I think the title explains what I’m about to implement for Tong. After I’ve finished my kd-tree, I’ll be on to photon mapping and I seriously cannot wait. I’m bursting with excitement and girlish glee, actually. I would start now, but I should really go to bed.
And only one person has figured out why I’ve called my raytracer “Tong”. Amazing.
Edit: And for those that do not know, shots of my (currently poor) progress can be found here.
As Romero once said, “Design is Law”. Normally I would agree, but from what I’ve seen lately most people have a totally incorrect concept of what game design really is. What I’ve been told is “game design” from 90% of the designers that I’ve met so far has just been moot opinion wrapped up in ego. In fact, I should really say that I have met many people that claim to be designers. Conversely, I’ve also met many people who claim that designers are nothing more than mere idea men with delusions of grandeur. I personally don’t agree with this last statement: I think a design team with a design lead is one of the most necessary parts of games today. What would a film be without a scriptwriter? Of course, the director could write the script himself, but a good scriptwriter gives the film that edge of professionality and a higher quality product. However, many people I know also claim to be good story writers. They are not.
This allusions to some kind of literary and artistic greatness seems to propagate through people where-ever I go. Only with close and prolonged observation does real talent show. This is why I think Blitz’ approach to interviewing people is so brilliant and exactly what I would do. For example, I know people that think game design is the same as the detail of the game world. I can’t even comprehend how people reach this conclusion without thinking to themselves, “what does the player do?” When asked this question they either respond with a, “I haven’t thought of that yet”, or a “well, they can explore the world” or something equally vague. The first is obvious and the second is not fun. These are the people that go through their lives thinking they are game designers but are in fact poets in disguise. Even their design documents are so obfuscated with pretty words that they are almost lyrics to some obscure love song. They concentrate on the detail of the world, but not on the detail of the player’s actions.
Things like this are for films, not games. Films are all about the experience and the emotion. Games are about interactivity and choice. In fact, until recently the latter hasn’t really been very important. Dressing your game world is important, but not as important as the interactivity. Imagine a pretty game with nothing to do? It will be boring and it won’t sell. An ugly game with lots to do? You’ve got Deus Ex. These same people will probably think that Deus Ex was a richly detailed game, when in fact it was a series of many choices laid down for the player to make his own path with a rich narrative to support these actions. It could be argued that this narrative was part of the world detail, but I argue that the world detail was a side-effect of the narrative. However, this leads to the impression that narrative is the most important factor in determining world detail and therefore world detail leads to choice. This is wrong. Many designers tackle games from a narrative perspective and fail. Hopelessly. Again, this is how films are made, not games.
Interactivity first, then narrative, then world detail. Even I know this, and I’m just a programmer.
