Instructinator

FF6 – Evolution of adventure storytelling

Description:
Final Fantasy 6, was an RPG for the Super Nintendo which is widely known by fans of the series to be the best. There are several reasons for this. However these reasons do not include best graphics, or best sound quality, or the best characters, or the best enemies or combat system. The reason for this being voted best final fantasy game by an overwhelming majority of 81% in 2001, is because of it’s illusion of non-linearity, it’s great ending and its diffusion of the ancient recipe for myth and heroism.

System:
Who is the main character in FF6? There is none. There are cohesive arguments for at least 6 of the characters to be the “main protagonist” in FF6. because they all have equal screen time and equally important roles in the overarching story.

The player starts off controlling the enemy. Which includes one of the heroes who later joins the rebels. Then the scene cuts and you are thrust into the shoes of another avatar. This one meets up the first and they escape, meeting up with an old friend of theirs in the next town, and by this point the player’s expectations are already thoroughly confused. This pattern is amplified in the beginning of the second half when you wake up on a beach with none of your party but a girl who had only recently joined the group as your only available avatar.

By hopping between characters and their motives as the focus for different segments of the game the player cannot easily determine the outcome based on the formulae they are used to experiencing. The normal arc of a story is cut up and divided among the group with an overarching story which affects them all. Other games that have tried this and failed have not gone so far as to make precisely equal that amount of content for each character, or worse have not had the balls to take the player away from the “main protagonist” for more than a short period of time.

Implication:
This is the evolution of the “hero’s quest” story structure. This is the “party’s quest” story structure that has yet to be fully discovered. Other mediums have done other things to try and put this feeling of decentralization across to the user. The movie Pulp Fiction used a non-linear showing of it’s scenes to isolate the protagonists and their conflicts and was successful for those of the audience who were not simply confused by it. In games we have the luxury of interactivity and huge amounts of time to get the job done. So it falls to us to flesh this tool out and document it for whatever medium will follow.

Jeff Mundee March 11, 2004

Black and White – Learning AI

Description: Black and White is a game in which you play a god sent to a planet to do good or evil. The path you choose shapes the land and the inhabitants. You are given a creature of your choosing to act as your visible avatar in the world. But you have limited control over this creature and they must be controlled somewhat like a pet animal.

System:
In Black and White you are given a creature which you can train to work for you. You can teach them to play and work but the use of a praise/ punishment system. When you show the creature something an action, you can then access the interface for the praise/ punishment. Then you can either encourage the action or discourage it by either beating the creature or petting it.

Implication: This system could be used in any game where you have in-direct control of an avatar for prolonged periods of time. This is the foundation for a great system for teaching a program what behavior you would like to be performed, and what ones to avoid.

AI, of this nature is comprised of a set of available actions for a context. Say there is the context of a villager in front of the character. There is a list of actions to choose from. Either the creature can kill the villager, perform a food miracle and feed the villager, or pick the villager up and transport it to where it needs to go. If killing the villager has a lower rating then the probability that the creature will perform the killing action will decrease.

This way, simply making lists of actions with ratings in context we could perhaps have an enemy stalking the player, use ratings of actions in context to learn the players objectives and motives. Use that information for the AI character to formulate plans to track and thwart the player, or even move ahead of the player and lay traps where it knows the player is likely to fall for them. Think if Kefka had this AI in Final Fantasy 6. That would be a fun gameplay experience.
Jeff Mundee March 18, 2004

Final Fantasy, two games in one

All of the games in the ever popular final fantasy series have a few things in common. One of the core elements that these games always share is the “Battle system”. In the beginning this was done because the most effective way to display combat and the most effective way to navigate a map for the purposes of exploration were different. So rather than toning down the combat system or making the exploration weaker, they decided to make a hard cut between the two.

Now, here in the land of 3D this problem no longer exists. But the fans of the series are so used to this setup that it cannot change. For other RPGs though in this generation I think it is a bit of a copycat cop-out to cut to battle. This is an old design standard that can be replaced with more transparent design.

RPGs don’t need to be two games in one anymore, they can now be a smooth integration of these gameplay standards.

Jeff Mundee Jan 29th 2004

Concept: Futuristic racing game in which the racer can control the magnetic fields of their vehicles.

Gameplay: Same as standard racing game, (Fzero, Wipeout,) except: Ability to rotate the magnetic field, allowing vehicles to attract and repel each other, either front to back or side to side. They also have the ability to increase and decrease the intensity of the magnetic field.

Attract yourself to someone in front of you and use them to pull you. So long as they do not switch their magnetic field back toward you.  You will never have enough fuel to complete a race and therefore you must strategically use the other cars to get around the track.

Locking with other characters to prevent people from passing you, then switching the magnetic field on your pal, thrusting him into the wall.

Other things you could do is attract yourself to another player who is taking the turn more on the inside and use him as a sort of aid to make the turn. Magnetic emplacements along the track could provide this dynamic as well.

The finer points of this system are complex and difficult but I think that players of varying levels could find fun ways to play with this magnetic racer.

Left triger – Positive

Right Triger – Negative

Left Thumb to steer

Right thumb to aim Magnet.
Jefff Mundee Jan 15th 2004

I finished Assassin’s Creed. I have to say the main problem with the game is indeed repetition. The game caters to the strengths of it’s core mechanics for the most part. This is what makes it feel fun to play, and why I wanted to, and was eventually able to, finish it without snapping the disc in two like so many others. The only time there was a strong departure from this is fighting close to water, and gameplay in the lab.

Collision in the lab:

Blocking volumes are needed or a more rounded and simplified collision mesh for the character. I cant count the number of times i got snagged on corners in that slow moving environment. this made me not want to explore the area and i would run to the bed to get back to the good part of the mechanics as fast as possible. also i understand the decision to not let the player move like he does in the Animus, but being able to jog a little would have been nice. The pace in those portion already feels slow enough without being forced to move so slowly. It discourages exploration, which is that those breaks were all about in the end.

Combat near Water:

Ok so you didnt want to do a whole animation tree for swimming and fighting while swimming and guys with chain mail swimming and the loads of other logistical horros that come with water gameplay, thats ok. However, you should have given the player a second chance arround water, sincethe rewards are the same the risk need to be balanced to avoid having the player scream “WTF”. When you are kicked off or miss step and begin to fall, there should have been an increased chance of grabbing the edge if there is water beneath him. This would balance out the risk, and seem quite unapparent to the player. If your going to cut corners, you need to polish off those jagged edges in the gameplay.

Repetitive Missions

Other than that I blame the decrease sales and overall nerfing of the game’s impact on the mission scripters. Come on guys. with all those mechanics you could not come up with anything else but pick pocket, beat up, or lock on and listen missions? oh and lets not forget assasinate missions. im not asking for zelda diversity. im just asking for a little variation now and then. the horse was underutilised. you could have had a fetch mission at the least involving the horse. or better yet chase down and kill the messenger mission. and I know fetch missions and escort missions are now dead thanks to abuse in MMOs but they might have been fun on rooftops. what about chasing a defective assasin across the rooftops? maybe 3 of them that split up? and you have to hunt them down with the help of the falcon, annother unterunilised element. how about some sniper support for a fellow assasin? take out all the archers in a compound to allow him to achieve an objective easier in exchange for information? It’s like you got half way there and then the producer said ‘no more, save it for the sequel”

Flag collecting:

When your doing the quests finding flags is fine and good, but when your done, the final thing you get in the final bit at the end should be a hack code to the animus that gives you a compas or detections of some kind for the flags. when you have 99/100 finding that last one is a pain in the ass and totaly not worth the headache. everyone will metagame it anyway and look on gamefaqs for the answer, and even then they need to recheck every location and cross them off one by one on a spreadsheet. AC2, flag detector. Do it.