Paradox of the Active User (RTFM)

People like features, and will pay more for it, but the traditional active user doesn't read the manual and just starts using the product. The result is an uninformed user that statistically took more time to accomplish his/her task than if they spent time reading the manual in the first place.

This interests me because it seems to be the exact reason why I feel games MUST have active tutorials. Then, if the game is deep enough, it's supplimented by a detailed instruction manual. Unfortunately I can't recall a game that's had a good tutorial and scenarios that assist with the learning curve.

You know, I've always had in my mind that there were a few indicators of when you've made it as a game developer:

1. Your product is (at least attempted) to be shared illegally. I'm not saying to leave out copy protection, I'm saying that it's good when people like your product so much that they go out of their way to get it


2. You've made it to the top of search engine results (without paying for it)


3. You have a faq and message board on gamefaqs

Now this makes me question that last one though. Should you really ever have questions frequently asked about your gameplay? (or anything for that matter?) If you think about it, you should have addressed all questions in-game... or at least in some easily accessible way.

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Procedural Content from Introversion

Ah Introversion - indie development's poster child. For those that don't know, they're an independent, self publishing, award-winning game developer.

The article comes from Game Career Guide and talks about procedural content and how the industry should shift towards it. Procedural content is the act of generating content dynamically through functions. In their examples, their next game generates the layout of a city given certain arguments. Roads and building attributes are based on population density, districts, and ground elevation. Entire cities are created by functions. What would take thousands of man hours for artists and level designers now took a few weeks of programming.

However, this is nothing new. At E3 last year, this was Will Wright's big concept in Spore. Everything from lifeforms to galaxies are all procedural. .kkrieger was able to pack an fps into 96 kb with graphics comparable to current gen shooters.

They go on to point out that they are not just talking about static models, but animation, and textures. Back to spore, the animals you create must be able to walk in a believable fashion without programmers knowing what you'll develop.

Like they said, with development costs and computing on the rise, the best way to fill vast virtual worlds will be with functions - especially for indie developers with limited resources.

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