|
So, you worked with Card on Advent?
DM: A
little bit, yeah.
How did you get in touch with him?
How did you get involved with him?
DM: Ender's
Game is one of my favorite books. I grew up reading Card. When we were writing Advent, we kept saying, "Oh, we
need to write our characters more like Card writes characters because he's so
good at just concisely creating really awesome empathetic characters," I
think.
So,
we were like, "We need to be more like that."
We
have a lot of ambition [laughs] at Chair. We were like, "Why don't we just
call him up and see?" So literally we sent him an email. We said,
"Hey, we're making this game. Would you be interested in talking to us?"
And we sent off that email, and we never thought we'd hear from him again.
About a month later, we got an email back from his wife saying he's going to be
in the area doing a book signing, and he'd totally be willing to come by and
meet you guys for half an hour. And we were like, "Sweet, we can get our
Orson Scott Card books signed."
So,
I got my Ender's Game book. I thought that was all that would come of it. But
we pitched him the idea of Advent, he
loved it, he said he'd be willing to help us out, and he came in and was able
to help us with the script.
Just
because things that were going on at the time, we never got the chance to
collaborate as much as we wanted to. We were too far into development at that
point, whatever. But with Empire, it was more of a fresh start. And that's kind
of our philosophy. My goal is always to find talented people, and then let them
go do what they do best. Like with Empire, we just kind of had this rough idea
of what the story would be. And then we let Card go write his book, and we went
and made our game.
LM: When
we initially approached him, it really was just to run this story past him,
right?
DM: Yeah,
it was.
LM: And
then he just like clamped onto it and was like, "I'm going to write a
book."
DM: Yeah,
yeah. That story's kind of cool, too.
That's an interesting question,
because the book came out a few years ago at this point. No one knew about Shadow Complex when the book came out,
but it does tie directly in. Obviously, you guys knew about it at the time. Was
it more just that he was inspired, or did you have this sort of plan to make a
franchise across media back then, to tie together?
DM: Yeah.
Whether we're successful at it or not is one thing, but I'm interested in
creating stories that can be told across multiple mediums. To me, if the
backbone isn't strong enough that it can stand as a novel or as a comic or as a
film, you don't have a strong enough fiction, or a strong enough universe. So,
that's what we're really interested in creating. With Empire, that's what we
wanted to create, so we brought Card in and pitched him the idea.
Initially,
I just thought I was going to use him as a sounding board, and we would
approach other people. But he loved the idea and on the spot, he called up Tom
Doherty at Tor. He was like, "Here's what I want my next book to be."
Tom was like, "This is the book we've been wanting you to write for 20
years. Go write it." So, I really kind of helped that.
The
book came out in November of 2007. It was an international bestseller. While
the book was being written, we were actually making Undertow. So, we stopped development on the franchise while we let
the book kind of work through its stuff. We made Undertow. Once Undertow
was finished, the book had come out, it was really successful, we had optioned
the movie rights to Warner Bros., and things were going. And then we actually
started real development on Shadow
Complex. Now it's out, and the sequel to the book, Hidden Empire, comes out
in December.
Obviously, you have this foundation
of the Empire fiction that was collaborated with Orson Scott Card, but he
didn't actually end up writing the game dialogue.
DM: He
didn't, no.
How did you find the writer
originally?
DM: Again,
the core to our philosophy is to find great talent and let them do what they do
best. And so we let Card go and do his thing with the book, but when
approaching the game, I wanted to find a writer who I thought really understood
how to marry words with a more visual setting. And I thought whom better than a
comic book writer who has to collaborate with an artist to marry words with a
visual language.
And they're used to not having
complete control of the finished product.
DM: Yeah,
exactly.
LM: And
are okay with not having it, which is another big thing.
DM: Yeah,
exactly. We thought that might be a really good fit with a video game and
specifically our kind of game. And so, as soon as we started thinking that, I
thought, "I need to start compiling a list of my favorite comic book
authors." At the very top of that list was Peter David. Peter is someone
I've been reading since I was 10 years old. I love his work. I love the kind of
stories he tells.
We
thought, again, similar to how we approached Card, we had big ambitions. We
were like, "Why not? Why not see if we can get a Peter David?" He's
one of the most celebrated writers in comic books ever. And so we were able to
get in touch with his agent, and he was willing to talk to us.
So,
we called him and started talking about the ideas we wanted to do and the
direction that we were thinking. He thought he could take a really kind of
unique take on the universe. And man, it was awesome. It was awesome to work
with [him]. He was already just in the first conversation, "Oh, we can do
this or we can do this, and we can set stuff up like this."
How much did he direct the way the
story went in the game?
DM: It
was a great marriage because we already had designed the entire game on paper,
so we knew... We had a few constraints in a sense of...
The progression.
DM: "This
has to happen here, this has to happen here." Pretty much other than that,
especially when it came to like the characters, we said, "There's a main
character, and we like the idea of his initial motivation changing at some
point in the game."
LM: And
he knew what was going on in the bigger universe. Like, here's the Empire arc,
and our story needs to run to at least parallel to those events.
DM: Pretty
much from there, we gave him pretty much free range to come up with something
pretty cool. Let's just give Peter credit where credit's due. He's an awesome
storyteller. But I think his years of experience working in comics allowed him
to come into a situation where the flow is fairly locked in, yet still come up
with a really creative solution. I think that's something he had to deal with a
lot in comics. He was just perfect at doing that. I loved working with Peter. I
hope to work with him again in the future.
I think what was really good from
what I've played so far, is the dialogue is punchy. It doesn't drag. It goes
really fast. It seems very comic book-y actually because in comic books, say,
average page has six panels and a couple lines of dialogue in each panel.
You're flipping through it pretty rapidly, so it kind of fits well with both
the medium and even the download game specifically, because you can only fit so
much recorded dialogue in.
DM: Exactly.
And that was his other constraint. It has to be this many pages. Again, our
opinion is that it came off really, really well. You're right, that was the
exact style we were going for. Keep it punchy, keep it fast, keep it moving
within the constraints, and it was just wonderful. It was a wonderful
collaboration. It was awesome. I love working with talented people. [laughs]
They make us so much better than we are.
|
Printer-Friendly Version
...not that this had an impact on my experience playing, like some other readers, but the story was very generic (which is what I want for this type of game - an overly complex narrative would take away from this type of game experience) and did not need to be associated with a political douchebag like Card. I'd like to scrape Card and all his neo-con religious-wrong followers off the bottom of my shoe because even though I love the game tremendously, the association with a moron like Card makes me feel like I stepped on a dog turd while walking through a beautiful garden.
And I disagree with Tom.
and I agree with Christopher (btw: Abuse is really awesome o/ In fact, I don't expected someone to have the same idea as I... I am too making myself alone a game that is a mix of Metroid, G.I.Joe and Abuse... But yay! Like that guy said, it is better when someone else do it, because you can explore and whatnot, and when you do it yourself, you know everything, so it is not that cool... Now... back to work... I have much work to do :P
There is a big difference psychologically between discovering something through bombing of a seemingly normal wall, and shining a flashlight at a wall seeing that it is green and remembering that you have to go back to it later when you get grenades. To me the discovery seems a lot more rewarding when, I, the player found the discovery on my own instead of it deliberately being pointed out to me as long as I had my flashlight on.
I'm not saying it wasn't the right move, today's players might very well not care much for doing that, but they also might care to do that in the right context. All I'm saying is that I think our industry has to get over this idea of game mechanics becoming obsolete. The two game mechanics stated, Metroid's, and Shadow Complex's are totally different and usable at different times. Just because Shadow Complex is newer and does it this way doesn't mean a game to come should do it Shadow Complex's way.
It also doesn't mean a game can't use both mechanics, although if it does that it should teach the player early on that both mechanics will be used. Maybe flashlight color coding for most items (health boosts, ammo, weapon upgrades), but bombing of seemingly normal walls for special unique items which would in-turn even provide access to areas with even more flashlight color coded secrets (idea for Shadow Complex 2, please!). These super secret hidden walls wouldn't be crucial to the completion of the game, but they would add a lot of extra content to those that worked to find them. I mean if Fallout 3 can create a game that 95% of it has the potential to never be discovered I think a 2D game can as well.
Shadow Complex was great, but there was never that moment of discovery like there was in a Metroid game because everything felt - designed - due to the color coded environment and flashlight mechanic. Great game Mr. Mustard, but you just can't beat the feeling of discovery you get from bomb hopping up a wall only to find a breakable tile (on your own) a few feet up leading to a mysterious room with character upgrades like in Metroid with a game mechanic that tells the player exactly where all the secrets are. Very nice first attempt though, and I hope Shadow Complex 2 includes some of the ideas I've talked about.
For the most part, the answer is a resounding "Yes", but there are a few times going through I felt genuinely defeated by the game for reasons beyond my own control. They absolutely nailed the level design and progression, but of all things, the combat element tends to let me down.
The best parallel I can draw is with Mirror's Edge - I love the game, but the control's inconsistency, and the forced battles in a game about flow REALLY broke the experience. Shadow Complex, similarly, almost cheats players in several locations when they are killed by something they could not possibly have known ahead of time. One of the better examples are the 'ninja-like' enemies who will grapple to the ceiling while shooting and throwing grenades. They have a tendency to kill the player in seconds, though you won't know that the first time, and they look virtually identical to the normal enemies. This is made worse when a group of 3 foes could have 1 of these characters - the player shoots the wrong one without knowing and are subsequently destroyed by the lone 'ninja'.
Aiming in 3 dimensions with 2 axis also has some issues, but I feel this was REALLY well handled all things in, and the number of times it was an issue were minimal. It's still really annoying when it happens, but mot games do much worse these days.
Additionally, I would very much agree with B N's comments about exploration. I might give the game more of a half and half flow though. Most of the 'breakables' are very straightforward, but there are a number of crates requiring the speed boots which are not at all obvious. Yet as you said, figuring these out tends to be the most rewarding aspect of exploration.
Overall, it's another breakthrough game for the Live arcade. I'm sorry that it HAS lost sales because of Card's involvement, because this game, and the people involved in its creation, deserve high praise for proper prototyping and follow-through.
The biggest negative is the story, which is easily the weakest aspect of the game. The boss design needed some more work, too; the easiest and safest way to bring down every boss was grenades and missiles. I was surprised that I never really had to combine sub-weapons in order to hit the bosses' weak points, etc.
The platforming was good overall, but with a few "Why didn't he grab that?" moments. That's difficult to avoid in this sort of game, but I don't recall ever thinking that while playing BC Rearmed (the simpler graphic style of that game was probably the difference). The 3d aiming concept is very innovative but needed some more polish- I often found myself skipping enemies because I didn't want the hassle of trying to aim into the background. This could be solved with a button that changes the aiming mode. The only other complaint I had is that you would occasionally take damage while you had no control over your character- that's a minor concern, but it's also a pet peeve of mine.
The game's strongest point was the combat, especially at the end when the player has her or his full arsenal. Just simply excellent. The balancing of some of the enemies could use some work, but nothing too major. The exploration mechanics were well done, and they would have been even more fun with a different setting. The progression was controlled really well. I talked a lot more about the negatives than the positives, but that's because the gameplay is just FUN. There really isn't much else to say about it.
If this system was polished a bit and applied to better source material, it would be outstanding (maybe even perfect). For example, if Chair took the reins of the GI Joe franchise and combined the system behind Shadow Complex with a multi-character, team-based system (NES style GI Joe), the minds of old school gamers everywhere would explode. I'm a huge fan of what Chair did with Shadow Complex; now I want to see them up the ante. I think they can solve all of this game's little problems and make something really special.
The flashlight's battery, on the other hand, is stupid: it recharges so quickly, I don't really see why they wouldn't just give it infinite duration. As it is I just leave it on and every couple minutes it turns off for 1-2sec.. basically a constant annoyance. If the battery recharged more slowly I might have to ration its use, but as-is it should just be constant.
I agree with raigan about the flashlight recharging too. On the subject of the flashlight itself, it was convenient, but was it done right? It brought my attention to rocks and such that wouldn't have even noticed were there. No hint or anything, and shrouded in darkness, so light OMFG ITS SO RED. I think, hovering the flashlight for a couple seconds could gradually light up what you're pointing at. That would have had the same effect, but it would reduce the effect of "bringing major attention to everything passively". A lot of times I never felt like I discovered anything, more like the game told me it was there. The scan visor in metroid prime was a good example of that. I still felt like I discovered stuff, even though the visor basically tells me what I need to get through.
And the bosses never required strategy. Just bombardments of missiles.
The game was a good first try, but I'm not ready to label it GOTY or a classic yet. I'm definitely looking forward to a sequel though, and hopefully they could attain classic status with it. I mean, it took 3 metroid games to really hit it right.
I think the flashlight mechanic was good in the sense of making it better for casuals, or people that just haven't been conditioned to play games in such a 'bomb everything' way. It would have been nice to have an option to turn off the big hint highlighting though... or make a power-up that combines with the flashlight power some how later in the game.
For example: Super Metroid. Sure you can bomb every wall, but eventually you find the X-ray visor and now you can scan everything. So the first few times you play and are trying to get 100% it is easy to get the x-visor and just scan away. After a few plays you don't even need it...
A 'moving' edition of the x-ray visor from Metroid, found later in the game, would have been better than color highlighting IMO.
Actually, my biggest complaint was the game didn't feel like it had as many 'wow' moments early on (aside from the tank). I wanted to see jaw-dropping 'wow' moments like the Speed Boots throughout the whole game. Perhaps I'm jaded, but I also subscribe that there should be something memorable to each major area, if not each room. Maybe it also has to do with the pacing. I also think a big lack of memorability had to do with how similar most of the areas looked and a lack of defining background music for each area. This isn't to say that silence or ambience should not have been used - it was used quite effectively in Metroid 2 - but I think it tends to have this effect if 80% of the game is ambience (incidentally, also play Metroid 2 to discover the negative impact of designing areas that look much too similar).
Regarding the Flashlight, I think there is another alternative to this: why not create breakable walls that actually look like they can be broken? Zelda does this with the cracked wall. Show walls with cracks, show debris that's fallen from a weak spot in the ceiling, steam or noises coming from a hole in the wall, and demonstrate that you can blow up vents similar to forcing you to use grenades on the doors. This way you're not just blindly blowing up every wall. Of course, Metroid Prime also has an 'item detector' that plays a thrumming noise you are close to a powerup, so that's another way of doing it (but I will say I liked the benefit of easily seeing large colored objects).
Similarly, I have to wonder if there was so much focus on the blue line rather than on cleverly using maps and target points to indicate that you can travel to this location. I know they're catering to a less experienced audience, but placing a blinking star in a room somewhere off the map shows the player where he has to go without being explicit. Finding a map that shows a new area to explore means you go out there and explore it. You know where to go, just not quite how to get there. A combination of clear objectives and unknown territory lets you keep that exploration while maintaining the sense of discovery. Maybe there are better ways of showing people how to read a map (take another look at Portal?), but it seems to work just fine in Zelda and Castlevania.
I also have to say I am very surprised that somebody would not pick up a game this good simply because it is associated with somebody they don't like. I like some of Card's books, but was disappointed to hear about his politics. But it's not like these beliefs are expressed in Shadow Complex. If you're not playing the game because you don't like somebody who had absolutely nothing to do with its design, then you're just living inside a box and aren't going to get as much fun out of life.