[UA] CRPG

[rowan at media.mit.edu]

> Initially I had this interface in mind for an X-filesish investigation
> 'n' shooting game.  As I see it, you just license some friggin' FPS
> engine for the shooting part, then put a ton of effort into figuring out
> loads and loads of responses.  Get good voice talent to do it and synch
> up the image on the screen with what people are actually saying.  Voila:
> A game where you can have an interesting conversation and still blow
> people away.  
> 
> I think the key would be smoothly switching between modes -- you can't
> have a conversation in the middle of a fight, after all.  That, and
> being willing to spend as much time scripting the conversations as you'd
> spend writing code for a new FPS.  
> 
> -G.

Oops. Sorry -- somehow I missed this entire digest before posting my last 
comment.

DX, again, is my primary point of reference for this kind of interface. 
I'veplayed around with the editor, and making new conversations for the game is 
pretty simple. I came to the same conclusion as Greg: if someone were to put a 
little more focus on the plotline and dialogue (along with voice acting and 
general dramatic flow) and not bother so much with the rest of the game engine, 
they could make a kick-ass game. Again, though, I think that the voice-acting 
would be the biggest bottleneck: not only would you have to hire dozens of 
actors for dozens of hours, but the files would start getting very big, even in 
mp3 format (which is what DX uses). I really liked playing DX. The dramatic 
elements were more interesting than most games -- but unfortunately, that's not 
saying much. One problem with the gaming industry (from what I understand) is 
that there's only a market for a few big games every year. In other words, 
imagine American cinema if only the five biggest-grossing movies every year got 
produced -- you can't afford not to make something that appeals to the LCD.

Okay, since I've recently spouted off about keeping posts on-topic, time to turn 
on my HypocrisyGuard(TM):

I've been kicking around the idea of a UA mod for some game -- probably Deus Ex 
-- for a while. I never considered it seriously, since I don't have the time or 
skill to really get it going, but it's an interesting problem. DX was a logical 
choice for a few reasons:

1) I'm a fan of the FPS medium (I find it more immersive than others.)
2) DX does conversations very well.
3) It has a modern setting, so you can recycle a lot of the textures, models, 
and other resources.
4) There's a lot of DX code for creating "special effects" that your cyborg 
character can use. Some of these could be adapted to UA magic/avatar/creature 
powers.

I tried to figure out some quick methods for modeling adepts, but I found it 
difficult. The setting, while fairly realistic, still suffers from video-game 
staples like instant healing and unlimited game-saves: these two conventions 
diminish the charge-building difficulty and poignancy of entropomancy and 
epideromnacy, for instance. Also, subtle personal choices are diminished in 
even an immersive video game format -- unless you're going to model the ins and 
outs (pun intended) of an intimate sexual relationship, pornomancy's taboo 
becomes difficult to portray without explicitly scripting consequences for 
abstinence. All in all, video games are designed to be goal-oriented, even 
though the goals get more subtle and complex with newer game designs. And UA is 
inherently about the price people pay for being exclusively goal-oriented (or 
mabe "hungry for control" would be a better way to put it.) It would be 
difficult to make that choice clear to any video-game player... even I would 
have trouble swallowing a game where it's okay to walk into a bar, have a 
conversation with a mysterious stranger who tells you to meet him on the docks 
at midnight, and then decide not to meet him and spend the rest of the game 
going to work every day and settling down with a wife and kids. A UA game would 
have to be built on a Sims-level concept, with shifts into first-person for 
action sequences. That way, you would spend a lot of the game with the 
deterioration of the PC's personal and domestic life being made apparent to you 
through the interface. You could see his apartment fall apart as he neglects to 
clean while studying mystic tomes; his wife leave him because of his involvement 
with the mafia, and the Isolation meter begin rising; his sanity slip as he 
neglects every facet of daily life but those that attune him to The Executioner.

Actually, I'm liking this more and more...

-Matt Norwood

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua