Caleb Pond

3D Modeler & Generalist

Games and Experience

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Hey, so considering what my future job will be, I thought that it would be worthwhile to start putting some of my thoughts involving video games down on “paper.” These posts will be mostly drawn from my experiences with a particular game, so they most likely won’t have any links for references.

So with all of that precursor junk out the way let’s get into it. The other day I had the absolute pleasure to play a game called Journey. I know that it has been out for 2 years, but up until this point I haven’t had access to either a PS3 or a copy of the game. But I recently got access to both of those things and so I finally played Journey. I had already seen a playthrough, so I knew just how short it was. So having set aside the two hours I knew it would take to complete. I began my Journey (heh see what I did there?).

I won’t really talk much about the game because I feel that what it contained wasn’t as important as what I got out of it. That may sound harsh but let me explain. If you look at Journey from a purely mechanical standpoint it is so bare bones to the point of almost not being a game. You play as a piece of cloth walking in a desert. But even with that few mechanics Journey has managed to make its way into it’s place as one of my favorite games of all time. This is bizarre for me because in my mind mechanics has always and I mean always trumped story. Because of this I have heavily enjoyed games like Super Meat Boy, Spelunky, Rayman Origins/Legends, and Hotline Miami. Those games may have story but it is either silly to the point of uselessness or there is none to speak of.

So that begs the question why did enjoy Journey so much? I have a couple theories as to why. My biggest one is that the ambiance and the atmosphere of the game was so cohesive and beautiful that any other shortcomings fell to the wayside. My other one is that this game was just so minimalistic compared to other games that I

Micro Transactions

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With the advent of the Xbox One and the Playstation 4 past some interesting discussions have come up about microtransactions. In the past few years we have seen a very strong move towards purchasing models based upon microtransactions and free to play. This was typified by the launch titles on the Xbox One. Both Forza Motorsport 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome heavily featured microtransactions, with Ryse featuring scarily pay-to-win purchases and Forza allowing you to skip most of the progression system in the game via purchases such as paying a whopping 37 dollars for the most expensive car in the game. The even sadder truth is that both of those games are 60 dollars at a standard price point. So not only do you have to pay 60 dollars but you can end up paying more than twice that in the games themselves. You can read some more about that here.

Another interesting event has happened that correlates to the increase in microtransactions seen in recent years.Silconera, the developer of Dead or Alive (DoA) have just announced that they are placing a limit on the amount of money you can spend on microtransactions in the most recent titles of both DoA and Dynasty Warriors. This limit will only apply to kids and young adults and it will be a set amount of money per month. The older you are the more you can spend. I think that this is an interesting business practice and I actually have to applaudSiliconera for this move. It shows that they actually care about their fanbase and don

Rayman Legends

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The Rayman videogame series, alone is enough for most people to automatically know that any new sequel will be much anticipated and rigorously scrutinized, Rayman Legends is no exception. Debuting on September 3, 2013 in the United States, developer Ubisoft once again created an amazing game to play. The 2d hand crafted design is beautiful, but real brilliance is in the level design and gameplay.

Exposition in Video Games

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So I would like to discuss an interesting topic in video games today. Mainly, I want to talk about exposition in video games and the use of exposition in video games today. There is an interesting article on IGN that talks about this very issue, in reference to lecture given by Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games.

Before we get into anything, I would like to first define what exposition is to me. Exposition is giving knowledge about a particular story or world that they wouldn

Stealth Games: Hunting vs. Espionage

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In the post written Kirk Hamilton, he talks about stealth games. He states that stealth games are fun because they let you take on the role of the predator. That feeling of the hunt, when you are closing in for the kill, this is what gets your adrenaline pumping when playing these games. Kirk then goes on to explain some of the aspects that create that predatory feeling. One of those is the ability to go in for a kill and then reset to a stealth state. Basically meaning that you can alert the enemies to your presence and then sink back into the shadows. He calls this type of stealth gameplay dynamic stealth. He also talks about how essential the design of enemy AI is to proper stealth gameplay. An AI that properly reacts when you are discovered makes the experience much more enjoyable.

I think that he makes an interesting and valid point about how being a predator in games is really fun. However, I don