Hardspace: Shipbreaker and the impact of visual storytelling

Tags

audio storytelling, blackbird interactive, design, early access, focus interactive, game design, hardspace, hardspace shipbreaker, narrative, single player, steam early access, story, storytelling, visual storytelling

I’ve got a new gaming obsession. It’s Hardspace: Shipbreaker, a game where you play the role of a Cutter that chops up derelict spaceship and repurposes the various components, either by refinement or straight-up salvage. It’s already a brilliant and unique bit of gaming and is only just in early access, meaning that its already impressive gameplay can only grow from here on out.

I could write up plenty of effusive praise on this game as it is, but I’m not really here to write a review on the title as a whole. Instead, I want to focus on one aspect of this one that it absolutely nails: telling a story without outright writing one out.

Stop Survival, Start Life

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design, game design, games, MMO, mmorpg, open world, sandbox, sandbox mmo, sandbox mmorpg, survivail, survival sandbox, survival sandbox mmo, survival sandbox mmorpg, world, world building

The MMO genre is in a pretty fascinating place right now, and that’s an opinion I still maintain to this day regardless of what I write beyond this lead-up. That said, I’m beginning to see something of a bothersome trend in the form of the survival sandbox MMO, and I’m not really a big fan.

Allow me to elaborate on why survival sandboxes aren’t just boring and lazy, but they’re missing the point of the MMO genre and further making things more disjointed.

“No sir, I don’t like it.”

Building That Dance Floor

Tags

choices, content, design, group, MMO, players, playstyle, preferences, solo, soloing, vision

…so I sort of missed the original point.

Syl’s comment on my previous blog post about solo playing in MMO’s pointed out a couple of things:

1. I was preaching to the choir.
2. She wasn’t really asking why people solo so much as why said players feel the need to demand such things out of MMO’s–a failure of reading comprehension on my part.

 

Coincidentally, I just ordered this on Amazon! 😀

So let me expound upon this whole thing a little further. I think I touched on why people solo in an MMO. Now I’m going to directly talk about how MMO devs can make good design choices to feed solo players and group players without causing risk to the genre…and like anything else, it’s about striking a balance.

A Skyplot Full of Headache

Tags

building, decor, design, house build, housing, medical center, ohgodithurts, roleplay location, rp, skyplot, wildstar

I have a plan.

I have a vision.

After finally having put up the walls, I also now have crossed eyes and probably am bleeding out of my ears.  In short, building a large, cohesive house in WildStar is becoming one of the most exhausting, frustrating and rewarding experiences I have ever had in any MMO in immediate memory.

Who knew four walls would add up to so much?