Some more GDC presentation slideshows have been added to Valve’s site, like that TF2 Illustrative World one I linked whatever day that was in whatever post that was. Gosh, I’m a great blogger. The detail, the accuracy.
Some of them look a bit technical, but I went through the one for Portal, and it’s neat, though I’m sure it would benefit from the actual, you know, talking part of the presentation. It’s called Integrating Narrative and Design: A Portal Post-Mortem [PDF]. Hopefully the audio will surface at some point. Even without, it’s a quick, fun and informative bit of look-see.
It has a nice slam on using voice recorders and e-mails as exposition in a game, and I tend to agree. Doom3 had you picking up PDAs and listening to voice mails and it was totally boring, and did nothing for the story besides foreshadowing things that had already happened.
“Hm, getting strange readouts on the Hell-O-Meter… wonder what that’s all about… better add more Eviltonium… I’m sure it’ll be fine!” AND LOOK THERE’S BLOOD AND CLAWMARKS AND THE DEAD SCIENTIST WHO RECORDED THE MESSAGE WOW.
I think STALKER had you gathering up PDAs, too, and those were boring reads as well, if I remember them correctly, which I don’t, which implies just how boring and inconsequential they were.
I think the exception might be Bioshock’s voice recorders, which I really enjoyed. As implausible as they were — why would they be lying around absolutely everywhere? — they were interesting and impeccably acted, and gave you real information, just enough to make sense of some of the things you were seeing.
[Via: Planet Half-Life]
15 responses so far ↓
1 chris12 // Mar 11, 2008 at 3:42 pm
sounds good. i like when it gives info about the area, instaed of something obvious. well yea
also (no pun)
2 Kenny // Mar 11, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Difference with the Bioshock tapes I found was that it wasn’t so obviously about the situation now, it was the development and background to most of the things you saw…it doesn’t sound different but I know what I mean! It was just done better, fleshed out the story and not just handed over key codes and obvious things like “so and so disappeared today…”
3 Shane // Mar 11, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Uh-oh, I think you’re being tagged by spammers!
4 madlep // Mar 11, 2008 at 6:06 pm
So true. I’m bored to tears by the PDA-as-plot-device cliche.
Gotta disagree about Bio-Shock though. They bored just the same as in any other games. Mind you, I personally think Bio-Shock was hideously overrated, and I could never get into it.
(The ridiculous “Hacking” puzzles were the final nail in the coffin)
5 mattias // Mar 11, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Kotaku had that link up yesterday. Also, PDAs suck! RPGs like to put huge entries into your journal everytime you talk to a shopkeeper. Mass Effect also has a ton of reading, but I kind of enjoyed the alien backstories so it wasn’t that bad.
6 Christopher Armstrong // Mar 11, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I also really enjoyed Deus Ex’s datacubes, emails, and books. There were surely a ton of them, and maybe they could be boring, but I found them really well-written (the Jacob’s Shadow book is awesome!) and they can add a whole lot to the stor. They make up a great part of the replay value, since it’s extremely unlikely you’ve seen them all the on the first play-through.
7 sortie // Mar 11, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Awesome presentation! I had a huge ‘LOL’ when I saw the GoldenEye picture. :D Thanks!
8 AR // Mar 11, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I, too, loved Deus Ex’s take on them. It added another level of atmosphere and depth to the environment and story. But the best thing about them is that they were 100% optional. Often they were rewards for exploratory gameplay - rather than being on the “main” path of the game.
PS: someone make Deus Ex: Source - kthx.
9 AR // Mar 11, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I should also point out that they weren’t on the “main path” of the game’s story, either.
10 Belcher // Mar 12, 2008 at 1:22 am
Yeah, I liked System Shock’s. Dunno ’bout Bioshock, haven’t played yet.
I actually started Deus Ex yesterday, finished the training. So far dunno if I really like ‘em, they kind of annoyed me, they were too… I dunno, poppy?
11 Shane // Mar 12, 2008 at 6:45 am
For the portal one, does anyone know what model that is on page 19? The green-eyed girl with her breasts covered by Don’t Despair.
12 sortie // Mar 12, 2008 at 8:19 am
@Shane, that’s Sin Episodes. The model is the evil genious in the game, Elexis or something. It’s on Steam. ;-)
13 CitrusFreak // Mar 12, 2008 at 9:01 am
Audio would be ace. I listened to the audio while watching the TF2 presentation slides, and it worked rather well; I knew, more often than not, where and when to change the slides. I’d love for someone to consider recording audio for all presentations at the next GDC.
14 Ayrton // Mar 12, 2008 at 2:21 pm
This just in - Garry has made a TF2 finger poser.
Nothing to do with the post but whatever, thought you should know.
It’s on his blog here: http://www.garry.tv/?p=499
15 lumpi // Mar 16, 2008 at 4:34 am
I love “System Shock 2″s voice messages. If they ever talk that to death in the “game design discourse”, I’d be very sad. You don’t HAVE to read them, for crying out loud. You think they are boring? Leave them lying around. Ignore them. We other gamers enjoy them, the writers have something to write and everyone should be happy.
I feel like game designers are “polishing” their games these days until the colour comes off. You don’t have to nuke every game feature just because some bored frat-boy told you he didn’t care about them while playing.
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