Game Dev PvP Fight: A Portal 2 level Peer Review

Today I will be taking a critical look at a Portal 2 level made by a good friend of mine, Cole Bonvarlez (http://colebonvarlezgd.blogspot.ca/). I've made two of these myself which can be found on my Steam Workshop page (http://tinyurl.com/le8hdwb). You can find Cole's level to try it for yourself at this link (http://tinyurl.com/nx7teoj). Now without further ado, let's talk about my impressions of this puzzle.

The first room serves as a hub to the level's two other small chambers. I found it to be somewhat confusing in the beginning, since my initial path lead me to a dead end with a large gap.

This is where I ended up for following the most natural path (according to the player's starting trajectory. 

It's clear that I need to launch myself across the gap with the help of the angled platform which you'll need a cube to trigger.

After seeing that a cube was necessary to progress, I began to backtrack and found another room beside the initial entrance. Although there is nothing "wrong" about this placement, I personally would have opted to switch these two rooms' locations. I say this because there seems to be a slight disconnect between where the player should be looking, and where they should be going. However, one could argue that this simply increases the puzzle's complexity and Cole may have done this intentionally.

The cube chamber has multiple buttons that are supposed to be pressed, however only the one that drops the cube is necessary thanks to a poorly placed grating that allows for early access.

So I've grabbed my cube through this grating, shimmied it over the wall and am ready to go back to the previous dead end.

Ok, the cube is in place and I see an angled platform with a very high, portal able ceiling. This is clearly a momentum based, falling launch type maneuver. Unfortunately, despite fully knowing what to do, the tile placement was a bit tricky for me to fall with the correct orientation to shoot the exit portal at the angled platform. The solution requires the players to orient themselves to face the away from the gap, such that when they fall through the portal they are facing the angled platform.

Once I crossed the gap I was met with a companion cube, a switch, and a laser shooting at a blank, portalable wall.

The necessity of the cube was questionable to me, as it was placed directly beside the switch it was designed to trigger. This cube is not useful for any other task so in my opinion a simple button switch would have been a better, less confusing choice. I do however like the use of a "bounce" here, as the switch enables a light bridge that brings you back across the gap. Cole sees that you've already earned your way across once, and allows players to forgo the deadly goo on the return trip.

Before heading back to the main room, you'll want to leave a portal for the laser to shoot into. I'm telling you this because I didn't realize until going all the way back to the hub room. To be honest, this laser is placed a bit too far from it's trigger for my liking. Again this may have been a conscious choice on Cole's part. 

 After using the laser to trigger it's receiver, this button becomes accessible, initiating a somewhat time consuming sequence of a ball being launched across several bounce pads, until it finally lands inside a tractor beam in the hub room. When the ball reaches the top it triggers a switch that allows access to the final room.

The final room is a series of two momentum based jumps. The first uses an angled platform and is similar to the first large gap, the second is simpler and requires little to no finesse to cross. The entire floor is portalable and there is a significant drop. A portal is placed on either side of the floor and simply jumped into, giving the player more than enough height to clear the edge. 

Unfortunately if you do manage to fail in crossing these gaps, the only way to get back is these elevator platforms. These would not be so bad if the trigger switches were placed in a more friendly manner. In order to trigger the switch and still ride the elevator, you must be standing right on the edge of the platform.

All in all I had fun with Cole's level despite a few moments of confusion. To be honest it took me a little longer than expected to beat, clocking in at at around 10 minutes. If I had to give any particular criticism it would be regarding Cole's switch selection and placement throughout the level. I feel some of the triggers could have been placed to be slightly more player friendly and less confusing. Also, I would recommend that next time, Cole evaluate where players tend to look and tailor the flow of the level with regards to this.

Thanks for a fun level Cole, and I hope my feedback has been of use. Feel free to review one of my levels some time!

Blog Quest 1: Emotional Contagion

For the purposes of this blog, I have been asked to talk about a game that has impacted me emotionally and influenced me creatively. While hundreds of games have had these effects on me, few have had as significant an impact as Chrono Trigger and it's sequel Chrono Cross (let's forget about "Radical Dreamers"). Thanks to the series' strong character design, non-linear storytelling, and charming soundtrack it has become one of the most adored JRPGs of all time among fans of the genre.

If you haven't played the game and wish to do so, I suggest you tread lightly. There may be SPOILERS ahead.

So... what makes this game so great?

Let's start with the characters, designed by none other than Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z fame.

The main characters of these games are always silent, giving the player the freedom to impose their own personality. The game's many other protagonists/party members are colorful and extremely varied, each with their own instantly recognizable silhouette. Every one of these heroes has a comprehensive back-story that is revealed in a timely and dramatic fashion. In some cases these back stories can be gut wrenching, and often playable. Check out the video below to see exactly what I'm talking about.

In this particular scene, the player is confronted with a situation where they can save a character's mother from a tragic accident that occurred in the past. Not only does this scene serve as a powerful flashback to tell the story of the mother's injury, but it gives the player a chance to remedy the situation (thanks to the magic of time travel). These types of scenarios occur quite often of the course of the game, and give the player's own actions a tangible effect on the outcome of the story. 

The game's plot contains multiple subplots and side-quests, the outcomes of which will dictate the game's ending. Not bad for a game originally released in 1995! This was certainly the first game I played that offered multiple endings, especially ones influenced by decisions made throughout the game as opposed to right at the end (I'm looking at you Deus Ex).

When it comes to non-linear narrative, Chrono Trigger holds up better than many new games in my opinion. For starters, the game takes place in multiple different time periods, which can be traversed at will. It also boasts 13 different endings. Far too often in my experience, games will force an ending defining decision just before the end of the game. In the case of the aforementioned Deus Ex (a game I love equally as much as this one), the decision was as simple as choosing between 3 buttons to press (corresponding to each ending), 5 minutes before then game's conclusion. In Chrono Trigger this is not the case. The game can be ended in multiple ways at different points in the game, with different positive and negative outcomes. The minor decisions made throughout the game also have effects on minor aspects of the ending, providing resolutions to each of the characters' own personal struggles. The story is generally filled with emotion, giving rich character development to even the game's Robot character (simply named Robo).

Chrono Cross is a little different. The plot follows a young man named Serge, who is unknowingly sent to an alternate dimension in which he (yes Serge) drowned as a child. When he encounters his loved ones in this dimension, none of them seem to know him although they acknowledge his resemblance to the boy they once knew. Worst of all, when Serge attempts to claim his identity, no one will believe him since they all saw him die. The game does a great job making the player feel lost and alone in this strange alternate universe. 

For me, these games are far more emotional than modern titles like Heavy Rain. One of the most important reasons for this is the masterful soundtrack composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. Each piece is filled with emotion and perfectly describes the character or situation it is bound to. Just listen to this number and try not to shed a tear. 

Okay, so maybe it didn't make you cry but it's hard not to hear beauty in this piece. Chrono Trigger had arguably some of the greatest music ever composed for the SNES. Likewise, Chrono Cross raised the musical bar with the increase in horsepower given by the Sony Playstation. The console's CD quality audio capabilities gave the composers the freedom to create an even more dynamic, organic sounding mix (thanks to the presence of real instruments). The difference is pretty drastic, as can be heard in the following clip.

The soundtracks for both of these games contain some of the most beautiful songs composed in video games.

Overall the Chrono series is one that is very near to my heart. It has provided me with countless hours of enjoyment, but also inspired me in more ways than one. Akira Toriyama's unique and intricate character design is something I admire greatly and would love to learn to replicate one day. I can also say with confidence that the music from these games has had a very real impact on my musical taste and myself as a musician. Aside from this, the game's story and the overall experience is one I will cherish for years to come.