Spoiler warning: This post will talk about everything leading up to the finale of season 4, but not reveal book spoilers.
Back in July Maisie Williams had some things to say about snobby book readers of George R.R. Martin's books, so of course two full months later is the best time to talk about it. I feel the pain Maisie describes, I have been there a lot of times. Normally, I am not a book reader; I rarely read books and I'm often surprised to find that certain movies or shows were books first. Some co-workers were talking about A Dance With Dragons when it first came out, around the same time Game of Thrones was announced as an HBO series. I tried reading the first book and was instantly hooked, and one year later I had read over 4,000 pages of the entire series, something I never thought I would do. Needless to say I am a fan of the books, and I am also a fan of the show, as is everyone I know who have both read the books and watched the show.
At my work there is a group of about five of us who have read the books and talk excitedly about what might happen in the show. And for us there is an added excitement to know the people in our lives are about to embark on something epic with each season. We were ready for the heartbreak of the red wedding, ready for the triumph of the purple wedding, and ready for more heartbreak of Red Viper, and we were excited to bring our friends and family along on that journey. I'm sure a number of ass-hats are less than welcoming, and they suck, but for most of us having read the books and talking to people who only watch the show is like taking your best friend to their own surprise party. You know the party is going to happen, but you are still going to have fun when you get there and be happy to share in your friend's surprise with them.
I welcome the changes the show has made over the books. Seeing Craster's bastard brought to what may have been the Night's King, that was amazing. I love how the show is showing us the events we only hear about with POV characters from the books. I like seeing twists and turns which are different from the book, and are more appropriate to be told in the show. They don't need to be 1:1 on everything.
But in the case of the season 4 finale, there was an amazing opportunity lost, and the expectations of book readers was set up by the finales of seasons 1 and 2.
Imagine if season 1 had not ended with the hatching of the dragons, as it did with the first book. It was an amazing cliffhanger and the perfect way to end the book and season.
Imagine if season 2 had not ended with the sea of white walkers bearing down on the men of the Night's Watch (although, arguably, not seeing the battle in the opening of season 3 might have made that setup more of a letdown.)
No one was sure how season 3 would end.
All 5 of the books have had great epilogues, and book 3 is arguably the best. For book readers waiting for the finale is the culmination of two seasons worth of events, and this epilogue is one of the most epic and surprising events to happen in the books, not just in epilogues. That's why it's so tough.
It's not leaving out a character which doesn't yet need to be introduced (like the Blackfish not being in the Eyrie in Season 1), or creating a character to help sum up a series of minor events (like Ros and all her doings in King's Landing). It is a major event at a pinnacle moment. It is the biggest twist and biggest surprise I encountered reading the entire series. It's cooler than the dragons, cooler than the white walkers. It's George RR Martin at his best and book readers are bummed out, left to imagine how much the show watchers are missing out on this cliffhanger which would make them go nuts having to wait until the following April for the premiere.
What makes it harder still is that I am sure the show is going to do a much better job with the events after the epilogue with the characters involved in the epilogue. What will surely be revealed in early episodes of the 5th season are going to have echoing repercussions throughout the rest of the season, and I am looking forward to how the showrunners are going to handle it, because based on previous seasons we are going to see much more than we did in books 4 and 5.
I still stand by the idea that part of the magic of the books, and the skill of George RR Martin, is knowing when to tease and when to reveal, and the epic quality of the finale of the first two seasons lived up to that magic, if not exceeded it. In my opinion season 4 was the best season of the series so far, and I won't go as far as saying it was worse for excluding the events of the epilogue, but knowing how much it floored me when I read it I just know it would have been epic.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Looking back on Flippy Bard
It's been about 4 months since I released Flippy Bard, and I thought it would be good to look back and reflect (and to think how weird it is that a few months is long enough for something to be considered "dead and gone" in this day and age.)
One of the highlights of making the game was getting Genzoman to make a piece of art featuring Filip the Flippy Bard. I really hope to make more character driven work in the future, because he just makes any character look cool, even one as lame as Filip.
I had originally intended to submit the game to the Flappy Jam, but things got a little crazy that week and I forgot all about it. In the end there were a few other games by the title of "Flippy Bard", which was pretty neat to see how other people envisioned the result of the same play on words. One of these games ended up being released on ios and needed to change its name to "The Flippy Bard" because I had already claimed the title (whereas on Google Play multiple games can have the same name, so when I put my game out after another game of the same name he referred to his game as "the original.") Just one of the other odd intricacies of the digital stores.
The game was even featured on Destructoid, which was pretty funny. Although I wish someone would have contacted me first for a quote, so anyone who stumbled upon the article knew it was more of a joke than an assumed cash grab. Luckily they added a link to my blog after, but I don't think any "damage was done" so no biggie.
I knew there would be a few clones, but if I knew how many clones there would have been when I first made my game, I would have never released it. It's pretty disgusting. There was even a version which used the mountain goat art from DuckTales Remastered, with wings added on.
I'm happy to report I've made almost $50 in ad revenue and in app purchases. Not very much money, and I can't say that I am a big fan of ads in a game. Since I never got in-app purchases working for the ios version working (to disable ads) I have decided to just rip ads out of the app and sell the game instead. I really don't see a point to the ads; they slow down the game, they make the already cheap game feel more cheap somehow, and ironically enough most of the ads which popped up were other "flappy" clones which I'm sure pulled people away. Because of making this title I've learned the ins and outs of ads (luckily on a game I do't care about, and as a result I don't plan on making a game with ads ever again (unless I have a successful premium title being cloned and I can put out the best free version, but that's some wishful thinking.)
So all in all I made less than I donate to Child's Play, Go Fund Me, Kiva, and numerous other things my wife supports. It is my goal to always donate at least %50 of the earnings of Flippy Bard to charity, until all the debt is payed off then I will donate %100 or more. So in the rare event people come back to playing "flappy" titles and choose to play the heck out of this one, it will be for a good cause.
I'm really glad I made Flippy Bard. It was something which began as a one line joke, and turned into something I had fun while in the process of making it, despite it being just a "joke game." But I don't anticipate doing this kind of thing ever again.
One of the highlights of making the game was getting Genzoman to make a piece of art featuring Filip the Flippy Bard. I really hope to make more character driven work in the future, because he just makes any character look cool, even one as lame as Filip.
I had originally intended to submit the game to the Flappy Jam, but things got a little crazy that week and I forgot all about it. In the end there were a few other games by the title of "Flippy Bard", which was pretty neat to see how other people envisioned the result of the same play on words. One of these games ended up being released on ios and needed to change its name to "The Flippy Bard" because I had already claimed the title (whereas on Google Play multiple games can have the same name, so when I put my game out after another game of the same name he referred to his game as "the original.") Just one of the other odd intricacies of the digital stores.
The game was even featured on Destructoid, which was pretty funny. Although I wish someone would have contacted me first for a quote, so anyone who stumbled upon the article knew it was more of a joke than an assumed cash grab. Luckily they added a link to my blog after, but I don't think any "damage was done" so no biggie.
I knew there would be a few clones, but if I knew how many clones there would have been when I first made my game, I would have never released it. It's pretty disgusting. There was even a version which used the mountain goat art from DuckTales Remastered, with wings added on.
I'm happy to report I've made almost $50 in ad revenue and in app purchases. Not very much money, and I can't say that I am a big fan of ads in a game. Since I never got in-app purchases working for the ios version working (to disable ads) I have decided to just rip ads out of the app and sell the game instead. I really don't see a point to the ads; they slow down the game, they make the already cheap game feel more cheap somehow, and ironically enough most of the ads which popped up were other "flappy" clones which I'm sure pulled people away. Because of making this title I've learned the ins and outs of ads (luckily on a game I do't care about, and as a result I don't plan on making a game with ads ever again (unless I have a successful premium title being cloned and I can put out the best free version, but that's some wishful thinking.)
So all in all I made less than I donate to Child's Play, Go Fund Me, Kiva, and numerous other things my wife supports. It is my goal to always donate at least %50 of the earnings of Flippy Bard to charity, until all the debt is payed off then I will donate %100 or more. So in the rare event people come back to playing "flappy" titles and choose to play the heck out of this one, it will be for a good cause.
I'm really glad I made Flippy Bard. It was something which began as a one line joke, and turned into something I had fun while in the process of making it, despite it being just a "joke game." But I don't anticipate doing this kind of thing ever again.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Flippy Bard
A week ago when Dong Nguyen said he was going to pull Flappy Bird I wasn't sure I believed him. It seemed like an odd stunt at the time, especially when (I assume) the app could have just been pulled right away. But on Sunday I was shocked to see the game pulled, and even more shocked by the crazy death threats he received for wanting to take it down, and I can't say I blame him. (And there is a great piece on our Internet Empathy Problem here.)
So when the app finally went down on Sunday, leaving a gaping hole and angry fans, I was curious as to the aftermath and all the copycats to come down the pipe. The first thing I thought of was "Man there are going to be a ton of games with "Bird" or "Flap" in the title, and it's going to be ugly obnoxious." And naturally the first thing my brain did was a letter jumble, whereupon I discovered Flippy Bard was a fun mix of letters.
The name made me chuckle so much I decided it had to exist. It had to be real. If nothing else but to mess up the catalog of copycats. For the past 2-3 months I have been learning to use Game Maker, because every time I try to do things in the regular ios dev tools I feel like I'm sitting in the cockpit of a jetliner with no idea what any of the buttons do. So to help familiarize myself in Game Maker I have been making a game for my son, who was 18 months old when I started the project, recently published it and wrote about it in another post. I'm super excited to release a game which tiny tiny children can play, without ads, in-app purchases, redirects to other games, or other forms of horrible money grabbing trickery.
So since the Game Maker bug is not an issue with games with ads, I figured "Hey, why not just make this stupid little game." So I did. And about 30 hours later (with sleep and day-job mixed in there mind you) I completed my version 1.0 of Flippy Bard. After starting on the project there was also the announcement of The Flappy Jam, which I am hoping to submit the game too. It's pretty neat to see the kind of cultural phenomenon it has become, and the support and love for the original creator. Here is my game description I put on the store:
A fairly obvious mirror on my own reality, but also I want to treat this as an homage to Mr. Nguyen. Like him I am just a guy who wants to make games. I guess in a way I am hoping there is some merit in having the least corrupt laden rip-off game out there, and potentially something with a bit more polish than a lot of the other crap. Some of the copy-cat apps I see overwhelm you with ads; full screen at the start, in between matches near your buttons, it seems like they are trying to take advantage of finger slips. I don't anticipate Flippy Bard getting the kind of popularity which Flappy Bird did, but if it did do well and helped pay off my exorbitant student loan debt, I could also see taking ads out at some point (or parsing them to be very minimal, Im not sure how ads work on ios yet.) If Nguyen hadn't taken down his game I know I wouldn't have made this. I hate copy-cats. I hate the "me toos." But also, I'd like to see that gap filled by something with the spirit of creativity and fun, and not just a quick copy knockoff, and that is the heart behind Flippy Bard.
In college is where I first had an art teacher talk about the idea of "stealing", as many attribute Picasso to saying “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” (and of course this Banksy piece.) I think a great number of people who don't make creative works misunderstand the philosophy behind this. This isn't stealing the result, or stealing the physical object of the resulting art. When you see the way another artist does something, and the result looks amazing, as a young artist you may say "Well that guy has a unique cross hatching technique, I shouldn't copy it." But the reality is even if you tried to copy what that person was doing, the result wouldn't be identical, because through the process of creating the art you discover your own technique, style, and approach which becomes your own. In an interview with the band Animal Collective, they explained it perfectly:
But, of course (literally while I was first writing this) someone like Terry Cavanagh, an amazing designer, comes along and makes Maverick Bird,the coolest Flappy Bird tribute ever and it just puts all others to shame, doing exactly what I set out to do, but doing it perfectly. Holy crap that game is rad.
And now it is Saturday night, less than 7 days later I was able to make a game from scratch, art, audio, code, etc. I was able to release the game to the Google Play store, and do a few updates to fix some bugs and add some other functionality. I submitted the game to Apple on Tuesday, found some major bugs and resubmitted that night (early Wednesday) and now there is a strong possibility the game will be rejected by Apple and possibly taken down by Google. I hadn't planned on caring as much about a little knock-off game, but over the course of the last week I have been proud to make something which plays quite well, is a lot of fun to play on the couch while having some TV on in the background, and I have multiple extra-unlockable characters I have been tuning and designing. To see that go away would break my heart greatly.
I had not intended on publishing this until the iOS version was released. But I need to step away, push myself back from my desk for a bit and not care about this game for a few days. In the event the app is rejected, I will probably put the game down for good because I can't imagine this game without the name attached. It would be a great shame really, but I suppose I have to press on to the next tasks.
So when the app finally went down on Sunday, leaving a gaping hole and angry fans, I was curious as to the aftermath and all the copycats to come down the pipe. The first thing I thought of was "Man there are going to be a ton of games with "Bird" or "Flap" in the title, and it's going to be ugly obnoxious." And naturally the first thing my brain did was a letter jumble, whereupon I discovered Flippy Bard was a fun mix of letters.
The name made me chuckle so much I decided it had to exist. It had to be real. If nothing else but to mess up the catalog of copycats. For the past 2-3 months I have been learning to use Game Maker, because every time I try to do things in the regular ios dev tools I feel like I'm sitting in the cockpit of a jetliner with no idea what any of the buttons do. So to help familiarize myself in Game Maker I have been making a game for my son, who was 18 months old when I started the project, recently published it and wrote about it in another post. I'm super excited to release a game which tiny tiny children can play, without ads, in-app purchases, redirects to other games, or other forms of horrible money grabbing trickery.
So since the Game Maker bug is not an issue with games with ads, I figured "Hey, why not just make this stupid little game." So I did. And about 30 hours later (with sleep and day-job mixed in there mind you) I completed my version 1.0 of Flippy Bard. After starting on the project there was also the announcement of The Flappy Jam, which I am hoping to submit the game too. It's pretty neat to see the kind of cultural phenomenon it has become, and the support and love for the original creator. Here is my game description I put on the store:
A fairly obvious mirror on my own reality, but also I want to treat this as an homage to Mr. Nguyen. Like him I am just a guy who wants to make games. I guess in a way I am hoping there is some merit in having the least corrupt laden rip-off game out there, and potentially something with a bit more polish than a lot of the other crap. Some of the copy-cat apps I see overwhelm you with ads; full screen at the start, in between matches near your buttons, it seems like they are trying to take advantage of finger slips. I don't anticipate Flippy Bard getting the kind of popularity which Flappy Bird did, but if it did do well and helped pay off my exorbitant student loan debt, I could also see taking ads out at some point (or parsing them to be very minimal, Im not sure how ads work on ios yet.) If Nguyen hadn't taken down his game I know I wouldn't have made this. I hate copy-cats. I hate the "me toos." But also, I'd like to see that gap filled by something with the spirit of creativity and fun, and not just a quick copy knockoff, and that is the heart behind Flippy Bard.
In college is where I first had an art teacher talk about the idea of "stealing", as many attribute Picasso to saying “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” (and of course this Banksy piece.) I think a great number of people who don't make creative works misunderstand the philosophy behind this. This isn't stealing the result, or stealing the physical object of the resulting art. When you see the way another artist does something, and the result looks amazing, as a young artist you may say "Well that guy has a unique cross hatching technique, I shouldn't copy it." But the reality is even if you tried to copy what that person was doing, the result wouldn't be identical, because through the process of creating the art you discover your own technique, style, and approach which becomes your own. In an interview with the band Animal Collective, they explained it perfectly:
We get the most questions about that one: "What combination of pedals is used to create that sound?" I don't know, first of all-- I don't remember. But I make a point of telling the kids we don't want to tell them this pedal put into this pedal put into this pedal, and these are the delay settings or whatever, because half the fun of being a kid and making the music, like Dave said, is finding your own sounds or wondering how people do something. You kind of figure out a way you think they do it, and it turns out not to be it. But it becomes your own thing, sometimes by accident.I set out to make a quick game, and along the way had a lot of fun making something all its own. Flippy Bard is not trying to match the game it is based on perfectly, I ended up having a lot of fun making it and like the idea of it being its own thing. Many people may not like it being a copy, but I've never taken this approach to creating something, I may never again, but what fun is life if we don't try things from time to time? If nothing else it is empowering to know I can make a tiny game quickly and put it out there for the world. I might have to do this more often, with less "stealing."
But, of course (literally while I was first writing this) someone like Terry Cavanagh, an amazing designer, comes along and makes Maverick Bird,the coolest Flappy Bird tribute ever and it just puts all others to shame, doing exactly what I set out to do, but doing it perfectly. Holy crap that game is rad.
And now it is Saturday night, less than 7 days later I was able to make a game from scratch, art, audio, code, etc. I was able to release the game to the Google Play store, and do a few updates to fix some bugs and add some other functionality. I submitted the game to Apple on Tuesday, found some major bugs and resubmitted that night (early Wednesday) and now there is a strong possibility the game will be rejected by Apple and possibly taken down by Google. I hadn't planned on caring as much about a little knock-off game, but over the course of the last week I have been proud to make something which plays quite well, is a lot of fun to play on the couch while having some TV on in the background, and I have multiple extra-unlockable characters I have been tuning and designing. To see that go away would break my heart greatly.
I had not intended on publishing this until the iOS version was released. But I need to step away, push myself back from my desk for a bit and not care about this game for a few days. In the event the app is rejected, I will probably put the game down for good because I can't imagine this game without the name attached. It would be a great shame really, but I suppose I have to press on to the next tasks.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Garbage Truck! - A game built for the youngest gamers.
Today my app, "Garbage Truck!" went live
Within the day I found out I borked the art for non-tablet Android versions, and did a mad dash to fix it tonight. I'm pretty-pretty-pretty sure it's running good on non-tablet devices. But by default the thing supports 5003 Android devices and I can't seem to uncheck some en masse, so, yeah. If you find a bug, drop me an email.
We try to never play TV and limit it as much as possible (but as any parent knows sometimes they are sick or miserable and it can help calm them down) and his favorite show is called "Mighty Machines", a Canadian program where footage of real trucks are doing their jobs. The voice overs can be pretty obnoxious, but its a great little show for truck lovers. Sometimes when he wakes up at 7AM, and I was up until 2AM with the new baby, or working late, I like to put on a show to keep his focus and wake up a bit myself.
I know that makes me sound like a horrible dad, but I don't mean "..use our devices all the time" in the sense of "I sit on the couch playing a game ignoring him." In defense of our modern world, our smartphones are an extension of us in our children's eyes, as much as a child in the 80's would see a telephone or car as an extension of the home. Together, with my son, we look at photos on the phone, we take self portraits together, my phone is my primary camera (and when I take it out and tell him to say "cheese" he knows its photo time), we take vine videos together to share with family, my son facetimes me while I am at work, we call extended family on the phone. We use this technology together, and for tons of uses.
Within the day I found out I borked the art for non-tablet Android versions, and did a mad dash to fix it tonight. I'm pretty-pretty-pretty sure it's running good on non-tablet devices. But by default the thing supports 5003 Android devices and I can't seem to uncheck some en masse, so, yeah. If you find a bug, drop me an email.
Why a Garbage Truck? (Said the person without kids)
Seemingly out of nowhere, when my son was just under a year old he fell in love with trucks. We didn't expose him to trucks on purpose, or play the movie "Cars" for him. He just fell in love with trucks: semi trucks, garbage trucks, fire trucks, you name it. It must be some ingrained genetic thing in our children, because so many of his little friends, both boys and girls, love trucks as much as he does.We try to never play TV and limit it as much as possible (but as any parent knows sometimes they are sick or miserable and it can help calm them down) and his favorite show is called "Mighty Machines", a Canadian program where footage of real trucks are doing their jobs. The voice overs can be pretty obnoxious, but its a great little show for truck lovers. Sometimes when he wakes up at 7AM, and I was up until 2AM with the new baby, or working late, I like to put on a show to keep his focus and wake up a bit myself.
Bad Parent Time
When he was about 18 months old I had bought a new iPad, and I thought I would try to get some fun kids apps. I had never really put an app in front of him, but he sees us using our devices all the time.I know that makes me sound like a horrible dad, but I don't mean "..use our devices all the time" in the sense of "I sit on the couch playing a game ignoring him." In defense of our modern world, our smartphones are an extension of us in our children's eyes, as much as a child in the 80's would see a telephone or car as an extension of the home. Together, with my son, we look at photos on the phone, we take self portraits together, my phone is my primary camera (and when I take it out and tell him to say "cheese" he knows its photo time), we take vine videos together to share with family, my son facetimes me while I am at work, we call extended family on the phone. We use this technology together, and for tons of uses.
We do these things so much that seeing our kids wanting to use these same devices isn't a bad thing in my eyes. He looks through digital photo albums all the time, and loves seeing videos of himself as a small child. It's shocking how well he can navigate the device (Hooray for lame parent stating of the obvious. And how about airplane food!). So I saw no harm in downloading a few kids apps, but limiting his time and exposure to them.
Sadly I couldn't (easily) find any apps that were appropriate for his age. Again, he is super young, and it's generally frowned upon to design a game for someone this age (unless you are Fisher Price and it comes with a phone holder.) All of the games were too difficult. They had too many dependencies, too many steps to take, and often way too many verbal instructions. Even navigating menus was a bit of a chore. That's when I decided to just make one for him.
Making The Game
My goals were simple.
- Make a game with no ads, no links outside of the app, no links to other apps I may make, no dlc, no monetization of any kind, and no way to behave in a "corrupt" fashion.
- Allow the player to touch anywhere on the screen and get some kind of feedback, without unexpectedly booting them out, and no negative consequences.
- No menu. No settings. Jump straight into the app and play.
- Save data, make it a game even for the younger players. Who knows if they will want to see their tracked progress someday when they are older.
- Put a little perspective into the art (if even orthographic at an angle, as long as it wasn't flat from the side)
- Learn as much about Game Maker: Studio as possible to pull knowledge into making future games.
Touch anywhere on the screen to effect the game; change the color of the truck, the cab, touch the sky to change the time of day, cycle through the letters of the alphabet by touching the sign, and most importantly make the truck move forward and backwards by touching the wheels (or in front or behind the truck to make it stop and go).
And no garbage day is complete until you collect the trash! Simply touch the garbage cans when they line up with the grabbing claw to pick them up, and add the collection to the total score.
There is no wrong way to play the game, no way to fail, or convoluted steps too hard for the youngest players to understand. Scores are saved automatically and frequently, so you'll always have a running tally of all the cans you've collected. And best of all there are not, and will never be, any ads, in-app purchases, links to other apps, data collected by me, or links to take the player outside of the game.
Have fun playing Garbage Truck! and feel free to contact me with feedback!
The Look
I knew right away the look and style I wanted to shoot for, fashioning it as a sort of "interactive illustration", emulating a look of detailed watercolor truck illustrations in books of the 80. This Truck Book by Harry McNaught is a huge inspiration for the project.
In the end what I came up with was a look similar to McNaught's, but also taking my own stylistic approach I have gained over the years. I went for an angled orthorgraphic look to the truck, so it was consistently sized along the entire screen, but never bowing in an odd way.
For reference I took a number of photos and videos of our local garbage truck on two different occasions. I was sure the driver was suspicious as to why I was doing this, but I think he saw me standing outside with my son a couple times, so he may have known why. I also got most of the audio from recording on my phone, then cut up the clips into in-game audio.
The truck itself is broken into lots of individual pieces, to save on memory, and for a few other tricks. Aritsts and programmers tend to butt heads from time to time over how to handle color of objects; do you load the game with finely tuned colored textures, or use a grayscale image and apply multiply a color on top of it. I have seen the benefits of both, and for this game I felt it was important to do as many color combos as possible, so I owe a big thanks to all the programmers of the past who taught me about multiplying colors. Also, the wheels are constructed of 3 different pieces, so they spin, but still have a perspective on them. In the end the truck itself is constructed out of about a dozen individual art assets, "carefully" realigned back into the game.
For the background I used an image my old friend Chris Drysdale (go check out his Deviantart) made for a project which never got off the ground. The hills and sky fit so perfectly into the look I had to keep it, but still had to turn the foreground into a street and sidewalk.
Wait, Game Maker?
When I tell people I made the project in Game Maker: Studio I get a few funny looks. It seems like the kind of thing you can just make in xcode, or other program, but every time I sit down in front of xcode I feel like I'm sitting at the controls of a space shuttle: there are so many knobs and buttons and switches, and the documentation expects some form of competency and experience which I, sadly, don't have.
But with Game Maker, it is like have a project set up by a programmer for you. Anyone who is not a programmer, who has worked on a game, coming into a project where the work is as simple as "Just import your art into here, and hit this export button" it feels empowering. You don't have to sweat the small stuff. I feel like Game Maker has taken out a lot of the more high level things I just don't have the ability to make work.
Also there is a long history of the program being around, and the fundamentals have remained the same, so when you do a Google search for information on a bug or process there is a multitude of answers out there. I even first delved into Game Maker in 2008 when I was making a few prototypes for a DS game a few of us were talking about making. It has come such a long way since then, and it's great to see so many great games being made in it. Its the perfect fit for me and I love it.
But I haven't tried Unity yet. Might have to do that.
The Power of Emergence (aka Feature Creep)
At the outset of the project it wasn't going to be a game. But each time I sat down to work on the game, or when I would put the game in front of my son for him to play and test it out, I found something new and fun to do.
- The sign on the truck was going to be a single logo, but my son kept tapping on it. So I put a color change on it along with cycling through the letters of the alphabet. Also, the cab of the truck felt blank on its door so I overlayed letters onto that as well.
- I wasn't sure if I was going to put particles coming out of the smokestack. Most trucks these days are fairly clean, but I put in the particles and it looked so good. Early on when you switched direction the already emitted smoke would fly straight up instead of going in the new direction. I had way too much fun getting that to feel the way I wanted to in the end.
- At the start of the project touching the sky did nothing, but my son kept touching the smoke coming out of the truck, so I figured I would just change the color of the sky using a color overlay poly. And once I did that, it dawned on me to make it alter the time of day. At first it only changed the color of the sky, but once I got the "dark" version to where I liked it, I had to add lights to the truck, and when I did that I had to add outer glow, and once the sky was dark I had to put stars in there (although im still unhappy with how dark they are but its a result of how im drawing everything so my hands might be tied.) Oh, and of course I had to put a sun in the background of the sunset.
- I wasn't going to track a score, but I wanted to see how many cans my son might collect, so I put in a score system, but kept it off at the start and moved to the bottom. That got me to wonder about tracking scores in leaderboards, and achievements, and Im really happy about that.
- Also the numbers displayed on the truck are randomly generated. At first I just wanted them to be "12345" (and they still are on the app icon, uh oh) because I wanted control over transparency, size, and italicization. And through some experimenting I came to discover I had a lot of control over those things in the program, so I taught myself how their random number and letter generation works, and I think it adds a nice touch to the truck.
- Since starting the game my son has gained the ability to "swipe", something he didn't know how to do at the start of the project. I'm tempted to put some kind of swipe mechanic into the garbage can, which he always tries to slide to the claw arm. But, feature creep.
Thanks For Reading
I'm really proud of the work I was able to create. And I genuinely hope kids get a chance to play this and get a kick out of it, and I'm really looking forward to when my 4 month old daughter is old enough to try it too. It was so much fun to make, and it's so empowering being able to make something yourself and put it out into the world for others to try. I hope I get to do that with more future projects.Sunday, February 9, 2014
Dicers - A board game for dice lovers
I love dice! I have too many sets of polyhedral dice at home and not enough games to play with them. I wanted a game where you play with dice, but not just for rolling, so I decided to challenge myself and try to invent a game using my polyhedral dice sets.
My goals in making the game were:
It is a game played on a chessboard, for 2-4 players, and it requires nothing but a gameboard, dice, and friends to play with. So if you own 2 or more sets of polyhedral dice (like these from chessex), and a chessboard, then you already have everything you need to play a game of Dicers. And if you don't have a chessboard, and you do have a printer, the last pages of the rules have printable boards which are sized to work well with standard 8.5 x 11 paper.
If you don't own any sets of polyhedral dice, you can get them from Amazon.com, or just stop by a local comic shop, hobby shop, or game store, especially if any of these have tables set up for people to play RPG or collectible card games. I was surprised at how easy it was to find these Chessex sets (and feed my collector's obsession) and each set is only $4-$5 for standard colors.
Each time I have played Dicers the play session is short (always less than 15 minutes), even when teaching people how to play. On a regular chessboard you can play 2, 3, or 4 player games. But after a 3 player game something didn't feel quite right. The play wasn't symmetrical, so I set out to make a board symmetrical for 3 player games. And once I did that, I couldn't stop myself from making a 5 player board, and 6 player board.
Right now I consider the game version 1.0, because I have not done enough testing. There aren’t enough hours in the week to do the kind of playtesting I want for a game like this. And I could sit for days, weeks, months, or years while I fine tune the rules of the game. But, I am instead releasing the first version out into the world for others to try. Play the game, experiment with the rules, and share your findings with me and I will try out your ideas and see if they help to make Dicers a more balanced and fun experience.
Here are the docs:
Dicers - Rules v1.0 - With Illustrations
Share these files with anyone you want. “Dicers” is distributed under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. That means you can use, remix for personal use, and share the game for free, but you can't sell it without permission, or take the rules/boards and make an app out of it.
If you have questions, suggestions for new rules, or you simply want to share your personal experience with the game please feel free to comment below, or email me at austin.ivansmith@gmail.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
My goals in making the game were:
- A game played on a board where the dice are the game pieces, not a means to manipulate a separate piece on the board.
- The rules need to be simple, as few pages as possible, so just about anyone can understand.
- Players should not have to buy a bunch of new items to be able to play the game, and should use things many gamers may already have.
- The game needs to embrace the fun of dice and embrace their ability to roll and the randomness they can bring to a game.
- Embrace the "open source" mentality and share it with the world so dice lovers everywhere can experience the game.
It is a game played on a chessboard, for 2-4 players, and it requires nothing but a gameboard, dice, and friends to play with. So if you own 2 or more sets of polyhedral dice (like these from chessex), and a chessboard, then you already have everything you need to play a game of Dicers. And if you don't have a chessboard, and you do have a printer, the last pages of the rules have printable boards which are sized to work well with standard 8.5 x 11 paper.
If you don't own any sets of polyhedral dice, you can get them from Amazon.com, or just stop by a local comic shop, hobby shop, or game store, especially if any of these have tables set up for people to play RPG or collectible card games. I was surprised at how easy it was to find these Chessex sets (and feed my collector's obsession) and each set is only $4-$5 for standard colors.
Each time I have played Dicers the play session is short (always less than 15 minutes), even when teaching people how to play. On a regular chessboard you can play 2, 3, or 4 player games. But after a 3 player game something didn't feel quite right. The play wasn't symmetrical, so I set out to make a board symmetrical for 3 player games. And once I did that, I couldn't stop myself from making a 5 player board, and 6 player board.
Right now I consider the game version 1.0, because I have not done enough testing. There aren’t enough hours in the week to do the kind of playtesting I want for a game like this. And I could sit for days, weeks, months, or years while I fine tune the rules of the game. But, I am instead releasing the first version out into the world for others to try. Play the game, experiment with the rules, and share your findings with me and I will try out your ideas and see if they help to make Dicers a more balanced and fun experience.
Here are the docs:
Dicers - Rules v1.0 - With Illustrations
Share these files with anyone you want. “Dicers” is distributed under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. That means you can use, remix for personal use, and share the game for free, but you can't sell it without permission, or take the rules/boards and make an app out of it.
If you have questions, suggestions for new rules, or you simply want to share your personal experience with the game please feel free to comment below, or email me at austin.ivansmith@gmail.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Friday, August 24, 2012
New Super Mario Bros. 2 Blur Effect - A Mistake?
Hey Nintendo. I've got something to say.
Yesterday I received my brand spanking new copy of New Super Mario Bros. 2 for my Nintendo 3DS. I literally have not been following it in the news, knew nothing about any premise or setups, and chose to be pleasantly surprised by whatever the game had to offer. But I didn't think one tiny iota that I would be disappointed right off the bat with a new graphical feature.
As a person with a strong opinion on a number of things, I have been known to throw my weight around and open my mouth when I probably shouldn't. Now that I am in my thirties I generally find myself a lot more forgiving of artistic decisions than I was in my teens or twenties. So for me, this is a big, rant-worthy one and I promise it doesn’t come from a fanboy “You ruined my favorite game brand” perspective.
I love my 3DS. I love it more than I thought I would. Games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 3D Land, and Mighty Switch Force! (shameless self-plug) look great when turning on the 3D mode. The already great graphics pop out and have a whole new feel. But New Super Mario Bros. 2, a game which delivers clean and colorful graphics, simply looks awful when 3D is turned on.
If you haven't seen NSMB2 in 3D, you need to. Rent it, borrow it from a friend, see it in a store kiosk. Whatever you do, see it! The mechanics of it are: as you slide the 3D slider on the top screen the objects "slide" horizontally in each eye to create the 3d effect, much the same as any other game. But in addition to this, the game is layering a blur effect on every background object being translated into 3d which gets stronger as the slider is pushed further. To reiterate, every object behind the playfield is being blurred, and the more 3d you want, the more blurry it gets.
This is a “feature” new to any game on the 3DS (to my knowledge). Up until this release every game has simply translated objects horizontally to enable the 3D effect, and for those of us who can see the 3D effect, and enjoy the 3D, this new effect is horrible. It sounds so subjective, but I have shown this to many people who are confused and turned off by the effect, and the only remote support was a Nintendo fanboy who was mostly playing devil’s advocate calling it a neat idea.
The blur effect is fundamentally flawed from a functional standpoint as well as an aesthetic one. It literally makes the objects in the background lose enough detail that your eyes can’t see the 3D on the background objects. Some playfield objects and those just behind the playfield begin to pop out in 3D, and feel far in front of the hot blurry mess in the far background, but the subtleties of items existing at different depths is completely lost. Ultimately what you are left with is a game which looks great in screenshots, and without the 3D turned on, but the very key feature of this specific console completely obliterates the great graphics into a blurry mess.
As a developer who has worked on the 3DS, I can see where someone would get this idea. And as the phrase goes “There is no such thing as a bad idea”, but I am sure there is a quote out there that finishes it out with something along the lines of “...but if that idea comes to fruition make sure it doesn’t suck.”
I am surprised this feature saw its way to release for a number of reasons. I do not know if this is an “East vs. West” kind of situation, but I know many people on any of my dev teams would see this in action and say “This doesn’t work very well” or “This sucks, you’re an idiot for wanting this.” (And others may simply commiserate while out at lunch with coworkers, but when more than one person complains about the same thing it usually finds its way back to management to try to be fixed or addressed.) I welcome this kind of an open discourse, but wonder if employees at a Japanese developer and publisher keep these kinds of things to themselves more often, because I have to believe some people didn’t like this during the course of development.
I am also surprised by how strong the blur effect really is. It reminds me of when I bought my first computer in 1999 and had a copy of Adobe Photoshop 5.0. The first weekend I had the thing I stayed up until six in the morning for three straight days just fiddling with filters and creating neat art (which I look back on at times, and find the art to be riddled with lens flares.) There was never a hint of subtlety: you did an effect to showcase the effect. The NSMB2 blur effect feels like more of a tech demo than a feature to be praised or showcased, and I really feel it should have stayed in the demo stage.
But a part of me is not surprised to see this thing out there because I have seen this kind of thing before on other games I’ve worked on (as I am sure many other devs have as well). Someone with some clout had a neat idea and really, really wanted to see it in the game. I can imagine meetings over the course of development going:
The thing that frustrates me the most is that the whole point of the 3DS console is the 3D effect. No other device is doing it. It’s in the name. I am stating the obvious so hard it is hurting my fingers typing it. This blur effect ruins the very feature that makes your system unique and wonderful. This is Nintendo making this happen, not a third party developer. This would be like Tesla Motors releasing a diesel engine vehicle. This would be like Apple putting a 56k modem on their iPhone. It would be like Smith & Wesson selling a black powder musket for law enforcement. It is counter to the very thing that makes their product a unique standout.
Nintendo, by doing this you are saying one of two things to consumers. 1) "Some people have a hard time with 3D so we are turning on this blur to make 3D easier to see", which is essentially apologizing for the key feature of your best device currently on the market. Or 2) "We don’t feel the 3D effect is important enough for our customers to keep the game looking good when 3D mode is turned on."
Every game developer should see this for themselves and come to their own conclusion. I for one genuinely hope this is the last time I ever see this effect in a 3DS title.
Yesterday I received my brand spanking new copy of New Super Mario Bros. 2 for my Nintendo 3DS. I literally have not been following it in the news, knew nothing about any premise or setups, and chose to be pleasantly surprised by whatever the game had to offer. But I didn't think one tiny iota that I would be disappointed right off the bat with a new graphical feature.
As a person with a strong opinion on a number of things, I have been known to throw my weight around and open my mouth when I probably shouldn't. Now that I am in my thirties I generally find myself a lot more forgiving of artistic decisions than I was in my teens or twenties. So for me, this is a big, rant-worthy one and I promise it doesn’t come from a fanboy “You ruined my favorite game brand” perspective.
I love my 3DS. I love it more than I thought I would. Games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 3D Land, and Mighty Switch Force! (shameless self-plug) look great when turning on the 3D mode. The already great graphics pop out and have a whole new feel. But New Super Mario Bros. 2, a game which delivers clean and colorful graphics, simply looks awful when 3D is turned on.
If you haven't seen NSMB2 in 3D, you need to. Rent it, borrow it from a friend, see it in a store kiosk. Whatever you do, see it! The mechanics of it are: as you slide the 3D slider on the top screen the objects "slide" horizontally in each eye to create the 3d effect, much the same as any other game. But in addition to this, the game is layering a blur effect on every background object being translated into 3d which gets stronger as the slider is pushed further. To reiterate, every object behind the playfield is being blurred, and the more 3d you want, the more blurry it gets.
This is a “feature” new to any game on the 3DS (to my knowledge). Up until this release every game has simply translated objects horizontally to enable the 3D effect, and for those of us who can see the 3D effect, and enjoy the 3D, this new effect is horrible. It sounds so subjective, but I have shown this to many people who are confused and turned off by the effect, and the only remote support was a Nintendo fanboy who was mostly playing devil’s advocate calling it a neat idea.
The blur effect is fundamentally flawed from a functional standpoint as well as an aesthetic one. It literally makes the objects in the background lose enough detail that your eyes can’t see the 3D on the background objects. Some playfield objects and those just behind the playfield begin to pop out in 3D, and feel far in front of the hot blurry mess in the far background, but the subtleties of items existing at different depths is completely lost. Ultimately what you are left with is a game which looks great in screenshots, and without the 3D turned on, but the very key feature of this specific console completely obliterates the great graphics into a blurry mess.
As a developer who has worked on the 3DS, I can see where someone would get this idea. And as the phrase goes “There is no such thing as a bad idea”, but I am sure there is a quote out there that finishes it out with something along the lines of “...but if that idea comes to fruition make sure it doesn’t suck.”
I am surprised this feature saw its way to release for a number of reasons. I do not know if this is an “East vs. West” kind of situation, but I know many people on any of my dev teams would see this in action and say “This doesn’t work very well” or “This sucks, you’re an idiot for wanting this.” (And others may simply commiserate while out at lunch with coworkers, but when more than one person complains about the same thing it usually finds its way back to management to try to be fixed or addressed.) I welcome this kind of an open discourse, but wonder if employees at a Japanese developer and publisher keep these kinds of things to themselves more often, because I have to believe some people didn’t like this during the course of development.
I am also surprised by how strong the blur effect really is. It reminds me of when I bought my first computer in 1999 and had a copy of Adobe Photoshop 5.0. The first weekend I had the thing I stayed up until six in the morning for three straight days just fiddling with filters and creating neat art (which I look back on at times, and find the art to be riddled with lens flares.) There was never a hint of subtlety: you did an effect to showcase the effect. The NSMB2 blur effect feels like more of a tech demo than a feature to be praised or showcased, and I really feel it should have stayed in the demo stage.
But a part of me is not surprised to see this thing out there because I have seen this kind of thing before on other games I’ve worked on (as I am sure many other devs have as well). Someone with some clout had a neat idea and really, really wanted to see it in the game. I can imagine meetings over the course of development going:
- “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a blur?”
- “Hey guys, make sure you get that blur in.”
- “Hey, it’s that blur, I love it.”
- “I hear what you are saying, but I really like the blur.”
- “Tell the testers to stop sending bugs about the blur.”
- “Stop bringing this up, we are 2 weeks from beta. I’m the boss and I like it. The blur stays.”
The thing that frustrates me the most is that the whole point of the 3DS console is the 3D effect. No other device is doing it. It’s in the name. I am stating the obvious so hard it is hurting my fingers typing it. This blur effect ruins the very feature that makes your system unique and wonderful. This is Nintendo making this happen, not a third party developer. This would be like Tesla Motors releasing a diesel engine vehicle. This would be like Apple putting a 56k modem on their iPhone. It would be like Smith & Wesson selling a black powder musket for law enforcement. It is counter to the very thing that makes their product a unique standout.
Nintendo, by doing this you are saying one of two things to consumers. 1) "Some people have a hard time with 3D so we are turning on this blur to make 3D easier to see", which is essentially apologizing for the key feature of your best device currently on the market. Or 2) "We don’t feel the 3D effect is important enough for our customers to keep the game looking good when 3D mode is turned on."
Every game developer should see this for themselves and come to their own conclusion. I for one genuinely hope this is the last time I ever see this effect in a 3DS title.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Thor: God of Thunder - Birth of a female troll
Last year I was honored with the task with directing the DS version of Thor: God of Thunder. Working closely with Marvel and SEGA I came up with a story which featured a Troll invasion in Asgard as the catalyst for all events in the game, and gave us a group of enemies which would serve as our most versatile and commonplace enemy. (Trolls served to be the "rats" of the 9 worlds, so from a design perspective they essentially became our de facto enemy type.)
While designing out some of the trolls we wanted to make sure they stood out from the Lord of the Rings trolls and fit within the Marvel universe, and in trying to differentiate from LOTR I got to thinking: were there any female trolls? Are there ever really any female trolls? Without researching it I decided the answer was "no" and sought out to create one. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Verma.
Crystal Clear
Now before I get harangued for this design and be labeled a sexist pig, I want to explain a bit about myself. I am a male. I was born in 1980 and grew up in a time when equality for women was taught to me at a young age. I grasped it as fully as a young boy could and I firmly believed a girl should be able to do all the same things a boy gets to do. When I started designing female characters for my fantasy stories I made a concerted effort to dress them in clothes which didn't demean them and turn them into sex objects. And I am proud to say 32 years later that opinion has shifted little over the years.
I currently work at a company which features female characters in many of our lead roles. Shantae, Luna, Alta, and Patricia Wagon are strong characters which are visually appealing without relying on exploitation tactics. And recently we rebooted Bloodrayne and made her a powerful female without sexual innuendo (which Jim Sterling at Destructoid absolutely hated us for.)
I personally do not like the overt "underboob" of Ivy in Soul Calibur, the skimpy outfits of Fei in Cowboy Bebop, or the overall depiction of the women in DOA. I grew up loving Sandahl Bergman in Conan the Barbarian and Lady Jaye in GI Joe, and don't find that less clothes make a better designed character.
So with that said, let's see my foray against my upbringing and creative instincts!
Sexy Beast
So how did I come upon this amazing design? It was simple really.
It all started as a game design first. Early concepts featured such creatively named characters such as "Fodder Troll" and "Hammer Troll." This particular character would be known to the development team as "Battle Troll", because they were focused on battling and were capable of blocking with the shield, making them a tougher opponent. I wanted a strong female character somewhere in the roster of enemies, and felt a strong fighter was appropriate.
I looked at a number of comics for reference and pulled some pages from a Thor issue depicting an ancient battle amongst gods and monsters. I took an image of a troll with a scary face, and an image of what I believe to be a Valkyrie in ridiculous armor, did a little color correcting to give them a similar skin tone, then combined them to make a female troll!
After receiving some reference from the studios making the Wii/3DS and Xbox 360/PS3 versions of the game (RedFly and Liquid, respectively) we shifted the color of the skin, removed the loin cloth, and added some glowing bits to the armor. Then our amazing pixel modeler gave her the pixel treatment.
A Professional Touch
Up until now (aside from the pixel version) our female troll was nothing more than a crappy sketch and amalgamation of other characters, but she would soon get the star treatment for our character portraits by genuine Marvel artists. For our game we enlisted the talents of Mark Brooks to pencil and ink our characters, and Sonia Oback to handle colors. Working with them was a dream come true, and the character portraits they created were absolutely stunning. We loved their work so much we were sure to include a character portrait gallery accessible from the main menu of the game and have their signatures boldly displayed on one of the screens. (game code tip: if you are playing the game and it is your birthday on your DS, all the portraits are unlocked.)
I can't say what Mark or Sonia's opinions were of this character, but regardless they were consummate professionals and did simply amazing work. Here is the first pencil sketch I received back along with an early color pass.
Because this character would be featured in the dialogue system, and from the portrait gallery, she needed a name to display. I tried coming up with a name that fit in the Marvel universe, and somewhat to the ancient Norse myths, and came out of it with the name "Velma." It had the letter "V" and felt good, but Mark suggested "Verma" and the rest is serendipitous history.
I ended up loving the design of Verma so much I wanted a full body action shot of her to display in the menu system. Here is a work in progress of the full body image (linework and first pass color.)
Who's that girl?
Friend, colleague, and fellow WayForward director, Adam Tierney, has worked on a number of comic related games in the past and was nominated for his writing on the Batman Brave and the Bold video game. He informed me that any character created for our game becomes part of the Marvel mythos and lore. (You hear that world! Verma is a Marvel character! Demand a "one-shot" of her taking on Thor mano e trollo and start dressing as her for comic-con!)
The backstory I created is Verma is the daughter of Ulik (who is the leader of the Trolls). She is a highly skilled fighter with many forms of weapons, including her bare hands, but prefers to fight with a short sword and shield. She is a leader in the society of the Trolls, because she is smart like her father and is capable of fighting anyone who stands in her way or questions her ideas. She has secret plans to usurp Ulik and overthrow Asgard, but she is patient and can bide her time. And... that probably contradicts some stuff but I felt it was a good starting point.
Bottom line, I absolutely love Verma and I am proud of creating her.
Why?
First and foremost, I am an artist. Whether the products I create can truly be called art, or if they are fully my vision, that is up for debate (but that isn't a bad thing.) But as an artist I love the subversive. I love Koons and Duchamp, because they are pimps. In college for an art competition when everyone was trying to out-do each other with art fit for a "Spectrum" publication, in a nod to Malevich I painted a white illustration board white, with another small white square inside, and inside that in white letters I wrote "WTF." From far away it was a simple block of white, and it was seemingly a joke, and only when you look really close in the right light, you realize it is a joke. I love challenging conventions in small, fairly safe, not too aggressive or mean ways, and only get to do it from time to time (hey man, I don't like being mean at other people's expenses, that is just sadistic), and felt an opportunity was at hand with this game.
To me, Verma is a satire. Below the neck she is all the things that young boys in the 90's dream about sneaking a peek on Showtime or Cinemax when their parents are fast asleep or out of the house. She has the same body thousands of female comic characters have, and I was having a hard time escaping it when doing my research for this game. This body type is no stranger to video game characters as well, but she has a face reminiscent of a number of Hollywood monsters and demons from scary tales. And someone putting those two things together creates a kind of knee-jerk reaction from people, and a lot of guys hate looking at this character, and I love that.
Arenanet did an amazing job exploring how to make a female non-human character, which the video game industry needs more of. Verma is not this kind of character, and in a way she is showcasing that no character with her intended personality really seems right wearing so little or being so gussied up for the male gaze.
Are we ready for this?
I wrote the first draft of this post way back in February. I only recently made the time to stop being a lazy butt and finish up my thoughts on this character, and now felt like a very appropriate time considering how many issues are being talked about in the gaming press on a daily basis regarding sexism, misogyny, and overall douchebaggery.
I believe that if we want to support games as art then we need to support the voice of the artist regardless of the maturity level of the audience. Whether it is a semi-naked troll faced lady warrior or gun toting unrealistically dressed hit-ladies hiding in nun disguises, the misinterpretation of a minority of morons in an audience is not the responsibility of the artist.
An artist can not, and should not be expected to, wait for an audience to mature only after a series of disclaimers and explanations, to finally reveal an otherwise obscene idea or hypothetical which you must be mature enough to appreciate and understand in context, because in the time it takes for everyone to get on the same page new people have joined the discussion and are not up to speed. It takes major events which aggravate large groups of people (rightly or wrongly, it doesn't matter (and that's subjective so shut it)) to slowly shape our geek culture, like little kernels of popcorn exploding violently until we have a nice warm bag of soft fluffy goodness.
But it will never end, and we need to be OK with it. It is a simple matter of life, the revolving door of any culture which will slowly change over time, that new situations and new people will come along and this discussion and turmoil will never truly end, though it will evolve and shift over time because that is what all social issues are. I think in order to remain sane and civil we must be sure to:
While designing out some of the trolls we wanted to make sure they stood out from the Lord of the Rings trolls and fit within the Marvel universe, and in trying to differentiate from LOTR I got to thinking: were there any female trolls? Are there ever really any female trolls? Without researching it I decided the answer was "no" and sought out to create one. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Verma.
Crystal Clear
Now before I get harangued for this design and be labeled a sexist pig, I want to explain a bit about myself. I am a male. I was born in 1980 and grew up in a time when equality for women was taught to me at a young age. I grasped it as fully as a young boy could and I firmly believed a girl should be able to do all the same things a boy gets to do. When I started designing female characters for my fantasy stories I made a concerted effort to dress them in clothes which didn't demean them and turn them into sex objects. And I am proud to say 32 years later that opinion has shifted little over the years.
I currently work at a company which features female characters in many of our lead roles. Shantae, Luna, Alta, and Patricia Wagon are strong characters which are visually appealing without relying on exploitation tactics. And recently we rebooted Bloodrayne and made her a powerful female without sexual innuendo (which Jim Sterling at Destructoid absolutely hated us for.)
I personally do not like the overt "underboob" of Ivy in Soul Calibur, the skimpy outfits of Fei in Cowboy Bebop, or the overall depiction of the women in DOA. I grew up loving Sandahl Bergman in Conan the Barbarian and Lady Jaye in GI Joe, and don't find that less clothes make a better designed character.
So with that said, let's see my foray against my upbringing and creative instincts!
Sexy Beast
So how did I come upon this amazing design? It was simple really.
It all started as a game design first. Early concepts featured such creatively named characters such as "Fodder Troll" and "Hammer Troll." This particular character would be known to the development team as "Battle Troll", because they were focused on battling and were capable of blocking with the shield, making them a tougher opponent. I wanted a strong female character somewhere in the roster of enemies, and felt a strong fighter was appropriate.
I looked at a number of comics for reference and pulled some pages from a Thor issue depicting an ancient battle amongst gods and monsters. I took an image of a troll with a scary face, and an image of what I believe to be a Valkyrie in ridiculous armor, did a little color correcting to give them a similar skin tone, then combined them to make a female troll!
After receiving some reference from the studios making the Wii/3DS and Xbox 360/PS3 versions of the game (RedFly and Liquid, respectively) we shifted the color of the skin, removed the loin cloth, and added some glowing bits to the armor. Then our amazing pixel modeler gave her the pixel treatment.
A Professional Touch
Up until now (aside from the pixel version) our female troll was nothing more than a crappy sketch and amalgamation of other characters, but she would soon get the star treatment for our character portraits by genuine Marvel artists. For our game we enlisted the talents of Mark Brooks to pencil and ink our characters, and Sonia Oback to handle colors. Working with them was a dream come true, and the character portraits they created were absolutely stunning. We loved their work so much we were sure to include a character portrait gallery accessible from the main menu of the game and have their signatures boldly displayed on one of the screens. (game code tip: if you are playing the game and it is your birthday on your DS, all the portraits are unlocked.)
I can't say what Mark or Sonia's opinions were of this character, but regardless they were consummate professionals and did simply amazing work. Here is the first pencil sketch I received back along with an early color pass.
I ended up loving the design of Verma so much I wanted a full body action shot of her to display in the menu system. Here is a work in progress of the full body image (linework and first pass color.)
Who's that girl?
Friend, colleague, and fellow WayForward director, Adam Tierney, has worked on a number of comic related games in the past and was nominated for his writing on the Batman Brave and the Bold video game. He informed me that any character created for our game becomes part of the Marvel mythos and lore. (You hear that world! Verma is a Marvel character! Demand a "one-shot" of her taking on Thor mano e trollo and start dressing as her for comic-con!)
The backstory I created is Verma is the daughter of Ulik (who is the leader of the Trolls). She is a highly skilled fighter with many forms of weapons, including her bare hands, but prefers to fight with a short sword and shield. She is a leader in the society of the Trolls, because she is smart like her father and is capable of fighting anyone who stands in her way or questions her ideas. She has secret plans to usurp Ulik and overthrow Asgard, but she is patient and can bide her time. And... that probably contradicts some stuff but I felt it was a good starting point.
Bottom line, I absolutely love Verma and I am proud of creating her.
Why?
First and foremost, I am an artist. Whether the products I create can truly be called art, or if they are fully my vision, that is up for debate (but that isn't a bad thing.) But as an artist I love the subversive. I love Koons and Duchamp, because they are pimps. In college for an art competition when everyone was trying to out-do each other with art fit for a "Spectrum" publication, in a nod to Malevich I painted a white illustration board white, with another small white square inside, and inside that in white letters I wrote "WTF." From far away it was a simple block of white, and it was seemingly a joke, and only when you look really close in the right light, you realize it is a joke. I love challenging conventions in small, fairly safe, not too aggressive or mean ways, and only get to do it from time to time (hey man, I don't like being mean at other people's expenses, that is just sadistic), and felt an opportunity was at hand with this game.
To me, Verma is a satire. Below the neck she is all the things that young boys in the 90's dream about sneaking a peek on Showtime or Cinemax when their parents are fast asleep or out of the house. She has the same body thousands of female comic characters have, and I was having a hard time escaping it when doing my research for this game. This body type is no stranger to video game characters as well, but she has a face reminiscent of a number of Hollywood monsters and demons from scary tales. And someone putting those two things together creates a kind of knee-jerk reaction from people, and a lot of guys hate looking at this character, and I love that.
Arenanet did an amazing job exploring how to make a female non-human character, which the video game industry needs more of. Verma is not this kind of character, and in a way she is showcasing that no character with her intended personality really seems right wearing so little or being so gussied up for the male gaze.
Are we ready for this?
I wrote the first draft of this post way back in February. I only recently made the time to stop being a lazy butt and finish up my thoughts on this character, and now felt like a very appropriate time considering how many issues are being talked about in the gaming press on a daily basis regarding sexism, misogyny, and overall douchebaggery.
I believe that if we want to support games as art then we need to support the voice of the artist regardless of the maturity level of the audience. Whether it is a semi-naked troll faced lady warrior or gun toting unrealistically dressed hit-ladies hiding in nun disguises, the misinterpretation of a minority of morons in an audience is not the responsibility of the artist.
An artist can not, and should not be expected to, wait for an audience to mature only after a series of disclaimers and explanations, to finally reveal an otherwise obscene idea or hypothetical which you must be mature enough to appreciate and understand in context, because in the time it takes for everyone to get on the same page new people have joined the discussion and are not up to speed. It takes major events which aggravate large groups of people (rightly or wrongly, it doesn't matter (and that's subjective so shut it)) to slowly shape our geek culture, like little kernels of popcorn exploding violently until we have a nice warm bag of soft fluffy goodness.
But it will never end, and we need to be OK with it. It is a simple matter of life, the revolving door of any culture which will slowly change over time, that new situations and new people will come along and this discussion and turmoil will never truly end, though it will evolve and shift over time because that is what all social issues are. I think in order to remain sane and civil we must be sure to:
- Support the disenfranchised to speak up and continue to ask for tolerance and equality wherever people feel it is lacking, and support those who try to make a difference, and support the supporters.
- Know that a person of the ignorant attitude of "business as usual" is often someone who needs the right kind of gentle nudge, and that their existence isn't a sign of things being at their very worst because they will always exist. A new one is born every day and many and more are converted every day thanks to these discussions.
- Stop being an anonymous ass-hole arguing over the internet and harassing people for thinking different than you.
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