DEBUGGING THE GAMING INDUSTRY 01

Hi guys! Now, this would have made more sense if I had a badge of double figure experience. But please bear with me, this is more of a straight forward view based on my pure experience in the gaming industry rather than a judgement on display. You know, what I have seen and what have changed.

First of all, I am a concept artist with two years of work experience. Nothing to flaunt about. But I have also been an obsessed gamer since childhood. Brick-games, Super Mario Bros, Contra and more. They molded me. Crafted the foundation of my understanding. They were BIG at the time. Like octopuses in the mind. Those grips! Then I moved to the bigger games that influenced me to become a creator rather than a player. You know 3D games! I can recall Project IGI, Delta Force, Quake... and what was that.. yeah! Halo. But the real push came from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. It made me a huge fan of Ubisoft. It was a unique game for me at the time. Those insane combos, characters, abilities and story. Provided me with new expectations and views. Now, I don't get to play that much but, here and there, I try to keep myself fueled. The best game I played recently was Alan wake. Damn! That game. Made me sit almost two days straight. Remarkable game! Now, that game has something rare, hard to find in other recent games. CONNECTIVITY. I connected with the protagonist. I was with him at the most important events of his life that built up the whole story. The developers made very clear on that. Pretty soon it grew. I began to make his missions my own. Shared the pain and vengeance. Made me wanting for more. It was a great experience. It's like when you are watching a movie, you experience satisfactory triggers at every vengeful hit the hero throws accounting to all the gruesome deeds the villain has done.

I still play lot of games. But it's been a while since I have had this feeling. I just can't find it anymore. I even left some games at the middle of progress. I'm still confused what changed. Me or the games. But some obvious points I can still point out though in the recent trend. And, this where I would like to express few opinions.

Now, the first one, I feel like the industry has shifted its attention more towards the medium than the actual content. Great graphics. Polished assets, very close to reality. On the other hand, less defined background story, glitchy mechanism and consequently, a less connected audience. You know, a simple photograph of a woman can keep you hooked for awhile if someone tells you a very interesting story behind it. These days, most games seem they came out of the same well.

The second one, is uniqueness or experimentation regarding mechanism, user experience and other interactive features. Now, here I understand there are certain circumstances which can hold back huge developers from moving into the alien-zone. But at the same time playing the same game over and over with just different skins may wear out the spirit sometimes. I'm really glad great indie studios are coming up with entirely different and engaging games these days.

Last but not the least, I would like to talk more about connecting with the players. I feel great stories, fluent mechanism and easy accessibility play great roles in the subject. I remember the time playing Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and exclaiming, " Wow, this game is awesome! The smooth combat flow, simple controls yet providing one with endless customization and combos!" I kept coming for more just to let off some steam even after finishing the campaign. That is the GAME for me. And, Alan Wake as I have mentioned before can be a great example for story driven games. I think human beings are very fond of what they understand. People are connected more with what they have seen, felt or experienced before. This gives us the main basic key to attracting and connecting with players, the basic key of every art form, which most stories from time untold have been deploying as their backbone. EMOTIONS. By strategizing and planting various emotion trigger points in a game, I feel one can succeed in creating a solid potentious well-baked title which can leave its image for a long time in the heart of millions. Now, in addition to emotion, familiarity can range from various aspects such as combat moves, character features, surprise acts, small yet powerful events of life and behavioral flaws. You know, people tend to make things perfect in their art. Everything looks very well planned. I tend to see in a different view. I feel mistake is what makes us human. And, unknowingly we can connect more easily to mistakes we see in others. An exemplary scene in a game can be a character lighting a cigarette and doesn't make it in the first few try, momentarily distracting him from his current activity (cursing in whispers maybe!). I have seen few such details in The Batman Arkham series. Perfectly executed. Sliding off a little, I feel games or movies based on well known titles are successful owing to this reason, though it's challenging to meet the expectation of the audience.

So concluding with a simple point, I feel the real deal trick to making great games, is create something unique yet heavily influenced by things which are familiar to the players. Things which are rooted deeply into the foundation of humanity. This led me to conceiving the idea of ANTICEPTS which I will talk about in my next article. Well, thank you very much for staying with me till the end and digesting my boring personal views based on my limited experience. I understand there's many things happening on the other side which I am yet to learn. Please, do enlighten if you have any useful suggestion to pushing the industry forward. Have a good one!

Oh yes! You can also check out my portfolio here: https://aboy.artstation.com/