As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
We're funding a new Acquisitions Incorporated series on Kickstarter right now! Check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pennyarcade/acquisitions-incorporated-the-series-2
A Grand List of Learning Of Games
JoinTheCult
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
I Cometh before you today, O GREAT INTERNETz, to ask but a humble question.
What Video Games must I play in this present moment to one day create a masterful Game of my own? Where should I look, to learn from the past? What are the best examples of greatness?
And what about each game makes it a good teacher of the fine art of game making?
What Video Games must I play in this present moment to one day create a masterful Game of my own? Where should I look, to learn from the past? What are the best examples of greatness?
And what about each game makes it a good teacher of the fine art of game making?
8===>
JoinTheCult on
0
Posts
It really depends on what game you're making. Learning the art of game making involves playing some select games, sure, but if you want to learn it's really best to buy books like Game Design Workshop and read them through.
It also depends on how heavy you want to get into theory v. development. Theory is the thought process behind games, the origin point of the fun you'll have in a game. Development is the down in the trenches, actually making a game part, where theory is implemented (or not).
I'd also highly recommend watching the Halo 2 and Halo 3 making of documentaries, as well as the ones in Guitar Hero 1 and, basically, any other video source you can find. Words from the developers on how they made the game is pretty awesome and there's a surprising wealth of information to be found there.
I'd also favorite Gamasutra.com right about now, if you're serious about learning how to make games.
The most basic lesson you could ever learn about making a game is to come up with a basic gameplay concept (starting small), rapidly prototype it, tweak, throw it all away but the ideas, try again from scratch and do that a few times before you even start for "real". The lessons you will learn doing this are invaluable and unique.
Ninja Gaiden Black/2: The Art of Great Action and Terrible Camerawork.
Mass Effect: The Art of Great Writing.
Assassin's Creed: The Art of Great Graphics.
There you go.
Really? MGS great story telling? And Mass Effect great writing? Really?
ahahahahaah that's what I was thinking!
Thank for the suggestions and I'll definitely keep them in mind.
Most are creative people to begin with who lead rich lives outside of video games, with family, friends, and plenty of non-video game hobbies and interests. They consistantly mention taking their inspiration from those aspects of their lives, and they don't look to anyone else to lead them.
I'm going to flat-out assert opinion-as-fact here and say that making games with the sole influence of other games and "game culture", or making games for the sake of making games will produce little other than rehashed crap. It's honestly an issue to me, when (and this is for real) there are game development companies which ask interview questions such as "How passionate are you about making games?" and "How familiar are you with video games today?" and not "well, how diverse is your knowledge of world-wide artistic styles?", and "how often do you draw on your own time?" when hiring artists.
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
Really, the golden rule is to use cutscenes as little as possible.
Writing: Planescape: Torment. That really is about it. Most game stories are abysmally written.
Level/enemy/game design: God Hand, Gunstar Heroes, Super Metroid, Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil 4, Zelda: Link to the Past. Notice how carefully paced and fairly designed they are, possessing both simplicity and depth, and how they never fall into the trap of formulaic sections
Graphics: Okami, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Rez. While it might seem appealing to go for the shiny, state-of-the-art photorealism approach, such a game tends to date extremely poorly. The exameples here are of games which instead rely on a more stylistic approach, both creating graphics that stand out from other games and age respectably.
Ah, game design. Well, there's a hefty list to choose from there, but honestly limiting it to video games is a disservice. If you want to see great design in action, sit down to play Monopoly or Risk. Those games have been consistent sellers for decades, something no video, however well designed, can say. However, if you want to see good design, I'll give you a short list:
Shadow of the Colossus
ICO
Tetris
Super Mario Bros. 3
Halo
Doom
Duke Nukem 3D
Half-Life
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Planescape: Torment
Sam & Max: Hit the Road
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Gears of War
Prince of Persia (the original PS2/Xbox/GCN game, though the actual original PoP is solid, too)
Bejeweled
You Have To Burn The Rope
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike
Tomb Raider
Devil May Cry 3
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (take your pick)
Civilization IV (any Civ works, really. Sid Meier is a goddamn genius)
flOw (Jenova Chen, like Sid, is a goddamn genius)
Everyday Shooter
I Love Bees (the Halo 2 ARG. read up on it)
Total Annihilation
Rome: Total War
Command & Conquer
Everquest
World of Warcraft
EVE Online
Me too, i thought the whole post was going to be sarcastic.
I was just replaying mass effect, and the "romance" dialoge is SOOOO bad.
skate, halo 3
This is not a thread where I ask you to inspire me.
This. Have you the fundamentals necessary to create a game once you've formed said awesome idea, or does your dream title start with Gang and end with of Daggers?
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Don't be too worried about what others have done as they have already done it, just focus on whats still to be done :-)
then all you need are the technical skills, so best start working on them as well
N - The joys of physics and pure gameplay. The value of user-generated content.
Rayman 2 - Art, and how to add new gamplay elements which mesh with everything else.
Super Mario 64 - Great level design and ideas about objectives.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 - What not to do.
I would recommend against that. Yes, I've read it.
Raph Koster has yet to make a fun game. He may have designed a few, but the world will never know if he keeps doing what he's been doing.
I agree with you, Drool. The fundamentals are pretty key. Learn how to make something important to game makers. I'd encourage anyone serious about game making to learn level editors like those in Torque, Source, or UE3. If you're really nuts, load up Neverwinter Nights 1 or 2 and have a shot at making your own whole custom game. However, that's not all you need.
An understanding of design fundamentals is key no matter what position you're in. Obviously it's of chief importance if you're a designer, but a knowledge of the fundamentals of play can help just about anyone in the industry. Want to know why your animation can't be the 20 frames you want it to be? Want to figure out just what a game designer means when he says a negative reinforcement loop is needed? I could go on and on but it's not necessary to do so. I believe that, especially if upward momentum in the game industry is important to you, you've gotta know the fundamentals of what it is you're making.
Also, I agree with the Ralph Koster comments, and I'd throw in anything written by Warren Spector, as well. Warren had a fantastic series of articles on the Escapist not long ago.
Ico
Ico tells an interesting story. It's not robust, but it's a wonderful example of how games can be used to convey emotion in a powerful and unique way. Outside of Metal Gear, probably the most interesting use of Rumble in any game, period.
Bioshock,
Bioshock is a great example of depth, and there's some interesting commentary on interactive storytelling. To average gamers, they're not going to pick up on everything there, but there's layers to what's being presented, and it's there if you want to read into it.
Planescape Torment
Like any good RPG, it's a true epic. There's a great cast, an exciting adventure, it's long, and actually pretty funny, despite the dark ideas it's presenting. I'll probably never finish it, but it's a great RPG once you get used to the UI.
Asides from that,
Katamari Damacy
Hotel Dusk
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 6
I'm Jacob Wilson. | facebook | thegreat2nd | [url="aim:goim?screenname=TheGreatSecond&message=Hello+from+the+Penny+Arcade+Forums!"]aim[/url]
Sins of a Solar Empire
The epitome of excellent interface design.
Odin Sphere
Great graphics and atmosphere. It's also a good case study of a game that has serious flaws (lag and repetitive gameplay, among other things) that don't prevent it from being a very good game.
Immortal Defense
Little known PC indy game. It's a tower defense game (a genre that lacks unique entries and is mostly devoid of innovation) that manages to tell a compelling story and create an enthralling atmosphere, despite its genre limitations and complete lack of budget.
One other thing is to play a few similar games back to back and compare them.
Rock Band vs Guitar Hero
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic vs Oblivion (two first person Action/RPGs that go in completely different directions)
Grand Theft Auto vs Crackdown
Half-Life 2 vs Halo 3
A great website for the budding game developer is Jay Is Games. He posts links to indy games several times a week. It's a great way to see what can be done by small, inexperienced teams.
Will Wright.
Dude knows exactly how to make a game fun. and what makes them fun. he said something along the lines of "It's not the story or the graphics or even the physics that make a game, it's the little things people figure out to do outside of the games traditional lines that is really interesting. "
He used GTA as an example, where the story and graphics are just fine, but it's the individual things people do, rampages, stunt runs, fan videos etc... the things that the player community comes up with is what really excites him and makes the games interesting, and in his games he is notorious for giving people the tools and arenas to create such unique things.. (see: simcity, sims, spore)
So my advice, don't limit your gameplay, and give the user as much freedom to "customize" their playstyle, even things as simple as completely customizable controls or an easy to operate UI can make or break a game's potential for greatness.