I'm working as a freelance illustrator and going around the country drawing portraits to promote Dragon Quest 9 at the moment! Pretty cool, huh?
It's interesting how the new game being on the DS has finally spurred Sqare-Enix into promoting the Dragon Quest series. It's pretty much always outsold Final Fantasy in Japan. The new game is a LOT easier than previous DQ games, which have always been draconian (heh, pun) when it comes to difficulty. It's pretty fun. It has a veeeery old-skool feeling to it, so if you miss how jrpgs were when you were a kid, you'll enjoy it a lot. Me, I like the more experimental and inventive Final Fantasy series best, but I still think if you have a DS, DQ9 is worth a look. The multiplayer function is pretty cool, and the only time I've ever seen a JRPG with a decent multiplayer system!
Monday, 16 August 2010
Friday, 19 February 2010
Whew
I'm going to call this one done. It's not the greatest model ever, but it's by far the best I've made yet. Making it better, I feel, would involve going back and tweaking the mesh and the UV layouts and stuff, and if I'm doing that, I may as well be starting over really.
There. I have made, unwrapped, textured, rigged and posed a model without any help. That's not bad going!
I guess I need to learn all this Z-brush milarkey now. Every time I say that, people jump up and say 'but normals are overrated/often overused/show them you can low poly well first!' Be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that a lot of the job adverts want z-brush experience, and I want a job.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say. I was down in London at the weekend at the Japanese Embassy because I was a winner in a National Manga competition called the 'Manga Jiman', as was fellow design MA grad Louise Ho, from the Illustration course. She won 4th and I was 9th.
http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/event/manga_jiman_09_announce.html
The winning entries are up on display in the Japanese Embassy for a few months, and I'll be having this one printed in an anthology book later this year too.
...Uh, so yeah, I'm still not sure if I'm going to be in Games or Comics. I get the feeling I will work in both at some point during my career! Hahaha!
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
This is my current work on a 3D model. I'm definitely getting better at this stuff. The textures are all painted from scratch here. The face is probably my favourite part. That and the collar. The model is below 2000 trivs and isn't quite finished, still tweaking it, then need to rig her up to get a nice posed render.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Monday, 1 February 2010
What Games Can Learn From Comics
The ramble about games and comics in the last post was leading up to something!
Stuff Games can learn from Comics:
1. Get rid of the padding.
If it's not doing anything, cut it! CUT IT!!! Some fanboys seem to think that the play time of a game is the most important thing. I would disagree strongly. Some of the best games I've played have been relatively short. Just look at Portal! It's four hours long the first time usually. Or Chrono Trigger, half the length of most other JRPGs, but so good because every area is lovingly crafted, the animations are fluid and the plot moves along at a rollicking pace. One of the worst things in RPGs and adventure/action adventure games is artificial lengthening of the game through grinding, back-tracking, and needless fetch quests. Especially if it all takes place in boring stock dungeons. I would rather see Final Fantasy X, where the areas are short, but each one looks absolutely great and has real significance, than XII, with its miles and miles of bland scenery and dungeons and endless grinding in order to get on with the plot. Focus your energy where it's needed.
2. Show, don't tell.
Or actually, more accurately, "DO, don't show". In a bad comic, you will often have a character with an 'informed ability', other characters are constantly describing them as a badass, but they are never seen doing anything badass. The game equivalent of this, is having the character do awesome stuff in cutscenes, but not letting the player do them. I'm not talking about quick time events here. EW. NO. Quick time events are horrible! But you should try to allow the player to get the chance to do the fun stuff the character does. Use minigames, or give them a cool finishing move they can use at the end of a battle, rather than just showing the cool finisher in an FMV.
3. Make it snappy.
In a good comic, every page serves a purpose. This is particularly the case in webcomics, where you put pages up one at a time, so they need to be able to stand alone as well as in a sequence. In a good game, in the hour or so I play between two save points, I want something to happen. Something interesting or funny or cool. Whether it's gameplay or story, I don't mind.
The same goes for dialogue. Dialogue in a game should be neat and efficient. If I would criticise Planescape:Torment on one thing, it's the thing even it's creator, Chris Avellone criticises it for. It is just too verbose. I ended up skim reading chunks of dialogue because there was just so much to take in. Compare to Knights of the Old Republic 2. Same creator, sake kind of depth, but shorter chunks of dialogue with voice acting. It was neater and much easier to get into. KotR 2 had a much better balance of plot to gameplay, and dialogue to physical action.
4. Introductions with a BANG!
When I make a comic and I have a cast to introduce, there's one technique that works every time. When you introduce a character, have them do or say something which absolutely epitomises that character. This leaves a lasting impression on the reader. When you're doing a short comic, and you only have say 8 pages to tell a story, every panel counts. In a game, similarly, your dialogue and character actions are very important. Of course, if you're deliberately trying to mislead the player or reader, then you should have the character do something that epitomises what they want the protagonist to think about them. Example, a princess joins the party, but she's incognito as a street urchin (cliche, I know, but for the sake of example) now, you can either play this so that she's obviously not a street urchin and is terrible at acting the part:
"Oh! Pardon me, I'm being chased by thieves. You couldn't help me, could you?"
Or you can have her absolutely vanish into the role so well that it's a genuine shock when you get to the big reveal and she switches into 'Princess Mode':
"Oi, mate! Giz a hand! These bastards won't leave me alone!"
If a character is always sarcastic, then introduce them saying something sarcastic, if they're always joking, have them introduced doing that. If you don't, it becomes very hard to change the player's mind about them based on that first impression. This does lead to problems when you introduce somebody in the middle of an alien attack and they're scared out of their wits so that their normal, laid back personality doesn't come through, so it's a good idea to try to work out how you can establish that person's character and cement it in the mind of the player.
5. Metaphor and symbolism:
Now, I'm not saying here you should whack your player over the head with symbolism here. Especially not overused stuff like crucifixion imagery, floating feathers etc. But sometimes a good visual or verbal motif can work wonders. Try giving characters a colour association, or a personal musical theme. Throw in arc words or phrases. If you've read the comic and not just watched the film of 'Watchmen' (and if you have only seen the movie, you're missing out) you can notice that the imagery on the chapter covers is subtly repeated throughout those chapters (for example, in the first chapter, it's a blotch on a face or circle repeated from the splot of blood on the Comedian's smiley badge). Also there are adverts for things like 'Nostalgia' perfume permeating the backgrounds, and repeated images and words in graffiti, incomplete snatches of "Who Watches the Watchmen?" and the image of the shadowy embrace.
If, for example, you have a heroine called, say, 'Violet', and she's been kidnapped, and the hero is thinking about her, you don't have to have him narrate "I am thinking about violet", when you could subtly hint at it by showing a patch of violets growing by the path and him stopping to look at them pensively, maybe throw in a snatch of her personal theme tune. You'd be surprised what people will pick up on. The Japanese do this a lot more than western developers. For example, mentioning Final Fantasy X again, did you know that Yuuna (Yuna) is an Okinawan word for 'Moon'? And that the flowers decorating the character's hakama are a type of flower which blooms in moonlight and represents the moon? Notice how the colours of the character design reflect the colours of a white moon in an indigo sky too, and how her romantic scene takes place at night, under a full moon.
You can even work this into gameplay. For example, a character from your party has died, and they has a special ability that benefited the party. That ability suddenly winking out of existence can say an awful lot.
Stuff Games can learn from Comics:
1. Get rid of the padding.
If it's not doing anything, cut it! CUT IT!!! Some fanboys seem to think that the play time of a game is the most important thing. I would disagree strongly. Some of the best games I've played have been relatively short. Just look at Portal! It's four hours long the first time usually. Or Chrono Trigger, half the length of most other JRPGs, but so good because every area is lovingly crafted, the animations are fluid and the plot moves along at a rollicking pace. One of the worst things in RPGs and adventure/action adventure games is artificial lengthening of the game through grinding, back-tracking, and needless fetch quests. Especially if it all takes place in boring stock dungeons. I would rather see Final Fantasy X, where the areas are short, but each one looks absolutely great and has real significance, than XII, with its miles and miles of bland scenery and dungeons and endless grinding in order to get on with the plot. Focus your energy where it's needed.
2. Show, don't tell.
Or actually, more accurately, "DO, don't show". In a bad comic, you will often have a character with an 'informed ability', other characters are constantly describing them as a badass, but they are never seen doing anything badass. The game equivalent of this, is having the character do awesome stuff in cutscenes, but not letting the player do them. I'm not talking about quick time events here. EW. NO. Quick time events are horrible! But you should try to allow the player to get the chance to do the fun stuff the character does. Use minigames, or give them a cool finishing move they can use at the end of a battle, rather than just showing the cool finisher in an FMV.
3. Make it snappy.
In a good comic, every page serves a purpose. This is particularly the case in webcomics, where you put pages up one at a time, so they need to be able to stand alone as well as in a sequence. In a good game, in the hour or so I play between two save points, I want something to happen. Something interesting or funny or cool. Whether it's gameplay or story, I don't mind.
The same goes for dialogue. Dialogue in a game should be neat and efficient. If I would criticise Planescape:Torment on one thing, it's the thing even it's creator, Chris Avellone criticises it for. It is just too verbose. I ended up skim reading chunks of dialogue because there was just so much to take in. Compare to Knights of the Old Republic 2. Same creator, sake kind of depth, but shorter chunks of dialogue with voice acting. It was neater and much easier to get into. KotR 2 had a much better balance of plot to gameplay, and dialogue to physical action.
4. Introductions with a BANG!
When I make a comic and I have a cast to introduce, there's one technique that works every time. When you introduce a character, have them do or say something which absolutely epitomises that character. This leaves a lasting impression on the reader. When you're doing a short comic, and you only have say 8 pages to tell a story, every panel counts. In a game, similarly, your dialogue and character actions are very important. Of course, if you're deliberately trying to mislead the player or reader, then you should have the character do something that epitomises what they want the protagonist to think about them. Example, a princess joins the party, but she's incognito as a street urchin (cliche, I know, but for the sake of example) now, you can either play this so that she's obviously not a street urchin and is terrible at acting the part:
"Oh! Pardon me, I'm being chased by thieves. You couldn't help me, could you?"
Or you can have her absolutely vanish into the role so well that it's a genuine shock when you get to the big reveal and she switches into 'Princess Mode':
"Oi, mate! Giz a hand! These bastards won't leave me alone!"
If a character is always sarcastic, then introduce them saying something sarcastic, if they're always joking, have them introduced doing that. If you don't, it becomes very hard to change the player's mind about them based on that first impression. This does lead to problems when you introduce somebody in the middle of an alien attack and they're scared out of their wits so that their normal, laid back personality doesn't come through, so it's a good idea to try to work out how you can establish that person's character and cement it in the mind of the player.
5. Metaphor and symbolism:
Now, I'm not saying here you should whack your player over the head with symbolism here. Especially not overused stuff like crucifixion imagery, floating feathers etc. But sometimes a good visual or verbal motif can work wonders. Try giving characters a colour association, or a personal musical theme. Throw in arc words or phrases. If you've read the comic and not just watched the film of 'Watchmen' (and if you have only seen the movie, you're missing out) you can notice that the imagery on the chapter covers is subtly repeated throughout those chapters (for example, in the first chapter, it's a blotch on a face or circle repeated from the splot of blood on the Comedian's smiley badge). Also there are adverts for things like 'Nostalgia' perfume permeating the backgrounds, and repeated images and words in graffiti, incomplete snatches of "Who Watches the Watchmen?" and the image of the shadowy embrace.
If, for example, you have a heroine called, say, 'Violet', and she's been kidnapped, and the hero is thinking about her, you don't have to have him narrate "I am thinking about violet", when you could subtly hint at it by showing a patch of violets growing by the path and him stopping to look at them pensively, maybe throw in a snatch of her personal theme tune. You'd be surprised what people will pick up on. The Japanese do this a lot more than western developers. For example, mentioning Final Fantasy X again, did you know that Yuuna (Yuna) is an Okinawan word for 'Moon'? And that the flowers decorating the character's hakama are a type of flower which blooms in moonlight and represents the moon? Notice how the colours of the character design reflect the colours of a white moon in an indigo sky too, and how her romantic scene takes place at night, under a full moon.
You can even work this into gameplay. For example, a character from your party has died, and they has a special ability that benefited the party. That ability suddenly winking out of existence can say an awful lot.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Games and Comics
So, games and comics, my two biggest passions in life. I guess that may seem funny coming from somebody with a degree in Literature, but honestly I don't feel that games or comics should rank below the novel or plays as a literary medium. They just haven't been around as long. In Shakespeare's day, many groups got very riled up about plays being a bad influence, encouraging violence, sexual perversion and bad language... and a couple of hundred years later that these new-fangled 'novels' caused young people to get a lack of sunlight and exercise and to become socially maladjusted...hang on, that sounds a bit familiar... ¬_¬; Comics and games are coming into their own now. There have been a few stand-out 'literary' titles in comics, or rather, Graphic Novels, things like 'Maus', 'Akira' and 'Watchmen'. Games are a little younger, but have had a similar upbringing. Comics started out as little gag strips, just a little humorous picture or strip long before they got narratives, and games similarly started out as just a fun little time-passer, a whimsy made by somebody who realised you could program the computer to simulate ping-pong or whatever. Planescape Torment was as thought provoking, eloquent and well-concieved as I'd expect from a good novel or play. I would definitely consider it Literature. Now that's impressive. From ping-pong to literature in what, 30 years?
This is what excites me about games. No matter how you try to make a post-modern Novel, it's practically impossible. Have you ever READ a postmodern novel? They're barely readable, and you could argue that they're not really even post-modern because there is still a narrative structure. You can't read the pages all in a different order, you can't upset the linearity because language is inherently linear. Novels are limited. If you take away their linearity, they stop having any meaning. Films are another Modernist medium. Not that there's anything wrong with modernism, but you can't do that much new with it. It has to have a beginning, middle and end.
Now comics, comics are not limited by language. They use visual metaphors, they make words into images and images into words, they make rules about visual language and then break them all. They use symbolism and they twist symbolism. Comics are simultaneously a very new medium and a truly ancient one. Cave Paintings were pictures depicting a narrative. Elegant, rich, exciting and fun. Not chained to language, yet able to use it to enhance the narrative.
Games are, again, something very new with ancient roots. Chess is a depiction of armies marching into battle, mix that with oral storytelling and you get the roots of Dungeons and Dragons, mix that with the novel and some technological wizardry and you've got yourself Planescape: Torment. Games can use the linear structure of a novel or a film, but can also break it. They can allow for choice and improvisation to a degree.
Games and Comics are an area in which I feel we can still make great new discoveries, and do things that are absolutely novel, something which, ironically, is a lot harder in the medium of the Novel! These are truly Post-Modern media, and for me, the wild frontier of Literature.
This is what excites me about games. No matter how you try to make a post-modern Novel, it's practically impossible. Have you ever READ a postmodern novel? They're barely readable, and you could argue that they're not really even post-modern because there is still a narrative structure. You can't read the pages all in a different order, you can't upset the linearity because language is inherently linear. Novels are limited. If you take away their linearity, they stop having any meaning. Films are another Modernist medium. Not that there's anything wrong with modernism, but you can't do that much new with it. It has to have a beginning, middle and end.
Now comics, comics are not limited by language. They use visual metaphors, they make words into images and images into words, they make rules about visual language and then break them all. They use symbolism and they twist symbolism. Comics are simultaneously a very new medium and a truly ancient one. Cave Paintings were pictures depicting a narrative. Elegant, rich, exciting and fun. Not chained to language, yet able to use it to enhance the narrative.
Games are, again, something very new with ancient roots. Chess is a depiction of armies marching into battle, mix that with oral storytelling and you get the roots of Dungeons and Dragons, mix that with the novel and some technological wizardry and you've got yourself Planescape: Torment. Games can use the linear structure of a novel or a film, but can also break it. They can allow for choice and improvisation to a degree.
Games and Comics are an area in which I feel we can still make great new discoveries, and do things that are absolutely novel, something which, ironically, is a lot harder in the medium of the Novel! These are truly Post-Modern media, and for me, the wild frontier of Literature.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Play my dissertation!
Hello, everybody. Today I got my results and I've passed my MA with a first. Haha, so there you go. If I can do it, approaching from a completely different direction with a BA in English Lit/Japanese and design experience coming from freelance work as a comic artist, I'm sure you peeps with a BA in Games Design will have no problems! I had a good 3 semesters, and I hope to keep in contact, not least through the continuation of this blog.
You may have noticed that in the foyer of the building my dissertation is playable. It's a bit long (completion time for an experienced gamer is generally a couple of hours), so to experience it properly, you may want to download the full thing.
It's made as a module for the Bioware RPG 'Neverwinter Nights', which is so old now that you can buy the full game with all the add-ons for about £10. It's an RPG based on D&D rules with a fantastic, easy to use toolkit (and a great community to support it). Using the simple scripting and great dialogue tree function, it was easy to formulate the kind of game I wanted to make. The dissertation is a game about narrative and storytelling in Games. It has a fairly light tone, rather than being too dry and academic. It even has monsters to fight! (don't worry, you have unlimited respawns and can rest anywhere. I would recommend playing a fighter or other class that can wield a longsword though.)
To play it, you'll need NWN with the two add-ons (Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, the 'Diamond' edition is widely available and contains all three, it's also really cheap) and updated to the latest patch. The module itself can be DL'ed here:
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/mongoose0/Dissertation_09.mod
It's only 1.6Meg because NWN is awesome like that. This Dissertation got a 75, so if you're stuck for ideas and thinking 'can I do something fun for my dissertation and still get a good mark?' the answer is 'Yes. Go for it!' It did take longer than a written one would have, but it was a lot more satisfying and interesting.
You may have noticed that in the foyer of the building my dissertation is playable. It's a bit long (completion time for an experienced gamer is generally a couple of hours), so to experience it properly, you may want to download the full thing.
It's made as a module for the Bioware RPG 'Neverwinter Nights', which is so old now that you can buy the full game with all the add-ons for about £10. It's an RPG based on D&D rules with a fantastic, easy to use toolkit (and a great community to support it). Using the simple scripting and great dialogue tree function, it was easy to formulate the kind of game I wanted to make. The dissertation is a game about narrative and storytelling in Games. It has a fairly light tone, rather than being too dry and academic. It even has monsters to fight! (don't worry, you have unlimited respawns and can rest anywhere. I would recommend playing a fighter or other class that can wield a longsword though.)
To play it, you'll need NWN with the two add-ons (Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, the 'Diamond' edition is widely available and contains all three, it's also really cheap) and updated to the latest patch. The module itself can be DL'ed here:
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/mongoose0/Dissertation_09.mod
It's only 1.6Meg because NWN is awesome like that. This Dissertation got a 75, so if you're stuck for ideas and thinking 'can I do something fun for my dissertation and still get a good mark?' the answer is 'Yes. Go for it!' It did take longer than a written one would have, but it was a lot more satisfying and interesting.
Monday, 18 January 2010
The Snatch
Today I suddenly realised that on graduation I'll no longer have access to the Web CT, and leapt onto it to download all the modelling tutorials! Hahahaha.
Since I didn't have a lot of time for the modelling side in my final semester, focusing more on digital painting , storyboarding and GDD work, I'm making some models now for experience and as portfolio pieces. I'm working to a 2,000 triv limit this time, so double the count of Diz, and roughly what would appear on a character in a PSP game. Low poly modelling seems to be more in demand, and I think it builds good habits too.
By the way, I found this good tutorial on low poly character modelling, it's for 3ds max, but the basic ideas are transferable and it's very clear:
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/low_poly_character/low_poly_01.php
I want to make a nice human model using photos as a proportional reference, then texture and maybe normal map it (I want to learn how to normal map, it makes such a huge difference to low poly models) and take a nice render. That's my new project!
Since I didn't have a lot of time for the modelling side in my final semester, focusing more on digital painting , storyboarding and GDD work, I'm making some models now for experience and as portfolio pieces. I'm working to a 2,000 triv limit this time, so double the count of Diz, and roughly what would appear on a character in a PSP game. Low poly modelling seems to be more in demand, and I think it builds good habits too.
By the way, I found this good tutorial on low poly character modelling, it's for 3ds max, but the basic ideas are transferable and it's very clear:
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/low_poly_character/low_poly_01.php
I want to make a nice human model using photos as a proportional reference, then texture and maybe normal map it (I want to learn how to normal map, it makes such a huge difference to low poly models) and take a nice render. That's my new project!
Friday, 15 January 2010
This was a triumph...
So, uh, I guess this is the end of my course...
But I don't want it to be the end of this blog! I need a space to put my games design related rantings and stuff anyway.
I came to a really strange realisation yesterday.
See, I have always considered myself an RPG fan. Some of my favourite games to play are things like Knights of the Old Republic, Final Fantasy, Eldar Scrolls, Chrono Trigger etc. But yesterday I suddenly realised that actually I'm pretty indifferent to the gameplay of RPG games. I don't hate it, but I generally don't look forward to the gameplay parts, rather being interested in the story and characters. I'm not saying that levelling up and finding new items isn't ever fun, sometimes it is, but ultimately it's not the main draw of the genre for me, particularly with JRPGs.
I realised that what actually draws me to RPGs, particularly NWN2, KotR2, Planescape Torment and JRPG games is:
1. Travelling to fantastic locations as you follow the plot.
2. Ensemble casts with interesting group dynamics.
I think a lot of JRPG fans are the same. One big difference between the fandoms is that WRPG fans tend to talk about character builds and stats and their favourite classes and weapons, while JRPG fans tend to talk about which character they like best, what their favourite relationship pairing is, what their favourite part of the plot was.
So...If I'm not actually interested in the RPG mechanics, why not remove them and replace them with something else? Something that's more enjoyable? Kingdom Hearts did this very effectively, though it doesn't have a big ensemble cast, just a 3-man party.
I guess the main obstacle is that RPG mechanics make it a lot easier to manage a big group of characters, being tactical and often turn-based. Making an action game that still allows a bunch of people to run around together and interact and have conversations is a bit of a tricky one, but it must be doable.
So, I guess my dream game would be an RPG that's not an RPG in gameplay terms. My absolute ideal game would probably have the smooth and exciting gameplay of Prince of Persia or Zelda, the fantastic world building, story and party dynamics of Final Fantasy and Planescape Torment, The polished finish and epic set pieces of Kingdom Hearts and the witty dialogue and invention of Psychonauts.
Now all I have to do is convince somebody that it's a good idea... hahaha.
I'm still alive.
But I don't want it to be the end of this blog! I need a space to put my games design related rantings and stuff anyway.
I came to a really strange realisation yesterday.
See, I have always considered myself an RPG fan. Some of my favourite games to play are things like Knights of the Old Republic, Final Fantasy, Eldar Scrolls, Chrono Trigger etc. But yesterday I suddenly realised that actually I'm pretty indifferent to the gameplay of RPG games. I don't hate it, but I generally don't look forward to the gameplay parts, rather being interested in the story and characters. I'm not saying that levelling up and finding new items isn't ever fun, sometimes it is, but ultimately it's not the main draw of the genre for me, particularly with JRPGs.
I realised that what actually draws me to RPGs, particularly NWN2, KotR2, Planescape Torment and JRPG games is:
1. Travelling to fantastic locations as you follow the plot.
2. Ensemble casts with interesting group dynamics.
I think a lot of JRPG fans are the same. One big difference between the fandoms is that WRPG fans tend to talk about character builds and stats and their favourite classes and weapons, while JRPG fans tend to talk about which character they like best, what their favourite relationship pairing is, what their favourite part of the plot was.
So...If I'm not actually interested in the RPG mechanics, why not remove them and replace them with something else? Something that's more enjoyable? Kingdom Hearts did this very effectively, though it doesn't have a big ensemble cast, just a 3-man party.
I guess the main obstacle is that RPG mechanics make it a lot easier to manage a big group of characters, being tactical and often turn-based. Making an action game that still allows a bunch of people to run around together and interact and have conversations is a bit of a tricky one, but it must be doable.
So, I guess my dream game would be an RPG that's not an RPG in gameplay terms. My absolute ideal game would probably have the smooth and exciting gameplay of Prince of Persia or Zelda, the fantastic world building, story and party dynamics of Final Fantasy and Planescape Torment, The polished finish and epic set pieces of Kingdom Hearts and the witty dialogue and invention of Psychonauts.
Now all I have to do is convince somebody that it's a good idea... hahaha.
I'm still alive.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Christmas and Psychonauts
Happy Christmas, everybody!
I'm about to graduate, I guess. But I don't know if this blog will necessarily end when I do. I actually quite like having a special 'games design' blog.
For Christmas this year, my friend got me a copy of Psychonauts! It's generally considered an underbought cult classic game. I've only played a couple of hours, but I can already see why it gets so much praise. It's one of the most quirky and original games I've played. It's also totally immersive. Everything about the game world seems to have a strange but consistent logic to it, including the visual style. When you play, it feels like you've entered a new world. This is how a game should be. This is why games are such a fascinating medium. Watching a chase in a film is exciting, but it's nothing compared to the opening of Halflife 2, where you're living that frantic chase. This factor of having the player character's situation reflected in the gameplay is what sets games like Psychonauts and Half Life apart. Even as a huge Final Fantasy fan, I have to admit that it's kind of a shame when something really cool happens and you just watch the cutscene of it. In Psychonauts, for example, there's this bit where you get stuck in a weird white space, and you're in in-game gameplay stuck in it while the dialogue goes on over the top as you try to work it out. When you work out you have to smash it and smash your way out, it seamlessly changes to a cutscene to show the consequence of that action. It captures the character's feeling of being stuck and unsure what to do, because the player is stuck too!
Overall, Psychonauts feels like a game where every cool idea the design team came up with got stuffed into it rather than dumbed down or left out by executive meddling. There are issues with the gameplay. The camera and controls can be glitchy, and it doesn't always clearly show where you're meant to be going. The level designs aren't bad, but often the lack of use of colour and lighting to draw attention where it needs to be (as seen put to excellent use in Portal) causes things to get confusing. One good thing I'll say about the gameplay is that it's impressively seamless. It runs very smoothly between 'modes', areas, menus and cutscenes. Oh, and as a final note, it has the same writer as Portal, so, obviously, it's hilarious and full of dark humour.
My friend got it off gog.com (good old games) which I hadn't seen before, but it's awesome. They sell good classic pc games from the past 15-odd years for low prices. They have a lot of good titles there, so I'd recommend a look! Especially as there's a sale on! ^_-
I'm about to graduate, I guess. But I don't know if this blog will necessarily end when I do. I actually quite like having a special 'games design' blog.
For Christmas this year, my friend got me a copy of Psychonauts! It's generally considered an underbought cult classic game. I've only played a couple of hours, but I can already see why it gets so much praise. It's one of the most quirky and original games I've played. It's also totally immersive. Everything about the game world seems to have a strange but consistent logic to it, including the visual style. When you play, it feels like you've entered a new world. This is how a game should be. This is why games are such a fascinating medium. Watching a chase in a film is exciting, but it's nothing compared to the opening of Halflife 2, where you're living that frantic chase. This factor of having the player character's situation reflected in the gameplay is what sets games like Psychonauts and Half Life apart. Even as a huge Final Fantasy fan, I have to admit that it's kind of a shame when something really cool happens and you just watch the cutscene of it. In Psychonauts, for example, there's this bit where you get stuck in a weird white space, and you're in in-game gameplay stuck in it while the dialogue goes on over the top as you try to work it out. When you work out you have to smash it and smash your way out, it seamlessly changes to a cutscene to show the consequence of that action. It captures the character's feeling of being stuck and unsure what to do, because the player is stuck too!
Overall, Psychonauts feels like a game where every cool idea the design team came up with got stuffed into it rather than dumbed down or left out by executive meddling. There are issues with the gameplay. The camera and controls can be glitchy, and it doesn't always clearly show where you're meant to be going. The level designs aren't bad, but often the lack of use of colour and lighting to draw attention where it needs to be (as seen put to excellent use in Portal) causes things to get confusing. One good thing I'll say about the gameplay is that it's impressively seamless. It runs very smoothly between 'modes', areas, menus and cutscenes. Oh, and as a final note, it has the same writer as Portal, so, obviously, it's hilarious and full of dark humour.
My friend got it off gog.com (good old games) which I hadn't seen before, but it's awesome. They sell good classic pc games from the past 15-odd years for low prices. They have a lot of good titles there, so I'd recommend a look! Especially as there's a sale on! ^_-
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Still Fighting
Yeah, okay, I have been doing stuff, it's just been largely on the written and boring diagrams side of things.
The hardest part of making a game of this kind is that the characters are all fairly ordinary human beings. It's not all fantastical . This is definitely a lot harder than designing a Fantasy game.
Keeping things quite loose for these character bio images. Fits with the mature and down to earth feel of the game. The hardest is proving to be the character Julia, a faded celebrity in her mid-late 30's. It's hard to capture a sense of somebody who is very glamorous and pretty but with an edge of faded glory and desperation. It's not a character I've ever really had to depict before.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Black and White
Some bits and bobs. portraits of characters, The Captain and Keisuke. Not based on photographs. I wanted to construct faces from scratch rather than just using photos. Tutorials like these are very handy for stuff like this:
http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-1-32046017
http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-2-33220929
http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-3-34877428
Keisuke was a lot easier to draw for me. I live and grew up in an area with very little ethnic diversity, but I did live in Japan for a year, so I'm more used to the typical details of a Japanese face than an Afro Caribbean one!
And yeah, I just spent a couple of weeks teaching myself how to paint more realistic style faces. My comic line art style just doesn't feel right for this game, plus I don't particularly like digital painting with heavily stylised faces (unless the painting is purely for colour or shade, it kept simple and used in conjunction with line art, like the work of manga artist Nana Li, where it looks awesome). I think it's fortunate in a situation like this, that despite drawing manga style, I tend to spend a lot of time studying real anatomy, and tend to stick to naturalistic proportions. If that weren't the case, it would have been much more difficult to make the transition!
The room isn't as good because...well, I am not naturally very good at things like that. I've given it a go, but really I find inorganic and geometric things very difficult. The more organic elements there are in a room, the easier I find it generally, so a ramshackle cottage would be much easier than a minimalist space ship cabin.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Paragon
This sure is a fast way to make art! This only took about 30 mins. Starting to understand why it's used for concept work so much, as an atmospheric and fairly finished full colour image can be created remarkably quickly. While it is tricky because I've just started learning, I'd say this is actually a lot easier than manga. Manga is deceptively hard, as the simplicity and clean lines are far less forgiving than painting, and you can't always just chip away at something until it looks fine, particularly with physical rather than digital inking. I don't know why they think we're hacks. -_-;
I think I'll use Digital painting for the mock screenshots in the FPT project. It's a lot faster way to make a finished looking image than line art and inking and stuff. I think monotone painting will work really well for a nice noir-ish feel anyway!
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Tatatataa taa taa tatataaaa!
Look, I know that the subject matter is not related to the project, being a picture of Cloud from FF7, but I'm very pleased with my progress in Digital painting today.
It's so useful having a lot of artists as friends at times like this. Since saying I wanted to learn, I've been given a huge amount of advice, resources and links to tutorials!
I feel a lot more confident about using digital painting for this project now I've discovered it's not actually all that hard to learn.
Oh snap
Okay, this whole 'not doing any digital painting' would be a lot easier if I wasn't so obsessive.
I was told by a few people that I should start in black and white. I also figured that starting with rooms wasn't a great idea seeing as I'm considerably better at organic stuff than inorganic.
This was done using a rough pencil sketch from my sketchbook. Obviously it's not an ideal sketch to use, as it was drawn with stylised proportions. Personally I'm not a huge fan of painterly styles applied to manga proportions, as the more realistic lighting and texturing combined with unrealistic proportions creates a strange 'uncanny valley' effect. My manga style doesn't deviate hugely from real proportions, but her head looks a little too big (unless she's 5'1", of course, my head:body ratio is about the same as hers, 1:6.5), and her eyes I had to paint smaller than I'd drawn them, they looked freaky hahaha! I used the sketch mainly just because this was purely a quick technical exercise.
It's not perfect. The contrast isn't confident for a start, and the light direction isn't distinct enough. Starting in monochrome is a good start though, and I didn't use brush opacity this time, and was more confident and free flowing.
Hmmm...perhaps I should give digital painting the screens a shot...
Down to business
Okay, I think I should leave off digital painting for this project and keep it as something to practice in my spare time. It seems like something that takes a long while to learn and experimenting with a completely new medium I've barely used when doing a new project probably isn't the best idea. I may try to work any good digital paints I DO manage into the project, but I'm going to stick with what I'm good at for bashing through the work.
The form of the project will be a mock 'Let's Play'. 'Let's Play' is a concept I really like, as it's basically a bunch of screenshots or a video with a commentary, either written or spoken depending on the format which takes you through a playthrough of a game. Some are humorous, mocking bad or strange game elements, making humorous asides or playing the game in an eccentric way on purpose, others are serious and straightforward. You can find loads of them here:
http://www.letsplayarchive.com/
I love the concept of LP, because sometimes I have limited time or don't have the console or the game never came out here, or it's just too difficult or a horror game (as I have mentioned before I am a complete wuss and lose all playing skill and control when scared so can't play horror games, but like to watch others play them!), but I really want to know what happens in the game and the storyline. Some of them, like the 'Knights of the Old Republic 2' LP even give storyline commentary, pointing things out, as well as including reconstructions of content cut from the game, and showing conversations which are hard to get due to requiring high empathy with certain characters.
I suppose as a person, I enjoy watching others play games just as much, sometimes more than I like to play them myself. My brother tends to call me a 'walking instruction manual' since I tend to learn every aspect surrounding a game, and always know what to do, I'm just not great at playing them. Sometimes you notice game design aspects more when watching a game than playing it anyway, because you don't have to concentrate and can look around from a more objective perspective.
I'll be making the screenshot type, but of course, the screenshots will be fake, like a storyboard with descriptions. This will hopefully give the reader a good idea of what a playthrough of the game would be like. How it would play, what sort of thing would happen etc. It plays to my strong areas as a comic artist, and illustrates the game concept, as it's a subtle game involving reading clues and picking up information. Simply saying the game is like this wouldn't quite get across the nuances.
I think I'll do the whole thing in black and white. It'll save time, print nicely and I think look quite atmospheric. The game itself wouldn't be in black and white, but I think I'd like to go for a very sparse aesthetic. I loved the minimalist approach of 'Radical Dreamers' a very obscure sequel to Chrono Trigger made for the Satellaview. You can download this game and a translation from Japanese for a snes emulator, and I recommend it. It's a text adventure with very minimalist graphics and music (the music is still awesome though, it's Mitsueda), which after the first play through, can be played multiple times for radically different story tangents, many comic, some sweet and one freaking scary!
The LP I'm making will illustrate a possible run. It's not a perfect run. The player works out the identity of the killer and a rough idea of how it was done, but doesn't get a lot of evidence. They visit every character though, to give a feel for the game as a whole.
The form of the project will be a mock 'Let's Play'. 'Let's Play' is a concept I really like, as it's basically a bunch of screenshots or a video with a commentary, either written or spoken depending on the format which takes you through a playthrough of a game. Some are humorous, mocking bad or strange game elements, making humorous asides or playing the game in an eccentric way on purpose, others are serious and straightforward. You can find loads of them here:
http://www.letsplayarchive.com/
I love the concept of LP, because sometimes I have limited time or don't have the console or the game never came out here, or it's just too difficult or a horror game (as I have mentioned before I am a complete wuss and lose all playing skill and control when scared so can't play horror games, but like to watch others play them!), but I really want to know what happens in the game and the storyline. Some of them, like the 'Knights of the Old Republic 2' LP even give storyline commentary, pointing things out, as well as including reconstructions of content cut from the game, and showing conversations which are hard to get due to requiring high empathy with certain characters.
I suppose as a person, I enjoy watching others play games just as much, sometimes more than I like to play them myself. My brother tends to call me a 'walking instruction manual' since I tend to learn every aspect surrounding a game, and always know what to do, I'm just not great at playing them. Sometimes you notice game design aspects more when watching a game than playing it anyway, because you don't have to concentrate and can look around from a more objective perspective.
I'll be making the screenshot type, but of course, the screenshots will be fake, like a storyboard with descriptions. This will hopefully give the reader a good idea of what a playthrough of the game would be like. How it would play, what sort of thing would happen etc. It plays to my strong areas as a comic artist, and illustrates the game concept, as it's a subtle game involving reading clues and picking up information. Simply saying the game is like this wouldn't quite get across the nuances.
I think I'll do the whole thing in black and white. It'll save time, print nicely and I think look quite atmospheric. The game itself wouldn't be in black and white, but I think I'd like to go for a very sparse aesthetic. I loved the minimalist approach of 'Radical Dreamers' a very obscure sequel to Chrono Trigger made for the Satellaview. You can download this game and a translation from Japanese for a snes emulator, and I recommend it. It's a text adventure with very minimalist graphics and music (the music is still awesome though, it's Mitsueda), which after the first play through, can be played multiple times for radically different story tangents, many comic, some sweet and one freaking scary!
The LP I'm making will illustrate a possible run. It's not a perfect run. The player works out the identity of the killer and a rough idea of how it was done, but doesn't get a lot of evidence. They visit every character though, to give a feel for the game as a whole.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Hmmm
I think I need more practice. This digital painting melarky doesn't come naturally to a dyed-in-the-wool line artist like me. These are not very good hahahahaha!
Aesthetics IN SPAAAAACE!
I've been thinking though the look of the game. I don't want to go for anything too crazy for the depiction of the future here, because I think that in the same way that fundamentally clothes, architecture and furniture aren't too different from 100 years ago, some things don't really change that much. I doubt that in a few hundred years we will all wear outfits with fins on the shoulder pads and everybody will universally wear lycra bodysuits. So to prevent things looking silly or gimmicky, I've tried to design the characters with a fairly timeless look. Simple jeans, shirts, suits, cargo pants, t-shirts etc. These have stood the test of time pretty well. Even though the game is set on a spaceship, I don't want the fact that it's on a space ship to overtake the importance of the murder mystery.
For the look of the ship, I want it to feel like a modern ferry or a 2-3 star hotel. It's not luxurious and the design isn't showy. It's simple, utilitarian, but not ugly. It's not dirty with exposed mechanical parts and grilles and unpainted metal everywhere, but it's not pristine and with all glowy surfaces and super cool curved minimalist design. It's minimalist, yes, but it's not inspired.
When I did a brief stint of work experience with an interior designer, I learned a lot about how public spaces are done out. Naturally as a beginner, I wanted to make the spaces look exciting, fashionable, cool and unique. That's actually what you really don't want to do, especially if the place will only be decorated every 10 or so years! You want something that's hard wearing and rather than strongly appealing to one kind of person, will be comfortable for a wide range, as well as a simple, classic look that won't date quickly.
So what I want to make is a ship interior that feels clean, a bit sterile and boring but without being uncomfortable. Rather like a student flat or the cabin on an overnight ferry or the room at a travel inn.
I think the ships in the Star Wars universe are a good start. I've always really liked the interiors of the Star Wars ships. They look really believable somehow. They're not cosy, not excessively cool looking, but they don't look really uncomfortable or grungey. It's great design. I'd like it to look like the Republic ship from the start of 'A New Hope', the one with the white interiors. I just think that's a really believable space ship interior myself.
Some futuristic ideas I'd like to use:
Picture frames in rooms. Digital frames are starting to become commonplace now, so doesn't it make sense that you'd be able to upload pictures of your choice via bluetooth to the picture frames in your room at a hotel or whatever? Also, when you get a phone call, the image of the speaker could appear in those frames for the duration of the call.
Lighting that mimicks a sense of daylight. No dark and dingy ships! That's unrealistic, especially for a passenger ship. In order to combat SAD, there would definitely be a source of artifical daylight, probably large light panels. This is another thing I like about Star Wars ships, they have a comfortable lighting scheme without being flashy.
Handprint activated doors. Perfectly feasible future tech. I don't think in the future we'll have physical currency. I think we'll more likely have either fingerprint/retina scanning OR we'll all have a chip inserted into the wrist or somewhere linked to electronic funds.
For the look of the ship, I want it to feel like a modern ferry or a 2-3 star hotel. It's not luxurious and the design isn't showy. It's simple, utilitarian, but not ugly. It's not dirty with exposed mechanical parts and grilles and unpainted metal everywhere, but it's not pristine and with all glowy surfaces and super cool curved minimalist design. It's minimalist, yes, but it's not inspired.
When I did a brief stint of work experience with an interior designer, I learned a lot about how public spaces are done out. Naturally as a beginner, I wanted to make the spaces look exciting, fashionable, cool and unique. That's actually what you really don't want to do, especially if the place will only be decorated every 10 or so years! You want something that's hard wearing and rather than strongly appealing to one kind of person, will be comfortable for a wide range, as well as a simple, classic look that won't date quickly.
So what I want to make is a ship interior that feels clean, a bit sterile and boring but without being uncomfortable. Rather like a student flat or the cabin on an overnight ferry or the room at a travel inn.
I think the ships in the Star Wars universe are a good start. I've always really liked the interiors of the Star Wars ships. They look really believable somehow. They're not cosy, not excessively cool looking, but they don't look really uncomfortable or grungey. It's great design. I'd like it to look like the Republic ship from the start of 'A New Hope', the one with the white interiors. I just think that's a really believable space ship interior myself.
Some futuristic ideas I'd like to use:
Picture frames in rooms. Digital frames are starting to become commonplace now, so doesn't it make sense that you'd be able to upload pictures of your choice via bluetooth to the picture frames in your room at a hotel or whatever? Also, when you get a phone call, the image of the speaker could appear in those frames for the duration of the call.
Lighting that mimicks a sense of daylight. No dark and dingy ships! That's unrealistic, especially for a passenger ship. In order to combat SAD, there would definitely be a source of artifical daylight, probably large light panels. This is another thing I like about Star Wars ships, they have a comfortable lighting scheme without being flashy.
Handprint activated doors. Perfectly feasible future tech. I don't think in the future we'll have physical currency. I think we'll more likely have either fingerprint/retina scanning OR we'll all have a chip inserted into the wrist or somewhere linked to electronic funds.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
You Spoony Bard!
I have spent the past week studying murder mysteries and how they're constructed.
One thing about me as a person is that I hate compromising an idea due to personal limitations. For this reason, I always try to research what I'm creating thoroughly rather than steering away from genres I don't know about. I love documentaries (but I'm a lot less keen on docudramas. Either make it a period drama or a documentary! Surely the facts in themselves are fascinating enough to not need the justification of some bad acting!?) and tend to devour information.
Murder mysteries are something I admire but have never really considered making myself. They are actually quite challenging to make well. You need to leave clues so the conclusion doesn't come out of nowhere, but without making the solution too obvious. I love laying out red herrings and coming up with motivation for characters, it's something I'm used to doing in comics, so a mystery is just that turned up a notch. You have to make it seem like everybody could feasibly be to blame at first. The hard part is not getting contrived or descending into farce.
The fun thing about making this first person and having you visit suspects personally, is knowing that you could be sat in the room with a killer. I think I'd want minimal music and sparse environs for this, like 'Portal', which would make sense on a space ship. I want the player to feel like they're alone with nobody to trust. Even though they have friends on the phone, those friends are thousands of miles away.
The Gap Year girl, Miranda, I would deliberately write as sympathetic and friendly. People latch onto a friendly face in a desolate environment, so it just makes it worse when she's the accomplice of the murderer and not trustworthy. The characters you have to work to gain the trust of make better friends. I guess the moral is that sometimes people who are a little shy of making friends at first make really trustworthy, loyal friendships.
One idea I like would be to have a little minigame area, like when you visit Dan, you can play retro arcade games with him, and gradually he relaxes and speaks to you while you're playing the game. I think it'd be good to be able to play the game a few times seeing different outcomes and conversations. There's no way you could see everything in one playthrough, but you could have a playthrough where rather than focusing on solving the case, you just hung out with and learned all about a particular character.
One thing about me as a person is that I hate compromising an idea due to personal limitations. For this reason, I always try to research what I'm creating thoroughly rather than steering away from genres I don't know about. I love documentaries (but I'm a lot less keen on docudramas. Either make it a period drama or a documentary! Surely the facts in themselves are fascinating enough to not need the justification of some bad acting!?) and tend to devour information.
Murder mysteries are something I admire but have never really considered making myself. They are actually quite challenging to make well. You need to leave clues so the conclusion doesn't come out of nowhere, but without making the solution too obvious. I love laying out red herrings and coming up with motivation for characters, it's something I'm used to doing in comics, so a mystery is just that turned up a notch. You have to make it seem like everybody could feasibly be to blame at first. The hard part is not getting contrived or descending into farce.
The fun thing about making this first person and having you visit suspects personally, is knowing that you could be sat in the room with a killer. I think I'd want minimal music and sparse environs for this, like 'Portal', which would make sense on a space ship. I want the player to feel like they're alone with nobody to trust. Even though they have friends on the phone, those friends are thousands of miles away.
The Gap Year girl, Miranda, I would deliberately write as sympathetic and friendly. People latch onto a friendly face in a desolate environment, so it just makes it worse when she's the accomplice of the murderer and not trustworthy. The characters you have to work to gain the trust of make better friends. I guess the moral is that sometimes people who are a little shy of making friends at first make really trustworthy, loyal friendships.
One idea I like would be to have a little minigame area, like when you visit Dan, you can play retro arcade games with him, and gradually he relaxes and speaks to you while you're playing the game. I think it'd be good to be able to play the game a few times seeing different outcomes and conversations. There's no way you could see everything in one playthrough, but you could have a playthrough where rather than focusing on solving the case, you just hung out with and learned all about a particular character.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Some thoughts on Metal Gear
Some of the inspiration for the 'First Person Talker' idea came from the 'Metal Gear' series. I want to talk about what's special about the series of games.
I really, really love Metal Gear Solid 1, 2 and 3. I haven't played 4 yet, because, well, I'm broke haha! Sometimes, they can be a little too verbose in the cutscenes, which is my only real criticism of the series. Overall, they're original games with great attention to detail and memorable characters. I still remember the first time I saw MGS1, my jaw just dropped. Even though it was one of the earlier PS1 games out, the graphics still looked good toward the end of the console's life, so when it game out, it just looked amazing. The voice acting was great and it was so atmospheric!
There are two things that really stand out for me in MGS games:
1. Cinematic reality and the 'rule of cool'.
Unlike other stealth games, which depict realistic situations in a fairly realistic way, like the uncompromising 'Rainbow Six' series, 'Metal Gear' games are more concerned with being FUN. In a Metal Gear game, you're not just some soldier, you're a badass action hero who's a one-man army. It puts you in the role of main character in an action movie, allowing you to do things like hide under a cardboard box, dodge roll into people to knock them over and fight mecha with rocket launchers! Because of this, it's a lot more forgiving on the player and less fiddly. It's not like other Stealth games where you can die without even knowing what the heck killed you. It also allows for over-the-top Bond style baddies. Not only are they wonderfully cheesy fun, but the themed bosses all have different tactics and stuff.
2. Attention to detail.
There are so many ways you can play a Metal Gear game. You can play cautiously, carefully edging around, tranquillising guards as you go. You can play like a swift, darting ninja, running circles around the guards before they notice you're there, or you can play a gung-ho action man, who shoots anything in his path. In MGS3 you can have fun blowing up enemy food stores, to starve guards in the area so they'll pounce on whatever food they find, even if it's rotten or poisonous. Not to mention details like catching cold by being out in the rain, or posters in lockers etc. I'm always amazed by what your helpful colleagues over the codec radio will comment on. There's so much to see and try in these games, it's just great fun.
I also really like how you get extras for completing the game under different circumstances.
So as games go, I would rate the MGS series very high. It's a shame the cutscenes are so long though! (MGS2 was the worst, though I hear 4 is pretty bad too). As far as gameplay goes, I really can't fault them.
I really, really love Metal Gear Solid 1, 2 and 3. I haven't played 4 yet, because, well, I'm broke haha! Sometimes, they can be a little too verbose in the cutscenes, which is my only real criticism of the series. Overall, they're original games with great attention to detail and memorable characters. I still remember the first time I saw MGS1, my jaw just dropped. Even though it was one of the earlier PS1 games out, the graphics still looked good toward the end of the console's life, so when it game out, it just looked amazing. The voice acting was great and it was so atmospheric!
There are two things that really stand out for me in MGS games:
1. Cinematic reality and the 'rule of cool'.
Unlike other stealth games, which depict realistic situations in a fairly realistic way, like the uncompromising 'Rainbow Six' series, 'Metal Gear' games are more concerned with being FUN. In a Metal Gear game, you're not just some soldier, you're a badass action hero who's a one-man army. It puts you in the role of main character in an action movie, allowing you to do things like hide under a cardboard box, dodge roll into people to knock them over and fight mecha with rocket launchers! Because of this, it's a lot more forgiving on the player and less fiddly. It's not like other Stealth games where you can die without even knowing what the heck killed you. It also allows for over-the-top Bond style baddies. Not only are they wonderfully cheesy fun, but the themed bosses all have different tactics and stuff.
2. Attention to detail.
There are so many ways you can play a Metal Gear game. You can play cautiously, carefully edging around, tranquillising guards as you go. You can play like a swift, darting ninja, running circles around the guards before they notice you're there, or you can play a gung-ho action man, who shoots anything in his path. In MGS3 you can have fun blowing up enemy food stores, to starve guards in the area so they'll pounce on whatever food they find, even if it's rotten or poisonous. Not to mention details like catching cold by being out in the rain, or posters in lockers etc. I'm always amazed by what your helpful colleagues over the codec radio will comment on. There's so much to see and try in these games, it's just great fun.
I also really like how you get extras for completing the game under different circumstances.
So as games go, I would rate the MGS series very high. It's a shame the cutscenes are so long though! (MGS2 was the worst, though I hear 4 is pretty bad too). As far as gameplay goes, I really can't fault them.
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