spring07

Entries sorted by date:

31-May-2007
30-May-2007
29-May-2007
27-May-2007
09-May-2007
08-May-2007
05-May-2007
02-May-2007
29-Apr-2007
26-Apr-2007
23-Apr-2007
19-Apr-2007
12-Apr-2007
07-Apr-2007
02-Apr-2007
31-Mar-2007
25-Mar-2007
17-Mar-2007
16-Mar-2007
13-Mar-2007
09-Mar-2007
05-Mar-2007

Howling Imam and the Headless Kuffars present Vera the Infidel's ingenious "Out of Context Imam Song" in glorious mp3-format. Woooooooooo!

Lyrics here!

Now also Abu Izzadeen music video!

31-May-2007: New and Old Ideas

This is the last entry of the spring, so it is good to have something special for it. After all, I'll soon move this page into the archives as Spring 2007 and not many people bother to read them anymore. First, the results of the visitor counter. The first 24 hours showed roughly 220 unique visitors and at this stage, pretty much everybody was unique. Some of them might be bots, blanks, mistypes and whatnot but I like to think that 200 were legitimate. That would give my pages a visitor count of 200 per day, or 6000 per month. Not bad. Even if the figure is wildly unreliable, it nevertheless proves there is traffic here. Yay!

I've been trying a out a new game I downloaded from the web: A.I.M. The basic concept is very intriguing: in the far future, Humanity is extinct but machines built for a great war continue their existence as a robotic civilisation. The player is one of the mindbots, a neuralnet AI placed in the chassis of an armed hover-speeder. The world is vast, shown in first person 3D and does not look too bad, especially given the speed. You can fly between outposts buying and selling stuff, equip your speeder, take on missions from various factions, explore areas outside the major roads and fight bad guys, mainly rogue bots from renegade factions. Sounds cool, looks cool and the concept is verrrrry cool.

The catch is that I think the developers originally meant this to be a mecha game. When they ran out of budget for mecha animation, they forgot to fix the control model. Hence, when I am turning, instead of smooth shifts the hovercraft turns visible notches to either side, throwing the reflex-based aiming and combat system into total chaos. The movement corresponds to a mech physically stepping to the side to turn but it does not fit whats happening in the game and should have at the very least been compensated for in the targeting system. Still, this is funky enough game for me to want to try out A.I.M2. I hear it is already out in Russia.

I have also quite a few new ideas bouncing in my head. As you may know, I can't really work unless I pour them out. Since few, if any, of these ideas ever go anywhere, I have no problem with sharing them. Perhaps somebody else feels inspired by them and does something along those lines.

STALKER is pretty obvious and it is moving forward at a steady pace. Much more brain-intensive project than anything else I've ever done, though.

VYÖHYKE -alternate setting is bubbling in the back of the stove. My very own Stalker-variant, something I could write novels and other materials for. Strugatskys meet Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, that kind of stuff. The main problems are having A) sufficiently different Zone to avoid plagiarism (if Borvaria could do that, this is not a problem) and B) inventing more human presence into the Tunguska Zone. The place is rather... remote. If Czarist Russia would have wanted to test a nuclear weapon, that's where they could have done it.

CODE/X - HORNA takes the myth of Hollow Earth and brings it to the modern day. Deep beneath Scandinavia, within the bowels of the geological area known as the Baltic Shield, lies a vast network of underground caverns that house the ghastly remains of a pre-glacial civilisation. The everlasting winter drove them underground and they regressed, leaving behind not just technological relics, degenerate tribes and terrifying monsters but also a pre-engineered ecology that has had very little interaction with the surface for the last 50,000 years. The few encounters between the surface and the underground have been immortalised as Finnish legends of the River of Death, the Dwarves and Dragons of the Germanic folklore and the many strange things found in Lappish and Karelian mythology. The last human incursion into this realm occurred a century ago, during the Gold Rush of Lappland in the early 20th century. It came to a tragic end. Now, certain organisations and individuals have come into possession of previously concealed records of that era and are preparing new rival expeditions...

CODE/X - NOMAD takes place in deep space, aboard the colonial biosphere vessel NOMAD. While taking its cargo of 10,000 cryogenically stored pioneers at sublight speeds towards other stars, a collision with an alien organism in deep space severely damaged the ship, knocking it off course and contaminating a good deal of its internal biosphere with alien genomes. Early battles between the xenomutants and the ship security systems convinced the AI that the biosphere was a lost cause. Crucial systems were isolated, put into care of robots and any biological intruders would be attacked. By chance, the autonomous systems controlling the cryogenic sleep succeeded in awakening some of the uncontaminated sleepers, who then sought to awaken others and take back their massive ship (really, all things considered, the size of a large city) from both alien and machine control. It was a dismal failure. Humans were crushed and scattered. Most were killed but bands of survivors found refuge in the nooks and crannies of their enormous artificial world. Eventually, most of the bands died out. Some survived and merely a generation later they would huddle under warm air ventilation ducts swapping tales of a lost paradise known as Earth. Aliens are their demons and the use of science and technology are remembered in songs and rituals, without real understanding as to how or why things work. Braves from all tribes explore the unknown depths of their home, looking for food, tools or knowledge, but most importantly ancestral messiahs, who still lie dreaming in in their forgotten tombs. People like you.

MIEKKAMIES - AURINGON VALTAKUNTA extends the tale of Miekkamies RPG, my first ever published RPG. This time, the focus would be on the lost continent of Atzla beyond the Green Sea. Colonies and viceroys suddenly find themselves under attack by the ancient kings of Atzla, now risen from their pyramid graves as demonic undead. A call goes out for heroes, promising land and riches in exchange for brave hearts, sharp swords and arcane arts. But since when have the dreams of men been so simple? There are those who would make themselves emperors of this new land, or turn to darkness themselves in exchange for immunity or eternal life. Miekkamies has always been Baroque Fantasy. Auringon Valtakunta expands the setting into a New World of colonies, pirates, indians, lost treasure and ancient curses.

THULE (Ultima Thule was unfortunately taken) is a historical fantasy roleplaying game that puts players into the shoes of adventurers, courtiers, mercenaries and privateers in and around the Baltic Sea at the end of the 16th century. This is the age of Elizabeth I and Ivan the Terrible, when fierce sea battles are raging between Swedish privateers and the Hanseatic League. Religious wars are wrecking the Holy Roman Empire and while fanatical witch-hunters scour the land, kings and queens employ court magicians for divination and alchemy. The great chivalric orders of the Middle Ages have degenerated into secret societies and arcane cults but while witchcraft is a force to be reckoned with, the light of enlightenment and science can burn you as badly. Chivalry is being replaced by swashbuckling and bold adventurers can lay claim on gold, glory and the gratitude of kings.

BADLANDS is set in the dark future of the cyberpunk genre. Everyone knows that true power rests in the hands of powerful corporate alliances known as the Syndicates. What people don't know, is that the Syndicates are carving up the Third World, establishing their own enclaves and colonies with the help of puppet governments and mercenary armies. The first Corporate States are in the making behind a smoke screen of development projects and corporate wars. The great cities of Europe and US may gleam with neon and chrome but the fate of the world is being decided in the dusty plains and steaming jungles of Africa. Or, as cybermercs and runners affectionally call it, "The Badlands".

DRY RIVER is set in "a hard science fiction" future of Badlands, when Earth is under the control of an all-powerful Terran Syndicate. Overpopulation, on-going ecocatastrophe and depletion of natural resources has made Earth dependent on her off-world colonies on Moon, Mars and finally the Main Asteroid Belt, where all sorts of free souls, prospectors, pioneers and dreamers risk life and limb in the hope of striking it rich. Inspired by XXXX, YYYY and ZZZZ, Dry River would feature realistic technology, intricate social play within the small belter communities, rough-and-ready frontier spirit with wild west themes, without forgetting that in space, nobody can hear the member corporations of Terran Syndicates fight a bitter conflict over riches that give them power on Earth.

And then there is, of course, the big "I"...

30-May-2007: I Don't Believe This!

Pelaaja-magazine had an article about my upcoming book. It was well-written, had a very positive tone to it, stated much of what I had always thought to be its objectives and target audience. All in all, I don't think the publisher could have done any better with a paid advertisement.

Unfortunately it had one very embarrassing gaffe: it named me as the architect of the Darkest Fear -mobile game trilogy. This is just plain wrong. Darkest Fear and its two sequels, hailed as the Silent Hill of mobile gaming, were conceived and designed by Lauri Konttori, probably the best puzzle designer in the world (does not look too shabby on the art side, either). I was his boss at Rovio and I can tell you that the guy needed very little managing. He may have asked my opinion on occasion and I supported DF in the publishing board meetings. Other than that, I claim no credit for the games. Lauri does not think this to be a big deal but I think it is an embarrasment and wanted to set the record straight. God damn it, journalists! Check your facts!

On a more positive note, some of you may have noticed a brand-new visitor counter on this and the main page. At the time of writing it has been up for 21 hours and logged 132 unique visitors (based on IPs, I think). Some of them might have been bots, of course, but still it seems like someone is actually reading this. Which is nice. It would have been rather frustrating to find out that I have been ranting by myself for all these years.

29-May-2007: Status Update

This is the entry I meant to write before the "breaking the rules"-idiocy grabbed my attention. No horseheads in the mail yet.

The ARTO Game Producer Course I was attending has just ended. I was not able to attend as often as I would have liked (with reasons varying from being abroad to wanting to throw rotten tomatoes at the lecturer) but on the whole, it was a very positive experience. I've done the Master's Degree in Academic Games Research and Design at Frans Mäyrä's Hypermedialab and I have to say that ARTO kicks their ass. Not only were the lecturers interesting and entertaining, they were actual gurus from game development, management, lawyering and whatnot. But even more importantly, everybody who sat on my side of the table was also in the business. Sumea, Goodliving, Remedy, Ironstar, Frozenbyte... as well as Äänivoimala who wants to make an entry into games. Some of them I knew from before but most of them I didn't. I still have the interview for my professional certicate coming up but the course is now over. It was good, it was fun and it was very useful. And I even got to hold a lecture to the junior-level game development trainees at ARTO.

I've always had a soft spot for Frozenbyte, you know. It was really cool to get to chat with them. I have actually been contemplating doing a Code/X game based on Shadowgrounds. Something short and sweet, much like the Star Wreck RPG from Mike. Depending on their consent, of course.

Another good thing: Pelintekijän käsikirja is coming out also as an E-book, hopefully increasing its availability and lowering the treshold of purchase. I hope it sells well enough to buy me a new TV at least. I've also been booked to take part in a roleplaying theory panel at Ropecon. I have absolutely no fucking clue as to why they would want me there but if it helps the Con to happen, I'll do it. Other than that, my current plan is to run STALKER there. If my book has already come out by then, I might also offer to talk about it, or hide behind the podium while people throw rotten tomatoes at me.

Everybody is waiting for news on STALKER, I guess. There haven't been much progress because I've been busy with other things but that is about to improve. I have pretty much finished revamping the attribute point expenditure effects in the Gamemaster's Book. Next would come finishing the Xenology section and then the Zone Book. I am still at loss as to how to make the perfect Zone map but maybe my new artist, Hans Zenjuga (who, incidentally also happens to work at Recoil) has some good tips on manipulating Google Map charts. I'll do my darnest to modify it enough to claim it is a new work and if that fails, I'll still maintain it is a parody! It should not become problem but you'll never know.

Then there is this idea for VYÖHYKE: 1908 Stalker-supplement, providing an alternative setting based on the Tunguska explosion of 1908. Victorian Age Stalker with heavier Scifi-influences than before, PLUS an alternative game system and conversion rules for using dice (and based on what I imagine will be the final mechanics of Code/X). Those two works should pretty much conclude my work on STALKER. If it was my IP, I would then make it available so that anyone can do a commercial or non-commercial product on it as long as it still requires the rulebook for the game system, at least. Unfortunately it is not my IP so I can make FLOW freeware but not the Stalker setting itself. Hey, wait a minute! I don't own STALKER but I will own VYÖHYKE 1908! That could be freeware once the supplement is done :)

This concludes the update. Next time there will be a quick run-through of the new game ideas that have been bouncing in my head. Maybe somebody will get a kick out of them.

27-May-2007: Rules of Recruitment

Here we go again.

Some of you may remember back when Rovio Mobile was founded and its people recruited from other game companies, that there was an outcry against "Rovio breaking the rules". According to IGDA.fi forums at the time, the rules are that no Finnish game developer may recruit from another Finnish game developer without first consulting its management to check if it is okay. Somebody also made the further argument that old workers should not be recruited at all since "experience does not matter". So, patting each other in the back in the spirit of cameraderie, the execs agreed on what is effectively a recruitment cartel (that's illegal, by the way). Meanwhile, foreign industry professionals all the way from the US come to check out the forum and could not believe their eyes. Ludicrous.

Now, I've just heard about the same accusation being levelled at Recoil Games and its recruitment practises. Oh boy, stuff like this seems to follow me around!

Apparently the Finnish game industry is being managed by some private Sauna club of execs, who, amidst downing a few cold ones, decide who can work, where they can work and how much they are paid. Anybody who goes against this is chastised for "breaking the rules", whatever they are. So, in effect, this secret society can override the Finnish Law and invalidate established practises of the IT (or virtually any) industy. Being pissed at losing valuable workers, well, that is only human. But if the work force is in short supply, the proper way to compete for it is with employee incentives and giving them reasons to work for you, rather than just doing secret handshakes with other execs. And besides, what are they complaining about if experience does not matter?

Here is a piece of free advice for you, which unfortunately got left out from Pelintekijän käsikirja: If the only job you have to offer is that of a grocery store cashier, salary is pretty much the only incentive there is. But with a game company, you have a bit more freedom of movement. Interesting projects, varied assignments, cool-sounding titles. Of course, if you are not doing anything interesting and can't offer a competitive salary... well, I guess that means you are screwed.

P.S.

I was going to write about finishing the Game Producers' Course here but the Cartel thingie kind of stole my attention.

17-May-2007: Stalker Web Pages

I had promised myself to do something about the STALKER web pages this month and I did. Nothing too fancy but enough to show the text and image materials a potential voluntary web designer can later use for a higher-end version. Besides, I kind of like the sidebar-content layout myself (or am I just excusing myself for not having the skills to do anything more complex?). Anyway, except for the Zone-page it is all there. The Zone page will have text excerpts and more pictures from the STALKER rulebook. I've written quite a few of those present-tense short stories, so I might as well get the most out of them. In a game where you don't have to give exact values about everything (enemy Toughness is pretty much all we need to know), they make really cool hazard and monster descriptions.

In other news, the publisher sent me the editor's version of my book. As I excepted, it was soaked in red ink. It is nothing unusual, really, and fact books always have more stringent editing than fiction. But don't you wish you could write perfectly from the start? Not going to happen, I suppose but it is a nice dream. Anyway, I sent the script back with corrections of my own (based mostly on editor comments; I did not interfere with the very conservative proof-reading. That is how it is going to go to the printers next week. I think it will be out already in June but hey! No promises! The one thing in the book I am a bit queasy about is the author's introduction right in the beginning. It was added later on per publisher request. They wanted an introduction that would detail my history and portfolio in games in a very positive light, thus justifying the book. Now the whole thing reads like an American electoral campaign ad right, bringing out the best, the very best and only the best in the games I have done. Trust-me, fuck-ups are very important for learning as well.

I was told that some people in #pelisuunnittelu were wondering why I did not give any guidelines for setting difficulty levels in the description of FLOW on the STALKER web pages. First reason is that I want them to buy the god damn rulebook when it comes out and that is why I am not handing out too much information. The second reason is that the basics are there and anyone with half-a-brain should be able to figure out the typical range of player action results. If not, they should not be hanging around in a channel called #pelisuunnitelu (game design) in the first place. Somebody also asked if anyone there has experiences from playing with Flow. I think #praedor is the best bet for that and you have all read my playtesting report, I hope? One of the strengths for FLOW is the gamemaster control of the interpretation that makes it easy to tweak the game balance any way you like. The downside is that if the gamemaster is not up to the task, FLOW can also magnify his mistakes.

Speaking of playtesting, there is one major change to FLOW because of the playtesting results. I have increased and diversified the use of attribute points. Instead of just completing the challenges at hand, players can now use them as currency for all sorts of benefits, including gamemaster hints, retries of challenges and extended survival. I hope this makes people more inclined to use them. All the 20 people that can be expected to play using the FLOW rules anyway. <Insert a sudden rush of pessimism over the size of the market and the questionable appeal of such a specialized product.>

10-May-2007: Censored

Last night I wrote a new blog entry and then took it down around 10.30 in the morning. The #praedor IRC-channel is a good lithmus test for blog entries; if somebody there has a seizure, there is a good chance that tempers flare elsewhere. That does not necessarily lead to the entry being deleted, especially if I am really angry or passionate about the topic. This time that was not the case and hence not worth the hassle. Repeating what I wrote would defeat the whole purpose of censorship so let's just say that me and some other people disagree on the merits and flaws of the traditional tabletop roleplaying method. If this was news to you, you haven't been reading this blog for very long, have you?

In all honesty, I seem to be running out of targets for my flamethrower. Mike Pohjola and Juhana Pettersson are completely respectable these days. Besides, Juhana's recent articles in Roolipelaaja magazine are valuable contributions to the scene as a whole. I still have hopes for Eero Tuovinen but his recent work is quite good and it is already six months since his abrasive article in the notorious "Brainfart Issue" of the Roolipelaaja magazine. Judging from the last issue of Alterations, there is really no point in bashing Sami Koponen as he is doing a pretty good job of it all by himself (and he was small fry to begin with). Apart from these two, the Forge Fanatics don't really show on the radar. LARPing elitists seem to have vanished overnight. RPG theorists have gotten big and academic enough to discuss them amongst themselves and no longer pester the rest of us. Vampire players have long been part of the mainstream and you can't really refer to the Schools of Roleplaying with a straight face anymore. Random forum idiots are not worth continued effort.

All in all, apart from myself, the Finnish RPG Scene seems quite sensible, well-behaved and peaceful. How utterly boring!

08-May-2007: Soldiers of Anarchy

I missed Soldiers of Anarchy when it came out in 2002. I bought a used copy from UK in 2004 but it did not work, so I forgot all about it. Now I rediscovered it, mostly on a whim. Since I owned a physical copy I figured I have the right to play it and downloaded a fully functional no-cd-cracked version from Pirate Bay. Which, again, makes me wonder why anyone would actually buy their games in the first place since warez offers you a better gameplay experience. CD-checks are a hassle and in case of The Fall, the warez version even has an English translation available, courtesy of crackers. That is better customer service and product support from criminals for free than what you can get from the developers with money. I am not playing it, since I want to get myself a legal copy first, but that is just me. Really, is it any wonder that pirating software is so widespread since it offers you better production quality and gameplay experience than the retail version? We game developers are losing the fight against piracy because we are too busy shooting ourselves in the foot.

Anyway, I digress. Soldiers of Anarchy has proven to be a really nice RTS/RPG hybrid, like a mixture between Fallout and Syndicate Wars. Based on the discussions about graphics at work, all graphics from 2005 or before suck. I am nevertheless completely happy with those of SOA. You are using such a zoom level anyway that the lack of detailed texturing on somebody's face is not going to be a problem. Besides, the Slinger Humvee blew apart quite vigorously, thank you very much. Route-finding controls for the infantry sometimes spring a surprise or two and the wolves bite a little too hard. Other than that, I have enjoyed my little post-holocaust escapade, leading a group of soldiers long cut off from a world ravaged by deadly plague return from hiding and find that the world has become... well, post-holocaust. Right now we are trying impose some semblance of order on the region and defend the local village from further attacks by Slingers (bandits). Driving that care is a little tricky but I am really waiting to get my hands on some jet fighters. Unfortunately the opposition is probably tough to match. Soundtrack is excellent and weapons pack a punch. What's to complain (except the medkit prices at the local Seeker)?

Summer is coming and my post-holocaust visions are on the increase. Luckily STALKER is almost what the doctor ordered. While all post-holocaust adventures would not fit STALKER, some STALKER adventures would fit perfectly into a post-holocaust setting. I have an idea for a Mobsters-sized mini-game, a kind of a mixture of my old Badlands idea and Taiga 2.0. If I were a free man, I would write it. Instead, I am now gnawing on STALKER to get it ready and have been reasonably happy with the success.

After a run of pictures that will carve his name and reputation into the finest marble at the temple of the Finnish RPG scene, my premium Stalker artist Tuomo Veijanen has decided to focus on his family. I wish him well, for he has provided me with pictures far above and beyond my wildest dreams. He will have my eternal gratitude, a free copy of the game, a beer on me at Ropecon and his name in the credits. In short, he has achieved everything there is to live for. I have almost all the art I can find a place for but have managed to entice a few pics more from another artist, whose name shall be published as soon as I have something to show.

05-May-2007: Anomalous Behavior

While I am writing this, the Nazi... sorry, Nashi-party youths in Moscow have lifted the siege around the embassy of Estonia (having managed to make the ambassador leave for an unscheduled "vacation"). They have since moved to surround the EU Offices instead. In a statement that made me wonder if I am watching Candid Camera, the Putin-Jugend demanded that EU recognize and intervene in the "rise of fascism in Estonia". It is a marvelous gag but I fear the irony is lost on them.

So far, the Estonians have moved one damned statue from a busy street to a dignified place in a cemetary. The Putin-Jugend have had their own Kristallnacht in Tallinn with one person killed, assaulted one embassy and two ambassadors in Moscow, dragged the public image of Russia into mud and issued anonymous proclamations that the Russian minority in Estonia should form paramilitary cadres to fight the Tallinn government. Now don't get me wrong: I would love to see the EU recognize and intervene in the rise of fascism in Estonia. I am just afraid that the Nashi supporters still would not be happy, as they would find themselves deported by a German/Polish NATO force. That would be too much irony for them to take.

In the meantime, I am drawing tentative plans for the game launch, most likely occurring sometime in the autumn. By now the Stalker website was so badly outdated it was actually harming the project, so it has been pulled. I am still a bit at loss as to what the final Stalker website will look like. I mean, I don't have the skills to do anything fancy-schmancy and the Praedor-website template seems to work. Yet, it would be nice to do something, anything different. My problem is that I have a ton of black-and-white art. If I am going to use it, the site will have to be in black and white as well. Just like with Praedor. I guess I am stuck with that template.

02-May-2007: Outzoned

We live in interesting times. Across the Gulf of Finland, the government of Estonia decided to move a Soviet-era statue/headstone to a proper cemetary. The twelve unidentified dead from the Red Army dating back to World War 2 are soon to follow. Whatever lack of tact this may have shown on the part of Estonians has been dwarfed by the reaction of Moscow. Rioters (from a pro-Putin youth organisation) are besieging the Estonian embassy. Moscow police, normally so effective against unwanted demonstrations, are sitting on their asses while mobs break into the embassy and later assault the Swedish ambassador (who has absolutely nothing to do with the row) as he is driving down the street. Russia's minister of Foreign Affairs has stated that all blame lies with the Estonians and a Kremlin military advisor has warned Finland not to join NATO or Russia would take "appropriate military measures and Finland would be more threatened than before". By whom, he neglected to say.

Estonians announced that their information infrastructure is under a cyber attack from various Russian state department IPs and are requesting EU intervention. In what shape or form, I can only imagine. Russia has just announced delays in oil deliveries to EU due to "road repairs". Political climate in North Europe went very chilly all of a sudden. If the Americans ever tear their eyes off Iraq, here are some completely new doomsday scenarios for Hollywood scriptwriters and right-wing politicians to feast on. On the plus side, at the time of writing the Finnish Prime Minister Vanhanen has not apologised to anyone or anything. Instead, he noted early on that if Estonians want to move their statues around, it is their fucking business. For once, I agree. I can't believe that when I first heard of the statue, my sympathies were with the Russians. Well, you live and learn.

Speaking of Russians, Stalker is doing very nicely, thank you. Recoil is obviously taxing my creative battery less than Rovio was. Apparently it is the concepting and designing game mechanics that does it. Now, I am working on single concept for the next few years. There is a lot of writing to be done, of course, but I write as easily as I breathe (and have occasional hiccups at both), but it is all about iterating, refining and expanding a concept that is already there. And game mechanics are not my problem, although they do set a framework within which the story I write has to function. Anyway, I am tracking the work in progress with the page count and it is currently 133. Respectable minimum length for a roleplaying book is 160+appendices, so that is 88,6% right now. I do expect the final length to be more than 160, though. I am still writing the mutants and need another two chapters about artifacts and xenotechnology, respectively, just to conclude the Gamemaster's Book. Then there is still the whole Zone book to be done, including the legally problematic maps of the Zone Europe. As before, I maintain that all maps in the game are parodies of the originals.

There is another thing related to STALKER. I am really bad at writing supplemental material, as everybody must have noticed by now. But I am considering doing that for STALKER. The actual roleplaying game effectively establishes a new genre in the "new weird"-category (I hate that term since it is mostly Horror and Science Fiction anyway). I can then publish an alternative setting for it, one where the IP is under my ownership and control (by the same logic GSC used S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as the game name but I would have no problem recognising Stalker as my leading inspiration). It would also enable me to write a novel about it, if I so chose.

Copyright by Burger Games 2007:

Vyöhyke 1908 (Zone 1908) would be set in Imperial Russia around 1910, soon after the Tunguska Explosion. The event has created a Zone in the depths of Siberia, slightly different from those described in the original RPG but many of the elements are there. Rumours of otherworldly treasure and strange beasts are attracting gentleman-adventurers, treasure hunters and prospectors from all over the world, despite the best efforts of the Okhrana (Russian Intelligence Service) to drive them away. Xenotechnology is wreaking havoc with the science and engineering of the day and with the Great War drawing close, all the Great Powers are scrambling to get their hands on the Artifacts.

Steamboats struggle upstream on the great rivers of Siberia and the shantytowns at trade stations are a crossbreed between Wild West towns and Mongol camps. There would be parallels between native legends and the anomalies, hinting that this was not the first time in history when another universe brushed ours at Tunguska. Nor would it be the last. The ultimate goal, contact with the otherworldly beings behind the zone, would prove elusive and very dangerous.

Alas, the Great War ended the exploration of the Zone. Many of the explorers would perish in that titanic struggle. Scientific records would be lost in the Russian Revolution, burned along with the great minds that wrote them. Red twilight descends upon Russia and world forgets the Zone. When outsiders once again find their way into Tunguska, no trace of the Zone remains. Local natives swear nothing peculiar ever occurred there. All that remains of the monsters, the supernatural forces, magical items and gods that walked the Earth, would be tales told at campfires, recited to the beat of the witch-drum...

I think that'd be cool.

29-Apr-2007: Am I Spam?

I had a party to celebrate the Burger Games' first decade in business and invited around 30 people who have been associated with BG one way or the other. I did not expect everyone to make it but this is ridiculous. As a Burger Games Anniversary Party the evening tanked, although we did have a good time with the eight people who did come. I think I can safely say this was the first and the last party ever thrown by Burger Games.

26-Apr-2007: Testing STALKER, part 2

After characters were created, the party arrived to the den of a dealer and got a specified mission: acquiring a rare artifact for a specific client. Previous expedition had failed and the sole survivor was now in the custody of the Institute. The dealer needs to launch a new expedition right away, before Institute can mount its own. Target is not far: just across the Garonne river and into an area now referred to as the "Blue Park" (originally just a small park but now covered in blue, crystalline flakes, that keep falling on it from thin air and smell of sulphur). Besides your usual anomalies, they were menaced by the appearance of an aggressive inorganism called "Burning Man" (pun intended).

Rather stupid scenario, actually, just made to test the particulars of the system. Even then combat would have been lacking if the players had not gone down into the sewers and thus into the den of a small but tough rat-hunting Altered. The bite one of the characters got from it is actually enough to give him a one hell of a blood poisoning but in a single session scenario there was not really time for it. Characters were left shallow, there were no real roleplaying opportunities and the world was based on a cursory glance on the map of Toulouse. If I actually have a Ropecon-scenario, it has to be more complex. In fact, I got an idea for that right now... yeah, that'd be awesome!

Anyway, back to the test session. Moving about in the Zone was based on my experiences on running Borvaria. You figure out sceneries, not maps. First there was Ruined House, then Traffic Circle, then Chasm, then Churchyard, Straight Road and finally the Blue Park. I had not planned them well enough but had sort of an idea what they would be like. Each location, some more clearly than others, poses a challenge to the group. You could liken them to rooms in a dungeon, although I had only one monster in the entire scenario.

In retrospect, maybe it was good that my test scenario was so inane. It brought my perspective into the running of the adventure much closer to that of a GM doing his first run with STALKER. Sure, this was also my first run but I wrote the bloody thing! Some observations: First, in city scenes and especially with static anomalies, it is almost a must to draw a simple sketch of the street layout every once in a while. Second, as I suspected, improvisation is a must-have skill. FLOW has procedural world detail generation system, which basically means that any sensible assumption made by the player of his character's surroundings is true (barring a gamemaster veto). If they look around for an abandoned shop, voila! There is a shop just down the street! You get the picture. This, combined with the fact that in the grid-based layout of most European cities there are always alternate routes, must be prepared to change the order order of sceneries and perhaps have a couple more in reserve in case the players make a detour. Of course, you could limit then to a single, linear approach but this is not a videogame. You have the advantages of a real roleplaying game, so use them!

Third, the system might be too invisible. I covered this already in the previous entry but one of the consequences to emerge only later in the play was that nobody remembered they could use their stat points for lucky breaks and against-all-odds successes. That has to be rubbed into their faces, somehow. Maybe changes to the character sheet could do it. Fourth, I need to emphasize the human angle of the Zone and missions more. The dungeon approach works fine for Code/X but this is STALKER and there is a difference. Stalkers are part of an underground community and their reasons and goals for going into the zone shouldn't be just about money. Unfortunately I am not going to waste my Ropecon scenario idea by spouting it right here and now. But the point of all this is that no matter how interesting or powerful the setting, people are interested in people. If you have to go for TV-level melodrama to make it happen, so be it.

There are also some setting tweaks coming up. Originally I had specified that radio signals do not work in the Zone. There is no real reason for this, so in the future communications do work, although there is lot of static and some anomalies can scramble them completely from kilometres away. Ditto for radars. Although this makes it possible for Institute to use land radars to monitor the borders, the Zone is giving off enough odd movement and changes to create windows for stalkers to pass through unobserved. Just follow a dynamic anomaly and pray it does not reverse.

So, is STALKER moving forward? Page-wise, no. These are all tweaks and edits to existing material. Content-wise, very much so. No game draft survives the first contact with players unchanged and we are already past that stage. I am still hoping to get some pictures from a new artist specialising in creepy critters but other than that external material is there. As for the book itself, I am still lacking parts the Xenology section for Gamemasters' and the entire World Book (Zone Europe; and I maintain that all my maps are edited parodies of their origin and thus allowed as "free speech"). As a final teaser, the most recent (and by now already obsolete) character sheet can be downloaded from here.

23-Apr-2007: Testing STALKER, part 1

I ran the very first STALKER session yesterday, based on a draft of a concept I was thinking of as the Con scenario. There were five players, one of my regulars, one of my old regulars, one friend with whom I last gamed with ten-plus years ago and one entirely new person from the #praedor IRC channel. The session was a long one, about eight hours, starting with the character creation. In retrospect, I should have had a little more ambitious scenario to try this game on. We basically got to try out all the mechanics but human interaction remains at the core of any roleplaying game and making an open-air dungeons adventure does not really change that. But first things first.

FLOW as a system was at first welcomed by all. No one really contested the criteria for success evaluation and the algorithms were thought to be solid. As I thought, having a clear cut algorith with understandable probability curves did appeal to old gamers and the fact the game did not apply dice was at first completely overlooked. The expalanation of FLOW core mechanics at the beginning of the game were eagerly read. Later, criticism began to emerge: Despite having the mechanics described to them, not all of the players were sure of what was expected of them and it is true that the system is oppressive to gamers who are poor at oral expression. Since the mechanics are completely invisible during play, it was possible for a player to feel like he was unfairly targeted with bad luck, when he simply had not yet got into his character and his output was therefore stymied.

With experienced gamers who have a couple of sessions of STALKER beneath their belts the system is completely invisible for most of the session. But before that could be helpful, if the gamemaster announced Tasks, much like the need for dice rolls is announced in a diced game. Of course, this puts the player into spotlight and if you have shy gamers, they are going to get stage fright. Another problem related to ideas was that although having a relevant ability helped, players felt it was difficult to express ideas on subjects they themselves were unfamiliar with. Of course, the gamemaster's rules tell the gamemaster to compensate for this but in practise it is really difficult. The ability points system can compensate for that but it is not what it was really meant for.

One suggestion was to remove the FLOW system description and replace it with information targered to players: what to do to get the best results? What is expected of the player participation in the game? When to expend a stat point? Goal and execution, the liveliness of description, relying on abilities when possible and so on. These are the only parts of the system visible to the player, where as the algoriths are completely hidden, unless the gamemaster wants to make an issue out of them. I think it is a good idea but I have re-think where in the player's book to put it.

Character creation was enjoyed by all and especially by people who like write their character concept first and work out the numbers later. In Flow, character concept is effectively a prerequisite or at the very least gets created during character generation. Some had trouble wrapping their brains around the idea of choosing abilities first and then determining stats from them but once they got it, that part was easy. What did cause much consternation was devising Lights and Shadows for them. Originally, once you pick an ability, like "electrician", you got to choose an additional benefit for that (in this case contacts in an electric company) and a flaw (like having migraines because of an electric shock you once got).

Now, coming up with stuff like this is okay for two or three abilities. Doing so for all ten was clearly too much. First of all, lacking the rulebook and its many examples, players could not really figure out how strong or harmful the Lights and Shadows could be. So Lights were often treated as specialisations of the ability (which was not the purpose) and in Shadows they limited their options to stuff that was A) sufficiently potent to rank as a 2-4 point flaw in Praedor, and B) was directly connected to the ability. This, again, was not the intention.

I have decided to drop Lights altogether. The upside of having an ability (and "Friends" is an ability as much as "Firearms") is the ability itself. Without the Lights, coming up with ten Shadows ought to be a breeze. However, I added a list of typical categories of shadow, ranging from minor character quirks to missing limbs. This should encourage players to think outside the box. There is no need to balance any sort of points here: as long as your choice of Shadow feels logical and adds depth to the character, it flies.

19-Apr-2007: Flu is an Anomaly

I did manage to stave the flu off long enough for critical workplace events to be concluded. Now I can just lie down and die. Ugh. But while waiting for the inevitable, I have been prepping STALKER for its first real playsession. Unless something turns out to be drastically wrong with the system, characters created for this coming session will be given as samples in the actual game. I hope I won't lose my voice between now and the session. One thing that still bugs me in the book is the tight layout. I have already re-edited the layout once, creating much more empty space on the pages. Even so, maybe the book really could use a little wider margins. It looks good on the screen but printouts sometimes give me the creeps. We'll have so see about that. Hmm, I'd better create a game background music playlist for the weekend as well.

One of the grant applications for my book came back rejected. So wins and losses are now tied at 1-1. There are still two applications I am waiting to hear from. The third application out there always had a snowballs chance in hell. I think giving "we ran out of money" as the excuse for rejecting the application is lame. You are not supposed to rate the applicants according to how fast they sent in their papers but what it actually says on them. Maybe I would not have got it anyway but you get the point. Anyway, the one application that was accepted will have its grant paid this week, or that's what they said. It is already Thursday and I am getting nervous. It is a good-sized pile of cash but always seems to be at the end of a rainbow...

You might remember Burger Games having just turned 10? Well, I wanted to hold a party for past and present associates, so I sent them an email invitation containing time, place and catering. I also included a request for recipients to announce if they are coming or not and whether they are bringing avecs with them and sent it to about 30 people. Either they've missed it completely or I will have only four guests in the party. I hope the attendance will improve. It is not a public event but I know that many of those invited actually read this blog. So speak up, people! I am feeling the first waves of despair and panic.

12-Apr-2007: It's Done!

Today my publisher has accepted the script for Pelintekijän käsikirja. That officially concludes the writing, although if there are editor requests for changes I am of course doing them. Writing lasted from the start of February to the early half of April, that is 2,5 months. Astonishingly quick and I remember writing Old Dog being much more of a struggle. I hope it is because I have developed a better routine and do not sweat about it so much this time and not because my standards would be lower. Of course, writing fiction and especially depicting interaction between characters is hard, immersive work. Maybe it was so much faster this time because when writing fact on something you know the only person you need to immerse into is yourself. I am really interested in writing another novel next and this time it would be science fiction. I really want to see how it goes and there is some genre stuff and ideas I want to play with. Of course, I don't have a publisher or anything, so don't hold your breath.

While figuring out new mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (I dont want to patch it because weapon damage & accuracy mod ceases to work), I have been playing another new title: Silent Hunter IV: Wolves of the Pacific. I am a big fan of SH3, of course and would love to like SH4 just as much. But somehow, the game feels much more random. Surface-to-air radar works only when it pleases, the torpedo calculations are usually way off to the stern and a direct hit on the enemy propeller seems to do nothing to it. If the enemy ship damage models are component-specific (like in SH3 where you could blow masts and guns off the enemy ship), I haven't seen any evidence of that yet. The mission location system is very unclear compared to the quadrant system used by the German Navy. Finally, the game is buggy as hell. Compared to this, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. runs smooth as glass (not that I've had any big troubles with it anyway).

With the book out of the way, I have been able to pay more attention to the real STALKER RPG (I suspect inspiration from the videogame may have played a part in this). I have re-edited the player's book and re-written the part on oases. And like a divine inspiration, I got the perfect equipment list (which was a pain in the butt) done almost overnight. And if anybody implies any designer intent based on that list I am going to fucking kill them. Designer intent should be obvious from the theme of the game but for me, the whole idea that you could play a roleplaying game... wrong, for the lack of a better expression, is completely insane. How the hell did anyone come up with something so retarded? Anyway, these people should be happy this time because the role of the player character is defined very narrowly and I have used every trick in the book to configure FLOW mechanics to support this. Nevertheless, it is an Old Skool game and gamemaster superiority is an integral part of the rules this time.

I hear Sami Koponen, a well-known Forge-activist and an Arkkikivi follower, has put Mobsters on the list of games he wants to try out. If he wants to stick by the designer intent on that one, he is in for a long haul. Mobsters has this boardgame-style metaplay level to it and frankly, the PDF version does not really give a shit about balancing (the unpublished commercial version does but it has never been put to the test). This is not a problem in a super-gamemastered Old Skool-style of play but if you want to follow every nook and cranny in the rules, you might be in trouble. And in any case, completing any kind of meaningful campaign takes forever. The designer intent (or the default campaign, if you will) of Mobsters is to start out as a small crook with roleplaying scenarios and eventually move on to the metamap, where the boardgame-style play generates new roleplaying scenarios.

Now, I've used Mobsters for any 1920-1940 style gameplay. My best adventure with it, Murharyhmä 1, was actually about police detectives fighting Prohibition Era gangsters in Helsinki of 1931, without using the meta-level play for anything.

07-Apr-2007: Attention to Detail

Fans have really taken up the post-release development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Realism mods, economy tweaks, driveable vehicles and all that are already available from the game developer forum. And it's been what, less than a month since launch? I am glad that all the new stuff is here, I just think it should have been part of the original release. Pelit-lehti pushed its foot firmly into its mouth by calling the game "pipe-run". While it is not as freeform as it was originally supposed to be, a pipe-run it ain't, trust me on this one. Of course, I am a fan of the game so I am biased but I think its Peliplaneetta review was spot on. I'd just like to add that bugs seem related to machine setup. I have a Dell Dual Core factory specs machine without any tweaks and haven't had any problems worth mentioning, but some people have really bad run-time errors and graphics bugs.

I also spoke to a person who has really been to Chernobyl and other Soviet-era nuclear disaster zones (my father). He was impressed to learn that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. features the Vodka cure for radiation poisoning. I thought it was just a folk cure but he told me it is anything but. Even highly trained professionals and scientists in Russia and Ukraine believe (or at least believed in the 90'ies) that they must down at least a bottle of Vodka before going into a radiation hazard area. There is no medical reason whatsoever for doing so but still these professors and radiation experts did not budge until drinking almost a litre of the stuff while their western colleagues looked on in amazement.

Niilo Paasivirta, a one-man RPG institution if I saw one, suggested "Real Stalker" mod for the game: out with the human foes (except for entry points into the zone), limit the variety and frequency of Zone creatures, increase anomalies and add mobile anomalies. Create equipment you might need in the zone and put the trader station outside the zone border so you'd have to crawl back across the border to refit after each expedition. Level design would be an interesting challenge and you could create all sorts of hassles with the physics engine. I don't know if that kind of a game would really have that many fans (even the roleplaying game uses the human society of the Border Region as a springboard and catalyst for Zone adventures) but I'd love it. There are rumours of another Stalker-movie being made in the US but I could not find a link to it. I can only hope it is not yet another sex crime movie by the same name.

I have now finished the actual writing of my book about game development. Publisher set the bar at 140K characters, I set it at 150K but what I have is 199,787. I am now going over the script, proofreading, editing and tweaking. I am removing more stuff than I am adding but I expect the final text total to be around 199K flat. If everything goes well, I'll be sending the script to the publisher next week. I'll expect there will be more tweaks afterwards and the BTJ proofreader is going berserk, but that is life. On the whole, this has been really fast going. If my games would write themselves like the book did, Burger Games would publish three titles a year instead of the other way around. I have also been very surprised at how much common there is to the development of all types of games. When BTJ first asked me for a broad spectrum handbook on games development without specifying the game type, I was skeptical about its feasbility. Oh boy, do I sit corrected (and collect grant money) or what? Game design and development is not rocket science. You just need to think about things a little.

The book has effectively three parts: First a short one describing what and who the gamemakers are and what are the different roles you would find in game development. Then comes my take at Ludology, boiled down into terms I can use and understand. It is basically about the "hooks" that make games tick and how they are applied in different kinds of games. This is the chapter that will carry the book (and myself) into the pyres if the academics take over the world. But like it or not, my approach works and I have the resume to show for it (sheesh, I sound like some kind of dieting guru). Final part of the book is a down-to-earth rundown of the development process and how it is applied in different types of games. The process is actually remarkably similar whether you are doing videogames, tabletop RPGs or dice-rollers. Videogame industry just gets everybody confused because of the sheer scale of things. Since people in the industry already know what they are doing, the book is aimed at hobbyists and free-time game enthusiasts. It is also a good introduction to the subject before moving on to the thousand-page monsters on Amazon.com.

Late night edit:

Oops! This is embarrassing. I did a recount of the page allocation per subject and noticed I have actually as much stuff about post-release game brand management as I have on making the actual game itself. I guess that makes it a four-part book.

02-Apr-2007: Roolipelaaja #8

What? No April Fool entry?

Nope.

Today the mailman brought me the spring issue of Roolipelaaja magazine and I read it through, except for the larp parts (pretty pictures, though). Previous issue was excellent and I don't have any real complaints about this one either. It is just that reading Mikki's article on the history of horror RPGs makes me feel so very, very old. It is probably because he made a big fuss about the sandbox war over playstyles that occurred when Vampire first appeared in 1992. I was there and I saw it, although lacking Internet I never really contributed. But the whole incident was 15 years ago! 15! If we have to talk about sandbox wars, lets stick with the current ones. Mikki, we are old fogeys, you and I. We have to remember that.

For the record, Vampire did leave a bad taste in my mouth because my first and only play experience sucked ass instead of blood. I don't need my player character to be a hero but getting beaten into torpor by a bag lady when I tried to feed and then spending two whole sessions in the trunk of a car killed my interest for good. Later, when studying Vampire and other WoD books, I found the way they described roleplaying and its aims to my liking. Of course, being primarily a gamemaster, there never was a point in me being gamist, was there?

Juhana Petterson must be despairing already because I think his article about horror gaming is an absolute diamond. It should be compulsory reading for every junior gamemaster (and it is a good read for the rest of us). Since I am also writing a scifi/horror RPG myself, it was great fun reading through the article and comparing notes on how to create the sense of fear and keep players on their toes even in a tabletop game.Marvelous stuff, Juhana. This and the previous article on Antarctica put you on top my list of Roolipelaaja writers. But isn't it already time for you to do something moronic instead of these gems? Eero Tuovinen did good with the microgames article. Really interesting and not just for academics. Much of this stuff also applies to my secret, dirty hobby of planning Arcade Roleplaying Games (ARG?) based on videogame settings and logic, or Miska's RTP (ready-to-play) plans. One day we will see if any of that actually works but it won't be for a while.

As I am getting older, I am getting less interested in what other people are doing but Luke Crane appeared more or less sane in his interview. He almost feels like a kindred soul after stating that he wasn't punk enough for the Forge. In the beginning of the article is an interesting piece of information on print runs: Burning Empires RPG had a global launch and it sold 1000 copies out of the 2000 copy print run within six months. The rest will probably take a couple of years to get rid off. That is a global launch, people! Compared to D&D, WoD and possibly GURPS, the total sales for the rest of the industry fit within the margin of error of those first three. I've been told that if Praedor had the same production quality as Heimot, it would have sold thousands. Honestly, boys and girls, the only way Praedor could have sold thousands is if you could get high from smoking it.

I guess that covers Roolipelaaja. Good work, again.

31-Mar-2007: Greatest Monster of All

I can now say that I found the videogame monster that will scare the living daylights out of even the most senior and jaded game developers: a woman character in her 50's. She is too old to be a sex object, too young to be a funny old lady and nobody wants a "mother figure" in the game. There is no way she can be treated as an equal, a fellow human being, which is exactly what would happen with a 50-year old male character. The thought of her is enough to send bad vibes throughout industry. She is a game-killer, a sales deterrent, an unmanageable risk, a too bold step to be taken...

...or so I was told. Sheesh. I hope that the fact she came up in the first place is at least a good sign. In our minds (I am not as big an exception as I may appear) is a wall and I'd like to tear it down. Game industry could really use more women of all ages in design and executive positions. Of course, nowadays girls play videogames the same as boys so I expect the sex ratio to fix itself in... about as much time as it has taken with politics (still waiting). And it is not just about videogames. There are plenty of female roleplayers but where are the female RPG authors? There must be female LARP writers, at least? Yep, I am playing an old fiddle here but the problem has not gone anywhere since I first brought it up in 2004.

In better news, I am still enamored with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but I had to reinstall it to take off the latest patch. I never had any serious technical difficulties in the first place so the patch was not necessary, but I put it in anyway. The game immediately got quite a bit harder. Enemy numbers and spawn rates seemed to increase and they kept attacking even the first level stalker camp, until it finally ran out of defenders and was overcome. All the "rescue/help somebody" missions became impossible since the target was dead long before I could get to the scene. Loot drops were weakened so I had to live with some really crappy guns for a long time. Finally I could not take it anymore and reinstalled the game to remove the patch. It worked, the game is fun again (although I have the reflexes of a garden slug so I am using a gun/combat properties tweak) and now, second time around, it all seems much clearer to me. Curiously, the game appears more stable and missions less buggy now, as if the patch still had some effect. Maybe it changed registry files just right or something and those weren't uninstalled.

Just as I suspected, playing the game inspired to me write the Stalker RPG some more. Good deal of it is because of the vibes the videogame has been giving me (I strive for character immersion in videogames, which, I am told, is unnatural and even creepy) but there is also the need to check that the two IPs stay separate. The roleplaying game is based largely on the book and just a little bit on the movie, the script of which is also covered by the license. While I can use the videogame for concept art and atmosphere samples, that is about it. No massive firefights or fallout in the Zone. No 100 Rad Bar in the Zone, which is a shame. Maybe I could put a bar by that name in Toulouse? The one thing I am taking cues from the videogame are the Zone Oases. The videogame had what I wanted them to be down much better than my original game texts. Oases in the RPG will be more fantastical but only slightly so. And I won't have all those other people running around in the zone. Similar factions, and more, can exist in the Border Regions, though.

I had an Old Skool/Forger row (should I call him a "Narrativist"? I don't know.) at majatalo.org again. I've been trying to avoid those lately but this time I slipped. It is not productive since we can't basically agree on anything. Their perception of what happens in your standard vanilla GM/players gaming session is so fundamentally different from mine that I don't think we can even have a sensible debate. Since we Old Skoolers were here first (it's my term, do I get to define it?), I am tempted to suggest that the narrativists find some other name for their hobby. But let all the flowers bloom and whatnot. I am probably not the right guy to analyse my own gamemastering style. Ask my players. They ought to know.

25-Mar-2007: 100 Rad Bar

It took its sweet time coming and a year-long Vodka-fueled bender in the closing of the development did not help. It's name is a goofy copy for a brand they do not have a license for (but I do, teehee!). Their game looks like it is from 2005 and has bugs ranging from pretty annoying to rather severe. Even so, I rate S.T.A.L.K.E.R: The Shadow of Chernobyl as high as Far Cry. If you know me, you know that is saying a lot. I don't like saying that "game X is the best ever" because all my old top favourites broke new ground in their time and felt just as powerful back then. But right here, right now, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is the best videogame that I have. It could be even better but maybe it is good that it is not perfect. After all, I have to write my book and go to work in the mornings.

Some people have asked if the news of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. going into the development were the reason I began writing Stalker roleplaying game. The straight answer is no. Actually, the idea of Stalker roleplaying game came from discussions of Praedor's original inspirations, the novel "Stalker" being one of them. I wanted to do a modern/sci-fi Praedor and Stalker was the perfect fit. Two months after this decision, Ukrainian game developer GSC released the first news of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - The Oblivion Lost, as it was called back then. Nowever, I'd be lying if I said it did not inspire me. I gobbled up screenshots, soundbites and what little information was released of the game features and setting. The main difference was, and still is, my strict focus on modernizing the concept as it was told in the novel and the movie. GSC was building a first-person shooter, not an atmosphere-heavy RPG with a radical game system.

In the videogame, I am playing a stalker rescued from "death truck" with the game name tattooed on his arm. He has no recollection of his past and is referred to only as the Marked One by people in the Zone. The Zone consists of levels interlinked with entry-exit points. You can move freely within the level and they are big, including plains, trees, remnants of infrastructure, ruined buildings and the like. There are mutated beasts with more or less logic behavior (I was especially impressed how an entire pack of dogs began to fear me after two of them got a taste of my sawn-off) moving about. There is no reward in killing them and some are quite hardy, so they are best avoided. Anomalies are optical distortions, flashes, lightning and the like. Going close makes your vision grey and grainy and going too close inflicts damage.

There are also irradiated areas and you can hear the crackle of a Geiger counter when you venture close happens. Once contaminated, radiation damage is continuous unless you have antirad medicine... or Vodka! Yeah, downing a bottle or two during or after traversing through fallout makes you hale as a horse and drunk as a parrot! Only in Russia/Ukraine! Marked One also has to eat from time to time and the typical diet is canned meat, sausage and bread. Originally the game also involved sleeping but apparently it has not been implemented. There are times of day, weather effects, wind and freak phenomena.

There are also other humans around, all stalkers belonging to different factions. The storyline pretty much forces you to gun down Bandits and Militants but there at least three others. You can befriend them by doing missions and services for them, or anger them by killing some. There are too many of the human stalkers around for my liking but it does create a kind of twisted society in the Zone. They make their living by collecting artifacts (odd objects created by anomalies) and exchanging them for guns and various goods at "shop" locations or with people they have encountered. Artifacts also yield supernatural bonuses to player properties and damage resistance if you tuck them into your belt. It is always a trade off: something improves, something else degrades. Then there are different kinds of suits and a wide variety of useful (and less useful) goods.

You start out with a pistol but I recommend investing into a sawn-off shotgun from the start. Most monsters have to close in to harm you and both barrels from point-blank range will teach them a lesson. Weapons feel a little underpowered but there is already a user-made fix for that and I guess there will be more of those. Automatic weapons have different firing modes and you can either fire from the hip (inaccurate targeting reticle) or from the shoulder (looking through the actual iron sights or scope of the weapon). As for ballistics or physics in general, search me. I am not a fan of realistic physics engines and in Serious Sam 2 it actually pissed me off. As long as a barrel is not nailed to the ground (Doom 3) I am happy.

Then the bugs. Sigh. There are undocumented keys in the game that are not affected even if you configure them to some other use. so far, I have discovered that - hides the HUD, + brings it back, multiply-key in the numeric set accelerates time (but not the enemies, causing funky effects and mid-combat starvation) and the divider slows it down again. Then, the game does not keep track (I don't know if it is intended to) of what missions have been accomplished and where. Every time I enter a location where a Loner camp is under attack by Bandits, I get the same mission requesting my help and the same battle plays itself out again and again. Mission-critical NPCs die but are resurrected if you go into another level and return. You only get the reward once, mind you, even if the texts tell you to go to meet someone for the reward a second time. The net effect is that you can't really trust what the game tells you to do. And that is *bad*.

Another severe problem is the player PDA. First of all, it seems to record mission conversations randomly. Second, you accumulate missions and location clues very quickly in this game, so the map gets filled with special symbols. However, I have been unable to change the mission objective pointer from the top of the list, so even if the most urgent task is to do something completely different the objective indicator points to God Knows Where. You have reconfigure the map view every time you access it. With 100+ specified locations and side missions in the PDA, pretty soon you have no idea what you are doing anymore. Most acquired missions are freeform but sometimes the game appears to railroad you into doing specific missions. At first I thought certain levels become otherwise inaccessible but apparently there is always more than one way to get through the level entry point.

Even so, there are things to do and places to go in this game that are just unbelievable. The image of stalkers sitting around a barrel fire and chatting in Russian while one of the thumbs his guitar is burned into heart, not to mention how the mutant beasts' eyes gleam in lightning on a stormy night.

Wow. If you need me, I'll be right there in the 100 Rad Bar.

17-Mar-2007: Burger Games turns 10!

Burger Games was officially founded on March 17th, 1997. Today, it is ten years old. Three published titles and a fourth title, based on an internationally known IP is in the works, there are the semi-publications of Code/X and RoadKill as well as national renown because of the success Praedor. Finally, there is a pile of IP big enough to sit on. I don't think that's half bad and despite my rainy-day threats to close down the shop, there will be more. There will be an Anniversary party and I will write something about the history and goals of Burger Games later on, but for now, happy birthday for me and all of you who have ever contributed to making a Burger Games title!

Sung (loosely) to the tune of Orgasmatron by Motörhead:

I have a name, it's Burger Games
Written out in blue and black
I'm all about adventure
All the way to hell and back

Old skool and auteurish
Åker Fiat! Yes I do
I've got the coolest pictures
Got good figures too

Entertainment paramount
Gamemaster is law
With my name on the cover
There's bound to be some gore

I started out small and proud
It's tough I should've known
Building on the first one
Miekkamies was good I'm told

Taiga did not cut it
but perhaps it was all right
I bounced back from that one
I went looking for a fight

Everybody knows gangsters
Pulp adventure gone bad
Mobsters was sensation
Still drives my downloads mad

Praedor will rock your bones
Me and Petri saw to that
Through the roof go my numbers
It was high times we had

RoadKill was a failed test
Code/X had better luck
I look down on roleplay theory
The reputation stuck

Stalker is still out there
Taking longer than it should
There will be more, I am sure
Have my word and my word is good!

16-Mar-2007: Want to be an Author?

Here is your chance for a big break. My publisher, BTJ Finland Oy, has just announced a writing competition aimed at bloggers, where the prize is both money and a book publishing deal. While the idea of writing a reasonable-sized script may sound intimidating, check your blogs! Most of us bloggers have already written enough stuff for a good sized book and the Designer's Notes archive is not exactly small. In any case, getting into the writing business requires either a superb script (and publishers are really jaded when evaluating unrequested submissions) or good contacts (that was my trick). This is your chance to get one or the other. Or even both, if you are good enough. Writing for money becomes a lot easier if you are already on your second title (I should know) and with an existing publishing deal your chances of getting grants to beef up the reward are much better.

The new print run of Praedor 1.1. came from the printers and has been delivered. It will probably be known as the "blue print". The original cover draft was too pale, so I asked Domus Offset to tune up the blue shadows a little and go ahead with the print run. Apparently we have different definitions for "a little", so the cover is really blue. No worries as blue is my favourite colour. But I am not happy about the way Domus Offset handled this whole case. When I originally requested the changes in a reply to an email where they asked for my feedback, I did not hear from them again for another two weeks. I probably never would have, if I had not then called them myself. I was already in a bit of a hurry (and over a week late from the date I had given to Fantasiapelit), so I told them to just tweak the blue tones up a little and then go with it, since "I trust your better judgement on this". The results speak for themselves. I may have to start looking for another printing company.

In other bad news, I have to take back some of my praise for Neocron. While Evolution 2.2. has some really cool features in it, the developer, Reaktor, also made a big fuss about how it was supposed to balance the game "the way it should have always been". I freely admit I have no idea how "things should have been" but I think this is not it. Apart from low-level cyberspace mobs, the balance of reward and effort is shot to hell and many of the bigger mobs are virtually unkillable except for large teams. Now, Neocron does not have that many players, so extending forced teaming outside the old super-mob dungeons is a major bad idea. People are also losing money in player-vs-environment combat since taking down a mob costs more ammo than it is worth. Finally the damage-type specific armour system is a fucking disaster and the slower leveling pace is killing my nostalgia really fast. Until (and IF) they fix this, you should stay away from this game. Are there any competing MMORPGs in the scifi/cyberpunk/post-holo category?

13-Mar-2007: Okay, Spring Is Here!

I just got an arts grant from the Board of Information Publishing for my book and it is big enough to pull my finances up and out of the well even before the next payday. Roughly 150% the sum I am going to get from the completed manuscript, in fact. That is a bloody good start and I can't wait to see what becomes of the remaining applications. So, that is the good news number one.

The second piece of good news is that while my favourite MMORPG of all time, Neocron, has not always done so good, they have just finished a major update and for the first time ever, publish a trailer that does not suck outright. Neocron is the only cyberpunk-themed MMORPG out there and a solid piece of evidence of the fact that cyberpunk is not dead. Granted, there are some concessions to fantasy with PSI powers and post-holocaust so that they can get mutated monsters running around, but this is not Anarchy Online. Half-scripted, half-action-fps, I like it a lot even if it is not perfect and really needs a wider player base to work. If I ever find out whose idea it was that items sold in stores in MMOs are utter crap compared to player crafted items, I'll spank the hell out of him.

My character is called Kris Crimson. He grew up in the Outzones of Neocron City but remembers very little of it, since he kidnapped into the MC5 training facility to become a brainwashed runner for the city masters. However, rebel technicians tampered with the process and he resisted the procedure, although it did trigger extensive amnesia. Frustrated, the MC5 staff threw him out into the Wasteland to die. He was rescued by Tsunami Syndicate smugglers on their way to the rival city of Dome of York. Back in the Neocron Outzone, Kris had used his makeshift hacktool to open locks and break into supply boxes. With Tsunami in Dome of York, he is using his talents to interface with HackNet and to explore the wastelands of light and data that stretch between the rival cities.

Maybe I should start a character diary like I did with Rogue Roy in EVE?

Third piece of good news is that my Atkins diet is working and as of yesterday morning I had lost 8 kilos in three weeks. I have also managed push my blood pressure down again (128/92 is an excellent result for my mass) and I'd guess the two items are linked. I have also been toying with new foods, including self-made sashimi lunches. Maybe I should publish my diet instructions here some day? Anyway, next weekend is going to be Carb Weekend. It not only keeps my spirits up but also prevents the metabolism from slowing down, so all that indulgence has a purpose.

Yep, the spring is here. Unfortunately I don't have a happier face for my Avatar :)

09-Mar-2007: For the Glory of Games

Watching the movie Ghost Rider is not exactly an intellectual enteprise but one thought kept echoing in my head: "I am so glad that I am in the games industry. We can do everything that movies can, only better." Actually, for my co-workers at Recoil, a console game seems to be an interactive movie at the core. And whenever I quote or refer books to them, they look at me like I was some sort of a freak. Sure enough, while I do watch a lot of movies, I am a bookworm at heart and that makes me the odd one out there. I guess if asked what I would take with me onto a deserted island I am the only one who'd go for a good book (or make that "good books") instead of a home entertainment system. Sometimes I feel that literature is on its way out. Maybe it is taking roleplaying games with it as they are becoming rare, even on consoles.

Speaking of movies, 300 is looking great!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is finally coming out at the end of this month as GSC (the Ukrainian developer) run out of funds after their year-long bender and the publisher (THQ) finally got a stranglehold of them. STALKER by me (man, do I need to update those web pages at some point) is not coming out since I am writing Pelintekijän käsikirja. I guess GSC beat me to it, after all. Then again, they are supposed to make a living out of it and I am not.

There are rumours going around about a Praedor movie (triggered by this Wikipedia article). Things are not nearly as far as the Wikipedia article would let you believe (and I was told the Wikipedia entry will be set right soon), so be patient and keep your fingers crossed. Here is the real deal:

First, I'd like to remind you that it has nothing to do with me. While I like to think that I have contributed something to the development of Jaconia, it is Petri who owns the IP. I am as much as a licensor as the movie group. I actually met some of these people at Ropecon two years back (I think). By now they have a movie script based on Kuninkaan Lapset and have been offering it to Blind Spot Pictures (the producer of Jadesoturi). Apparently the studio is interested but not convinced the team can actually pull it off (Kuninkaan lapset would be heavy in special effects and fighting choreography), so the team is making a showreel to convince them. That's all there is to it, so they are NOT in preproduction yet. But I really wish they get it done and then let me publish something based on the movie and illustrated with movie stills.

The process of making console games and then looking for a publisher is not all the different, btw.

05-Mar-2007: Wonderland

I've been busy. I am writing a game storyline at work and my book at home (60% complete, btw, measured from the required minimum length), so there has not been much to do anything else. But now that Winter'07 is officially over, it is time for a quick update:

Diet: Back on Atkins and I managed to lose 6 kilos in the first week (probably half of it just water but my legs are grateful either way). I have a medical check for the work health insurance coming up. It will be interesting to get some feedback on Atkins from a real doctor. But really, it is hard to maintain this diet while working. All the planning and carb checks screw your lunch hour.

Videogames: I am slowly moving off from EVE (the crafty devils at CCP made me not to close the account because I can still train my skills while offline) and reactivated my ancient Neocron account. I've been having a blast with a brand new character but lots of things have changed and two days from now they will change even more with 2.2 update. Anarchy Online has tried to lure me back with promises new content and free game time. Thanks but no thanks.

Stalker: On hold, until I get the book off my hands. It won't make it to Ropecon this year.

Praedor: I was not happy with the draft the printing press sent me but so far they have not responded to my corrections. I ought to give them a call. Fantasiapelit is already waiting for its first two boxes (putting the total sold by me to roughly 700, I think).

Code/X: I keep coming up with these new settings. The trouble is that I only need one and the ideas I've come up with are not really compatible with each other.

You won't be seeing much of me until the book is finished, I am afraid. I guess my Ropecon participation will be limited to running Code/X sessions and arguing over my book non-stop with 200 people who all beg to disagree. Yeah, I am getting the same kind of cold feet over customer reactions as I got when writing Vanha Koira. This is only me second book, you know? And the very first training book at that. On the plus side, I had some misgivings at first when the publisher suggested I ough to write a generic game design book, instead of a guide for publishing certain kinds of games (such as RPGs). Now, as I am past the mid-point I have come to realise that different types of games have actually more things in common than not.

So, Ville, how do you like your new job at Recoil Games?

I just know some of you want to ask that. Well, I have tumbled down the rabbit hole and met a grinning cat who is invisible every once in a while. Ten (or thirteen, depending on how you count it) years in RPG development, three years with mobile games and two of those in a senior position and I feel like I don't know a thing. It is a whole new world out there. First two weeks at Recoil were really rough and at times I ought to sneak back to Rovio with my tail between my legs. Well, I pulled through and things feel easier now but make no mistake: In this industry and especially in this team, I am the rookie. Luckily, it seems that I am not too old to learn new tricks and this experience will definitely add new depth to my book.

Now also Abu Izzadeen music video! 31-May-2007: New and Old Ideas