Freude trinken alle Wesen

I haven't written anything on game design for quite a while. With N-universe wanting to launch soon and the great pilgrimage known as E3 one doesn't have as much time to write. Oh and I'm pretty lazy. That doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking of themes and general knowledge to release upon all of you.

I'm not sure exactly what this article is anymore. Its definitely no longer a journal of my attempt to enter the industry. In fact, after E3 I was almost jaded by what the game industry has become and was very close to abandoning the idea of it all together. I've been considering dentistry, but I doubt anyone would want someone with no teeth working on theirs. So then what is this exciting article? I guess its more so design philosophies, sometimes applicable to games, even more so to life. I've never done any game design, at least in a professional environment. Trying to nap in a hotel room while 4 idiots (no names) try and cooperate at getting gold keys in 4 swords seems to be the extent of my game design history. So now that my credentials have been established, lets get started.

I just got out of the shower. My mind is always most willing to go places I haven't been during a shower, and also right before I fall asleep. Which is kind of the whole point of this entry. I have been thinking feverishly about the Zero Point. My thoughts of that particular anomaly seem to peek when I listen to Ode to Joy. To explain quickly and painlessly, zero point is when the human existence and the divine, whatever that may be for you, are in complete harmony and one is in a balanced state. I will get to how all of this applies to game design fundamentals in a few minutes.

I think that thought is beyond amazing. For me to think about love, and my emotions and my sexuality and God as being one and the same is pivotal to live life in the way I do. If we can think of our emotions, of our self expression, art and music, literally everything we do, of the human orgasm, of Love and of God as all being extensions and fingers of one another, then life can be beautiful and the existence of God is proven. If I exist God must exist. Even if one doesn't believe in a god or higher being, the same philosophies of life can be true. The inner self just needs to take the place of the "higher being". We as people have erected barriers. These walls that protect us from people and the world we live in. From the day we are born we test and learn and slowly figure out what causes pain, what brings joy, but at the same time, those categories are tested to reveal to us what is "socially" accepted, so more boundaries are born and new lines are drawn and the categories may become intertwined and overlapping. I know speaking from my own mind that there are things I would like to do, childlike things, that are socially unaccepted, but these things bring happiness and shouldn't be caged, some lines don't need to be drawn. Living in this world makes it harder to dissolve those boundaries but I am a firm believer that it can be done. These social barriers are also what, I believe, keep so many gamers jaded towards Nintendo and has instilled the "kiddy" image we all know so well. If one takes time to really stop and decide what they think is fun, and not what is socially accepted as fun, I think a lot more people would see the brilliance in what Nintendo is trying to do.

So, then as more human boundaries are destroyed, and we focus more on simple divisions like pleasure and pain, I think life becomes a lot simpler. Life will never be simple just because of the fact that life is interaction. Interaction with other beings. This is where complication comes. Nothing can be simple when the many variables the human mind presents are involved. But I do believe it can be simplified, although not simple.

I'm getting off track as I usually do. What I really wanted to talk about is existing in a perfect state and eventually work this into some sort of design elements. Although my definition of perfection in this case does not mean without flaw. I am referring to the great Betty White of course. Perfection. I kid; I really refer to flaws of the imperfect state. Its those flaws and imperfections that in the end make us perfect. I am referring to perfection as the state of the mind as I know it. Often sad, often confused, but at the same time joyful. Its in these freeze frames of my thoughts and emotions that I find those chunks of perfection. I've used this analogy before but I wanted to write it down just so its there. I feel that this emotion I experience, these thoughts that permeate my existence, my existence itself is all one in the same. I can't draw the line between music and a feeling of passion or happiness. I cannot draw a line between creating art and pure bliss. This leads me to believe that there is no line, creation and destruction, falling in love, listening to music, and the list goes on, are all one in the same.

I like to use the analogy of Play-Doh. You have this substance. It can be molded, shaped, broken, and re-fused. I think of the human mind as the Play-Doh fun shapes squeezer thingy (ha, no making fun) and the mind takes this substance and expels it through different shaped die and the shapes we know as music, art, emotions, and existence are created.

I believe all emotions are forms of love anyway. Love is really the only form existing in this universe. It's so very powerful, people abuse it, and take it for granted. Take sadness for example. Isn't sadness just the feeling of lost and longing love. Something you love is gone, and it rips you apart, something you love is unreachable, and it breaks you. Hatred, is bitter love. Bittnerness the love that causes pain. You let all around you know your angry. Hatred is love in its most dangerous form so I cannot allow myself to hate. I get angry sure, but I will not hate. And if love is the only form existing in this world, what happens when two people realize that and come together in a way that is boundless. I can't imagine.

So then...what is this doughy substance? As I said before Love seems to be the creative force in the universe. If everything is created from and out of love, then I have to connect the two and say that (if youre in a balanced state) everything in our life is based from love. As an artist I can say this is true without a doubt, everything I create comes from a deeper love. So then if we and everything around us is formed from the essence of love, and the divine is the essence of love. What happens when a person is in fact creaming the divine, when the source and the result are in fact one and this kind of creativity and boundlessness is put into something applicable, like, game design?

I can honestly say I have reached the zero point. Its definitely not a constant thing, there are fluctuations. I feel doors open and paths present themselves every time I do a piece of art. Doors to other worlds, other levels of this world. Some may say I am just describing Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If you were to do a search for the pyramid on the internet I think you would find this to mean more than just a meeting of certain physical and emotional needs, as presented by Maslow.

So your probably thinking now that I am a big partaker in the juice my mother affectionately calls crack. I bet your probably also wondering what the hell this has anything to do with game design. Well, I really have no idea but I'll try and make something up. Everything I have just tried to explain can be applied to any practical application in life. If we think about how everything has a direct relation to everything else and these relationships need to be in harmony, I think this can go a long way towards the creation of games as art and the thought that games can in fact reach a zero point of their own.

Like I said before, I have become very jaded by the industry as of late. Its very sad for me to see industry innovators like Sega losing money and being forced into relying on sonic titles to stay afloat. Even Nintendo is longer immune as they fight to keep the second spot from Microsoft. Walking around the E3 show floor seeing more of the same, more gimmicks, and more boring game play than I have seen in years. I think as a company Nintendo has adopted the design philosophies I have just presented more so than any of the other three companies. They are focused on making games fun. I think a game should only be what it is. The graphics and sound don't always have to be 100% photorealistic and orchestrated. A game needs to be an entity in and of itself. If the look of the game, the music and sound and gameplay all collaborate and harmonize with that gaming entity and the real essence of what is established I think a successful game is created. I want to see games like these back at the top. I eagerly await the day that the sequel to Samba De Amigo outsells Big Game Hunter.

Fast Fact: I own Samba De Amigo. For my one copy of Samba De Amigo my brother owns no less than 5 versions of the Big Game Huntah.

Fast Fact: For every copy of Big Game Huntah my brother owns he also own no less than 5 guns.

Fast fact: For every copy of Samba De Amigo I own I also own no less than 5 sets of maracas, or any other gay Mexican instrument of your choice. This excludes my spicy dildo.

Alright, so this is where I am going to attempt to create some sort of theme for my game, why still trying to be philosophical. I can't say this is the best approach to game design but its the one that works for me.

I sat here today and didn't listen to any music. If anyone knows me at all they know I am constantly listening to music at all times, and when there is nothing to listen to I hum the theme to batman. Not only does this break up monotonous silence, it allows for very dramatic entry into any room. I cannot stress the importance of leaping for full emotional impact. Today though I sat in silence. There are nights when music can bring me too my knees and the very next day nothing I listen to impacts me in any way. So I thought more about our emotional connection and the world around us. I've begun to think of our emotions and the substance that we feel as emotions as more of a physical substance. Throughout our lives we are taught that seeing is believing and "if I could touch them I could tell you if they are real", and yet we FEEL this substance everyday of our lives. Isn't feeling the most attuned and accurate sense, I'm not referring to touch, I mean inner sight.

So then I was thinking, if this is some sort of physical object, then its possible it could have attributes in a way physical matter does.

So I wonder why music affects me at certain times and not others. Its quite possible that part of my mind just isn't as receptive at the time. But I wonder if our feelings and emotions resonate at a certain frequency, an emotional frequency. I also wonder if at a given period when we are feeling most connected to a song, if that key or set of notes to the song isn't resonating at that same frequency. If we choose to listen to something that isn't in the same frequency range as our emotional state at that time maybe thats why our bodies don't react as intensely. When we listen to new music, theres a lot of time we don't appreciate it, or may even down right hate it. I think that we limit ourselves as humans to frequencies we find comfort in. Times even exist when a person will not allow new things to enter their perception and instead of opening to allow the presence of new ideas, they forcefully and intentionally resist the thought of accepting new ideas i.e. new music, art or even games. When we open ourselves and listen to something new, and really listen, let ourselves be free in that, then our mind expands and allows for those frequencies that have the potential to exist to really grow and expand, and thus allowing the human soul to mature and expand. I once had a conversation with a friend about the person changing to accept new music, when he thought he was the music changing, I think this elaborates on what I was trying to say. This also goes a long way to explaining the mystery that will always be fanboyism.

That brings me to the question of people. Are people found in attraction, not just in physical ways, but that feel inseparable and like one, experiencing a simultaneous vibration of their souls that is in the same key. Are people that have a relationship in where they love the person unconditionally, but still don't have the soul connectedness that some couples experience, just relying on physics and pheromones to build that love upon? Sometimes when I feel the level of queer I have achieved could never be hurdled I raise the bar with things like that last paragraph. Go Carebears.

This is of course all speculation, its very possible everything I have just said is wrong and I am an idiot. But isn't it fun to ask what if. And what if it were true. I would like to believe it is. Its the only thing that can account for what I feel.

Wait wait wait, I hate to edit this but I was peeing and had a thought. Maybe our core is the human soul. Maybe our emotions and our soul are not the same thing. People like to lump the soul and feelings together as "the heart."

Maybe our emotions swirl around our core like little feeling satellites. Maybe our central core has an unchanging resonance. But our emotions are constantly fluctuating, and each of those hold a frequency. Maybe deep down we are who we are because of our soul frequency but we are not frozen in our humanity but have the power to grow and make choices. I think this is because of our emotions and the ever complex human brain. So now I have to think that maybe people fall in love with those who may have the same emotional frequencies that they have at times where their love is greatest. But maybe its not lasting love because their core frequencies aren't compatible.

Oh wait. Maybe...maybe our souls are like magnets, maybe its not similar frequencies that attract but like magnetism its the polar opposites. Maybe thats why opposites attract...

I think I'm done for now, before I sprain something.

Now that all of that is out of the way and you hate me and want spite my face, we can get to the game. I want to attempt to design an entire game over the internet. It won't be a complete playing game. What I am going for is really the game on paper. I want to invite all of you to participate. I'll set a few of the foundations and we can all work together to bring something we all like to the table. If I don't like your ideas I'll just have Dean get out the ban stamp.

The look and feel of the game will be based tightly around a musical theme. The music is definitely going to be a major major part of the production. The entire driving force of the game, the desire to move forward will all be dictated by the music. I think this will create and interesting design challenge. I want to reach for an art design that is both rich and cohesive. Distinct areas but at the same time the player knows they are the same world.

I've gotten us started by designing the main character. I hope this goes a long way towards establishing a memorable main character. I don't think every character needs to be of the mascot variety. Mascot characters tend to be less complex in shapes and design. As long as the character is memorable and keeps the players interest throughout the adventure, a design then works. I am also a big believer in changing the design throughout the life of a world so things don't become stale.

Conceptual art of the main character, Gigue. Click the images for larger versions.

Keeping with our musical theme I'm decided to call our little fellow Gigue. A lot of people I have run the design past think Gigue is a girl, but alas, boys are so much cooler than stupid girls and Gigue is in fact a boy. Oh and you may notice the word gigue used in some song titles. Its from the French word meaning "jig" and thats how its pronounced correctly. The word jig does not exactly evoke power in my eyes (unless Dean "Legs" Bergmann is the one jigging). So this characters name rolls off the tongue as "geeg". Use a throaty G when you say it, like.....goose or gams. Gigue is some sort of spirit. I havent exactly worked out the details of his species but it'll be neat when I do. What I have so far is that he is a forest spirit and as a forest spirit he has this instrument. Its a magical bow really *sparkle* and it can be used to play any surface like an instrument. So lets say Gigue is flying, (his main mode of transportation) and he decides to let the bow scrape the ground as he flies, musical sound will be played. This becomes very important when gameplay is involved and will be explained more later with pictures. If you compare a cello and the basic design of Gigue you will see some similarities. Design is about growing and seeing more in everyday things. Never ever limit sources of inspiration. Remember that.

The setup is fairly simple; I am saving my more elaborate stories for more involved games. I really want this one to be easy on the brain and simple fun, easy to get lost in the music and action onscreen. Since Gigue is a forest spirit he needs to be doing spirit like things. His species role is to free green growing life from the dark. A forest spirit plays his or her instrument in a song to the tree or life in question and the evil is drawn out and the tree is saved. Yay. So gigue returns from one such trip only to find his canopy empty of all other spirits. Hrm, where did they go? Where could they be? So said spirit decides to take a journey and find his lost friends. Something very dark and ominous is speaking to him subconsciously and drawing him toward the path where he will ultimately discover what happened.

One more quick thing and I will end this before it gets out of hand. A game needs a villain. I am a big believer in complex villainy. The more conflicting and interesting a villain the better. I am also a fan sometimes of a villain being nothing but pure evil. Its hard bringing pure evil across to an audience without coming across as hokey. The only thing I've ever really known how to pull off is Cory Fallers American flag hat. For the main evil in this story I wanted something evil. There of course is a driving force behind all this evil, we will get to the big evil later. The evil for the main portion of the game will be a somewhat little evil sent by the Big evil. I was inspired for this character bye a line of a song. I strongly urge design elements to come from anything and everything. There will be a separate article on that topic alone. The line goes dance with the sufis, celebrate your top ten in the charts of pain." So I call him Sufis for now. A sufis is actually a Muslim mystic so the actual name will have to change to avoid offending the intended audience. I intend to design several forms for Sufis also but for now here are two.

Conceptual art of the villian, Sufis. Click the images for larger versions.

I think we've covered a lot and off to a pretty good start. I'll start a thread in the forums and everyone is more than welcome to post ideas and pleaaase send concept art if you feel so inclined and even music you may have written. This is a group effort, lets try and make a game for the fans and lets try to make me some money.