Naval Action - Finally The "Age of Sail" done right?

As a lifelong lover of pirates, and anyone who has ever seen an Errol Flynn film should be, and a keen naval historian and admirer of the feats of the "senior service" AKA the Royal Navy, I have always longed for a proper game to reflect these passions.

Some games addressed them directly, such as Sid Miers "Pirates" and some just had hints of action in them, like the Naval side of Age of Empires, but in recent times, other genres have taken over, and the seas looked a barren source of inspiration. Really "space" had taken over, with EVE and the recent return of Elite (amazing!) both offering the gaming equivalent of a life on the very very huge Ocean wave, but in space ships. I was looking forward to World of Warships when it launched recently, as a way to satisfy the oceanic naval itch, but while it looked great, and allowed some nice IJN action, and was actually quite fun it was FAR too arcadey for my taste.

Then an advert for Naval Action popped up on my Facebook feed.... So you see, sometimes these targeted ads DO work! And We DO want them! Intrigued I saw that advanced access was on offer, and after watching roughly 15 seconds of a video on youtube I was convinced! Steam key purchased I logged in, and got stuck in.

Naval Action (Website here) is an open world based multi player game, based in the Caribbean theatre in the Age of Sail. Starting in wee single mast ships you can trade, fight, mission or craft your way up up, playing as one of the many nations at play in the era, or as a heartless and stateless pirate. The ships available go all the way up to massive 1st rate Ships of the Line [SOL]; currently the RN's legendary Victory, flagship  of Lord Nelson and his doorway to Davy Jones' locker, and the might Santissima Trinidad of Spain. Seeing these behemoths in action will surely be something to see. I can say this safe in the knowledge that I haven't, but I HAVE been involved in some smaller PVP battles, with 3rd Rate SOLs and wow. Actually, make that WOW!

Naval Action's development team have absolutely got it right when it comes to the look and feel of this game. The sea is beautiful, and the ships are elegant, and the pacing is right. Open World sailing is greatly accelerated but in battle encounters everything slows right down ...and if you get your manoeuvring wrong in a 3 master, it wont just be slow...it will start to go backwards!

Once you have sailed / crawled /tacked your way into action, the jaws really drop as the boom of cannon fire and the incredible amount of smoke these weapons generated is faithfully recreated. If you are moving slowly, once you have fired a couple of sighting rounds, you will no longer be able to actually see the enemy, so you can fire a broadside only to find the enemy had turned away. In small fleet actions seeing smoke billowing everywhere, and flashes of guns within the smoke is magical and if you are unlucky you will also see a  hail of cannon balls coming towards your ship and turning it into matchwood with flying splinters and the odd falling mast. Sails turn into tatters; the bosun's whistle sounds and the crew cheers when I took down an enemy mast was really rousing!

The battles are great fun whether solo versus the AI or teamed up with one or two allies doing AI missions, or in small or larger PVP fleet balltes (or indeed fleet battles vs AI) and the game also allows you to trade from port to port, explore if you fancy and craft ships and upgrades. It promises a power political meta game, economy and of course PIRATES! What more could you want?

All in all it was an incredibly immersive experience, and finally the Age of Sail seems to have been done right. Anyone who is a fan of the period should get involved. The game is officially about to launch at the end of this week I believe and I would like to wish the development team all the best with the launch and the games further development.

Turn Based Squad Games…Where did you g (0 action points remaining)

Back in the day, I loved a good turn based squad tactical game.

On my BBC model B, my favourite game, (after Elite of course) was called “Paras” or something, a basic but entertaining hex based squad game. This was followed by a few others, until X-Com arrived with a bang, and was followed up by sequels of ever increasing complexity, and ever diminishing fun. Why was X-Com the peak? It was a loooong time ago. Even now, the return of X-Com being mooted is as an FPS?! Have they not noticed we aren’t exactly suffering from a lack of shooters?

The only thing turn based at the moment is JRPGs it seems, which are a hellish 1 button clickathon, of grinding time sink intensity, and something which has never really appealed to me. My recent search turned up laser squad Nemesis, by the author of X-Com no less, but even that was very dated, with limited options. Why can’t we have a fantastically modelled, physics enabled, great sounding and looking turn based squad shooter (be it soldiers, space marines, or mechs!) for the 21st century? Am I just living in the past? Am I the only person who enjoys these games?
There are a bunch of RTS games out there that would be good, but are so hurried due to their real time nature, I can’t relax and actually enjoy watching and playing them. For example the Warhammer Dawn of War, and Company of Heroes titles both looked very interesting, but the hectic real time nature of them turned me off. I want to enjoy seeing my little men run about shooting stuff, not fracture my wrist desperately lassoing troops and whipping all over a tiny map.
I like something I can take my time over and enjoy, at my own pace, not whatever the designer has decided is correct.

Perhaps the resurrection of smaller simpler games, being created for and played on smart phones and devices like the iPad will bring about such a second coming? I for one hope so.

My dad has bought an iPad and we had a great time joining the legions of Angry Bird fans out there. Simple, crisp graphics, a clear task in hand (literally with an iPads touch screen) and fantastic sound design, which had us both laughing our heads off. Boy, those birds really are angry. We also tried Flight Control HD which was a relaxing and new experience, which although it got hectic as the planes started to swarm, really showed how the touch screen interface defines the game. After all, you are simply drawing paths live on the screen. Often with two hands at the same time.

Such interface creativity will be the key to the success of devices like the iPad and indeed Kinect. As creators grasp what is possible with a new array of options, an audience is waiting for them. And as my dad has proved, it might be an audience they have NEVER interacted with before.

I’m excited to see what develops, and in honour of turn based squad games, I have 2 squad members keeping the iPad and Kinect on overwatch.

Glad Tidings of Mechanised Joy! Steel Battalion 2011

How I rejoiced yesterday with the discovery on my return from holiday in sunny Beirut, that Xbox 360 would see the long awaited sequel for Steel Battalion, one of the all time great games.

Yes Steel Battalion, the game with THE all time great controller, a thing of awe and beauty, and extreme difficulty.

Not only that, but it will be a dedicated Xbox kinect title, which will be very interesting. Will it be the first super 'hardcore' game designed for kinect?

Many people think this will mean waving about shouting "missile!" but as a mech pilot myself, I am almost sure it will mean a game which fully integrates the standard controller with the possibilities offered by Kinect.

Think about it. The original SB controller had about 5 joysticks and 348 buttons. What better way to replicate the joys of controlling a mech than with an xbox controller PLUS all the input options that kinect will offer....

Shouting commands ("EJECT!!!") while moving your body to physically control the mech, and using the joypad to control aiming and subsystems will be awesome! It will however make my wife think I am a total nutter, but that's a price I'm willing to pay, plus she probably already thinks that anyway.

The preview video I watched (Here) shows trademark Steel Battalion dull graphics, for a real 'lofi battlefield visuals' feel that the original Steel Battalion so effectively used. I hope that From keep the lumbering mech feel, and not the speedy Jap style Armoured Core bots they may be used to.

I hope that the game can keep true to the Steel Battalion "real mech pilot sim" identity, and become a show case for kinect for hardcore gamers. The ability to feel part of the action, which is what Steel Battalion achieved so effectively originally can only be enhanced by an imaginatively utilised kinect and joy-pad combination.

My only hope is that From, the developer, have learned the lessons from the almost awesome Chromehounds, the only good mech game for Xbox 360 so far, and make the online play fair and FUN. The amount of lag, disconnects, and general tragic nature of the online code, meant that the Chromehounds experience was totally marred by frustration and time-wasting.
While Japanese games can be great for originality and character design (not to mention MECHS!) they have often let the side down in terms of UI and netcode / multiplayer options. Compare the hell of Chromehounds with Halo or COD multi player for a stark contrast.

I cannot wait to recreate the multi player fun we had in Chromehounds (well, sometimes, when it actually worked. I don't think we EVER achieved a full 6 v 6 game, in 2 years of trying) in an even more awesome Steel Battalions environment, with better controllability and a more heavyweight feel.

Lumbering tanks are kings of the battlefield...honest!
Go on the US Army, you know you want them....

Hollywood? No Cricklewood! Games big & little brothers...

Having just read N’Gai Croals latest missive in Edge, ‘Hollywood Blues’ I was struck by the oft heard “Games are bigger than Hollywood” idea that he reflects on. Sure the big ticket items such as Call Of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, or GTA (or even now Red Dead Redemption) can be put up against the best of Hollywood, both in audience numbers, mainstream advertising, and pure sales figures, not to mention production costs, but is it an appropriate comparison otherwise?
I think not. The above titles point to filmic action, great visuals, immersive soundscapes and often long, convoluted (and often rubbish, just like the Hollywood blockbusters!) scripts.

However that is not the games industry, or games for that matter. If we are comparing games to other media and we take some games to reflect Hollywood, then we need to look at the other “Games what I wrote” that don’t have $100 million dollar budgets, or killer marketing backup. Most games are done on a tight budget, with few staff and tough deadlines. Portable titles, PC casual games, Xbox Live Arcade and indie titles, and Wii and PS3 downloads all churn out product. Facebook is an ever increasing market for small games (well big ones too, if you look at the numbers playing Farmville and Mafia wars) and the iphone and the Elysium that is the iPad look to provide new platforms for games too. These are all relevant parts of the ‘games industry’ and often the parts that provide consumers with day to day contact too.

The blockbusters might be a summer or Christmas treat, but more often it’s the nibbles and day to day play on a PC or on the bus or tube that people engage with. You can see (possibly) what I’m getting at. Cherry picking Hollywood as games rival (“oooh! We’ve beaten them! Yaya!”) is one thing, but I think we need to remember that the visual medium is dominated by television and not Hollywood.
Television has expanded massively over the last few years, with the creation of many new channels on satellite and cable, all desperate for content, working to tough deadlines and budgets, and facing the threat of a democratised technological production medium. Television studios are under threat, scrabbling for ad revenue, and attention amid the ever growing number of rivals for consumers eyes and pockets. Games are but one rival, as is on demand internet TV and internet browsing / facebook etc in general.

The games industry is in a state of growth and flux, and is the least “settled” of any of the visual media, even though the others are all threatened by the march of technology. Even while it boats of growth, many games studios are going bust, cutting staff numbers or struggling to survive. The ‘pipeline’ of production is still not really fixed or uniform. The tools used to create titles are still not really adequate. There is no well developed “3rd party outsourcing’ for video games as a support industry. These support facilities are developing, sure, but not common, and nor is the idea of using them a lot accepted as part and parcel, except maybe for some localisation or testing, or to get art assets. Many are small companies or individuals. The wheel is still being developed and reinvented a lot of the time. None of this is a criticism, as the games industry is dealing with tech that is still evolving at an incredibly rapid rate, and getting a feel for a market that no one fully understands yet. In fact the consumers too aren’t fully developed or understood.

It’s my generation that are the first generation of gamers, who are now developers, and we are being constantly amazed by what’s possible. The ‘youth of today’ (how I love that expression!) will grow up to be the first “wired” generation, used to being online and in touch all the time, so who knows what they will come up with (or what tech they will have available? 3D vision, non physical controllers, time-travel!!??)
Perhaps gamers and industry people need to think a little more broadly than just beating Hollywood at their own game, and start to try and think of how to compete with television, in everyone’s lives, every day. The variety of TV (big ticket dramas, sports, throw away serialisations, kids cartoons, gameshows, music TV etc) reflects games more accurately, and this is where comparisons should be drawn more regularly.

N’Gai finishes with the proverb “may you live in interesting times” and I think this certainly applies to games. The question is, will games recognise the world they are in, as well as the times?

A Curriculum for Game Audio

A Curriculum for Game Audio

Chair:
Richard Stevens, Leeds Metropolitan University
Panelists:
Dan Bardino, Creative Services Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited
Andy Farnell, Author of Designing Sound
David Mollerstedt, DICE - Sweden
Dave Raybould, Leeds Metropolitan University - UK
Nia Wearn, Staffordshire Univerity - Staffordshire, UK
Me!

Just attended the AES London convention on Monday and took part in the panel discussion on the IASIG (Interactive Audio Special Interest Group) Game Audio Curriculum.

As you can see we had a good panel, and me as well! It was good to see Dan again, as he always brings a great deal to these talks (well he did at the Pinewood TIGA talk) with humour, clarity and insight. David brought Swedish deadpan humour and well thought out comments, not least of which was when asked what theoretical research he would like carried out replied he wanted to do research into consumer feedback about Game Audio. Do people actually care and so on? A point delightfully answered moments later when the panel was asked to name their favourite ever game audio, and Nia said she generally plays without sound…hahaha! (admittedly she said it’s mainly DS type stuff on a bus)

Great comedy timing though.

Further to the research idea, Dan asked a very good question when we had retired to the pub for further discussion…. How many people are actually employed directly in “Game Audio” in the UK..? The answer we came up with…not very many at all! The studios have pretty small numbers (2-5 maybe) in permanent employ, and they have a core of outsourcing resources they use (e.g. Side, for example). Two to five may sound reasonable, but we are talking about Sony and EA studios here, among the bigger players out there…

Aside from that somewhat gloomy note, the discussion touched on many interesting things.

Chief among them maybe was the very fluid situation game audio and game audio creation is in. The curriculum would have a hard time being definitive, as actual working practices are in no way currently fixed. Nor are the tools used. Universally they were deemed to be not up to scratch yet, but steadily improving. On the plus side, the actual field of ‘Game Audio’ was held to be an exciting and innovative area of audio development. The tools and methods are ‘up for grabs’ and the flexibility of purpose and implementation is to be admired. For example Film and TV have many fixed rules and techniques, which can be ignored in game audio design. Now sometimes this is not for the better, but at other times it opens things up and puts a new and exciting spin on things. It’s as if new questions are being asked (often for the first time) and because of that there are no “set answers” yet.

The discussion highlighted how rapidly things were moving forward as many of the points raised (for example discussions about the roles of Audio implementers and the balance between creative and technical ability) hinged on past definitions or past technical limitations. Whereas old game audio delivery systems often had extremely limited technical delivery capacity, which called on a fairly deep technical understanding of the limitations and how to get around them, modern consoles and PCs often have enough oomph to let the audio team worry about the quality of content rather than the actual capacity to deliver it.

Dan, Dave and I were uniformly in the “creative” camp as the prime asset of a modern game audio employee. Technical skill, without the commensurate desire to make things sound great and above all to fit those sounds into the feel of the game in question, was of limited value.
With the modern team ethos of Video Game creation, a lone tech hero was infinitely less valuable than someone who can communicate effectively with the larger team around them, and not just the audio team. The creative lead, and programming, design and art teams must all be effectively communicated with both to help create and then to ensure smooth delivery. Mind you the lone hero will always have a role somewhere I am sure, possibly in smaller teams or teams designing for portable / limited delivery systems, such as the burgeoning mobile market.

It’s good to think that game audio is still very much on a steeply upward curve, with a lot more to come, and seeing guys like David and Dan, I’m sure that EA and Sony are in good hands! Both are looking for constant forward motion, and as tools improve, and people get their heads around what can be done, I am sure we will be seeing a lot of interesting things happening. For one thing, the panel noted that the new wave of gaming interfaces (Sony Move, Xbox Natal, etc) could inspire a whole new field of control systems and audio feedback and input, with voice activation and recognition something that could have a real impact on game immersion and involvement (and looking silly potentially).

Visions of sitting in darkened rooms shouting Dive! Dive! Dive! at the screen while depth charges pound your 5.1 “sub” woofer spring to mind (pardon the unmissable pun opportunity)….

The IASIG draft curriculum doc can be downloaded from the IASIG website:
http://www.iasig.org/wg/eduwg/index.shtml

Games Meet Film @ Pinewood Studios

OK, its not my usual awesomely witty title, but I was inspired to put keys to virtual paper after attending the initial TIGA organised symposium at Pinewood studios. An interesting and talented panel discussed audio (which as we know is all too often ignored or marginalised) in respect of the differences between the media of film and games.

The panel gave a lot of interesting feedback and I was really struck by the diference in basic attitude towards audio, and its purpose. The less powerful, more 'real time creation' restricted game developers still generally saw audio as a task to achieve, and to try and represent reality as closely as possible, whereas the long established, linear and time un-restricted film guys saw audio as something which should add value to the project, in terms of emotion and 'total package' presentation. It shows just how far the power of consoles etc has to go before restrictions in implementation stop affecting the bottom line in terms of creativity. However on the flip side, the restrictions have created some awesome audio tooling, such as granular synthesis and modelling, as demonstrated in terms of "car audio" by Jerry Ibbotson of Media Mill, whose car synth was a tool which should be used by sound designers everywhere, rather than crying as they realise the picture recut has made mincemeat of their carefully recorded car audio.

Trying to do everything in as expensive a way as possible, i.e. by recording actual vehicles doing what they are actually doing on screen might be great, but such synth tools can either give cheaper options OR provide back up to cover potential recuts etc. Also such synth tools should start slowly replacing the sound FX libraries that so many sound designers rely on the world over in TV, film and so on.

The panel discussion reinforced my belief that the game audio world is so obsessed with re-creating reality (as game visuals have been doing for so long) that the idea of NOT recreating reality but creating audio thats adds value to the game, either via emotion, 'colour' (a funny word for audio but hey, maybe I should say tone?) or audio pointers that highlight particular things on screen (or off via surround etc) is often missed.

The combination of the 'core values' of the movie audio guys (or other pure audio guys such as myself) can be added to the tech skills and innovation of the game audio guys to create truly great audio, both in terms of quality but also in terms of cost savings, controllability and real time generation and immersion. By those core values I mean emotion and adding value to a project. Just representing what is seen, at a lowest common denominator level (the much mentioned 'footsteps' in the talk) really reduces audio to something which is seen by all too many people as just a layer of gloss which isn't that important. People in the know, know that audio can be so much more. In an ideal world, audio should be held to be as important or nearly as important as sight/video, but in the video game world, far too often that patently isn't the case.

Partly, as the talk helped show, that is due to technology and budgets, but also I feel many of the higher echelons of video game creation don't have an experience of great audio and what it can do. Having honed their careers in early video game creation, where systems power really limited audio (from the early days of bleeps, then general midi) they don't believe in audio as a valued asset, that can really make (or too often break) a game. And as such they deny it a place int he creation of a game, from its inception onwards. Again, game studios often only have an audio programmer or sound designer on staff, which means by default audio is left out of planning, until the project is well under way.

Perhaps that will slowly change, and of course, this isn't they case in all developers. A great many are beginning to deliver fabulous audio experiences, but for those that do all too often they are followed by too many that don't. I personally have seen far too many games which claim to want to deliver an emotional journey to the player (and "make them cry", as the line goes) being delivered by appalling voice actors knocking out a weak script, which make Eastenders look like Shakespeare.

In fact this latter point brings up another important difference, again highlighted by the Pinewood sessions. In film (and music) the audio treatment BEGINS with the voice, and the whole audio soundscape is built up around it. After all the actors are delivering the narrative that drives the film, and provide the information the viewer needs. In game too often it is only just another piece of the jigsaw, and yet with the player often the avatar controlling the game, understanding and emotional involvement is crucial. Not only that, but one has to assume the player is human, and as such will respond to the human voice in a very direct way

The Pinewood session ended quickly with loads left to discuss and I look forward to the sequel.
However it has definitely fortified my belief that games need to take audio more seriously and a way of doing this is to recruit and use audio staff who have developed outside of video games.

Pre-Production, Don't take the P, drop the re!

Moving on a little from playing actual games, I want to talk a little about making them, in an audio context.

Audio is a much overlooked element in many forms of media, noticed when exceptional, or in fact more often, underwhelming. Games are no different, and in many respects, especially the underwhelming ones, are often lagging a little behind the film and TV world.

Audio is often seen in games as aural 'paint' to be applied after the process of game making is complete. Do the basics, make the guns go bang, make the footsteps echo, and make the characters talk a bit. Well audio can do a lot more. Audio is inherent in our lives, providing feedback and verification of what our eyes can see. "I don't like it, it doesn't sound /feel right!"
Let's not forget that while our eyes can look forwards, its our ears that are the true 360 degree sensors. Also can you see in the dark? No, but you can hear even better. These 2 situations are common in games, and could be used even better if audio was part of the creative process.

Its easy to be thrown into the uncanny valley by poor audio, either by missing or misusing a layer of environmental sound, or by the fact a character sounds just plain ridiculous!
How many poor scripts and voice recordings have spoiled games you played?
Just the awful voice-overs stopped me playing a game I had actually been looking forwards too a long time, Jade Empire, for one example.

My exposure to some game industry work has left me a little surprised at the lack of involvement of audio in the pre-production process of game creation.

Often studios lack an audio lead, or audio director, who can link the audio team to the creative leads of the title, leaving the audio team in the dark, and leaving the creative team with no input early on from the audio team as to what the soundguys (and girls if there are any out there!) can offer.

Integrating audio at stage one is essential in my opinion, and can offer a wealth of creativity and originality to a title, as well as saving on production costs or possible dead ends later on.
Now games aren't the only media guilty of the "we'll do the audio afterwards..." methodology by any means, but it seems to be the dominant approach in the games industry, with some notable exceptions.

Modern consoles can now pack the processing power and storage capacity to enable top quality 5.1 sound, and a variety of teams have shown what great sound experiences can be delivered.
It's up to the industry at large to try and integrate audio more closely into the creative evolution of a title.

Not much humour here I'm afraid, but as my title so confusingly puts it, investing in audio as part of pre-production can save a lot of wastage and re-production at a later date. Not only that practical enhancement, but the overall quality fo a title can be much improved with an original and coherent sound scape, rather than the same old last minute bangs.