Well-Made:Back to Black Mesa

SLIDES PDF AT: tinyurl.com/backtoblackmesa

Robert Yang (@radiatoryang)NYU Game Center / Parsons MFADT

PRACTICE @ NYU17 November 2013

"When we made the first [Mario 64] prototype, Mario and Luigi were on a flat field. [...] because of hardware limitations we had a choice between cutting Luigi or making more elaborate landforms.

Then, in tears, we had to ask Luigi to leave.”

- Yoshiaki Koizumihttp://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/super-mario-3d-world/0/0

this is game development

2) Half-Life'slegacy

A NEW FRONTIER IN INTERACTIVE DRAMA

INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING

INNOVATIVE DEEP AMAZING, ART!!

Half-Life, beforereboot in 1997

FOOTNOTE:mythologizingcrunch is gross.

* This is the dev floor at Bungie, which as far as I know, actively tries to avoid crunch instead of scheduling it as part of a “natural part of the development process” like certain other AAA studios... crunch

is of course a complicated topic, the result of poor planning + publisher demands + market forces + blah blah blah... but I thinkthe first step toward fighting it, like a disease, is to stop claiming

that “crunch” is worth it OR that it is inevitable OR honorable?Do you know Guildhall mandates crunch for its game dev students?

Isn't that sad? Learned helplessness? “As a result, The Guildhall was designed to simulate the pace and work style of the games industry. During heavy development periods, students sometimes spend up to twenty hours a day coding, designing, fixing, debugging.”

HALF-LIFE'S LEGACY:depth and diversity

in environmentalstorytelling and

scripted sequences

THE MYSTTHE MYSTOF VIDEO OF VIDEO

GAMESGAMES

3) How to lovea game's guts

and you can too

Diagrams above from:

“Skyrim’s Modular Approachto Level Design”,

GDC 2013, Joel Burgess

““should theshould thenext-gen dumpsternext-gen dumpster

get 2 1024x1024 flats?”get 2 1024x1024 flats?”

important dumpsterimportant dumpsterinnovation questionsinnovation questions

for AAA developersfor AAA developers

YESYES

NO NO NO :(NO NO NO :(

ART HISTORY TO GAMES:ART HISTORY TO GAMES:AAA sandbox / open world =AAA sandbox / open world =

LARGE SWEEPING PASTORALSLARGE SWEEPING PASTORALSeven w/ post-apoc or urban setting,even w/ post-apoc or urban setting,

function / values are the same:function / values are the same:Awe + manifest destinyAwe + manifest destiny

This landscape is big + beautifulThis landscape is big + beautifulAND IT IS OURS?? (*boring!*)AND IT IS OURS?? (*boring!*)

xoxo, Thomas Kinkadexoxo, Thomas Kinkade

Game dev =Code + asset + content +

concept + design + workflow + politics =

transcendence?

4) Black MesaInbound:its legacy

Work commuteNothing happens

Slow, foreshadowingMindblowing!Revolutionary!

Brave!

So one of the programmers on Half-Life created a track train that would move over long distances and turn and pivot [and when he told me about it] the first thing that came to my mind was an actual train. I just took it too literally, and I started thinking in terms of, "What could we do with a train in Half-Life?"

- Marc Laidlaw

5) Black MesaInbound:

func_tracktrains

6) Black MesaInbound:magic inmotion

7) Shark Cage:the setpiece

8) Shark Cage:behavior and

scripting

9) Shark Cage:health, damage,tuning workflow

from /cfg/skill.cfg:// Icthyosaursk_ichthyosaur_health1 "200"sk_ichthyosaur_health2 "200"sk_ichthyosaur_health3 "400"// 9mmhandgun Roundsk_plr_9mm_bullet1 "8"sk_plr_9mm_bullet2 "8"sk_plr_9mm_bullet3 "8"// Crossbowsk_plr_xbow_bolt_monster1 "50"sk_plr_xbow_bolt_monster2 "50"sk_plr_xbow_bolt_monster3 "50"

from dlls/weapons.h:#define CROSSBOW_

DEFAULT_GIVE 5

from /dlls/player.cpp:#define AIRTIME 12

10) TheWell-Made

MadeMade

“THE TECHNICAL”IS RELEVANT TOEVERYONE AND

YOU ARE WRONG IF YOU DISAGREE

AND HERE IS WHY:

"When we made the first [Mario 64] prototype, Mario and Luigi were on a flat field. [...] because of hardware limitations we had a choice between cutting Luigi or making more elaborate landforms.

Then, in tears, we had to ask Luigi to leave.”

- Yoshiaki Koizumihttp://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/super-mario-3d-world/0/0

(Jack Halberstam)(Jack Halberstam)hand animation:hand animation:

““loopy narrative”, loopy narrative”, small castsmall cast

(Jack Halberstam)(Jack Halberstam)CG animation:CG animation:

Wars, accumulationWars, accumulationInstancing, mobs,Instancing, mobs,Many characters,Many characters,

Geopolitical conflictsGeopolitical conflicts

Dead Island

default_player_setup.scr:

sub Skills_Purna(){[...]Skill(“TeamSpirit2Purna”);Skill(“FeministWhorePurna”);Skill(“MeleeDurabilityPurna”);[...]

}

"The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function."

- developer's response

"I found a way to alter the items you get when choosing a chapter."

- a Dead Island modder, on thefunctionality of default_player_setup.scr2+ weeks after release / day one patch

default_player_setup.scr:sub Skills_Purna(){

Skill("TeamSpirit1Purna");Skill("SharpApprenticePurna");Skill("BoostAura1Purna");Skill("GLMeleeDmgPurna");Skill("ElemetalDurationPurna");Skill("ComboCriticalProbPurna");Skill("ElemetalDurationPurna");Skill("MoreCraftedAmmoPurna");Skill("RVTiefPurna");Skill("TSDmgIncrasedPurna");Skill("CraftedWeaponKillFuryPointsPurna");Skill("ChanceToFireUpEnemyPurna");Skill("TeamSpirit2Purna");Skill("FeministWhorePurna");[…]

}

"The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function."

- developer's response

“PRIVATE” TO WHO? JUST TOEVERY SINGLEDEVELOPER?

“OBSCURE DEBUG” AS IN “RUN THIS EVERY TIME APLAYER STARTS A NEW GAME”

"... First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute."

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10by Nick Montfort, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian BogostJeremy Douglass, Mark C. Marino, Michael MateasCasey Reas, Mark Sample, and Noah Vawter (2012)

Criminal Code: Procedural Logic and Rhetorical Excess in Videogamesby Mark Sample (2013)

“Screen essentialism”

" the graphical user interface is …often uncritically accepted as the ground zero of the user’s experience”

- Matthew Kirschenbaum (2008)in “Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination”

this is game developmentthis is game developmentcultural, political, social,cultural, political, social,

technical, scientific, technical, scientific, artistic, creative,artistic, creative,diverse, relevantdiverse, relevant

THANKS! @radiatoryangTHANKS! @radiatoryang