I’ve spent almost five years programming as a hobby, and my first language was Python. Its still one of my favourites for many reasons; simplicity, power, rapid development, and its fun.

Due to its nature, Python is very flexible and very versatile, and over the years, I’ve learned some very very cool and useful python idioms and tricks.

What I will show today is a Design Pattern that fits the ideology of Python well, and delivers a great amount of flexibility and usefulness. Its called the Borg Design Pattern. Read more

I’ve made enough posts here without making a mission statement of any sort, so here goes.

I want to help others like myself, curious and wanting to learn. I wish I’d had someone to share things with me several years ago, things I learned through my own trial and error, through blood and sweat dearly earned.

I chose to become a programmer simply because their is nothing quite like it. All you need is intellect, logic, and creativity. And with those base ingredients, you can construct anything. Anything at all. It appealed to me, the power a programmer has over this inscrutable machine called a computer. I found it easy, and interesting, and thus my life goal was set.

However, what kind of programmer was I to be? Will I be an egghead academic, working on complex and unknowable topics? Will I become a Unix hacker, complete with scruffy beard and free software on the tongue? Will I become one of those web 2.0 darlings, perfectly awkward in the limelight, and caring about things like ‘spiders’ and ‘eyeballs’ like they were some witche’s brew? I don’t know yet, but I do know, I have more fun making and designing games than anything else, and that is where I will head.

But no, I don’t want to join Blizzard, or Bioware. No, I’m starting my own company! One where code monkeys can swing in the trees and go home at the end of the day. One where Artists of every kind aspire to be hired. A place where brilliance seeps out of the walls, and is breathed in like so many spores. I am making OddCo, with my best friend, Ruby. Join me for the ride.

I’ve never seen funny graffiti before (except on the internet), and I had to take a picture of this, and show how it compares to regular bathroom stall graffiti.

Yes, that is a mini-debate on Karl Marx. Complete with slashdot style moderation. In a bathroom stall.

Now, contrast that to the normal bathroom stall graffiti… which I cannot show you here. I’d probably get in trouble for posting hate speech. It was that bad.

The secret to making good girl’s games is this: make good games.

Pretty simple. Thats the conclusion I’ve come to after talking with a few female gamers I know. I will paraphrase a bit of an interview I did with a close personal friend, whom goes by the pseudonym Ruby.

Ruby is an artist, in almost any medium. She wants to convey emotion, meaning, and depth in her work, and from what I’ve seen, she does a great job of it. She wants to date a J-Rocker, change the world, and look hot doing it.

She does work mainly in drawing, with paints, charcoals, sketches, on the computer. Soon, she’ll learn how to do 3d models as well, and use her photoshop skills to great effect. She is also the lead artist of the game we’re working on at the moment, and she’ll likely end up being the lead writer as well.

She also plays video games, and had some interesting things to say about them. First off, “Girl’s games suck.” They’re made easy, devoid of content and depth, and stereotype. Thats insulting to girls. They are just as smart, talented, and ambitious as men, and often, more so. So why would their game be simpler, easier, and stereotyped?

Yes, having little susie play Dress-up with a virtual barbie is very enjoyable. But as little susie gets not so little, we encounter a small issue: people don’t think girls should play games.

According to Ruby, “There are no positive role models, and no encouragement from society.” Theres nothing wrong with the games we have today, except for the culture surrounding them. Its as enjoyable for Ruby to snipe someone as it is for me to do so. So then why is it that we think girl’s games need to be different?

Maybe it could be due to the over-lying themes in games focusing around masculine concepts, such as women with big boobs. That really does not help the cause any, and it just makes the men playing the games appear misogynistic and perverted.

Another culprit is games marketing. Name three games that used sex to sell the game, that actually had nothing to do with the game. I can: Everquest, Grand Theft Auto, and some random shooting game that had women in Vegas on it.

I’m sure there are a lot more examples out there, but Ruby’s point has been made. She feels that the culture needs to change, and be more accepting. It needs to have a female role model, and Ruby is prepared to sacrifice to make that happen.

So, basically, what needs to be done is for game developers to realize how some of their choices are sexist and do not at all contribute to the self-esteem of women. And also, for their to be a push in the culture to be more welcoming. Look at all the articles about how women are treated with surprise and disdain in online games, because “women don’t exist on the internet. And they most certainly don’t play video games.”(source)

So, if you have any comments, flames, threats, leave me a comment.

A few relevant resources:

• Girl Game Zone
• WomenGamers.com

Storytelling is a difficult business, particularly in games. And good storytelling is the last great avenue of game design to be focused on, in this age ever-improving graphics and AI.

The reason why it has been largely ignored is mainly because it is hard. Faster processors, better algorithms will not ever improve stories in games. We are used to thinking primarily of one-way storytelling, of a storyteller, and an audience. In games, however, your audience is the story. Their actions are not controlled by a central storyteller. In a haunted house game, if you script the scene such that the background music swells ominously as you move closer to a locked door, what happens to the story if the player backs off?

In the old form of storytelling, whether the main character went through the door or not was up to the storyteller. Not so with games (unless you decide to force them through no matter what, but that itself is bad) .

It is easy to see why the old ways of telling stories do not work in games. However, there are some very good ways of establishing a story. Writers know that good storytelling needs three things: plot, characterization, and exposition. Lets look at each of these elements in the context of envisioning a new way of telling stories.

First up, is exposition. Some of the best ways are to show the player important facts, instead of telling them, as per the old adage, “It is better to show than to tell.” Rather than have someone say everyone is scared, show their responses to the haunted house. When your character mentions the haunted house, subtle clues like facial expressions(if possible), movement away from the player, and a change in the tone of their dialog works well to convey this fact. A sample dialog:

Random NPC A: Ho there traveller! How goes this fine day?
Hero A: Can you tell me about that haunted house over there?
Random NPC A: Uhmm, hmm, yes, indeedy this day is fine, but I think it’ll rain later. I think I shall go now.
Random NPC A walks off hurriedly.

If most of, or all of the dialog is at that level, of subtle personal clues, responses, it provides a better sense of what is being shown. In that dialog there, we saw friendliness, turn to avoidance of the issue, even running away.

Second, is characterization. If your game allows for dialog choices, then a good way to convey characterization is to colour the choices in the direction required. What that means is instead of offering a plain good or evil response, the responses offered should be more ambiguous. As an example:

Random NPC B(a girl): And here the heroes be! What brings you back here?
Hero A’s choices:

1. You, beautiful creature.
2. Your sweet charms.
3. Your bordello.

As you can see, the choices are all different, yet all convey a similar sense of who the character is. In this case, he’s a lady’s man. Maybe a good one. Or not. That would have to be shown by the responses. Or even, that would up to the player’s choices.

However, this is still guiding the player, the old way of storytelling. It all depends on if you want the character to have character traits. For other such characters, providing a range is great. Recommended even! So, then for everyone else involved with the character, the above points about exposition work great for character development.

The last point is plot. And that is, quite simply the hardest. Some random blogger (IE, me) will not have a solution unless they’re particularly brilliant. Which I am… except I don’t have one yet. Some previous suggestions are storytelling by AI/heuristics, branching plots, or sandbox mode. By sandbox mode, I mean, GTA style gameplay.

And thats what I have today.