GDW Progress 4 (Sad Violin)

Oh yeah, gotta love the feeling of hopelessness. One week left until GDW is due, one more week until Design HW2. Apparently I hear we may get an extension for Design HW2, regardless I still don't know how I will pull through for the rest of the semester.

Let's start with Design Homework. I received my mark for HW1, and all I can say is that it is not pretty. 35% by my standards is not a good mark, at all. Guess what the average was, 32%! So you may say, "Congratulations Mario, you received 3% higher than the class average!" I would respond, "It would be foolish to base my success on everyone else's success. If everyone suddenly became stupid, should I gloat about my intelligence, when in contrast to the old average intelligence, I was not too far from the average?" Apparently we were to include research on our work, as stated in the syllabus. Only problem is that I almost never look at a class syllabus, as I assume that it contains the usual class schedule, how to behave in class, yada yada. I figured that anything that pertained to the homework, would be in the homework document. Oops, I guess not. Rather than blame the professor for my stupid ASSumption, I've decided to take this as a learning experience to ask more questions... even in despite that I already ask more questions than the average idiot. Regardless, it wasn't just the lack of stated research that lowered my mark. Apparently on part one, where I was to explain how to convert mature games like Batman Arkham Asylum, Rock Band, and Unreal Tournament into something kid friendly. For that I received 0/5 for research (obviously), but more interestingly, I received a 1/5 for communication, and a 1/5 for Design. Huh, interesting. Apparently the "first off, secondly, thirdly, lastly" structure is no good anymore. I recall in Technical Communications (an elective course I took in 1st year, 1st semester to improve my writing skills), making your document as concise and simple as possible is the best way. Fluffy and repeated sentences are the worst thing you can do to your reader. Now for design, I guess my ideas were no good. For example, in my explanation to turn Rock Band into a kid's game, I explained that the best thing to do is to tone down the dark aesthetics, and to play only kid-friendly music like Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber. There exists Lego Rock Band, which I think is the best way to rid the dark overtone, and introduce a style that kids can enjoy. What more can I say? Those two sentences alone should be enough to explain my position, no? I guess not.

Now the GDW. Everything that has to do with my game can be seen below.

Good God...

Doesn't that look fantastic?! A black screen! That's right, my group and I still don't have a functioning game. Throughout the semester, I've been programming an engine for the game to allow implementation of the assets (models, sounds, etc.) to be quick and painless. Only problem is that this venture has been taking me too long. So far I have created a mouse, keyboard, window, light, sound, 2Dtexture, camera, 3Dmodel, vector, and linear physics system. I was in the middle of creating a matrix class called rotation, only to realize that I will not finish the engine in time to make the game.

My beautiful incomplete engine class list.

In case you don't know, my group started the game a semester late, since we all broke off our old groups from last semester. Thus we had to create a new game from scratch. I volunteered to be the lead programmer, since I figured that I can utilize the skills I've gained from making the world's stupidest game, "Happy Culture Shootout". I spoke to my professor, Prof. Hogue, a few days ago, explaining my position with the GDW. He suggested  for me to stop building the engine, and to make the simplest, most bare-bone design for a racer; slot-car racing, similar to Rad Racer for the NES.

Difference between this game and our game, is that our game will hopefully be finished in one week. Hah...

I believe that completing such a dry, bare-bones game is realistic. However, I'm scared to see what kind of mark we will get in the design class, as little design can be implemented into the game, especially thanks to the remaining time we have. Apparently we are supposed to include all of last semester's requirements in the game, like the A* search algorithm, particle system,  matrices and quaternions, forward kinematics, morphing, behaviors, interpolation, etc. But given the time we have, it's very unlikely that we can do any of them; we may be able to do the particle system if we're lucky.

But what's more frightening for the GDW is all the design documents we need to supply. I am literally ready to cringe into a fetal position just upon the thought of the expectations.

1) Concept Design Document: Describes everything about the game. I have a feeling how long of a document we will generate for that (obvious sarcasm).
2) Technical Design Document: Since I'm the lead programmer, guess who knows all the game's algorithms best? Me! I'll have to go into detail on how every class and algorithm used in the game works. I'll also have to supply a UML diagram (which Visual Studio can generate automatically, so Visual Paradigm and its painfully tedious UML system can go to hell), but also I'll have to create a flow chart for each algorithm. I scared to even think of how to contruct my flow chart for my light manager class, as that alone spans around 2000 lines of code. I am not kidding. I'll also have to describe my menu system interface/GUI, something I currently don't even have. Heck, I don't even have a game yet, what am I talking about?!
3) Scope Document: Our game stands out for being the most hopeless in the class, especially thanks to the dumbass programmer who spent too much time making the game's engine, and moping on Facebook for personal melancholic reasons.
4) One Page Design Poster: I could have sworn that I did this in Business of Gaming class. My poster looked disgustingly rushed.
5) Justification and Research Report: Our design came ultimately from this philosophy, "How do we make a game as quick as possible, so that we can pass the course?". Usually games like this generate an abundance of fun (more sarcasm).
6) Q.A. Report: Hah, funny.
7) Balancing Report: Balance what?
8) Developer Profile: Everyone but the programmer is not a dumbass. Simple.

Apparently we were to have a started version of each document by the time of midterms... lol.

This face alone should convey a powerful enough message.

I know this blog update was longer than I expected to write, but that just goes to show that I have no idea where to start, and how to start; thus I resort to a simple yet pathetic rant on my blog. I feel like it's Grade 12 all over again; the coursework isn't as difficult as last term, yet I'm receiving much lower marks, and my sleep and social life are still lacking as usual. Oh, did I mention that on my Accounting midterm, I gained a 61%, and on my Sound and Audio midterm I received a 62%? Yeah, second semester of second year is biting me in the ass when it shouldn't be, especially since first semester of second year for me was the pinnacle of academic difficulty in my life.

Here's the thing, like all students around me, we love the summer. However for me, it's mostly for another reason; I can catch up on last year's material at my own pace. Last year I made the world's stupidest game, "Happy Culture Shootout" simply to prove to myself that I can program a game, especially after the failure of my last year's GDW game. I also made it as suggested by Prof. Hogue, instead of taking 2nd year courses to fast-track. This summer, I plan to create a game with a group of friends on the engine I originally wanted to first build for my GDW game. I love it when I can do my own project outside of school for two main reasons:

1) I move at my own pace, because as everyone knows, I'm not the quickest or brightest man.
2) My work roots from intrinsic motivations. I remember learning from my Leadership class last year, that intrinsic motivations are far grander than extrinsic motivations. Think who would be more successful, the one who works for money, or the one who works for his dreams? During summer I can do my own thing; during school, not so much.

I have to say though, since I started university, I've come a long way - especially with my programming skills. But now it's time to put that aside, as start honing my other skills like art/drawing, writing, business, and most importantly, design. In case you don't know, from the beginning I wanted to be a game designer, not a programmer. All of my professors/instructors would always say that in order to be a successful designer, you must be skilled in programming, art, animation, writing, etc. I think I'm pretty safe to say that I've got programming under control, however the other fields need a lot of work.

This is a recent picture of my current art skills. I drew this around an hour's time. As you can tell, I have a long way to go.

I'm sure by this point you expect me to wrap up my junior high-school level writing skills with some sort of conclusion, but as you can probably tell by my previous posts, I often find it difficult to get to the point. The only reason why I realize this, is because my Gr. 12 English teacher pointed this out two years ago. Sometimes I do get the feeling that I successfully wrapped up a document, video, or by some divine miracle, an argument; but often I don't get that feeling, just like right now. However I guess it could make sense that such a scenario had to occur now; I'm talking about something that hasn't been reached yet. Not just my GDW, Design HW2, and other homework, but my intrinsic goals and ambitions. This is where the history book runs into blank pages, they have yet to be written. I know this sounds extremely corny, but I guess when you've hit the bottom, you have no place to look but up. Not saying that I have hit the bottom (or that I'm anywhere near it, thank God), but I dunno; throughout writing this blog post from beginning to end, I've suddenly turned from scared, angry, and depressed, to strong, determined, and ambitious. Perhaps it's because I'm looking at the character in the picture above. How I feel like I'm in the dark, yet I still see the glimmer of light in the distance that I have spent my whole life to attain thus far. And guess what, I will attain it, some way or another...

The essence of corn encapsulates my last paragraph...

I've tortured you enough with my words of corn. Thank you for reading, and have a great day! =)

GDW Progress 3 (Bah...)

Hello world.

Yes, that's it. Fascinating, huh? I know you may be thinking that I am now in a hopeless position since I still don't have a game, it's due in merely three weeks, and all I can draw right now is a teapot - a teapot that can easily be rendered thanks the GLUT library's already created function. Well guess what, I've programmed a lot more than what you see. I have completed a Light Manager class. What does that mean? It means that I can easily create a light and apply it to any object with very few lines of code.

(Just a heads up readers; if you're not a programmer (as for those who don't know, I send my blog links to my friends on facebook), you may have trouble with understanding what I describe below, and ultimately bail on the article. I apologize for this, and I'll try to make my explanations simpler next time, sorry... :S )

Naturally, the OpenGL system provides eight lights, and are tedious to apply in dynamic scenarios. So what I did was create a class that holds a whole bunch of variables that can be applied to any of the eight OpenGL lights. Such variables include colour, position, direction, attenuation, etc. and they are contained within (what you can imagine as) case-holders. Such case-holders (which are managed by the light manager) are essentially  "light-shells". Those "lights-shells" can be applied to an OpenGL light on the fly, transferring the shell's qualities (colour, position, etc.) to the actual OpenGL light. Once the OpenGL light gains the appropriate parameters, it can then be applied to an object. Up to eight lights can be applied to a single batch of objects. Once the lights are applied to the object, the programmer will then have to call a function called "release", which clears out all the OpenGL lights, and readies them for the next application. The Light Manager also chooses which OpenGL light to apply a given light-shell to (0-7). If all eight lights are used up, then the manager will refuse to add any more light.

So in other words, we can save many many light-shells as a positional light (like a light-bulb), directional light (like the sunlight), or a spotlight. Let's say we want a directional light-shell that contains a dark green ambient light, lime green diffuse light, and bright green specular light. We pull that light (which is labeled by an enum ID number), and apply it to an OpenGL light. If OpenGL Light0 is already being used, light manager checks if Light1 is being used. If it isn't, the light-shell that we pulled out will then be applied to Light1. Once all OpenGL lights have gained the required light parameters, it can finally be applied to an object(s). Once they have been applied, the programmer must refresh all OpenGL lights with the "release" function, and ready it for the next object(s).

Additionally, the lights are also able to move... somewhat. Let's say you have a car object, and you want it to have headlights. Easy, all you have to do is apply a spotlight, and as the car moves, update the position of the light by using the "setPosition" function. Simply input the position of the car plus an appropriate offset, and you've got the new position of the headlight. Now let's say the player restarts the game. Simple, use the function called "reset", and it resets specified light-shell's parameters back to the original parameters it had when it was first initialized (such initialization occurs at game start-up). But wait, what if the player wants to switch off his/her headlight? No hassle, just use the "SwitchLight" function; if it's on, it will turn off, and vice-versia. There are also other functions, including one that allows the programmer to switch the light on, whether it was previously off or not, and vice-versia.

Unfortunately, the light manager isn't entirely complete, as I want to implement a "material manager" within it. Every object has material parameters that are applied before it can be drawn on screen. I want to eliminate such a tedious process with an appropriate materials manager. Rather than create this manager as a separate entity, I'd rather implement it within the light manager class, so that any programmer will instantly know that it's solely related to the OpenGL light. Materials will also have material-shells, and can be called using the enum ID system.

Minus the intended material manager, my light manager alone currently takes up 1,770 lines of code. Yes I worked very hard on this, it was a long-process, but the end result was very worth it. Once the materials manager is complete, my next goal is to perfect the sound manager, and input devices (keyboard, mouse). After that, I will begin to integrate Matricies, Quaternions, sprite holders, OBJ loaders, camera system, and test the texture manager. Those are just a few of the many things I have left to program, however I hope those features each don't need to take up as much code as my light manager did. Once everything I need to do is complete, my engine will be asset ready, high-level (easy to use for my other group members), and game production will increase exponentially. I hope to reach this point by Tuesday the latest. Thanks for reading! :D

GDW Progress 2 (somewhat...)

Hello, here's just to show what exactly I have on screen for my GDW game:

Yeah, that's basically the PGM assignment that I was required to do for my Graphics class. I wrote around 1350 lines of code for that assignment. I'm sure most people in the class (if not, all) wrote a hell of a lot less than that to complete the assignment, but I wrote more to make the lighting more dynamic. I wrote a LightManager class that automatically handles functions to do with lighting in the OpenGL graphics engine. However it's still buggy, and more functions need to be written.

Other than that, I have a TextureManager class that handles all texture mapping to 3D objects. Only problem is that I haven't tested it yet; I simply copied and pasted old code from another project of mine, and refined it to make it more dynamic and easy to use. It functions on an engine called DevIL (which stands for "DEVeloper's Image Library", not Satan, relax).

I also created a SoundManager class that functions on the FMod Sound System. However I feel that there's still some polishing needed, and then I plan to check it with the Sound and Audio TA to ensure that I'm using FMod to its full potential.

So yeah that's about it. There's no "game" as of yet, but my primary goal right now is to perfect the Texture, Sound, and Light Managers. However before then, I have to complete my Business Pitch assignment, and study for my graphics midterm. Oh the woes of a university student...

Sad Mario Greco is Sad - GDW Progress 1

First cue music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ4gvv-k6xs

Mario Greco is sad. Not because some prick ruined his day, not because his imaginary friend ditched him. It's because Mario has been lazy the past week and didn't get much homework done.

Okay three sentences in and I'm already sick of speaking in third person.

Basically I've had repressed thoughts creep up on me again, and prevented me from getting schoolwork accomplished the past week. It consisted of repetitive click motions on Facebook and Twitter, which likely has little impact on developing a healthy social life. Having Valentine's Day tomorrow which reminds me of my 20 year streak of being single doesn't help either. So guess what? Now I have to work my ass off this coming week, conserving my position in solitary confinement even more.

What might my schedule consist of? Hmm... Accounting assignment, Graphics PGM parser assignment, Game design Assignment, some business game pitch assignment, lots of books to read (despite me being a slow reader). Oh yeah of course, there's also my Game Development Workshop (GDW) game, which is an entire video game I have to create with five other classmates by the end of March. Apparently there's some looming milestone for it that's due soon that I'm not too aware of. Fantastic! Where is my GDW game at now?

It's just code. That's it. As you can tell, I am the lead coder of the game, and there's a ton of work still to do. I also need to be more on top of what my other group members have accomplished, making me a bad leader. So how could we have "nothing" accomplished when all game dev students were supposed to have a working game last semester?

It's because I left my old group (for reasons I don't want to state right now) for a new group that didn't have much material to begin with. So great, unlike other students we have to start from scratch, and making an entire game takes a long time; so it's not like one of those assignments that can be completed the night before it's due. It needs to be built over time. But given other incomplete assignments and stupid resurfaced thoughts, my progress has not been well recently. All my game can do right now is recognize mouse and keyboard functions, input sound, input textures, and switch between "2D mode" and "3D mode". That's it. Pathetic.

So here's my plan of getting my stuff done:
1) Accounting assignment (due Wednesday)
2) PGM assignment (due some time very soon)
3) Design Assignment (due next Monday)
4) GDW Milestone 2 (apparently due next week)
5) Business Game Pitch (due God knows when)
6) Read books, read lectures.
7) Study for midterms.

Oh yeah I forgot, midterms are coming in two weeks, and I have to sign up for them too. It's nice to have reading week next week, but we all know that reading week is also known as "catch the %$^& up week". I also plan to make two YouTube videos during that week, very important ones at that. You may be wondering why I'd put those two YouTube videos in the middle of schoolwork rush hour. It's because one has to deal with promoting the game that I've spent half a year developing on my spare time to people across the internet, to hopefully get my name out there in the game industry. The other one has to do with myself, why I'm eccentric, and often (yet unintentionally) reclusive. That video is meant for people who know me personally, as well as those in the game industry to understand who I am so that they won't be caught off guard by my true nature. Both videos are very important to me, and I need to complete them as soon as possible. However, with school and homework in the way, I feel like I'm trapped in some constant loop.

Anyway, that's my sad story. Give me all the sarcastic "boo hoo's" you want, because I know it's not the saddest story in the world, however it ticks me off, and I can't wait to have everything I want complete, to be complete. Everyone wish me luck, and now it's time to get things done. Thanks for reading! :)

Formal Critique: Pokemon HeartGold

Pokemon HeartGold for Nintendo DS is a remake of Pokemon Gold for GameBoy Color.

Although Epic Mickey is currently the latest game my family owns, the last time I purchased a game before then, was Pokemon HeartGold for Nintendo DS. It's technically a new game since it released March 14, 2010, and I picked up my copy just two days after that. As a crazed Pokemon fan, I could ramble all about "mah pokemanz", and how much I love them. However I am a game designer, and I should analyze the game as such.

I love my "Pokemans".

Pokemon (pronounced Poh-ck-eyy-maun) stands for "Pocket Monsters". For those who never really got into the Pokemon franchise, it is a kid-friendly adventure and role-playing game (RPG). The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri, a Japanese man with Asperger's syndrome who had a fascination with collecting insects.[1] When Nintendo introduced the Game Boy, its link-cable system caught his interest, and spawned his idea of "insects crawling through the link-cable". This was what brought the idea of the "Pokemon" trading game mechanic to life, which was ultimately the root of which the Pokemon series was born. The main objective of the game is to become the Pokemon master. In order to become the Pokemon master, you must capture Pokemon, train them through battling other trainers' Pokemon (or wild Pokemon) and work your way up until you can challenge the Pokemon Champion. But before you reach that point, you must collect eight gym badges by defeating eight gym leaders, and then challenge what's called the "Elite Four" before challenging the Champion him/herself. Pokemon development company, Game Freak (a second party game development division of Nintendo Co., Ltd.), has always been conservative with the Pokemon formula; four directional movement, carry six Pokemon at a time, battle other trainers, collect eight badges, challenge the elite four, "gotta catch 'em all", etc. Even though each Pokemon game is a more or less a rehash of previously constructed game mechanics, people just eat them up, including myself.

As I've said before, the game mechanics require the player to move the protagonist (can be male or female) in a four-directional fashion across a region of the Pokemon world. In Pokemon HeartGold, that region is called Johto. If the player stumbles upon a grassy area, a cave, or the player surfs on water, a wild Pokemon may appear and challenge the player. The player has three options; defeat it (it faints, they don't die [2]), capture it and add it to the player's team, or run away. Now of course, in order to capture other Pokemon and battle trainers in the first place, you need your starter Pokemon. In Pokemon HeartGold, your choice is between grass-type Chikorita (right), fire-type Cyndaquil (left), and water-type Totodile (center), as shown in the following picture:

I chose the fire-type Cyndaquil as my very first Pokemon.

That's right, I forgot to mention, a large part of the Pokemon formula is their elemental type. When Pokemon battle, a rock-paper-scissors type of combat occurs. If a fire-type attacks a grass-type, the damage is super effective. However, if a fire-type attacks a water-type, the damage is not very effective. There are also individual statistics that every Pokemon holds, and they differ between Pokemon - even if they're of the same species. Yes, like animals in the real world, there are more than one Pikachu, for example. My younger cousin received this game as his first Pokemon game for Christmas 2010, and chose Cyndaquil (which made his big cousin proud). However, since I've been playing Pokemon longer than he has, the attack, defense, speed, etc. stats of my Pokemon are a lot stronger than his. But considering that today I barely have time to play video games for fun (as I am in university), my cousin has the chance to train his Pokemon, conquer the game, and ultimately challenge me. In my opinion this is one of the greatest beauties of Pokemon - Multiplayer.

Pokemon Trainers

In multiplayer, you can battle and/or trade Pokemon with fellow real-life "trainers". I would love to see the day where my cousin trains his Pokemon to high levels, and then defeat me in battle. Also note that contrary to popular belief, Pokemon is actually a very strategic game where battle is turn-based, and trainers must use wits to overcome his/her opponent - not so much with brute force. There are different attacks of different elemental types that Pokemon can use (for example, water-type Starmie can use electric-type move thunder as an attack), and different stat-boosting moves that a Pokemon can use (to temporarily boost its attack stat during battle, for example). Another factor in the battle mechanic is the Pokemon's "level", which is a number that gives other trainers an idea of how strong the Pokemon is. Once a Pokemon reaches a certain level, it may evolve into a stronger Pokemon. For example, my cousin's Cyndaquil evolved into Quilava at level 16, and last time I checked it is at level 19. Meanwhile, my Cyndaquil already evolved to its final evolution, Typhlosion, at level 36, and is now at level 59.

As you can tell, there is a lot in Pokemon that keeps it fresh, interesting, and ultimately mysterious. Like The Legend of Zelda, the player can freely roam around, complete side-quests/activities that may not exactly tie in with the main story, and even stumble upon hidden areas. Such hidden areas may contain rare items, or even rare, legendary Pokemon. Additionally, back in the day of the original Red and Blue (Green in Japan) games, the creator snuck in an extra Pokemon called Mew that can only be acquired through trading, and through a programming "error".[3]

Mew is one of the rarest Pokemon in the game!

Of course, we should also look into the control GUI of the game. Control interface sports a simple layout, is easy to use, and a lot can be accomplished with it. When the player is in "overworld" mode, the player can use the directional pad to move the player around, and press the "A" button to talk to other people. In "menu" mode, the player again uses the directional pad and "A" button to navigate through his/her Pokemon, his/her items (that can be used to advance through the game, or used to help strengthen Pokemon). Since Pokemon HeartGold is played on the Nintendo DS, the touch screen can be used to navigate through the menu a lot easier than the former mechanic. Finally, in "battle" mode, the player can use the directional pad and "A" button to choose whether to attack, switch Pokemon, use an item, or run away. If the player chooses to attack, he/she can use one of four moves that the Pokemon knows/can learn. Again, since this game is played on the Nintendo DS, the touch screen can be used to select options a lot easier than the traditional button mechanic.

Nintendo DS sports a touch screen that allows menu navigation to be a lot easier to use.

As for the music of the game... Pokemon HeartGold holds some of the most memorable melodies in video games. There is a different background tune for every city, and every route division. Each are pleasing to the ear, and appropriate its area. For example, the cave music - although it is eerie - is appropriate for its area, and its melody is deep. The music contributes a positively to the overall game experience, because the design theme of Pokemon is to explore, grow in strength with your Pokemon teammates, and make it all the way to the top. As you progress through the game, the music changes and builds. When the player starts his/her journey, the music is cheery and innocent. Once he/she gains all eight badges, and before he/she challenges the Elite Four, he/she'll reach his/her hometown again. Listening to that same cheery music again will instantly remind the player of the start of his/her adventure, and naturally he/she will reflect on the amount of progress he/she made since that beginning. As the player makes his/her way to the Elite Four, the music builds and becomes more intense.

The main aspect of Pokemon that make it unique and incredible compared to other RPGs is how well it integrates its social gaming aspect. Social games like FarmVille consist of having the player work toward growing crops and farming animals, to ultimately make money. In Pokemon, trainers train their Pokemon, earn money from defeating in-game trainers to purchase items that can be used to strengthen their Pokemon even more, and ultimately battle/trade Pokemon with real-life friends or even strangers over the internet. This creates a whole community of Pokemon players, allows people to make new friends, and/or strengthen the bond with current friends. This is why Nintendo releases two "versions" every generation (Each generation sports a new set of Pokemon); one version has some Pokemon that are unobtainable in the other version, and vice-versia. Other RPGs are usually one-player games that cannot communicate with other player's games, however Pokemon does, and that why I think the franchise is such a worldwide megahit - it brings the world together. Now all we need is a Pokemon massively multiplayer online (MMO) and Earth will gain the status "World Peace Achieved!" Okay maybe I'm being a little too idealistic here, but hey, anything that brings the world together is definitely something good.

FarmVille created by Zynga is Facebook's most popular game.

I must say that there are aspects of recent Pokemon games that are unessential to the franchise, such as the "triathalon", or the online "mini-games". However they are fun to have, it's great to take a break from battling, and it's all in the same game! The best part is that you can play these mini-games with other friends too!

What I think is truly essential to the Pokemon franchise is allowing it to take the next step. As I've stated before, Game Freak has been very conservative with the franchise. However I feel that bringing it into the realm of massively multiplayer online (MMO) is an essential step to the growth of Pokemon. Not only that, but improving the AI, both of the characters, and the game itself. With Pokemon HeartGold, the AI's difficulty is based on their Pokemon, essentially their level and statistics - not so much the trainer's intellect. If a trainer has a level 7 Pidgey, he won't be tough to beat. If a trainer has a level 88 Charizard, then he/she'll definitely be a tough cookie, especially how Pokemon of higher levels have a more complex move arsenal. However in my idea of a Pokemon MMO, the atmosphere will feel much like the anime cartoon. There will be no non-playable trainers, and the only AI would be the Pokemon and their many behaviors blended into one unique "personality" per Pokemon. Also rather than rely on Pokemon "levels" to track strength, Pokemon will have an internal stats system that is unknown to the player. This will prevent supernerds who lack "lives" from creating a team of Lv. 100 Arceus', giving everyone a chance to particpate and challenge other trainers in the world. Of course training Pokemon will allow them to be stronger, as their internal stats will improve. What I mean is that for example pitting a Blastoise against an Igglybuff will obviously give Blastoise the upper hand, however there is still a very slight chance that the Igglybuff can defeat him/her.

Obviously Blastoise (left) would defeat an Igglybuff (right) with ease. However who's to say that the opposite could never happen?

Let's say that in the Pokemon MMO, the player gets frustrated with his Blastoise, and/or overtrains him/her. The Blastoise may feel resentful toward his/her trainer for that day, and ultimately lose to a new trainer's Igglybuff should they battle. Pokemon should start factoring experiences between trainers and Pokemon, and more importantly, trainers and other trainers. This is what Pokemon should move on toward. Additionally, the game itself should be more intelligent. Every time a Pokemon attacks in Pokemon HeartGold, the text below the battle screen will say for example, "Charmander used tackle. The attack was super effective! Charmander's attack decreased! Charmander's defence increased! Charmander is paralyzed, it can't move!". The menu system (both in battle mode and outside battle mode) in Pokemon games are too systematic, and need to loosen up. For example, Apple's iPhone. The system is very casual, very intuitive, and doesn't give the impression what you're dealing with some robot.

Anyway that's my critique on Pokemon HeartGold. I know that I expanded to the entire Pokemon series quite often throughout this post, however I think that it is essential for the series to keep its child-friendly charm, its theme of growing with your Pokemon team (among many other themes), the ability to trade/battle/associate with fellow trainers, and the mysteriousness and wonder of the Pokemon world. I think that there are many ways in which the series can evolve without impacting its original charm, and one of those prominent ways is to make it into an MMO. In fact, making it into an MMO will only improve the original aspects that Pokemon series holds - especially the social aspect.

Thank you everyone for reading!

[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=RK-nqZKyaIgC&pg=PT58&dq=%22satoshi+tajiri%22&lr=lang_en&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=3&cd=3#v=onepage&q=%22satoshi%20tajiri%22&f=false
[2] http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/99/1122/pokemon6.fullinterview1.html
[3] http://www.stanford.edu/group/htgg/cgi-bin/drupal/sites/default/files2/gshin_2004_1.pdf

Nintendo 3DS' questionable future and Society's view on games

Hey everyone, I stumbled upon an article from Kotaku which I found from a Tweet from Julian Spillane (A lecturer of mine at UOIT). It claims that the Nintendo 3DS is the anti-Game Boy. In fact, I agree with them. They explain how the original Gameboy was designed to be a cheap handheld ($99) with low-resolution gray-scale graphics, and a powerful battery life (Around 30 hours).

Nintendo 3DS

Now today with the Nintendo 3DS, it will be very powerful with stereoscopic 3D visuals (without the need for glasses), augmented reality games, and system power almost matching that of Wii. Sure, sounds fantastic, but with a hefty price ($250) and the worst battery life in Nintendo's history (3-5 hours), I just wonder what the late Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi-San would say about this. The original GameBoy's competition ridiculed it because of its lack of power, however the Game Boy is what blew their handheld products away with its long-lasting battery, cheap price, and slew of fantastic games like Tetris and Pokemon.

Sure, Nintendo has always been about quality games, and hasn't stopped that trend; however, they've created the Nintendo 3DS which follows the philosophy of, "the more power the better", which has been a proven failure. So I'm not so sure how the Nintendo 3DS will fair in the 8th generation of video games. Also consider that I live in Canada, also known as "The Great White North", also known as "the place that's friggen cold when it's winter". Cold temperatures affect any battery negatively. So you can shave probably another half-hour of gametime off my 3DS. Now pack that with 3D visuals on 100% (because I'd like to get my money's worth) and I've probably got 2.5 hours of gameplay. That sucks Nintendo, I'm sorry. What happened to the 18 hours of gameplay with the GameBoy Advance, or the Nintendo DS Lite? I bet the PSP2 will have a better battery than the Nintendo 3DS. Tsk tsk, Nintendo.

Nintendo Game Boy

You may also consider that there will be a console re-release in a couple year's time (3DSi anyone?), but I don't have the money to update my hardware every new release, and spend full pop on it. No. I'd suggest releasing a better battery in the future that can fit into the same old 3DS, and you've got yourself a deal.

Now the biggest concern for the 3DS is not just the PSP2, but smartphones BlackBerry, iPhone, and smartphones that carry the Google Android OS. Day by day they're taking chunks of the handheld gaming market, with cheap ($1), quirky, small games like Angry Birds. Are they fun? Yes! Are they full of depth, immersion, and quality? No. However people (especially non-gamers and those of the casual audience) seem not to care about that, they just like cheap games that can pass time. That's it. People today don't understand what it takes to make a game, they subconsciously think it runs on magic, and that it takes nothing to whip it up - no matter how revolutionary or ingenious the product is. Meanwhile, when I sent a sneak peek of my own video game to my non-game development friends, they were wowed beyond belief - despite my game being a simple arcade shooter that can be completed in 15 minutes. I'm not saying this to gloat, or to heighten my ego, I'm just trying to prove a point. People believe that when corporations create something, it's like as if it's open to the public, stealing/pirating it won't hurt them, and it took nothing for them to create it. But when a family member or friend creates something that many other individuals usually don't create themselves, it's like that product is an invaluable piece of awe and amazement.

Sony's [codenamed] NGP, also known as PSP2.

So my suggestion for corporations is to give an idea on how their products are made. Sure, getting the people to say "Wow, that's like magic, I have no idea on how that was done" is a good marketing mechanic, until a certain point in time where that "magic" becomes part of everyday life. For example, back in the 1930's Disney's animated movies were incredible, unique, and magical. The amount of appreciation people had for animation back in the day is unrivaled by the appreciation of animation today. Today, the general public see animation as if it takes nothing for a company to create. There's no astonishment, no "Wow" factor. They subconsciously think it runs on magic, and put little thought into how it could have been created. Why? Because they've got more important things to think about; like their job, supporting their family, paying bills, and stalking celebrities through magazines. What about children? Their minds aren't on such things, right? Yes, however any child I've spoke to does not know how a television even works. I asked my seven year old cousin how he thinks a picture is displayed on a TV. He answers "umm... some kind of camera?".

If people knew how technology works, then maybe they would appreciate their product, and realize that we still live on the same planet as our primitive ancestors. Maybe there would be a less desire to pirate, and customer value of technology will adjust proportionately to the hard work developers put into creating it.

This is why technological corporations need to work together to enlighten the world on how their products are made, because society is only becoming more ignorant as people take "magic" for granted. I'm sure you're wondering now, "I thought you were talking about the Nintendo 3DS?". Well I was, I just went off on a tangent, and was forced to change the title of this article to match that.

Anyway to wrap up, I'm looking forward to the Nintendo 3DS, I hope Nintendo will soon correct its negative qualities; and I more importantly hope that in the future people will understand how technological products are made, so that they'll have a more appropriate view of their value, not take them for granted, and remember humanity's roots on Earth. Thank you for reading!

Bad Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES

I know what you're thinking, "The Angry Video Game Nerd already did a hilarious review of that game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES!". Yes he did! In fact, you can see it right here.

The Angry Video Game Nerd was not pleased with this game. Neither was I.

Now here's a game designer's take on it. It may not be as hilarious as the Angry Video Game Nerd, but whatever.

I played this game when I was a kid, about six to seven years old. You don't understand how freaking difficult this game was for a kid of that age. Not challenging, just a pain in the ass.

The Gameplay mechanics were simple; you walk back and forth in a sidescrolling platformer fashion with the d-pad, press "a" to jump, and "b" to attack. Simple. The controls were fine. Whenever you move to the overworld, you can move up, down, left, and right in a top-down bird's eye view fashion. Nothing bad, but nothing fascinating.

What I enjoyed was that you can choose between the four turtles, which all hold different weapons. However there were no "lives" or "continues" in this game. If you lose a life, you basically lose a turtle. Once all four are defeated, it's game over, and it's back to the title screen. No continues. How annoying is that? It's also not like the developers utilized each turtle to be an asset for a puzzle or challenge in the game. No strategy like that involved. The turtles were simply there with their individual weapons, so that the kid can pick his/her favourite one - before he/she is quickly forced to choose the other characters after they lose that turtle, thanks to the sheer difficulty of this game.

The sound was fine too, nothing really horrible, but none of them matched the tv show's music, not even the title theme, which is a disappointment for fans. One thing I have to note is whenever your character is low on energy, you'll hear a high pitched alarming sound. A sound that only pulls at your nerves - especially when you're playing through a level that was painstakingly ridiculous. It sort of reminds me of the "low energy" noise from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, except much worse.

I hate this game.

The story wasn't deep or compelling, it was just about the Ninja Turtles having to again defeat their nemesis, Shredder. Occasionally April O'Neil would instruct the player/turtles on what to do for each level, and give tips here and there - however none of them were useful.

The level design was good, it's not like it was bland or repetitive. Enemies were different for each level, there was always a different theme to each level (ex. sewer, underwater, overworld maze, etc.) So that was nothing bad either.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Hey this doesn't seem too bad of a game, why do you consider it to be a bad game?". Well, now I'm getting to the main reason why I hate this stupid game.
The game flow?... there was no game flow. The entire thing was ridiculously hard. Especially the water level. Oh gawd that friggen water level that helped me become the bundle of nerves I am today - at six years old! Let's start with the first level. It mostly was a pain in the ass, and it introduced the annoying A.I. that was set to kill the turtles in swarms. Actually, I'll go off on that tangent if you don't mind. The A.I. wasn't bad, each enemy was different in terms of looks and behaviour. However there were TOO MANY OF THEM CROWDING DIFFERENT AREAS! Just one attack after another, annoyance after annoyance. Let's say that I'm trying to reach an item that is protected by the platforms in a corner on the screen, and you have to travel in the opposite direction, get by a swarm of enemies, jump to the upper level, and travel in the direction leading to the item. Now you've got a gap that is impossible to jump over. You're likely to fall down the first hundred times. Then you'll have to fight past the swarm of enemies again, which are all placed at random which throws the concept of strategy out the window. There may be a heath regain icon along the way, but when you touch it, it doesn't come back. But the enemies do, at random spots, and in swarms. Then you figure out that you can simply walk over the gap. What a joke! Anyway now I have to return to explain how that water stage was such a crippling experience for my childhood. First off, you have to find bombs under water and shut them off. Second, you're on a timer, so you have to hurry the hell up. Lastly, the stage is so annoying and painfully hard that you require time an patience to complete it. But how could you complete it when you have to beat the timer?! It's not like the developers were generous with the time, and allowed you to complete the stage with let's say a minute of extra time. No, it's to the second. Even with the timer aside, the very basis of the stage was a stab to human central nervous system. The fact that you're underwater made the controls different and slippery, and you had to use you button tapping skills to route through a tight area full of electric seaweed. Like what the hell? This game is for kids, have a little mercy! Eventually I made it out after 1.0937 x 10^7 tries, but then the following maze level was like a punch to the balls; you struggle to complete the water stage, and then the next level just laughs at your face with its difficulty. It's like "oh you struggled so hard to beat that water level, but here, we'll kill you off anyway." It's like all effort gone to waste. If it was an adult playing this game, they would have made the wise decision by putting down the controller, and say "I don't have time for this, I have stuff to do". But I was a kid back then, which meant lots of free time, and ultimately lots of game time. So what better did I have to do than to try and beat that friggen water level that I would be reminded of whenever I looked at that friggen game cartridge. I had to beat it, and look at where my efforts brought me? To lose at the next stage. What a load of crap. They called this a kids game? More like an innocence killing hell hole that is addictive as hell but painstakingly annoying. This is why the game is bad, it'll drive you to insanity! Look at this wall of text! It's all one paragraph! This whole paragraph explains how this game was a bad childhood memory for me. It split me from society, and increased my urge to play this horrible game, over and over, just to try and beat it so I can say "HA! I WIN SUCKER!". But no, that day never came, and to this day I haven't beaten it, or even touched it for that matter.

That God forsaken water level...

I hate games that are addictive AND harmful to your nerves with its annoying difficulty. If it wasn't so addictive, I would have put the damn game away and pop in Super Mario Bros. If it wasn't so difficult, I would have been able to enjoy the game. But no. It's like the developers locked my childhood-self in a cage, and left the game with me as a means of torture. What a horrible game. I'm going to go play it again.