Terra Battle Basics - Part 1

Here is my debut episode for my video series that will walk new players through strategies for playing the mobile game, Terra Battle. I've been playing Terra Battle for over 2 years, and the game has changed a lot over that period of time. Many of those changes have added complexity and breadth to the kinds of things you can do in the game. As such, I imagine new Terra Battle players might be a little overwhelmed with the onslaught of modes pulling their attention and precious stamina points in all directions. My first episode here just focuses on the basics of the battle system: how to move characters, arrange pincer attacks, and trigger chain combos that fire unique skills. Look for more episodes in the coming weeks.

Blips: The Lovin' Spoonful

Source: UX Week 2013 / Ian Bogost / Fun
Author: Ian Bogost
Site: Vimeo (Adaptive Path)

At this year's UX Week conference, game designer and professor Ian Bogost gave a talk about the meaning of "fun." The context is worth noting here, which Bogost does early on in the video you can see above. This is a conference for "user experience" designers, which is seen as a separate industry from games, except where game companies hire UX designers to work on parts of their games (i.e. the menus). The backstory is that because of gamification initiatives and the creeping notion that making anything into a game makes it more fun, folks from non-game industries are looking to game people to show them how to make their products more game-like and thus more fun. Sounds pretty good, if things actually worked that way.

Bogost's core analogy is how the old Mary Poppin's jingle, "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," is like when a company applies game elements (fun) to something that is perceived as not fun. A spoonful of sugar with medicine doesn't make it seem like you're just eating a bunch of sugar, at best it just makes the medicine taste slightly less terrible. It doesn't make taking medicine something that you enjoy, and it might even sour your taste for raw sugar by association. The same goes for gamification. If you're told that the menial task you need to accomplish is now a game, your mind might be distracted enough by the game elements that you forget that you actually hate what you're doing, but the notion that that task will be miraculously transformed into something fun is highly unlikely.

I'd encourage you to check out the whole presentation where Bogost goes on to dissect what we're actually saying when we call something "fun." It's a shorthand, often delivered as a formality for identifying something as satisfactory, but unremarkable. It's a word with an ambiguous referent, the same way saying "I'm fine" doesn't, on it's own, tell use very much about your current condition. Ultimately fun is born out of a respect for what you're doing and being allowed the space to be playful within that activity. If one behaves as if "at play," but they have no respect for the activity or the greater purpose for which they're doing what they're doing, then that person won't have fun doing it. The larger lesson is not to make things games to make them fun, but to present things as what they are, in hopes that the respect for the medium at hand can be fun for those who elect to make it so.

Blips: Hardware Fetish

Source: Sony's not showing its new Playstation 4 just yet, but here's a taste (video)
Author: Ben Gilbert
Site: Engadget

In a preemptive response to Microsoft's imminent Xbox unveiling, Sony has released a teaser video for the actual Playstation 4 box, notably absent from their own reveal event in February. The video shows extreme close-ups of console and controller details and a blurry black square, hiding the final device's true form. While it's all pretty silly in the context of a hype video (guess what, the PS4 will be a black box!) the detail shots, taken on their own are pretty interesting.

Now, since I can't really tell what's going on in these pictures, I can't evaluate the functionality of design components or anything like that, but still, there are some intriguing photographic images here. In fact, they remind me of abstract urban architecture photography. You're not really looking at the building or structure as a whole in these pictures, only the photographic composition. As such, you don't really get any information about what the PS4 looks like or does from the teaser, but maybe there is something the photographer is trying to say with these images besides "watch this space for further corporate announcements."

From the collage above, I'm most drawn to the center left and bottom right images. The bottom right picture is not quite divided in half by what could be a seam, ridge, or corner. Perhaps if it was to go directly through the middle, the line might appear to be crossing out the out-of-focus box transposed in the middle, a bad marketing move I'd guess. The center left image is a bit more complex, but retains the clean, monochrome gradients of the bottom right. If there is a PS4 in the middle of this composition it's engulfed by the cavernous void on display. It's difficult to tell where positive space ends and negative begins.Where does this dark alley, outlined by an illuminated doorframe lead?

While these are fun questions to consider at the moment, it may be hard to come back to these images after Sony shows off the units to press, who will in turn whip out their smartphones and all-too-easily obliterate the mystery. I'm just trying to have a bit of fun with the hype machine before the gadget connoisseurs dominate the discussion with hands-on purchasing advice and profitability projections (sigh). It all happens so fast.

Blips: A Dwarf Fortress Surprise

Source: The Minds Behind Dwarf Fortress
Author: Patrick Klepek
Site: Giant Bomb

I've only watched videos of ASCII fantasy-sim Dwarf Fortress in action; I've never played it myself. It's one of those games that I greatly admire, and am glad exists, but have very little interest in playing. That said, I was eager to hear what the minds behind the game, Tarn and Zach Adams, had to say about their interminable development process (10+ years and counting) and what it's like to have Dwarf Fortress acquired and on exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek caught up with the brothers at EVE Fanfest a couple weeks ago in Iceland where they proceeded to shed some light on Dwarf Fortresses dark corners. It's cool to hear opinions on contemporary game design from developers that have been so dedicated to one game for so long.

If you like that video, you'll probably also enjoy some other videos and write-ups on Giant Bomb from this year's EVE Fanfest. I particularly got a kick out of their travelogue video where they document their week in Iceland, highlighting some very unique local cuisine. Iceland wasn't on my must-visit list, but it is now.

Blips: One Fish, Two Fish

Source: Cloned at Birth: The Story of Ridiculous Fishing
Author: Russ Pitts
Site: Polygon

Game cloning is a serious problem. In Polygon's recent Human Angle story, they speak with the developers at Vlambeer, the team behind mobile sensation Ridiculous Fishing about the experience of having their game cloned.

Members of the team recount feelings that echo some other sentiments voiced last week about "imposter syndrome." The fact that your original idea could be taken and executed upon by another team before you have a chance to formally release yours can lead to negative feelings directly inward.

Luckily, the game community was abuzz when Ridiculous Fishing finally saw the light of day, and seems like it has sold rather well. The unfortunate matter is that Vlambeer claims their next game, Luftrausers, has already been cloned as well.