-Hugs, the SI team

P.S. We’re testing out Facebook Places 

• Gary, QA Manager; Fav game: Dragon Warrior; Quote: This was my first exposure to an RPG and opened me a lifetime of geeky pursuits and elfish aspirations.  I still have a stuffed blue slime on my desk at home to this day
• Scott, Animator; Fav game: Super Mario Cart (SNES); Quote: The game play was quick and perfectly balanced. The computer driven opponents were cute, smart and vengeful.
•  Russ, Technical Director; Fav game: Super Street Fighter II (Arcade); Quote: Favorite Character: Ryu. I remember waiting in line around the arcade machine for the chance at playing against the kid that no one could beat.
• Jay, Developer; Fav game: SURROUND (Atari 2600); Quote: Super simple concept and art, but amazingly addictive when playing two-player. It’s a game that anyone can pick up and play instantly, but everyone will have a different strategy, and it’s always unpredictable & fun.
• Matt Murphy, Producer; Fav game: RBI Baseball (NES); Quote: I loved the control of the pitches and using real teams and players. Also, hands down the best soundtrack for any game ever.
• Courtney, Designer; Fav game: Commandos : Behind Enemy Lines. (1998); Quote: I played this game over and over. Great puzzles and personalities. Consider it done!
• Paola Reyes, Designer; Fav game: Galaga (Released by Namco in 1981); Quote: I loved the pace and excitement. It was the game that kept me most engrossed at arcades(along with Centipede) when I was a kid. Plus the sound fx are awesome!

What are some of your favorite classic games?  Share them with us! 

I thoroughly enjoyed game producer Matt Johnston of Pop Cap Games talk: Polish: the last 1% is the hardest.  The final 1%  is often the area that can be most overlooked.  But Matt’s main point was this: the game with the most polish is the game that will stand out most in a flooded market of competitors. Why? People like quality, even when they are not consciously aware of it. Like any well developed and polished product, many of its best attributes are in fact the ones that you DON’T have to notice. It makes you competitive.  I’ve condensed his rules of thumb and my takeaway from Matt’s discussion:

Care about everything:  Even if you’re not a programmer on your project, care about what’s happening in your coworkers domains of expertise. Often, we all get too close to what we are making and a set of different eyes and opinions will always improve the end product.  PLAY YOUR OWN GAME. Sometimes months can go by between stages of development and a lot can change. It seems obvious but replay, re-evaluate.

Iteration Iteration Iteration:  Given tight development cycles, this concept can be easy to want to ignore, but it is the key to bringing everything in your game up to the bar you set.  If you hit that bar, maybe you need to push it further. Basically, as the title says, repeat iterations of quality checks, refining details and stepping back to look at the big picture are how polish goes on: layer by layer.

Make it (polish) part of the process:  If the team doesn’t subscribe to this idea of polish, or worse, the company culture doesn’t, then figure out how to implement it.  If you make everyone on your team responsible, give them the ownership of the quality standard, then the whole team signs off on there the bar is raised to.

Allow for failure:  It has to be one of the oldest saying that never goes away for a reason. Failure is the only teacher of success. It’s no different here, apply what has failed with each iteration.

Where’s the appeal?:  Develop the skills to now where the important points in the game that the customer will focus (UI, Help screen, Audio)…make those areas your prime focus until you can’t figure out how to refine them further. Audio for example, is an area that is largely ignored till the last moment in game development. And yet it makes up for a HUGE part of the experience if done well. George Lucas once said that sound was 75% of the experience of his films. 

 Know when to quit:  “It’s not a quitting point- it’s a quality point.  I thought this was a great way to keep everybody on the same page. Early research of games you like early one can help you set/raise the bar to where it needs to be, and keep the team consistent in its goal. Need more time to hit the mark? Justify it up the chain by telling the truth: a more polished game sells better.

A great example of being acutely aware of these points would be the original game  Polar Bear Payback  Smashing Ideas released for Adult Swim.  The game is based on a concept by writer/director Jack Perez (of Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus fame) and boasts a display of  arcade action, is visually stunning, darkly humorous, and features rock solid game play that stands with some of the best Flash brawlers on the web.  What are your thoughts about the final 1%?  Share them here and thanks for reading my posts! 

-Chris Hannon 

I learned a lot from Andy Moore of  Steambirds.  What was awesome about Andy’s talk was his thinking behind what Steambirds really is: a study in what went wrong.  One of his very first forays into game making, Fantastic Contraption, was a huge success, which elevated his interest in developing games, but left him without some of the necessary failures that forces game designers to critical thinking and understanding of what constitutes great game design.  The next few attempts however, quickly forced him to use all the tools he had to understand why they flopped in comparison to Fantastic Contraption.  This list as follows incorporates Moore’s basic lessons for building a successful game and are excellent reminders for all of us in this industry who want to build great games! 

Lack of character identification:  Put some time and develop a reason for your character’s motivation. Andy keeps his back story in Steambirds short and concise, but it provides key insight into your motivation as a player in this game.

Lack of game direction:  Use narrative to give the game a story/objective arc.  Don’t let your game wander otherwise you have just created a programming exercise. Read: What is your context?

Weak core mechanic:  Sometimes, in our effort to see how far we can push an idea, we forget to step back and ask ourselves “Is this really fun,” or perhaps more importantly “Would I spend a couple of bucks on this?”  Ensure the core mechanics are there. 

Not enough user testing: Test, testing and more testing.  It’s crucial to building a great game.

Some of these lessons might be obvious but it’s always good to be reminded about the obvious! 

-Chris Hannon

Senior Designer, Smashing Ideas

So we’re thinking about this statement/idea a lot and how it applies to Smashing Ideas, the work we create for our clients and the youth market.  We agree.  Design IS how it works. 

HOW the game works is often the biggest design principle, especially when it comes to building games for kids.  We illustrate a few things we’ve learned in designing games for the preschool set (ages 3-5) from Jarrett our Senior Producer extraordinaire:     

• Bold – Bright – Chunky: Design aesthetic for preschoolers (3-5) features lots of large, bright, colorful elements to engage and entertain.    
• Graphic Elements: In designing for preschoolers all elements need to be represented in graphics copy has to be limited and voice-overs used often.
• Green and Yellow: Use colors that preschoolers recognize – make the “play” button green; “next” or “skip” buttons yellow – an industry standard that often gets overlooked.
• Motion Graphics: Clever rollover effects and motion graphics keep the preschool audience engaged in the games.
• Limit small areas: “Hit” areas (e.g. buttons, fill-in coloring areas, pick-ups, etc.) should be generous and not require the child to click on small areas that make it hard for children to achieve their goals. 

The end result of these design principles creates a game that a preschooler has the opportunity to learn something new, gain confidence with words, letters or numbers, and most importantly have fun!  A few examples below from Fresh Beats Band and Super Why

How do you see design as it relates to this space?  Share your thoughts – we’d love to hear them! Oh and we’ve already added Greene’s book to our iPad bookshelf!