(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
Hey everyone, had a busy time with the book launch and so on, so here’s the latest. I’ve had a crazy few weeks so it’s not much of an update:
- Way With Worlds Book 2 is now coming out in January. There’s two reasons: 1) Editing the last book was brutal and with the holidays I wanted more time, and 2) Deploying the book during the holidays is going to mean it’ll get lost among all the activities of the time.
- I plan to write more books on creativity, since after a few decades of writing, making generators, coaching people, playing RPGs, and more I’ve got a lot to share. In time of self-publishing, I figure more advice for creatives can’t hurt!
- The Pizza Generator is in progress. No delivery date in mind yet, mostly due to the recent craziness, but I think it’ll be worth it. Pizzas have an interesting philosophy behind them, and when you look them over, you can see patterns. For instance, there’s all sorts of ways to combine meats and toppings, but going outside the “normal” spices usually involves only one or two.
I hope to have more in the next week or two.
– Steve
Way With Worlds Book 1 is out. Go get it in print or kindle. Or both if you want.
If you’re new to the book, it’s a giant guide to worldbuilding, from philosophy of setting creation, to sex, to ecology, and more. There’s advice, exercises, several lame jokes, and some insights that should give you a different view on creating your settings. It’s designed to be a manual for the important points of making a setting.
After some sixteen years, this is the next stage in my efforts to bring this old work to life! First rewrites, now books. It’s fantastic to see this journey turn into something physical people can hold in their hands!
Certainly it’s not done yet – there’s one more book to drop in November/December (probably December). There’s some smaller followup work. But this marks that transition to the new formats.
My mind still goes back to, when in the midst of the rewrites, someone told me how they’d printed my old columns out when they were younger. It had mattered to them that much, and they remembered it that well. That turned my efforts into more of a mission.
Mission isn’t over yet. Book two drops in November/December (probably December honestly). There’s some followup works I want to do.
But today I can note the next stage of Way With Worlds has started, and it has printed pages and the smell of paper, highlighted with fond memories.
So go on, take a look. There’s thoughts on sex and religion, characters and ecology, and of course plenty of philosophy. In this age, where anyone can put out book or a comic, good worldbuilding is needed more than ever – and is where you can stand out.
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
As we eagerly await the drop of No Man’s Sky (OK, I am, but considering my hobbies it’s not surprising), I noticed a thread on reddit discussing the desire for a documentary on the game. I wanted to address this and more.
In short, as I expect NMS to be successful, and certainly groundbreaking even if flawed, and yes, it’s one we should know more about.
But a documentary is just the start of what we should see.
Yes, We Need a Documentary: The game itself has an impressive history, and it’d be great to see it documented. A good documentary should go beyond just the history, but also to the influences and impact – from 70’s concept art to he modern hype. There’s a great story to tell here if done right (and Hello Games could probably make more money selling one).
Management Interview: I deeply treasure the development interviews I read in Game Informer, as I learned a lot from them that I use to this day. I want to see an in-depth discussion in Game Informer if not a professional management magazine on just how Hello Games pulled this off.
Artbook: There’s tempting concept art we’ve seen, so let’s load it all into one book, have interviews with the artists, and sell it. Yes, again more money for Hello Games, but also the artistic insights that could be gained would be impressive. Plus, great coffee table or gift book.
Procedural Lessons: After making NMS, Hello Games teams could probably teach classes in procedural generation. So, do it! Imagine what people could learn with such folks as instructors.
Fandom Study: I’m expecting a huge impact from the game – not Minecraft level, but still intense. I’ve seen the hype, seen fans creating artworks and even role-playing. I’d love to see the fans studied respectfully if it is indeed the hit I expect. Great for general or academia.
So that’s what I want to see come out of NMS documentarianism (there’s a word). Things that will teach us something.
What do you want to see?
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
Man, so much going on last week – ranging from work to all the terrible incidents in the world. Sorry for slow and weird updates. So where am I?
Way With Worlds Books:
Way With Worlds Book 1 is pretty much done. I just have to check the print copy one more time. The Kindle version is looking good, but a Kindle isn’t something requiring tricky page formatting and breaks. I’m really proud of it – which is good because there’s a few times during editing I got sick of it.
Way With Worlds Book 2 comes back from my editor really soon. As noted before my plan to edit this one is to experiment with a slower, but more detailed editing pace to see if that’s more efficient. Still planning to deliver in November, after Thanksgiving.
Oh and the project after those? Already halfway outlined. But I’ll keep teasing that . . .
Generators:
Sadly, not a lot of work on these as other things (work) ate into my free time. Still got my notes, still got my plans, just getting to the point of having time . . . though maybe having three freaking print books in the work in one year was a tad excessive.
And yes, the theme is still food.
Other Writing:
As you’ve seen I’m back to writing about No Man’s Sky – which makes sense as A) I like video games, and B) it involves procedural generation. I’m going to keep this up until the game comes out – which it looks like it will be doing on time in August!
I’m also queuing up some more items to blog about I think you’ll be interested in, so stay tuned as I always say . . .
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
Sorry this is late. Busy few weeks, but now I’m back to my pre-release analysis of No Man’s Sky. After all I love games and i love procedural generation.
We’re counting down to No Man’s Sky’s release in August. We’re approaching the big release, and once again I’m seeing posts on the Internet asking if it will succeed or fail. This is not unusual, but it’s time for another round of them apparently.
I’ve speculated on this possible failure before, but often concern’s about NMS focus on this component or that. From the possible sameness of worlds to uninteresting space travel, there’s concerns about some elements, of the game. These concerns are legitimate, but often they miss what No Man’s Sky Is about. There’s a larger picture here for concern.
No Man’s Sky is a game about synergy, as is fairly obvious when you step back and look at the game. Characters mine to get resources to craft new items to let their spacecraft travel farther. Their adventures may require them to fight enemies with spacecraft that they hijacked by developing rare hacking chips, chips whose blueprints were found exploring a ruined building. A strange technology, found in an alien ruin, may let someone survive on a toxic world. No Man’s Sky is all about things coming together.
This is not surprising as video games are about synergy. Good controls bring a character to live. Clever mechanics entice the mind that learns them and influences the game experience. Music and graphics work together to set the mood. Good games depend on pieces working in harmony.
For No Man’s Sky, it’s even more dependent on the synergy – that’s really it’s selling point. Where procedural worlds and exploration and crafting and all come together, the game offers a whole of an experience. It’s not a game with clear boundaries, which is the point – it’s a supposed seamless exploration experience. It just happens to be a very big one based on some very, very smart use of math.
This synergy is also where it can fail.
Because No Man’s Sky relies on the parts of the game coming together, there’s several possible modes of failure that can occur.
Poor Synergy: One way the game can fail is if the different parts don’t support each other properly. Perhaps the ability to acquire resources makes the crafting parts too hard – or too easy. Straightforward planetary exploration might contrast with hyperkinetic space combat, creating tone shifts that are hard for players to adapt to. If the parts of the game don’t come together correctly, the game suffers because the synergy of the promise is gone – even if the parts are good. This may be the biggest synergy risk of NMS because a dev and even a testing team would be unlikely to catch it due to being used to the product.
The Flaw: Another way I can see NMS fail is if one part of the game is done so poorly that drags the rest of the game down. Planetary exploration is an area I’ve worried about, and if it is poorly done or dull, that diminishes the thrill of the rest of the game. Truly egregious resource gathering could be another fun-killer as the rest of the game depends on that. One poor part of the game could drag the rest down – the synergy backfires when one part fails really hard.
The Drudge: NMS also has to make sure that its individual components are good enough to support the game, because though one bad component might drag the game down, so can many mediocre ones. The game may not fail on its many fronts, but if too many are uninspired or uninteresting, the synergy of them makes the game not good, but dreadfully mediocre. The synergy of game component’s can be a double-edged swords when many are just uninspired. I think people may be more forgiving of a game with one big flaw and ambition than one that just kind of plots.
Though I’m sure that Hello Games has thought of this, it’s worth considering for analyzing the game once it’s out, and for analyzing future games of its type. Synergy is the strength of the gaming art.
It’s also a place where failure can happen, even if the parts are right or mostly right.
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
So there’s a lot going here, but let’s get to the big new release . . . or small release. A new book!
I rewrote my old Skill Portability columns into a full guide on skill portability, complete with both hobbyist/fan and professional advice. You can get it here – and it’s only 99 cents!
This is part of a larger experiment of mine to see about revising, compiling, combining, and improving old columns into something more focused and applicable. I’ve got so much I’ve written I need to think about other formats to reach and help people. Also looking for reviewers if you want!
OK now on to my other projects!
Way With Worlds
Bopping along with this. I get what should be the final print copy this week, mostly to confirm the formatting. Then I’ll regenerate the kindle file and be ready for launch end of the month.
Book 2 is coming back from editor this week. Since I don’t intend to publish it until November (with so much else going on) I’m going to try some different editing techniques on it – mostly trying slower editing readthroughs as opposed to multiple readthroughs. Looking forward to it as it’s a completely different focus than the first book – more specific areas of advice with more depth.
New Generators
Sorry I haven’t started a new one yet – things have been incredibly busy, plus just a lot happening at the same time (classes, work schedule, social commitments, etc.). I hope to get back to the new one this month as I still want to focus on food.
The ones I’m considering are coffee, pizza, and chocolate bar recipes. I’ve got a few ideas on these on how to analyze the dada, and am looking forward to the insights I’ll get analyzing food . . . because I can apply it in various ways.
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
As we wait for No Man’s Sky (and due to the recent delay, wait more than we thought), I wanted to explore just what No Man’s Sky is about and what it means for the final game.
It’s obvious I’m a big booster of the game. I even feel that everyhing NMS promises is likely due to what they’re doing and how it’s approached. I consdier a delay completely understandable and probably a good thing.
So now I’d like to take a look behind the curtain of No Man’s Sky and make a shocking statement – none of the gameplay is particuarly innovative.
Shocking? Amazing? Clickbait? No, actually the gameplay for NMS has been done before, which is both why it will succeed and why it will probably be good.
The Parts of The Journey
So, let’s look at what No Man’s Sky promises. A quick examination and you’ll realize that it’s almost all be done before.
A Galaxy To Travel: Seen this since the old Elite days, it was there in Captain Blood, it exist today in Elite: Dangerous, Starbound, and more. The quality of planets may vary, but no, nothing unusual here. Speaking of planets, NMS promises . . .
Procedural Worlds: Sure Minecraft brought the idea of a huge procedural 3D world, but since then it’s kind of become standard. It seems every ten games out there promises a planet-sized world or giant sandbox. NMS just promises more, though what’s appearing is really all math. On those worlds you’ll experience . . .
Encountering Life And Recording It And The World: Though we’ve seen that with, say, Pokemon snap and most games that let you name things and places. Yes, it’s nice, but exploration has been a part of games for awhile. Though while you find new ways to name creatures, you’ll be engaged in . . .
A Survival Sim: NMS offers you a chance to mine resources and avoid nasty critters in an environment that’s temporarily modifiable (yes, theres some promise of permanent, but it doesn’t sound like every grenade scar remains). We’ve seen this before in many game forms, and though the procedural nasties and environments are nice, it’s still something other’s have done. Of course while survive, you’ll be busy . . .
Crafting Items: I do not have to explain how we’ve seen crafting games before. So let’s move on to when you get tired and get offplanet via . . .
Spaceflight: Yes, No Man’s Sky lets you take off of planets, fly through virtual solar systems, and so forth. Again, we’ve seen that since back in the day of Eon or Starglider. Sure there’s space combat, which we’ve also seen. Of course to have those ships you need . . .
Supplies And Trade: Space trading games have been around for decades as well. NMS sounds like it has a relatively simple mine-and-trade, make-and-trade, and get-credits-and-trade game. Nothing much new, though some of your interactions will involve . . .
Alien Races: NMS is going to have various races and factions. You’ll interact with individuals and do things that affect reputations with various factions. In turn, that’ll affect how they treat you. It’s neat, and the language system is nice (though you may see similar mechanics, such as the ones in Out there), but again, we’ve seen it before.
So, No Man’s Sky, when you look at the parts, has been done before. In fact, it’s kind of been done to death in separate pieces.
Which is why the game will not only work, but probably be amazing.
The Greater Sum Of Familiar Parts
So the fact that NMS has a lot of standard gameplay elements is a good thing.
First, it means that they can be done. There’s precedent, research, examples, and more for the creators at Hello Games to draw on to make the game work. There’s math and there’s code and there’s a sense of history to know what to do and what not to do.
Secondly it means Hello Games is using familiar mechanics which means the game will (probably) be quite playabe. The game’s familiarity is going to make its wide, procedural universe, accessible to people.
Third, it means the game will proably be well polished because it builds on familiar ideas.
It’s great NMS is made of so many common parts, because all these common parts can be done well and in a playable manner. That means the combination . . .
. . . the combinaion will probably be amazing.
Take all these familiar mechanics and ideas. Polish and organize them. Now link them together coherently in a universe made from procedural algorithms so you experience effective gameplay in an infinite set of worlds. Now give it that unique 70’s sci-fi cover look.
That’s the magic. No Man’s Sky is both evolutionary and revolutionary, building on familiar parts, but tying them together in a way that hasn’t been done yet. It’s not the components, it’s the combination, all these popular elements tied together tightly to give you a galaxy, a universe.
Nothing Special Is Amazing
So, no, NMS rally doesn’t push the boundaries of games so much as it has many mechanics merged together to create the experience of exploring the universe. That means it can succeed, that means’ it’ll be accessible – and that means that it’s probably going to be pretty amazing.
What’s behind the CUrtain? Not The Wizard of Oz working a con-job, but more a group of actors putting on a show. We look behind the curtain and see “yeah, these folks are doin a pretty good job.”
Now we can enjoy the show in Agust.
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
Evening everyone, so let’s get to an update!
First of all if you want to hear me talk old ahead-of-their-time DOS games, tune in to this DOS Nostalgic Podcast.
Now let’s get onto the status update!
Seventh Sanctum:
Still not doing any new generators – I think it’s going to be another month or so before I get back to one. That’s because I’m busy with . . .
Way With Worlds:
Book one is pretty much ready, though I’ve got one more print copy to test. If all’s well then we’re good to go! I’ve also got some guest blogging going on during July when we build up to launch!
Book two will come back to me end of month, though not sure when I’ll do the first edit. I’d like to get to it right away, but . .
Sailor Moon Book:
This gets formatted this weekend – and if all goes well I’ll have a hard copy before the end of the month.
My only concern is the cover. The cover is actually wraparound, so there’s issues of centering the different sides of the cover, titles, etc. I’m going to give it my best, but I may nee to reformat the whole thing, which usually means going through 2 copies to get it right. Fortunately we have 3 months to get that right – but I always find this cover formatting to never be as smooth as hoped.
Other Books:
My skill portability book is about ready to go, and should drop to ebook in the next few weeks depending on my schedule.
I’ll also be working on some Way With Worlds stuff beyond the books as noted.
However, though I have other things I want to try . . . yeah I seem booked into 2017.
So pretty much no new projects except the above for the rest of the year. Well, as much as I’m able to stick to that . . .
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
Hey all, so where are all those projects . . . well still busy. New job has my busy, but here’s where we are.
Sailor Moon Book
Sent to my co-author, who in turn just edited it and sent it back. I plan to take one more crack at it next week or so then I can actually format it. If all goes well, we’ll be looking over a print beta sometime in early/mid July.
The editing went really well. Frankly, there wasn’t that much left to do considering how many times we’ve been over it. I’m starting to think extended editng periods of sometime and/or swapping among people has real benefits. It makes me wonder if editing is best done by long editing cycles – or many smaller ones.
We’re looking good for September people!
Way With Worlds Book #1
I’m editing the second print copy. Still a bit annoyed I’m finding issues or things I want to change (mostly a bit of formatting and such), but that’s the way it goes. I’m going to give it two read overs to be sure, then try to make the last run count.
The strangest things? I find more errors at the start of the book, even when I reread it. It’s like somehow I have to get into an “editing zone” to do my best work. Go figure.
As much as I enjoyed doing this I kinda confess I’ll be glad to get it finished. I think there’s only so long you can read your own advice, and I’m there.
Way With Worlds Book #2
Comes back from the editor end of Month. I’ll probably make the first editing run in July just because it’ll be fresh, but I might save it to August as I will be busy with Book #1 and the Sailor Moon Book. It sort of depends how well those go.
Skill Portability Book
This fun little experiment is probably out end of June. It’s pretty easy to do and needs only about one more big editing run – basically its my columns on skill portability expanded and improved. Going to be a neat little experiment.
The Blog
Holding off starting a new series for now as I’ve got so much on my plate. I will continue to blog on No Man’s Sky however, and Civic Diary.
New Generators
I’m afraid with everything else on my plate there will be no new generator in June. Now as for July, let us see . .
And that’s it for me! How are you doing?
– Steve
(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)
So if you’ve been following No Man’s Sky, and haven’t heard that A) the game was delayed, and B) some people had a meltdown over it, you’ve been living under an extremely insulated rock.
So anyway, the game is delayed. Though I’d like to address some of the bizarre reactions on it (including death threats to the lead and to a reporter), as I’m focusing on the game I’d like to discuss the delay. Also there’s only so much I can write “stop it you morons.”
So, NMS delayed. Good.
Why do I say good? Because that’s a sign of two things:
- That Hello Games knows that there’s more work to be done.
- That Hello Games will admit there’s work to be done and do it.
First, as noted earlier, the NMS team seems to be doing everything right to actually make the game work. Right focus, right methods, etc. The fact that they can outright say “no, we need more time” means they’re aware enough of what they’re doing to take more time.
Secondly, the fact they will admit this in public, for a game whose hype has become a living thing entirely separate from their own efforts, is a good sign for the final product. Unless the problems were epic, they probably could have gotten away with a flawed game with a day 0 patch or something. They didn’t – that speaks to an honest about getting a good product.
The delay tells me NMS is probably going to live up to the (actual, not imagined) hype. The team can say “stop, wait” as opposed to tossing out a game that – let us be blunt – would probably get a lot of love anyway.
I’m reminded a bit of Starbound, another game that I’m looking forward to (and that sadly, I will have to play through before OR after NMS because its pure crack to me). The team has taken extra time to work on it, but as of the last beta I played – and I played through the game 3 times Early access – it’s evolved amazingly. Time can make a better product (ask Blizzard).
The delay may be painful for some of us, but it’s just another sign we’re going to get a good product.
– Steve
