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Games Entertainment

The Future of Game Design 82

Posted by Zonk from the more-jumping-puzzles! dept.
IGN has the beginnings of an interesting series up entitled The Future of Game Design. The first part of this series covers game design elements that we've seen in the past that the author would like to see show up more often in future games. From the article: "We need better art direction in our games. Not just more polygons or slicker textures, but games with a better sense of visual style. Off the top of my head, one of the first games that really showed a distinct sense of art direction and style in this generation of games was Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. That game oozed with style, and even though it was simple and quick, it became one of my favorites because the main character, Sly, had real character." As we start to get into Uncanny Valley territory I hope more artists take the approach that Sly and WoW have.
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The Future of Game Design

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  • It gives me hope that there is still a future (that doesn't suck) for video and computer games.

  • Atmosphere (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:13PM (#11353082)
    Art direction is good and all, but is anybody writing games to convey *atmosphere* these days? Take the first two Thief and System Shock games. These games had atmosphere. You felt the panic and dread in SS2 as a former human rounded the corner, lead pipe in hand, swinging at you while moaning, "Kiiilllll mmmeee!" Your heart pounded as you crept up behind that guard and clocked him over the head, picking up his corpse just in time to duck into the shadows before his friend saw you.

    These were games you could play at night, with the lights off, and actually scare the crap out of yourself. And it wasn't because of toonish graphics or special effects - it was because of atmosphere.

    • Re:Atmosphere (Score:3, Interesting)

      by papadiablo ( 609676 )
      I'd say that Doom 3 attempted to create an atmosphere similar to what you are describing. Unfortunately it was a bit too repepitive so you no longer got scared when the lights went out in a room and the monsters appeared around every corner. Half-Life 2 really startled me at times, when you'd round a corner and there would be some baddies right in your face. It also created a great claustrophobic atmosphere in the city levels for a more urban warlike feel.

      I think one of the problems is that in order for
      • No.

        There's a difference between creating atmosphere and simply attempting to scare you.

        Doom 3 did the latter. Which is why it didn't work. You can only *be* scared a finite amount of times by the same occurrence.

        If you create an atmosphere though, you don't even need anything to happen to be scared. Some of the tensest and scariest moments in thief come simply because of the atmosphere. You can be completely alone in the game and be scared simply because you're think that you're not alone.

        • Re:Atmosphere (Score:3, Interesting)

          by obeythefist ( 719316 )
          I've played through HL2 and DooM3 now. I think the gameplay in HL2 is better, but not as good as it was in HL. DooM3 did get repetitive but the atmosphere, while different, was conveyed better than HL2. In HL2, so many things were just... not right. For starters, there were many areas, like security towers with guards, that had no ladders! How did the guards get up there? Also, HL2 had the same problem that the HL2 advocates were laughing at DooM3 for... monsters "appearing" out of nowhere behind you a
        • Did anyone play the Alien mod for the original Doom? The first level of that had no meetings with any enemies at all, but it had their sounds, through the walls. That was atmosphere.
          • Aliens vs Predator has great atmosphere too (the original; I've never played the sequel). Playing through the Marine missions in near-pitch black, with the clicking of your motion sensor and the faint 'tink tink tink' sounds of Aliens crawling on the ceilings somewhere ahead.. I actually could not finish the Marine missions because it just creeped me out too much. I ended up cowering in a corner, tossing flares constantly, and dreading the sound of the aliens crawling.
            • Alien Trilogy for the original PlayStation also had atmospher up the wazzu. Although AvP had better graphics, Alien Trilogy got the job done with everything you said. Also, just the fact that to take out one alien you needed like 5 shotgun shells made the game hard and scary as hell. You were constantly trying to conserve ammo and god help you if two or more aliens came at you at once.
            • finally! someone who shares my pain! i completed the other 2 missions, saving the marine for last, but i couldn't get through it, the last time i played, i jumped 3 feet off my chair when a face-hugger got me

              the first level in the original AvP was like the Doom mod the grandparent poster described, you had to walk out to another area through a cavernous dark environment with no weapons, your only ally was your CO over the radio
        • There's a level in Thief 3 that's the scariest thing I've ever played, SS2 included. You are in 100% zero danger for the first half of the level - there are no enemies and nothing that can hurt you. Even replaying it, when I KNEW that, I still was scared out of my mind. THAT is atmosphere.

    • Re:Atmosphere (Score:4, Insightful)

      by UWC ( 664779 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:30PM (#11353255)
      Try to find a cheap copy of ICO for PS2 somewhere. Its atmosphere is one of the best I've experienced on a current console. It's fundamentally a puzzle/exploratory/adventure game. Combat is very simple but spaced out so as not to ever get particularly repetitive. The main draw of the game, thuough, is the interaction with and exploration of the environment. The complete integration of the puzzles into the environment is a very, very large part of the effectiveness of the atmosphere, I think. The art style is similarly effective in the immersion, though. While none of the graphics are particularly detailed, the entire environment is cohesive and nothing at all sticks out as just there for the gameplay. Portions of the game remind me of the atmosphere established in the original Myst. It was apparently initially intended for the PS1, though judging from the final game, I think it was probably moved to PS2 reasonably early in development. It unquestionably benefits from the PS2's more powerful hardware. Nevertheless, it's the only PS2 game I've seen on a CD instead of DVD.

      Also, Half-Life 2 does a great job at establishing immersion and atmosphere despite complaints about the story and lack of gameplay innovation.

      • Re:Atmosphere (Score:3, Informative)

        by wickedj ( 652189 )
        You beat me to it. I love ICO. I'd wager it's one of the best games ever made. I've never had a game that got me so deeply involved in the story.

        Sure, I've played things like Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Metal Gear Solid and the like. Sure they are impressive graphically and the action is sometimes intense. But I always felt I was on the outside looking in.

        With ICO, I definitely felt as if I were there in person. Even though dragging that princess around was annoying sometimes, you actually began to feel an
      • ICO is a great game, too bad it didn't sell very well.

        It's one of the few games I've played where I had a real emotional attachment to the onscreen characters. I found myself actually "talking" to Yorda. And some of the locales in the game actually gave me "vertigo".

        There are other PS2 games that come on CD's (from my own collection): Tekken Tag,Tournament, Legends of Wrestling, RPG Maker 2, Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Half-Life, The Sims, Okage Shadow King.
    • I find that the Splinter Cell games have a lot of good atmosphere. It begins to wear thin after the twentieth attempt to make it to the next save point, but the shadowing and sound effects are generally pretty cool. Too bad the acting decreased in quality for the second one.
    • Why does it not surprise me that some dumbass at IGN is talking about how important visuals are to a game?

      We haven't gotten past the sh*tty storyline phase of game design yet. I think we could probably work on that, and figuring out how to create memorable character that aren't simply pulled from an earlier game. I think that might be a little easier in terms of you know, cash, and stress on a developer.

      Next week, you're going to hear about how games can be launched into the future by judicious use of t

      • Re:Atmosphere (Score:3, Interesting)

        by obeythefist ( 719316 )
        Storyline is really important! But it depends on the game. The FF series probably has a great storyline, but the gameplay has always bugged me as a serious PC RPG player. NFS2U has no story whatsoever, but it's a lot of fun to play because the graphics are okay and the racing is a lot of fun.

        System Shock and SS2 had pretty average graphics and gameplay, even for their time... but the storyline and atmosphere is amazing.

        Some games don't need a storyline. Some games don't need great graphics. Some game
    • Atmosphere is usually a direct result of good art direction.

    • Re:Atmosphere (Score:3, Insightful)

      by joeljkp ( 254783 )
      For me, MOHAA had atmosphere. Especially the snowy-woods mission, where you, sniper rifle in hand, crept through a winter forest trying not to get shot by the German turrets scattered here and there. There was no background music, just the crunch of the snow under your feet. I would jump clean out of my chair when I got a bullet to the head out of nowhere.
      • Must agree here, though the only game in the MOH series I have played was pacifi assault...

        the LACK of ingame music really adds to the feeling that you are there....

        even the cut scenes in that had me feeling sad as reports of dead collagues came in after each level

  • I don't think that the graphics are as important as the gameplay. That's why we download emulators! Why else would perfectly intelligent computer geeks knowingly navigate spyware-ridden web sites searching for games? They must be good games.

    Of course I'm glad that graphics are becoming more realistic, but that's not good for every game. Who really wants to play a game starring an overweight plumber or an actual hedgehog [google.com].

    • Of course I'm glad that graphics are becoming more realistic, but that's not good for every game. Who really wants to play a game starring an overweight plumber or an actual hedgehog.

      Perhaps you missed the point of this article. This is not about graphical realism, this is about graphic style. Details, not truth to actual reality, make the style.

    • After following your Google image link, I know who wants to play a game with an actual hedgehog...

      My girlfriend! Even I have to admit those pictures are cute. She would love it!

    • Rose-colored glasses (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Osty ( 16825 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @07:02PM (#11354236)

      There were just as many bad games Back in the Day (tm) as there are now. You've simply forgotten about them. In 5-10 years, you'll forget about the bad games taking up shelf space today and only remember the stand-out titles, and make the same complaint.

      This doesn't just apply to games, either. It applies to almost everything. The "Good Old Days" were not necessarily any better than today, but the effects of time have made you forget the bad and remember the good. That's why people want a return to the "values" from the 1950s, or complain that Hollywood is just churning out mindless blockbuster action flick after mindless blockbuster action flick, or complain that the airwaves are overrun by Britney Spears wannabes. Do you really think that there wasn't divorce, death, rape, abortion, violent crime, or any of the other ills of today's society back in the 50s? Do you really believe that back in the day Hollywood only released one or two films a year, or even went years without releasing antyhing because nothing was good enough? Do you really think that there were entire stretches of years where no artist released any music at all? Of course not. The collective consciousness has just swept all of the bad behavior, bad movies, bad music, etc under the rug and idolized what came before.

      Tuck this thought away in the back of your mind, and drag it out in 10 years when you find yourself lamenting that the current crop of video games pale in comparison to the gameplay found in the "classic" Half-Life 2.

      • You make an excellent point. Perhaps it was more of the innovation that impressed us years ago. Today's video games, while constantly (arguably) increasing in quality, are not very different. Maybe it was because video games were uncharted territory that we liked them so much back in the "Good Old Days".

        I suppose the way to revolutionize gaming would be to make games more innovative (like the Nintendo DS, the Sony EyeToy, or DDR). If only the companies tried more stupid stuff, then they might hit somet

        • Video games are a medium of entertainment, just like movies or music. Just as movies and music have matured to the point where you rarely see or hear something innovative (not saying you don't, just that it's much more rare), video games are coming up on that point as well. Of your examples, I'd say only the EyeToy was a true innovation, using video recognition as an input mechanism. The DS is just a gimick (oo! two screens, and one of them is a touch screen!), and the other is just an evolution of a co

      • Perhaps, but I think there is a lot more going on here than simply selective memory. Firstly, our first love sets the bar for what is acceptable and desireable. I for example am primarily a 16bit console kid. I love going back and playing the good games of the early ninties, but I can't stand going back and playing much comodore64 or intellivision because the graphics tend to get in the way for me. This tends to apply forward as well, graphics in current games often seem overdone and I think, where is the
  • "Off the top of my head, one of the first games that really showed a distinct sense of art direction and style in this generation of games was Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus."? I just do not know what this guy is smoking... has he played Amplitude, Battle for Middle-Earth, Splinter Cell, DDR:Extreme... the list really does go on and on... I mean seriously... did he just forget about Rez?

    • Re:Huh? (Score:1, Redundant)

      by Phu5ion ( 838043 )

      I mean seriously... did he just forget about Rez?

      I don't think his woman would have forgotten about Rez assuming he had the Trance Vibrator [google.com].

    • Yeah, nothing struck me as overly brilliant about Sly Cooper and Thievus Raccoonus. I would say that DDR is the best example of a clear style which is different than anything else and brilliantly simple. The author of the article did make some good points, but he basically stated his own opinions as definite fact.
    • I think he's pointing out that the art direction for Sly is complete and immersive, but with a distinctive style - cartoony, slanted buildings, etc. Amplitude, Rez and DDR definitely have style, but it's more abstract... pop art, if you will. Which is fine and cool, but really doesn't require the forethought and work that goes into creating a visual world like Sly's. I love Amplitude and DDR, but I get the feeling the designers are just throwing up whatever visuals they feel like. Sly is cohesive and struct
      • One game I forgot to add to that list: Half-Life 2. I felt like I literally was Gordon Freman in that game - it was spectacular. I played one bit for nearly five hours straight... it was crazy.

  • Mmmm...criticism... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by flabbergast ( 620919 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:50PM (#11353474)
    I can agree with the author on just about every criticism he makes, but some of the things he wishes were better are huge hurdles. For instance its trivial to say "We should have better AI in games!" but, in reality its damn hard to try to make AI better. Most current AI (the AI the author was talking about) is scripted and is therefore limited by the programmer's ability to think outside the box. Yeah, when you're in a game and the enemy does something weird we automatically think "Duh! Its obvious that this is stupid!" But when you're designing and writing the game, its not always obvious. The designer has to think ahead "Well, what would happen in this situation?" and then program that particular situation in.

    Or take voice recognition AI. It would be great in KOTOR if I could simply tell a companion to go attack the guy on the left and then I attack the guy on the right. Again, this is not a trivial hack or by any means some hidden conspiracy to prevent ease of use. The AI would have to understand the idea of left, right, and attack along with actually understanding when I state into a microphone "Attack the guy on the left." Yeah, we could script this, but see previous problem.

    I realize the author is critiquing games to make them better, which is good, but failing to understand how some problems are very difficult can sometimes aggravate more than motivate. Nothing aggravates me more than a fanboy who simply states "How hard could it be to do X?"

    • Re:Mmmm...criticism... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bluGill ( 862 )

      Its worse than you say. Even if the designer considers something, how do you go from seeing it to code, and still be done in reasonable time.

      I have some obvious ideas to improve the AI on some open source games. I looked into the AI and quickly realized that humans can instantly process something that computers take a long time to figure out. You look at the map and think "Oh, there was someone in place X, but he isn't there, he must have the invisible suit on, but I know he only moves so fast, so the

    • This piece [tri-bit.com] is a nice criticism of IGN's article. It seems that the author doesn't know much about games from previous generations and the complexity involved on creating the fancy stuff he wants so much.
  • The author mentions the desire for cutscenes to be less static and more interactive, citing Metal Gear Solid 3's zoom feature. Looking at Eva's boobs was the only thing I saw anyone ever use it for. Does anyone remember Shenmue's interactive cutscenes? You would sometimes run into situations that would require you to push buttons at the right time a la Parappa the Rapper. Say you were being hassled by some punks, get the sequence right and you lay the smack down, mess up and you get layed out. A lot more in
    • For most games, I would expect such interactivity during cutscenes to be pointless and potentially destructive. Using KOTOR as an example, if I had the opportunity to screw around with the camera in cutscenes it could only ruin the cinematic effect the designers are attempting to convey. In Shenmue, I would argue that the interactive scenes weren't cutscenes at all - they were minigames with a cinematic feel, which is an entirely different gameplay tool.

      Bottom line: Cutscenes are supposed to be just tha

      • But games aren't movies. There's no commandment that states: "Thou shall have cutscenes. And the player shall appreciate them." Once you've played through the game once or twice, cut scenes are skipped to get back to the action.

        Games have certain properties that movies do not have. They are meant to be interactive. Why do games have to emulate other mediums, when they are free to strike out on their own and define a new medium? Why not integrate these scenes into the game itself?

        Cutscenes aren't "supposed
        • There's also no "commandment" that a banana has to be a potassium-rich fruit with a yellow peel that comes in bunches...but it IS what it IS.

          A cutscene directly integrated into the gameplay where one controls the action is NOT a cutscene. A cutscene where I press particular buttons to advance the scene (a la Shenmue) isn't a cutscene either.

          In other words, I'm not saying that game designers can't use other methods BESIDES cutscenes to flesh out the story in their games. In fact, I'm in favor of fresh

    • Ironically, Twin Snakes had the MGS3 zoom feature. I don't remember noticing that on MGS2, but its certainly possible. Its not a great invention, compared to say, not having cutscenes. If you want interactive dialog, take a cue from Deux Ex already. Something like 80 percent of the dialog was "heads up." Sure, its stealth action was hampered by the FPS POV, but there's plenty of redeeming factors that make Deus Ex a game worthy of study, and imitation.
    • The thing is, if you make them interactive, they're not really cut-scenes anymore. The guy is basically just asking for games to get rid of cut-scenes.
    • This exact tactic is employed in RE4 to great effect.

      The authors description wasn't really a desire for interactive cut scenes, but rather just the ability to always play all the time without being pulled out of the experience by a cutscene.
    • Half Life 2 had interactive cutscenes. Did no one notice?

      Did we not spend ages waiting for Alyx to get back? A time in which we were chatted to by others, and we got to fiddle with things in the office.

      Personally, I was highly impressed by the way the guy said "Wait" and I actually waited for a while; not so long I got bored, and not so short a time that it was obvious he didn't really mean wait. Was that not an interactive cutscene?
    • Those bits in Shenmue remind me of the arcade versions of Die Hard Trilogy. Maybe thats where they got the idea.
  • "The jump from 32-bit systems to 128-bit systems did usher in a great new realm of possibilities."

    Aren't today's game systems still 32-bit? I know for a fact that the Xbox is, because it's powered by a crippled Pentium III. The graphics architecture is certainly still 32-bit.

    • the ps2 cpus has 128 bit registers, which are usually used as 32 bit registers (no real need for a 128 bit pointer), the main memory bus is still 32-bit but the graphics hardware has something ridiculous like 2048 bit bus..

  • yawn... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "I want.. like a friggin' orgy!"

    This guy just takes a handful off the latest buzzwords and says he wants them "only better." What's new?

    Nothing he mentions actually relates to real GAMEPLAY. It's all just buzzword nonsense. Better AI, better art, better physics. I'll tell you what, I've played plenty of board games that can't conceptually have any of that and are 10x more fun than any video game. Or look at great games that are still fun today. Mario? Physics? Yeah right. Tetris? Art style? Not a chance.

  • Alien Hominid (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JimTheta ( 115513 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:27PM (#11353875) Homepage

    How about Alien Hominid? That game oozes style, though it's rather short. I've beaten it on Hard and I'm still playing it. Armies of ridiculous FBI and KGB agent enemies, crazy guns, hilarious huge bosses, cartoony gore and a smiling alien that my girlfriend thinks is cute.

    It's hand-drawn graphics, but not cell-shaded. It doesn't push any technical limits. It doesn't need to.

    You can't go wrong.

  • Grim Fandango - Dang that was a clever plot, voice acting over the top excellent, and artwork that was spot on. If you trimmed a few scenes it would be a great Tim Burton movie. The final scene about killed me...
  • I think he's right on about art direction. I think one of the reasons I like Katamari Damacy so much is that it has a really unique, coherent visual aesthetic (bright psychedelic colors, boxy shapes). I haven't played Viewtiful Joe but from what I've heard it also benefits from great art direction. Realism gets boring, so does standard cartoonishness or tired anime style characters. I want to see more stuff that diverges from the norm.
    • skimmed that little tri-bit article. Since the critique hinges in part on poor copy-editing involved, I'll permit myself to add some some commentary on the tri-bit evaluation:

      per se is latin (being a literal translation of the Aristotelian kath'auto), and thus has no sharp accent on the last word. The only case I can think of where you'd use per sé instead of per se is if you were writing in Italian.

      The Bard's Tale was released several years after Wizardry. I'm also fairly sure that Wizardry II bee
      • Best reply I've read all day. No mod points.
      • Since the critique hinges in part on poor copy-editing involved

        You misunderstand. The critique hinges solely on the bargain basement content; the continued commentary on the quality of the editing involved is mere tangential slander intended as catharsis.

        The Bard's Tale was released several years after Wizardry. I'm also fairly sure that Wizardry II beelongs to the early 80s.

        You are correct: it's from 1982. However, I believe I was relatively clear about my uncertainty regarding the dates involved.
        • That said, from the way you've phrased things, I wonder (note the difference!) whether or not you realize that the tri-bit critique was mine.

          On second read, I withdraw this question: it is absurd, as in other parts of the post you challenge the choices as my own, rather than those of some arbitrary article author. My apologies. It's been a long day.
    • Why do I always run out of mod points right before I read a comment that really deserves to be modded up?

      I read the IGN article, and I'm sorry, the guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

      I was planning to write a long critique on the article, until I read the link in the parent post ... it says most of what I wanted to say. So go ahead and read it [tri-bit.com]
    • I agree that the IGN article isn't very good. It whines "why don't you developers give us all this good stuff I just pulled out of my ass?!" There are plenty good reasons why developers don't do this, not least of which are technological, financial, and hardware limitations.

      But the Tri-Bit response is even worse. It just whines back, for dozens of paragraphs: "You reviewers don't know what you are talking about! And you can't properly write either!". Example games mentioned are often not appropriate (Diab

      • Example games mentioned are often not appropriate (Diablo as an example of a gamne that blends action with roleplaying? Give me a break! Diablo is action and nothing more.)

        This is one of those cases where it's difficult to argue the point. As a traditionalist pencil-and-paper gamer, I tend to agree: there is no playing of a role within Diablo. That said, that apellation applies to virtually every game labelled an RPG; Diablo has as much plot as any NES or nearly any SNES RPG. Granted more modern RPGs h
        • It just whines back, for dozens of paragraphs
          I believe this to be dishonest.

          Maybe it is more of an impression than what appears after scrutinising the response. The problem is that if you make valid complaints but intermix them with continuously criticising the author's grammar, often in a derogatory way, the whole response starts to come over as whining.

          The question why that is so, why developers haven't solved the obvious problems in games, is a valid one.
          No such question is posed.

          True. And tha

    • Yeah, that Tri-Bit article is pretty bad too. His arguments are "I have more knowledge about obscure, twenty five year old games than you do!" and "I'm a grammar nazi, so I win!" *sigh*

      Then he brings up examples without knowing what he's talking about, or backing them up. It's great you can bring up the names of tons of old titles, now tell us why they're relevant. The author seems bitter than he's not in the game journalism industry, and for good reason. If every video game reviewer wrote like that arro

  • Graphics are meaningless. But you can't sell a game unless it has cool screen shots eh? What I need are story lines! Also an atmosphere and good characters. Take a look at games like Final Fantasy VI and Xenogears. These are good examples. To be honest, I haven't come across a GOOD game for a while. Pretty sad eh? Oh well.. gives me more time to study! :-)
  • More Rez, less EA.
  • On a side note, I don't think anyone would have predicted that open-design games such as Grand Theft Auto, sandbox games such as Battlefield 1942, and innovative customizable games such as Deus Ex would be such huge influences on the future of game design.

    GTA is simply an elaboration (though a great one) upon the ideas in the Zelda series.

    The biggest disappointment in this generation of games has to be the lack of innovation in artificial intelligence.

    Oh so wrong, Altoid-breath! The biggest disappoi
  • There's too much 3D shooter lately. There are some decent games, but a lot of them just repeat the same old stuff with better graphics.

    One great game I played recently was Sacrifice (Shiny). It's just great. The game you play is a story that the protagonist tells. The creature are all really strange, done with this style Shiny uses that's quite unique. The replayability is nice as well, with the wizard gaining different powers depending on the missions that are done.

    Graphically, these days it's not that i
  • You want to know the real reason that there is genreally a lack of interesting visual style in today's games?

    Take a look at the top ten games at the moment. I don't know what they are, but I can tell you that there will be a sports title, a racing title, a shooter game, and that many of the ten will invariably be published by our beloved Electronic Arts.

    These big titles aren't sold on their artistic bent, but on selling sure-fire derivative formulae to the mass-market. In order to convince publishers that

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