tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post7420171246956484745..comments2009-09-16T18:50:17.071-04:00Comments on The Interactive Media Musings of Savid D.: Comedy & The (Short Essay On The) Linearity ConundrumSavid Daundershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06069179835226679290noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-84632043118484989332009-01-06T08:21:00.000-05:002009-01-06T08:21:00.000-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Kelseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05056260883164614525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-88625648383283398032008-12-25T05:18:00.000-05:002008-12-25T05:18:00.000-05:00Yay Gold Star!I just started college this year and...Yay Gold Star!<BR/><BR/>I just started college this year and found out that there's a game developer's club ( http://sjsugamedev.com/ ), so I've been spending a lot of my free time in the past few months hunting the Internet for as much information as possible about game design (the club is dominated by programmers, so I have to learn this stuff online). It's brain candy, so I've been having all sorts of ideas that I've been putting into the Notes app on my iPod. I recently finished converting all of them to drafts on Wordpress, and I'm going to go through them and make them more readable to those who don't share my brain. The beginnings of it are here; subscribe to the feed!<BR/><BR/>http://kelseyhigham.wordpress.com/<BR/><BR/>I'm heavily interested in art games and game artists, so I spent a while going through Ian Bogost's stuff. I stumbled upon the two comments that comprise your latest blog post (in comment form, not blog post form). I was pretty happy to find a game designer who has a blog, because my Internet searchings for such yielded disappointingly little! How many do you know of?<BR/><BR/>I'm one of the few in the club who's only there as a hobbyist--I understand that it takes a while to earn the title "game designer" unless you go indie, which seems difficult--but I don't have any particular career in mind, so who knows?Kelseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05056260883164614525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-33994007451624005982008-12-23T11:04:00.000-05:002008-12-23T11:04:00.000-05:00Kelsey, I'm proud of you, you know your game termi...Kelsey, I'm proud of you, you know your game terminology :D<BR/><BR/>I like where you're heads at. What other topics have been on your mind recently? You ever think of working in games?<BR/><BR/>Also, how'd you stumble across this blog?<BR/><BR/>Best,<BR/>~Savid<BR/><BR/>p.s. BTW, you get the Gold Star I mentioned in this postSavid Daundershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06069179835226679290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-27022709470806352472008-12-17T01:51:00.000-05:002008-12-17T01:51:00.000-05:00Semantics is my favorite way of generating thought...Semantics is my favorite way of generating thoughts! I was just twisting Anonymous's words a bit.<BR/><BR/>IRL, I treat humor like a series of truths I think others might enjoy. I try to be funny because I like seeing people laugh. I'm not sure that I would find it as satisfying to try to amuse a game. Karoshi and similar games are still instances of the game designer being funny, not the player.<BR/><BR/>I think a game where the goal is to be funny would have to be multiplayer, and if we want the players to be able to make real jokes, it would probably have to entail LittleBigPlanet-scale content creation and sharing. There's no sense in forcing the player to make jokes about one topic, even if most of them will be making video game jokes anyway.<BR/><BR/>Of course, making the player think he's funny, like Guitar Hero makes him think he's a guitar hero, is pretty easy to conceptualize. Aim the slapstick! Refine your motions! Time your actions for maximum comedic effect! This kind of thing is plenty measurable.<BR/><BR/>Delivery of comedy is a skill that can be refined—easy to convert into a game, though I'm not sure what a comedy delivery game might entail. Creation of comedy is an art, a lot harder to ludolize.Kelseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05056260883164614525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-46592710739212585342008-12-16T10:51:00.000-05:002008-12-16T10:51:00.000-05:00@ Kelsey - Wow, I never thought of approaching it ...@ Kelsey - Wow, I never thought of approaching it that way. I like it! A LOT!<BR/><BR/>I could see making a game where the point of it is to discover the game's quirks. And by that I mean "discover" - I suppose the designer/programmer would program each of those glitches in. Similar to what you said about twitching in Halo, Warthog jumping would be another example. If a whole game could not be made out of these, achievements could easily be awarded for these quirky findings.<BR/><BR/>And also, I had never heard of Karoshi, but I checked it out and it looks cool! I look forward to checking it out when I get home tonight.<BR/><BR/>But I think you're right - there's more to comedy than programming humor. That's what's so difficult about it I suppose.<BR/><BR/>Any other thoughts on ways to approach this one?Savid Daundershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06069179835226679290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-29546468977717333322008-12-15T16:48:00.000-05:002008-12-15T16:48:00.000-05:00Come to think of it, Karoshi is an example of what...Come to think of it, Karoshi is an example of what I described. This kind of mechanic probably emerges in the preliminary stages of programming any game that simulates reality.<BR/><BR/>Of course, there's probably more to game comedy than programming humor.Kelseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05056260883164614525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-51397591365169794272008-12-15T16:20:00.000-05:002008-12-15T16:20:00.000-05:00Plenty of comical situations have arisen when play...Plenty of comical situations have arisen when <I>players</I> surprise the <I>game</I>. I.e., when the game logic doesn't expect a player's actions and responds in a weird way. When a dead body in Halo starts constantly shuddering thanks to collision logic, it's kinda like the game is snorting milk out of its nose.<BR/><BR/>The challenge with this line of thought is that it doesn't lend itself to intentional humor on the part of the game maker, because the joke is on him. But then, plenty of comedians have made careers out of self-deprecation.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps a puzzle game whose game logic is a simplistic approximation of the real world? To solve puzzles, you would have to exploit the game's simplicity and break natural laws.Kelseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05056260883164614525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-8651702938383259802008-12-05T15:07:00.000-05:002008-12-05T15:07:00.000-05:00How indeed! That's precisely the question I'm ask...How indeed! That's precisely the question I'm asking.<BR/><BR/>The difficulty lies in measurement.<BR/><BR/>Hmm... I sense a new post topic. Is the ability to measure an input a prerequisite for making a game? Wii Fit can measure the pressure applied to the balance board. A controller measures the pressure (or activation) of a button press. <BR/><BR/>But once you get into measuring the transcendental, that's where we run into problems.<BR/><BR/>I'll get into this more soon. Thanks for the bout of inspiration!Savid Daundershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06069179835226679290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8901029731335026194.post-66617996558637941992008-12-04T14:02:00.000-05:002008-12-04T14:02:00.000-05:00I have a hard time imagining a way to make comedy ...I have a hard time imagining a way to make comedy into a game. Comeday is about entertaining by surprising your audience, but how can you surprise yourself?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com