Journey

It's been a while since I've felt this way playing a game.  No, seriously.  As a person who has played more than 400 video games in his lifetime, I can safely say I've seen a lot.  Strategy games, RPGs, sidescrollers, management, simulation, platformers, shooters, games about photography, driving, sports, independent properties, franchise games, handhelds, consoles, a computer, 2D, 3D, motion-controlled, light guns, mouse and keyboard, microphone commands, cartridge, disc based, massively multiplayer, splitscreen...

There's so much more I could list if I wanted to.  For a while, I've been feeling pretty jaded about games.

But after playing Journey, I was blown away.  After I completed it the first time, I got up from my couch, let my jaw hang open slightly, and paced while holding the side of my head, hands pulling my hair and eyelids back.  It's a feeling, a mood I barely remember experiencing, but I know it instinctively.  It's like the first time I figured out a video game all over again.  Very few games inspire that kind emotion.  I can remember Portal and Shadow of the Colossus... and that's about it.  When I was younger, I'm sure I experienced it a lot more, but I have trouble remembering those years for no apparent reason.  I could likely point to Super Mario World, Legend of Zelda, and a couple other games though.

 In Journey, you play as a figure wandering the desert.  The clothes your character wears responds to cloth with the same pattern and design, and when you use your character's indistinct shout command, the cloth will also respond.  You can pick up little balls of energy in the shape of glyphs that increase the length of your scarf, which can store power that you can use to jump.

The environments are very beautiful.  The camera is often utilized to give great shots, and the simplicty and abstractness in forms is effectively utilized to guide the player.  Usually, some object in the distance becomes your target, and one you reach it you begin exploring the area, looking for a way to progress.

This often involves the use of the previously mentioned cloth, which appears in many forms.  It can flutter around in a mess of scraps, it can be shaped like a jellyfish, or my favorite, when the whales made of cloth show up.  All of these forms recharge your jump ability and allow you to float, and the cloth scrap tornados can be used to jump great distances when you use your voice.

All of these elements are demonstrated very well.  There's no real tutorial to speak of, but once you figure out how the cloth mechanics work, it becomes easy to figure out what the next step should be, whether that means moving from jump to jump, walking across a bridge made of cloth, riding a cloth whale, or using the shout to activate monuments.

Journey has multiplayer, but it is not like any other I have ever seen.  For starters, you cannot choose to join anyone's game; all you can determine is whether or not you want other nomads to appear.  If you do enter another person's game, the only thing that identifies them is a symbol - you know nothing else about them.  I don't know if it's a matter of the game's actual audience being friendly or the enforced anonymity (until the journey is completed), but so far I've had very cooperative companions.  Maybe it's because there's no way to harm your companion in any meaningful way; the worst anyone can do is simply walk off or not stick with you.  Cooperating does have benefits, though.  Since the nomad characters wear the same kind of cloth that is charged by the cloth creatures, nomads can charge up each other if they stand next to each other.

It's tough to communicate anything; you can only make an indistinct shout noise, and you can either do it fast or do it loud.  I usually just spammed the voice button whenever I wanted my companion to look at me or find me, since any time a player shouts, the direction they are in is highlighted by white on the edge of the screen.


Spoiler Alert!

I'm going to talk about my play-through.  If you ever intend to play the game and want to be untarnished when doing so, GO NO FURTHER!

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Okay, here we go.

Everyone starts out in the desert, and I was no different.  The game wastes no times in demonstrating the controls, the elements of the world, and so on.  This very first part I played alone.

I walked towards the ruins in the distance, and discovered lots of the things I described earlier.  I started growing a magic scarf, could jump around, and so on.  The first thing I walked through seemed to be a graveyard.  There were lots of headstones, staggered and strewn about in the shifting sand.  I wonder what who or whatever left the ruins behind  looked like.

One of the destroyed building had a large blank wall with a few monuments beside it.  Walking close to the monuments activated them.  I decided to shout to see what happened, and all the monuments began to glow.  A mural then appeared on the wall.  I didn't know what to make of it, so I left.

I found another monument in the desert, but this one was different.  It had glyphs on it.  When I shouted, a spot lit up on the ground, and my character automatically walked to it and sat down.  I was shown a vision after my screen faded to white, of a figure similar to my character but in white.  I was also shown an Aztec/Incan-esque mural, which I would later figure out was a mural of my journey.

I moved on to the next area, and here is where I met my companion that would stick with me for the rest of my journey.   All I could identify him by was his icon, which looked like a little fist, and I took to calling him Fist.  I'm not sure Fist was a he, but I'm gonna just use it for convenience.  Fist didn't seem to explore to like exploring a great deal, but he kept close to me pretty well.  When I met him, his scarf was shorter than mine, and it stayed shorter than mine for the rest of the game.

I ran into Fist as he was trying to make a cloth bridge.  I quickly followed suit and began helping with the effort, sticking close and shouting.  Even if we couldn't speak or recognize each other beyond the icons and the actions, there was something comforting about the connection that seemed to form regardless.  It didn't matter where we were going, or why, or even how.  We were simply brought together, and that is enough.

We continued exploring, climbing a spire, investigating more ruins, sliding down a large dune hill that seemed to take ten minutes to traverse as cloth birds flew with us and the harsh sun caused the tumbling sand to glitter like jewelry.  We ended up underground, where everything was much bluer.

The underground was where Fist and I first met something dangerous.  The cloth eaters.  They don't have any universal name I know of, but they fly, and when first introduced they eat a scrap tornado of magic cloth that powers you.

Fist and I both went on not fully comprehending the danger until a blue light shone on us and then turned red.  We were both blindsided as a cloth eater charged and struck us.  We were knocked away, and part of our scarves had been eaten.  I wasn't sure if we could die then, but I resolved either way to avoid them in the future.

Eventually, Fist and I ran into an underground tower.  As we powered it up, it caused the air to glow and fill with sigils like the ones our characters had.  We found out quickly that we could hover and fly however we wanted inside the magical air.

Once we made it to the top, we received another vision from the white robed figure after another fade to white.  The entire journey had been recapped, from our stroll through the desert to the climbing of the tower.  We were then shown the future; we would climb the mountain, where many others figures like us had, and we would succumb to the cold.

We trudged on anyways, marching right into the snow.  The snow moved like the sand, but it drained energy from the scarf.  Fist and I quickly discovered that being close to each other would overpower the cold chill, so we stuck close.  It was as if we huddled closely for warmth.  This didn't stop the lengths of our scarves from growing icicles.

Mountains are always treacherous.  Winds blew us around regularly, and we had to hide behind massive grave stones to move on.  As we went further and further up, the more our characters became covered in cracked sheets of ice.  We moved slower.  We could no longer fly or jump at will.  The ability to shout became a best a whisper drowned out by the howling vortex of wind.

There were more cloth eaters, too.  Flying around, completely unphased.  Fist and I had to use the dead bodies of other cloth eaters to hide in to get by.

Fist screwed up.  He had moved too slowly, and a cloth eater's spotlight caught him.  He hid in a corpse, but it was too late.  The cloth eater charged, and launched Fist far away.  I lost sight of Fist in the snow.  I panicked.  I thought for a moment that maybe I'd betrayed him somehow, by not doing well enough to guide him.

I panicked.  It's a very rare feeling to get in a game outside of competitive scenes, and even then it's not the same kind.  Virtual death almost always lacks permanence, and the cloth eaters are not really gruesome or disgusting. But if I lost Fist, I wouldn't be able to find him again.  If I did lose him, I'd have to complete my journey without him.  He had been there since the beginning.

I had become loyal and caring towards someone I didn't even really know in just two hours.  I wanted him there at the end, whatever that end may be. I would've felt bad if he wasn't, like a war veteran pouring out a drink for fallen friends.  The strangest thing about it is I have no idea what he felt.  The only things I could see of Fist were his movements and chirps.  Maybe that was all we needed.

Fist survived.  It took a while for him to get up, but he emerged from the snow.  We pressed on towards the summit. The light nested between the split peaks was close, but a storm rolled in.  Fist and I kept going, but we were blown left and right, and it had become so cold that every gust destroyed parts of our scarves until nothing was left.  The scarlet red cloaks with gold trim we wore were now just greyed out, a thick layer of ice drowning out the vibrant color.  The grace we used to move with was reduced to desperate staggers and uneven steps, and we could no longer speak.

Fist fell to his knees, then faceplanted into the snow.  I turned back and tried to walk into him and call out, but he didn't stir.  I only took two steps in front of him before I fell too.  It didn't take long to be buried in the snow.  The screen faded into whiteness.

My knuckles whitened as I held the controller.  That was it?  We were dead?  I could feel my hands shaking.  I waited.  This couldn't be the end.  Where was the vision?  It always came after the screen faded to white.

I had almost despaired, but the vision came. This time, there were many of the white figures, and they called out in unison.  My character's body lifted from the ground, started to glow, and grew a scarf.  I could see the light between the mount peaks, surrounded by clouds.  And suddenly, I surged forward into the sky, flying faster than ever before.  I kept flying until I hit the clouds, where I broke through and could see the mountain again.

The mountain top was surprisingly calm; no storms, no hurricane winds, no falling snow.  There were tall red archways, that shined with light, guiding me up to the surface.  They reminded me of Japanese torii archs, that mark the entrance to Shinto shrines.

Fist was flying too, among jellyfish and whale cloth creatures.  Eventually, we made it to the top, where the mysterious light had been.  We began walking into it, chirping amongst ourselves as if we were having a conversation in gibberish.  It was the only way to express anything as we walked.

We disappeared into the light, and the game ended.  A meteor launched from the mountain, and went backwards through the path we went as the credits rolled.  Eventually, the meteor landed right where the game had started, but now it was night.  An achievement notification popped up, called 'Rebirth.'  After a delay, the game listed the people I had encountered (just Fist, or crcwl4, his Playstation Network profile name).


I feel like I should say more about this game, but this post is probably long enough as is.  I'd need to play through the game again to come up with any sort of meaningful analysis, criticism, or insight either.  Regardless, I will most certainly be playing this game several more times.

Lost Shadow: Complete!

Finally, it is done!  Or rather, the deadline has passed and I no longer feel like working on it anymore.  Leonardo da Vinci said "Art is never finished, only abandoned."

For the sake of ease and posterity I will post the comic in its entirety.

Page 1:  

I re-inked this page, specifically the shadow blob and parts of the dead guy's hair.  Now it doesn't look like a poor ink job.  Otherwise, no changes.

Page 2:

No changes here either.  I think this is the best page of the comic, personally.

Page 3:

I also like how this page turned out.  I had trouble with the doors, since I had forgotten how doors work in perspective.  Drawing Dick's Bar was tedious, but not particularly difficult.

Page 4:

I'm not happy with this page, but I was getting frustrated and tired and ran out of time.  I really am unhappy with the first panel; the chairs are not properly proportioned, and they look real messy compared to the other pages.  I also should've made the hand of the shadow more clear when it grabs the cup's shadow; a lot of people have been having trouble figuring out that the shadow took a drink.  They also didn't seem to notice that the cup's shadow disappeared either, which seems very obvious to me.  I guess I should've made the cup's shadow more dramatic or somehow draw more attention to itself.


I definitely learned a lot about inking, perspective, and shadows from this assignment.  Technical pens are great for consistent, straight lines when combined with rulers.  Blocking out the environment first helps greatly in the placement of less fixed objects.  Shadows bend and distort across surfaces very oddly.  Even though most shadows are blobby, they still need a degree of definition when trying to communicate specific actions.

As I reflect on this comic, I find that I learned a lot about how I construct images.  Without a strong background in anatomy, perspective, and lighting, I tend to use reference a lot.  More strangely, I usually cobble several different references together to make something.

Take panel 3 on page 2, where the raccoon is running.  I searched long and hard for a raccoon picture running at that angle, but couldn't.  I ended up combining a profile shot of a raccoon running with another random photo at that angle.  It seems to have worked, since everyone comments positively on the raccoon.

I find myself wanting a stronger background, in anatomy, perspective, lighting, shading, etc.  I'm not sure I have the time and inclination to dedicate a worthwhile amount of time or effort that would be enough to improve at the moment.  Soon, when classes end and my time becomes more free.  I think I can do better, and more importantly, I want to.

Lost Shadow: Pages 1 & 2

Lost Shadow has been quite a challenge to draw so far.  I've been trying to get a higher degree of realism than from what I normally draw, in a medium I am mostly unfamiliar with.  I tell ya, ink is unforgiving. 

I have, however, made some progress!  In fact, I have completed the first two pages.  And now that I have found a scanner large enough to scan these sheets, I can show them.

Let's start with page 1.  Click the picture for the full size!:

This page I tried inking with nib pens and an inkwell.  This didn't turn out so hot when I tried to erase the pencil lines since the ink in certain spots came off, specifically in the large shadow blob.  Nib pens are also frustratingly difficult to get straight lines out of, which is especially noticeable on the sidewalk.  It seems to do a wave, and sidewalks in general don't have waves.  I also need to fix line consistency; the distant parts of the sidewalk have to much ink, the result of me using too wide a nib with too much pressure.

This is also where the tracing paper and perspective studies in the earlier posts were used; as you can see, I used my own face to model the dead guy from.  The perspective issues have been hopefully resolved, although I think my right leg is slightly too long.

Of all the things I'm proud of on this page, it's the bushes in the first panel.  Not because they're particularly gorgeous or anything, but because I figured them out entirely on my own.  Just went out, looked at a bush at night under a street lamp, and translated it into ink.



After experiencing great frustration with nib pens, I decided to switch to technical/disposable pens.  That way I wouldn't have to worry about inconsistent line width.



Page 2:

I am MUCH happier with this page.  It looks a lot cleaner, the ink is more even, and it sorta looks like I actually know how to draw.

This is largely because you can easily use a ruler with a technical pen, and that gives you very straight and crisp lines.  They're difficult to make really large, but this page wouldn't be served much by large lines anyways.

I also opted to use a brush pen to fill in large spaces rather than a brush and inkwell.  Sadly, I think I've used up most of the ink in it as a result (it was already old and used, but still).

Of all the things on this page, the people that I've shown it to beforehand really like the raccoon a lot.  It was rough trying to draw a raccoon walking/loping/running since there aren't many pictures of it from this downward tilted angle, but I think it turned out well enough.

Now that I reflect on it, there's this strange sort of balance of realism and abstraction going on.  The bushes are angular blobs containing angular blobs, the texture of the road and sidewalk are hinted at with little dabs and tiny lines, and even my face has a mixture of specific details like the eyebrows mixed with more simple forms like the hair.

I stole the sign from the internet, albeit it has been modified:

I hope no one sues me or anything!

Lost Shadow: Tracing

One trouble I've found with physical media is that it can be very hard to copy things with complete fidelity.  If an element needs to be repeated, it often ends up looking a little different if otherwise largely the same.

Thankfully, someone smart and cunning figured out that light shines through paper, and paper stacked up underneath other paper sheets becomes visible on the surface when a bright light is shone through the stack.  Especially thin and transparent paper makes the effect much more apparent.

Enter the light table and tracing paper.  When their powers combine, you have a quick and easy way of copying anything!  Hurrah!

This is what I needed to trace.  A picture of a dead guy's face.  Three times.


Thank you, tracing paper and light table.  I could never have done it without you.

Lost Shadow: Perspective Issues

As I try to draw this thing, I've rediscovered the challenges of drawing something in perspective.

As in, it's really hard.  Probably too tough for someone who hasn't done any serious drawing in around 3 years.

So to combat that, I've tried to brush up on my drawing skills and figure out how to make it all work again.

This here is a study for perspective on the opening panel of the comic.  There are multiple positions, but I think the one where the man is all sprawled out works best to convey that sense of deadness.  However, the angle is too high compared to the scenery I drew, so I got some help from my teacher.

He suggested something that looked more like this.  The angle is low enough so that the character's left arm is no longer visible.  It looks better, but still a little off somehow.  I'll continue hammering it out, and hope that it looks... okay by the end.

Lost Shadow: From Humble Beginnings

I've been thinking about an idea for a game lately.  Tentatively titled Lost Shadow, the game would be a survival adventure about a shadow that has become unlinked from its source, and how a shadow survives in a world where other shadows swallow up unbound shadows.

I also have a comics class, and we have been assigned a project: come up with a 4 page story.  I am going to use the opportunity to expand on the idea.  I'll start with the extremely rough page sketches.

Page 1

This sequence shows our dead human, lying under a street light.  Slowly, the shadow peels away from underneath.  Not much to say other than this is how I see the game starting out; require the user to hit the move buttons to slide out from underneath.

Page 2

After breaking free, the first mechanic would be demonstrated by some sort of animal (I quickly drew a raccoon) running up to or by the dead body.  The animal's shadow would impact the unbound, un-anchored shadow, and knock it aside; this would show that other shadows have mass.

Page 3

This sequence shows a drunk man opening a bar door, and stumbling out.  He would leave the door open, and allow the player controlling the shadow to go in.

Page 4

The shadow enters the bar.  The original idea I had for the haze is that distorted lighting by fog, smoke, and other things belonging to the gaseous ilk would be able to obscure the shadow, allowing it to stealthily move around.

Several ideas didn't make it into this conceptual comic.  One sequence I envisioned for the game would be to show another unbound shadow sitting by itself on a wall that is lit up by a car's headlights.  If the player strays too close, an in-game engine scene would play out where the man in the car that was reading would flick the lights, signaling to someone.  There would be an ethereal sort of scream, and the shadow that was sitting idly would mysteriously disappear.  It would serve as a clue, to avoid getting swallowed up in shadow.

Another thing that I'd like to show is how unrestricted the movement would be in terms of directionality.  If there was a lit surface, the shadow could essentially move on it.  For example, one scene would be the shadow encountering a lit pool, and then traveling along the bottom.

There are other mechanics I have not yet fully thought out as well.  For example, does non-natural lighting have different effects?  What would a neon light do, or a black-light?  I don't know yet.

Research: Night Trap (The Aftermath)

Night Trap had a mixed reception when it released alongside the Sega Mega-CD in October 15th, 1992.  In terms of game play it is almost universally panned now, but when it first released it was comparatively well received.  It didn't really sell well at first, due to the expensive cost of both the game and the Mega-CD.

Things changed when in December 9th, 1993, Senators Joseph Lieberman and Herbert Kohl held a hearing about the effect of video game violence on children.

(Left to right) Joseph Lieberman and Herbert Kohl

The proceedings started with Mortal Kombat.  Mortal Kombat is a game that had actors that were digitized into realistic looking sprites.  The game was first released on arcade machines, but was ported to the SNES and Sega Genesis.  The senators at the hearing were advocating censorship of arcade games, due to the violent and gruesome fatalities (ripping out hearts and spines, for starters) in Mortal Kombat which was a problem since any child could access an arcade machine without hindrance.

The proceedings quickly shifted its attention to Night Trap.  Since it used film and looked very realistic at the time, it became the target of strong criticism.  One of the senators at the hearing, Byron Dorgan, called it "sick, disgusting trash," and claimed the game was "an effort to trap and kill women."

Like this one, which you actually can trap and kill if you complete a perfect run!

 
The criticism was off-base; the game was about saving women, there was only a little blood, and the blood that was featured was not shown in a gruesome manner (nobody was disemboweled or even cut).  The violence was largely limited to shoving and pushing, and a few explosions when Weird Eddie and Danny use their laser guns to blow up some Augers.  Some of the girls were dressed in night gowns and other sort-of inappropriate wear, but again nothing explicit at all.

The senators were not the only ones building up Night Trap as some sort of women-murder simulator.  Nintendo of America's Howard Lincoln was pushing to make Sega look bad.  He would edit the footage presented to the committee, which lead to the spread of the infamous Bathroom scene.

 

Tom Zito, head of Digital Pictures and creator of Night Trap claims to have attempted to defend the game, but was silenced at the hearing.  Rob Fulop, a co-creator that would go on to create the Petz games, also claimed that the game was simply a victim of politics rather than any serious censorship; Lieberman and Kohl wanted to gain easy credibility and political capital, and leading the crusade on games was a safe bet since no large group of people were going to protest applying ratings to games.

A week later, on December 16th, KB Toys and Toys 'R' Us pulled Night Trap from their shelves, to maintain a family-friendly image.  These bans and the hearing gave Night Trap a ton of free publicity, and many people began buying the game to see what the controversy was about.  As a result, Night Trap was financially successful despite all the negative attention and criticism.

 The committee decided that games must be rated, censored, and regulated.  They issued an ultimatum; come up with a ratings system, or the government will make one.  Fearing extensive repression, multiple game companies began scrambling to create a system.  Sega had a system in place, but the criteria for ratings and the ratings themselves were considered too vague.  Several companies banded together to form the Interactive Digital Software Association [IDSA] (now the Entertainment Software Association[ESA]).

Since the IDSA doesn't seem to have a logo, this one will have to suffice.

The IDSA would eventually become responsible for a lot of things.  It handles the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which is considered to be the biggest trade fair for games.  It also handles copyright infringement cases involving games, and combats government censorship and regulation of gaming.  Most relevantly to Night Trap, though, is that the IDSA would create the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).

The ESRB does exactly what the name suggests; rate games.  A game is sent in for certification and after having volunteers play through the game, it is given a general rating which is elaborated on by content descriptors.  For example, a game might be rated 'Teen' because of mild gore, mild violence, foul language, and so on.

Some example ratings.

Retailers began building policies around the ESRB rating system.  Unrated games would never be sold.  Games rated 'Adults Only' would also not be sold in most stores.  As a result, most game developers try to avoid the 'Adults Only' rating and in effect censored themselves in order to sell through brick-and-mortar stores.

Other countries also followed suit.  Germany and Australia in particular expanded government regulation to games shortly after the United States hearings on Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.  Australia in particular can ban games by simply refusing to classify them.

Research: Night Trap (The Game)

You see what I have to deal with?

Night Trap is not much of a game, at least by modern standards.  The level of player input is very minimal; the player switches between camera feeds in a house and activates traps to defend innocent in said house.  Not particularly exciting by any stretch of the imagination.  Truthfully, such was the fate of most FMV (Full Motion Video) games.

The game places you in the role of 'Control' in the Sega Control Attack Team (Special Control Attack Team on all other consoles), or SCAT.  Apparently, a bunch of teenage girls went missing at the Martin house a week ago for some reason, and SCAT, some sort of SWAT team knockoff, is the team to solve this mystery!

It's a good thing I didn't take this game seriously, or my brain would be in deep trouble already.

The game starts off by the player getting a sit-rep from SCAT leader Lieutenant Simms.  Belligerent and mustachioed, he told me how one of their agents hacked the camera/trap system last night and that I would be operating it to protect another wave of five teenage girls accompanied by an undercover agent, Diff'rent Strokes star Dana Plato Kelli (or Kelly, or Keli?  Each release has a different name).  Also, one of the girls brought her little brother Danny along.

You quickly find out that the Martins are a bunch of vampires that capture people, bottle their blood like wine, and occasionally give the bottle blood to lesser vampires, called Augers.  They are called Augers because they use a device that is a combination of a catch pole, a manacle, and a drill.  The manacle latches around the victim's neck, and the drill pokes through a hole in the manacle into the victim's neck.  Sounds scary and dangerous right?

Of course not.

Instead of stopping this immediately with a SCAT raid, SCAT decides to continue this undercover infiltration for... some reason.  Not that the Augers are all that scary; apparently, they are the loser vampires that don't have fangs or superpowers and can't suck blood on their own; hence their goofy weapon.  The costumes for the Augers are bizarre, and apparently they wear these all black clothes with balaclavas to keep their skin from falling off (which can be prevented by drinking blood).

Regardless, the proprietors of the house, Sheila and Victor Martin, greet the teenage girls and Dana Plato Kelli, take some bottled blood and leave the house in order to give it to the Augers so they'll stop raiding the house (the reason why the camera and trap system is there in the first place).  This leaves Sheila's and Victor's children Sarah and Jeff Martin, and cousin Tony to trap and 'bottle' the girls.

SCAT actually does send in a single guy early on for... some reason, but he gets caught by the augers and then is completely forgotten.  Why he didn't shoot them with his gun, I don't know.  Meanwhile, the teenage girls decide to have a party and sing the song "Night Trap," completely oblivious to the drilling and struggling noises.

Jeff walks in and tells Sarah that someone has hacked the trap system.  All the other people in the house kinda just sit in the background pretending to not hear Tony and Sarah talking at a normal volume.  Cousin Tony (who takes a cue from Corey Haim and wears sunglasses at night) falls for one of the girls because she looks like an old flame.  Danny gets attacked by Augers and runs out the back door.

Another SCAT agent, a black man, decides to pose as a Jamaican looking for his boat, and knocks on the front door.  One girls decides to change and apply makeup upstairs while the others go down to see Jamaican boatman.  Tony and Jeff just brush the Jamaican aside like you would a hobo.  The girls then proceed to eat cookies and ice cream while the girl beautifying upstairs is assaulted by augers, and flees out the second story window.  Kelli snoops around but is caught by Tony, who warns her to mind her beeswax.

Danny returns and tries to warn two of the girls, but is interrupted by screaming outside.  A neighbor named Weird Eddie startled one of the girls.  He tries to warn them of the danger of the Augers and Martins, but only Danny listens.  Weird Eddie gives Danny a laser gun and they decide to fight the Augers.  Dana Plato Kelli confides in one of the girls that she is an undercover agent.

Tony threatens one of the girls to leave and reveals the true nature of the Martins, and Dana Plato Kelli responds by pulling out a gun.  Tony then teleports next to her and disarms her.  He leaves, telling them to leave again.  Dana Plato Kelli tries to call for backup, but the radioman gets ambushed by Augers.  Danny proceeds to go on a rampage, killing Augers until he is disarmed and flees.  Two of the girls discover bodies in the kitchen and panic, running upstairs to flee from more Augers that have invaded the house.

The girls and Dana Plato Kelli regroup upstairs, but are split apart by Augers.  One by one, they are all split apart and escape, except for Dana Plato Kelli.  Tony appears and uses lightning powers to scare away the Augers chasing Dana Plato Kelli.  He then attacks Dana Plato Kelli, but gets caught in a trap (which he could've teleported out of but didn't).

What impressive lightning powers.

Sheila and Victor return and realize the Augers tricked them into leaving so they could loot the house's blood supply, while the SCAT team FINALLY launches an assault on the house.  The SCAT assault team and Dana Plato Kelli confront Sarah (who has returned from doing... something in the control room, I guess), Sheila, and Victor.  After the SCAT assault team loudly introducing themselves as SCAT with the straightest face they could muster, Victor invites everyone to the living room, where it is more comfortable.


Sheila and Victor give the SCAT assault team the straight dope on the Augers, the cameras and traps, to which the fake Jamaican black guy flips out in a very funky manner.  Jeff shows up in a manner similar to Sarah.  After Lieutenant Simms says "You're in serious trouble," Victor retorts with the oh-so-witty "No Lieutenant, I am afraid it is YOU who don't understand!"

Victor manages to toss a SCAT agent out the window behind him with an underhanded throw, not even bothering to turn around.  It's as if he knows that every SCAT agent is the biggest chump on the planet.  Fake Jamaican agent unloads his shotgun into Victor, and stands there with his jaw agape as Victor just laughs it off and chews the scenery.  Naturally, Augers and the Martins take everyone down except Dana Plato Kelli, although Jeff does get trapped in the process.

Dana Plato Kelli gets chased around the house by the Martins as they teleport and flash lightning (because they simply can).  Dana Plato Kelli is cornered, but tricks Sheila into falling for a trap that flings her out the second floor bedroom via a catapult made out of the bed.  Victor and Sarah chase Dana Plato Kelli into the bathroom but Victor makes the mistake of touching the closet, which is trapped.

A WALL TRAP!  AGHHHHHH!!!

Dana Plato Kelli runs into the hall, and Sarah is trapped in a hall trap.  Dana Plato Kelli then congratulates you, and stupidly gives you a chance to trap her as well (which is in my opinion the canon ending).  The credits roll, and play "Night Trap" again, for our pain.



Like I said earlier, there isn't much actual gameplay to review, hence the heavy plot summary.  I'm not going to analyze it much, since there isn't really much worth analyzing.  This game was more an experiment in interactive television and cinema than a standard game.  In the end, Night Trap turns into an exercise of memorization: You have to remember where each Auger comes and when, as well as trap them in order to perform well in the game.  If you want a perfect run with all Augers caught, you will be almost constantly flipping through the camera feeds, which makes it very difficult to absorb the story in one sitting.

As you can see, the story becomes very disjointed.

Night Trap bears many peculiarities.  While it's clearly intended to be a parody of 80s slasher film given the hammy acting, SCAT team name/antics, and complete goofiness of the laser guns/auger devices/traps, the game completely fails to capture the sense that you are actually controlling a security camera system; the camera follows characters, zooms, change position, and can even cut shots on the fly!  Not very immersive at all, unlike say Paranormal Activity.

The plot holes are pretty noticeable too; Why don't the Martins just use their vampire powers to incapacitate everyone, or to escape traps they get caught in?  Why can't the BULLETPROOF VAMPIRES just break out of the traps, especially if Victor can toss with an underhanded throw a fully armored man out the window?  So much is not explained particularly well.  Certain game over sequences don't make sense either.  If Jeff deactivates the player's control over the camera/trap system, the player gets trapped and falls into an abyss.  How?  In the game over sequences at the end of the game, if the player fails to trap the Martin vampires, Dana Plato Kelli gets restrained by Augers who were previously invading the house to steal from the Martins.  Why the sudden cooperation?

Argh.  My brain hurts.

Research: Night Trap Origins

Night Trap was released in 1992 for the Sega CD, an expansion device for the Sega Mega Drive.  However, Night Trap originally started as a different game in 1986, called Scene of the Crime.  Scene of the Crime was shot using live actors, sets, and props.  Since it was a trial game, it was only four minutes long.


Night Trap was originally intended for the Control-Vision console.  The Control-Vision, better known by the in-house developer codename NEMO (Never Ever Mention Outside) was being developed in 1985 by Axlon, a company that was founded by Nolan Bushnell.  This would be his attempt to break the Nintendo-dominated market at the time, filled with Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) consoles.

Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell is an important figure in video gaming history.  He founded Atari in 1972, which would lead to the Atari 2600 console and the establishment of Chuck E. Cheese's and essentially introduced video games to the public.  However, Bushnell was ejected from the company in 1978 after Time Warner bought it from him in 1977.  Bushnell would later form Catalyst Technologies Capital Ventures Group, which would fund Axlon.

Axlon partnered with Hasbro to make the Control-Vision.  The Control-Vision was designed to use VHS tapes instead of ROM cartridges to store games, and Scene of the Crime was developed as a tech demo to the "InstantSwitch," a technology which would allow for seamless switching between video tracks in games.  Because VHS was the storage format, a much higher video and sound quality was possible than on other consoles, and even PCs of the time.

Bushnell also put a man named Tom Zito to work on the project.  In 1987, they expanded Scene of the Crime and filmed the entirety of Night Trap in three weeks (which explains the out-of-place 80's aesthetics for a 90's game and the hammy B-Movie acting).

Hasbro ultimately decided to scrap development of the Control-Vision two month's before its intended release date of January 1989.  The console was simply too expensive.  Specifically, the RAM costs for the console would have been $100 alone, which would force the console to retail at $299.  This was far too much in comparison to the NES which retailed at $100.

Tom Zito

Axlon was absorbed by Hasbro, but Tom Zito purchased the rights to Night Trap.  He took the film and put it in archive, where it would sit until Zito later founded Digital Pictures, a company known largely for making FMV games.  Because the CD format had enough storage space to hold video (albeit with shoddy quality due to high compression), Night Trap was ported to the Sega CD.

Some Drawings

I wouldn't call myself particularly skilled or capable as an artist, but I do try.  Here's some game related sketches I've tried my hand at recently.

Bastion

the Metal Gear Solid series

I need to find a way to break from screenshots and concept art, make something more original.  At least you learn how to render different things when copying.



Back to the regularly scheduled Night Trap updates!

Research Project: Night Trap

I have to write an analysis of a game that focuses on more than just the game itself.  The possible avenues I could explore are whether the game met the needs of the demographic it was targeting, how monetization affected the development of the game, how the game created or responded to a social or legal issue, examination of constraints imposed by the owner of an intellectual property a developer was using, or something else along those lines.  Something that shows 'strategic' rather than 'tactical' thinking, essentially.

I choose Night Trap.

Night Trap was a game that, along with Mortal Kombat, Lethal Enforcers, and Doom, led to the eventual creation of the ESRB.  Out of all these games, why Night Trap?

Night Trap wasn't particularly gruesome or violent.  It's a bit of a mystery why this game, of all games, was chosen to be regarded as "sick and disgusting."

As I do research and think about the nature of censorship and how games create outrage based on their content, I'll post my findings here.

Jagged Alliance 2

The Jagged Alliance remake is coming out soon.  I'm skeptical, honestly.  With information lacking and a demonstration video showing this one guy who sucks at it, it's hard to say whether or not it'll be good.  The question on most fans' minds is whether or not it'll live up to the original.

I think that's a bit of a loaded question though, since most of these fans are the same people that have modded the game to hell (like Oblivion).  v1.13 and beyond are all fan creations, and are very different games from v1.12, where the developer updates end.  This modification, while fun and entertaining, leads to some seriously skewed views about what the game actually was.  I can't comment on the quality of v1.13 and various other fan mods, but I have played the steam release which is 1.12.

You start by getting a lump sum of $45k from a deposed ruler named Enrico Chivaldori, to use in hiring mercenaries to take back an island republic called Arulco from his evil wife Quen Deidranna.  You can create your own merc, and hire either a lot of decent mercs or a few good ones.  You'll need to fill gaps, like having shooters, a medic, a mechanic, and so on.

However, who you hire won't really matter so much as how well you can use them tactically.  Early on, with little armor, even the dinkiest handguns can do a lot of damage.  Taking damage means you start bleeding, and eventually you'll bleed out if you don't patch things up.  Even after you patch a merc's wounds, they don't actually heal until given a few days.  If the merc does die, they don't return.  It's entirely possible to lose every single merc in the game, the only real lose condition besides having no money to hire anyone.  In other words, mistakes are punished severely.

This is compounded by the lack of any sort of real tutorial.  No way to learn the interface or the commands exists in the game itself outside of the edit controls menu.  While the progression of difficulty is fine itself, it starts comparatively high to other games.  The mildly useful tactic of climbing onto building roofs eluded me until I noticed one time that a new button buried in the interface had mysteriously lighted up.  I didn't know where exactly supplies would show up when I ordered them.

Another difficulty is that the game doesn't tell you the odds of a bullet hitting someone.  It depends on the level of aim, angle of the shot, obstructions, visibility, the gun itself, and the merc's marksmanship.  This is fine since over time you'll get an idea of what will hit and what won't.

As a turn-based tactical game, it's naturally slow.  Each merc gets action points dependent on their agility, current health and current encumbrance.  If an enemy walks into a merc's line of sight, they might be able to interrupt.

While the tactical elements themselves could constitute a good game, Jagged Alliance 2 also features a territory control game.  Your mercenary company has to take over cities and towns, induct citizens into the militia to protect your captured assets, and get the citizens to fund your military efforts by turning over mine proceeds to you.  You'll also need to take down SAM sites to allow a helicopter pilot you can gain to fly you around more effectively.  You also have to take over an airport to get supplies from off-site, and maintain a supply chain to keep your front-line mercs equipped.

I decided to name my custom mercenary Boss Man.  He was a good shot, fast and wise, a night ops expert (I guess answering that Barney should be hung from a tree and shot on the personality quiz gets that result).  Not good for much else.  I also hired Grizzly and MD.  After we were airdropped into the island, we were quickly attacked.

My team died, naturally.  I had no idea at the time I could adjust aiming, or even crouch.  I reloaded my last save.

This time, after lots of control fiddling, I managed to get my team to crouch behind sandbags after getting into an open shootout.  Grizzly caught a bullet, but MD patched him up and he took it like a champ.  I wandered around aimlessly, talking to the locals and showing them a letter Enrico told me to give to the rebel leader Miguel.  They hooked me up, and Miguel foisted some New York humanitarian-aid-worker-turned-rebel woman named Ira on me.  I pursed my lips as she told me she was basically useless.  I guess she'd be a decent meat shield.

Miguel told me I should head to Drassen, and get the priest there to agree to supply the rebels.  Little did I know that this would entail murdering everyone in an orange wife beater and green pants in town.  Seriously, that's what all the enemies looked like.

I talked to the mine leader, who said he'd give me the mine earnings if I'd overthrow the Queen.  Since I was going to do that anyways, I automatically accepted and proceeded to hire more mercs.  More manpower would make this easier after all!

This took about a week.  I got an email from Enrico telling me that he knew overthrowing his ex-wife wouldn't be easy, but that I should hurry my ass along.

Me being who I am, I sat at the mine letting the mercs practice fighting guns, and fill out the militia until the game told me I hit the arbitrary cap.  Two weeks later or so, I received a vaguely threatening email from Enrico saying he was 'unhappy with the lack of progress.'

I decided to stop being lazy and spoke to the priest, who apparently is attracted to Ira.  I took a moment to revel in her discomfort as the fat priest agreed to help us.  I went back to Miguel, who foisted another of his rebels on me, Dmitri.  Dmitri is dumb.  Seriously, he sometimes forgets commands and you have to reissue them.  He also likes to say 'I MAKE PROUD.'  He works for free though, so I turned him into a pack mule.

I found that fighting at night with Boss Man alone was very effective; his expertise in night operations meant he could see and hear further than enemies could, and thus shoot them without fear of retribution.  I continued to exploit this as my team made their way to the next city, Grumm.

As usual, I attacked during the night.  But now, I had a new problem.  Chain fences.  They blocked off paths, and such.  I had Boss Man crawl around to the front, which was naturally guarded. He fired off shots, and killed one of the guards.  When the enemy turn came, they chucked something at Boss Man.

It only did one hit point of damage.  The ground lit up around Boss Man, but nothing seemed to happen otherwise.  I shrugged, and ordered Boss Man to continue firing.  The enemy turn came again, and this time five soldiers shot at Boss Man until his little profile icon grayed out and became a skull.

I would later find out that further along the game soldiers had chemical break lights.  Or rather, Glo-sticks.  I was defeated by damn raver paraphernalia.  But I learned my lesson.  Run like a coward until the enemy loses you in the darkness.

I took a break from the game for a while after that.  It's been very fun and interesting, and I keep returning to it, but I like to break it up between less involved and quicker-paced games.

Mount & Musket

There aren't too many games based in the 17th-19th centuries.  Europa Universalis, Napoleon: Total War, and Empire: Total War are pretty much the only examples that come to mind.  Maybe there's a History Channel game in the works for it; I know they've got one for the Civil War.  It'll suck, but at least it'll fill a niche!

On a more basic level, I have to question the need for this mod when Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword exists.  I mean, both have old muskets and flintlock pistols, cavalry, and so on.  I can't honestly say without having played WFaS online though whether this assertion is grounded in something that bears a resemblance to reason.

I can say with confidence that the guns are much less usable in M&M (which I shall now call Eminem) because they're so damn inaccurate.  Unless you're a skirmisher class character with a rifle, you won't hit a thing unless your target is in ten paces.


However, this is a good thing.  Since most guns kill in one hit, battles would become sniping duels in the vein of the Counter Strike AWP arenas.  This gives cavalry and other classes a chance to be useful.


There's lots of little things that make this mod entertaining.  First off is the inclusion of flag bearers and musicianship.  You can play as a guy that holds your army's flag, or as a flutist/trumpeter/drummer.  I've seen many musicians proudly stand their ground, continuing to play even though they know they will be cut down.  Flag bearers however, tend to be jerks that just block attacks for as long as possible.


For a mod based on a time where people stood in lines to fire guns at each other, no one actually does this.  Unless you join a clan that does line battles, everyone just runs off to do their thing.  As a result, melee tends to be extremely important, and a single guy competent in melee can change the course of a round.


For example, I saw this one guy who went by the name of SAVAGE.  He was the last Russian soldier on our team, fighting ten Frenchmen.  He proceeded to go into a frenzy, and with his bayoneted musket skewer 8 soldiers in a row until he was finally felled.  It was a beautiful and awkward thing to watch, see him spin around like crazy while slowly stabbing people.  Next round, I used the cheer button to say some incomprehensible Russian phrase that sounds kick ass.  Certainly better than the British's "HURRAH FOR OLD NOSEY!"


One of my gaming groups decided to form their own line battle clan, which I joined.  We began to do training exercises on the basics of making lines; marching, firing in volleys, etc.  I mostly spent the time using the kick button to interrupt my comrades' aiming.  And they thought it'd be a good idea to appoint me captain.

I was quickly replaced.

Terraria

Yes, yes, Terraria is a lot like Minecraft, what with the building, and the monsters at night, and the Poké and the man and the guy comes out and he oh BOH BAW BAW BOH.  Cosby impression aside, Terraria is more about fighting monsters and purifying the world of corruption than it necessarily is about building fortresses and other impractically ornate landmarks.

One thing that's a huge letdown is that there's no simple building mode.  You can't shut off creeps, goblin invasions, or just give yourself whatever equipment in a sandbox mode.  The 2-dimensional building style is not as impressive as Minecraft's 3D world, although the Terraria creators try to compensate by including fluff items to place in rooms and requiring more specific objects to build things (such as a loom to make cloth).

That said, it does have adventure game elements where Minecraft doesn't; health and magic can be improved.  There are also guns, a welcome addition in a game with several flying enemies, along with other weapon varieties such as lances, boomerangs, and the Tron lightdisc.  Perhaps most fun of all is the inclusion of a hookshot-like weapon and flying abilities.  No minecart shenanigans, sadly.  You can also customized your avatar, but frankly I didn't care much for most of the options, particularly the hair styles.

Connecting in multi-player is irritating.  I don't mind connecting via IP, but I shouldn't need an application like Hamachi to just be able to connect to other players.  The chat line is also limited to a single line, which is bothersome when you need to explain things that take more than a terse sentence.

That said, playing with friends is still a lot of fun.  I got hazed by my online group, via my murder the moment I joined the server.  After calling them assholes, we proceeded to build forts.

One of my buddies then decked me out with hacked gear: Wings, the Hamdrax drill, the Megashark, and Excalibur. Suddenly everything died in a one or two hits, and I could demolish the terrain at high speed.  This was awesome, since my starting equipment took 20 swings to kill even the lowliest jelly monster and 15 seconds to cut trees down. Yes, those starting times were unrealistic to begin with, shut up.  It's still boring and tedious.  I went out and downloaded the inventory hacker on my own, giving myself 10,000 dynamite sticks and other equipment, like armor and the grappling hook.

I then proceeded to blow up the world, one dynamite stick at a time.  It was entertaining to watch all the dirt blocks fall progressively further downward.  This is also a very good way to mine ore quickly, although if you're going to hack your inventory to get the dynamite, you might as well just hack in building materials too (because I like to push laziness to the EXTREME).  Although I quickly lost interest in this destructive activity, I have heard tales of people draining the ocean into hell.

All in all, a nice, cheaper version of Minecraft with a clearer sense of goals (for now, considering the way Minecraft updates are going) that will appeal to suckers for 2D styled games.

Mount & Blade: Warband

Mount & Blade is perhaps one of the goofiest looking games I've played.  It aims for realism but the graphics just aren't up to snuff; the blood is just red color over the armor and skin textures, the blocking animations draw attention to the wiry arms, none of the swinging animations look like they'd actually hurt someone due to their slowness, and the death animations are reminiscent of Goldeneye, where people fall dramatically to their knees and make a faceplant.  The faces on characters never change beyond a blank but alert stare, and more often than not their lips seem puckered up like they've eaten something bitter.  At least you can have an amazing beard or mustache, or both (if you're into that kind of thing, weirdo).

In spite of all that, this game is a lot of fun.  After creating a short and totally irrelevant history for your character (to determine starting stats), you go around adventuring, working for lords, noblemen, and village leaders for gold and loot.  The more you kill, the more you get experience, and you level up to increase skills like weapon mastery, horse riding, and leadership.  Learning how to block is a fun and integral part of melee combat, and horseback archery  You go around recruiting soldiers to work for your mercenary force, eventually taking part in bigger battles, up to laying sieges on castles, and perhaps becoming king or queen.

Not that you need to become ruler of all the land; I was more than content just pillaging the peasantry.  They're extremely pathetic, those peasants.  By myself, I was able to destroy a village of around 200 of them, just by circling around the massive mob on horseback, shooting my crossbow.  It took 2 hours, but think about; I just slaughtered an entire village alone.  No army, no backup, just me, on my horse.  I'm like Sauron, but I don't need a stupid magic ring.  Those puny rocks and wood clubs were nothing to my superior circling abilities.  Counter-Strike taught me circle-strafing bunny hopping well.

The kingdom of the village I pillaged, Swadia, didn't really seem to care.  I lost 4 reputation with them, but they were still marked as indifferent.  I even went up to the local nobleman in his fort, and he dully noted after I introduced myself that I was the one who attacked Yalibe.  I then asked him for a job, and he told me to escort a caravan, offering a a little over a hundred denar.  I politely declined.

Unconcerned with petty cash, I raided another peasant village, taking another two hours, and gaining another thousand denar or so.  Took another -4 hit to reputation.  Easy.  Or so I thought.

That jaded nobleman didn't take so kindly to my thuggish behavior.  I went back to his castle to see if he had a less-crappy job for me now that some time had passed, but the moment I was in range he came at me with 120 troops, and after dully noting that I had been pillaging (again), he demanded my surrender.  No bandit outlaw with a penchant for robbing peasants worth their salt would surrender, and neither did I.  After all, if I can kill 200 peasants alone, what's to say I couldn't take out 120 troops?

They had horses.

Suddenly my circle-strafing tactics didn't work.  40 horses, swarming!  They were everywhere, and they were faster!  I couldn't shake them all, and my horse was cut down.  I soon followed, becoming a lance pincushion.

Those rotten Swadian bastards dragged me around for a couple days until I escaped.  I expected an instant beheading or hanging, which I thought was a common punishment for a mass-murdering bandit, but whatever.  I plotted my revenge.  I would need an army.

Getting an army is tough.  You have to hire mercenaries, which are expensive, feed them, and keep them from dying in combat.  I was in the process of doing that, but then I got distracted with another game: Terraria.