Email: Terraria

Have you taken a look at this yet?  I have to be honest, when I discovered Minecraft, I knew it was going to be successful, but I also imagined that developers would learn all the wrong lessons from it.  I imagined that they’d try to sell unfinished games to gamers without understanding that the game has to stand on it’s own two feet before anyone will buy it.  I imagined that they’d build randomly generated worlds and stress that you could build whatever you wanted without giving you any reason to do so (such as creepers).  I also imagined that they’d just copy/paste minecraft onto consoles while slapping on HD textures, a la Fortresscraft.

But this?  I saw this little trailer and I felt the one thing I haven’t felt since Nintendo announced the Wii: hope for the game industry:

Look at this: arcade gameplay with randomly generated worlds and multiplayer.  Notice how there isn’t any flashy animation to accompany the player’s attack.  Nope, like A New Hope before The Phantom Menace, when a weapon is swung you can see that there is far more substance than there is flash.  This is the impact I was hoping Minecraft would have.  This is the game I wanted to make when Minecraft inspired me to learn Java.

Notice how when a player attacks, a number representing damage pops up?  And the heart containers at the top that change in number from screen to screen?  Also, do you see that each player appears to have their own armor?  Yes, this is an action RPG!  I am indeed excited for this title.  Let’s just hope it lives up to the initial trailer.

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It is almost as if this email was a commercial for the game. It is specifically worded as if I was to become an advocate of it (arcade gameplay comment there, minecraft mention here, action RPG comment over there…)I get these from time to time. But I’m posting it so I can say the below.

The game is dead on arrival. It screams ‘flash game’ and shows that the game makers cannot program and must rely on kits.

Can someone point to me any game that was made with these small gaming ‘kits’ ever become successful? I mean REALLY successful?

“But Malstrom, game companies use kits all the time. For example, they use the Unreal Engine.”

One thing, those are professionals. But two, it also helps illustrates the below point. It is why Industry games feel so ‘samey’.

Back during the NES Era, SNES Era, Commodore 64, you name it, games felt very different from one another. It was like the texture of the game was rougher in some, smoother in others, but unique.

The reason why is because there were no kits. Every game company had to program their own game. It made each game company feel different. Nintendo felt the best, even to this day, because their advantage was able to use the console makers, inside the company, to really get at the machine. Konami games felt differently than Capcom games. Compile games felt different as well. Rare, during the 8-bit Era, stood out because they knew how to program. A big issue in gaming back then was ‘flickering’. Good programmers knew how to get the NES to behave.

Richard Garriot tried a very interesting experiment. He knew people liked his Ultima games. However, it was taking longer and longer to make the new game engine. So what Garriot did was to create the ‘Worlds of Ultima’.

The ‘Worlds of Ultima’ was to take a prior engine of Ultima and to make a spin-off game in it. So the first ‘Worlds of Ultima’ game was the Savage Empire. So while Ultima VII’s engine was being developed, players could play the Savage Empire or Martian Dreams which used the Ultima VI game engine.

A third Worlds of Ultima game was being made using the Ultima VII engine but was cancelled.

I loved the concept behind Worlds of Ultima. However, it didn’t exactly work out. Why?

Some might say people don’t like spin-offs (true enough), but another big reason is that the way a game feels, from the consumer, is how it is programmed. When the same game engine uses different content, it can feel like a hack. It doesn’t feel as ‘fresh’.

The thing that is really harming these small ‘indie’ PC games and even iPhone and iPad games are these ‘kits’. No matter what gameplay or content you put on it, it is going to feel ‘off’. I can understand why a small development team would want to get started on the game, develop the content and gameplay, and all of that is important. But the stink of a kit must be removed.

One of the unstated reasons why Minecraft succeeded where many indie games failed is because there was no kit. The game has a certain ‘feel’ that comes straight from its programming. God knows it doesn’t come from its graphics! Minecraft barely even has any graphics!

Could a game’s programming affect the consumer’s emotions of feel more than graphics and artwork? Maybe.

Also, Terraria is a horrible name. That tells me nothing about the game and is an abstract mess of Latin. Something even as nonsensical as ‘Rock Adventure’ would be a better brand. The name is difficult to pronounce and has too many syllables. ‘Minecraft’ worked well as a brand (whether or not Notch did it intentionally) because I know what mining is. The name means something about mining. Also, Minecraft is similar to extremely successful names like Warcraft or Starcraft. Two syllables each for the name. It was really clever and simple with World of Warcraft. What does the name suggest? The acronym was excellent: WoW.

A name like ‘Terraria’ suggests that the game makers are taking themselves too seriously. There is a reason why classic games have simple titles. Super Mario Brothers. Legend of Zelda. Mega Man. Castlevania. Contra (damn, this is a great name). Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest. You get the picture. The name ‘Terraria’ sounds like some obscure geologic sonar software.