Proteus: Graphics and Exploration

I'd like to start off with a nice video walkthrough/commentary on Proteus.  Just in case my gushing and images aren't enough, this walk-through will give you some idea of what it is like to play Proteus.  That said, this video is basically one big spoiler.  So if you haven't yet played Proteus... maybe just ignore me until it goes on sale (I'll let you know), and then buy it and then play it.  

RockLeeSmile highlights indie games in a series of videos called 'Indie Impressions.'

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I've played Proteus through a couple times now, and I think I've made some basic determinations about this game:  Proteus is an easter-egg hunt.  No one is keeping score - and there is a complete lack of achievements.  The purpose of the game is to play it and enjoy it, the player decides how much they enjoy it.  I am one who has decided to love it.  There are others who decided not to.  That is ok with me.  But if you choose to play, you can spend your time looking around, and you will find some things that may catch your attention and interest, and possibly provide you with some delight.  

Actually, funny thing--  I have been thinking about making a game based on the causeway which connects Sacramento to Davis.   I ride over this causeway on the train all the time, and when I'm looking out the window, I have observed a lot of beauty and subtle differences.  Because I love games and thinking about gaming, I've wanted to depict this environment through gaming.

My initial idea was to make a minecraft of the causeway.  This I still may do if I come into a boatload of time and patience.  The things that I observe from out the train window are mostly:  the weather and the animals.  The causeway is sometimes foggy, sometimes clear, sometimes flooded.  Sometimes I see egrets and ducks floating in the water, sometimes I see geese in the air, and little swarms of tiny birds.  Sometimes I can see the mountains in the distance and snow on top.  Sometimes the fields are full of wheat or squash or some other plants.  The colors can be many shades of brown, or contrasting shades of bright green, blue mountains, stark-white farm buildings and bright blue sky.

As I've observed the world of the causeway through the window of a train, I've wanted to share this form of peaceful joy with the world.  And as I imagine an artistic rendering of this landscape, I've thought of doing so with a video game.  This video game would need to pay special attention to the landscape, animals and weather.  The purpose of the game would be to travel through and observe a world of beautiful sights and sounds.

Proteus has done just that.  My playing experience is akin to looking out the window at the causeway, imagining what it would be like to wander around there and take in the sights, sounds and smells.  It really is amazing to me, to capture such a sublime experience, and I am very glad I found this game. Sorry to gush.  

Two of the most outstanding features of Proteus are: the practiced restraint on the part of programmers, and the synchronization of the sound and visual space.  There are musical cues triggered by the environment in a variety of ways.  Some triggers come from being near something: the hoot of an owl, the croak of a frog.  Some are triggered by looking at something, such as the sun on a hot summer day, or a shooting star.  

Sometimes I think that Proteus is too sparse, and could use more of everything.  More birds, more bugs, more trees, more weather.  But one thing it does wonderfully is to balance what it does have into a consistently interesting gaming experience.  I believe it is through restraint on the part of the game designers, that this balance is achieved.  I would be very sad if there was a sequel or expansion to Proteus that, perhaps with a zeal to improve and expand on the game play, was to disrupt the balance so that the sense of wonder and joy were lost or significantly diminished.    

It is possible that this game can be so much more than it is, but it is also possible that what Proteus is - is the best thing it can be, and that this feeling I've gotten from playing, of so much more, is best for me to hold, and relish and used for inspiration to create something beautiful myself, rather than to demand it from the creators of Proteus or the industry in general.

I think it may be that the very sparseness of Proteus lends itself to the need for a player to explore.  For example, if I'm feeling aimless while playing, I find a good strategy is to chase a frog until I find something that catches my interest.  Sometimes this leads to finding something unexpected.  

First Impressions: Proteus

Wow.

Attention everyone:  Proteus is my new favorite game.  

You may remember this game as Crazy Atari Graphic Style First Person Game from my little shpiel on the PBS video The Creativity of Indie Games.  For a preview of this game, watch that video, as there are clips of it throughout.  Not to mention a bunch of other games I plan on trying.

Proteus is a game I would like to go on and on about.  But I would rather you play the game, and come talk to me, and then we can both go on and on about it.  For now I'll mention some facts:  It is available here, for $10.  I suggest you buy it.  It plays Mac and PC and Xbox 360 and is available on steam.   

Here's a picture:

The first impression I had was one of relief when I realized nothing in this game is trying to kill me.  

It is a first person game, and Jaconian: You will be happy to hear that you can invert the Y axis.  Generally, the menus are minimalist, so I am glad they included this little option.  The controls can be a little slippery, so I hope it doesn't trigger motion sickness. 

Here's another pic:

If you go to the website for the game, you can download it.  You can also read all sorts of acclaim for Proteus.  It's all true, but I think, rather then spending your time reading that, you should just buy it, play it, get your significant other to play it, if you have one.  

I think you could probably buy this game as a valentines present and get away with it.  More pics:

I've put in about two hours, and I'd like to put in some more. 

I want to also mention that this game does an excellent job of mixing the music, sounds and graphics together.  If I had to sum up the effect in one word it would be: Pleasant.  I think this game might be a really good winter time game, and there's not much winter time left, so download it now.  Thanks.  And you're welcome!

-D

Sim City IV and emerging storylines

The above video is an hour-long lecture by Jonathan Blow.  I think he's the guy that wrote Braid.  Yup, the guy who wrote Braid.  Braid is an award winning indie game, a puzzle platformer.  Braid effectively weaves, or "braids" if you will, great graphics/sound, game play and story.  Recommended for everybody.  If you have the time, go ahead and listen to that lecture.  Maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't.    I enjoyed it.  I like seeing all this college-level theory stuff as applied to games.

In the lecture, he talks about the concept of an emerging storyline in games.  The idea is that there isn't a written storyline, or what storyline there is is minimal, and the story comes out through play of the game.  I think this is a pretty cool idea.  And I think I 'get it.' I think that my previous experience playing MineCraft had an emerging storyline.  Today I want to talk about Sim City IV, a game I've been playing lately, and another example of an emerging storyline.


I should let you know that Sim City is a city simulator.  If that wasn't yet clear from the title.  In Sim City, you play the role of an all-powerful 'mayor,' with complete control over the cities budget, zoning choices, and even the ability to cause natural disasters.  (But let's leave that last one alone for now.)  The gist of the game is: If you build it, they will come.  People will populate your city as long as you provide the basic needs of modern industrial society:  residential, commercial, industrial zones and infrastructure such as roads, power and running water. After setting up shop in your city, the residents will immediately begin approving or disapproving of your job as mayor, and this is the driving force behind my own emerging storyline.

I play this game with the overarching goal of winning approval of the residents.  I have sub-goals of increasing population, of using clean energy and public transportation.  I've got the first goal down, but the following goals are proving to be a lot trickier.  Twenty four hours and five cities deep, My story has gone from the need for approval, to a near-obsessive desire to build an ideal city according to my own design.

I realized that emergent storylines make games like Sim City IV more like a toy than a game, as my esteemed colleague Conklederp put it in her post about the Sims series of games.  Playing Sim City is not unlike playing with Legos or blocks, with the specific theme of city building and a near infinite number of resources.  Watch the video below for an example of an emergent storyline using more traditional toys:

I don't imagine that the Gene Simmons doll featured in the above video was originally intended to be used to crush matchbox cars. But through the emerging storyline, Al was able to find a new role for Gene to play.  

The key difference between toys and video games is that, with video games, there is a computer program providing feedback.  This is a role that used to be occupied by the imagination of the individual player, or the cooperating imaginations of a group of players.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this.  What is it about computer controlled feedback that is so alluring?

Perhaps it is easier and more relaxing to allow a computer to run the simulator, rather than using my imagination to fill in all the gaps?  I certainly know I'm tired most days after work, and if I were to engage in imaginative play as Al did above, all my toys might just talk about how tired they are.  

There is also, for me, a challenge in figuring out the dynamics of the computer feedback.  Similar to figuring out an opponent in a multi-player game, I am trying to learn how to balance the programmed needs of my Sim-citizens, with my own, changing concept of my perfect city.  And I must admit, while I sometimes want to invite Gene Simmons to come visit my failures, I don't have the heart to destroy them.  Fortunately for me, the cities remain in stasis when I'm not playing them.  It would certainly add another dimension of challenge if they did not.

Sim City IV was released in 2003, and there has been a long drought of Sim City titles since.  However, there are plans to release another in the series, simply titled Sim City. This game is slated for March of this year, 2013.  There is talk of online, co-operative play and for these features, I am excited.  

I would love a chance to build neighboring cities with a friend, and perhaps work together to help one another with our particular mayoral shortcomings.  Sim City IV has the ability to cooperate with neighboring towns, but it is only a one player game, so I am only able to cooperate with myself.  I'm pretty good at playing with myself... ... ... but the possibilities of emerging storylines increase greatly when more than one mind is at play.

Sim City is a game which is a great abstraction.  The player views the action from above, removed from the concerns of the individuals in the town, which can number in the thousands.  This makes it a good candidate to talk about emerging storylines and also a bad one, because the abstraction may interfere with the players ability to relate.  

However, it is a game that has its hooks in me now.  I will continue to meditate on the subject of emergent gameplay, and I will try to see if I can find it in other games as I play them.  

Minecraft

I just finished playing the Minecraft Demo for the first time.  For those of you who don't know, Minecraft is a game that has garnered heavy accolades from the gaming community over the past couple of years.  I think it's safe to say that the game has become something of a phenomenon.  And after playing the demo for about a half-hour, I can go on record saying that this game is worthy of the praise.  

Something I want to emphasize is the joy I experienced just learning the basic mechanics of the game.  Exploring the world of the demo, and testing different ways to interact with it, making new discoveries--  I had a great time.  In fact, I have enjoyed this process so much, that I am willing to call what I write from here on out 'spoilers' simply because I do not want to spoil a new players experience of learning the mechanics.  So, if you think that you will play Minecraft in the not-too-distant future, I strongly urge you to just go play it.  Put in a half hour or even the ninety minutes the demo allows.  If you like games-- then it is worth your time.

So, here's a  breakdown my experience with the demo, transcribed here for my own selfish need to express myself.  Please stop reading and go play Minecraft.

One possible reason why I enjoyed Minecraft so much is something called emergent gameplay.  I like this term, and I think it relates to the creativity of Minecraft play.  I felt a strong pull to explore the possibilities within the world. In the beginning, I ran around digging at random pieces of the world, becoming stuck and un-stuck in corners, getting accustomed to the controls.  However, when nighttime first arrived, I was quickly killed, right around the time I found a neat-looking cave to explore.  I had to start over again, and then got killed again.  I got frustrated, so I ended the demo, and started from the beginning.  

This time, I took to digging with a vengeance.  I tore trenches through the landscape, sawed the tops off of trees.  Right about dusk, just as the baddies were going to emerge, I just started digging straight down for a while, and then tunneled around through the softer, easier to dig bricks.  I got lost, but didn't sweat it, and just kept right on digging. 

The critical point came when i figured out how to place items i had collected.  My first move was to block off the tunnel I had dug, thus protecting me from any roaming baddies who may follow me into my tunnel.  Then, entirely by accident, I placed a torch on the wall.  Now I could see! This was reassuring, and helped to orient me as I decided it was time to tunnel upward. 

My next great discovery was that i could jump and place a hunk of dirt directly underneath myself.  This helped me to more quickly get out of a cave i had trapped myself in, and then was even more useful when i subsequently popped out of cliff-side and fell into an abyss filled with monsters.  I took one look around and quickly launched myself skyward on an ever expanding stack of dirt.   I exited the abyss but found myself critically low on food.  Apparently all that time tunneling came with a cost.  This form of isolation kept me safe from monsters, but also locked away from any sustenance.

I hunted around for some of the non- hostile animals i'd seen earlier, and proceeded to beat a pig to death with my bare hands, and devour the raw pork inside. However, since the graphics resemble LEGOs, this wasn't really that grisly.  Still, Herbovours are sure to hate this element of the game.  Possibly you can eat grasses and plants, but this seems unlikely as the hunger meter is represented with pork-chops.

Anyhow, I resupplied my hunger meter, and then decided to take a trip to the sky on another giant tower of dirt.  Kinda like how Iceman gets around.  I rose dozens of feet above the play area,  my limited visual settings fogging the scene below.  (I sure do need a new video card).

I had one heart left of life, something I haven't figured out how to resupply, and the temptation to jump from the in-game stratosphere was very strong.  I decided against it, and began to dig my way back down from on high, one cube of dirt at a time.  When I got to about tree-height, I decided to hop off, but It looks like that was still too high a fall, and I died anyway.  Oops.  

So, that was fun.  Maybe one day I'll buy the full version, and maybe one day I'll terraform a landscape and show it off on YouTube. I don't even know what to do with all of the Minecraft culture stuff out there.  The incredible cities, monumentsand all of the creativity coming out of this game.  It sucks me in and blows.my.mind.  I have to consciously just sort of forget about all of the mountains of amazing things coming out of this game.  There's just too much of it, and the game is fun to just play, without being intimidated by all of that.  

But one thing I will do, is to link to a video of the Enterprise 1701-D being built in minecraft.  I think this one is going to be my favorite minecraft-thing.  


-D

currently playing:
Minecraft
Trilby's Notes
Sim City 4