Modesty Studios

So since I started my project on Ren'Py , I've been introduced to another facet of the game creating community. Visual Novels. My intention for the engine was something different than what it's usually used for...I think. I have seen a life sim created on this engine so I know it's possible. Visual Novels are a genre not very popular in the Western World. I used to wonder why...and now I get it. Originally when I heard "visual novel" I imagined something a bit like "Hotel Dusk" where it was very interactive. Or even a choose your own adventure. However, I downloaded someone's free visual novel to check it out. I kept clicking (and not reading) wondering WTF I would get to make a choice. It was then that it dawned on me that perhaps I don't get to really MAKE a choice. OR it took a LOT longer before the player could make one. And it was boring as hell. I could NOT believe how this was popular. Something on a computer or game system is interact...

You know it's actually pretty hard to find a decent DS RPG title. And even harder to find a DS game with controls that make sense. Recently, I got a game by Atlus (one of my fave companies) called Avalon Code. I had read reviews on Amazon.com about it and decided I liked the idea behind the game. It was worth checking out. Here is what I think so far... -Graphics- Shoot me please. Why do DS titles insist on 3D graphics? They look TERRIBLE! The anti-aliasing is so HUGE it's like I'm looking at pixel sprites blown up to 4 times their actual size. It's one of those things where at a distance, yeah the sprites look okay. But they keep showing CLOSE UP shots of the character! And for me how graphics looks adds a whole lot to how I perceive a game. I would have been much happier if they went the same route as Disgaea where you had cut scenes where still shots of the character speaking (with different expressions) overlay the small sprite animations. Actually if I remember c...

So I've officially given up (for now) on Kingdom Hearts and moved on to KH2. I know...I'm such a glutton for punishment...but to be fair...they DID clean up some things in KH2 like being able to skip cutscenes (bless you) and some way cooler fighting animations and stuff. And the gummi ship crap isn't as crappy anymore AND... Right analog stick controls the camera. *tears of joy* Thank you! But that's not what I wanted to write about today. While playing the game and watching cutscenes I began to notice how much that darn controller buzzed or "rumbled". I thought...when did this become cool? Looking Back I want to say arcade games were the ones that provided more of the "force feedback". That made them cool. You're sitting in a driving chair for a car racing game where it shakes when you bump something. Or the gun has some realistic throw back in a shooting game. Bringing this same subtle rumble into the home systems may have started pretty e...

99% of all games made seem to have some sort of combat theme. Okay, that's so not an accurate percentage, but that's how much it FEELS like. There are obviously several very awesome games not based on combat. One of which I'm currently playing now, Harvest Moon. But enough of that pacifist style storylines, let's talk battles. OH, and I'm totally zeroing in on Fantasy stories too. Two birds with one stone and all. :) Dealing with Conflict Every story needs conflict. That is what a story is after all: a series of conflicts and resolutions. In story writing books or classes, there are 3 very basic forms of conflict. They were: Man vs. Man Man vs. Nature Man vs. Self Many stories have these conflicts and when they do, it boils down that the only way to resolve the conflict is physical force. Fighting. Violence. Etc. At the very least in games and fantasy it does. The reason for this is that it's simply the easiest and most exciting method of solving the conflict....

Back to games. Sorry for the odd detour. This time I'm going to talk about INPUT methods for games. Intro Granted I'm just over two decades old, but I have seen my share of unusual controllers. Although I've not used them all. They ranged from keyboards to joysticks and buttons. There are some things that I like and dislike about some of the more recent controllers. But being the nostalgic git that I am I'm going to look back before looking forward. Joysticks/Keyboards Early games on computer systems used a keyboard. (Yay for text based games). And there's not much to expound on that. The keyboard remains a staple example of a game input device. Although now it's often combined with a mouse. In the past, I remember that it was ONLY the keyboard that controlled everything or only the mouse. (Or you could switch between the options.) Now very often I have to combine them. Now on the surface there's nothing particularly wrong about this method of input. Howe...

So inspired by something I noticed in my previous rant, I'm going to write about cameras in games. Which is strange because there's actually (usually) NO cameras using in game production. But it comes from 3D animation which uses "virtual cameras" to shoot scenes. Well you could argue it came from 2D animation too but you actually do use cameras for that. :) 3D Space and Camera I got a degree in film and video...which I only say to validate the amount of money I spent getting said degree in hopes that it validates what I type. VALIDITY! Now that most console games and many casual games have gone 3D camera position and angles are important. But the camera (from film) has a language! A cinematic language. And there are also rules of thumb or rather things like rules of thirds (which photographers should also be familiar with. It's about framing a shot for those unfamiliar). However, only in-game cinematics (out of the player's control) use this language. A low ...

So I'm not great at "gaming" although I spend many hours in the activity. I'm not trying to be awesome or really think too much about the game play or strategy until I get stuck. I've started playing Kingdom Hearts which I got for Christmas a couple years back. I started it and had to put it down for school and other games. I have been meaning to play it and now I am. But there is so much I HATE about this game that I must complain about here. We're going into rant mode. Controls This is a classic example of a game where there are too many control options for battles. I've played the game for several hours and usually after the first couple of hours things become second nature. I fear it may take more like 10 hours or more before I get used to these blasted controls. First off they don't make much sense. It's as if they were trying to combine action based combat with menu-based JRPG battle. Which CAN work, in certain cases but usually there...