Why Game? 1 - TextFiles.com

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Game Design #2 Philip Tonner Validation! Recently there has been much discussion about the validity of games as a medium. It seems to be disintegrating into fun vs. worthi- ness. Now let me establish one thing: games are FUN. They are perceived as fun, fun is their purpose. Games are never going to be viewed as anything other than fun because they do not attempt to be anything else. The games we have that are not viewed as fun are seen this way because they are failures. If we want games to be perceived as the new artistic medium, then we need to have a game that stands apart from what we currently have. So. I propose an unfun game. Fun is not part of its remit. It is not on the agenda. The game will, however, be mainstream, for one reason. When the Playstation 3 launches, this will be the only launch title. In fact it will be the only title confirmed. The only title rumoured to be in development. The only title, period. Ladies and Gentlemen. I give you: Skylarking. (Now before I get accused of cleverness or originality, I will point this out. This is a musical reference. XTC to be precise. But there is a reason for the name.) In keeping with industry standards, I will summarize Skylarking in easy to understand 56 The Gamer’s Quarter Issue #3 terms, using existing titles. Skylarking is Outrun 2 meets GTA 3. A Beautiful Journey within a sandbox. It’s almost paradoxical. There will be one element that separates it from its inspira- tion. One limitation. You can only walk. The aim of the game is to walk home. You have a start point. You have an end point. The sandbox elements can be seen in how you reach home. You can simply wander off in the hope of getting there. Or you can set off down the road. It’s not so much a beautiful journey as a beautiful wander. Now, the setting is both crucial and utterly unimportant. My setting is my home and my surroundings. Your setting is your home and your surroundings. The start point will be a friend’s house, say a few miles from your own. All you have to do is get home, but you don’t have to, if you catch my drift. Now here’s the important part: photoreal- ism is stupid and pointless. If I want to arse around with the marvels of physics I’ll do it outside. Cel-shading is also stupid. So what Skylarking will provide the player with is an in- terpretation. One version of their surroundings. Not as it is in actuality, but rather, as it is in the eyes of one person. Think of a painting. Think of Picasso. He painted what he saw. This will work in much the same way (it needn’t be cubism though). Back to the title. “Skylarking,” the song, revolves around seasons. The track listing was very carefully considered (ignore “Dear God”). Our Skylarking will also feature seasons. Four of
them to be precise, and for each, there will be an album of music (licensed music, much like the Grand Theft Auto series). For winter we will have David Bowie’s Low: glacial, harsh, sparse, synthetic. The key will be the closing track “Subterraneans.” Think of that sax. Hear that sax. For spring we will have Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden: similarly harsh, glacial and sparse. But organic. Ever so organic. I’ve spent two months listening to Spirit of Eden as the sun rises. This is spring. For summer we will have Tim Buckley’s Happy/Sad: similarly organic, similarly jazzy/ folky. But warm. Ever so warm. And for autumn we have The Durutti Column’s The Return Of The Durutti Column: similar to Happy/Sad but not similarly jazzy. Sad. So sad. The passing of time, of seasons, of everything. Note the first track: “Sketch FOR Summer.” And then later “Sketch FOR Winter.” Autumn is obviously a time of change. You can feel this music change: from bird song and a thousand guitars intertwined to a solitary guitar fading away repeating itself like a last breath. I’m presuming that most of you won’t have heard any of these songs. But I assure you that they fit. They even flow together, sort of, in my head. The music is the core of the game. Or, at least it is when you combine it with the walking. Skylarking is a slow game, there are no set pieces. There is just the player. ment. In an environment, but not his environ- Skylarking’s cover would be austere, oversized and pretentious (much like the game itself). It would not be a game you’d want to play, at least not more than once. It’s a game to sit on a coffee table and be pretentious. Just being there would be enough. It would not be a game for me or you. It would be a game for all those worthy folks who don’t play games. They would, however, have this. An unfun game. An important game. A valid game. Note: There would be two other songs that play over the credits. For our bad ending, “Sleep Will Come” by The Durutti Column. And for our good ending, “Orchid Girl” by Aztec Camera. The ending would be chosen randomly. Skylarking 57
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Why Game? 1
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Table Of Contents 4 - How Nippon Ic
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Editor In Chief: Managing Editor: A
Page 7 and 8: acter turn took less time, without
Page 9 and 10: what goes into a video game is not
Page 11 and 12: America have any plans to procure t
Page 13 and 14: to approach them. We have a great w
Page 15 and 16: desperately sought after collectabl
Page 17 and 18: that. Innit?” I sighed before inh
Page 19 and 20: company of the Fiddich family I let
Page 21 and 22: into the Electronics Boutique where
Page 23 and 24: much more consistent, possibly even
Page 25 and 26: Half-Life 2 - PC M. O’Connor The
Page 27 and 28: very inappropriate phrase. It’s n
Page 29 and 30: Anamoly Discrimination Force S^2 -
Page 37 and 38: time-strategy title set in outer sp
Page 39 and 40: of destroying a bunch of other tiny
Page 41 and 42: than one-hundred percent on tests t
Page 43 and 44: So, where are we now? Starcraft’s
Page 45 and 46: I Like to Watch Ancil Anthropy When
Page 47 and 48: ourselves.” When games left the a
Page 49 and 50: in response. There were many images
Page 51 and 52: Part 5: The True Quest for Secrets
Page 53 and 54: Guilty Pleasures XXX 51
Page 55 and 56: An Exercise in Creativity by The Ga
Page 57: possible suicides. Pressing Start w
Page 61 and 62: e kind of like a puzzle game where
Page 63 and 64: minutes to complete this dungeon, w
Page 65 and 66: huge, but there’s no save game op
Page 67 and 68: friends with Dachshunds. I was usin
Page 69 and 70: ack down on the ground. I picked ba
Page 71 and 72: petting her, she gives a little gro
Page 73 and 74: of that for me. Regardless, I still
Page 75 and 76: staples. That magazine contained an
Page 77 and 78: us we had to wake up early the next
Page 79 and 80: I’m pretty good at SMB3. I can be
Page 81 and 82: Age twenty-five... where was I? I
Page 83 and 84: a planetarium. We enjoyed the atmos
Page 85 and 86: My birthday drew near without cerem
Page 87 and 88: through whatever means necessary. G
Page 89 and 90: tenaciously, though maybe not execu
Page 91 and 92: guitar. He had a wife (who time lat
Page 93 and 94: Killer 7 Crossword 91
Page 95 and 96: Actually, Bubble Bobble is from the
Page 97 and 98: task. When we became friends when I
Page 99 and 100: Wesson’s guns, but I couldn’t a
Page 101 and 102: the island? Earlier, I spent a good
Page 103 and 104: character is incidental to the abov
Page 105 and 106: This high quality is a sign of the
Page 107 and 108: chain-combo, the game slows down sl
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Concluded on Page 124... Guilty Ple
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gazillion copies, barring some unfo
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Anything but Shredder. Shortly ther
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together through each person’s de
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still haunt my life, but that’s b
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external defenses, then enter Earth
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an entire stage long. Surprised? Yo
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Morality and Emulation on the PSP B
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tion and - as a final nail in the c
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Guilty Pleasures XXX 125
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Guilty Pleasures XXX 127
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Back Cover 129
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