Zeranoth Informer

Zeranoth Informer

Issue #1 - 03.12.2012

I tend to over-think stuff, but for a reason.
I read and try a lot in order to make the "Legends of Zeranoth" an awesome game.
The downside to this approach is that, as a result, I don't have much to show for my project.
Then I realized that I maybe I could write about my findings here and shed more light on the development process. That's how the idea of "Zeranoth Informer" was born.

This issue:

1. Notes on "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow"
2. Strategy games - "Heroes of Might and Magic 3", "Magic: The Gathering" and "StarCraft".
3. "Legends of Zeranoth" - the core aesthetics of play.

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1. Notes on "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow"

The recent playthrough of "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow" yielded a realization - it's a great game... that bores me to death.
Don't get me wrong - I love monsters, castles, pixel art and incorporating enemy abilities.
I think Egoraptor summed it up best - lots of running around, you get small rewards frequently etc.

What made it intolerable for me were two things - pallete-swapping and power-creep. (on that note - games should be fun, not tolerable)
In spite of having a variety of enemies, the game still feels like recoloring them for later stages, which cheapens the experience.
I fought these guys already, give me some new challenges!
And then it hits you... all of the enemies are modally the same.
This is a bad habit carried over from the "Metroid" series, where the enemies were either just to get in your way while you're exploring.
After a while, their strengths and weaknesses don't matter anymore once you get the best weapons/items/abilities.

The game quickly devolves into a Pokemon-esque "gotta catch them all" collectathon, as the player is left unfulfilled due to the lack of challenge.
You grind for souls to get more souls, to get gold, to get a ring, to get more souls. (Thankfully I found a Mimic trick in the Chaotic Realm)
Compare that with the original "Castlevania", where every jump counted, you had to time your attacks and manage harts - all reinforcing its theme of horror and fear.
The only time this installment was anywhere near "scary" was when I was low on health and far from a savepoint.
That's right - the game had to arbitrarily disable the hardware's function to create tension. (the game's "Sleep mode" shows it pretty clearly)
Cracked.com points out this absurdity in its "10 Commandments All Video Games Should Obey", I believe.

Now as I see it, what made the game great was its aesthetics, mainly delivered via excellent sprite-work and sound.
Everything else was just fluff and the game, being aware of this, handles off small rewards to make us artificially feel more powerful.
In reality, the player's skill remains more-or-less the same and the player plays around the system for a while until he finds a dominant strategy of choice.
For me, it was Beam Skeleton + Black Panther + Skula/Headhunter and Claimh Solais + Dracula's Tunic + Soul Eater Ring, but I digress.
So in short, while I like the Gothic fantasy of Aria and self-expression through its tactical soul system, but it's one heck of a Skinner's Box!

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2. Strategy games.

I fondly remember playing "Heroes of Might and Magic 3" at other people's houses in hot-seat mode.
The game had the incredible aesthetic of a fairytale storybook, high-quality symphonic music and nigh-endless replayability with its random-generated maps.
The downside to it was that turns (and matches) took forever to play out.
Nothing more I can say about it, aside from that it's a really complex chess game, which sucks you into the fantasy with its overly-polished aesthetics.

Trading Card Games were very popular in the 90s.
As such, my school went crazy over "Pokemon TCG" and "Magic The Gathering".
While I was a huge fan of the former (and tried the online version recently), MTG remained largely a novelty up until "Duels of the Planeswalkers" on Steam.
After that, I got my (blue) starter deck from the comic book store and also tried out the online version.
Needless to say, the creators really know how to deliver on fantasy via story-sense through gameplay and flavor-texts.
Couple this with deck building, along with different play styles of each "color" and you have a powerful vessel of self-expression.
What it falls flat on is the difficulty curve - mistakes in deck building really come back to bite you, as the game can be very punishing.
The randomness in TCGs makes the player feel powerless and the game seem unfair, instead of letting the player make most of his circumstances.
This, coupled with deck standards, makes the player cheated - as if the game demands him to guy new cards to make the game anywhere near competitive.

"StarCraft" got me thinking about the success of "Brood War" and failure of "Wings of Liberty".
Aside from SC2 forcing constant Battle.net connection and roleplaying as Jim Raynor on us, there were few other problems.
I literally saw great communities, the guys who made all the modding tools and custom maps, being abandoned and under-served by Blizzard.
Not only that, greed pushed them to sabotage the Korean TV (guys who help SC:BW become an e-sport) and cut LAN support, so they could have some of that profit.
You see, "Brood War" was first and foremost a fun game (though made annoying by rank-less matchups).
Upon login, you have a nice window to chat in with strangers and friends alike, a quick way to play your custom games and regular ones.
Oh, and you can even play with friends locally.
"StarCraft 2", by comparison, is a mess - if you want to play competitively, then you'll be just fine (with the game's matchup system).
However, if you happen to want to have a local game or have an idea for this awesome new content, then the "fun" begins...
If the Battle.net is down, you can't play with your friends.
If you want to host a tournament, you need Blizzard's official permission.
If you want to create your own map or mod, then be prepared to use the tools the developers were staring at all the time, till it seem intuitive to them.
And if I remember correctly, you can only host a very small selection of custom maps.
To be honest, I don't know which is worse, but the "Brood War" noob-kick and the new Battle.net both prevent players from experiencing the otherwise great games.
"StarCraft" is an excellent game (with its different races and tactics), which is sinking due to its glaring oversights.

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3. "Legends of Zeranoth" - the core aesthetics of play.

This brings me to my last topic.
After watching "Extra Credits", I tried to ask myself this question - what is the core engagement element of my game?
This is an important question to answer, because it gives the project focus it needs.

"Extra Credits" asks designers to find the common underlying reason for why they like certain games/genres, instead of just mashing genres together.
Should genres be combined, they all should reinforce the game's core aesthetic of play.
Really great games usually deliver on 2-4 or more aesthetics.

But what is the core engagement of the "Legends of Zeranoth"?
Now that I think of it, the obvious answer seems to be fantasy.

The protagonist is someone we can identify with, from a modern world, which parodies our own and the countless gray-and-brown shooters we already got sick of.
The player can become this adventure-engineer, who ventures into the world unknown, bringing back all the dragons, unicorns and rebuilding a fantasy world.
There is an ongoing romance between the hero and a dragon princess, as well as with her six close friends/servants (who are themselves form other kingdoms).
They encounter difficulties, as the world government tires to keep order and restoring some elements awakens other forgotten horrors.

What I lift wholesale from my favorite games is the challenge (2nd aesthetic).
This would reinforce the 1st one, by making the player experience the hardship of true love, as well as restoring and sustaining a fantasy world.
Enemies are not just annoying obstacles, but pose serious threat to the player and defeating them is a puzzle in of itself.
Levels aren't simply backgrounds to walk by, but challenging obstacle courses that are a delight to jump through.

The last two aesthetics I would like to focus on are self-expression and exploration.
I'd like for the player to slowly discover the lost worlds and unravel the mystery involving their disappearance.
Instead of being fed exposition, I'd love to implement something like in "Metroid Prime", where player can discover the world and its story on their own.
How about letting the player feel like an engineer, who'd combine his findings and fragments to create breakthrough inventions?
What if all of those fantasy races could be recruited and new ones created from the found samples (or lore) sealed away inside long-lost vaults?
I was really intrigued by the lost worlds of the "Legacy of Kain" series, with its ruins and hidden areas just out of reach - I'd be eager to explore some more.

The game would play like an RPG/platformer.
The levels/areas are inter-connected and form a bigger map, like in "Super Mario Bros. 3", for characters/parties to move around.
These create a world map, which slowly fills up as you restore more of Zeranoth's sub-worlds.
How you do that, what you bring back, who and how you interact with is then left up to you.

That's all for today.
See you next issue!

-Michael