Category: Uncategorized

From Milan (and via We-Make-Money-Not-Art), comes a bizarre, but arguably worthwhile big game concept: to make the process of play not only enjoyable, but productive as well. Welcome to Dark Treasure (Tesoro Scuro), the gaming adjunct of a slick little Italian pooper-scooping service known as Pooptopia.

Pooptopia relies on a community of users to identify instances of dog poo in the city of Milan. Once identified, Pooptopia sends out an individual on a moped to scoop the “dog litter,” and dispose of it properly. The system is apparently funded by the city itself, meaning the official scooter scoopers are paid for their work, which is comforting to know.

The gaming portion of this is simplistic: A user aligns him/herself with one of three teams. If a user sees dog poo in Milan, they take a picture of it, and send it to the Pooptopia e-mail address, earning points for their team. Bonus points are promised if the user can identify the area in which the poop was seen (which seems like an important detail to me). A prize is offered to the top “poo-hunter” each week, which makes the team mechanic unnecessary, considering the individual is ultimately credited and rewarded, and not the conglomerate.

While earnest in terms of its concept, Dark Treasure fails to seem enjoyable in the overall, in part because the goals of the entire project seem a little jumbled. Consider that the game is being used as an incentive for members of the community to locate and report instances of “doggy doo;” the creators expect players to want to play a game that is fun, and in playing that game, they will indirectly assist the “Pooptopia” system. The play itself, however, is not really expected to be that rewarding, as evidenced by the fact that the official Pooptopia site pronounces the goal of the game to be the sanitization of Milan, rather than simply the pleasure of playing. So, basically, the game is intended to be an incentive to clean up the city, even though cleaning up the city is intended to be the incentive to play the game. (Huh?)

Still, the notion of productivity through gameplay is interesting and always worth pursuing, and Dark Treasure stands as a unique intersection of the “Serious Games” ideology and “Big Games” execution.

Since Apple first introduced the accelerometer in the late Powerbooks (intended as a safety feature), there’s been a persistant question of “how can we play with this?” floating in the heads of Mac fans and those of the techie persuasion.

This example, via Lifehacker, is by far the most obvious: a puzzler much in the same vein as Super Monkey Ball, where tilting the MacBook allows one to navigate the sphere around the maze. At the very least, it’s neat to watch, but from a practical standpoint, I imagine it would get tiresome very quickly (especially with the 17″ MacBook Pro; at 6.8 pounds, it’s an average-weight laptop, but an extremely heavy controller).

Cave Story (if you don’t know what Cave Story is, click that link, download the game, and play it for several hours with the sound on before reading any more of this) is coming to the Sony PlayStation Portable. This is according to Frank, via Polybius, via the publisher’s message board.

If that doesn’t convince you, the publisher – Variant Interactive – has already put up a Cave Story section, complete with box art. Apparently Variant has recently started up as an independent games publisher, and they’re choosing to kick things off with a bang. And by bang, I mean a really, really good game. Seriously. You shouldn’t even be reading this if you haven’t at least started playing it already.

So my first reaction to this news is “Awesome! I love Cave Story! I love it so much!” My second, more rational reaction, however, is “Oh, wait. I don’t own a PSP. Nor do I ever intend to, no matter how cute Loco Roco is. I am sad now.”

I suppose the good news here is that Variant is not averse to porting the game over to the Nintendo DS; they just haven’t had any green light from Nintendo to do so:

You know, I love the DS as much as the next guy… And Cave Story, I think, fits in pretty well with the feel of Nintendo’s general portfolio of titles. But at the end of the day, it’s Nintendo who decides what does and does not go on their systems. Same as Sony and Microsoft dictate what goes on theirs. I’m not much of a fan of online petitions, I don’t think they do much good, but if you’d like to see Cave Story on the DS, Nintendo suggests writing them or posting it up in their forums. If they know you guys want it, and they know that there’s enough of you that want it, something good might happen!

I guess that’s enough to give me hope for now. I don’t think community outreach alone is going to make it happen, though. I think the gaming press needs to start jumping on this, and making a critical argument for the existence of Cave Story on everyone’s favorite dual-screened portable. A solid, well-thought-out feature on 1UP or IGN could be worth just as much in Nintendo’s eyes as a hundred or so e-mails from fans begging “please?”

…But I’ll send off an e-mail or two to Nintendo, just to be sure. That’s how good Cave Story is.

I go home to the States tomorrow (Saturday), so I guess I better get cracking.

Update: Making Progress…

My most recent travels around Ireland happened to last the entirety of this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, which meant that instead of camping in front of a computer, constantly reloading Joystiq to see what happened next at Sony’s “big conference,” I was actually doing something. It was quite nice.

E³‘s always a mess of game-related data, which one has to sort through in order to find the important bits. Here’s what I’ve found to be the cream of the crop.

Lumines is making its way to the 360 via Xbox Live Arcade.

Sony’s Playstation 3 is SKU’ing, too (at $499 and $599).

On a similar note, the PS3 controller is an awful lot like the PS2/PS1’s, except with hastily-implemented gyroscopics and no rumble.

Nintendo’s Wii starts out strong, and apparently won’t break the bank, either. (Edit: Okay, it definitely won’t – sweet)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is going to be awesome.

Finally, Greg Costikyan sums up (mostly) everything that’s wrong with E³:

Here’s my E3 fantasy for a Manifesto Games booth: bare concrete floor. Metal folding chairs. Bare tables with computers on them running games. Signs saying things like: “Gameplay Over Glitz” and “Pardon Our Appearance, We Spend Our Money on Games, Not Bullshit” and “No Booth Babes Here, Move Along.”

Bless his grumpy soul.

More travels ahead. Berlin, Dresden, and Prague, before returning to the States. I’m tired.

To begin, never spend a night in an airport in order to avoid taking the expensive bus in the early morning. This is a bad idea.

I haven’t done this “travelogue” thing in a while; been too busy traveling to blog about all the traveling I’ve done.

We went to Amsterdam what feels like months ago, but it’s only really been three weeks or so. We hadn’t originally intended on making the trip (it seemed like the ultimate college-kid thing to do; “dude, have you been to Amsterdam yet?”), but a sincere recommendation from my friend Johnny, and promises of many flowers and canals convinced us to arrange the trip. For the sake of brevity, I will say that Amsterdam was beautiful, and very much unlike any other city we’ve been to so far.

In between our trips “abroad,” Bonnie and I headed west to the coastal city of Doolin, which is in a unique area known as the Burren, and only a ferry ride away from the Aran Islands, popular for their production of wool sweaters. Doolin itself was a very small town (no ATM’s, which turned out to be a bit of a problem), but its size offered an opportunity to take it easy at night, and enjoy the amazing views of the Cliffs of Moher. We traveled to Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands, the next day, and got nice and close to the cliffs on a ferry tour. The morning after, we departed Doolin (with some help from an unnamed Boston-er suffering a hangover) and caught up with a tour bus on the Cliffs of Moher, which then took us through the Burren on our route home.

We did the “overnight in an airport” thing for our flight to France. This might be a good idea if one is 1) on the last leg of their travels, 2) returning home to rest, and 3) equipped with warm clothes and sleeping equipment. It is, however, a terrible idea if you’re like us, and decide to start a week of traveling by staying up all night, unable to sleep on the cold, hard floors of the security entrance. We were displeased. Please don’t ever do like us in this situation.

Beyond the woes of our prolonged stay in Dublin Airport, our time in France was quite amazing, and by far our most successful travel-intense trip so far. Beginning in the south of France with Marseilles (think Mediterranean weather), we traveled north, hitting Avignon (a beautiful walled-in city along the Rhone), Lyon (home to several unearthed Roman Ampitheatres, and an amazing view from our hostel), and Paris (come on, it’s Paris). Highlights of Paris include the Paris Opera House, the Catacombs, our most successful theatre experience yet (two of Moliére’s comedies being performed in the same theatre in which they have been performed for hundreds of years), and Paris itself, particularly at night, when the weather was at its most temperate, and the lights of the buildings rendered everything dazzling.

After Paris, we trained to Tours, where we spent a month last summer in French studies. Being back was a bizarre, but truly great experience. We had dinner with Bonnie’s host-mother from the summer, who also offered us a place to stay for the night.

We didn’t stay overnight in the airport before returning to Dublin, which was for the best considering the Beauvais “Airport” consisted largely of an oversized rental tent (if your daughter’s Bat-Mitzvah was supposed to be outside, and it rains, you order this kind of tent). We were happy to have traveled, but we’re happy to now have a day or so to be home, off our feet and figuring out the logistics for the summer and fall. Tomorrow, we meet up with Stephie, and head south in a rented car. Left side of the road, left side of the road…

The latest issue of the Escapist, which is chock-full of good pieces, features an article by EA’s Rod Humble on the role of rulesets as art, a topic which holds a special place in my heart.

The article begins by talking about Senet, the oldest known board game in existence, dating back to Egyptian times. The cool thing about Senet is that while tomb paintings indicate the number of players, and archaeological digs have uncovered the toolset of board, sticks, and pieces, the rules of Senet were not preserved and remain unknown, rendering the game virtually unplayable.

(I say “virtually,” because there are several historians who have, through their research, devised potential rules for Senet. A version of the game — operating under one of these theorized rulesets — appears online, thanks to the British Museum.)

On the topic of rulesets, I’ve also recently found the blog of Greg Trefry, student at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, and designer at Gamelab (formerly gameLab). Greg describes himself as a man obsessed with rulesets, which he uses to create a series of Urban Mini Games. These are big games with very minimal toolsets, and simple but specific rules, allowing for spontaneous play in urban environments. My personal favorite is Parasite, a race to a fixed destination made intriguing by several provisos in the rules of movement.

Rod Humble’s Escapist article, the story of Senet, and Greg Trefry’s Urban Mini Games all demonstrate not only the importance of rulesets in game design, but also the crucial role they play in the role of game design as artistic expression. Arguably, the most important facet of interactivity is its constraints. Just as boundaries help define our everyday world, limitations on interaction make one game distinct from another.

Absolute freedom is absolutely boring, and in games we rely on rules, on boundaries, to allow us to discover new ways of interacting. It is through rules — and not through their abolition — that players realize freedoms.

Coming Soon: Queer Interactivity and the Gothic in Video Games, Reinventing the Forum, My (Abridged) Ludography, and An Awesome Mind Puzzle.

Japanese developers continue to understand the importance of simplicity in portable game titles, even when most American developers don’t. This explains why a series like Nintendo’s “bit Generations” can go completely unmentioned in North America. At least we have Kotaku‘s Brian Ashcroft to tell us everything cool that happens in the east. From the news piece:

This past Saturday, Nintendo put its “art games” on display in Tokyo. Sixty Game Boy Micros were set up in Shibuya Parco’s basement, demoing new “Bit Generations” titles. Simple puzzle games rich in color and sound, the games included Dotstream, Boundish, Dialhex, Coloris, Digidrive and Orbital.

According to Kotaku, these games are set for release in Japan before the end of the year. And what about the rest of the world? When will I be able to get my hands on stateside releases? So desperate was I to know more about these titles that I used Babelfish to translate a Famitsu article on the topic. Even in splotchy english, some of these titles still sound tasty. My favorites are Orbital — “Controlling the track of the planet with gravity… It makes the outer space represent.” — and DigiDrive — “the action puzzle game which designates traffic control as motif.”

Between these titles and Drill Dozer, the GBA might be in the midst of a revival. Huzzah for non-franchised titles and innovation! ^_^

Nintendo’s 60 Game Boy Micro Demo In Shibuya from Kotaku.

Official bit Generations Press Release via Kotaku.

Famitsu article on bit Generations via Kotaku.

Going to wrap up my Britain experiences, before I have another journey to talk about as well.

York was also home to England’s National Railway Museum, which features a large number of actual trains from the country’s long history of… trains. I forgot to mention that before, but it was still worth mentioning.

From York, we bussed down to London, where we were able to stay with Johnny and his flatmates for three nights. For a number of reasons, we didn’t get to spend that much time with Johnny, but we’ll get to see him back in America, so that’ll be nice.

London’s home to a lot of very big museums, most of which are free, so it was a great opportunity to see a lot of wild and crazy stuff. The British Museum is home to a lot of imperial acquisitions, including the Rosetta Stone, which I was pretty jazzed about seeing.

While in London, we visited Greenwich, birthplace of the Prime Meridian, and GMT. In contrast to the big-city, busy busy feel of London, Greenwich was very pretty. We checked out the National Maritime Museum and The Royal Observatory. Before we left Greenwich, I purchased a compass, which we’ve since discovered is in no way accurate. It’s pretty, but now I’ll never know where North is.

Returning to the city, we saw the standard sights of London, like Big Ben, and Parliament (“Isn’t that Parliament? Isn’t that what they blew up in V for Vendetta?). We took a trip up in the London Eye, which is essentially a giant ferris wheel, except taken much more seriously. It offered a beautiful view of London, from around 130 metres (about 425 feet) in the air.

We also made special trips to Harrods, and Hamley’s, the UK’s biggest toy store. The sheer size of both of them made my head hurt, but good god was it fun to run around.

After London, we bussed our way to Bath, a former Roman city which still contains the ruins of ancient bathhouses. Bath is most well known, it seems, for its connections to the works of Jane Austen, and the image of aristocratic luxury associated with the area. Bonnie and I treated ourselves to breakfast tea in the Pump Room. In the evening, we took in the “Bizarre Bath” tour, which involved no real factual information, but did involve hilarity, and the drowning of a stuffed bunny. It was a strange tour, but a fun one.

Our last stop in Britain was the city of Cardiff, in Wales. Cardiff’s a coastal city, but weather and developing sickness kept us from enjoying it to the fullest extent. As such, we had a great excuse to take it easy on our last few days in Britain. We found an amazing little Indian diner across from our hostel, and spent our last evening eating ice cream in front of a TV, watching episodes of Friends, and a documentary on The Dark Side of Hippos. It was so nice.

In less-than-stellar condition, we returned to Dublin. Bus from Cardiff city centre to Cardiff Airport: 30 minutes. Downtime in Cardiff Airport: 2.5 hours. Duration of flight: 45 minutes. Bus ride from Dublin Aiport to city centre: 1 hour. Bus ride from city centre to UCD campus: 30 minutes. 12 days of traveling proved to be a bit more taxing on our health (and sanity) then expected, but we had an amazing time.

Next up: Amsterdam.

It figures that I finally remove Planet Gamecube from my bookmarks, and it’s at that time that they choose to put up their most interesting piece of content in nearly a year.

Jonathan Metts recently had a chance to interview Henk Rogers, president and CEO of Blue Planet Software and founder of The Tetris Company (“TTC”), the company which handles all licensing of the Tetris name and fundamental design. TTC formed in 1996, which means that all “official” versions of Tetris which appeared after its inception were regulated by TTC and its guidelines. This includes Tetris DX, Tetrisphere, Tetris Worlds, and the recent Tetris DS, among many, many others. Below, Rogers discusses licensing the famous franchise:

We choose partners that we think can move the IP forward, in other words make Tetris a better game. So we have two kinds of licenses: ones that makes us money, and one that helps move Tetris forward, and Nintendo is one that actually does both. On the ones where the licensee is just in it for the money, we tell them what to do. We have a minimum bar that we create every year, called the Tetris Guideline, and that guideline is the minimum spec for which someone has to create Tetris.

To be sure, there are problems with IP’s like Tetris; for the most part, officially licensed Tetris games have been no more than near-direct copies of the original idea, with more eye candy and perhaps a peripheral mode or feature here or there. Then again, look at Tetris DS, which boasts a variety of new concepts built on the absolute minimum of constants: the seven tetrominoes.

I suppose Tetris is fun to think about in a design sense, because of its utter simplicity and massive popularity. Let’s face it, “falling-piece” puzzle games are a dime-a-dozen these days. Tetris distinguishes itself from the pack because of its use of tetrominoes, instead of bubbles, or blobs, or pills, or whatever. But what if Tetris hadn’t been based around the concept of falling blocks? How else could Tetris have worked, and did it shift the paradigm?

Also, on the topic of Tetris, I thought this was pretty cool. Same thing happens with DDR arrows, and I just heard someone in a podcast discussing a similar effect occurring after long rounds of Geometry Wars.

Tetris from the Top: An Interview with Henk Rogers via Kotaku.