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!

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.

TOJam: Post-Mortem

Two weeks ago was the Toronto Game Jam: TOJam 2012. If you've been reading my blog, you probably know all about it. If not, then check out the TOJam site for all you need to know about it.

TOJam was a great skill development opportunity and really brings developers back to a grass-roots, guerrilla-style development cycle. It was exhausting, challenging, and ultimately, very fulfilling. The weekend was full of ups and downs, and was a great learning experience.

Chris Regnier, Tim McLennan, Jeff Canam and I, were team Unskippable Cutscene. The game we worked on was called Quotidian Shift, a puzzle game presented as a monthly calendar where you must shift around days on the calendar to avoid apocalyptic scenarios by making sure those days don't happen in the timeline.

Here's an outline of what went right, and what went wrong during the TOJam weekend.

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What Went Right

1. Focused team of pros

The team was mostly made up of development professionals who have been making games for a few years, so we had a deep understanding of what we needed to accomplish and how we were going to do so. This also made communication between team members very easy, as we were all on the same wavelength.

2. Jeff's pixel art

What could have been a potential problem actually turned out to be the best part of the process. Jeff's pixel art was the big draw for our game. His images were beautiful, and were created with the most unlikely of tools (MS Paint, no less). For someone with no game design experience, Jeff produced assets on schedule and was a huge motivating force on the team. We couldn't wait to see what he'd be making next.

3. Project scope

Being experienced professionals, we knew how to keep our game's scope nice and tight. We didn't have any plans for an RPG combat system, dynamic enemy A.I., or customizable character equipment, we had a simple, and focused game experience outlined.

As a designer, I was able to immediately identify, and define, what kind of experience I wanted for the player and created a plan to bring that to life. The project wasn't too big or unmanageable.

4. No pressure

TOJam is a fun event, and we came to have fun! While the jam is an intense experience, it is not a competitive one. Everyone spends the weekend working towards the same goals and the atmosphere is pretty light. We really wanted to have something really great to show off at the end, but we knew that no matter what happened, we would be proud.

5. Managed to make some decent tools for the engine


By Sunday, some key components of the game engine had been completed and it became easier to put graphics and sounds into the game. Finishing these engine elements sped-up development significantly, but so much time was put into them in the first place (most of Friday and Saturday). Our goal was to create updates to Chris' engine that will help make it easier to develop future projects. A possible downside is that many of these features were too quickly "hacked in" and are were not created in the most efficient way possible.

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What Went Wrong


1. Worked on an engine; not on a game

We were using a completely custom-built game engine to build the game, and there was a lot of work that had to be put into that engine during the weekend. Even on Sunday, very little game logic had been put into the game; engine features were being refined and figured out.

The work that was done to the engine will prove to be very beneficial in the long term, though (see conclusion).

2 .First time jammers

Most of the team (Chris, Jeff and I), had never participated in a game jam before and some of us (mostly me) were unprepared for the physical and mental toll that this event would take on us.

Jeff and I had to commute to the event, and did not bring supplies (pillows, toothbrushes, etc.), and discovered that going back home would not be an option. This made the late nights (well into 3 or 4am) much harder to deal with. And our determination to pull an all-nighter during the first night was just a recipe for disaster (what a bad idea).


3. Not enough work for the designer

The concept was completed beforehand, but there was still a lot for me to do on the first day. I wrote a bunch of documentation and outlined an asset checklist for art and defined what features would be needed for the game.

Into the second and third days, however, there wasn't a ton of work for me to do. I was formatting game assets and creating sprite sheets from Jeff's art, as well as some minor scripting. I was acting as a facilitator for everyone else, doing whatever tasks I could do to make everyone else's lives easier. Still though, I was often left wondering what more I could do for the team, and could have been busier. Next time, I will come prepared to dive head-first into the game code and will pitch-in with the programmers.

4. No testing

The game was being worked on right up until the very end. Things really came down to the wire, so there was no time for any testing. As we continue work on the game, there will be a greater focus on testing, there was just no time for it at the jam.

5. Too much time spent on an unimportant feature

Sleep deprivation may be to blame for this one. A lot of time was spent working on getting a custom font system built into the engine. Of course, the realization that we didn't even really need a working font at all came far too late (after quite a few hours had already been spent on it)

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It's always great to test your limits and work within an extreme time constraint. It's a great way to learn some of the most important things when under stress: scope and priority. The most common problem that is encountered during a game jam is keeping the scope of the game tight and focused (it's all too easy for things to get out of hand and impossible to accomplish). The scope of our game was appropriate and we remain proud of what we were able to accomplish over the weekend.

TOJam was a fantastic experience and I personally feel better for having participated! I'll definitely be back next year, and every year from now on.

The story of Quotidian Shift is not over, though, as we're still at work on the game. So stay tuned for more updates!

TOJam: Delicious Fruits of Labour

It's been a very long Saturday, but Team Unskippable Custcene has been hard at work on our game Quotidian Shift, the puzzle game of daily life and the occasional end of the world.

After two days of hard work and a complete lack of rest, we have the first screens to show off, the game's Title Screen and the main game screen.

Quotidian Shift title screen, courtesy of Jeff Canam

Quotidian Shift: a calendar-themed puzzle game

All of the art for the game (the beautiful, beautiful pixel art) has been created by my brother, Jeff. It is very important to note, that all of the art for the game is being created in MS Paint. Just wrap your head around that.

Everything is going very well, and the art is turning heads (especially the process of making the art)!

Hopefully I'll be able to post some form of gameplay footage soon!

Stay Tuned...

TOJam: My terrible Idea to work through the night

So, the rally to work through the night... was a terrible idea. A terrible, terrible idea.

Around 4am, productivity not only reached zero, but I think we were actually becoming counter-productive.

Thanks to some rest, we're back at work on the game and feelin' pretty great.

TOJam is really fun when you're not super sleep deprived.

TOJam: And so, the madness begins

As May 11th draws to a close (it's 11:45pm local Toronto time as of this writing), we've decided that the best(?) thing to do is to stay and work all night, through the night.

As we continue to work late into the night, I've realized that since it'll take me 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get home, and I have to come back into town in about 8 hours (4 hours travel and 4 hours of sleep), I'm just better off staying all night.

We'll see how the night goes...

It'll either be brilliantly productive, or a hilarious decent into madness.

Art is still being produced (and even drawing some outside attention!), the programmers are working through engine issues, and I'm finalizing screen layouts, working on documentation and researching some useful tools to make some beautiful 8-bit music.

Hopefully that second will come along, just in time...

TOJam: First signs of progress

We're a few hours into TOJam, and ideas are (slowly) turning into tangible assets.

The theme of this year's TOJam is "The world is NOT ending".

I have designed a time-shifting puzzle game that involves defying apocalyptic predictions and ensuring that the end of the world never happens. The game design is fleshing itself out as I write the design documentation.

The title of our game is "Quotidian Shift". And here's a small taste of what's to come:

The one-room apartment of the protagonist Steve Salaryman

Nuked. Here's one of many possible apocalypses that you have to make sure never happens

The game is played on a monthly calendar and the player must shift and move around dates on the calendar as our "hero", Steve Salaryman lives his life. You have to make sure that he doesn't go to sleep one night and wake up the next in a horrible, ruined reality.

Stay tuned for more updates!

TOJam 2012: The Sevening

And so, on the afternoon of May 11th, 2012, the Toronto Game Jam (TOJam) begins.

TOJam is a three day event where game developers (from professionals to amateurs to freelancers) get together to create games over a three day period. It's a feverish rush of creativity and number crunching.

As our team, Unskippable Cutscene, works through the weekend, I'll try to post as many updates as I can. Hopefully, it will shed some light on the highs and the lows of a (very) condensed game development cycle.

Now that we've officially started, here's what's going on:

The first short term goal for me, as the game designer, is to complete the game documentation (a complete outline of what the game will be and how we will create it) for when the programmers arrive (they guys will be actually building the game). I am also working with my brother Jeff, who is doing all of the pixel art for the game, on getting the look and feel of game ironed-out.

There's a ton of ideas floating around and it's my job to take everything, condense it into some useful information for the team and plan out our development process and strategy.

As of right now, things are looking very good, but the task is still quite intimidating!

What are we in for?!?!

Stay tuned...

Indie Game: The Movie - Review

Last night, I attended the Canada-wide premiere of Indie Game: The Movie. The film was broadcast via satellite to theaters all over the country, and while there were a couple of (minor) interruptions (due to a bad thunder storm), I was very impressed with the film. The premiere of the movie was followed by a Q&A session with the directors (and first time filmmakers) James Swirsky and Lisane Pajot, and Phil Fish, creator of the recently released indie game Fez.

Indie Game: The Movie offers a very up-close and personal look into the lives of some of the most high-profile modern independent game developers. The film does a great job of communicating the emotional, psychological and physical toll that comes with making an independent game.

For those who may be curious about how games are made, the film does give the viewer some small glimpses into the process. There is some insight shown into what went into making games like Fez, Super Meat Boy and Braid. Through interviews with the creators, you get a nice view of the nuts and bolts of what goes into the game and there are even some great discussions about theories on game design. Even more important to the film, though, are the stories of how and why people like Phil Fish and Edmund McMillan (one half of Team Meat, who created Super Meat Boy) got into making games. Hearing stories about their motivations and inspirations are what make this film great.

The heart of the film really is the personalities behind the games. You really do get great insight into their lives. You get to see the pressures and adversities that they face. The film acts as both an inspiration and a warning: yes, making games is very rewarding, but you had better be ready for the immense pressure that you'll feel and the sacrifices that you will have to make to get your game finished.

For me, the best part of the film was getting to know these indie gaming personalities much better. Some of these guys, like Jonathan Blow and Phil Fish are known to make controversial statements. It was really great to see what these guys are going through. In a way, the film did a great job of humanizing them. These guys are my some of my heroes, and have long been deified in my eyes. It was interesting to see them for who they really are: just people. In seeing that they are "just regular guys", I obtained this new-found respect for these extremely talented, dedicated, and even flawed personalities. These guys are just as prone to breakdowns and loss of temper as anyone else, including myself.

As film, Indie Game: The Movie is terrific. It is beautifully shot and very well cut. There some very inspired shots in the film and you really get to see some very raw moments. The film features the story of the development of both Fez and Super Meat Boy and it does a great job of juggling both stories. Because of some technical issues, about 2 minutes of the film was missed, but other than that completely minor (and completely independent of the film itself) gripe, I have absolutely no criticisms of film. Then again, I am the exact target audience for this movie.

The post-film Q&A session revealed that the filmmakers are currently working with HBO on developing a series based on the film. I am completely overflowing with joy at the thought. A series that profiles and spotlights independent game developers would really be amazing! As James Swirsky mentioned during the Q&A session: there are some films about the medium of video games that exist out there, but they mainly focus on either the business itself, or the players (stories of obsession). I completely agree, and am glad to see that this film was not only made, but that it turned out as excellent as it did.

Based almost entirely on the subject matter, this is easily one of my favorite documentary films I've ever seen. But I do want to stress to everyone else that this is an excellent film. Even with the context completely removed, this is a truly beautiful human-interest film that anyone who feels passion about a particular subject (whether it is art, film, games, or anything else) should see.

Getting Player Feedback: Reactions vs Comments

As a game designer, I always keep in mind that I create games not for myself, but for others. What I enjoy most is the process itself, the development. But the end product? That's for everyone else!

Keeping that in mind, I always allow myself to be open to feedback from players. The only way I can create the best experiences for people to enjoy, is to hear from them what they want. But what I've discovered is that people tend to not tell you what they really want, well not directly, anyway.

Game balancing is one of the most important, and rewarding, parts of my job. This is the process of making small (and sometimes large) adjustments to gameplay elements to tweak the game's difficulty and ease-of-use. This process is not possible without outside feedback obtained by allowing people to play the game.

There are a couple different ways that I have participated in which to receive and process this information:

• Gameplay Survey: players play through a section of the game (most often a demo or vertical slice of the game) and complete a follow-up questionnaire.

• Usability Test: Having a player play the game while the designer (and other developers) observe. In my experience, the play session is recorded and then watched later. This is usually followed by a brief interview with the player to get their thoughts and comments.

These are two very effective means of getting feedback from your game. In my experience, one has proven to be more useful to me, as a Game Designer than the other. I personally, much prefer the second option: the Usability Test, and I'll explain why.

There are outside factors that can alter a person's responses; someone may not answer truthfully because of a fear of being embarrassed, or being perceived as "dumb". This is most common when asking people if they found the game was too difficult. I've observed play sessions where a player is stuck at point and is visibly frustrated, yet during the post-session interview, when asked if they were ever stuck or had any trouble, the person answers: "Nope. I had no trouble at all!"

Because I was able to watch the player as they were playing, I was able to see the part in which they actually did get stuck (and this was seen repeatedly across multiple test sessions with different players), I was able to identify a potential problem with the design and could think about ways to improve it. The part in question was a specific puzzle that did give the player enough information to logically deduce a solution, trial and error became the only effective method to solve it. Thanks to the information from the play sessions, I was able to identify and fix a problem before release.

Game balancing and testing is a very important part of the design process that must not be overlooked. My experience has taught me that by letting people play your game and by watching how they play, you can learn more about how your game plays than by simply asking them: "So, how was it?"

As with all disciplines of development, a game designer must remain diligent, focused and proactive.