design of games? I got a link from mo. to an interesting reading that fired up again the topic into my head. The article from Laura Alter is about ‘How to create a sticky user experience‘ and it gives some good points to start with.
“I suppose it’s not hard to make the leap that game developers are the kings and queens of sticky.”
Laura Alter
The high times of using game mechanics on application design are still about to come. Information through the internet is highly available and the fun of using an application can be a key issue to success. Development and programming of applications is getting more easy with lots of cool tools to support development and millions of possible features to support the user can become quite complex. Similar we can find in games: they have in part very complex control and navigation structures while the gamer at the same time learns the complex control structure gradually simply by playing the game. Good games start simple and then add complexity for the user to power up and master the area of activity.
And there we are in the Web 2.0 zone, where much applications also start out very simple and grow complex over time. A good basis for building such applications are agile software development strategies – mandatory for contemporary web-development and at least online application design. Go and read this overview article on how game mechanics can make your application more fun. Recommended reading on Digital Tools is miniature gardens and micro/macro scales to support the user and re-use of content, procedural vs. handcrafted gamedesign.
