What kind of games are we interested in?

When it was first created on the 27th September 2006, the HATPC Interguild was only ever meant to be dedicated to one game: Hannah and the Pirate Caves. Sure enough, this has been the case for the last two years, but how long can you stretch out one game? This Tardis-like platformer never fails to surprise us with brand new glitches, features and designs, but it just feels like we're running out of ideas for this game. We're all here because of HATPC and we'll continue to be the main supporting group for it, but it's definitely agreed that the interguild needs to spread its wings.

Neopets guilds - the birthplace of the interguild

There's loads of debate over what kind games we're going to start covering in our site. There's been a few different views:

1. We take on all games and become a general gaming site. I originally went with this idea, but I think we'd struggle to keep up with the other competitors as some of the big ones are backed by a steady flow of money.



2. Others think we should specialise in platform games to make our site as efficient in its subject as possible. The problem I have with this is that these kinds of games are often only single-player 'campaign-based' games with limited scope for debate and community activity. For this reason, I believe we should broaden ourselves out to...



3. All games with user-created content. This means that we can build a community with different styles, interests and competitions where everyone can unleash their imagination on the rest of us.



4. A more traditional and stubborn view is that the Interguild should remain purely HATPC-based. I don't think we can expand much like this (though the active member count is starting to rise at a faster rate) and that we'd be bored of the game by a couple of years.


The third option clearly gives us a more exciting future with more potential to expand. The only question now is... What games are we going to use? Perhaps to get a better idea of the answer to this question, I should give some examples of what user-created content (UCC) could be.

I quote Wikipedia (that site never fails...):

"User created Content (UCC) refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users."

For our purpose, UCC is any gaming material made for the public by the public. This is often done through a programme made by a team of designers. The UCC can either be made from its 'raw form' (for instance, a modification of a game created directly through a computer programming language such as C++) or by using a facility that's built into the game (such as the cavemaker in HATPC or the Forge facility in Halo 3). This UCC can be made for free online games or commercial games made by major games developers.

As we want a site that is attractive to a wide range of members, I think it's wise that we stick to UCC that is easy to make rather than be dedicated to hardcore modding (though this is something to consider in the long-term). As this BBC news report shows, there are fewer and fewer limits on what UCC can be made and it is becoming easier to create it. It seems like you can really let your imagination go wild now...

One really cool game that the article mentioned is Spore (already available for Windows). This really pushes new boundaries for UCC as it enables you to design your own virtual species and mould its vehicles, buildings, world and even its national anthem.

One of Spore's many editors

Once again, Wikipedia gives a more useful low-down:

"User-generated content is a major feature of Spore; there are eighteen different types of editors (some unique to a phase), and even a music editor which allows players to create and share songs to be used as a national anthem in the Civilization stages and above. Will Wright has stated that in addition to being simple, all the editors will be as similar as possible so that skills learned are easily transferable from one editor to the next.

The editors start simply in the cellular phase and move to higher levels of complexity, acting as tutorials for progressive levels of gameplay. For example; the cell editor demonstrated so far has nine choices and a two-dimensional environment while the creature editor has dozens of options and a 3D environment. The structure ranges from a spine and body model in the creature editor to more free-form editors for the buildings.

For example, the creature editor allows the player to take what looks like a lump of clay with a spine and mold it into a creature. Once they have molded the torso, they can then add parts such as legs, arms, feet, hands, noses, eyes, mouths, decorative elements, and a wide array of sensory organs. Many of these parts affect the creature's abilities (speed, strength, diet, etc.), while some parts are purely decorative. Once the creature is formed, they can paint it using a large number of textures, overlays, colors, and patterns, which are procedurally applied depending on the topology of the creature. The only "required" feature is the mouth (otherwise, the creature will die from starvation). All other parts are optional; for example, creatures without legs will, as said before, slither on the ground like a snake or slug.

Other editors are used for buildings and for vehicles. Eventually, players can edit entire planets, using various in-game processes. Electronic Arts has promised new editors to be released after the game's release, such as a flora editor. However, a beta flora editor and expanded cell editor are available in the game code and can be accessed by changing the target parameters for the shortcut executable.

There are also simple means of creating visual media: such as a screenshot facility that captures the screen without the surrounding user-interface; and a 640x480 video creator with a built-in YouTube upload service. Maxis has also partnered with a third-party to provide a Spore-branded Comic Book Creator service, which was live at launch."

Should we incorporate Spore into our directory of games? Well, it certainly seems that Spore will become a massive game with a huge UCC community - it seems a good place to step into. On the other hand, Spore costs money and requires a decent computer - something that not everyone has. This raises another question: should any of the games that we use cost money? Do we want all of our members to play all of our subject games even if they are cheap and poorly designed? Well, in my opinion, as long as they have a certain amount of depth to them and that they are enjoyable to play they should be worthy of having a section on our site.

I do think that we should include some commercial games with UCC, though probably only popular ones. These could be used as a tool to recruit more members to the group. Popular UCC sources would be SSBB's Stage Builder, Halo's Forge and the highly flexible map editor that will come with Far Cry 2 (something that gives the player a huge amount of freedom in their creation).

The UCC parts of SSBB and Halo 3

Out of all the map editors that exist now or are about to be released, it is Far Cry 2's map editor that interests me the most. You can pretty much do anything you like and create any map you can think of. The only limitation is your interest in first-person shooters, I suppose... Here's a video for those who are interested - it really makes me want to cough up 50 quid next month...

Free Online Games...

Finding these is one of our priorities now. If we're going to start off small, this is the right place to start in my opinion. Whenever I find a decent online game with UCC facilities, I'll make a blog about it giving links and details. For now, here's some information on one of my favourite UCC games that I think everyone should try: Transport Tycoon. It's been reconstructed in the form of Open TTD, but it's exactly the same as it used to be and now it's free!

Transport Tycoon is a business simulation game in which you have to make the most efficient and profitable transport system that you possibly can while competing with rather stupid AI opponents. The core of the game is based on the railway networks you can make. These can range from single track station-to-station set-ups with one train to a vast network with hundreds of trains and stations while millions of pounds/dollars are made every second. It looks bland and old-fashioned from the outside, but once you make your first million it becomes ridiculously addictive.

What has it got to offer for the interguild? It has a massive map editor in which entire countries can be recreated in the sense of their geography, the ability to share saved games and a small online multiplayer system which is easy to use. This means that, if we wanted to, the group could meet up for a game on the online network. I dare you to try it out and give the basic parts of the game a go before learning railway network-building - it's one of the most absorbing computer games I've ever played.

Download it from this site. Check out the main Open TTD forums here where you can access thousands of scenarios and saved games. This would be our main competitor though we have the ability to go further in making our 'TTD sector' more interesting and useful as many parts of their site are old and out of date.

That's all for now, folks - I'll do my best to post blog-worthy bits of information for the interguild whenever I'm able!

:D

Jebby