So today was one of those days where time passes. I haven’t really gotten a chance to delve deeply into a topic today, and that will probably be the norm. So, as a result, unfortunately some of the articles I will write will explore a topic on a surface level. While I don’t like this, I hope that these articles will act merely as an entryway or a guidebook to a much larger topic. In which you - the reader - can explore however you want. In fact, I think this is sometimes better than explaining something too specific in a very detailed way. With time, I will find the right balance.

So, what are we talking about today? Well, its inspired by this video. Briefly the video is a part of a much larger video series on youtube made by the legendary Masahiro Sakurai known for being responsible for Smash and Kirby. While his videos are sometimes a bit too short, he has some very good points to say, and will be the inpsiration for many upcoming posts.

Intro

To me, the video touches on a very wide topic. Which is the role that technology plays in a game. The crux of the video, is that the vision/core of the game shouldn’t be sacrified for technology or for the sake of easier development. Technology should be the tool that helps make the game a reality, but its also at the same time the obstacle to making a game. Because sometimes “what we can do is not always aligned with what we want to do”. But lets take a step back, and for a moment dicuss what do we mean by technology. Afterwards, we can take a look at an example.

In the Art of Game Design book, Jesse Schell puts techonlogy as one of the four core elements of a game (The Tetrad). Along with Mechanics, Art (Aesthetics), Story. I love the book and I find myself agreeing to its philosophies and definitions. So, I will borrow the definition form there. When we say Technology, we don’t always mean computers or tech. In fact, it refers to the “material/medium” that the game “lives” on. So, for a board game, that will be the paper and the pieces that are used to play the game. For a VR game, that will be the headset, the controllers, the software, … etc. The same goes for any type of game (sport games, theme park games, ..). Choosing the right technology is a topic in its own right .. but this is not what the post is about. So, what is the post about?

Technology is essentially the medium in which the aesthetics take place, in which the mechanics will occur, and through which the story will be told.

Issue

Lets take a silly/random example to make this clear.Lets say we are making a game where you play as a fish in a bowl. The game is all about being careful while moving. So we have two mechanics. First, if you hit something with enough force, the bowl will break. Second, if you move too carelessly, you will lose water, lose enough water and you die. Both mechanics essentially depend on having physics in our game. Especially the second, it requires water/fluid physics simulations which is not always easy. So, now we have the problem of how to implement this.

This will depend on what techonology you use but regardless. One of multiple things can happen here. Best case, You will find a plug & play solution that does everything you need (maybe for a price). Most of the time however, you will find countless others who faced the same problem, they will share their unreadable solutions for free and if you are lucky it will be accompanied by a video with a strong accent. However, if you are unlucky, none of the existing solutions will satisfy your needs/requirements. In this case, you will have to come up with a solution yourself. This may sound like bad news and a lot of work, and it is. But the upside is that you are probably onto something, meaning, the game is more likely going to be unique and interesting. Why am I saying this? because of history … and history my friend often repeats itself.

History

I don’t want to bore you with history, but honeslty there are soo many inspiring stories and examples about how teams/designers/developers had to push the boundaries of existing technologies leading to great games and memroable experiences. This is what is called Creative Constraints, the idea that contraints can push people to be more creative and think outside of the box. Many examples of this, Jonathan Blow (create of Braid & Witness) likes to create custom solutions, in fact he is making his own programming language (Jai) as we speak. Doom if I remember correctly, required John Carmack to come up with new techniques in computer graphics in order to render the 3d world of doom. Space Invaders had a custom motherboard created for it. The fog in Silent Hill was added because the PS had limitations in rendering too many objects (draw distance). More recently, Animal well is what it is because of the custom game engine that took years for Billy Basso to make. This doesn’t only happen in games btw. In the beggining, pixar was leading the upfront in many techniques and solutions for graphics rendering. They were the first ever to make a 3d movie, and each new movie brought in new challenges. Brave had hair physics, Cars had new materials, Monsters inc had fur and so on .. The amazing thing is, they publish their solutions and research for everyone.

So, many stories. However, I would be more interested when this has backfired. After all, history is written by the victors. And yes, this could backfire. In order to develope your custom solution. First, you will be investing a lot of time & money. Second, there is no guarentee that their exists a possible feasible solution to begin with. Third, it might be that the mechanic or art or whatever the output of the solution is, is not really good for the game. Even though it achived what you wanted, it turned out that its not what the game or audience wanted.

Unfortantely, nowadays. more and more companies and their games are becoming financially driven. Its not about making better games, or making the players happy. Its about making more money. This is probably not changing anytime soon. And its fair, its much cheaper and easier to avoid any challenges, and take safe routes. This is more likely to result in a bland game, but who cares. Honeslty, I have no input to give here. I don’t have the experience working in such enviornments, and I am not sure what can be done. All what one can hope for, is to strive for midway solutions or compramises.

Conclusion

There is no avoiding this, every game faces development issues. Solutions need to be created. Its the extent and approach that differs. The most important takeaway is to pick the right mindset/approach. What is it you ask? that is for you to decide. Game design is all about making decisions, so hopefully you now feel more confident when faced with a decision that might invlove creating new technologies. Its important to see this as a challenge. Its not an easy task and usually requires a lot of research and in depth technical knowledge, but beautiful things can come out of it.

References

This is not a complete or exhaustive list.

• Try Telling That to the Player [Masahiro Sakurai]
• Animal Well Wiki
• Pixar in a box