Does BioWare Need to Choose a "Canon" Ending to Create the Next Mass Effect?

For the record, I am Mass Effect freak. Ask the shelf of memorabilia in my room, or the signed copies of games I keep squirreled away as prized possessions! And yes, the other side of the room is covered in Mass Effect lithographs.

I’m super excited for the Legendary Edition next spring, it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’ll be interesting to see what all changes. To be clear, I don’t think folks should be expecting huge gameplay changes – the resources needed to, say, convert the first game to use Mass Effect 3’s combat would really be gigantic in scope.

But, who knows. We don’t know the full story on the development that’s gone into the Legendary Edition, so we’ll find out next year!

Hot on the heels of that news was the surprise announcement of new Mass Effect games in the future…games that may well touch on the Andromeda galaxy and bring back the story of the Milky Way.

Fascinating…

As much of a fanatic as I am for Mass Effect, I’m a bit nervous to continue the story of Shepard. I’m nervous to open the can of worms that was the infamous ending to Mass Effect 3, and I’m more than happy to let stories be done. Endless sequels can sour stories as much as they can bring joy.

That said, I will be watching with bated breath to see what comes next, and in the meantime, I’ll be thinking about what that story may well look like. A common concern making the rounds on forums and social media is the logistics for how the story of Shepard may (or may not, who knows what is really going on) continue. The trilogy’s end branches quiet significantly, to the point where it may not be feasible to continue the story with all of the different possible combinations. This is where it’s commonly thought that if BioWare were to continue the story, they may have to pick at least some form of a “canon” ending. Usually, when folks are talking about this, they’re referring to the final choice in the third game that dramatically alters the galaxy as we know it, creating vastly different futures that are in many ways incompatible with each other…and there’s only one where Shepard can survive.

So, if they’re continuing the story of the Commander, do they have to pick one of these major choices, discard the rest, and develop from there? There is, I believe, a lot of mixed feelings on doing so. “Canon” choices go against the ethos of the trilogy, and generally BioWare steers clear of this practice in their games, which does sometimes cause them to contort themselves into some odd narrative pretzels (the fact that Lilliana can die prior to Dragon Age Inquisition, for example).

However, I think that the studio does have a logical “out” they can use to not necessarily say that developing a new game with Shepard moving forward is discarding the rest of the player’s choices as “not canon.” And they’ve already used it before!

Recall: Shepard can die at the end of the second game.

It’s not exactly easy to do, considering you have to ignore huge swaths of content to make it happen. But it is possible for you to get an ending to Mass Effect 2 where Shepard is dead and a completely different ending plays. These saves are not importable to Mass Effect 3, you can’t experience NG+, and the game ends there.

Instead of saying that the “Shepard Dies” ending of the second game isn’t canon, BioWare stated that the story of Shepard, in those instances, doesn’t continue. In which case, the third game picks up on OTHER choices, in timelines where Shepard did survive. All of it is canon – some Shepards just don’t appear in the next game! Or, I guess it maybe accurate to say they don’t get a third game, ha….

The same could be said here. The other choices in 3 that result in Shepard’s demise are still canon, the story just stops there. For the Shepards that do survive, the story continues.

I grant you that the scale of the two uses of this “out” are different. Shepard dying in the second game is very, very uncommon, whereas everyone will be able to choose one of those major endings to the trilogy, and not everyone who chooses the path where Shepard can survive will actually have them survive. How satisfying this may be for players is a matter of debate. But it is a logical approach the situation, and a viable path to creating conditions that makes development of future games with the Commander at least somewhat possible.

So, what do you think? Would this way of advertising a third game satisfy you? Is there something I’m missing? Let me know in the comments!

Review - Coffee Talk by Toge Productions

Once upon a time, I wrote that I wanted to do more analytical work on the blog. With some concentration, and given how quickly our world can change these days, some luck, this will be the first in many entries to come. My goal tonight is to present you with some down-to-earth reviewing and analysis. Ready?

Today, I’ll be looking at Coffee Talk by Toge Productions. This is a 3 to 5 hour indie game, and if you have Xbox Game Pass, it’s free!

So, is it worth your time?

The premise of the game is straightforward - in an alternate Earth where humans live side-by-side with a host of fantasy creatures ranging from elves to orcs, you as the mysterious player character run a nice little coffee shop in downtown Seattle. The game tells the story of the ensemble cast of characters that come to frequent the shop, with the major through line of the whole thing being the character Freya and her quest to write a book. The gameplay focuses on brewing drinks for your customers, sometimes via experimentation, though often simply by fulfilling their orders as requested. The entire game is very much like a Chillhop music stream - it’s relaxed, it’s got lofi hip hop music, it’s got a pixel-based art style, and all of it is set in the warm glow of a cafe juxtaposed against Washington’s rainy backdrop. I can smell the java already!

Its core gameplay loop is straightforward - a character walks in, they give you an order, you make it (often using their dialogue to guide you to which ingredients to use), and dialogue continues. Rinse and repeat. You have the option of checking your phone as well, which has a social media app, a list of drink recipes, a newspaper app that displays some very well-written short stories, and a Spotify rip-off to control the soundtrack.

First off, let me say that I appreciate the game’s crafting system. It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s understandable. It’s got an intelligible UI. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I am pretty tired of crafting systems that virtually require a university course to understand. This is a huge boon to building the relaxed nature of the game, since this is the major mechanic you’ll be playing with, and I love this aspect of it.

However, I have to say that I didn’t find the core mechanics of the game to be especially engaging. While the narrative, the actual honest-to-God written word, is just barely strong enough to see you through your first playthrough, it won’t see you through to a second. And this is a problem for a game with a narrative design in some ways predicated on multiple playthroughs.

Let’s dive a bit deeper. The problem with the gameplay is in the core loop itself - characters give you their orders, and by that I mean that they almost always outline which ingredients to use and in what order. It reminds me of Life is Strange: Before the Storm’s talkback system in that you need to derive what to do next via keywords in the dialogue you just received, but that had the great benefit of being rooted in character and still presenting a challenge. This doesn’t do that so much. Occasionally you’ll be presented with only 2 of 3 ingredients, or a very vague order, and there’s a recurring quest to help one character find a perfect drink, but on the whole there’s no challenge to this set up.

This is a missed opportunity for great narrative design building a strong core mechanic, and what’s worse, the game actually comes close to doing this. In my opinion, a stronger core mechanic would have seen players creating drinks based off the characters’ personality, body language, and dialogue. These are all already present in the game. It would have been more experimental, leaving players to build drinks based off of these clues rather than fulfilling orders that are explicitly outlined by the character. It also gives designers more freedom for characterization (what if each character had a favorite drink, for example) and unique challenges. The game already has a stat system for drinks that could complement this idea, and in some instances it actually does do this…but incredibly sparingly. Moreover, the multiple playthroughs of the game are built on this kind of design idea as well - by playing through more, you (might) pick up new recipes for drinks that you can then give to characters at key moments in the story to make small alterations in what happens (giving them what they need rather than want), something that is supported narratively through this idea of the player character exploring multiple timelines in this universe. That said, there’s very little reason to ever experiment or discover this aspect of the game when most of the experience is based on fulfilling specific orders. I know implementing this sort of system brings up a whole host of other questions - fail states, greater branching, resources necessary to actually create this sort of system, and so on. But I don’t doubt that it would have made for a better game, frankly.

I think you can now see my main point of critique - without an engaging core mechanic and more reasons or opportunities to experiment, the game stagnates, ultimately discouraging you from additional playthroughs to unlock more narrative content and recipes.

Let’s move onto another aspect of the game for analysis - the main character. You! “The barista!” For the most part, I think this part of the game is handled well. It very much follows a similar design philosophy that other games have in treating the player character as a 4th wall-breaking stand-in for the player, and especially in this case, a literally alien figure to the diegesis. I recently played through Control as well, and it reminded me of how that game handles Polaris and Jesse. Is Jesse addressing the all-seeing, silent figure of Polaris with her many internal monologues, or us the player? It sort of doesn’t matter - both character and player inhabit the same frame of the narrative. There’s some interesting implications made in this game, however, that I’m not sure are fully addressed by this multi-playthrough, time-manipulating aspect of the player/player-character. It’s implied that you/the character are someone with immense power trying to bring these people together. As a designer, I wonder if this is asking too much of us in a linear game with no fail states, and I wonder: what does it say of that goal if the characters come together no matter what we do? Is that an effective thematic statement, or…is it pointless? And if the player doesn’t discover this aspect of the character/themselves (since it is optional content), what then? I myself am not sure as of the time of writing, and I’m not convinced the game has engaged with these questions either.

However, the narrative still stands out as the strongest part of the game. The characters are interesting, the dialogue engaging, the drama juicy. There are times when the long stretches of dialogue meander a bit much, but in a game focused on a relaxed social setting, this is to be expected. On the whole, the game does a good job of balancing the needs of pushing the story forward while reveling in its setting. If you like visual novels, this may be a bit more up your alley in that regard, especially given the gameplay deficits. I do enjoy visual novels, but when gameplay is present, I’m still going to critique it and push it to be the best it can be, ha. Some of the character arcs were wrapped up a bit too neatly in too short a time, and on the whole the ending left me a bit unsatisfied, but the journey there made up for that in many, many ways.

That said, playing this game comes at an interesting time in my personal life, so the narrative hit me a bit harder than it might have otherwise. The world continues to struggle against the COVID pandemic, the US continues to deal with political upheaval and civil unrest rooted in racial struggles, and for me personally, I continue to struggle with my own battles, internal and external. The commentary on racial struggles presented by these different characters, though a bit on the nose, is welcome during these times, as is the sight of a brighter future for all of us when we can gather in cafes once again, create new friendships, and find self-fulfillment.

So, what’s the final verdict? Yes, this game has issues. It could do with a more engaging core mechanic, and more polished narrative design. But it’s an interesting experience all the same, it’ll only take a few hours of your time, and the vision it paints is a worthwhile one. Plus, as we head into the next series of lockdowns for the US, it’s a good break from reality, a soothing simulation of a normal life, and a strong reminder of what we’re fighting for. So yeah, give it a chance!

*** Random Thoughts / Honorable Mentions ***

• Aqua’s squishy walking sound is YIKES.

• The various conversations on game development and writing were a bit too “inside baseball” for me. Sure, none of it was particularly esoteric, but the explicit breakdown of how these artforms and industries work not only seemed to grind the game to a standstill but caused me to wonder if literally anyone not invested in them already would really care or understand.

• Why do all artsy games with social mechanics have to have a gamedev character? We’re really into self-insertion these days and meta-commentary on the industry these days. Not a bad thing, I guess, but it’s noticeable, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

• Calling out Mr. Hendry so quickly as a perv felt…odd? Seemed like a bit of a jump, especially since it was quite obviously not the case and the situation was so quickly resolved…

• Hyde makes some interesting statements about overpopulation - “those who should be telling us not to breed don’t have enough control over us.” If that doesn’t send up some red flags, I don’t know what should. The open endorsement of authoritarianism in that sentence was…off-putting. I hope that’s not what the writers really believe.

• The “you’re” vs “your” joke between Neil and Freya in the last third of the game is…nonsensical, and worst of all, commits the sin of not being funny.

• The secret ending is definitely interesting. I like the concept a lot! But as I said, it’s too reliant on multiple playthroughs and hidden game mechanics to be really great.

Game Feel and Cider Presses - Hanzo’s Wall Climb, Object Interaction, and the Poetry of John Keats

What the hell is this?! A blog post?!

It’s been too long! Man, life has been something of an adventure in the time between my last blog post and now. It’s a long story, but the conclusion of it really is that I’m hoping to do more blog posts soon.

I’ve once again overhauled the portfolio section of the site to include a clear distinction between narrative work and programming work. It’s all game development, really, but this way it’s better at showing off my skills in those areas.

The more I learn about gameplay programming, the more obsessed I become with replicating game feel. This really gives you a great idea of how games are actually working underneath the hood. To that end, there’s two items I wanted to share with you today.

Item the first - I’ve been watching a series of tutorials created by Matthew Palaje that centers on recreating popular game mechanics in Unreal Engine 4. It’s an amazing and super educational series. That said, it obviously doesn’t replicate some of these things on a 1-to-1 level. After recently getting back into Overwatch, I wanted to take at least one of his tutorials and enhance it to both be slightly more performant and, most importantly, to better replicate what is truly going on in Overwatch. Since this idea popped into my head when I was watching his Hanzo wall climb video…that’s what I did! To best explain the Blueprint scripting behind this idea, I made this short video to show it off:

Item the second - the other thing that’s been taking up my mind has been object interaction in games. The logic behind it is very interesting stuff - imagine the work that’s gone into ensuring you can accurately, smoothly interact with a 3D environment when you’re looking at a 2D screen and navigating with a keyboard or gamepad!

Take, for example, Halo. One of my all-time favorite series! One night, when I was randomly playing Halo: Reach and thinking about its underlying logic, I came to the conclusion that the game is doing constant line traces of one sort or another since your reticle will change color when you hover over an enemy (and components on enemies - remember how it will put an extra dot on your reticle if you’re aimed at their head). But, obviously, this line trace is not used for object interaction, at least, not initially. Otherwise, you’d be able to interact with terminals/buttons/weapons/etc from quite a distance…

So, as I wandered around the burning planet one Saturday evening, I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about how the game might be performing object interaction. I know, I’m just a nonstop fount of fun, ain’t I? Who else spends their Saturday nights trying to figure out these sorts of things! But, the more you think about it, the more you play around with the game to see what it’s actually capable of, the more intricate it seems this system must be…at least, in the view of my tiny brain!

So yes, I did just stand there for a good hour looking at a terminal, then away, then at a weapon on the ground, then two weapons on the ground, thinking through possible ways to replicate this system…no, I’m not insane. At least, the voices in my head tell me I’m not crazy.

All that said, after thinking about how I would replicate this system in Unreal Engine, this is what I came up with…

• Each interactive object must have a trigger volume to detect when the player is within range of it.

• When this happens, the object is added to an array on the player. Call it something like “array of interactive items in range.”

  • Obviously, when you exit the trigger volume, the item must then be removed from this array.

• Every few seconds/ticks/whatever the case may be, do dot products on these items. We want to figure out which of these is closest to the center of the screen!

  • Whichever has the dot product closest to 1 (closest to the center of the screen) is marked as the current “interactable item.”

  • When an item is marked as the interactable item, and if the dot product is a certain value, send a message to the item to inform it as such. This will in turn send a message to the UI for an interactive alert and enables input on the object.

  • Now, when the player presses the interact key, call the interact interface on it!

…Or, at least, something like that! Ha! If anyone reading this has worked on interactive objects in Halo before, I’d love to speak with you and learn more on the topic!

With that said, let’s move onto something a bit less technical, and a bit more poetic!

As autumn dawns with blood-red skies and the smell of smoke blanketing the entire Denver area, let’s take some time in the midst of COVID to reflect on the beauty we have around us! It may be a crap year, we can find solace in a cider, nature, and a good poem!

To that end, let’s celebrate the season with the work of John Keats. I’ve been getting more into poetry lately. I love language, and the numinous experience of that pleasure. I also attribute my newfound love for this to Malcolm Guite, an English poet who’s written some fantastic stuff…and yes, has a gaming connection. I’ll save you the joy of discovering it for yourself. For my part, it felt like destiny when I did. Since the start of the pandemic, he’s been doing videos from his home office sharing poems, prose pieces, and art from the vast library of English literature and culture. They’re well worth a watch, especially for those of us stuck at home right now.

To Autumn by Keats: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44484/to-autumn

Thanks all. Stay safe, stay healthy, and as always, go forth and do good!

Connor

6-Word Mystery Stories

Just in time for Halloween, here are a few six-word horror/mystery stories to summon the holiday spirit and have it scare the piss out of you.

***

Lanterns swing on a breeze-less night.

***

Candy good enough to die for.

***

I love you. To death.

***

“Don’t lose your head,” it chuckled.

***

For sale: murder weapon, lightly used.

***

My neighbor smiled between the shades.

***

“I’m going batty!” said the count. (I had to get at least one bad pun in…)

***

His smile was wide and red.

***

He smiled, and Nothingness smiled back.

***

I’d kill for a Klondike bar.

Where did you come from, where did you go?

I'll do you one better, why is Cotton-Eyed Joe?

Infinity War jokes aside, I haven't been back here in a really long time. What can I say, I've been busy! I just released a big ol' rework to the portfolio section of the site, including a new area focusing on a few of the projects I'm currently working on, and I've been slogging my way through the job search.

Here's to hoping I have more news on that front soon, eh? It's a tough job market out there right now. All of us just have to keep our heads down and keep pushing through until we make it. It'll happen, it just takes a fair amount of work.

In the meantime, summer has arrived here in Colorado. So far, it's a stunningly beautiful year. With any luck I'll get up into the mountains soon and snap some photos of all this natural splendor. It would be a nice distraction - everything seems to be happening at once in my personal life right now. Between that and my job search, it's been a strangely busy, yet listless, past few months.

The good thing about all that is having time to get through my backlog of media. I've finished a lot of games, seen a lot of movies, watched a lot of shows, and made headway on some great books. All great material in my never-ending quest to become the best storyteller I can be.

I'm aware that I once stated that this blog would turn toward more critical analyses, but finding the time for that has proven difficult. Maybe in the second half of the year, that will become more of a reality. In the meantime, I leave you with some of the photos I've taken recently. Take some time today to drink in the grace of nature. As green returns to the world, allow hope and happiness to return to your soul.

That's all for today. Hopefully I'll be back soon with more professional news. Go forth and be pleased!

- Connor

Thinking Critically

I can feel the catharsis of a thousand sleepless nights bearing down upon me. Graduation is nigh. The only thing left is the defense of my honors thesis - I'm virtually done.

Surprisingly, I don't feel much beyond that. I'm almost emotionally dead. Rather, I feel the need to move onto the next thing, which has been difficult so far. The job market is a cruel mistress. Understandably so, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that deter me, but cruel all the same.

I've also had to deal with a few emergency medical situations lately. That's been draining enough on its own.

This leads me to my next announcement. With these life changes on the horizon, with this chapter of my life closing in an odd quiet explosion, I'm making a few changes to the blog. Most notably, I'll be posting way less. I need to cut down on writing and activities that are not directly contributing to my portfolio, actual work, or growth as a writer. I'll also be refocusing the blog on critical writing. In other words, expect less posts, but when I finally do get something up it will be a well-written critical essay.

So, this may be the last post for a while. The next one will be one of these essays, and will likely be posted sometime after the new year. Updates may continue to the site as needed but there won't be a post to accompany it unless necessary. And, of course, there may well be the occasional blog post.

Until then, go forth and do good!

- Connor

A Binder Full of Dreams

Or, in other words, my honors thesis.

It's due in two weeks. I just finished the penultimate pass on the critical components of it. Now I just need to actually type it all in (yes, I edit on actual paper most of the time, it's refreshing). Then, I just need to finish up my game design final project, and I'll have graduated college.

It's so close...so very close, and it's going to be the best birthday gift ever.

In other words, I've also just returned from a vacation in Chicago. The Windy City left be breathless. It's spectacularly gothic, and had a surprising amount of gluten-free restaurants. Except for Hyde Park. Y'all need to step up your gluten-free game. At least advertise it a bit better!

I wish I had more to say on the visit, but I consider it a private affair. That said, I do recommend visiting, if only to get a sense of the city's scale.

That's all I have for you today. Right now, my head is buried under books and programs trying to just finish out this stage of my life strong. Thank you all. Go forth and do good!

- Connor

Now Available - "Rest in Peace"

***BIG ANNOUNCEMENT***

At long last, my novella Rest in Peace is finally available for purchase! It has been, and continues to be, an amazing journey, seeing this story grow from an afternoon's writing exercise to a full-blown publication. Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way, including my fleet of beta readers and the wonderful folks at World Castle Publishing. Without any of you, it literally would not have been possible to make this happen!

The novella is available for purchase in both digital and paperback editions. The appropriate links can be found below, along with a brief summary of the work. Thank you again for your patronage and feedback. Spread the news, leave a review, and let us bring the tale of Eulin Byriver to readers around the world!

Summary:
Eulin Byriver has adventured from one end of this world to the other. Now, with nation after nation being drawn into war and the weight of her past on her shoulders, she has sought out one last journey. Rumor has it that an expedition to the far frozen north seeks to find riches beyond imagination, a treasure that can make your wildest dreams reality. But the north holds many secrets, and many dangers…

Purchase Links:
Amazon - Paperback & Kindle Editions
Barnes & Noble - Paperback & Nook Editions