On good and evil actions

In Fallout 3, and many other games, actions are classified in good and bad. Do a good action, and you gain karma. Do a bad one, and you lose karma. The amount of karma your character has influences how other characters respond to your avatar and what kind of missions are available.

That definition of good and evil in one dimension is straight out of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. There we have the good, evil and neutral alignments.

The original Dungeons & Dragons game created a three alignment system of Law, Neutrality and Chaos. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, this became a two-dimensional grid, one axis of which measures a "moral" continuum between good and evil, and the other "ethical" between law and chaos, with a middle ground of "neutrality" on both axes for those who are indifferent, committed to balance, or lacking the capacity to judge.

Wikipedia

What got me thinking was: in Fallout 3, and all computer games, I guess, is the designer who decides what good and evil mean. Therefore, I believe it would be even more interesting to relativise that. Each NPC should have it's own system to determine if something is good or evil. Complicated? Yes, a bit more, but it can provide a richer experience to players.

For example, if you manage to end a war between two factions, some people in both sides will think that's a good thing, some people will hate that, and some will not care.

What is needed now, is a system to specify the attributes of each action. Any suggestions?

[UPDATE] A new game, called Alpha Protocol seems to treat inter character relationships in a way similar to what I thought. Search for it. I guess I was in the right track, after all.

World of Goo

It's a fantastic game and I liked it. Buy now.



World of Goo is an impressive independent puzzle game for PC, whose mechanics are derived from Tower of Goo, but are much better.

Impressions

Gameplay
The objective of every level is to send enough goo balls trough a pipe. To do so, the player has to construct a structure of goo using the goo balls in order to reach the pipe. The catch is that any goo ball used in the structure can't go into the pipe, therefore the game presents the player with an optimization exercise.

What was done brilliantly in the game are the various types of goo balls, each quite distinct from the others in appearance ans functionality. For example:

• Some black goo balls cannot be used in structures, they can only be sent into the pipe.
• Most of the black goo balls can be attached to two other balls and when used they became a permanent part of the structure.
• Transparent goo balls can only be attached to one other goo ball, and for that reason they look alike water (or saliva) drops. It's appropriate and funny.
• Green goo can attach to two or three other balls, making pretty strong structures, and they can be dettached and reused (or sent into a pipe).
• Ballon goo floats, can be attached to another goo ball, suspends structures, can be reused, but cannot be sent into a pipe.
• Undead goo is similar to green goo, but they are immune to spikes and reasonably rare. Also they are skulls, how cool is that?
• Match goo burn easily. In levels with them, the player is asked to deal with destroying them correctly in order to reach the goal.
• Sticky goo is yellow, rare, and sticks to surfaces, allowing structures to be lifted.

Puzzles progress nicely, presenting a new type of goo ball or playing with the mechanics, asking the player to do new things with the goo balls they already know.

It's a perfect little game. Perhaps the only thing it needs is a level editor and easy sharing of levels. Other than that, I wouldn't change anything in this game.

Review: Lost Planet

I just finished playing through Lost Planet and here are my thoughts about the game.

What's nice

• Riding robots is a lot of fun. Each robot has its own characteristics, some have special weapons and most of them can pickup weapons left in the game. 
• The avatar can withstand almost any attacks if he has enough Termal Energy left. It's a concept similar to the rings in Sonic the Hedgehog. Considering that termal energy is mostly plentiful, it's possible to be really careless while not in a robot, making the game a bit easy in most sections. 
• It's a very interesting world.

What's evil

• The game feels empty. The story advances only through cutscenes, unlike the first mission, where the tale is told through action. The avatar friends are shown only in cutscenes, they don't affect the gameplay. I think the structure of the first mission should be better used in other missions. Controling a party would be much more fun. Scripted events during battles would make the game more interesting.
• The last mission is frustating. There are no clear benefits of destroying the tower, so why are we given this choice? Futhermore, the last robot attacks are awfully unresponsive.
• Typical evil and mad villains.
• Weak story.

What could be done

• Give missions a better structure than get from point A to B killing everything in your path.
• Make the other characters relevant to the gameplay.
• The story should explore better the nice world that was created.

Mission

Hello!

Better start introducing myself: I am a computer programmer and a fan of games and as so, I like to create my own games. This blog is a space to share some thoughts and to learn how to be a game designer. After all, who wants to be a game designer? 

:)