Click To Play

A little me in Metro

2008-05-15T15:59:00.001+02:00

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2008/05/13/13/2009-61/index.xml

Attract vs alienate

2008-04-27T19:45:00.002+02:00

So here's something to consider.

For each decision you make, how many potential customers do you gain vs alienate?

It's kind of obvious, that you want many people to play your game, so start thinking about how many players you think you may alienate with your choice rather then speculate what people want. It's a bit scary but very useful. Many ideas suddenly seem less awesome...

An example could be deciding art style: Everyone will be nude vs everyone will not be nude. Alienate vs attract - A lot of guys would be attracted but shitloads of people would instantly be alienated and would never go near the product. We'd better go with not nude. (I'm not trying to make a statement - just proving a point)

When in doubt you can try this as it often points you in the "right" direction.

A really good game

2008-04-22T20:16:00.002+02:00

This is as simple as a tip. A game you should play if you haven't already. It's called Mount&Blade and I've been playing it for 3 days straight. Why is it cool? it has mounted combat, and it's damn good!

Observe how the horse's head respond to player input much faster then the body. Major discovery.
http://www.taleworlds.com/

Comments

2008-04-20T20:07:00.001+02:00

I've changed so that anyone can post a comment. We'll see how it works out.

I'm touched - this is so fantastic somehow

2008-04-10T16:34:00.002+02:00

http://www.mazapan.se/games/BurnTheRope.php

You need to hear the entire song when you complete the game.

The ancient gamer - Life

2008-04-08T19:26:00.007+02:00

He who think of games as merely pressing buttons, might think of life as placing one foot infront of the other.

Africa!

2008-02-03T16:03:00.001+01:00

How har can it be? Our beloved earth has a limited amount of climates, 90% of all games feature a climate of some sort, a setting with some terrain so we should have seen all climates and settings a fair amount of times, yes?

NO

We have forgotten that little something called AFRICA. I can't remember playing any game with an african setting. So why is this then? My first thought was that the general market for video games wouldn't identify with an African setting. But then I thought, countless movies takes place in Africa, we see it on nature shows on TV and see it on the news. In the end I can't help thinking we discriminate Africa not out of racism but out of fear. How do we portrait their daily life, coulture and habits without being prejudiced and ignorant, how do we write story and dialogue to reflect a continent of which we know so little? And perhaps the most difficult question, how do we shoot African charachters dead without it tearing up emotional wounds? And by all means, the game doesn't have to be about shooting anybody anyways.

Well, I imagen the only way to show the proper respect is to bring Africa in to the game on the same terms as everybody else.

Kudos Far Cry 2 for taking the leap!

How's this for a setting?

Battlefield: Heroes!

2008-01-24T10:21:00.000+01:00

So time for one of those rare occasions when I can reveal what I am involved in.

I've been working on the vehicle gameplay on Battlefield : Heroes. Since it will be free there is no excuse not to try it out when it's going live later this year!

"Battlefield Heroes will be released for the PC as a free download in summer 2008."

As the game releases I'll write much more about this very fun-loving game!
Cheers!

check the heroes site: Battlefield: Heroes

Sketching your mind

2008-01-10T23:09:00.001+01:00

I have always sketched alot when I work and I have decided to show some of the stuff. For obvious reasons I can't show the stuff I am working on yet so I'll put some random stuff up that I made recently.

This picture is made on my new wacom so it's not my actual style. Later I'll scan some of my inc stuff.

Holistic...

2007-10-08T09:47:00.000+02:00

I have been described as a "holistic game designer" meaning I tend to look at the whole product, creating systems rather then single features.

Well wouldn't it be nice if I could just do a simple f*****g task every once and a while?

*delves back into the behemoth system of doom that started out as a simple task... again*

Envy

2007-10-04T09:16:00.000+02:00

My last post highlighted the importance of making players actually like your game, which in return generate sales and a certain place in the hall of fame.

However, do not misunderstand me, I am very bitter with Halo 3 and bungie in general for making such avrage games coming out as "perfect". I fully realize that there is no denying their greatness, but the success of halo does imply that innovation has little to no importance for success which really turns me down.

To sum it up. I envy the success of Halo. Therefore I am bitter and need to express my dislike.
Fortunatly I don't have to do anything since it's already been done.

I present the Zero punctuation review of Halo 3!

Who is your customer?

2007-09-30T19:26:00.001+02:00

Game design... I used to think it was a dark art, almost magic... The one "wizard" with the most delicate solutions won...

That still applies, a game designer has to be able to create very complex and advaced systems if need be, but he also need to ask himself; who is my customer?

If you are into game design as an art form, this may very well not apply, but if you want as many people as possible to play and enjoy your game, this is it.

Who is your customer?

The best designer is indeed he (or she) that can provide what people want. The most painful example of this is Halo 2 and 3. Halo 1 was just brilliant in many ways and deserves all credit and success... but what about Halo 2 and 3?

Halo 3 got 10/10 in EDGE... I mean edge is tough and they usually demand sequels to be extremely good to give a high score.

The thing with Halo is; they provide what the customer’s desire and the skill to do this is almost unfathomable. It is the real design magic. Ask a halo player why he/she enjoys halo and you will not get the answers you need to replicate the success, the only ones who know, are the fellas at bungie.

This is something I am just beginning to learn, when I worked at Lockpick we did ask the question, the problem was, we only fabricated some bullcrap answer that worked well with what we wanted to do. (This I can only say is certain for myself, the others might have actually tried their best)

The question is as blatantly simple as the answer and there is no escape. Who is your customer?

It's often taught that you need to specify your target audience, well this is true in a way, the more you specify the easier it will be for you to get away with stupid things.

My audience is NASA scientists with 2 brains = Ok, go ahead and do the game uber advanced
My audience are players that like Civ 3 and Warcraft 3 and some web games like Utopia and... = Well go ahead and make a fantastic game but don't expect many to play

Try this instead; My audience is every PC gamer. Period. Done.
Now you have your customer and your work cut out and you will also find yourself operating at the master level of game design. High Sales. Like Bungie the true wizards of design.

An era ends and a new one begins

2007-08-25T15:42:00.000+02:00

So after co-founding lockpick entertainment and being with it during development and release of Dreamlords, I have moved on.

My new employer is EA DICE. It was a fantastic journey to develop dreamlords but I came to understand one thing. I wasn't experienced enough to fully commit to my own company, that would mean I would always be at the very top of the hierarchy, never having to listen to anyone and never learning from anyone in the same sense as when you work your way up in a huge organization in which many masterminds reside.

It was a huge honor to work at Lockpick entertainment and to work with the creative talents there. I see only good things on the horizon for Lockpick.

MPOGD review

2007-06-20T21:16:00.000+02:00

Mpogd.com cast their review on dreamlords. Thay also have some new screenshots.

8 / 10

Making an MMORPRTS? Piece of cake!

2007-06-01T15:54:00.000+02:00

This is an article about the development of Dreamlords that I wrote some weeks ago for IGN.

If you are at all interested in the development of Dreamlords I recommend it.

You can read it over at IGN RPG Vault.
To add further spice, the article is illustrated by Dreamlords lead artist, Daniel Ribera Olsen.

Gamers hell review!

2007-05-30T18:27:00.000+02:00

Gamers Hell cast their vote on Dreamlords and and it's an eight!

8 / 10

Read the review here

This review, although the score is very high, is much more informative then the terrible Zitron review, how much worse it would have been for us if he had put forth his review with such detail and clearity.

Flying!

2007-05-28T21:44:00.000+02:00

I have sworn not to rant about flying in this blog since it is a game design blog but I just have to give myself a break!

Here is me performing a very difficult landing in flight simulator X.

$$ and The Movies

2007-05-26T00:22:00.000+02:00

One topic that is often discussed passionately amongst game designers is the question whether or not making money is the "main thing". A natural response is "yes" but if someone raises the following question, is it more important then making a brilliant game? Then thee is a debate.

So what do I think? I used to think that with great gameplay, or at least smart gameplay, players would always come. That doesn't seem to be so, The Movies for instance is a very notable example of this not being true. Most reviewers and industry people think that The Movies is an astonishing feat of development in general but design specifically. And despite this, The Movies didn't perform well at all and was far from a block buster.

Why is this? Ambivalent game identity and over-ambition. One of the things I am so impressed by with the movies (and many with me) is how they, from a design perspective, integrated all features into a whole, a very well functioning game. Almost every aspect of all features were cleverly integrated despite the vast amount of unusual challenges design-wise.

However, all this design magic where to be for nothing, since the game didn't sell. The fantastic game design solutions made no one happy even though they were great because the main bottom line of the game wasn't appreciated by the players.

For those of you not familiar with The movies, there are two major features in the game that are equally big. There is a tycoon game and there is a (superb) movie making tool.

Peter Molyneux once promised that "yes you are indeed going to be able to make movies and watch them within the game itself". This statement cornered the design team, the tycoon mode was absolutely necessary to have a game at all, and Peter had promised the movie making tool...
Dilemma

Since the designers (and whole team) where so damn good, they solved the challenges so well that both modes became equals and in effect, competed for the player's attention.

This is something you don't generally want, having your features competing against each other, but rather work in harmony/symbiosis. (I am the first to admit I only draw this conclusion after the movies proved not to be a hit)

One detail that I think stands out as a conflict between the modes is the rating of a movie within the game world. Since it's a tycoon game your movies will bring you the income, actors, sets, food trollies etc provide expense. Now there is also the movie making tool within the tycoon game, so you are free and encouraged to delve into a single movie, directing it with your bare hands and voila, some algorithm decide that it blows and the revenue is 5 bucks.

Why create real art for an algorithm to judge? Lionhead felt the same thing and rallied to enhance the movie making tool to have a stand alone community where real people would judge real art. Once again, great solution, but it further split the two modes apart.

Imagine two people discussing how to play the game.
Run a movie studio, make movies!, hire actors and manage salaries, make movies that are great, but don't earn revenue unless you have hired the right stars, placed a food trolly and provided your main star with botox, but other people might love them! But my studio will go bankrupt! Develop new scenery through R&D! Yeah.. but you don't need that since all sets are available in the sandbox so you can make cooler movies!, Yeah but that won't be real.... Who cares if the movies are cool?, I make movies for real people!, I use the same set for all movies and earn good money, well I only use the sandbox..!!

In the end, all obvious problems have been cleverly solved by the dev team so only the not so obvious problems remain.

If you haven't already, try the m

Story in games

2007-05-22T15:20:00.001+02:00

I was recently asked to share my view on story in games for a research project. Here is my reply:

I think the consensus is there all right, but more then saying story is bad, what companies are saying is that good gameplay is much more identifiable then story, so in a sense story becomes a risk factor. Since a story so clearly can be good or bad, putting a story in the game can equally clearly enhance or reduce the game. Building a strong game with no story e.g. Battlefield 1942 / 2142 is in that regard "safer".

The old stigma for the game industry regarding story is the linear nature of a story. Only if you make a linear game can a strong story really add to the game in a big way, but even then you take the risk that the story won't be popular with the gamers.

Another factor why story always takes a beating is because it doesn't really matter... This becomes clear in games with a bad story. Take Gears of War for instance, the story is OK I guess but compared to literature it's very basic and flat like an action comic. Critics and players alike love Gears of War despite this fact which suggest that gameplay/graphics etc is much more appreciated among the audience then story.

I do think that traditional storytelling will continue to face difficulties in games and that the best way ahead is to adopt the art and craft of storytelling into the games medium.

For instance, background story has a wider use then story per se, look at the warcraft universe, they have a very strong back story that they draw from when creating the game, however, they also have a story, that is fairly complex but most players don't know about the specifics of the actual story because it doesn't affect them in any way.

To integrate storytelling in games I think it needs to be merged with aspects of game design and simulation so that the story can grow within the game and also have an impact in the game.

The bottom line is I think, stories are unpopular because they don't matter. Make the story matter within the boundaries of the game.

To mention a few great examples where story have been integrated to some extent within the game:
Beyond Good and Evil
Half Life 2

These games have made an effort to take as much as possible from the story/back story and make it real in the game, this is one of the huge advantages with the game medium, not only create this and that weapon but also having huge tv-monitors on walls talking acting out the story, propaganda leaflets and posters on the walls etc to include you in the story you could otherwise just read about.

Nordic Game Conference

2007-05-21T10:40:00.000+02:00

I have just recently returned from the southern tip of sweden (malmö) where the Nordic Game Conference is held.

The NGC is very good event for nordic game developers to meet and exchange knowledge (and staff).

The great news is that Lockpick Entertainment won some hundred thousand danish crowns for one of our projects (not dreamlords) and we were also the swedish nominee for Best New Talent 2007 by IGDA, something we are very honored by. In the end, the Danes won the award but at least we are the most talented in Sweden ;)

"Sweden's Best New Talent 2007" -IGDA

Here is Jon Selin looking crazy as always =) He recently quit Lockpick after completing Dreamlords. He was recruited by Icelandic developer CCP who made a good signing for sure.

The all seeing orb

2007-05-10T09:17:00.000+02:00

Don't try to hide, don't even think about it!

The all seeing orb will always see you, watch your every move... it is.. omnipotent!

Anyhow. Not much activity lately, and since no one read this blog, there is really no harm done =)

My next post will be a retrospect look at a game that I really admire in many ways; The Movies by lionhead studios. I isn't really brilliantly fun or balanced but it is an incredible feat and possibly the once game with most features that actually made it from idea to working in game.

So that is whats coming next. You are watching CTP.

TenTonHammer Review

2007-04-12T23:21:00.000+02:00

The reviewers at TenTonHammer.com praise dreamlords with

4 / 5

Thanks!

Zitron's revenge

2007-04-10T18:03:00.000+02:00

Ed fought back. Rather well so. Nice move.

To my amazement some people have actually read my rant about Zitron.

I am sure that I would be entertained by Zitrons reviews as well, but you cannot expect me to be entertained when he kills my game?

Surely, looking him up on the net, was an act of fury but nevertheless, he made me furious, thus an act of fury...

More good news

2007-04-06T19:30:00.000+02:00

More reviews keep coming in and this time it is MMORPG.com which I would call the first of the big fish.

7.6

We scored a very respectable 7.6 out of 10 and I couldn't have dreamed of a better score at a huge international site.

I would like to thank MMORPG for following the development of dreamlords with some interest and embracing us in the mmorpg family (after some persuasion).

Obviously I am biased to say they did a good job, but really, their coverage of dreamlords have been very professional and the rating they now produced is the result of many playing hours and years of following our project.

Booyah!

2007-04-05T16:51:00.000+02:00

Stratics comes to the rescue.

Read their review here

8.0

I feel it needs to be said.
Normally I wouldn't say that one review is more right then another... But yes, I do think the stratics interview, or ANY other interview is more correct then Zitrons. That's just my honest oppinion.

We also dug out some server statistics on him showing that he hadn't activated one single technology being perfectly equivalent to; not becoming level 2 in wow.

This, might very well be our fault not making this clear etc, but his criticism did not bring that up.

Officially killed by Ed Zitron!

2007-04-03T18:44:00.000+02:00

Dreamlords has received its first head shot!
The killing blow is dealt in PCZone UK and it is made perfectly clear that dreamlords is possibly the worst game ever! (and obviously I can't handle it well)

So how am I going to tackle this, besides throwing things around in absolute rage?
Obviously I am going to take this guy apart and engage myself in war! Like any reasonable person would. Something that might haunt me for the rest of my life given this particular reviewer's reputation... I present the man with the plan, Ed Zitron a permanent residence of, and lifetime chancellor of "Doctor Ed's house of pain".

So what of it?
Has mr. Zitron no right to hate dreamlords? Of course he does, and he could perhaps even have risen some questions that other reviewers have missed or been kind enough not to mention, my objection lies entirely in the lack of actual analysis of the game and lack of constructive criticism.

I get the distinct feeling that Ed has an image to protect which makes what he has to say rather light weight. It's like evidence in court, this man your honor is clearly biased.
Dreamlords isn't the best game ever, in fact it's rather well known to have it's downsides that are being taken care of one by one. Once again I don't mind him hating the game but I do mind the fact that he forgets to mention several important factors that are important for the reader to make up their own mind. Ed is not reviewing dreamlords, he is laying down the law, which in this case is; his own opinion and irrefutable judgement. Ed Zitron is not a reviewer, he is an entertainer.

On a personal note I certainly don't trust this man's reviews. Here is an example.
Guitar Hero 2 (OBS Ed's editor has informed me that he stands by Eds review but that he disagree with the judgement cast.)

So now that I feel I smeared him at least a little bit I feel better. And now I am going to indulge in much more positive news.

A more balanced presentation of dreamlords on gamespot player reviews
We just scored 74% in the largest swedish PC Gaming magazine (PC Gamer sweden) that was a blast.

Finally
Just look at the dreamlords gameplay tutorial film here and tell me this is a 17% score game. If you honestly think that, so be it.

Over and out.

Esthetics

2007-04-02T11:47:00.000+02:00

Fellow game designer Andreas Roman commented on my MFD post and said he thought appearences had much more importance then I gave it credit for and he is right.

I fully appretiate the importance of an attractive interface, relly, I actually think that the interface is an important visual signature of a game. However, I am 100% uncapable of conceiving a "beautiful" interface my self and gladly leave the esthetics to artists even though I have my fair share of oppinions.

A great example of an attractive visual "interface" (although this is news design) is this one. It's an illustration/fact sheet about death. I find this very attractive in terms of appearance although I would never have been able to come up with this myself.

So my point is, combine my skills as an interaction specialist with this guy (Stefan Rothmaier, DN) and we could perhaps be able to break some new ground.

MFD!

2007-03-30T15:57:00.000+02:00

MFD or multi functional displays, are common knowledge in the aviation industry. HUD or head up display has its roots in the aviation industry.

Are we aware of this relationship these days? Do we care? Is it relevant?

I'm not sure, but I do know that the MFD concept is very interesting.

An MFD basically allows for almost limitless information to be accessed on a fixed size display. It is achived by creating X screens of information and Y ways to alter the information on each screen. It's nothing fancy and in HCI terms it would even be called obsolete. But still... I am intrigued. Perhaps there is a revolution in game interface design within reach? perhaps we could let go of the conceptual models that we cling on to. That is the strenght of the MFD in my mind, it doesn't try to look like something. Its just an MFD. 100% function 0% concept.

Herein lies the problem, it's usually regarded as a strenght to have a conceptual model for interaction, like "click on the turtle to go slower and the rabbit to go faster" and all that. I think conceptual models are a great tool. And yet I am intrigued...

Perhaps, or even likely, the perfect game interface has no concept but rather: Function.

Perhaps the perfect game interface is an MFD somehow, somewhere, someday.

Dreamlords reviews

2007-03-29T17:01:00.000+02:00

Dreamlords has been out more then a month and the reviews are coming in. We have been getting great reviews between 70 and 80 % but the real big fish have yet to cast their vote.

Dreamlords released

2007-03-23T10:07:00.000+01:00

So dreamlords released february 15:th 2007.

Great!

So far so good, we have had some great reviews even though there are some issues we must attend asap.

Reviewers seem to appritiate the depth of dreamlords in a way some players miss unfortunatly. However, we are working on several features that will help the players land in the game more smoothly.

We'll see how it works out but I am confident it'll be great!

You can see some of the interesting developments here

Back!

2007-03-23T10:04:00.000+01:00

My blog died...

And now it lives again!

Independent?

2006-09-05T00:18:00.000+02:00

Who is independent? What developers are really independent?

Some people think of it as a sign of strenght, others as a sign of weakness, a third person think of it as a sort of creative but immature pool of wannabes. How is it, what is independence, who is independent?

In my little quest I begin with a visit to the dictionary.com

Independent:
1. not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself

2. not subject to another's authority or jurisdiction

The word itself suggests that you cannot be controlled by other in matter of opinion nor can you be subject to another’s authority or jurisdiction.

By this definition the easiest way to be independent would be to go hobby and have no obligations, unfortunately this also brings rather small prospects of delivering a competitive game.

Another attempt on independence would be to have your own game idea but seek financing elsewhere, at which point you fall victim for the second item, “not subject to another’s authority”.

If neither approach is truly independent, then what is left?
Money is, money is the source of independence. When you have your own money you can choose not to be influenced or controlled by others and you are not subject to another’s authority.

Further more you fulfil an additional definition of the word independent:
6. rejecting others' aid or support; refusing to be under obligation to others.

You can afford to reject offers, you are free to choose your partners and you can choose to ignore them.

A great example of independence in my book is BioWare. A privately financed company that have over the years earned its own money. No one can tell a company like BioWare what to do because they don’t need your opinion. That to me, is independence.

Rewards

2006-08-30T00:47:00.000+02:00

My adventures in DS-land are over for now. I played Advance Wars aswell but was left without impressions.

No doubt I'll come back to the DS but I'll give it a rest for now.

Lately I have been thinking about rewards in games. Some games are generous and others aren't. The latest edition of Sid Meier's Pirates! is.

The game is so easy in a satisfying way. My favourite example of this is the Tavern, it is basically an interface with four buttons.
1. Give me free crew (the crew)
2. Tell me where to go (The bartender)
3. Buy cool item (the shady pirate)
4. Give me profitable tip (the bar maid)

As I play Pirates! and other games with lots of rewards I begin to align myself with this philosophy more and more. Games should really be about making the player feel things, positive things. The danger with this approach is depth...

Then again, this only applies for single player games, multiplayer is a hard school of formulas, fairness and anti-cheat.

Play Pirates! if you haven't.

Aha!

2006-07-04T21:31:00.000+02:00

After playing the Brain Training Game for a while I began to notice some key elements holding it together.

The brain training game features no conventional gameplay and it does not set to entertain the player per say. Still it is very popular and selling like mad, simply, people love it.

Obviously there is something else then gameplay at work here.

The game isn't "actually" entertaining (besides perhaps the soduku).

No, the gameplay is not fun. Instead the overall greatness of the game is held together by several key features in unison.

I works like this:

The game is presented to be a serious product based on research of a famous brain researcher.
The game is designed, based on his reseach, to improve your brain.

After the introduction where the evidence is presented you are asked to take a brain age test which you do and to your horror your brain age is 40 some years older then your real age. The horror!

The motivation is now established that you, since this is for real, are in some trouble and this software can help you. It does help that the Dr. Kawashima avatar is very charismatic and friendly.

Lastly, all data is presented in graph form, along with your "level" (brain age). So now, when your stats are determined who could stop you from levelling up?

Introduction -> Evidence is presented, eliminate doubdt -> Perform poorly in test -> Present the solution, brain training -> Present data as "levels", visualize progress (numerical rating of the self).

This is just an observation, I like the game and I do believe it does have positive effect on the brain.

Key findings today:
"calculating" the skill/stat of the physical player and presenting it in the game.

Adventures in a strange land: Mario Cart

2006-07-04T00:51:00.000+02:00

My expedition continues and today I had the oppurtunity to play Mario Cart via the Wi-Fi download and play functionality. I must mention that I think the non-permanent friend to friend distribution is a great leap forward for the game industry. PC next perhaps?

Anyhow; I was playing Mario Cart and stumbled on yet another distinguished DS feature, the microphone and in particular: blowing!

The Balloon fight in Mario Cart require you to fill your ballons with air by blowing in the microphone. The scary thing was that blowing firmly worked much better then making loud noises... I actually felt like I was blowing air into the balloon.

Key findings for today:
"blowing" as a method for interaction

I am well aware that the DS isn't the first device to use a microphone or for that matter blowing but it IS the first time that I am discovering it first hand.

I have ordered Trauma Centre: Under the knife, because I think it will complemet my other two games on highlighting different aspects of the DS.

My game list:
Catslevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Dr. Kawashima´s Brain Training
(coming soon) Trauma Centre: Under the Knife

Adventures in a brave new land (Nintendo DS)

2006-07-02T14:17:00.000+02:00

So I have been playing for a couple of days and I am really pleased with my purchase.

The DS really is a completely untouched resource for me, it feels like finding a little place in your favourite MMORPG where you can gain xp 5 times as fast as normally. I almost get the feeling a GM will come running telling me that I wasn't suppose to have the DS untill level 58.

After playing Castlevania: Dawn of sorrow I made the following observations

As anticipated the touch screen functionality is working OK but doesn't really
add loads to the game.

As anticipated the dual screen is somewhat handy but does not really make or brake the game.

As my own experience tells me blending animations in 2D is very difficult. Try jump + crouch + attack...

Air Control is a science! Dare say otherwise...

Getting the stylus out in time for the rarely occuring touch screen gameplay is harder then performing the actual touch screen gameplay.

Regarding the soul game play...
At first glance I really like it and it does perform well, no doubt...
However I categorize as a player type that can get overwhelmed by decisions and even pushed to ignoring them. I feel this is on the verge of happening with the souls. Besides there beeing a lot of very similar souls (bullet mostly) I feel the system with the soul levels (1 - 9) is perhaps not so great. I think that players are bound to use a soul that have a high level rather then the soul they need, which I feel interfere with the goal creating process... "I think I need an area effect soul.. hmm... PLING cool! my blue laser single shot soul reached lvl 8! "

Regarding free roam...

Free roam force developers to implement teleports or equivalent.

The initial "levels" fail to provide meaning other then "this is one seamless place" when you become more powerful. (I personally do value that seamlessness though)

Particurlarly difficult areas can become a problem if located in between points of interest since the player must play through this area several times when travelling back and forth (and since all enemies re-spaw when you leave the area

2006-06-29T20:12:00.000+02:00

So I finally bought a Nintendo DS (Lite)...

About one year ago I was almost upset with the stupidity of the DS. I felt that two screens wouldn't be a strong tool for developers and neither would the touchscreen. I felt that the dual screens wasn't the best thing to to, it wasn't the bang for the buck.

To some extent I do still think I was right. Many games have to squeeze a feature or display mode in that isn't really important or vital to the game just to occupy the second screen or the touchscreen functionality.

However;
What do I care if Nintendo put another screen in there? What do I care if some developers can't make use of it?

I don't care at all! From a game design perspective the DS is king.

The DS simply demand skills, mad skills, from those who wish to develop for it and that is not my problem at all, on the contrary that is rather exciting.
So this is how I and the DS will live in symbiosis from now on.