IT MAY NOT BE FOR YOU...

Joel- in one of the comments from the last post- pointed me to the Kotaku post where they showed some gameplay footage from CALLING ALL CARS!

A few things about this:

#1- I don't know where they got the music from but it ain't from our game :) The CALLING ALL CARS myspace page (www.myspace.com/callingallcarsgame)has the music that will ship with the game and it sure as hell ain't the stuff they were playing in the clip.

#2- Joel asked what I thought about the comments on the Kotaku(http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/clip-calling-all-cars-246107.php) page. Well I liked the ones who said: hey this looks like fun! There were a handful of comments that were like: what the fuck is this? This looks like Cel Damage/Shit/etc...

As for what I think about those, well look: as it should be clear from the interviews I've been doing as of late, right now in my work, I'm no longer interested in going head to head with the likes of Halo, Mass Effect, Resistance, Devil May Cry 4, etc. Hell, I don't even want to go head to head against our own GOD OF WAR. I just want to do smaller, simpler games that focus on the fun.

So regarding those comments, if they come from folks who have never even thought- and never will think- about giving arcade and casual games a shot, then I really don't care that Calling All Cars is not floating their boat. I mean, sure, I'd love to get all of our games loved by EVERY gamer, but that is not realistic. I let go of that fantasy long ago.

To make it clear- and to put some pics in this post, as I love blog posts with pics- the following games are the ones I look at now as our new competition; the following games are the ones that have players who I want to win over and make love our stuff. Games like these:













So if any/all of these games- or games of this type- float your boat, then we are going to work our butts off to make you love our smaller, downloadable stuff. We look at the above games as both our competition and our teachers. And if you dig these kinds of games BUT STILL don't like what you see with CALLING ALL CARS! then we have much to learn and hope to please you and excite you by our next game, if not this one.

But if these are not your kind of games, fair enough. You prob. won't dig the stuff I'll be directing these days. And that's cool, maybe we'll hook back up in the future.

I think the biggest issue I have is when people act as if I don't know I have a new mountain to climb here. I KNOW you are only as good as your last game; I KNOW people are sick of seeing me all over the net/mags/tv and just looking for me to fuck up. I get it, I understand it. And I am actually cool with it. I think all those responses are natural. And I am willing to work my butt off- along with the team- to make sure we earn your respect. I am looking forward to having to win folks over again; I'm also looking forward to winning over a whole new audience who would have never have looked twice at God Of War. I'm not looking for a free ride.

But when I hear the question- and I often do- of: 'do you think if it wasn't for your name, anyone would care about CALLING ALL CARS' it makes me annoyed a bit I guess. Cause I'm like, look: I'm not trying to pull a fast one here. This is the stuff I like to make now, if YOU don't like it, that's fair. But at least give me a bit of credit for trying to branch out and do new stuff. Isn't it what we ALL complain about that games are too predictable and corporate? Well how do you think it gets that way? People get safe and secure and never branch out.

Now maybe I am branching out in a direction you think is lame or stupid. That's fair. We can have that discussion. But at least give me a little credit for reaching...and give us a shot if you like the kind of games pictured above. We're gonna do our best not to let you down.

But again, if all you like is BATTLEFIELD and HALO and DEAD RISING, then keep on walking. Calling All Cars! may not be a game for you...

David

Random, Ramblin' Stuff

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EDIT:

Coupla media things I wanted to bring to ya'lls attention if you are interested in hearing me gab even more! Check out:

#1- INSOMNIAC PODCAST- I am the mystery guest this week...lotsa fun doing that one! Check it out at:

http://www.insomniacgames.com/podcast/podcast.php

Click on DOWNLOAD LATEST EPISODE to give it a listen.

#2- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY INTERVIEW: Wow, I made the big time! Give it a read at:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20014359,00.html

#3- Finally, a quick interview I did on the floor at GDC with some readers of this blog. Tons o' fun! Check it at:

http://gzresistance.com/?page_id=53

Ok, back to the blog!

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Hey ya'll...been busy trying to lock down CAC with the boyz at Incognito; we are almost done but NOT quite. I will be getting a build in today- I hope!- that has some of the code that we hope will keep scores close without making the players feel much- if anything- is happening behind the scenes. I spoke to some of the guys who worked on the old Midway games that CAC was inspired by (NFL Blitz; NBA JAMS) and it turns out those games had a crap ton of behind the scenes code that kept the games tight. We don't plan on pushing it anywhere near what the older Midway games did but at the same time, our job is to make fun and sometimes fun needs a little push in the right direction :) I may or may not let you know if the 'catch up code' as I call it, actually made it in the game.

Ok, so some random hits...NO time to edit so deal with the typos, bitches!

THOUGHTS ON GDC:
So the show was great; I loved it; best one I've been to. Often times tho, the quality of GDC has to do with if you get lucky/smart and go to the right panels/roundtables. As I am very passionate these days about the smaller game world, I hit most panels dealing with that and thus, had a great time, learned alot,etc.

Saw a pretty interesting panel from the designer/coder of FIFA 2007 on creating emotions in sports games. Man, I gotta tell you, with all the talk of emotion thru in game characters and plot points and twists and turns, I LOVED this panel cause here was a guy who was like: let's deal with emotion THRU gameplay! Granted the emotions were things like victory, shame, pride, etc. but hell, those are the kind of emotions I think games do really well. So I loved that talk evnn tho it didn't go as deep as I had hoped it would.

Chatted with my buddy Heather Chaplin, one of the co-authors of the great 'behind the scenes of the game biz' book SMARTBOMB. She's always fun to gab with but what was interesting is, as we were discussing games as art- a frequent point of discussion between us- I caught myself saying: yeah, I'm not all that interested in games as art anymore because, honestly, I have nothing to say.

And when I heard myself say this, I was like: is this apathy or maturity?

It's actually a nice place to be, whatever it is. It's nice to care and have an opinion but not be all chomping at the bit and dying to share it with everyone. I mean, sure we could have made Heartland- and may still make it one day- but from a MESSAGE standpoint, what's the point? So here's a game that says: I HATE GEORGE BUSH! I HATE THE IRAQ WAR! I HATE HOW AMERICA HAS LOST ITS REPUTATION AROUND THE WORLD IN THE LAST 6 YEARS,etc,etc,etc....it's like....so what? The folks that agree with me will nod in approval, the folks who don't will call me an ass...and there will be one more opinion out there that we've all been hearing for years. Maybe if I had something NEW to say, something fresh, ok then it makes sense. But I really don't. I just want to make games that make people feel like this:




That is really all I want to do these days....

And it was SO AMAZING to watch folks playing Calling All Cars at GDC and they were pretty much doing what they are in that stock pic above! People always seemed to have smiles on their faces and were laughing and talking smack. It was so nice to know that- for those folks who liked our game- that we did that; that we gave them that feeling! See, to me, that's a damn nice feeling! That's what games do better than any other medium!

So hey, the Game Design Challenge went great! I was REALLY worried about it for like weeks leading up. But it went off great and even tho I came in dead last, I was proud of my entry and thought it was just tons of fun. It's odd...maybe I've just grown up but I generally did not care about losing. It was the first time in my life where the addage 'don't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game' really made sense to me. I just really appreciated being there and pitching my stuff!



Here's Eric Zimmerman (Diner Dash fame); Harvey Smith (Deus Ex); Myself; Clint Hocking (Ubisoft Creative Director); and Alexy Pajitnov (Tetris and this year's winner!)

HAUNTED HOUSES:

Me and my wife went to Old Town, San Diego this weekend and toured the Whaley House. It's supposed to be one of the most haunted houses in the world and we did see something odd. In the upstairs bedroom we kept seeing this curtain that divided the bedroom and closet move in an odd way. All the windows in the room were closed and the curtains on the windows were not moving at all. Just this one curtain that divided the closet. And it didn't move like it was being blown around, it moved in a stiff, irregular sort of way. The docents of the house say they have heard many people talk about the curtain but I don't know. I want to buy into Ghosts and stuff...I LOVE ghosts! But this curtain seemed almost too constant to be anything supernatural. Has anyone else been to the Whaley house? Anyone seen the curtain moving?

Either way, it got me thinking about how much I love ghosts and stuff. There seems to be a pretty active ghost hunting community here in San Diego and I may just sign up for a tour to go with them on an investigation. I love that stuff man.

PICS: Coupla random pics from my trip and the net I wanted to share:



GANDALFFE? JAFALF? I dunno, but I love it...from the freaks at neogaf, naturally!



Another NEOGAF classic! Man, I wish they had used a new pic as I've lost like 20 pounds since this pic! Still, Jessica's hot so I don't mind as long as she doesn't!



Another JAFFE LOVES HERMINEY (I KNOW!!!) pic from Adam!



SITE FOR SORE EYES! Man, I found this little corner of old arcade games in the Metreon Arcade across from where GDC was being held. It was like stepping back in time; all those old arcade games lines up, a dark little corner. It was like coming back home!

Ok, that's it for now. Gotta get to work! Talk to ya'll soon! Gonna be in Utah next week doing what I feel is our last tuning session. Then I hope to squeeze out ONE more focus test and then that's all she wrote! We'll see how it goes!

Talk to ya'll later! And sorry for the typos...not even gonna re-read this before I post. Too much to do on my TO DO list! See ya!

David

OUR BIG DEBUT!

My understanding is that CALLING ALL CARS! will be playable tonight at a GDC event. And then on the show floor for the next three days (starting Wednesday)!

I will not be there tonite (I was supposed to be there but last minute tuning needs came up) but I will be all over the net this evening in hopes that a few GDC goers will post impressions.

Having the game at GDC is a challenge as press and other game makers are the main folks playing your baby. And they are the toughest critics of all.

But short of some tuning here and there, what they are plaing at GDC is about 95% the game that will ship. Granted, internet play will not be on display (the heart of the game...with the soul being split screen)...but that's not our game's fault; it's just the set up they gave us (no net connection)...

So I hope folks will be nice to our kid and really like it (maybe love it)?

We'll know soon enough! If you see any player impressions on the net, please shoot me a comment? I would appreciate it.

Talk to ya'll later!

David

LAZY SUNDAY

Ahhh....what a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Sitting in my office with the spring like March breeze blowing thru my window; oldest daughter is outside on the swing I just installed, being pushed by her grandpa. Wife is on the couch downstairs, reading a book.

Man, this is nice. I love that spring is almost here!

Speaking of spring, you know it's getting close when GDC rears it's head. And GDC is this week, as you may know.

I am on two GDC panels, so stop by if you get the chance.

Panel #1 is on Tuesday night- around 6 I think- and deals with the indie game scene. Odd they would choose me for such a panel as Calling All Cars, while being small, is hardly independent. From my understanding tho, they want me on to talk about bigger companies- like Sony- getting into the smaller game space (sort of like how big movie studios have their indie divisions like Sony Pictures Classics). Certainly I could/would/should never design an ultra indie darling like flOw or Dawinia, but I am digging the smaller titles so maybe I will have something worthy to say. Either way, I am excited as the first two days of GDC are devoted- in part- to the small/casual/indie game scene...a scene that I am very rapidly falling head over heels in love with! In fact, I have DEFCON's eerie music playing in the background as I type...thanks Steam!

Panel #2 finds me competing for the GAME DESIGN CHALLENGE crown against last year's winner Harvey Smith (lead designer on my top 5 all time fave game DEUS EX) and Alexy Pajitnov (he of Tetris fame and all around genius). In other words, I am fucking dead. And not just dead, but 'killed in front of industry peers whom I would like to impress as one day I may be knocking on their doors for a job' dead. And get this fucking challenge: design a game where the user interface is a needle and thread and a piece of fabric. Yeah, you read that right. A needle and fucking thread interface. Dead, I tell you! Dead!

But that's ok. I have an idea that I think is kinda cool, both theme wise and play wise. And end of the day, all you can do is pitch what you like and hope for the best. I'll let you know how I do!


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I LOVE THE 80'S!


Me and the wife saw Music And Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore last week and I've been in 80's love mode ever since. NOTE: I just re-read that sentence and it could mean two things. I PROMISE you, it means the thing you think it means...not the thing it would so cool if it meant.

So...

If you have not seen the movie - and you like romantic comedies- go see this flick. It's really good. And if you were a kid/teen in the 80's and have a fondness for that time period, you MUST see this flick if for no other reason than to see Hugh Grant play an Andrew Ridgely style character who was one half of a WHAM! like duo. Check this out, the opening of the film:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GuWS4Alp43s

Not ONLY does the song SOUND 100% autentic 80's but the fucking video is spot on! I LOVE the fact that the doctor looks like a GQ model...and the red flashing heart under Hugh Grant's shirt at the end is perfect! Totally 80's!

So yeah, I got the soundtrack on my ipod the day after seeing the film and was jamming like an idiot to it while driving to LA last week for our second to last CALLING ALL CARS focus test.

Our biggest issue with the game right now is that when the battles are close, the game is a BLAST! We get amazing scores and people are laughing ,swearing, and having a great time. But when we get mismatched players- as in any multiplayer game, video or not- the scores drop as both players get bored.

We are debating if we should put in some NBA JAMS style catch up code that gives players who are lagging behind a bit (like 10 points behind or so) a bit of a boost in various areas of the game. Not sure how we feel about this for a number of reasons. Maybe we put it in but give players an option to turn it on/off. We will see but I sure as hell ain't letting you guys know what we decide as I feel that would blow the magic of the experience.

But anyway, I'm in 80's mode, listening to tons of 80's music and dreaming about Alladin's Castle at Brookwood Mall again...the old, long gone arcade I used to practically live in. Ah, those were the days. Man, I've searched the net for pictures of that place for years and have never found ANYTHING. How I miss Alladin's Castle :(

So hey, have you guys seen this book yet:



What a great book to trigger those amazing arcade 80's memories. I wish it was a huge coffe table sized book but it'll do. And it makes me so excited to have a game coming out this month that really speaks to the love I have for those old arcade games...from like 1978 up to like 1993, there were some amazing games in the arcade that changed my life and molded me as a creative individual.... and while I probably will never make an actual arcade game, Calling All Cars, to me, has the soul and spirit of an arcade game and that makes me very, very excited, happy, and proud.

Folks will get to play Calling All Cars next week at GDC and then, in a week or two after, the game hits. We'll see the reviews, see player comments on the boards...it's an exciting but stressful time. I really want people to like the game but you just never know. I am very proud of it but who knows what gamers expect these days. Will the gamers be willing (or have a desire) to put on their 'arcade hats' and have appropriate expectations for a game like CAC or will they come to CAC expecting the same depth and breadth that they want to see in HALO3 or KILLZONE 2?!?!

I have moments where I feel we've made a balls to the wall blast to play that will keep people coming back for more and more...and then I have moments where I'm like: fuck! This thing is gonna give all the Jaffe haters all the ammo they need to just bury me.

Some people are like: dude, don't worry about it so much.

And they are right. And I've done this long enough that by this point- most times- it doesn't worry me. I know we did the best we could. But there are those times when you catch yourself hoping for the great reviews and the fan board praises....but it's key not to think on that too much, not to come to depend on that too much.

All you can do is your best and HOPE you and the team have done enough to guarantee folks that the game will provide the most important thing of all: a good fucking time!

Ok, I'm off. May update from GDC...if not, talk to ya'll soon after!

Take it easy!

David

CALLING ALL CARS SOUNDTRACK

Well, if you can call it a soundtrack!

It's only 4 songs, but hey, the game is only $9.99! What do you want for 10 bucks ya cheap bastards?!?!

Anyway, check it out when you get some time:
http://myspace.com/callingallcarsgame

We put the first 4 songs of the 5 song soundtrack online.

I totally realize it won't be everyone's cup of tea as it's:

a- a very cartoony game
b- has a bit more TWANG than any other game I've ever worked on.

But this music works GREAT for the game I feel; a great sense of the silly/slapstick/kinetic vibe we are going for.

Hope you enjoy it!

Back to tuning!

David

OSCAR IS DEAD!

Last week, an article ran in the LA Times about the Interactive Arts and Sciences awards ceremony. GOD OF WAR won a shit ton of those great awards last year and they mentioned me in the piece; talked a bit about my experiences with the show.

The gist was that the Academy want(ed) the awards to be serious and important like the Oscars but that maybe we- as an industry- are not really the kinds of folks to appreciate or participate in such an event. As the head of the academy put it, maybe we simply need to be sitting at the kids table and eating ice cream.

Now I like Joseph Olin (head of AIAS) alot; very nice guy who works his ass off to make AIAS the stellar org. that it is. The DICE conference he oversees is the highlight of the year for most of us game makers. His is a thankless job and even so, the man gives it all he's got. I am very proud he represents us.

But I take issue with his 'ice cream/kid's table' statement because it can be read as an implication that the Oscars are BETTER and more NOBLE than our awards; that the people who populate the movie business are more mature than we are.

Bullshit, Joe. They are not more mature; they are just more full of themselves. I LOVE the fact that game makers are real people who don't fall for the bullshit of the Oscars.

Hell, did you SEE the Oscars last night?

Hell, for me, watching yesterday's Oscars was a pretty eye opening experience. I TIVO it these days, watching the red carpet arrivals around 2 hours after the show starts airing. This gives me enough TIVO buffer to skip past commercials, boring dance numbers, speeches from folks that- while I appreciate their accomplishments and contributions- don't really interest me all that much. By the time I'm watching someone get the BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY award, the live show has concluded in real time. Just gotta make sure to stay off the net and not answer the phone during the last hour so the surprises are not spoiled for me.

Not that there are any surprises anymore.

But it's not because there are no twists and turns from time to time (I mean, who the hell saw the best pic for CRASH coming last year?!?)...but there are no genuine surprises because the Oscars get less and less relevant as the years go by. Hard to be surprised by something you don't really care about.

As a movie loving, wanna be director kid, the Oscars were everything to me. Me and my other film loving buddies from Alabama (all 2 of them!) woke up at 5:30am - each and every year- to see the announcment of the nominations; at lunch, we argued over who would win and why; we made sure to see all but the most boring looking flicks that were up for the best picture. It was our Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one. Yep, there we were: awkward as hell movie geeks sitting in the cafeteria bitching (loudly!) about Spielberg getting snubbed for directing THE COLOR PURPLE, while the movie itself was nominated in all the other categories. Well, as you can imagine, we were HITS with the ladies.

So yeah, the Oscars used to mean something to me. But now, while the Oscars are still kind of cool, they are mostly lame and silly and pretentious.

And sure, some of it's because I'm older. But I think most of it is because the veil has been lifted on the 'glamor' and 'glitz' of the lives of these so called beautiful people.

Because of the internet and because of the tabloid shows and mags, the stars are revealed to be just human. Hell, in some cases, they are revealed to be humans with some pretty serious flaws.

And because of the internet and the sites like AINT IT COOL NEWS and BOX OFFICE MOJO; and some revealing behind the scene docs on some of the DVDS, the film making process is no longer all that magical either. It looks like work now, because it is work. Fun work at times, to be sure, but still a job that needs to get done. And a job that serves the corporate masters that now own pretty much every one of the studios and who clearly care much more about the bottom line than the artistic outcome.

So to watch these folks on Oscar cast talk about how IMPORTANT the movies are and, thus, how IMPORTANT they are, is just silly. To watch Jack Nicolson 'holding court' once again, and hear folks from the stage make 'in awe' comments to him as if he were Don Corleone is just embarassing. To watch ANOTHER fucking too-long montage that digs back into the 100 years of CINEMA to show us film clips from movies only kids at USC CINEMA school care about, while some overblown, wanna-be inspirational orchestral score blasts away (or worse, the fucking music from THE NATURAL...what the hell is with that song?!?)...it all just feels like bullshit. Calculated bullshit. Maybe at a time, it mattered. But now, the magic is gone. Is it just me?

I don't think so, as the viewership for the Oscars is in freefall and has been- give or a take a few special case scenarios- for years.


I think Joe's desire for us to be taken seriously is a good one. We work hard, make great products (at times), we affect the culture in a significant way, and we are NOT jokes; we are not children. We are working adults who care about what we do.

But to try to craft an awards show, or to even DESIRE to craft an awards show BASED on the Oscars, when the Oscars itself (not to mention award shows in general) is a tired old horse that needs to be put out to pasture, is a mistake.

I've bitched for years that game awards need to be done online; done as an MMO weekend like THE BURNING MAN festival, but for games. In a giant virtual world where you can wander the landscape, chatingt with famous game makers who are walking around, go to speeches by these avatars and play new demos of the up comming games and/or play demos of the nominated games; and then go to the main stage and vote in real time for your fave game of the year...and then see how the pubic votes stack up to the academy votes.

This model or not, the idea is that sure, giving out awards to celebrate your biz is the way to go. Why not? It's good for the makers and the consumers. But why are we tailoring it off the dying model that is the Oscars. Heck, even the once hip MTV MOVIE AWARDS is now losing viewers and looking old school.

There is just something old/wrong/dying about award shows. It's a model that just does not work anymore. People are too aware of the process to buy into looking at the creators of the process as anything other than...well, just people.

We need to embrace the very tech that we are celebrating! We need to take our awards online because THAT is where the fans will meet us; that is where the folks will care. That is where people will WANT to see Lord British give a speech upon being inducted into the Academy Hall of Fame; that is where people will WANT to see the game gods walking a red carpet (albeit a virtual one) and get the chance to chat with them in real time.

And hell,if that doesn't work for you, do a real awards show but air the thing on GAMESPOT or IGN or one of the other big game sites. Air it in real time, allow for fans to watch and participate in real time with voting and comments and chatting with the winners,etc...I mean, game fans WOULD want to see Tim Schafer and Ueada and Miyamoto walking the carpet...sure it's not as lucrative as say, airing it on ABC, but hell, it's not lucrative NOW. At least if you put it out there to the fans who care, you could charge for commercial time and make some dough that way AND you'd prob. get a bit more of a mature show as we'd all know we were on camera and would want to do more than sit around and shoot the shit with buddies we have not seen in years in between awards- or even while getting awards-which is what we do now.

So while we are building the virtual awards show, let's start airing the live one on a gaming site. Isn't this a no brainer?!?

I am so honored and glad we got awards for God of War. I recall my first nomination for TWISTED METAL:BLACK level design with much pride. And I would love to think the new downloadable games we are doing will have a place- if we provide great product- at an awards ceremony in the future. I'm down with awards. I think Joe and I see eye to eye on that.

I just think it's time to let go of the past and embrace...hell, to CREATE Awards 2.0.

Who's with me?

David

ps. yes, yes I know the whole 'pay to be a member/Capcom' issue is still alive and kicking. Please be aware that THAT issue has nothing to do with my views expressed in THIS post. That's a whole other can of worms but for the record, I agree with Joe that dues are a normal part of any academy and there is no reason we should be different. I would support a sliding scale if some pub simply can't afford it but I don't think the fee to join AIAS is THAT steep...is it?

TINSELTOWN

Heading off to LA for a few days for some personal biz (taxes; lawyers;etc). Also, some nice R&R with the wife before the last week of tuning and out last focus group next week.

Sorry updates so sparse as of late; trying to work with Incognito to lock CALLING CALL CARS down and be done!

Will let ya'll know what's up next week!

And check out FLOW AND QBERT! I think they are out today on the Playstation Store!!!

Take it easy ya'll!

David

MY DINNER WITH GEOFF

Chatted with Spike Tv's GAMEHEAD host (and all around nice guy) Geoff Keighley yesterday. Promoting GOD OF WAR II for the GAMEHEAD episode Mid March which is ALL about GOD OF WAR!!!

Then we did a bit for the show that airs the NEXT week about CALLING ALL CARS!

I always like talking to Geoff cause I think a) he's a nice guy and b) he does a great job of bringing gaming to a mass audience. He's sort of like the Dick Clark of video games!

So thanks for the time and interest Geoff (along with your crew). I was kind of in tuning hell (still am) when we did the interview so I was sort of dazed and unfocused. Hope you got some good stuff you can use! Looking forward to the show!

Talk to ya'll later!

David




Look how TINY that camera is!!! Amazing that they can shoot broadcast quality on a tiny ass handheld.


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EDIT:

Adam never lets me down!


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SWAMPED!

Just wanted to say hey, been swamped like crazy as we hit the final days of tuning.

As I am typing this, my 3 year old just came into my office and said: I wanna make video games just like you.

Aaaawwwww! Melts the old man's heart :)

Now she just told me not to make anymore games like GOD OF WAR cause they scare her. She walked in as I was playing thru the GOD OF WAR 2 BETA last month. Bad idea...I shut it off asap but she saw a bit of the Barbarian King battle and has not seemed to forget!

Amazing reviews on that game,eh? Congrats to the team in Santa Monica!

Ok, will post more soon, gotta get back to this final tuning.

Have a great nite ya'll!

David

CALLING ALL CARS- GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

Back when I first started as a game designer, I assumed that game design docs were like screenplays. You wrote one- usually a meaty fucker coming in at around 200 pages- had it bound all nice and neat, then passed it out to what I assumed would be an eager as hell team who were dying to know what MY vision was! Man, what a fucking joke!

Making games is NOT like that...not at all. And over the years, I've seen my game design docs drop from 200 pages to 5-10 page pamphlets. Sure, if you add up all the additional docs that get written as production rolls on (and other team members have added ideas and mechanics and assets that make YOUR original vision a MUCH IMPROVED TEAM vision, then you prob. surpass the 200 page count). But initial docs, anything beyond 10 pages and you are just writing to hear yourself write...get a fucking blog for that, yeah?

And even with just 10 pages, you still end up changing around 80% of the gameplay once you actually get into the game making process.

So as you examine this, the CALLING ALL CARS design doc/pamphlet, that we wrote some 9 months ago, keep in mind that the game you will play next month (if you are so kind as to give our l'll title a shot),that this doc is NOT the game you will play. A good 50-80% has been changed, cut, or adjusted during the game making process. And hell, reading back over this myself, my knee jerk on some of these ideas (ex: different criminals affect player car in different ways) was: fuck, that's a great idea! Why did we cut that?!?

But there is always a reason...and often times, some of the stuff that reads great on paper does NOT turn out great in execution. Better game designers prob. have a higher paper-to-game ratio, but I ain't one of them (as I keep telling you ass holes who accuse me of being arrogant, even when I fucking TELL you I'm still learning the craft!!!)...

Anyway, so here's the doc...hope you get a kick out of it...


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And now, gotta get back to tuning! This thing is almost done!

David

BOOKSTORES AND COFFE SHOPS

I have lived in San Diego for a little over 8 months now. I like it here alot. It's great for the family, housing prices are affordable, and there's tons to do.

I still love Los Angeles tho, miss it from time to time and feel the same sense of energy that I've always loved about the place whenever I go back.

But finding places you love in your new city goes a long way towards making a location feel like home. And over the last few weeks, I have finally discovered the first place- outside of my house and little neighborhood- that I can truly say that I love.

It's a combo bookstore/coffe house in Del Mar, California. The bookstore is called The BookWorks and the coffe shop is called PANIKIN (there are a few of these coffe houses around the San Diego area but this is the only one- I gather- connected to a book store). These two stores are connected via a common wall (with an opening) and share the same floor so they really feel like one big store. For all I know they are owned by the same folks; I do not know.

What I do know is that I love being there. Love the creaking wood floors; love watching folks get all cozy as they wrap themselves in blankets (it's been cold as of late!) and play scrabble for hours; love the music they play (kind of smooth jazz or some such stuff).

I love getting a large Carmel Mocha and just sitting with my wife and talking; or just watching and listening to other people. I love reading the paper and checking up on politics and world news. And the best part is when you get tired of relaxing, you can take a break and walk into the book store and just browse. It's clear the booksellers love books. They are very friendly and seem like they would be happy to chat away about books all day long. No pressure to buy and decent seating to just grab a few books and see what books to toss back, which ones to take home

A few days ago I went with the wife and my parents and just sat and talked and laughed...that was a blast.

Anyway, while I was there I took some pictures as I just really like this place. It speaks to my soul. So I wanted to share. Here ya go:


Here's the entrance to the bookstore...it's in an old mall that's been around- or so I am told- since the 60's...



Here's the coffe shop....lotsa cool mugs and neat places to sit.




I LOVE this picture...it's like my ideal bookstore...like the place the kid snuck into when running from bullies in THE NEVERENDING STORY.




Coffe Shop and BookStore...linked together for a perfect experience!



I almost bought this book...it seemed really cool as I read thru the first chapter. Did not buy it but I think I will go back this week and get it, as soon as I finish the other book I am reading.


I got the kid's book for my kids (duh) and thought the EB WHITE book was cool as it's pretty much a blog...just his thoughts on all kinds of stuff, sort of rambling but well written (as is the EB WHITE way)...

Man, writing this makes me wish I was at that damn coffe house right now! Maybe I'll swing by this week...

LIVE BLOGGING THE FOCUS TEST

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EDIT/UPDATE: Just a quick note...I've been real bothered by folks assuming I am not greatful or appreciative of the play testers we use at Sony. I realize this is 100% my fault as I wanted to post without editing so you all could get a real sense of where my head is during focus tests...so no time to think or edit before I hit the PUBLISH button.

So please allow me to briefly explain:

Play tests are of key importance for all of the games we do in Santa Monica. They save our asses time and again and make our games better and a good play tester is worth his weight in free pizza (as well as the cash and free games they get paid for participating in our little play tests).

So for 95% of these guys/gals, I am thrilled and appreciative that they take time out to help us out. And to the poster- think his name was Brian- who felt that we are too arrogant to learn from these guys, and that we think we know it all, that could not be farther from the truth. We play test like crazy because we KNOW there is tons we do not know about how users will interact with our procuts.

THAT SAID

anyone who has participated in focus groups knows two things:

1- you tend to get 1 to 2 real stinkers/play test group. Guys/Gals who show up only for the cash and to fuck with your results and who have no interest in doing their job- and it is a job, since we do pay for it. Plus 1-2 of the guys we had in this group were insulting to the guy who was running the group (calling him idiot, etc). and put answers on the questionaire that were totally useless (in an intentional way).

2- Watching folks play a game you have labored over is like watching the final seconds of a heated sports game...you are shouting at the screen, pulling out your hair, throwing you hands up in triumph when something you worked your ass on works...I was trying to share that with the readers of the blog...sorry if it came off as disrespectful of 95% of the tesers we had...that was not my intent.

So there ya go...

And for the self rightous fucks who are posting comments like: I would never run a focus test that way or 'in OUR focus test we respect EVERYONE'S ideas..."...please go FUCK yourself. I wish I was as perfect as you...I really, really do. Man, I've been doing this for 13 years and I KNOW the value of play tests, you ass. I KNOW how important the play testers are and hell, in the original blog post I said so! But that does not mean I'm gonna be all flowers and kisses to some stoned asshole who we are paying to help us out and who shows up and just fucks off.

Ok, back to the post :)

Take it easy ya'll!

David

prob. will post more tonite as my wife got a new laptop and we may head to the local coffe shop to play around with it...see ya'll!
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Focus tests are starting for the game; prob. the last focus/play tests we will have. I will try to live blog it cause...well why not...maybe it will be interesting...or suck. This will be more stream of consciousness than usual...and the spelling lots worse as I'm gonna be focused on the test but trying to blog too...so here we go...

Here's me at 9:15 LA time:



We are waiting for the last player to show up...we are looking- for this first session- there are 3 today- at 30 to 40 year olds who are semi-hardcore gamers.

Sitting here with Scott Campbell and Kellan Hatch from Incognito and waiting to start...let you guys know when we are underway...

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9:22- Still waiting for this motherfucker to show...that's the thing with focus tests...you pay these companies a good amount of cash to go out and find inbiased people to come play stuff, and they get paid, and you usually have like an 80% show rate...there's always a few who sign up to come but do not...one of these focus companies would do well to charge a bit more and then have back up testers to promise you get the number of people you want even if the first picks have a few no shows....fuck tards....and yeah, since I am typing fast, prep for lots more cursing cause I got not time to edit :)

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9:27- Ok, we're gonna start without the fuck...whatever. Dammit! But yeah, here come the butterflies...will they like it, will they make fun of it, will they LOVE it?!? HATE IT?!?! Shit, here we go...they are all sitting down at the ps3's....here we go...

Oh, here's the sheet they fill out at the end...praying for 10's! But would be happy with 8's! :)



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9:36- Jesus...this one guy on the right screen is so fucking stoned...he's like 40 and at a focus test on a wed morning....he prob is a stoner...cause he has NO CLUE how to play this game!

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9:44- Going from single player to multiplayer....split screen first, then we go to online...we can see player's faces in a picture in picture window so we see when they smile, yawn, get mad...it's really nerve wracking when they make faces that look either like they don't dig your game or are taking a shit...hate to be so disrespectful sounding of these guys...I really do appreciate them giving us their time...I am just nervous....

Ok, multiplayer, here we come:

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9:50- FUCK! The dev kits upstairs are not accepting 3rd player input...so we are going to switch from 3player split to 2 player split! FUCK! 3-4 player split is where it's at! Ah well, we'll see how it goes!

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9:54- Scott just said: Stoner is prob. getting freaked out form all the sirens sound fx in the game...that makes me laugh :)

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10:02- Watching some really fun 2 player games going...but you NEVER know...lots of times they look like they are fucking LOVING IT! And then they give you a score of like 4/10! In GOD OF WAR, we had guys who seemed to hate the game, kept dying all the time...and they gave us 10/10!!! So you never know...I've learned not to get my hopes up when watching this stuff.

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10:10- Switching to net play....really cool to watch people play the game and understand what to do...that never gets old as 4 months ago at a focus test players had NO CLUE how to play this game and what to do...it was great watching people use all the weapons, steal the crim with magnet right as other players were about to score....shit, online looks like it's crashing...fuck! What is going on?

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10:15- Upstairs machines crashing because they are not signed onto the Playstation Network! FUCK! You'd think that would be done already...ah well, Adam- one of the designers- is now setting up accounts on all the machines upstairs...so there will be a bit of a delay...which sucks as the scores we get from these guys will not be the result of an experience that has been broken in half by this delay....but ah well, prob. more a realistic representation of how many folks will play the game anyway...in spurts here and there....so what the hell....I feel bad for Adam as setting up the accounts will take him a bit...but I don't wanna go up and help as if these gamers recognize me from the net and interviews and stuff I don't want them to have any idea I am watching them play,etc...don't want to taint the thing...sorry Adam! I know it's a pain!

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10:30- We're gonna have the guys start filling out paper work now....hope by the time they are done, we get the online issue solved...NEVER had an online issue before...it may be the way these dev kits are set up...sheesh! Ah well, at least we can get scores for singleplay and split screen....man, I am sitting here with an unopened bag of cookies and a diet coke...I am SO not hungry...just stressed...I can see it in my mind, I SO want to eat these to dull the stress....fuck it tho...I ain't gonna! Fuck stress eating! Ok, talk to ya sooN!

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10:37-Ok, I had 2.5 cookies from a bag of Knott's Berry Farm BoysenBerry Coookies...and a SIP of diet coke...now I am done...I WAS looking for something sweet...but not gonna stress eat....so there :)



Still setting up the online shit...I think we are gonna send group #1 home without having played any online....shit man, I bet this shit never happens to Cliffy B!

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11:16- Focus group #1 done; no multiplay :(.....

major feedback issue was turn rate of cars is too wide...so we've just gone and tweaked that and getting a new build sent from Utah...the hope is the next group will not have that issue to complain about :)

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11:36- Talking to Kellan and he feels we need to announce to the players at the start that this game is a downloadable title on PS Store to sell between 5 and 10 bucks...otherwise, we are getting feedback from these folks where they go in feeling they are playing a game that can- in scope- be compared to HALO 3 and GOD OF WAR 2. And when they get CALLING ALL CARS, there's a knee jerk of like: this is too small a game to pay 60 bucks for. And when you tell them AT THE END it's a download game, they get it but they've already had that negative impulse....so I think- since the way the player will experience the actual title- via a download interface and tossing 5-10 bucks into the till- we SHOULD let them know that upfront so they know what they are getting into. Next group starts in 20 min...breaking for now...will be back online after...

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12:40- Oh my God! We have 2o min till the next group...where is the FOOD?!?! We are so hungry :(

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12:59- Za is here!





Ok, new group is here too! So now I get to eat, watch the test, and blog all at the same time! FUCK!!!!! Here we go! Gonna head up and tell the new group- casual and hardcore in 20's- that this is a download game...not full retail. I am dying to see what that does to the response...

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1:30- there was a delay...about to start...Adam says these guys all look like testers and wanna be testers who are ready to tear the shit out of this game...he's says they are out in the lobby talking GEARS OF WAR...this was the one group I did not have timeto cherry pick to make sure we were not getting ultra hard core...turns out I shoulda made the time as these are looking to be the hard corest motherfuckers out there...ah well...

and fucking Adam is at it again:



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1:34- Players are taking their seats...here we fucking go! Single player starting out in the city level...fingers crossed! And yes it is cheese pizza! And now it's gone! But Iwas actually hungry, not stress eating!

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1:49- Moving to split screen...man tester #5 is a fucking dolt!!! What the hell?!?! He is just driving in circles...not even playing the game...is that fucking spit drooling out of his stupid fucking mouth!?!?! Ahem,well...anyway.... :)

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1:56- IM comment from Adam on player #5...who seems to be unable to do anything but sit upright and not fall over:

adamorth (1:53:11 PM): should i put 5 into split next game or let him drive in circles on his own?

:)

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2:04- Online game starting...going to do 3 player online first...have to decide if 3 player is best default or 4 player is....4 player may be too chaotic for default mode....but we will see in a sec....lots of laughing and cursing going on upstairs....don't mean shit, they could still hate it...but it's always nice to see people smiling from something you've been involved with...

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2:18- Network crash...trying to get them back into net play....it was clear something was odd when Player one had a score of 12 to 2 to 2 on his screen and the guys he was playing had a score of 3 to 9 to 7! Fucking internet! :)

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2:28- Just had a great series of net games...doing a few more right now....some very close games, some that went to overtime....man I hope they give us a good score...
And Mike B, shit yeah, at least I THINK I recall...isn't that odd that I may not?!? So you are making games in BHAM?!?! THat is very cool! And shit yeah,I TOTALLY remember the computer being down...and EVERYTHING ELSE! Let's chat next week?

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2:37- going into our last game with this group...and Arnoldo, it's not the code, it's the fact that these machines in the test room have been used to test PS3 games from Santa Monica and none of them till this one have had net play....so we're just not getting the machines set up in that room and there were a few mistakes in how they were hooked up....all seems well now...

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2:53- Watching them on the monitors filling out score cards...man, they are taking a long, long time...writing alot....cool, one just finished.....now a second one....SHIT! I am nervous!!! What will they say? Sad I get so nervous, but MAN I do!

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4:30- sorry for the delay. Needed a break! Going well! Last group coming in soon...12-17 year olds!!!

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4:55- new group about to start....new IM from ADAM:

adamorth (4:52:36 PM): my prediction for the next group:adamorth (4:52:42 PM): #5 is an idiot.

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5:02- last group of the day...12-17 year olds...they are starting now...hope it goes well...last group was great and the change we made from this morning (making cars turn sharper) seemed to really help...hope these new kids dig that as well...

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5:28- Kellan watches the players thru our super sneaky tv...so we can hear them hootin, holleran, and bitchen about the game! :)




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5:33- So fucking strange to watch kids play this game; a game inspired by games that were long since forgotten by many by the time these kids were fucking born!!!

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5:41-The kids faces are so funny...they are either really focused or really bored...hard to tell...Kellan says they look like they are in math class :)

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6:03- From IM between me and Adam:

adamorth (6:00:57 PM): GOD DAMMIOT!!!!!
spdrmn375 (6:01:06 PM): what?
adamorth (6:01:13 PM): not only is #4 stupid, but he's a fucking asshole
spdrmn375 (6:01:18 PM): y?
adamorth (6:01:23 PM): jesus!
adamorth (6:01:27 PM): what a fucking snot
spdrmn375 (6:01:29 PM): what?!?
adamorth (6:01:39 PM): no swag!
spdrmn375 (6:01:49 PM): lame
adamorth (6:01:55 PM): he called me an idiot
spdrmn375 (6:02:01 PM): why?!?
adamorth (6:02:18 PM): becuase i told him not to keep pressing the buttons
spdrmn375 (6:02:24 PM): for what reason?
adamorth (6:02:46 PM): because he kept rushing through the menu to create game ahead of the host
spdrmn375 (6:03:07 PM): ah...sweet! BLOG TIME!!!

HAHAHAHAHH!!!

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6:30- tHAT'S A wrap! Thanks for sticking with me thru the day and keeping me company! I will be posting some of the best of the best comments later this week! Gotta catch a cab to head back to San Diego for now....talk to you guys soon!

David!

CALLING ALL CARS: TOO CASUAL!?!?

Hey ya'll...sorry for the lack of posts of late. Been swamped with home life and with work.

I am in Utah as I type, tuning the game with Scott and da Boyz (tm) for our play test in Los Angeles tomorrow. Sitting in my hotel room, waiting on my whole wheat French Toast to arrive, then it's out into the cold Salt Lake morning to make the walk to the Incog offices (only about 2 blocks away...ain't life tough?!?) :)

We've been getting lots of the Santa Monica folks to play the game the last few days to get feedback on the big issues we want to adjust before we let the 'real' play testers have at it. And that excercise has been interesting.

On one hand, we've gotten just the kind of feedback we've been looking for. For example:

Catching the Criminal when he's popped into the air seems too difficult for most people who play. So we're going to tweak up the assist number so the crim has a bit more homing on him as he's falling from the sky and into the player's car.

AND

The AI is too relentless right now, shooting missile after missile at players the instant the human player picks up a criminal. The result, in the single player, are lots of comments that the game is too chaotic and difficult.

These kinds of comments were expected as, when you make a title, the team ends up tuning it to what is fun for them. But living with the title every day makes us experts and so we tune the thing to be ultra hard (which- to us- reads like medium level of difficulty). Same thing happened with Twisted Metal:BLACK. Difference there is we shipped it without play testing it and probably lost 50% of sales as folks tried it and ended up taking it back as it just kicked their asses.

So those sorts of notes we are excited to get. We knew they were coming and know they will make the game 100% better.

But we've also been getting some other comments that have me...what's the word? It's not concerned really...it's more interested, more curious.

See, CALLING ALL CARS is- for me- probably the most fun game I've ever worked on. I don't mean the time I've had as one of the lead designers, but as a player. I enjoy playing this game over and over and over (mainly in multiplayer). And so it's odd when I see reactions from other gamers who are going: yeah it's fun, but it's too basic.

But then I look at the folks who are sending these notes and they are- for the most part- hard core gamers. The more casual gamers seem to be complaining about the stuff listed above (too hard to catch criminal, too chaotic)...those things that are easy to tune.

But the hard core guys seem to be looking for much more depth in the title. These guys play lots of FPS games and shooters and fighting games. Games that I dig as well...but games they would slaughter me at if I sat to play with them :)

And so we're dealing with a game tuning dillema:

Do we adjust the title to give those hardcore folks what they are looking for or stay the course and deliver a game that we feel is- barring the kinds of expected tuning mentioned above- working really well?

The focus tests tomorrow night well help as I've requested both hardcore gamers and more casual players to show up. It will be interesting to see which way the wind blows then.

And it could be that the game we are making is good but it's better suited for the PS3 2 years from now, when more casual game players start grabbing the hardware.

But I was talking to Scott about adding some of the more hard core requests to the title and we were both like: well yeah, we could add some of those things, but do we really want to?

If we had wanted those elements in the game, there was nothing stopping us from putting them in from the start. Sony gave us pretty much free reign with CAC and this is the game we wanted to make.

So it begs the question: do we even want to be making games that appeal to the hard core gamer? Maybe we do; maybe it's just this game and the next game will be ultra hard core. Or maybe not. I really don't know.

I can tell you the games I'm playing alot of these days- and I mean ALOT, not just little spurts- are GO! SUDOKU on PS3, TOWER BLOX on my cell phone, Blast Factor on PS3, and Resistance on PS3.

So...there's only one hard core game in there.

Am I just getting...old?!?!?

Ah well, bring it on. As my father-in-law always says, beats the alternative!

Ok, french toast is here and I gotta get going with the day.

Chat with ya'll later!

David

SCENES FROM AN INSTANT MESSAGE

Gonna try an odd experiment...me and one of the designers on GOD OF WAR 1 and 2 just got off chatting on the IM....He was in Santa Monica waiting on GOD OF WAR 2 to finish building and I was in San Diego answering emails....so we had a good chat, I thought....and I thought it was a good conversation on game theory and thought I'd post the IM versus one day deciding to write a post about how I feel about games and then having to retype it all and try to make it sound all smart and stuff :)

So, this may be hard to follow (spaces are-naturally a break in speaker and the other designer- whom I will not ID- started talking first)....but anyway, what the hell, thought it might interest someone....or not!

See ya'll!

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8:15 PM
hey
9:20 PM
sup dude?

nothin much
just waiting for a build
how u doing?

cool; not bad. Just saw you had written.

ya

i was just seeing if u had time to chat. You at work?

not much but about 5-10 min....what up?
Nah, at home.
Benefit of working on a smaller game is you only work late- most weeks- 1-2 nites/week!

yeah i heard
that must be nice
getting over early would be like a mini vacation
so do you like working on the smaller games now a lot more?

oh HELL yes!

well i guess since your able to get off so early

Not just that; not even MAINLY that.

really?

Alot of it is that it's just new; a new space, a new kind of game, a new kind of distribution...so that really is exciting...new is always exciting.
BUT

yeah i hear you on that

it nice to think of ideas in a new mental design space
beyond that, smaller games are what I play 90% of the time these days. So I love being able to make something that I want to play. GOD OF WAR 1 was a game like the games I was playing when I was working on it...NOW
with 2 kids, a wife, etc...it's really hard to make the HOURS needed to play big games. But I still love gaming...so I find myself playing smaller, casual and arcade games...SO I guess it makes sense I would want ot make those too! Plus, on top of ALL THAT the production process is SO MUCH NICER (a year ago I had NO IDEA what CALLING ALL CARS! was...not it's coming out in a month!)....12 core man team vs. 100+....no cut scenes or story shit to deal with....audience expects FUN not perfection....good times dude! I just hope there is a fucking market$ for this shit I'm working on

yeah, but there has been a lot of sucess on the xbox live marketplace
so i think there is room for both types of games

Well not ALOT of success...about 3 games have done AMAZING, and the rest have died. But I'm willing to take the risk...cause I have not had this much fun in my work...probably since old TWISTED METAL 1 and 2!

when i play now its still either a quick game of multiplayer, arcade style, or i block out time to play zelda

You are still young And that is great!

yeah

I hope when I get OLDER I can go back to the Zeldas for more than 1-2 hours...but right now, just not doable.

yeah...and i can imagine myself with a family and wanting to spend time with them and not games non stop
or i guess you could just not sleep...hehehe

yeah I mean, that's life right? It's good stuff. You just got to balance and to be fair-

yeah...be fair to yourself and your family-however at this point i dont have to worry about that aspect

I have- like you- worked on a game that was about as good as it could get...if GOW had not turned out so well I would prob. still be struggling to make THE DREAM GAME...so I'm lucky I got to work on it and it's out of my system!

yeah, thats so awesome...i still got all these ideas in my head and would love if i could even make 1 of the games

I am sure you will get to if that is your goal.

so when you have a game idea, how do you begin to boil it down?
like, do think of the game as this kinda idea or like a more systematic approach? or does it depend on the game?

well I usually start with theme...which is I guess bad...vs. starting with mechanics. These days I start more with mechanics.
I am thinking more mechanics as I do the smaller games...the bigger games I start with the story/settling and then try to shoehorn the play into it!

right...i saw you do that with god of war, and calling all cars is more about the mechanic of driving and chase. i was listening to the clify b gdc talk and he was talking about games as little loop or algorithms

yes and the game I wanna do after that- since it is small- start with the mechanic. You can start where you like, as long as you don't neglect the play.

and then i was reading the chirs crawford book and he tries to define all these laws

Cliffy talks design a hell of a lot better than I do. I like what he says but I'm not as articulate about design as he is...I can talk design but it doesn't come as natural...I am more of a gut guy...

yeah, your style is much more about "feel" and OMIT here is very technical

right....

it just interesting to see how everyone else designs and how they formulate ideas in their head

technical bores the SHIT out of me. That is why OMIT and I always butted heads...he is very technical...

right...but for me i also like figuring out how it works, like what mechanics can i throw in to make this idea or image into something fun,but sometimes combining the 2 is the real bitch...so i was just curious of how you kinda see it in your head

it is....and it's why I still don't know if I feel story and gameplay mix all that well...fun does not need story....and the PRODUCT may benefit SOME FOLKS who are hard core from story...but the VAST MAJORITY of folks just want fun....see NINTENDO and the emerging PC CASUAL GAMES market for proof.

yeah

would love to get you to play a rev of calling all cars when I am in the Santa Monica office next week.

i was thinking like what if there is a story game and for the mass market just make almost like a interactive movie where you can hit buttons like a mini game but i dont know if that would work either
it would BUT- and this is just my theory...like if my mom would enjoy that BUT however i was talking to OMIT and she just likes playing and beating the game when she has 10 x damage on and she still enjoys it and almost would rather play it that way, b/c there are still the parts that she likes without being too hard and she can get the story

I think it's a very small group that wants story and play to merge right now...I think most average people who don't consider themselves hard core are not looking for story or theme or emotion beyond the normal emotions games have always given (competition; tension; anger; comradere;etc)...I was playing SCRABBLE with the wife and dad-in-law over the break and we had a blast and no one was like: ya know what this Scrabble game needs? A STORY!

lol...right, but that game is based upon the pure mechanic and social interaction
which a lot of wii kinda style games are going for
my whole family loved playing the wii sports
and never b4 had we all sat around and played a game

right and that is what I mean...I THINK, in the same way people go to movies for stories and to have certain buttons pushed (sadness, thrills,etc). they play games to have other buttons pushed (tension, competition, social networking,etc).

but is the reason people dont want story, is b/c they haven't experienced a good 1, or for the mass market the controls on the hardercore mechanics get in the way of letting the story shine through

This is my long way of saying that I've pretty much stepped away from wanting to do story games...at least as my CORE focus...but that is just me! Still love them, just not sure how much farther I can go with it.

right

I think the reason they have not experienced a good one is that games may not be the best vehicle to deliver one. Games- as games, not just video- have been around for over 4000 years since they invented Parchesi in India....in all that time, can you think of a game that has told a story or made people emotional LIKE a story?

like maybe this medium or the current approach isnt going to work for the kinda story that will really make you feel emitions that arent so survival based (ie: fear)

yeah...people have always played games
1 day at usc ray bradbury was there and i asked him what he though about video games
he told me that man will always have their games, and then signed my book

right...and after GOD OF WAR- where I put all I had into trying to crack the nut of story and game- I have come to the personal realization that - for me- all the work we put into it resulted in a story that was maybe 1/20th as powerful as an average tv drama...Loves the Bradbury!

yeah
however i though ico was very powerful
but maybe im just gone of those small % of people looking or can appricate the story
but how that guy tells stories is interesting, b/c he leave a lot untold
and lets you kinda fill in the blanks of what is happening, rather than force feeding you everything
i guess its kinda like the sims too
people want to create their own stories

Yes this is true and ICO works as a whole, satisfying experience so I can see potential there. But so much of what made ICO work for me was NOT the interactive but the art and sound design and visual design....it added to the experience but it was the periphery elements making you feel, not the gmaeplay.
And to me, until the CORE of what games are- INTERACTIVITY- are the things that are the story telling tools, it will always feel like we're just missing the target.

right, the entire package is very cohesive and doesn't ever take you really out, but the puzzles and combat arent the best
right
and maybe thats why the game didnt do so well
that why i still love multiplayer games
b/c its all about the interactivity
and not just against a machine, but with your friends
it creates that virtual social factor of you and your family playing scrable

exactly!
The MOST fun I've had in the last 6 months with a game was UNO on XBLA...played it for like 3 hours a few weeks ago...
SO MUCH FUN!

thats why i would like to see games explore a lot more of the co op or multiplayer experience
and create mechanics that really play upon these natural tendencies people have
hahahaha
yeah, uno is a blast
especially with the camera

see THAT would be a cool game!
Hey, gotta run!
Good chatting with you...I will talk with you later...

alright

BUT

later, yeah you too!

would you mind if I cut and pasted this and posted it to my blog? Good conversation about game theory! And I won't have to retype it all!
I will ID you as a designer on GOD OF WAR 1 and 2?
Or no?

sure
i dont really care

Great! Thanks!

i love talking about design, game theory, and the human mind
thats what design is all about!

me too!
Chat with you later dude!

later man

let me know when the playtest is

love me to see the game


I will! See ya!


And there ya have it! Hope you could keep up and it was as interesting for you guys as it was for me :)

If not...sorry!

See ya'll soon!

David

NEW CALLING ALL CARS TRAILER!

Hey ya'll...just wanted to alert you to a new CALLING ALL CARS! trailer that just hit gamespot.com.

Here is the link:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/callingallcars/index.html?q=CALLING%20ALL%20CARS


It was captured at 1080i, then compressed to 720. So if you can watch it at 720, please do.

But either way, I feel the footage captures the TRUE game...so if you like what you see, try out our game cause it plays like it looks in the video...If you don't dig the video, it's prob. not your cup of tea, sad for me to say! But I hope you think it looks fun!

Let me know!

Gotta go, busy as shit today!

David

ps. Ok, so FIRST it was the CHILDREN OF MAN touch up...now I get this one from fellow designer Adam Orth who STILL recalls my innocent statement that ONE DAY (one day, you fuck!!! Not NOW) that the chick who plays Herminie (spelling?!?) in Harry Potter would be hot....well here's what the little fucker sends me not 5 minutes ago:

...what an asshole...:)

Hey, she IS getting hot...so I wasn't wrong :)