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Third time’s the charm, so I’m told. So, if it doesn’t work this time, we’re just going to give up and torture you with deliberations on polka. Don’t make us go there.

This episode of Bit Transmission really is going to have a lot of discussion about Mega Man 10, but that’s not all. Oh, no sir. We’re also going to talk about other things. Really important things. And we might let Colette go on about Final Fantasy XIII for a bit. Maybe. Or GDC stuff we didn’t get to check out for ourselves.

Okay, look, I spent a lot of time putting together that header image. Then I had a really good idea for it. Then I ran out of time to write this post. We’ll get through this together. Ask questions, make comments, we’ll include in the show. That’s how this goes. Begin.

And pay no attention to the masked man.

Organized by Naughty Dog co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand, “GDC Microtalks 2010: Ten Speakers, 200 Slides, Limitless Ideas) accomplished pretty much what it said on the tin. Ten different game designers from drastically different background and areas gave five minute talks aided by automatically advancing slides.

Including the likes of Jesse Schell, Ian Bogost, and Suzanne Seggerman, the session was almost overwhelmingly packed full of intelligent stuff, all (or mostly) based around the central theme, “play with us.”

I’ve tried my best to summarize the talks, after the jump.

Lemarchand introduced the audience to the microtalk theme, “play with us,” and introduced each of the speakers.

Kellee Santiago (thatgamecompany)

“When I think of logging onto the Internet to play a game with people,” Santiago admitted, “I feel a sense of dread.” Online experiences aren’t really about the sheer act of play, Santiago argued: they’re about competition, superiority and negativity.

Santiago cited the work of Stewart Brand, founder of the New Games Movement. Formed as a reaction against the Vietnam War, Brand argued that America’s attitude toward sports and games informed our attitude toward war. To combat this, Brand devised games that were focused more on player enjoyment than pure victory. The point of the New Games Movement wasn’t to get rid of competitive experiences, but to change the player’s perspective on play. If you’re not enjoying yourself — and it can be awfully hard to enjoy yourself when a 13-year-old starts teabagging you in Halo – it’s the game’s fault, not yours.

Designers can control the possibility space of what players can feel and to some extent what sort of play they engage in, so why not focus on encouraging play and changing how people relate to one another?

“We can do better,” Santiago concluded. “…let’s start inviting the world to play with us.”

Gary Penn (former games journalist, current game designer)

Penn’s talk focused on the idea that game experiences can be divided into two sections: the end, and the way. The end concerns what the player feels, and the sort of enjoyment they experience. The way deals with the things the designers had to think about in order to effect those reactions.

Penn contrasted the mechanically identical games Gimme Friction Baby and Orbital, pointing out the various reasons Orbital often feels more rewarding and enjoyable. Orbital feels more tangible and emotionally satisfying thanks in part to its aesthetics: the shots feel more forceful, the angle of your shots is illustrated by a visual trail which informs your play, and thus success and failure always feel like direct results of player action.

The “end” of Orbital, Penn argued, was informed by a “way” full of important desires. The designers of Orbital wanted to make a game full of emotional ups and downs, a game that sympathizes with its player (Orbital congratulates the player for tough shots and laments near-misses, unlike Gimme Friction Baby), gives the player a convenient, fluff-free experience, and exudes a certain magic.

Chaim Gingold (part of Spore concept team, designed Spore creature creator)

Gingold’s talk likened both players and game designers to the Trickster character found in so many myths and folklore.

Tricksters use other animals’ hunger against them, like tricking a fish with a worm, but often the Trickster’s own hunger comes back to kill them. Compare this to a game like Bomberman, where players attempt to trap their enemies with bombs but can accidentally trap themselves. Tricksters are flexible creatures who try things in new ways, just like players.

Gingold was quick to point out that Tricksters weren’t just amoral con artists; they were cultural heroes who in many cases brought wisdom to the world. Where Prometheus brought fire to the humans, designers immerse themselves in complex mathematics and science to bring us games and technology.

Tricksters like Hermes also conned their way into becoming gods. Gingold drew a comparison between Hermes and indies like Kyle Gabler, who circumvented the studio system to become powerful creators in their own rights.

Tricksters also introduce chaos in order to create new life, not unlike how Activision started making games for Atari’s systems. It was an unexpected move, but it changed the entire games industry.

Jane Pinckard (game girl advance)

Pinckard discussed love — ”

specifically that heartaching, heartwrenching heartpounding sensation we know as romantic love.” Pinckard admits there is “room to improve” the romantic aspects of games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, but also argues that, 

“I don’t think we’ve been entirely unsuccessful in gettting players to form deep attachments” in these virtual romances.

Given that so many games stimulate only the neo-cortex and the reptillian part of our brains, Pinckard celebrated the attempts of so many games to stimulate the limbic system, which reacts when we feel in love. Pinckard broke down virtual love into four different categories: love as narrative (Final Fantasy 8), love as nurture (Nintendogs), love as discovery (Knights of the Old Republic, where romance often felt like nothing more than picking the right dialogue options) and love as achievement (while mechanically similar to KotOR, Pinckard felt the act of romancing Alistair in Dragon Age felt more legitimate and rewarding simply because of how much content there was in the game — Pinckard felt legitimate suspense in trying to figure out whether Alistair liked her character or not).

In conclusion, Pinckard laid out five suggestions that worked for both first dates, and videogame romances: have a sense of humor, make use of adrenaline-filled moments, let the player express themselves (”I wanna be able to blow a kiss to Alistair,” Pinckard lamented), allow for vulnerability (Ico), and feel like the object of your affection is unique (Pinckard didn’t care for the romance options in Fable II because your potential mates are all nobodies).

“I don’t really care about the Citizen Kane of games,” Pinckard said in closing, “I want the Pride & Prejudice of games.”

Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games)

Bogost opened by reading the imagist poem “In the Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound. The poem consists only of two descriptions — one of faces in a crowd, one of flowers on a bough — without explicitly connecting the two. It’s up to the reader to reconcile the similarities and differences between the two images.

This sort of imagist style is similar to Will Wright’s works. In The Sims (my comparison, not Bogost’s), you can’t understand what your Sims are saying or necessarily why they do what they do, but you mentally volunteer your own opinions and motivations, making the work more personally meaningful.

Braid works in a similar way: Jon Blow sets up a vague metaphorical framework, and it’s up to the player to try to connect the ideas of forgiveness and do-overs in thttp://dt9.destructoid.com/elephant/adminrap3/posts.phtml?me=1&post_gp_mode=edit&post_key=166716&msgs[]=Changes+to+post+savedheir own unique ways. This sort of design doesn’t “get out of the player’s way” in the way designers like Clint Hocking encourages: the designer is constantly present in this sort of experience, creating a machine and inspiring the player to consider “what it means that the gears mesh.” When you play these sorts of games, you’re invited to come away with a unique conclusion about yourself and your part in the experience.

Margaret Robinson (game designer, consultant)

Briefly pimping out her new audio-only iPhone game Papa Sangre, Robinson asked the audience how she should price it. By a show of hands, Robinson noted (I wasn’t looking at the audience, so I can’t verify this) that most of the people on the left side of the auditorium supported lower price points, and the people on the right side of the auditorium supported higher ones.

At this point, Robinson revealed that she’d tricked the audience, and had expected this outcome. Before the talk, Robinson had placed fliers for the game on every chair. The fliers on the left side of the auditorium said the game was coming out on April 4th, while the fliers on the right side claimed the game was coming out on June 28th. Those who saw a high number were subconsciously primed to gravitate toward higher numbers, Pinckard said, while those who saw a low number thought the game should be priced lower.

(I call bullshit — I was sitting on the right side of the auditorium, and I was fine with a $5.99 price point because iPhone games are too goddamn cheap in general. But maybe that’s part of the hypnotism or something.)

This is what Robinson does as a consultant — through “behavioral economics,” Robinson argued that there are methods of understanding players that go beyond simple, mathematical analysis like what regular economists deal in. If there’s more to the player’s motivations than what we initially see, Robinson argued, then perhaps it’d be worth further exploring those motivations and acknowledging them in our game designs. Robinson suggested it might be worth worrying about, in addition to a traditional difficulty curve, a “curiosity curve.”

Sam Roberts (director of Indiecade)

Before getting into games, Roberts adapted works of fiction for the stage. As a fan of Bertolt Brecht, Roberts discussed the way Brecht focused on setting up the identity of the speaker in order to give the audience a more informed perspective from which to consider the work. Hunter S. Thompson did the same thing: when you read Fear and Loathing you’re not just reading some guy’s opinion on America, you’re reading a drug-addicted, gun-loving libertarian’s take on America.

Similarly, George Carlin has a bit on football and baseball that points out the vocabulary each sport uses directly informs the way each game is played. Football has the blitz. Baseball has the sacrifice. These placards give the viewer a clearer understanding of the nature of each sport.

Videogames do the same thing: Grand Theft Auto’s vocabulary concerns shooting people while Harvest Mooni’s concerns farming, even though both games are essentially about the player’s status in a community.

In Grand Theft Auto, you can only steal vehicles: if you instead commandeer them, then the game suddenly becomes about a cop rather than a thief.

Games’ basic pattern of inputs and outputs isn’t dialogue in and of itself: the interaction comes between “the meeting of a game’s expectations and the player’s desires.” When Roberts played Ultima III, he spent hours trying to kill a friendly NPC just for fun. To him, the game became a unique experience, a unique dialogue about power and trust and, ultimately, failure.

Roberts ended his talk by arguing that most player/game dialogues are very limited, with poorly thought out placards that don’t say much about the “active metaphor” of the game. “Say something with your games,” Roberts encouraged.

Jesse Schell (professor, CEO of Schell Games)

As mentioned in an earlier news post, Schell effectively took his DICE talk, removed all the optimism, and tackled the question of what designers can do right now to combat the impending gameification of modern life.

Schell emphasized that the “gamepocalypse” is definitely coming. Moore’s law shows that tech will soon be cheap enough that you’ll see electronic games on soda cans, and nobody’s going to stand up against it. Nobody stood up and revolted when the number of commericals in relation to real TV content jumped from 13% to 36%. Nobody revolted when TV stations started permanently keeping their logos in the bottom-right corner of the screen, burning the image into your brain. Nobody revolted when Shea Stadium became Citibank Stadium. Even if you did, Schell said, “it didn’t do a damn bit of good!”

“Corporations are gonna be creating customized games to fit every activity, every day,” Schell said. And with that impending change, designers have to decide what part of that fight they want to be on. Are you a designer who just wants to make money at all costs, or are you interested in fulfilling your audience, or making social change, or creating art? The romantics can win out against those designers who want only money, but only if the romantics “wake the hell up,” in Schell’s words.

The war is already here, Schell warned, and if you don’t decide what side of it you’re on, someone else will decide for you.

Suzanne Seggerman (co-founder, Games for Change)

After describing games as a meaningful part of our culture, “potentially the most important of the 21st century,” Seggerman urged the designers in the room to create relevant, honest, realistic games. Games have the ability to tackle real-world issues, which is exactly what Games for Change is all about.

Seggerman pointed out the enduring genius of Bob Dylan, who rose to fame not because of his awful singing voice or talent with a guitar, but because of his honest desire to express a view of the world around him. Impactful, relevant media doesn’t have to preach, Seggerman argued: MASH is one of the most-watched TV shows of all time, and it was also an insightful critique of the Vietnam War.

“Let’s make games with realism and relevance,” Seggerman said. “…do you wanna spend the next few years working on a me-too shooter” when you could isntead be making personal, relevant art that might stand the test of time?

The PAX East Two Worlds II contest saga comes to an end. For the better part of February, we asked you to submit a video telling us why we should pick you to go to PAX East. The winner would receive an all expenses paid trip to Boston, thanks to TopWare and Two Worlds II.

A panel of judges was assembled to watch the videos from the five finalists and we’ve finally come to a conclusion on who the grand prize winner is. And the winner is … right after the jump!

Congratulations, Funktastic! You’ve won the all expenses paid trip to PAX East this month. Along with the trip, you’ll be receiving a behind-closed-doors preview of Two Worlds II and a chance to interview the team working on the game!  Look for his upcoming coverage on Destructoid soon. (Editor’s: We’re going to work you like an animal. Also, where’s my coffee and green M&M’s?!!)

We’d also like to thank everyone that participated, with special thanks to Sentry, Scary Hair Studios, Duncor, and Garison. Be sure to check out our PlayStation 3 and God of War III contest that’s still going on for more chances to win free stuff from Destructoid!

The friendly folks at Gas Powered Games were nice enough to give us some free things and we want to pass them on to you. In our possession we have two autographed Supreme Commander posters. I won’t lie to you; if you’re a Supreme Commander fan then these posters are cool enough to warrant drooling over in the first place, but when they’re signed by the development team at Gas Powered Games they’re even more drool worthy. Seriously, look at them. They’re frickin’ sweet even if you have no idea what Supreme Commander is at all.

What do you have to do for these two pieces of badassness? Well, Supreme Commander is all about the crazy vehicles (what they call Experimentals) so we want you to come up with your most “experimental” vehicle possible. It’s up to you to really decide what that means and how you want to present it to us (text, video, picture). The winner gets both posters, and because we’re feeling nice, a limited edition copy of Demigod to boot.

Contest starts now and will end on Sunday at 11:59PM CST. Open to US residents only. Get your vehicles rolling.

At this morning’s GDC Microtalks, Jesse Schell elaborated on the basic premise behind his DICE talk concerning the impending “Gamepocalypse,” as Schell calls it. Schell finished his DICE talk in March by trying to put a positive spin on the inevitable flood of metagames and the treatment of every aspect of our daily lives as some sort of point-based competition.

That optimism was almost entirely absent from Schell’s microtalk this morning. After his DICE talk, Schell mentioned that many people worried that the world was heading toward a 1984 police state. Schell clarified that what we’re actually heading toward is much more terrifying: a Brave New World scenario where we all volunteer to be controlled and manipulated by these games and point systems.

“The 21st century will be a war of attention,” Schell said. “We have to choose sides.” The world can either be controlled by the designers who only want to make money — the “persuaders,” as Schell labeled them — or these games can be controlled by the humanitarians, and the artists, and the fulfillers. The persuaders can be beaten, Schell said, but only “if we wake the hell up.”

“The war is already here,” Schell pleaded. “You’re fighting in it right now.”

Next week Destructoid turns four years old.  Redunkulous.  As is customary, we hope to get all of our friends together and cause irreparable damage to our vital organs and professional reputation (ha!).  If you’re reading this thing and can produce a convincing 21+ over identification you’re invited to go down with us:

Astro Gaming presents Destructoid’s 4th Anniversary Party @ GDC! 

Open bar and tapas start at 7pm, followed by Snuggie pole vaulting and mountain goat petting, or whatever the DJ has in mind.  The Astro Lounge is just a few blocks away from the convention center between Folsom and Harrison.  For a map, directions and fancypants RSVP visit www.Destructoid.com/4year.  We will do our best to accommodate the guest list, but please arrive early as our piñata defacing space is limited.  Astro will also be showcasing new gear that they’ll soon reveal at GDC, which we’ll bring to you on video soon.

Look for additional updates on the Destructoid Facebook page.  We hope to see you there! 4 years! Whoo!

Yoshio Sakamoto is a man who needs very little introduction. He is one of the most famous team members from Nintendo’s R&D1 department and has directed such masterpieces as Super Metroid and the WarioWare games. It was an honor to be in his audience.

Throughout his long career with Nintendo, he has had a hand in games that are polar opposites of one another. He came to GDC this year to share how he is able to make such silly games alongside some very serious ones. Hit the jump for a summary of his very informative and entertaining talk.

Introduction

Sakamoto began by gong through his history with Nintendo, starting with the Metroid series. He feels a little bit of resistance when people credit him as being its creator. He likes to think of himself more as the person who raised Samus. “After all, the mother of Metroid is the Queen Metroid,” he chuckled.

Although he wasn’t involved in Metroid II, the scene where the baby Metroid imprints itself on Samus was what inspired him to make Super Metroid. He wanted to add more drama similar to that scene to the series, which of course resulted in its famous scene where the Metroid larva saves Samus during the last boss battle. In turn, this scene was where Other M was born. He also tried to inject similar meaningful story elements into the other two Metroid games he directed, Fusion and Zero Mission.

He then moved on to the other famous series that made it to the States, WarioWare. Like with Metroid, the origins of WarioWare did not stem from his creativity, but he took the idea and helped it grow. He was first the director for WarioWare: Twisted!. He brought the prototype to Satoru Iwata and asked what he thought of the prototype, where the unit had to be spun around in circles to win. At this time, Sakamoto brought up an image of Iwata spinning a GBA on an office chair and thinking, “This is idiotic.”

WarioWare: Touched! and Smooth Moves were a bit harder because of the change in platforms. No one knew exactly how to use the power of the DS and Wii, and everyone working on the games were new to the series. For Smooth Moves, the intent was to make a flagship game for the Wii controller. There was so much that could be done with it that it presented a problem, which is why the game’s various forms and poses were created.

WarioWare D.I.Y. came from the individuality Sakamoto saw in his team members. He wanted to see what kinds of microgames could be made when even more individuals were given the opportunity to make them. He showed us a little minigame he made where you shoot ice missiles at Metroids.

Next, he did his best to explain Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) to all of the Americans in the audience.”It’s like playing house with Miis,” he said. It was released last year in Japan and has sold three million units.

He touched upon the Famicom Tantei Club (Famicom Detective Club) games very quickly. They were the first games he wrote scenarios for and were “very important titles” for him. The last of his games the he discussed was Balloon Fight, which he worked on with Iwata himself. An image of the two men popped up, which Sakamoto described as a diagram of the diferent ways the two men think. Iwata’s thought bubble was filled with complicated math while his own contained a doodle of a duck.

Why am I here?

His reason for doing this talk was Iwata’s curiosity about his game development methods. Specifically, he wanted to know how one person could work on such serious games, and then go the complete opposite way and make such silly games. He thinks of Sakamoto as only being capable of being silly. Up came another image of Iwata, this time with a speech bubble asking, “Why don’t you explore the secret of creating games for such a dynamic range of titles?”

When he first started to think about Iwata’s questions, Sakamoto found himself perplexed. He had never really thought about it before. To simplify things, he separated his games into two categories: games made with a serious touch, and games made with a comical touch.

Inspiration in game design: serious

When he was young, he came across the films of director Dario Argento and fell in love with them. He used music in masterful ways, stopping and starting it at specific times to heighten suspense. He also invoked invoked fear through foreshadowing, and increased the feeling of tension by contrasting storylines and scenes. “Without a doubt, I wanted to create things in the same manner,” he said. And so he did.

Other movies that have inspired him over the years include Luc Besson’s Leon the Professional, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, and Brian de Palma’s Carrie. “Films have opened my eyes to techniques that can bring a story to life,” he told the audience.

Timing, foreshadowing, contrast and control over mood became the four biggest elements for him to consider when making something. Famicom Tantei Club II in particular was made as an homage to Argento.

Inspiration in game design: comedy

Sakamoto is a man who loves to make other people laugh. He works hard to make the humor in his games fit any situation or audience, but makes sure it retains his distinctive style.

Like with his serious games, he makes his comedic games with the desire to control the reaction of the audience. He told the audience that he wants to “engineer laughs”. Mood, timing, foreshadowing and contrast are also critical to comedy, and he revealed that though the results are very different, he uses the same creation process for both types.

“As long as one is open to new experiences, you can create a single toolset that can move hearts in many different ways,” he said.

Specific examples

He used Tomodachi Collecction as an example of a comedy game. He had the idea for the game for about nine years before it was ever made. Originally called Grown Woman’s Fortune Telling Notebook, it was going to be a game aimed at young girls to encourage communication. The Mii Channel influenced Sakamoto and caused him to take the game in a more universally appealing direction.

He showed a video from his personal game, where his Mii had Miis of all his friends to play with. We saw Iwata, Miyamoto, Reggie and Samus doing all sorts of things with Sakamoto, such as growing tall enough to knock down buildings and shoot lasers a-la Godzilla. The room erupted in laughter at the pure silliness of the game.

He felt his greatest contribution was working with the director to stay true to what his vision of what Tomodachi Collection should be. “The story is driven by the player. The player has fun and it draws in their friends.”

The example he chose for the serious side was Other M, a game he called a “synthesis of all the know-how and things [he] had ever envisioned”. His goal was to give the game a suspenseful feel and explore the human drama element of the Metroid series he had added so many years ago in Super Metroid.

He laid the foundation of game design before collaborating with Team Ninja. They bounced ideas off of one another, “working as equals without limitations”. One of the things they did not see eye-to-eye on was the control scheme Sakamoto had his heart set on. But they worked together to solve the problem and came out with a control scheme that worked much better for the game in the end.

Aside from Team Ninja, there are many other companies working with Sakamoto on this project. Together, they’re known as Project M. They all have created a strong bond working on the project, and no one part is more or less important than another. He took a moment to mention a few of the other team members. First, he showed off one of the game’s storyboards, which were created by Ryuzi Kitaura. “Working with him has made Other M a much more beautiful game,” Sakamoto said.

Then he spoke of Kuniaki Haishima, who is in charge of sound. “The synchronization between the visuals and the music will be moving your hearts very soon.” He also talked a little about the voice actors chosen for the project. He was “very selective” and chose all of them without making any compromises. Jessica Martin is the voice of Samus because she “matches the world perfectly”.

Knowing that all of the Metroid fans in the crowd were frothing at the mouths at this point, he told us, “Please, be patient just a little while longer.”

Final thoughts

Sakamoto has come across many things created by other people throughout his life. He told the audience that these things move his spirit, and creates images that have stayed with him. “It’s our job to take those moments and give them shapes. Developing games is all about giving shape to images.”

The Famicom had not been released when he came to Nintendo, so he had to find his own way. Since then, he has become  very passionate about what he does. He felt “like a child engrossed in a new toy” while working on the first Metroid.

Lastly, he pulled up an image of a valentine and a box of chocolates. He explained the slide with a story: one day, he received a package with a letter and a box of chocolates. They came from a female fan. In the letter, she wrote how much she had enjoyed a game he had made. He then explained that, in Japan, it is customary for women to give chocolate to men they’re interested in. This was the first time he realized that the things we create can touch the heart and spirits of people, and can move them.

“I hope that you will continue to convey the things stored in your hearts into games,” he said before the roar of thunderous applause.

You know the drill by now — company files trademark, could mean nothing, but we all go crazy because IMAGINE IF IT MEANS SOMETHING ACTUALLY! So yes, Bungie has filed a new trademark for Marathon, its pre-Halo FPS that everybody has fond memories of, but if they played it now they’d probably have a terrible time.

Marathon was released in 1994 on the Apple Macintosh and Pippin and spawned two sequels. The first sequel, Marathon 2: Durandal, was released on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2007. Download that and you can get a good idea of how well it aged (spoiler: not well).

As we said, the new trademark could mean nothing, but it could represent what the chaps at Bungie are thinking of doing next. Would you like to play a brand new Marathon?

[Via Superannuation]

Ekans (アーボ Abo^?), is known as the Rattlesnake Pokémon. The name Ekans is the word snake backwards. Ekans’ Japanese name, Arbo, is a reversal by morae of the word boa. This reptilian Pokémon has a rattle at the tip of its tail, and is mostly purple while its underbelly, eyes, rattle, and the “bands” on it are yellow.

They swallow whole the eggs of small bird Pokémon, such as Pidgey or Spearow. Ekans are able to detach their jaws to swallow large prey whole, although this makes their bodies heavy. Its highly poisonous fangs make it a hazard in the wild as they slither through the grass and unexpectedly strike. Ekans also shares other characteristics as snakes, such as using its tongue to test the air for the presence of prey, and shedding its skin.

In the anime, the most notable Ekans was owned by Jessie, who had received it for her birthday. For most of the original series, it was her only Pokémon. It was extremely loyal to her and eventually evolved into an Arbok just to make her happy. In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out Of The Gate!, Ekans serves as a male character and one of the members of the Team Meanies, in which it was commanded by Gengar to eat all the berries Team Go-Getters collected.

[Via Wikipedia]