Nutso Preview at Broken Sword Zone

Isak, over at Broken Sword Zone, has posted a preview of Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso. I love the way his enthusiasm for the game comes through.

Poor review for Paradise

There's a review of Paradise over at Just Adventure + which gives the game only a D as the score, which is pretty poor for a game from which I've seen some excellent screen shots. When you read the review, though, you can see why the mark was so low.

Although it's a great shame that White Birds Productions created such a weak game, it's encouraging that a review on an adventure gaming site gave a low score for what was felt to be a weak game. If nothing else, it shows that the claim that such sites favour adventures unduly in reviews isn't always valid. For those of us with an interest in developing adventure games, reading this review will either be a lesson in what to avoid or, for me, enhance what I've siad many times already - interaction density needs to be high. However, there is an interesting additional point to the interaction, raised by the reviewer: mindless hunting for hidden or disguised hot spots is not true interaction and is certainly not fun.

At a time when I'm beginning to think that adventures could be the future of the true breadth of gaming (more on this another time) it's worrying that experienced developers are struggling to create games that offer a rewarding experience.

I'd like to thank Sony...

Having just read this item over at the MCV site, it seems to me that Sony are unconsciously helping me to achieve my goal of selling my games directly to the public. Not content with putting the price of the PS3 at a point that will discourage general sales of the console, they plan to take away one of the only other incentives to game players who have limited budgets. For some of these gamers, selling their older titles is the only way of affording the newer ones.

For me, this goes to show what I've felt for a long time - that the big companies within the games industry are increasingly out of touch with the gamers.

Gameplay or Story?

I just read the Eurogamer review of Dreamfall in which the reviewer gave a score of only 5/10 based on the poor quality of the gameplay. Now, I've seen other reviews give the game a good score because of the story, but that feels a little wrong to me.

I know that a game is much more than just a gameplay experience, but if the gameplay is weak should a review bump up the score to an eight or nine just on the strength of the story (or the graphics)? Shouldn't a game review, first and foremost, judge a product on whether it succeeds as a GAME?

Or am I missing something?

I keep seeing game reviews or postings on forums which complain about lack of gameplay (not just in adventures, mind). Many trailers for games are more like trailers for films and show nothing of what the gameplay is going to be like. I keep hearing of putting emotion into games and delivering experiences that have the depth of the best Hollywood films.

I can't help but feel that a large proportion of the budget for many games is being spent in areas that have nothing to do with gameplay and so we end up with weak gameplay or simply more of the same.

Perhaps some companies are moving towards interactive experiences that utilise a gameplay-like interface but which are becoming less and less like games in a traditional sense.
Perhaps Dreamfall deserves an eight because it's a good interactive experience (intex, anyone? :) ) but only if it's reviewed as such. Does it deserve a five when reviewed as a game?

At what point in the development of a game does the story take over from the gameplay? At what point does the need to tell a specific story remove the developer's ability to do so through interesting gameplay, tying the gameplay goals in with the story goals and plot development?

If we're making games, isn't gameplay more important than story?

Nutso Preview at Adventure-Treff

The German gaming site, Adventure-Treff has just posted a preview article of the game here.

Needless to say, it's in German. :)

Ubisoft Director Criticises Sony's PS3

Over at Eurogamer, this recently posted piece made me smile. The idea that Sony is copying features from the other consoles makes me wonder if a kind of plateau is being reached.

Concentrate on fun gameplay, please.

New Mr. Smoozles strip

I've just posted a new Mr. Smoozles strip on the main page. I know it's been a long time coming, but I'm hoping to update on a semi-regular basis from now.

Nutso Preview in Adventure Lantern

The May edition of the downloadable PDF magazine, Adventure Lantern, has a preview of Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso. You can download the magazine from here which is only 3.2MB for about 120 pages.

The piece was nicely written and I enjoyed reading it.

Edit: For those who don't wish to download the magazine, you can go to the online version of the preview here.

Lego Star Wars 2

Just saw the trailer over at Eurogamer - this game looks absolutely brilliant. I can't wait to play it.

Magenta - new character!

Magenta is a new character I recently came up with for the game, Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso. You can see a larger version by clicking on the image.

Nutso Preview at Quandary

Preview just posted at Quandary gaming site.

Once again the writer gets to the heart of what I'm trying to do with the game. Now excuse me while I get on and finish it. :)