DINOSAURS RIDING ASTEROIDS RIDING BIGGER DINOSAURS!

But 4 srs...

Are you looking for game ideas? How specific do you want us to be? Are you looking for a small project, a big one, a first one, a magnum opus? There are so many games that i want to be made, but it's hard to suggest anything right now.

Just spoke to the family over Skype.

Well, I tend to think of it as Naija has her own feelings and I've got mine. The fact is that no one, no matter what the medium, can control how the viewer is going to react. I don't think "good" writing is synonymous with "persuasive" writing.

This is true, but the point I'm trying to make is more that writers are able to control the player's incentives for progression. By this I mean, using good writing to inspire the player to play through the game for the story as opposed to mechanical rewards. This can be done by setting up a good plot and by also creating a character the player can sympathise with, thus making the player want to see the character complete his or her quest. In that sense, I'd argue that good writing and persuasive writing are indeed synonymous.

The same goes for Aquaria (to stick with the example). I don't have to identify with Naija to enjoy the game. In reality, I do identify with Naija, and the game is richer experience because I identify with her. Identifying definitely improves the experience.

Agreed. You don't have to identify with a character to enjoy the game, but if there's a disssonance between the two of you, the narrative will lose its impact if/when the plot begins to develop the character. As the character develops, the narrative will begin to run away, leaving the player behind, in a sense.

But if the game took pains to try and endear Naija to me I'd probably identify less. I'd probably find it grating. I've always felt that good writing is interesting without telling the viewer what they should be thinking. If a story doesn't work unless the viewer is thinking a certain way at a certain time, I'd call that bad writing.

I'd say that if you found it grating, it would DEFINITELY be bad writing, but that's not because the game is trying to make the character endearing. It's more because the game is trying to make the character endearing, but is failing miserably because it's not written well enough, or is too heavy handed. There is definitely something to be said for subtelty when it comes to making a character sympathetic.

just moved into the attic. sorry for the crappy quality.

You're not just a bedroom developer, you're a bed developer! Hardcore!

UPDATE: Behold, the glory of phone camera quality!

[being good excellent to one another]

being good excellent to one another

THIS.

George Carlin demands it.

Well hey there. My name is Alex and I'm a videogames journalist-turned-indie dev. I'm starting a small studio with my partner in crime William, and we have a soup-er sekrit project in pre-pre-pre-alpha stage right now.

This is me at Halloween, in the middle:



I'm not the most experienced of gamers (my first console was a Dreamcast) but I started with a Game Boy and Super Mario Land and, as my parents would describe it, everything went downhill from there.

I spent most of my childhood revelling in the colour and light of Sega and Nintendo mascots with games like Sonic Adventure, Super Smash Bros Melee, etc defining my ideas of what games are. However, more recently I have become enamoured with the artgame movement, and have spent the past three years as a games journalist for a variety of sites, the last two years or so of which were focussed on editorial work examining what makes game mechanics work. I'm hoping these studies will influence my game making, but only time will tell that!

Just put on a flannel shirt, skinny tie and jacket, CAUSE AHM SO INDEH, BRAH!

Also, fighting off the poop-making from a particularly rich chocoloate desert.

UPDATE: Fight has failed. brb

Flann O'Brien is a great Irish novellist. This is an extract from "At Swim-Two-Birds":

The third opening: Finn MacCool was a legendary hero of old Ireland. Though not mentally robust, he was a man of superb physique and development. Each of his thighs was as thick as a horse's belly, narrowing to a calf as thick as the belly of a foal. Three fifties of fosterlings could engage with handball against the wideness of his backside, which was large enough to halt the march of men through a mountain-pass.

   I hurt a tooth in the corner of my jaw with a lump of the crust I was eating. This recalled me to the perception of my surroundings.
   It is a great pity, observed my uncle, that you don't apply yourself more to your studies. The dear knows your father worked hard enough for the money he is laying out on your education. Tell me this, do you ever open a book at all?
   I surveyed my uncle in a sullen manner. He speared a portion of cooked rasher against a crust on the prongs of his fork and poised the whole at the opening of his mouth in a token of continued interrogation.

Description of my uncle: Red-faced, bead-eyed, ball-bellied. Fleshy about the shoulders with long swinging arms giving ape-like effect to gait. Large moustache. Holder of Guinness clerkship the third class.

   I do, I replied.
   He put the point of his fork into the interior of his mouth and withdrew it again, chewing in a coarse manner.

Quality of rasher in use in household: Inferior, one and two the pound.

   Well faith, he said, I never see you at it, I never see you at your studies at all.
   I work in my bedroom, I answered.

Words are the key to a character's soul. Visual representation of a character places the viewer in the role of the observer. Everything we "know" about a character is in fact just an educated guess inferred from inexact evidence which can only be proven by compunding it with writing (ie; subtitles, character monologues). With textual narrative, we have unbridled access to a character's thoughts without having to assume that particular role.

WORD!

Very intriguing concept.

And I can empathise with your position of being half way around the world from the other half of a two man team completely.

(I know it's been done before, but it bears repetition)

The game looks gorgeous and sounds really intriguing. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this! Great work so far!

I echo previous comments about the magma texture. I seems out of place when seen from a side view like it is.

since I am not Kratos, I cannot empathise with his position, motives, goals

Ah, but isn't that the very definition of empathy! To quote dictionary.com

the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

Good point, well made. My semantics were off.

The problem with having a scripted character is that it creates an immediate divide between the player and their character: since I am not Kratos, I cannot empathise with his position, motives, goals, etc. So what incentive do I have to play as him?

Why would that create a divide? We're able to identify with characters in every non-interactive story who are scripted.

Myself, I don't like it when any story expects me to feel a certain way at a certain time. Like when the emotional music swells and the camera dollies in on Kate Winslet crying or something. Sure, I'm going to feel emotional, but it wasn't earned, it's just a crying actress and an effective score.

What I appreciate about games is you can give the main character motivations and you can give the player different motivations, and try to make them line up. The player can decide how much they do or don't care about the character's wants and desires.

For instance, in Aquaria I might care about Naija's reasons for wanting to go to the Sun Temple, and I might not. She has old memories hidden there, she is discovering the surface for the first time, fine. But I know if I complete the Sun Temple I'm going to get a new ability. So her desire and mine match up, but I'm free to care or not care about her reasons. But the fact that we both want the same thing can make me identify with her in spite of myself. I'm free to decide my own level of investment.

While this is all true, the dissonance between a player and a character in the game is more pronounced because we control the actions of the character. We aren't just witness to the story, we drive it. To take your example of Aquaria, there is dissonance between yourself and Naija because your reasons for wanting to complete the Sun Temple are completely different. The narrative says you are in there for one reason, but the mechanics tell you you're in there for another.

You were right to call me out for suggesting there in NO incentive to play as a scripted character (It was late, and I was tired! ), but there is still that divide. This means that when you eventually complete the sun level and the plot develops, it does not engage you to nearly such an extent because you have decided that you aren't interested in it and all you want is the mechanical reward.

There are two ways around this:

1) Use good writing to make the player want to explore the Sun Temple for the same reasons as Naija, with the further option of eschewing the mechanical reward, hiding it or making it seem less important to the player than plot progression.

2) Make Naija want the upgrade as much as the player, which is easy to write, but can impact the quality of the story in many cases.

...Or something like that.

It's a conspiracy, yeah? Black Ops, white papers, phone tapping, y'hear?

So glad the veil of government lies has been lifted.

My workspace is cluttered with random paraphernalia, plates, cutlery and books. There is minimal room for game development ATM. I seek to fix this.

The problem with having a scripted character is that it creates an immediate divide between the player and their character: since I am not Kratos, I cannot empathise with his position, motives, goals, etc. So what incentive do I have to play as him?

The goal of the writer in this case is to find some common link between the player and the character, and you can do this by making the protagonist character one with whom the player can symnpathise. You have to make the player WANT the character to see his quest through until the end. In that sense, a scripted character in a game works in the same way as any character in a film or a book.

I know telling game designers/writers to copy films is an indie faux pas, and perhaps not the best stance to take on a first post here, but there's not much I can do about that.