Now, on to the good stuff. Making references to other games is nothing new. It's not even a new idea that came with games, it has been done in movies for a long time as well. There's frequently a line thrown in that only makes sense if you've seen movie X or Y. I personally do this in many of my own games that I make: I use friend's names for characters, I named a spell "Call of Cthulu", and have named various other items and characters after games I really enjoyed. What I am trying to do, and believe I am succeeding in doing, is paying homage to something/someone that I want to recognize as having a positive effect on me. Be it a great person, or epic game, they deserve recognition in my opinion. You can get away with this when the number is few and the spacing between them is large. The player will be probably be amused to find that their store owner is named Gomez Addams, but if the next town store owner is named Morticia Addams, the effect is lost.
Brevity is what makes homages work. When employed properly, it is a polite nod to the creators of whatever you are refering to. When overused, players begin to wonder if you can come up with any ideas of your own. References can also be a means of standing out, as it can draw attention to your game. Example " 'Splosion Man". This game on the Xbox Live Arcade was an indie game. It takes some effort to stand out in the indie market, and we can appreciate that, but 'Splosion Man might be trying a bit too hard. It is set in a futuristic laboratory, fine. It is about a guy who can cause himself to explode and immediatly reform, groovy pants. Then you find a cake.... Um, ok. Portal reference probably. Then, you find another, and another on every level. Remember Still Alive, the song at the end of Portal? 'Splosion Man has three such songs.
But, 'Splosion Man has nothing on the game that inspired this post, Vanguard Saga of Heroes. Regardless of the obscene number of bugs in it at lanuch and still three years later, VG had some of it's own merit. But the developers, decided to try some good ol' references to help define it a bit. Take the word "some" from that sentence with a wheelbarrow of salt. Here's a list of the references I can think of off the top of my head, and keep in mind these are the ones I caught and there could be countless more I missed:
A play on Fox McCloud from the Starfox games. Fox has on his team a one Falco Lombardi and Slippy Toad. Notice the name of the harpy standing next to the fox man, and the frog I have targeted. (He is camera shy and hid in the bush)
A quest called Living on a Prayer. [Bon Jovi song of the same name]A quest called Snakes on the Plain. [Movie of nearly the same name]
A quest: Storming the Castle. Not suspicious until...
A drop for that quest: This Gate Key [Princess Bride]
Note the name of the quest in yellow on the right. Guess what the Hobgoblins are throwing into the river? [Use your American History]
A quest called someting like: Beyond the Glass. [Has you go through some motions that I am told is exactly like Through the Looking Glass, which I've never read]
I can't remember any others at the moment, except one I'm saving for a second, but if I went around I would rediscover a truly alarming number of them.
Part of the problem with this crazy number of references is that player's start to lose the ability to distinguish between references and coincidence. Take this last picture as an example of this problem.
Bamf is a term that was coined by comedian Dane Cook. It stands for Bad Ass Mother... I'll let you fill in the last word. And yes, I am riding Randolph the Reindeer.
Is this intentional? Or did some designer realize he needed a name for the big monster stomping around and happen to hit get Bamf when he hit his keyboard? His Lordship is indeed a Bamf as the reference would imply. He is much stronger than other foes in this area. The snakes he is walking past are only level 33, and only ranked at 3 dots of difficulty which is a challenging solo mob. Bamf is level 40 and 4 dot rated, meaning he requires a group to take on. What this did was create expectations. When I learned that he does not drop a Dane Cook album, I was actually disappointed. This is where overuse of references fails, or using them improperly. If he had been named anything else, that wasn't itself a reference, I would not have been so disappointed with what he did drop. You shouldn't name your big nasty wandering bosses Lord Pushover, but names do make a difference in what your player will expect. Linking names through references only increases this problem.
Next week we'll take references one step further: borrowing stories.
What is wrong with the people in charge of naming enemies in Vanguard? Why isn't the level EIGHTY drake named King Bamf? Punk one shotted me off Randolph at fifty yards. Why do we even have an 80 mob in a game where we can only level to 55? Or... is this a reference to Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, and Age of Conan which are all games where you can level to 80?
Wow. The blind play is an incredible story. It's sad that it took two years. Seems like they could use more audio clues.
ReplyDeleteIn other matters, sometimes a little misdirection can help change-up game play. You might have to get past the dread knight Pansy to reach Lord Pushover. Names shouldn't always follow with obvious character traits -- sometimes it makes the play and story more interesting when the names are less stereotypical.