The Un-Glamorous Side of Game Design

Today would be an excellent example of the un-glamorous side of game design. While most of the players of my game are enjoying an incredible double xp weekend, I'm here at work on a Sunday struggling to get a zone revamp finished for the upcoming LU 25.

I'm not the only one here either! Owlchick is in the next room working on The Fallen Dynasty stuff, and so is Peter Chang.

As a designer, I take my work very seriously and personal. Seeing what I am currently working on is nearly impossible to avoid by the gaming populace as anyone who comes from Freeport will have to pass through this zone. Does this stress me out? Yup! It's a scary prospect to make changes to anything the players play on a daily basis. You don't want to be the one who "screwed it up".

So, in an effort to try and not screw things up, I'm spending my Sunday at work, stressing out about something that I hope many of our players will enjoy instead of loathe. No pressure right?

I think that this is a very seldom seen side of what we do. I saw Moorgard here late at night every day this past week, and he worked the whole week of E3 prior. That is some tiring work my friends. Why does he do it? He loves his job, that's why.

Sometimes working on a game this big can be pretty overwhelming. Take the new player progression for instance. What players got to see was the culmination of about 5 months of work for some of us. By the time we got around to releasing it was a mix of relief and real fear. I was honestly worried that I might have screwed up the Qeynos newbie adventure areas, and the city zones with all the changes I had to do. We are talking about erasing NPCs, changing creature names, quest targets, loot, pathing, scripting, the whole nine yards. I personally "killed off" about 30 individual npcs in Qeynos Harbor alone in an effort to increase framerate in that zone. When I did that, I had to check every single character that I touched to make sure I didn't break some quest that possibly could have pointed at them.

Getting back to the whole un-glamorous thing. This job can be pretty rough if you don't have the self motivation to put in the work and hours it takes to get the job done. I remember being scared to death when I first started working here, because the depth and scope of what I was working on and the sheer responsibility of it all weighed down on me on the very first day. It can be intimidating working on one of the biggest MMOs ever. I sometimes wonder how many pairs of eyes have read Harclave's story, or how many people have killed a particular spawn of mine.

It usually all comes down to days like this, where I'm far from home, shoes off, blasting Emperor on my Ipod, banging it out. I love it!

Mining in EVE

I've been playing EVE Online on and off since around the beginning of the year. I'm told the pvp is great, but I've been really attracted to the trade aspect of the game, so I've been spending a good portion of my time and skill training towards mining endeavors.

In EVE, you mine for ore in order to get the minerals needed for tradeskilling. It's not tha different than grabbing nodes in EQ2 or WoW, but you have to be sufficiently trained and have the right equipment to do this efficiently.

Everything in EVE is about having the right combo of skills and equipment in order to get the job done. Everything factors in. The particular ship I fly happens to have a mining bonus, which I couple with my mining skills, my personal skills, and the quality of my mining equipment. On top of all that, I have to find the "good stuff" out in space and keep myself from being blown up by other players and "rats" (npc ships).

Sounds like it might be exciting right? It can be when you are with your corporation buddies forming a gang doing a mining op. It feels very social when you all are working together, with people using their haulers to warp in and out of the asteroid field to haul the load back to base. In more dangerous space, it gets especially intersting, because generally, you will require an escort of a fighter ship just to keep alive.

The problem I have with the game is, I live on the west coast playing a game that is based in Europe. I pretty much fly alone. A mining op might be one of the lonliest things I can do, with the rare player flying in to check to see if the field has what the want and porting back out. These are the only real exciting moments for a solo miner, because you get that twinge of fear wondering if they are going to swoop in and blast you to bits (my mining ship is outfitted with mining lasers, I can only barely defend myself with missle bays) or just fly in to your mining canister and steal your ore.

Last night I made about 1.4 million isk on my solo mining op for about 2 hours of work, but all the while I'm watching Armaggeddon on TV (funny, a mining movie in space) and reading the DaVinci Code at the same time.

I wonder if they will ever introduce a mechanic with which you can actively aim the lasers yourself using some sort of "ore sensor" where you see the actual rock and what is in it, directing the laser around the rock manually to get the maximum yield.

I think being zoomed in and concentrating like that all the while someone can come in and blow me up might be exciting, and keep me busy while mining instead of the periodic check I do to see if my hold is full enough to transfer the rocks to my jettisoned bin.

Im heavily considering starting my own west coast US corp in the game, just to try and get people that play at the same time all on in the same place. I just don't think I play enough to manage the task.

One more E3 under the belt and I don't know what to make of it. E3 is pretty hard to explain when you have never been to one, because it just IS. It's pretty much a maddening throng of game geeks, loud sounds and flashy displays everywhere you look.

One of the hardest things about going to an E3 show is the fact that you just can't see everything in one day. I could have probably gone all three days, but the fans of EverQuest II would probably think my time could be better spent getting some new fun stuff into the game, so alas one day it is.

I'll just cut right to the games I liked, and then my thoughts on the showing from the 3 major hardware guys.

Games of Note:

EverQuest II: Echos of Faydwer - Of course, I'm going to mention how great our newest expansion looked on those big LCD screens. I can't give out any real details about the expansion, but being an EverQuest fanboi, I geek out pretty bad to some of the old school zones.

Tabula Rasa - I got a chance to sit down and play this for a while, which is a rare treat at the E3 show with so many people around. I really dug the PVE elements that they have added to what is basically an MMOFPS/RPG hybrid. The environment art was very nice, and the feeling of epic battles really pulled me in with this one. The AI was a bit early at this stage, so I can't really comment on that, but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to this game.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - I admit, I didn't take that close of a look to the new WoW expansion. Maybe it was the fact that I had an EQ2 Desert of Flames t-shirt on, but I just wasn't feeling it. For those of you who don't know, I have a level 60 on one of their servers, and I enjoyed the game as I went through it, but based on what I got to see yesterday, I just didn't see anything that got me excited. Perhaps if they showed the flying mounts I would have probably been a little more into it.

Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins - This PSP game looks amazing! A 3d treatment to the traditional sidescroller really did the game justice. I am going to be picking this one up without a doubt. Please note! This plays as a sidescroller, the way it was meant to be! Woot!

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - OMG. Best game I saw at the show hands down. Must have purchase.

Crysis - This game looked pretty hot, but hard on the computer. The scenes I saw for this FPS were all in the jungle, but they had some neat hit detection on some of the flora so you could cut down trees with your machine gun. The foliage was alpha'd out like crazy, so I'm imagining this game will be a monster to try and run on most people's computers.

Gran Turismo HD - I know that this was pretty much a tech demo, but it looked drop dead gorgeous on the PS3. I can't get over how clean it looked.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - I don't think much needs to be said about this title. It's a hit waiting to hit the shelves.

Warhawk PS3 - Looked gorgeous at this point but little else. I recall the original PSone version being super fun in it's day, so I have high hopes for this one based on it's visuals.


Consoles:

I won't get into specifics, because this isn't a review site. I have to admit that all of the game consoles were very impressive. I was surprised that the Wii controls were as intuitive as they were, but I don't think they would take that kind of risk without being sure about where they were hedging all their bets. I was a little surprised at the look they went for in some of their games, because the old school super poly'd game look is a bit tired imho. It comes off stylized and quaint in a way, but then again, you would think they would showcase their visuals as best they can at this stage in the game.

The PS3 had an amazing response in my opinion and the games looked stellar. The clarity and speed in which that system can display things are phenomenal, and I'm sure it will be a hit.

The 360 had a very strong showing in terms of software, and it will be interesting to see their 2nd gen games start hitting the market.

Right now is a great time to be a gamer, just save those pennies and be ready.

E3 update incoming later today

I really enjoyed E3 this year, and got to check out some neat looking games over the course of the day. I'll try and post the highlights and lowlights later on today.

Brain Asplode!

There is so much pre-E3 information flooding the news sites, it's getting difficult to catch up. With the advent of broadband and very good wifi networks the news gets to gamers faster every year.

So far I've checked out the Nintendo and Sony Presentations and things are looking promising for everyone based on what I've seen.

I've been to all but two E3 shows thus far, and this one is shaping up to be a pretty good one from what I see.

I will be at the show on Thursday, and will do my best to post about any particular standouts with me.

Already based on what i've seen I'm going to be a very busy boy trying to get through all of these games, and a very broke one trying to buy them all.

The past couple of years I've been really terrible about finishing games that I start, namely because I spend 90% of my playtime either playing MMOs or being overly critical of what I am playing. The one problem with having been a quality assurance analyst for so many years is that I see the matrix. Most players see the spoon, I see all of the stupid flaws and it drives me nuts. It takes a very good game to suspend my disbelieve long enough for me to really get into it.

I'm not sure whether or not it is appropriate for me to comment on the PS3 pricepoint. I guess the only thing I can say is, if you want to be on the bleeding edge of technology it's going to cut into your pocketbook. When I first heard the price of the 360 I thought it was pretty steep, but here I am playing my 360 pretty much daily, so it's only a matter of time before I cave and get the newer systems on the horizon.

I'm a gamer, I have to right?

A quick name change

Hi everyone. I've decided to whittle down my extremely long blog name to just Devgamer. I think it will be easier to remember than "Saavedra's Gaming Blog".

Please just keep referring to me as Saav though, because it's what I'm used to after playing as that character for over 10 years now, I just wanted to consolidate the blog name to keep it simple for everyone.

The Untamed Land

For quite some time now, I've been thinking about upgrading my television to HD. Being a big fan of video games, I spend quite a bit of time with my television and really want my games to shine the best they can. The big barrier the past few years for me have been the money, but as the prices on the nice 42 inch sets have been going down I've been getting more and more tempted to take the plunge.

Some of you bigger gaming fans might be aghast that a dev doesn't have a great display for his game consoles, but I just don't. San Diego is an expensive town. Anyways, I'm shopping for a new tv.

Generally I know my hardware. I build my own computers, I actually understand what all of the specs mean on video cards and game systems, but I am at a loss when it comes to television displays. I've done my research though, and I'm getting closer and closer to the decision.

Those of you that know the different types of big screen tvs don't really need a lesson in how the display things. I've done enough research that I understand it but it's the pitfalls that worry me.

LCD: I worry about refresh rate and the price.
Plasma: I worry about burn-in because I play alot of video games.
Rear Projection: I worry about the viewing angle, weight of the unit, and replacing the projection units.

The television I am currently most enamored with is the 40 inch Sony Bravia. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm shilling for the parent company, but screen just looks fantastic to me. I also am able to slightly mitigate the Sony cost thanks to my employer, which makes the machine even more attractive to me.

There are a couple brands out there at interest me as well, namely the Panasonic line of plasma televisons, but I'm not sure if I am getting more for my dollar when it comes to price/size ratio. I generally want to stick around the 42'' range just because I don't really want something HUGE, so I'm trying to get the best tv for the price.

Suggestions and experience in buying tvs would be much appreciated though. I would especially like to hear about burn in and burn in prevention progs onboard the tvs, because I really fear ruining my machine by playing a game a couple of hours.

Tomb Raider: Legend

I just recently played all the way through Tomb Raider: Legend on my 360 a week or two ago and really enjoyed the experience. The most impressive aspect of the game's design to me was the flow of the levels and the cues they used to help you along the way in terms of that flow.

Some games are pretty blatant when it comes to showing you the path, while games like Tomb Raider: Legend gently steer you through with neat little visual cues and tricks. For example, the most interesting statue in the room happens to be the one with a pole sticking out of it for swinging purposes.

I was pretty curious to see how Crystal Dynamics would treat the IP, and I think they did the game series justice. I haven't really felt any desire to play the last few TR games, but the nice graphics and slick demo really got me interested. Throughout my experience of playing the game I felt cool and heroic. I never really got the impression that I was going to fail at any given attempt to make a risky move, in fact I was often rewarded with a statue to add to my collection for being curious and bold.

This isn't a Tomb Raider review, however.

After I had beaten the game, I was curious enough to look up how it was doing in terms of ratings, because I felt that I had a really good experience with the game. I was pretty surprised to see that it didn't get that stellar of ratings. No one was really able to pin down exactly what they didn't like about the game, other than it was more of the same, but they did manage to have quite a bit to say about Lara Croft's chest, her hair, her lips, her behind, her clothes, her skin, and her oh so sexy movements.

I don't know why it has annoyed me this much, but I can't help but wonder why the focus? While she was certainly a novelty back in the day with her big polygonal assets, I can't help but think that Lara Croft is typecast in a way. Tomb Raider will always be associated with being a "sexy" game because of the Lara character, while sexy characters are a dime a dozen in video games and hardly the novelty that she was back in the day. Why can't the newest Tomb Raider game be judged purely on the focus of it's design and fun factor instead of what the main character looks like? No one spends the time estimating what Daxter's cup size might be in real life, but they certainly do that to Lara Croft. I find it odd and annoying.

I had a good time with the game personally. A good enough time to want to try and do the time trials and bonus content, which I really don't do very often. I can't say I spent alot of time in the Croft Manor trying on different outfits, but you would think that's what the game was all about based on what I've read.

What? People Read This Thing?

Now that I've added a little web counter at the bottom of the page, I can see that people stumble onto this blog a trickle at a time.

With the immense responsibility that I have to entertain at least the nearly 20 people that have passed by this page in the last 24 hours, I feel that I should make an attempt at updating this more often.

The lack of posts isn't because of a lack of material, I'm actually accruing a nice little list of things I want to talk about. I am just lacking a little in the time department these days.

A couple of things that have been swimming around in my head have to do with review focus on Lara Croft/Tomb Raider, and my old guilds/clans of yore.

Another Quick Wii blurb

I didn't spend a great deal of time mulling over the whole "Wii" thing, but now that I think of it I find it very odd that Nintendo would engage in damage control before any announcements go out for E3.

With the popularity of viral marketing campaigns, I wonder if this is a ruse of some sorts. I don't mind the Wii name in particular but I do question how seriously odd it is that Nintendo would have to go through the kind of pains they did to explain how they came to the name. It's just a bit of a reach.

The next few weeks should be pretty interesting.