The Visualist

Hey, it’s been a while I didn’t post about music.
My friend Tresh who signed with a label (Krispy Beatz Records) recently and still has some of the coolest remixes in town

Hybrid - Blackout (Tresh’s Sci-Fi Breaks Mix)
Duplex - Homework Aeromix (Original by Daft Punk)
Chris Cornell - You Know My Name (Tresh\'s Royale 7 Mix)

I’ve been playing these songs on the game Audiosurf (which is available for $2.49 today), and it gives an good mash-up style feeling.

Understand flow to better understand the pleasure of challenge and mastery.

It’s a classic demo effect (seen in various productions in realtime :fr-019, 604 by and, and more).
It’s the first processing video I’ve seen that has a good direction. What’s rare is the animation : the background is moving in a parralax way that gives a great sense of depth, the sharp lighting effects are moving in a nice non-linear way, the camera is rotating in an interesting way putting the “tentacles” in the strengh points of the screen.
Making of : http://www.flight404.com/blog/?p=151

Making things easy is hard…
Count the taps, measure your interface complexity… Make it intelligent for your user.

A interesting video you should look at if you don’t mind the songs, that were unnecessary.

I’ve been very shy about saying Game Design stuff on this blog, but here it is, anyway…

In an post I will soon publish, I insist on the notion that playing a game is an experience, and an experience is a chunk of time you spend at doing something that rewards you with emotional value (It will soon be published don’t worry). So I’m asking myself : What is making a player play ? How could I manage player’s expectations ?

First, I can say that the reasons you play a game evolves through your experience with the game. But let’s start with the initial motivations.

• Instant fun : This is what I find when I play Burnout or Lego Starwars or almost any Nintendo game.
• Impressive graphics : Any AAA game must have it. These games start to communicate on the look very much before you can actually play the game or sometimes even before the game design is created.
• Premise and Story : You are teased enough by the characters and the drama that you want to play the game. And maybe if it’s well done, it will also be a motivation that keeps you in the game. It is really similar to what movies and books are doing, it’s managing the mystery and the answers.

There a much more reasons than that, but these are really common. Now the question is : How long does it last ? People could keep playing the same games for years, and some games are good only as a one hour experience.

People that play sport like soccer for example, they always play the same mechanics but there are other motivations to play more :

• The more you play, the more get better at soccer.
• If you play with friends, it’s rewarding to spend time with friends. If you play with someone that is not your friend, competition can create this bound.
• You will probably play each time against people that always play very differently, so the experience is always renewed.

So for a game it can be the same. At the start of the MMO phenomenon, I’ve seen people coming to me and saying :

First I came for the universe and creating my character, then I stayed for the community, and the social strengths of the game and I don’t really care about the system anymore.

What stroke me is that people admit that their relation with the game changes over time, their motivations changes and some motivations stay longer than others.

So I ask myself (ask yourself too) :

What could I provide that would make the player comeback to the game ?
(comeback after a playing session, in general the play sessions are reducing in time)
How do I create/manage player’s initial motivation, and progressively shift him to another one ?

So I have some answers, but let’s keep the ball rolling…