Gnome's Lair

Archive for December, 2009

Hope everyone enjoyed their Xmas holidays, hope everyone enjoys new year’s eve too, but I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you for one last time. Hopefully for less than three weeks. And when I return I think I’ll have some time for my gaming-blogging activities, as well as the peace of mind required to write for the rather excellent Retroaction magazine.
Guess I’ll try and review Zaku for it, provided of course I manage to buy myself a lovely review copy. Zaku is a brand new Atari Lynx (!) game you know (a shmup to be precise), and it generally looks like this:

There and back again, as Tolkien would have put it. Anyway. Point is I’m back for another week (almost a week, actually) and I know I’ll be back for good sometime before the 19th of January. I also know a unique and particularly interesting article will be appearing on Gnome’s Lair very soon.

Ben Chandler (ben304.blogspot.com), also known as Ben 304, is one of the most prolific creators of indie freeware adventure games and a truly amazing artist. What follows is the postmortem for Featherweight, a dark and beautiful game you should all download here. On to Ben 304:
I’ve been making short point and click adventure games for a while now, and doing so on a regular basis for about 12 months.
During this time, I’ve learned a whole bunch of things about writing, illustration, animation and game design in general, but if my experiences to date count for anything, I’ve got a whole bunch left still to learn.
Some time ago I released a short game called Featherweight. The effort I put into the graphics, story and interface went above anything I’d ever tried to put into a game before – and yet… I can’t help but feeling that through all of this I lost sight of the main purpose of a game. Feedback showed that despite all of this effort, the game just wasn’t that fun.
We’ll start with the good stuff, though.
Project Origins:
Like any project, Featherweight started as an idea. I was at work one day when I heard an older man say to another person “I dreamed that we lost another one last night.” Whilst I can guess the specifics of what this meant, I didn’t bother asking. What interested me was the way it was said. I instantly started turning this sentence over in my mind, and very soon story ideas were coming forth and presenting themselves to me.
Initially I had a rather complex story, but for the sake of clarity and focus I ended up dividing this story up into two separate stories. At the time this story had begun to shape itself in my mind I was listening to what was a new album for me – local band Karnivool’s ‘Sound Awake’, and the songs conjured up epic and mysterious science fiction worlds in my mind.
With these images in my imagination I actually created a background for a competition which, upon finishing, I realized would be perfect for this story. And thus, Featherweight was born (incidentally, the title ‘Featherweight’ was taken from an older Karnivool song by the same name).
Project Goal:
I went into the project with some interesting goals. My primary goal was to create a world that was believable – I wanted to immerse the player into the story by both drawing an environment that captured the imagination and also writing a story and characters that the audience could relate to and sympathize with.
I also wanted to try putting in some elements of tension and danger; something I haven’t used very much in the past. Finally, I wanted to create some challenging puzzles, but with a simple and intuitive interface to stop the player getting too frustrated.
Putting it all Together – The Positives:
I’ve spent enough time using the AGS editor that I’m quite comfortable with sitting down and building an adventure game. The scripting is generally quite roadblock free, and even things such as bug finding and fixing are all very user friendly. Although there were some struggles getting everything just how I wanted it, I ended up with an interface that I am very happy with, and feel it’s probably the most intuitive standard adventure game style interface I’ve created to date.
For graphics I went with the Photoshop ‘painted’ backgrounds I’d relied on for the last few games. I’d spent a lot of time looking at Oddworld graphics a few weeks prior to putting the game together so a lot of the graphical elements such as strongly coloured light sources, dystopian setting and heavy sky gradients were inspired by these games. The characters are still done with a pixel by pixel style, however unlike most of my games I used a fairly dark palette for them. This graphical style seems to have been fairly well received by most players, despite a few comments that the pixel style doesn’t mesh perfectly with the softer backgrounds.
For the story, I wanted to present a fairly standard Hollywood style science fiction story with some more mysterious spiritual elements thrown in. Eventually the only real spiritual element I used was the fact that one of the characters talks about her prophetic dreams, however this was enough to satisfy me.
Writing Thadd’s (the main character) lines proved quite a challenge for me as I had to try and emphasize the fact that he was in a tense situation. At Sebastian’s urging, I rewrote all of his lines about 2/3 of the way through development, and upon showing these to him, he urged me to rewrite them again. I did this, sat down and played through the game, and then went and rewrote them all again from scratch.
As I usually write comedy, it’s very rare that I’ll spend so long writing character lines (one complete rewrite is unheard of for me, let alone three!). However, to try and get the ‘feel’ that I wanted for the game, it was very important that I made Thadd a believable character that players could sympathize with and the story actually seems to have been fairly well received. I consider myself a fairly weak writer, so this is quite a satisfying result.
For audio, I usually give Sebastian a fairly broad idea of the concept I am approaching each game with and then give him fairly free reign. Sometimes I’ll make suggestions, but most of the time I let him play a scene and let him do what he feels is right. For Featherweight he created a futuristic and otherworldly score that fitted the concept of what I was trying to do with the game, and used items around the kitchen to make the sound effects for the game.
The last element to look at in Featherweight is the puzzles. And here’s where the big cracks start to emerge…
Where I Slipped:
No game is ever going to be a perfect game. There are always going to be elements that make one think “I wish I hadn’t done that” later on. For Featherweight, it was the actual gameplay itself.
In the past I’ve read countless comments about my puzzles being too simple. I hit what felt like a good stride with Shifter’s Box – Outside In, and then seemed to veer off the mark again. Creating a satisfying puzzle is challenging, and I really wanted to create some for Featherweight.
Sadly, while some of the puzzles seem to work well, a lot of them do not. I worked very closely with the testers when making the game, but somehow some horrible puzzles seem to have slipped through. There’s one that relies on item combining that, in hindsight, is just plain silly, and many of them are combination puzzles that are tedious and not always as clear to the player as they should be. In my attempts to challenge the players, I forgot some of my core beliefs about puzzle design and the end result means the game was less satisfying than it could have been.
For me, creating a good puzzle means that I can get a player stuck for a few minutes and then have the solution present itself once they notice a certain element – creating the “Eureka!” moment. Here, however, I relied too heavily on hiding this element, and therefore the solutions to puzzles are not as clear as they should be. This means that players get stuck for longer than I intended them to, and leads to people giving up on the game.
I also relied too much on combination puzzles. While most of my games feature these, I usually try to make them occur in a manner that makes them all feel different. Here I have a lot of combination puzzles that all feel quite samey, and that makes a game tedious and uninspiring. I firmly believe that varied gameplay is good gameplay, and slipped up here quite a bit.
The graphics, as well, despite being some of my best work are still full of weak points. Areas that could have been/should have been refined were left, making it clear upon close inspection that the work is still very much that of an amateur. In some cases items were not made clear to the player, meaning that players got stuck merely because they didn’t realize there was something they could have clicked on – which is absolutely unacceptable.
Whilst looking nice is important, it shouldn’t override the need for functionality. This is a game, not a painting, and if it looks nice but doesn’t play nicely, then the scene is a long way from perfect.
Moving Forward:
Featherweight has been, to date, my most popular game; receiving a fair bit of exposure in various communities and more downloads than any of my other own games. With each project I learn many new things, and from this perspective Featherweight was most definitely a success. Although there are elements that disappoint me in hindsight, I’m still proud to say that I made the game.
Like any game developer, my goal is to reach a place where I can consistently create pleasing graphics, inspiring stories and enjoyable gameplay every time I sit down to make a game. I haven’t reached this stage yet, and Featherweight has shown me some areas in which I have some major weaknesses. I walked away from the project feeling like I’d made a game worthy of the player’s time, and even though it is hard to focus on the strengths rather than the weaknesses looking back, I’m glad that people enjoy it.
In the future, I hope for people to play the game and think “Look how far he has come since making Featherweight”. Until then, I’ll be here, drawing, coding and writing to improve my skills as much as I can.
Related @ Gnome’s Lair:

• Behind the Scenes: HHGttG AGS remake
• A Guide to the world of the Indie Adventure Game
• Fahrenheit Postmortem
• Broken Sword: Director’s Cut Wii review

No, really. I should be back before the 24th, which is -admittedly (and hopefully)- bearable. In the meantime I would suggest playing through the excellent and finally complete Tales of Monkey Island series, having a go at Space Hulk, downloading some stunning free games or feeling 100% silly with Band Hero for the Wii.

I still have fond and occasionally terrifying memories of the first non-parser driven adventure I ever played: Uninvited. It was brilliant, innovative and horrific and was followed by Déjà Vu -which I somehow ignored-and then the excellent Shadowgate that once again attempted to scare me to death. But, sadly, I was 12 by the time I tried that last one and could already bare over 3 horror movies a day, thus failing to feel that dear uneasiness. Then I think I missed most of ICOM’s other adventures and only came close to experiencing something similar when Microprose released the great but flawed The Legacy: Realms of Terror.
And then, well, glorious TIG Source came along and showed me the way to another haunted mansion. Molstrums Mansion. It’s an ACE Team creation that feels, smells and plays like a proper early point-and-click adventure (it must be one then, right?), runs in your browser, sports a decidedly ICOM-esque interface, comes with glorious black and white graphics and successfully atmospheric sounds, takes place in a spooky mansion, has a solid plot with a few humorous bits in it and is a true joy to play through. Yes, despite being on the rather easy side of things and lacking a save feature.
Oh, and Molstrums Mansion plays on what can only be described as a web-based simulation of a vintage b&w Mac, utilizing what can only be described as a faux copy protection scheme that subtly plugs the team’s visually stunning (and forthcoming) commercial ZenoClash project.
PS. Yes, I know I should have also mentioned Elvira I & II, Waxworks and those excellent Radical Poesis Games like Fedora Spade and Missing, which is something I apparently just did. All fine then. Go play Molstrums Mansion.
Related @ Gnome’s Lair:

• Dead Like Ants
• The HHGttG point and click remake
• Them Good Old Games
• A Spectrum of Beauty

GameFan was a US magazine that I, well, had never heard of really. Apparently the thing was first released in 1992 and managed to survive all the way to 2000, despite (?) having an obvious thing for all things console and an admittedly interesting ultra-colourful layout. Now, as the super retro mag scanning team that runs the excellent Retromags has scanned the three first issues of GameFan and as I have already happily browsed through dozens of virtual GameFan pages, I can’t help but suggest you too have a look. It might not be the console equivalent of the 90s PC Zone, but GameFan makes for an interesting, nostalgic and fun read.
Download issue 1 here, issue 2 here and issue 3 here. They are obviously free to get and you should probably also get a copy of the equally freeware CDisplay to help you read through them and enjoy game reviews covering everything from the Neo Geo, to the Sega CD, the Genesis, the SNES, the Turbografx-16 and even the Atari Lynx. Oh, and vintage Nintendo fans should definitely follow this link too.
Related @ Gnome’s Lair:

• The Retroaction Premiere
• The first issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
• Classic gaming magazines online
• Retro Abomination: Super Gran

Deckers and shadowrunners rejoice! Here -finally- are the links you’ve been asking for. The links to some of the smartest and most original (though not particularly fresh) things the gaming side of the Internet has to offer. Click away.Let’s start by me reminding everyone that Gabriel Knight 3 remains one of the best and most memorable games I’ve ever played. Ever! So, uhm, here’s an excellent Making Of… The GK Trilogy, an incredibly enlightening Gabriel Knight 3 postmortem and a shocking visit to Rennes-le-Chateau.
Oh, and while you are rummaging through the hardy developer’s workshop (which you should), you do have to pay extra attention at the 7 best martial art scenes in adventure games.
Keeping on with classic adventure gaming links let me point you to a comprehensive piece on early Sierra games and Mojo’s detailed -nay, exhaustive- look at The Dig. Then, be wise and study an article about adventure game puzzles to put things into perspective.
Play this thing gives sound advice and speaks words of wisdom in Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to be game developers. By the way, remember the Scratchware Manifesto?
And to keep the indie flag flying and -of course- our spirits high here is WiiHD’s quite amazing Wii Homebrew Guide, that allows everyone to have some cost effective fun. What a concept. Oh, dear.
Speaking of concepts, well, here are some rather interesting examples of video game box art courtesy of PC World. As is customary in these things, you should epect more than a few Maria Whittaker, Psygnosis and Amiga references.
Meanwhile in the dark halls of GameSetWatch: Intergalactic spies bring us the secrets behind the development of N64 hit Star Wars: Shadows Of the Empire.
Matty on Games, on the other hand, has done some stellar work exploring some not particularly well known Henhouse Harry games. Like Chuckie Apple for example. Or even Chuckie Egg 2.
On the unreleased games front, let me tell you that (as discovered by the Joy of Sticks) the Jaguar XJ220 Atari ST version is no longer one. I mean it just got finished and released as freeware by its original programmer. Read on…
Finally, Ironic Sans, presents a truly novel idea, that apparently looked -and to be frank still looks- great on paper. It’s the Blogosphere Adventure Game concept, it is.
Super fast Quick Links:

• 10 great and very characteristic PC Games
• The Last Express movie (Offworld)
• Hey, look! A DSi from the gutter!
• Cletus Clay interview
• A truly amazing book on vintage games
• Hardware novel: Winchester’s Nightmare
• The complete story of Defender in video
• Dante: from text to TV
• Another complete history of Nintendo
• 100+ free games sites
• Zork: The quite excellent Grand Inquisitor
• Doomablo!

Not that you would have noticed otherwise (I’m quite aware my posting isn’t as frequent as it should be; sorry about that), but, well, guess I’d let you know I wont be around for the next 6-7 days. Taking a short vacation, you see. In Crete of all places!
Now, to keep you occupied while you’re anxiously waiting, I thought I’d point you towards the latest Retromags offerings: Next Generation #20 and PSM #2. Both issues are freely available for download, scanned and preserved to perfection and sport an amazing variety of quality retro reading. Personal favourites include reviews of X-Wing (Mac), Duke Nukem 3D (PC) and Oddworld (PS), mind. And yes, I did notice the extensive coverage of Mario 64 and N64.
Oh, and if you want to find out what I’ve already loved to bits and will soon be reviewing for this very lair do follow mystery link 1 and mystery link 2.

Finally! After two not particularly exciting games, Simon nailed that elusive 3D look. Probably has to do with the combination of gorgeous hand-painted background graphics with smartly cell-shaded characters methinks. Now, if the humour and puzzles are as good as the they were in the first two 16-bit Simon the Sorcerer installments, we can all be sure that Simon the Sorcerer 5: Who’d Even Want Contact?! will be an excellent PC adventure indeed. Mind you, the German demo seems fine, and you can download it from Simon’s highly informative official site.
For another (or a first) go at the original games on the other hand, you could do much worse than having a look at GOG.com. Oh, and better avoid Simon 3D as it does have more than its fair share of flaws.
Anyway. On to the Gnome’s Lair related bit of the post. Thing is, you see, I’ll soon (mid-May) be joining the army for something less than year, meaning that new posts will be sporadic at best. BUT, till then, I hope to actually revitalize the blog and provide you with quite a few decent quality posts, that will among other things include two game reviews, an interview, a retro focused guest post and a lot of free games. And that while working on the upcoming issue of Retroaction, updating Retro Treasures, doing stuff for that little project of mine and adding the finishing touches to a PhD.
That’s all for now. Really.

When I first encountered Adventure on the Atari 2600, I was nothing more than a ridiculously young kid, and was thus too confused by its less than straightforward gameplay to actually bother. It was only years later -on the very same 2600- that I actually gave the game a fair chance to impress me, and, to point, it did. Adventure was far more complex and ambitious than the vast majority of simple arcade games that were available for the console and also a decent attempt at transforming the original text-based Adventure (a.k.a. Colossal Cave, Advent etc) into a simpler, joystick controlled, graphical and less processor hungry form. It even sported the first ever video game easter egg. Adventure was indeed a classic.
Then again, not all classics or ground-breaking games age that well. Load Adventure on any emulator for reasons other than nostalgia or historical curiosity, and you’ll probably fail to see what the fuss was all about. It’ll most probably feel clunky, archaic and quite confusing. Load Colossal Cave, on the other hand, and you’ll still be blown away; but that’s beside the point.
The point, you see, is nothing else than the shiny Adventure 2600 Reboot, for it is a brand new, excellent and obviously freeware retro remake of the Atari’s Adventure. It sports excellent 16-bit styled graphics, proper sound effects, music, more options, new areas, tons of polish and -importantly- a brand new interface that makes the original gameplay shine. Download it, play it, enjoy it and then go on and read this GameSetInterview on Adventure Reboot.
Related @ Gnome’s Lair:

• Retro Remakes ‘08 meet Cthulhu
• EGM issue #1
• The Oddbob Mersey Remakes interview
• Saboteur 95: a remake