Aperture Science

"This is cake," my brother Hans exclaims, completely oblivious of the irony of his statement. Watching my brothers and friends play Portal is like, well, maybe the cake isn't a lie after all. Interested in player-learning, I put a number of my family and friends through GLadDOS's test chambers. As their first game since the days of Ikari Warriors, Portal was an anomaly, a universe unexplored. And like GLadDOS, I was a passive observer. No clues. No hints. Just the players finding their way. Aperture Science isn't the real analyst of the Portal gun, we are. Portal is player-teaching, player self-learning, player-everything. Portal is Aperture Science. And Aperture Science is teaching players how to teach themselves.

"I got to go through a chute and there's cake at the end," my brother Noah surmises, looking at one the test chambers' helpful diagrams. Also playing Portal for the first time, Noah is learning all about Portal's and guns and suspicious wall-mounted cameras. "I love how you run into this and it makes sound. . . .I never use my strafe button. It's a lot of fun. . . . . This is amazing! I'm totally in another world." We're fairly jaded as core gamers. A good example, we take it for granted that we are actually playing as someone. "I can see myself," my friend Mike exclaims, "I'm a girl." For Noah, this realization comes in waves. "Hey! there's a person". And later, "It's me." he pauses to make sure, "It's totally me cause she does everything I do." Hans is more critically observant. "That body runs weird." Hans is an exercise physiologist.Learning is about trial and error, and so is Portal. At the 2008 Nordic Game Jam, Jonathan Blow discussed conveyance, or how a game teaches players how to play. Conveyance, Blow says, is when "you start to make inferences about the game world and how it works." Aperture Science. During his presentation, Blow looked at a number of indie games, discussing at one point Rod Humble's The Marriage:

So you start playing this game, and you've just got a mouse cursor, and you move it around, and you notice that things react to where you put the cursor. And you start to understand the patterns. And then you start to interpret the patterns . . . You really understand what he was trying to say simply through this process of conveyance.

Blow is discussing a seamless conveyance. A far cry from the established tutorial, seamless conveyance is experiential learning. Play and learn. Learn and play. For experiential learning, Portal's test chambers are a pristine model. Seamless conveyance, experiential learning, aperture science: they all refer to the same thing. It is creating a guideline for player learning, for player self-teaching.Earlier today my nephew Foust was playing with a Batman action figure. "What does he do?" he asked. I answered, "whatever you want him to." Foust proceeded to fly Batman around as if he were Superman. Players are looking for boundaries. They want to know what they can do and what they cannot. It's up to us to show them. In Portal, players teach themselves these rules, exploring the limits of the Portal gun. But if we let players run rampid, they might become frustrated and confused. The success of Portal is its test chambers. The test chambers are specifically designed to allow players to teach themselves the game's mechanics. Portal travel, cubes, prolonged exposure to buttons, the game's mechanics are numerous. But the game plays simpler than we imagine because its rules are presented so smoothly. Learning them is natural, challenging, and fun.

introduction of challenge.As a matter of fact, this is a good time to mention the interdependence of these concepts. Challenge is fun. Challenge engages players' minds, forces them to think, to reason, to use logic. The lack of challenge means easy gameplay, which means boring gameplay, because the minds of our players aren't working. We want the mental cogs to be spinning. On the flip-side, however, if the challenge exceeds the player's present skills, then it's like throwing a monkey wrench into the player's mental cogs: the game is too hard, the mind cannot process everything being presented. But challenge remains for only so long. Something difficult, when learned, becomes second-hand nature. And this is where flow comes in. Mathematically, one challenge looks like an inverse U curve. Easy, then the challenge comes, then easy again once the challenge is mastered. Flow equals a constant upward curve of Challenge. This achievement requires a continuousClosely related to this is something called M+1. This comes from a developer commentary in a level of Sly Cooper (hands-down one of the best games ever). M in this equation is a skill, challenge, or obstacle, and the +1 refers to the amplification of that challenge. This found all over Sly Cooper, but in this particular level, M+1 meant dodging a series of lasers which became continuously more and more complex. This continuous amplification of challenge assures player flow, as the player's skills are continuously both learned and tested. In lamens, we need to maintain challenge and flow while teaching players new mechanics, obstacles, and skills in order to create a continuity of fun. How about some more algebra. If the answer is always Fun, then what is the question?Portal teaches players incrementally. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that a mechanic is introduced in one level then reapplied two or three levels later. Level 7, for example, is just like level 6, but opposite and combined with the skills from level 3. In reality, there is no formula. Valve simply devoted themselves to intense play-testing and reiterated their levels probably hundreds of times to create a smooth flow for players.

It was very interesting when this failed. Will struggled during a level when he inadvertently skipped the learning of an essential skill earlier on. In level 9, the "impossible" level, players generally shoot a portal through the hole in the wall then walk through the fixed orange portal behind them with cube in tow. Will, however solved the puzzle by walking through the energy field, and shooting a portal on that side of the wall creating a link between the two rooms without using the hole. Surprisingly, this innovation hurt him when level 11 came around, the level where players retrieve the orange portal gun. In level 11, players are required to quickly shoot a portal through the door near the ceiling after opening it with a button. At least twenty minutes went by before Will figured this out. He failed to learn this skill two levels previous.
In my observations, players were learning all of the time, sometimes blatantly so. While playing level 10, Noah exclaimed: "Oh! you can make portals in the floor. Oh! that's what they just showed me on the picture." Level 14: "Lines show you a door is over there!" and when he solved the puzzle: "I figured it out. I'd forgot about my power fling." Level 16: "This is a hard level. It's a new element." But perhaps most revelatory, Noah said in Level 7: "Can't I just use the skills I already learned?"

My friend Will is a longtime console gamer, but this was basically his first PC game. Like Noah, he frequently verbalized his thought-process (NSFW): "You cant do anything with black tiles. They suck balls." Level 9: "You just have to put it right through that conveniently box-shaped hole," (making mistakes is learning, too).In the same presentation as above, at the Nordic Game Jam, Jonathon Blow discusses a game called Mr. Heart Loves You Very Much, a graphically-simple, avatar-based puzzle game. This game, like Portal and The Marriage, teaches players how to play through gameplay.

And so these aren't really puzzles yet, right? Despite the fact that they're not challenging, they're interesting to the player. Because I'm seeing new things. I'm learning new things as I proceed through the game. So it doesn't have to be challenging yet, even though its a puzzle game.....that's all the game mechanics. It showed you each one, one at a time, and then it shows you how to combine them together, all in something that's not hard to figure out...It should be intuitive but also compelling. I play so many games where they have a really boring tutorial at the beginning. And I'm like 'Ah! I just want to skip through this and get to the real thing.' That was the real thing, but it was also teaching me about it.

The most difficult level in Portal, and most critical to understanding the game, is unquestionably level 3. Players need to know two things. One of these things they have already taught themselves: go through blue portal makes come out orange portal. The other skill, however, is not so obvious: you can walk through orange portals, and, doing so will take you to blue ones. Sounds obvious, I know. But that's because we've already played the game. It took one android subject at least fifteen minutes to solve this. Up until this point, we always traveled through blue portals, never orange. Its almost subliminal.

Confusing description? About Mr. Heart Loves You Very Much, Blow makes another, very revelatory statement: "I don't even know if I would have understood that if he tried to explain it in words. But in gameplay its so simple. You touch the wall and it moves."

Portal has a guideline structure. Players walk a path of self-learning. But the path is not entirely scripted, there is room for diversion and play, for players to have a little breathing room during their learning. Players assume a distinct gameplay style in the test chambers. In fact, Portal acted as an outlet for players to express themselves however they pleased. Noah was curious, inquisitive, and excited about everything in Portal, like in real life. For Mike, the test chambers were like a playground; Mike was playful with his new Portal gun-toy and was most interested in exploring its limitations and the limitations of the world around him. Also like in real life. Mike was actually an interesting player to watch simply because he is really, really intelligent. Honestly, Portal was too easy for Mike; he solved every level instantly. After creating infinite loops with a wall camera, Mike finally sighed, "I guess I should go to the next level." This statement is indicative of so much. To Mike, Portal was not challenging. Mike wasn't interested in performing something he knew he could achieve. Mike was more interested in discovering other things about the game, like infinite loops (shame on you Mike coughjavacough), and how far he has to fall to die, and how portals do not affect momentum. Will was quite the opposite. Like usual, he just wanted to swear a lot in frustration. "Portal? Portal can sucka my balls."
Aperture Science is players teaching themselves how to use a set of tools. Aperture Science is a guideline by which players teach themselves skills. But aperture science isn't directly applicable to every game. I would argue the opposite, in fact. Portal's aperture science, as with The Marriage and Mr. Heart Loves You Very Much, functions well because the entire game was designed alongside the teaching style. Good game design requires synergy. Aperture Science cannot be shoehorned into every game we make. A teaching system, like any aspect of game design, must work with other aspects of the game, harmoniously. I played part-way through Call of Duty 4 recently, and even it began with a fairly short tutorial level. But its tutorial was fun, a training session. It worked for the game.

Like many other gameplay systems, aperture science is just another example of a tutorial system. But its a system that works well when implemented correctly. Portal is a fun game. Portal offers a constant stream of new challenges and puzzles for players to solve. Players are always having fun because the challenge flows parallel to their competence.

Aperture Science
ap-er-cher sahy-uhns
-noun
1. The learning of new skills.
2. The process by which new skills are taught to players.
3. A guideline for players to teach themselves gameplay skills, restrictions, limitations, and boundaries.

Synonyms: conveyance, player-learning

images from Valve and Rod Humble.
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Best Trailers of E3 2008

Hi everybody. E3 has come again yet again. And, as usual, so have many, many game trailers. I'm a big fan of video game trailers; watching them is one of my favorite past times. I really appreciate when a trailer hypes you up for a game. In concordance with this, here are what I think are the Best Trailers of E3 2008. The trailers are also sometimes representative of my most anticipated games. I would encourage you to watch the following trailers (in HD at the link if you've got a nice screen) and other trailers from these games at their respective game pages at Game Trailers.

Be sure to tell us what your favorite trailers are in the comments.

Without further ado, here we go (in no particular order).

Mirror's Edge
inspirational.

Prince of Persia
amazing.

Spore
genius.

Street Fighter IV

awesome.

Animal Crossing: City Folk
"lunch-scarfing time already?"

flOwer
this game is simply beautiful.

Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is going to be so, much, fun. Be sure to watch all three parts of the walkthrough.

Hype! Day Zero

As you may know, E3 2008 begins tomorrow. In fact, it has already, with Microsoft and EA's respective press conferences complete.
Here is something to get your Hype! week started. The resolution is 1280 x 1040.

I'll be in the Lively chat room as often as I can to discuss anything and all E3. Second, I'm trying to launch an initiative of sorts on Bestuff. It's the Best of E3 2008 category; I'm looking for people to join and cast your vote. Of course, you may vote for multiple stuff, otherwise would be cruel.

And now for a word from our sponsors:
Game Trailers
-considering that Game Trailers has officially partnered with the ESA this year, Game Trailers should be your first stop for all things, well, trailers.

GameSpot
-per usual for GameSpot, extremely comprehensive information, impressions, and media.

GameSpy
-More impressions and media.

IGN
-Weakened by the fact that GameSpy and IGN have officially merged media hubs (less variety), but strong regardless.

Flagship Studios Shutdown

UPDATE: Flagship Still Exists, Owns Properties
Flagship studios has been shut down.
More information.

All of the Flagship and Ping0 employees have been laid off. All of the employees were given thirty days of full pay out of the pockets of their superiors. The maintenance of Hellgate: London has been passed to Comerica. HanbitSoft now has the rights to Mythos. This is unfortunate news, though a former Ping0 employee does a good job of explaining why it happened. I just started playing Mythos closed-beta this morning, ironically, and I really enjoy the game. The game feels very much complete; I hope that it is finished and released and not turned into vaporware.

image from filefront.

The Wind and the Caribou

Last night, I saw an episode of Natural World about the great caribou migration. Each spring, the caribou trek 3,000 miles from their winter calving grounds through upper Canada to reach their summer homes. The episode was about not only their migration, but also the wolves that live in the region, and their dependency on the caribou for survival.

The caribou gather in droves during their migration, merging herds to reach a population in the thousands. The sight is quite beautiful. The wolves also give birth at this time of year. Mostly, the mother must stay with the pups to protect them. The father of the pack must be the bread-winner and bring back food for the mother and pups. And by way food, all the wolves have are caribou. However, since the newborn pups are still too small to travel, the wolf packs are rooted to their respective birthing territories. Though the adult wolves can survive weeks without food, the pups lack fat and will die of starvation shortly after their mother stops lactating if they are not fed meat. Therefore, it is up to the father's to venture out and intercept the caribou migratory herd.

The problem is, the caribou's migration route doesn't always pass near the wolf pack's homes. The caribou are constantly being pestered by mosquitoes. And not just a few. We're talking billions of mosquitoes harassing thousands of caribou, constantly. For us, with safe, walled-in structures, mosquitoes are an annoyance. For the caribou, however, who are always on the move and who have only meager food available, blood loss from sucking mosquitoes is a deathly problem. So bothered are they by the swarms of mosquitoes, the caribou dictate their walking direction by the direction of the winds. The caribou will walk into the wind to keep the mosquitoes away. Since wind is an ever-changing element, the caribou's migration route shifts each year with it.

One wolf traveled 400 miles in 10 days searching for caribou, only to return to his den with nothing. The winds chose the route of the caribou, and, by chance, the route passed too far from this wolves den.

Thus, each migration season, the wind decides the fate of two survivalist creatures: the packs of wolves littered across the tundra, and the caribou trekking to their homes each migration season. The wolves need favorable wind for the caribou to pass near by, so they may hunt the caribou and feed their pups. On the other hand, if the wind does pass near wolf dens, some caribou will likely lose their lives.During the TV program, the narrator quoted an Inuit saying: "Who knows the way of the wind or the caribou?" He is talking about is chance and dependency.

The wind is a random, outside element that dictates the actions and favor of two players. Do what they may, both players are certain whims of lady wind. However, the wind does not completely determine the win or loss of either player. Either player may act how he or she pleases, and, ultimately, it is how the players act that will determine their fates. The players may strategize, taking advantage of the winds favor or else fighting its contempt. Both player are equal in terms of potential, but the outside element, the wind, is what tests their skill. The wind is a wrench, a challenge to the players' skills. Come wind or hell, the more skillful player can prevail.

Also, the wind is a natural element. We sometimes have the tendency to want to control each minute detail of our games. This isn't natural. The world is in constant motion, nothing is static. Rules do exist: gravity, light. But it is the natural element that brings our world to life: the wind or the rain. We need to ease our grasp. Let our games breathe. Make some rules, not too complex, mind you, but rules that will both benefit and challenge our inhabitants, make them want to stay around for awhile and see what life has to offer. Then let's blow some wind and see which way the caribou walk.

source: ANWF.gov and leaner.org
image from thelon.

The Witcher: VERSUS!

The Witcher: Duel Mail was first launched a few months ago. But that was just a beta. Today, CDProjekt and one2tribe launched The Witcher: VERSUS!, the full-release version of the originally titled Duel Mail. Also, everything from the beta was reset, so everyone has to restart their characters from scratch. I played Duel Mail when it was first released; in fact, I was rather obsessed with it. And for good reason. The game plays itself.

The Witcher: VERSUS! is a free, in-browser, flash-based multi-player game. The characters and mechanics are, naturally, all drawn from CDProjeckts 2007 PC title, The Witcher. The gameplay, however, is anything but. Players choose to play as one of three character classes: a witcher, a sorceress, or a frightener. From then on out, gameplay revolves around setting up one-on-one duels with other players. Below is a screenshot of the primary menu screen.

The left column is a list of duels that have taken place. The middle column is challenges I've either sent or received. And the top right is stats on my character. Players can both initiate duels or accept challenges initiated by other players. Actual duels function similarly to rock-paper-scissors. Players fill slots in two separate bars with sequences of attack and defense maneuvers. Skills are split into four types: strong, fast, magic, and special. Generally speaking, each type is a counter to itself. Strong-type attacks will be blocked by strong-type defense, fast-attacks by fast-type defense, and so on. As characters gain levels, though, skill points can be allocated to upgrade current skills or purchase new ones. New skills offer special abilities, passive buffs, and additional damage or defense bonuses. Half of playing this game well is carefully planning your path down the four skills trees. The other half to winning is predicting your opponent's moves.

The battle screen.

Once the attack/defense sequences are slotted, players push "Fight!" to initiate the duel. If you have accepted a challenge, the duel will play-out immediately, showing with fairly impressive graphical representation, the duel and thereafter the results. Watching is intense, to say the least. Characters take turns attacking and defending in the sequence order previously arranged. Nothing is real-time. "Everything must be planned beforehand," as the loading screen often prompts. So much of winning depends on guessing what you're opponent will do and hoping that your respective battle sequences pan out in your favor. Winning is glorious. Your opponent dies, and suddenly you come back to your main screen where you discover you've gained a level. Losing, on the other hand, is the very definition of disappointing, especially when you realize your win/loss count is being tracked for all to see. My win/loss record stays at a fairly consistent 50/50 ratio.

The best part of the entire VERSUS! experience is that it plays itself. Or at least that's how it feels. When you challenge an opponent, the duel is stored away until the opponent accepts your challenge. When the challenge returns with the results, it appears in the left-hand bar as a question mark, teasing you with a video of the duel. But the downtime after challenging an opponent is extremely exciting. You can go off, do homework, mow your lawn, whatever. And all the while you know that, when you return, one of your challenges will have been accepted. So the game keeps itself on your mind, often, if your on the Internet already, begging you to compulsively check your challenge results. And so begins the cycle of Internet game addiction. However, with the whole "our game plays itself when your not here" aspect, The Witcher: VERSUS! manages to remain fun, addictive, and minimally time consuming. That's what I call good game design.

The Witcher: Versus! is a very well executed game, especially considering it was made with flash. It's seriously fun and you should check it out asap.

FaceBreaker, or, How to Insult Your Opponent

Update: Controls Informational Video



Original Post
FaceBreaker was announced a while back. In development by EA's Canada studio, FaceBreaker is a humorous, comedic take on recent string of more serious boxing games. Unlike Fight Night, FaceBreaker attempts a more arcadey take on boxing, targeting a more casual, "fight for fun," audience. Most disparately, FaceBreaker eschews Fight Night's highly successful analog swing control system. Instead, FaceBreaker takes it old-school functioning with a more traditional button and trigger control system. As GameSpot explains (for PS3), R1 button blocks, X punches the torso, and square punches the head. Also, as GameSpot and IGN further explain, players can parry attacks by simultaneously holding block and whichever face button you predict the receiving punch will be. If you chose incorrectly and, say, try to parry a head punch that turned out to be a punch to the gut, you'll be hit hard, rather than parrying or blocking at all. Therefore, you can block guaranteed, or you can risk the parry and turn the tables on your opponent.

The game also features a bone breaker system, but what I would like to focus on for this article is the cool "completely insult the opponent sitting next to you on the couch" . . . feature. Fighting games have for long time featured stance-switching. A few examples my friend and I could think of off the top of our heads include the fighting system of the last-gen Mortal Kombat games, Christie in Tekken, Voldo in Soul Calibur, and Ryu and Lei Wulong in Dead or Alive.
FaceBreaker takes inspiration from these games in the most-awesome way possible. Holding L1 will cause your character to fight one-handed, literally, by putting one arm behind his or her back. Insulting? Most definitely. But this feature just highlights FaceBreaker's focus on fun, comically offensive brawling. And its more than just aesthetic, too. Fighting one-handed also switches fighting styles, if it can be called that. Characters will fight more insultingly; instead of punching, attacks can push opponents to the ground or (don't try this at home) deliver a solid crotch-kick.

I'm just a really big fan of this system. It sounds fun. Imagine the come-backs: one-hit 'till death,
opponent at full-health, and you bring the fight back for the win, all with one-hand tied behind your back.

Google is Alive

Just when I was planning on writing a series of posts concerning Internet games, here comes Google and launches a brand new web browser game. Google Lively was both announced and launched (as a beta) today. Lively is a free, in-browser, avatar-based chat service. And it is really cool.

You may notice a new addition to Invisible Studio's sidebar today, our own Google Lively room. I'll be in and out and feel free to drop in to talk about whatever, whenever.

But back to Google Lively. The service is really quite impressive. Users assume their own avatars, enter rooms wherein inhabit other avatars, and chat like we have since 1999. Essentially, Google Lively adds a graphical-user-interface to the standard chat system. Its been before, Sulake's Habbo being a good example. But where Google excels is popularity. Already, there are likely thousands using the Lively service. And for good reason; Lively is an excellently executed program. The interface is clean, easy to use, even intuitive. Which, for Google's intended audience, is highly necessary.

It's Alive

Customizing your avatar initially seems quite limited. But that's before you realize there's a catalog filled with a wide selection of apparel. Your avatar can be personalized pretty well, which is important for an avatar-based chat service. Aside from text chatting, users can speak to each other visually using emote animations. The animations themselves are quite expressive as well, exaggerated body signals. My personal favorite is "speak no evil."

Anyone can create a room and customize it how they please. The catalog also has quite a few furniture pieces. Users choose from a small set of "shells" off which to base their room, and go crazy from there. Rooms can be outfitted with furniture, fish tanks, plants, tv screens, and picture frames, the latter two of which can be embedded with pictures or youtube videos. Any object can also be given a hyperlink.

Google Lively is really a fun service. If you're going to be chatting anyway, and your computer and Internet connection can handle it, why not chat with a cool avatar in a room designed by yourself. The service is actually quite similar to what PlayStation 3's Home will be later this year.

All of this is to say that Internet gaming is becoming bigger all the time. In-browser games are the new fad. Look at Battlefield: Heroes, Legions: Fallen Empire, both of these are complex 3D games that play in your Firefox browser. The prospect of triple-A, in-browser games is attractive. Its easy, generally free, and from what we've got so far, fun. And they will keep on coming; the rush has started.

images from google and affordable housing