Braid your own

It seems that it really is the 80′s again. Recession, strikes, protests in the streets, leg warmers (well, pants tucked in socks for the same effect), writers in their bedsits trying to create the next big novel and bedroom game programmers.

Oddly these nerds may be the storytellers.

I’m a nerd and proud of it, however I notice trends too. Thanks to the iPhone, facebook apps and the XBox 360 developers kit (XNA) the chance exists for a single programmer to design and build his or her games. And maybe live off the proceeds.

Some will take a technical problem and build a game around it (for example, building an infinite city, or getting the game characters to have realistic reactions) others will take on the social aspects of games (imagine a two player game that can only be played with those near you, beats passing notes in class, or an assassin type game).

Others take an idea, a simple platform game, add story elements, a twist (time shifting) and make it look beautiful. For example Braid.

Braid is the creation of Jonathan Blow, originally created for the XBox360 (and available on its marketplace) and now on the PC. He isn’t exactly a one man creation shop, as he explains in an interview with the Canadian NextGen Player blog (and there is a video interview for the hard of reading) but he explores the avenues of development. The interview took place at the Montreal International Game Summit, and you can download the audio and slides of his presentation on the story-centric paradigm of game design.

Of course writing a story is one thing, playing it is another. There is a simple cause and effect problem with creating a narrative in an interactive medium. If the player prevents the murderer from reaching his victim, then the story is fundamentally changed. If a story element (in this case a crime) can’t take place until the player does (or doesn’t do) something then an alternative may be necessary. Separate story arcs are hard to maintain. There are other ways of course.

Some games, for example Bioshock, land the player in a crisis and direct him or her down particular paths but allow the player to find out the back story of how the crisis took place. Others such as Left 4 Dead monitor how the players are doing and, depending on their skill level, present story or action points along the way. Even the new Grand Theft auto 4 add on is really a story pack, with separate story options being triggered by player actions.

Those however are big, multi-million dollar creations. The bedroom programmer can tell a simpler story. After all, the tale of girl saves boy form giant robot from Mars may be fun, but the reason why the girls wants to save the boy makes it all the more interesting.

Now, go and tell tales.

p.s. I’m waiting for the Google maps pac-man (another 80′s man… er… blob) where the player has to physically travel around their local roads, scoring those yellow dots with the “ghosts” on their mobile screen chasing them. Needless to say, it won’t work well on country roads with only one road for miles around. On the other hand, it would probably have the same exercise benefits as a Wii fit. And I half expect Nike to release it, but the ghosts will be your recorded running patterns. After all, in so many games the only competition is you.