Life at an underground game company.
The Sprites, what they will mean for you, and why they are important.
05 months ago
One of the big centerpieces for Emerald Kingdom will be The Sprites. We are not talking about the game terminology. When we talk about Sprites in Emerald Kingdom, we’re talking about a race of people. We’ve spoken of them before, of course. Today though, I want to tell you a bit more about their role in terms of mechanics. I don’t mean the Mark system. I’m talking about the story system.
Emerald Kingdom has it’s share of what we feel are “new” features for an MMO. But, one of the centerpieces for the engine we are building is: the ability to publish, keep and roll out continuous content, more specifically…story based content. The Sprites are one of the keys to this system for us. Their story, and how it will impact you if you choose to involve yourself is of utmost importance to us.
Sprites are, to the players…ancient survivors of the previous civilization which inhabited Magna. (Magna is where Emerald Kingdom takes place) In Emerald Kingdom, one of the main features is: a moving, linear storyline. You can choose to involve yourself, or not. If you elect to get involved in the world at large…well then you will be dealing with the Sprites. Sprites are the only beings who can Mark you, we have covered this before. However, despite that ability, they may also have their own goals, desires and plans for Magna. This is where the players come in. We wanted to get past some of the typical “Quest Vending” practices you see in so many MMORPG’s. To do that from a back end point of view, we have to change up the typical approach to MMO production. Which is fine, even though it’s extra work: we want to play this game as much as you do…and thus, that justifies the effort and cost.
Back to The Sprites…
One of the things we set out to do in the beginning was to get a completely fleshed out back story. We had to figure out what happened before you, the player, started playing. Why you might ask? Well for one thing, we did not want another situation like this. Another reason was, as we were going to be writing constant content for the game, we needed to have the mythos, and settings pre-defined. We vowed early on that, in order for story to work in a game like this, it could never appear contrived, or invented at the spur of the moment. One of the things happening right now is, Castiel is doing a complete re-write of this back story.
As said before, the story of Emerald Kingdom takes place on Magna. Magna is a diverse world, which has been subject to rapid change, chaos and upheaval. The Sprites are members of a civilization long past, and remain on Magna. They are immortal in a true sense, but they are not Gods. You, the player are quite mortal. The Sprites, having misused Magna and the Gel she provided.. during their own civilization, witnessed untold disaster. At the end, most of their population died off, or evolved/ascended into the form of what we call Sprites. Most of them left Magna for parts unknown. But the Sprites on Magna felt compelled to stay behind.
Many ages have past, only for them to see new life grow and evolve on Magna. New civilizations, new ideas, new people. While the Sprites are happy they are no longer alone…the growth of new civilizations has led to new strife. Old wounds re-opening. Magna now is a new world with new cities built upon the dust of the old, and while a significant number of the giants left the playground, some remain…and they left a great many playthings behind.
This is the world you, the player, are going to take part in. You’re going to have to come to terms with the fact that not every Sprite has your best interest at heart. It wont matter if your intentions are good or bad either. You might find aligning yourself with Kerix to be fun, thrilling, exciting. Realizing you might just be a cats paw of his may bolster or diminish how you feel about your path. While Beatrice, Starla and even Avatea might seem nice, they also have their own issues and you may find once caught up in them, it wont be so easy to turn one of these ladies down.
You might think these things are standard fare, but they are not. No story system in an MMO, in 2011 and beyond is going to be able to work, and engage players unless the players themselves can affect the world through their interactions. To do this, and to keep the content flowing in (and out!) we are actually assembling a writing department. While code is always necessary, to add features…our development department will not need to be consulted when new consumed content is added to the game. This is, we feel, the key to providing a linear, fun story. It’s also the key to adding areas, maps, etc. One key difference between Emerald Kingdom and other games is, 99% of the time we will be publishing our changes, not patching for them. If you understand that difference, then you understand why Emerald Kingdom’s story system is different, and a departure from the norm.
We have even taken the time to separate story from jobs. Gathering 10 logs for a townie NPC is not a quest. It’s a job. It should be treated as such. Anyone can generate jobs for a world such as this. Why mix it with story?
Because Emerald Kingdom has an actual story, and a moving plot…one of the other things we have to do is start introducing you to the world on a tangible basis. Castiel and I are actually working on this very thing.
In fact, in the next week or so…you should look for an excerpt.
Ja Mata!
How stuff is designed here…
05 months ago
One of the things we have been trying to do in producing Emerald Kingdom: being open about some or most of our process. Sure, we have done things like Open Source our server, and we have talked in the past about features and things planned for Emerald Kingdom.
Today I want to talk to you a bit about how things get designed for Emerald Kingdom. I am going to focus today on Code and Art.
You can learn how “industry standards” work, or how workflow happens in most offices. But one of the things we try to do is keep the process open to change up until the very last moments before something becomes “final”. This gives us a very specific advantage in some ways…our stuff is almost always in a “revision state” until we stick it in Storyteller, or on our game wiki. Despite this method, we manage to avoid things like feature creep in code, ridiculous changes to artwork, and having to redo animation processes. Why? Because we have some really professional and smart folks here who take quality very seriously. Another big one? Double Cluepon is a close knit group. Very close. While we like to have fun, we’re also highly disciplined in our various core competencies. We all have a deep respect for each others area of expertise. It’s why an artist can tell a producer “no”. It’s why a writer can pan on a story idea. It’s why a floater can suggest new methods of producing props.
We also do this without boring the hell out of each other with constant daily meetings.
But, on to the show. I’ll start with code:
Believe it or not, on some levels…designing what happens is more about question and answer sessions, to flesh out a specification. In the spec for Emerald Kingdom, Server, StoryTeller and Client….we obviously have “items” on there. We even flesh it out with English; “Characters can hold items in a bank or inventory”. To a person actually writing the code…this is about as useful as bucket with a hole in it. The developers need to know what an item is, and even just as importantly…what an item is not. You might think your +10 sword of pastrami slicing is badass. You have no idea how many attributes it has behind the scenes. Developers need to know things like:
- What are the initial properties? (which also in and of themselves need to be defined!): Are they Wooden? Do they have Edge? Fire, Ice, Stone? Sharp, Dull, Rusty?
- Are they used in creating some other thing?
- Does this existence of this change something else?
- Is the item defensive or offensive?
- Is the item usable?
- What is the base cost of the item?
- Is the item equippable? (just because something is usable, does not mean you can necessarily equip it)
Once they have all the information they need for something most players consider trivial, or standard…like items, they go off, and start working on the code. They add some tables/rows to the db to accommodate this new piece of functionality. Then, it has to be tested, and tweaked. Etc. But, even while we test or play with the functions…we either get clarification on what we feel does not work, or we suggest something and play around with it in discussion to make sure it’s elegant. The number one rule: elegant solutions are the prime mover. We never care who’s idea it is, as long as it solves the problem neatly, and with some innovative or novel thinking. There’s even a balance equation there as well, just because something seems slick does not always mean it’s the best way to do something.
Code at Double Cluepon is really all about group specification writing. As a producer, it’s my job to translate between the various native dialects. I explain to the artists what the programmers are trying to say, I act as a go between for the writers and the developers on the story system. It’s actually a great deal of work, but it’s also a great deal of fun too.
With the Art Department, it’s another kettle of fish entirely.
Designing Thrynity was all about finding references.
With the Art Department, there are two very distinct stages. There is the concept, and design stage. This is where we get to dream up how the world will look. How it will feel. Then there is the production stage: turning the pretty concepts into assets, animations, and pretty in game things. I’m going to focus today on the first stage, and touch on the second.
When something needs to be designed, or conceptualized….I don’t leave it to chance. I, or the person requesting studio work try to work very closely with Uriel. Literally. The first step in this, is learning how not to waste hers, or any other artists’ time. You can do this very simply: research what you want! A talented and trained artist can take references and pictures…even something torn out of a magazine with a circle around the desired feature…and transform it into a whole from the parts you bring them.
How did I want Thrynity (or for that matter, any of the Sprites…) designed? I’ll tell you: I went looking for references. I found a picture of a girl with a beret on. I found a girl with hair I liked/wanted for the character. I found several pictures of girls with the facial features I felt would work for the character I envisioned in my minds eye.
I then took these references, and my own ideas I could not get from references and sat down with Uriel. She then started a very rough sketch of Thrynity. I nixed some things, and told her to run with others. With the references in hand, I told Uriel I wanted something of a more stylish looking skater girl, who exuded a great deal of attitude…and you could tell by looking at her.
I got exactly what I asked for. But I think one of the things that’s important to point out here is, during the design process, Uriel has the right to come out and tell me “no”. When she does, she always has a reason for doing so. She’s a professional artist, and it would make no sense whatsoever to not listen to a person trained in the profession. If you are not going to listen to people who are trained for their core competency, and you just want to bark out orders…you’re not going to be an effective manager, producer or game designer.
Not all of the concepts are designed this way, a good example of this are the Gremmies. Believe it or not, the Gremmies were designed from doodles, and an extreme case of Uriel being over-tired.
When we get concepts done for things like clothes, or body models…the base parts of it are drawn out, handed to Caelum for pathing in Illustrator, and then handed to Sandalphon for animating. For things like buildings and props…Caelum takes a flat drawing, runs them through Maya, does a render…and then we take both the isometric angles we need from the render. Uriel then paints these.
But, even the artists get to contribute to things like code too. The animation editor in StoryTeller? Sandalphon has had a hand in how it looks and how it works. She had to work with Raguel on things like, whether or not we would use sprite sheets, animation timing, offsets, etc.
In closing, 75% of the stuff we do here is centered around design. We take it very seriously. We love cool stuff as much as you do. We could have settled for shiny stuff you see in facebook or flash games…but, it was not going to cut it. Not for us. Not for you. We have even delayed decisions in some cases, in order to ask the public what they think. We honestly just care that much. It’s why we try to encourage people to poke us, ask questions, point things out.
A trend I want to see an end to…
0I’m seeing it all too often…people complaining about art theft. The invariable response is a bunch of the artists’ friends get together and start a nastygram campaign via email.
Now, just so you understand how futile and laughable this truly is…
The person who stole the art looks at these, ctrl-selects them all, and hits the delete key.
They will probably laugh while doing so.
This is because, there is absolutely no weight to these emails. They have no force, no bind, no weight. The wasted effort does nothing, and the person is still profiting off of your hard work. So, I want to ask you…the artist…why is it you’ll spend $300 on an AA table, and maybe $400.00 on a wacom tablet, but you don’t consider that your computer is connected to the biggest damned network on planet earth? Why is it, you’ll drop a C note on Copic markers, but you wont do a simple Google search in order to protect your rights as a creative talent?
There’s no nice way to say this, so I am going to come right out and say this: If you’re an artist and your portfolio and works are important to you, you need to get up off your dead ass and start arming and empowering yourself to deal with people who would steal your livelihood.
“Well, how am I supposed to do that, Azrael? I’m not a business person…I’m an artist!” To which I respond, very simply with the standard response from Col. Potter: COWCOOKIES!
If you’re an artist, and you create things…how to defend yourself, and protect your hard work are just as important as what brush size you choose for a line. Period. Not a business person? Okay. So what. You better start learning how to deal with some business functions or kiss your profits goodbye.
Here are some things you need to acquaint yourself with…
WHOIS: This is a tool that let’s you look up domain name registration. You can find a great utility for that right here.
NSLOOKUP/DIG: This is a tool that will return an IP address for a web server, presumably the web server where your stolen artwork is residing. Geektools has a tool for that too. Once you get an IP, you need to search ARIN, to see who the IP belongs to. Usually its the provider or webhost. Even if it’s not, they can usually point you in the right direction.
DMCA Notice: You need to learn how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act works. How to file a notice. How it protects you. Believe it or not, if you follow the law you actually have a powerful tool to protect your work. Learn by searching…the greatest network mankind has built.
COPYRIGHT: Learn how to file your copyrights. In the eventuality you do need to take them into a court, you cannot walk into a court for a copyright case without first registering the copyright. It’s only $35 bucks. While you have a copyright that’s implied with a circle C, you still need to register it. Especially if you want to sue.
As an artist, if you’re putting your works on the web, then you need to be armed with the information you need to defend your works. Nobody is going to do it for you. An e-mail campaign from all of your deviantart followers is not going to make the thief see the error of his/her ways, stop stealing, and join a seminary or convent. No matter what you think, the only way you’re going to get their attention is by taking a measured, thoughtful and legally backed response.
So, now…you need to stop whining, stop moaning about that guy selling prints of your work for $1000, and actually go after them. This is planet earth. Nobody is going to protect you, your work..especially if you wont do it yourself. Arm yourself with facts, knowledge of the process and the will to do what it takes to protect your hard work. If you’re not willing to do that, then you can’t complain, and perhaps you should find a new medium other than the world wide web to exhibit your work.
Harsh words, but true ones.
You would expect the writer to come up with a clever title…
15 months ago
by Castiel
in Double Cluepon
Hi guys! Castiel here. Long time no update!
I’ve been pretty swamped with work (three jobs – what the eff am I thinking?!) and school (the official term hasn’t even started yet, but I’m sitting in a classroom – what the eff am I doing?!), but I’ve been managing to update a lot of the story.
Probably the greatest threat to my sanity right now is writer’s block. It’s a pretty mild case of it, which can be treated with an anti-psychotic and a case of Skittles, but it’s still frustrating nevertheless. The writer’s block in question is not so much as a symptom of not knowing what to write, but instead it’s not knowing how I want to put it on the page. One of those, ‘the words are there but they just seem so… BLAGH’ instances.
So – I’m going to take you through a journey of how I write! Maybe when I do this, I can grab my muse by the throat and shake her til something comes out for when I continue to write tonight. ^_^
First and foremost, I plan plan plan. As a screenwriter, I have a knack for visualizing something in a cinematic style and then transferring that scene to the page. Since I’ve moved into my new place, I’ve got my own room for the first time since I’ve moved out to go to university. Huzzah! However, since Emerald Kingdom is so complex in its characters’ relations, I can’t wait to turn my room into something like this:
A room for Dean Winchester to brood sexily.
That. And a crazy person wall of course! With yarn connecting relevant pages and all! Before that gets done though, I need to keep all of these things in order for the character’s voices to really find themselves on the page. I need to have my characters have a specific goal in each scene. Something they want. They either achieve it or they fail, even if it’s the smallest most unimportant scene. Even if nothing seems to be happening, I have to know what will happen next.
Secondly, I gotta have my music. I have such a weird taste in music from the bubbly Japanese pop, to the classic rock, to the Broadway musical. But when I’m writing, especially for all of my stories – I gotta have my movie soundtracks. It kind of sets the mood and puts my mind’s eye within the story, as if I’m giving it it’s own score. I have even made quite a few character playlists which I listen to if I’m in a rut.
But the soundtracks are usually from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Serenity, Code Geass, etc… Whatever it is, it has to be wordless and epic! After all, John Williams is the man. Otherwise, if it has words, it usually ends up making me dance. Which no one wants to see, ever.
Next, I need to have a routine. My best writing time is usually in the wee hours of the night or first thing in the morning on the weekends. I’m not bogged down by thoughts of what I need to do during the day and I’m not bothered by distractions. I can just sit in my bed and just do what I know best. I also need to have iChat open, or else for some reason I just feel like something’s missing. All great writers have said that it’s important to have a routine because it encourages creativity in the comfort of the predictable. I find that to be quite true especially since most of my day is hectic and insane.
After that, I usually focus on what kind of emotion I’m trying to convey. Most recently I had to kill off a character I liked – but most importantly, another character loved him. (This is for another story. But don’t worry, there will be much death in the game too! ^_^) While I was writing from her perspective about her love’s demise, I had to put myself in her shoes and watch the scene unfold from her eyes. I usually draw from personal experiences to depict the emotion felt by the characters and then heighten it. It ended up being quite taxing because I get emotionally exhausted after writing such scenes. My boyfriend needed to give me a big hug after writing that.
Finally, I just need to put everything down and let my fingers fly. It sounds easy, but it can be quite difficult. I always get mad at people who say to me, “Oh, you’re writing a script? It can’t be that hard.” I get all Hulk-ified and I come close to throwing a table across the room before I manage to say, my words dripping in sarcasm, “Thank you for your input. You’ve been extremely helpful.”
Your soul. I want it.
All said and done, there’s a lot more that goes into my process – such as practice, revision, and even more revision. But I’d rather not bore you guys any longer.
So here’s your question of the day: Do you listen to music while you work? What bands do you listen to?
<3 Cas
20 things Nova needs to know before coming to Chicago.
1One of the things we’re doing as of late, between getting ready for Alpha, and working out a lot of staffing details is starting to prepare for our legendary and seminal year end event: The Double Cluepon Holiday Party. This year, however…our Community Manager, who actually lives in Sweden will be coming over for some training, and to attend. So in the spirit of Nova’s 20 things to know before moving to Sweden…we thought about a good primer for her arrival in Chicago.
1. We drink just as much Coffee as you guys do over there. But we don’t stop there. This town is loaded with caffeine. From RedBull to Mountain Dew this town is awash with enough stuff to keep you awake for a millennium. Like all Americans, we also have a serious sugar addiction, so we’re also down with caffination and snacking at the same time. If you are not at least 5 lbs heavier by the time you leave, we have not done our job.
2. We use lines. First come first serve. While you will find an occasional establishment with a ticketing system for service, we use the tried and true method of lining up more. From fast food to movie theaters. We have line etiquette, and when people violate it, scenes are made.
3. To paraphrase Bruce Willis, we speak two languages here: English and Bad English. But Chicago has a great many little nuances to the local lingo. When we talk about “The L” we’re referring to our local mass transit trains. We also talk about our city in terms of neighborhoods, rather than by directional cues. “Boystown” refers to a specific area in town that has a heavy LGBT population. Andersonville is a place on our north side that, you guessed it, has its roots in a Swedish immigrant population. When we talk about “The loop” we are referring specifically about downtown.
4. Chicago is a shopping mecca. There is always something open. You can typically do general shopping here as late as 9 PM local time. You can grocery shop 24 hours a day. In this town, if you want something at any time of the day, it can usually be had with a minimum of fuss.
Don't let the morons fool you. Ketchup on a hot dog is fine.
5. At some point, you too will get your food from a tube. We love our hot dogs here. Be warned however, there are a lot of uppity schmucks who like to get stupid about Hot Dogs. Chicago has this unspoken rule that you don’t put ketchup on a hotdog. (The Chicago style hot dog), some hot dog joints don’t even carry ketchup. Straight up: anyone who acts like this is usually treated like an idiot by sane company.
6. Chicago is highly diverse, perverse, and is a wonder to behold. You will not only see men pushing strollers, you will see a cavalcade of what our society has to offer. From soccer moms to people who paint their entire bodies silver or gold and perform on Michigan Avenue. We’re a pretty tolerant bunch here for the most part. We have everything here.
7. We camp out for concert tickets. For denizens of Chicago, “camping out” usually refers to waiting for ticket sales to open, or being the first to buy something, or the first to see a movie. When it comes to entertainment, we are stacked. From musicals about co ed prison life complete with clowns to popular acts at neighborhood venues. There is always something to do.
8. The only things that unites this town are: Baseball, Football, Music and Food. We have the Taste of Chicago during the summer. Depending on which side of the city someone lives in is usually an indicator of which baseball team is their favorite. North siders are typically Cubs fans. South siders are usually White Sox fans. People love and/or hate the Chicago Bears pretty equally. Again, in keeping with how we define our city via neighborhoods…there are dozens of little street fests during the summer months. These are complete affairs, with music, food, etc. Whole streets are blocked in the neighborhood for these kinds of events.
9. This city needs to be seen and experienced during the day and the night. This city never ever sleeps. The city looks and feels vastly different during every 24 hours of the day. Seeing the city during the day will yield a vastly different experience than during the night. Both have to be witnessed to truly appreciate its diversity.
10. There is no “lagom” here. You will most likely see at least one extreme thing while you are here. Chicago is sometimes compared to New York in terms of city comparisons. I explain difference in people between New York and Chicago as this: In New York, if you ask a local a question, your response will often be “Piss off”. In Chicago, we will answer your question and then tell you to piss off. Not all New Yorkers are rude, and not all Chicagoans are nice. It’s a big city and the stress level is something you can often feel. While there is not an overriding feeling of “beat it, scram”, and Chicago is very welcoming…the city is also filled people who have a wide range of attitudes, cultures, racial differences, perspectives and points of view which color their interactions in strange and sometimes disturbing ways.
11. There is no IKEA in the city. The nearest one is in Schaumburg. What we lack in IKEA, we make up for with specialty shops, thrift stores, and peculiar little stores that sell everything from bongs with fountains to futons made of PVC pipe.
12. Shoe protocol. Shoes off in the house is usually dependent upon the people you are visiting. Some people have a shoes off policy, some do not. Always ask.
13. We have two seasons here: Winter and Road Construction. Winters here can be brutal. All other times of the year we deal with the fun and excitement that come with street closures, road construction and other types of infrastructure work. Another thing of note: we have a lot of cars here. Crossing a street can be as dangerous as playing with electricity.
14. Time here is relative. Our regional trains & buses have time tables. Our inner city trains and buses do not. If you take the L, or a city bus…you go to your stop, and wait till the next one arrives.
15. We have liquor stores. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are better than others. The other thing is, you can buy beer and liquor at our grocery stores, and even corner stores and gas stations. We have bars that stay open as late as 4 or 5 AM.
16. Chicago is laid out on a grid system. City center for us is the corner of State and Madison downtown in the loop. It’s considered 0 North, South, East and West. Address numbers are generally assigned 800 to the mile. So you can reasonably figure out where something is, and where you are. This system is the key to understanding the layout of the city. The blocks are normally counted out by “hundreds,” so that Chicagoans routinely give directions by saying things such as “about twelve hundred north on Western” or “around twenty-four hundred west on Division”. Chicagoans can also usually tell by a block number and a cross street which neighborhood it is.
17. This is a city, and people steal things. Keeping your personal items to yourself is crucial. Don’t sit next to the door on the L and use your iPod in plain view. If you have a bike, use a front wheel quick release and lock both wheels to a post. Anything not bolted down in this town can and will be stolen.
18. While it’s a city, it does not necessarily mean its a haven for crime or indecency. We have our problems, but we are not completely uncivilized. Our police are pretty good, our fire departments and ambulances are top notch. While we don’t have a completely socialized medical system, nobody is ever turned away when they need immediate assistance.
19. We have a serious love affair with food of all types. We have curry, we have pizza. We have just about every single kind of cuisine you could imagine. From French to Ethiopian. If you starve here, its because of you.
20. We take our city fairly seriously. We have a great deal of pride in it. No, seriously. Chicago was built on a swamp. We have survived everything from fire to plagues of typhoid. Our city has been host to a number of very charismatic folks who had a very direct hand in how the city is today. We love our history as much as you love yours. We love talking about our city. If you want to know, just ask.
