Everyone has a Really Great Idea For A Video Game. When I meet new people and tell them about my job, they sort of launch into their Really Great Idea as if they think there's something I can do to get it made (sometimes they even ask me to "tell Xbox about it" or something).
Back in the 80s and 90s, I can't imagine how many kids sent pencil-and-crayon "design docs" to game companies about the kinds of games they wanted to see made. I don't think I ever did that, but I hear from a lot of people who have, and I really hope the longstanding game companies kept those letters from kids. What a fun little gallery that would make, huh?
Cute kids aside, I actually don't think all that much of people who aren't game designers telling game designers what they should do, as they don't necessarily have the mind for systems and how they work in practice (not saying I do either, or anything). Even most indies don't seem to feel too strongly about their first game, and talk more of what it taught them than how it was a Really Great Idea. But seriously guys I had a Really Great Idea wait don't walk away --
Last night I dreamed I was playing this really sweet oldschool Resident Evil -- third person, wider-angle, where the challenge was more exploration than action. It was set in the Umbrella Mansion, except years later and in ruins after the Raccoon City incidents. And you can play as either Leon or Claire, just like RE2, probably like, mining the old site for information or cell cultures or something they only just now realized were left behind, like, trying to get it before Wesker does (let's make him not dead or let's set this before RE4 & 5 or something because u guys i totes <3 him).
The cool thing in my dream was if your character dies, you don't actually die, you become infected by whatever killed you, with different viral effects depending on the type of monster that bested you. You get different abilities, but with some trade-offs -- like, okay, now you have a sweet tentacle arm but you can't use your gun anymore. Maybe the abilities can give you advantages in the environmental puzzles, like you can jump higher and reach an area you couldn't otherwise, or break through a wall to a secret room.
And then to keep you from totally powergaming, you will die if you don't use antidotes on yourself, like you have a certain amount of time depending on the virus. And if you're killed as a zombie you are actually killed and have to try again.
Wow. Yeah. Sorry about that, I just HAD A DREAM ABOUT RESIDENT EVIL and got all excited for a second.
In all seriousness, though, the way the RE franchise has changed over the years is one of the things I grieve most (maybe even more than missing Sonic!) . Part of it might be the principle I wrote about at Kotaku yesterday -- that as we advance toward clarity, realism and direct versus abstract representations in games, they're becoming less immersive.
Another part of it is the "Westernization" of the franchise, according to how Capcom seems to perceive the West's tastes. And, honestly, based on what sells at retail and what the mainstream gamer seems to love, it could be naive of me to say "you don't have to make a first-person guns and muscles game to sell a lot of copies in the U.S." Numbers beg to differ, so what do I know.
People still make and buy niche JRPGs, but I think the survival horror genre has been the biggest casualty of the decline of the Japanese industry. The numbers may say I'm in the minority when I say this, but I don't find a sustained gameplay pattern of direct confrontation to be as satisfying as the mystery of exploration, the uncertainty of lurking spectres. I wrote, somewhat clumsily, about this in this ancient 2008 article where I wonder if the "survival horror" genre really still exists.
Again, it comes down to the literal versus abstract, the direct versus the implicit, the real versus the unreal, and I continue to believe that in an eagerness for accessibility and instant comprehension, we've sacrificed all the things that can really suck us into a game brand when we develop for the former rather than the latter.
On a related note, we continue to do The FFVII Letters over at Paste. We're at part six now, and I kick it off by talking about how concepts of "the map", or the world of an RPG, have evolved. Kirk and I've been overwhelmed by the positive response you all have given us for the letters; if you've been following along, thanks for joining us! We're having so much fun at it.
Finally, because it's so fun to revisit things from your past, I have also written 'Why You Should Watch Labyrinth Over Again.'
[Today's Good Song: Panda Bear, 'Last Night At The Jetty']
11 comments:
After finally beating Sonic 2 in like 3rd grade, me and a friend sent Sega our idea for Sonic 3 where you fight Robotnik's 7 evil cousins who were pissed that Sonic had killed Robotnik when the Death Egg exploded. We drew out levels and new enemies. Eventually we got a letter and a couple t-shirts. It seemed worth it at the time.
Great idea!
I think that games desperately need refreshment in the core mechanics and gameplay.
OOoooh, this just ate my comment. Grrr.
Ideas are generally viewed as golden by the people that come up with them but you need to
a) think them through further than an initial idea and
b) implement them well in order for them to turn out well
So, for example, with your idea...
Do you keep all the abilities that you had in life? Can you still use all your items? Can you use chests for your inventory? Can you still use weapons, talk to characters? Would characters who previously talked to you become aggressive and try to take you down? Maybe you can only gain health from munching on some victims? How come you've turned into a zombie with free will in the first place? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of being a zombie?
Maybe a couple more ideas would help?
What if you start the game AS A ZOMBIE but get given an antidote to bring you back to your senses? You then need to keep taking doses or else you'll regress.
What if, once you get bitten by a zombie you start to degrade into a mutant? The more mutated you are the less health you have and, if you lose all your health, you turn into a zombie and it's game over. Treading the fine line between life and death will give you access to amazing powers but one wrong move and you could lose it all.
What if you play as part of a duo, with the other character following you around. If one of you is turned it's up to the other to successfully administer the antidote before their partner's humanity meter runs out!
What if you... well, I could go on.
I like hearing other people's ideas and I like people picking apart mine. Keeps you grounded. It's just important to remember that they're entirely dependant on the implementation. In an ideal situation, you run with a great idea, implement it well and see people enjoy it. The reality is normally good ideas badly implemented or average ideas implemented well.
Completely agreed. I think games are losing something really important with the decline of the Japanese industry and the rise of some of the more pervasive stereotypes about the core aspects of those old games. I'm not fetishizing the other here when I say that.
Your Kotaku article encapsulates some of what I'm thinking about. I've found myself going back to some of those 7-12 year old games to try to learn what made them so compelling and finding them surprisingly rich.
Survival horror is among my favorite genres for the reason you stated--I get bored by games that let me confront dozens of enemies and come out unscathed. Of course, the genre isn't for everyone, so it's begun to evolve with other genres in mind--most notably action, as with the Dead Space games you mentioned.
All that said, though, for my money, the best, immersive survival horror to come out recently was Demon's Souls. That's the way the genre should evolve--keep the formula (exploration, few resources, and scares based in those uncertainties) but move away from the settings were used to.
Game designers don't want to hear game ideas for several reasons, but the worst-case scenario is that they hear a good idea that they're already working on. Studios usually don't open unsolicited suggestions for this reason. But, I hope they still send T-shirts to kids who send in level maps.
This is a wonderful piece. I almost feel bad with my paltry response, which is that Resident Evil was the first, and to my knowledge, the only video game I'd ever dreamed about. Something about RE and RE2 just fired my imagination in a way that seemed to hone in on my sleeping hours.
I haven't played resident evil, only the demo of 5 and I liked it. I've heard lots of good things about the earlier editions. The dream you had about resident evil sounded cool. I would play that without question. Maybe someday they would go back to their roots. Updating old school themes with this generation's graphics would be so cool.
Unfortunately, the link to your 2008 article above doesn't work. Try this one instead (bonus: avoids the atrocious Gawker redesign altogether)
ooh -- many thanks on the link!
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