Developer's commentary during gameplay

[Igor-Rowan]

After months of procastinating and getting distracted by other games, I finally finished Quadrilateral Cowboy, it's not very long, but interesting and complex, even if a bit trial and error.

Anyway, I found another game mode where the developer, Brendon Chung, would put in some levels a question mark that when clicked would give an insight about the particular section of the game or some other minor details scattered around, such as when there was a wall and the players had no idea they were supposed to climb it to move on, so he had to paint it differently and put a ladder to signal it, much like a teacher, what makes sense to him, doesn't automatically makes sense for the player and that's his job to make that translation. They're not very distracting, the only time they got annoying was when one of them was a room full of lasers that only stay deactivated for 3 seconds, otherwise they do their job.

That got me thinking back on bartholen's thread of a few months ago, how games could embrace extras, such as concept art, as an unlockable[footnote]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.939546-How-the-hell-has-the-gaming-industry-still-not-embraced-extras-in-games[/footnote]. And made me realize a lot of video games "making of"s is a mess, some games are incredibly secretive about their development and others, while others give conflicting evidence through interviews.

I think one of the reasons we haven't done any of this yet is because development is usually negative, sure the part of the ideas and debug usually run smoothly, but some interviews of very specific games show that making a game is hell from beggining to end, from the artist having arguments to the animator, to the producer making decisions of scrap things that wasted time and effort, to the director having health and stress problems because of the game and its release. That would be crushing for people who want to get into developing games, but I'm willing to see the glass half-full and say it's not always like that and being open about it would make us appreciate more the game we already like even with trials and tribulations.

 

[Saelune]

Extra -used- to be far more part of gaming. Midway/Netherrealm Studios still appreciates it.

I remember unlocking this in the Krypt of one of the 3D Xbox MKs. Which also had tons of other videos, concept art, interviews, profiles, and even an old MK comic. And X turned unlocking stuff into a game of its own.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

This. Is what I'm talking about, there should be more of this. This might not be the same thing of commentary over gameplay, but it's something at least.

I can understand why manuals and good box-arts are gone, but why did this vanish?

 

[Saelune]

This. Is what I'm talking about, there should be more of this. This might not be the same thing of commentary over gameplay, but it's something at least.

I can understand why manuals and good box-arts are gone, but why did this vanish?

Microtransactions is my honest guess. Many game extras were things like costumes, and when microtransactions became a thing, they seem to have gotten rid of it all at once. And many games have pre-order bonuses that are things like art books and stuff instead of just having in-game concept art as unlockables.

I do like commentary for games though. I like understanding the why, and it is interesting what you may never consider but was very important.

 

[CaitSeith]

The last two games I remember had developers' commentary during gameplay are Portal 2 and Amnesia: The Dark Descend. They had speech bubbles placed along the levels that you could activate.

Spoiler

 

[Igor-Rowan]

snip

Quadrilateral Cowboy had those too, but they weren't voiced and the notes don't take control of the game.

 

[CaitSeith]

snip

Quadrilateral Cowboy had those too, but they weren't voiced and the notes don't take control of the game.

These notes don't take control of the game either. At most they overlay diagrams or lower the volume of the normal dialog.

 

[ZeD [taken 0]]

A lot of Valve's games have commentaries, including both Portals, Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life games. In L4D, you can only listen to them in single player, so I never bothered.

You should try. At least with Episode 2.

There's some really interesting stuff there. Like how they recorded the inside of a womb for ambience.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

A lot of Valve's games have commentaries, including both Portals, Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life games. In L4D, you can only listen to them in single player, so I never bothered.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary also has commentary markers.

I don't care for "making of" extras that much. I wouldn't put any in my game.

What extras would you put in though? I think "making of" stuff can be pretty insightful if done well.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

A lot of Valve's games have commentaries, including both Portals, Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life games. In L4D, you can only listen to them in single player, so I never bothered.

You should try. At least with Episode 2.

There's some really interesting stuff there. Like how they recorded the inside of a womb for ambience.

I was considering it until I read again, "You can not earn achievements and you will be ignored by infected until the finale." I thought it would be good excuse to get the melee only achievement on Easy. Why do they do it like this? I don't wanna waste time just to listen to them talk.

A lot of Valve's games have commentaries, including both Portals, Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life games. In L4D, you can only listen to them in single player, so I never bothered.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary also has commentary markers.

I don't care for "making of" extras that much. I wouldn't put any in my game.

What extras would you put in though? I think "making of" stuff can be pretty insightful if done well.

I just want a game to be entertaining. I want a game you can play over and over and over. Extras aren't necessary.

Sure, but having that plus a bunch of cool extras make it all the better, that's all.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I got Chronicles of Riddick the first time it came out, and (I think) after finishing the game, it unlocked developer audio diaries scattered throughout the game. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

A lot of Valve's games have commentaries, including both Portals, Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life games. In L4D, you can only listen to them in single player, so I never bothered.

You should try. At least with Episode 2.

There's some really interesting stuff there. Like how they recorded the inside of a womb for ambience.

I was considering it until I read again, "You can not earn achievements and you will be ignored by infected until the finale." I thought it would be good excuse to get the melee only achievement on Easy. Why do they do it like this? I don't wanna waste time just to listen to them talk.

A lot of Valve's games have commentaries, including both Portals, Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life games. In L4D, you can only listen to them in single player, so I never bothered.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary also has commentary markers.

I don't care for "making of" extras that much. I wouldn't put any in my game.

What extras would you put in though? I think "making of" stuff can be pretty insightful if done well.

I just want a game to be entertaining. I want a game you can play over and over and over. Extras aren't necessary.

Sure, but having that plus a bunch of cool extras make it all the better, that's all.

If you have time to make extras that have nothing to do with the main game, maybe you should be improving the main game.

I listened to two chapters of commentary in L4D2, ZeD. There's some interesting information in there, but I don't have a huge desire to continue. Few of the bubbles actually have to do with the situations, so most of them could have worked as simple audio tracks, rather than extras that you have to play through the game (without multiplayer, achievements or any challenge) for.

In the case of commentaries yes they are more time consuming and impractical. But most good extras still probably require a marginal amount of frivolous company resources at best though; they're probably compiled by someone that doesn't even work on the game. The God of War ones for example are mostly just someone filming around the various departments of the studio (animation, coding, music, level design, etc.) while people comment on what they're working on, or during a dev meeting, etc. Even for any of the recent MK entries that fill the Krypt with video clips, renders, artwork, music, etc. where someone is probably dedicated to it, they're not going to take anyone off another more vital task for this.

It's pretty doubtful these things have any significant impact on the actual game development, to the point a studio head would say, "You know, this area of the game would've really been more up to snuff if Lewis wasn't running around collecting extras to put on the disc."

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Something I thought was super original was the "museum" in Ratchet and Clank 2 that you can discover. It's a level featuring scrapped concepts like vehicles, weapons and even gameplay modes that didn't make the final cut, all presented like one of those "touchy" science museums. That was pretty cool.

God of War and Uncharted usually feature making of v?deos and concept art you can either unlock upon beating the game or buy with in-game currency.