#while also letting story progression fill that world with as much sims as possible

[junoivyyy]

Turn your average Sims experience into a city simulation game.

A challenge for The Sims 3 by Junoivyy at Twitch. Check out my streams of the challenge!

About the Challenge

This challenge will let you start a fresh canvas - a new society - where everything is created by you and your active sims. You start a new life in a completely empty world. Create your own story! The catch is that the challenge is played similarly to a city builder sim, whereas all public buildings and lots must be funded by a tax system. Buildings also have skill requirements and other restrictions. There is a chart for this, no worries!

Similar challenges exist and I do not take credit for the idea of building a new world with restrictions and a tax system.

"May your new society be a perfect hippie utopia

or a breeding ground for drama and chaos."

Starting the Challenge

Recommended Mods

Cazarupt's Custom Rabbit Holes

Will make it possible to build your own rabbit hole buildings that fit the aesthetic your town is going for.

Nrass MasterController

Has a setting to retain dreams and opportunities when switching between active households, and switching households can be done in live mode by clicking on a house’s icon (less lag).

Nrass Story Progression

If you want to keep story progression on while still being in control of your unactive sims this mod is perfect as you can choose whether or not your sims can move out, get pregnant, etc, while being unactive.

Recommended Settings

Turn off automatic vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. (NOT pets)

If it is not turned off it will turn your households that are not currently active into occults to fill a quota.

Turn “Retain dreams and opportunities” under “All” settings in Nrass MasterController.

Accessible by using a computer since a city hall will not be present in the beginning of the challenge.

If you don’t want your sims to get pregnant, move or do too much without you playing with them, turning off story progression completely is recommended. (I prefer this setting). OR use Nrass story progression for custom settings.

Warnings

Do not switch households while a pregnant sim is giving birth.

The pregnant sim will never leave the hospital.

You will need

An empty world.

Do not remove lots unless you know what you are doing. They can be hard to place back. (Tip: Removing buildings takes forever! There are downloads of emptied world versions out there.)

A founder household.

An empty lot.

A park (or more of them).

Do as you please with the parks, but they should only have a naturally occurring landscape with trees and lakes, for example. No park benches or lights, for example. Plants that carry harvest are also allowed in the parks and can be added with BuyDebug.

Harvestable plants should only be plants that are available from gardening skill 1.

The reason for starting with parks is so that there is a place for your sims to hang out, collect items and potentially harvest from plants.

5000 simoleons as your starting funds.

How to: first use the "testingcheatsenabled true" cheat, then use "familyfunds yourfamilyname 5000"

Rules and guidelines

BuyDebug is generally not allowed.

Can be allowed to add cosmetic items such as a "hidden room marker" for your custom rabbit holes. Use your discretion when it comes to what is helping you progress or not.

The free future portal is not allowed.

It must be bought to be used. Also remove the simoleons you gain from selling the future portal for the first time.

All public lots and buildings must be funded by tax money and cannot be built freely.

Everything must be created by you; both sims, lots and buildings.

All rabbit hole buildings are allowed.

Each public lot allows for two households to live in the world.

If you have built two public lots, you are allowed to have four households.

The existing parks do not count, and the first public lot built will allow for one new household. The next after that will allow for two more, for example.

5 public lots = 10 households, including your founder household.

You don't have to add new households, though, add them when you want to.

A sim moving away from their family counts as a new household. If you do not have enough public lots for them to become their own household the sim cannot move out.

New households' starter money

Households added before the City Hall is built will start with 5000 simoleons

Households added after the City Hall is built will start with the standard starter simoleons amount.

Do not play the same household for too long

All your households in the town should be in rotation but there are no strict rules. Play the household you want just as long as you remember to switch every couple of weeks or so.

Tax system and "Town's Funds"

Town's Funds

It is the money that will be spent on public lots.

It will be filled by collected taxes and bills.

Households can "donate" to the Town's Funds if they wish.

How I recommend to keep track of the Town's Funds

Use a calculator and a percentage calculator website (or google).

Keep a physical notebook, excel sheet or a different digital documenting method in front of you.

Do your taxes calculation every Sunday.

Note all bills as soon as they get paid so you have them ready until the end of the week.

Tax rules

Taxes will go into to the Town's funds.

10% of an active households's simoleons will be taxed every week.

15% of an active household’s simoleons with a house value of 50,000 or more will be taxed every week.

Bills also go to the Town's funds.

The 10-15% tax amount should be removed from the household's funds with the familyfunds cheat.

Taxes should be calculated every Sunday.

1 public lot = 2 households allowed

This also applies to lots that do not have restrictions like a library or a bar.

If a rabbit hole building includes two instances or more the requirements for them are merged and will cost 10,000§ less for two instances or 20,000§ less for three instances.

Anything that is placed on a public lot must be funded by the Town's Funds. Pay attention to the lot value window.

1 public lot = 2 households allowed

This also applies to lots that do not have restrictions like a library or a bar.

If a rabbit hole building includes two instances or more the requirements for them are merged and will cost 10,000§ less for two instances or 20,000§ less for three instances.

Anything that is placed on a public lot must be funded by the Town's Funds. Pay attention to the lot value window.

Base Game

IMPORTANT: Costs only apply to the rabbit hole buildings, if you have custom rabbit holes you can use your own budget. Other special lots like a library, karaoke bar, art gallery and such do not have a set budget or requirement.

Other

#the sims challenge #the sims 3 #the sims #sims challenge #the sims 3 challenge #BYSC #build your society challenge #build your society #junoivyy #twitch #sims 3 challenge #sims 3 #sims 3 gameplay #ts3 #ts3 gameplay #ts3 challenge

[sparkersimsblog]

SparklingSimSave

After building only base game for over a year, I treated myself and got some EP's and GP's.

For Christmas of 2023 I was gifted several EP's and GP's. After spending the last 4 months of building and game play I've been looking at what kind of Save File I wanted to build. I've watched tons of builders, lets plays and save file reviews. After a lot of consideration I decided to make my save file a represenatation of the worlds provided and existing sims lore.. however - I ran into a issue...

What I didnt like was the EA recommendation of having a sim cap of 200. While I understand that most people are using the best that they can I know that not a lot of ram can fathom the capacity of more than 200 sims. I was just completing Brindleton Bay and realized that I had hit this cap and had not finished oasis springs and so forth. You will see this represenation on my gallery of the builds uploaded.

I decided that although my computer (which isint even that high) can handle it but I wanted to be able to share this joy and fun with others. So I went back to the drawing board. My conclusion was this:

I wanted to make a world that was based off of having your sims placed into one main world with the opportunity to to explore the other areas as a vacation. Even with this idea in mind it has still made keeping the sims count to a minimum which seems to hit capacity pretty quickly. So what is another way I can see this idea play out without having to modify it too much?

I decided to cap each world to one particular residential area opposed to building the entire world.

What this means is that the majority of these worlds will consist of community and vacation lots. Residential areas will only be within a street to condense the story and condense the lag. With that being said as much as I wanted to include the sims lore I felt it would be more valuable to start from scratch. So in a turn of events I have decided to make a realalistic save file with a twist. Each world will showcase a different forensic file case. Your sims can travel on vacation to each of the worlds to immerse yourself in each of the cases and see if you can solve it - or maybe you might even know it and want to see how it has panned out.

While I currently do not own all of the packs I do try to limit the residential builds as much as possible. This is more to make it easier on myself to decorate individual styles that match the characters and story as well as being more wide-spread amoung other simmers who I really want to have joy in what I have created. The worlds listed below are what will be inclided and I will include a update weekly on Sunday's on the progress. I would like to really still incorporate some natural elements of the worlds for vacationing purposes as the reason I bought the EP's and GP's that I did is because I have always wanted to visit some of these places. There are also other EP's and GP's that I would like to purchase however with the long list that I have I must be realalistic as to what I can achieve. Should I be able to fill out the remainder of the EP's and GP's that I do have then I will list what packs in order I will be obtaining later on.

This is a huge undertaking so if you happen to be following along or are checking in this is a gentle reminder to be kind and compassionate. I work a FT job and have responsibilities in my downtime, the sims and creating is so much fun for me - its my therapy and I want to keep it that way! If youre interested in collabing im open for CAS creators.

The next update will be families and lore. If theres a world you would like to see expedited please leave me a comment :)

The save file will only have the following:

Base Game

Expansion Packs: Get to Work, Get Together, Cats & Dogs, Eco Lifestyles, Strangerville, Snowy Escapes, Cottage Living, Island Living, For Rent

Game Packs: Strangerville, Parenthood, Dream Home decorator, Dine out, Spa Day, Outdoor Retreat

Kit Packs: Book Nook, Desert Luxe, Blooming Rooms, Industrial Loft

Stuff Packs: Paranormal, Moschino, My First Pet, Laundry Day, Backyard, Romatic Garden (got for free on giveaways)

Tool Mod by Twisted Mexi to add world features for realism such as street lights, wire-poles, more trees and de-bug houses to make the world feel more full: this mod will only be used at the end of the complete world build unless this save somehow goes viral then I will feel obligated to do it sooner.

Reshade will be added at the end when the worlds are complete. This is the same one that Oshin sim's uses

World Rename tool by Srsly Sims

And I havent found one for the map that I like yet - open to suggestions and obviously this would not be required in your game it is more for asthetics for myself :)

The Plans: (to be renamed and reimaged)

WillowCreek: Louisiana

Crawded Quarter (to be renamed/ reimaged)

To be represented as Louisiana

Oasis Springs: Arizona

Newcrest: Canada

Magnolia Promendade:

Windenburg: Germany, Amsterdam, France

Brindleton Bay: England, Scotland

Strangerville: Nevada

Sulani: Hawaii

Evergreen Harbour: Canada

Mt Komobrebi: Japan

Henford-on-Bagley: United Kingdom

Tomarang: Thailand, Philippines, Columbia

Worlds to come after completion:

Del Sol Valley: LA

San Sequoia: San Francisco

Chestnut Ridge: Texas, New Mexico

Kits: Basement Treasures, Modren Luxe

Stuff: Movie Hangout, Toddler

#sims4 #sims4save #sims4savefile #work in progress #sims 4 #sims save file #sparklingsimsave #overview #starting point

[comicteaparty]

February 15th-February 21st, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from February 15th, 2020 to February 21st, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

If a company wanted to publish your comic or adapt it for animation or games, how willing would you be to change the story if requested to do so?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

That's such a tough question just because it's such a goal for so many creators, and yet a potential threat to their creativity in a sense. As always, it will depend on what exactly would be changed in order for such a project to be given approval. If it has to do with censoring LGBTQ+ content, changing race for 'marketability' purposes and the like, or erasing a specific topic integral to the plot with relation to politics- then it's a no go. There are plenty enough watered down media that doesn't stretch itself with diversity those companies can have and the subtext they pepper in to stay relevant, def something i find irksome with todays media (its 2020 guys !!) But if it's maybe cutting a chapter that acts like filler, or adding a character ( so long as it is plot relevant) i could take that into consideration! I actually take some time to imagine what Ghost Junk would be in a diff form of media and usually in those scenarios, things change to fit the way its being presented! A video game will differ more than an anime adaptation for sure, so long as the original intent and impact is kept, i would definitely consider some change!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

If I ever had the opportunity to pass my work off to a whole other team for an adaptation, I think I would take great joy in leaving them completely to it - barring a few obvious issues like race changes, gender/sexuality changes, and... changing the entire story to the point where it's unrecognizable. I love seeing reinterpretations of my work, and I understand that every adaptation would need changes of some form. My words and art aren't gospel - I'm open to any change if it improves the whole product. Whatever it takes to translate the material in the best way, which keeps the original message intact, is all good by me.

Changes in the actual comic would be harder to make - and I'd be far less comfortable with them, to be honest - but I wouldn't fight them if they obviously made the story/characters stronger. I've already added in ideas and reorganized plot threads based on reader feedback - luckily the story still has some places where it can bend. So long as a publisher took my basic story seriously, and aimed to remold it rather than remake it - I'd be down for a discussion. Hopefully a reputable publisher would know how best to sell my work, and would aim to make it as good as possible while maintaining integrity - I would try to trust them

chalcara

Comic stays mine, won‘t be changed beyound perhaps some professional line edits and polish. There’s a reason I didn’t shop it around as a graphic novel. I’d actually like that eitherway, would love to get myself a professional editor when I have the money. Adaptions can go nuts, provided the main characters stay true to their comic versions and the woman-loves-woman storyline stays in.

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

For the story to be told in another medium I would be pretty game for it to change the story a bit. Already now we are changing the story from how we made as a campaign. Makeing it more streamlined and more precise. I wanted originally that our comic could be a TV show. I come from a background of a character animator so that would make sense for me. So seeing it animated would be awesome! There would be some designs that needed to change to fit animation better.

Like Andree has this texture in his skin that needed to go away. But seeing it animated would be awesooome

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think if my Characters stay in Character, then I'm fine with changing pretty much any of the plot or world things. But the Character dynamics and who they are as people is what matters most to me, and I'm not sure I would be willing to sacrifice that. With some of my stories I'd be willing to completely let go of the reins, and with others I definitely want a tighter grip, too.

sagaholmgaard

Agree with the thing about character dynamics. My stories always stem from the characters' relationships and how they evolve, so I'd like for the essence of that to stay. Otherwise I'm pretty loose about the plot itself. Because I have an education in game development, I would totally be down for my comic being adapted into a story driven game of some sort. I'd be okay with changing the story to favor the game mechanics, like putting certain magic abilities in the focus and turning certain scenes into gameplay (like when they're sneaking around or fighting). As long as my handful of core emotional moments come across, I'm pretty happy to change things.

Tuyetnhi

I agree with the character dynamics too. I don't feel comfortable if they change the character backgrounds along with it as well for er what Krispy said for "Markability". That stuff won't fly with me. Comic stuff stay the same but for adaptations, I want to make sure it has similar story beats even if there's a change on few details. Tbh I could totally see er....a visual novel game happening in my comic since that's what my original intention was going for. still at the end I really don't intend my comic to transend other mediums since i'm planning to self publish the story someday lol.

kayotics

I’d be pretty willing to change stuff, actually. I’d want to be pretty involved in whatever adaptation was being made in this hypothetical, but I know that more people can make for stronger work. On the other hand, too many cooks can make for some pretty watered down soup, which is why I’d want to have a large role in things so some of the core stuff doesn’t get changed. But as it is, I’m not married to any ideas that exist in my comic, and am pretty welcome to changes.

DanitheCarutor

If the changes were to benefit the story than I wouldn't mind, if they were going to change everything to make it appealing to the masses than no. Definitely not if they want to mess with the characters since how they are play a major role in the comic. I've got a really specific story I'm trying to tell, so I'm very stingy on changes. If anything I'd be more open to a company making a spin-off or something not totally related to the main story, as long as it's not a complete bastardization. Other than free advertising and the brand name, I don't really see how getting published would benefit me anyway? I'm already in the process of rescanning and re-editing the first four chapters of my comic for self-publishing, if I really wanted to adapt it into an animation I would just do it myself. Along with teaching myself whatever else I needed to get as little help as possible. Sure, I have no experience but it's not like I can't learn, there are classes and free tutorials all over the internet. I've always wanted to get into animating. I can't imagine my comic being adapted into game, what would it even be? An anti-dating sim? An interactive novel? An Apollo drinking simulator?

Capitania do Azar

I WANT A BEAT THEM UP JUST RUN IN ONE DIRECTION KICK EVERYONE

eli [a winged tale]

The dream is a studio ghibli adaption but that won’t be happening I would want to vet the studio/company proposing the adaption and ensure that we are a good fit. I echo what many of you have said about the integrity of the characters and heart of the story. There are a lot of secrets that will come to unravel as the comic progresses and I hope the publisher will be accepting of them. I will be happy to have a conversation on why these structural changes are there and why I think it’s important to allow them to reach a wider audience. That said, I am also eager to see how they would themselves interpret the story and I will give creative freedom to that. Again, it’s a dream and while I would love to direct my own film, I simply don’t have the resources to do it (at this time). https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODQ3MzIzMTM3NjY4MDA0?igshid=15bnlhamdu3tn&story_media_id=2149085305360952847

Capitania we should just have a super smash bros of all our comic characters

renieplayerone

I think like a lot of people here have already said, Im not changing anyones race, gender identity or sexuality. Otherwise? I'd be really curious what someone else's perspectives could bring to my work if it ever got adapted. I have ideas for comics that are written like they could be movies too, but idk. Its fun trying to write thinking of other mediums

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Im pretty much in the same camp of make changes as it makes sense, but stay true to the core. In the case of a live action thing being made of my story, I would actually be super ok with a POC actor filling the role of any of the white presenting characters. Or actors with different body shapes that what I'd originally draw. More diversity in film is always good

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

outside of censorship, I would be fine with most story changes? with that said, good luck lol. there are very few scenes I think can be cut out of the story without supremely messing up later scenes. every magic ability on-screen is important in some way, a bunch of random background characters end up coming back & getting way more focus later on, etc. add filler, sure, but there's really not much you can cut out without messing up the entire story down the line.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I'm pretty open to the idea of changing some details to fit a different medium better. The big thing that I wouldn't want changed in Whispers of the Past (https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/list?title_no=191366) is the characters' races. Since the story explores the idea of culture-shock and cultural identity, and the races/cultures are integral to world-building, it would be stupid the change the characters' appearances/races willy nilly. And besides, we don't want what happened to Eragon or Percy Jackson when they became movies. Congratulations on completely killing a franchise But yeah, as long as races and major plot details aren't changed too much, I'm really open to adjusting things. As an example, cutting out smexy times or making the language a bit friendlier to a wide audience, fine by me. But changing Kelan to a blacksmith instead of a farmer... Why???? I would need a good reason to do something like that. (I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU, ERAGON! WHY WAS RORAN JOINING THE ARMY RANDOMLY, INSTEAD OF BECOMING A MILLER? ISN'T THE ARMY WORKING FOR THE EVIL KING WHO TAXES THEM HEAVILY? EXPLAIN THIS TO ME.) I'm actually pretty scared about the whole race thing. I mean, Hollywood also ruined The ]

if the adaptation is Bad I can always just, like, disown it lmao

Deo101 [Millennium]

clearly im the one with the ideas here B) soo

LMAO yea

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

If it was being published as a comic, I don’t think I’d be willing to change too much- though that would depend a great deal in what kind of change. Cleaning up some wonky dialogue? That would probably be fine. Censorship? Absolutely not. Changing my LGBTQ+ characters’ gender / orientation to appeal to the mainstream? Really absolutely not. If being adapted to a different medium, I’d be much more willing to change things around, but would still insist my minority characters not change their identities. But I understand that as far as plot goes, different mediums call for different approaches. I’m planning on writing my comics as novels someday, and will be taking a much different approach to them. The plots will definitely be altered a great deal to better fit being written in prose.(edited)

AntiBunny

It honestly depends on what the changes were. There's a fair amount I'd change myself. A few core things I'd certainly not change though.

In AntiBunny http://AntiBunny.net/ for instance I could see some people missing the point of Penelope's character being a pacifist and wanting to make her some kind of badass, as if the only kind of strength there is comes from violence. I wouldn't remove the question of Pooky's gender, as in order to ask the question of "what is identity" I stripped Pooky of everything including even a mental construct of gender.

Some things I would change though. Likely I would cut the first two chapters and start at the 3rd when the plot actually gets moving. So demands for a faster flowing plot I could certainly meet. I'd probably cut few extra characters from the cast to streamline things a bit.

So yes for the purposes of streamlining things I'd make changes. I wouldn't make changes that would go against the entire point of the cahracters though.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Oh, a conversation in #general reminded me of something else regarding adapting Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R - If the comic is to be adapted with no changes at all, it'd be a legal nightmare. Off the top of my head, these are properties that have been directly stated in dialogue - - Yahtzee - Risk - Mario Kart - Settlers of Catan - Pokemon - Disney's Frozen I don't think you could technically get in trouble for any of those? It's not like anything copyrighted was shown on screen, it's just characters talking about things they've seen before. But a publisher would probably want to play it safe and avoid that. Also... the NFL might get mad at the publisher if the gang names in Cunoze City aren't changed? Like I don't ever say the team location, so technically full team names are never used... but again, it's probably best to play it safe.

Desnik

I'd be pretty flexible with changes, but if I have to take out demons to appeal to the Evangelical Christian states of America then obvs that's not going to work out

(And you wouldn't think that'd be a Thing to this day, but apparently it's been sort of this unspoken rule in book publishing since the Satanic Panic of the 80's in the US)

Some changes I'd be okay with: Adjusting ages of characters to appeal to target demographics, removing scenes that are difficult to draw, tweaking characters to be either more or less horrible depending on their role in the story

FeatheryJustice

I will be flexible to a point and the limit of this point is pretty align to my morals. If the editor tells me to include some weird things like "You must have a scene where this guy licks the curtains" I would also be like "What is the point of this scene."(edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

“Your protagonist must fight a giant spider in the third act.”

Deo101 [Millennium]

I mean, if you bring up giant spiders in the first act... well...

Q (Wayfinders: Off Course)

Turn it around: if your protag must fight spiders in the third act, well, time to bring in the spiders in the first..?

AntiBunny

The more I think of it, the more I realize that the most likely thing I'd be asked to change in AntiBunny is to either tone down the violence and grimdark for kids, or make it even raunchier to appeal to the "mature" (not mature at all) animation market (Seth McFarlane's audience).

My own comic keeps it rather PG-13, but there's not much market for animation in that field, at least in America. Seems like it's all either kid friendly stories where no one dies or if they do it's off screen (people get shot and stabbed in my comic) or there's the opposite with dropping F bombs every other line and filling it with sex jokes.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Hey, I mean, never say never. Off the top of my head, Futurama and the Samurai Jack revival were both western cartoons that I'd put solidly in PG-13 territory. Both shows were able to go adult when they needed to be, but they didn't take that as a blank check to go into "rated R" territory for the shock of it.

#ctparchive #comic #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #creator babble #creator interview #comic creator interview #comic tea party #ctp

[duchesty]

The Sims 4 Experiences Challenge

Are you sick of doing the same old thing every time you play the Sims? Do you find yourself falling into the same routine every time you play and inevitably getting bored of the gameplay? Are there expansion/game packs that you've bought, but never really played much because you struggled figuring out how to incorporate it into your gameplay? Or maybe, you're like me, and just get super overwhelmed with all the options for things to do in the Sims, so you just end up doing what's familiar and comfortable?

Say hello to the Sims 4 Experiences Challenge! I created this challenge specifically to get the most use out of every expansion/game pack in the Sims 4 (to date). I’ll keep adding on to it whenever a new one comes out. This Legacy-type challenge will focus on one major expansion, or several small ones, each generation and require your Sims to complete a variety of requirements to live out their lives very differently from their predecessors. The goal is that it will help you get out of your comfort zone and to experience the most out of your gameplay and what the Sims 4 has to offer. So, without further ado…

Rules:

Try to avoid using any cheats/mods that grant money or items, cheat, etc. That being said, I can’t tell you how to play your game, so do what you want :)

Lifespan should be set to Normal, with Aging turned on. MCCC is recommended for story progression.

If you don't own an expansion, skip that generation. Otherwise, play through the generations in whatever order you want. The order here is just a guideline.

For every generation, you must complete the Aspiration and reach the top of the Career track, unless otherwise stated.

Each generation must have at least one child to be the heir for the next gen. You can choose any of your Sim's children as the heir. The other children kinda sorta don't matter (except in the Parenthood generation). Do whatever you want with them. Same goes with spouses.

Like the infamous Not So Berry Challenge (which loosely inspired me to make this challenge), your Sims should fit a certain color theme for each generation, and also a specific clothing style. It's not 100% necessary, obviously, but it’ll will encourage you to try out things in CAS you might not have used before. And trying new things what this challenge is all about! :)

If you play this challenge and want to share it, tag it with #sims4exp so others can see!

Generation One : Base Game : Yellow

You couldn't wait to move out and get as far away from your podunk little hometown as soon as possible. Right when you turned 18, you worked up the nerve and finally did it, packing your things and taking the first step toward independence and fulfilling your dream of becoming a rock star! Unfortunately, you definitely burned some bridges along the way, and now...  your family won't even speak to you. At least you worked your butt off and managed to save up a nice chunk of change to make the move possible, but after buying your first bit of property… there's not much left. Now you’re in a new, unfamiliar world with no money, no family, no friends, and no idea what to do next. Can you make it on your own and build yourself up from nothing, or will you get desperate and turn to a life of crime to make ends meet?

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy (Complete Level 3) Career: Criminal (Boss Branch) Traits: Materialistic, Kleptomaniac, Creative Appearance: Homeless/Basic. Started from the  bottom, now you’re here. You literally moved out from home, barely legal,  with nothing but a couple of bucks in your pocket and a head full of dreams.  Decent clothes aren’t really in the budget.

Requirements:

Buy an empty lot, set money to $2,000, use as much of it as possible to get the basics (choose wisely!), then set money down to $0

Max the Mischief, Handiness, and [any Instrument] skills

Earn >$500 from song royalties as you try to make your way

Cannot get a job until at least $2,000 on hand

Eventually give up on your dreams of stardom & join the Criminal career

Must steal 5 pieces of furniture worth at least $250 each to prove yourself to the mob boss

Have 3 Enemies and an "It’s Very Complicated” relationship

Have an "Enemies with Benefits" relationship, and eventually marry them

Cannot move-in partner/get married until at least Level 5 in career track

Generation Two : Get to Work : Blue

Growing up was kind of rough for you. Your parents struggled hardcore with finances, especially in the beginning. They went down a dark path just to keep the family afloat. That's why you want to make sure you can live a better life than your parents did. You have your sights set on a legitimate, secure, high-paying career that will allow you to have the lifestyle you want. You won't rest until you’re at the top of the corporate ladder, so people could say you’re a bit of a workaholic. As a means to relieve stress, you take up photography and drinking at the local watering hole after work. Alien Night at the bar quickly becomes your favorite past-time, and before long, you bite off a bit more than you can swallow... Unfortunately, all this focus on your career and your nightlife means you have little time for anything else, including your family. Will your find a way to balance your work life and home life? Or will you let the stress get to you and end up doing something you’ll regret?

Aspiration: Friend of the World (Doctor) OR Bodybuilder (Detective) OR Nerd Brain (Scientist) Career: Doctor, Detective, or Scientist Traits: Ambitious, Hotheaded, Genius Appearance: Business Professional. You’ve got a corporate ladder to climb. Gotta be “on” all the time, 24/7, if you want them to take you seriously.

Doctor Requirements:

Max Logic and Charisma skills

Complete the Microscope Prints Collection

Deliver 3 babies

Visit the Sylvan Glade secret lot

Detective Requirements:

Max Logic and Fitness skills

Complete the Postcards Collection

Solve 12 cases

Visit the Sylvan Glade secret lot

Scientist Requirements:

Max Logic and Handiness skills

Complete the Elements Collection

Finish Rocket Ship & visit Sixam

Visit the Forgotten Grotto secret lot

Requirements for ALL:

Max Photography skill to relieve stress

Attend Alien Night at the bar whenever possible

Become Best Friends with an Alien met at the bar

Have an affair with an Alien OR marry an Alien

Get abducted by aliens and have an alien baby (you can cheat for this if necessary)

Never become Good Friends with any children

Get a dog/cat to keep your children company

Generation Three : Cats & Dogs : Pink

Your childhood was pretty lonely. Your parents were always working and never really made time for you. Sure, you lived pretty comfortably in a nice home with lots of things, but it would’ve been nice to have been a priority in their lives. Your one saving grace was that your parents got you a pet, as if they were aware of how lonely you were but couldn’t be bothered to handle it themselves. You clung to that pet with your life and it became your best friend as you grew up. Before long, you learned to love animals more than you loved people. People were complicated, but pets? Pets were simple. Dogs and cats love unconditionally—they would give you love and attention no matter what. You fill your home with pets so that you’re always in the company of their doting furry faces. You dedicate your life to pets and decide to start up a Veterinary Clinic from scratch. You just know you’ll be able to make it the best clinic around. How hard could it possibly be?

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals Career: Veterinarian - start a new Vet Clinic Traits: Cat/Dog Lover, Loner, Good Appearance: Cutesy. You never really grew out of the cutesy phase, seeing as how your only friends were animals. Your style is reminiscent of a children’s book, or perhaps a cartoon character. People would describe you as adorable, which might not be the best thing for a grown adult.

Requirements:

Become Companions with childhood pet

Max Veterinarian & Pet Training skills

Start a Vet Clinic from scratch

Turn your Vet Clinic into a super success (5 star rating)

Adopt a pet via computer

Befriend and adopt a stray in the neighborhood

Own at least 3 pets (at least one cat, one dog)

Become Companions with all of your pets

Complete the Feathers collection

Breed a pet once

Spay/Neuter all your non-breeding pets because you're a responsible pet owner

Run a Simstagram account for a pet

Craft an Ambrosia pet treat & feed to a beloved pet

Generation Four : Parenthood : White

Your parents were obsessed with their pets & vet clinic and seemed to care more about the animals than you. You excelled at sports growing up, but your parents never came to any of your games because they were always busy with the animals. As a result, you never developed a good relationship with them and have been resentful of them your entire life. You vowed to never repeat your parents' mistakes and do right by your family when the time came. At first, you dreamed of becoming a professional athlete when you grew up, but then quickly realized your real goal in life once you hit maturity. You’re absolutely obsessed with finding your soulmate, settling down, and raising a herd of children, while maintaining top physical shape in the process. It goes without saying that your children will be the best, most amazing, model children in the neighborhood. You’re sure that if you spend extra time with your kids and give them all the attention and support they need, that they'll grow up into super successful special snowflakes that become honor roll students with well-developed personalities and a great relationship with their family. Will your hyper-involved parenting and the pressure you put on their children be enough to give you the family you’ve always wanted?

Aspiration: Super Parent Career: Athlete (Professional Athlete Branch), until first child is born Traits: Family Oriented, Neat, Active Appearance: Soccer Mom/Dad. With a family this huge to take care of, clothing is more a matter of function than style, at this point.

Requirements:

Max Cooking, Fitness, and Parenting skills

Go on 3 dates with a Sim as a teen and become Soulmates before marrying them

Must get married before having first child

Must quit job once first child is born to raise children; [work from home is optional], spouse can still have traditional career

Must have at least 3 children

No nannies / butler allowed—you're determined to raise your own kids the hard way

Next gen heir must be the "black sheep" of the family-- bad relationship with parents, bad grades, & earn Irresponsible & Negative Emotional Control character value traits

One toddler must gain "Top Notch Toddler" trait, one toddler must gain "Happy Toddler" trait

All children must complete their Childhood Aspirations (**heir must choose Social Butterfly)

Non-heir children must earn 2 positive character traits

Must become Good Friends with non-heir children

Non-heir children must maintain at least a B grade in school

Generation Five : City Living : Red

You had a huge family growing up, with overbearing parents, a bunch of annoying siblings, and virtually no privacy. Life was a constant state of arguing, smothering, and claustrophobia. All you want is to have your own life, be known for who you are and not who your family is, and have your own space. What better way to do that than to move out to the big city and chase fame and glory? You’ve always been a huge social butterfly and your constant need for attention made you the perfect candidate for Simstagram stardom! It's the perfect outlet for you as you embody city life, try new things, and maybe even meet someone special (or several someones)! Will you find happiness on your journey to find yourself and your place in the world, or will it all end in disaster with you running home with your tail between your legs?

Aspiration: (Social Butterfly Childhood), City Native Career: Social Media (Internet Personality Branch) Traits: Romantic, Noncommittal, Geek Appearance: Trendsetting Hipster. You’re destined to be the hottest thing on Simstagram, so you’ve gotta look the part. You have to be a super trendy and fashionable hipster.

Requirements:

Complete Social Butterfly Childhood Aspiration

Move to an apartment in San Myshuno

Max Charisma, Video Gaming, and Mischief

Get 25mil followers on Simstagram

Humor & Hijinks Festival - Lead your side to victory

Romance Festival – Get engaged and/or married at the festival

GeekCon Festival – Get a perfect score in the Ultimate Gaming Test

Spice Festival – Complete the Spicy Challenge

Flea Market – Set up a shop of your own stuff for sale and make a profit of at least $250

Complete the City Posters collection

Have at least 5 boyfriends/girlfriends in your lifetime

Have only 1 child and become Best Friends with them because you're a cool mom

Get married for the first time in late Adulthood

Generation Six : Get Together + Outdoor Retreat : Green

Your parents led quite the chaotic, wild life, but the hustle and bustle of city life was never really for you. You didn't really get a chance to make a lot of friends your own age growing up, since life sort of revolved around your crazy parent and all their social-media-conquering escapades. All you want is a peaceful life away from the chaos of the inner city and more time outdoors, enjoying the beauty of nature. Having some hobbies wouldn't hurt either... and friends... real friends would be nice. You seek the company and approval of others, so you join a career that revolves around entertainment. To fill the void in your life, you want to run a club full of like-minded individuals so that you can have a second family away from home. You want to meet and hang out with people who have the same interests you do—maybe do a little hiking, take some camping trips, explore the beauty of nature. Will your new alternative lifestyle be able to fill the void in your life?

Aspiration: Outdoor Enthusiast Career: Entertainer (Comedian branch) Traits: Outgoing, Erratic, Insider Appearance: Hippie. You care more about nature than what other people think of your wardrobe. As long as it’s comfortable and groovy, who cares? It’s not like the trees are going to judge you.

Requirements:

Max Herbalism, Fishing, Charisma, Comedy skills

Take over the Garden Gnomes Club as the new leader, OR start your own Nature Club, and fill it with like-minded friends:

----------Ages (Teen-Elder); Traits (Loves Outdoors); Club Activities (Be Friendly, Fish, Hangout by Fire, Tend Garden, Swim); Hangout (any lot with lots of Nature-related activities)

Join one other Club as well

Go on Club Gatherings whenever possible (at least twice a week)

Become Good Friends with all your Club members—they're like your second family

Go on vacation to Granite Falls at least twice

Become Best Friends with the Hermit of Granite Falls

Harvest all unidentified plants

Generation Seven : Vampires : Black

Your parents were obsessed with nature, and you were too, up until you had a run-in with a Vampire when you were a kid. Ever since then, you’ve been obsessed with the supernatural. No one believed that you’d met a Vampire, chalking it up to an overactive imagination, but you were always sure of it. You did as much research on them as possible, hoping to be able to run into a Vampire again someday. Finally, you decide to move to Forgotten Hollow, the haunted neighborhood known for strange, almost occult, occurrences, in the hope of finding what you’re looking for there. Eventually, your wish is granted and you have another encounter with a Vampire. Does it turn out to be everything you’ve ever dreamed of or does it turn into the stuff nightmares are made of?

Aspiration: Master Vampire Career: Writer (Author Branch) Traits: Bookworm, Evil, Self-Assured Appearance: Cliché Vampire. Just because you can’t see yourself in the mirror, doesn’t mean everyone else can’t. You basically invented goth. You’re born from the darkness and revel in black so you can stay in the shadows. They’ll never see you coming.

Requirements:

Move to Forgotten Hollow to a house with Vampire Nexus & Registered Vampire Lair lot traits

Master Writing, Logic, Pipe Organ, and Vampire Lore skills

Write and Publish 5 books about Vampires

Read "The Ultimate Vampire Tome"

Become Good Friends with 3 Vampires

Become Best Friends with a Vampire, then marry them

Have your Vampire spouse turn you into a Vampire

Grow Plasma Fruit, Garlic, and Wolfsbane on your home lot

Turn 3 Sims into Vampires

Have one Vampire child and one Human child

Become a Grand Master Vampire

(If Vampire child chosen as heir) Offer your child the Ultimate Vampire Cure when they become of age (YA)

Generation Eight : Dine Out : Gray

Because you grew up with Vampire parents, you pretty much starved growing up. Okay, well not really, but it was always hard to find real food to eat at home when your parents technically didn’t have to eat. Because good food was such a rarity in your household, you became obsessed with it. You developed a deep love and appreciation for human food. Whenever you went out to eat with your friends, you treated the meal like an adventure. Food quickly became your passion and you modeled your life after the pursuit of the perfect meal. You dream of becoming a renowned chef, but even more than that, you want to own your own restaurant someday. Once you’re the proud owner of a five-star restaurant… you’ll know you’ve made it.

Aspiration:  Master Chef Career:  Culinary (Chef) until Lvl 6, then Buy a Restaurant Traits: Foodie, Squeamish, Perfectionist Appearance: Prim & Proper. If people are going to respect you, you’ve got to maintain the appearance of someone who’s a somebody. Not just anyone can be the proprietor of a five-star restaurant. Your style is very conservative, sharp, and straight-laced. You turn the stuffy look into an art.

Requirements:

Join Culinary Career (Chef Branch)

After at least level 6 in Culinary Career, quit job and buy a Restaurant

Fully staff Restaurant

Get Restaurant to 5 Stars

Make net profit of at least $4,000 in three shifts

Max the Culinary, Gourmet Chef, and Baking skills

Learn all 27 unlockable recipes from the food stalls in San Myshuno

Cook Ambrosia once

Generation Nine : Jungle Adventure + Spa Day : Orange

You spent a lot of your childhood eating foods from all over the world and meeting restaurant patrons from each end of the globe. You don’t just want to eat the foods, you want to experience the culture. Your dream is to travel to distant countries and experience their culture. You want to get outside of the bubble of your comfortable hometown and find adventure and diversity. Then, when you’re worn out, you want to be able to come home, relax, and unwind at the local spa. Your parents used to leave you with the babysitter and go to the spa by themselves on “me days” so, naturally, you want to see what all the fuss was about. Of course, it’s even more amazing than you could’ve expected and it becomes your homecoming routine. Yoga becomes a surprising personal favorite and your go-to form of exercise and detox. When you’re home, you make a name for yourself by writing books about your travels and painting epic portrayals of your adventures. Antidotes aren’t cheap! With all that traveling, adventures, yoga, spa days, and creative outlets, who could ask for more?

Aspiration: Jungle Explorer Career: No traditional career, must live off royalties/adventuring finds Traits: Cheerful, Clumsy, Dance Machine Appearance: Selvadoradan. You visit so often that the locals basically consider you to be one of them. It helps that you dress like them, talk like them, and immerse yourself in their lifestyle. You are one with the Selvadoradan culture.

 Requirements:

Max Selvadoradan Culture, Archaeology,  Wellness, and Writing skills

Complete the Ancient  Omiscan Artifact OR Omiscan Treasure collections

Combine and create 12 different Relics

Go on at least 2 Selvadoradan vacations

Visit the Spa after each trip, and at  least twice per week

Woohoo in a Sauna

Attend each Yoga class twice

Marry a Selvadoradan Native

Own a massage table and give your  spouse a Massage daily

Write 3 books about your Selvadoradan adventures

Generation Ten : Seasons : Multicolor

You lived an eventful childhood, traveling constantly with your family, and you just want to settle down in one place for a nice, long while and maybe not ever move again. You’ve had enough excitement for one lifetime. The traditional lifestyle isn’t for you either though, so you want to start a farm and live off the land. An ambitious lifestyle isn’t really in the cards for you, so you just want to live the simple life and raise a family in a quaint neighborhood, celebrate the holidays together, and just do normal family things.

Aspiration: Freelance Botanist Career: Gardening (either branch) Traits: Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian, Goofball Appearance: Seasonal. You're super into [choose a season] and dress in that style all the time, even when it doesn't really make sense sometimes.

Requirements:

Max Gardening, Flower Arranging, and Handiness skills

Join Scouts as a child and complete the Badge collection

Grow every type of plant on your lot (including grafted plants)

Grow 3 Cowplants at once and don't die to any of them!

Feed a Sim to a Cowplant and drink the Essence of Life

Graft a Death Flower & plant it

Celebrate every major holiday

Throw a party for each major family event (birthdays, engagements, marriages, etc)

Befriend Patchy

Own a weather machine

Generation Eleven : Get Famous : Purple

Growing up, your only real form of entertainment and respite from farming duties and chores, was the television. You watched the fantastical stories unfold on the telly and couldn’t help but yearn for a life of adventure like the heroes in your favorite series. Or, perhaps, it’d be even more thrilling to lead a daring life of crime, constantly on the lam, and barely avoiding discovery right under the nose of the authorities! Whatever the story may be, you’ve always dreamed of making your grand debut on the silver screen, and now’s your chance! You did managed to land your first audition and moved out to Del Sol Valley to really commit to the cause. You know what they say, go big or go home, but in this case... going home is not an option. You’ll be damned if you ever have to harvest another snapdragon in your life.

Aspiration: World Famous Celebrity Career: Actor Traits: Self-Absorbed, Outgoing, Ambitious Appearance: Trendsetter. You keep up with all the latest trends and your outfits are always super chic and super in. Your goal is to impress the paparazzi with your savvy style.

Requirements:

Max Acting and Media Production skills

Live in Del Sol Valley

Have the highest or lowest Reputation (Pristine or Atrocious)

Become a Global Superstar (Rank 5 Celebrity)

Place your Celebrity Star on Starlight Boulevard and sign it.

Have a child become a Celebrity.

Generation Twelve : StrangerVille : Earth Tones

You grew up watching movies, thanks to your parents’ involvement in the film industry, and were especially fond of sci-fi thrillers. So when you heard about strange happenings going in on in a small town nearby, you couldn’t help but to head out there and check it out. You’re not sure what you were expecting when you got there, but it definitely wasn’t what you found... Have you bitten off more than you can chew?

Aspiration: StrangerVille Mystery Career: Military Traits: Paranoid, Active, Genius Appearance: Conspiracy Theorist. Aliens are real! You just know it! There’s something fishy going on here and you’re not about to get caught up in it. You don’t go anywhere without your tin foil hat, listening devices, and fancy gadgets. People in town think you dress weird, but hey, at least you’re well protected and noone nothing is probing your brain anytime soon.

Requirements:

Max Fitness, Programming, and Charisma skills

Live in Strangerville

Own a laptop

Purchase all gadgets from the Curio shop

Befriend and/or romantically pursue both a Scientist and Military personnel in order to extract top secret information about the town’s mystery

Solve the StrangerVille mystery!

(Because of the unique nature of this story-based gamepack, I’ve kept the requirements very short in order to not give away any part of the story for you. As long as you complete the StrangerVille Mystery Aspiration, you should get the most out of this pack!)

I worked super hard on this and I’m excited to share it with you! I hope y’all enjoy the challenge and get some good stories out of it :) Happy Simming! @duchesty

#the sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 legacy #the sims 4 legacy #sims 4 legacy #legacy challenge #sims4exp #sims 4 experiences #D

[less-than-hash]

Holes in the Firmament

Every dev I know has at least one dream game - stuff that they'd love to be able to make some day. The more ambitious these get - the more complex or long - the less likely they are to get made. And in a collaborative medium like games, the more people (and the more money!) involved in a project, the less control any given individual has over it.

This isn't intrinsically bad. (It can also be wildly valuable to a project and rewarding personally.)

But we devs still dream of those games we'd make if we had, say, the resources of a two hundred person studio, the backing of a major publisher, and absolute freedom.

Three of mine are behind the cut.

As a note, none of these reflect upcoming Obsidian projects. Nor are they projects Obsidian would likely ever make. They don't fit the studio's brand. Which is why I'm dreaming about them here, and not pitching them internally. 

So, first up!

A Squad-Based 1st-Person Firefighting Game with a Robust Relationship System and a Branching Narrative

I don't understand why there aren't more games about firefighting - though if I had to guess it's largely because making fire look good in-game is extraordinarily difficult. As is making an environment decay over time (though I suspect there are probably some pretty good, easy solutions for this using dev sleight-of-hand).

There are actually a Iot of interactive sim games about firefighting for training purposes. Much like war and flight, firefighting is something best trained without risking real life and limb.

Firefighting appeals to me as a gameplay space because it's actively protective - it's about limiting destruction and saving lives. But it can very easily be modeled with similar gameplay loops to shooters - ultimately both are about emptying rooms of danger - here it's just with water instead of bullets.

I could be water!

In short, firefighters engage in almost unequivocal good. They're heroic. They’re human. They’re flawed. And they brave dangers every day. But our industry basically ignores them.

Firefighting would give us the opportunity to set games in the modern world with people who, during their off hours, experience much more relatable struggles than your average freedom fighter, super spy, or elite soldier - relationship difficulties, debt, children, and the like.

So what would this game actually look and play like? It would likely be mission-based (calls come in of their own accord, after all), make use of movement and environmental hazards (not unlike a cover-based shooter), and have simple companion-direction mechanics similar to the Mass Effect trilogy or Spec Ops: The Line.

(Alternatively, the action could be dialed down a bit to focus on positioning a la Valkyria Chronicles.)

The gameplay would be focused on keeping your squad alive while saving as many people as possible.

Between missions you hang out at the station, or the bar, or at home - or try to balance all three, a la Catherine. You build relationships, helping your squad perform better together. You never recruit anyone, but your companions, your fellow firefighters, can die in missions, altering the narrative in both tone and content.

tl;dr: Mass Effect 2 meets Rescue Me with some dashes of Catherine

Next!

Narrative-Focused Urban Fantasy RPG/Immersive Sim

How does this not exist yet? Where's our Dresden Files or Hellblazer inspired RPGs? Or even The Magicians or Harry Potter, for that matter?

Where my Chilling Adventures of Sabrina RPG?

There's Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, which, while fantastic, is 13 years old.

While I'm looking forward to Necrobarista, that seems like a pretty tight, focused experience.

We've plenty of games with magicians in fantasy realms or in space - AKA BioWare's entire oeuvre - but few in the AAA space set in the modern world.

Unless you count superhero magicians.

Wait. Did Dr. Strange even get a game? Google suggests no. What’s going on here, videogame industry? Why won’t you suffer a witch to live?!

Honestly, I get to an extent why this is. There's a reason there've been Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse games, but no Mage games, either for Ascension or Awakening. Magic is broad, and often (especially in games) wildly destructive, which can be at odds with a modern setting (or rather what makes a modern setting interesting).

Art by Jason Chan, from Reign of the Exarchs by White Wolf.

But it doesn't have to be.

The flexibility of magic actually allows for a lot of different gameplay styles. You can do straight up first-person action like The Darkness or stealth survival like Last of Us. If I were to adapt Phonogram, a comic I love deeply, you can bet your ass there'd be beatmatch spellcasting.

A lot of gameplay mechanics we take for granted are actually damned-near magical. 

Maps that point you where to go and tell you where your enemies are? 

Dropping from a second story window without difficulty? 

Regenerating health? 

Items that make you smarter, stronger, or more likable? 

Bullet time? 

Rewinding to an earlier point in time to avoid death or a bad decision? 

So that's another question a developer has to answer: if magic comes in so many shades, what color is yours? What are you hoping to accomplish?

For me, the presence of magic in the modern world demands a layer of secrecy that implies other layers of secrets. A modern world in which magic functions immediately deepens. What else lurks out there? Where are the other magicians? How are they using their abilities?

Additionally, magic is surreal. Bend and twist reality, and you're forced to look at it from new angles. If you can tweak people's emotional responses to you, how do you know the relationships around you are real? 

And that's before you realize your dreams literally might come true - especially the nightmares. Is the face in the mirror a reflection, or something sinister and jealous? Is the ghost haunting you your literal past reaching out to reclaim you?

My dream modern magician game is an open-world immersive sim in an urban setting. Drop Prey, Dishonored, or BioShock style gameplay into a sprawling city filled with physics objects ripe for transmutation and NPCs waiting to be enchanted. Add an otherworld accessed by stepping through mirrors (the entire map within is reversed).

It's about what power can accomplish, what justifies its use, and what its limits are.

Populate the world with a few powerful magician NPCs with their own agendas; dozens of NPCs to chat up, learn more about, seduce, and manipulate; and a threat that could consume reality's very soul if someone doesn't step up to deal with it. Shake. Serve.

tl;dr: Dishonored meets Vampyr by way of Hellblazer and Hellboy

And finally!

Friendship Simulator 2019

My favorite parts of the Persona games and Catherine are the things outside of the core gameplay loops. The bits where you're hanging out with your friends, chatting with them, finding out more about them, and guiding and supporting them (or tearing them down).

Or hiding in the toilet to text your significant other.

One of the things I love about Persona 5: Dancing Star Night in Starlight is that the narrative is almost solely in this mode. It's entirely about learning more about your fellow Phantom Thieves.

Lest you think I uncritically and unabashedly love it, P5D has some major narrative problems - it entirely fails to pay off its initial premise, for example, and there's no persistence to the player choices or (player-driven) reactivity within the narrative.

Nor does the way the player "progresses" the narrative make a tremendous amount of sense within the fiction of the world.

Sorry I got distracted.

Point is, from a narrative perspective it's a game about getting to know people better - literally exploring their lives - and then supporting (or undermining, if you're terrible) them.

Similarly, nothing the player says in Persona (or, for the most part, Catherine) has any impact on the game. The player might progress a Social Link more slowly by being an ass to the protagonists' friends, but they'll still increase that Link over time, provided they put time into it.

And I don't want to be dismissive here. Time management is one of the major ways in which the player engages with the Persona games. Outside of combat and maybe monster-training, it's probably the most important mechanic at play. Taking longer to max out a Social Link means you're missing other content and missing opportunities to increase your stats. Or maybe the Social Link doesn't get completed at all. (Sorry, Haru.) Or maybe you’re not powerful enough to overcome the next Shadow in time and your game ends. Those are non-trivial consequences.

But the story of the Social Link, or the story of the game, will never change based on (the vast majority of) the player's interactions with their buddies.

Despite that, the games give the player a lot of freedom as to when (or whether!) they approach those relationships.

On the other end of the spectrum, Life is Strange (and Before the Storm) does a fantastic job of letting the player get to know the characters around Max (and Chloe) and responding logically to the player's choices.

The kid who has a crush on Max (Warren, I think?) remembers what the player promises him and then responds to whether or not the player follows through on it.

If Chloe plays A Game That Absolutely Involves Neither Dungeons Nor Dragons with her friends, they'll refer to it excitedly later and ask her to join in another round.

The TellTale games are also pretty good at this, especially Wolf Among Us, but that'll take me a bit far afield.

What Life is Strange does not provide the player is any control at all over the flow of the narrative. When the player completes a narrative beat within a scene, they're rushed along to the next scene, which is never one of their choosing. There's plenty of flexibility within the relationships (and within many of the smaller subplots), but little within the game's larger structure.

Ultimately, Persona provides little variability, while Life is Strange provides little narrative control.

I want to make a game that grabs the strong aspects of both of these while jettisoning their weaknesses.

(Far, far easier written than done!)

Basically, I want to make a game focused on the exploration of relationships. Where the personalities are the mysteries to unravel, and the interpersonal relationships between characters the dungeons to be navigated. Where the inner demons are the beasts in need of slaying - not through mystically entering the subconscious and doing battle with the Shadow, but through conversation.

I want a game about building a community, a family, and helping it come to support itself.

I think that one essential change that would make this significantly more doable is discarding the larger threats to the characters, especially those supernatural in nature. The relationships among the cast of Persona 4 are propping for the story of the Midnight Channel Murders. Arcadia Bay's pending apocalypse distracts from the relationships that seem to be the actual core story of Life is Strange.

(I find Before the Storm a stronger narrative than the original Life is Strange in large part because it's not being torn in multiple directions.)

Which isn't to say that there can't be threats, obstacles, and dangers. The world presents all manner of difficulties. Most of them requiring far more challenging and interesting solutions than "stick a sword in it."

That's a lot of abstraction, so what would this game actually look and play like?

Well, as I mentioned above, I think the Persona games, esp. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 already do a fantastic job of providing the player the framework for exploring a space and approaching relationships at their own pace.

Add into this characters that the player can engage with in order to learn more about them (not unlike Vampyr), help with their problems, and build (or break!) relationships with them or others, and you have something of an open-world interpersonal relationship game. 

The narrative of these relationships would change based on the player's actions (both in regard to how they interact with the character and how they deal with (or fail to deal with) the character's problems). So would the player's reputation, which impacts their interactions with other characters.

(The reputation system is actually one of my favorite ideas in Pillars, but I think we sometimes fail to use it to its full potential. I certainly know I do.)

Side note: in this dream game, the relationships I'm describing are not expressed in a systemic way. They're not ranked like Social Links, and they don't have reputation bars like in Dragon Age or Tyranny. It's much more akin to Life is Strange here, with each character containing their own narrative(s) to be navigated.

Over time, you bring some of these characters closer to your protagonist, recruiting a tight-knit circle that helps you face the game's primary conflict. These relationships bounce off of one another. You can never make everyone happy, after all, and some people will never get along. Late game play requires that the player balance these relationships and help forge friendships or avoid catastrophic fallings out.

Yeah, but what is that primary conflict? 

Potentially anything the world could throw at a person. A lot of television shows have provided us a framework we can borrow from. Veronica Mars comes immediately to mind. (Or one of my favorite films, Brick.) Then there's Lost, which is overtly about building communities and relationships in order to survive. The Wire is another possibility. (Imagine playing as a Stringer Bell type trying to build a crew while maintaining relationships with rival crews.)

My point being that we already know what these kinds of stories look like. We just have to be brave enough to make a game that's focused around understanding other people rather than shooting them.

tl;dr: Life is Strange meets Persona, minus the strange and the personas

And that’s three glimpses into my brain. Into my dreams.

You may have noticed a few through lines. I'm pretty clearly interested in making games:

Set in the modern day

That tackle modern, realistic (and I use that term extremely loosely) concerns

That are largely non-violent

With non-linear narratives

That involve exploring the lives and feelings of non-player characters

And give those interpersonal relationships systemic narrative bite

Obviously, the projects I've been involved in recently don't check off every one of those boxes on my wishlist. That's generally how it is, if you're making games with other people.

But if you're very, very lucky, you get the opportunity to work on projects that scratch at least one or two of those itches.

I've been very, very lucky.

Cheers, <3 <3 <#

#gamedev #game design #narrative #relationships #persona #catherine #mass effect #life is strange #prey #dishonored #vampyr #necrobarista

[overcastgames]

Persona 3: Life on the Edge

The Persona series is my personal favorite game series. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s my love of anime, or the fantastic music associated with the series. Maybe it’s the social-sim aspects of the newer games in the series that I love. Whatever it is, Persona will always hold a place in my life.

My introduction to the series is a little strange, I had been watching a youtuber by the name of superjeenius, on a whim, I decided to check out his let’s play of Persona 4 Golden, and was instantly hooked on the series. Sometime shortly after I bought Persona 3 FES on sale from the PSN and thus my trip through RPG hell began. 

The Persona series began its life as a spin-off of Atlus’ flagship series Shin Megami Tensei in 1996. With the popularity of the series however, the Persona series eventually took on a life of it’s own, surpassing its predecessor in popularity.

There are many things from the SMT series that Persona has retained though. Many of it’s core mechanics remain the same, and it still maintains a high level of Atlus’ notorious difficulty. Where it separates from its sister series though, is purely with progression. 

In Persona 3 in particular, the player is given a set calendar to work their way through, all in all it amounts to about ¾ of an in game year. This time is where the Persona series shines. While some of this time must be spent doing typical RPG things, a lot of it is left to the player to decide what they want to do with it. You can do things like: spend time with key characters to boost your bond with them, and learn more about them as characters, do various activities that will increase your main characters traits, take on a list of side quests, go do some dungeon crawling, or just go hang out in your room if you don’t feel like doing any of that. There are set dates that relate to story progression, so as long as you keep that in mind, there is really no lack of things to do in Persona 3′s world.

Story wise, the player takes on the role of the silent protagonist, built on the old RPG trope of allowing players to insert themselves into the games. you can give him whatever name you want, especially since his canon name continuously changes. Anyway, the player fills the role of the blue-haired emo boy during a year in his life when he has just come to an island for school. On his way there, strange things begin occurring, a random blackout, coffins in the streets, a strangely large moon, and a girl with a gun In her hand. Together with the rest of the cast, you spend the year as SEES a group dedicated to investigating and ending these occurrences. 

While some of the characters can be obnoxious, there is no doubt that Persona 3 is a character driven game. Much or your time can be spent getting to know the characters around you, and what their goals are in life, and as your time with the game goes on, the characters around you grow with you.

Mechanically, Persona 3 is a turn-based RPG. you attack, your opponent attacks, and the cycle goes on and on and on and on, except not really. The battle mechanics may seem simple at first, but there is complexity there for sure. You have the option to attack with your base weapon sure, and there is merit to that on occasion. Much of what you’ll be relying on in battle though is your persona, the avatars from which the series draws its name.

Each character in your party has their own persona, and subsequently their own base element. Persona’s are based on some character trait that each character has, and everyone gets one. Except this is an anime, so of course the protagonist has multiple. You can amass personas which give you a variety of skills to use in battle through a few different ways. The most common way you’ll likely gain a new persona is through shuffle time, a shuffling card game that can take place at the end of a battle. There are benefits that can be found in shuffle time as well, you can use it to regain hp, or sp, the latter of which is used to perform most magic in the game, you can also find cards that give you money, or even a weapon, though usually the weapons are only good for selling. Another way to get a new persona is through the fusion system, this is a carry-over from SMT. Persona fusion is largely exactly what it sounds like, when desired, there is a place you can go to combine 2 or sometimes more, personas to create a stronger one, most of the time, skills can be passed from the fusion personas to the result persona as well, though during persona 3, there is no real control over which skills get passed down. Finally, using a tool that comes later in the game, you can re-summon old personas.

Personas are important for combat because they allow you elemental attacks. Much of Persona’s battle system relies on finding and exploiting weaknesses of the enemies you are up against, this is very similar to SMT’s press-turn system, though it does take its liberties. Hitting an enemies weakness not only does extra damage, but it also knocks the enemy down rendering them immobile for the following turn, additionally, it allows the character who hit that weakness to attack a second time, either until they break the chain by not hitting a weakness, or they have successfully hit all enemy weaknesses. During the latter case an “All-Out” attack is possible, this is an attack that involves all of your current party members, and does a lot of damage in most cases. All-Out attacks are the most desirable outcome in most battles. Because of this though, you run the risk of burning through your sp pretty quickly, so it’s important to keep an eye on that. The weakness chart is pretty simple to follow, first are weapon attacks: they read as slash, pierce, and strike, these can be performed with base weapons, and some persona attacks carry these traits as well. Next are the elements: fire, ice, electricity, wind, light and dark. Light and dark are special, because they don’t do normal damage like the other attacks do, rather they are insta-kill attacks. There is one other element known as almighty, but it doesn’t really track as a weakness. What’s important to remember here is that strengths and weaknesses and the effects therein apply to your characters as well, if your weakness gets hit, you will be knocked down, and the enemy gets another turn, more frighteningly though, is that light and dark are insta-kill for you as well, I can’t count how many times I have seen an enemy use these attacks, and felt a knot in my chest as I wait to see if I’m done or not. 

Though I would love to continue singing Persona 3′s praises, there are some questionable things that the game does. During battles you have no control over what your party does, only the main character, this was changed in later games, and even in the PSP release of the game, but for the moment, it leaves you helpless as you watch your ai party members do stupid things for the hundredth time. Additionally, your party members can get tired during dungeon exploration, which can be a drag early game because it happens fairly regularly, as they level up, this is less of a problem, but it still happens, and it can be annoying. Perhaps the worst thing though is the actual dungeon itself. The main area you’ll be sinking most of your time into is called Tartarus, a deformed version of the high school you attend, that is now a sprawling 200+ floor tower. Throughout much of the game, the story treats Tartarus as a side thing that can be taken on should you wish to get some level grinding in, but the reality is, finishing Tartarus is mandatory, and they don’t tell you that until the last story beats are happening. When I say 200+ floors, I mean it. Tartarus stands at exactly 264 floors tall, and you have to make your way through each of them. The floors themselves aren’t that big, but they are randomly generated, so memorizing floor layout won’t help. Not all of the floors are immediately available to you though, a new set unlocks after each major story point. For your sanity I would encourage you to take on each set as they become available, because if you wait, you’ll be in for quite the slog. 

Despite it’s flaws, Persona 3 is where I discovered my love for not only the series but the RPG genre, it holds a place in my heart that most other games could not hope to have. It can be fun, and engaging, but it can also be frustrating, and painfully boring.  I’m sure I will get around to the other games at some point, but for now I think this is good enough.

If you are interested in playing Persona 3, it is available on PS2, PS3, and PSP, in various forms. In my opinion FES is the best version of the game, but your opinion may vary.

#Persona #Atlus #Shin Megami Tensei #Anime #Video games #review #PlayStation 2 #PlayStation 3 #PSP #Gaming #RPG's #I've written this post 3 times

[entergamingxp]

The Best Games You Missed in 2019

December 20, 2019 12:00 PM EST

Thought this year was an off-year for video games? Think again, buddy! Here are 8 of the best games you missed in 2019.

This year has been an odd year for gaming, hasn’t it? We may not have followed a boy and his godly father or became a cowboy in one of the most realized worlds in a video game, but 2019 was filled with bangers, some of which I will remember for years to come. With it being such an “off” year, there are certainly games we have yet to play, as they may have just fallen off of the radar while you were playing Resident Evil 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Here are some of the best games you probably missed in 2019:

Outer Wilds

Arguably the most talked-about indie game of the year, Outer Wilds is not just considered a great game you may have missed; it is widely considered one of the best games this year. Truly a test of your imagination and patience, Mobius Digital’s debut expertly crafts a narrative with your own experiences. Whether it’s exploring a new planet, or solving a puzzle that had you banging your head for hours, Outer Wilds will leave a strong impression on you when your adventure inevitably ends.

Our Review Score: 8.5

Baba is You

Developed by Hempuli, Baba is You is a puzzle game unlike any other. DualShockers contributor, Chris Compendio, gave the perfect description of the game:

“Like a lot of first romantic partners, people have had, Baba is You is confusing, and seemingly has everything you need to know about them written all over like a book, yet there is so much it just won’t tell you about itself.”

Essentially, the game presents you with a set of conditionals, with one of those conditions being a win condition. However, those conditions can be altered in several ways that are legitimately brain-melting. Although it shows just a taste, the trailer above shows a bit of gameplay that represents how wacky this game can be. Baba is You is such an anomaly and definitely deserves your attention.

Our Review Score: 8.0

Void Bastards

This is a game I am currently playing and really enjoying. Combining elements from the immersive sim and roguelike genres, Blue Manchu’s Void Bastards is such a fun, bombastic adventure brimming with varying possibilities. It’s also just goofy as hell, which is something I’ve come to appreciate as most of the biggest games tend to accentuate the “dark” and “gritty.”

If you haven’t seen any gameplay of Void Bastards, it is a first-person shooter where you explore randomly generated space stations to find a bunch of junk. Most of the items you’ll find with aid in your progress, even after death. Its FPS gameplay is not as great as the tried and true mechanics of the Call of Duty franchise, but it is just as fun. The cel-shaded comic book style presentation makes it one of the most stylish games of 2019. Void Bastards is a worthwhile spacefaring romp that won’t take too much of your time.

Indivisible

To be honest, I don’t know a whole lot about Indivisible. What I do know is staff writer Cameron Hawkins would hunt me down if I did not put this game on this list. So, here we are, with Indivisible.

Despite that, Cam’s passion for this game is unparalleled, and in tandem with his review, he has convinced me to check it out. Lab Zero Games expertly blends the platformer and RPG genre within a beautifully animated package that impresses. In his review, Cam says, “Indivisible is a platformer action RPG whose mixture of gameplay is blended wonderfully into one of my favorite experiences in the genre.”  Alongside a well-told story, I can see why anyone would want to pick up Indivisible.

Our Review Score: 9.5

Disco Elysium

Have you ever wanted to be a cop who goes on a drinking binge, only to not remember a single thing from the past few days. What if we took that a step further, and you had full-blown amnesia? Well, then Disco Elysium is for you. In all seriousness, ZA/UM’s open-world RPG is a tour de force in storytelling and world-building.

While there are moments of action in Disco Elysium, it is the conversations you have with the people of Revachol that make up most of the game’s gameplay. While dialogue-focused gameplay may not seem all that exciting, I can assure you, it is incredibly well done. In our review, contributor Steve Santana said of Disco Elysium, “I really enjoyed my time with it, especially because of the characters, the mechanics of the inner dialogue, and the overall fiction of the world from its history to the small part of a church that absorbs all sound.”

Our Review Score: 9.0

A Plague Tale: Innocence

Every year, I feel like there is always one sleeper hit that stands out among the rest of the year’s releases. Since this year was essentially filled with sleeper hits, it has been difficult to discern which game really represents that title. Out of everything that came out in 2019, A Plague Tale: Innocence is one I think hasn’t really received the recognition it deserves.

In truth, I don’t think there is a single facet from A Plague Tale: Innocence that really stands out. But everything just works together so well, creating a thrilling experience. Mostly consisting of stealth and puzzle-solving, Asobo Studio tells a genuinely great tale set during the Hundred Years’ War and The Black Death.

Our Review Score: 8.5

Samurai Shodown

There are a few games on this list that will be on my personal Game of the Year list. SNK’s return to Samurai Shodown is the first of them. As such, I don’t want to say too much.

I will say that it is arguably the best fighting game in the generation, and really sticks out among the rest of the games in its respective genre thanks to its unique, slower-paced mechanics. Samurai Shodown exudes style, and is a game you will not want to sleep on, especially if you like competitive games.

Our Review Score: 9.0

Judgment

Remember when I said a few games on this list will be on my personal Game of the Year list? Spoilers: this is the other one. Judgment has everything. There’s drama, romance, mystery, horror, a man who steals panties. It is so utterly ridiculous, but it is so well done. I could not stop playing through Yagami’s adventure until its brilliant end.

For those who don’t know, Judgment is the latest from Yakuza developers, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Again, without saying too much so I don’t just repeat myself in a few days, if you enjoyed Kazuma Kiryu’s adventure, you will absolutely love Judgment.

Our Review Score: 8.5

Obviously, these aren’t the only games you may have missed during 2019. There were loads of great titles that released during 2019 despite it being less glamorous than prior years. Personally, this year has been one of my favorites with multiple games I can say are some of my favorites this generation. What are some of your favorite games you think the gamers are missing out on? Let us know in the comments below.

Speaking of gaming in 2019, our Game of the Year content is just around the corner. We’ll have tons of lists from DualShockers’ own staff, as well as a sitewide Game of the Year discussion for your pleasure. If you want to get in on the discussion, we currently have a “Readers’ Choice” category for Game of the Year where you get to have your voice heard. Make sure to vote before the cutoff time, on December 22, at 11;59 PM Pacific Time.

December 20, 2019 12:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/the-best-games-you-missed-in-2019/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-best-games-you-missed-in-2019

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Recently, I've had the chance to showcase my analytical work and poster on Thief: The Dark Project at the 2017 Game Developers Conference as part of the Game Narrative Review Competition, in which I was named a Gold Winner. Essentially, what I did is that I fully expounded to attendees the ludonarrative nuances and elements that made Looking Glass's magnum opus such a consummate example of environmental storytelling.

In this article, I shall provide an extensive description of the ways Thief manages to captivate the active participant with its level design and mechanics. The following paragraphs are derived from the paper I submitted for the contest:

OVERVIEW

Set in a steampunk metropolis dubbed “the City,” Thief: The Dark Project puts players in the shoes of Garrett, a witty and highly disciplined master thief. After proving his abilities by stealing priceless artifacts and escaping an assassination attempt by a crime lord, Garrett is offered a fortune to retrieve a mysterious artifact known as the Eye. As he gathers the talismans necessary to access the haunted cathedral harboring this mystical relic, Garrett becomes embroiled in a conflict between the City’s two major warring factions, the technocratic Order of the Hammer and the nature-worshipping Pagans.

BREAKDOWN

As one of the first games to embrace the “immersive sim” philosophy of player agency, Thief uses its backstory and setting to create a subtle but effective dialog between the player and the environment. This is accomplished by allowing the player the freedom to uncover the story on their own initiative, and through detailed level design that accentuates the player’s sense of vulnerability to create a palpable environmental narrative that complements the game mechanics.

Thief sets the mood for each of its sixteen levels through cinematics that combine Garrett’s explanation of his situation, cryptic quotations and a map of the relevant locale that acts as an important world-building element. Maps for abandoned places such as the Old Quarter and Lost City are somewhat sketchy and crude owing to their lack of human activity, whereas populated locations such as the Hammer Temple have explicit labels indicating points of interest.

Regardless of detail, these maps only serve as general guides. It is ultimately up to the player to carve out their own path by scouting out the mission area, circumventing conspicuous entry points that are blocked by hostile NPCs and/or environmental hazards, and navigating critical mission areas in search of loot and objects of interest before escaping. This design strategy reinforces the player’s sense of tense immersion without resorting to extensive dialog to communicate the danger and lore of each level.

The contextualized placement of interactive items also helps reveal character and story through the environment, compelling the player to discover for themselves the location of loot and information. In Ramirez’s manor, for example, the player comes across multiple rooms to explore. Using common sense and their insight on the level layout, the player might think that little to no gold would be found in spaces such as the cellar. But in that one room, Garrett will come across the mansion’s owner counting his loot judging from a conversation between two servants the player may have overheard earlier. The Thieves’ Guild is another good example of important items being placed according to the narrative, with the peculiar location of a priceless vase in a safe hidden behind a banner highlighting the paranoia and strife of the two bandit leaders calling the shots. Aside from the opening cut scene expounding this conflict, all of the information the player needs to acquire the vase is obtainable through eavesdropping on NPC conversations as well as collecting notes scattered in the level.

This symbiosis of improvisational exploration and environmental storytelling means that the player’s success hinges on their desire and ability to uncover the backstory of the level and the City as a whole. Letting players uncover the world for themselves makes them feel like they’re accruing knowledge they’re not meant to stumble upon, resulting in the same rush they would get from finding a shortcut to circumvent guards. All of this is possible thanks to how gameplay necessities sync with the reality of the game’s locales, enhancing the City’s sense of place and the player’s absorption of the environmental details without the need for contrivances such as conspicuous quest markers or dynamic mini-maps.

The City, in particular, benefits greatly from subtle world-building and scene-setting that broaden the player’s worldview without spoon-feeding them. Despite being a linear game, Thief provides the player with a portrait of a rich, detailed universe that lies beyond the levels’ boundaries. For instance, the player can overhear a conversation between two guards outside Bafford's manor arguing about going to the bear pits. One guard insists it’s entertaining because the bears don spikes that make them vicious, while the other is old enough to remember when bears didn't need that kind of equipment.

This mix of pure scene-setting pieces, like notes about how to prepare dinner and ledgers of illegal payments, and gameplay-relevant information, such as a tip describing the incompetence of certain guards that alerts Garrett to potential exploitation of their demeanor, means that Thief strikes a fine balance between gameplay and environment storytelling by leveraging its lore to not only bolster the player’s worldview, but also apprise them of potentially beneficial information on points and items of interest that will compel them to explore every nook and cranny in the game.

The levels’ structure also highlights the sense of danger and uneasy emotional involvement that the player subconsciously feels as it's being fed back into the player-environment dialog. Water, for instance, serves as a boundary between the game's safe and hazardous spaces. Locations such as Cragscleft Prison and the Opera House require Garrett to swim through water, emphasizing that the player is entering a high-risk area. This design technique of establishing a motif of impending danger becomes especially noticeable in the second act, from stealing Constantine’s sword to retrieving the Eye in the haunted cathedral using the talismans found in the Opera House, Mage Towers, Lost City and Hammerite Temple, which gradually contrasts the natural and paranormal threats with the City’s technological prevalence to which the player has previously been exposed.

The same can be said of the rift in structural layout between rich and poor areas, which underlines the idea that power and technology are meant to be feared. The variety of surface materials Garrett can step on, from damp dirt to solid tiles, makes the player more confident in shabbier areas such as city streets and ruins, and more fretful in rich or high-security locales such as prisons and mansions with their noisier surfaces and narrower corridors, forcing the player to devise new strategies to evade their physically and numerically advantageous foes. Likewise, the use of torches that can be extinguished with a water arrow in downtrodden areas and lamps that can’t be deactivated in wealthy ones emphasizes the progress the player is making through the game from an environmental standpoint.

This, in turn, opens the door to twists and turns that can highlight the daunting nature of the game’s locales and the core pillar of subterfuge that defines much of Thief’s gameplay and emotional tension, such as the Eye locking the haunted cathedral’s doors behind Garrett upon entering it and retrieving the artifact, and narrowing the gap in knowledge between the player and their avatar. The sense of vulnerability stemming from not knowing what exactly awaits the master thief can also impact the briefing information the player and Garrett possess upon being dropped into a level.

The sound design also alerts the player to their situation. For instance, once they reach the chapel at the top of Cragscleft Prison, Hammerite chants are overheard in the background, highlighting the building’s sanctity and level of security. Likewise, a riotous tune lets the player know they’ve infiltrated the heavily guarded Thieves’ Guild, and a looping melody imparts a sense of relief upon reaching the sword room in Constantine’s manor. The same can be said of the abandoned and rural areas in the game such as the Lost City, Boneyard and Old Quarter, where the game’s atmospherically paranormal elements crop up. Regardless of where the player goes, the feeling of danger in populous and ruined areas serves to reinforce the theme of nature in decline vs. technology on the rise. By using the soundscape to communicate the precarious shifts in danger, Thief lets the player know that either technological evil or natural hostility can lurk around every corner.

Thief grants the player freedom of movement by making them nimble, but also encourages stealth by making them physically weak. This mechanic affects the narrative from both a player and environmental standpoint. As an embodiment of Garrett, the player experiences a sense of exposure and peril in a hazardous world filled with enemies who greatly outnumber him. From the environmental perspective, that emotional involvement enhances the theme of nature vs. technology. The uncertainty of how scenarios will play out due to the enemies’ advantages and Garrett’s weaknesses emphasizes the importance of information-gathering, which bolsters the sense of player agency while preserving the tension of the story.

STRONGEST ELEMENT

Thief’s greatest strength is its use of subtle foreshadowing to mete out critical bits of exposition. The quotations in the cinematics are a good example. While many of these are pure scene-setting, such as the Hammerite and Keeper quotes that flesh out their beliefs, others, such as those pertaining to the Pagans and the Trickster, hint at story events that will later prove to bear terrible fruit. This foreshadowing pays off at the game’s major turning point: Garrett’s betrayal at the hands of Viktoria and Constantine upon retrieving the Eye. This event triggers Thief’s third and most intense act, in which the Pagans attempt to open a portal to the Maw of Chaos in hopes of restoring the City to nature. This scheme is intimated by the surprising amount of vegetation in Constantine’s mansion which, given the City’s segregation of nature and technology, a perceptive player may find incongruous. In addition, several documents, such as a letter that can be found in a crime lord’s accounting vault, hint at locations and characters that may prove important later in the game. The seamless integration of these hints encourages inquisitiveness, tangibly investing the player into the story.

UNSUCCESSFUL ELEMENT

Thief falls short in its overreliance on underdeveloped paranormal elements, such as ghostly specters and the undead, in sparsely populated missions that don’t involve burglary. Although effective at bolstering the game’s oppressive atmosphere, these entities are mechanically incongruous. Their relatively predictable AI reduces the risk of getting caught or killed, discouraging exploration and diluting the player’s emotional involvement. This shortcoming could have been avoided by rebalancing the behavior of the paranormal entities to more closely match the threat posed by the human opponents, or simply removing them from the story altogether.

HIGHLIGHT

Of all the locales Garrett visits, Constantine’s mansion stands out. Its clever use of environmental storytelling and level design toys with the emotions of the player more potently than any other part of the game.

By the time players begin the mission dubbed “The Sword,” they will believe they have developed a good understanding of the tactics required to infiltrate well-guarded establishments, sharing Garrett’s confidence in his ability to plunder the mansion. However, the associated map challenges the player's initially optimistic mindset. Although the front of the mansion is clearly labeled, the back is left blank, owing to its recently built nature and Garrett’s reliance on observation and hearsay to get a rough idea of the layout.

As the player ventures into the mansion, the disorientation increases. The back of the estate contains cavernous tunnels full of foliage, rooms that spiral, tilt and go upside down, and magical booby traps, enhanced by haunting ambient sounds. At the moment the player gets their hands on the sword, they discover that their client was none other than Constantine himself, now revealed as a manipulative and potentially dangerous character.

The lack of expository dialog on the strangeness of the mansion or its twisted occupant enabled the designers to evoke a specific emotional effect essential to the impact of the story: stupefaction. This scene exemplifies Thief’s commitment to letting the player uncover the game’s story through exploration, with little or no handholding.

LESSONS 

Use exposition subtly to present world-building elements: As a way of compelling the player to search for details that will broaden their worldview and gameplay knowledge, Thief cleverly mixes expository information with pure scene-setting elements that flesh out the game’s locales and characters. For example, the design of Constantine’s mansion slyly apprises players of dramatic possibilities, making their discovery all the more impactful as they materialize.

Set the tone for each level and design them in a way that communicates progress: In addition to the objects and characters that provide gameplay and narrative information, designers should consider the theme and mood of each mission to communicate their level of challenge and adjust the player’s expectations. From using water and sound design as spatial barriers, to populating the levels with different light sources, corridors and surface materials to reinforce a fear of power and technology, Thief makes effective use of level structure to bring its locations to vivid life.

Let players feel as if they’re learning things they’re not supposed to know: Designers should hint at the backstory, doling out lore and exposition in bits and pieces (such as the documents and conversations encountered in the Thieves’ Guild) scattered across the levels. Player agency is enhanced by encouraging exploratory improvisation.

Use mechanics to communicate story and player-environment dialog: Garrett’s constraints and vulnerabilities play an essential role in bolstering the player’s sense of tension, reinforced by an emphasis on non-lethal tools and restrictions on killing NPCs. Thief produces its intended emotional effect by stressing the importance of subterfuge, solidifying its synergy of narrative and mechanics.

SUMMATION

With its deft integration of mechanics and level design, Thief weaves a satisfyingly deep and dark experience. Its tense environmental narrative and palpable sense of agency opens a possibility space for the player that encourages exploratory improvisation, fully delivering on the promise of its title.

Let me know what you think of my article in the comments section, and feel free to ask me questions! I’ll do my best to get back to you as promptly as possible.

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[isabellebrookspopularmusics-blog]

INTRO

“Intro” isn’t just a horribly unimaginative title for the opening of my look into the now critically acclaimed band, the Xx. Instead, it’s the first song on the South London trio’s debut album, and a suitable starting point as it was my earliest impression of a sound that immediately worked its way into my heart. First hearing the 2-minute, lyric-less track I was instantly seduced by the moody indolence of a simple guitar riff, blurry keyboard, and a bass subtle but deep enough to feel like it’s flowing through your whole body. The poignant directness of the music alone was like nothing I’d come across and it set the stage for the experience that is The Xx.

Having known each other since childhood, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, and Jamie Smith share a closeness that’s reflected in the cohesion of their sound. Making music began as something that they did for themselves because they loved it, never anticipating that anyone else would hear it, let alone the international success they would attain. After releasing their self-titled first album in 2009, the band quickly rose to popularity; The Guardian named them the top record and they were awarded the UK Mercury Prize for best British album of the year.

Unlike a lot of popular music, their songs often have a somber tone and are riddled with melancholy lyrics about love lost and personal struggles. I can see why some people would steer away from The Xx in favor of a more predictable, shall I say uncomplicated, artist like Drake (for whom the word ‘yeah’ comprised a solid 20 minutes of his most recent album, Views). But something they have in common is that their music projects a sense of vulnerability. There’s a reason why these unlikely introverts, who have managed to keep their personal lives almost completely out of the limelight, have risen to success based on true artistry. Their music has the power to resonate with people on a deeply emotional level; it can make you feel heartbroken on a sunny day but you still love it because it’s so moving.

From their first album in 2009, to their second in 2012, titled Coexist, and now with their long anticipated, recently released third album, I See You, The Xx have managed to stay true to their original consciousness, while expanding their music and developing their style. By taking a deeper look into these albums, I hope to share an understanding of why this band has come to mean so much to me, as I think they have with many across the world.

 THE BEGINNING

Along with their first album came their major hit, “Crystalised.” The song opens with an ethereal tone accompanied by a characteristic bass riff as Sim’s voice, even and sensual, leads in and then switches to Croft, who’s sound couldn’t possibly be a better counterpart; the tempo picks up as the two sing together in the chorus. The song has the palpable tension of a toxic relationship that’s fueled with passion but doomed to go up in flames. As with all of their songs, despite the complementary nature of their voices you never get the impression that the duo are yearning for each other, and instead that they’re dealing with the same problem separately. This is likely due to the fact that they write independently and collaborate for a final product. It’s this quality I think that makes their songs so stirring; when you listen to them you feel as if you’re in their position and get the sense of the loneliness that comes with a broken heart rather than intruding on someone else’s love affair.

While “Crystalised” is the standout track of their first album, “Stars” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyIHQsP9xIE) and “Basic Space” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHZVGqqf3gg) are equally as notable and also intensely emotive. The album is in many ways musically very simple–which the members attribute to the fact that they just weren’t very good musicians at that point–but the simplicity adds an undeniable layer of sincerity. It also paved the way for their second, more technically accomplished album, Coexist, that I would argue, uncompromisingly, is one of the best ever made (at least in my book).

THE XX MADE ME CRY IN PUBLIC

I’ve never been one to cry openly but I’ll never forget the way I felt when I saw the Xx live at a music festival. It was right after the release of Coexist and I forced my friends to push our way to front of the crowd hours before their set began so we’d be as close as physically possible. They walked on stage, dressed all in black, opened with their song “Angels” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nW5AF0m9Zw), and I knew it was going to be seriously good; the very nature of their sound combined with massive speakers in a live setting felt like their music was reverberating straight to my core.  It was when they played my favorite song, “Sunset”, that I surprised myself and uncharacteristically lost it. The song begins with a heavy drumbeat produced by Jamie, which becomes the heartbeat of the entire song, and is shortly followed by Romy’s striking guitar chords, and by the time the vocals began I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks. The stranger next to me put his hand on my shoulder and with concern asked if I was alright and I responded telling him how moved I was. I always tell people about that when they ask what the best concert I’ve ever seen was. The song “Sunset” has a marked sense of loss:

 I always thought it was sad–the way we act like strangers after all that we had. We act like we had never met.

And

I always thought it was a shame that we have to play these games. It felt like you really knew me. Now it feels like you see through me.

 The lyrics and the overall feeling created by the tone of the song capture the impression of the void left after a relationship that you put everything into.  

The rest of the album is filled with similar tragic melodies but, again, is musically captivating and keeps you wanting more. Regardless of your past experiences, the xx has the ability to make you sad about an ex you’ve never even had. You could ask why anyone would want to listen to something that makes you feel this way, but to me true art is anything that can make you feel something really intensely and the xx does this perfectly.

A CHANGE IN TONE

A lot has happened for the band in the nearly five years that passed between the release of their second and third albums. During that period Jamie did extensive solo work as a producer and in 2015 released his very successful album In Colour under the name Jamie Xx (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jamie-xx-mn0002602648/biography and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7gmVWgEpRc). The progress Jamie made musically pushed them to new levels as a group and led to a notable difference in their overall sound and complexity. While they still maintain true to their foundation, it’s as if they’ve stepped out of the darkness with a bolder, unfettered sense of honesty on I See You. The album’s opening track, “Dangerous” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZCCey_22ws) begins with horns and a deep house beat, much more optimistic than any of their previous work. The message of the song is similar to that of “Crystalised,” talking about a precarious relationship:

They say we're in danger But I disagree If proven wrong, shame on me But you've had faith in me So I won't shy away Should it all fall down You'll have been my favorite mistake

 But instead of seeming timid and fatalist it takes on a more determined nature in sound and lyrics that sets the vibe for the whole album.

The first single released from the album, “On Hold,” has a similar quality and is indicative of Jamie’s growth, featuring sampling from Hall and Oates and more intricate melodies. The beat is faster and the timbre less downcast but it still hits you in the same way emotionally as some of their earlier work. It’s the story of a love that seemed like destiny but with neglect it faded away. It has a very perceptible feeling of regret and longing but without the sense that the unshakeable misery is the end all.

Despite their newfound light, stripped back tracks like “Performance” and “Brave For You” are very much evocative of Coexist.

“A Violent Noise” is arguably one of the better tracks on the new album (yeah–this one made me cry too). Rather than focusing on love troubles, it centers on the feeling of being torn up inside and not knowing how to cope with it:

With every kiss from a friend With everything I pretend not to feel Am I too high? Am I too proud? Is the music too loud for me to hear?

Now I go out But every beat is a violent noise Dries my eye With every beat comes a violent noise The melody sung And I don't know the voice Now I go out But every beat is a violent noise

The echoing guitar chords and Oliver’s inflection when he sings “Am I too high? Am I too proud? Is the music too loud” are completely haunting. The background music creates a cloud that evokes the sensation of being enveloped by losing your way and looking for an escape from the torment. With the recent release of the album, the band has also openly discussed Oliver’s struggle with alcohol. Unlike their other songs, this seems very much like it’s being sung from his perspective specifically while Romy’s verses sound pleading, which could be a reference to his experience.

Overall, I See You’s polychromatic nature offers a new level of artistry and suggests the The xx’s capability of being more than just melancholy while still conveying an emotional intensity.

OUTRO?

Unlike a lot of popular artists who push their music and their “brand,” there’s an anonymity to The xx that adds to their success; it allows you to make the music about your own experiences and taps into feelings you didn’t even know you felt. Although it’s a completely cliché play on the title of their newest album, The xx sees me in a way that I don’t think any other band possibly could and for that I’m grateful.

  Works cited

Auxtelevision. YouTube. AUX, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mJR9Q-F_oU>.

Gaerig, Andrew. "The xx ." The xx: xx Album Review | Pitchfork. N.p., 28 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. <http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13400-xx/>.

Monger, James Christopher. "The xx Biography." AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-xx-mn0002016312>.

O'Brien, Jon. "Jamie xx Biography." AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jamie-xx-mn0002602648/biography>.

Snapes, Laura. "I'll Be Your Mirror: How the xx Found Themselves-and Their Vibrant New Sound-in Each Other." Pitchfork. N.p., 28 Dec. 2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2017. <http://pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/9997-ill-be-your-mirror-how-the-xx-found-themselvesand-their-vibrant-new-soundin-each-other/>.