GMTK Newsletter - September 2016 (Patreon)

September has been weird. It doesn't seem right that it's over. What have I been doing? Where did all the time go?

Post Script

In Praise of Prague

Okay, so I did finish Mankind Divided, and make this video about it.

It felt important to me that I gave this game a shout out because it's doing a lot of the stuff I've talked about in previous episodes. It actually lets you navigate for yourself, and the open world is exactly as big as it needs to be.

I still want big, open worlds, mind you. I can't wait for Breath of the Wild. But it's nice to know that some games are still offering more condensed and concentrated experiences.

That's something that I feel I need to improve at: explaining that when I praise something in a video, I don't want all games to be like that. I'm advocating for balance. For more games to try something a bit different.

Anyway, this was a fun video to make. I got to be a bit creative with framing shots and montage. Wanted to capture the different faces of Prague and show why it's an interesting space to visit.

The biggest takeaway from the video is that people are mad at me for not having played Vampire. So I guess I'll do that soonish!

Oracle of Ages and Seasons - Boss Keys

Oh and I did one of these. Boss Keys is fun because it's less like "let me tell you a thing" and more like "come on a journey with me so we can learn about a thing". Feels a bit more inclusive and communal, which I like.

As I said in the video, I was looking for a way to capture a dungeon's structural complexity in an easy to digest way and I think I've hit on it. Though, I may need to tweak it as I go.

I've played a couple Wind Waker dungeons, for example, and discovered that the graphs almost overstate the dungeon's complexity. Because while they feature backtracking, the dungeons sometimes give you a new path that lead directly to the backtracking area. Gotta figure out how to represent that.

For those who asked how I make them: I go through the dungeon with a map of the dungeon on my iPad. I make notes about where the locked doors and keys are, where the backtracking opportunities are, and so on. Then, I draw the critical path through the dungeon (entrance to item, item to boss door).

This gives me all I need to draw the graph itself. Then I make it look all fancy like in Photoshop.

Sneak Peak

Oh, and I also did a lot of research and preparation for two other episodes. I was going to do on in September but decided not to rush. October's fine. You only got charged once this month :)

So one is about Bioshock, and the level Fort Frolic. This is often held up as one of the best bits of any Bioshock game. Why? Well, you'll find out. Script nearly written, most of the footage recorded, editing soon.

The other is about Nintendo games, and the design philosophy that makes their games so darn good. I'm always keen to share the design processes of people like Jonathan Blow, Team Ico, and others - seeing how smart people work is really helpful.

Mark's Month

And I played games! Most of them are indie games which I'll talk about in Game Maker's Playlist (out soon $3+ peeps. We're at the mercy of my internet connection here).

The main one, the one I loved, was Event[0]. This is a sorta puzzley walking simulator thing where you interact with the world (an empty spaceship, natch) by talking to a computer. It uses a text parser and simple AI stuff like Siri or a chatbot and it's sooooo cool and clever and inventive and I love it.

I'm also working my way through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. That's good. I like this series. And I just came back from London where I was playing an upcoming 3DS game. That was fun But I'm kinda knackered.

Oh, and I finally got around to playing Doom and yes, it's as good as everyone says. More on that soon, I think. Need to do a follow up to my video on the original Doom.

September was a bit of a slow month for games, which is great. Gave me some time to catch up. October is like Mafia 3 and PlayStation VR and Paper Mario and Gears of War 4 and Civilization 6 and Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 and holy cow I've gotta turn my rental subscription thingy back on.

I've also agreed to do a university lesson in November about zelda dungeons which is like, lol, what is my life.