story time in a platform world

Platform style games that tell a story

trapdoor
another world ( out of this world )
flashback
heart of darkness
ico
shadow of the colossus

Platforms style games that do not tell a story

braid

If braid was anywhere near the first list I would be bending over backwards to let it take me roughly in every orifice.

Unfortunately it isn't and it doesn't even make up the shortfall with game play. The problem with attacking the integrity of all other developers is when it comes time to slap your own cock on the table and get the tape measure out.

Also fuck journalists, they are part of the problem.

It's not even Jonathon Blows braid its David Hellmans braid, without the art the game would be awful. Thats the problem and it's also why indie doesn't mean shit, creator owned which is to say anyone that worked on the game still owns their work is the only definition that means anything and as far as I can see braid is not that.

Most developers try hard to do the best they can, very few are in the industry to make money, largely since becoming a developer to make money is an incredibly retarded thing to do.

However making games is expensive, it takes a lot of time/effort/skills/tools and therefore money. Funding this sort of behavior is where the problems arise. I have met many people capable of creating games of wonder, they are of course working hard on sponge bob square pants tie ins. This is the problem with the games industry and it is the fault of the audience.

Creating a good game will kill you, and the better it is, the more soul you put into it, the more money it will lose you and the more the audience will tell you to eat shit and die for the greedy act of just trying to break even. Giving it away for free will also get you hate mail.

Not only is it more socially acceptable to develop a major drug addiction than a game but it also provides far more opportunities for profit.

Some people will like it though, yeah sure, unfortunatly as far as I can see, whatever you do, and I mean anything you do, some people will like it. It's just random noise, any actual response to your creation will be drowned out totally by the sea of morons. This segment of the audience, that "likes it", will also turn on you in an instant.

I don't hate braid, its OK but just not for my tastes. A lot of what Mr blow says isn't that bad and some of it is even correct but I don't perceive him as having the talent or ability to back it up but at least he is trying. He is, as far as I can tell, just a frustrated writer who is good at self promotion.

This is all the standard problem of having to over hype something for 3-4 years to stand even a small chance of not losing money.

I blame the audience and I am right.

post op pussy

First the short animation, behold, MOAR available at http://4lfa.com/ where it lives



Second all the files that build it. Yup thats right the souce for the above animation is available here.

http://4lfa.com/work/004-pussy

I figure I want to keep that in svn anyway it might as well appear on the webby webby woo.

So some production notes, the animation is built in blender, lip syncing although retarted is handled by papagayo and a little custom script to apply it to the scene.

After a few tests and since I wanted some nice motion blur on the kitty as its supposed to be moving quite fast I am using a combination of motion blur and fake motion blur via blenders compositor. Nothing special but it looks to me like a combination of both gives you the best results for your render time. Just using motion blur doesn't give enough blur and the fake velocity motion blur filter goes wrong too easily. Together they cancel out each others flaws.

Again mostly fake lighting from the ambient occlusion, the lighting model may not be real but it certainly looks more real than real and thats all I care about :)

"your plastic pal who's fun to be with is more human than human"

There are two scenes in the blender file, one for rendering and one to composite the images that I get back from respower into the final result. Mixing images fades and sound.

If you pull down the work directory you will find .ogg files, blender doesn't read .oggs they need to be converted to .wav before the blender scene can use them. They are just checked in as oggs to save space.

Problem wise there are also some old wav references in that file that shouldn't be there. I have no idea how to delete them, they seem to be referenced from somewhere but I know not where.

Unhappy with the voices still, really need to get some kind of decent recording gear and work out a plan of attack for this but hey fuck it, it doesn't have to be perfect and we will get better.

But I do like the bouncing cat and the 3d cat itself which like the other characters went from original 2d to 3d perfectly.

the problem with interactive storytelling

A little statement that is prompted by this brainy gamer blog post and is in no way an attack. I'm Just pointing out exactly where the real problem is.

For films to tell a story they require an audience prepared to shut the fuck up and sit in a dark room for an hour or two.

For games to tell a story they require an audience comprised of rational humans to interpret and react with skill to an ongoing situation of unknown length.

Do you perhaps see where the weak link in interactive storytelling lies?

:)