50 Landmark Game Design Innovations 156
Next Generation has put together a lengthy list of landmark game design innovations that many of your favorite games probably wouldn't exist without. They break them out into self-contained units, though it's sometimes ambiguous how they're demarcating game design elements. Just the same, it's an interesting look at where game industry trends have led us: "23. Gestural interfaces. Many cultures imbue gestures with supernatural or symbolic power, from Catholics crossing themselves to the mudras of Hindu and Buddhist iconography. Magic is often invoked with gestures, too--that's part of what magic wands are for. The problem with a lot of videogame magic is that clicking icons and pushing buttons feels more technical than magical. The gestural interface is a comparatively recent invention that gives us a non-verbal, non-technical way to express ourselves. Best-known example: Wii controller. Probable first use: Black & White, 2001."
some that come to mind (Score:3, Insightful)
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whether it's obvious or not, the whole computer gaming model for player vs enemy combat is still largely the same as the dungeons & dragons model. The controls may vary from game to game, but it's largely choose the weapon, roll the dice, and survive the encounter by having more hit points left than your enemy does. Before this was implemented in videogames, you had the one-shot kill gameplay of space invaders or the hunt the wumpus "you're dead" text adventures.
Side Scrolling Screens
I'm not enough of a historian to say what game came up with it first, but the exploration possibilities of side-scrolling created really big worlds to explore.
Re:some that come to mind (Score:3, Informative)
Theme music - As with sounds a good theme can make or break an otherwise average game.
Moving Character Animation - I recall reading in Donald Duck's Playground this was a big innovation.
Join at any time - I recall in Gauntlet players could join in at any time they didn't have to wait for the strongest player to die to rejoin the game, made it possible to get more quarters in a machine as well as allow weaker players to ride on the coattails of better ones (at least as long as they had quarters).
Wallpapers - I remember the controversy about Zaxxon "i's a mediocre game, it is just visual wallpaper", that visual wallpaper is just about mandatory on all games nowadays.
Save State - Before disk drives many games had no save character option.
Level Designer - A great feature that made game like Lode Runner runaway hits.
Copy Protection - May not be a matter of celebration for the user, but it was a game design innovation, and for some a new challenge of successfully copying the game besides shooting the bad guys. Also some of the things those crackers did to the games made some unplayable games playable (trained cracks).
Re:some that come to mind (Score:1)
Theme music - As with sounds a good theme can make or break an otherwise average game.
Re:some that come to mind (Score:2)
Standard rotating wheel scheme, but if you cheated, it would let you play. For awhile.
Then the Interplay Police ships would pull you over and (IIRC) give you a second chance to validate your game. If *that* failed, they would attack, in game. I have no idea if it was theoretically possible to beat them, but I never did.
Never liked copy protection, but at least it had some humor to it.
Pug
Re:some that come to mind (Score:1)
------------
whether it's obvious or not, the whole computer gaming model for player vs enemy combat is still largely the same as the dungeons & dragons model.
"I take static and scrolling 2D screens for granted; they already existed in mechanical coin-ops."
Roleplaying != hitpoints (Score:2)
Re:some that come to mind (Score:2)
Complaining about choices (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's face it, most action games are about force. Even when confronted with overwhelmingly powerful enemies, your only option is to avoid their killing shots while grinding away at them or searching for their vulnerable spots. In stealth play the idea is to never even let the enemies know you're there, and it requires a completely different approach from the usual Rambo-style mayhem. Best-known early example: Thief: The Dark Project, 1998. First use: unknown.
Really? Not Metal Gear? 1987 for the original, or also 1998 (according to Wikipedia, two months before Thief: The Dark Project) for Metal Gear Solid?
Re:Complaining about choices (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, "best known" is something of a judgment call. As someone who enjoys the Thief series but has never played any of the Metal Gear games, Thief is certainly better-known to me
In an unintentional irony, the screenshot for that one shows what happens when you fail at stealth. Swordfights aren't good things to get into in Thief. I found them practically unwinnable until I switched to a 3-button mouse and mapped the parry maneuver to the middle button.
Re:Complaining about choices (Score:1)
Re:Complaining about choices (Score:2)
Well, provided you have a strong pet(s), you can also let your pet(s) handle the enemies, or you can lure them (the enemies, not the pets) into a pit or a trap.
Re:Complaining about choices (Score:2)
WASD (#20) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Also, Doom and Wolfenstein 3d were released a few years (1993-ish) before Quake and Duke Nukem 3d (1996-ish).
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:3, Insightful)
It wasn't until the true 3D Quake, which required vertical aiming, that mouse use became the norm. Since the right hand, previously seated comfortably on the arrow keys, was now occupied with the mouse, it was only natural that the left hand took over movement duty, using keys closer to where the left hand normally resides on the keyboard.
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:3, Informative)
If memory serves, the WASD+mouselook interface was really pioneered by SkyNET, a Bethesda Terminator game that came out a short while before Quake. It's the first game that used mouselook as the default AFAIR -- the original Quake still required the player to enable mouselook manually, I believe (+mouselook).
Some info at der Wiki. [wikipedia.org]Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Mouselook became pretty common around 95-96. I don't think mouselook was available in wolf3d or doom though...it just turned and moved your character with no regard to the vertical axis. Although doom did feature different levels that could make use of it, it just relied on autoaiming on the vertical axis. Duke3d had it though. I'm not sure what the first title was!
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:1)
I can't imagine using a mouse in Doom I/II being all that beneficial, they were designed for keyboard use primarily, both being DOS games and all. This is true of the original Quake also. Circle strafing a 2d sprite is... awkward, and you couldn't exactly sneak up behind something in Doom. You didn't have any long range instant firing weapons like a rifle, and lining up long range shots with the precision of a mouse was useless, everything moved too fast. If you think using a keyboard for Quake is weird, consider that you had to MANUALLY install TCP/IP drivers for Windows 95 to play Quake over IP networks, and then it did NO client side prediction. Quake lasted for many many years, and a lot of stuff changed over time.
Even after common mouse use, no version of Quake ever shipped with WASD bindings, IIRC. I don't know if any game shipped earlier with those defaults, but I and many others learned from other Quake players and did the bindings ourselves. WASD does make sense, but I think it only got popular after QuakeWorld and playing on the internet was common.
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
ESDF WASD (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
Here's to progress - CHEERS!
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
I think the next leap will be to that configureable keyboard that is out, with every key layed out perfectly for my hand.
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
I type on a Kinesis contoured keyboard [kinesis-ergo.com], in Dvorak key layout. The kinesis is wicked sick for FPS gaming; aside from the ergonomics that minimize finger traverse distances, having six keys around the left thumb makes for a lot of bindable actions.
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
Well, since we're talking key setups, I use an odd one. First of all, I'm a lefty, so I have my right hand on the keyboard. I use u and j for forward and back, and i and k for left and right (respectively). It isn't "intuitive", and I probably can't "zigzag" as well as if left and right were 2 separate fingers, but I've gotten used to it and it "frees up" my third finger for, say, grenades in TFC or "sprint" in HL2. I think it started with trying to find a good control scheme for Descent. I settled on one where each finger controlled a different axis of movement.
Tribes (Score:2)
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
Seriously though, we all get weirded out by different things. If the raised bit bothers you, why not move another key to the right and go with RDFG?
The biggest problem with these key layouts is rebinding all the game's keys. Also, you'd be amazed how many games hardcode the default keymap into the tutorial. "Press R to reload!" no, R makes me go forward. That doesn't help at all! Stupid game >:(
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
It was usable, once you got used to it, but not intuitive in any way whatsoever. I'm not sure anyone used it enough to determine if it was actually better.
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
Re:ESDF WASD (Score:2)
On those keyboards the arrow keys were all in a row below the right shift key instead of in their own cluster, and Control, not Caps Lock, was next to the A. The only meta-keys you had on the right side were Shift and Closed-Apple (second joystick/paddle button, called Option on the IIgs).
And back then, quarters had pictures of eagles on them! "Gimme four eagles for a dollar!" we'd say. But the important thing was I had an ear of corn tied to my belt, which was the style at the time! We didn't have yellow corn, 'cause of the drought. Instead we had this colorful Indian maize....
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
I managed to handle duke 3d with the keyboard, but got owned by mouse players later on. Then when I got into quake, forget it. Trying to aim vertically with the keyboard was hilarious, now that I think about it.
I remember ASDW was always the player two controls on most random older games, which is why I think that got set up as the default.
I do recall using mouse look for some of the elder scrolls games, maybe daggerfall, though still using the arrow keys to move.
But for me, it really was quake 1 that forced to batten down the hatches and learn how to use that quirky mouse + keyboard set up.
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
Re:WASD (#20) (Score:2)
It's a very, very good way to keep people off your machine at LAN parties. Then again, if they do use it, you can count on returning to your seat to find that someone hit the "use defaults" button in your settings, and you'll have to put your weird-ass controls back on.
banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:1)
Re:banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:2, Informative)
Re:banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:2)
The difference between Diddy and Donkey in DKC wasn't very big. I don't recall any specific reason to use one over the other. It's possible that in BK, the two characters were so different that you needed to switch between them to actually win. I dunno, though, since I never played BK.
Re:banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:3, Insightful)
Right. That's the point they made. In the DK series there were some minor differences in the later games (like Dixie being able to float), but the other character was essentially an "extra life", so you could take a hit and not lose instantly.
In BK, the two characters were linked all the time. They did have different abilities and helped each other. You could jump off a platform as Banjo (who you controlled) but press a button to use Kazooie to glide. You could press a button to have Kazooie's legs pop out and use them to run fast. It was a well done mechanic that used both characters. It was different, and necessary. You didn't need to use the one little team ability in the Sonic games. I don't even remember any in Donkey Kong Country.
Re:banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:2)
Re:banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:2)
Donkey carried barrels over his head, while Diddy carried them in front of him. I'm not sure, but I think Donkey moved a little better while carrying a barrel.
The differences were enough that the harder to get secret areas were significantly easier if you picked the right character.
Oh, the other difference was with large enemies. Only Donkey could hurt the bigger enemies - Diddy just bounced off.
In Banjo Kazooie, Banjo was a bear and Kazooie was a bird sitting in his backpack. While technically they were two characters, you couldn't separate them, so it was basically just one character with a lot of abilities.
Re:banjo kazooie == donkey kong country (Score:2)
Disagree with 21 (Score:2)
#45 isn't really that innovative either. Games for Girls tend to take old engines, modify them, and tack on some 'girly' graphics, then release the game (that isn't worth more than a couple of bucks) for the same price as a brand new, high quality game. The majority of girl gamers I know avoid them like the plague because they tend to be so awful, and because they usually borrow their game mechanics from better mainstream games, which means you can get the same gameplay, with better graphics and polish, and without the advertising and horrible dialog, for about the same price.
The rest are actually pretty accurate. I was plesantly surprised to see so many good ideas listed, and even more surprised to see a good old game I had completely forgotten (PaRapper) mentioned.
Re:Disagree with 21 (Score:2)
Re:Disagree with 21 (Score:2)
Re:Disagree with 21 (Score:2)
LifeLine for the PS2 is the major one I can think of. Basically, you know all the games where you're trying to make it through some environment, and the only help you have is a voice on the radio telling you where to go? In LifeLine, you're that voice.
Didn't work all that well, though, in my experience. Couple all of the problems with old text parser games of trying to figure out what exact verb/noun combo will accomplish what you need to do next with primitive vocog and you're there.
Re:Disagree with 21 (Score:2)
Brain Age. Admitedly it only needs fourteen words (four colours and single digit numbers), but it does use voice recognition and it is on the shelves today.
Re:Disagree with 21 (Score:2)
Odama [gamerankings.com]?
Though I seem to recall the reviews being somewhat inconsistent with regard to the voice commands actually working.
No props for nintendo dance aerobics? (Score:2)
Frankly, it seems that this article was just not concerned with many of the innovations that came out of the 8bit NES.
Some innovations not as new as one might think... (Score:1)
Fact checking (Score:3, Informative)
#1 : The earliest computer games didn't offer exploration.
Yeah, except Ken Thompson's 1967 Space Travel game which involved exploring a vector-graphics solar system.
#11, #16, #44, #46 (Score:5, Informative)
The first minigame I ever saw was in Major Havoc [wikipedia.org], which came out in 1983. As you approached the space station for the next battle, you had a little Breakout game to play in the lower right corner of the screen. When you cleared it, you got an extra guy. I don't know how popular it ever was or how well known, but there you are, and at least moderately early.
Physics puzzles? 1992? Since the article doesn't confine itself to graphic games, that's not even close. Try KINEMA [atariarchives.org]. The book the listing on that page was taken from was published in 1978, but I saw it a year earlier on a timesharing system my high school was connected to. Yeah, it looks like a quiz, but there are quiz games too, and everyone called this a game.
I wonder if this guy ever even played Dragon's Lair [wikipedia.org]. It didn't use a CD-ROM because it predated them, and the animated scenes wouldn't have fit on one anyway; it used a laserdisc. The picture wasn't "tiny, grainy", it was very high-quality hand-drawn animation -- by Don Bluth, for God's sake.
The article makes it sound as if the "brag board" was something the game industry invented. Actually, it had been around for decades -- albeit informally, and probably illegally. When you scored amazingly well on a pinball machine, you recorded it by carving the score and your initials into the frame around the backglass. Preferably while the manager of the establishment hosting the game wasn't looking. The tradition carried on into coin-op video games. Building it into the machine did two things. It prevented lying about your score, and it saved wear on the game cabinets.
Re:#11, #16, #44, #46 (Score:2)
Re:#11, #16, #44, #46 (Score:2)
I don't know about the "radar" being a Defender first. Battlezone had one too, and they both came out the same year. The Atari 2600 game from 1979, Star Raiders, (God, that was addictive) had a similar concept, but you had to switch to a "sector scan" view to see it. You could still navigate in that view though; it was useful for locating bases and enemies and traveling in their general direction.
*poke* *poke* Here's one I never saw in the arcades: Fire One! [klov.com]. Looks like it had exactly that kind of thing a full year before Defender came out.
Star Raiders had difficulty levels come to think of it, and it came out in 1979, so it could have at least been cited as an early example.Pinball bragboards/score overflow (Score:2)
So for a few of those it was the trick to get as close to 999,999,999 (or whichever equivalent thereof) without actually going over. For some of those machines it was fairly easy (just tilt the sucker), but others were amazingly tilt proof, and god it sucked when the ball would hit just that one bumper on the way down.
Re:#11, #16, #44, #46 (Score:2)
5...8...(indipendint acting npcs) (Score:1)
Origin of “stealth” is unknown? (Score:1, Redundant)
They have got to be joking. Did Metal Gear [wikipedia.org] honestly escape their attention? (On second thought, that is very appropriate.)
Re:Origin of “stealth” is unknown? (Score:2)
31. Procedural landscape generation. (Score:2)
My Top 20 Innovations by Game (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Getting an Airship - Final Fantasy
3. 3rd person 3D - Mario 64
4. Best non-joystick - DDR
5. Captivating Story - Final Fantasy 2
6. 100+ hours to Complete - Final Fantasy 3
7. Online RTS - Command and Conquer
8. Online RPG - CircleMud
9. Online FPS - Halo 2
10. Multiplayer Coop - Secret of Mana
11. 2-player Game - Super Mario Kart
12. 4-player Game - Super Bomberman 2
13. 4-player Hardcore - Smash Bros.Melee
14. Career Mode - Rock 'N Roll Racing
15. Depth of Strategy - Starcraft
16. Depth of Gameplay. - Soul Calibur
17. Depth of Environment - Grand Theft Auto 3
18. True to life - Gran Turismo
19. Powerups - Mega Man
20. Making Sports Fun - Tie: Base Wars / Wii Sports
The first party game != Mario Party (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The first party game != Mario Party (Score:2)
Interactive movies still exist (Score:2)
This genre came and went, and good riddance to it. Its a world-changing design innovation because it proved so clearly to be a creative dead end that everybody knows not to make interactive movies any morealthough the term is still used at times to describe the cinematic quality of games in other genres. Interactive movies taught us, by negative example, that gameplay comes first, period. The CD-ROM drive first made them possible, and in their heyday, they sold tonsuntil the novelty of watching tiny, grainy videos wore off. Best-known early example: The 7th Guest, 1993. Probable first use: Dragons Lair coin-op, 1983.
Interactive movies may no longer be the realm of serious gamers, but they still exist, largely because of the advances that came with DVDs. (since he didn't discredit any other items because they no longer are the providence of serious games, I don't know why this one should be)
Here's what a quick search found http://www.interactive-film.com/ [interactive-film.com]
Doctor Who: The Face of Evil (Score:2)
[man reflexively makes the gesture at his neck, shoulder and waist]
"Yes, that's the one. I assume it's meant to ward-off evil. Thing is, it's also the sequence for checking the seals on a Starfall 7 spacesuit; and what makes that particularly interesting is that you don't know what a Starfall 7 spacesuit is, do you?"
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Sadly, there's an easy out that many of us are far too willing to take. Dual-booting at least makes you feel less guilty.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
If a company is willing to take the extra time to provide Linux binaries, I'd be willing to pay THEM a bit of extra money (or just be their customer as opposed to not be) rather than pay that money for an OS I don't want.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Well then... (Score:2)
You included the problem in your own solution.
While the fact that Linux doesn't require bleeding-edge hardware is an asset, when the statement is turned around to "you don't need new hardware because Linux won't run any software that requires that hardware in the first place", then the asset becomes a liability. Why should I be restricted from the new goodies because of my OS choice?
This is a problem of "circular logic" of GPU manufacturers not making Linux drivers because there are no games for Linux, and game publishers don't make games for Linux because there are no drivers for them to run on.
The initial attempt to break the cycle is the hardest to achieve, and is least likely to bring profit. It takes some balls to be the first to challenge an existing monopoly and be open to alternatives (which EVE is doing right now), which is why as a consumer I'm willing to be part of funding that cycle-breaking, both for moral reasons and my own practical ones (I want new games for my Linux, dammit).
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Having a native executable is always going to be superior to playing via WINE for any 3D game.
So, especially for someone who's used WINE to play, the availability of a native binary is exciting news.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Re:Eve (Score:4, Interesting)
I felt the game was playing me more than I was playing it. "Hey buddy, I need you to press a few buttons here. No, not that one. Ok, now that one. Great, now fuck off for 45 minutes, I've got some flying to do."
It's a fish tank.
Re:Eve (Score:4, Informative)
While it certainly has its flaws, the most important thing one has to remember when trying EVE is that if you are uncreative enough that you want your game spoonfed to you, a'la World of Warcraft, EVE Online is not the game for you.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
While it certainly has its flaws, the most important thing one has to remember when trying EVE is that if you are uncreative enough that you want your game spoonfed to you, a'la World of Warcraft, EVE Online is not the game for you.
The worst part of it is the rumors of developer corruption and talk of the free-isk plexes controlled by the major corporations. While I never found out all the details, from the outside looking in, it sure sounded like being stuck in a company where you're nose the grindstone all day while the boss' son breezes in at 10am, makes a pretense of working, cuts out at 3, and makes ten times what you do. Again, it makes the game seem like work rather than fun.
I chatted with some people in-game who had done the whole POS thing, had fleets of stations and the like. Those guys eventually downsized because the workload became just that, work.
I love the premise of the game, I love space flight and combat in general, and the feel of the game is nice. I just think it requires way too much of a time commitment.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Re:Eve (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Eve (Score:2)
I'd rather have a sandbox where I can do what I want than a game that force-feeds me content and tells me I have to do things exactly the way it wants.
Re:Eve (Score:3, Insightful)
In game you do and can meet nice people. But the "community" on the Eve forums are a bunch of people who like to insult others and ask for your stuff if you decide to leave (and insult you on the way out for not liking the game...what a sin!). They all bash WoW because their game is vastly less popular and they feel threatened (just like you did with your spoon fed fun comment).
But now that I think about it, the sand box analogy is perfect. Eve is a sandbox...it is just full of potential. Unfortunately, every toy in the sandbox is broken and is more work than it is fun to play with. And certain kids in the sandbox have been treated better by the teachers than the other kids and thus own most of the sandbox.
Don't get me wrong, Eve is not terrible...but after playing it for awhile you can't help but become bitter from its jerk community, its constant scandals, and how you can just feel there is a good game buried somewhere in there but that it has been taken in the wrong direction.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
No (Score:2)
Also, while it's nice to see widespread support, Vendetta Online [vendetta-online.com] has been doing this for quite a while, and you can find a comprehensive list of Linux-supporting MMO's here [linuxquestions.org]. Submitting that as a story would have born that out, no doubt.
Re:Eve (Score:1)
Re:Eve (Score:4, Insightful)
A game supporting 3 platforms is nothing, relatively speaking. (Since this topic is about the history of games spanning all the way to the beginning.)
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Whereas for a port these days, you would expect 90% of the code between platforms to be identical.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Ok, let's recognize it when Final Fantasy XI does it-- three years ago.
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Re:Eve (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Eve (Score:2)
Allowing people from multiple platforms to play together on the same server is something new and something that should be recognized.
Also, World of Warcraft allows Mac and PC users to play on the same servers. If we're just talking about MMOs.
Of course, now that I re-read that quote, a ton of games allow that. Starcraft, for instance, met that requirement in 1998. (And possibly Warcraft II, although perhaps not since I think the Windows version didn't support TCP/IP until it was re-packaged years after release.)
The real point is to make that news about EVE Online relevant to the story, the "first" you construct has to be so elaborate it's almost useless:
"It's the first space-based MMO that runs on precisely three non-console platforms!" or something similar. Other than that, it's all been done, it's all been done, it's all been dooooooone before!
Re:Eve (Score:3, Insightful)
of course this is something that could change as linux becomes more prevalent and SDL matures.
Re:Article skips huge swaths of history (Score:1)
For example: "Exploration", "Storytelling", "Avatars with their own personalities" those come straight from tabletop RPGs. It's not innovative to do the exact same thing, but then electronically. Just like eBooks and ePaper are not innovative wrt to the act reading, they are innovative wrt book publishing.
"Mod support" isn't innovative either, people always wanted to tinker with stuff they spend time with. Games later included mod'ing tools (ok, the tools the game devs used to create the game content) with their games because people wanted it and otherwise they would create it themselves. Doom didn't have mod support, customers made tools to modify the game. And "Modding is a form of gameplay;"... wtf... no it isn't, it's a way to extend gameplay.
Re:Article skips huge swaths of history (Score:2)
Mod support is a huge, innovative feature. Doom definitely shouldn't be touted as a "pinnacle of mod support." Later games did it much better. I agree with you that the article isn't fantastic, but it raises interesting points and is right in a few areas.
Re:Eve is not native (Score:2)
Re:#3 Stealth -- I feel asleep! (Score:2)
Re:#3 Stealth -- I feel asleep! (Score:2)
Stealth was rewarded over killing. The trail of bodies (supposedly) caused SS to hunt you down. They had bullet proof vests, grenades, ignored your friendly uniform and chased you room to room - a very nasty surprise. SS definitely showed up either way, but perhaps more often if you left a trail of bodies.
Re:oh god (Score:2)