Architect's Game

I can’t help but look at one of Star Trek: Into...

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:40:00 +0800

I can’t help but look at one of Star Trek: Into Darkness’ poster and quickly make a visual comparison to the cover of the video game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Idea Bin

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:56:00 +0800

I’ve had a number ideas for video come to me over the last 6 years. Some were inspired by what I have played or what was the big during then. During then, I’ve never put it down on paper or on a Game Design Document. Figures!

Luckily, I still do remember most of them:

Pirate themed-RPG with players building themselves along strength, dexterity, and agility. Player can equip weapons ranging from daggers, swords and hammers to shotguns and sniper rifles to chain-linked hammers ala Kratos. Ships can be pimped out with unconventional gear such as car rims and an M1A1 Abrams turret. Inspired by: Titan Quest’s stat specific classes and One Piece
3rd person shooter. Modern setting but focuses on gang wars. I imagined gangsters hot-wiring SUV’s and Ferrari’s and riding shotgun. Not so great idea. Inspired by: Star Wars: Battlefront II and certain districts in New York.
Very ambitious RPG that combined almost every RPG element out there (also the longest idea to be in my head). Players were supersoldiers in a similar way that Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth were in FFVII. Elemental powers of Fire, Water, and Earth as well as Sound, Cosmic, and the Animal Shapeshifting. Weaponry common and exotic such as Tomahawks, Katars, Hook Swords, Man Gouche, and Tridents. Fighting styles such as Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Capoeira, Jiujitsu, and Russian Sambo. Open world where it shifts between war and peacetime, the latter allows you to “travel” to enemy nations. Randomized NPC’s who can be friends, teammates, enemies, lover with different personalities and own set of element, weapon and fighting style preferences. Flexible game play where you can opt for using one or more elements, weapons, and/or fighting styles and even select which faction to begin with. This idea was big, being inspired by: FFVII SOLDIER’s, Pokemon elemental types, the Mass Effect universe, Tekken fighting styles, Various RPG weapons aaaaaand Naruto.
Squad based RPG/RTS in the likes of Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II. Players can personalize squads to an intimate level: Weapon loadouts, equipment, armor, squad composition, faction name and logo, color scheme. Just like Space Marine chapters only deeper. Each individual soldier has their own set of traits, good and bad. They can also be hired, trained, traded and can permanently die if not evacuated. Battlefield is viewed through a “surveillance drone” and care packages can be flown in for the player (and enemies) use. Inspired by: Warhammer 40,000k, Iron Man 2, Black Ops II’s fire supports, and X:COM’s soldiers
The new “Need For Speed”. Balanced combination of factory and tuned vehicles (aiming for a super-tuned Toyota Supra versus a stock Lamborghini setup). Various settings like urban, countryside, off-road, highways. Social elements that allow friendships, rivalries, crews, and even police squadrons. Inspired by: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
And Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect crossover. Screw Desmond, this is set in the Mass Effect timeline. I even came up with how biotics and tech can assist (or prevent) assassinations. And Omni Hidden Blades! DAMN!

Design Study: Elements of NFS Underground 1 & 2

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:01:50 +0800

Design Studies is where I talk about what a certain video game and look into certain elements of its design and what can be improved on it.

today, I talk about Need For Speed: Underground 1 & 2

Underground 1 and Underground 2 are pretty much the same game. The latter is just the bigger, better, and faster one.

Underground 2 wasn’t the first Need For Speed or racing game I played but it was the first where I finally understood the concept of car racing (before, I was crashing my way through NFS II).

Notable Elements:

Import Racing Scene - Underground is based on the subculture of modifying imported brand cars and street racing.
Extensive Car Customization - ranging from physical appearance, performance tuning, paint jobs and special effects.
Diverse Selection - 30 cars, mostly Japanese imports but includes a handful of European and American makes and some SUV’s.
Setting - Nighttime city setting which includes, an airport, a business, commercial, and industrial district, the mountainside and a highway network
Free Roam - A first in Underground 2, being able to drive on 250 miles of open road.

Underground puts emphasis the import tuner culture and the street racing. The latter became illegal as future titles included police pursuits Car customization was maintained before becoming more performance focused or simplified, even being ignored altogether. Cars selection grew to include exotics and muscle cars joining the roster once populated with Japanese tuners with police variants of the same cars. The nighttime setting gave way to full day-night cycles, including full day cycles and snow, desert, coastal and forest setting. Free roam has been maintained though as a staple for most games.

Played: Lots of Need For Speed: EA Black Box Titles

Sun, 12 May 2013 23:58:56 +0800

The first in a series of posts I’d like to call, Played! Where I talk about the games I’ve played and what I feel about them.

I played a lot of Need For Speed tiles. But most of my game time has been spent on the 2nd Era titles developed by EA Black Box.

Ea Black Box, a Canadian based developer stands as a known for its development of EA’s Skate series and the Need For Speed series. From 2003 to 2008, Black Box was the primary developer of the NFS series.

I’ve played a number of them, namely (in bold):

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit II
Underground
Underground 2
Most Wanted
Carbon
ProStreet
Undercover
World
The Run

Black Box started with Hot Pursuit II but Underground was a landmark title in the series

Underground started the ERA of NFS which focused on car customization, illegal street racing and story-driven career. These defining elements became a series staple for subsequent titles. So they game was a commercial success and inspires a sequel, Underground 2 Now 2 introduced free roam as well as expand on the existing mechanics. Now I played Underground AFTER Underground 2 and it wasn’t as enjoyable. Usually, when you play a sequel, you enjoy what has been added. Playing the prequel, however, is the exact opposite. Why do car rims one sized only? Yeah, that sort of thing, pops up every time

Then Most Wanted, previously absent exotics return and street racing is now illegal and sett up in broad daylight for every police cruiser to see, brilliant. But the police AI was a joke. 10 second pursuits amounted to 50 percent of my bounty grinding. Car customization was simplified much to my dismay. Oh, and the sunlight gets in your eyes. Kudos to seeing red and blue lights drowned in the sun.

Carbon came but didn’t feel like an improvement. Car selection was expanded, dividing cars into tuner, muscle, and exotic and into 3 Tiers according to performance. But hell, my favorite car is no longer the fastest, My RX-7 and Subaru ended up useless. Autosculpt was introduced allowing you customize your car the way you want it. A plain underdeveloped gimmick! On the other hand, police AI has gotten aggressive, wrecking 200+ units before finally evading. (Note: Quota: 30).

After Carbon, ProStreet felt to unreal for a realistic driving. Plain awkward with odd names for what I think was supposed to be a circuit race. (Grip?). Pretty much my gameplay time on ProStreet was pretty non-existent. Which sums up the rest of Black Box’s subsequent releases.

Looking at it, Black Box’s success peaked with Most Wanted. Need For Speed’s 3 year downward spiral began with Carbon failing to perform well, more so with each new release. To think EA would have quit the long running series if it wasn’t for new developer, Slightly Mad studios releasing Shift series and Burnout developer Criterion releasing reboots of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted.

EA Black Box released great titles back then, but with its last few titles failing to match Criterion’s and Slightly Mad, their work with the racing series seems to end. Last I heard, they were being restructured to focus on free-to-play.

About Me

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:37:56 +0800

Let’s keep it short:

Architecture Student
Gamer
Very Imaginative
Every now and then, I come up with an idea for a new game
I made this blog to put my ideas down.