One day, decades from now I will release a horror game. The temporary artwork is below. I can’t reveal the name because I want to trademark it first so it doesn’t get taken. It will be a story based, emotion driven, survival horror themed zombie game. The budget won’t allow for high end graphics or production values, but it will have soul, as creating emotions will take precedence over everything. I will probably be 43 years old by the time I save up the money and make the connections but I’m ok with that. Good things take time, and big things have small beginnings. I will not complain about piracy, or desperately try to get it into Steam’s Marketplace or Microsoft’s Games for Windows store. Instead I’ll take the same route some app developers take: read…

Why do we play games? “For the challenge!” said early developers. Not for emotion, nor for socializing, not for fun or enjoyment or exploration, or even relaxation. Before sandbox and social games, developers had the idea that the only reason why you would want to play a game is to be challenged by its gameplay, forced to practice to get better, and overcome the challenge. And so we begin our journey into paradoxical gameplay mechanics that have kept casual players (the majority of market) out of games for decades. read…

The problem with voice chat in multiplayer online games is that everyone on your team can hear you. And as maps get larger and teams get bigger a new set of communication problems have developed. It becomes difficult to strategize and warn players on one side of the map when team members on the other side of the map are sharing their strategies and warnings. When you hear “ENEMY DOWN THE HALL!” or “I think there’s someone behind you.” or “ok you guys stay here”, or “follow me” you’re not quite sure who the message was meant for. Many times it’s so distracting you end up getting yourself killed because you were confused. read…

First, I did NOT draw the box art, I photoshopped 3 other talented people’s creations together to make a temporary box art mockup (see credits section). You know what’s missing? Good games for kids. Games for kids that are calm, relaxing, completely non-violent, adventurous, and open. So I came up with “Rabbit Tales”. Far from my usual zombie slaying, I know.

You play a grey rabbit on a calm, relaxing island who can transplant various plants by eating their seeds and pooping them out in another location. That’s right, you’re a natural rabbit gardener. There are no humans in the game but there are lots of derelict ghost towns and junk heaps that humans left behind. As the rabbit you can transplant trees, bushes, grass, and vines near or inside buildings until the plants overtake and destroy the structure completely, making it disappear. Thus returning the site, the city, and eventually the entire island back to nature. Different buildings require different plants to destroy them. The more plants you eat the more you level up, getting faster, and being able to eat more. You can also attract animal friends to help you by planting lots of their favorite type of flora. After you return an entire island to nature, the moon disappears and creates a low tide, thus revealing a sand bridge onto the next island which will be randomly generated to have more buildings, larger cities, and different plants, environments, and animal friends. Because the “island worlds” are procedurally generated, the game could go on forever, with larger and larger cities as you progress.

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Cutscenes are vital for passing on emphasis, storyline, emotion, and plot informing to the player. Unfortunately they interrupt gameplay. So players watch and enjoy cutscenes their first time through the game but skip them during subsequent play throughs. This cold shoulder attitude towards cutscenes gets worse in multiplayer games, which tend to avoid cutscenes altogether (and unfortunately story, plot, and emotion too). This is because cutscenes in multiplayer games have to be either watched or skipped by everyone playing so that one player isn’t in game while the others are still watching (same reason why multiplayer games don’t let one player pause the game for everyone). Thus cutscenes, and other storytelling elements, are left out of many of today’s modern multiplayer games and gone with them are the deep and meaningful emotions that were once created.   read…