Monthly Game Club Suggestions?

So far in the Monthly Game Club, we've discussed Braid and two short games by Jason Rohrer. I've got a couple of ideas for what to do next, but I thought I might ask you readers what you've liked/disliked about the Game Club in the past, and what you might like to play next.

So how often would you like this to take place? Do you want to discuss every week, or spread it out more? Do you want the games to be retail games, downloadable games, or free games? While we're at it, what types of consoles or computers do you all have? And last but not least, what should we play next? Feel free to mention if a game club doesn't really interest you as well. I promise not to take it personally.

Comment away!

Reflections with Jason Rohrer

by Daniel Bullard-Bates

This month in the game club, we played Passage and Gravitation, two short games by Jason Rohrer. He was also kind enough to answer a few questions for us on his creative process, artistic exploration in games, digital distribution, and his exciting new project.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of making games by yourself, without the aid or supervision of a publisher?

I don't find any disadvantages, because I'm simply not interested in making "big" games, which is what you usually need a team for. Most big games are big in terms of consumable content, not in terms of gameplay or interactivity, and I don't think that games are fundamentally about consumable content.

The advantages of working alone are complete creative control and maintenance of a singular vision. It's very easy to make a work that is coherent and self-consistent when you're the only one working on it. Also, working alone is much cheaper (free!) than hiring a team, so that allows me to take big creative risks and not worry about financial pressures and deadlines. I can finish a game when it is really finished, not just because I run out of money.

What aspects of your games do you typically spend the most time on (visuals, themes, gameplay, etc.)?

The design process happens on paper ahead of time, and it usually spills out pretty quickly, so I'd say that I spend the least amount of time on design. However, design is by far the hardest step in my process. Programming the game, and polishing the resulting implementation until it is perfect, takes up the most time in my process.

Do video games open up new themes for artistic exploration? Are they particularly unsuited to certain tasks?

Games allow you to explore aspects of the human condition that are fundamentally interactive in ways that non-interactive mediums cannot. The most obvious examples are themes that involve choices. Other mediums can explore the same themes, but they must present a single branch in the possibility tree---what happens when one character makes a specific choice in a given situation. Non-linear uses of these mediums---like the film Run Lola Run---can present a handful of specific branches at most. Games, on the other hand, can present you with the entire possibility tree and let you explore it for yourself. Instead of depicting a character and showing you that character's choices, a game can put you directly into the situation and let you make your own choices.

Games are weaker than non-interactive mediums when dealing with parts of the human condition that are not fundamentally interactive. Consider a very basic theme like "the loss of a loved one." Games try to explore this theme a lot, but they usually fall flat, because they must turn off interactivity---at least momentarily---to deliver the theme. When a game takes control away from you during a major thematic turning point, it immediately feels "unfair." The interactivity of the game and the non-interactivity of the theme fight each other.

All of your games have been released for free download on the internet. What are your beliefs on digital distribution and cost?

I believe that control over the distribution of a given work is impossible. Once you release something into the world, there's no way to prevent people from doing whatever they want with it in the privacy of their own homes. One thing they might want to do with it is make copies for their friends. That's a very natural thing to want to do, and it does not feel "wrong" to most people. We can shout "NO!" all we want, but people are going to continue making copies.

On the other hand, it's also very natural to charge people for a service. You come to this convenient website and download a copy quickly and easily---that service is something that cannot be copied for your friends.

The iPhone app store is one example of a service-based model---at least I use it that way. You can download my game from a central location and have it automatically installed on your iPhone for a small fee. If you want to download the iPhone source code yourself and build your own copy for your iPhone, you can do that too, for free. You can even sell the version that you build in the AppStore yourself---there's nothing to stop you, since my games are in the public domain.

You recently released a game, Primrose, on the iPhone store. What role do you think that the iPhone plays in the world of independent game development? Does it have any advantages or disadvantages when compared to Xbox Live, WiiWare and the Playstation Network?

The iPhone AppStore has extraordinarily low barriers to entry compared to those other download services. All you need is a compatible Mac and a $100 developer membership. I was able to find a used Mac Mini on Craig's List for only $250. That's a mighty cheap dev kit.

Dev kits for the other platforms cost thousands of dollars. On top of that, Nintendo *requires* that you lease a business office space before they will even let you buy a dev kit.

The downside to the AppStore is the extraordinarily low barrier to entry. Every programmer in the world has an app in the AppStore. Dozens of new apps are released there every day. It's very hard to compete. Making a good living from AppStore sales is like winning the lottery. The other platforms hand-pick the games that get distributed, so there is much less competition. A really good game on one of those other platforms is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a large amount of revenue for the developer. Even an excellent game on the iPhone is a crap shoot.

Beyond entertainment, what other qualities give value to a video game?

If we believe Koster's theory about fun, then games are primarily about learning and thinking. That thinking may be at a very low level (learning a new reflex skill) or at a very high, conscious level (planning out a many-step strategy). Regardless, games make you think. Furthermore, because they cannot be experienced passively, they *require* that you think. So, right out of the gate, games don't feel much like leisurely entertainment---more like hard work! Still, we tend to use games---especially video games---as a form of escape entertainment. By "working" on something with no real-world consequence, we can take our minds away from our worldly concerns.

However, I think we can leverage the thinking induced by games for all kinds of purposes in addition to entertainment. We can make people think about the world in new ways, for example.

Would you like to share with us what you're working on now?

I'm working on a game for the Nintendo DS that will be published by Majesco sometime in 2010. It's a two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola on the eve of the passage of the Kimberly Process.

This is my first game that will be sold in a real box in real stores, so it's an exciting project for me.

Monthly Game Club: Gravitation Discussion

This week in the Monthly Game Club, we're discussing Gravitation, a very short game about mania, melancholia, and the creative process, made by Jason Rohrer. If you haven't already played it, you can get it here. The game takes eight minutes to play through once and it's a small file that is completely free to download, so give it a couple playthroughs and come on back for the discussion.

Here are some questions to get us started:

1. What were your first thoughts about what to do when you started the game? How quickly did you learn the mechanics and figure out what to do in the game?

2. How did you balance playing ball with the child and exploring the space? What were the results?

3. Did your actions result in any unexpected or compelling results? Tell the story of your playthrough of the game.

4. How accurately do you feel the mechanics represent the creative process, and the balance between work and spending time with friends/family? How accurately did it represent mania and melancholia?

5. Would you pay for independent games like these? What do Gravitation and Passage do well that other game developers should study?

As always, feel free to discuss anything, and don't limit yourself to the questions presented here. Comment away!

Monthly Game Club #2: The Short Works of Jason Rohrer, Continued

For our second Monthly Game Club, we're playing a couple of short games by Jason Rohrer, an independent developer who makes all of his games by himself and releases them all for free on the internet. This week, we'll be playing Gravitation.

What it is: An eight minute indie game about mania, melancholia, and the creative process.

Price: Free

Where to get it: Here

The Assignment: Play the game a few times. Try different things.

We'll discuss the game next Tuesday, July 28th.

Monthly Game Club: Passage Discussion

As you may remember, this week we're discussing Passage, a short game by Jason Rohrer. If you haven't played it yet, no problem! The game is free to download, takes five minutes to play, and you can get it right here. So go ahead and play it, and come on back for the discussion. I'll wait.

Oh, you're done already? Awesome.

Here are some questions to get us started:

1. Do you feel that the visual style helps or hinders your enjoyment of the game? How about the accessibility of the game? How about your ability to think about the themes and ideas present in the game?

2. Why do you think the game world appears so narrow? The first time you played, did you realize that you could go up and down as well as forward and back?

3. What do you think about the way the game represents relationships? How does the game change if you join up with the woman, as opposed to going it alone?

4. Did you find any treasure chests? What do you think they represent?

5. Did this game provoke any emotional responses from you?

As always, feel free to discuss any aspect of the game or the experience. These questions are just to get the ball rolling.

(What's the Monthly Game Club? Click here for details.)

Monthly Game Club #2: The Short Works of Jason Rohrer

For our second Monthly Game Club, we'll be playing a couple of short games by Jason Rohrer, an independent developer who makes all of his games by himself and releases them all for free on the internet. First up is Passage.

What it is: A five minute indie game. I'd go into what it's about, but a lot of the fun is figuring that out for yourself. I promise that it's good.

Price: Free

Where to get it: Here

The Assignment: Play the game a few times. Try different things.

I'll be out of town next week, so you have until two weeks from now, Tuesday July 14th, to play through the game a few times and think about it. I'll post some questions for discussion then.

Reflections with Jonathan Blow

by Daniel Bullard-Bates

Having finished Braid this week in the Monthly Game Club, we're left with many questions about the meaning of the game. One thing is certain, however: Braid stands as a profound example of the quality and polish possible in the world of independent games, and the level of intelligence possible in all video games, independent or otherwise. Jonathan Blow, the developer and designer of the game, was kind enough to answer a few questions for us on being an independent game developer, the role of interactivity in games, and the inspiration for Braid.
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Your game was independently made, but first released on Xbox Live Arcade. Would you share a few thoughts with us on being an independent game designer working with a huge corporation like Microsoft?

Whenever dealing with a company like this, you usually work with a (relatively) small division. I don't really know what kinds of politics goes on there, because for the most part Microsoft is good at isolating developers from that. Usually I would be dealing with just 1 or 2 people, and spending most of my time making the game. Because they had done a lot of Arcade titles before Braid, they did a pretty good job of ushering games through the approval and certification process with minimal BS. I did have one episode late in development where someone on the Microsoft side who I had never talked to decided to monkey with the game at the last minute in an unexpected way, and that was a very negative experience, but ultimately I decided to go ahead and release the game on XBLA anyway. Largely, though, it was a hands-off experience: my job was to make a good game, and the job of the guys I talked to at Microsoft was to help me get that game onto their service.

How do you think services like Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and WiiWare are affecting the independent gaming world?

It's definitely a positive thing that independent game developers have these places to sell games where they can find a large audience and where the piracy rate is relatively low -- it means that it's much more feasible now to make a living as an independent developer than it was 10 years ago.

Braid has been cited as an example in the continued debate about whether video games can be art. What do video games need to do to be taken seriously as an artistic medium?

All that needs to happen is for game developers to do more-serious work. The appreciation will come from that, naturally. Right now, the work isn't there. Most of what we do as an industry is about pandering and infantilism. If enough of us just stop doing that, we will find that there is an audience out there that takes us seriously.

How does interactivity change the ways ideas or stories are explored?

It just leads to the contemplation of a different field of ideas than something like film or music does. I can't say how that is "changed" from another medium because they aren't necessarily related that closely. There are connections, sure, but each one is in its own right a wide and deep body of stuff that can't be easily summarized. That's why we use these media to explore these things! If I can just say what the point is, then we don't need games in the first place.

Braid uses a number of innovative game mechanics; did the story inspire the gameplay, or vice versa?

The whole thing came to mind at roughly the same time. I would say that maybe the gameplay idea came first, by a very thin hair, but it was a very general idea -- that the way time behaves would change from world to world, though I didn't know what those behaviors would be, and in fact had very different ideas about these time behaviors initially than what ended up in the game. But as soon as I had that concept, I knew that I wanted the game to be done in the tradition of Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities and Alan Lightman's book Einstein's Dreams, and that there would be textual pieces introducing each world.

One thing a number of people have said, when being critical of the game, is that they wish that the story parts happened in cut-scenes or were otherwise integrated into the gameplay. When they say this, I detect some kind of sentiment that, hey, now that we *can* have cut-scenes or pieces of story dribbled to us during the primary gameplay (as in Bioshock), that these are the only valid way to do things, that somehow text is obsolete. But that is a bit silly. The book has not gone away, and the way subjects are explored in literature are different than how they happen in dialogue or in pictures. It's a different medium, it has a different grain, and it's perfectly valid to use that grain if you want to. (And if a designer does not know this fact, then he is going to work with an incomplete toolbox!)

From the very first day, Braid was conceived as a videogame with its story presented in the tradition of a few books that I respect, and maybe a film or two.

Do you have any advice for aspiring independent game developers?

The most important thing is to make games and get them done. The second most important thing is to ensure that those games are the best things that you can make, whatever that means to you. Unfortunately these two goals are in conflict.

Would you like to share with us what you're working on now?

Every time I answer this question, it's something different. I have four different games that I have taken to the prototype stage since finishing Braid. I keep changing my mind about which game is really my next project, so I would just be misleading you if I gave a concrete answer here!

Monthly Game Club: Braid Final Discussion

Well, that's it. Since last week, we've collected our final puzzle pieces and completed the final world. I'll ask a few questions to get us started, but feel free to discuss anything about the experience.

1. How did the final level change your perspective on Tim's pursuit of the Princess, if at all?

2. How about the text in the epilogue? Did the text behind pillars and other objects give you any further perspective on the themes of Braid?

3. What are your thoughts on the way the final world made use of time? How did that play with your understanding of the game thus far?

4. Do you have any theories on what the plot of this game was? Who was Tim? Who was the Princess? What did it all mean? Was there just one meaning, or more than one?

5. Did you find any stars?

Thoughts! Reflections! To the comments!

(What's the Monthly Game Club? Click here for details.)

FOR NEXT WEEK: That's a wrap for Braid. Next Tuesday, I'll be announcing next month's game club! As always, feel free to e-mail Monthly Game Club game suggestions to presspausetoreflect AT gmail DOT com.

Monthly Game Club: Braid Discussion #2

Since last week, we've traversed worlds 5 and 6 of Braid, and collected as many puzzle pieces as we could. I'll ask a few questions to get us started, but feel free to discuss anything about the experience.

1. Do you think that the game presents a single coherent narrative? Are the levels and the text presenting different stories? Is the text all presenting a single story? Are the levels presenting a story at all?

2. How is the ability to rewind time in this game different from in other games with the same mechanic, like Timeshift and Prince of Persia? How does that affect the game?

3. In world 6, you are given your first new ability: dropping a ring. What significance does the ring hold? What does the power it grants represent?

4. At the end of world 6, the dinosaur asks you if you're sure the princess exists. Are you?

5. How do you think this game would be different if it weren't made by an independent developer?

Give us your thoughts in the comments.

(What's the Monthly Game Club? Click here for details.)

FOR NEXT WEEK: Collect the last puzzle pieces and play through the final world.

Monthly Game Club: Braid Discussion #1

Since last week, we've traversed worlds 2, 3 and 4 of Braid, and collected as many puzzle pieces as we could. I'll ask a few questions to get us started, but feel free to discuss anything about the experience.

1. How well do you think the text before each level and the gameplay changes in each level relate?

2. What do you think the clear similarities to Mario do for the game? How does this affect your reactions to the departures from the Mario formula?

3. At this point in the game, do you think we will rescue the princess by the end? Do you think there is a princess? More than one? Is the princess a real character, or representative of something else?

4. How do you approach solving the puzzles that stump you?

5. So far, what do you think the game says about making mistakes? What does it say about the desire to take back the mistakes you've made?

Sound off in the comments!

(What's the Monthly Game Club? Click here for details.)

Update:
FOR NEXT WEEK: Play through worlds 5 and 6, and keep collecting puzzle pieces!

Monthly Game Club #1: Braid

Welcome to the first Monthly Game Club! This month, we'll be playing Braid. I'll give an assignment each week, and we'll reconvene to discuss each Tuesday.

What it is: An indie puzzle-platformer about time manipulation.

Price: $15.00

Where to get it: Xbox Live Arcade, PC (or here), Mac

The first assignment: Traverse worlds 2, 3 and 4 (the first three) and collect as many puzzle pieces as you can.

See you next Tuesday for the first discussion!

Monthly Game Club Introduction

The Monthly Game Club is a new feature on Press Pause to Reflect which will give us an opportunity to play through and discuss an excellent game together. I'll choose games that are really good so that I won't be wasting your time, inexpensive so that I won't be wasting your money, and available on a variety of platforms so you won't feel left out. We'll have one introductory post explaining the game and where to get it, along with the first assignment, and then one post each week to discuss the game and give a new assignment. Kotaku did something similar a while back, and it was a great idea, and then it mysteriously ceased.

The game for June will be Braid, and the introductory post and assignment will go up next Tuesday, so stay tuned if you'd like to participate. If you have any suggestions for future Monthly Game Club games, please post in the comments or email us at:

presspausetoreflect AT gmail DOT com

EDIT: Feel free to participate in the Monthly Game Club even if you've already played the game. The purpose here is the discussion of unique qualities in each game, artistic decisions, and deeper meaning. Just try not to spoil anything before it's assigned!