<![CDATA[digi-tel

<![CDATA[digi-tel - Blog]]>Wed, 27 Sep 2023 18:57:55 +0100Weebly<![CDATA[Seablite: Designing a world to explore]]>Mon, 12 Feb 2018 15:00:53 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/seablite-designing-a-world-to-exploreI've decided that whilst I work on my new project Seablite, a 2D adventure game inspired by the original Zelda on NES, I will use this blog to share my ideas, development progress, art and more. Obviously take all of this with a grain of salt or two as development is still in the early stages and everything is prone to change at least 30 times before I'm done.

Today I want to talk a bit about how the world of Seablite is being designed.

In Seablite, players control a nameless wanderer who finds themselves trapped in an ancient island complex. The island is full of mysteries and adversity, but the player is more or less free to do as they please. The driving themes of this game are 'Freedom', 'Mystery' and 'Adversity'. I'm hoping that by using these ideas I can create a game that encourages exploration by putting the player in situations that make them ask questions, with answers hidden behind interesting challenges, and with the freedom to approach everything from multiple angles. With all this in mind it should come as no surprise that I've been spending whatever daydreaming time I can on the layout of the island the player is stranded on. So let me explain what details I've considered so far.

So first things first, the world of Seablite can be roughly divided into 2 distinct parts: the overworld and the underworld. The underworld includes caves, tunnels and the 'dungeons' of the game, all of which I'll talk about some other time. The overworld is everything else. It's where the player will start their game and will most likely be where they spend most of their time. There will be enemies to fight, puzzles to solve, and generally speaking a whole world to explore.

OPEN WORLD, LOCKED-OFF AREAS AND PLAYER FREEDOM
Does this mean that Seablite is OPEN-WORLD!?

Sort of. A large chunk of the world will be open for the player to explore right from the bat. Going back to the idea of 'freedom' it's important for me that I don't try and force players down one specific path by cutting areas off until they get a specific power-up or something like in Metroidvania style games. I don't like that, but I DO like the idea of being able to access new areas. My solution? Like everything else, it's to steal ideas from Zelda.

In the original Zelda most of the world is traversable right from the start. Apart from this little section in the West (highlighted in pink). The neat thing is that whilst this part of the world is locked off from you there isn't just one way to reach it. You can enter it from the South, through the Lost Woods (green) if you know the solution to its puzzle (which a nice old woman will tell you for some rupees), OR you can enter further North if you have the ladder to cross the river (red). What this means is that you aren't FORCED to do either. You can go the whole game without needing to go through the Lost Woods, and whilst you will need the ladder for other areas it isn't essential to access the West of Hyrule. I love the idea of having multiple routes to locked off areas but even more than that I love the idea of having a mix of HARD locks (you must have the ladder to cross the river; you must have the key to open the lock) and SOFT locks (you can trial and error your way through the woods, find the solution from the old woman, or get it from a friend, or remember it from an earlier play-through!).

The idea for Seablite is to expand on this idea and use it to create a world that allows players to interact and explore it in a way that they dictate rather than what the game dictates to them.

So suppose we have 3 main areas of the island. We have a central area that is open from the start, with 'locked off' areas to the West and South-East. Each of these 2 areas has at least 1 'hard' lock (red) which would require a key, item or something, and at least 1 'soft' lock (purple) which could be the presence of a particularly tough enemy or a fiendish puzzle. I have also included something borrowed from the Souls series of games: shortcuts (green). These would be gates or obstacles that could only be opened or removed from one side, rewarding players with a shortcut. Seablite will NOT have a fast-travel system but will aim to make back-tracking less tedious through a few different methods.

BACKTRACKING AND CHANGING LANDSCAPES

First and foremost the aforementioned shortcuts will allow the player to journey from each of the 3 sections with relative ease once they are all opened up.

Second, much of the world will change as the player progresses through the game. As the player explores and interacts with the world the landscape will change, thus making the act of back-tracking a little more interesting (I hope!). Let me give you an example!

At the start of the game the island will be a dusty wasteland, with the canals, reservoirs and lakes all dried up. This is both a blessing and a curse: some areas will be open to the player (they can walk across the dried up banks of the canals) whilst others may be inaccessible (say a gate requires a water-wheel to be turned in order to be opened). Upon spending time in this landscape the player accomplishes something and in doing so revitalises the water system of the island. Now the water wheels will turn! The Lakes will refill! Good things! But also, those canals and riverbeds you could walk across are now treacherous waterways that you cannot cross. And as life returns to the area new enemy types will also appear. Slightly LESS good things...

I want the player to have a real impact on the world around them, and I'm hoping that will make the world feel less static. I want to believe that will make traversing through previously explored areas will be a bit more interesting as you now get to see what changes you have made.

(Don't worry either, if player's uncover secret spells they'll have access to everywhere even IF they've been cut off with water or something else.)

If you have any questions or anything don't hesitate to ask!

]]><![CDATA[Teaching, TUMBLR And the state of this blog]]>Tue, 11 Apr 2017 23:14:47 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/april-12th-2017Hello!
For what it's worth, I actually DID write that musing I insisted I was going to post. The problem is that I didn't post it. I wanted to mull it over a little, proof-read it and make a couple changes.

But then none of that happened because LIFE happened.

And now I'm back again! I'm currently in the throes of my teacher training (full time PGCE) with little to no time for GameDev, sketchbook doodles, musings on game design or any of that fun stuff...and I feel like I didn't have a lot of time to begin with. Yet, oddly, I'm here jabbering on in a new blog entry. What's the deal with airline food, and more importantly what's the deal with this?

If I've learned anything these past few months it's that teaching is very difficult. And whilst it's easy to point to the misbehaving kids and the paperwork those aren't the things that I'm most concerned about (although they do weigh on this matter), rather the thing I've found most difficult is mainting my passion and enthusiasm for the very subject that I would like to teach: game design and development. My love for creative media has had to take a backseat as I've stuffed my head with learning theories, action research, college office politics, safeguarding and marking...and it affects my teaching.

So how about a little rejuvenation?

New site layout, new colours, new plan of action. I'll post more interesting things soon (for real this time) but I'll start by saying that blog duties will be split between this and my tumblr over at: http://made-by-mustard.tumblr.com/
Things like gamedev posts and musings will be cross-posted, artsy stuff will be on tumblr, and more 'bloggy' stuff will be here....I think. I'll figure out how I want to do this as I go along, I'm sure.

It's nice to be back! See ya all soon.
]]><![CDATA[New Musing On The Way!]]>Sun, 18 Oct 2015 02:18:31 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/new-musing-on-the-wayJust a brief post to touch upon a new musing that I have in the works! (On the off-chance that you thought that I'd already fallen back into a slump and forgotten about my blog)

I promised it would be Zelda free and indeed it is!
So what's it about instead? Well, it's not about one video game exactly but rather an issue with video games as a medium that I have as a developer.

Golly, that sounds serious!

There'll be talk of Aubergine, "early-access", George Harrison, Team Fortress 2, Buddhist principles, and many other non-Zelda things.

I am TRYING to remind myself that these musings are meant to be somewhat rough around the edges, so hopefully I can get out of the planning stage and into actually writing this pretty soon. Hopefully you can expect it over the next few days!
]]><![CDATA[Nasu no Rakugaki TURBO HD REMIX]]>Tue, 06 Oct 2015 21:27:17 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/nasu-no-rakugaki-turbo-hd-remix1This is something that I've been mulling over for a while now but I'm officially putting it into effect to streamline Aubergine's development process.

There are some mechanics and features that I'd totally love to implement and put into Aubergine but frankly you need to draw a line somewhere or you'll never finish your game. However, Turbo HD Remixes are totally a thing; and you can do them to your own game (just look at Edmund McMillen!).

So, to save me some grief I've decided to create a feature list for what that deluxe edition of Aubergine might add. That might seem a little pre-emptive but I'm thinking of it more as a "THINGS I'M NOT PUTTING IN AUBERGINE, NO MATTER HOW COOL I THINK IT'D BE" list. I REALLY want to finish Aubergine so I'm trying to cut down my workload as much as possible.

Anyhow, here's what I hope to add one day:

- Multiple/Branching Paths (this is something I tried really hard to get working in the last build but to no avail; saving myself a headache and opting to forget about it for the time being)

- Hidden/Alt Bosses (tied into the multiple paths)

- Unlockable/Secret Characters (I have some ideas for them but by cutting them out I'm removing the amount of art, design and balancing work needed)

- Alt Colours (just a nice little bonus; definitely something to save til the end)

- Higher difficulty/Turbo mode (would have to effectively balance two games; let's save some time and just balance the one for now)

]]><![CDATA[Aubergine GDD and Where I've Been]]>Mon, 05 Oct 2015 21:24:28 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/nasu-no-rakugaki-turbo-hd-remixI'm back! More after the break. This part is just to say that Aubergine is happening again and that this blog, my twitter and my trello board are the best places to peruze for updates regarding the thing. I've actually just finished the very first version (0.1, whoop whoop!) of Aubergine's game design document for your reading pleasure. You can find that on the trello board I mentioned a sentence or two ago (but you can also click this if you want) or right here on this site on the Aubergine page (which is under Games, but you can also click this; click, click, click!).

For those who want to know more about where I've been and what I'm doing I'll see you after the break!

So around April this year I was super enthusiastic about getting back into game development and continuing work on Aubergine but then nothing happened. I didn't update my blog like I said (what a surprise) and I made no mention of Aubergine for quite some time. So what gives? I mean, what happened?

The sad answer is that my summer was incredibly unproductive; I fell into a slump and it's taken me a long time to get out.

There were numerous causes, I had a new job that was taking up a lot of my time and energy, but the real kicker was this: one of my nearest and dearest friends left the country in pursuit of a new and exciting life. I was a little envious but mostly I was happy for her and thought to myself that with her going forth to head on a big adventure in Central America I didn't have to be 'left behind' and instead could use this as an oppurtunity to really throw myself into my work; and when she returned 3 months later, presumably a new person, I would be renewed myself.

And on the morning that she left my PC died.

Now it took a month or so to revive my PC and it's arguably better than it's ever been right now, but buying new parts and fixing my PC did very little to repair my crushed motivation. It was purely psychosomatic but that along with the pressures of my job (which at the time was taking more of my time and energy than I care for), an ever distancing circle of friends and a brief stint of playing an unhealthy amount of Super Smash Bros. I found myself increasingly listless and lethargic. Bummer.

BUT WOW LOOK AT ALL OF THIS!

I visited my best friend in Sheffield around a month or so ago and after some therapeutic drunken conversations, several viewings of the movie "Red Line" and the realization that a number of tracks and sound effects from the Earthbound soundtrack were sampled from pop music, I found myself refreshed.

I'm trying to divide my time as best as I can between work, family, friends, music and Aubergine but it's a tricky balancing act (especially when I feel like I need to throw some more curve-balls into the equation: my health and my desire to save up money). However, along with the help, love and support of Corridor 64 I am managing to keep somewhat on top of things.

I am aiming to have something done for Christmas. It's still a little too early to say what is feasable to accomplish by then but there will definitely be something.

I know that I've spent years on this game and with (seemingly) nothing to show for it...it's been tough. Aubergine is my baby, though, and I'm not sorry for how long it's taking. This is my first game and I'm figuring out all of this stuff on the fly; how to design a game from scratch, how to code, and how to do it all whilst simultaneously living my life. It's hard but it's what I want to do.

I know this has been a somewhat more 'personal' blog post than what this blog is used to but I felt it necessary to explain my current situation. I can't imagine this will be a regular thing, although anything's possible!

]]><![CDATA[New Chapter!]]>Sun, 27 Sep 2015 17:07:14 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/new-chapterSmall update regardings things! I'm planning a much bigger blog post with a whole bunch of news but for now I just wanted to have something up for anybody who happened to wander this way.

I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff done and one of said things is a bit of a re-design for the site; so if it looks a bit weird right now it's because I'm in the midst of applying a new coat of paint.

If for some reason you're curious about Aubergine or any other projects of mine then be sure to check out my twitter because I've made a few smaller updates there regarding things. Otherwise feel free to wait here for that other blog post I was talking about!

]]><![CDATA[mustard's musings - Shadow of the Colossus, Overworlds, and the Quiet/Loud Dynamic]]>Wed, 29 Apr 2015 16:51:45 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/mustards-musings-shadow-of-the-colossus-overworlds-and-the-quietloud-dynamicThis was something I wanted to touch upon in my last post but that was running long already. So bear with me as I'll be talking a little bit more about Zelda. Next musing will be 100% Zelda free, I promise!

For now I'd like to talk about how two of my favorite games utilize the 'quiet/loud' dynamic to great effect, and how a 'quiet' overworld might be detrimental to the dungeon design in Zelda on Wii-U.

So last musing I discussed how the design and presentation of the overworld in Zelda Wii-U was going to have a big impact on the player's experience (who knew?). One of the biggest issues I raised was that with a large, contiguous overworld it would be harder to present the player with challenges all of the time (like the first Zelda did). Essentially, I explained that I was worried that the overworld was going to be sort of boring. Not a lot to do.

Quiet.

Ay, there's the rub!

The thing is that Large, quiet overworlds are pretty interesting, actually. One of my favorite games features such an overworld and it's honestly one of the best parts of the game. So how come I praise it in Shadow of the Colossus but seem a little skeptical about its place in Zelda? Well, let me explain.

The quiet/loud dynamic is something you see (or hear, rather) in songs all of the time. You'll have a song in which the verse is noticeably quieter than the chorus. The reason for doing this sort of thing is that through the nature of juxtaposition the quiet parts seem so much quieter and the louder parts seem so much louder. Shadow of the Colossus is a game that features that same dynamic but translates it to the structure of a video game. The overworld in Shadow of the Colossus is vast, empty and quiet. There's no real joy to be found in exploring your surroundings, and there isn't meant to be. The quiet world you find yourself in serves as padding of sorts between the big, exciting and very loud Colossus fights. Here the empty overworld works by building anticipation for the player as they head towards their destination. And this works pretty darn well since the player knows exactly where they're headed and what waits for them at the end: an intense, action packed boss fight.

What's interesting is that The Legend of Zelda on the Famicom/NES also utilizes the quiet/loud dynamic but inverts it. Instead the overworld is full of adversity and challenges; you never get a break, it's sort of loud. Make your way into a cave or secret grotto, however, and you will often find yourself safe from the enemies outside. It's quiet....literally! The wonderful theme that plays in the overworld, that powerful, rolling melody that drives your adventure forward, it stops when you enter these places. And whilst dungeons remain pretty action packed the first room in each dungeon is empty, giving the player a much needed chance to catch their breath before they venture further.

So what about Zelda on Wii-U? Well, with the focus being more on spotting places in the distance, and heading towards way-points on a map, the player will actually have a destination in mind. If the player has a destination then a quieter overworld might just work; building anticipation, and making the burst of action that a dungeon or secret cave may provide seem all the more exciting.

I see a couple of issues with this though (don't I always?).

See, in Shadow of the Colossus the game flat-out tells you were to go. It's not really a game about exploration, there's no second guessing, the player knows exactly what's waiting for them. Zelda on Wii-U is looking to be a lot less direct in an attempt to encourage exploration, but now there's no guarantee that the curious landmark the player is headed to will actually be anything. I'd hate to travel such a long way through a quiet overworld, the anticipation building, only to be met with nothing.

But maybe I'll get there and I'll find a dungeon. You might remember that I mentioned in my previous musing that dungeons in Zelda haven't changed all that much in how they're designed. It's true! Most even keep that first quiet room from the first game. Only now (and this has certainly been true in most 3D Zelda games) it isn't there to offer relief to a player weary from their journey through the ruthless world of Hyrule, it's there to set the tone and theme of the dungeon. Look! You're in the Fire Temple now: it's hot in here!. Hey! Welcome to Arbiter's Grounds: we're sandy!

Now there's nothing inherently wrong with this but I can't help but feel that now, with Zelda Wii-U, more than ever it might be worth actually thinking about how the dungeons are designed and structured. And more importantly, how they work alongside the overworld. Because maybe if I've just wandered the land for an hour, having met disappointment in all of my other expeditions, entering an empty room is the last thing I want to do when I finally reach a dungeon.

]]><![CDATA[mustard's musings - The Legend of Zelda, Open Worlds and What Lies Ahead]]>Mon, 20 Apr 2015 23:21:39 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/mustards-musings-the-legend-of-zelda-open-worlds-and-what-lies-aheadWelcome!
This is the first post in a new series I'm calling 'mustard's musings'. I really want to talk more about game design on this here blog and this is the vehicle I'm going to be using. These pieces will tend to be short-ish and will lack the glossy sheen and thorough editing of my videos (which are totally still happening). As a result these may be a little ramshackle but hopefully I can get my points across!

So to start I'm going to be talking about The Legend of Zelda and how something as simple as an overworld's design can drastically change the tone, pacing and focus of a game.

The Legend of Zelda, originally released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986, is one of my all time favorite games. It's been suggested that it's Shigeru Miyamoto's most personal game and maybe so. I'd definitely argue that it's his magnum opus, it's a real testament to his inventiveness and ability to direct a team. The reason I love it so much is that not only was it born out of a great idea, but the team working on it clearly thought about how every aspect of the game would work with that idea in mind. That is to say, the game was clearly designed around the themes of exploration and adventure, and as crazy as it may sound, the structure and mechanics of the game all helped to reinforce those ideas.

It's no surprise then that I have mixed feelings about the more recent Zelda games, particularly the 3D entries. They chucked out the open world exploration in favor of a more focused, linear quest, driven by narrative rather than an open ended adventure driven by the players curiosity and game mechanics.

But there's talk of change with the latest entry to the series, Zelda on Wii-U. It boasts a large open world, and from what we've been told the player will receive little direction from the game. Some are saying this will be the return to the series roots that fans like myself have been hoping for.

I'm not convinced.

There are similarities, sure, but there are also big differences.

(We haven't seen too much of this new Zelda game, so all of this babble is based on this short demo)

On paper the structure does indeed look to be the same. Both games feature a large overworld for the player to explore, with an underworld/dungeons scattered about. I am going to take a stab in the dark and say the goal in the new game will be the same as it was in the original: explore the overworld, find the dungeons, complete the dungeons, and then defeat Ganon. Unfortunately, whilst I'm terribly curious to see how they approach dungeon design in this new game, I have nothing to go on. However, dungeons haven't changed all that much throughout the series so I'll hazard a guess and say they'll stay pretty much the same.

The big difference to me lies in the overworld, how it's designed, and how the player will perceive and interact with it.

To start let's look at the overworld in LoZ.

It sure does have one big ol' overworld, but the neat thing is that it's broken up into all these little areas. See, the world in LoZ is only ever presented to the player one screen at a time. This is interesting for a number of reasons but most importantly it limits the amount of information given to the player. So?

Sooooo you can't see where you're going, you don't know what lies ahead of you. Because of this you don't even have a destination in mind most of the time, you're simply walking from one screen to the next, hoping to uncover something new. So what prevents this from being mindless, aimless wandering?

Enemies, mostly. The challenges and adversity that arise from enemies. Near enough every screen has something to do, a challenge to overcome. This negates the aimless wandering, now you're going from screen to screen fighting monsters. Each screen presents the player with a new challenge, and due to the nature of how the game presents itself it's easy for the player to understand what they're up against. The screen based layout makes this a lot easier for the designer/developer as well. Since each screen is self contained you simplify the whole thing. You know every possible way the player can approach it, and without worry of any bleed over from previous screens (enemies aren't free to wander from screen to screen). This allows you to treat each screen as its own self contained level, essentially.

See, the neat thing is that the overworld in LoZ operates a lot like the underworld, the dungeons. The main difference lies in the fact that the dungeons have definite ends, a real goal. The overworld is far more open in that regard, but the way it presents itself is near-enough identical.

And that brings us to Zelda on Wii-U.

So as I mentioned, the structure is looking to be the same, but the design and presentation of the overworld is completely different. It doesn't have the 'clunky' screen to screen layout of the original game. Now the world is TRULY open, contiguous and laid out for the player to see. So what does this change? So, so many things. For starters I guess I'll talk about how this affects how the player explores the world.

In the video you can see them talk about how there are higher areas in the game that will offer good viewpoints for you to scan the world. You may spot something curious in the distance and choose to wander over there and investigate. You can even set a waypoint so that you don't get lost. Cool! But now this isn't about exploring the world, no discernible destination in mind, completely unaware of what may lie ahead of you. Now it's about setting a waypoint on a map and making a beeline for it. These games are already seeming totally different. But wait, there's more!

The world in Zelda Wii-U looks open. Like, REAL open. Like, you can literally go anywhere. It also looks sort of empty, which I feel is an inherent problem with this style of overworld design. See, whilst the world in LoZ was open ended in the sense that you could approach the game in any multitude of ways it still restricted the player to the boundaries of the screen. This meant that each screen could (and usually did) have enemies, there was never really a dull moment. Due to the scale of the world in Zelda Wii-U (as well as the truly open ended approach) it is a lot harder to create adversity everywhere. Now as a designer, you have to worry about things like enemies following the player to areas they aren't meant to be, or running the risk of enemies being so scarce and spaced out that they're really easy to avoid. And now with it being so open it's not as if enemies really CAN present a reliable obstacle, it's going to be a lot easier for players to run around them and avoid confrontation. And considering the player is going to be focused on heading to their destination that's precisely what they'll end up doing a lot of the time.

See, since the player didn't have a destination in mind in the original Zelda it was conflict and adversity that drove them forward. Now it seems like enemies will serve only to hinder the player or else provide some short bursts of action to spice up the otherwise uneventful journey.

I think it's important to recognize that two games can share the same structure and goals but still instill completely different senses in the player based on something as simple as how an overworld is designed and presented. It's important, then, to pay close attention to every component of a game; to make sure it's all working towards the same theme.

You know, that thing I praised the original game's team for doing.

]]><![CDATA[Woah, Aubergine Status Update and More!]]>Wed, 15 Apr 2015 22:40:09 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/woah-aubergine-status-update-and-moreWOAH!

I'm going to keep this sorta short and sweet, really!

Stuff that's happening/I am doing!

I'm going to start writing some neat posts about game design on this blog. I'm just finishing one up on Zelda which should be cool. These are going to be sort of scruffy, impromptu pieces based on ideas I've been mulling over recently.
I'm actually going to start using this darn twitter account of mine. I'm going to use it to post any and all thoughts I have about game design.
I'm making a podcast! Me and my very good friend Monk have been talking about doing this for a while and we've finally started going about it! We've just recorded the first episode, so I'll post more about this once I've done all the editing and what-not, but it should be a hoot!
I'm very close to finishing that Sonic Adventure video I've been dreaming up for a millennia! Hot (chilli) dog!
I'm still making Aubergine! More on that after the break!

So that's all pretty exciting, right? Recently I've found a new surge of energy and a rejuvenated interest in all things relating to game design. It's exciting!

But let's talk Aubergine.

What the deal, yo? Wasn't there meant to be some sort of early build out sometime last year? What's going on?

I think what happened was that with each delay on the project I sort of increased the scope and scale of the first build to compensate. Now that's pretty silly, if anything I should have reeled it back a little, but I didn't and here I am. I also made a handful of changes to the mechanics and design which sort of threw off my schedule. Oh boy, is this a mess.

The point is that it's still happening! With any project like this you find yourself falling in and out of love with it, and when there's no discernible end in sight it can get a little overwhelming. I haven't given up, though. If anything I'm more in love with this game than I've been for a while. I will be sure to explain in another post in the not-so-distant future (because I'm ACTUALLY going to attempt to update this thing regularly for REAL this time).

So when will it be out?

I have no idea, really. Hopefully not too long. The immediate future of my life is looking a little unpredictable right now but I'm hoping by surrounding myself with more game design related things (see: all the things I listed at the start) I'll be able to maintain an attitude that allows me to work on Aubergine any chance I can get.

In the meantime I'd recommend keeping an eye on this blog and my website in general. I'll be posting all sorts of things here from now on.

]]><![CDATA[Aubergine - Shmups: From Arcade to PC]]>Sun, 21 Dec 2014 19:30:38 GMThttps://www.alexwinrow.co.uk/blog/aubergine-shmups-from-arcade-to-pc

WARNING: The word "shmup" will be repeated to the point of nonsense in this post. I'll use "shooter" here and there for the sake of variety but it really don't break it up enough. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Shmups, or "Shoot 'Em Ups" rather, have a long and rich history that can be traced back to the earliest days of video games. Whilst Space War (1962) is often taken to be the first shmup, it's Space Invaders (1978) that really lead to the birth of the genre we recognize today with all of its recognizable conventions and sub-genres. It was, simultaneously, largely responsible for the Golden Age of gaming and the rise of the video arcade.

And indeed, shmups of every sort, be they fixed, on rails, multi-directional or scrolling, have a deep-rooted connection to the arcades. And to examine the genre you are required to examine the place they were all born and raised and the effects the environment had on the product.

I mean look at these beautiful vertical displays! This is the kind of feature that was only practical (or possible, even) in arcades for a very long time.

But why am I telling you all of this? Well, because the classic scrolling shooters of the 90's (developed by the likes of CAVE, Raizing and Psikyo) are the direct inspiration behind Aubergine. The thing is that whilst the popularity and success of arcades fell into decline and video games of practically every sort moved to home consoles and personal computers, shmups were mostly left behind in the arcades. And unfortunately this long history with the arcades has had a real impact on systems and mechanics that now seem an inherent part of the genre, and many of these aspects don't work so well outside of the arcade.

One good example of this is the credits/continue system which is seen in almost every arcade game. Usually inserting coins into the arcade machine grants you a credit and a credit equals one shot at tackling the game.

Example:

Batsugun (1993) is a bona fide classic! One credit gives you three lives; three chances to see the game through to the end. When all lives are lost the game presents the continue screen. This gives the player a short amount of time to decide whether or not they want to continue (or if they can even afford it).

This created this cool situation wherein continues were tied to something with a real sense of value, meaning that every death had a real impact on your playing experience. Sure, someone could die on every screen, at every opportunity and still see the game through to the end but this would be very expensive.

Now, in my experience shmups on PC and home consoles never really manage to capture that same sense of value that the arcade credit system has. And that makes sense, right? I mean, it'd be really dumb if you had to carry out a micro-transaction every time you died in a game you were playing on your phone or something (seething satire). Instead most will just give you an infinite number of continues, sometimes they'll give you a set finite number of continues, and some just drop continues altogether.

And I guess that's fine, but none of these options carry the value or weight of the arcade system, and in the case of the infinite continues it actually manages to cheapen the experience.

I've seen some games that opt for the infinite continues option that try and make continuing more of a non-option by resetting the player's score to 0 upon continuing. This may seemingly provide a big enough con to prevent people from continuing too much, and it certainly does stop it being a viable option in high level play (score runs) but for those are who just blasting through the game, trying to reach the end? It has NO impact.

This essentially just splits players into two camps:

The problem here is that the score only has a value within score runs and the people doing that ain't ever going to continue if it's going to damage their score. It provides a con to one type of player but not the other. Not to mention that the penalty is so severe that no respectable player aiming for a high score would even consider continue. The result is a system that just doesn't work.

Now, I've heard it said in shmup development circles that you should always keep in mind that the people playing your shmup will almost certainly be shmup fanatics; guys and gals who've spent hours upon hours remembering enemy bullet patterns in DoDonPachi (1997) and the like. If that is indeed your audience then it certainly makes sense to keep them in mind when you're approaching the mechanics and level of difficulty present in your game. However, the only people guaranteed to actually play Aubergine are my friends and family; none of whom have DoDonPachi bullet patterns stored in their memory (in fact, they probably have no idea what DoDonPachi is). So who am I designing this game for? The hardcore fans of the genre or the newbies?

Well why not both?

Aubergine was born out of my desire to construct MY perfect shmup, combining all of the best elements from my favorite shmups into one mega-shmup. And I think part of that is trying to capture what it is that I love about the genre, for others to see.

So in this credit/continue problem I see an opportunity to overlap the interests of the shmup fanatic and the shmup layman. And it's an idea so simple that I'm convinced that someone must have already implemented it.

*drum roll*

Your score IS your credits.

The idea here is that since your continues aren't attached to a real life, finite valuable resource (money) they can just be attached to a virtual, finite valuable resource.

So let's say a continue costs 2000 points. That means that any player with 2000 points or higher will be presented with an opportunity to continue upon losing all of her lives. If a player doesn't have enough points then they can't continue. Simple.

The real benefit here isn't just the weight this lends proceedings but how it will (hopefully) affect players. Remember that diagram from before?

The aim is to replace that with this:

Okay, okay, I'm pretty sure that the folks gunning for high scores still won't be interested in continuing but you never know! The real aim here is to make the score valuable to every kind of player. In this way I hope to encourage everyone to pay attention to their score and think of ways to increase it.

Will it work? I have no idea, but it's easy enough to implement so there's no harm in trying.

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