As many of my colleagues are pleased to point out, I'm approaching 40 years old, meaning I can trace my roots somewhere between the jurassic and triassic in terms of games development. While this is all very amusing, it also means that I find myself in a constant internal debate over whether some of my methods are the result of long experience, or just the luddite tendencies of age.

The use of computers in level design is just such a case.

I insist that designers I work with begin every level design on paper. All the basic thoughts behind the gameplay of the level should be expressed in a paper design before it is ever realized on the computer. While I've met resistance to this idea from time to time, usually designers do just fine on paper...though I do have to bust them from time to time for using the computer inappropriately.

This paper bias is emphatically *not* due to some great drawing skills on my part. I can't draw worth a shit. But I do find that paper (graph paper and a ruler, mind you) is far and away the most liberated way to create the shapes, angles and spatial divisions required for a level design.

You see the trouble is, with a computer, there will always be an easier way to do soemthing, and a harder way to do something. And a designer through no particular fault of his or her own will inevitably end toward the easier. In particular, the computer design tools will tend toward geometric shapes rather than organic shapes. It takes a highly skilled user of the tool to create shapes that don't end up looking like collections of primitives rather than actual places. This is particularly true at the junctions of spaces, which tend not to 'flow' for designers that over-use tools.

At which point I ask, what is the point of using the CAD tool at all? No doubt you've heard the complaint that "all Unreal Engine games look alike". My response is "duh", because I've seen how the UnrealEd tool works. Don't blame the engine folks. Blame the tool. Or rather, blame the designer who uses the tool.

Designing within the game implementation tool is a great example of designing backwards, and brings me to my second reason for insisting on paper rough designs. Computer-aided tools are fantastic for detail. This is why by no means do I denigrate the importance of actual game implementation software, where fine detail and iteration can take a given level from good to great. This emphasis on detail however does not help the initial design process at all.

Initial design, the creative part, should be done in a fractal manner, beginning at the lowest level of detail and working up to the higher detail levels. Indeed the first couple of drafts should probably not even be to scale, as the designer works out the flow and general shape and structure of the space. Next would come relative sizes of the spaces, while preserving the flow, and finally the details of the gameplay and visibility. This top-down approach would be terribly difficult to do even in a flexible 2D CAD program like Adobe Illustrator.

CAD tools by their nature lead toward linear, point-to-point thinking, rather than fractal, outside-in thinking. It's not dissimilar actually from the difference between object-oriented and procedural programming.

Bearing all this in mind it's not difficult to see how designing your game inside your construction tool will lead to designing backwards. Pretty soon you're focused on the details, to the exclusion of the big picture, and the results are predictable, with decent moment-to-moment gameplay but a noticable lack of cohesion and coherence as the player plays for more than five or ten minutes.

Maybe I'm just old, but I don't think so. Get yourself a pad of Staedtler engineer's computation graph paper and see if I'm not right.

Today I was working with my design partner-in-crime GMoney, and the phrase "sun seeds" came tripping out of my mouth. I knew it was familiar when I said it, but he immediately busted me.

"Talk about repeating yourself MJ," he said. "Spyro 3 baby."

I was thinking he was probably right, but I couldn't exactly remember. G and I didn't work together back then (we didn't even know each other) so he could have been wrong. So I went to the ever reliable GameFAQs.com to check. Sure enough, there was Sun Seeds, a puzzle from one of the early levels. If memory serves, I think that Brian Allgeier did that one, but memory has a habit of not serving terribly well these days so I can't really say. Regardless, Gmoney had me cold.

Since I had the file open I decided to glance through the FAQ. I hadn't thought about that game in so long, it was a fun trip through the way-back machine. Then I started to get perturbed. There was so much stuff in Spyro 3. And really, though Spyro was a little exceptional, there was a hell of a lot of stuff in a lot of games of that era. I looked through the FAQ and here are some stats for you:

- Five fully playable characters, all with different play mechanics, including one that flies using a helicopter mechanic
- 26 levels, each with its own art design, and built polygon by polygon (no instancing back then)
- 18 main levels, each containing one mini-game.
- 6 mini bosses
- 4 full bosses
- 4 "speed" levels using a fully-3D flying mechanic
- 1 extra level filled with mini-games, accessible only after completing the game 100%
- A skateboarding mini-game sufficiently complex that someone wrote a wholly separate FAQ for it.
- A couple dozen NPCs, all unique models with unique names and personalities; many of them were active participants in the gameplay.
- Secrets, including the now-famous Insomniac 'skill points'.

And this is a game that was done by less than 20 people, in well under a year.

Now imagine pitching this schedule to a publisher today - even as a sequel. You'd be flat laughed out of the room.

Most of the comparison is unfair. The polygon count on the environments is trivially small by comparison to modern games, and on PS1 you got one texture layer - if you were lucky. We didn't have advanced animation blending, because we had neither the processing power nor the animations.

And yet, we were somehow able to produce a great deal more interactive content, in a great deal less time and with a fraction of the staff. Has something gone awry? Or is this the typical "aging game designer comment"? I don't have a good answer for that.

I do know that the kids who played Spyro back in the day were fully engrossed in the world. They believed in the "Dragon Kingdom" (later named 'Avalar') and the crazy characters in it. But maybe with what they see on TV and in other games, that just wouldn't work anymore. The graphics would look too crude and abstract.

Also we've certainly increased our ability to tell story, which has helped somewhat to broaden the audience (particularly in the older age groups). And the level of realism in Call of Duty has to be seen as a positive in the ability to sell a genuine World War 2 experience to the player.

In thinking of the general trend though, where the ratio of player experience to development effort is in a constant decline, in terms of comments that Louis Castle recently made at GDC panel discussion. Castle commented that we need to get more disciplined away from the tendency to put so much content in games, lest we destroy our business proposition. Louis should know - his company, Electronic Arts, thrives on sports simulations, the one type of game I can think of that's immune to this problem.

Though many of us might be loath to admit it, sports games are unique in that, barring a screw-up, they genuinely get better with each iteration and improvement in technology. Because of the inherent constraint of the game's definition, the development staff can focus in on better feel, better UI, better replay. If the producer of NBA Live was told to make it "more epic", the absurdity would be obvious. But practically every day, somewhere in the game development world, word is coming down from on high for an increase in "epicity," to coin an annoying future buzzword. And don't think for a minute that this trend does not come at the cost of actual play.

Good or bad though...like I say, I almost don't feel qualified to say. There's value to an epic adventure, and in the hands of the right player it might be just what the doctor ordered. If I had to answer honestly, I'd probably suggest that this is a bridge that's been crossed and burned, and that we can't ever go back. Most days, I'm fine with this. I know for a fact that Heavenly Sword or 99 Nights couldn't even be contemplated on the old hardwares, and these are games that interest me a great deal. They look like fun.

But every once in a while, in a moment of indulgence, I do miss making all that gameplay, such as silly puzzles involving "sun seeds" that chase away anthropomorphic clouds. That was good stuff.

One of my proudest accomplishments in games is my perfect attendance record at Sony's now-legendary E3 parties. I was at the very first (Huey Lewis and the News at the Santa Monica Airport), and every one since, and over the years they've grown more and more impressive and entertaining.

Until this year, that is...and this makes me very worried about Sony.

Part of the problem was clearly money. Sony was spending phenomenal amounts of money, not only on top music acts like Outkast but also on the venue and the vibe. Incredible light shows, and an almost carnival-like selection of entertainment. Last year featured Mexican wrestling, and a show by Mini-KISS. (Or rather, as we were reminded by the performers "Mini Fucking KISS".) Two years ago was this amazing circus act in which every acrobatic maneuver was accompanied by fire. I smelled like gasoline for the rest of the night after that.

No doubt this was costing a lot of cash, and I can hardly blame Sony for wanting to scale it back a little. After all, some of the best parties (I think the ones at the City Center Studios downtown were great) weren't as elaborate. And given what the PS3 has been doing to Sony's bottom line, I'll have a little sympathy with trying to save some money.

But there was something else missing at this year's party. Riding the bus up the hill above Dodger Stadium I was as excited as ever, but as soon as I entered the venue, it just seemed somehow quieter. People were moving more slowly. Maybe there were fewer young people. Lord knows I wasn't helping bring the average age down. I was having trouble putting my finger on it when Kaz Hirai took the stage to introduce...Incubus. Not exactly an auspicious act. Remember this is the party that had brought us the Foo Fighters, Macy Gray, and Beck, Outkast, all at the peak of their popularity. Incubus was a lot cooler during PS1 than it is today.

Then Kaz I think hit the nail right on the head. He shouted for the crowd to get a little more excited. "What time is it?" he yelled, and the response was tepid. "Come on everybody, you know the drill!" shouted Hirai.

Yeah, that was it. You know the drill.

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I remember the first Atlanta party. It rained all day, then cleared up just in time for the show. Foo Fighters came on and we went crazy. Everybody in the crowd was kind of looking at each other like "can we really be doing something this cool?" When the Sony people took the stage they were awkward, unsure what to say. They were outsiders crashing this party called video games, and they couldn't wait to share the rebellious spirit with us. When the Foo Fighters scandalously crashed the Sega party later that night and played an unannounced late set, it only made things cooler.

After E3 came back to LA, there were a couple parties at Sony's Culver City studio lot. These were awkward too, with a kludgy location and too many people. It was really fun.

By the time we were going to parties at the LA City Center Studios, Kaz was proud. Sony had launched the PS2, and with guts and determination they had made it kick ass despite early problems. It was hard for him not to stand up on the stage and give a speech, you could see it. But it was time to party, and party we did. We were in love with Sony.

This year, Kaz, and indeed all of Sony, just seemed tired. There was a noticeable absence of the Japanese, usually cloistered in groups and in Sony's VIP area. It seemed like I probably could have even walked right into the VIP area if I wanted to. But I didn't want to.

The Sony we fell in love with, the one that gave us the gray box with the goofy name, then the black box that somehow made us all cool, just wasn't in the house this year. Instead it was a company that was going through the motions, that didn't have the energy of rebellion or innovation.

Kaz said it all perfectly: "You know the drill." Yes Kaz, sadly, we do know the drill, and unless something changes, this is the part of the drill where Sony ceases to be the exciting center of the games business.

For the first time ever, I left the 2006 Sony party early.

Of course there's no way to even see all the games shown at E3, much less play them and get a firm impression of them. But here are the games that caught my eye at E3.

A couple of Notes:
1) I didn't get to see any of the Wii games. The line to get in there was just stupid. I don't know why Nintendo always does that.

2) I didn't see a couple of high profile games that were invite-only such as Gears of War or Assassin's Creed. I hate that crap too. In fact, Ubi didn't let you play hardly any of their stuff, which was just plain annoying.


Heavenly Sword
This was the game of the show for me. Mind you, I'm talking about "what was the coolest thing to play at the show". It doesn't mean "this will be the best game." But for a 10 minute play, nothing was close. Heavenly Sword represents the best example yet of stylized action, which is the most exciting trend I see emerging in the next generation of games (including the tail end of the current generation, best exemplified by God of War).

Heavenly Sword looks absolutely stunning, with fabulous rendering effects (the bloom is used to great effect), and very nice use of procedural animation on the lead character's clothing and lengthy hair. And the camera has got to be one of the best cameras I've ever seen. The E3 demo was limited to a small arena, but the camera seemed always to frame the action just perfectly for maximum effect. Wow.

There's some debate among some of my friends who have played it over whether the controls are good, or whether the latency in movement caused by the use of animation-driven movement is frustrating. My response is that for this game, it's just fine. If the game had a lot of jumping puzzles or other precise navigation tasks, I would feel differently, but as a combat piece, the game does much of the movement for the player, allowing for very stylized and smooth-flowing animation. Whether this works for the remainder of the game outside of the E3 demo remains to be seen.

That would be my main complaint about Heavenly Sword. As much as it's a freaking stunning playable E3 demo, there was a haunting sense that there's not much there, there. I was left to speculate on what the rest of the game will be. Hopefully it's as cool as the E3 demo.


99 Nights
I promise, I only discovered this came from Tetsuya Mizuguchi after I played it. (Indeed...I just found out!) I'm a big Mizuguchi fan, going all the way back to Sega Rally but definitely including Rez and even Space Channel 5. N3, as this game is sometimes called, is a big departure into the realtime battle genre, but man, is it fun.

N3 is yet another example of the stylized action trend, with some really exciting moves possible with relatively straightforward controller inputs. Unlike God of War or Heavenly Sword however, the player is battling dozens of enemies, put into a battlefield setting rather than a simple melee arena. There's some strategy to it: as most of the (AI-driven) soldiers hack back and forth against each other, you need to make good decisions regarding which group you're going to dive into and hack the living shit out of.

Strategy aside, it's another game where the core is very fun and filled with exciting action. The moves are very smooth to execute, especially combos. Indeed I was able to execute a combo of 200+ hits with only the little amount of practice I could get at E3. This is a game I would definitely buy. And it was one of those games that I really didn't want to politely give up to the next player…though I eventually did.


Mech games seem to be having a minor renaissance, with a Gundam game apparently being readied for PS3 launch, and a couple others on display. While not wholly a mech game, Lost Planet was a standout. Graphically, it was really cool – taking the 'next gen' tendency toward realistic rendering, but adding really interesting stylistic tweaks to it, particularly in the design of the enemies, which are quite beautiful while also being menacing, and a surprisingly interesting color palette (not all grays and browns!!).

The gameplay of Lost Planet is kind of interesting too. The actual challenges really could be thought of as quite old-school, including enemies that have specific vulnerability points (shooters) or do charging attacks at you (Spyro!). The net result is something that really plays quite well. Look for this one.


I wanted to LOVE Okami, but I think I just like it. The controls are kind of twitchy and the gameplay seems sparse and undirected. But graphically, I just love the game. The watercolor renderer is amazingly well-done, and the animation of the wolf is actually quite impressive as well. No matter how the game ends up, Okami will be a landmark in visual art.


EA's Superman game is outstanding for its remarkable awfulness. This game is just total crap. The graphics are terrible, dull and seemingly without any depth or lighting, and it all runs at 20 fps – when it's running fast. I wish I could tell you that the controls or gameplay made up for this fact, but EA in its wisdom was not letting anyone actually touch the controller.

Hmm, last time I saw this trick done on a high profile game at E3 was the perfectly abysmal Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. Coincidence? Or maybe I'm cynical because of the last time a sports studio did a superhero game (the bloody-awful Spawn)? Or maybe because Superman games just always suck?

I know that EA probably has way too much sunk into this project to kill it now (the old 'sunk cost fallacy') but man. What a stinker. It (supposedly) ships in the Fall.


I love the freshness of the art style in Viva Piñata, but I hope it isn't ultimately off-putting. It is a little weird. I'm also curious to see how players take to the game style, since it's almost eerily similar to a game that I was working on a while ago (which, sadly, was cancelled). Viva Piñata was clearly very early, and pretty rough around the edges, but is a promising sign of creativity from Rare.


Like most everybody, I didn't know what to expect from the PS3 'tilt' controller, so my expectations were probably pretty low. But as soon as I got my hands on it with Warhawk, it really made sense.

Mind you, Warhawk is the perfect game for this controller, with a self-leveling aircraft and a very natural screen-to-controller correlation in 3D space. But I was extremely impressed by the controller's precision, something you don't expect from an accelerometer-based system (which I understand is what's inside). I played for quite a little while and enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm quite certain I would play Warhawk in this mode.


- I had fun testing out Ridge Racer emulated on the PSP. Boy, talk about a trip in the way-back machine. It's a spot-on perfect emulation, to the point that I was instantly back in the rhythm (I played a lot of Ridge Racer back in the day).
- Mark Cerny and I happened to pass by the Vivendi booth just as the Spyro: A New Beginning trailer came onscreen. My first reaction was revulsion – what were they doing with Spyro. Quickly though it changed, and Mark and I agreed, hey, at least they're actually trying to do something interesting. A New Beginning is quite unlike anything we tried, and that's a good thing. I hope that there isn't too much of a disconnect with the little purple dude and the heavy action that Krome is putting together, but I quite sincerely wish them the best.
- Loco Roco is good fun, but maybe a little simple for a full scale production. Maybe this will be a downloadable game?