Do you remember Memory Lane? (CityStreetsVille retrospective)

It's been months since I last posted anything significant to this blog. Even after stating I should post more, all I have in the last couple posts is a review of a level generator and a rant about something that I really know nothing about (voice acting, really?)...

I do have a remedy, though...

CityStreetsVille

Yes, after a few years of non-action, I finally came back to Source mapping and the contests that inspired creating this dev journal. If you have a chance you should try out the mod if you have Half-life 2 : Episode 2 installed. There's some really good stuff in this contest pack, much unlike my entry in it...

Memory Lane

When I awoke, there was a written note by the door...

I really don't know how to approach talking about this. I admit, even at the end of this contest deadline, minutes before turning in my entry, I felt like I did something wrong. Even after I submitted the entry, I cut and tweaked it several times and requested to resubmit the entry days afterward. And after it was made public, I felt the immediate urge to apologize.

At this point now, however, I don't really feel like it's the major failure that I originally thought it was going to be. However, a lot of the feedback is pretty much dead on, especially the negatives, and for the most part feedback was consistent enough that I almost feel ready to tackle the project once more before it continues to fade into mediocrity.

Good Intentions (Like All Roads to Hell)...
I tend to approach most contests with a personal goal of subverting expectations, often to my own detriment. This contest was no exception. Immediately on mention of using Half-life 2 Episode 1 for reference, I made an internal goal of getting as far away from City 17 as possible.

Inspired by an abnormally foggy day in downtown on the day this contest was launched, this map set out to create a realistic looking setting based on an American city, as opposed to the City 17-like, European city streets throughout the Half-life 2 universe. Knowing early on that one week is not enough time for a city map, I started out trying to scope this as simple as possible, planning a single uphill block, and focusing on wave-based combat as the main driving force, and rewarding the player with elements of story. I admit the result leaves much to be desired.

To be honest, much of the original idea had been scrapped and forgotten pretty quickly over time, in favor of more story elements, leaving much less time for combat testing. The only things that stuck was the heavy emphasis on story over combat, and on rewarding the player with visuals: the text was never supposed to be mandatory and a majority of combat was outright avoidable on subsequent playthroughs when the player knew what they were supposed to do.

Once again, I guess it sounded better in my head than it did in execution.

This...

...To this was too jarring in retrospect.

I don't really want to say too much about the story, not because I don't think it's not worth talking about, but because it's incomplete in this map, and the ending is a cop-out because I wanted to avoid the words "To Be Continued" at the end. I'm pretty sure if I want to try to finish the level proper and talking about the story would actually spoil the better twist in the whole thing. Believe it, it's better than the player redoing the same mistake...

Take-aways from the contest:
In my opinion, Memory Lane wasn't a success or a failure; it was incomplete. Many people had consistent complaints that I can't help but agree with, but a lot of them could have been discovered and attacked with an extra week of testing (or just an extra week in general):

Always plan and estimate ahead of time (don't accept death march mentality):
I feel like there were plenty of times where I knew the idea I had planned wouldn't be doable in the time frame. I can say that I barely scraped about 40% of what I wanted out of the two weeks I had. It could have been more, but I was already over-reaching at the end.

Trust your gut when combat isn't fun:
The current street battles aren't fun. Compared to many of the other entries here, the choice of weapons mixed with the sheer number of enemies the player has to face is too hard on most people. Unless you're aggressively pushing your way through and hunting for health, you can die too quickly. Even while playtesting it personally, I found myself more bored than I should have been, and my fingers kind of hurt after trying to use the pistol so many times against metrocops. What should have been a fun mechanic was punishing as a result. A lot of people are saying half of the number of enemies could have been enough. I think it maybe should have been optional altogether.

Text is not fun:
There's an old adage of "Show, Don't Tell" that reigns true in game design, but in this level, there was a bigger issue at play. A few people cited that they didn't enjoy the reading in this, but I think one playthrough said the most when they criticized that I should have used voice acting instead and that the text was in the way. It was at this moment that I suddenly realized there was a bigger issue here that I'd always overlooked. People don't just dislike reading in general, the text on the screen made it impossible to look past it at any visuals. This was a bigger issue and it sort of ruins the moment, and also kills the pacing in the faster action areas.
I think I can fix this one while still hanging onto notes, but the notes need to be one line of dialogue to really work. Even then, I'm not sure how to make it more memorable than fluff.

Text is not (nicely) supported:
A majority of the notes in this level were provided through game_text entities (documented here). While useful for small-time usage, it was clearly never meant for anything more than title text or even simple sentences. Hammer has a very annoying bug regarding new line characters that require you to open the map source file in a text editor in order to correct Hammer automatically mapping '\n' into '/n'. Quotes are also impossible, and any attempt to use the quote character will make Hammer crash on loading your map, once again requiring you to fix this in a text editor.

The concept is 'interesting', but poorly executed:
I got this a lot, and I realize that 'interesting' is vague enough of a concept that it could go either way. It could actually be something inspiring for some, and for others 'interesting' could have just been the most polite thing to say. I feel like the story I told was kind of terrible, made worse with the rushed nature of the contest not allowing me at least half of the story elements I wanted to include. This isn't really the fault of the contest; I could have told the story in a better way overall. Some people really liked this entry though, so I might have done something right, yet mildly polarizing on the whole. I generally don't like being that hit-and-miss guy, though...

Keep it Simple, Stupid!
The winner to this contest was primarily an action-based shooting level with little to no story, but a clear and up-front goal. Many of the assets used were already part of Half-life 2, and were easily available to anyone that wanted to use them. These gave Marnamai a clearly thought-out advantage and they didn't need to re-invent the wheel just to get core mechanics working. I don't know where to sit in this camp, because I can't deny quality over creativity when the idea doesn't work, but without experimenting, it's impossible to find out what works in the first place.

Looking Forward...
Memory Lane is kind of depressing to look back at. I have an extremely tough time watching people play it because it's at a point where, despite knowing internally that it's not a finished product, it's being played and criticized like one. There's a permanence to the whole thing that really shouldn't have happened. Hindsight is 20/20 for the most part, and it often looks the worst when you see your hard work pulled through the ringer.

On the other side of it, though, I feel a little better that it wasn't completely bad. I tend to be unrealistic when looking at my own stuff, and sometimes I need to ground my thoughts by rereading over other people's reviews. I can't get through the recorded play throughs without cringing, but it's clear there are parts that work, kind of, at least.

I don't know what the future of this map will be. I want this map to have a future. I don't really want it to end as a failed attempt at something when it's so close to working out to something stronger. At the same time, the longer I wait to decide, the more negative things I find, and the less desire I have to finish it. I have other things to do, but the fact this one is still hanging undecided makes it harder to choose.

Meet me at the lake... where we already had plenty to drink.

I'll need to think on this. The canned reserve is tastier anyhow...

Oblige'd! First impressions (v6.20)

So... I just tried out version 6.20 of Oblige, a level generator for various versions of Doom.

Quick pic of the UI.

Screenshots taken with GZDoom 1.8.2 and Brutal Doom v19

And to be honest... color me super impressed. Keep in mind, these levels were all generated, and it took less than a minute to make the whole wad. This wad was generated using close to the default settings (I did use the GZDoom engine setting, which is why some screenshots have bridges), so it goes to show both how far this level generator has evolved, and it shows the potential for procedural generation in 3D (Two-and-a-half D out of Three D isn't bad).

Keep in mind, this generator does have pitfalls: The difficulty curve spikes very quickly when making episodes with it, the actual enemy placement is a bit questionable (even blindly random), and larger levels start to show the big box they were generated inside. It will also sometimes leave inaccessible geometry lying around, the secret areas are hard to find (sometimes failing to even give a hint to the player by placing the hint on the wrong side of a wall), and trap areas can vary from fair to near unplayable with how many secret doors can be hidden in one single room.

Part of this could be because I was playing Brutal Doom instead of vanilla Doom and this level generator doesn't really account for the extra difficulty, but most times Brutal Doom actually complements the generated levels.

Not sure why the generator saw fit to include a cyberdemon in the first mission of Episode 3, but there it is.

Given that Oblige (and formerly Slige) get general hate from the Doom community (and most level generators get similar hatred) for the fact that better level generators make it harder to tell when someone is uploading generated content as their own, I still think it's a fun tool if you want the nostalgia for Doom, but don't want to play the same levels from the original game over and over again.

I recommend.

You can download the generated wad used for screenshots here or you can create it yourself using this config file in Oblige (version 6.20). You can download the latest version of Oblige at it's SourceForge site here:

http://oblige.sourceforge.net/

The Role of Actors and Voice Actors in Video Games

Recently, I saw "I Know That Voice" on Netflix. It's a documentary focused around the art of voice acting, specifically around the artists themselves. The mediums covered (i.e. cartoons, movies, video games) was rather broad because the voice actors themselves covered those broad areas quite regularly as part of their career. The movie interviews people like John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, Billy West, and Clancy Brown, people who's names you may not recognize, but who's voices ("Bender" from Futurama, Spongebob, "Ren" AND "Stimpy" in Ren and Stimpy, and "Mr. Crabs" from Spongebob, respectively) are memorable.

I'm not going to do a review on the documentary. I find the whole art of voice acting entertaining and that's reason enough to like these folks. I will point out a quote that did stand out for me (which I will now paraphrase terribly because I can't find that part of the movie)

"There's so much dialogue in a video game that it's impossible to follow the story fully..."

This kind of plays to an important theme in where the voice actor really fits into the big picture of video games. The point above is extremely valid when you think about the amount of readings that have to go into a particular character in a big triple-A game.

Jump to the GTA V Comic Con at New York last year, where Ned Luke and Steven Ogg (Michael DeSanta and Trevor Phillips) insist that they were actually 'acting' and not just 'voice acting' their characters. Everything in each cutscene they had to do was motion captured, and the main three characters were all performed by real actors in body suits, which is very impressive when you look at the characters side-by-side with their actors.

This speaks more to the technology, where motion capture is getting better and better, allowing video game motion to be done by real performers instead of hand-animated.

But what of the actors? How do they feel about the medium they performed in?

At ComicCon, Steven and Ned revealed really early on that they have not been into video games since the arcade days of Pacman. When asked about what video game characters they would like to play as, Ned Luke said that he could probably do a good Mario. Ned actually has a good point, if you consider that Mario had a typical Italian-American Brooklyn accent before many years later, when Charles Martinet put his own high pitched pure Italian spin on it.

Pictured: The voice of every character in the current Mario games, except maybe Peach, but I'm not 100% certain

But what am I saying here? Am I saying that all actors and voice actors in video games are out of touch with their audience? Am I saying that we shouldn't idolize them because they aren't part of the community that enjoys these games?

Not entirely. I don't really believe that they're completely out of touch. I think more that it's very difficult for them to be in touch and continue to act. Acting and voice acting are very time consuming professions, and require a lot of time, most of it spent outside of acting and just trying to get a job.

Michael Mando ("Vaas" in Far Cry 3) once said in an interview that he was doing a lot of auditions at the time of the audition for the game, and that the part he was auditioning for was so against his physique and abilities that he decided to do the exact opposite of what was asked for. Ironically, this was the best move because Ubisoft turned around and invented a character just from that audition just to get him into the project. However, it's notable that he had to tell no one that he couldn't tell anyone about this work he did and that his friends had to guess that he was involved in it only after the E3 trailer for Far Cry 3 was revealed. It's not likely that Michael will get to reprise the role either, given the death of his character.

Most of the voice actors for the game Team Fortress 2 are regularly unavailable to record, usually busy on other projects. This is most notable in promotional videos for the game, where some characters will have new dialogue, but most will only have recycled dialogue from the game itself, very strongly indicating that Valve couldn't get the actor behind them.

Given the busy schedule that most actors and voice actors have, it's impossible to assume that they can be in tune with the entirety of the games industry, or sometimes even the game that they star in.

But it doesn't mean they hate the medium or don't care.

Ned Luke in the same GTA V panel said that he has gone on to play GTA V with his son after it was released and that he was about 60% in as of the time of recording. He says he's terrible at the game, but I really don't blame him. I suck at certain games too but also enjoy them. Steven Ogg says that he hasn't played it and he may never play it, but Shawn Fonteno has, and Nathan Vetterlein (voice of the "Scout" in Team Fortress 2) plays TF2 (and prefers the Heavy).

But what am I really saying about acting, voice acting, and the actors behind video games?

I'm saying that they provide a very important role in bringing a video game to life and that they should be commended for helping bring the medium to the level of movie quality in less than a decade. I'm saying that they care so much about their craft, their work, and their livelihood, that they don't have the time to be completely passionate about the video games you or I enjoy. Their insights into the game they were in may not be insightful, but you should be impressed by the work that they did if you enjoyed their character, and never disappointed when it turns out they aren't actually the person they portrayed.

If anything, that should be the most impressive aspect of their performance.

...and Ned Luke would make a great Mario.


(This blog post may be full of mistakes from things I've overlooked. If I did make a mistake, don't hesitate to call it out and I'll fix it with an edit in the future.)

What a Crappy Anniversary...

It's bad that I've neglected this blog for more than a year now. According to Google, my last post to this blog was exactly one year and one month ago. That's a terrible anniversary. I couldn't even be bothered to make sure to limit it to 12 months and give a proper anniversary post.

To be honest, it hasn't been sunshine and happiness for me personally... in fact, here's a chart to help you understand my last year...

I don't want to go into the details, really. It's both personal and professional, and generally unpleasant, and I don't want to go into details.

I'll start giving updates on personal games projects again soon, alongside with the occasional opinion column about a game or the games industry, my favorite few topics.

Until then...

http://xkcd.com/621/

The Stanley Parable - Maybe you should buy it too.

Alright, have you played the demo or the mod?

What?! You haven't even tried them yet? *Sigh* Go do that...

http://www.stanleyparable.com/ - Free Demo
http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable/ - Free mod (Requires Half-life 2)

Okay, have you tried at least one of them yet? What did you think? Did you like it?

I didn't like it... the ending to the mod sucked...

Um... how many endings? Go play the mod again...

I didn't like it... the humor's not for me...

Then you probably shouldn't get the full game. And stop reading here. You're done.


I loved it! Especially the one ending where...

Excellent. You understand the basic concept. I won't spoil it any further, but here's what the main game has: It's an HD remake of the original mod. If you played the mod, you basically played a good amount of the game so far. And yes, I still think the full game is excellent.

Well, wait... I just played the game for free, then? Why should I buy it?

Because of everything the full game has that the mod didn't! There's quite a few extras, mostly hidden away as Easter Eggs, extended dialogue in areas, extra branching paths, and just a general feel of a well-polished game. This game makes awesome use of Valve's current Source engine (specifically the engine for Portal 2) and it feels like a full game.

The word is 'polish', my friend. This game is very excellently crafted together, with little hidden secrets and extras at every turn. It boasts variety in its playthroughs, and despite the drab office environment setting, I believe it.

But like I said in an earlier review, the game was still only about 4 to 5 hours until you start to get bored from crossing the same few paths again, and start digging through forums, searching for the easter eggs other people have found.

Is it worth the price, then?

Yes. It's a very good idea, and the execution is perfect. Really, the only thing dampening the experience is the short length and the fact that it's a very strict remake of the original mod. The extra pieces added really make it a strong experience though, and I really hope to see more like this idea from Galactic Cafe.

Also, they're having a sale, lowering the price to $12 plus tax... so... if you're on the fence like I was, that might convince you to get it!

http://www.stanleyparable.com/

The Stanley Parable - Yes, you should play it

At the time of posting this, The Stanley Parable HD Remix was just made available on Steam as of last Thursday. This is an excellent experimental game, similar to Portal in its dry humor. However, like Portal, it's one of those games that I can't say anything to really describe or justify it without spoiling the large majority of it.

It's one of those games that you have to experience yourself. It's one of those games that's funny. It's one of those games that's weird. It's one of those games that makes you think about your life in general, alongside with some of the common tropes in video gaming. Also, it's short...

Fifteen dollars worth of short?

Now, that's the tougher question. It is a really short game. It only took me 4 hours to extract as much out of it as I could before it felt like squeezing water out of a rock. Notice I didn't say "It took me 4 hours to beat." Of course it didn't. Didn't you go to their main site yet? Did you read the subtle text hidden throughout the site?

"...THE END IS NEVER THE END..."
-www.stanleyparable.com

This is partly the genius that this game has in it. Without spoiling anything, the only thing I can show you is a screenshot, which I think will describe this game perfectly (while explaining nothing at all):

"When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left..."

I'll give you a moment to think on that and let you decide whether to play this game or not.

If you're really uncertain after my vague description of it, there is a demo of the game available on the site to help you decide - http://www.stanleyparable.com/

If you're REALLY uncertain after playing the demo, you can play the free mod released a couple of years ago, which is actually a bare version of the game itself.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable/ (requires Half-life 2 and Steam)

Once you've tried both of those, we can discuss further whether it's worth buying.

Let's Make Doom a little more... Reelistic

So I discovered a mod for Doom called Reelism recently, and man is it fun. It's a wave-based shoot-em-up, similar in concept to CoD : Black Ops Zombies or Killing Floor, but it takes on a new tone, one of its biggest features being the slots-based randomness element they throw in at the start of each round, randomly choosing between game modifiers like environment changes, weapon spawns, and enemy spawns as well.

Don't just take my word for it. Play it yourself!
http://thekinsie.com/reelism/

Plus, that's not the point of this particular blog post. The point is more along the lines of...

So I starting modding a mod called Reelism for Doom lately. Currently, I've been playing around with creating a level for the mod. Well, not necessarily creating... I'm taking an existing level from Doom I and adjusting it to work with Reelism, hence the title.

Work is going very smoothly so far with it. After finding some quick documentation that came with the mod, I was able to open up the map in DoomBuilder and quickly start replacing the normal Doom guys with spawners for the new baddies.

However, my choice of E2M4 at random was not the best choice for an arena type level. There are loads of thin corridors and the original level is very linear, including key door puzzles and areas blocked off by teleporter access alone.

Right now, I've added a lot of changes to the original map, while trying to keep it consistent with the original level design. Many of the secrets have become corridors leading to other areas of the map, and teleporter destinations have been tweaked to make it easier for the player to hop from place to place.

All in all, it's going pretty well and I hope to have it available soon, once I figure out the best place to upload this single level. Also... maybe some better looking screenshots. I keep trying to take cool ones, but die horribly while trying.

I'm also not sure how cameras work in ZDoom yet, so hoping to get deathcam view in there soon.