We’ve essentially covered this topic without spelling it out as I’m about to. After Jim’s very lovely powerpoint article, I got to thinking about the ill fated Hydris and it’s sequels and came to the conclusion that it’s all the fault of bloody ambition! It has genuinely killed many, many projects. I attributed the death of untitled “Space Horror” to the dreaded 60% in an earlier article, though in retrospect it never even got that far, it never got beyond concept art and a few 3D models. The ambition had utterly creamed that project before it had a chance. At the time, our greatest achievement was a slideshow, but Johnny Ambition had visions of Resident Evil bettering gaming! How was this going to be made? I’ve no idea, but Hydris was definitely worth jilting for it.

One of the few images from Untitled Space Horror

It’s a relative of the same beast that climbs lamp posts shouting “sequel!”, the ambition either outgrows the current project or guts it before it reaches the starting blocks. The Space Horror game is a good example of this. Our untitled survival horror game (set in space, if you hadn’t guessed) began with a prison riot… there it is, the first two words, the first two dominos falling in a very short line of domino shaped dreams, killing the game to bits.

I think this is definitely something that comes with experience. During the dark days of the even darker basic, I remember countless forum posts from people saying, “I’m making a massive multiplayer online game”… no you’re not, you’ve got an idea for something and probably some mad computer skills, but that is still a little unrealistic. Don’t stop thinking about it though! Ambition is a great, great thing, if you have an idea for something mental and completely unachievable, write it the hell down! The more you understand what you’re capable of achieving in any given time frame, the more your original grand idea will evolve to fit and become workable. Zip n’ West for example is still evolving years after it was first conceived.

I like to try and offer some sort of solution to these things, Dome is a good case study. Again the ambition monster was out in force with that one and the game ended with a stand off between Race and a massive Dragon in some sort of cathedral, I believe it was. At about a tenth of the way through, with a deadline rapidly approaching, the painful decision was made to chop the epic in two and finish it at the half-way stage boss. I think it’s human nature to always want what could have been. For me, it was like finding out the original planned ending to Jurassic park 2 and wanting to know what the film would have been like had they never left the damn island!! I too wonder how awesome Dome would have been, had it ended like we planned. At the same time I know if we’d have tried that, the project would never have been finished and so it’s all the better for cutting it in half.

Be ambitious, be damned ambitious! But be preprepared to scale that ambition down to a manageable size and maybe whip a non-alcoholic beverage or 2 in after that 9th pint… yeah as if! (the ambition thing still stands though).

It occurs to me that my childhood of climbing trees and playing computer games may not have been a complete loss. It’s somehow brilliant that I can be whisked back to a period in my life by just listening to a soundtrack from a game of that time. It hasn’t escaped my attention that this is pretty much what I said last time regarding Shenmue and how that experience was so easily accessed when I heard the theme. With that in mind I think I may have to cut this series of articles short, as all I really have to say is, “remember how good this was”, which is no help to anyone. Alternatively, I could just post soundtracks that I genuinely deem to be good, but it would only be opinion pieces and you’re not that bothered about my biased opinions on things. If I have anything constructive to bang on about, regarding game soundtracks in the future, I will. For now though, I’m calling an end to this filler provoking series and I’ll leave you back in the 90’s with some Mega Drive classics!

Playlist

1] Sonic 1 – Green Hill Zone
2] Streets of Rage – Level 1
3] Columns – Main Game
4] Xenon 2 – Main Game
5] Space Harrier – Main Game

Although I think that this pair of articles clearly say something about how important a game soundtrack is, most indie games I’ve played never give much consideration to it, they are usually just some tunes lifted from another soundtrack. It’s a great opportunity to leave a lasting impression with the player and even our own Dome and Hydris themes (yes I am blowing my own trumpet) still take me back to the time when they were being made. It might just be that I am extra sensitive to the old sensory triggered memories (smell gets me to those places quite rapidly too), but don’t pass up the opportunity to create something unique that could possibly stay with the player for a long time. It might even bring them back for another go! If, unlike us, you have no aspiring musicians to create wonderfully catchy tunes, look online and there will be thousands of budding musicians looking for projects to work on, get to it!

Now go and play Dome.

Back in the day, when our combined knowledge of programming consisted of something done a long time ago on ZX Spectrum, the thing we were making the most of, was PowerPoint. We were big fans of Myst and Riven, which had come out for the Sega Saturn a year or two earlier. Now to most people, PowerPoint doesn’t exactly connect with the world of games development, unless you’re thinking of those high powered meetings where men in suits try to convince other men in t-shirts that making a game for their latest blockbuster movie is a really good idea…

However, fortunately for us, one young lad saw another use altogether. He realised that a PowerPoint presentation wasn’t a million miles away from a point and click adventure game, like Myst, and once he found out you could save a presentation as an exe… well, he was half way there. I mean, think about it, isn’t it obvious? Put some pictures in a slideshow with buttons for left and right and you can be walking around anywhere you like in no time. How long would it take someone to make something that could do that with any amount of programming knowledge? The fundamentals are already there for you.

Admittedly, we never actually finished a game using PowerPoint, we always moved on to something else before we really got going, but that’s not to say it couldn’t be done. I’d say that even now, it’s not only distinctly possible, but it wouldn’t be half bad either. Some of our versions included in-game video to show moving doors and the like, as well as audio. We’d even got as far as implementing a few puzzles to give the player something to think about.

What makes a game good isn’t all about the fancy effects you can put in anyway. A gripping storyline can draw you through anything, even if the surroundings are a bit low res and there’s no ‘jump’ button. Can’t exactly remember if we’d worked out a way to save your progress though, but then who needs that anyway? I’m pretty sure there would also have been issues with lag when there was a lot on screen and I’ve no idea how it would’ve coped when the levels got really big, but should you really be thinking that big when you’re using PowerPoint as game engine for goodness sake?

Yep, if we’d had the time and the inclination to finish development, we’d have had a PowerPoint based version of Hydris that would have worked, and we’d have been bloody happy with it too.

So, there you go, however ridiculous something might sound, it’s usually worth having a proper look at. You never know where it might lead…

A core mechanic is a term coined by myself so I didn’t have to write game play. It’s quite an obvious thing, but if you set out to make a platformer you would most probably dive head first into making levels, characters and physics engines to make it all work. This was definitely my own and the majority of Psync’s approach in the past. Did any thought really go into making PowerPoint games other than “lets make this do what Myst does”? Nope, that being said, we had our reasons and did pretty bloody well! Still, until the now quite unique Blitz, even when opportunities to genuinely produce something not so generic presented themselves, we time and time again fell back on the “let’s make ___ do what ___ does” approach.

Super Mario Galaxy, Just Beautiful.

One of my all time favourite games is Super Mario Galaxy. Just so you are aware this is coming from a life long sonic fan. You wouldn’t have caught me loving Mario back in the 16bit days, oh no, it was Sonic ’til I die! (or at least until he started becoming rubbish). My point is that it’s not the mascot I care about in the game. I’ve heard people rave about the fact Luigi turns up, but at the risk of being hated by Italian loving plumbers I couldn’t care less. There are so many things the game does so well but, for now, lets stay on topic.

Before I start contradicting myself, the Mario developers started with Mario as an Atari game (yes he was in Donkey Kong before that if we’re going to be anal about it, but the first Mario Bros game was on the Atari 2600). As we all know he’s had many-a-sequel since, so yes quite possibly the developers originally dived head first into making levels, characters and physics engines to make it all work, but they got there first, so live with it. If we’re going to make any stand out games we’re going to have to be a bit smarter, kapish?

Super Mario Galaxy takes the 3D platformer (that again the Mario dev’s pretty much invented) and wraps it round a ball. Sounds so simple, gimmicky even, but it works so well! Now again you would have forgiven the creators for basing the entire game around that concept and had Mario legging it around a planet for every level, except they don’t. This brings me nicely to an obvious, but again quite easily forgotten, rule that is:

Don’t base an entire game around an un-expandable concept.

When planing a game I think it’s very important to see where you can take the concept. Keeping with Mario Galaxy, when Mario is running around the outside of a planet in the above image, there is a course of holes he must avoid and crystals to smash. On a similar planet later on, rolling boulders are added, then electrified barriers and then homing missiles, so there are four elements that can be mixed and matched to create a unique level, and these are just four out of literally hundreds of unique elements that this game constantly throws at the player, which stops the game from ever feeling tired or repetitive.

Portal, Just Genius.

While Super Mario Galaxy constantly throws new ideas that compliment the core mechanic, another brilliant game I’ve been promoting around the Psync forums lately is Portal. While Portal does employ quite a few different elements and obstacles, at the heart of all of them sits it’s core mechanic, which is essentially shoot a doorway at one wall then shoot a doorway somewhere else.

The developers of Portal could have relied simply on shooting portals and physics based puzzles, but by including a few extra elements they increased the depth of the game and the fun aspect went through the roof (quite literally)!

Before I started thinking about these games, my initial intention with this article was to highlight the importance of having a strong core mechanic, but throughout writing this it’s become clear that for a game to ensure longevity, you really need a concept that can be tweaked and altered to keep a player’s interest, but without betraying the game. You wouldn’t want to change the whole style or genre of a game half way through because the original concept had become so mind numbingly repetitive that it was the only thing you could do to keep it interesting.

The Company of Myself, Just Clever.

The company of myself is another fine example of a strong core mechanic, but with just enough added elements (and there are literally only about four) it becomes a very enjoyable and clever game.

My humble advice to myself and everyone is to be bloody inventive with your approach and don’t simply try to clone a game you particularly like. Most importantly, before diving in, make sure the game play can be expanded upon without becoming something completely different. It’s almost another dreaded, but at least if you feel you are working on something unique, it’s an added drive to see it through.

Back in 1994, four young fellows were adjusting to the life changing event that is “going to the big school”, but they needn’t have worried, it was simply another step towards finding out where their lives would lead. Four years earlier the first seeds of the creation of Psync Interactive had been sown, when John Thompson and Viral Sinroja (both who knew nothing of programming) were teamed up to devise a performance in a Drama lesson, without anyone realising the significance of the event. Onlookers of the momentous occasion simply laughed at the hilarity of two kids pretending to beat the hell out of each other in what would become known as “that slap-stick thing we do”.

Anyway, back to 1994. Jim McDonald, who also knew nothing of programming, met our two comedy heroes near the start of the year and before too long they were all good friends. Later that year, “That slap-stick thing-we-do” became “That slap-stick thing we-used-to-do” after a little in class demonstration resulted in them being sent out for apparently causing an affray (compulsory eye tests for teachers anyone?).

Onwards now to 1996, the setting is an English class and Jim is sitting next to another young fellow who happened to be Richard Holmes, the last of our four. A few brief comments later about the book, “The life and times of an Otter” (Just don’t ask), a friendship was born. The following years resulted in the four becoming close friends and the outcome was predominantly many, many games of worms, not the most productive, but none-the-less entertaining.

The next major event was in 1999, after their GCSE exams, when Holmes went to college, to hone his artistic talents, and the rest started sixth form to, among other things learn about I.T.. It was around this time that John’s creative talents, once shunned by a poor-sighted teacher, began to surge again. Fuelled by the teachings of the I.T. staff he decided to attempt a game set in the school and it’s surroundings, made in MS Paint and of all things MS Access (no, they can’t remember how either). One particular I.T. teacher had a profound effect on the group, most likely without realising it. Mr Steele taught them how to do some weird and wonderful things in MS PowerPoint (bear with me now).

This newfound knowledge, coupled with John mapping out the labyrinth that is Corel 3D, gave them the chance to make the first edition of Hydris, all still with a combined programming ability of zero. Thus, the four gathered in Jim’s kitchen in front of a Pentium (yes, just the one) machine and Psync Interactive was born as the first world of Hydris was constructed. The game was never completed (probably quite expectedly) and the same applied to the subsequent Hydris versions 2 to more than anyone can remember – not to mention several other games (some even had a bit of dodgy programming). There were positives, however, as their knowledge and abilities prospered with each new attempt.

Once college and sixth form were finished in 2001 it was time for them to depart to Universities all around the country. Holmes, to Wolverhampton, to study Art, furthering his artistic talents; John, to Coventry and later Stoke, to study Design, furthering his 3D and other graphical skills; Jim, to Coventry, to study Computing, in order to finally bring programming to the Psync Interactive machine, and Viz, to Hull, to study… Mathematics… well, he always loved the Math.

What happened next? Did they ever make a computer game? Did anyone ever learn to program?

All will be revealed this time next week…

Sequels! Has any word ever brought such terror into the heart of a games developer? How many projects have fallen foul when the future looked so, so rosy before someone had to go and utter the fateful phase, “Ooh, I’ve had a great idea for a sequel”? It always spells disaster. People’s minds are no longer focused, all they can think about is this new incredible concept that some muppet (dear friend) has just come up with to revolutionise gaming. Why continue with this sad, old, out dated thing that was bright, shiny and brilliant just moments ago?

Well, maybe it’s a personal gripe, maybe there are other companies out there who regularly discuss sequels without any negative effects at all… but not at Psync, oh no. The classic example that immediately springs to mind is our dear old friend Hydris. It was where it all began, our first foray into the industry. Yes, I’ll grant you, technically we knew very little and weren’t capable of making anything that was going to be saleable, but we knew enough to make something we could play, even if it was essentially a PowerPoint presentation (we all have to start somewhere). Why wasn’t it finished? Sequels!! That’s why! The bloody things were like wildfires springing up every time we thought we might be able to finish one. How many versions did we go through? I’ve honestly no idea, but it must have been in double figures.

The Original Hydris model in all it’s poorly rendered glory.

You start off with a clear idea of what you’ll be using and what the game play will be like. You know you have to keep it simple so you can finish it. Then someone discovers a new program that can model backgrounds and render images a million times better than what you’re using and, as one, you all wish you’d known about it when you started. The thing is though, you didn’t, for whatever reason and it’s too late to start again. So what do you do? You can’t just ignore this wondrous new device and pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s far too late for that. You’ve all seen the test shots. You can’t get them out of your brain. Imprinted on your eye lids are the high resolution beauties that make the current version look like it was made in the 80’s.

Hydris V2 went through a number of updates after the hub world model was first created.
Hydris V7 was the last before someone had another “good idea”.

“How about a sequel?”, someone eventually says and then that’s it. It’s all over. A matter of weeks later, you’ve abandoned the existing version to work on the new oh, so much better game. It’s been discussed and everyone’s agreed that it’ll be much easier this time and the end product will be amazing. It’ll be the last version because you’ve seen the samples and they are perfection, there’s no way they could ever be bettered. Ten versions later and it might not have been such a good move after all.

The last / latest iteration of Hydris is Hydris Cell.
Quite simply we lost count of versions so moved on to subtitles.

In the end we opted for the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” solution, so every game we’ll make now, will be a sequel.

Be wary my friends! The sequel is out there and it wants you to fail!!