Insanely Twisted Budget Problems

 

Most games that everyone hear about, the ones with giant advertising campaigns, millions of dollars in production value, and deals with Mountain Dew, are what are called Triple A games.  These games are made by large companies and are funded by game publishers, whose investors know that whether the game is bad or good, they will sell enough copies to make their money back.  There are also smaller games made by companies that aren’t off the ground yet, called Indie games.  There’s a huge market for these smaller games because while large companies tend to stick to making things they know will sell, which means many of them are quite similar, Indie developers must be more creative and take more risks in order to sell their game.  Many indie games take advantage of this and market themselves as different from popular games, offering a fresh break from the norm.  However, the drawback is that these games are often underfunded and have less content, or they can be just worse in general.  The particular Indie game I wanted to talk about is Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, a game that showcases both the benefits and drawbacks of being an Indie developer.

 

A mysterious black spaceship is travelling around the universe and launching spiky black probes all over the place.  One of them goes towards the solar system of an advanced alien race, one of which will pilot the spaceship you control in the game.  They detect the probe and watch as it hits their Sun, the flames consuming the strange anomaly.  Almost instantly, tendrils of darkness spread themselves over the Sun, corrupting it and twisting it into a giant living lair for all kinds of evil creatures.  Even worse, the shadows spread from the Sun and begin attacking the home planet of the aliens, so you jump in your little ship to fight back.

 

This game boasted a very unique art style, awesome looking gameplay, and a mouthful of a title in its massively popular trailer.  It immediately made me interested in it, and while at first it was only for Xbox Live, it was released for the PC soon after.  As I started it up, I was immediately struck by the unique art style I had seen in the trailer, and I believe that it’s one of the best parts of the game.  A game that’s fun to look at is always a plus, and the environments are diverse inside the Shadow Planet, you explore everything from a black and twisted swamp, a beautiful but dangerous ice cave, and a huge labyrinth of a factory.  The gameplay was also awesome, as you pilot your little spaceship around the home planet of a very advanced alien race, collecting new weapons and fighting off the shadowy invaders.  Soon enough, you’re able to warp yourself towards the Sun, which has by now become completely corrupted, and take the fight to them. 

 

So the game takes its great art style and retro-gameplay and runs with it, and the player feels justified in their purchase.  However, the game only lasts for about three hours, which is a shame because everyone, including me, was left with wanting more.  Battling all the aliens, defeating monstrous bosses, and saving the world was great, while it lasted.  Hopefully they will take the funding and experience they have earned from making this game and make an even better one next time.  Indie games are usually about quality over quantity, as opposed to the Triple A games with huge amounts of money to spend.  Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is awesome, and I hope that other Indie developers follow its example. 

Brave Soul, who fears not death

 

It was a few years ago that I heard about an RPG called Demon’s Souls.  As a lover of fantasy and all the swords and spell-slinging that go with it, I was immediately intrigued.  In the world of Demon’s Souls, you play as a lone traveler who’s pitted against hordes of enemies, from undead warriors and animated skeletons, to more powerful foes such as flying dragons and powerful Demons.

So it was that I approached the local GameStop, eager to try my hand at this new adventure.  I had looked for reviews and critique about the game and found that it was incredibly popular and highly rated.  As I picked up the box, the cover was decorated with numerous awards the game had received.  Even more excited now, I put the game and my money on the counter, wondering how many long hours I would spend slaying the minions of darkness, when suddenly the GameStop worker spoke.

“Hmm, are you sure you want to buy this game?  I’ve played it myself, and it’s awesome, but… let’s just say it’s not for everyone.”

I knew what he was talking about, as while I was reading up on the game I discovered its main feature:  It was bone-crushingly difficult.  Unlike many other modern RPGs, Demon’s Souls harkened back to a time where when you bought a game, you weren’t 100% sure that you would ever finish it.  The gaming industry was just getting started, and rather than filling their games with rich content and depth, it was far easier to merely make the game incredibly hard, thus the player spends more time with it and pumps more quarters into the machine.  Many modern games can, of course, still be hard, but it’s rare for them to use their difficulty as a selling point.  But it seemed that Demon’s Souls’ entire platform was that it was a long and hard adventure into a maw of madness, with death after death piling up as the player desperately tried to figure out how to progress.  Knowing all of this, I still brought the game home and eagerly slipped in the disc, almost daring it to give it its best shot. 

After a short intro to the game’s dark and depressing story, the player is thrown into the fray almost immediately.  However, the first enemies are pitifully weak, and there are tutorial messages along the way, allowing you get the hang of the controls and general feel of the gameplay.  While you may think to yourself “that’s nice of them to at least help you in the beginning,” I wasn’t fooled.  I knew that the tutorial was there so that later on, you can’t use “I didn’t know what button to press” as an excuse. 

 

One of the prominent things about the game is the overall tone and atmosphere.  Not only do the enemies fight you, it almost seems like the world itself is against you.  Dark, washed out colors drape across the land, and the buildings and castles are dark and foreboding.  There is no music most of the time, and ambient sound effects constantly play around you.  It’s almost as though the game itself is saying “Turn back.  You aren’t safe here.”  It’s a really cool and immersive experience.  As I fought my way through the tutorial, I at last came upon a thick wall of fog, a signature effect in Demon’s Souls.  It means that you have arrived at the boss room.  For those unaware, the term “boss” in any video game refers to an enemy much tougher than the others, and requires you to use all of your knowledge and experience to beat them.  A lot of the time, the bosses in a game are the most fun part of it.  A boss in a game that boasts about its difficulty?  Bring it on.  I charge through the fog, sword held high.

 

Up until now, all that I’d seen is undead soldiers with tiny daggers, drunkenly swinging at you as you dispatch them easily.  Through this fog door, however, the real game began.  Epic music begins playing, and the name of the boss as well as its health bar appears at the bottom the screen.  Vanguard, this thing was called.    A massive Demon with three eyes, curved horns, and a huge axe suddenly found itself in the room with me and decided that it didn’t like intruders.  Instantaneously, it cleaved my poor knight in half, and for the first of countless times throughout my journey, a giant red message appeared on the screen as my life faded away.

Well, awesome, I thought, this guy will be tough to beat.  But you don’t get another chance.  The tutorial ends, and you’re moved to the main part of the game.  The Maiden in Black, one of the major characters, brings your soul back from the land of death, so that you can continue your quest to slay the Demons. 

 

“Brave Soul, who fears not death, I shall guide you.  So that you may lull the Old One back to slumber.”  Basically, no matter how many times your character dies, the Maiden will revive you so that you can try again.  No matter what, the Old One, a Demon who would devour all the Souls of the world, must be lulled back to its eternal sleep.  It won’t be an easy journey, though, as the Vanguard demonstrates.

 The developers knew that no brand new player would be able to win, of course.  I thought to myself, “Ohh, so I was supposed to lose there, alright.”  In many other games, there are certain times where you are forced to lose in order to progress the story or move to a new area.  However, it is perfectly possible to defeat Vanguard, and since then I have done so many times.  For new players, though, that first boss represents the foreshadowing of what’s to come:  many failures, many deaths.  The Vanguard is only a minor Demon, after all.  Throughout the game you face much harder challenges; Flamelurker, a demon made of fire, Storm King, a gigantic flying stingray, and Maiden Astraea, an enemy that's easy to kill but stabs you with guilt for doing it.   So I’m sure you’re wondering:  How could a game that destroys you over and over, with both enemies and a depressing story, be any fun at all?  Well, in my opinion it’s one of the best games ever made.

How is this possible?  Well, although there were countless times where I threw down the controller in frustration, cursed loudly at whatever enemy was giving me a hard time, and even considered giving up entirely… it was so much fun.  Because when you finally did conquer the castle, escape the dragon, and strike the killing blow on Maneater (I still want to find the person who designed that boss and burn his house down.  It took me two months to beat them.), the satisfaction of finally winning is like nothing else in the world.  Unlike older arcade games, this game will never be unfair.  You always know exactly why you died, and deep down you know that with a certain amount of skill, you can pull it off.  And finally, when I beat the game after months and months of some of the most riveting content I’ve ever experienced, I laid down the controller, ejected the disc, and went out and bought the sequel; Dark Souls.  It boasted being even harder.  Good.

Truly, video games can be eye-opening things.  We all have our own Demons to slay here in the real world, and after playing Demon’s Souls, a lot of them seem like those drunken undead from the tutorial.  With persistence, the will to continue, and a fully upgraded magic axe of dragon slaying (It took me so long to get it, but holy crap it’s so strong!) we can accomplish anything.  Like the Maiden said, its not death that we should fear.  Its giving up.  That's when you've really lost.

Taking a break from Reality

 

Hello, I’m Adam Crane and this is my new blog.  I’m attending Delta College in order to get a basic degree while deciding what to do for a career.  I’ve always loved writing, and reading, in addition to the usual stuff, like movies, TV shows, and of course, video games.  The sorts of things teenagers like me love to do in order to get away from the stress of everyday life and kill a couple of hours with our respective hobbies.  For me, the thing that really makes these things fun for me is the story involved.  Kind of a broad category, but it’s true, I’ve always been fascinated with stories and how they’re expressed and presented, and nothing entertains me more than a good plot twist, an awesome character moment, and feeling genuine emotion while experiencing a story.  I love the amazing special effects in movies and shooting people in the face in video games as much as the next guy, but what truly defines the experience for me has always been the story the creators are trying (or not trying, in some cases) to tell.  Over the years, I’ve come to realize that almost everything I love has an amazing story as an aspect of it.

So why is this blog about video games, specifically?  Well, while all of the things I mentioned above have stories involved, they’re all presented in very different ways.  Books, of course, are most commonly associated with stories because that’s basically what they are, in a word:  stories.  Movies and TV shows have other things going for them, but again, no movie maker is setting out to create the most impressive explosion or most beautiful environment for people to watch.  Of course, visual’s a big part of it, but at their core, the movie has a story it’s trying to tell, and the most passionate directors and writers will try and tell it in the best way possible.

 

 

 

But video games, as you can probably guess, are a different matter.  A lot of people, especially those who don’t play them very often, don’t think of deep character arcs or climactic plot moments when they think “video games.”  This is because video games, especially the very early ones, focused on the interaction between the player and the screen, the “gameplay.”  Space Invaders was a game where you explode aliens before they can reach the bottom of the screen.  Not exactly a thought-provoking premise, but it’s what was available at the time!  Video games are a relatively new industry, but one that is expanding rapidly.  Over the past decades, gaming has evolved into a fairly common pastime, and of course, the technology and innovation has evolved with it.  Video games now tell stories that can be every bit as compelling as the journey through Jurassic Park or Jack and Rose’s adventure to escape the sinking Titanic.  In fact, the storytelling in video games, in my opinion, has even more potential than any other form of media yet, because the player is directly involved as they play through the game, making them more attached to the characters and more immersed in the events that are unfolding.  The gameplay that is often thought to diminish the importance of story can, and does, enhance the plot and the way we experience it.

Perhaps that’s why I love them so much.  I wouldn’t say they’re my entire life, but they’re definitely a major chunk of it.  I love playing them, experiencing them, and getting lost in them.  They’re a new form of art and expression, and whether you casually shoot birds at the pigs castles or own noobs in the World of Warcraft, video games have something for you.  The gameplay in each one is as varied as the stories they tell, and I care about them and like talking about them enough that I’m up for writing about them in a blog.  So here we are.  Let’s take a break from reality and talk about video games.