The host for the evening was the Atlanta branch of CCP games, makers of EVE Online.  Their hospitality was astounding.  Not only did they provide attendees with plenty of space to converse, but they also provided a full steak and seafood dinner on the house… that alone nearly pays for my IGDA membership. 

In addition to facilities and food, the staff of CCP also gave a presentation entitled How to Make an MMO (in 90 Minutes or Less!).  No, you can't actually make an MMO on the scale of EVE Online in 90 minutes, but you can get a quick overview of the process.  The presentation consisted of a handful of smaller lectures covering many different aspects of MMO development.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a notepad.  I do, however, remember one point in particular.

Reynir Harðarson, one of CCP's co-founders, gave a design-focused presentation.  In it, he talked about how that many MMO's are either theme parks (find something to do, get in line, and, when it's your turn, participate in the story/quest/activity) and others are sandboxes (here's the things you can do, have fun!).  EVE is more sandbox than theme park.

Why?  Because players quit games, but players don't quit friends.

That's a simple but very profound piece of advice.  It's true that games that are more like theme parks such as World of Warcraft have been phenomenally successful with such an approach, but I really like the logic behind CCP's philosophy.  I find it particularly interesting as I've been studying the social games space a lot lately (if planting crops and running mafia missions counts as "research").  I'd say that this should be a guiding principle to anyone creating a social game.  I may not be interested in reaching yet another level when I've already leveled up 162 times, but I might just keep playing to help my friend reach his goals.

While the next Atlanta IGDA Chapter meeting will be a social gathering, Clint Hocking is scheduled (if I heard correctly) to be the featured speaker at the following meeting.  I listened to him during the "micropresentation" session and went to the game design workshop he and several others ran at GDC last March.  I'm sure he'll have something interesting to say… and I'll remember to bring my notepad this time.

To call Shadow Complex inspired by the Metroid series would be a terrible slander to the word "inspiration." It's not so much that the developer, Chair, looked to Super Metroid for ideas as it is that they took a sheet of wax paper and did a rubbing of Samus Aran's entire career. It's a clone, albeit one for these modern times — which is to say, it uses polygons instead of sprites, and it's a reasonably-priced download game for Xbox Live. In practically every other way, though, it's completely identical to Super Metroid… down to the powers you earn and the map structure. This is a game where you use missiles to blow up red doors, if that tells you anything.

As I played the game, I found myself agreeing with this statement ten times over.  I'm collecting health upgrades to add little squares to my life meter that represent extra energy?  I'm using a grappling hook to traverse the map?  I'm constantly doubling-back across the map because I didn't have the necessary weapon or power-up to reach a certain location when I visited it the first time?

It's true, I could fill a notebook with the similarities between these two games.  In spite of this, I do give Shadow Complex recognition for improving one aspect of Super Metroid.  I'm not referring to how much fun the combat is, though the melee attack animation is satisfying every time it plays and the power of the game's final weapon makes replaying the game with it a joy.  What stood out for me is how Shadow Complex makes exploration a pleasure, especially in comparison to Super Metroid.  Both games challenge players to collect every item in the game world.  Even as a kid with too much time on my hands for playing Super Metroid, I found this task frustrating to complete.  In Shadow Complex, I was somewhat disappointed to reach 100% completion.  I was having too much fun tracking down all the items and it had nothing to do with my unhealthy obsession with trying to earn achievements (full disclosure:  I did get 20 Gamerscore points for finding all of the items).  I can pinpoint a couple of design choices that led me to feel this way.

First, consider the size of the worlds in these games.  If you don't mind potentially spoiling the experience of them, take a look at the map of Super Metroid's game world.  Now look at the map used in Shadow Complex.  While I think that the Super Metroid game world has more rooms to explore, ignore that for now and just focus on how spread apart the game is.  Compare this to tight corridors of Shadow Complex.  In the latter, it's relatively easy to get from one area of the map to the other.  In a game that requires the player to constantly traverse around the world and revisit previous areas, moving through familiar corridors for the sake of getting from point A to point B isn't guaranteed to be a fun experience.  It might be fun in an MMORPG when the player doesn't know what will be encountered along the way, but the enemies of Super Metroid that stay in the same areas minimize the potential excitement of the journey.

Second, observe the amount of effort it takes to discover hidden paths in both games.  Take a look at this sequence from Super Metroid.  In the span of about a minute of gameplay, there are three different items that can be collected.  All of them are very stealthily hidden throughout the area.  The secret paths in Shadow Complex tend to be much more obvious.  Sometimes an alternate path is behind a vent cover or  a familiar style of door.  On other occasions, a path is blocked by environmental features like rocks that are out of place.  In several instances, Shadow Complex shows the path or an item on the screen.  The player is then left to figure out how to access the secret area.

Metroid fans will be quick to point out that these paths are far from impossible to find without a strategy guide.  In fact, the game gives Samus an X-Ray Scope for this purpose.  The problem is that, assuming the game is played in the intended sequence, this scope doesn't become available until nearly half-way through the game.  Shadow Complex has a similar weapon, the flashlight.  Turning it on and shining it on different areas reveals objects that can be destroyed and, through a color-coded system, lets the player know which weapon will be necessary to eliminate it.  When does the player get the flashlight?  Right after the intro sequence and opening cutscene.  While Super Metroid forces the first-time player to wait until making significant progress in the game to start exploring closely, Shadow Complex gives players the choice to do so right off the bat.  The ability to examine the world as the player encounters it enriches the gameplay with a greater sense of freedom.

Am I ready to declare that Shadow Complex eclipses Super Metroid, one of the greatest games of all-time?  I don't believe so.  The point here is that dismissing Shadow Complex as nothing but a knock-off of Super Metroid is far from accurate.  While it isn't wholly innovative, it is evolutionary in its approach to the "Metroidvania" style of game.  Refusing to purchase the game because it rips off Super Metroid is far from a wise move.

But what about refusing to buy the game for political reasons?  Well, my friends, that is another blog post entirely.

1) I wanted something a bit more "content-focused." Although my last theme served me well, I starting feeling like it was a bit cluttered.  I went with a simpler, plainer theme just to bring the content front-and-center.

2) I wanted to have a theme where it didn't matter if everyone else uses the same one. Creating a unique theme from scratch or from a base theme is not very high on my list of priorities at the moment, so I still need to use an off-the-shelf theme.  I've seen my previous theme used at several sites, but it often used a different color scheme or had different subject matter.  When I stumbled on to another game developer who used the same theme (along with the same color!), I decided I eventually needed to change the theme.  With a simpler theme like this one, it's less obvious that there are many blogs out there using the same theme.

So there you have it.  I hope it makes the site easier to read.

One other note:  I have temporarily taken down the link to my projects.  I'm in the middle of revising that section.  I'd like to talk a bit more about the ones I've posted as well introduce some new ones since the last time I updated that part of the site.