Posts by Furyo

  • Global publisher sabotaged UK games tax breaks

    My money is on EA. My logic is this:

    - Publisher has to have been involved on the territory on a massive enough scale to have such ties with the government or the parlament

    - Publisher has to have very few remaining interests there, including no studio for whom the tax breaks would be a welcome news

    - Publisher would most likely have stayed very quiet during the initial talks, instead of joining TIGA and lobbying in favor of tax breaks.

    And when you think about these things, you start realizing that Ubi currently has a studio in the UK (Reflections), that both Activision and Ubi had joined TIGA to lobby for tax breaks, and that while EA had its headquarters and a huge dev studio in Chertsey for many years, they have now closed down and moved out of that location for a few years and currently do not own any studio in the UK (that I am aware of)

    All in all, EA fits the bill. Their huge studios are in Canada and California, and their move from Chertsey just validates their very limited hold in Europe (EA Mobile is in Frankfurt, and that's about it) while retaining some key business contacts with the parlament after having been that big in the UK before.

  • Designing for single player

    The first thing I figure out is the kind of game I'm designing the level. Creating an additional level for one game is one thing, creating a level for a game being made at the same time as your level is a whole different thing.

    My modding experience is only for MP levels, but the approach is exactly identical because it applies for everything: I figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the game in its current form and try to think of variations of the formula and ways to provide a different vibe to the whole thing. It's risky and harder to do properly than a simple rinse and repeat of the proven concept, but that is the motivation I need to finish the work in the end.

    Once I have found that idea, I try and come up with top down layouts that could help provide that experience, but as it turns out I quickly hammer them out in Source to get a proper feel for them and don't look back on paper design. That lack of actual planning and focus is detrimental to the cohesion of the entire level, but I find that it's more exciting for personal projects to try multiple things at once. The downside is that you have to be ready to redo everything multiple times, but that's half the fun.

    Once the basic shell is done, I usually have a playtest asap. Try and find out how common my own experience of the level is, and how well I carried over the gameplay I was going for. And if that's positive, I just go full on with the design, making it pretty etc.

    When making games at work however, it's an entirely different thing. My experience is mainly in production phases of AAA SP projects, so game design has to be followed instead of experienced against. The twist to make interesting levels is to introduce new mechanics or rythms to the existing formula by relying on LD tricks alone instead of asking for brand new gameplay mechanics no one ever has the time or will to try out. In a platforming game, this can be achieved in the rythm you ask from the player (speed, traps, size of platforms, etc). In AC2, the gameplay mechanic was mine to toy with so that was even more exciting to work on. In Crysis 2 right now, I am also using the existing concept and turn it on its head a bit to drive different emotions and gameplay experience. Environment can be your best friend to achieve that, as well as story twists, but that should obviously be more planned with the story writer ahead of making the level.

    If I had to put the different processes down in a bullet point list it would go something like this:

    1) Study of game design, strengths and weaknesses

    2) Brainstorming of different twists to add in

    3) 15 minutes layout drawing session

    4) quick hash in a game engine

    5) playtest, rince and repeat until formula is found

    6) go as far in that direction as you can

  • I hate Steam...

    670, most likely closer to 300 deducing all the bundles and free games I have received from Valve and partners. For 42 games and having signed up on the day Steam got out, that's pretty good

  • iPhone 4

    Quote from Dark

    At least you have a cell phone.. Francois, you douche.

    Haha, well I've been using a prepaid card French one I have since I landed in Germany, knowing full well (thanks to connections) the iPhone 4 would be revealed this june. So yeah I'll be preordering this one on the 15th so I can get it asap !

  • Deus Ex 3

    I guess I'll be the guy that sounds like he's taking a piss on the parade, but you guys have to realize that both trailers were done by Square Enix Japan and have nothing to do with the game or even its team.

    I do want to see the actual game, but I would definitely go see the movie these trailers are for, cause that's all I'm seeing here. For all the cool moves, nice story telling and introduction of characters this shows, I want to see a team pulling these moves off in a comprehensive game design.

    E3 can't come any sooner

  • Interviews

    My interview at Ubisoft France was a 30 minutes one on one, then going to Montreal was a 15 minutes phone conversation that was more about what project I wanted to go on rather than "do I qualify?" questions

    Then Crytek came about, and that was a 6 hours stay, lunch with the entire team, play Crysis 2 and another prototype and give feedback then a 20 minutes exercice to design a MP level from scratch.

    So it seems interviews are only getting harder as time goes on