Testing the new Squarespace app!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm writing this post from the official Squarespace app.

Pretty cool, huh?

I think this will be pretty handy to draft posts or do quick updates. Of course, it's a challenge to spell correctly so the posts might be short or will just include pics.

Later!

-Arnaldo

It's been a while...

There's this need for me to have a blog yet I don't know anyone that reads it. I like that it's not like social networks and that it's a very personal space for my thoughts and work yet I use it less and less. I love Squarespace and what they do but it's getting harder to justify $8/month for a site that no one accesses.

I tell myself that sooner or later, as my work becomes known, that I will get some sort of traffic but the truth is that I rarely need to sit down and write posts; though I should. The truth of the matter is that Twitter allows me to write my thoughts as they happen and it arrives instantly to my 278 followers...278! I wanted to make the blog more about video games and my thoughts on them than my life and what I like because that's what Twitter and Facebook is for.

So what is this blog really for? In the advent of social media, blogging has become useless unless you have something good and substantial to say or show. Face it, people no longer want to click on your blog and have to read 1,000 words--they prefer it coming to them directly and only have to read 140 characters or less.

I've come to think of this website as a one stop for everything about myself. On the left side you have access to almost every single social media platform that I am on. At the top you have access to my resume and portfolio and the blog for when I can update it...or feel like updating it.

Going back to the relevance of blogging, I mostly do it for myself. Like in Twitter, I like to look back at dates and see what was up in that point in time--like a journal. Obviously Twitter is a lot more frequent but blogging is substantial. Quick thoughts are for twitter, deep thoughts are for blogging. Like this....rambling.

Believe me, if I get people to check out my blog more often I will pay more attention. Till then check out my Twitter feed. Also, if you're out there, leave a comment!

There goes my $8 for this month.

-Arnaldo

Story In Games

There has been a lot of talk of how to tell great stories in games. To me, there is something really special in story but even more with interactivity in stories, which is why I went into game design instead of film.

I think the main problem with story in games is that we can't empathize with the characters like in other mediums. Why? Because when we play we only see his/her back and in the cases of FPS not even that. There is such a detachment in games that it's really hard to get a emotional response from players. Games that have done this have had to rely a lot on cinematics and the already established ways of visual storytelling.

In games we can compose incredible narrative that is unique and dynamic but we can't do it, in my opinion, without some form of narrative linearity and authored control of the characters and their fates in the world. That is unless we find a way to dynamically alter authored content in a way that outcomes are coherent to the story and the player's actions. Is it impossible to do it all dynamically like it's supposed to be? No, but right now it's very hard because there isn't enough time to make every possible option a reality.

In order to make a completely dynamic narrative with relatable characters, the game needs to learn to adapt to the player and right now, with the technology that we have, it's impossible. How do we make an interesting situation emerge from every possible player interaction that flows with the story and makes it entertaining and coherent? There are a lot of variables to consider. How do you plan for something like that? No matter how dynamic something is, once the player finds something he can't do or that react the wrong way the suspension of disbelief will be broken. It would take something really surprising to bring him back. I believe the player needs a narrative guide that will place the him in the most interesting of the possible situations in order to better experience it.

There's a problem between the designer's wishes and the player's. Games are all about interactivity and choice. But then how do we try to incorporate interactive storytelling into something that is pure to the medium? How do we do something that is authored and doesn't rely on techniques from other media? Half-Life 2 has a good approach to this but the player is still forced to be in the narrartive even if he can ignore it and start jumping around. When I play games that are story-driven I usually do a lot of role play. I actually play the game's narrative sequences as if I was an actor playing the role of the character I'm playing; I don't play as myself. I'm playing this character and this is what I think this character does, this is how I think the character responds to things. I try my hardest not to play out of character; that's how I like to play. But some games force you to be out of character in order to satisfy some gameplay mechanic. So either we do it one way or the other? Do we just pick, or is there a way to have both a mechanic and narrative driven game?

I think games right now are very selfish in terms of story. All of the focus is on the player and his task--the game part--leaving little to no room for the game to adapt to the story. For example, a first-person shooter will always have first person shooter mechanics regardless to what is happening in the story. Games right now are too restricted in their genres. In a movie, or books, everything is written in service of story. Even horror flicks have funny moments or action sequences--it's not stuck in it's genre. Yeah, there are some games that have some variation of mechanics that takes it out of the genre but it's not in service of anything except variety. I'm not saying that every game out there needs to have a solid narrative foundation cause not all games are the same but the ones that have it should take it more seriously, in my opinion. It would not only benefit the experience but it would also add depth.

I am not saying that gameplay is not important, that is what sets it apart from the other narrative media. What I am saying is that it's how we approach those mechanics to both satisfy the narrative (if it's a narrative-driven game) and the player's enjoyment.

So how do we deal with this today? I don't know. That's the beauty about being a designer--you can explore every possible avenue and see what works and what doesn't; there are still things to experiment and explore. Should the narrative's main character be an NPC? That way there's a balance between telling a character's story and being able to have fun in that world without worrying about breaking the narrative coherence. It's something worth trying. It wouldn't be dynamic as certain things need to happen in order to move the story along but it may be a step forward. It's a delicate balancing act between player (influencing the story through interaction) and designer (creating a entertaining authored experience).

The cool part of video games is that there is no wrong way to do anything. What's fun is fun no matter how it looks, behaves, or functions. Some people like the way stories are told in games right now but I, obviously, think they can be so much more. It is possible and it's one of my goals, as a designer, to try and do it.

-Arnaldo

Very good videos on video games.

-Arnaldo

New Web Site / GDC

Welcome to my new web site. I was using Blogger before but I really needed the flexibility to customize without touching code. I found this new WYSIWYG web site creator called Squarespace. It is incredible. It has a state-of-the-art, fluid, and intuitive UI that can be used without coding. All that you see on the web site (though it's a work in progress) was done without even looking at code. Apparently you can also code your heart out to make it even more kick-ass.

So GDC is next week and even though I couldn't go this year I'm pretty excited about it. Looking forward to hearing from all the people and the media that are going about what is happening. Most of my dev friends are going so I'm going to be covered on all the info coming out. I'm definitely going next year.

Speaking of GDC, I found this video that Joystiq made for last year's GDC and I'm in it! I'm on the 18 second mark talking to some friends in front of the escalator. When I started watching I was looking to see if I was in any of the shots and BOOM! There I was! Pretty cool. Here's the video:

Joystiq Says Farewell to GDC 2008... in time-lapse from Joystiq.com on Vimeo.

Have some Flower and Killzone 2 thoughts coming up for some of the next couple of post so check back for those!

-Arnaldo