My first day at PAX West 2018 started off with a bang!
Well, actually the day started with Myself, Derek, and Jake rolling into Seattle to meet Courtney at one in the morning just aching for sleep. We managed to attempt to sleep for a while, Courtney and I did alright, Jake and Derek not so much. Then woke at the crack of 0630 (ugh…) and attempted to start our day, knowing we wanted to leave at 0730 so we could get our badges early and get cracking. Well, we woke up at 0630, but definitely didn’t leave on time as an exhausted Derek had to take a work call, and then proceeded to become a barfzilla. By the time we left we had to hustle to get our badges and then I literally had to run away from our little posse as I was ten minutes away from being late for my first ever PAX game demo and interview. I have no idea how, but I made it with about a minute to spare, and immediately dove into my first gaming experience of PAX West 2018.
The Gardens Between
The Gardens Between was absolutely beautiful from the get-go which is part of why I wanted to play it in the first place. It kind of feels like you are wandering through a magical wonderland and the landscape around you is made up of clues that tell you the story of the characters you are playing. The story was super cute, I didn’t know going in what the story was going to be but it looks like it’s about young best friends who live right next-door to each other. I only got to play a few levels, but it definitely seems as though there is a bit of a sorrowful atmosphere, leading you to find beauty while navigating through loss and change (this however could totally be me projecting my own assumptions onto the game).
Immediately upon sitting down I began to ask questions about the game, and was informed that I should play the game first and let it speak for itself as it’s designed to be pretty immersive, then we could talk about it. I’m glad I went in feeling mostly blind, I felt like a blank slate ready to soak up everything this story had to tell me. I would say great success on the immersive front; as soon as I started playing I totally was not distracted by where I was and what was going on around me. I was caught up in the story that was being told through the beautiful art and music, without any words, and very literally interaction between myself and the characters.
In the demo you get to walk through about three levels and it wasn’t until the second level that I realized I had no real concept of what was going on around me and was totally caught up in what I was doing. From the outside I didn’t expected it to feel so engaging without being able to actually control the characters at all. Instead of having any ability to control interactions between the characters and their surroundings, instead you are only controlling the flow of time. You are going forward and backward in time, which moves the characters forward and backward in the landscape, which has an impact on the outcomes of the few things that need to be changed to progress. You are just are kind of going forward and backward time and that’s all you have. However, you get totally caught up in trying to figure out what is trying to be accomplished. It’s a super interesting way of telling the story, and I don’t think I have every actually really seen anything like this before.
After playing the demo I had the opportunity to interview Matt Clark, programmer, executive producer and co-founder of Voxel Agents; bringing us the magic that is The Gardens Between.
It was a great interview about what inspired the creation of this beautiful game, and the challenges faced in creating it… However, you will never get to hear it… because apparently I didn’t hit record.
As it turns out, the flashing red light means the recorder is picking up sound. Solid red light means recorder is recording that sound it is picking up. Who knew. Well probably everyone. Everyone except the flustered nervous Mikaela who, along with Matt, had actually basically just killed it on her first audio recording interview… oh well. Lesson learned.
So I will sum up, albeit poorly, what stood out for me.
One of the things highlighted by Matt was that one of the more challenging aspects of making this game was designing a game that went forward and backward in time as its main mechanic. It’s not like a first person shooter where there are already a whole bunch of different ways to do that, they actually had to create the basics for the way this game works. Now he used the technical lingo that many of you would certainly understand, but that I was thankful to have recorded knowing that I would have needed him to break it down way more if I was going to have to explain it myself…
Another interesting tidbit that stuck with me was their inspiration for this game. According to Matt, this came from one of the scenes in the movie Minority Report, where they are scrubbing through memories back and forth. The concept of scrubbing memories evolved into a story about two best friends, with the use of this super interesting mechanic to tell their story through pictures and music.
I wish I could remember more of what he had talked about, it was so interesting!
But I will instead just have to wait until sometime next month when I can buy and play through this whoooooole game. The Gardens Between will launch on PS4, Switch, and Steam.
Soundfall
After playing The Gardens Between, I had an hour or so until my next appointment. I spent some time making sure I knew what I was doing with my recording device in order to hopefully not mess up again. I also got a chance to wander around the Expo Hall a bit, and man is it overwhelming! But overwhelming in the best way possible – everything is huge. Huge banners hanging from the ceiling and booths that are made to look like epic fortresses. So many big bright screens, so much amazing art, so so so many people! Its pretty incredible.
The second game I got to play today was Soundfall, described by Drastic’s technical designer and cofounder Julian Trutmann as a music driven dungeon crawler. This game is from a newer developer, Drastic Games, who have been around for about 2 years. I was drawn to Soundfall initially because the concept of a game that is meant to be played to the beat of music, in combination with the beautiful art style, really appealed to me. Going into the demo I was a little bit nervous as I am not the strongest player when it comes to shooting games, but luckily for me Julian volunteered as tribute to play with me (which secretly meant he would end up being my shield and my reviver when I didn’t get outta the way in time to avoid being annihilated by enemies). I was actually super grateful for this as it meant that I got to experience the game without dying immediately.
I was reassured that you only have to use one joy-stick and a couple of buttons to control all the things, which is helpful when you’re trying not to panic and die. Before starting, Julian explained that the whole point is to attack on beat in order to get boosts. Although I understood that logically before hand, as soon as I got into the game that information flew right outta my head and it became mash the attack buttons and try to remember to run away when someone is attacking you! At one point I had to cross over a bridge type structure, which required you to jump from pad to pad, but the catch was you could only jump if you hit the button on the beat. I definitely did not realize this initially and only made it over because I was button mashing enough to occasionally hit it at the right moment. Once we died and had to replay that part, on the second time around I actually recognized what was happening with the connection to music… which should have been helpful, but really wasn’t, it turns out I need a little practice at hitting things on the beat…
We did manage to make it through the first level though! Upon entering the second level, there was a distinct difference in music style between the two which created a much harsher higher pressure feeling atmosphere. It was interesting to see how intensely music can affect that atmosphere and feeling of a game so completely.
It was quite neat to see different elements of the landscape bouncing along and lighting up to the music, and to see the impact of actually shooting on the beat (which I’m pretty sure I only every did coincidentally) was pretty cool. You also get to wield this huge awesome looking sword, and it feels pretty danged rewarding when you kill the bad guys. Julian mentioned that the style of the game was quite challenging, that said, it was totes worth it. It’s beautiful to watch and if I wasn’t scared of being attacked around every corner I could definitely just wander around bopping along to the beat.
I also had a chance to interview Julian about the creation of this game, so make sure to keep an ear out for that podcast following PAX weekend!
https://youtu.be/sO8I7_-tyG4
Stormland
The Stormland demo from Insomniac Games (in collaboration with Oculus), was hosted at an offsite about ten minutes from the convention centre at the 1927 Events Space. I walked up and opened the door, and immediately fog started pouring out onto the brightly lit sidewalk.
Here, I became excited.
I walked into the dimly-lit space and had to push through a plastic room divider that felt like I’d walk through the other side into a butchers freezer, but actually you walk into the amazing 1927 Event Space. I fell in love with this space when we visited for ECCC, all of the exposed brick and raw wood, so dreamy. Today, this was adorned with vines, puffs of cloud, and Stormland paraphernalia, all seen through a haze of fog. I checked in and walked around the space before getting in line to play the demo. It was kind of eery to see so many people together in one space, but separately totally immersed in a different world. There were about 10 people demoing at a time, so all of them were wearing an Oculus headset with headphones and controllers in each hand. They were all moving around in their little space and quietly exploring the empty air in front of them with their swinging arms. VR just makes people so danged vulnerable. It’s like all of your senses are transported off to this video game world, and your poor body is left in realtime without any awareness or defence.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnKGVQoAbjP/?taken-by=geekscapeforever
This demo actually allowed people to take their time playing the game, so when it finally got to be my turn it was nice to know I didn’t have to rush and could just experience the world around me at my own pace. We have PSVR at home, but I realized when I got there that I have never actually had the opportunity to us an Oculus before… Let me tell you, it is GREAT! The screen is very clear and the controllers… Well, the controllers are outta this world! The closest I can come to comparing them to something is basically its like putting your hand into the hilt of a sword that has the perfect little area for buttons that your thumb hits easily, as well as a trigger finger button and a button that your middle fingers can hit so it naturally feels like you are grabbing things! I am floored by how freeing the controllers felt and how intuitive they were to use. That being said, it may have felt so intuitive because the games controls are just that intuitive.
As anyone who has heard/read me talk about video games will know, I am frequently caught in the battle of trying to properly use controls while getting myself stuck in a corner staring at a ceiling/wall/floor/anywhere but where I need to be looking to get away from whatever is attacking me. This game, however, was incredible in that there are so many different ways to move around that it didn’t matter where I ended up cramming myself – I was able to get out and get to where I needed to be! In talking with Chad Dezern, Chief Creative Officer of Insomniac Games (look for my audio interview later), he really highlighted how much effort they had put into developing movement mechanics that felt smooth and natural and easy. They definitely hit that outta the park on this one!
The Stormland demo has you playing as an android who is on a mission to find his android buddy. A satellite voice guides you through learning how the mechanics of the game work and toward the path of finding your friend. You learn how to climb and how to glide and you ‘slipstream’ which is basically just flying overtop of the fog at a faster speed, which is basically incredible.
At one point, as I was about a third of the way through learning how to do all of the things, I struggled to figure out how to attach my new guns to my outfit. I dropped one and lost it immediately, and after desperately searching for a while the woman who was there to help with the demo eventually just said not to worry about it, as I’d find more guns along the way. After giving up on the gun I looked down and realized that my mechanical chest was waaaay too close to my face, and not only that, but my arms had some how become criss-crossed. After about ten minutes of trying different strategies of menu combos and recalibrating at least 3 times, she called someone else over, who once again made us relcalibrate… and then finally just made me quit and start over again. By this point I was feeling pretty queasy, but I wanted to expereince more of this incredible world! So I rushed through the beginning part again and made my way to where I had been. I got to blow up some stuff and jump over things, climb walls, and glide off cliff sides. It was quite a magical surreal experience.
I sadly had to stop the demo before I got to the end, otherwise I would definitely have been barfing all over the place. Nobody wanted that. After recovering for a little while I got to have a conversation with Chad about the creation of this game, and it really just got me more excited to see how it all comes out in the end. As much as I don’t want to admit it, this amazing open world VR game really has me seeing the value in the quality of the Oculus Rift!