Above 49

MIGS '16

2016-11-18T10:09:00.002-08:00

Haha, christ, the last time I posted on this was in 2014.

ahem

But yes, I was in Montréal last weekend to return to MIGS after 4 years, this time to talk about Firewatch. And as promised, here are the slides with full text in the speaker notes. I usually prefer to split those up but didn't have time to do it for this go. It's available here.

Will it be another two years before I post on here again? Only time will tell! (Probably)

Firewatch

2014-09-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I forget I have this blog! The last ... nine months were part of that time.

But I remembered now, and just in time to share the first video of Campo Santo's first game, Firewatch.

All the footage is in-engine, ain't that somethin'?

Folks interested in see what we're going to be up to as the game moves forward to follow what we're doing at our dev blog, where I'll even post occasionally (and probably more often than here, if we're being honest).

Gamercamp '13 Text and Slides

2013-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

I recently gave a talk at Gamercamp in Toronto, which was fantastic. First time at the event or ever in Toronto and both were outstanding, 10/10, would go back again.

As promised, here are the slides and text from the talk:

http://bit.ly/nels_gc13

There's a .doc and a .ppt in that .zip. I recommend you fire up the .doc and the .ppt side by side. Every time you read a bold word in the .doc, advance the .ppt. If you have any thoughts/questions/feedback/whatever, I'd love to hear it.

Also, I can't believe I didn't post about it here, but I left Klei like ... three months ago. I'm partnering with Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin and Olly Moss to start a new studio called Campo Santo. It's going to be pretty cool.

GDC '13 Slides & Text

2013-04-01T15:44:00.001-07:00

I have returned from GDC (and PAX East proceeding it)! Simply, it was an amazing time. I am also physically ruined and confused as to what day/age it is. But hey, at least the weather here in Vancouver is gorgeous.

As promised, here are the slides and text for the talk I delivered on Friday at 10 AM. I cannot guarantee that the text is the same as the words that came out of my mouth on the day of (in fact I promise it's not), but it's close enough to be well representative. Heh, it's actually possibly more thoughtful and composed in parts that whatever I burned through that day.

Here it be.

There's a Word .doc, a .ppt and a .odp (OpenOffice's PowerPoint-but-not format). I actually created everything in OpenOffice, because I sure as hell can't afford the Office suite at home and when saving to .ppt from OpenOffice, the videos disappear. So, uh, sorry about that and if anyone knows how to fix that, let me know.

I recommend you fire up the .doc and the .ppt/.odp side by side. Every time you read a bold word in the .doc, advance the .ppt/.odp. If you have any thoughts/questions/feedback/whatever, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks to everyone who came to the talk on Friday despite almost certainly great revelry the night before. It was fantastic seeing everyone at GDC and can't wait to do so again, hopefully sooner than next March.

Conferring

2013-03-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be speaking at GDC this year! Specifically, I'll be talk about the design of Mark of the Ninja on Friday at 10 AM. If you're at the conference and want to have your ears filled by me, it would be awesome if you came by. Some other folks from Klei are going to be talking about Ninja in more of a general post-mortem sense as well, on Monday at 1:45 PM, so you should totally come for that too!

In a back-to-back conference/convention horrorshow (it will be fun, but literally flying across the continent both ways in three days is not the stuff of joy), we'll at PAX East in Boston the weekend before GDC as well! Klei is #774 in the IndieMegabooth and I'll be there for part of the time. We're showing off both Don't Starve and something brand new for Ninja, which I'm quite excited about.

Also, I'll be on a panel on Saturday night at 7:30 PM about communicating information through UI with most of the folks from Three Moves Ahead. It should be pretty cool, so if you're in Boston for PAX, come out!

Finally, I realized I've been slacking on linking my Unwinnable posts. My second one was a bit about Dark Souls and other games that create joy through suffering and most recently, I posted about the usefulness and hazards of playtesting. So read them words!

Unwinning

2012-12-06T10:08:00.003-08:00

Both in person and on here (I think), I've mentioned that some changes would be arriving here in the near future. Well, the good ship Change has indeed arrived.

I've started writing a monthly column at Unwinnable, the first of which went live today: http://www.unwinnable.com/2012/12/06/on-faith/

Unwinnable has amassed a truly staggering body of talent and joining them is both incredibly exciting and a little daunting. But I am looking forward to it very much.

What this means for this site is, well, at least monthly, I'll link the Unwinnable columns here. Heh, so this place will be slightly less of the barren wasteland it has been since Ninja got crazy, but I'm not sure how much less. Random one-off thoughts that probably aren't fodder for a full column might end up here, but this site will be primarily for various announcements and other similar things from now on.

This site has been incredibly invaluable for me, with the conversations that rose out of it and everything I learned composing thoughts here. But its mission is also largely accomplished, I think. Everything I considered here I tried to apply to Mark of the Ninja and I know that game would have been poorer had the conversations here not occurred. This blog helped me connect with some tremendous people whose writing and games continue to inspire and challenge me today.

I wanted make my perspective part of a collection of voices though, and Unwinnable was an amazing opportunity to do just that. It's kind of crazy to think that when I started this almost exactly four years ago, I had no idea what would be in store. It's been an amazing ride here with Above49, but it's time to take what I wanted to do here to the next level.

Hope you all will take a look at the piece over at Unwinnable and check out all the other amazing writing that's on their site. And my tremendous, profound appreciation to everyone who's commented, linked and simply read the words I put up here. It's been so, so valuable for me. Really, thank you all.

Holy hell, do I love Dark Souls

2012-10-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

After finishing Mark of the Ninja, I had a pile of games on my mantle that I didn't have time to play. Dark Souls was the one at the top of the heap and, well, I haven't gotten any further into the heap yet. I honestly don't even know what to say about Dark Souls. I've connected with it on a more basal level that probably anything else I've played in a long time. There's so much going on with the game that's presented in such fantastic, confident ways, I almost don't know what to make it so. So I'll just relate one tale from a few nights ago, and apologies, if you haven't played Dark Souls, this will probably make very little sense:

Basically, I just an absurdly amazing time in Anor Londo.

I'd never been through before when I arrived at the large palace/cathedral building. I made it through a bit of the place, nothing too crazy. I see a note on the ground that says "Need Humanity." I figure, why the hell not?

Go back to the bonfire where the Sun Knight is, Unhollow and then there are like 4 summon signs on the ground. I pull in a person, without much idea of what we'll even do, and I must have accidentally summoned two. Just as they're appearing, a Spirit of Vengeance invades my game. We pile on him, but he leads us through a crazy chase all through the castle, pulling as many enemies as he can. We chase him onto one of the roofs, where he tries to ambush us at the top of the tower. Doesn't work, we take him down.

Then I follow my two new pals further into the castle, to places I've never been. We end up in a big hall and then I get a message that says something like "Eye of Death is pulsing." I have no idea what the hell that means, but I figure it means someone is about to invade my game again. (Ed: I later figured out what this means and oh boy, was it satisfying) There's a giant white doorway, no idea what's on the other side. Figure what the hell, better than being invade.

Step through with my two mates and holy hell, I guess it's not one boss but TWO. Ornstein and Smough, who I don't know anything about, except I remember people speaking about them on Twitter back when the game came out, which can't be good. My two allies take one each and I pile onto Orstein. We lose the guy fighting Smough part of the way through, so my partner moves over to him. Smough goes down first, but Orstein was almost out of life too. Except I discover kill one, the other heals and gets *gigantic.* We persevere though and take him down without my pal dying.

Then, because it's Dark Souls, my friend then just silently disappears. But I'll remember you, The_Demise (PSN username). You were a badass and a friend, even though we never shared a word.

And that's basically the saga. The emotional experience isn't just one of victory and success though. For me, going anywhere you haven't been in Dark Souls is a harrowing affair, as you have no idea what you're going to run into. The chase with the Spirit of Vengeance included some areas I'd never been, and my overreaction later was all going blind. It's exciting in the truest sense of the word, with all the positive and negative connotations.

What's even more interesting is some people have said Dark Souls is a game about memorization, but I don't think that accurately capture the game at all. There's so much choice in the game, it's very difficult to imagine any two people having the same experience playing the game. There are so many choices on both the micro (rapier or axe? sorcery or miracles?) and macro (did you go to the Catacombs first, or the New Anor Londo Ruins?), but they're all focused through a tremendous tight set of levels. If the game was more open and mushy, I think it would feel as distinct. Truly open world games just end up seeming like, "I did crazy shit and blew stuff up, so did you." Matthew Weise recently related that he felt that Demon's Souls/Dark Souls were the best Looking Glass games he's played since 2000, and thinking about it, that might just be why I like them so bloody much.

And on top of that, you have the multiplayer component, which can provide truly unique moments like mine above. The experience you have are unique yours, which make the feel more tangible and genuine somehow. Just like real life, no two people will experience the same event the exact same way. Yet it feels like a lot of games seem to create identical experiences with their games, at least as far as the substantial bits that really congeal in your memory are concerned. Part of the reason why I think systemic games are interesting is that they fully embrace providing players with the means for generating their own unique arcs through the game that are truly their own. They're more real (or less unreal) and there's something very interesting there, I think.

Alright, I got one more day to invest in Dark Souls before the twin cruelties of Dishonored and X-Com necessitate a bit of a respite ... probably.

I ... I Don't Even Know. Thank You.

2012-09-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

[I actually wrote this on the way to Europe, but didn't get a chance to post it over there. So here it is now, as I wrote it two weeks ago]

I'm composing this from a plane somewhere above Iceland, but I couldn't help but make a note about the last few days. Since Mark of the Ninja launched on Friday, I've basically been in a state of perpetual bewilderment. The reaction to the game has been astoundingly positive, beyond any our of expectations.

I've complained about Metacritic and the shortcomings of really granular review scores in the past, and my feelings about the problems they cause haven't changed. But Metacritic can be a vague barometer of how folks are reacting to a game. And currently, Ninja sits at a 90. That makes it the highest-rated XBLA game this year (tying with Trials Evolution) and the third highest XBLA game of all time (tying with at 90 Limbo, Super Meat Boy and Geometry Wars 2, in addition to Trials Evo) behind only Braid and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.

While I was certainly happy with Ninja when we sent it off to Microsoft for certification, I had absolutely no inkling that folks would consider it to be in the same league as any of those games. I'm humbled and still utterly shocked. I respect and admire those games tremendously, and to create something that would even be spoken of in the same breath is something I wasn't sure I'd ever accomplish in my career as a designer, let alone on my first game. I'm still not really able to process that.

A couple outlets specifically just left me floored with their thoughts. Eurogamer gave us a 9/10, the same score they gave Journey and Dark Souls. Destructoid gave us a 10/10, saying Ninja was "Let it stand as the benchmark by which all stealth games are now measured." Giant Bomb gave us a 5/5.

Obviously the visibility of the game has been a challenge, but the community support has been amazing. Every time I log onto Twitter, there are almost universally positive comments about the game. I've literally seen one negative comment (from someone who only watched the trailer and didn't like the violence, although I told them you can get through the entire game without killing anyone) and two "Tried it, not really for me." That's it.

More than anything else though, it's edifying that this kind of reaction means there is a place for this kind of game. Something emphasizing player-centric systems and intentional play. Something that doesn't compromise what it wants to be. I've loved stealth games for a long time, and more importantly, the type of design they represent. Being able to create something that's considered a worthwhile addition to that canon is still almost unbelievable.

So thank you everyone who has supported the game and told anyone else about it. And we certainly don't want that momentum to flag, so please keep letting people know they can download the game or the trial directly to their Xbox from here: http://bit.ly/xboxninja

Now I'm off to enjoy a week in Ireland and a week in Scotland. When I get back, I'll have some exciting news about my writing here as well as something about Ninja that I think will make a lot of people quite happy.

[That news hit on Monday, specifically that Mark of the Ninja is coming to Steam on Oct 16th! ]

Mark of the Ninja LAUNCHED!

2012-09-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning like I always do, walked the dog, fed him, showered and shaved. It felt like any other day, but sometime in the night, the game I'd spent the last year and a half working on had been made available for purchase. The review embargo isn't up for another hour as I'm writing this (although it will be up by the time this is posted), so I'm not sure what the critical reaction will be yet, but I'm feeling optimistic.

But in this brief calm before the storm, I just wanted to give my profound thanks to everyone who has helped me get to this point. I was the lead designer on a game I'm incredibly proud of, but I didn't get here alone. To start, the team is Klei is simply amazing and every single one of them was instrumental in Ninja's success. I'm so lucky to be able to work with some amazing people. As you see their names in Ninja's credits, know every one of them is seriously phenomenal.

More broadly, thanks to all my colleagues, both local and afield, for your amazing insight and work. Even if you didn't directly comment on Ninja during a playtest, your games, writing and GDC talks all helped me possess the (admittedly, still quite limited) understanding of design I needed to make Ninja what I wanted it to be. And to everyone who has written something thoughtful about games, thank you. You made me want to aspire and reach further that I would have otherwise.

Especially, thank you to Michael Abbott, whose writing basically started me down a path of consideration and thoughtfulness when it came to looking at games as a form of creative expression. Plus, and I was only reminded of this last night, it was an invitation to a dinner that set up the partnership that led to Chris writing Ninja, so doubly thanks for that. Michael actually did something very special for us as well, expect it soon.

And yes, of course, a tremendous thanks to Chris Dahlen, Ninja's writer and a vital part of establishing the game's tone and atmosphere. Without doubt, the game would not be what it was without Chris' significant contributions.

To all my friends who supported me through some late nights, tolerated my absences from our usual activities and kept me sane through the process, thank you.

Finally, my wife, for her endless love and support during some stressful and busy times. I love you more than anything, bright-eyes.

Alright, enough being sentimental (but seriously, thank you all so much).

Now go play my video game!

PAX, Once Again

2012-08-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'll be returning to PAX again this year, with an added PAX Dev bonus. On the rare chance anyone reading this is attending PAX Dev, I'll be speaking about Ninja on Thursday at 1:30 PM in "Grand II."

And I'll be at PAX proper all weekend at Klei's booth. We're part of the Indie Megabooth, booth #682. And that's seriously god damn exciting. I mean, just look at this map. I cannot imagine how you'd pack more awesome into such a space.

We'll be showing off Mark of the Ninja, of course, along with our new game Don't Starve and a new version of Eets (I believe we're showing that on iPad, which is actually the perfect platform for that game).

If you'll be in Seattle, drop by, say hello and play some games!

PAX Dev - Now with Ninja

2012-08-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

I think the full schedule has been up for a few days, but in case folks haven't seen, I'll be talking at PAX Dev about how we've been working on Mark of the Ninja, how defying genre tradition is one of the smartest decisions we made and what this means for other types of games.

More details here: http://dev.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/defying-stealth-tradition-for-a-better-tomorrow-the-creation-of-mark-of-the

It's 1:30 PM on Thursday so if you're attending PAX Dev, I hope to see you there.

Additionally, we'll of course be at PAX itself. Not only will Ninja be playable, but a couple of our new games, including our crazy but awesome heavily simulationist survival game Don't Starve will also be there and playable. We're part of the Indie Megabooth, so please come by if you're at the show!

Woof, Yap, Grrrr

2012-07-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

While most readers here probably also follow Kirk's stuff over at Kotaku, for those that don't, he ran an excellent piece last week about a specific type of dialog in games- barks. Barks are procedurally triggered lines that are generally quite short and meant to communicate some change in the game's state to the player. Kirk talked to Richard Dansky, Chris Dahlen and myself. Richard spoke vis a vie a ton of Ubisoft games he's worked on, while Chris and I talked about the barks we (mostly Chris) had to compile for Mark of the Ninja.

The piece is an accessible yet technical and discusses a really tangible aspect of game creation. Oh, and it mentions Far Cry 2. So it's basically what I wish a lot more games writing was about, rather than breathless previews or another top 10 list.

Rather than spoil any more, I'm just going to say it's great and you should go read it. Now I return to helping fix the last ... several hundred bugs in Ninja. So close and yet so far.

Better than Stealth Marmalade

2012-06-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Sneaky Bastards hosted the inaugural Stealth Jam, a 48 hour game jam focused on stealth games. Needless to say, a fantastic idea and I hope they'll post the games from it soon. I can't wait to check them out. If I wasn't participating in my own perpetual "finish Ninja, oh god oh god" jam, I'd have loved to participate.

Instead, I did what little I could and horrified the participants with video clips of my giant talking head. There's actually a lot of smart, awesome stealth game folks in the "Welcome to the jam" video above, saying (and especially doing, I mean, Tom's freaking cooking) interesting things. And there's a parade of special guests at the end, so I can't imagine a better way to have kicked off (out?) the jam.

Now back to making a ninja ... being less buggy. It's much less dramatic than one might think.

Humongous Explosives

2012-06-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

Someday, someday soon, I'll write my own words here again. Until then, here's a awesome chat I had with Patrick Klepek over at Giant Bomb:

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/stealth-games-dont-have-to-be-so-niche/4181/

Patrick came and played Ninja at PAX East. After play, he said he normally doesn't really like stealth games, but really dug Ninja. That was incredibly edifying to hear. I like stealth games a lot, but as I said to Patrick, I get why they can be inaccessible for some people. Maybe it's just by virtue of its 2D-ness, but I'm hoping Ninja can do for more folks what it did for Patrick- allow them to better see the things I find so appeal about the stealth genre/style/form/whatever.

I don't think this ended up in the interview, but one of us (I honestly don't remember which) observed that once a particular genre develops something of a niche, it has three ways forward, two of which is distinctly not good.

1) Games in the genre exist to serve the niche and the basically same game ends up being released over and over, with minimal changes only the most fervent notice.

2) The genre attempts to be more "broad" and loses what about it the enthusiasts liked in the first place. See a great many games drifting away from what made them interesting toward being more generally action-y.

3) Smart developers manage to continue to innovate and refine, bringing in new people without compromising what made the niche so special in the first place.

In the context of horror games, Silent Hill may be 1) or 2) depending on who you ask, Resident Evil is definitely 2) and Amnesia manages to brilliant sail forward as 3).

Point being, I think there's plenty in Ninja for more ardent stealth folks like me, but maybe we'll actually be able to cross the divide and show some new folks what's so interesting here without losing what's so good about stealth games. We've yet to see if we pulled it off or not, but we'll see soon enough.

Reporting on Ninja

2012-05-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Another couple quick links to some conversations about Ninja that I've been having lately. Again, preemptive apologies for the brevity, but as the game nears its final stretch, my ability to do anything but make it is quite diminished.

First, while Ben Kuchera was away doing E3 related things (I think?), he was kind enough to allow myself and a couple other indies take over the Penny Arcade Report. I, of course, wrote about stealth games. What I find interesting about them in general and then some things about Ninja specifically. I'm actually pretty darn happy with the piece, so please, give it a look.

Second, I talked to a couple of delightful Englishman over at MasonicGamer.com about Ninja as well. It's part of the third episode of their podcast, available here, and our chat starts around 1 hour, 22 minutes in. We talked about a variety of things, including some tonal/theme stuff that we haven't talked much about before. Was definitely fun talking to those guys.

And now, I submerge once again. But I did just hear we are going to be showing the game off at E3, so hopefully we'll have even more to talk about from that. I won't be going this time (I'm not much for E3), I'll just be here, lashed to my desk and endless refining, tweaking and polishing. This digital lathe, it shall be my bride. For the next month or two, anyway.

Undie Bundle

2012-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

In case you missed the fervor, EA recently put together a Steam bundle of six games developed by independent developers via their EA Partners program. It was unfortunately named the "EA Indie Bundle" and there was a bit of ... contention about it.

Since I worked on many of the games in the bundle in some form or another, I talked to Rock, Paper, Shotgun about the whole thing. And some other stuff too, like the ethics of media consumption in general when nearly everything that gets made these days is ultimately owned by some asshole or another (read: usually Rupert Murdoch). Considering I've had massive respect for RPS for quite some time, getting to talk to them at length was actually a pretty darn cool thing for me.

Anyway, summary of my thoughts on the whole thing is, it's not a good name, but the games themselves were created under the right conditions for the right reasons by developers independent of EA. I think some of the people howling about the sale may didn't understand all the games were made by folks with total creative independence (and we really did, even though it sounds too good to be true). I just wanted people to understand the who and why of those games. If they do and still take umbrage, that's totally fair.

The sale does support all the developers though, and if you want six weird games from weird (but awesome) people, most of whom are actually Canadian (and the last sixth are Dutch), $20 is a darn good deal. If you're not cool with it, I understand. If you have more questions, I'm happy to answer them as best I can.

And with that bit of the past concluded, there should be some more Ninja excitement in the near future. More soon.

Ninjas and the East

2012-04-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

We got back from PAX East just over two weeks ago and it's been a flurry of insane, nonstop activity since. Cessation won't be coming any time soon either, so I figured now is as good a time as any to share some of the Mark of the Ninja things we talked about at PAX East. I'm trying not to feel like a shill and/or narcissist here (since most of this involves just linking interviews of myself), but imagining if there were some game I was interested in, I'd appreciate someone involved post a simple roundup of interesting things about it.

To start, GameTrailers filmed a walkthrough and out of the 15 minutes of excess detail and rambling I did, they actually got a ~4 minute cut that's pretty well representative of the game itself. So if there's a simple video to watch from PAX East, I'd say this is it.

[God dammit, I can't get the bloody video to embed without totally wanging this page's layout, so here's the link instead: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pax-east-mark-of-the/728980]

I also talked to Anthony Carboni from Rev3 games right as the show opened on Friday. Awesome guy, great way to start the unending interviews and demos that my PAX consisted of.

Chatting with the guys and lady from Tek Syndicate was cool too, especially since I got to froth about about medieval Japanese history a bit.

Now for words!

Jeremy from 1UP seemed to be picking up what we were laying down, Tony from Destructoid also said some kind things and Mike, the founder of Indie Games Magazine, also chatted with us for a bit.

Also, the Vox Gaming crew talked about us, in their own personal way: http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/4/11/2940760/pax-east-2012-the-besties

They declared that Guacamelee, Super Time Force and Retro/Grade, along with Mark of the Ninja, were the best games of PAX East (not the best indie games, best games period) with Ninja being the bestiest of them all!

Finally, I talked to HipHop Gamer about Ninja and without question, he was the most enthusiastic person I met at the entirety of PAX. It was actually quite a lot of fun and he's a really nice and supremely genuine guy. Plus, I got to hold his gigantic belt and I'm referred to as "Big Nels" in the video. I cannot honestly say I expected either of those things to ever happen.

A Very Sneaky PAX East

2012-04-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in YVR airport waiting to depart for PAX East, so I'll be brief. Klei is going to be at PAX East, bringing Mark of the Ninja! The game will be playable on the show floor, at booth #120 (it's apparently right next to the PA merch booth). I'm tremendously excited to be showing off what we've been working so hard on and finally getting it into people's hands.

Additionally, on Friday night at 9 PM in the Cat Theatre, I'll be joining Andy Schatz (of Monaco) and Dan Silvers (of Children of Liberty) for a panel about stealth games, moderated by MIT Gambit's Matthew Weise (who also did the 10 part interview podcast series about Looking Glass, which you should absolutely listen to).

If you'll be at the show at all, please come by! I'd love to meet anyone and get your hands on our game. Now, for 13 hours in skyward steerage. Guh.

Sneaky Bastards Indeed

2012-03-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Working on Mark of the Ninja has been tremendously exciting in large part due to the fondness I've had for stealth games ever since playing the first Thief. Obviously there are plenty of other folks similar fond of stealth games, but as far as I'm aware, there wasn't really a big singular site focused on stealth games. Until Sneaky Bastards opened its doors, anyway.

So when asked, I was more than happy to provided them with a few thoughts about stealth games, which can be read here. It's part of a larger all-star line-up including Harvey Smith and Raph Colantonio working on Dishonoured, J-F Dugas who headed up Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Andy Schatz of Monaco fame, Dan Silvers from Children of Liberty (meaning they got interviews from the entire cast of our upcoming panel about indie stealth games at PAX East) and even more great designers in the days to come. I think (hope?) I said some interesting things about my approach to stealth games and the design process behind Mark of the Ninja.

And it happens to be my birthday today, so that's not a bad present from the internet. We're seriously heads down on Ninja right now, preparing things for PAX East and getting the game polished, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have between now its launch to write much here.

It was really quite enjoyable doing the interview for Sneaky Bastards though, I think I've missed being in that mindset a bit. So maybe I'll try to put down a few more things down here between now and launch. If not, well, I'm sure this place will quickly become a clearhouse of posts about the game, so apologies in advance for that. I'll try to exercise some restraint.

Mark of the Ninja - Announcement!

2012-02-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the game I've been working on for the past year. It's pretty ambitious, but we wanted to take the stealth genre in a direction that has hardly been touched before. It's been a lot of work with some very talented people, but it's really shaping up into something very different. So without further ado ...

Mark of the Ninja!

I know what you're thinking, "A stealth text adventure?" or "How the hell do you work on that for a year?"

To that, I have but to say, make sure you get a perfect score in the game. There are ... more details that maybe waiting. Lurking. Possibly even in shadows. You know, like a ... prowler.

(Or a ninja)

Stabbing Everyone, Everywhere, Always

2012-02-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

Klei's latest game, Shank 2 is out on all platforms today! You can get it (or the demo) for XBLA here (as in your can start downloading it directly to your console via the website), for Steam here (again, including demo) and for PSN, well, on the console's store (but there's a PSN info page here, at least).

I didn't work on the game much beyond some level concepts very early on; in the Ruins and Tanker levels, I can still see the skeletons of those original concepts. But the Shank team totally took it well above and beyond anything I could have imagined and really pulled off something fantastic. Oh, and I think I implemented the wild boar too. I still love that pig.

In basically every way, the game really is an improvement over the original Shank. Similar Left 4 Dead or Assassin's Creed, there were a lot of things the team wanted to improve upon from the original and couldn't pass given the chance to do so. Despite wearing my biases flagrantly, I'm absurdly impressed and proud of what my frighteningly talented coworkers achieved with Shank 2.

And that's enough shilling, I'll leave you with this trailer where a great many 2D people are stabbed, sawed, gored, pierced and otherwise have bodily harm done unto them.

The Best Beast of 2011 2: Best Rising

2012-02-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

You know what's really, really time-consuming? Make a video game! I've just been absolutely sodding inundated with making our game and while I think it's starting to very much come together, there's still a lot of distance between here and the finish line. And it's distance that's got to be covered sooner rather than later. So this post won't exactly be heralding in a new spate of writing from me; I'm just trying to assuage my shame over posting a part 1 without finishing it up.

Oh, but as a positive aside, we're going to be announcing our new game as soon as sometime this month, and I'm really, really excited for people to finally get an idea of what we're working on.

But now, back to the awesome games I played in 2011.

Best (Repeated) Use of the Word "Boner" - Shadows of the Damned

While a brief glance at Shadows of the Damned might leave one feeling like it's shallow, sophomoric humour and blasting demons, even a little time with SotD reveals the game has a lot more going on. A collaboration between Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami, the game proudly carries its parentage. The prevalent presence of all things "boner," the absurdly wonderful and horrible world and three profoundly bizarre but hilarious cautionary pseudo fairy tales (also showcasing the protagonist's meager literacy) all smell sweetly of Suda. And the shooting is tight and gory, easily an equal of Resident Evil 4 (but perhaps lacking RE4's setpieces and diversity in enemies).

I wrote more about SotD back here and I really recommend you find or borrow a copy. Of all the games released in 2011 that feel like hidden gems, Shadows of the Damned is the game whose inclusion on various year-end lists I really hope propels more people to check it out. People like you!

Best Spiritual Relation to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Stanley Parable

One of, if not the, most brilliantly self-aware pieces of video game writing was a Half-Life 2 mod finally released this year, called The Stanley Parable. You play the eponymous Stanley and in typically game-like fashion, a disembodied narrator dictates your actions. And honestly, I don't want to even say more than that. Just grab the mod and play it, because it's both brief and brilliant. And for reasons I still can't entirely put my finger on, it feels a lot like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If a modern H2G2 game ever gets made (sigh), I'd want it to feel like this.

Oh and when you're done playing, you can go read some awesome words Kirk Hamilton strung together about The Stanley Parable on Kotaku.

Best Cyberware - Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I think a lot of folks, myself included, had a bit of anxiety about the new Deus Ex. One of PC gaming's most venerated games, it has inspired countless designers and for some, it's still the high water mark for emergent gameplay. Giving that franchise to a brand new team, in an era when seeing a beloved franchise get a modern update is usually a cause for great disappointment, well, I can see why people were nervous. But then Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out and it was good. Maybe it's just a case of managing expectations, but the game just felt tremendously right. The game's design was lifted almost wholesale from the first Deus Ex, but that in and of itself demonstrates seriously significant dedication and confidence, both on the team's part and the publishers. Giving that game to almost any other studio would almost certainly result in a game heavy on spectacle and gunplay, and light on meaningful choice, customization and emergence (you know, the things people love about Deus Ex).

More than anything else, I love that DX: HR not only demonstrates these kinds of games are financially and critically viable, but there's an underserved audience very hungry for this kind of game. I'm hoping Arkane's Dishonored offers up a similar buffet when it comes out this year.

Oh, and the other thing to learn from DX: HR? Never, *ever* outsource gigantic progress blocking boss fights in your game. Just ... just don't. Ever.

Best Spaceship Arm- Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

I didn't buy Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet when it first came out (I tried the demo and it didn't grab me), but then I was assigned to judge the game for this year's IGF. I played it through to completion and was actually struck by how much I enjoyed it. Beyond the striking visuals that clearly bear Michel Gagné's mark, the game itself is actually a pretty freaking tight little Metroidvania. The various tools almost all have a great feel, especially the little claw arm the ship can use to heft, drag and throw objects. The perfect size for a downloadable game, it very well scratched that explore -> upgrade -> explore more itch. And it made me kind of want to make a Metroidvania game ... hmmm ...

And it appears that ITSP was nominated for an Annie Award (Animation's Oscars, basically) for best game animation. Shank was actually nominated last year, but Limbo took the award home, which was fair enough. And I'd say that if ITSP or Rayman: Origins doesn't take home the statue this year, something ain't right with the world.

Best Emo Vikings - Skyrim

This one is cheating a little, since I technically haven't finished Skyrim yet (but I will ... someday!). And really, I'm not sure there's left to be said about Skyrim that someone hasn't already said. It's gorgeous, it's sprawling, it's diverse and it supports so many different kinds of play. Sure, it has its flaws, but the sheer scale of the game and the joy one gets from exploring it make that almost not matter. (Although Shamus Young's takedown of the Thieves Guild questline took me from ambivalent to also actually very disappointed as soon as I thought about how many gigantic plot holes there are, and I generally love any sneak-y bits!)

So yeah, Skyrim is fantastic, especially once you install the mod that gives the game an actual, usable inventory. Actually, the fact that when so many games are shipping with ever-increasing restrictions, seeing Bethesda's whole hearted support of modding of Skyrim continue (and in fact, via the Steam Workshop, become possibly more prolific than its ever been) is something I could not be more excited about. I'll always be a PC person at heart and things like this are a big part of the reason why.

So those were some of my favourite games of 2011. Now back to making ours, so hopefully it can show up on at least a few people's lists this time next year.

The Best Beast of 2011: Origins

2012-01-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

While I think there's some fun to be had in ranking a year's best games, the practice does feels both too definitive (these are really the best?) and amorphous (how do you even begin evaluating "best" anyway?). So in a total cop out, I'm just going to write about some games I really, really enjoyed that I played in the last year. And they'll be delivered roughly in chronological order.

A couple caveats: 1) I'm only considering games I played and finished in 2011. I suppose this precludes the persistent games that can't be finished, but I didn't play any of those in 2011 that I hadn't played in years previous as well (e.g. TF2, L4D2). If there was something of that ilk, I'm sure I'd just consider "finished" to mean "I played a lot of this, to the point of solid understanding." 2) I'm counting games I played in 2011, not necessarily those that were released in 2011. Granted, most of these are still recent, but some were technically released in 2009 or 2010 and I just didn't get to them until 2011. There are ten games in total, five here and five more in the near future.

Without further ado:

Best Protagonists for Hugs - ilomilo

Seriously, just look at those guys. Just listen to that music. It's almost impossible to imagine something more heartwarming and adorable. In a continual parade of games seeking to be more gruesome, dark, gritty, visceral, insert-"over-the-top"-adjective-here, it's wonderful to play something that's trying to be, well, cute. But ilomilo does so without becoming saccharine or mawkish. The story is actually a bit sad if you really think about it. And despite its cute exterior, the puzzles become truly fiendish later in the game. If you're curious, the demo can be downloaded here.

Best Gravelly Russians - Metro 2033

It's important to note that being dark and gritty isn't necessarily a bad thing. I was actually turned onto Metro 2033 almost a year ago exactly, when it started showing up in a number of year-end conversations. A convenient Steam sale later and Metro 2033 became one of my favourite FPSs in quite some time. As I noted here, it manifests an almost "Natural Law" design aesthetic that a number of Eastern European developers seem to possess (see S.T.A.L.K.E.R., The Void, etc.). It's not that the game is crushingly difficult in a Super Meat Boy way. Rather the game world's rules are enacted almost without any regard for the player and if you want to survive, well, it's on you to do so. In an era where at times I worry some games are walking dangerously close to instilling serious learned helplessness in the audience, games like Metro 2033 are absolutely refreshing. I hope that in this year's sequel, Metro: Last Light, 4A and THQ don't lose sight of what so many people loved about Metro 2033. At $20, the game is a steal. Oh, and make sure to play it with subtitles and Russian dialog.

Best Funny Robots - Portal 2

Lots of good words have been etched about Portal 2, with it ending up on many erudite's folks year-end lists/conversations. Rather than replicate their sentiments (yeah, everything about Portal 2 is pretty bloody great), there's one observation I'd like to make: the way humour manifests in the two different modes of the game. As someone who's helped make a couple funny games and might just like to make more some day, Portal 2 proves an interesting case. In the single-player, the comedy is delivered through the game's authored content. The writing is as sharp, if not sharper, than Portal and both Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons are brilliant additions to the cast (not to mention the ubiquitous Nolan North's cameos).

But what's interesting is the way humour tends to manifest itself in the co-op portion of the game. Pretty much across the board, I felt the writing in the co-op was weaker. The "playing the partners against each other angle" became one-note pretty quickly. Additionally, I'd be talking to my partner while the jokes were playing out, so we'd either have to stop talking or miss the lines. However, I'd say the co-op is still as funny, if not funnier than the single player simply because of all the situations you and your partner can end up in. Accidentally switching the wrong portal and sending them tumbling to their death never failed to produce a laugh. Waiting just a few extra seconds to drop that portal, while their head is smashed again the ceiling again and again by a jump pad. Accidentally (or purposefully) hitting the switch that crushes them, rather than moves their path. And that's not even to mention the havoc one can wreak with the laser cubes. The humour in co-op comes largely from the players' interaction with the content, rather than the content itself.

Dan Cook of Spry Fox wrote a bit about authored vs. procedural humour in games, and I added my two cents on there. It's an interesting conversation and definitely something I'd like to think/talk more about in the future. If you some reason you don't own Portal 2, I have a couple Steam coupons that make the game only $15. They expire at the end of January, so if you want one, contact me soon!

Best Acoustic Frontier Trip-Hop - Bastion

Like Portal 2, there's been a lot of year-end talk about Bastion. And frankly, it's all well-deserved. The game is gorgeous, plays great and sounds even better than that. The look, story and sound of Bastion are fantastic, but in some ways, it's the gameplay that I actually appreciate the most. Having made a couple actions RPGs, I promise you, striking the right balance between meaningful choices and depth is not easy. The Diablo/Torchlight style of action RPG is the number crunching, spreadsheet-y way to do it, but I'm very interested in other ways of providing meaningful ARPG decisions without turning it into columns of figures and procedurally generated loot. Bastion beautifully demonstrates how to do that. Greg, Amir and everyone else wholly deserve all the recognition they are receiving. I want more small games that are still rich and interesting and if they're even half the game Bastion was, I'll be happy. You can get Bastion on Steam, XBLA or even in your Chrome browser.

Best Indigo Trading & Carpet Weaving - Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404)

The oldest game on this list, Dawn of Discovery (known as Anno 1404 in Europe) technically came out in the summer of 2009, but I didn't play it until the middle of last year. And I cannot believe I waited that long. A real-time town building simulation, Dawn of Discovery is everything I loved about old city building sims like Caeser. Mine this, harvest that, grow this and trade it here; you can set up freaking automated trade routes to take your wine here and pick up indigo there. It's a particular game for a particular type of person, but if you're that type of person, dear god, it's so, so good. And the game is also absolutely gorgeous. The sequel Anno 2070 was released just a few months ago and I've got it on the docket for after I finish a few more games. I strongly suspect it will show up on a similar list to this a year from now. Due to some nonsense with Ubisoft patching (or rather, not patching) the game, it is not currently available on Steam. But one can still get it on Direct2Drive and other sites.

That's it for the first half, the next shall follow before too long. Until then, what games did you play last year that shined with special brilliance?

Now With Video!

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

If I haven't mentioned it here before, one of the best things that happened to the Vancouver game dev scene (at least in my realm) was the Full Indie developer meetup really gathering steam. And at the last meetup of the year, I was asked to pull out a small section of my MIGS talk and deliver it to the assembled indie masses. And one of the organizers was kind enough to tape and upload it.

I ended up expanding the section where I talked the development of TV as a medium for creative expression. Basically, TV used to be awful. Really, fundamentally awful. Now we've got things like The Wire, Madmen, Battlestar Galactica, Arrested Development, etc. and they're really good (I think I actually prefer a good serial TV show to most new movies at this point). What changed? Well, watch the video and find out!

A lot of this is drawn from Steven Johnson's book Everything Bad is Good for You. If you haven't read it, I heartily recommend it.

Also, I'm finally going to stop blogging (exclusively, anyway) about this talk now. I've got a year-end games post I'm going to pull together this week. I won't be anything as definitive as a "Best Of 2011." It's more just things I played that I really enjoyed, found surprising, etc. So stay tuned! (Get it??)

Flappin' Mah Gums

2011-12-05T09:05:00.001-08:00

Once again, Scott and Jorge were kind enough to have me on the Experience Points podcast (which still remains the consistent gaming podcast on all the internet), talking vaguely about the things I covered at MIGS. It included a lot of good insight from them and some things I cut from my talk for length, so it's actually kind of a director's commentary or something.

I highly recommend checking out their site in general, tons of great writing on a suspiciously regular basis (I suspect their both at least cyborgs, if not full-on androids. Perhaps even Cylons).