“The games developer Howard Scott Warshaw has openly embraced the attention his game has received negative or not, he’s just happy it’s still talked about.”

The answer as proven by the documentary crew on the 26^th of April, yes Atari did buried the unsold E.T. cartridge among some other titles. Over 700,000 cartridges were exhumed form the landfill site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The one thing that I can’t get my head around with all the news coverage on this issue is why this is such a big reveal. A company deposing unsold or faulty merchandise in a landfill is not all that unusual. Of course over time the story has been elaborated on and given an altered narrative. The story of a company so ashamed of their failure that in the dead of night they buried the games in the middle of the desert and sealed it off with concrete to forever entomb the worst video game ever made. The real story is far more mundane that sees a company bury merchandise in a standard landfill close to the company warehouse and seal it with concrete to stop local kids trying to dig it up. In fact if the documentary crew had done a bit of research they would have found a New York Times article archived from September of 1983 that reported on the dumping of the cartridges at the New Mexico landfill site. I have to wonder how Fuel Entertainment the documentary crew behind all this is going to produce a full length feature out of it. Microsoft believes in it so much so that they partnered up with the crew for the event and will be releasing the documentary as part of their new Xbox Originals programme series, set to start up next month.

“What couldn’t be sold in 1983 might find some interested buyers in 2014, with the unearthed cartridges planning to be sold off.”

It’s almost comic how excited the video game community was over the discovery of some rubbish Atari threw out over 30 years ago. What’s next the mystery of what happened to all those Nokia N-gage’s that were shipped but never sold or riffling through the dumpster at Valve to find any mention of Half Life 3. Not to say that the documentary crew’s efforts were wasted but why finding these cartridges was such a massive reveal, puzzles me when all that was exposed was a company following standard procedure in finding a cheap way to dispose of unwanted merchandise.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Atari’s Garbage is Big News Apparently? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The Xbox One has been steadily lagging behind its rival the PS4 since the launch of the two consoles in November of last year.  Sony have got the jump on Microsoft this time around are looking to be the console of choice among gamers for the current generation. However with so many variables to many of the facts and figures surrounding next-gen console sales it really isn’t fair to say that the Xbox One lost the console war. Latest PS4 sales figures as of February state that 5.3 million units have been sold, whereas as of January the latest figures available for Xbox One sales put Microsoft’s console at just over 3 million. Granted with the boost in sales from the release of Titanfall this number will have jumped significantly, more than likely nearer 4-5 million at this point. This is one of the many problems when trying to extrapolate any argument for which console is more successful.

“The PR war of words has been going strong ever since the consoles were announced early last year and it hasn’t abated since.”

Microsoft in particular has been very cagey about releasing console sales numbers, probably due to the fact they just haven’t managed to sell as many units as its rival. Yet this leads to the other problem with using sales figures as a measurement of success due to the fact that the PS4 has a wider global reach than its competitor. The PS4 is available in 57 regional markets, whereas the Xbox One is only available in 13 with an expansion to a further 26 markets promised by the end of 2014. If you are to approach it from purely a financial viewpoint again it is difficult to compare the two, with the Xbox One featuring a higher price point then the PS4. Breakdowns of the two consoles internals suggest that the PS4 is slightly more costly for Sony to produce meaning that Microsoft makes more of each unit sold. However such cost analysis is purely speculative with consoles traditional been sold at a loss, the manufactures usually recouping their investment with third party licensing deals.

“The consoles hardware is irrelevant as it is the software on the devices that count, who has the better line up of games is the true determining factor.”

This is where a deal with Respawn Entertainment to make their game exclusive for the Xbox One comes into play. It is the sales of a game like Titanfall and the subsequent increase in Xbox Live subscriptions that determine success as far as the Microsoft executives are concerned. The first task with a new console release is to accumulate a large enough user base that they can use to negotiate better licencing deals with publishers and developers. The same goes for Sony who might see a significant boost in PS4 sales with the release of their exclusive title Infamous: Second Son. It’s interesting that Infamous: Second Son like so many of Sony’s exclusives is only available on the PS4. Whereas for any PC gamer Titanfall is readily available, how many lost sales of Xbox One consoles are accrued from this fact? Taking into account that Titanfall sits on top of the PC games sales charts there is a sizeable number of gamers, who might have been forced to buy a new console to play the game.  EA on the other hand need a game like Titanfall on the PC, in order to attain more legitimacy to their digital distribution platform Origin. That has been trailing behind its competitor Steam since it launched over three years ago.

“Which exclusive title will prove to be the bigger draw, open world superhumans or FPS mechs?

The console war has only been raging for less than six months at this point and early reports would suggest that the PS4 is coming out on top. Granted from a quick observation of the sales figures it is clear that Sony has sold more console, but it is not so easy to declare a winner based on such facts. The myriad of other factors that play into the analysis of sales figures can allow anyone to massage the numbers to achieve a desired result. This is what has led to the PR battle between the two companies with both sides manipulating the figures to make one seem better than the other. At the end of the day it is clear that both consoles have done very well and will likely see continued growth in the near future with games like Watchdogs, Destiny and Elder Scrolls Online all on their way this year. The only clear fact that can be drawn from all these figures is that with a yearlong lead on its competitors and just under 6 million units sold. Nintendo and their WiiU are set to be the biggest losers in the current console war.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Titanfall and the future of Xbox One appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“For a seasoned developer with a half decent Kickstarter pitch, money does grow on trees.”

Broken Age is a perfect example of this where Tim Schaffer a developer with a long illustrious career in the video game industry made a pitch for peoples support. His pitch involved creating an old school point and click adventure like the ones his known for such as Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island. Not really pushing the boat out in terms of innovation. Not to say that Kickstarter is alone in this regard to this practice, the major publishers work on the very same principle and not just in regards to video games but the movie industry as well. The point is that Kickstarter and crowd funding are not a new revolution in video game funding, in fact they are more akin to traditional publishing then most people realise. Just like traditional publishing agreement a lump sum of money will be given to get the project of the ground. The project then remains relatively closed off only open to those who invested in the project. Those investors or backers will often put pressure on the developer to complete the game and are reticent to give more money until they see a finished product. The one major difference between the two methods of funding is that a traditional publishers will receive royalties on the games sales whereas backers are left with a t-shirt, poster, signed print, etc.

“Chris Roberts crowd funded game Star Citizen has a lot to live up to with a $38 million budget sourced so far.”

Crowd funding is a good idea it will just take a number of years to work out the kinks in the system. One issues is the budgeting and clarity in the use of the finances received. In a traditional publishing deal the games budget will be worked out before hand and agreed upon between the two parties. If the budget goes over which many games do, it is accounted for in the original contact or the developer is forced to release early. Tim Schafer set an initial budget of $400,000 for Broken Age, he received over $3 million. Yet this still wasn’t enough and he was forced to spilt the game into two parts, using the sales of part one to fund development on part two. Last week’s article discussed The Banner Saga which was also a Kickstarter project. They asked for an initial amount of $100,000 and received over $700,000. A comparison of the two games that share a very similar gameplay length and an equally high level of hand drawn animations, make you wonder how Stoic achieved what they did with a budget four time less than that of Double Fine. What did Tim Schaffer spend all that money on? This is the sort of question a traditional publisher with legitimate financial control would be asking. Some have looked to help backers understand the production process such as VFX wizard Freddie Wong with his Kickstarter for the second season of Video Game High School. In his Kickstarter pitch he include a breakdown of what costs go into a major production like his. Honesty and clarity is the one thing sorely missing from many Kickstarter projects. Traditional publishers always have a contract with the developers to keep things in check, but what can a backer do if the product isn’t what they had been promised or where simple swindled out of their hard earned cash?

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Kickstarter Good or Bad? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The first series of Let’s Play videos that I came across, was a Minecraft player and his channel CallMeKevin (originally zXNoRegretzzXz). Some may be familiar with his ‘How To Annoy People?‘ series. That featured Kevin playing the character of the hapless Call of Duty player purposely causing strife for his fellow teammates. His Minecraft Let’s Plays followed the same trend of many others, building stuff and fighting mobs all the while rambling on in a comic manner. After watching his videos I went to the Minecraft website to pick up a copy of the game myself. The videos definitely been the reason for my purchase, having never seen the game beforehand. The interesting thing is that prior to owning the game, I found the videos engaging. Mainly due to the commentators likeable personality that come across in his videos or maybe a bit of national bias for a fellow Irishman. However after I bought my own copy of Minecraft, I found that I couldn’t make it two minutes into one of his videos before I stop watching and started playing Minecraft for myself. It was far more enjoyable to play the game instead of watching someone else play the same game. This is the one negative aspect that I find with Let’s Play videos. In the same way I much prefer to play a game of darts or snooker, rather than watch someone else play. Although if Phil “The Power” Taylor did a running humorous commentary during his dart matches I might give it a watch.

“The Yogscast series of Let’s Play videos started out as How To Guide for the game, but soon evolved into a scripted narrative that helped popularize the game.”

Not to say that I have gone cold turkey on Let’s Plays, they still make up the vast proportion of my daily YouTube viewing. The issue that arises from this is that if I watch a Let’s Play for a game that I don’t own, I more than likely will never own that game. Watching an extensive amount of gameplay footage in a Let’s Play video in particular videos featuring indie games, makes me less likely to want to play those games. For the main fact that after watching the video I have experienced a sizable proportion of the game. There are exceptions to this of course but for the most part I find that watching Let’s Play’s spoils any chance of a future purchase of that game. Slender: The Eight Pages was a cult hit a number of months ago. However I never played the game myself as it was far more entertaining to watch other people play it and their startled reactions.

As I mentioned above this is a subjective view of Let’s Play videos and their effects on my gaming habits. However as I argued in the previous article, to what degree are Let’s Plays responsible for the sales of certain games. Minecraft was a game that I bought as a direct result of watching others play the game, but how many more games would I have bought if I hadn’t’ have spoilt them by watching Let’s Plays. The one thing that is guaranteed is that the phenomenon is not going away anytime soon, even with all the current commotion around YouTube series of content ID claims. Let’s Play videos draw in some of the biggest audiences on the website and I’m sure Google won’t want to let view count drop.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: The Issue of Let’s Play appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Naturally with Christmas been associated with gift giving, video games have always been to go to gift for any gamer writing their list to old St. Nick”

Like most Christmas themed additions, adding a snow level or dressing the main character in a Santa suit seems to suffice. Many games release holiday themed content to help promote their game, World of Warcraft features a host uniquely winter themed loot in their annual “Feast of Winter Veil” in game event. The popular 90’s title Lemmings regularly featured Christmas demos, were all the Lemmings wore Santa suits and had to traverse across snowy environments. However there are a rare few that actually went a little further than most. Daze Before Christmas puts the player in Santa’s boots, tasked with destroying the evil snowmen who have taken his elves and reindeer hostage. The game even features the Anti-Claus, I never realised there was one. Kris Kringle’s devilish coffee drinking twin, who uses his sack of toys to beat over the heads of his enemies. Of course it was up to the Lapland adjacent Norwegians to develop this game. The Oslo based Funcom, the studio behind the game. Strangely it was only are Antipodean brethren in Australia that had a chance to play the game. Marketing a Norwegian developed Christmas game to a country where it is high summer in December without a flake of snow in sight, seems a bit odd to me. A SNES port did eventually make its way to Europe but only released in Germany.

“The publisher Sunsoft at that time was running into financial difficulties, which might explain the limited release of the game.”

Texas based Telegames also had a go at turning Father Christmas into a video game hero, in their 2002 GameBoy Advance title Santa Claus Saves the Earth. The player must help Santa escape the realm of the evil fairy Nilam, so as not to leave the children without present on Christmas morning. Where Nilam fits into the traditional Christmas narrative, I’m a little unclear. Telegames does deserve some credit for having a go, Christmas just isn’t as popular in video game as it is in other mediums. Sure many developers will release the odd bit of Christmas DLC now and again, but a fully-fledged Holiday themed game is just not seen as a viable option. If a developer is willing to take a risk, there is a niche market waiting to be exploited. This the season to spend money and so why not spend some on a Christmas themed game. We’ll just have hang up are stocking and hope where not left with a lump of coal or the disaster that is Ashes Cricket 2013.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Christmas and Video Games appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Which one will I chose a game where I run around shooting at a number of rival gang members or nuking entire Civilizations into the ground.”

Of course I’m being facetious and don’t really think I need to go to rehab for video game addiction. Although I would wonder in our current nanny state society that such clinics could soon exist. The Dutch have already implemented such clinics in Amsterdam, to help gamers who have just spent too many hours behind the keyboard or controller. I just can’t understand why this game continues to draw me in. I love Rockstar and every game they have produced, I was buzzing with excitement prior to the release of GTA V. When I received the game in the post, I tore the shrink-wrap of the case and booted up my console. After sitting through an hour or two of installations, eventually I got into the game and a peculiar thing happened. Although I was enjoying the game, I wasn’t fully engaged with it or overly compelled to continue to play. Whether it was the narrative or the gameplay, or the fact that it was one o’clock in the morning and I was becoming a bit drowsy. I found it hard to force myself to get back into the world of Los Santos and instead would start up a game of Civilization V.

“The Steam Workshop has made installing mods to the game much easier, therefore extending the longevity of the game.”

Personally I think that Civilization’s turn based gameplay is the key reason for its addictiveness. There is no obvious end point to a game of Civilization, like any game there are certain victory conditions that can be accomplished in order to win the game. However to reach that point can involve many hours of gameplay with the player given the option to continue even after they win the game. The player has to decide when to end the gaming session, this is where my addiction to Civilization takes hold. When I get into a prolonged session, I start to tell myself that I have to quit soon enough as the sun is beginning to rise over the horizon and it’s time to get some sleep. Everything in Civilization is determined by the number of turns it will take, whether it is researching technologies or moving troops into battle. It becomes a case of how many turns until you quit, the mantra “I’ll quit after the next turn” sums up my feelings at the four to five hour point of a gaming session.

“I dread to think what the playtime is for all my years playing Civilization, for the current game in the series it sits at 173 hours”

Although I have since gone back to GTA V and completed it, I still find myself drawn back to Civilization. Probably due to GTA Online being unplayable for weeks after its launch. On numerous occasion I have tried to play and only had my fun spoil by the game crashing. Now I don’t know if it is a problem with Rockstar’s servers or my badly aging console, but it is enough to sour my mood and send me back into another empire building Civilization binge session. The latest Football Manager was released at the end of last month and may well be the solution to my Civilization addiction. Although it’s more a case of just replacing one addiction with another, all I know is for some strange reason GTA V is not as alluring to me as its predecessors. If a Rockstar title is failing to satisfy my video game addiction as well as some other titles, there something wrong. I have to seriously revaluate my life as a gamer, video game therapy here I come.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Sidenote: My Obsession with Civilization appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Rockstar have dealt with violent torture in their previous series Manhunt, with the sequel initially being banned in both Ireland and the UK”

The player assumes the role of the slightly psychotic, mean tempered and twisted philosopher Trever Philips. In order for Trevor to extract the information from Mr K who has the misfortune of knowing the wrong people. The player is offered an array of hardware to choose from in order to cajole Mr K into giving up the target pliers, a wrench, a car battery etc. all inflicting more pain then the last. The graphic nature of these various methods of torture start to cross a line between excessive violence and a snuff film. When all is said and done and the terrorist has being taken out, Trevor helps Mr K escapes and drives him to the airport. On the way Trevor expresses his opinion on the effectiveness of torture as a means of gathering information and that it is really just a way for America to demonstrate its power. This is the punch line we’ve being waiting for, Rockstar’s comments on the US stance towards torture including the very controversial method of waterboarding which the player can inflict on Mr K if they so choose.

“At some point you just wish Mr K would stop being hesitant with the information so that you can just end the torture session”

However is the long drawn out torture session that the player must complete in order to pass the mission worth it for those few satirical line uttered by everyone’s favourite violent sociopath. I’m not so sure, I have replayed the mission in order to perfect it which involves inflict every method of torture available on Mr K. I feel that it is just a tad excessive especially for the fact that Mr K isn’t quite clear with his descriptions of the target which means the torture session is prolonged longer than it should. Rockstar have always looked to use their games as a vehicle for socio-political satire and I’m not surprised they looked to tackle this issue. I just wonder if they could have played the scene out a little more tactfully, maybe a Reservoir Dogs style cut-away to imply the torture is taking place but not have to show it. It’s just one controversy in what has become an ongoing tradition for the most controversial gaming franchise in the industry and will unlikely turn too many people away from future Rockstar games.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Sidenote: Has Rockstar Gone Too Far? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Boss battles were always fun, you actually got swallowed up by the whale and had to avoid getting hit on the head with water droplets”

The games story involves a sneaker clad Kiwi called Tiki who has to save his girlfriend and his other Kiwi friends from the evil clutches of a malevolent leopard seal named Wally. Personally I have always thought Tiki looked more like a baby chick then a Kiwi bird, where’s his distinctive long beak. The game itself does offer some variance on the side-scrolling genre with the addition of multiple vehicles that can be used to fly around the level. The levels themselves are not in the traditional linear pattern that most side-scroller’s follow, but instead are laid out like a maze that often can only be navigated by the use of the balloons, blimps, UFO’s or other various means of airborne transport. The game offered a reasonable level of difficulty although honestly from what I remember of playing it, I don’t think I made to the end and saved all my Kiwi brethren. Admittedly I was very young at the time and continual failing over and over didn’t seem to bother me as much as I know it would now. The novelty of whizzing round the levels on a balloon dodging projectiles was enough for me, how things were simpler back then. This is a game made by a Japanese company so the art design reflects that cultural influence. Relatively speaking I think it still holds up in all its 2D pixelated glory and who can argue against vampire cats, bears in aviator gear or koalas wearing sunglasses. Obviously nobody told the games creators that koalas were from Australia, with some enemies even using boomerangs as projectiles.

“The final boss was often mistakenly viewed as a Walrus instead of the intended Leopard Seal, although calling him Wally doesn’t help clear things up”

For those of you wishing to take on the role of a revenge fuelled Kiwi, there no need to go searching eBay for Amiga relics that are often overpriced. There are countless emulators that will allow you to play this arcade classic with MAME a good choice for those with a penchant for classic arcade titles. I’m sure many of you will have never played this game let only played it on an Amiga PC, but for me it was the start of a fixation with video games that has continued for the last twenty years.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Sidenote: The New Zealand Story appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The game is built with the source engine which definitely adds to the Portalesque feel to the game”

The game revolves around the exploration of a rundown abandoned building that places many hazardous and seemingly impossible to navigate challenges in front of you. You start out in a room trapped with impassable pile of rubble in front of you and it would seem there is no way out, that is until you spy through your very fetching spectacles that you carry in your hand. Through the eyepiece you can see what appears to be the previous state of the room before the unexplained apocalypse caused the building to fall into disrepair. Then by using your one power you can temporarily open a gateway to the past and easily navigate the once obstructed path and that pretty much sets you on your way with multiple rooms of obstacles and challenges that can only be navigated by dipping in and out of the past. The one thing that held my attention throughout the game which is beautifully rendered, with the eerie decrepit building really setting the scene for the game but I have to say it was the looping animation on the characters hand that kept drawing my eyes away from the rest of the level. I don’t know if it some sort of lava lamp type affect, but I could not stop looking at the hypnotising motion. I’ve rarely seen such a smooth animation for a hand in an FPS game. The game was created as part of the academic course at the University so it’s only a short demo but the basic gameplay mechanics and unique visual concept could be expanded out into a fully fledged game.

“Everything looks better through rose tinted glasses or in this case magical blue tinted see into the past glasses”

The game was created by a group of student from the Singapore campus of DigiPen University under the team name Minus5 they include Zoel Gan, Ravindran Mark, Tan Chee Ming, Chan Sin Huan, Leau Tat Sin and Zou Xinru. The games creators have a little bit of a vanity streak by placing themselves in the game as portrait caricatures that hang on the walls and can be collected to unveil a hidden secret within game. The Minus5 team give some insight into the game development process in this interview which you should read if you want to find out more. You can also download the game from the DigiPen Game Gallery and see what you think about it.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Sidenote: Entering the Void appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“A relative comparison between the two works out pretty evenly, my advice just flip a coin to decide.”

The real point I’m trying to get across here is that you have to think of the long term lifetime of these devices. If you look at the lifespan of the previous generation we have at least half a decade or more before well see the PS5 or gods knows what Microsoft will call the next Xbox. With live TV integration on the Xbox Microsoft is looking to the future not just the immediate time we are in now, just cast your minds back to the original Xbox360 and how horrible and featureless its dashboard was as compared to today. PS4 went as far as to make a parody of the furore that is surrounding Microsoft second-hand gaming policy but what everyone is missing is that in 5 to 10 years will we even have physical media I certainly hope not, you only have to look down any Irish high street to see that shops selling physical video game media are dead and gone. Microsoft are trying to drag us albeit kicking and screaming into the future where all games are in digital form whereas PlayStation are still clinging to the past.

“In an ideal world Sony & Microsoft would come together to make one console and stop the fighting, one can only dream of such a device.”

Personally I could see the war between the two consoles ending the same as it did the last time, with everyone tied to their particular system through achievements, trophies or online subscriptions the market shares will remain as they were with the Xbox dominant in the US and the PlayStation doing well in its home market in Asia and Europe being split 50/50. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what anyone says about one console versus the other it is your own personal choice that doesn’t need to be justified to anybody. It’s a question of what games you want to play whether you prefer Nathan Drake over Master Chief or Marcus Fenix over Kratos, and if that is too difficult a choice then you could always just buy a WiiU and then you won’t have to worry about defending your console against the rest as its universally agreed that Nintendo have surrendered and lost the war.

N.B* None of this really matters anyway as the PC beats them all hands down. Thank you Steam for your ridiculously cheap games.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Sidenote: Xbox One vs PS4 appeared first on Game Design Ireland.