Jonny B. Good

I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan Blow yet, but I get the impression that he’s the type of man who does what he does, not for the attention of the gaming media, but because he thinks that’s the way things should be.

And I’m going to have to agree.

I’ve spoken of Jonathan before, and if you haven’t heard any of his talks on design, you should, if that’s the kind of thing that interests you. Jonathan has made news recently based around many of his design philosophies. I had thought that these views were lofty and optimistic, it was difficult to point to any one of them and demonstrate a successful title that really embodied it. Then it came about that Jonathan was bringing a game to market, and I had intended to draw a bead upon it with a critical eye, looking forward to pointing out in his game where he was defying his own rules.

So much for that.

I realize that Braid is currently only available for Xbox Live Arcade, which I’m happy about from a business standpoint, but I almost wish it was more widely available in this case. I feel bad for friends of mine who would rather spend a few hundred dollars in coffee than own an Xbox, because they are missing out on an a profound experience. Braid is coming to PC later this year, but many of these friends own Macs (probably for the same reason they don’t own an Xbox 360). So let’s talk about Braid and Jonathan’s design beliefs.

Jon holds the stance that playing a video games should be a holistic experience - you shouldn’t need to be artificially prodded into doing one thing or another, rather the game play space should naturally draw you to areas and concept that should be interesting, and you should discover them for yourself. Braid contains no tutorials, and as the central game mechanic is about playing with the flow of time, describes a world in which things can happen which are not expected. Nevertheless, the game is built in such a way that you will naturally discover the quirks of this world, in a very organic fashion, and every time you do, you feel really good about it.

Jon is vehemently against scheduled rewards (a term I used, and I believe he coined). These are the little meaningless bonuses that at their best, try to get you to explore areas of the playspace you might not have, and at their worst, are a cheap mental trick designed to keep you in front of your box. Nearly all games contain these in some way, they’re so prevelant, it’s difficult to imagine a game without them. Braid is such a game. Taking them away gives the game a clean, minimalistic feel. It invokes the feeling that you’re free of distractions, and can be focused on the exploration at hand.

Jon is of the opinion that there is often a dichotomy between what the gameplay is trying to tell the player, and what the story is telling the player. The canonical example is Bioshock, in which the story tells you that the choice between saving or destroying the little sisters is critical, and the game play tells you it doesn’t matter (because the difference in rewards for doing one or the other are trivial). Braid’s story is tightly integrated with gameplay, and in fact it didn’t occur to me until the sixth world that the story being told was an allegory for what was happening in each level, and vice versa.

Finally, Jon believes that developers should think about what they’re teaching their players when they give them a game to play. On this point I think the world needs a balance, and in general we are lacking developers who live in Blow’s camp. Games have been used to teach people since time immemorial. As a tool for teaching, it is certainly important that what is being taught is a Good Thing. I think, however, that from a pragmatic standpoint, not everyone is interested in learning. There is a place in the world for people who want nothing but to be entertained, and someone will always be there to fill that desire.

So what is Braid? It is a world turning experience on both an intellectual and emotional level. Braid integrates complexity out of simplicity, it evokes a sense of wonder and delight. Free of distractions, you are brought into a masterfully crafted world where you are repeatly filled with a sense of delight as you learn. The feeling is much like the feeling of exploring in Portal, only more so. Jonathan values this feeling so much, that the official walkthrough simply urges you not to use a walkthrough - and he’s right. Using a walkthrough robs you of much of the experience you get out of this game, and you can never get it again.

Braid is a bittersweet, magical journey, and missing it would leave your hand off the touchstone of our generation. Jonathan Blow earns my respect in spades, and the world will never be the same again.

Blizzard’s Multi-Game Achievements

As if Blizzard’s games weren’t addictive enough, in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW, they’re adding achievements.  Okay, old news.

Blizzard told MTV Multiplayer’s Jeff Kaplan last week that this upgrade would be the intial step in a cross-blizzard effort to create achievements across their entire game portfolio.  You’re going to have a “Blizzard Level” that is impacted by your performance, not only in WoW, but in upcoming titles like Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.

And this is how the universe ends.

Adventure Game Revival

One of my favorite gaming genres has always been the point and click adventure game. In North America, it’s been tough to point at a game in the last few years that was on par with the offerings from Sierra On-Line and LucasArts in the 90s - both studios that have since been eviscerated.

Europe, on the other hand, has generally been known as a more casual market, and maybe that’s why most of the scant few adventure games of any quality that have emerged in the last few years have come out of Europe. I’d love to throw some attention at FunCom’s masterpiece - The Longest Journey, but it came out eight years ago, and the sequel Dreamfall wasn’t up to par with the original. While it might be premature, I have a very good feeling about an upcoming title from Daedalic called The Whispered World.

The Whispered World follows the adventures of a young clown named Sadwick and his companion Spot through a melancholy world doomed to crumble and fall. The artwork and music are beautiful, and I suspect good things will come of it, but we’ll have to wait until launch I suppose.

Although, perhaps I have reason to hope yet. One of the critical factors that killed off the Adventure Game genre to begin with was the emergence of 3D graphics, and the games that technology ushered in. We’re now seeing a reversal in fortunes as the gaming market reaches out to those who were once outside their domain. That the industry is trying to gain appeal with the masses is one of two things that have changed in favor of adventure games. I suspect as the casual masses explore the new land they’ve found, interactive adventure stories are going to become interesting again.

Secondly, platforms now exist to market games which have niche appeal for reasonably low cost through digital distribution networks. Services like Gametap, Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and Nintendo Virtual Console has created a space where these freaks can be shown in the daylight, without offending their muscular, brawny siblings. Creating these spaces is important - not just for adventure games - but for the future of the medium. Without these spaces, the story of game development becomes eventually more like the science of creating an addictive drug - increasingly refining only to what is known to work - and less like the exploration of the human psychology that it should be.

Inside the New Xbox Live

Edge Magazine has a preview of the new Xbox Live Experience we’ve been working on. Favorite quote (since it happens to be about my piece of the puzzle):

“How do you keep it compelling, how can you stay out of the way so people can play games, how can you share everything that’s on it, how do you use all the tools that are there?” he asks. “But we’re also making a publishing system that’s hooked up to a backend that’s moving every day. So it’s not all about art direction, it’s also about making a framework, a platform, that’s going to change over time, or daily.”

You can see part one here.

Part two has also been released here.

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