In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have released Burst! today. We would have taken a few more weeks and made sure it was a little further along before getting it out to the public. However, we are entering Burst! in the Adobe/Sony Air App Challenge and needed an app out today to fully qualify for the comp. On top of that, our passion is game design and educating the world at large about our art, so we felt this was a great opportunity to invite our fans and followers to be part of the process! Here’s how to download the beta and help us make Burst! better:

Step one:
Go to https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adobe.air&feature=search_result and click ‘install’. You may have to enter the phone number of your Android device and this will cause your phone to automatically install Adobe Air, which is a piece of software that enables your phone to work with games built in Adobe Flash (like Burst!).

Step two:
Go to https://market.android.com/details?id=air.com.aecmobile.burst and click install. Burst! is currently only available in this free beta form (we delayed the $1.00 ad-free version until we have a more complete version of Burst!). Your phone will install Burst! Below is how to play:

Click Play.

Click Song Select.

Tap the song you want.

Tap play.

On the main game screen, tap Play in upper right hand to start.

You will see the 4 launchers across the bottom fill with fireworks, tap the launchers to queue up fireworks. You can queue up to 4 fireworks from any combination of the launchers.

You will see blue beats come down the right side of the screen. Hit Detonate when they hit the window to blow up your queued fireworks on the beat! You get points for detonating fireworks on the blue beats and lose points if you detonate fireworks off of beat or allow a blue beat to pass without detonating a firework on it.

If you detonate fireworks on 5 blue beats back to back, a Special Shell will automatically detonate in the sky to let you know you rocked and an additional shell will be placed in each of the 4 launchers. You can customize the shape of the Special Shell under the Special Shell Customization menu under Options from the Main Menu.

While you’re at it, tap the Team KAIZEN logo on the Main Menu for a special Easter Egg

Step Three:
Tell your friends, co-workers and colleagues about Burst! and tell them to download it! (Don’t forget to mention they should download Adobe Air first!)

Step Four:
Go to www.teamkaizengames.com and let us know what you think! We want to stress that this is an early beta and more features and songs will be added soon on top of glitch fixes. We will be actively listening to fan feedback and do our best to implement popularly requested features and necessary fixes. The www.teamkaizengames.com site will soon relaunch with a new integrated forum, making it easier to contact us! The game beta launched with two songs:

Bad Battery Door Burst Remix
by M-79

Haya’s Theme
by John Secolo

The next song to hit will be Velvet Electricity by DJ Bonseye, followed shortly thereafter by works by Steve Keller Band, Joel Corda, The Hope Movement, Ed Worrell and Great Falls Symphony. On top of the song additions, we will soon be adding in an in-game tutorial, information on the artists who participated, information on Great Falls’ Historic 10th Street Bridge (we use the bridge as a backdrop and 1% of the profits of Burst! go towards the restoration of this landmark) and general fixes/additions as based on fan feedback.

Even in this early stage, we are extremely proud of Burst! It was a small contingent of TK Staffers that made Burst! (Josh Hughes, Lead Game Design; Trevor Hughes, Assistant Game Design, Tim Powell, Lead Programming and Game Design Consultant; Brandon Sand, Lead 2D Art; Ben Saltzman, Lead Animation; Bob Sather, Programming; Alex Rodriguez, Stage Design and Quality Assurance and Dan Rilling, Quality Assurance) and the work that got us to this point was done in 2 months on sweat equity (free work). We know there is a lot of work still to be done to get Burst! where we want it and feel ready to let it leave behind its’ beta moniker, but we hope you will also agree that this early beta shows the fun gameplay behind conducting a pyrotechnic show to music! Thank you very much and please let us know anything that would make Burst! more fun!

Sincerely,
Josh Hughes, Trevor Hughes and the AEC // Team KAIZEN crew!

Burst’s goal is to be the indie rhythm game for indie unsigned musicians. When Burst launches (sometime before September 16th), the game will include this initial setlist:

Velvet Electricity by DJ Bonseye of Cicada Music Inc. out of Nova Scotia, Canada. DJ Bonseye also created the menu music for Burst as well as some basic gameplay sounds for us. You can learn more about DJ Bonseye and Cicada Music HERE.

Bad Battery Door Burst Remix by M-79. M-79 is a garage band from the Great Falls, Montana area and the guys were kind enough to do a special version of their song, Bad Battery Door, just for our game. The Burst remix includes a special break down to mess with the players as well as a new guitar solo. You can check out the M-79 guys HERE.

New Best Friend by Steve Keller Band. Steve Keller is a radio DJ around here and his band is a popular music act.

The Message by The Hope Movement. The Hope Movement is one of the more popular indie rock bands in the North-Central Montana region. You can learn more about The Hope Movement HERE.

Haya’s Theme by John Secolo. John is Team KAIZEN’s sound engineer and created Haya’s Theme for Haya Matsuri, one of our fighters in Shattered Soul who uses fireworks as a weapon. Considering the fiery connection, we felt it only appropriate to have Haya’s Theme in Burst.

To Be Announced by The Great Falls Symphony. We ended up having a last minute meeting with the Conductor of The Great Falls Symphony (Gordon Johnson) and, early next week, a performance of the Symphony will be selected to be included as the last song in Burst. We are excited about this because it helps us make the case that, as long as the music itself is upbeat, Burst can handle a wide artistic range and give music lovers of all shades the thrill of conducting a pyrotechnic show to their genre of music! You can learn more about The Great Falls Symphony HERE.

Shortly after launch, the Burst Store will open. Through the Burst Store, we will sell additional song packs by indie unsigned bands to increase the play list of the game. If you are an indie band/act and want to have a song pack of your own, just hit us up on the Contact page!

Burst also has a mild educative component as players unlock elements from the Periodic Table to create new colors in game (the real life way colors are made in fireworks).

Burst will be available in 2 distinct flavors: a free Ad-Supported version and a $1.00 version that removes the ads. The pricing for the song packs has yet to be determined.

Those of you from the North-Central Montana region may recognize the bridge in the gameplay screens, it’s actually an artistic recreation of Great Falls’ Historic 10th Street Bridge (you can learn more about the bridge HERE)! A small percentage of the profits of Burst will be donated to Preservation Cascade Inc to help restore this landmark. (For those of you not in our area: it’s a nearly 100 year old bridge that, every weekend and holiday, is lit up with cobalt-purple lights).

Burst was created in roughly 2 months by a small contingent of Team KAIZEN staffers completely on sweat equity (free work). We did this to show our team has the talent to deliver fun, compelling experiences and to also hopefully raise funds to pay our team on the free work they’re currently doing on other projects like Shattered Soul’s tech demo (not to mention to give some much needed love to indie bands and the 10th Street Bridge). We will announce here when Burst hits the Android Market (it will be published by AEC Mobile, our mobile division).

Built entirely in Adobe Flash, Burst will be entered in the Adobe/Sony Air App Challenge. Burst can be played entirely on a touch screen Android device but will also include a special second control scheme for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play smartphone.

We’re very excited for Burst and hope you all are too! We will have more info soon including the launch announcement! For now, hit us up on FaceBook or Twitter and let us know what you think of Burst!

Sincerely,
Josh, Trevor and the Add-A-Tudez Entertainment Company // Team KAIZEN Crew

Please visit http://www.facebook.com/sonyelectronics?v=app_218533211495936&app_data=action%3Dcontest_view_entry%26id%3D445651 –this is a contest run by Sony– and vote for us! (you know it’s the right entry if you see Trevor and Josh sitting in a coaster seat). If we get enough votes, we’ll make it to the judging round. If we win judging, Sony will make a mini-reality-TV-style short about Team KAIZEN completely filmed in 3D as part of Sony’s Make.Believe campaign! Please help us and vote and spread the word!

By the way, just figured we’d let you know a massive Team KAIZEN website redesign is imminent! We are currently aiming to relaunch the site before E3 kicks off June 4th–so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks!
Josh

In this regard, we are pleased to officially announce The Pieces are Coming Together, an Add-A-Tudez Entertainment Company designed promotion to help local filmmakers ECTOFi (Electric City Television Online Film) to hype up their upcoming psychological horror film, Piece by Piece!

Piece by Piece was filmed in the Great Falls and Cascade areas in summer of 2010 and starts several talented members of the local scene, including official Johnny Depp impersonator Danny Lopez. (the film even features cameo extra parts by Team KAIZEN members Gene Oliver and Josh Hughes, as well as friend of the staff Richard Dunbar!) Piece by Piece will be the centerpiece of the Great Falls Film Festival on January 15th at the Great Falls Civic Center.

Can’t wait to see Piece by Piece until then? You’re in luck! There is a key part in the film where a demonically-possessed character says a 5 line poem. We broke the poem into 5 pieces and hid them at area businesses and have tasked people in the North Central Montana area with bringing the pieces back together! You can get 1/5th of the poem at each of the following area businesses:

Licini Print Shop
506 2nd Ave S.

Play N Trade
800 10th Ave S. #2

Times Square Shopping Complex
525 Central Ave

Petcetera
1525 10th Ave S. #2

3D International Restaurant
1825 Smelter Ave, Black Eagle

Collect all of the poem pieces then send them to contests@teamkaizengames.com –you’ll then be entered into a drawing for one of 4 slots to attend the press screening of Piece by Piece on December 28th at the Times Square Shopping Complex in Downtown Great Falls! Winners will be notified on December 14th and will receive 2 tickets and a limited edition numbered press kit designed by Add-A-Tudez Entertainment Company. Good luck and thanks for supporting the indie arts in North Central Montana!

Josh, Trevor and the Add-A-Tudez Entertainment Company Crew

Team KAIZEN has been accepted to run a project on grassroots-investing site Kickstarter! (http://www.kickstarter.com)

For the uninitiated, Kickstarter takes people like us (needing investment) and, instead of hooking us up with 1 or 2 big time investors (who would, in turn, have a financial or stock stake in our company), hooks us up with thousands of smaller investors that pledge anywhere from 1 dollar to $2,000.00 in return for rewards from us.

Notice I said Pledge–we have to meet a minimum number of pledges by August 15th at 10:30 PM Mountain Time ($35,000.00) or none of the pledge people will pay anything. So, please check out our site on Kickstarter HERE! (Or just check out the widget below–which ever works for ya!!)

Now I bet you are thinking, what the heck is up with the headline and what are my incentives to invest? Well, here is our tiered reward system!! Remember, if you buy a certain tier, you also get all the rewards for less expensive tiers–it adds up!

$1.00
A thank you letter and kept in the loop on future TK and Add-A-Tudez developments.

$10.00
Previous reward plus, if you have a Twitter account that is not based on inappropriate content, we will follow you and send a Follow Friday shout out to our followers mentioning you!

$15.00
Previous rewards plus a special mention right here on the KAIZEN Blog!

$20.00
Previous rewards plus a download token for a free download of the theme song to Shattered Soul off of the iTunes music store, as performed by the now-defunct LA rock band My Evolution.

$40.00
Previous rewards plus a limited edition Inspired Insanity shirt. Inspired Insanity is AEC’s slogan.

$60.00
Previous rewards plus your name in the final credits of Shattered Soul (the full game, not the tech demo).

$120.00
Previous rewards plus a custom one-of-a-kind necklace designed by Great Falls’ own Cyndi Hughes of Turtle Mountain Designs.

$500.00
Previous rewards plus a ticket for a tour of our studio once it opens in Great Falls. There is some stipulations here: this is only for the tour and NOT for travel, food or lodging. Also, if we have a dev kit on site and the manufacturer asks us to not let the general public near it, then the tour can’t include rooms that have dev kits in them. Finally, attendees may be asked to sign NDA’s (Non-Disclosure Agreements), all a NDA stipulates is that attendees won’t be allowed to share any company secrets they see without prior written approval from us.

$750.00
Previous rewards plus your name hidden in one of the environments (such as a street being named after you).

$1,000.00
Previous rewards plus your likeness being hidden in our game. This can be through you being a non-playable character walking down the street or a photo of you on a billboard advertising a fictional product.

$2,000.00
Previous rewards plus one of the playable characters’ middle names being named after you or chosen by you. Only 20 slots available.

Thank you very much everyone! Let’s rock this!
Josh, Trevor and the TK Crew

Check it out!!!! They are covering our win in the Digital Media Learning Competition! Like what you see? The support us by going over to http://www.dmlcompetition.net/pligg/story.php?title=128 and casting your vote for Discovery Pier so we can also snag a People’s Choice Award!

Please vote for us! ]]> http://www.teamkaizengames.com/dev-news/reimagining-learning-2010-competition-winners/feed/ http://www.teamkaizengames.com/careerpositions/character-modeler/ http://www.teamkaizengames.com/careerpositions/character-modeler/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 08:02:44 +0000 James Scharmack http://www.teamkaizengames.com/careerpositions/character-modeler/ Job Description

Team KAIZEN is looking for insane individuals to be Character Modelers. Character Modelers will need to be able to create AAA quality Character Models using a variety of programs and hardware configurations.

Responsibilities

A) Do all work necessary to produce Character Models for Team KAIZEN’s projects in coordination with the animation team, other modeling teams, art teams, animation lead, animation and modeling supervisors, Art Director and Lead Game Designer.
B) Check to ensure lack of errors (such as texture/map issues).
C) Help correct errors and/or address requests for alteration by either the Art Director or Lead Game Designer.
D) Other duties as needed.

Apply

As those of you who follow my Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/ZookeyTK) have probably already found out, I traded in Final Fantasy 13 without beating it. I know, to many people, that’d be a shock–people are used to hearing me preach my love for certain Final Fantasies (including 7 and 10–as well as their sub-stories told via additional games and films). 13 was to be the grand return of Tetsuya Nomura and his crew to the FF series proper, and I was excited for it for many years. Before I dive into the reasons why I gave up on 13, let’s post 2 concurring opinions:

HarmonixSean (Sean over at Harmonix, he’s their community manager–and this was posted on his Twitter http://www.twitter.com/HarmonixSean):

I think if it weren’t called Final Fantasy but were called like Cabela’s On-Rail Fight Simulator no one would be arguing its merits.

Tycho from PennyArcade (www.penny-arcade.com):

Imagine my surprise when discovering that the dude with a chocobo literally roosting - roosting, sir - in his afro is the only character I have any affection for. I don’t understand the thinking behind giving me lead characters, which the narrative can slowly alchemize into gold. Why don’t you give me gold characters, and then refine them into platinum? I mean, if we’re absolutely dedicated to transmutation? God, I hate these fucking people. I don’t give a shit what happens to Sulky, Twat, Twit, Pip, and Marm. Sometimes, I kill them on purpose.

We have at times considered the plight of the games reviewer. Forced by the mechanism to consume games, because more games are coming, cresting the hill, and these games must be consumed also - but at least someone is compensating them for their time. I considered loading it up last night, just as I have every night since I got back, and I could make no cohesive argument for why I should do that and not something else. It’s horrifying to think that I had defeated Uncharted 2 by this point, traversed a full narrative arc, in the time it took me to hate Final Fantasy XIII.

Funny thing is, I like PennyArcade, but I **RARELY** agree fully with what Tycho says. Even if I agree with most of it, there’s usually some barb of a comment I take issue with (obviously, not enough of an issue to not love PA). This is one of those rare times. Outside of Sahz (the man with a Chocobo roosting in his afro), there isn’t any likable characters in FF13. And, like Tycho, I sunk in more time in FF13 than I did Uncharted 2’s first play through before realizing how crappy of a game it was. It was like I was reading my personal insights, but penned by someone else! Beyond that, here’s my laundry list of things to hate in FF13:

A) Linear as hell. When the reviewers said this, it sounded familiar to comments made about Final Fantasy X. When X came out, it was linear, but on purpose–there was a story to tell and the game designers put you on a track to see the sights and hear the sounds they meticulously created for you. Final Fantasy X got good reviews, as did Uncharted 2 (currently accepting it’s millionth Game of the Year practically) and God of War 3 (which is sure to rake in another million GotY’s)—all linear. I had no idea what they were saying with FF13 being linear and bad–now I understand. What they mean is that, instead of letting you explore in any fashion, you are put on a slot car track and just expected to run and get into pre-determined fights. You can’t stay in an area to try and level up your character—you just keep moving forward, and the set pieces are very bland. In games like Uncharted 2, NaughtyDog worked hard to create beautiful environments. In FF13, much of it feels cookie-cutter, not only on itself (you can run into many areas of a map and get confused–it looks practically copied-pasted upon itself) but also a lot of other sci-fi media. The treasure boxes, for instance, look like they’d be more at home in Star Wars than a Final Fantasy. The end result is the game trying to train you to hold up on the analog stick for an implied reward of a video showing more of the story.

B) No leveling up. Like I said in A, all the fights are pre-determined. Other Final Fantasies, you could stay in an area and keep getting into fights until your characters become stronger. In 13, not only are you limited to these pre-determined fights, but your characters don’t even have levels!! To become more powerful, you earn CP points. These points are spent on a board called the Crystarium–which is very similar to Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid. Not only are you limited in the fights, but if you happen to gain a surplus of CP points, there is story-driven blocks on the Crystarium!! This means that, until you hit a certain story segment, you can only power up so much–I have had times where I had reserves of several thousand CP points I couldn’t use–and to make things worse on this check out C:

C) Unbalanced as hell. I wouldn’t mind this if the Crystarium didn’t have those blocks in it. However, I will have my characters either fully maxed out (for the time) or extremely close–and most fights will be easy–but there is some fights that are uber tough and there is no way I can become more powerful for them. The final straw where I quit 13 was a normal enemy–this enemy had an attack where it unleashed a gattling gun on me. I had full health and a shield (not to mention an ally frantically healing me on the side) and, through several tries, I was successfully killed each time–with atleast 5 seconds left in the attack. If this was any other Final Fantasy, the fault would be my own because I didn’t level up enough. However, when I am only allowed to power up so much–and I did EVERY fight that came my way to make sure I wasn’t short-changing myself, this is complete crap.

D) Eidolons. Eidolons are the summons in the game. When you encounter one, they cast Doom on you (which roughly gives you 200 seconds to live) and you have to fight them. Most of them have alternate things you can do in battle (such as heal wounded people) that will impress them more and, once fully impressed, the battle ends and they join you. These fights are also unbalanced as hell–both of the ones I faced were required by the story and both required me to go grab Trevor’s guide to the game–the info given in the story (while somewhat helpful) wasn’t enough. I absolutely hate games that try and make you buy the guide!! As if their cheap tactics wasn’t enough, they seem to lose a lot of power once you get them. Even Trevor noticed that the Eidolon’s (in battle alongside you) are flashy, but not very helpful–it was far more convenient just to have the team out hacking away–so I know it wasn’t just me being mad about the fight I had to go through to get them. Odin’s (one of the Eidolon’s) fight is so out of balance the guide actually suggests you go into the game settings and slow down the battle speed!! Trevor is a veteran of Final Fantasy–he beat Emerald Weapon in Final Fantasy 7 (an insane optional boss fight) as well as the optional over-the-top fights in Final Fantasy X and XII–not to mention Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts II. He’s used to tough fights. He even had to change the game settings to have a chance against Odin!! That isn’t challenge, that’s unbalanced. It’s like breathing underwater–it isn’t challenging for someone who doesn’t have gills, it’s downright an unrealistic expectation!

E) You can only play as one character. In other FF’s, you play as a whole party, in 13 you’re forced to play as one character (for most of the game, you aren’t even allowed to pick which character!). If this character falls in battle, (EVEN if the other two are still standing!!) it’s game over. I can hear a chorus of you out there, “What about Phoenix Downs??”–I asked the same thing. Apparently, whatever character you play as develops an allergy to them or something–as they’ll only work on your team mates. If you fall, they won’t use one on you. (For those of you wondering, Phoenix Downs are an item in all Final Fantasies and they bring dead party members back to life). What is especially frustrating is that the last FF game Nomura’s crew worked on, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 for the PSP, had this problem solved. For the first time in FF, you could pre-equip a Phoenix Down, which would cause a glowing feather to be above the player. If the player died, then the character was immediately revived and the feather disappeared. Excellent fix–great gameplay mechanic! So, why in the name of all that’s good and just did they break a working idea? And, further more, why can’t you just cycle to a different team member if you die? Throughout the game you play as all of these individuals at one point or another, so it makes no sense!

F) Irritating characters. I said it before, and Tycho said it beautifully–but man these characters suck! I like Sahz–but I just wish he was in a different game! Lightning has severe anger problems–the more you learn about her the more you learn to completely dislike her. Vanille isn’t bad per se, but her perky character style has been repeatedly done in FF for who knows how long, so she has practically no weight in the story to me. I look at her and see, atleast partially, Rikku from FFX, Selphie from FF8 or Yuffie from FF7. Hope is so irritating I want to actually reach through the screen and kick him–and I’m a non-violent person!! Snow has an irritating hero complex that makes him seem very waxy and Ken-doll like–the opposite of what Nomura usually achieves.

E) No money from battles. You do shopping at the save points–or, rather, you WOULD if you could get some dough! Apparently, Cocoon and Pulse (the worlds of FF13) are experiencing a greater recession than we are! Every other Final Fantasy you get a small amount of change from battles–as you fight more, not only do you become more powerful but you bolster your wallet. Here, you randomly find money–and you find it so sparingly that the stores become completely worthless.

F) Very few towns. Towns are an RPG staple, you are going to save the world and the towns introduce you to the people you are standing up for! The makers of 13 said towns are too hard to do in hi-def. Hmm. White Knight Chronicles, Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean 4, Eternal Sonata, Fallout 3, Oblivion, Borderlands and even Demon’s Souls seem to disagree with that! (I know, Demon’s Souls doesn’t have vibrant towns–but it has more to it than 13 does!). No one said making a modern RPG is easy–but if you sit back and talk about how it’s impossible then your competitors will waltz right by you.

G) To upgrade or to buy? Technically, in response to E, you could get money from selling current equipment. A lot of Final Fantasies had that as another option–and it did help. However, 13 tries to combine this commerce approach with an upgrade system where you can find spare parts and use them to make current weapons stronger. Since I wasn’t finding money, I decided to do just that. Very soon, my weapons (which were all either the first or second weapon my characters found) were more powerful than the ones on sale in the stores a full 10 hours into the game!! At that point, why have more than 1 weapon? Why not just have the upgrade system and only have the stores for healing items? If I really wanted to buy the new (and, presumably, cooler) weapons I’d be shooting myself in the foot! This whole thing seemed rushed and under developed–which, again, is rare for a Nomura game. This man, and his team, usually hit it out of the park!

H) Some beauty with a lot of bland. The character models are beautiful, but a lot of the rest of the game is very bland and unremarkable. This is in stark contrast to Nomura’s last proper Final Fantasy, FFX. FFX launched on the PS2 and is still breath taking. In 13, there’s a part where you see ships on a lake–when I saw it, with the bland sky (that actually looked to be obviously made up of giant squares) and practically nothing vibrant happening, my thoughts traveled to FFX, in which you cross a similar lake. There was more life in the background and FFX felt more populated and vibrant–13’s lake scene felt like it was very early in Beta (pre-release).

I) The Paradigm System. This is a system you change mid-battle to tell your other team mates how to behave. Sounds cool at first–until you realize each behavior only has a limited range in what it can do. So, to be effective, you end up have to change many times throughout an even somewhat challenging battle.

J) Healing people can’t attack. If you change the Paradigm system so someone is a Medic, they can only heal. In previous Final Fantasies, Medics could attack badguys, even if only with weakened ability. In 13, they are helpless. What is even more irritating is when the game forces you to play as a character who practically can only be the medic (such as Hope)–at that point you are just repeatedly tapping X in battle whilst the AI characters have all the fun.

K) TP system. TP (can’t remember the actual name) replaces magic points in 13. In most Final Fantasies–people are given magic points and each spell costs a different amount. To regain magic points, people can be given Ethers, and the more they fight the higher the magic points cap is raised (and, thusly, the more magic can be used before an Ether is needed). In 13, only the lead character has TP and can only have a max of 5. It never gets higher and is only replenished through getting good combos in battle. Thankfully, most magic doesn’t use TP, only hard hitting ones like Quake (which attacks all enemies via Earth magic) do. However, a lot of 13 is based around the spell, Libra–which uses 1 TP and the idea is it reveals all the secrets of an enemy. Libra is required on Eidolon fights to even have a chance of knowing what to do. The fun part? Libra **NEVER** works the first time!! Every single time Trev and I had to use it, we had to cast it twice–giving up two full TP points when one should have sufficed. TP is just an attempt to fix a working system. There was nothing wrong with magic points and Ethers—but the team behind 13 felt they had to go add complexity where it wasn’t needed. On top of that, the whole Libra situation just punishes players for trying to follow the established rules of the game.

L) The bland riding sections. There is sections in 13 (I only ever played 1 section, but the tutorial hinted there’d be more) where you ride atop a giant robot and walk around. Sounds fun right? Wrong. Enemies can’t hurt you while you are riding it, and stepping on them is enough to kill them–so this devolves into the same as normal map-traversing in the game–holding up on the analog stick for an implied reward at the end. They tried to add a gameplay element by saying you could attack with your arms up to 3 times before needing to power up–but if enemies can’t hurt you and you can just walk on them, what’s the point? Also, to recharge the attacks, you just smash down fences–how’s that supposed to recharge a robot? The whole thing reeks of bland game design—there wasn’t even a split second of fun in it. It’s hard to describe how boring it actually is–because if you tell someone they’d be driving a big robot chasing bad guys they’d think it’d sound like a sure fire game plan–it sounds fun–but the execution is so horrid that the fun was drained out.

I’m sure, if I thought about it longer, I could write more about how I hate FF13. However, I think I successfully got the point across. This pains me a lot to say too–I love FF7–it’s the game that inspired me to be a writer! I also love FFX, and I still have a lot of respect for Tetsuya Nomura and his team. However, I do feel FF13 is a blemish on the good name of Final Fantasy and Nomura’s career–a blemish he’ll surely overcome–Nomura is the man!! (one of the many reasons I am learning Japanese is so I can someday thank him for making FF7). I do feel that going multi-platform probably hurt FF13 significantly, and a lot of the bland or under-developed elements probably have this to thank for it (most people don’t realize how much extra work it takes to make a good multi-plat game, which is why the Bioshock series is one of the few that does multi-plat right. Start a Bioshock game some time and count the studio logos that pop up and you’ll get an idea!). However, going multi-plat alone can’t explain all the faults of FF13–some of them (such as the odd battle design and inability to use Phoenix Downs on yourself) are more game design related and not, “We have to drastically cut this game up to fit on 2 very different systems” related–so it’s perfectly plausible that these tainted elements would have been in the game had it retained PS3 exclusivity. I do believe though that all these elements, both poor game design related and massive cut backs related, conspire together to make for a fact that pains me to say: I believe the Final Fantasy series has jumped the shark.

What we aim to do is pitch Great Falls as the epicenter for the independent video games industry. We are working on making a tech demo of our game, Shattered Soul, which we will use to win a multi-million dollar contract with a major publisher to bring jobs and opportunities to our town–we will then use this momentum and work with the Great Falls Development Authority (www.gfdevelopment.org) to bring even more studios and companies here, giving Great Falls a new business and economic frontier!

Please vote!
http://www.refresheverything.com/gfgames