GDC: More Games (And More People Behind Them)
(Originally posted on 1UP.com, March 9, 2008.
I still like telling the story about joining Phil Fish's entourage and getting into a party on the strength of his IGF trophy.
As much as I wanted to, I never did make it back to GDC. But my current job should give me a much better chance, so I'm hopeful for next year. We'll see!)
Fez Polytron/Kokoromi
I never actually played Fez during GDC. My patience in an expo setting--where there's always something else to do instead of waiting around watching other people play games--is generally pretty limited, and with the booth as busy as it was, I was never quite willing to put in the time necessary to secure a turn at the controls. In retrospect, I probably should have.
I at least had a couple good opportunities to talk with the creators and even fraternize a bit. I actually got introduced to Phil Fish of Polytron before I knew all that much about the game. I realized which game he worked on since he was wearing a fez, and I was somewhat familiar with the whole 2D/3D thing, but that's about as far as it went. Even so, I came to like him right away--not only did he get me into a rather exclusive party with the old "whip out your IGF trophy" bit, but I discovered that he shares two of my most fundamental beliefs: Silent Hill 2 is awesome, and the zombie apocalypse is inevitable.
It wasn't until later that I was able to get a more complete understanding of the game, though I'll spare the explanation here since you've probably already read Jeremy's piece. The biggest surprise for me was that, like The Dishwasher, Fez is also built on the XNA Framework, and the Polytron guys seem to really like our platform--including some stuff I personally worked on, which made me feel pretty good. Also like The Dishwasher, I think this game could be one of the standout releases on the framework if everything comes together well. The game is still largely a proof of concept at this point, but it looks very solid for what it is, and I'll definitely be following its progress in the months to come. This is just one more reason to get up for work in the morning.
Fret Nice Pieces Interactive
This is one of those ideas that a lot of people have but few actually execute on: What if you used a rhythm game controller for a non-rhythm game? Fret Nice, then, is a platformer that uses a guitar controller for input. What's interesting is that it isn't just about creative button mapping, but about creating a more physical experience like you hear about with your Wiis and your Rock Bands these days. For example, you use the fret buttons to move, but to move more quickly you have to actively strum the guitar--faster strumming means faster movement. To jump, you have to swing the guitar upward like you're activating star power. The result is a platformer that requires a bit more player involvement than just pushing buttons.
It takes some getting used to, but it's actually a lot of fun--there's a bit of awkwardness to the controls, but I think that will go away with enough familiarity. But you don't have to take my word for it, as there's a free demo up on the site right now. [Note: Not anymore, but it's on XBLA/PSN now.] If you have the controller for it--I know the 360 X-plorer works, though I'm not sure how wide compatibility is past that--I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.
The Path Tale of Tales
This is another game I never found the chance to play, nor did I even talk to the people behind it. However, I want to briefly mention it just as a counterpoint to the "fun-first" mentality I noticed in many established game designers during the sessions. Tale of Tales is not a group that believes fun is all that matters, or that story is just icing, or that there's some hard line between art and interactivity. This is a group that wrote a Realtime Art Manifesto that repeatedly asks the reader to not make games ("The game structure of rules and competition stands in the way of expressiveness," it says).
Honestly, these guys are probably too pretentious even for me, but that doesn't make what they say about the broader potential of our interactive medium any less true. I'm glad for the Ken Levines and Eric Wolpaws of the world who use story and artistry to merely enhance their finely-honed gameplay, but I'm also glad there are are people out there who realize that not every "game" has to work that way. The Path, from what I saw, didn't look much like a game at all--it looked like something else, and I think we could use more of these something elses to show that the medium is capable of things very different from what we're used to.
GDC: The End GDC was a huge event, with a ton of stuff going on all the time, so much that I could really just keep writing if I wanted to. But I think I've spent enough time on this, and it's been long enough that the relevance of these posts is starting to wane. So, here I close my report on GDC 2008, which I found to be quite the enlightening (and entertaining) experience. I really hope the corporate overlords will see fit to send me again next year.
