Indie Illuminator - Telepath Tactics

Most of my Indie Illuminator posts up to this point have focused on new or upcoming projects. Today I thought I’d illuminate an older game I recently started playing: Telepath Tactics.

Produced by developer Sinister Design and released in 2015, Telepath Tactics is a turn-based tactics game with complex battles and a unique theme. I originally found the game after reading an article by Sinister Design’s primary developer, Craig Stern. (I’m 99% sure this piece on improving turn-based combat was the article, in case you want to check it out.) Telepath Tactics popped up on my Steam recommendations list a few months back, and I decided to finally give it a try.

Image from the game's Steam page.

I’m a few hours into the game, and here’s what I’ve noticed so far. First, Telepath Tactics takes the second part of its name seriously. After the first couple tutorial battles, the difficulty spikes pretty early, and you’ll need to think strategically to overcome the enemy’s superior numbers. The combat actually plays out a bit like a puzzle game, similar to 2018’s Into the Breach. But with several more characters involved, the puzzles are even more difficult to unravel.

The world of Telepath Tactics intrigued me right from the start. Two human sisters (the protagonists in the story so far) are adopted and cared for by a race of humanoid lizards, and the first characters who join your group include mage-like telepaths (unsurprising, given the game’s name) and a knight riding a giant mantis. While other elements seem to resemble a classic fantasy story, I’m definitely excited to find out more about the world and how the more unique elements fit into it.

Overall, the game has a lot to offer, but the UI does leave a bit to be desired aesthetically and functionally. For example, when my characters’ weapons started to break it wasn’t especially clear how and when to equip a replacement. That being said, I would encourage tactics fans to look past the bland interface and see what Telepath Tactics contributes to the genre. It’s obvious that Craig Stern put a lot of thought into what makes a game “tactical,” and implemented that thought into this game. If you're interested, you can check out the game's Steam page here.

Dev Take Tuesday - The Wheel and the Carousel

It’s been a while since my last Dev Take, and I’ve been watching several TV shows—some new, some old. None have led to any new insights as a game designer and developer (which likely says more about my frame of mind then the shows myself). Then I watched the season one finale of Mad Men. I’m way behind the crowd on this one, but I would always hear references to the show and decided to finally check it out.

In the final episode of the season, 60s ad man Don Draper and his team need to pitch an advertising angle for an innovation on the slide projector—a wheel on top that makes it easy to put together a slide show. The slide projector company (Kodak) wants to highlight the newness of the tech, even though they admit that a wheel actually reminds people of ancient technology. But Don takes an entirely different approach in what makes for a memorable scene.

Some of the poignancy of that scene involves what viewers know about Don’s personal life, but I won’t get into that here to avoid spoilers. Instead, I want to focus on Don Draper’s explanation of novelty and nostalgia in advertising and how that relates to game development and game marketing. Here’s a YouTube link to the scene in question, but I’ll also include a transcript below.

Well, technology is a glittering lure. But there's the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product. My first job, I was in-house at a fur company, with this old pro copywriter. Greek, named Teddy. And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is "new". Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of... calamine lotion. But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. It's delicate... but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means, "the pain from an old wound". It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship. It's a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the Wheel. It's called a Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around, and back home again... to a place where we know we are loved. (Transcript courtesy of IMDB).

When we as developers create a new game, I think our first instinct is to focus on novelty—what are we doing different? What’s flashy about our game? And that flash can certainly be a powerful draw. We (at least most of us) don’t want to trot out a carbon copy of another game and call it our own. But I still think that game developers can—and should—try and capture that feeling of nostalgia, when appropriate. It’s tough. Some people might use pixel art or chip tune music and say that’s enough. Others might copy every last aspect of a beloved game of the past without modernizing the design for what current customers have grown accustomed to.

Photo by Lessa Clayton 

Nostalgia doesn’t mean perfect replication: our minds tend to smooth out the imperfections of even our most favorite memories and thus a perfect copy ends up betraying our personal memory of the past. Instead, I think nostalgia is about finding that ache that Don Draper describes. Like a carousel, the games we develop can take people on a journey that eventually brings them back to the familiar, brings them back home. A wheel, once connected to an axle, takes people forward or backward. But a carousel keeps people entertained. Attached. With Alkanaur we’re aiming for that carousel experience. We’re not using bold new technologies or designs. Nor are we simply pushing people backward to the exact experience they received in other tactics games. We want anyone who has played other games in the genre to face something new and intriguing before the carousel turns and brings them back to a familiar place they know and love. We believe that approach will be both a potent draw for potential customers as well as a powerful and fulfilling experience for our players.

Dev Take Tuesday – Polishing a Popular Game Series

My wife and I recently purchased the Nintendo 2DS XL, the first handheld either of us have owned since the good ol’ days of Gameboy Color. That means I finally got my hands on Pokémon Ultra Moon, the latest game in the popular franchise. And I’ve been having a blast! Now that I have a permanent case of game designer brain, it’s nearly impossible not to quietly catalog all the design differences in this iteration while I play. So for this post, I wanted to look at a few of those changes, how they improve the game, and what was sacrificed as a result. (Note: the last Pokémon game I played was Fire Red, so it’s possible some of these changes occurred in games before Ultra Moon.)

One thing clear from the start of Ultra Moon is that you’ll be practically drowned with items from everyone you talk to. Items from NPCs are a staple of Pokémon games and practically all RPGs, so the difference here is in volume. You quickly stockpile a bunch of potions and pokéballs in what amounts to the game’s tutorial. I like this change. Giving these items away generously encourages their use right from the start. Similar to the last piece of cake at a party, one or two potions in the inventory might never get touched.  But when you get ten right away, they seem like a resource the player can use freely. And the increased potions and pokéballs mean the player has more freedom to do “fun game stuff” instead of running back frequently to Nurse Joy for healing.

Are you hearing that jingle in your head now? (Image found on Giant Bomb)

As is the case with any design decision, this generosity from the designers has a cost. Increased item availability reduces their perceived value and should theoretically make the game easier. In the end, this design decision makes the game faster as opposed to easier. Items like potions already have an opportunity cost built into the battle system—if you use an item during your turn you cannot attack. And I think the added time doing “fun game stuff” is worth the decreased perceived value of potions and pokéballs. After all, the game is all about catching pokémon and not about collecting items. Pokémon are the loot (which is a little ethically sketchy now that I think about it).

Another change is the number of timely heals provided before a pivotal fight. Some of the toughest battles in Pokémon occur when a rival or ne’er-do-well challenges you in an ambush situation. It seems like Ultra Moon goes above and beyond to make sure you never end up in the frustrating spot of losing simply because you didn’t know you needed to visit a pokémon center first. This undoubtedly makes the game easier, but not every game is about Dark Souls-esque “gotcha” moments from the designer. The narrative battles in Ultra Moon are more telegraphed, but in return the player more in control.

One final thing I’d like to point out is the addition of z-power moves. These moves can only be used once in a battle, even if you switch to another pokémon with a different z-move. These attacks are especially powerful and also come with a lengthy and exciting animation. While the animations look amazing the first few times, I did eventually start to set my DS down and get a drink whenever one was used. Perhaps there’s an option I missed to skip the animations. Anyway, the best aspect of z-power is the connection it highlights between the pokémon trainer and the pokémon itself. Those moments would often pull me into the game and help me feel invested in the actual characters instead of simply making the correct tactical choices. In longer battles they also add an interesting decision of when to finally use your z-move, but those moments are sadly rare—most NPCs seem to carry only one pokémon.

The most adorable z-move (image found on TechnoBuffalo)

It’s certainly easier to polish a hit series than create a hit game out of nowhere. But game designers still make plenty of mistakes when releasing sequels. Successful polishing seems to come when the designers understand what the game is trying to do. I think that’s exactly what happened with Pokemon Ultra Moon. These additions and outright changes keep the game fresh, but also move increasingly toward the game most fans want, which is a relaxed game about collecting eclectic pocket monsters and building an unstoppable team (and bond) with them.

Indie Illuminator - Stoneshard

It’s been a while since I did some good ol’ fashioned illuminating, but when I learned about Stoneshard, I knew I had to cover it. There’s a lot to love about Stoneshard. It’s beautiful pixel art aesthetic. The classic turn-based tactical combat. A clever addition of physical and mental well-being instead of simply a health points system. If that sounds like your jam, you can try the prologue for free here.

Screenshot from Stoneshard's Steam page

Stoneshard has been in development for over two years by Ink Stains Games. They’re currently running a Kickstarter campaign to not only raise some extra funds for art and programming, but to increase awareness of their game (something every indie is looking for). The studio’s previous Kickstarter campaign for 12 Is Better than 6 was a success, and Stoneshard has already exceeded its funding goal. If you want in on the exclusive backer awards, you can check out their campaign page here in the next couple days.

Dev Take Tuesday - NBA Officiating

No, this won’t be a rant about my team—the Utah Jazz—playing James Harden and the Rockets. I’ll exercise some control here. But I want to explore one particular call that happened when the Jazz closed out their first round opponents, the Thunder. Star player Paul George, not having a particularly good game up until that point, leaned into Jazz defender Rudy Gobert as he took the final shot of the game, trying to force a foul call. Had he not leaned into the defender, there would not have been any contact. In the past few years, the NBA cracked down on these attempts to draw fouls, and according to official review the no-call in the Jazz/Thunder game was correct. Yet it still caused quite a bit of a stir among basketball fans and, of course, Thunder fans especially. Why? Consistency.

Image from NBA.com

Even though the call was correct according to the rules of the game, that call isn’t made correctly every game. So even when confronted with the information that the officials were right, fans and players still felt cheated because they recalled the times when the rule in question wasn’t upheld. Other calls, such as charging, have rules so opaque to the majority of fans that the referees are bound to seem inconsistent no matter what they do. If the fans or players can’t see the nuances of a rule, then even correct usage of the rule will appear erratic.

Game design is about making rules for players, and I feel that the ire caused by NBA officiating shows how important clarity is for game design. Obviously, inconsistent rules in your game will always be frustrating and should thus be avoided. But what game designers really have to look out for are any rules that are technically constant in their design, but appear fickle to the player. For example, as much as I love Civ 6, I’m still occasionally frustrated when a unit appears to be in range to attack, but can’t. There’s almost certainly a reason why the unit cannot attack, but I don’t understand it, leading to momentary exasperation. This is why clarity is one of our design pillars at Rob the Sky Games: we don’t want to frustrate the players that breathe life into our games.

Dev Take Tuesday - Moving

It’s been a while since my last post, and that’s because my wife and I just settled into our new apartment. I head into every move thinking that my past experience has prepared me—this will finally be the move where everything goes right! Needless to say, every time I think that, I’m wrong.  Whether it’s uncooperative weather or not enough boxes or racing the clock for cleaning checks, I’m starting to doubt there’s such thing as the “perfect move.”

So. Much. Cardboard.

Even though Alkanaur is my first game, I’ve found myself falling into similar traps throughout its design. It’s easy to fall into a trap where you imagine that all your past design work (for your current game or previous projects) has prepared you—this will finally be the time that your designs go completely right! But the truth is that iteration and feedback-based improvements will always be necessary. If you want to be a player-focused development team like we do, you’ll always be making adjustments and figuring out what players prefer.

Alkanaur still moves steadily along, and we’ve received some solid feedback on our pre-alpha demo. Our next step is a longer, public-facing demo that should provide a full “slice-of-the-pie” for people to understand what our game is about. In addition to the battle system in our current pre-alpha, the new demo will include a taste of our character customization and narrative systems. Even though I know every new step we will take will require iteration and adjustments, I also know that—just like our recent move—we’ll eventually get there.

Dev Take Tuesday - Taking Time to Talk Timers

Today I’m going to level some criticism at a game I absolutely adore: Mansions of Madness. This hybrid board game and digital app lets you play as investigators in a horrific Lovecraftian story. The use of a digital app allows for randomization in every scenario you play and automates some of the vexing “bookkeeping” required in a complex board game. I love the spooky ambiance created by the game, and the combat and investigation mechanics are relatively simple but fun. It’s a game where the investigators often lose to the monsters, but we still have a blast while losing—a wonderful quality in any type of game.

However, in a few of our losses I’ve felt a bit cheated, and that’s the direct result of a decision to use a hidden timer as a failure state. In the case of Mansions of Madness, which is a turn-based game, the timer is a certain number of rounds instead of a countdown clock or hourglass. Timers can be quite useful in game design. They generate tension. They maintain momentum and prevent stagnant gameplay. But I think the timer in Mansions of Madness works against the game for two reasons: the information is largely hidden from the player, and the timer counteracts the game’s core.

When playing our last scenario of Mansions of Madness, “The Cult of Sentinel Hill,” we did get occasional vague reminders that time was limited. But there was no indication of how much time we actually had, just a hazy idea that the world would probably most likely end soon if we didn’t hustle. Whenever a designer considers hiding information from players, I think they should have a good reason why that information should remain hidden. It’s certainly possible that whoever decided on a timer hid it because they felt like a countdown of remaining turns would break immersion in the game’s world: that leads me to my next point.

The best moments in Mansions of Madness come while you uncover the game map and investigate the clues scattered around the map. Here, the game shines as you are drawn into its atmosphere. Clever writing and clean game mechanics involving skill checks and dice rolls make you really feel like a team of investigators with different areas of expertise. Every great game will help players chase a certain feeling, and—to me, at least—Mansions of Madness is about discovery and intrigue. A timer inherently combats discovery, the core of the game. I’d like to figure out what the violet light in that rowboat is and why that massive tree is covered in hostile whippoorwills, but to beat the game we need to move past them (or move past some of them, actually, since an unknown amount of clues and evidence are needed for victory).  

Shamelessly showing off one of the monsters I've painted.

I understand that the timer helps limit the time investment in an already lengthy game and also provides a mechanical tie-in for the inevitable dread of Lovecraft’s horrific, cataclysmic monsters. But I feel a more fitting and less frustrating mechanic would be an exponentially growing amount of monsters. Sure, in the end your team might get surrounded and overwhelmed, but that gives the players more agency and closure than an unexpected text box saying your time ran out.

Dev Take Tuesday - Black Panther and Clarity

I finally got the chance to see Black Panther on the big screen this past week—what an unforgettable experience! I loved the cast, characters, themes, music, and war-rhinos. If I hadn’t already touched on villains in a previous Dev Take, I’d probably discuss Black Panther’s charismatic antagonist, Erik Killmonger (played by Michael B. Jordan). But there was another aspect of the film that stuck out to me as a game developer: the use of color for clarity.

Visually, the stand-out feature of Black Panther is the vast and vibrant array of colors on the screen. While other films I love, such as Zhang Yimou’s Hero, utilize bold monochromatic tones to convey mood, Black Panther uses many colors simply for the sheer joy of seeing a veritable rainbow on screen. Importantly, however, careful use of color keeps the audience clear on what’s happening. The distinct color schemes of Wakanda’s tribes help the audience sort through the politics at play throughout the story, and in the film’s climactic action sequence the crimson armor of the Dora Milaje contrasts perfectly with the enemy’s blue uniforms.

Gif found here on Gizmodo

From a game development standpoint, complexity often competes with clarity as you try to design games that will challenge your players. Every little step you take in development to add clarity is essential. You can greatly ease the burden on your players by using different colors in character design and assigning distinct color schemes for your game narrative’s various factions. For example, in our game Alkanaur the nine cities will all utilize fairly disparate colors and metals in their architecture and dress. Not only will those little steps make our game easier to follow, but the resulting rainbow on screen will (hopefully) visually impress our players as well.

Dev Take Tuesday - Deep Breaths in Subnautica

Subnautica, the ocean-themed survival/exploration game from developer Unknown Worlds, captures a mood better than any other game I’ve played. That mood is a vibrant mix of awe, tension, and fear—probably the same emotions I’d be feeling if I actually did crash-land in a dangerous but beautiful ocean on an alien planet. After playing several hours, I realized that I would immediately and invariably take a deep breath of relief whenever I returned to safety in my lifepod or underwater bases. I honestly can’t think of higher praise for a game about surviving a perilous underwater world.

Official screenshot from the game's Steam page.

So how does Subnautica manage to create such a powerful and pervasive mood? Obviously, audio and visual elements both play a key role. But I think it comes down to two important design decisions: embracing the setting and balancing risk with relief.

Subnautica fully embraces its setting. Because the game takes place almost entirely underwater, you feel constantly exposed. Danger can come at you from any direction, and tunnel vision could quickly get you killed. The shallows feel safe not only because less dangerous fish spawn there, but because you have ground beneath you and open air above you, limiting the field of threats and orientating your character. In sharp contrast, some of the most harrowing moments in Subnautica come as you explore caves or wreckage and lose your sense of direction. Oftentimes the path back to air isn’t all that complex, but even memorizing a few turns gets complicated when you can move freely in three dimensions. The “floor” of the wrecked spaceship might be at a 45-degree angle above your head when you enter, and that gets disorienting, especially when under stress.

An interesting distinction between Subnautica and other survival games I’ve seen is the use of what I’d call “true relief.” Your starting lifepod and the underwater bases you eventually construct are (from what I’ve seen) entirely safe from the watery depths’ denizens. But the game’s other systems force you to move out of that comfort zone. Hunger and thirst will eventually force you to risk leaving the safety and oxygen of your base, and expanding your living arrangements will also require you to leave and gather resources. This creates a natural rhythm of risk and relief that perfectly captures the mood of diving into the water. At early levels, the comparison is clear. You have less than 30 seconds of oxygen in your tank, so you dive down from the surface to maybe catch a couple fish, and then you have to swim back up. Over and over. However, even when a miniature submersible and larger oxygen tank allow you to explore more freely, your longer expeditions still maintain that rhythm of leaving comfort, gathering supplies, and returning with a deep breath of relief.

Indie Illuminator - Starmancer

As an English major, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard references to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. But I never read it. I often feel that impostor syndrome creeping in when I think about all the classics I have yet to read (and might never read). And I feel that way toward some video games too, including the somewhat bizarre but beloved management/simulation game called Dwarf Fortress. For the uninitiated, Dwarf Fortress is a game in which the player controls a bunch of dwarves in a procedurally-generated world. There are no concrete objectives and most of the game’s beauty lies in how the various mechanical systems combine and create unique, emergent gameplay. However, the game is difficult, and without mods the text-based art of the game scares a lot of modern gamers away. Including me. Which brings us to Starmancer.

An image of a starmancer (from the game's press kit)

Starmancer, inspired by Dwarf Fortress as well as other games in the genre like Rimworld, aims to provide the same emergent gameplay but with a more accessible interface. In the game, you assume the role of a starmancer, a fusion of human and machine. You control a space-faring ark of lab-grown human bodies, each imbued with a consciousness from Earth. You will need to manage colonist morale, avoid mutiny, protect your space station, and expand your influence with the other competing factions of the universe.

Starmancer provides plenty of customization (image from the game's press kit)

I’ve been following Starmancer’s development for a while now, and every little animated art update shared on Twitter makes me smile. The pixel art graphics are full of charm, and it looks like the game will include a significant amount of customization for the player, which multiplies that charm astronomically. Being able to not only build and design the structure of a space station but paint its walls and decorate its corridors?  That’s the kind of customization I like.

Overall I’m looking forward to playing Starmancer to get at least a tiny little taste of the classic Dwarf Fortress. If you feel similarly, or if you just want to find out more about the game, check out their current Kickstarter campaign! From what I understand, backers can gain access to a demo right away.

Dev Take Tuesday - Flavor in Stages

Last week I attended a lovely presentation at the University of Utah about board game design and storytelling. The two presenters, Alf Seegert and Ryan Laukat, shared insights from their experience as board game designers and concluded the presentation with a Q&A session. Both presenters offered their advice on how to build lore and storytelling into a game beyond the traditional“flavor text” some games offer.

Flavor text, for those unfamiliar with the term, refers to narrative- or theme-building snippets of text added to different components of a game. Magic: the Gathering might be the most famous example, but other games like Apples to Apples utilize the technique. Flavor text allows game designers to add a dash of seasoning to their games without needing to meddle with the game’s mechanics too much.

A bit of flavor text really spices up an otherwise bland Magic card (Image source).

But is this the most effective way to add seasoning? Professional cooks say you should add seasoning in stages instead of simply adding them at the end. Salt, for example, will benefit meat, vegetables, and starches in distinct ways if added early in the process. In some ways, flavor text is akin to just giving the salt shaker to the players—they can add it to their gameplay experience if they want, but many players simply ignore it and “eat” what’s in front of them. This isn’t always a bad thing—lock gameplay behind too much narrative and some players might just push the dish away. However, if your goal as a designer is to share a meaningful story or depict a beloved theme alongside your game mechanics, you might want to cook some of that flavor into your game from the start.

The Road to Canterbury's game board, featuring the seven deadly sins (Image source).

Alf Seegert, in his game The Road to Canterbury, showed how the mechanics and even the material components of a game can build a theme by themselves. Playing as a pardoner, everything used to play the game invokes a unique story about the commodification of sins—an effect achieved without requiring players to read non-gameplay material. As video game designers, we need to remember the power of building flavor directly into our game mechanics. One example that always sticks out to me is Bloodborne’s “rally” system. To encourage aggressive gameplay and make the player feel like the hunter they are supposed to be, players can recover recently lost health by attacking enemies. A good deal of character building comes from that mechanic alone—what type of person would act with such fearlessness and ferocity in the face of such horror?

The first-person flavor text of Empires of the Void II (Image source).

Ryan Laukat shared how he “tricked” players into reading flavor text in his game Empires of the Void II. Certain cards have first-person actions written at the top of the card (instead of the bottom, where flavor text is usually located). Because the text uses a first-person perspective, more players would read the text since it seemed to naturally describe what they wanted to do in game. From a video game design standpoint, we could probably put more thought into how we name actions and skills, or how we introduce abilities and mechanics to the player. Describe mechanics clearly, but use those moments to impart a bit of flavor into the game as well.

Overall, I think there’s a lot for video game designers to learn from board game design, despite the vast differences in development and distribution. I look forward to covering more board games on Dev Take Tuesday, as well as adding flavor in stages to our game, Alkanaur.

Indie Illuminator - Bevontule: Altar of Roots

Looking for a game that lets you explore 3D open worlds, fight tactical turn-based battles, and immerses you in an intriguing new fantasy setting? If so, Bevontule: Altar of Roots might be just the sort of game you’re looking for.

Gif of the game's overworld from Bevontule's Kickstarter page

Players will explore Bevontule’s world by travelling freely in a 3D environment. If they collide with a roaming monster, they’ll initiate the game’s robust tactical battle system. Player-controlled characters and enemies will take turns in a free-movement system that ditches the typical grid. Characters can also take several non-movement actions including special skills—careful execution will be key since some skills require time to charge and multiple skills can trigger a chain of devastation.

Gif of the game's combat system from the Bevontule's Kickstarter page

When players aren’t delivering spinkicks or gut punches to enemies, they’ll be learning more about the continent of Onich, its different nations and factions, and the all-encompassing threat known as the Kelvari. These enigmatic root-like creatures are spreading across Onich, consuming land and resources in their wake. What’s worse, they can also assimilate organic matter and create frightening and fearsome creatures known as Rootsouls. The various factions of Onich react in vastly distinct ways to the Kelvari threat—some welcome their determined advance with open arms, while others push back against their incursion.

Kelvari concept art from the Bevontule's Kickstarter page

Bevontule’s development team, Multithreaded Games, just launched their Kickstarter this week. Check out more about their plans for the game (they’ve got a ton of information there), as well as the wide assortment of rewards they have planned for their backers, on their Kickstarter page.

Indie Illuminator - Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds

If you’ve got an interest in old-school JRPGs and/or hulking leonine warriors, you might want to take a look at developer SEMISOFT’s Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that ended last February, the game was just released this week on PC, and should also come out on the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in the future. The developers describe the game as a “love letter” to the classic JRPGs they grew up playing.

Image found on SEMISOFT Studio's Tumblr page.

The game uses a blend of 3D graphics and hand-drawn 2D backgrounds that can be quite eye-catching. In particular, I like the animated character portraits that show up in dialogue sequences. When it comes to the characteristic turn-based battles of every JRPG, Legrand Legacy includes a few extra wrinkles. A simple button timing system determines if you receive certain attack bonuses, and a front/back placement system helps differentiate between melee and ranged characters. Additional gameplay elements include special tactical scenarios and mini-games such as fishing. Overall, it seems like there’s quite a variety of things to do in Legrand Legacy. If you watch to check it out, you can visit their Steam store page here. 

Dev Take Tuesday - Fullmetal Salvatore

R.A. Salvatore has been my favorite fantasy author for over a decade. His novels feature memorable characters, compelling narrative themes, and crisp “cinematic” action sequences. I’m currently reading an older novel of his titled The Orc King. In contrast to my long history with Salvatore, Fullmetal Alchemist was an anime I’d heard about but never looked into. When I saw the latest version of the series (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) was available on Hulu, I decided to finally take the plunge. I’m glad I did!

This one time I met R.A. Salvatore at SLCC

Fullmetal Alchemist follows the story of two young brothers who lost parts of their bodies as a price paid for essentially trying to play god. As they search for a way to recover their bodies they unravel a dark secret that threatens their entire nation. While the narrative focuses on the brothers’ tale, plenty of time is granted to literally dozens of side characters and branches off the primary plot. Eventually, all those characters and branching subplots unite at the end of the anime’s arc in an immensely satisfying way. This careful and patient weaving of interconnected stories is one of Salvatore’s strengths as well. Ostensibly disconnected characters—including, usually, the villain(s)—eventually find themselves entwined in the main narrative by the novel’s end.

A small selection of Fullmetal Alchemist's extensive cast (Image found here on Pop Verse)

Of course, other stories in all sorts of mediums end up trying to perform a similar type of weave. But if the weaving goes poorly, side characters and subplots seem more like distractions. So what makes Fullmetal and Salvatore so effective? I believe it’s a combination of a confident focus on the nexus point where all the various subplots will merge into the main storyline, as well as careful and consistent pacing with the primary narrative.

What can we take away from this as game devs? Many games, especially roleplaying games, are frequently criticized for how side quest content detracts from the urgency and significance of the game’s primary storyline. Game writers and designers will often blame story pacing issues on the inherent interactivity of games, since they can’t control the players who decide to ignore the impending doom of civilization by seeing if they can spam the jump key all the way up a seemingly impassable mountain. 

I've done my share of mountain hopping in Skyrim (Image found here)

But setting mountain hopping aside, I think side quest content could often be much more thoughtfully connected to the main narrative. Side quests and minor characters can and should be compelling by themselves, but connecting them to the chief plot in a satisfying way will help prevent them from feeling like distracting and unneeded “filler.” Not every problem will be fixed this way, and not every optional quest needs to tie in to the protagonist's main quest. However, every little step we take as game developers to encourage player investment in our game worlds will help our games be more compelling and fun.

Dev Take Tuesday - Death of the Designer

I’d say it’s practically impossible to get through an English degree without learning about Roland Barthes and his essay “The Death of the Author.” I became quite familiar with that essay during my studies, and referenced it in more than one paper. In the essay, Barthes argues that an author’s background and biases should be set aside in favor of an analysis on the text by itself. Since meaning doesn’t exist until the reader interprets the words placed there by the writer, the concept of authorial intent is inherently flawed, according to Barthes.

Image found here

My growing pains while running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign have taught me that players will end up interpreting events much differently than I, the author, intended. I created a small town with an eerie Children of the Corn vibe that I thought would provide some cheap laughs and then send the party running after a while. Instead, my players wanted to learn more about the creepy cultists and I found myself scrambling to flesh out the town and its customs. I can probably attribute some of those misinterpretations to mistakes on my end: not providing enough details in my descriptions, not preparing enough material beforehand, or not considering likely alternative viewpoints. However, I believe that any D&D campaign will have moments like these where the players surprise the DM. That’s simply the nature of language.

Looking at game design in general, I'm sure we understand all too well the “death of the designer.” We know that players will always find startlingly different ways to interpret and play our games. But that needn’t be a source of despair. I’d say that the scenario from my D&D campaign above ended up being the most powerful and most interesting moment in our adventures so far. And although the inherent interactivity of games might scoff at any thought of authorial intent, perhaps it’s comforting to know that other mediums of expression have been grappling with these concerns as well.

Indie Illuminator - Celeste

I only played TowerFall Ascension once—slowing my brother-in-law down in the game’s two-player survival mode. But despite my short time with the archery combat and platforming game (it’s similar to the popular Smash Brothers series or the vintage classic Joust) I had a blast. Well the same mind behind TowerFall, Matt Thorson, is releasing a new game called Celeste later this month on January 25^th.

A Celeste gif from Mini Boss's blog

Celeste’s Steam description says the game is a single-player platforming adventure. Players will help the main character, Madeline, scale a challenging mountain as she struggles with personal demons as well. Matt teamed up with artist/programmer Noel Berry, pixel art squad Mini Boss, audio team Power Up Audio, and composer Lena Raine for the project.  Lena and the Power Up Audio team already earned Celeste an IGF nomination for excellence in audio.

Another Celeste gif from Mini Boss's blog

If you enjoy platformers, Celeste looks like it will be another great indie hit. Check it out when it launches January 25^th on PC, Mac, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. It will also release a day later on the Xbox One. 

Dev Take Tuesday – Because Survival is Insufficient

Over the holidays I finished reading the critically acclaimed novel Station Eleven. The story mirrors many other post-apocalyptic narratives, from civilization-ending viruses to eerie abandoned homes that might harbor unspoiled food. Yet the book still manages to feel immensely different from most other apocalyptic stories, and I think that sense of distinction results from a concept that the author herself describes as the novel’s thesis statement: survival is insufficient. I won’t expound on that any further in hopes of avoiding meaningful spoilers.

That line—the motto of the Traveling Symphony, a nomadic orchestra and troupe of Shakespearean actors that tours the post-apocalyptic landscape—actually first appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager and two characters in the book argue over if that fact cheapens the impact of the motto. Like the character Kristen, who also has the line tattooed on her forearm, I disagree with that sentiment. Art takes many forms, and there’s no inherent disconnect between someone who loves Shakespeare, symphonies, and Star Trek.

"Inspiring people to rise beyond mere survival and reach out toward the stars"
(Image found here on Cubed3)

As a game developer, I take pride in the idea of games as art. I don’t bat an eye when a pop culture critic like Dan Olson (from the YouTube series Folding Ideas) follows a critique of the film 300 with a review of Skyrim. I don’t think that means every video game needs to strive to be philosophically dense fine art, any more than Star Trek: Voyager needed to attempt to be Shakespeare. But video games, sci-fi television, classic theater, and novels all offer a glimpse of humanity, inspiring people to rise beyond mere survival and reach out toward the stars. The mundanity of actual game development can sometimes obscure the potential of the final product, so I’m grateful that Station Eleven reminded me of the impact art, in all its forms, can have on our current society and even societies of the future. 

Dev Take Tuesday - A New Year

2017 was a great year for me as a game designer. It was my first full year spent designing games, and I learned a lot in those 365 days. Unsurprisingly, I often use this time of year to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments and plan for the future. So if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to provide a quick recap of last year’s development, followed by the next steps we plan for Alkanaur in 2018.

As a team we capped off this past year with a finished pre-alpha demo build of Alkanaur. We’d completed a rough demo for our game in the summer of 2015, just in time for a local game convention. However, thanks in large part to feedback from that convention, we decided to change our engine and rebuild from the ground up. While this meant that 2016 was spent climbing back to a similar spot that we reached in 2015, it was the right choice for Alkanaur. We built the game on a much more stable platform now, and that choice will also help on the art side of things as we focus more on creating content to fill out the game.

I’ve learned to help our programmer out in some ways, but the engine change definitely required work from an experienced coder. With my extra time as a designer and creative lead, I focused on refining the battle system, class system, and other game mechanics of Alkanaur. Additionally, I had plenty of time to expand our game’s narrative, world, and character arcs and backstories. Heading into 2018, we have a lot of the framework for Alkanaur’s systems and story already constructed, which should mean much faster and smoother content creation as we plow forward.

As we collect and review feedback from our pre-alpha demo, we’ll work on polishing everything in that demo to provide a great user experience. We plan to create a fully-polished “vertical slice” of Alkanaur that should look and play exactly like the final product, except for being a short section of the 20-ish hour game experience we intend. We’ll make that vertical slice a public demo and launch that demo alongside our Kickstarter project so that any potential investors (backers) know that we can follow through on our plan. The Kickstarter campaign will be for a relatively small amount of money, intended to cover a lot of the small fees that come from organizing a company and releasing a game on Steam. Any surplus money from that Kickstarter will go to stretch goals for additional professional art, sound, and music to make Alkanaur truly shine.

I’m excited to see what 2018 has in store for Alkanaur as well as for my own life and growth as a developer and designer. If you’re also excited to see what’s in store, keep following our blog for updates, and sign up for our Alkanaur.com newsletter (link at the bottom of the page) to be notified about big events like our Kickstarter campaign.