I’ve been reading through “Creating Emotion in game”s by David Freeman. It has some interesting things to consider. At the same time not all design solutions are found inside a book. But it has inspired me in a gothic romantic adventure game design that I’ve been working on. Simply because I did not take into account that the gamer has to be able to take on the roll for the emotion and genre to work properly. And the design must allow you to have Empathy with the character, once you’ve done that you open a shitload of doors for the gamer to play and FEEL the game. Err I dunno. Freeman has a website.

http://www.freemangames.com/idea/
http://www2.beyondstructure.com/start.php

The book also really shows how different creating emotion in a game and a movie are. You need to do it in a more complex way. Freeman has worked in both industries (not that his movies are well known, http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0293351/ ).

Truly, it’s complete pap. Don’t take any of it seriously.

I’m not going to say it is tripe, because that would be to deny the way he has managed to explore somethings that adds to an addictive game. Some game genres are now needing to rely on hooking the gamer by ensuring the emotional count in games is as high as the poly count (oh crap analogy). The book doesn’t claim to be a complete designers guide. Simply something to think about when creating characters. The book deals very little with how a game is made.

But to add a negative to that, his examples are usually confusing, and his attempts to show off his own creativity. Which is quite lax. The games he has worked on can show you that. Many of the titles he has consulted on, I really wish he had read his book first. Cause so many boring scenarios lead me to write this paragraph.*

I re-read the start of my original reply. I hope you did not take that the wrong way. I meant to say, if this was introducing me to a game, I’d play it. But I wouldn’t be playing as me, not straight away. I can’t relate. I’ve been playing through “Beyond Good and Evil”, a game I bought cheap off Ebay, cause I remember a good review on it. And I wanted to compare it’s photography gameplay with Project Zero 2. Wow, totally different games. At first in “Beyond Good and Evil” I was reserved about having any feeling for the character, I just wanted to see the next thing, I hated any cut scene that stopped me from doing my stuff, and now I’m into the puzzle solving I’m loving it. But the first hour was hard. As with Project Zero 2, or The Room. The moment you’re not being the character it kind of drags. I’ll get a movie if I want to see that.

I like the games where you immediately get to choose, what you look like, how you move, your motive, your aspirations. Oh.. I’m describing The Sims 2 again.

*He uses many footnotes, in order to show off even more.**
**The book also plays on common sense, and does not offer any insight on how to write. Get a Syd Field book for screenwriting, or do a course for that.***
***You’ll never find all the answers in one book, that’s why most of the essays you do in High School, the teacher asks for a Biblio with at least 8 different sources.****
****Even then. It’s only your opinion and interpretation, inspired, maybe, by those texts.