GeoComp2: Neorganic Epiphany, by Dubblilan + notes on CQB and "slicing the pie"

(GeoComp2 posts feature Quake 3 levels with outstanding geometry inspired by modern architecture practices; unfortunately GameSpy deleted the original GeoComp2 pages, so these blog posts are an attempt at creating a historical record.)

Neorganic Epiphany, by Dubbilan, is blobitecture / "parametricism" with a "Miami Vice" sensibility. The floorplan isn't what makes this level special -- it's a decent central arena plan with a handful of small side atria that feed back into the middle. But the style does make one rather important difference in gameplay...

See, most arcade DM maps -- especially those in the BSP era -- are rather blocky, due to the nature of BSP construction. It's easier to manipulate rectangular shapes than curved, slanted shapes. This is mirrored in real-life construction practice with four-cornered rooms and long, straight planes for walls that meet other walls at 90 degree corners...

Offered without comment.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/pearce-pachuta

Holy shit.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/news/a-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel1

What do you get when you have a professional artist / designer pour a year into building something? Nothing short of "I can't believe that's the Source Engine."

The art and actual level design of Dear Esther was always its weakest attribute. But now... yowza. I can't even figure out how he achieved some of these effects -- the water caustics on the cave walls are probably an animated detail texture, and there's a crap-load of particles going on with the waterfalls -- but how did he get the water running down the rocks like that? It's definitely not a particle system. Is it some kind of refracting overlay, or did he model a prop_static and slap on a refraction shader onto that?

It's really pretty. The craftsmanship is superb. Don't get me wrong.

But it's the same game, more or less, with roughly the same narrative, more or less.

I can't help but wish he instead worked with Pinchbeck on something new.

The fortune cookie sprite finally shows up correctly! YES. YES. YES. You have no idea how long I've spent on this fortune cookie sprite -- what's felt like years. Practically decades. And now the transparency works! Hurrah! Hurrah!

You may now carry on with your daily business.

Sunday Papers (June 27)

(Title / idea / concept stolen from RPS, but my focus is more on architecture / education / game development stuff with an art and design emphasis.)

• Eric Heimburg writes about selective attention / the "death-trap" device used to regulate pacing in MMORPG zones. I posted my proposed solution over there -- make the gorilla swipe at the ball. Or am I oversimplifying?
• Philip Klevestav talks about his workflow for modular props in games. I think I recognize the assets at the end from Natural Selection 2. It's important to read on art asset theory because he's basically talking about the bricks of video game levels -- and the shape / size / color of the bricks affects how we build our levels.
• Mammoth writes a manifesto of sorts for the new wave of urban design / BLDGBLOG kind of thinking -- "The future of architecture isn’t finding a worthy formal successor to modernism, post-modernism, or parametricism, it’s learning to manipulate the command line." I'm not sure if I understand it fully. Is he implying that function doesn't necessarily follow form in the real-world, by invoking the case study of One Wilshire? Or am I poor reader?
• Patrik Schumacher's (unconvincing) defense of parametricism -- unconvincing mainly because, as the commentators mention, it is ignoring the reality of materials scarcity in the future. Linking to it just in case you read over that word in the previous bullet and was wondering what the hell "parametricism" was. I know I sure did. "Huh," I thought, "so that's the name for all that weird curvy NURBs architecture everywhere."
• Stanley Fish talks about how student evaluations are poor gauges of teacher performance. I agree. When I watch playtesters, I care less about what they report and more about what they actually do. Along those lines, I have a bunch of friends in "urban studies" and they aren't really sure what it entails; maybe the problem is that they're expecting architecture when urban design isn't? Or maybe they won't know what they've learned until 10 years from now?
• Dan Reeder - "I Drink Beer"

Games for Windows should be banned from all computer games forever.

I realize the quality of my blog posts is rapidly plunging (I promise I'll actually write something good in the next week) but the fact that I have to spend the first 20 minutes of BioShock 2 -- not actually playing, but configuring all these stupid profiles and DRM keys -- is simply mind-numbing. Things like this are what make people militant.

If this is the way the big publishers are going, then there's never been a better time to support indie games.

Comment of the Month on "Handle with Care"

"the couples names are DYLAN AND JAMES are they gay? I thought i was the only one who noticed but id rather them not be gay and be two buddys or the other person was a woman u know?" [1]

I realize he (?) doesn't speak for all players, but he speaks for a large number of them. Now, I don't seek to eradicate attitudes like this, as that's impossible -- people will always believe what they will -- but it is my hope that holding this opinion becomes, at the very least, extremely unfashionable. I mean, these days, it will already cost you your job.

I wonder how he'll feel about all the super homo hardcore gay pornography (that I'm now putting in, just for him; big 4096x4096 textures) in Much Madness?...

Exhibition: "Vida Interior" at Intermediae

Handle With Care (or should I say, "Cuidado, Frágil"?) is part of a super-way-cool-gee-whiz "alt games" exhibition (if we start calling ourselves "alt games" instead, will that bypass all the pointless debate about our label? Probably not...) called "Vida Interior" (Inner Life) at Intermediae in Madrid, Spain, alongside cool indie game devs like Dan Pinchbeck, Stephen Lavelle, the people behind Windosill and Osmos... Hurray! We're important and relevant, see? We're in a museum!

So if you happen to be in the area, go there and see it. I think there's gonna be a DJ and free booze too; or is my Spanish really that rusty? Anyway, sounds like a good time to me.

There's also some cool interviews with all the artists in the exhibition program (PDF), so check that out. (Though I'm a little disappointed by how content-less Stephen Lavelle's answers were, but I guess a lady's got to have her secrets.)