19 September 2009
Welcome to IndieZen

In the beginning
An introspection of the computer game and its importance to the human race.

Episode 4 – Entertainment
The most significant item of importance to humanity is play time. As videogames have evolved over many years, access to them has become commonplace. Videogames can be found almost everywhere today. My Cell phone came equipped with two games from the factory, and has the ability to download and run many more titles. At the movie rental store you can also rent games for all the major consoles. And in most homes there is an Internet connected PC that can access more games than one could shake a proverbial stick at. Now I would like to share some facts with you that you may enjoy as much as I did.

While researching a finish for this series I stumbled upon this fabulous story about innovations in videogames from Business Week you can check out their site at http://businessweek.com/

50 Greatest Game Innovations
From gameplay, to presentation to input devices, videogames are a hotbed of innovation. Here are some that have already made their impact—and others that will shape the future of the medium

Fifty years ago William Higinbotham built the first videogame with an oscilloscope and some analog circuitry. While games have changed enormously since then, even today’s AAA blockbusters owe some of their success to design innovations made years earlier. In this article I’m going to look at 50 design advances that I feel were especially important, or will prove to be some day. Many of them are actually enhancements to older forms of play; sports, driving, and shooting go back to fairground games and mechanical coin-ops. Other genres, such as turn-based strategy, logic puzzles, and RPGs, began life on the dining room table. We have improved these earlier games in many ways, and the computer has allowed us to create new genres that would be impossible in any other medium.

Unfortunately the true innovator of a design idea is often forgotten, while a particularly successful later game gets the credit. For example, more people remember Pong than remember Ralph Baer’s non-computerized design for the Magnavox Odyssey, even though Baer’s work came first. To correct this tendency, I’ll list both the original inventor of the idea (if I could find it) and the best-known early example of the innovation. I don’t promise to be right all the time; corrections are welcome.
Gameplay Innovations

By gameplay I mean the challenges that the game poses to the player, and the actions that the player may take to meet the challenges. The vast majority of these actions are obvious: jumping, steering, fighting, building, trading and so on. But some challenges and actions distinctly advanced the state of the art, and provided new ways for us to play.

1. Exploration.

The earliest computer games didn’t offer exploration. Many were simulations set in one location, or afforded movement only through trivial spaces (e.g. Hunt the Wumpus, 1972). We eventually borrowed exploration from tabletop role-playing and turned it into extravaganzas like BioShock. True exploration provides ongoing novelty as you enter unfamiliar areas, and lets you make choices based on clues in the environment. It’s a different sort of challenge from combat, and attracts players who enjoy being virtual tourists. Probable first use: Colossal Cave, aka Adventure, 1975.

2. Storytelling.

Storytelling is the subject of more acrimonious debate than any other design feature of videogames, even including the save-game issue. Should we do it or not, and if so, how? What does it mean? Is it even possible to do well?—and so on. Bottom line: not every game needs a story, but they’re here to stay. Without a story, a game is just an abstraction—which can be enough to engage the player, but isn’t always. First use is often attributed to Colossal Cave, but that was really a treasure-hunt without a plot. Possible first use: Akalabeth, precursor to the Ultima series, or Mystery House, both released in 1980.

3. Stealth.

Let’s face it, most action games are about force. Even when confronted with overwhelmingly powerful enemies, your only option is to avoid their killing shots while grinding away at them or searching for their vulnerable spots. In stealth play the idea is to never even let the enemies know you’re there, and it requires a completely different approach from the usual Rambo-style mayhem. Best-known early example: Thief: The Dark Project, 1998. First use: unknown.

4. Avatars with their own personalities.

If you weren’t around in the early days this one might surprise you. The first adventure games, and most other computer games too, described the world as if you, the player, were actually in the game—not a representation of you, but you. Consequently, the games could make no assumptions about your age, sex, social position, or anything else—which meant that NPC interactions with your avatar were always rather bland. The early video games, too, mostly displayed vehicles (Asteroids, Space Invaders) or no avatar at all (Pong, Night Driver). Avatars with independent personalities required you to identify with someone different from yourself, but they increased the dramatic possibilities in games enormously. Best-known early example: Pac-Man, 1980 (if you can call that a personality; otherwise, Jumpman, aka Mario, in Donkey Kong, 1981). Possible first use: Midway’s Gun Fight coin-op, 1975. — Read More –

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Where Are We Today?

Milestone: Version 0.6.1
Due (08/31/09)

This minor milestone is to push through the World Builder to visibility.

Zen Studio

  • Implement a Property view with contributors
  • World Builder
    • Enhance the Scene framework as needed.
    • Create the Layers view.
    • Enhance the Creator view.
  • Game Builder
    • Add element properties

Milestone: Version 0.6.2
Due (09/08/09)

This short milestone is primarily for minor enhancements and bug fixes to World Builder and Game Builder.

Milestone: Version 0.8.0
Due (09/14/09)

The primary goals of this milestone are:

  • Zen Worlds
    • Zone services
    • Zone Data services
    • World services
    • Multiplayer networking
  • Game Builder
    • Integration with Zen Worlds
    • World export (not sure how this will look yet)
      • Database – export to a database including DML to create the database
      • Lua script – export to Lua script
      • C++ and script bindings – Code generator for C++ and script bindings for game object types.
    • World Builder
      • Integration with Zen Worlds

    Milestone: Version 1.0.0
    Due (09/13/09)

    Version 1.0 first GA release.

    The primary goal of this milestone is to polish the documentation and tutorials, clean up the installation process and polish any interfaces that require polishing.

    Timeline
    Here you can find the change logs for all the newly baked code bits and bytes. (And the rest, as they say, is history…)

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