[Morbus]

Safyia's Kaji is quite nice too.

[Oscar]

Safyia's Kaji is quite nice too.

And maybe you wanted to post that in the MotB thread?

[Morbus]

Safyia's Kaji is quite nice too.

And maybe you wanted to post that in the MotB thread?

Huh, I was kind of replying to the Morte ripoff thing but whatever... It came a bit off the topic.

[Oscar]

Yeah, I couldn´t relate to it

[Dementia Praecox]

Fucking hell. I really really hate video compression. Sorry for the delay, but high compression/high quality-compressing takes bloody forever, and I've been having some issues with the codecs (no surprise there). I ended up with QuickTime again, due to this shitty mac not wanting to cooperate. Since I promised to export to a more accessible format this time, I uploaded it to youtube as well. YouTube raped it by recompressing off course, but it's still in better quality than my first upload. The lulz at the end is removed, and I added some sighs on the dodge-animation, an changed the impact-sound of the axe.

RapidShare:  http://rapidshare.com/files/93556736/AoDsound2.mov.html
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiX-2CZkGE

( You're now off my hit list, which you got on for saying you were taking a certain trip a while back). 
 

I have to admit that I spent quite some time wondering on what you were meaning with this, until I found this thread.
 
If it means anything, we tried to use as much regular pesos as possible, not only to save money, but to leave as little money as possible in the tourist-economy. I'm glad I made the trip before Fidel stepped down, though (not that there's going to be much change in the near future). It was a real thought provoking experience. Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?

[MaximB]

Can I request that there be no more spoilers like that one? Seems like a pretty significant point in the game. I know I read it, but I find it hard to stop myself once started.

And can I request that you change Nazzer (rhymes with Razzer) to Nazzar, Nezzar or Nazzeer? Original sounds a bit comical. The suggestions I made sound more like an eastern mage of some sort, at least to me. Could just be me being odd though.

"Also, this encounter didn't make it into the game, but it may entertain you..."

We wanted to have a character who'd travel with you, provide some insight, patronize you, and change certain things. Even that "stone demon" encounter would be different if you have the magus' skull in your inventory. Anyway, the skull thing is too fantasy-ish and it's the biggest Morte rip-off one could imagine, so we killed it.

It's a shame, this character could be cool to have, even as a side off joke and not a companion.

Also in the Gargoyle encounter you mentioned, I think you got a little wrong in the dialog options.
You wrote :
""Not very bright, are you?" The guardian draws two blades out of nowhere with an alarming speed.

1. * trying hard to ignore the blades * You mentioned a dilemma...
2. * draw a weapon * For an expert in killing, you sure like to talk a lot.
3. * run
4. What are you?

If 2.
Very observant of you. Yes, a dilemma. You see, there is something you can do for me, and in return I'll let you go free. Even better, I'll allow you to explore this place and give you a great treasure that was given to me for safekeeping. How does that sound to you?"

I think this response is more appropriate if you have chosen the 1st dialog option "1. * trying hard to ignore the blades * You mentioned a dilemma..." as the monster is talking about the dilemma which only mentioned in the 1st response.

P.S
Will it be possible to make the turn based animation faster ?
(as it is boring to wait for 5 people to attack/move at that speed).
 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Fucking hell. I really really hate video compression. Sorry for the delay, but high compression/high quality-compressing takes bloody forever, and I've been having some issues with the codecs (no surprise there). I ended up with QuickTime again, due to this shitty mac not wanting to cooperate. Since I promised to export to a more accessible format this time, I uploaded it to youtube as well. YouTube raped it by recompressing off course, but it's still in better quality than my first upload. The lulz at the end is removed, and I added some sighs on the dodge-animation, an changed the impact-sound of the axe.

RapidShare:  http://rapidshare.com/files/93556736/AoDsound2.mov.html
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiX-2CZkGE

Excellent work, thie sighs add quite a bit. This might be something for a newspost?

Oh and a small thing I just noticed: in combat text window "blood filling his throat and and collapses"

[Nick]

P.S
Will it be possible to make the turn based animation faster ?
(as it is boring to wait for 5 people to attack/move at that speed).

We do have an animation speed slider in options.

[cardtrick]

P.S
Will it be possible to make the turn based animation faster ?
(as it is boring to wait for 5 people to attack/move at that speed).

We do have an animation speed slider in options.

Which probably ought to be demonstrated in the next combat video. Also zooming/panning (I know there was some of that in this video, but not until the end, and not much zooming).

[erbgor]

P.S
Will it be possible to make the turn based animation faster ?
(as it is boring to wait for 5 people to attack/move at that speed).

We do have an animation speed slider in options.

Which probably ought to be demonstrated in the next combat video. Also zooming/panning (I know there was some of that in this video, but not until the end, and not much zooming).

Both very good suggestions. Show some of Oscars incredible work (floors) up close. Maybe the graffix whores will notice them then.

[Vince]

Here is something interesting. A guy named David read the RPS interview and decided that working in a sexy outfit like Iron Tower Studio is a great career choice, so he offered us his writing talents (for our next project, assuming that AoD will sell more than 2 copies I'm planning to buy myself to support the team). So, I asked him to describe an item (any item, any setting), a location, and to continue that "Morte" story that I posted in that thread:

Aharti Prayer Beads:

This string of 102 iron beads ensures that every disciple of Aharta performs the requisite number of Calm Spirit Mantras during their daily meditation rituals.  Thin steel thread is used to hold the weight of the beads, which you estimate to be a hefty 5 lbs.

Aharti scripture strictly prohibits the possession or use of any weapon.  However, modern Aharti scholarship contends that only an ignorant savage would mistake the sacred prayer beads for a weapon—even when the beads in question are wrapped tightly around the knuckles of a True Believer and swung at high velocity.

...

This is one of the cleanest bars you’ve encountered, though a quick glance at all the empty chairs explains why.  Most of them haven’t even been moved down from the tables in anticipation of customers.  A massive, leather-clad figure sits hunched up on a barstool that is comically small for his body.  He appears intent on single-handedly keeping the place in business.

...

[Gareth’s right that Nazzeer sounds better, so I’ll go with that.  Otherwise, delete “Son of a bitch!” and leave it as “a rage-filled scream” to avoid Morte-iness.  It’s rather silly that the whole complicated, ultra-powerful, magic-rune-coated, arch-mage-containing sarcophagus can’t hold up to the first jackass to walk by with a claw hammer, but I’ll let that slide and just continue from “Who are you?”]

Who are you?

WHAT?!  *The skeleton seems to be insulted by the question*  I am Nazzeer, the High Magus.  At least I was, and will be again as soon as I acquire a new body.”

A new body?

His flaming eyes flicker up and down.  “I suppose your’s would do, but I have noticed that most people are inexplicably sentimental about such things.  Of course, I would prefer a host more suitable for someone of my stature in any case.”

Why should I help you?

“Why does anyone do anything?  Power.  I offer a token of mine which would surpass your imagination.  If that is not enough, know that my escape is inevitable and my memory is long.”

1.  Big talk for a dead guy.  Why don’t I just finish you for good?
2.  Point taken, how can I help?

[from 1]  “I assure you, if my captors thought they could kill me, they would have already.”  He laughs.  “Do you believe you can do better?” 

3.  Watch me.  (smash the skeleton)
2.  Point taken, how can I help?

[from 3]  The old bones crumble easily into a fine powder.  You wait for some sort of response but the cavern remains silent.  [current end of event line.  Potential for later ramifications.]

[from 2]  “My soul has been bound to these nails.  It is... unpleasant, to say the least, but I should be able to channel my spirit through one to a new host if the fortunate recipient is caught on the border of life and death.  The stronger, the better.  Simply kill a worthy host with the nail and I will take care of the rest.”

[Player gets Golden Nail item—a very low damage melee weapon.  If a killing blow is struck with the Golden Nail, it will bind Nazzeer’s soul to the target and finish the quest.  Nazzeer’s responses vary by the level of the target.]

All targets:  As you plunge the nail into your victim’s skull, tendrils of energy crackle and you hear Nazzeer’s voice emanate from the rising corpse.

Low level target:  “What is this?  What have you done?  This frail body is no better than my tomb!  I should never have entrusted such a crucial matter to a filthy adventurer.”  He waves his hands and flickers slightly, then scuttles off disgusted.

Mid level target:  “Hmmmm, not what I would have chosen, but it will do.”  Nazzeer stretches his new muscles and waves his hands.  A [magic item] appears.  “Take that and begone.  I have much unfinished business to attend to.”  With another wave of his hands, Nazzeer vanishes.

High level target:  “Ah... far too long have I remained imprisoned and far too long has this pathetic world gone unpunished for the indignity.”  He begins an intricate series of hand gestures.  Unfortunately, you seem to have been included in “this pathetic world” and Nazzeer doesn’t seem inclined to correct this mistake.  [Hostile Nazzeer appears with summonlings.  He is quite nasty.]
Nazzeer death message:  Nazzeer lets out a scream, more out of surprise than anything else as his adoptive body slumps to the ground.  Next to the corpse is what used to be the nail Nazzeer was bound with, now melted by his energy into a perfect sphere.  It radiates a strong aura of magic. 

[Note: alternate methods of quest completion depend on game mechanics and I’d really need to know if, for instance, spiking oneself with the nail and making a heroic willpower check fits within the game’s context.  Likewise, more humorous endings would be possible if there are any critters in the game world—ideally of the fluffy variety.]

...

I also asked David what his strengths in the writing department are. His reply:

I really can’t tell you what my strengths in the writing department are, at least not without a lot of explanation.  The fact is, I don’t actually know what the “writing department” is, when it comes to computer games.  I certainly have a lot of opinions on what game writing should be, and I have certain strengths in other forms of writing but that isn’t quite the same thing even when you put the two together.

I think my biggest strengths as a computer game writer would overlap very heavily with game design.  I also think that if you want a good story in a game, it’s close to essential that these roles overlap heavily.  The thing is, since game design is something I’ve mostly done in theory as opposed to that pesky bastard of practice, it would be damn cocky of me to say I’d be great at design.  However, I think I’d be great at design.

Consider everything that follows to be in part a roundabout way of answering your question via examples, and in part, my general philosophy towards games, game design theory (applied and otherwise) and what I’d hope to do at Iron Tower. 

The majority of a game’s story doesn’t occour in writing, per se, particularly if the game is based in sci-fi or fantasy, where a comparable novel would be extremely heavy on setting.  Exceptions to this rule are typically games that play like movies or books with button-pressing.  PS:T is a rare example of how text-based story can be done right, but there, without the game mechanics being so heavily story-based as to make the game effectively a deconstruction of the genre, Torment would lose a lot of its appeal.  Even in the Fallouts, with their beautiful and hilarious dialog, I think that actioned trumped text.

Somewhere in a message board discussion of Fallout 3, the following gem came up.  “It isn’t Fallout unless you can kick a rat in the groin.”  I’m not sure if I ever kicked a rat in the groin while playing Fallout (in-game or otherwise), but he’s right.  Once you allow for certain actions in the basic game mechanics, whole new worlds of character development open up. 

Consider a conversational set-up where every NPC has some sort of friendliness/reputation/trust value towards the protagonist (like Arcanum, only not awful).  Now add a rogue ability, “Backstab” which deals damage to a non-hostile NPC based on their friendliness.  If they’re ready to name their first-born child after you, it’s gonna sting like a bitch when that knife goes in.  Here, Backstab really isn’t a combat ability—it’s a new dialogue option, or, for a dashingly handsome serial killer, a way of life.  It adds a reason for any “be nice” dialogue options past “feel like a good person” or “get a reward” if the player so chooses.  The player could easily have been nice to an NPC then attacked them without Backstab, but Backstab makes the two actions related, and that’s what separates a quality story and setting from a set of graphics and statistical arrays.  The game doesn’t care if a rat died by 10 damage from a kick to the groin or 10 damage from a 9mm.  The player does.

Most games have two stories and these stories rarely match, which is why they suck.  There’s the alleged story (you’re saving the world!) and the real story (you’re hitting the attack button a lot!).  If I were to write a computer game, I’d like the ability to control the setting in more ways than just descriptions and dialog trees.  The cliched country-boy-saves-the-world plot is really based in unimaginative game design as opposed to unimaginative writing.  If the game designers want a straight-forward progression in monster difficulty from absurdly wimpy to planet-devouring, there simply isn’t much a writer can do.  It’d be like writing dialog for a movie where every scene has already been shot.  Consider the difference between that and a potential “written” game design. 

You start off in a city—not a town where everyone knows your name and wants you to bring them a watering can for their home-grown tomatoes, but a big fucking city where the only reason someone would care about you is if you’re in their way. (That's beautiful. Pure poetry. - Vince)  There’s a weapons store nearby and you check it out.  You have a bit of money but everything’s out of your price range.  Not just “save all your pennies in a jar” out of your price range, but “sell all your extended family into slavery” out of your price range.  You check your inventory and see that you’re carrying a Dagger of Suckiness and three overcooked rats.  Head much deeper into the city and you get mugged, with an outcome that by now should be predictable.  So you reload and head out of the city and do adventurey stuff there until you are burly, clever, or intimidating enough to get past the muggers.

There’s no guarantee that the player will actually go through that exact sequence of events, of course, but put enough stuff like that around and they’ll bump into some of it.  Complete control is given to the player even though the main points are all but inevitable.  However, there is absolutely no in-game text needed past item names and maybe a few lines of dialog so that all the cityfolk can tell you to fuck off.  Is that what a writer might do?  That scene does things I’d normally associate with writing.  It establishes that you’re a tiny part of a vast world in which stuff happens without revolving around you.  It establishes that, at least for the moment, you’re just trying to make your way in this world.  The story advances.  The player/reader gets something to look forward to with a glimpse of the fancy shit they’ll be able to play with later. 

Writing that scene with text is certainly easy—I just did it, obviously.  But it’s an inferior way to tell the story.  “Show, don’t tell” is a total cliche, but a surprisingly good one.  Going way back to the question of my strengths: I think about these things.  A lot.  I believe this is both unusual and important.  Also, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell of getting you to believe this now, but I can also be pretty good at brevity.
...

So, what do you guys think?

[Gareth]

Hmmm, on careful consideration...

Gareth’s right

I'd say he's a keeper.

Heh, he sounds good to me. I'd give him a chance to write me a mini-module using the game creation tools. I'm not sure about the "not much text" thing, I like text and I think he will discover some things are about 10 000 times more time consuming to convey via game art instead of text, but I'd give him a chance to try out his ideas. Trying new things to see what works is what progress is all about. And if he decides to go with more text then it looks like he has some skill with it.


Also, he said Gareth is Right. Did I mention that? The sign of a true scholar and gentleman.

[Tuomas]

I like him a lot.

"Most games have two stories and these stories rarely match, which is why they suck.  There’s the alleged story (you’re saving the world!) and the real story (you’re hitting the attack button a lot!).  If I were to write a computer game, I’d like the ability to control the setting in more ways than just descriptions and dialog trees."

Good man.

[MaximB]

I would love to have him in the development team !

[GhanBuriGhan]

I would love to have him in the development team !

Is it fair to put the guy in front of a search comittee consisting of the entire Internet?    Anyway, the writing and quest ideas seem solid. I am less sure about the explanations and the examples in the letter they seem very general, and the show don't tell philosophy is neither very original nor is the example particularly exciting or original. Still I agree that it IS good if someone thinks about these things.