One of my pet peeves is the word 'toons'. It's weird but I've always preferred to think of my avatars as characters and refer to them as such. Toons, to me has implied a throw away avatar without depth or thought put into it. I always cringe a little when I hear someone say, "Yah, I rolled a tank 'toon so my guild could raid ."
Nice column with an interesting question on the end (especially with nowadays focus change towards mmo from rpg)
I put Torvaldr's post up here, because when I red the question, exactly that jumped in mind, character <> toon...
Back in the p'n'p days I loved to write nice, detailed origins to my characters, and I brought that into crpg's and mmorpg's as well. But, as an altoholic, it turned to be a huge task to launch everybody with a fully detailed one. So I narrowed it down, in every game I have 1-2 main character with origin (and maybe +1 rp character, naturally also with origin), those are the ones I usually think of when I discuss a game, they are the in-game 'me' - we can call them avatars even. (hi there, Garriot )
Then there are the many other characters, the toons. Not throw-away ones though as Torvaldr wrote, I play them regulary and develop them as usual, only they have almost no backstory (just a few thoughts during the character creation). Sometimes they are 'click' to me well (really fun to play for example), then they become a main too, and then they get a nice origin
The questions are intriguing in how they allow for creativity and lateral thinking to be revealed. They also leave me wondering, beyond the level of environment and gameplay quirks, what kind of thought a potential designer might be giving to questions about immersion, game-play that aligns with a specific world concept, and storytelling as a way to allow meaning to be associated with the game context?
In other words, what is beyond the immediate presentation of the game?
What are the motivations for the players?
What elements are included to foster engagement?
Does the world hold together, or fall apart into disparate pieces?
Coherence is something that is not easily achieved, unless someone has spent a lot of time really fleshing out a concept or setting. And it is made tougher in computer gaming, because the techinical systems do not always align with the milieu being presented.
Game Design can exist at different depths. And some games are great with a what you see is what you get gamestyle. But there can be deeper goals. How do you find out if a person has a deeper insight? (If that is what you want in a designer.)
While I have created backgrounds for numerous table-top RPG characters, the only MMO that has moved me to do so is SW:TOR. Because I want a viewpoint for my toon to answer the conversations from, I give them a small backstory and a starting personality.Then I try to respond to NPCs appropriately to the individual's personality. It just makes that game so much more enjoyable for me that way.
The small town aspect played a big role. It immediately meant a contained play area, and most everything you needed had a place you could deduce to find it in town. This made the map super-important, because if you needed weapons and items from 4 different locations and the map had them scattered all over town, then the players would spend most of their time going back through locations they have already been. Even if your game feels open-world, having a good linear path draws the player in more as they feel like they are always making the right decision in where to go next. The Left 4 Dead series of games are masterpieces in this line of thinking.
Reading this I just realized how right was Jonathan Blow in this video Jonathan Blow: How Mainstream Devs Are Getting It Wrong (between 4:00 and the end). As a gamer i never ever want to feel in a tunnel and would like the game to constantly make me ask "What if i done it differently?" Probably one of the reasons we end up with games like a lot of recent ones, that talk about muli-year plans but ppl get bored after 1-2 months.
I don't want to be led by the hand or spoon fed (and i don't mean difficulty, but choice).
Interesting read! May I ask how long (ballpark is fine) you gave the test takers? You said it was timed and reading the questions (thus far), I could see myself getting too detailed for some
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Thank you for your insight, Matt. To begin with the answer to your last question: Yes, I always have a background and personality for my characters, even if only in my head. This also helps me to keep them separated
I've decided to take the first step into game designing and started with a GDD. I soon found myself explaining every little tidbit about the NPC's, cities etc. I've made a "standard" for describing the NPC's (both combat and non-combat) so that I know for sure I've included all information I want to include with all of them
I did wonder, though, while reading your questions, what level the game designers were supposed to have. Were they the people who would keep themselves busy with every small detail, or would they keep an overview? Does it even matter? I find myself getting lost sometimes in the details of my GDD, but other times I'm really working on the overall, sorta speak summary of the game. "How to make pants" on one hand and "What are the main features", "What is the main storyline" on the other hand.
I hope your future columns about this subject will give us more insight in how the complete picture of game design works. (what kind of people, etc).
1. I would make it a mix of different insects, some flying, some on the ground, some (the cockroaches) popping up from manhole covers, sewer grates, etc when you least expect it. At night, because they hate light. The end boss being some kind of massive, superawesome thing like a giant beetle, or the praying mantis sometone else mentioned.
2. On the "research" note, I think you have to bear in mind that there's a suspension of disbelief that comes with science fiction, so these things could theoretically get too realistic for their own good. Someone mentioned how unbeatable a giant insect would be, based on their exoskeletons, and their strength to weight ratio as we know them. Unfortunately for the insects, the strength of any muscle is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the muscle and the weight of the animal is proportional to the animal's volume (the total amount of space it's body occupies). Areas go as x squared and volumes go as x cubed, so the reason why an ant can lift 200 times its own body weight is BECAUSE its so small. A human sized ant would not retain that 200x strength factor as you scaled it up, as its body weight would increase more rapidly with size and its muscule strength would increase less rapidly with size (a man-sized ant might strill be significantly stronger then me, like a gorilla is, but not 200x stronger). A whale-sized ant, much like a real whale, would most likely be unable to move itself very much on land and would become "beached" by its inability to carry its own body weight. Obviously, the fact that virtually nobody would know that particular engineering problem is the basis for Ant-Man, Spiderman, The Atom, and a lot of other "size changy" characters in comics, but you have to respect the fact that theres comes a point where too much realism hurts you. I think there's an inherent recognition of that by most designers, because when it stops sounding awesome and cool you go "okay, but we're not doing that, because we want it to be awesome not sucky". By the same token, the idea is to make a fun, flavorful game, and as such your physics takes a backseat a lot, and that's okay.
3. I like that you want a designer to get to know a topic before they start writing in game elements. It has to FEEL insecty. CoX had to FEEL superhero-comicbooky, and it did a great job of that. I can't tell you how guilty I used to feel ignoring the Hellions in Perez Park on my way through a task force. I was a hero, I was supposed to HELP the victims of the purse snatchings etc. I think PVP did a cartoon about that once early on as well. Being able to Fly was a big part of that too. And the capes, which were awesome when we got them. One thing I wanted as a costume option for the longest time was a jetpack, and we eventually got those too, in mutiple different styles.
"Well sure, the FrinkiacVII looks impressive - DON'T TOUCH IT - but I predict that within 100 years computers will be TWICE as powerful, ten THOUSAND times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them." -Prof. Frink
I built the following for the Beyond the Supernatural tabletop RPG, though he could easily fit into Dark Conspiracy or, with some modifications -which I've done-, Millennium's End/ Shadow Games RPG. Finally, for the MMORPG he could easily fit into, which I've yet to purchase and try out... Secret World. The images were taken from various places on the internet, I don't know from where, but no copyright infringement is meant by any of these, and they are all used without motive for profit. Without further adieu, I give you Lance Barrett Shaw...
If appropriate I "play" some film quotes over in my mind and maybe tap them in chat also, while playing eg a ranger: " there ain't 10 men alive that could down out Josey Wales..." *Exposition is always fun*
All of my characters have some sort of concept. Probably sixty or seventy of my CoH alts had at least a paragraph of background on them, some much more extensive.
One of my favorites was an alt designed to fit the mechanics of the CoH setting: ie, rescuing civilians could lead to getting 'inspirations', defeating villains tied to drops, etc. Thus was born, 'Gestaltan'. This was based on the concept that the great cities of the world each form a sort of overmind made up of the elements that make them up. Gestaltan was a form of antibody or warrior drone or city elemental, made from the broken concrete, metal, wood, and glass of ravaged Paragon City, and powered by the rage and anger of its many citizens, both live and dead. (Dark/Spines, before it was cool). Gestaltan was particularly focused on the villains that sought to destroy the city, and less interested in those that merely wanted to take it over. I also played him as losing more and more contact with the City's Overmind as he gained power and levels. He was sorta halfway between a vigilante and hero.
As for the Insect/Town scenario, I had the vision of an alien force field/terrarium droping around Anytown, Texas and an alien growth ray boosting the bigger insects to human size or so. Townsfolk fighting back with cans of Raid wrapped in pork chop bait, compressors hosing deadly soapy water on creepy dog sized cockroaches, and the dreaded hot sauce/salsa spewing water pistols! As well as the usual firearms and cutlery. All while the alien recon drones followed the events. They had gotten tired of kidnapping cattle. The final confrontation being with an alien observer.....who, oddly, seems rather insectile...
Polearm thing wouldn't be that tough for me. Martial arts background certainly helps. But I recall a '47 Ronin' movie where Tishiro Mifune playes a mercenary trying out for a job, by showing off his spear technique. He swirls in, stabbing a hay bale and flipping it up into the air. The impressed interviewer inquires, 'What do you call that manuever?' Deadpan, Mifune replies, 'Tossing the hay bale.'
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Hey matt this is a nice Article I am currently studying a cert IV in digital and interactive game developement and i was wondering if you have any advice on how to get into the industry
Nice article, as usual... always wondered how a game company could possibly test prospective designers, nice to see some solid examples, and the insights provided are golden.
Creating background stories for my characters depends on the game, generally. It hinges on how much leeway the game setting provides for generating a reasonable story that is still distinctive in some way. If the story is largely already written for me because "all (race) come from (location), and are talented (class1)s and (class2)s...", and there is little variation possible between characters in actual mechanical terms, it becomes hard to care enough to bother.
CoH was a game where I wrote a _lot_ of backstories (and other stories), by comparison... origin stories, nemesis stories, rivalries between characters... all the usual fare. The wide open nature of the typical superhero setting made it somewhat easier to find my muse, admittedly.
This was a good article, Matt. I laughed at what you put people through. I need to think about what you've said and I'll reply later
"It was a very straightforward question, but had a hidden aspect that I always looked for when going over a test: research."
When you gave them the assignment, did you give them access to a computer or did they have to come up with something on their own?
"The content designer’s creativity test..."
What are the ratio approximately to people interviewed to hired under your tests? I'm really curious just how many really had the creativity? For example, I've watched Swtor developers and now them seem to be hiring kids with ADD, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiIEgbErmEg
How did you test for techical skills? Use of tools(3DS Max, Maya, Softimage, etc.)? I'm just wondering how much "creativity" is really required, isn't techical skills more needed in a game studio?
Do you regularly (or have you ever) crafted a background for your MMO character? Even if it was just in your head, but bonus points for writing it down and sharing it with the world.
COH was the only game I spent time doing this. At one point, I created a whole storyline.
I wrote one-pagers on why and how they became hero or villian. I was dissappointed when I later learned that Ncsoft owned all my characters created in the game...
Also, I think this was because of the costume creator. In STO...no! I couldn't do this because I was not emotionally connected to any of characters or had any cool emoticans. Same with SWTOR.
Where designers really lack, and this is pretty much across the MMO genre... Is understanding of creating symbiotic relationships between different game systems... Along with understanding the intricate balance between systems and how tweaking one thing affects another Instead everything is disjointed and duct-taped together.
Instead of silly nonsense like dialects, which should honestly be something a writer worries about... Or powers names, which is trivial and easily fixed with a quick google search or a quick brainstorming session at a daily meeting, Game designers should actually be focusing on actual complex design and integrated systems that make people feel like the game has a solid direction and overall design goal.
It's embarrassing how common it has become for the gaming community to understand the intricacies of a games combat, interlinked systems, and overall balance than the people who designed the game do. And part of it is because so much focus of game design is n trivial nonsense instead of actually designing an intelligent system.
Seems to me way too many of the game design community are old tabletop GMs who have never quite stopped beyond a relatively simple game design mindset.
Thank you. Amen.
I look at the design of many MMOs and think to myself - why aren't you making this deeper? Why does it feel like a bunch of separate rooms? Crafting in the Blue Room. Harvesting in the Yellow Room. All items will be checked at the door for contraband... Next week we open the Red Room for PvP!
But I guess it's because many so called game designers - aren't. IMHO anyway.
A challenge I like is to take a simple game (Say Ludo / Parcheesi) and make one simple change... make it different.
It's surprising how many people are "locked in" and struggle to do this. They know the game and simply cannot visualise any change. What's worse, many cannot see what effect their change will have.
Anyway... that's my hobby horse let out of the barn...
As for the challenge... a background for a character - often do - but one in particular came to mind because of the Radiac story.
(And boy I really hope no-one here remembers this character...if you were a 'victim' I am truely sorry... :-D )
In this case she really was a "Toon"... It was the closing day of the Champions Online Beta and Cryptic allowed everyone to go straight to max level. People got really creative... there was an awesome Tinkerbell I remember...and we weren't going to be keeping our toons... so have fun time... and I was in a wierd mood...
Anyway I created ...
Psycho Ex Wife.
Cryptic's character customisation is pretty good... she had high heels... a tight thigh length skirt... glasses... a short sleeved blouse... a bob haircut... and over the top red lipstick. Have a pic somewhere.
Her powers were witchcraft (naturally!) and something else annoying I don't remember.
Her background was that her husband was a cheater who had run off with his office assistant... (in reality - the guy would have run off with a bag lady just to get away....) and she was not bitter... no... not at all... and looking for a new man... a nice one this time.
So... off to the city.
And I fall in with this group. In the group is this male character who was pretty muscled and bare chested...
So I strike up the chat. It all goes well. Then I say "Are you married?"... non committed response... chat nicely... then I loose sight of him... when I catch up... I let rip.... "WHERE WERE YOU!?"... IS THAT BEER I CAN SMELL?... one of the other members of the party chimed in with "wtf dude?" and unlucily it was a female... WERE YOU WITH *THIS* HUSSY!!!? STAY AWAY FROM MY MAAAAN!
....
Anyway... I think I broke up about four groups that night.
Hmmm... not sure I should tell this story... I guess I can always deny it later?
Funny you'd mention that, Gyrus. My "centerfold" toon, the Fire/energy blaster Fire Bird, had several batlecry emotes I used to love using. She was a scantilly clad, buxom south american, so her keybinded emotes included "No you DI-INT!!" and "Not with THAT costume, honey!" and the like. Her actual battlecry (there was a spot for that in the info file) was "Buh-buh-buh-BURNski!" which I used a lot when about to charge into a fight.
I have a feeling there would have been a lot of tongue-in-cheek roleplay if we ever teamed. Sadly, that will never happen now.
/em holdtorch
P.S. If I were to win the lottery (like to the tune of $200 million) would that be enough to buy the rights to CoX2 and get it produced? I haven't even purchased a ticket yet, but it might affect my decision to do so.
"Well sure, the FrinkiacVII looks impressive - DON'T TOUCH IT - but I predict that within 100 years computers will be TWICE as powerful, ten THOUSAND times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them." -Prof. Frink
I created backgrounds for most of my characters in CoH, but it's a lot more difficult in other games, partly because you need to know quite a bit about the game's world to create a decent background and partly because characters are so similar. A lot of what spurred the backgrounds in CoH was how the characters looked. I sometimes randomly created a look then created a background for it.
FrinkiacVII, if you're interested in CoX2 projects, talk a look at the projects mentioned at the Titan network, such as Heroes and Villains and The Phoenix Project.
As for insects, what caught my fancy is a "The Fly" style scenario, but with people turning into praying mantices (for the head biting action, or is it because it's head biting during sex? ). You can try to help stem the transformation, but you also get more powerful the more you transform. Do you kill your mates because they might become AI's at any moment and turn on you? How far are you willing to go? And no, not much research in this.
Comments
Nice column with an interesting question on the end (especially with nowadays focus change towards mmo from rpg)
I put Torvaldr's post up here, because when I red the question, exactly that jumped in mind, character <> toon...
Back in the p'n'p days I loved to write nice, detailed origins to my characters, and I brought that into crpg's and mmorpg's as well. But, as an altoholic, it turned to be a huge task to launch everybody with a fully detailed one. So I narrowed it down, in every game I have 1-2 main character with origin (and maybe +1 rp character, naturally also with origin), those are the ones I usually think of when I discuss a game, they are the in-game 'me' - we can call them avatars even. (hi there, Garriot
)
Then there are the many other characters, the toons. Not throw-away ones though as Torvaldr wrote, I play them regulary and develop them as usual, only they have almost no backstory (just a few thoughts during the character creation). Sometimes they are 'click' to me well (really fun to play for example), then they become a main too, and then they get a nice origin
The questions are intriguing in how they allow for creativity and lateral thinking to be revealed. They also leave me wondering, beyond the level of environment and gameplay quirks, what kind of thought a potential designer might be giving to questions about immersion, game-play that aligns with a specific world concept, and storytelling as a way to allow meaning to be associated with the game context?
In other words, what is beyond the immediate presentation of the game?
What are the motivations for the players?
What elements are included to foster engagement?
Does the world hold together, or fall apart into disparate pieces?
Coherence is something that is not easily achieved, unless someone has spent a lot of time really fleshing out a concept or setting. And it is made tougher in computer gaming, because the techinical systems do not always align with the milieu being presented.
Game Design can exist at different depths. And some games are great with a what you see is what you get gamestyle. But there can be deeper goals. How do you find out if a person has a deeper insight? (If that is what you want in a designer.)
Reading this I just realized how right was Jonathan Blow in this video Jonathan Blow: How Mainstream Devs Are Getting It Wrong (between 4:00 and the end). As a gamer i never ever want to feel in a tunnel and would like the game to constantly make me ask "What if i done it differently?" Probably one of the reasons we end up with games like a lot of recent ones, that talk about muli-year plans but ppl get bored after 1-2 months.
I don't want to be led by the hand or spoon fed (and i don't mean difficulty, but choice).
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Thank you for your insight, Matt. To begin with the answer to your last question: Yes, I always have a background and personality for my characters, even if only in my head. This also helps me to keep them separated
I've decided to take the first step into game designing and started with a GDD. I soon found myself explaining every little tidbit about the NPC's, cities etc. I've made a "standard" for describing the NPC's (both combat and non-combat) so that I know for sure I've included all information I want to include with all of them
I did wonder, though, while reading your questions, what level the game designers were supposed to have. Were they the people who would keep themselves busy with every small detail, or would they keep an overview? Does it even matter? I find myself getting lost sometimes in the details of my GDD, but other times I'm really working on the overall, sorta speak summary of the game. "How to make pants" on one hand and "What are the main features", "What is the main storyline" on the other hand.
I hope your future columns about this subject will give us more insight in how the complete picture of game design works. (what kind of people, etc).
~Have fun~
Grisaline
Okay, on the "insect invasion" game point:
1. I would make it a mix of different insects, some flying, some on the ground, some (the cockroaches) popping up from manhole covers, sewer grates, etc when you least expect it. At night, because they hate light. The end boss being some kind of massive, superawesome thing like a giant beetle, or the praying mantis sometone else mentioned.
2. On the "research" note, I think you have to bear in mind that there's a suspension of disbelief that comes with science fiction, so these things could theoretically get too realistic for their own good. Someone mentioned how unbeatable a giant insect would be, based on their exoskeletons, and their strength to weight ratio as we know them. Unfortunately for the insects, the strength of any muscle is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the muscle and the weight of the animal is proportional to the animal's volume (the total amount of space it's body occupies). Areas go as x squared and volumes go as x cubed, so the reason why an ant can lift 200 times its own body weight is BECAUSE its so small. A human sized ant would not retain that 200x strength factor as you scaled it up, as its body weight would increase more rapidly with size and its muscule strength would increase less rapidly with size (a man-sized ant might strill be significantly stronger then me, like a gorilla is, but not 200x stronger). A whale-sized ant, much like a real whale, would most likely be unable to move itself very much on land and would become "beached" by its inability to carry its own body weight. Obviously, the fact that virtually nobody would know that particular engineering problem is the basis for Ant-Man, Spiderman, The Atom, and a lot of other "size changy" characters in comics, but you have to respect the fact that theres comes a point where too much realism hurts you. I think there's an inherent recognition of that by most designers, because when it stops sounding awesome and cool you go "okay, but we're not doing that, because we want it to be awesome not sucky". By the same token, the idea is to make a fun, flavorful game, and as such your physics takes a backseat a lot, and that's okay.
3. I like that you want a designer to get to know a topic before they start writing in game elements. It has to FEEL insecty. CoX had to FEEL superhero-comicbooky, and it did a great job of that. I can't tell you how guilty I used to feel ignoring the Hellions in Perez Park on my way through a task force. I was a hero, I was supposed to HELP the victims of the purse snatchings etc. I think PVP did a cartoon about that once early on as well. Being able to Fly was a big part of that too. And the capes, which were awesome when we got them. One thing I wanted as a costume option for the longest time was a jetpack, and we eventually got those too, in mutiple different styles.
"Well sure, the FrinkiacVII looks impressive - DON'T TOUCH IT - but I predict that within 100 years computers will be TWICE as powerful, ten THOUSAND times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them." -Prof. Frink
I built the following for the Beyond the Supernatural tabletop RPG, though he could easily fit into Dark Conspiracy or, with some modifications -which I've done-, Millennium's End/ Shadow Games RPG. Finally, for the MMORPG he could easily fit into, which I've yet to purchase and try out... Secret World. The images were taken from various places on the internet, I don't know from where, but no copyright infringement is meant by any of these, and they are all used without motive for profit. Without further adieu, I give you Lance Barrett Shaw...
http://www.wolvesau.net/LShaw.pdf
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
All of my characters have some sort of concept. Probably sixty or seventy of my CoH alts had at least a paragraph of background on them, some much more extensive.
One of my favorites was an alt designed to fit the mechanics of the CoH setting: ie, rescuing civilians could lead to getting 'inspirations', defeating villains tied to drops, etc. Thus was born, 'Gestaltan'. This was based on the concept that the great cities of the world each form a sort of overmind made up of the elements that make them up. Gestaltan was a form of antibody or warrior drone or city elemental, made from the broken concrete, metal, wood, and glass of ravaged Paragon City, and powered by the rage and anger of its many citizens, both live and dead. (Dark/Spines, before it was cool). Gestaltan was particularly focused on the villains that sought to destroy the city, and less interested in those that merely wanted to take it over. I also played him as losing more and more contact with the City's Overmind as he gained power and levels. He was sorta halfway between a vigilante and hero.
As for the Insect/Town scenario, I had the vision of an alien force field/terrarium droping around Anytown, Texas and an alien growth ray boosting the bigger insects to human size or so. Townsfolk fighting back with cans of Raid wrapped in pork chop bait, compressors hosing deadly soapy water on creepy dog sized cockroaches, and the dreaded hot sauce/salsa spewing water pistols! As well as the usual firearms and cutlery. All while the alien recon drones followed the events. They had gotten tired of kidnapping cattle. The final confrontation being with an alien observer.....who, oddly, seems rather insectile...
Polearm thing wouldn't be that tough for me. Martial arts background certainly helps. But I recall a '47 Ronin' movie where Tishiro Mifune playes a mercenary trying out for a job, by showing off his spear technique. He swirls in, stabbing a hay bale and flipping it up into the air. The impressed interviewer inquires, 'What do you call that manuever?' Deadpan, Mifune replies, 'Tossing the hay bale.'
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Nice article, as usual... always wondered how a game company could possibly test prospective designers, nice to see some solid examples, and the insights provided are golden.
Creating background stories for my characters depends on the game, generally. It hinges on how much leeway the game setting provides for generating a reasonable story that is still distinctive in some way. If the story is largely already written for me because "all (race) come from (location), and are talented (class1)s and (class2)s...", and there is little variation possible between characters in actual mechanical terms, it becomes hard to care enough to bother.
CoH was a game where I wrote a _lot_ of backstories (and other stories), by comparison... origin stories, nemesis stories, rivalries between characters... all the usual fare. The wide open nature of the typical superhero setting made it somewhat easier to find my muse, admittedly.
Blogging semi-regularly at http://damianov.wordpress.com
This was a good article, Matt. I laughed at what you put people through. I need to think about what you've said and I'll reply later
"It was a very straightforward question, but had a hidden aspect that I always looked for when going over a test: research."
When you gave them the assignment, did you give them access to a computer or did they have to come up with something on their own?
"The content designer’s creativity test..."
What are the ratio approximately to people interviewed to hired under your tests? I'm really curious just how many really had the creativity? For example, I've watched Swtor developers and now them seem to be hiring kids with ADD, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiIEgbErmEg
How did you test for techical skills? Use of tools(3DS Max, Maya, Softimage, etc.)? I'm just wondering how much "creativity" is really required, isn't techical skills more needed in a game studio?
Do you regularly (or have you ever) crafted a background for your MMO character? Even if it was just in your head, but bonus points for writing it down and sharing it with the world.
COH was the only game I spent time doing this. At one point, I created a whole storyline.
I wrote one-pagers on why and how they became hero or villian. I was dissappointed when I later learned that Ncsoft owned all my characters created in the game...
Also, I think this was because of the costume creator. In STO...no! I couldn't do this because I was not emotionally connected to any of characters or had any cool emoticans. Same with SWTOR.
Thank you. Amen.
I look at the design of many MMOs and think to myself - why aren't you making this deeper? Why does it feel like a bunch of separate rooms? Crafting in the Blue Room. Harvesting in the Yellow Room. All items will be checked at the door for contraband... Next week we open the Red Room for PvP!
But I guess it's because many so called game designers - aren't. IMHO anyway.
A challenge I like is to take a simple game (Say Ludo / Parcheesi) and make one simple change... make it different.
It's surprising how many people are "locked in" and struggle to do this. They know the game and simply cannot visualise any change. What's worse, many cannot see what effect their change will have.
Anyway... that's my hobby horse let out of the barn...
As for the challenge... a background for a character - often do - but one in particular came to mind because of the Radiac story.
(And boy I really hope no-one here remembers this character...if you were a 'victim' I am truely sorry... :-D )
In this case she really was a "Toon"... It was the closing day of the Champions Online Beta and Cryptic allowed everyone to go straight to max level. People got really creative... there was an awesome Tinkerbell I remember...and we weren't going to be keeping our toons... so have fun time... and I was in a wierd mood...
Anyway I created ...
Psycho Ex Wife.
Cryptic's character customisation is pretty good... she had high heels... a tight thigh length skirt... glasses... a short sleeved blouse... a bob haircut... and over the top red lipstick. Have a pic somewhere.
Her powers were witchcraft (naturally!) and something else annoying I don't remember.
Her background was that her husband was a cheater who had run off with his office assistant... (in reality - the guy would have run off with a bag lady just to get away....) and she was not bitter... no... not at all... and looking for a new man... a nice one this time.
So... off to the city.
And I fall in with this group. In the group is this male character who was pretty muscled and bare chested...
So I strike up the chat. It all goes well. Then I say "Are you married?"... non committed response... chat nicely... then I loose sight of him... when I catch up... I let rip.... "WHERE WERE YOU!?"... IS THAT BEER I CAN SMELL?... one of the other members of the party chimed in with "wtf dude?" and unlucily it was a female... WERE YOU WITH *THIS* HUSSY!!!? STAY AWAY FROM MY MAAAAN!
....
Anyway... I think I broke up about four groups that night.
Hmmm... not sure I should tell this story... I guess I can always deny it later?
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Funny you'd mention that, Gyrus. My "centerfold" toon, the Fire/energy blaster Fire Bird, had several batlecry emotes I used to love using. She was a scantilly clad, buxom south american, so her keybinded emotes included "No you DI-INT!!" and "Not with THAT costume, honey!" and the like. Her actual battlecry (there was a spot for that in the info file) was "Buh-buh-buh-BURNski!" which I used a lot when about to charge into a fight.
I have a feeling there would have been a lot of tongue-in-cheek roleplay if we ever teamed. Sadly, that will never happen now.
/em holdtorch
P.S. If I were to win the lottery (like to the tune of $200 million) would that be enough to buy the rights to CoX2 and get it produced? I haven't even purchased a ticket yet, but it might affect my decision to do so.
"Well sure, the FrinkiacVII looks impressive - DON'T TOUCH IT - but I predict that within 100 years computers will be TWICE as powerful, ten THOUSAND times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them." -Prof. Frink
I created backgrounds for most of my characters in CoH, but it's a lot more difficult in other games, partly because you need to know quite a bit about the game's world to create a decent background and partly because characters are so similar. A lot of what spurred the backgrounds in CoH was how the characters looked. I sometimes randomly created a look then created a background for it.
FrinkiacVII, if you're interested in CoX2 projects, talk a look at the projects mentioned at the Titan network, such as Heroes and Villains and The Phoenix Project.
As for insects, what caught my fancy is a "The Fly" style scenario, but with people turning into praying mantices (for the head biting action, or is it because it's head biting during sex?
). You can try to help stem the transformation, but you also get more powerful the more you transform. Do you kill your mates because they might become AI's at any moment and turn on you? How far are you willing to go? And no, not much research in this.