The Chaos of GDC.

My life long goal has to become a Game Designer. I know most people say shit like that all the time. Lets be frank, they think video games are cool and every one has an opinion. You know what they say about opinions, right? Well the same goes for game ideas. I don't have game ideas, that's not what I do. I mean YES of course I have ideas of what a cool game would be, or an idea about a game, but im not delusional and trying to pass this idea off to a company and expect them to hire me because of it. I use my idea's to make things better, to make my design choices and why I make them.

I'm getting off topic though so let me digress. It has been my dream, my one goal, to go to a GDC or an E3 convention. Not as some random kid that can pay for it, but to go as a Designer. This year, this day, has been the realization of that dream and that lifelong goal. I've met with and talked to people in the industry. People that are doing what I want to do. I talked to the, as an almost equal. I say this because I am still a student and have A LOT to learn. Today though, today is by far one of the best days in my life.

I'm going to mention a few of the people I talked to today, mainly those people who gave me there buisness card and seemed genuinely interested in me as a potential candidate or just enthusiastic.

1. Blizzard Entertainment - Joshua Mosqueira - Lead Designer.
I sat with and listened to another designer talk to Josh about what blizzard wants and is looking for, and as Joshua started talking, I could almost finish his sentences. I knew what he was going to say, and everything he said they are looking for is what I do. After that person left, Josh and I, talked about how I could stand out and show Blizzard to hire me even as an entry level. I then asked him a tough question "What can I do to make Blizzard want to hire me as an Entry Level designer?" I asked this because he said they normally don't. He laughed and then told me that was a good question. I enjoyed stumping their lead designer. His answer, well that's for me to know ;) I got his card, and I am quite happy with our talk.

2. High Voltage - Mikah (sp?) - Designer
Mikah is a hard man to get a hold for sure. A lot of people want his attention and so I had to visit the booth more then once to catch him. Even then, I walked with him to get coffee and begin our conversation in transit from his booth to the coffee shop. Mikah was really interested in my D&D background and my story concepts for D&D. He spoke about how he spent a small fortune putting out supplement books and that's how he got hired. I plan on submitting my resume, and concept ideas to these amazing people.

3. Riot Games - Tom Cadwell  / Ryan "Morello" Scot - Design Director / Lead Champion Designer
Ahh Riot, how I love thee. I talked with Morello in a small group of interested people today. Listening to his rants and talks are quite seriously the most inspirational I can think of. He is by far the most passionate person I have seen here at GDC. His talks of how he hates Soraka, and listening to him destroy a potential designer with simple design questions, was amazing. I asked a few questions about High End game play and how about 50% of champions are played and what they are doing to fix the other 50%. Then I asked about Graves and why did they go with a shot gunner and not a dual pistoleer.

I talked with Tom on a more employee / employer relation and asked about the design jobs and how they weed out or do design testing. He said he was going to send me a design test and see how I do so I can be evaluated and make sure that I can fit in and my train of thought is on the same page with the people at Riot. Getting that chance and opportunity is just amazing.

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There are soo many more people I talked to and I will continue to post about my amazing adventures today and the upcoming days of GDC. I cant wait for the connections on LinkedIn, the emails, and just the opportunity. Thank you to every one today, and I hope I can secure a job some where! Right now though my feet are killing me, and I have a 10 page report I need to finish up.
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Final Project: Pitch Preparation.

So after fleshing out both games, we were tasked to start prepping for our pitch. For those of you not in the industry a Pitch is where the developers 'pitch' a game idea or two to the publisher, asking for money or backing of said games. The publisher asks questions and then decides what game to back or invest money in.

Here at Full Sail, the Publishers are our Teachers and Lab Assistants, we pitch 2 ideas to them through a power point presentation. They listen and ask questions and then decide which game for us to start to make for Final Project.

Yesterday though, we got drilled on our game Gravitas, our Gravity game. I went from being 100% sure on this being a great game, and having it all figured out, to being bewildered at how many things I didn't know the answer to. The main question that I started to dread is just a simple 'Why?'. Why does this world need to be octagon shaped, why cant it be flat? Why does he need to walk on walls, Why is it a robot, why, why why...

Our racer game, Starburst, which we have spent less time on, seems more fleshed out and a viable game then the Gravity game which we had fleshed out the day before. We spent all lab trying to justify WHY we wanted the features in our game.

I have a lot to learn, but I am looking forward to every bit.

-Michael Isaacs

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Final Project!

Ladies and Gentleman, it is finally here. My time has come, the stars have aligned, and the sun has shone on backside... Final Project! The next 5 months is the culmination of everything I have been fighting for and struggling to get to. From finances, to illness, it all boils down to this. 12 people. 1 producer, 3 Artists, and 8 programmers. 1 month of Design and Documentation, with the next 4 being the coding, iteration, and bug fixing.

This Saturday we pitch out 2 game ideas:

• a Space Racer with full 360 degree thruster control and movement, multiple track types, abilities, and ship choices, exact numbers TBD. We have a slingshot / drift ability as well with a defensive Pulse ability to beat back those pesky drifters.
• The second being a adventure puzzler, that takes place in am abandoned subterranean metropolis, Our main character has a gravity belt allowing him to shift gravity in 1 of 8 different directions, localized around him self. Letting him reach abnormal places easily. Creating unique and challenging puzzles with the use of this mechanic and traps.

Both game ideas are well thought out and well loved by the team. No matter which one is picked by the staff, we will enjoy this experience. We have a practice Pitch presentation on Friday. Wish us luck.

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Aspiring Game Designer, currently 5 months from Final Project At Full Sail: Here's my 2 Ideas for Champions.

I've attended the Riot Game presentation at Full Sail, with Steve Snow. I've talked to Pendragon here on Reddit. So before I submit a resume, I wanna see what you guys think about my 2 champs.

All names of the Champs and Abilities is subject to change. None of these have precise #'s because I don't the exact details of ratios and base stats for each champ.

So here goes nothing:

Desc / Thoughts on Champ: I made Rohan from thinking of a tank that is supposed to do that. Tank. He is supposed to support allies and absorb dmg, while keeping people safe. I take the "Hold the Line" Ability from a Warhammer Online. "Bash" is from any MMO with a Tank class, WoW, or SWTOR, or even EQ. They all have a Shield bash w/ stun. I didn't like giving Rohan a Stun, it means hes to offensive IMO. So a Knock back seemed more defensive. "Warcry / Battle Retreat" is an ability that is going to be a difficult one to know when to use it and when to not. It may be to easy to GRIEF players so it may need a rework. His Ult, comes to mind when some one sacrifices their life for another person, a body guard, royal guard, etc etc, I think it fits his style well. If used properly it could turn a fight around I think. I might put a limit on it that requires Rohan to have at least 25% of his life remaining to use it. This would stop people waiting for like 100 HP to use it.

Rohan, Royal Guard of (insert name here, Ionia, Demacia, Noxus)

Q - "Hold the Line" : All allies withing 10 yds and BEHIND Rohan take 2/4/6/8% reduced Dmg for 3/3/5/5/7 secs.

W - "Bash" (This name is crappy): Smashes the enemy with his shield, causing dmg + AD, pushing ALL champs in front of him back 5 yds

E - "Warcry / Tactical Retreat"": On 1st Activate: Buffs all Allies Armor / MR/ and AS by 2% for 2/2/3/4/5 secs. On 2nd Activate: Reduces all Allies Armor / MR / AS by 1%, but increases Move Speed by 5% for 2/2/3/4/5 secs.

R - "Good day to Die": Sacrifices his life to heal target ally for 25% of Allies Max Health, and also dealing massive AOE Dmg around Rohan.

Passive - "Inspiring Presence: All allies within 50 yds of Rohan gain 2% HP Regen

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This next champion came to me while I was at a Redlight omw to Full Sail. I had to quickly pull out my Design Notebook and jot it down. So this one isn't very well defined, so please be kind.

What this next champ IS though is unique, I've heard people bitch that Riot's recent champs, all have: A Gap Closer, A Shield, and a Stun. That each KIT is not very unique and is a mimic of other champs with a few minor changes. I tend to agree. Xerath feels likes a Long distance Lux with a stun, Graves looks like a MF clone, with like a Teemo Blind. I love Riot but the staleness of champs when you get THIS many is evident, and people want different. So, here is MY take on what a GUN Slinger champ should be.

What makes this champ unique is 2 things. His ULT and this Ammo System. I will go more into the Ult when I talk about it later on in this post. For a lack of a name because I think this kit would fit Graves, ALOT Better, I will just call him "Gun Slinger"

Ammo System: The Gunslinger has 2 pistols, each pistol has 4 bullets (I did 4 instead of 6 to tweak him, if lower ratio or base dmg, his ammo count can be increased) This would take a small GUI update instead of a Power Bar, I'd like 4 bullet icons left side is for left Pistol, Right Side is right Pistol.

Every time you use an Ability it fires from one or the other gun, depending on the Ability (Q is left, W is Right). Once he is out of ammo, he must use his E to reload. If he has no AMMO the ONLY ability available to use is his E and R. Each use of his Q and W take 1 bullet from that gun. Lets now explore his abilities.

(I dont have names for all abilities yet as I JUST made this champ up at the redlight this morning)

Q - Left Pistol: Each shot ignores a % of the enemies Armor, each Subsequent shot with this pistol will reduce the MR of the Enemy Champ. Deals AD dmg.

W - Right Pistol: Each shot ignores a % of the enemies MR, each subsequent shot with this pistol, will reduce the Armor of the Enemy champ. Deals AP dmg.

E- Restock: Gunsligner stands still to reload his pistols, starts of slow, and goes faster the longer he stands still. Depending on how long and how many bullets were reloaded, Gunslinger gains a % of HP Regen for a time. If all 8 bullets loaded 5%? if like only 4 then 2%...

R- "Quick Draw" or "Make em Dance!": Instant reloads and Resets the CD of Q and W. You have 5 secs to input a Combo of Left and Right Pistols, up to 4. Depending on the ORDER input, a different buff would be applied. (Will explain more below)

Passive- "Out for Blood": Every time his Q or E dmg's an enemy champ, Restock(E) CD is reduced by 0.5 sec max of 2 secs

More on his R: This is taken directly from Unreal Tournament's Adrenaline System. If your not familiar, you pick up pills to get 100 Adrenaline then depending on combo of UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT keys pressed different things happen. Invisiblity, HP Regen, Move Speed, Extra Dmg, etc etc. I think the same would be a bad ass kit for Gunslinger. You Press R, then pick the 4 gun Combo, Q,Q,Q,Q, Your R is now Primed. Press it again to fire. The Buff you have loaded would be indicated by an Icon or Glow around your character. Think TF Cards.

Some Examples:

• Q,Q,Q,Q - Move Speed Buff: Yellow Glow , or Boots Icon above your head. Your R would increase your MS for some time.
• W,W,W,W - Speed Debuff: Red Glow, Boots with Cross through them. Your shot would slow the Enemy
• Q,W,W,Q - Atk Spd Buff: Next shot increases your AS speed.
• Q,Q,W,W - Next shot does true Dmg.

The list of combo's is limited by the only 2 different guns, So the types of buffs are limited, I don't expect EVERY combination to do something, maybe just 4 of them.

Well there ya have it. This is the first time, I've submitted my idea's to the public, so be gentle. I hope you enjoy them and wish me luck, on my Application to Riot.

Flame On.

Cinematics, cut-scenes, and storytelling.

I was reading this article ,GDC: Online "The hand of Fate", and it got me thinking. As a Inspiring Designer and an avid gamer, how many times have you "Skipped" to the end of a cut-scene or movie? I normally watch a majority of them but if they drag on, or im not really invested in the game. I will skip ahead and get back to the game. Most of the time that's because, its not interactive, and I'm quite frankly losing interest.

Mass Effect, KOTOR, SWTOR, and other similar games give you a choice or some sort of interactivity during these story episodes of dialogue, tell this guy off, agree, help him, etc, etc... It may not be much but it keeps me focused and lets me know "Hey your interaction is wanted and is important to us". Otherwise its: Oh cool story or bathroom break.

How can Game Designers make this happen less? As a gamer how many times have you skipped over a cut-scene? Was it because you just don't care about the story, or was it too long? Not interactive? If they gave you some choices or options during the cut-scenes would you be more invested? What about those Quick Time Events like in Resident Evil, that's the only one i can think of at the moment.

IMO, I think giving more interactive options and or quick time events make the player care about whats going on. A Cinematic every now and then, is perfectly fine, I mean look at Warcraft III, amazing cinematics! Blizzard is known for it, I LOVE watching those, other games, not so much.

In your opinion, what can game designers due to keep your interest in the main story? How can they get you invested as a player to care, about your avatar and his plight?

Quick Update / Invisible Walls and Player Limits

A Quick Update:

I'm back in school and life is going well. I should graduate in June 2012, which means life is back on track. It's now time to start blogging again. So the next few topics up for discussion:

• Invisible Walls, Player Limits, and how to properly block a player's access.
• Open World vs. Sandbox
• Linear game-play vs. Non Linear game-play
• Free 2 Play vs Subscriptions
• Animation Techniques: Skinning Vs. Articulated (One of my classes this month is Real Time Animation)

Those are the topics I wanna cover in the next few blogs... Today, Invisible Walls and Player Limits...

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The Invisible wall, and how I hate thee.

Designers and programmers must limit were a player can go, its something we cant get around... Even open world games like Fallout, must have an end. So they have to limit where players can and can not go. Fallout is a PERFECT example of how to do it right. Where as so many other games do it horribly wrong...

As a player, I want to explore, I want to see where I can go and look for hidden items and or Easter eggs. But when I'm trying to climb over this mountain and or I run to the end of the "road that's ridiculously long and leads to nothing" then I hit a invisible wall... What runs through my mind, isn't "Oh OK. I guess I cant go here.." its more like "WTF, this is stupid, another invisible wall, this game is already pissing me off!" If you want to limit where a player can go, that's fine! Whats not fine, is just tossing up a invisible wall... If yo want to stop me from going past this point. Block it off, put a rock slide, or a road that has collapsed, or a tunnel that's collapsed, or a Tree or like 10 that have fallen, or a land mine field. Give me a REASON that is plausible to me as a player immersed in your game, could believe. As a programmer / designer, I know you just didn't want me to go there. That is something I'm OK with, as long as its done in a non blatant NO! in the type of a blank wall I cant walk past. So many developers do this because it is quick and easy, but it ruins immersion, it ruins the fun of exploration, it seriously hinders the experience of your game when you do this.

Another player limit that is more of a player safeguard then anything else but, it still ruins game-play... Limits on bridges, and lava pits, and other OBVIOUSLY deadly areas.... As a player and a programmer / designer, I want to see where games LET me go, or do. I am that guy that tries to jump off the bridge of utter doom, just to see if I can. And about 95% of my experience as a VERY addicted and avid gamer is that the game wont let me. Why? No reason, it just wants to protect the player... Well I think its stupid... I mean If I want to jump into the lava pit of doom, then let me! Prime example of this is World of Warcraft, they normally have safeguards to stop you... Well in the Cataclysm Expansion, there is a Dungeon / Instance , that has a HUGE lava pit, next to a boss... As the Tank, I'm running in front pulling mobs, and getting beat on... I see the lava pit, my mind starts to think... I run directly for it and try to jump off the ledge, RIGHT after, attacking the boss. What happens? Well what do you think? I fell into the lava and got incinerated.

Was my group of friends of players angry? Not really, we were too busy laughing, and quite entertained... Why ? I will tell ya why, because it was an unexpected outcome. We enjoyed the fact that I was allowed to do something that stupid in the game. The fact that they didn't limit my movement, left us with a story I will remember for as long as I play video games.

Lets look at the alternative... I run at the lava pit, Jump, hit an invisible wall, nothing happens, we fight the boss, and  then we complain about invisible walls for the next 15 mins, and get upset at how stupid things like that are. Our game play for the day may have a negative after taste. Ya the feeling would pass, until we wanted to do something stupid again later that day, or that week.

Conclusion:

Player Limiters are needed, invisible walls are not. If you don't want a player to go some where, block it off with a REASONABLE idea, Collapsed tunnel, Rock-slide, Landmine field, or hell, do what Borderlands did, put BIG GUN turrets that blast the player if he steps out of bounds! Even then, I have a reason to not go off the beaten path. Albeit, a crappy unexplained reason, but a reason none the less.

Also, let players jump off that bridge of doom, don't try to make your game so stupid player proof. Some smart players, wanna have fun and do those stupid things, why ruin their fun?


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Games, Gimmick or Feature.

As a wanna be designer, Ive been informed to evaluate other games for the good and the bad. In a segment which I will do weekly if not more often then that will be to look over one of my favorite games and explain why I liked it. Why I disliked it. If I was in charge, how I would have made it better.

Game # 1
Fable 1 & 2. When you think of famous designers you think of a few big names, John Carmack, Cliffy B,Tim Sweeney, Sid Meyers, and then theres Peter Molyneux... Peter Molyneux is more then just a designer hes a visionary, but with his visions there needs to be restraint. The hype, the build up, the design process is unforgiving when your game falls soo terribly short of what you promised.
The Good.: Content, Experience System, Puzzles, Good and Bad system, epic story line.
The Bad: The Hype from Peter Molyneux, the Good and Bad System, Over powered combat abilities, the food system.

Explanation:

The Good - Dont get me wrong the bad list is extensive because of the Hype brought from Mr. Molyneux, you expected so much and it just fell short. All in all though Fable is an IP I love and I hope he makes more and more to finally reach his dream of the Butterfly Effect in video games.

The items, the puzzles, the quests, amount and quality of anything in these games were enjoyable, entertaining, and they truly made the game stand out. You had a tons of main story line quests but if you explored and did everything else in the game, you had many more hrs of fun with Fable. Getting a wife, tattoo's the talking doors, there was just so much to do. The experience system was unique that you gained 4 types of experience points. 1. Melee, 2. Ranged, 3. Magic, 4. General. Each one was used to upgrade only that specific type of abilities, the General could be mixed to augment any of the other three. This meant if you wanted to focus on Archery or Pistols you could, and you would lvl up your pistols with that experience. If you wanted to also get a spell to help change your fighting style up a little bit, the general orbs of Exp, would let you buy a spell to help out too. Only small discretion I had was that collecting glowing orbs of experience did kind of pull you out of the immersion of the game play. Why not just award them to the player and keep the game moving on?

Fable is really known for doing the Alignment system... The outcome of your actions in a quest would augment how people looked at you and actually the way you looked. Kick over the farmer's barrels while he was going pee, earn bad behavior points. Protect them, get Good points. This system was ingenious in design, but flawed in execution and I will go more into that later.Your actions affecting your character was an amazing feature.

The Story line of Fable has always been a big selling point for me. I cared for the characters i interacted with and genuinely had an interest in the arcs of the story. Fable 3 seems to me as if its going be grander by far more then I could expect, and I'm hoping it doesn't disappoint.
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The Bad:
Peter and his team talked about how cutting down a tree would cause this massive chain reaction later in the game that would be visibly noticeable. They talked about how everything you do mattered and changed your character. They went on and on and on. I know they are trying to sell the game, but at some point the hype becomes over hype.

The major issue with the game I had was the main selling point of the game I love so much. The good and bad system was flawed in a major way in Fable 1. Yes your character changed, yes people cowered, but at the end of the game when my Actions TRULY should matter. What did they present to you? A Simple choice of good or bad. ONLY that 1 choice mattered to alter the games ending. Save your Sister and forsake ultimate power or Forsake your sister for the ultimate power. In Fable 2 they actually got a bit better, you actions did have some effect on the world it self, people asked for autographs and or ran in terror, you got different emotes at different levels of good and bad. The Ending of the game actually had a few endings depending on if you chose, love greed, or a few others which I cant recall off the top of my head. Once again though all of the choices to get to that ending, didn't matter. All that mattered was that final choice.

The over powered combat abilities... if you played Fable, you can probably guess what ability im talking about. If you haven't well im not telling you... just kidding... Time Stop. Time Stop was a spell that slowed or stopped time for a duration depending on its lvl. This is such an amazingly broken ability because you can literally just slow time or what ever and run around hacking and slashing your way out of anything. Yes its pretty bad ass, but when you start to remove the danger from the game, it becomes a problem. No matter what skills I picked, I ALWAYS got time stop.

Last and the smallest concern I had was the food system. Eat certain foods and your character got fat or skinny based on what he ate and how often. Cool idea, but really the only things I can eat to lose weight is Tofu and like Lettuce? Everything else is fattening? I went through Fable 2 playing my Evil character and enjoying it all, until I took off his clothes to change a tattoo and outfit, to see he had a bigger keg then at a college frat house. This was just with food I found and used in combat. Trying to lose weight was impossible, since like only 2 vendors had Tofu and only like 1 piece of it at a time.


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Changes:

1. I mentioned the Experience Orbs, they are just a draw away from the immersion you could feel, be done with them and just award the 4 types of experience to the player.
2. A game with multiple personalities good, bad.. Needs to have a Neutral option, sometimes your don't wanna be the goody two shoes and or the evil master mind. Mr Molyneux, life isnt just Black & White®... (get it? HA!)
3. Story Endings. I want a lot of them. I want people I saved or let die to be in my ending, I want the mayor who's daughter I saved to come help me, or the town I stopped from burning to the ground to stand up and fight with me. I want something more then. Oh you beat the game, Here: Pick your Endings. Hogwash. I picked my ending by how i played your damn game. YOU give me the ending that goes along with the choices I made to get here.
4. Time Warp: Remove it.
5. Range Combat. steal Red Dead Redemption's gunslinger mode and slow down time when you draw your pistol but let the players shoot in like a First Person or over the Shoulder view. an Automatic Lock on is just meh.
6. More puzzles.

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Conclusion: I'm sure I can think of a few more things but it is 1:46 AM and I have a few questions to answer from some one I hope to call a friend some day, named Josh Hamrick. He worked on a little game you might of head... Halo: Reach?

So here it is:

Fable is a great series with all of its flaws and charms, Gimmicks or Features, I feel its a strong game and a very promising look for Fable 3. I just wish the Dev Team and Mr Molyneux would make my choices matter in the outcome of the game and not just let me chose  A B or C. When Im able to chose how the game ends based on that you make everything else in the game ive done insignificant and you belittle everything. Why is that 1 decision sooo important that every other ones wanes in the shadow of this one? Its a great game and I will always be an admirer of Mr. Molyneux. His visions reach for the moon and even though he comes short some times, he's at least among the stars.

-Michael Isaacs
Full Sail Student