Top 10 Games of 2013

2013 is now over, and in terms of games, it was arguably one of the best years ever! Picking 10 games to highlight as the best was not an easy chore. In fact, it was excruciatingly difficult. There were plenty of surprises, for sure. Ultimately, I chose these ten games based entirely on how much pure enjoyment I got out of them and how impressed I was with how well they executed their vision. As a designer, I covet clever design and excellent implementation. Enjoyment doesn't always mean "fun"... in some of these cases, I got enjoyment out of how satisfying they were, or how impressed I was with them, even if they weren't pure fun. These are the 10 most impressive games of 2013.

SteamWorld Dig came out of nowhere and blew me away. One of the biggest surprise hits of the year, SteamWorld Dig combines some light roguelike elements with a decidedly Metroidvania-esque game progression to deliver one of the most addictive, and rewarding, games of 2013.

Digging is what you'll do, and you'll do a lot of it. The  game's progression is based entirely on digging deeper and deeper into the Earth to find clues of a lost civilization and to discover what happened to the previous explorers. With each swing of your pickaxe you'll descend deeper into the ground, into dark unknown areas searching for precious ores and avoiding dangerous enemies. You'll need to return to the surface with your spoils to buy upgrades that will let you return to the dark caverns and dig even deeper. It's a nice, smart gameplay loop that kept me hooked for the entire duration. Dig, discover, upgrade, dig. The sense of progression was finely tuned just enough that this never, ever becomes tedious or tiresome. And that's a great achievement.

If you have a 3DS and you're looking for a great, original game you should definitely pick this one up! You can even get it on Steam now, too!

Very rarely has a game won me over on mere premise alone, but Papers, Please is based on such a brilliant concept; described as a "Dystopian Document Thriller", you take on the role of an immigration inspector at the border of a fictional communist nation that is besieged by war. You are tasked with checking the documents of civilians trying to enter to country. You do this by checking dates, facts, and turning away any who don't have their documents in order.

Inspiring premise aside, the game design is equally brilliant; featuring time-pressured gameplay, moral ambiguity and satirical social commentary. If you wanted to be overly-simplistic, you could call it a puzzle game, requiring players to observe patterns and react accordingly. A keen eye and an even better memory are required for playing as you'll have a ton of bureaucratic rules and laws to remember as you process civilians at the Arstotkan border. Be warned, though... This game is dark, depressing and occasionally shocking in its bleakness.

Samurai Gunn is straight up my new jam. This lightning fast 4-player fighting game is like Bushido Blade on speed. Death comes quick and your reflexes are the only thing that can save you. Often compared to Towerfall, I prefer the breakneck pace of Samurai Gun. Fights last seconds and matches (first to 10 kills, typically) take mere minutes. The movement and controls are very Meat Boy-like (the momentum from wall jumping for example feels very familiar). The attacks are instantaneous and the ability to deflect bullets with your sword makes every attack count. You can even ping-pong bullets back and forth between two players in a Link/Ganondorf style duel.

The fact that many, many "WOW" moments will happen within a 90 second match is what makes Samurai Gunn the best multiplayer game of 2013.

A lack of features keep the game from ranking higher on the list. But what little there is, is pure gold!

One-on-one fights in Samurai Gunn are good... but if you can get 4-players in on the fun, then the game rivals Super Smash Bros for pure fun, it's that good!

Tearaway is the PS VITA game. It uses pretty much every feature of the system, quite intelligently, and allows you to interact with the game's world in some of the most charming and imaginative ways. Taking place in a papercraft world, you a free to peel away stickers to reveal platforms, cut out shapes to create items and take pictures to find secrets. Media Molecule knows how to lay on the charm, and they've created something even more endearing than LittleBigPlanet.

What may be surprising, is that the game has a really great story and an ending that ranks among my favorites of all time! With a ton of hidden secrets to find, there's plenty of reasons to revisit and replay areas from the game.

The only complaint I have is that, for all the game's charm, the platforming is pretty rubbish (which isn't too surprising considering the LBP games also had less than stellar platforming). Overall, it's a game that is far more charming than it is excellent, but I can't deny that I was smiling the whole way through, and that counts for a lot.

I loved BioShock Infinite. In the tradition of BioShock games, the world that was presented was excellently fleshed out, endlessly intriguing and incredibly haunting. I devoured the game and loved every minute of it. I completed a second playthrough in one single sitting, just to go through the paces of the story a second time.

By the end, I had grown quite close to both Booker and Elizabeth and was quite blown away with the game's ending (don't worry, no spoilers). The way in which I walked through the game's ending is what I remember most fondly, as it was the perfect way to present that ending. There may have been a few plot holes (plot tears?), but overall I was fully engaged from start to finish. Plus, zip-lining is excessively awesome!

A few uninspired "boss fights" and little bit of needless meandering in the game's middle section are about the only bad things I can point out about BioShock Infinite. As with most of the game's on the list, the biggest knock against it is that it came out in a year with so many excellent games. In virtually any other year, this would have ranked higher.

Grand Theft Auto V is a game that is grand, in the truest sense of the word. Los Santos is an amazing sight to behold, as it is one of the most fully-realized game worlds ever created. The story is tight and well told, well paced and well presented. The characters are fully fleshed out and the acting is spot-on. The decision to include three separate, playable protagonists pays off huge, and is one of the game's greatest strengths. The transitions between characters (with the zoomed out birds-eye view of the city) was technically impressive. Best of all, I have a hard time choosing which character is my favorite, I enjoyed all three.

But ultimately, it's about the moments... GTA V is filled with amazing moments; some scripted moments that were carefully created and presented to the player (like chasing a crashing plane on a motorcycle, or any one of Trevor's antics), and some moments that you create as you play within the game's open-world sandbox (like a police chase that starts on the highway and ends in the ocean). Rockstar proves, like they always have, that they are masters of the living, breathing, open-world game.

My only complaint about GTA V is the decision to add the medal ratings for each mission (gold, silver, bronze). I consider myself quite the completionist, but there's so much content in a typical GTA game, that there is no reason to artificially create replay value with a system like this. I don't want to ever replay a mission in GTA, I find enjoyment from the fact that there is always something to do. And GTA V has more side-diversions than ever. It definitely struck me a strange and unnecessary design addition.

Powerful, meaningful moments are important... and perhaps no single "moment" in any game this year was better, or more impactful than The Last of Us's ending.

I actually did not find TLoU much fun to play, in fact I hated some parts of the game, purely from a gameplay standpoint. But, The Last of Us is more than its gameplay, it truly is an experience. Many games have great voice acting and great stories... but not like this. Naughty Dog are at the top of their game, and are among the best developers in the industry. As with Papers, Please, The Last of Us is incredibly bleak. It's a weighty experience that never comes off disingenuous or forced, and that's it works. Something like this could only have been accomplished by the best talent in the industry, and I absolutely respect that.

I definitely preferred the times when I wasn't playing the game -- watching the characters interact, listening to them talk and looking at the incredibly detailed world -- was actually better than playing. This is a game that I won't mind setting to 'Easy' and playing through, just so I can experience it again.

Despite my gripes and the game's lows, it's the heights to which The Last of Us reaches that puts it this high on the list.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds brought freedom, choice and exploration back to Zelda for the first time in decades. A sequel to my favorite Legend of Zelda game, A Link to the Past, LoZ: ALBW takes place in the same world, features the same map and many familiar characters. Yet, it's so amazingly fresh and unique, thanks to the game's open-ended, exploration rewarding nature.

The best part of the game? Comparing the order in which you've completed the game's dungeons with that of your friends, and seeing how you all played the game radically different. Throw in an awesome updated visual style and dungeons that are still a master-class in level design, and you've got one of the best Zelda games... ever!

I was completely unprepared for what Gone Home had in store for me.

I very recently played Gone Home (just two days ago, in fact). I had managed to avoid hearing anything about it, and I am so glad that I did. I didn't even read the Steam product page for the game when I bought it, I just clicked "purchase". And I'm glad I did, too... as both the description and the review quotes contained spoilers!

I'm going to try and keep this completely spoiler free, even if that means being incredibly vague.

Gone Home is masterful. The storytelling, the sense of discovery, the pacing... all of it is perfection. When I had finished the game, I realized that I was free to explore the game how I wanted and was free to do so at my own pace. I was completely free. And yet, I had uncovered the story exactly how the developers wanted me to. That takes genius to accomplish, and every moment of it felt natural, and intuitive. Like Papers, Please, I was sold on Gone Home based on premise alone. It immediately struck me as so genius, and so intriguing. I am so glad to say that I was not disappointed. In fact, my expectations were blown away!

This truly is a new kind of storytelling, and the story it told was so powerful, so meaningful and so honest that it nearly brought me to tears.

I want to dissect everything about Gone Home, because I know I can learn from it. And that's not something I can say for many games. I will attend every GDC session about Gone Home, and would love to talk about it with anyone from The Fullbright Company.

Set aside two hours, and play it in one single, uninterrupted session.

Where Gone Home was a transcendent experience that will stick with me forever, Super Mario 3D World is the purest display of what I covet in gaming and why I became a developer in the first place. Easily the most polished game of 2013, Super Mario 3D World is nothing short of a masterpiece. It looks fantastic, it plays like a dream and it features some of the best level design I've ever seen.

Super Mario 3D World is a great game, but it is the level design that puts it at #1 on this list. As a Level Designer by trade, I am in complete awe of what was accomplished in SM3DW. Each level in the game is built around a single mechanic or theme, and as a player you will be taken on a journey that presents said mechanic or theme in every deliciously brilliant way possible. For example, you'll begin playing a level about rolling logs, and by the end you will experience so many ways in which those rolling logs can be used. And most of the time the absolute cleverness of the mechanics will shine through.

The only downside is that the best content (the best levels) are hidden in the post-game content. But if you stick with the game and play everything that the game throws at you, you'll have experienced some of the best levels in any game today. I hope to one day be this good at level design. Gone Home was absolutely a transcendent experience, but as a very nuts-and-bolts style designer, I love game mechanics. And Super Mario 3D World was genius in its implementation, experimentation and exploration of its mechanics.

And Champion's Road. Champion's Road is one of the best levels ever.


What a year!

The Level Design Process. Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Peer Review

As is true with most aspects of game development, level design requires a team effort. You can't expect to simply create, integrate and walk away (you're not getting off that easy!). You may be the "Level Designer", but you're not in this alone (as much as you may like/hope to be). First, you'll create your masterpiece... But what then?

Prepare yourself for an existential journey through which you will emerge a much more enlightened designer. Dark times lie ahead, but we'll make it through this together, and we'll be all the better for it.

Let's travel into the near future. You've conceived a brilliant idea for a level. You've properly leveraged the game's mechanics to create new and clever challenges for the player to experience and overcome. You've built a fine level. About now, if you're anything like me, you'll be thinking to myself: "Wow, I've sure done it this time! This might be the greatest level anyone has ever created!".

Which, of course, means that from this particular high-point, the only way to go... is down.

Strap yourself in! It's time to show off. It's time to rub it in. It's time for...

The Peer Review

Ahhhh, the peer review. All the tension of presenting a creative piece of work combined with the joy of being openly criticized! Truly an amazing thing!

But you're not worried, you're not worried at all. You're about to show them the greatest level ever conceived. The only worry in your mind is that you'll make your peers feel insignificant by comparison. Since you're not a bad person, this will weigh heavily on you. You'll cheerfully invite your co-workers to come take a look. You've been waiting for this moment all day. You're even pre-blushing. You're picturing the ticker tape parade in your mind. Nothing could go wrong...

Things will go wrong. Things will go very wrong, very quickly.

And things won't stop here. This won't stop after one review. No... You've now entered the Peer Review Cycle. Welcome to flavor country.

The three R's: Review, Resent, Rebuild

While caught up in the peer review cycle, the first thing you'll notice is that it is seemingly never-ending. It is truly a torturous downward spiral. Everything you make will continue to be scrutinized, ridiculed and torn apart before your very eyes. Revision after revision, you'll feel the despair of never quite accomplishing what you set out to create. All of your clever tricks, versatile rooms and brilliant set-ups will fall apart. Everything you'd thought you'd done right will be on display as the hackneyed mess that it really is.

Your immediate reaction will be one of resentment. You'll instantly begin to wonder "how are they not getting this?", "Why are they playing it wrong?!". But you'll quickly catch yourself, because you know, deep down, that you don't actually think that. You know better... You know that you've done wrong. The idea of someone "playing the game wrong" doesn't exist in your mind!

So, what are you going to do about it? Well, you move on and do the only thing you can do. You will rebuild it. Better than before. You know deep down that this level is nothing more than a mighty Phoenix, and it will rise from the ashes! Hopefully you've taken notes and have taken the time to understand the how's and the why's that failed in your level. If not, then you need to swallow your pride and go ask again for that valuable, essential, important, painful and embarrassing feedback. You're going to need it.

So, now you know what went wrong, right? Good. Now to fix it. I mean, you created something so awesome before... How hard can it be to do it again? What's that... you already used your best ideas last time? Come off it! They haven't seen anything yet! Sure, you'll be stumped for a while. You may even begin to have panic attacks. Surely, the best levels of your life can't be behind you... Can they?

But you'll be in luck, because inspiration will strike. And it will strike hard. Suddenly, you're on top of the world again. You'll look back at your former self and think: "What an amateur!". You'll create and you'll build. And before you will be the true greatest level anyone has ever created. You'll head back into peer review ready to show them what's what!

Round 2

...And they'll hate it. You'll once again be completely unprepared for the backlash, even though it isn't quite as harsh as last time. It will rock you like a Scorpions song (I don't remember which one, Big City Nights maybe?). At this point, you'll quickly find yourself back at resentment (it is a cycle, after all). This early into the process (what are we on, cycle 2? Not even close to being done, yet), you'll probably fail to realize that the feedback wasn't as bad and that overall, things are improving. By now, you're likely drinking yourself stupid and are losing parts of your short-term memory.

You'll take this newly obtained feedback and you'll rebuild. Did you remember to take notes this time? Really? Get back there and ask for a list of everything they hated about YOU (because by now you know, without a doubt, that things are personal). Now take that list of personal attacks and create something truly great! Just don't let them see you cry. It'll be tough, but just concentrate on getting back to your desk and work through those tears.

After 4 or 5 more cycles, you'll emerge a better person. The emotional journey you've been on has been nothing short of transcendent. You have almost evolved into a greater life form. Oh, and you'll have finished creating a pretty cool level, too.

Now that you can look back on this experience and laugh (or cry), you'll finally come to understand that after all the turmoil and all the pain, that the level was getting noticeably better with each iteration. The system works! Your peers' comments, critiques and suggestions (read: personal attacks) were not only important, they were instrumental in the creation of the level. You'll realize that you couldn't have done it without them. This realization will actually hit you hardest. You'll now know that there is no escaping the dreaded peer review. The next level you create, and the one after that, and the next... They will ALL be subjected to "the review".

Scary isn't it? It's not so bad. You've learned a lot. You've come so far. You've grown.

Hopefully, you'll keep all of this in mind during your next peer review.

I sure don't.

Annual Gaming Habits and Non-Nostalgia

I always stay up-to-date on my game releases, but there are also a lot of games that I return to, over and over again. I have a fairly long (and growing) list of games that I replay at least once a year. These are games that continue to be meaningful to me, and I am constantly comparing them to the brand new games that I play each week. And for me, they still hold a great deal of value. Any title that I'm willing to continue to play to this day stands tall even amongst the best modern games.

So, the question is: is this a form of non-nostalgia? It's not nostalgia if I am, in fact, not simply remembering a game that I used to enjoy playing, but am actively doing so, frequently?

Duck Tales Remastered comes out tomorrow, and the reviews are quite divisive, to say the least. Almost all of the reviews make reference to nostalgia. And depending on the tone of the review, will state that one's nostalgia will be either rewarded or punished.

Nostalgia is about someone having a fond memory of an event and a longing to experience again. So, if one continues with an activity, on a regular basis, they cannot feel nostalgic towards it, right?

Duck Tales just happens to be one of the games that play through at least once a year, and having played it within the past couple of months, I can say that it remains one of my favorite games ever! Without any nostalgic feelings towards the game, I feel well-equipped to try the new Remastered version and will judge it on its own merits.

I'm really looking forward to it!

Speaking of games that I play every year, some people have asked me for a list. So here it is. These are the games that I try to play at least once a year (in no particular order):

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (100% complete, ~3 hrs)
2. Super Mario World (*96)
3. Chrono Trigger (sometimes NG, sometimes NG+)
4. Final Fantasy III (VI)
5. Super Mario Bros 3 (No warp whistle playthrough)
6. Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers (~15 min)
7. Duck Tales (best ending playthrough)
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES) (Hard Mode)
9. Super Metroid (Speed run; current best 0:54)
10. Mega Man 2
11. Mega Man 3
12. Mega Man 4
13. Mega Man 5
14. Mega Man 9
15. Mega Man X
16. Mega Man X2 (all Zero parts)
17. Super Mario RPG
18. Metroid Prime (100%)
19. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (100%)
20. Contra III: The Alien Wars
21. Super Castlevania IV
22. Donkey Kong Country 2 (102%, current best 2:55)
23. Donkey Kong Country 3 (103%, current best 4:02)
24. Startropics
25. Adventures of Lolo
26. Adventures of Lolo 2
27. Kirby Super Star (100%)
28. Final Fight 2 (Hard, true ending)
29. ActRaiser
30. Star Fox 64 (single run, usually middle route)
31. Super Mario 64 (120 Stars)
32. Super Mario Sunshine (Story completion)
33. Super Mario Galaxy (120 Stars)
34. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (242 Stars)
35. Advance Wars: Dual Strike (Campaign + Hard Campaign)

Building a house for the devil to live in - designing DLC for Guacamelee!

Guacamelee! has been an amazing project to be a part of, easily the brightest highlight of my career so far.

For the game's initial release, I aided with some level design and designed and implemented the game's side-quests. Designing the DLC level for Guacamelee! was my first chance at creating a significant amount of content for the game from scratch. Creating DLC content for a Metroidvania game proved to be an interesting challenge, while also keeping in mind what the essence of Guacamelee! was, and how to best expand on its established mechanics and design ideals.

METROIDVANIA DLC?!

The first issue that had to be addressed, before planning and content creation could even begin, was figuring out exactly what DLC for a Metroidvania game could possibly be! I spent quite a lot of time during the pre-production phase of El Diablo's Domain thinking of how gameplay content could be added to such a meticulously crafted world.

A great Metroidvania game is so carefully put together with inter-connected areas filled with secrets and a carefully planned progression path, it would be irresponsible (and likely completely disastrous) to simply drop-in an additional level right into the middle of the world. You also have to be aware of the implications of adding additional collectible items to this extra level. Putting extra health and stamina pick-ups in a DLC area could throw the overall player growth out of line: having too many could make later parts of the game easier, and having none could make the area seem inconsequential and not worth the effort.

Ultimately, it was decided that the DLC level must not disrupt the game's overall progression path. We came to the conclusion that it would be best to present the new level as a "side area". With that much figured out, I very quickly came up with the concept that the new DLC level should provide the player with an opportunity to use and experiment with all of their abilities. Because, at its core, a Metroidvania game is about the character growing in power and expanding their abilities, I felt that it was important that the player be given a chance to let loose and put their personified "Swiss Army knife" to use.

Each of the challenge rooms of El Infierno features a focus on a very specific aspect of the character's abilities. Each one tests the player's familiarity of a specific ability and sometimes requires the player to think of new ways of using their abilities in ways that are never explored in the main game.

So... let's go ahead and drop in a new level right here, next to the windmill

NARRATIVE PREMISE

Simply having El Diablo's Domain accessible as a selectable menu item on the title screen was unacceptable, as it was important that the level have some narrative element and should feel like it is a believable and appropriate location in the world.

The question then becomes, are there any more stories still worth telling in the world of Guacamelee?

Luckily, the answer was an obvious yes. Guacamelee's world and lore is rich with interesting characters and stories, so there was plenty to start with. Guacamelee's Lead Animator, Augusto Quijano (who is responsible for the game's initial concept and storyline) suggested to me that the Diablo character's background and current predicament would be a great premise for the DLC chapter. I wholeheartedly agreed and we worked on fleshing out El Diablo and his domain, El Infierno (the Inferno, or Hell). The concept of interpreting El Infierno as a bureaucratic hell was quickly cemented as the premise for the area.

Figuring out where the entrance to the new level could be was easy. As if by divine foresight, a doorway had already been built into the game! Throughout the game, there are entrances that lead into Chac Mool, a mystical area based on Mesoamerican statuary. In these areas, the player finds special orbs that unlock the best ending of the game when they are all found. There are six orbs in total, five are found at Chac Mool locations and the sixth is held by the villain, Calaca.

Eagle-eyed players may have noticed that there was a sixth Chac Mool doorway in the Desierto Caliente that had been blocked off by a cave-in. This would serve as a perfect way to tie the Infierno area to the rest of the game.

As is true for the rest of the game, the visuals play a strong role in telling the story of El Diablo's Domain. There are some characters that the player can interact with, but the player can learn so much by paying attention to the little details found in paintings and signs throughout the Devil's Advocates law firm. The entire art team deserves credit for making the level truly come to life (in fact, direct that credit and adoration in these directions: Steph Goulet, Ben Thomas, and Gary Ye). The best example of this kind of visual storytelling is waiting for players who win enough gold medals and make their way up to the top of the tower.

The environmental art not only makes the level appealing, but it subtly tells a story as well

LEVEL DESIGN

Because El Infierno requires the player to use all of the game's abilities to complete, it quickly became apparent that it was a microcosm for the game as a whole. The player's progress is often blocked and requires specific abilities to overcome. This quickly became a necessity, as a player will not able to complete a challenge that requires an ability that they have not yet earned in the game. This meant that the placement of the challenge rooms had to be carefully planned out.

I didn't want to simply give the player every ability upon entering the new area, and take them away when they left. For one, the player would instantly have access to abilities that they are unfamiliar with, and wouldn't be able to effectively make use of them. When the player earns an ability in the game, the level design immediately makes smart use of it, teaching the player how to use the ability. The player needs to have that initial exposure to the abilities in order to be able to take on the new challenges of El Infierno. Basically, the main game is the primer, and El Infierno is the final exam.

Keeping with Guacamelee's gameplay structure, challenges are separated into two types: Platforming challenges and Combat challenges.

As a huge fan of platformers (easily my favourite genre), I was most eager to begin creating interesting platforming scenarios for the player to interact with. I especially love using mechanics and abilities in new and unique ways. For example, requiring the player to have to perform a combat move not to attack an enemy but to stall themselves in the air for just enough time to allow a hazard to pass. This methodology informed many of the decisions I made when designing the challenge room levels. The platforming challenges require the player to completely understand the extents of their abilities (to achieve the gold medals). Knowing just how far the jump can carry them, how high that uppercut can reach, and so on, is the key to achieving the highest ranks in the challenge rooms.

The combat challenges were designed to make the player think differently and employ new strategies in combat situations. Often, this was reinforced by limiting the player's abilities: taking away the dodge ability, or taking away the player's special moves. In these situations, the player is presented with enemies that cause the player to rethink their usual strategies and come up with new ways of dealing with these enemies, on the fly.

In addition, there are a few challenge rooms that put the player into completely new and unique situations. These take familiar elements (platforming, combat) but give the player different objectives and goals. These situations include: a combat arena where the goal is not to simply defeat all of the enemies, or a platforming section that is not just about player traversal. Both of these elements, actually, were created by David Rusak, who created and implemented some of the most truly unique parts of the level. These unique elements, however, still obey the established design rule that the challenges build upon the character's abilities and require an advanced understanding of them.

REWARDS

As mentioned earlier, a lot of thought had to go into deciding what would be appropriate to have as a reward for the player for completing the DLC area. Having power-ups such as health and stamina items could cause a dangerous ripple effect on the main game's progression. Of course, I wanted to offer something to the player.

Guacamelee's previous DLC gave players new costumes that offered new and interesting gameplay modifiers to the character. Each costume had a positive effect (greater damage output, regenerating life) and a negative effect (unable to restore health, weaker throw attacks). The intention is that they offered a unique type of strategy to the gameplay. What is important about these costumes, is that they offered a very over-arching enhancement to the player that could exist in tandem with the main game's character and level progression.

As the player plays through El Diablo's Domain, they will earn medals for completing challenges. There are three costumes to obtain, each one gated by earning specific medals. The first is earned when the player earns 10 bronze medals, the next for earning 10 silver medals, and finally, the last costume is earned when the player obtains 10 gold medals.

Additionally, El Infierno's storyline is wrapped up when the player passes the 10 gold medal threshold and reaches the top of the tower. For completionists, there are PSN Trophies to unlock for earning all of the available medals and using the unlocked costumes.

TROPHY CASE

Designing trophies is a lot of fun! I love it.

I believe that trophies/achievements are a good way of encouraging the player to experience all of a game's content. Good trophies subtly nudge the player towards better strategies and makes them want to try out all of a game's modes and settings. This approach was used as a basis for El Diablo's Domain's trophies. This is why there are three trophies dedicated to earning medals: a bronze trophy for earning all bronze medals, a silver trophy for earning all silver medals and a gold trophy for earning all gold medals. However, the remaining trophies are a lot more interesting.

The GOOOOOOOAL! trophy has players utilize the El Portero costume to clear two of the challenge rooms (10 and 15). El Protero is modeled after a well-known soccer goalie and has an advantage when throwing enemies (throws are more powerful and thrown enemies travel faster). The two challenges in question both revolve around the throw ability. Challenge 15 requires the player to continuously throw a chicken through an obstacle course and challenge 10 has players completing a combat arena without the use of the throw ability. This dual requirement exposes the player to both the advantages and disadvantages of the costume. Additionally, challenge 10 is enhanced by the fact that the player is without their strongest ability (El Portero's normal attacks are weaker than normal), requiring them to be even more crafty (and careful) with their approach to this challenge room.

The Devil wears Revenge! is a trophy that serves a narrative purpose. The devil's suit is obtained when players complete the Infierno tower, resolving the storyline. As one final bit of resolution, the player will defeat Calaca, the final boss, in the devil's suit, finishing Diablo's revenge against Calaca. This is an example of a trophy that provides an incentive for the player to experience and carry out part of the story themselves. This is much better than simple having an alternate cutscene play if the player finishes the game with that costume. Instead, the trophy subconsciously drives the player to finding an alternate narrative resolution.

Finally, The Old-Fashioned Way is probably my favourite trophy in the entire game. It tasks the player with completing challenge room 14 in a creative way. It requires the player to really know their character's abilities and the limits of those abilities. I won't go into any details here, but I'm sure some video walkthroughs will be appear online soon enough.

ADDRESSING DIFFICULTY

Difficulty is a tricky issue to tackle. Some players have commented that Guacamelee! was too difficult to begin with, so the idea of including extra content that is even more challenging would not be appealing at all.

A couple of things were done to address this: awarding bronze trophies for completing rooms, and having a reasonable threshold for acquiring the costumes.

When the player enters a challenge room, they are shown the requirements to earn each medal. The bronze requirement is almost always (with very few exceptions) "Finish", meaning that player need only complete the challenge to be awarded the bronze medal. While some challenges are more difficult than others, this makes the barrier to completion much lower and allows the player to focus on the task at hand and not worry about secondary requirements such as a time constraint or a combo score.

Secondly, the player is not required to earn medals in every challenge to earn the costumes. There are 17 challenge rooms and the player needs to collect 10 of each medal type. When the player earns a gold medal, they have earned a bronze and silver one as well. This gives the player the freedom to choose in which challenges they wish to go for gold. The player can focus on their strengths (platforming vs. combat, etc.) and can return to challenges they skipped over later.

Most importantly, is the fact that the area never outright blocks player progression. Unlike other parts of the game, the player is given a choice of room and can complete the rooms in any order, or even outright skip a room. If the player is unable to overcome a challenge in another area of the game, such as the Tule Tree level, then they have reached a wall, and will be stuck until they overcome the challenge (or, unfortunately, will outright quit). In El Diablo's Domain, the player is free to abandon any challenge at any time and can explore other areas of the tower if they become stuck on a specific challenge room.

The requirements for gold medals was set very high. This stems from a belief of mine that the player should attain a certain level of control mastery (not just pure reflexes, but knowing and understanding the nuances of the character's abilities) to earn the gold medal rankings. I will likely do an entire write-up on control mastery in the near future, as it is a topic that is near and dear to me.

With the design for El Diablo's Domain being focused on understanding and mastering the character's abilities, having something that was exclusionary was not the goal. In fact, the purpose was to achieve the exact opposite. There are so many cool moves that you can pull off in Guacamelee!, and executing those moves feels so good! The DLC was designed to give the player the opportunity to use these moves, and have them use these moves outside of the DLC. If players emerge from El Infierno with a few new techniques and tricks at their disposal, then it'll be a huge success.

WHO'S HOUSE? EL DIABLO'S HOUSE!

Overall, I'm very happy with how everything in the DLC turned out. El Diablo's Domain is a successful and (hopefully) fun addition to Guacamelee! that tries to challenge advanced players and gives the opportunity for all players to learn and appreciate the game's nuances and intricacies.

Also, as a final note, I believe that Guacamelee! is the first Metroidvania game to have DLC content (I haven't been able to think of, or find another example, maybe Cave Story? but I can't remember if that was actually released?). Figuring out how to approach DLC for a Metroidvania game, that was well integrated and narrative enhancing, was one of the best parts of the project.

Top 5 Commodore 64 Games

30 years ago this month was the release of the Commodore 64 home computer. The C=64, along with the Atari 2600, is where I got my start in gaming. What was special about the Commodore 64, though, is that it was not just what I started gaming on, but it is also what I started designing on. As young as 5 years old, I was building levels and designing games on a C=64.

I have a ton of great memories of the Commodore 64, and I'm going to share a few them in my list of the Top 5 Commodore 64 Games.

Honorable Mention:

Falcon Patrol 2 is a very good C=64 game. It's not one the best, though, so it doesn't quite make the list. What Falcon Patrol II is significant for is that it features one the first pieces of game music that I truly loved. I would load up this game just so I could listen to the title theme over and over.

I still love this theme, so simple and yet so powerful.

#5

With the Olympics having just wrapped, what better time to reminisce on one of my favorite sports games of all time: Summer Games II, by Epyx.

My favorite multiplayer game on the C=64, Summer Games II had eight different events that you could compete in against your friends. The best was the javelin throw, and I would just play that event over and over trying to beat my records. All of the events were played with a joystick and involved simple joystick motions and timed button presses. The cycling event had you rotating your joystick in a 360 degree motion (not unlike the torturous Mario Party minigames that would come 15 years later!) to pedal your bike in a head-to-head race against your opponent.

Once your finished competing in all of the events, you were even treated to a closing ceremony that included fireworks and a man flying a jetpack! Check it out in all its 8-bit glory:

This is the easiest game to obtain on the list, as it is currently available for the Wii as a Virtual Console title.

#4

It's no secret that platformers are my favorite videogames. I love platformers. I firmly believe that the jump is the single most important game action. Nothing is more fundamental than jumping. So, it is quite fitting that the C=64 has a very strong platformer titled Jumpman, which was followed by a sequel known as Jumpman Jr.

Gaming historians will likely be quick to point out that "Jumpman" was the name by which the hero of Donkey Kong was originally known as (who of course, would later be renamed Mario).

Jumpman Jr. is a really great platformer with solid mechanics and each level features a unique and interesting mechanic. You never know what to expect. You have to quickly figure out what the rules of the level are and react accordingly. Jumpman Jr. is a very difficult game, so don't let the video below fool you:

#3

An amazing and really unique game, Space Taxi is a joy to play. It features a simple premise: fly your spacecraft around several levels picking up a surly passenger and dropping him off where he asks. There are several numbered "pads" in each level. The passenger appears at one and will be asked to be taken to another. When you have dropped the passenger off at every pad, you are then instructed to take him "up" and into the next level.

What makes Space Taxi great, is the variety of gameplay features and mechanics that are introduced in each new level. While things start off simply enough, you'll quickly find yourself in levels with reverse gravity, radar-jammers that mess with your controls, raining meteorites and even puzzles that you'll have to solve before you can drop off your fare.

With so many unique levels, Space Taxi quickly became a fascinating game design study for me. It showed me how you can gradually introduce new rules and game mechanics as the player progresses through the game. This game was quite fundamental in my evolution as a young gamer and budding designer.

#2

While the actual title of the game is Trolls and Tribulations, the command to launch the game was "Trolls Tribulat" as shown above. I called the game "Trolls Tribulat" for the entirety of the 1980's (and much of the 90's).

Laughable title recognition aside, this is not only my second favorite Commodore 64 game, but one of my favorite games of all time. Trolls and Tribulations is an unsung classic. It is a difficult game that taught me the value of practice, precision and patience. The game also features a difficult-to-master technique that is never explained to you, and yet becomes absolutely vital if you want to progress beyond the first few levels. Trust me, though, that's a good thing.

Trolls and Tribulations is an action platformer that requires you to defeat enemies and collect keys to progress. Each level is made up of 5 "mazes". In this case, they are not truly mazes, but more sub-levels (the standard 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 level numbering scheme hadn't be popularized at this point, so the levels are named level 1 maze 1, level 1 maze 2, level 1 maze 3, etc.).

From a game design standpoint, the movement in Trolls and Tribulations is tile-based. This means that whenever you move your character you move one pre-defined tile length at a time. You cannot stop on a half-tile, you can only move in full-tile steps (one tile is also the width of the character sprite). When you jump, you jump over one full tile and land exactly two tiles from where you jumped. You can also perform a vertical jump to get to a ledge directly above you. Every move in the game is predictable and every movement requires precise planning and exact timing. It's absolutely beautiful.

What makes this game brilliant however, is a maneuver I call the "quick turn". I discovered it myself by playing the game repeatedly. I discovered that if you are quick enough you can actually take a half-step in one direction, turn and take a half-step in the opposite direction and wind up where you began, except you are now facing in the opposite direction. It doesn't sound like much, but it is a game changer. Also, when you reach Level 3 Maze 4, the game gives you a scenario that requires you to perform this move. It's not easy to pull off (I cannot reliably pull off the move 100% of the time). I have lost all of my lives and become game over on 3-4 more than any level in any other game, ever. It's that hard. The feeling that I got when I first completed 3-4 is unlike any achievement I've accomplished in a game since. And from that point onward, it only gets tougher. I absolutely adore the deceptive simplicity of this game.

The gameplay video below shows you the first few levels, which acts as a nice introduction to the game.

#1

Well, based on the description of Trolls and Tribulations at #2, you're probably wondering "what could possibly be at #1?" Well, how about the C=64 game that is the most responsible for me being a game designer today! At #1, we have... Wizard.

Originally developed and published by Progressive Peripherals & Software, it was later re-released by Electronic Arts as Ultimate Wizard (which most people know the game as). I own an original PP&G Wizard copy, and it is one my all-time favorite games.

Wizard is a platforming action game that features single-screen levels in which you must collect a key and bring it to a keyhole. By reuniting the key and keyhole you can progress on to the next level. The controls are super tight and there are more than 40 levels to complete (the EA "Ultimate" edition shipped with 100 levels). There is a variety of terrain, including angled staircases and slopes and several enemy types including spiders, ghosts, bats, witches and many more. Some people compare Wizard to Jumpman and Jumpman Jr., but Wizard is far more polished.

Wizard also gave the player special spells that could be used to destroy enemies (fireball, magic missile), avoid enemies (invisibility) or navigate the perilous levels (levitate, feather fall). The spells gave you additional ways of tackling certain levels. It's a ton of fun.

But what is truly amazing about Wizard is that it came with a level editor. At five years old, my little mind was blown at the thought of building my own levels. It was a complete revelation, and I have never been the same since. Simply called "Construction", this mode let you create levels from scratch. You can build terrain, one brick at a time. You can place treasures (and traps) and even create and place enemies around your level. You can alter the color scheme and name you creation. My first level was called: "Jason's haus" (I was five).

I have filled many 5 1/4" floppy disks with Wizard levels. I started making levels in the mid-80's and continued to do so well into high school (mid-late 90's). Wizard is not only an excellent game, it is one of the all-time most important games, to me.

The Commodore 64 was a great time in gaming, filled with influential and important game releases.

Happy 30th, Commodore 64!