Solv Needs Help Building a Coffee Machine

Not true. It just came up when I clicked in the title bar.
Reckon it's from Zynga's now retired Baking Life, but don't know why it's joining us here on the farm.
However, turning 'coincidence'* into relevance, (another invaluable talent in the writer's talent tree) we should have a quick shuftie at the current gaming headlines.

*My son and I play the 'coincidence' game. You each think of a word, or theme, and sit back and wait. A few weeks ago, we were walking back home with the shopping, discussing the nature of 'coincidence' (and I shall now stop with the apostrophes) and, to demonstrate my point, I chose the word artichoke and my son looked at his watch and chose 1:14.
The word artichoke indeed presented itself on several occasions during the course of the weekend. (As did the time 1:14.) The following week, watching Masterchef, the word artichoke once again did its jaunty jig and there in the background a wall clock duly displayed the time... 12:14! Pretty close. (And, naturally, I mentally adjusted it to the precise hour difference, whereas I suspect it was much closer to 12:12. Two twelves! A coincidence? [Probably should bring the apostrophes back.])



If it wasn't for the assistance of the auto-coffee machine, I would've forged a title from the ideas of money and balance and getting rich quick and so forth.
It's been an eye-opening few weeks (for me, at least), with Spry Fox sticking up for the indies, and Zynga employees, both current and ex, confessing that Zynga pounce upon successful games, attempting to buy out the developer and, if that fails, reskinning that dev's game and bolting on their crew mechanic, and claiming the end result as their own 'original' concept.
There's no way I'm going back to the topic of originality. I'm still with Maltzman. You can find my thoughts easily enough by typing those keywords into the search bar. Suffice to say that neither reskinning nor bolting are required to acknowledge the balance of mechanics within any given game and are, IMO, reprehensible.

And, more recently, we have the revelation that (a staggering amount of) certain devs have been hiring botfarmers for the relatively inexpensive sum of $10-$15k. At the press of a few buttons, the botfarmer unleashes his bots. Over the course of three days, those bots repeatedly download the targetted game, lifting it up through the rankings until it hits the top 25. (Often easy to spot because that game will appear in the top 25 with no reviews, although I've heard of 'automated' reviews in broken Portuguese too!?) Apple are threatening to revoke licenses.

You can do something similar with human peoples. Make $$$s from the comfort of your own home! You just need a computer with internet access, and the most rudimentary understanding of computery stuff.
I've left you a few examples to look at. You don't need to scroll down very far to find comments directing you to services. I've deleted some, but I'm cool with the polite ones. (Just remember kids that I haven't followed any of the links and don't endorse any of the sites!)

My bosses have just returned from the Casual Connect conference in Germany. There, they learned the truth behind the ERS games - and it's hardly a revelation: Hundreds of coders and artists working tirelessly on multiple iHOG projects for minimal salaries.
Just as we've seen in the world of console devs, the drones are disposable: they come and go with the regularity of a ticking pocketwatch; they set up their own rival companies or services; and more drones are plugged into the empty chairs. These services are interesting: For a modest fee, you can outsource your art and code to ex ERS employees. Good pedigree, good price!

(As an aside, my bosses also learned from the horse's mouth that Big Fish went too far with the MCF8 title and received lots and lots of complaints about the game's poor taste. However, Big Fish are in the position where they don't have to worry about these complaints.)

So, quite a whirlwind of activity of late! And it all leaves me with this question:
How can a tiny dev team with typical British salaries make a game of CE standards and turn a healthy profit?
M3 made a similar profit to M2. That's to say that the game pulled in enough extra dosh to cover the combined salaries of the extra five staff members.
Given the revenue ceiling that exists for iHOGs (at least through the BF portal), it's unlikely that M4, however well it is received, is going to make a significant profit.

I had a meeting with my bosses and they presented their ideas for generating more profit. They were:
Cut dev time down to nine months; lower the quality of the artwork; don't invent any new systems - just use more inventory items; make the trial hour great, and pare everything back thereafter.
All understandable and predictable responses*, and all pointless unless you can answer the How? (See my question!) And it's because the How? is so difficult to answer, especially with British salaries what they are, that we hear barely a British whisper in the iHOG charts.
*In their defence, they haven't declared 'Story isn't important!' for several months now, so I think they're making an effort.

Naturally, I was ahead of them: I had already taken it upon myself to react to the three months we had lost during the staff drought. I used the M4 CE act to experiment. My internal brief was:
How can I create an hour of gameplay and wonderful experience in under two months with the team we have?
I think I've achieved that. I might be proven wrong, but I'm pretty pleased with myself and the systems I've invented which deal with our own particular obstacles.

In theory - and we can test the theory with minimum risk - I've found a way of making four acts and a CE act of high quality at a shade under two months per act. That comes in at around nine months, and does not allow for sickness or holiday, or for creating guis and menus (although it does accommodate cut-scenes and cinematics). Nor does it allow for the iterative nature of game design, and that alone can constitute a sizeable nugget of time.
But nine months? The whole shebang in nine months?
Where were we? Oh yes:
How can a tiny dev team with typical British salaries make a game of CE standards and turn a healthy profit? In nine months?



To their credit, Big Fish have eased the pressure by introducing a mid-range accolade which they call the Deluxe. It's priced mid-way between CE and SE and eases the financial suffering of those devs that fall a fraction short of the CE score. But it's a cushion, and not something to aim for. (And I can only imagine that it could be achieved by a team attempting to hit the CE score in the first place.)

We're now at that place where things break. If I can't answer this question whilst retaining my integrity, then I have to either shed my integrity, convince my bosses to lower their profit expectations, or walk away with my integrity intact.
It's a place defined by both terrible shadow and challenging sunlight.
And it's a painful truth that (arguably) the #1 requirement for a writer/designer is that she has finely-honed powers of empathy; ergo, the better the writer/designer is at her job, the less likely she is to disrespect her audience.

Speaking of #1s...
Currently occupying the BF #1 spot is Surface: Mystery of Another World. I played the trial. Next morning, I drenched poor Ben with spittle as I related my experience of that trial - and it truly was a trial - to him. Poor Ben. And poor me: two nights with barely a wink of sleep! But mainly poor Ben.
First thing: if forum posts are to be believed, it's evident that S:MOAW spent a considerable time in the hands of the beta testers. Full credit to them for their persistence.
Now, to me it doesn't look great, and the story is ok but delivered without any technical prowess and, hence, gave me no emotive thrill. It lacks originality and sophistication. The live action cut-scenes are well hokey. I can't abide the relentless string of inventory item quests - put x in b and f in y and arse in biscuits and on and on - and the logic is laughable, unless you're able to believe that the only thing that will smash a window is a stone, despite having multiple heavy metal tools at your disposal...

But, studying the trial, I can reasonably confidently describe how it managed to achieve the CE score. Pretty much all you need to know is here in the last five years of blog posts. Forgive my heavy-handed paraphrasing, but it goes a bit like this: Hook, resonance, clear gui, atmosphere, regular developments (good pace+enough variety), strings of inventory item quests punctuated by puzzles/mini-games (which were, on the whole, pretty good), simple map with teleport, abundant hints and quick meter refills, enough fluidity to sustain the immersion cocoon through the bad things. The bad things were those things that are allowed to be bad. If your bad things are those things that have to be good, you get Bedtime Stories: The Lost Dreams (which, sadly, had lots of good things, but those were good things that could've been bad).
Furthermore, I'm well aware that I am not the market. My expectations of art and mood and story are much higher. No use me reading the glowing reviews and shaking my head in disbelief. Neither is there any use in my contemplating how to be more bad or, worse still, forcing Ben and Sally to be more bad. They're far too talented for me to even consider that!

Well what do you know: Providence has indeed presented me with an apt title for this post! Now I need your assistance with a cigarette machine...

***

P.S. Lovely comment on Wild Tangent (re. M3), and one heck of a pat on Ben's back. Let's play the coincidence game! I choose the words 'unique and 'original'!

JR: One of the best, most beautiful and most unique hidden object games.

Wild Tangent Games: What did you like most about this HOG?

JR: WildTangent Games The graphics were the best I've seen in HOG's. They were like walking into a Thomas KinKade painting. I loved the tarot card bits, where you had to line them up to produce different shapes. Very original. I also liked playing the sheet music on the piano. Things liike the horse race (blueberry, cotton candy, etc) were fun also. The story line was also sweet. I liked that the first object picked up (the rose) was the last one used. It tied up the storyline nicely.

Wild Tangent Games: Thanks for your awesome feedback Jeffery! Appreciate it :) We'd love to hear more reviews from you about other games!

A Thomas Kinkade painting.

P.P.S. Friend of mine has released his first iOS app! It's called Monkey Pole Climb. I've not played it, but it looks great and, more importantly, the guy poured fluffy ewers of love and care into it! Do go take a look!

Forget the Gameplay

It's one of those topics I've been garnering bravado for... so let's jump back in with the controversy du jour...

Does the name Simon Parkin ring any bells?
How about Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception?

Have a look.



Isn't it strange: all these decades in, and we're still arguing about the amount of interactivity that is desirable in a game. Mid-way between the movie and the game is the interactive movie. Games, by all definitions (that I've read, and that's quite a few), must offer the player choices and allow the player to influence the world about him. Movies, conversely, are passive affairs.
With Drake's third outing, it seems as though we've finally reached that point inbetween.

Here's Simon's brilliant review over at Eurogamer.

And then the flamewars began.
As far as I can figure, the furore stems from a misinterpretation (as confirmation bias is wont to cajole) of the review. Some commenters read Simon's review as positive, and then are surprised to find an eight-out-of-ten score; some read the review as negative and are equally perplexed by the score; most are simply surprised that Simon didn't rate the game as highly as the other major reviewers.

Simon concludes his review:
The execution exhibits a kind of workmanship and polish way beyond the ambition of most other developers, let alone their abilities or budgets. As an expression of all that a video game could be, however, Uncharted 3 is narrow, focused and ultimately shallow. It is a majestic tribute to cinema, a movie game in the literal sense, and your enjoyment will be in precise step with your appreciation of that objective - and whether or not you believe it to be Drake's great deception, or Drake's great delight.

So the question facing game designers is: How much interactivity makes for a fulfilling GAMING experience?

I think if Bob McKee were here, he'd say it was a specious argument. And I'd agree. Heck, I'll always agree with my imaginary Bob McKee. I like to call him Mimsy and stroke his hairy shoulders.

Just to backtrack briefly, I'll explain why this has been on my mind for a while now.
Here's a snippet from Jayisgames' review of Margrave 3:

Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart is all about the story and setting, and it paints such a wonderful picture with both that the gameplay comes in second. In fact, sometimes the actual "game" parts of Margrave seem like an intrusion...

Consider, too, our producer's remarks that players attempt to complete hidden object scenes as quickly as possible so that they can get on with the game.

Well hold up! What precisely is it that gamers want? Do they actually want to be presented with choices and given the power to influence their artificial world? or will they accept the most modest of interaction - just enough for a game to qualify as a game - provided that their ultimate experience is rewarding?

If there's one thing I've learned during my time as a game designer - and there probably isn't one thing I've learned - but if there is, it's that there's not a single design question that can't be answered by the statement:
It's all a question of balance!

I was, I think, amused when I played Deus Ex the other day. After some twenty minutes of 'on rails' gaming, about eighteen minutes of which was dialogue (exposition), I finally reached the opening credits and began the game. At that point I was given three choices of play. The recommended/default choice was something like:
Full story mode: This is how the game is meant to be played.

Which is why I think it's a specious argument. The old school HOGgers didn't much care for M3 because it had a good dollop of story. They wanted uninterrupted interactivity. The nu wave HOGgers - those whose EXPECTATIONS of the iHOG genre are different (as in contemporary) - did enjoy it; for them, the ultimate experience justified the anchoring of meaning through conventional narrative design.
How to appease both camps?
1) Give everyone the option to skip cut-scenes.*
2) Be sure to inject as much meaningful choice into any existing interactive elements as possible.
* N.B. Players judge on default. If you default to 'cut-scenes on', they'll moan if they don't like cut-scenes, even if you give them the option to switch them off. Weird, but true.

Here's another snippet from our Jayisgames review: (This was pretty consistent feedback.)

Another high point in the Margrave experience is the Dream Card mini-game... it's steeped in tarot artwork and mythology, so naturally you'll feel a bit like a psychic yourself each time you name a spirit.

I'll leave you, my dear maggoteers, with these questions:

Would Simon have scored Uncharted 3 higher if it had claimed to be an interactive movie rather than a game?
What does that say about the effect of expectations upon a game? And how do we deal with such expectations?
Would you be content to sit back and watch ninety minutes of this..?

The Insecurity of Reinvention

Been a taxing week - one of those weeks where you question your work a tad too deeply. (We're in the land between paradox and non sequitur people!)

I'm currently assembling the hints system and it's about as mind-spangling as things get. It's nice to take a break for a couple of days to tidy my thoughts.

I've briefly allowed myself a tour of the recent reviews of M3 - just enough to perk me up a little, and not so much as to perpetuate a dependency on public adoration. :o)
And boy, I'm blown away. The scores keep going up and up, all across the board, raised on the shoulders of so many kind and encouraging comments.
As that comforting glow soaks into my soul, a panic eel spasms in my gut. All those high expectations! Can I really lead my team to an even greater victory? I've changed my approach to design and game narrative so much, and everything is once more uncertain. I mean, this game is, thus far, an unfiltered nozzle into my head, and that's a scary premise.

What do the greats do?
On the one hand, you have the MCF team who reinvent with breathtaking courage from game to game; on the other, you have the unfalteringly successful ERS team(s) who pump out 'cookie cutter' games with unnerving regularity.
The upshot is pretty straightforward: each new MCF game garners a host of negative reviews from those who dislike the new systems, techniques, and mechanics. The ERS games seem only to receive negative reviews concerning the lack of originality. ('More of the same' is a recurring review.)
And, in both cases, these games hurtle to the top of the charts and make heaps of money.
I'm quite sure my bosses would prefer that I adopted the ERS approach. But I simply can't do that. To deny myself the opportunities to improve and experiment and to push boundaries is to deny myself of everything that is necessary for my creative survival.

My new hints system is, to the best of my knowledge, radically different to all others in the iHOG genre.
I've replaced the insipid omniscient hints (Collect the bacon slicer from the mortuary) with a character.
So now the hints are imbued with personality, and we move a little closer to turning a 'penalty' into a 'reward'. Furthermore, we increase immersion every time we shun omniscience in favour of important, narrative-driven characters.
I've also broken the hints into smaller increments. When coupled with the interactive in-game map, this method overcomes all the issues we experienced with the previous system.

One unforeseen by-product of all this is that the hints have rather ballooned.
Now that the hint can 'see' where the player is, 'he' needs to respond appropriately in order to sustain believability:

PLAYER has not visited mortuary. PLAYER is not in town.
HINT PERSON: Let's head into town and have a look around.

PLAYER has not visited mortuary. PLAYER is not standing outside mortuary.
HINT PERSON: There's a mortuary on Gallows Corner. Let's have a looksee.

PLAYER has not visited mortuary. PLAYER is outside mortuary.
HINT PERSON: I don't like the look of this place at all. Let's go in!

PLAYER does not have bacon slicer. PLAYER is not in mortuary.
HINT PERSON: Hey Edwina! I'm sure I saw a bacon slicer in the mortuary.

PLAYER does not have bacon slicer. PLAYER is in mortuary.
HINT PERSON: Ooh look! A bacon slicer! We can use that to create an origami pig!

(N.B. The hints are organised into linear bundles of loops. At the final 'idiot' stage of a loop, I've chosen to lead the player not just to the current choke, but also to the next.)
It's a teeny bit painful to compose a full ms of hints, knowing that any one player might only require a small clawful of lines from that almighty document.

The other problem - and this was not unexpected - is wrestling parallel game-play into a linear hint system. I faced this in M3, but in M4 the player might have three or four tasks open at once, and our intelligent, self-aware hint must intuitively assuage the player's current concern, whilst shepherding her to the next point in a linear system.

And I think these are possibly the moments when we most question our judgement - those moments when we are entrenched in something that is difficult and untested.
In my head, it's a brilliant system and everyone loves it!
But we're fast approaching the time when nigh on a year's worth of ideas and decisions will crawl from my head and into the outside world with all its glorious reality.
Man, if it stayed in my head it would be the best game of all time - the best, very lonely game of all time.

Should end on a high. Let's pick a review...

Absolutely beautiful game. The story was so touching, and the music was gorgeous. I even loved the side story that opens up once you finish the main game. It takes a lot to impress me, or keep me wanting to play, and this one definitely grabbed me completely.
[Jamie Machia of New York.]

And finish up with an actroid. Utopia or dystopia? (Ah, let's face it: they're all gonna end up as sex toys.)

Margrave: The Conjure of the Cut Ticker

Hey nonny nonny!

Along with hot grey clouds and a plague of thunderflies, July has welcomed phase three of the M3 staggered release strategy and we're currently the second highest ranked game across the board! Yes, we've conquered Big Fish and iWin, and we're now top of the Gamehouse charts with an average score of 4.5/5. We're also pedalling up the Pogo charts (number 7 at time of typing, and second highest download rate) and we're receiving superlicious reviews over at Shockwave and Wild Tangent. And best of all... dev costs have now been recouped and it's profit all the way. I think all the localisations are also complete now, so we should presently be threatening Koreans and Italians and Chinese and so forth. (I'm particularly impressed by the Korean take on the Margrave logo :o)

Oh, and I love this witty exchange I discovered on Yahoo! Answers:

Gates Vafa: Hi I just go hooked to playing Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart and I wanted to know where can I get Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart for free no trial.

Best answer - chosen by voters:

My Neck is Like a Shrubbery: Have you tried using your faith like a mustard seed to teleport a copy from the middle of the ocean to your local sycamine tree. (Luke 17:6 in reverse.)

And another hilarious mutation of my hard-won copy, fresh from the slitted throat of a babelfish:

Wakeless in the Humanities countryside, Edwina Margrave has returned to the cottage where her parents died, impatient to verbalise with the one soul who power remove white on the tragedy - the volatilisable landlady, Missy Prickle. But her sensational revelations are not what Edwina predicted! Recruit the aid of the spirit experience and evade the wrath of a disfigured savage as you explore Margrave: The Conjure of the Cut Ticker, a heart-breaking Hidden Target Teaser Labor mettlesome!

I'm very happy with M4's progress. I finalised the new schedules today and we're looking to hit the first survey a fortnight before Christmas. Ben's scenes get better and better, and Sally has blown us all away with her preternatural ability to nail the art style in under a fortnight. Already she's creating faultless work! Ade's first stabs at ambient music are bumping geese and 3D Raul's new-found adoration of displacement maps has added a lovely organic quality to his latest offerings. And the harder everyone works, the more anxious I become, wondering if I really am shepherding them all towards something special. Or not. If we screw up, there's only one direction that gnarled finger can point. A little piece of sick has made its nest in my gullet.

I'm perpetually tired, and not thinking clearly enough to tackle any of those outstanding topics I recently jotted down, but Sally's monumental task has made me think...

Style is a git. As art lead on Warhammer Online, I had to quickly immerse myself in all things Warhammer. In particular, I remember learning the names of all those lumps of architecture (crenels, merlons, flyers, etc.) and armour (pauldrons and greaves and chamfrons and such). I had to learn the particulars of Skaven weapons and Dwarfen caverns and I had to memorize the number of breasts per any given demoness. It was a leviathan task.
I remember, too, the wonderful biographer Sunny explaining how she had been asked by Peter Cox to change her style, and how it was the toughest thing she had ever attempted.
I recently completed the M4 in-game map (top of post). I think it's still recognisably me, but I examined medieval maps and fell in love with the ridiculous switches in perspective and the intricate cross-hatch techniques and pointillist shading methods. The architecture was all second nature to me, and once I had identified the elements that I thought would work well, and also those I thought would clutter or mislead, it was a relatively effortless task working the piece up. As my favourite art tutor would say: Art is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration.

Sally faces an even tougher challenge. She is the hand and mind of Edwina, and today we worked through a few of 'Edwina's' sketches. Sally will also become the unnamed engraver and the eight-year-old orphaned girl and the Cyclopean painter and the wood carver and stone sculptor and the creative automaton. At the drop of a hat, she needs to leave her own soul behind and dip into the soul of many other characters. Which is, I guess, one of the fundamental skills a writer needs to master.

Ed's sketch of the goddess of life.

Mostly, it's about understanding the character's state of mind. The eight-year-old orphaned girl is a good example. When she creates her picture of herself with the kind man who took her into his care, what will she focus on? Does she see him as a tall man with big, strong arms and a giant's smile. Does she see his hands as huge? How does she see herself? Small and fragile? Shy? Tall and strong? How will she reveal the space between the two characters? Will they be standing close together or far apart? Will they be dancing together or perhaps she will be hugging him, or him her? We each see the world in our own way, and this changes depending on our state of mind. Several years ago, a police station sprung up on the corner of my street. I didn't notice it for many weeks. I simply ambled past it, presumably lost in thoughts of intricate leaf designs or shopping lists or whatever. I routinely miss big things, but I can easily spot small things. I guess years of showering have seen to that. (I also discovered an inch-long hair growing from my ear hole the other day. Does that qualify as a big thing or a small thing? Man, that's another five minutes to add to my weekly preen.)

Okay, I'm flumped. I'm going to bed to fall asleep to my new favourite album: Max Corbacho's Ars Lucis, which sounds like a bowel disorder but is actually a subtle and sophisticated splicement of boundless sonic phantoms. Sleep tight.

The Wrath of a Damaged Huge

Breakfast at Pitt Street. (Edwina Wrobel)

Oh Lord help us all... here we go again!
Yep, some time over Easters, Big Fish's exclusivity period expired and M3 threw open some kinda metaphorical door, blinking in the brilliant sunlight, and has taken to promenading along virgin processing units to tickle the fancies of a fresh audience and stroke the thighs of new reviewers. And, if you'll kindly allow me to share one... last... review... (huff puff), I'll thank you all later in the week with a new piece of M4 concept art hot off Miracle Ben's digital canvas.

* * *

Jayisgames.com

Her parents spent their time searching for an artifact called the Severed Heart. Now, Edwina Margrave is driving through the dark woods to a remote village where her mother and father were last seen. Probably not the brightest idea she's ever had, but Ed knows a thing or two about the supernatural realm. The hidden adventure Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart opens up with our heroine arriving at a dimly-lit cottage in the woods. She is seeking answers, but naturally she'll find many more questions as things begin to unravel in a most peculiar way. Ghostly animals haunting the realm of the living, anyone?

Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart begins predictably enough, but as soon as you get a taste of the gameplay, you'll realize how deliciously perfect the game really is. Just like most casual hidden object games, the mouse and your cursor will guide you through just about everything, changing shape to point you to areas you can explore further, items you can pick up, or directions in which you can travel. In addition, Margrave features a neat twofold inventory system that includes key items as well as keepsakes, small objects you find or sketches that Edwina takes down of things that could be important later on.

No hidden object game would be complete without hidden object scenes, and while Margrave doesn't focus on them very heavily, you'll find more than your fair share of laundry lists to complete. Items are extremely well-hidden in this game, blending in with the background so you have to stare at every other pixel to find many of them. The hint button becomes your best friend very quickly!

Analysis: Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart is all about the story and setting, and it paints such a wonderful picture with both that the gameplay comes in second. In fact, sometimes the actual "game" parts of Margrave seem like an intrusion, as all you really want to do is explore the surroundings, make sketches about unusual symbols or items you've seen, and discover new things about the occult world just beneath the surface. Margrave has depth, layers of intrigue piled on top of each other. It's like watching an episode of Lost, sans polar bears.

Another high point in the Margrave experience is the Dream Card mini-game. Each time Edwina encounters animal spirits, she uses these cards to divine the animals' former names. To use them, you must place four cards on the screen so that the shapes on the sides form the figures shown at the top of the screen. It's a unique sort of diversion that's different from the usual mini-game fare. And it's steeped in tarot artwork and mythology, so naturally you'll feel a bit like a psychic yourself each time you name a spirit.

With fantastic locations to explore, a great storyline to follow, and an interface design that never gets in your way, Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart is the kind of hidden object game everyone wants to play. If you were to line everything up that makes a good hidden object game, tag it and rank it in order of importance, Margrave would mirror that list almost perfectly. It really is designed that well, almost as if the people who made it actually play casual games themselves!

* * *

Okay, I'm only sharing the good reviews! :o)
Let's counter that right now. I think g@mrgrl's review is absolutely spot on. S/he incisively plucks out the strengths, weaknesses, and genuinely gets the spirit. This review is pretty similar to the 'as objective as possible' conclusion that my own mind drew, with the jejeune caveat 'man, if only I had a bigger budget!'
(Actually, just noticed that this is a 'g@mrgrl recommends' review. I honestly didn't notice, or get that from the review. Sheesh. It's at moments like this that you wonder who lives in the eleventh dimension...)




Here's something else to muse upon...
Imagine being interviewed as a character. And imagine that the questions asked breach the real world. Imagine the myriad problems that plop from the problem tree.

Edwina Margrave was interviewed by Harry Balls. Here are the first few questions:

1. Your name, Edwina Margrave is quite unique. Did your classmates make fun of your name when you went to school?

2. What was your nickname growing up?

3. How did the first two hidden object adventures prepare you for this challenge?

4. In general how do hearts get severed?

5. Do you really believe in curses or are they just tools game developers use to create a story?

Have a think.
The full interview is here.

Ballerina Edwina Seaver.

And finally, here's what happens when translations go wrong! I'm not linking to the site because it offers a free download. (For 'free' read 'it'll infect every artificial organ in your pc'.)

Clear in the British country side, Edwina Margrave has went back to the bungalow just where the woman's mother and father passed away, wanting to speak having the an individual human being that may well highlight the catastrophe - the unstable landlady, Miss Thorn in Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart. However her shocking revelations aren't just what Edwina anticipated! Enlist the facilitate of the mood international and evade the wrath of a damaged huge as you browse Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart a coronary heart-breaking up Hidden Object Games Puzzle Excursion game - Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart!

Common Denominator

Stuff from my 'instant emotive response' library.

What happens if you break stuff?

Take the latest installment of the Shiver series: Vanishing Hitchhiker.
The emotional topography is single-minded; the environments are hackneyed to the max; the HO scenes are dark, the items miniscule, and the hints flawed; the journal and the strategy guide are last minute affairs devoid of class; deus ex machina rules the world, felling yet another tree with another bolt of lightning - only, this time, you won't need to put out the fire and chop up the trunk because the bloody thing simply vanishes; puzzles/mini games are virtually non-existent, and where they are existent they really shouldn't be - the gameplay is a string of lacklustre inventory item tasks, laying down planks of wood to make a staircase and dusting a piano with a wetted rag. Man, on paper it looks like a disaster. And, to me, the trial hour (in which I completed half the game), played like a caravan of dessicated hinnies. (Um, somehow you can get 'dry and tedious' from that. A hinny is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey. I didn't know that. It was on Eggheads. [Actually, it might have been some other quiz thing that played in the background].)
(Think that full stop is right. Yes, I'm sure of it. Hmm... I was.)

Intermission: M3 is about to go into retail in the States. The marketing bods were unhappy with the word 'severed', and also wanted to return the word 'manor', so look out for Margrave Manor 3: The Curse of the Blacksmith's Heart. Sigh.

So, as you can imagine by my distaste, Vanishing Hitchhiker has gone down a storm with the public.
Huh? What happened? Hey? But... deus ex machina I cry! Deus ex machina!!!
I kinda know how all those YA authors felt when JK Rowling sauntered onto the pitch and urinated over their years of hard work and study and then went on to tear the publishing world asunder.

As ever, I'm actually cool and pragmatic. (Man, I'm really surprising myself these days!)
Firstly, there's no single way to make a good iHOG.
Some achieve success by using lots of puzzles/mini games. Some have very few, or none.
Some have loads of HO scenes, and some very few. Some HO scenes are hard, and some are easy.
Some recline in the 'horror' salon, others in the 'fantasy' lounge.
Just compare Phantasmat with Vanishing Hitchhiker. Some of their scenes are almost identical (bar Phantasmat's bolder colour aesthetic)! They both endeavour to achieve the same results in the same genre through similar narrative tactics, but they share little in common when it comes to gameplay.

What Vanishing Hitchhiker does do well is it creates a strong, immersive atmosphere. Sure, it's a desaturated cliché from start to finish - a shameless hybrid of Shutter Island and Silent Hill, with a Hitchcockian sensibility running through it - and, yes, that is Mozart's Requiem crackling on the record player - but for all its technical faults, it achieves the key functions.
Hook player > create immersive atmosphere > keep player busy doing stuff > keep developing > end with resolution or cliffhanger.
Same with Jo Rowling: she might wave a dismissive hand at people far more learned than her, but she does achieve those key things, and she achieves them with great panache.


So back to my question...
You can break loads of stuff, provided that you hook the player and keep her actively entertained in an immersive world.
So why learn stuff then?
Because, if you're good, you can use that stuff to wield total control over those key functions - indeed, over the entire experience.

Please forgive me, but I do have one recent review to share with you. It's embarrassing, I know, but it does illustrate my points very well.
And I really do have to shake this peculiar sense of disbelief: I have to stop thinking that every super review is some kind of put up job.
(Also, as noted in the review, I've been thinking lately about how I've never created an evil antagonist. They might seem evil at first, but they're always pitiful, abused, misunderstood creatures. How odd.)

And before I get back to making characters speak, may I ask you, my delicious maggoteers, to press that voting button on the right there? You don't have to. It'll just make me feel a bit better about everything. Hugs and kisses.

* * *

User review on gamezebo, posted by Jaxxy, March 27th.

As an MCF and Hidden Expedition fan... this game blew me away. I cried, too... twice, to be exact. I'd be hard-pressed to think of another game that moved me this well.

Oh, the puzzles are so original--and plentiful! I'm no slouch, but I really had to think. This was a *dense* game, and still quite long enough.

The game is most definitely immersive, as well--and it does this without much gore (only somewhat insinuated and v. rare)--no AAH! startlings!--no genuinely evil horrible criminals--nothing seems too based on the "creep factor" (nothing big, anyway--I mean, nothing NEEDS it, to impress upon you).

The story is very intricate and unexpected, the length is perfectly lengthy (no filler--not for a second), and the characters? are just SO lovable. *Real*.

And sorry, Gamezebo, but I would never call the bonus content "thin"--while there are no wallpapers or video thingies, there is a great, also-immersive follow-up story adventure. A complete story in itself, and also heartwarming/heartbreaking (it was responsible for the second time I cried during the course of this game!).
--I'd trade all the "I'll-never-use-'em" wallpapers & soundtracks in the world for the above. In a game, for bonus content--especially if I'm like "NO DIS ROX'S PLZ GIMME MOAR"--I find I want... MOAR GAIM. =D

Very dreamy--I will not forget this title (as, sadly, I normally do for current HOGs). Way to think outside the box! And I'm sure Helen Lawson will enjoy a great boost from her song being the theme of this game--as she deserves, as the song is also very special.

Tons of puzzles, strong Adventure bent, challenging hidden-object scenes...
NO cliff-hangers, whether you finish at the game's finish *or* after the bonus content...
DO at least try this memorable work--it is a breath of fresh air for both the imagination and the noggin.

Reviews

Phew! and Phew again!
Well, one of the biggies has reviewed. Here's the full, undoctored transcript (which, to my knowledge, was unbribed) from Gamezebo:

* * *

Curse of the Severed Heart is everything a great HOG should be, but the bonus content is a little thin.

Updated Mar 9, 2011, 7:11pm

Margrave: Curse of the Severed Heart takes you on a journey into the supernatural as you search for answers regarding your childhood and the fate of your parents. Starting with a gripping narrative that expertly combines photographic characters with painted backgrounds and cleverly-designed puzzles with hidden object gameplay, Margrave: Curse of the Severed Heart is fine example of what a good hidden object title should be.

As young Edwina Margrave, you return to the village where years ago your scholarly parents searched for a relic called the Severed Heart. Settling into the cottage of the area's sole remaining resident, the otherworldly Miss Thorn, you soon realize both the picturesque village and your mysterious host are hiding something. The first clue that something's amiss is that wherever you go, you encounter ghostly animals: spirits of former cats, geese and sheep that call out to you to free them by helping them remember their names.

Divination is done with a special deck of Dream cards in an entertainingly unique mini-game. A number of cards are laid out that contain half-symbols in all four of each card's corners. A series of symbols are shown at the top of the screen and the idea is to recreate these symbols by lining up the half-symbols found on the cards. It's a simple concept that's more challenging than you might think. The artwork in these sequences is charming and it's genuinely satisfying winning the mini-game and receiving praise and thanks from the pathetic little ghost beasts.

This little mini-game alone makes Margrave: Curse of the Severed Heart different from your run-of-the-mill hidden object titles, but it's not the only unique thing the game has going for it. Another is the thoughtful, clever design of its many mechanical puzzles. Not only does every hidden object scene serve to solve an intricate puzzle; many of the individual puzzles are linked to one another to form an intriguing larger puzzle. You'll be blown away by the complexity of it all and by the game's beautiful environment art. You'll also enjoy the dialog sequences which are fully voice acted and though photographic, work well within the 2D painted environments. Further, you're bound to get the ethereal soundtrack—especially the haunting vocals of the game's main theme—totally stuck in your head.

The one downside of the game is that for a Collector's Edition, Margrave: Curse of the Severed Heart is light on extras. Many Collector's Editions these days offer concept art, music and mini-games as well as bonus chapters but Margrave merely offers a strategy guide and one unlockable bonus chapter called The Blacksmith's Revenge. This bonus chapter, taking place two years after the events of the main story, is meant to serve as something of an epilogue but makes a strange conceptual leap that will likely leave some gamers scratching their heads. Even so, it offers a new narrative as well as some new locations, art and puzzles and is good for another hour or so of interesting gameplay.

Margrave: Curse of the Severed Heart is one of those rare hidden object adventures that completely sucks you in, keeps you riveted throughout and when it's over, you're sorry to leave. Its photographic characters and fully voice-acted dialog make for enthralling drama, while its captivating environments and elaborate puzzles make you eager to explore and get to the bottom of things. Additionally, its beautifully phantasmic art direction and unique Dream card mini-game, not to mention its unearthly musical score make it an expertly-crafted adventure.

Regardless of your enthusiasm for hidden object titles, this is one game no mystery lover should miss - although given the title's thin bonus content you might be better off waiting for the Standard Edition.

* * *

Apologies to all who expected more from the bonus material. Truth is, I believe that Big Fish are going to have to review their CE policies, especially as it looks as though the top ten is going to be swamped by the things! We noticed a weird psychological occurrence in the forums whereby any CE which included concept art and music as extras suffered from complaints of We don't want concept art and music! We want more gameplay! Such complaints seemed immutable and entirely unrelated to the length of the bonus gameplay, as though the dev should have devoted their complete allotment of CE time on the bonus gameplay alone.

But a splendid review nonetheless!

I've reached the conclusion that it's not a great idea to read reviews. I'm sure this notion has been championed by many!

Why's that solv? Surely you should be looking for those recurring themes and learn lessons?

Well sure, but public reviews are unregulated and, as such, sprawling. There really is nothing to learn from the bad reviews (that's to say, I've not found anything), not least because they contradict the good reviews (and even each other).

Solvy solvy solvy! That's a cop out!

Not really. We know that a percentage of people will not be pleased, and that percentage, measured in controlled surveys, is marginal enough to warrant the CE status. A minority percentage would douse me in petrol and skip around my blazing body. Let's take that as read right from the off - even before the first idea is typed upon virtual paper.

However, there is value in looking through that majority percentage to see if I achieved any of my ambitions (beyond designing a 'popular' game).

To be honest, this kind of self assessment feels horribly like ego rubbing, and I'm very much against that. So I'll do it quickly and run away with my eyes closed, and flagellate under my duvet.

Emotions in an iHOG? Oh yes! Read of 'teary' players and 'moved' players; read of 'hilarious' responses; read of 'best moment ever!'

Unique? Immersive? Sure thang!

Um, that was all I really wanted to achieve. Oh, that said, I wouldn't mind the number one accolade too. (Currently we're at number two, stuck behind the much better Dark Parables game. Bummer.)

Hey, if I'm going to flagellate, I might as well make it worthwhile. Check out the five star Game Mile review, and the five pipe Hidden Puzzles review.

In the next post, I'll share the downside of plaudits, otherwise known as the difficult second album, and we can leave all this sugary stuff behind us and return to our old friend pain.