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More Okami for Me

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There are few games that you play and actually think, “Wow, if I could make a game like this, my life would be complete.” After playing Okami for an hour, I’m convinced that it will likely be one of those truly innovative games that everyone will wish they had created.

Okami’s most striking feature is the visual design. The world and characters are all made to look like Japanese brush paintings. The designs are a type of hybrid between 2D and 3D, where the lines are in 2D but the watercolor-style colors and character movement create a sense of 3D perspective. After obtaining a paintbrush, you gain the ability to paint the world and mold this fantastic reality.

The story of Okami was laid out like a storybook in the beginning, with simple 2D animation sequences and gibberish voice-over narration. It is based on traditional Japanese mythology, but it was captivating to watch. When the story switches to cinematics later on, the movements of the wolf are captivatingly realistic in their ability to portray her as a living animal. As a former dog owner, I know what expressions dogs can and can’t make.

The gameplay itself is very smooth. The wolf’s movements are animated to highlight the fluidity of this animal’s movements. Fights are fairly straightforward and don’t require a laborious wait. The paintbrush feature aids in battles and can be used to fill in pieces of the environment. Unlike other games, this feature is not in a separate space; the paintbrush can be applied at any time as an overlay for the current view. While the paintbrush will only react to certain objects, this seamlessness in which it is integrated into the game puts the player in the position of the artist and author of reality.

As you may have noticed from the beginning of my blog, I had been feeling frustrated for a long time with my gameplay. I had started several games without getting attached. I miss that feeling of addiction that I found so often with RPGs. Since Final Fantasy X, I have been searching for the next game that would pull me in. With Final Fantasy XII newly released, I thought it would be that. However, I received it in the mail and didn’t even touch it yet. So why was Okami so much more fascinating to me than the other games?

Okami was fairly simple and straightforward in the beginning. It was friendly in that you couldn’t run off the edge of the level and die. The wolf you control never talks, like a real animal. Your companion, a bug, has silly comments that keep the story from being dragged down by stuffy mystical drama. The bug tells you what to do and has character – he gets jealous yet compliments you on your new abilities. The NPCs say interesting things and seem to have their own lives. The visuals are fresh and beautiful and the paintbrush feature is quite innovative.

Traditionally, I have been a sucker for long games with good visual design. Maybe that’s because I want to escape to a world as beautiful (if not more so) than the world we inhabit. I grew up in Oregon, where I was surrounded by lush green. I love the clear blues of tropical oceans and vibrant sunsets. One of my favorite aspects of Final Fantasy X was the use of color. The sunny beaches and vibrant environments made it feel like a vacation. I love taking a trip to imagined worlds in games when it feels like a relaxing, captivating break from life.

I hope to make a game someday as beautiful as Okami. The visual design is only one part. The innovative paintbrush mechanic, seamless movement, and overall fluidity in the fantastic 2D/3D hybrid realm that really make the game shine. I am excited to be able to play more of Okami and rediscover my passion for gaming again.  

Jak vs. Link

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As an aspiring game designer, I knew that I had to play Zelda sooner or later. Embarrassed not to immediately associate the name “Link” with happy childhood memories unlike many of my peers, I decided I could avoid Nintendo no longer. I had always had a PlayStation and never bothered to play Nintendo games (due to the seemingly limited options available for games on their consoles) and had never been a big fan of Mario. Yet the Zelda series kept coming up in class discussions and casual conversations. As an RPG fan as well, I was long overdue to play Zelda.

Fortunately, my professor brought The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker to class today. I jumped at the opportunity and sat down to play. I was engrossed in the game and found the island strikingly similar to that in the original Kingdom Hearts. I played for a good twenty minutes before noticing that a few people had gathered around to watch. I offered to let them play, but was glad when they declined. I was finally getting the hang of the controls and the style of the game.

When a mystical bird flew in with a girl in its talons, I was quickly reminded an article on Shigeru Miyamoto. It talked about his sense of exploration and fun. The colorful world of Zelda held the distinctive, imaginative style that has defined Miyamoto’s games since the original Mario series. I began to see why such a fan base has grown.

An hour later, class was over. Sadly, I could not save my progress or return to play Zelda later. However, I was excited to play again. I even considered buying a GameCube. I would not mind playing that hour again because it was a lot of fun.

When I returned home, another game in the same genre was waiting in my mailbox: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. I had an opportunity to play it later in the day. After feeling stressed from the week, I was glad to have a fun game to play (after having rented so many games exclusively for my school project).

This game started out with a lengthy cinematic process. Once into the game, however, it was mainly platformer action. I enjoyed the playful style and friendly characters. One particular task, herding creatures resembling water buffalos into a pen for a farmer, reminded me of a very similar task in the third Spyro game. I player for a couple hours.

However, I ran into much more frustration in Jak and Daxter. I was continually dying, but there wasn’t a limit on the number of lives. Toward the end, I believe I spent about ten minutes trying to beat a boss. I kept dying, but about 80% of the time I died was from carelessness during the simple jumps to get to the boss. I was so angry about losing that I lost my focus. I was so stubborn that I kept at it over and over again, and finally beat the boss. I played a little bit longer after that, and got stuck. I was still upset from beating the boss and quit around 1 a.m. to get some sleep.

After playing both platformers, I began to wonder why one had appealed to me so much more than the other. Both games were made into best-selling series. Both had whimsical creatures and bright, playful levels. The characters and stories were rich. It seemed to come down to the puzzles and difficulties. The Zelda game felt more intellectual and charming, such as when you could discover that you can hide under barrels to avoid getting caught unarmed. The Jak game had more meaningless mini-games, such as catching 200 fish (catch only two of the three types and the speed at which they swim increases) or the animal herding. It reminded me of Kingdom Hearts II and getting frustrated with ridiculous tasks.

While both games may be strong, I believe that they do appeal to different types of players. Zelda requires more of a puzzling mind, where you have to ask yourself how you can use what you know to solve the problem. Jak and Daxter gave less initial guidance but left the world so open that you had to discover things for yourself that had less bearing on mental challenge and left more to chance or physical skill. While both games satisfied my need to run around and collect items, I found that Zelda was more fun, simply because it was crafted like a puzzle; all the pieces were there and you just had to figure out how to use them. I felt like I was respected as a player to solve simple challenges that were attainable with a little thought. With Jak, the action was there, but the cleverness and subtlety was not.

I am not sure whether the fluidity of Zelda was due to the countless iterations and since the beginning of the Zelda series or simply more compatible elements (simple puzzles as opposed to mini-games in the same game type). However, I do think that the Jak games would appeal to players who are less inclined to want to think through a puzzle and simply win by pushing through the incidents of ridiculously menial tasks.  

Genre and a Love for Familiarity

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Today in class we talked about genres and game sales. It made me wonder about what type of genre player I am. Although I know that I have always loved RPGs, what other games are marketed toward people like me? If I pick up an occasional platformer, am I a part of a different market as well? What about online games?

Fortunately, I was able to gain a partial understanding through the games I played in class. I began with Bejeweled, which I had become quite familiar with over the summer. I worked at a library, and we were given hour-long shifts at the front desk. I would play Bejeweled (since someone coming to the desk was a rare sight). Playing in class again was fun, as I began to get faster and faster at the pattern recognition. Puzzle games are really fun for me, and I do think that is because, as discussed in lecture, people enjoy them who want something that is intelligent but does not require competition. I hate competition because I strive to do well at whatever I do, and I hate it if people have to start comparing each other. I have been a winner and a loser before, and both are not entirely perfect. Losing is sad and can be made much worse if the winner boasts. As a winner, I feel bad for the other people that wanted to win. I also loathe anyone who is full of themselves, and I feel as if I can never be entirely happy in my pride as a winner since it was at the expense of other people.

This is probably why I enjoy RPGs. They allow me to have a sense of achievement without it being at someone else’s expense. However, I do not find myself drawn to all RPGs. I have played Earthbound on and off in the past and had the chance to play Ultima for about half an hour today. I found the early RPG format easy to understand but I was not particularly captivated by the game. I was annoyed with the simplistic graphics and basic story. The concept of the avatar was interesting, especially as two of my peers had begun the game and found different scenarios. I was confused by the controls (sometimes the emulators’ controls aren’t always the most logical). For this reason, I couldn’t figure out how to save, but I didn’t mind much when it was time to go. Unlike Final Fantasy X or even Bejeweled, I wanted to stop because food seemed like a bigger priority.

The other game that I checked out today was the demo for Deus Ex: Invisible War. I gave it a genuine effort, trying to understand all the controls and making sure that I would be able to progress forward in the game. I read all the hints and talked to everyone that I could, exploring and getting chastised by the guards for wandering around. I was disappointed when the one person I was officially going to talk to seemed to lead to a dead end, so did the other thing I had heard about: going toward the landing pad. The guards had all explicitly told me not to do this, and, at this point, I still had not figured out how to fire my weapon. I pressed all the buttons and couldn’t get anything to work, so I assumed that it would come out later. I ended up being shot at, so I escaped and ran away into some dead-end alley. I heard voices nearing, and, when I discovered that I couldn’t hide behind the dumpster like the weaponless weakling I was, looked for other desperate options. I found a grate which led to a darkened area with a bunch of pipes and I was suddenly shot with some sort of green plasma. I looked up to see an odd green alien thing (in what I mistakenly thought was a somewhat realistic game) and was soon killed by said green alien thing. After this confusing, bumbling episode, I had absolutely no motivation to go back and try again.

After today’s games, I have realized a few things: (1) I probably will never really enjoy games that involve physical darkness, shooting, and suspense; (2) I like RPGs, but only if they are artistically beautiful and allow me to achieve to reach a narrative goal; and (3) puzzle games, especially the free, repetitive online type, are very addicting for me. I will still play games such as Deus Ex for at least a few minutes so that I can understand the basic mechanics, which I consider to be important as a game designer. I may always like puzzles because I feel smart for recognizing patterns. As far as what I actually buy (or rent, for that matter), I think that RPGs will still remain my favorite. Even if I do play platformers once in a while, the RPGs are really the only ones that that have been able to capture my heart.  

Work as Play...Play as Work?

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One of the games we decided to use for our movie was Final Fantasy X. I was really excited to play it, as I finished it last summer and really enjoyed it. When I received my rental copy in the mail, I was thoroughly disappointed to discover that that particular disc was unplayable.

My replacement arrived yesterday. I started it up and this disc worked just fine. I was thrilled to hear the familiar music and load a save. I was looking for particular gameplay moments, and set out to record a few simple scenes.

I had no trouble transporting my characters to the areas I needed and recording the sequences I wanted (mainly fight scene footage). However, I turned the game off right afterwards. Surprisingly, I had no interest in playing anymore, not even for old times’ sake. Why?

The reading this week gave me insight. Bernard Suits’ The Grasshopper described different types of rules in games and how following the rules is necessary to enjoy the game. The lusory attitude, which Suits defines as “where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity,” apply here. When playing the game, I went through ridiculously repetitive fights and spent a long time facing the same foes just so I could level up my characters. I accepted them as means to an end, much like the workers in The Grasshopper. Although I do enjoy a good slaying, I had spent so much time fighting these foes that it was no longer fun.

Also, it was in the context of a story or narrative. I really enjoy the stories in games. Once I had seen the ending, it was as if I had finally solved the mystery. Returning to a previous point in a complex RPG like this one only left me levels behind my satisfyingly high final-fight characters. There was nothing to be gained, so I turned it off.

So where does this leave me? If playing games has become a form of work, when do I play? Maybe play and work are interwoven more than most of us think. When I have a lot of free time in the summer, I go crazy if I don’t fill my time with books, movies, games, and projects. Even during the school year, I consider some projects (even assignments for class) to be a form of play, because I enjoy them. I am a person who thrives on business; my family tends to measure success based on tangible results. Perhaps I really am more of an Achiever type than I thought.  

Machinima

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Last Thursday, we talked about Salen and Zimmerman’s Rules of Play. We read the section concerning games and narratives. I have recently had to confront this issue directly, as I am attempting to create my own narrative through games.

One of my other classes has a final project that consists of creating a movie using game footage (machinima). Whether it includes gameplay or cinematic sequences is up to us, but we must use games to construct a cohesive short film. While it would be amusing to create a movie using a engines and mods such as the plethora available for Half-Life, I wanted to go for a less complicated structure. Since I have not even played Half-Life and would not dream of creating a movie using a mod, I needed to create something that could build upon my previous movie-making experiences. I have made many silly movies for class and for fun. My favorite type of movies would probably be educational movies, so I decided to build from there. I abandoned the idea of creating my own fictional story.

After discussions with the professor, I decided to make an educational movie for recovering Video Game Addicts. It will poke fun at the ridiculous laws and rules of games and also has recent political implications due to the fact that video games are often blamed for causing people to become more violent. I made a script for it with my partner, and found that we would need about 10-15 games to demonstrate important physical and legal principles of everyday life.

In order to find the games for our movie, we brainstormed. Just as in Rules of Play, we had to think about all the important elements of many of these games’ narratives, such as situation, character, conflict, uncertainty, and story events. While thinking back through games we had played and their stories, we revised our lists of physical and legal rules that govern our lives. Games such as Final Fantasy X are completely fantastic, largely dependent on imaginary summons and magic. There are even levels that can only be completed underwater with a human who supposedly has trained himself hold his breath so that he can be underwater for long periods of time. More conventional movie narratives, such as that in Indigo Prophecy, provided an inspiration for the reminder on who can and can’t be killed.

A short while later, I was able to turn in my other game rentals (such as LEGO Star Wars II) for the games I needed for the project. I recently captured the first five minutes of Indigo Prophecy, in which the character you play suddenly discovers a bloody knife in his hand and a stabbed corpse on the floor in front of him. While this will help humorously illustrate how it is not appropriate to kill average people, the game takes itself quite seriously. The menu screen refers to games as movies (i.e. “Begin Movie” for a new game), and it certainly feels like a cinematic experience as the narrator’s voice drawls over the soaring cinematic sequence that follows a crow to the scene of the crime. I can see now how much of the narrative is embedded in the beginning, and the choice to call the game a “movie” certainly implies that the narrative has already been laid out for the player to discover it.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to play through more of the game, since I had to move on to complete my first cut in the next couple of weeks. I would like to continue playing Indigo Prohphecy, if only to see how much control I have as the player (and to see whether there is the possibility of creating an emergent narrative). While my movie will not be a fictional narrative, the narratives in other games will help to reflect the narratives that people create in their everyday lives and (hopefully) create an effective humorous teaching tool for Video Game Addicts.