Just a quick note that I’ll be speaking on a panel at the ION Game Conference in Seattle.

http://www.ionconference.com/session.php?id=4733

Mike Sellers and I go way back, so I’m looking forward to this.

Its hard to exaggerate the impact Gary Gygax has had on the game industry. I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for his work.

Playing Dungeons & Dragons and games like it allowed millions of people to express themselves and explore the depths of their imaginations. I have many happy memories of sunday afternoons spent on the porch with friends, a card table, and funny dice.

It’s a sad day, and the world seems a little less fun with his passing.

Do you want to help develop category-busting entertainment software?

Like the idea of creating a media-transcendent franchise that will delight audiences for years to come?

Think Seattle is a cool place?

If you answered yes to these questions, then fall in ’cause Thinglefin is hiring.

Artists! Go here and here

Designers! Go here

Engineers! Go here

We’ve got the best of all worlds: the independence and organizational flexibility of a start-up with the security and backing of one of the largest casual game companies around. 

And if you know someone who has said mad skillz, send ‘em here. Share the Thingle.

I hope everyone had a pleasant and relaxed holiday. 

We’ve settled into our new digs in Big Fish’s downtown office in Seattle and I must say that the transition was remarkably smooth.

As part of Big Fish Games, we have access to resources we never dreamed of as a cash-strapped start-up. The challenge moving forward is to stay true to our scrappy, start-up mentality, while making judicious use of the new tools and “best practices” at our disposal. But its a delightful problem to have, so I’m not at all complaining.

Stay tuned for more concept art and the occasional entry from my fine Thinglefin fellows.

Upon hearing that we’d “sold out”, our webserver hit the sauce a little hard last night and then, in a post-party stupor, took the wrong bus to work this morning. We finally found it hitting on a 40 year old cocktail waitress at the 13 Coins down in Seatac and dragged it back to the server room. We all presume this won’t happen again.

Yes, it’s true! As of November 12th, Thinglefin is part of Big Fish Games!

For the record, this is a fantastic development not only for us, but for our upcoming game. The team is continuing to work, essentially uninterupted, on the game we set out to make. In many ways, this is the best of both worlds. We get to do what we love, but with the resources, experience, and wisdom of the best casual game company in the business.

But don’t expect too many changes around here. We’re still walking softly. We’re just carrying a much bigger stick.

Choosing the player’s perspective in a game is a crucial decision. Not only does it affect how players perceive the gameplay environment, it also creates expectations on how the game should be played. For instance, if you begin the game looking at the back of a car, it’s reasonable to expect that you will be driving the car.

In the game we’re developing, we’re working with a number of assumptions:

1. 1. The player can select and control more than one character in a serial format (one at a time).
2. 2. The environment is deformable and can be shaped by the player.
3. 3. The default control scheme is “click-to-move.”

For these reasons, we had decided that an isometric perspective would best suit our needs. Games with an isometric perspective provide an omnipotent feel (going all the way back to Populous) that we thought would convey the player’s role in our game.

That was the theory anyway.

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As we continue to explore character design, we’ve come up with a few rules of thumb.

1. Animation Trumps All - with simple characters, animation becomes extremely important in order to communicate unique personalities and attitude.

2. People Love to Customize - even if they make the most repulsive design ever, they will be proud of it.

3. Keep Things Simple - don’t stray too far from the the base silhouette.  Otherwise you could end up with ”clown vomit” on the screen.

So, with this in mind, check out the pic below to see three simple variations that could be designed using our basic “cat” model.  Expect more variations in future posts.

Cat variations 1

Some years ago I interviewed for a job as an artificial intelligence programmer working on the latest title in a well-known RPG franchise.  During my tour of the studio, the producer showed me the latest build of the game.  The engine was fairly far along and there was at least some content - a world with buildings, liberally populated with character models.  But lacking any AI, the characters simply stood around, unanimated, like so many statues.  It would have been my job to add the AI to drive animations on the models, and then game systems governing their interactions with the players.  In the end, I chose to go with a different company, mainly for real-life practical reasons.  But the image of those static characters, and the opportunity to breathe life into that frozen tableau, was very tempting.  It was difficult to turn down that job!  (They also had crab cakes in the cafeteria at lunch… very difficult to turn down that job.)

That particular road-not-taken was an example of what I’ll call “gameplay integration”.  Gameplay integration involves taking different pieces contributed from different areas of the team - art, design, and perhaps other engineers - and putting them together to create gameplay.  These programming tasks typically include a generous dose of artifical intelligence work, plus input processing/player control and often some user interface work.  It’s essentially where the end result, the player experience, is born.  For me, it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of game programming.  Our Thinglefin project has ample opportunity for this kind of work, and a recent task made me recognize two distinct pleasures that it can bring.

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Ahh, the characters.  :) 

When designing characters for videogames, it’s important to not only make a visually appealing design, but make sure it works within your technical limitations.  Sure you could make this super sweet illustration showing off your mad 2D skills, but you’re really shooting yourself in the foot.  Before picking up that pencil, you need to think long and hard about the bigger picture at hand.

So to kick off my first art post, I’d like to share a small glimpse into the world of the thinglefin art mentality.  Below is a picture of a simple concept for a generic dog and cat design.  Besides sharing strong sihlloutes (which is extremely important in our games), they are fairly simple in design.  However, if you look at the bigger picture you will begin to see why they were designed this way.

One word: “Customization“.

Imagine picking one of these base designs, then having the option to switch out the ears, nose, tail, etc.  What if you could add custom graphics or designs?  Switch a cat head with a dog head? The possibilities are endless.  With these options in mind, the player could really make some interesting combinations.  After all, who wants to use the same ol’ design that 50 other players are already using?

Before I go, please make sure to leave any comments you have about these sketches below.  We would love to hear your feedback as these characters evolve and will continue to keep you in the loop here on the thingleblog.

-Alan

Cat and Dog concepts