Chapter 0 #

“Order up! #103?”

The cook’s gray apron and red polo shirt were soaked through with sweat, and his thin mustache and long black hair curled from the humidity behind him. Steam and smoke emerged from the small noodle shop’s front window like ghosts escaping the underworld. The short, stocky asian man leaned out, underneath the bright orange neon sign, Lu’s Noodles, and looked around.

“Tonketsu Ramen, extra egg, extra meat! #103!” Lu said angrily, slamming the vinyl menu below the counter to make a harsh plastic clattering sound.

Intro #

I’m working on a game right now that involves a lot of narrative. That’s lead me to think a lot about moral choice in games, what I like, and what I want to do in the future.

For my game, Esmerelda: The Black Amber Covenant, I want to have quests and a morality system. But what does that look like, even just from the design perspective?

Well, let’s think about some games that did moral choice well:

The Problem #

Maybe like me, you work on lots of remote, terminal-only servers setting up stupid stuff like Plex, Jenkins, Godot Packaging, game servers, etc.

If you do this, you probably spend hours testing terminal commands trying to find the exact commands to configure your device properly. If your server ever went down, all that work would be lost forever.

Luckily, that command history is available on the device itself (up-arrow shows previous commands), but it doesn’t really help you if that VM is deleted and lost forever, or if you want to show somebody else the many steps it took to do something complicated. Copying commands one at a time is a non-starter too.

Intro #

The most popular apps and websites are designed to hook you like a drug. I had struggled for years with internet addiction, but finally feel free.

Here’s what worked for me:

Step 1: Go to a Therapist #

This was both the most important step. Being able to talk about my addiction with someone who could hold me accountable helped me fight back in a real way. Finding the right therapist was tough, but worth it.

Perfecting Survival Horror #

I think the games that have had the most consistent impact on me in the past have been survival horror games. But what makes a survival horror game perfect?

A survival horror game transcends the genre when it uses horror elements to effectively enhance its non-horror message. Here are some examples:

System Shock 2, Half Life and Half Life 2, Portal and Portal 2, Fallout 3, MGS2 & 3. I would consider all these to be games that have themes beyond “escape” or “survival”, and the elements of horror in these games support these non-horror themes.

I’m Doing it Wrong #

“If you’re not making quantitative predictions, you’re probably doing it wrong.” Said Gabe Newel, speaking about his company’s approach to design in this video.

Newel’s words got me thinking: What is a quantitative prediction? And how can game devs apply them to their design process? As a guy who wants to produce video games, it seems like a useful practice to employ.

Define: Quantitative Prediction #

A quantitative prediction is a guess based on a mental model combined with measured, numeric variables that ultimately tries to predict an outcome.

What is Esmerelda: The Black Amber Covenant? #

ETBAC is a game I’ve been working on (in some guise) since 2020. It’s a part-time, labor of love project, but I’m trying to take it as seriously as possible. I have big dreams for it, hopefully it gets to be as big as Stardew Valley someday.

Like SV, it’s a top-down adventure style game. It also is heavily inspired by Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It also draws on minimalist design styles from Gen 3 Pokemon and Earthbound to render the adventure.

What is Shorter Services? #

Shorter.Services is a SAAS application I dreamed up in December 2023. I wanted to make it easier to convert human-readable text from rasterized files into machine-readable data. I also wanted to make money off what I thought was a unique idea.

Fast forward 10 months, and I came to realize that my idea was not at all unique. At least 5 other, larger companies already had similar offerings. I was disheartened, but I finished the project.

2024 had some Big Problems #

This year, the gaming industry continues to face a number of challenges:

1. Big budget, AAA games are bombing with core audiences. (Dragon Age, Star Wars Outlaws, Golum, Call of Duty, and Starfield.)
2. Microtransactions continue to shatter immersion and prey on consumers.
3. Corporate interferance (risk avoidance) diminishes creativity.

But overall, I think these issues all stem from the same root problem. If you work in gaming, your north star should be “fun.”

Why Bother? #

In a synthetic age, I believe the most human thing we can do is to tell stories. Studio Mystery exists to foster and produce those stories, to keep us excited, entertained, and fulfilled. That is the mission of the company.

This blog will be a tool to support that mission: I plan to post plenty of fiction here, in chapter-length installments, as well as my thoughts on craft and design.