Platser i spel jag gillar: Island of Celebration

Little big adventure är en spelserie jag skrivit om tidigare på bloggen. Det är en spelserie som alltid haft en religion-positiv utgångsvinkel som jag uppskattat. I första spelet spelar man rentav gudinnan Sendell´s utvalda, och religionen är ett hopp för planetens befolkning som är slavar under en diktatur. Det andra spelet är som jag skrivit tidigare på bloggen lite mer lättsamt, men har å andra sidan mycket intressant världsbygge på ön Island of Celebration på planeten Zeelich.

"In the beginning, the 2 mother planets, Zeer (the sun) and Lich (the cold) met one another during the Oogh: the great cataclysm. From this Zeelich was born. Life appeared and the brotherhood of the Gods sent there the youngest son of the light, who was called Kard N'kom. Alas, some deleterious fumes emanating from the Great Sulfur Mine disfigured him. His horribly mutilated face escaped the Gods, and it was decided that Kard N'kom would have to forever hide his face and never again appear in front of the noble assembly. Condemned to roam the cosmos forever, Kard N'kom saw his Name erased from the divine law. He who wanders without a face became then known as Dark Monk... Zeelich was populated with 4 different races, condemned by the Gods to fight each other forever. But, life being stronger, the divine brotherhood hurled Zeelich into the first sun of the Novae system. This shock created the planet such as we know it: a blanket of clouds isolating the rocky summits from the melting ground.

Then Dark Monk came back and announced the latest verdict from the Gods. The races were to fraternize and share the task of returning Zeelich to its former beauty. He unveiled a great wonder: from the deadly cloud, hideous monsters were born and threatened to invade the planet. But, thanks to his Key, Dark Monk also gave rise to a volcano which erupted and sculpted in basalt a gigantic statue in his image, holding the Stone Book of the 10,000 Names. At each ceremony, lightning would henceforth inscribe once more the Name of God, Dark Monk. Before disappearing, Dark Monk broke his Key into 4 pieces and thus revealed the Great Prophecy. On the day when the 10,000th Name of God is engraved the reunion of the 4 fragments of the Key will make the monsters and the gas disappear, and will give back to Zeelich the heavenly appearance of its origin. Life will then be reborn as it was in the time of Eden."

Nu när det är påsk och återfödelse står på tapeten känns det angeläget att tänka på det numera nerlagda Adeline som skapar skurkar som inte dödas eller bestraffas när de förlorar, utan får en chans på en återfödd planet!

The use of the narrative curve in videogames pt3

I have posted these little analyses on a few different sites and a thing that came up was wether or not episodic gaming was applicable to the narrative curve at all or if they should be measured in another way. While I do agree that games have to make allowances for the simple fact that games focus on action and tends to have more focus on many small confrontations/climaxes I would argue that they still follow the curve very well, something that I have hopefully demonstrated in my writing. 

Behold, the nipples of the night. What music they make! 

The night of the raving dead concerns Sam and Max´s neighbourhood invaded by zombies. Following their trail to a zombie factory (exactly how these factories work and what economic use there are for them is not something that I can figure out and neither can the scriptwriters) in Stuttgart. There they meet the, ahem, metrosexual vampire Jurgen that turn out to be the antagonist of the episode. He is working on a Frankenstein´s monster type creature and Sam and Max must stop him. This episode has a very strong point of no return when Sam and Max are turned into zombies. This changes the focus of the episode from not just stopping Jurgen but also becoming alive again, granting some extra urgency to the proceedings. Since the episode is self-contained, it doesn´t really set up a point of no return for the season as a whole. That actually happens in the next episode, but let us not spoil that yet. 

If you do not take care of where you are headed, you may end up a puzzle-obsessed old geezer 

As noted in the last installment, the end of the second episode (eaten by a giant manatee) serves as a point of new return for the season. In the first two episodes Guybrush had agency, from this point on the narrative will strongly dictate where he can go and do. He will also find La Esponja Grande, the first major goal of the season. Lair of the leviathan begins with a confrontation just like the first two although it does not have the same faux-climactic quality to it, rather serving as an introduction to the world inside the manatee, inhabitad by bizaroo-Guybrush explorer Dora Coronado Da Cava and his crew. The episode does have an inner point of no return when Guybrush manages to exit the manatee (so to speak) and interogate the crew about a key item. The episode ends with Guybrush being captured and returned to Flotsam to stand trial for pirat-ey misdeeds and spreading the pox of Lechuck.

Decidely faster than Monopoly 

The point of no return for Alex and Adva is the titular couple arriving in the underworld to look for the plant. Although not very strong in my initial draft nor the finished script I do emphasis at several later points that they cannot return home easily, turning the descend into a sort of retroactive point of no return. Inspired by the curse of monkey island I wanted a sort of change in gameplay for the middle of the game. This also serves as an illustration for how dangerous the underworld is. The game changes into a sort of chess-like affair where you can put characters at different tiles to achieve different effects and defeat enemies. The objective of the game is guiding all the dead souls to the safe temple at the top. After winning Alex and Adva arrive at the capital of Hell, slipping in just before the demon attack.

We are fast approuching the confrontation and the climax. Since the resolution is not usually playable (usually, remember walking around the world in Earthbound after defeating Gyigas?) the two last episodes could be said to be somewhat dedicated to the confrontation and the climax, respectivaly. In the next and penultimate installment we will look a little closer on what makes a good ending to a story.

The use of the narrative curve in videogames, pt2

This is the followup from a article I did a few months back about the use of the narratice curve in videogames. I did so by comparing two point and click game series from Telltale as well as one of my own game scripts. Enjoy:

Moai Better Blues begins with flying triangles assaulting Sam and Max´s neigbourhood, kidnapping people and sending them to the Easter island. Jumping into a triangle Sam and Max finds out from some talking moai heads that a volcano is supposed to erupt soon, dooming the island. To stop it they need to seek audience with the volcano god, guarded by baby versions of Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Earhart among others (the fountain of youth is on Easter island too). In the end the evil volcano god turns out to be Max´s pet goldfish. Yeah..you know how bad comedians think that they can just throw random wacky stuff into their act until people laugh and this is pretty much how this episode is written. The episode do have a clear climax when confronting the pet goldfish, though. As an aside, I do find the joke about the head of the Lincoln memorial falling in love with one of the moai head to be really funny. But since God is dead and we can´t have nice things anymore this episode also introduces baby Amelia Earhart, who reappears in season 3.

The Siege of Spinner Cay begins with a battle against the pirate hunter Morgan Le Flay. After making it to the titular Spinner Cay, Guybrush is tasked with finding three summoning artifacts in order to summon a create to take him to La Esponja Grande. However, a group of pox-infested pirates are bent on stopping him. Guybrush defeats them and uses the artifacts, which sadly results in him being eaten by a gigantic manatee. This episode, just like the first episode of Sam and Max, follows the curve very well. There is a clear set-up with the artifacts, a point of no return with the titular siege and a climax with a sea battle against the evil pox-captain. The only thing I would downgrade is since the final battle is a escapable battle (you need to lose at least once in order to replace your mast with a rubber tree) there is no real sense of danger. As yet another aside I must say I find teaching human Lechuck how to be an adventure game hero is not only funny, but hysterically so. It´s like teaching your parents how to play adventure games. My parents aren´t evil zombie pirates in disguise, though.

My initial draft for the middle of Alex and Adva was pretty straightforward. They go from A to B to C until they find the plant, fights the demons off and then you win. This makes the quest way too static and the central conflict at the end too sudden. The way I solved it is to make rumours about among the shades in the underworld about a large scale demon attack, as well as seeding doubts about if the plant they are searching for is really what they think it is. There is also an additional conflict with the lord of the dead, Tymor, since Adva has let someone unauthorized into the underworld, and the magician who Alex stole the magic book from. Alex and Adva becomes fugitives, which adds tension building up between them as well.

A point I wanted to emphazise today is when the point of no return takes place. Since all of these seasons, including my own hypotethical game, has five episodes I would say that it takes place in the third episode. So for the next installment we are going to focus a bit about the point of no return. Tales of Monkey island has this weird thing where points of the narrative curve are shuffled around a bit. What would normally be a climactic battle appears at the start of the first and second episode, for example. A good point of return would be swallowed by a huge beast (you could also go on a tangent about the hero with a thousand faces) which here happens at the end of the second season.

Magier och trick!

Väldigt längesen jag skrev något om RPGmaker spelet Journeys East of Knez! För en tid sen (dvs mer en ett halvår sedan) lade jag upp en del karaktärers specialattacker på facebook som ett sätt att presentera deras karaktärer. Men det var tre jag inte han med! Ap-uppfinnaren Givased, rävmagikern Magínt och kaninprofeten DidIprai blev till fullo klargjorda men de resterande vill jag prata lite extra om här.

Peggy

Peggy är en ung gris-handelsresande som använder pollen, pulver och sin egen kyliga personlighet för att lamslå hennes motståndare. Hon har även tillgång till unika verktyg och kan använda det helt klart störst antalet objekt i spelet. Ett tips är att dubbelutrusta henne med sköldar och din bästa röstning. Attacken "faderns sköld" drar sedan monstrens aggressivitet och skyddar resten av laget!

Shebaz

Shebaz är en drottning över ett rike i öster och fokuserar på kraftfull men dyr magi. När den väl har tagit slut står man där så micromanagement av mana är viktig om man vill använda denna karaktär till fullo. Hon har även ett par verktyg såsom en magisk tron av järn, ett svärd och andra magi-förstörande artifakter. Takes one to beat one!

Sand Horse

Sandhästen är till sist en förvandlad drake som har en jämn uppsättning magier och andra förmågor. Precis som hans förlaga i "resan till väst" fokuserar hans magi på hans magiska andedräkt och....ermm, urin. Men draken kan även använda sin kraftfulla hästspark för att anfalla varelser som är immuna mot magi!  

Pharao Rebirth+

Stackars professor Jonathan Banfield! Inte nog med att en egyptisk förbannelse förvandlat honom till en kanin, utan en annan egyptisk förbannelse frisläppt av hans rival André (som i samma veva förvandlades till en ödla) gör att han kommer att dö om sju dagar. Men nu finns ju Rabevars en lösning på problemet! Om han kan hitta sju heliga graaler kommer han att bli odödlig och därför fri från att dödas av förbannelsen (Jag antar att andra Moseboken hade rätt och den kristna guden klår de egyptiska). Jonathan måste nu spåra de sju graalerna till en samling egyptiska tempel och gruvor (samt Las Vegas) samtidigt som han undviker andra ljusskygga typer som är ute efter Egyptens skatter. Till din hjälp har du din kära assisten som kan hacka alltifrån fällor i gömda pyramider till hål i marken. 

En riktig arkeolog dricker lugnt vin medan han blir attackerad av Serqet

Spelet är ett Metroidvania spel, du utforskar tempel och samlar objekt som ger dig nya egenskaper så att du kan ta dig vidare. Imponerande nog är spelet gjort, bortsett från grafik och musik, gjort av en enda person. Spelet har en väldigt underfundig humor som frossar i sin kassa research (heliga graaler? I egypten? Sju stycken? Tikistatyer nära Nilen?) och brustna engelskaöversättning. 

Ännu en dag som jag kan undvika att faktiskt undervisa i arkeologi är en bra dag!

En sak man kan anmärka på är att spelet har det där irriterande "hardcore-syndromet" där man kan förlora objekt i spelet om man inte gör något obskyrt vid en specifik tidpunkt. Speciellt irriterande då man bara kan ha ett sparat spel åt gången och måste starta om om något går fel. Bortsett från detta är Pharao Rebirth+ ett fantastiskt och välgjort spel som jag absolut kan rekommendera.   

Och det finns en hel del grejor att samla! 

The use of the narrative curve in videogames

The classic narrative curve

It is very popular to make episodic games, particularly from a indie standpoint. There are smaller and easier to manage and develop for. They also have the added benefit of making fans excited and discuss the next installment. In this tutorial we are going to discuss the use of the narrative curve as it applies to videogames, in particular as it applies to episodic games. It is my hope that this thread will be a sort of workshop where I post an installment at a time.

I think that most people are familiar with the narrative curves as it applies to movies and books. When it comes to episodic games and to some extent television series the curve will follow the same basic idea but will have a few more "repetitions".

The narrative curve for theatre, but works for episodic games too!

While episodic games have a single overarching story each individual installment need a smaller "inner" curve of their own. To illustrate this, I am going to compare two Telltale series that I think uses the inner curve well (Tales of Monkey island) and one that uses it not so well (Sam and Max season 2, although the other two seasons used this very well). Please not that I will discuss these games as well as others in the individual series freely, so there will be spoilers. They will also be compared to a potential game called Alex and Adva by Nooby Mcnooberson (ie me) to show how an idea can grow into a story by use of the narrative curve.

Alex and Adva 

But first, the overall storyline of the three series.

 

Tales of Monkey Island:

While trying to defeat his arch-enemy the zombie-pirate Lechuck Guybrush accidentally makes him human again and releases his evil as a pox that infects the Caribbean. To cure the infected people Guybrush must find the fabled La Esponja Grande to suck all evil voodoo energy into it. Lechuck steals the energy and becomes a pirate god but is eventually defeated by Guybrush.

Sam and Max season 2:

Sam and Max investigate a couple of seemingly unrelated cases, eventually tied together by a couple of time-travelling mariachis and a takeover of Hell by bit-characters from the first season. Yeah...you could probably tell from the description alone that this season does not have a strong narrative. I actually struggled to try and keep the overarching story sound better, but had to give up.

Alex and Adva (my own story idea in its raw form)

Alex and Adva want children but are unable to conceive. As a jackalope it is Adva´s duty to guard the underworld and when Alex hears about a magical plant that can bestow fertility Adva lets him into the underworld so they can search for it together. Turns out the plant is a root from the world tree Yggdrasil. Demons are trying to cut it down and Alex and Adva must protect it.

Let us take a look at the three series and how they begin their respective set-ups.

The launch of the Screaming Narwhal

This episode begins in medias res with a Lechuck confrontation, supposedly after an epic quest to create a sword that can banish the evil pirate forever. Gubrush bungles the spell and is stranded on the island of Flotsam. Here the main quest is introduced, finding La Esponja Grande to banish the evil pox and get off Flotsam. The episode is interesting because it has a climax, or at least something imitating the form of a climax, at the very start. The episode also ends with another confrontation being set up with pirate hunter Morgan le Flay, but not taking place in the episode itself. When it comes to the narrative curve the episode feels a little shaky, since the player can solve the puzzles and challenges in any order.

Ice Station Santa

The episode begins with Sam and Max finding out that Santa sends a murderous robot to their office. Deciding to investigate they find Santa possessed by a demon, which they excorsice. Unlike the first season this one seems to be cases unrelated to each other, which need not be a bad thing. The episode, taken on its own, follows the narrative curve well with a setup (collect items for a banishment ritual), a point of no return (portals to other points in times are opened) and a clear climax in the confrontation with Santa and even a resolution that makes fun of sappy christmas specials.

Finally, let us look at my own first attempt.

The set-up, the search for the plant, needs to be introduced. My original attempt stood on its own and concerned house-cleaning, introducing the characters and the game-system. While it was cute, itwas also really slow. My current first episode concerns Alex losing his book of magic and has to find a new one in a hurry in order to impress his employer. Breaking into the house of a magician he learns about the plant. By making the initial quest about something unrelated I can still present the world and its characters in a natural way. And so the adventure begins...

This is the first installment, please tell me if this was informative or if there are any points I could improve on? Any specific points I should focus on when making comparisions between the two game series. Did it make sense for me to include my work on my own game in the comparison?

Inventory Design (Alex and Adva)

When creating a videogame it is important to make the interface as clear as possible, and that goes doubly for an inventory in a point and click adventure game. My goal was to create the entire interface in a single screen and make it work without any gimmicks while still giving a fresh breath to the adventure game genre.

The interface is found with a press of the I button, scribbled on the side of an egyptian pylon. There is a day and a night version depending on if Alex and Adva is in the underworld or not.

It is divided into two categories, each one further divided into two subcategories. The category to the left is the clickable objects. It is the part of the screen the players eyes will be drawn to first and contains all the items gathered during the chapter as well as buttons to change between Alex and Adva. At the top left there is also a button to receive a hint on what to do next.

The section to the right is the notes. Here you can find a list of the creatures that Adva needs to defeat or find as well as notes that will point you towards a puzzle. Alex can use these notes in conversations with characters in the game to reveal further clues.

Instead of getting in a situation where the player has to use all their objects on everything in a desperate attempt to get further into the game I want the player to look at this scene as little as possible. All items are automatically used when the player character is in the right place and the found notes are added to all conversations as soon as they are found. The goal I strive for is for the player to just bring this scene up once when they load a saved game in order to look over their progression and immediate goals!