Download and play Julie's Quest, an RPG Maker VX game I wrote

Back in 2009, I bought a copy of RPG Maker VX as a Christmas gift for my step sister. To complement the gift and to be able to give her a hand if ever she came to encounter difficulties using the software, I wrote a small game project with it. I used the assets provided with the software so it only took me maybe 15 hours to make it.

I kind of half forgot about it until I recently stumbled upon it in the depth of my game development archives. I booted up the game and gave it a run. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the story is inspired and quite decent and contains interesting dramatic surprises. I actually had a blast going through the one hour of game time it provides so I decided to give it out to whoever would like to try it.

Download it now!

You MAY need to install the RTP (run time package) for the game to work properly.

Pro tip : Get your team up to level 10 before fighting the final boss. You will benefit from the best spells.

Let me know what you think!

Efficient writing for video games

Good writing in video games is crucial. Note though that writing does not equal story. Story is part of the writing but let's not forget menus, tutorials, items and skills description, etc.. When I write for games, I often rewrite the same texts 5 or 6 times with a strong emphasis on reducing the word count to the strict minimum. In that regard, Dawn of Heroes for the Nintendo DS is appaling by it's inneffiency. It seems 70% of the texts could have been removed for a better effect. There is much to learn from other's failures so let's jump on this opportunity.

Art is not a result, it's a process

[Disclaimer: The opinions in this article are purely my own and may not (probably not) reflect those of other artists]

Is this art? Is this not art? How can we tell really? Art is ever present in our lives but also so subjective. To one a particular piece of production is great art and to another it's just rubbish. My guess is that we can never come to any universal definition of what is art, but to me, art is much more in the process, in how we do things, than in the result of that process.

When is it art?
To me, we create art when we do something for the sake of doing it. In these cases, we are most likely to be driven by the desire to express something; a feeling, pain, joy, a message or a reflection... The process is highly internalized and comes from deep inside ourselves. If we are not driven by these internal motivations, then we are driven by external ones like peer pressure, engagements with others, the need to make money, hunger...

A game analysis: Super Ghouls'n Ghosts or the double-jump done right

In this piece, I'll take a deep look at the game mechanics of the 1991 classic platformer Super Ghouls'n Ghost released on the Super Nintendo system. I'll first be looking at the excellent implementation of the now well known “double-jump” mechanic and secondly at the different weapons and armors and how the player “gambles for power” through the game.

A quick contextualization

Environment
Let's first look at the environment in which the hero progresses. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts (SGnG) features dark level heavily filled with evil creatures.

Integrated design in Finding my Heart

[ If you havent, I suggest you first read « Integrated Design for Games » before reading this article. ]

When I did Finding my Heart, I had an objective of creating a game with as few words as possible. The story is told with animations and icons and I wanted it to be as self-explainable as possible. However, when I started doing tests with players it became obvious that some sort of tutorial was required as the « no-word » interface was not easily understood by at least half the players. Some players managed easily but others felt completely lost. I still wanted to keep the word count as low as possible and I certainly didnt want a big block of text to tell the player what the game was about. It would have ruined a good part of the game's mood for the player. I finally came out with a pleasing solution that actually gives even more mood to the game.

Integrated Design for Games

Integrated design is all about the metaphor. In a fully integrated game, everything has a reason to be there. The tiny pieces that constitute the game are invisible, we can only see a game that is complete and involving.


What is integrated design?
« Integrated design » is a way to design that puts a special attention to giving meaning, in relation with the game's metaphor, to every parts and objects that constitute the said game.

"Scurge:Hive", video game mini-critic

This is intended to be a short critic of the game Scurge : Hive, NOT a review. I will look into interesting game mechanics and how they support the fast pace of the game.

There is two important mechanics at the heart of Scurge ; the first being the infection level and the decontamination chambers and the second being the “rock / paper / scissor” style weapons and enemies.

Design Journal 3 – Testing Sessions

I had three test sessions for my board game so far. As I stated before, the first two sessions proved the potential for a good game but for some reason the third play session was a real catastrophe. I'll look into those reasons and try to bring out some useful lessons.

What happened?
For my third prototype, I decided to simplify the game a lot as it was involving much micro management and a mental maths. I reduced the number of fields the player had to manage from 10 to 6 and removed the player-actions that were not or almost not used. I focused on the more interesting player-actions involving ressource sacrifices as these actions brought interesting choices and strategies to the game. However, the maths were still too overwhelming for the players, which brings me to a first rule:

Design Journal 2 – Coming up with the idea

The initial spark for my current game project was a Flash learning project from one of my students. A simple, classic space shooter: shoot enemy ships, fight bosses, avoid asteroids. I felt like doing this kind of simple game too, and besides, I could practice Actionscript 3 programming on that project. I just had to find a simple twist to make the game interesting.

The Plot
I took a lot out of the world of the Meta-Baron by Alexandro Jodorowsky and Moebius (Jean Giraud) and from it's characters (check out some of the pages, you can taste the intensity of the writing in every drawing).  As the main character, I wanted a mercenary not unlike the Metabaron, a warrior whose might could change the fate of galaxies. This powerful player character would be contracted by different planetary factions against each other, depending on their ability to pay.

Design Journal 1 - Complex Systems and their relevance to Game Design

A while ago, I randomly bought a used copy of “Le Macroscope” by Joel deRosnay (1975), a book about systemic analysis and the study of complex systems. Right from the start, the theories striked me as powerful game design tools.

A complex system is a group of “entities” bounded by a network of interactions, trying to keep the system in balance. Examples of complex systems: the ecosystem, the economy, a city, a corporation, a beehive, etc.. The interactions in a complex systems follow one or many sets of rules and have one or many “centers of decision”.

Loom Child's touching adventure

I have just finished playing through Lucasart's Loom (1990). I was deeply moved by the subtle fantasy, the strong plot and characters, the excellent voice acting, the beautiful arts (even though they are in 256 colors mode) and almost twenty years later, it appears as completely absurd that one of the most heard of debate in the game industry is if “games can evoke emotions for the player”. Because if it can't, well I have no idea what was that shrivel that went up my spine so often while I was playing this game.

While I did got involved emotionaly in a lot of games throughout my life, I think I can safely say that Loom is probably the most touching one I ever played.

Ecology of the game world.

An excellent design feature on Gamasutra this week: "Living Worlds: The Ecology of Game Design" by Kevin Carter

Kevin is describing three principles in world building to make those breath life and seem more realistic: