The joy of video gaming

Once again, I've found a new addictive game to keep me up til past sunrise.

Escape Velocity: Nova, the most recent retooling of the classic Escape Velocity by Ambrosia software, is available for Windows. I do most of my work (and not-so-work) on my beloved FrankenMac iBook, but I prefer to keep my games on a Windows box. I know, I'm a Philistine, but ultimately the user inside of me doesn't care about the OS, he just wants his apps. Because the apps are games makes no difference.

EV:N is a space sim game, where you start with a tiny shuttle and work your way up trading resources between systems, upgrading your ship, and generally exploring the plot of working for various factions. Sid Meier's Pirates! is somewhat similar, if you look at the broad picture.

I found another equally addictive little twitch shooter called Warning Forever. It distills shooters down to just you, the big boss, and thousands of tiny little exploding things to avoid.

Carnegie Mellon University sponsors an actual class semester for credit called Experimental Gameplay. Students are expected to produce a working prototype of a computer game in a few short days (yes, DAYS) while incorporating a certain theme- "Gravity", "Swarm", "Chains" to name a few. I played perhaps a dozen or so of these tiny (fit-on-a-floppy) games. As expected, Windows only, but overall, the games were of decent quality. Granted, somewhat less quality than a big budget production, and all of alpha- or beta- grade software, but almost all of them worth playing. Certainly, these games serve admirably as "prototypes" for their designers.

How does all this apply to the game designer on the street? For starters, it teaches you how to figure out if your game is fun and worth further development. Look at the movie industry- they've used storyboards for ages. With recent CGI development, "animatics" also play a huge role in development. Pixar, as I recall, will do their whole movie in-house as a series of animated storyboards with voice-overs by the writers or staff.

The 24-Hour RPG phenomenon also produces alpha games- and there's nothing wrong with that. In a very real way, an alpha is the cutting edge of development. You can work out ideas and try things before running back to the drawing board. What works? What doesn't? Why?