Artwork made by the Witness Project
The Stanley Parable
What is a choice?
Mighty No. 9
A success story in the making
PUZZLE GAMES:
How are they made? Immersion Magazine
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Table of
Contents
Art by The Stanley Parable 2 Immersion Magazine
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Console wars in the US and Japan The Stanley Parable Overview Ocarina of Time v Majora’s Mask Puzzle: The creation of Puzzle games Can games be good for you? Mighty Number 9: Making Success
THE WITNESS An exploration puzzle game on an uninhabited island
Coming early 2014
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Immersion Magazine
Contributors’ Page
Tristan Wright
Tristan moved to Austin over the summer from Pearland, Texas. He is incredibly passionate about games in general and the principles of game design. He decided that games could be art after playing Drawn to Life at age seven, seeing the way that he felt responsible for the virtual townsfolk. He also enjoys the Mega Man X games and Half-Life 2, the book Fahrenheit 451, and most anime featuring Johnny Yong Bosch. In his free time, which at this point is just a hazy memory, he’s pretty sure he did some kind of extracurricular thing, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Tristan is a member of the Liberator Staff and the founder of Immersion. He’s written movie reviews, commentary pieces, and lots of saucey fanfiction. He cycles through conversation topics the same way one would monitor different email accounts on different browser tabs. Tristan’s goal is to find the perfect analogy, stating that it will be “like a cloud... (disgruntled mumbling)”.
Peyton is really passionate about most genres of games. He spends his free time playing Minecraft, working on large towers in survival mode and talking to friends on the server, and usually is trying his hand at any story based puzzle game. He decided that games could be art after his first playthrough of Okami, and how it played with his emotions. He is currently taking Computer Programming as his elective in hopes of becoming good enough at programming to create a video game on his own free time. He loves graphic design, and he created the logo of Immersion.
Peyton Tanzillo
Alan, born in Austin, Texas is a member of the Jostens Yearbook staff. He mainly focuses on the content, story and questions the player obtains throughout the process of learning more about not just the characters but themselves also. In his free time he usually plays adventure type games with a hook to them. He decided games could be art when a certain connection could be made between the player and the main character. Being a member also of the Immersion staff his purpose is to portray that graphics doesn’t make a good game, story makes a great game.
Alan Zacatula
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Immersion Magazine
Letter from the Editors
I
t was August. I was seven, and I was getting a Nintendo DS. At the time, the DS and Wii began began to the world by storm. The idea of a stylus fascinated me, and I desperately wanted to try it out. So, for my first communion, my godfather from Phoenix got me and my brother a DS and two games. I picked the first Sonic game I saw, then paused to make a decision. What was I going to get? I had seen commercials for exactly two DS games: Phantom Hourglass and Drawn to Life. Phantom Hourglass was completely controlled with the stylus, but Drawn to Life (from what I understood from the trailer) allowed you to draw the world. So my power-hungry seven year old self grabbed Drawn to Life and tossed it into the bag, trembling with excitement. The next day I turned on the system for the first time. I set everything up, turned on the game, and was greeted with a cheerful intro screen. I created a new file, but instead of being dropped right into the game like I expected, I was faced with an image of a tattered book on a black background. A piano played a simple, echoing tune, with several pauses filled only with what sounded like wind on a beach. The text on the page told the story of the Raposa, fox-like people who worshipped “The Creator”. The Creator had drawn the world into existance in “The Book of Life”, it said. Then, I was given a virtual paint pallette on the screen and told to draw the world into existance. It hit me. I was the creator. I was their God. The book goes on to explain that The Creator drew the crops in the fields and the fish in the sea. Finally, he drew the Raposa. Unfortunately, time passed, and The Creator abandoned them, leaving them to fend for themselves. I felt guilty. The book faded away, and white text ran across the screen. It was a desperate prayer to The Creator. Fade in to a Raposa girl in her room, condemning The Creator, condemning me, for leaving them to die. Begging me to help. Then I was given a prompt: >I will help you >I will not help you. I felt an obligation, a responsibility to these little creatures that worshipped me. We named this magazine Immersion because feeling immersion on the level that I did seven years ago is something exclusive to games. Feeling such utter compassion for a fictional character the way you would another human being is an experience that only games can provide. That’s what games are about: experiences. They teach us lessons about ourselves, about the world, and about other games through experiences that we hold onto for the rest of our lives. Games have an obligation to be more than just a passtime. They need to create experiences. Teach us. Change us. Help us. Welcome to Immersion. Leave your doubts at the door.
By Tristan Wright.
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Console Wars
story by: Peyton Tanzillo
UNITED STATES The PS2 The Playstation 2 brought in by far the most money of any console in the United States, bringing in 53.65 million dollars for Sony. It racked up 10 million more dollars than any other console. This console blew up because of the large amount of high quality games made, and the fact that it had backwards compatibility. The PS2 also came out with the first use of motion sensing video gameplay with the playstation eyetoy, making the PS2 the console that released the most new abilities and features of every other console.
The Wii Nintendo made the first console fully based on motion controls, which made the Wii successful. No other company made a console fully based off of motion controls before the Wii, making the Wii seem like the newest and most innovative console. They also advertised a family console, and a large part of the United States culture. The Wii also advertized that the Wii can bring a normal video game experience without the lazyness commonly associated with video games in general. Their advertizing, and expanding on a new concept made the Wii one of the most popular consoles in the US.
The Xbox 360 The Xbox360 managed to lock down one of the major, high selling games in the United States. Halo. This helped out the sales of the Xbox360 a suprisingly large amount. There were many PS3 players that bought an Xbox for the sole purpouse of getting Halo. Plus, the Kinect was a success in the United States because of it being basically the Wii without any more controllers. It seemed like the Wii, but slightly more high tech.
Playstation 2 53.65 million
Wii 44.88 million
Xbox 360 44.88 million
Similarities Motion sytems made its way into every single one of theses consoles. The Wii revolved around the motion control idea, and both other consoles provided motion systems like the Playstation eyetoy and the Xbox Kinect.
20 50 40 30 Million Million Million Million
The Xbox, the Xbox 360’s predecessor. Image by Wikipedia
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Many consoles have been made over the past 40 years, making 400 million in North America alone, but what attributes of consoles make them the most popular? Immersion staff explore what makes a successful console in the US and Japan.
JAPAN The PS2
Playstation 2 23.18 million
Playstation 1 19.36 million
The Playstation 2 brought in by far the most money of any console in the Japan too, bringing in 23.18 million dollars for Sony. This console was the one legendary console that seemed to do unbelieveably well worldwide. It had high quality games made in Japan too. Its innovation seemed to work on the Japanese too.
The PS1 NES 19.35 million
5 10 15 20 Million Million Million Million
The PS1 had a large amount of high quality games also, but the reason the PS1 did so well in Japan was that it was released there 9 months before it was ever released anywhere else, meaning that the Japanese game developers released a whole new series of games only in Japan, causing the game system to flourish in Japan.
The NES
The NES, or Famicom in Japan, was a major success in Japan, and the reason that it was such a major success was that it was the first step to what consoles are today. It was the first console to have a controller with buttons, controller ports, and different games that were put into a console rather than the console being the gmae itself, but why was the NES so popular in Japan, and not as much in the US? Well, that was because the NES was released in Japan as the Famicom about 10 months before it was released anywhere else. This means video game companies were able to take the same concept as the NES and put it toward their own console, before it had much time in the United States.
Similarities All of these consoles could have done just as well in the United States if they had released their console at the same time in the United States as they did in Japan. The PS1 and NES were released in Japan 9 months earlier than in the United States, so other game companies had more time to take their ideas and get them out into a different console before the original console had time to make its campaign in the US.
The Playstation 2 in its glory Image by Wikipedia
Sources: http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/ http://www.game-machines.com/consoles/ http://business.time.com/2013/02/11/game-overwhy-video-game-console-sales-are-plummeting/
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The Stanley Parable HD Remix
The Narrator’s range of emotion and lack thereof towards Stanley and the player. That is what makes the Stanley Parable stand out from other games. “...its a very entertaining game because there is no What is a Choice? filler or anything, its very minimal, but what it does have B y A l a n Z a c a t u l a a n d T r i s t a n W r i g h t is very good. The narrator really keeps things interesting because its like ‘What is he going to say now?’,” said Aiden Employee Number 427 has a simple job: he sits in an There are numerous endings to the Stanley Parable office from nine to five, and pushes buttons in the order which keeps the player hooked and wanting to experience dictated by instructions on his monitor. One day, he them all. In order to fully experience the full extent of notices something strange. Orders have stopped coming it, replaying it will be necessary, but each time previous and he is puzzled as to what has happened. He hasn’t question you had the first time could potentially be heard a thing from his co-workers in a while, and decides answer the second time through. “What if I disobey The to look around. Stanley gets up, steps outside his office Narrator? What if I simply refuse to move?” which gives into the break room and walks up to two doors. The voice the player many reasons to replay the game and get the in his head, The Narrator, says unwaveringly, “Stanley full experience from it as possible. went through the door on his left”. However the right “...the game just keeps you wanting to replay and door led to an unknown location that would rewrite the replay to experience all the endings.” said Aiden. story and change the outcome. This was the first of many In an interview with Wired.com, Davey Wreden, choices available for Stanley. But the game forces the head of Galactic Cafe and designer of the Stanley Parable player to ask “Are these really choices?”. said, “The whole point of the game is that there is no “What if I go right? What happens if I just do what answer..The entirety of the game is realizing what the they are telling me to do? What happens if I just stay in question is in the first place.” the break room?” says Aiden, a freshman at Liberal Arts At the end you are left with questions that can’t be and Science Academy, on these decisions. answered by just starting over. Wreden’s main goal was Narration is key for Stanley Parable. Its nearly half to keep the player thinking and questioning. They are the story. Unlike other games, The Stanley Parable questions that are left for the player to keep pondering simultaneously gives you choice, and gives you no “even after the game has been turned off and put away.” choice. On the surface, you choose to take the left door, says Wreden. to enter the code on the keypad, to free Stanley from the As the website for the game states, “You will play as mysterious mind control device. But in reality, with the Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a omnipresent Narrator dictating every choice Stanley, and thus the player, makes, the idea of choice becomes a controversy that the game slowly unravels throughout the game’s multiple endings. The game starts you in an office and give you a background as to who Stanley, the main character, is and a brief summary of his life. All the narration is provided by (surprise, surprise) The Narrator, voiced by British actor Kevan Brighting. What makes The Stanley Parable’s narrator different from the narrator in games like Bastion or Thomas Was Alone, is that he occasionally speaks directly to Stanley, and even the player. He reprimands or rewards their choices, shows anger, sympathy, exasperation, and in the end is neither a protagonist or antagonist. When the chips are down, he’s still limited by story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, the story he creates, just like the player is. you will have no choice. The game will end, the game The game doesn’t rely on technical power, running on will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the the nine year old Source Engine. Instead, it focuses on the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken narrative aspect, trying to set the boundaries of narrative again. This world was not made for you to understand.” and choice in games. Galactic Cafe has pushed the idea of But under all of these contradictions, perhaps meaning creating an emotional experience, and that is reflected in can be found in the questions, rather than the answers.
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The whole point of the game is that there is no answer..The entirety of the game is realizing what the question is in the first place.
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A photo of Stanley’s office where the story of The Stanley Parable starts off at. Image by Galactic Cafe
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...the game just keeps you wanting to replay and replay to experience all the endings.
Here, Stanley Parable highlights with the majority of choice in video games really is. Image by Galactic Cafe
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The black-and-white nature of choice in games is simultaneously present and absent in the Stanley Parable. To quote the website, “The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.”
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FEZ 12
Immersion Magazine
Legend of Zelda: The Superior Experience
Legend of Zelda
is one of the most prestigious series in the history of gaming. But a debate has circulated around the Zelda community for a decade: Which is the better N64 Zelda game? Ocarina of Time, the most critically acclaimed game ever made, or Majora’s Mask, the haunting and emotional quest through a dying kingdom? The Immersion staff writers have arrived to Immersion Magazine 13 put the matter to rest.
Majora’s Mask By Tristan Wright
toward its inevitable collision with the earth. Gregory Gay wrote an article on the website “4color Rebellion” called “Majora’s Mask: Nintendo’s Fluke”. He described the feeling that completing a quest and going back in time has. You still reap the rewards of the quest, but the effect it has on the world dissipates. You have to grit your teeth and move on, holding the hope in your heart that you might still be able to save them. Another element of the game is greif. In fact, each area of the game represents one of the five stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Depression, Bargaining and Acceptance). The heavy use of symbolism makes the atmosphere even more effective in conveying emotion. Ocarina of Time told a familiar story, a boy becomes a man and saves the day. Majora’s Mask tears your accomplishment down and forces you to witness the destruction of the world time and time again. It all boils down to this: the game does not feel like it is on your side. You are presented with an insurmountable task and left to your own devices. The atmosphere it creates is haunting, and the use of symbolism is intelligent. It seems similar to Ocarina of Time, but Majora’s Mask takes the generally optimistic attitude of its predecessor and flips it on its head. In sentencing its world to death, Majora’s Mask makes it feel more alive. Majora’s Mask is a shining example of immersion done right.
Majora’s Mask: At first glance, it’s hard to tell it apart from its OoT. From a mechanical standpoint, they are identical. But Majora’s Mask’s strength lies in its story, its atmosphere, and the experience it creates. Majora’s Mask picks up after the events of Ocarina of Time. Rather than seeing the kingdom of Hyrule rejoicing after Link’s victory, we pick up a few months afterwards. Link is alone in the Lost Woods, looking for “a friend who has been lost”. Skull Kid, a denizen of the Lost Woods that the player sold a mask to in Ocarina of Time appears and knocks Link unconscious, steals his horse and ocarina, and escapes. Link pursues him and is transported to an alternate version of Hyrule called Termina. The kingdom of Termina is a peaceful place, and at its center is the quaint little village of Clock Town, where the people go about their daily lives preparing for a festival. They’re all going to die. The Moon is hovering over them at all times, and in 72 hours, it will crash into the planet and everyone in Termina will die. There is nothing you can do. Right off the bat, Majora’s Mask forces you to deal with powerlessness. This in itself is something seemingly counterintuitive for game design. After all, games are supposed to make you feel powerful, right? Not necessarily. That’s what makes Majora’s Mask so effective. It immediately strips away any semblance of power or control, forcing you tp go outside your comfort zone, and to empathize with Termina and its people, hammering in the fact that everyone around you will inevitably die. By the time you finally get the Ocarina back and become a Hylian again, you are desperate for any kind of power, and now you have the most important ability in the game: the ability to travel through time back to the beginning of the three-day cycle. From there on out you make baby steps forward. One quest, one new mask. Each mask allows you to complete another side quest, helping a citizen of Clock Town, or the four surrounding areas. Soon, you become reliant on the masks, using them more often. You get masks that allow you to turn into other creatures from the Zelda universe, access new areas, do things that according to basic psychology should make you feel more powerful. But whenever you begin to feel any sort of hope, all you have to do is look up. Because the moon, with its haunting visage glaring angrily at the earth, is always there. Always slowly advancing
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Majora’s Mask, has a message, and it can be interpereted any number of ways. Photo by Wikipedia
“
Actually... I know... We’re not safe here, either... I’m no expert on these things, but that’s the feeling I get. But... That’s how life goes, I guess.
Ocarina of Time By Peyton Tanzillo Ocarina of Time begins with you, Link waking up in your familiar place, a nice village, but you start out unlike many other heroes. You are the outcast. All of the village folk have fairies, except you. You’re made fun of. You’re downgraded, a position very few heroes start off in. It’s a humble beginning, a position many people have in real life, and it feels, right off the bat, you have a character that you can relate to, and one that you can compare yourself to. Over the course of the game, you get to see this character grow, from appearing as an outcast in a small village to an adventurer that travels all over the vast land of Hyrule, and it feels human. Most heroes in games are devoid of making critical mistakes, but link makes many mistakes in this game, making him a more relatable character. That’s what this game does best. It takes a video game character and it gives them many human like qualities. Ocarina of Time focuses on the shifting of time, and how your childhood memories are the memories you enjoy the most. The Temple of Time shows the difference between your child self and your adult self, and how much happier your child self is, and suddenly it hits you, that time can be a cruel thing, and can take your good memories away. It’s fitting that you empathize with Link, because he was designed to be, literally, a link to the players. His silence represents what YOU would say, what YOU would do in his situation. The game empowers you, makes you the hero in your own story.
Promotional art for Ocarina of Time’s 3DS re-release. Photo by Ricardo Saramago
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“The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days...”
The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days...
Majora’s Mask has too many side quests that distracted too much from the main story, but Ocarina of Time focuses on the main story beautifully, and have the side quests just be a fun alternative game you can play if you are tired of the main story. This game was made beautifully, because of how similar it was to the life we all live, while still maintaining that unique fantasy element. That is why I loved it so much, and I wasn’t the only one to love it. The critics on metacritic, a website used for video game critics to review games gave this game a 99 / 100, Ocarina of Time rates #1 best game according to readers of Edge Magazine and industry experts. This game is truly a masterpiece, and the experts agree.
Ocarina of Time remains to this day on of the greatest games ever made. Photo by Wikipedia
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Minecraft
PUZ ZLE P
uzzle games are a booming part of the video game society. Puzzle games can easily be one of the largest video game industries out there. But, how are these games made? Immersion staff ask many puzzle makers, like Damien Clarke, about this topic.
Story by Peyton Tanzillo Immersion Magazine
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Creating a good puzzle game can be a very big challenge to many game developers. There are a lot of aspects needed to pull off a good puzzle game. What do you need to do to make a high quality puzzle game? I have asked a lot of puzzle game developers about the creation of puzzle games, and what processes each one goes through to make their game successful. Puzzle games have been a large part of the gaming industry. Games like Portal, Limbo, and Fez have had a large impact on gaming itself, and are usually on the tops of people’s lists when they mention indie games. Good puzzle games have gotten people to be able to think, and study the surroundings around them to reach a goal, causing the solving of the puzzle to be extremely satisfying. What is a puzzle though? “A puzzle is a problem that is fun to solve, and has a right answer, as oppose to everyday problems, which frankly are not very well designed puzzles,” said Scott Kim, a puzzle maker, in a Ted Talk. Now, we need to look at what a successful puzzle game is. “If you give them [the players] too much information, they’re gonna feel dumb, because you gave them too much, you spelled it out, but if you don’t give them enough information, there’s a risk they’re gonna get stuck, and then you know they’re gonna feel dumb because they’re stuck.” said Randy Smith from Tiger Style games “So, is there some sweet spot in the middle? y’know, where you’ve given them just the right enough amount of information that the puzzles seem hard, yet they did it anyways?” Other puzzle makers say that success comes through playtesting, like Teddy Lee from Cellar Door Games, who has put out games like My First Quantum Translocator and I have 1 day. “It’s impossible to know off the bat whether a puzzle is fun or not. The only thing you can do is playtest it,” he said, “and if you like it, have someone else playtest it and see if they like it. If we don’t enjoy completing a level though, we usually look at it and see what’s not fun about it. That way we won’t make the same mistake again.” Though developers may have different ways of doing so, the whole goal of a puzzle game is to make a player feel smart, and that is what separates a good puzzle game from a bad one. What processes do puzzle makers go through to make players feel smart? Dave Hall, creator of Q.U.B.E, thinks first of the objective of his puzzle, and creates a way within his game to reach the objective he made. “In the early stages of development I would create a plan for each level on paper before creating anything in-engine. However, it can be difficult to plan out every aspect of a puzzle because it doesn’t always work the same way in-engine. Now the first thing I do is create a
Immersion Magazine
This is an indie puzzle platformer called “Thomas Was Alone”, created by Mike Bithell. Image by Indie Game Bundles prototype, then I test it and iterate on it until it works.” This plan system works for many other puzzle designers. For example, Rob Jagnow, the creator of Cogs and founder of Lazy 8 studios. “I’ll often draw a puzzle in its solution form in Photoshop. For 3D puzzles, I unfold the board into a plane so that it’s easier to visualize. From that 2D design, I consider alternate solutions to the puzzle. Depending on how hard I want to make the challenge, I may add extra parts that are either useful to the user or that serve only as decoys. Finally, when I’m relatively confident with the design, I’ll code up the puzzle,” Once you’ve got your idea, and you have your
The creator of Limbo, Jeppe Carlsen, speaking at the game developers’ conference in 2011. Image by WikiCommons
is a problem “Athatpuzzle is fun to solve,
and has a right answer, as opposed to everyday problems, which frankly are not very well designed
“
method of designing puzzles, then all that’s needed to be done is to bring in playtesters. Playtesters play a large role in the development process, and can be the difference of a good game and a bad game. Jagnow says ”As the puzzle designer, I’m often naive about how difficult the puzzle will be. Puzzles that I think will be easy may turn out to be incredibly challenging when I share them with testers.” Many puzzle makers rely on testers to give them feedback on their game, and can arguably be the most important part of a game maker’s success. This is the process that puzzle makers use to hit the perfect spot between a good puzzle game and a bad puzzle game, they follow these methods, and let testers give feedback on the game itself. »
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Video Games: The Benefits That Come With Gaming
Do your parents tell you to turn off the video games because they rot your brain? What parents don’t realize is that they improve many skills such as sight, reaction, reasoning, eye-coordination and decision making. These are few of the many benefits of playing video games that Immersion will break down for our readers. By Alan Zacatula
Improvement of Vision!
Dr. Maurer, 56, director of the Visual Development Lab at McMaster University in Ontario, author of “The World of the Newborn,” includes her research as to why first-person shooter games may improve eyesight. A experiment had been done using human subjects. Half of them had recieved consoles as well as first-person shooter games to play at home while the other half didn’t. After four weeks various tests of vision had shown that those who had played for the longest had a surprisingly higher score on the tests.
games can be “Video designed to optimize Creativity off The Charts!
A study of 500 12-year-olds has shown that kids who tend to play video games have higher levels of creativity, according to research by Michigan State University led by Linda Jackson, professor of psychology. This research can help us into creating new and creative ways to teach kids.
the development of creativity while retaining their entertainment values...video games will blur the distinction between education and entertainment.
The Sega Saturn, a console popular in Japan. Image by Wikimedia Commons 20
Immersion Magazine
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Video games can improve eyesight Photo by Wikimedia Commons
Physical Activity Increased In Kids?
A program named Zamzee had conducted research as to what video games may beneficial to kids. According to their research the program Zamzee has helped many to increase their physical activity by nearly 60 percent on average over a six-month period. This program has also positively impacted the risk factors associated with heart disease and diabetes.
Gamers Ability to Control Dreams?!
Playing video games before bedtime give people an unusual level of awareness in their dreams, LiveScience has learned. Dreams in which people can control are lucid dreams. Studies and research have shown that gamers are more likely to have lucid dreams. This research has been put into consideration as a method of curing those with post-traumatic stress disorder. (PTSD)
4%
Emotional Motivations
A survey conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital suggests that nearly 52 percent of children play video games to relax or just have fun. Another similar survey suggested that nearly 37 percent of children use games to cope with anger and stress. Because of this we have learned to use games on children diagnosed with chronic illnesses such as autism, depression, and Parkinson’s disease.
11%
Civilians having simlar nightmare levels
Other
96% People with PTSD that have nightmares.
52% For Fun
37% Cope with Anger and Stress
Video Game Skills
Research led by Daphne Bravelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at University of Rochester suggest video games may have real-world benefits for your child’s developing brain. Studies show gamers perform significantly better than non-gamers on tests of attention, speed, accuracy and multitasking.
turns out that action “Itvideo games are far
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Commodore 64 Joystick Image by Wikipedia
from mindless.
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Mighty No. 9: A success story in the making. BY TRISTAN WRIGHT
O
n December 17, 1987, Mega Man appeared on store shelves. A risky gamble by the up-and-coming game studio Capcom, the game still sold well thanks to the ingenuity of a young designer named Keiji Inafune and his team. They created an innovative and solid platformer and launched a fantastic series of games, recognized even today as masterpieces of design. A little over two years ago, Keiji Inafune left Capcom, and as a result Capcom cancelled three different Mega Man games that had been in development, to the unbridled rage of fans all over the world. The biggest blow was the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, which, in a risky move, adopted a policy of complete transparency, even hoping to allow fans to submit their own artwork, ideas and concepts. Unfortunately, the project was scrapped, and two years later, the community was still smoldering over the loss. The cancellation of the once-promising project lead Capcom Community Liaison “Gregaman” to say in an interview with GoNintendo.com, “If nothing else… I hope this project has shown you why companies are rarely this transparent”. Things looked bleak for another experiment with fan involvement on this scale, and Capcom seemed to have decided that it was not worth the risk. Inafune disagreed. On August 31, 2013, Keiji Inafune and his startup, Comcept, announced that they were going to make a spiritual successor to Mega Man, completely funded on Kickstarter money, called Mighty No. 9. If the fans were interested, all he asked for was a total of $900,000 in donations. By the end of the kickstarter, the team had raised around $4,000,000. Since then, Comcept has made every step possible to involve the fan base in the conceptualization of the project, from having new features added to the game when donation milestones are reached, to letting fans vote on different designs for characters in the game. This level of involvement has lead to a massive positive response from Mega Man fans, who feel forsaken by Capcom after two years of silence from the Megaman series. “[The fans] were given this sort of hope with Mega Man Legends 3, which was promptly taken away,”, avid
Inafune has more games under his belt than just Mega Man. He also worked on Mega Man X, Dead Rising, and Onimusha. Photo by Yves Tennevin.
Mega Man fan Zac Zalles said. “I’m proud that Inafune decided to make his own game through Kickstarter”. Mighty No. 9 features a group of robots known as the Mighty Numbers, 1-8. The player takes on the role of the only Mighty Number to receive a name, Beck. Along with his partner Call, Beck is tasked with destroying the other Mighty Numbers, who have all been infected with a mysterious virus that causes them to become destructive. The game is still in the planning stages, but it looks very promising, and the fan response has been overwhelming. Beck has basically been knighted by the community, being portrayed as rising to avenge Mega Man’s death. “Now this new champion is rising up and isn’t attached to any corporations, and is really the only hope of a Megaman-esque game. Beck is the Megaman beyond Megaman.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, Capcom has been demonized during discussions of the new game. Inafune has actually stated that if Capcom were to make him “an offer that {he} can’t refuse”, he would consider publishing Mighty No. 9 with them, and maybe even as a Megaman game. This ideal offer would entail that he maintain creative control, that they’re still
Design F won the Call design poll, closely followed by Call E. Photo provided by Comcept.
allowed to involve the fans, and that Capcom won’t generally interfere that much. But even so, there’s been steadfast resistance to the very idea of Mighty No. 9 being published by Capcom. “Fans will be skeptical if something like that does happen, theoretically, because Capcom hasn’t exactly been the best right now,”said Mega Man fan Aiden Wilson, “so I could see why there has been kind of a backlash against that, especially since people are kind of pushing more towards indies and small things, which it looks like Keiji Inafune’s doing right now” Meanwhile, Zalles is skeptical, but optimistic. “ I feel that making the game with Capcom wouldn’t be a problem as long as Capcom actually follows their word and allows Inafune to lead the creative design. I can understand the community’s outcry against this proposal, as Capcom surely seems like an antagonistic figure to many people after cancelling the Megaman games.” Capcom has yet to comment on the subject of Mighty No. 9. Recently, Comcept held a poll that would determine the appearance of the support character, Call. Comcept published nine possible designs and allowed fans to vote for their favorite. This was the first of many polls over the course of development that will affect the final product. The Kickstarter page for the game also talked about contests, not unlike the Nintendo Power Contest for Mega Man 6. Fans are
able to submit their own designs for an enemy and come up with “a fun way to sell them to the designers”, and Comcept will include the winning design in the game. The team at Comcept promises even more unexplored possibilities, from surveys, to playtesting, and beyond. Likewise, fans are optimistic, both about the game itself and the fan involvement. “Think about it, let’s just say some other game gets something like that, like a Legend of Zelda game,” Wilson says. “If you had a small committee of the most dedicated fans who would help build it up with someone like Shigeru Miyamoto, if you built it up with them, you could help them point out flaws, like if they did that with Ocarina of Time, you could have taken out the water temple… Having something like that is just more interactive, and promotes a sort of transparency with game companies.” While this transparency does seem to help the game in this case, the Mega Man community has seen all too well how something like this can play out. Even so, there is a lot of optimism surrounding Mighty No. 9. “I find that kind of suspect, because there’s always a chance a game could release and be terrible... accidents can happen,”, Wilson said. “ {However,} I don’t see where there would be many big flaws with this other than just rough starts, but by the looks of this it looks like they’re gonna have a gliding start! ...Like, throw money at the screen, good start.”
Art by The Witness Project