The Sims celebrates its 10th Anniversary

Just a quick look and tribute to the Sims franchise. More power to the Sims franchise and hope it goes a long way!

Spore - Overrated gameplay, Underrated game development

Tribal Phase of Spore I played

Just last Saturday, I had the chance to play Will Wright's so-called "next big thing" which is the Spore. Four years or more of development, hyped up presentations by Will Wright thru Game Developers Conference, E3 and this game has received most of the positive and negative criticisms alike last year upon its release.

While many game critics applauded its one of a kind god-mode gameplay concept, they quickly threw away its promise as the countdown of its release diminished. Gamers and review writers alike were caught in the middle of game thinking "That's it?" and yes, truthfully, that's it. With all the design, procedural programming, autonomy and other brilliant ideas popping out in this unique game, the gameplay lacked length and depth. In the cellullar phase, creatures need to eat and eat and eat to survive. And that's just about it. And so forth and so on that every phase features a short length of gameplay that you'll crave for more. For the hype it has been, and for all the salestalk on how this game can easily surpass the best selling game of all time - The Sims, it couldn't live up as the golden franchise. But don't get me wrong. I was one of those fans of Will Wright who criticized gaming review sites for rating it lower than what is expected of it. And yet 8 months or so after its release, after playing it for the first time, I was shocked myself with the lack of depth. However, for those people who loved The Sims, I'm expecting positive feedback from them because they play with excitement and imagination towards the game. Exploration, autonomy and creature and object designers are its selling point.

And while it has gaming review sites quick to forget and regret they rode the bandwagon that this game is, they were also, sadly, quick to dispose appreciation of its game development. If you've followed Will Wright's speeches regarding the unique attack on game development and how it is applied into a real game which is the Spore, you will be amazed at how this was actually ever cleverly done and brought to life. And as a developer too, I am still amazed at the brilliant concepts they've put into the game. If you've played The Sims 3, you'll be quick to notice that maybe just maybe, some of the Spore's concepts were adapted to it as well. Just as Nintendo has started to attract casual and non-gamers alike to play our games, maybe other game developers especially the mother game producer Electronic Arts as well must learn to adapt its ideas. Sure graphics is clearly the way to go to attract gamers but money spent on production of these games are not getting cheaper by the minute. More and more game developers are required to work on the game's physics, graphics and other eyecandy which tends to getaway with the actual gameplay quality.

Spore maybe failed on its way to becoming such a great legacy game that gamers will look upon on. However, don't take away the brilliance of its creation. It's still one of a kind. And maybe you won't find anything like this again. Let's learn to appreciate how games were developed and not just on how these games are played. After all, gameplay comes after game design.

What's Next After The Sims 3?

What's Next After The Sims 3

I’ve only spent a few hours playing The Sims 3 to fantasize at what lies ahead of this historic franchise. The Sims 3 is in pretty good shape and GameSpot surprisingly rated it as 9.0. The virtual community with no loading time and the simplified and more enhanced sim meters will surely give the players a lot of time to spend more on the details of Will Wright's legendary game.

Yet apart from this, I thought it would be great to expect these things which I have in mind in the sure fire expansion packs coming along our way and perhaps even begin dreaming of The Sims 4:

Weather/ Climate - Following the early stages of The Sims 3 in production, I do recall (or maybe I'm just daydreaming of it) something about the adaptation of the weather in the game. Though I haven't played the Seasons expansion pack for The Sims 2, I think it would be a great addition to the virtual community.

Pets/ Animals - As always, Sims gamers expect pets to be included in the package. Imagine your Sim jogging along with his pet in Sunset Valley. It's also great to include birds chirping on top of your Sims roof, fishes in the aquarium, dolphins on the ocean, stray cats and dogs and maybe even exotic animals.

Sim City - On The Sims 2, gamers were delighted to here that if you have Sim City, you can incorporate it with the game. However, to others, it was quite a disdain to hear that only created lots from Sim City are allowed to be imported to The Sims 2. While I haven't tried it out yet, don't you think it's time to start incorporating some of the nifty logic and features in Sim City to The Sims franchise? Building bridges, circus shows, flyovers, tunnels, subway may be a good addition too.

The Trends and Fashion - Everyone knows this is one of the best selling points of The Sims. Customization and Design. How about making it into a fad on your community? This idea came into my mind when I remembered the yester decades. Imagine having some trends being popularized by your Sim or other Sims as well during the decade? Sporting something like Ashton Kutcher's outfit in That 70's Show would become a fad and then other sims will be wearing those kinds of outfit as well.

Travel - Well, the virtual community (in which I still think came from the idea of Grand Theft Auto) has certainly gotten the attention of the gamers especially the biking and riding a car part. As the franchise continues to improve, why not add intercontinental or perhaps inter-community travel thru seas and the skies.

Special Abilities - Ever wondered how the Sims would look like with special abilities ala Heroes, Marvel, DC Comics or even Anime? Imaging the Sims flying, being immortal (well it has happened before), getting elemental powers like fire and water? Not being hurt? This sure will be a great fun factor to the game. Also, why did they take back the Alien-thingy?

Sims in Mars/ Mythical Tribes - Just to add to the fun factor that the game is, how about making Sims actually live on other planets? Or perhaps under the sea like mermaids? Live like the Vikings, Cowboys, Indians and other cultures? Maybe co-exist with other mythical creatures like the dragon, unicorn and phoenix as well?

Community Mini-games/ Events - While I was impressed with the mini-games/ events that the game (latest version that is) has shown to us, there are a lot of things in real life that they might consider adding in the game. For example, rush hour traffic before going to work? Surely, they have found a way to incorporate transportation. But in a more realistic way, they could include driving as a mini-game too like putting the pedal on to a full stop if sims are crossing the street. Inter-community sports activities, watching a basketball game as an audience simulated by the game, pet competitions and other trivial but real life situations often neglected.

Object aging - Ok so the sims are actually getting older, dying, getting pregnant and giving birth. Why not evolve the game and let the logic happen to the objects and communities as well? We all know that our homes deteriorate thru time. Roads are also reconstructed since it also needs repair from massive transportation load everyday. Even our computers, furniture and appliances need replacement as well as time goes by. Other sims may also automatically upgrade their homes as though they are actually controlled by the gamer. For example, on the first generation, Goth Family buys a bungalow. However, the second generation has been successful in his career, they thought of adding a new floor, buying a new car, expanding their lots as on the other hand, other families may experience bankruptcy or moving on to another place in generations to come.

Outbreak/ Natural Calamities - This is perhaps a negative input though but hey like it or not, in our daily lives we encounter these things. If real people get diseases and recover from them, why not let the Sims experience it. Of course, there’d be hospitals etc. Sims won’t be able to go to work and skin diseases like chicken pox will let them experience the feeling of being an outcast for the moment from other sims.

Additional movement - I was very much delighted with the great deal of movement controls the game offered. But talking about other basics such as being able to jump, run and other stuff would also be a very nice addition. It would also be great if they add a custom action creation for the sims. Players may be allowed to create their own menu of things they’d do and when the choices begin to pop up for them, they’d choose the option and see how the action’s consequences are in a positive or negative way.

Well I guess that’s just about it. Like it or not the Sims franchise will still have that great of an influence to gamers and will still have a long way to go. I certainly hope so. So as an avid fan, let’s hope for a continually improving Sims game especially now that Will Wright is hands-off to the Sims). Kudos to Rod Humble and the rest of the Sims 3 team though.

Lego Digital Designer

While I was busy searching for Philippine stores selling a variety of Lego products at philbricksters, I came across a perfect fit for Lego enthusiasts - the Lego Digital Designer.

Lego Digital Designer is a free 23MB installer from the creators of Lego product itself. If you have played The Sims before, you'll probably be more familiar with it once you've installed it. It is like the Build Mode in The Sims wherein you can create your own house. You can either build it from scratch or modify existing sample layouts.

Some key features to note about the Lego Digital Designer: Take a Screenshot - Allows you to take a snapshot of the design you've created. Currently, it is in PNG format.

Building Guide Player - Generate HTML files for step-by-step tutorial on how your creation was built.

Save and Open - Share your creations at the Lego site itself and let other builders vote to your creation. You can also download other designers' works and open it as LXF file. This allows you to copy just about everything and modify the creation to fit your needs.

LDraw Files - You can actually create your custom bricks on another application program and import your bricks to the Lego Digital Designer.

Themes - Choose from either Factory, Mindstorms and Creator themes. It's fun building from these digital bricks, however it is much more fun building it in real life.

Although actual Lego bricks are expensive, this program may at the very least mellow down the itch of buying the actual Lego products. It really came to me as a surprise to see that Lego has created an application like this for its followers. And I hope that the Lego building bricks won't become extinct over the next generations to come despite the challenges presented by the digital generation.

Will Wright's Imagination

Whether the Spore, Will Wright's new god-mode simulation game, kicks ass or not, Will Wright's legacy in game development is a living proof that games are not just made popular thru high-end power hungry graphics, innovation of already proven genres and countless hours of eyecandy features. Games are also created thru the game developers' creative minds.

Will Wright captured the eyes of both gamers and non-gamers alike thru the best-selling PC game of all time - The Sims. He started the craze with The Sim City, Sim Ants and then dreamt of creating a virtual world where you can control people - much like Tamagochi. Although one of the game's weak points may be the open-endedness, which a lot of hardcore gamers tend to get rid of, it also became one of the most attractive feature of the game as the gamer keeps on playing the game without even having to put pressure in himself finishing the game. Bored with the simulation process? Get interested on the design stage wherein you'll be able to build houses for the Sims families you've been playing with.

Now, he and the rest of his team will be soon releasing the Spore - the much awaited game which has been under development for years.
I think probably the bottom line here is that he was never afraid to continue to challenge even his own masterpiece to create another soon-to-be-legendary game. The ability to not only extend the game beyond possibilities but also increase the game's hardware performance thru what he called it as "procedural programming" without affecting the game itself is something that huge game developers must learn to appreciate and adapt within themselves upon game creation.

With that in mind, developers won't be really having a hard time creating a long storyline, realistic heavy graphic-reliant, redundant games but instead consider games that both the hardcore, casual and non-gamers alike will like.