Pinning down a single reason for this decline is difficult, but Brian “Psychochild” Green hopes to bring a new sense of interest back to MMO’s with Storybricks, which brings a newfound emphasis on customized storytelling.

Storybricks is all about customization, allowing players to build their own narrative and essentially create their own MMORPG. While alpha footage shows an early game in the making, it also plays out like a user tool. I asked Green whether Storybricks should be classified as a traditional game or as a creation tool.

“This is a harder question than you might think,” answered Green. “Since Storybricks is so much different than anything currently in games, it’s hard to categorize. If we say it’s a tool, people think it’s like Neverwinter Nights, but it’s not quite like that. If we say it’s an MMO, then people think it’s like World of Warcraft. If we say it allows you to create interesting characters, people think it’s middleware. It’s a little of all of these things, but not exactly any of these things.”

With Storybricks towing so many lines, I asked Green about customization depth. More specifically, I asked about how deep the customization options are and how they could lead to multi-dimensional characters. Green pointed to a focus on NPC emotion.

“Currently we are focusing on the emotional aspects of NPCs: moods, emotions, desires, and behaviors,” explained Green. “We see these as the most challenging aspects, because they’ve been largely ignored in games. A lot of our work has focused on issues like ‘What does it mean when an NPC is happy?’ and ‘How does an NPC behave under different emotions?’ We’ve then added layers on top of that. What does it mean if a guard is happy versus if a peasant is happy? How does a happy guard regard a grumpy peasant, and vice-versa? What happens if a character is conflicted, and how do we resolve those conflicts in a meaningful way?”

While the Storybricks team has yet to implement a combat system, Green hopes to be able to tie in a deep sense of emotion here, as well. “We want the character personalities to tie into this: how does a happy knight fight differently than a frightened peasant? A lot of interesting possibilities there.”
There are many different variables to consider when creating an MMO narrative, but Storybricks uses an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Using “bricks” to connect dialogue options and NPC actions together, players can create their own story of whatever length they desire. Green confesses that implementing the number of storytelling possibilities is a lengthy process.

Fortunately, Green and his team are being guided by a group of advisers comprising of some major names in gaming. Liz Danforth (Tunnels & Trolls, Wasteland 2) brings an art and writing background and her experience in tabletop gaming to help consult about creative and artistic issues. Dr. Richard Bartle created the original text Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) and advises the team on MMO and creative issues. Legendary animators, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, are helping on the animation front, since Green points out that this element is key to conveying the level of character emotion that they’re aiming for. Finally, Obsidian’s Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment) is offering the team advice on capturing a sense of storytelling.

Even with a roster of heavy hitters behind them, Green points out that his team is still small. He’s hoping to launch Storybricks as a free tool with premium features offered for a nominal monthly fee. “We aren’t too worried about the subscription model,” said Green. “It’s well-established for MMO games and we hope to strike a good balance between giving people a lot of access for the free version and giving people enough to make the premium subscription appealing to our serious fans.” Having a small team also means needing a financial boost. Green has taken Storybricks to Kickstarter, asking for $250,000. It’s a lofty goal for an ambitious project, but Green hopes fans will support the team’s grand vision.

Storybricks is currently in the alpha stage of development and with goals set so high, Green could only offer an optimistic February 2013 release date. In the meantime, check out the Storybricks Kickstarter page for more information.

After playing through the build they showed off at this year’s PAX East, I’m also convinced that Dejobaan is also not short on cool game ideas.

After exploring the concepts of base jumping and rhythm-based world generation, Dejobaan’s latest enters the realm of the one-on-one arena-based shooter. The idea is to enter a space-age arena solo and try to survive as long as possible against humongous robots called Titans. Often massive in size, the Titans would attack with homing blasts and giant lasers.

Drunken Robot Pornography started off with a prompt to “Steal The Booze! Unleash the Titan!” After grabbing three martini icons, the robotic Titans would begin to appear on the field, one at a time. The Titans are segmented creations, so the idea is to pick them apart, piece-by-piece, until finally blasting the main core. The game continued until I was either blasted into oblivion or until the twelve Titans (all named after months of the year) were successfully defeated.

The Titans are visually unique, thanks in part to Dejobaan reaching out to fans for design ideas through their Titan-building contest. One of the designs I saw was a giant orb with windmill arms. Another was an orb with octopus-like tentacles. Later, the designs became more obtuse, as I encountered an off-the-wall creation that I could only describe as a menacing tower with rotating laser turrets at its base and abstract swinging blades at the top. The Titans are as visually imaginative as they are incredibly dangerous.

In terms of weaponry, I was restricted to a single default blaster, but I had a lot of fun bouncing around the arena. There are floating platforms on each of the arena’s sides and all are reachable thanks to the standard equipment jetpack. Flying around with the jetpack was so much fun that it was easy for me to get carried away and fly into a few lasers. After fully grasping the controls and getting a feel for the arena, I was able to use the floating platforms to block shots and fly out of the way of incoming blasts. I quickly figured out that survival in DRP would mean using the arena to my advantage.

DRP is early in development, but my experience with the game has been a solid one. The core concept of jetpack-flying man vs. wildly-designed robot is incredibly cool. On top of that, Dejobaan executes the idea with a laid-back tone and a good sense of humor. I found myself having a good laugh over the pin-up-inspired robot names and over the trash-talking prompts that would appear on-screen as I came close to dismantling a Titan.

There’s no current release date, but look for your PC and Mac to be filled with Drunken Robot Pornography later this year.

Among them are a couple in Michigan named Steve and Jessica Hoogendyk. Together, they’ve formed Geeta Games and are preparing to release their first adventure, Lilly Looking Through.

The Hoogendyks are new to game design, but have a history of working in film animation. Steve’s credits include Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Bolt, and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, while Jessica previously worked on visual effects for 10,000 BC and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. With such pedigrees, it raises the question of why the duo would leave the film industry and move into games. The answer is a combination of location and love for the gaming medium.

“We’ve always enjoyed playing adventure games together,” said Steve. “It seems that good adventure games have been few and far between in the last 10 years, which made us sad. So we wanted to create a game that we would enjoy playing. We also wanted to move closer to family, and in Kalamazoo, Michigan there aren’t many film and game studios, so creating our own game studio was a natural path to follow.”

Lilly Looking Through follows the adventures of a little girl and her brother, Row, out in a forest village. An enchanted red scarf flies into the village and, by random chance, lands on Lilly’s goggles, bestowing magic upon them. This leads to Lilly embarking on a magical adventure, which is an idea the Hoogendyks explain as combining elements of their real life with movie fantasy.

“The inspiration for Lilly’s character started with a picture Jessica took,” Steve explains. “Our oldest daughter was wearing swimming goggles on top of her head. When I saw the picture, I knew right then we had an appealing character and the seed for a video game. We have also been inspired by Miyazaki’s films and how he uses a young heroine to tell his enchanting stories.”

One of Lilly Looking Through’s major elements involves exploring Lilly’s world, which is coming off a golden age. One of the objects of the game is to come across pieces of the past golden era while learning more about the present age. The game’s description mentions a vague overall objective, “rewrite the past, change the present.” When asked about this, the Hoogendyks remained tight-lipped, mostly out of a desire to maintain the idea of youthful exploration. “We believe there is something wonderful about exploring the world through a child’s eyes,” Steve responded.

The Hoogendyks continue to work tirelessly on Lilly Looking Through. They aren’t ready to announce an official release date, but point out that buzz from their camp will grow louder as the game nears completion. The game is coming soon to PC, Mac, and Linux. In the meantime, there’s a free demo available on their website.

It sounds like an idea that can’t miss, like a cross between Halo and Jurassic Park. Sadly, a number of glitches and a lack of variety take all the bite out of this FPS.

ORION’s single-player mode essentially boils down to a Horde mode. The idea is to plow through waves of dinosaurs and survive for as long as possible. I often lasted minutes at a time, because the game’s difficulty has a nasty tendency to spike quickly. After clearing out a couple of rampaging lizards for the first wave, subsequent waves would fill the screen with raptors. They’d attack quickly and in packs, far too numerous for me to take down alone. Not that numbers mattered, anyway, because often times, a single hit left me dead in my tracks.

Seeing a solo effort as futile, I tried to jump into a round of five-player co-op. This proved to be exceedingly difficult, as connectivity issues were present throughout my time with ORION. Online games were aggravatingly unstable and lag-free sessions were few and far-between. On the rare occasion that I was able to connect to a co-op match and stay connected, I explored some of the game’s other elements.

ORION’s equipment and vehicles are a couple of the game’s sole bright spots. Seemingly inspired by Halo in their design, there are vehicles with miniguns attached to the back and jetpacks to fly around with. More often than not, I’d drive straight into a rock or fly right into a pterodactyl. However, my difficulties in these cases felt more due to my own clumsiness getting in the way of success. To be honest, controlling a minigun turret or flying around in a jetpack was fun, though also too brief for my tastes.

Beyond flying around and driving myself into rocks, there wasn’t a whole lot to do in ORION. There are no other game modes offered beyond the main one and it quickly starts to feel old. There are different weapons to purchase, but they don’t do much to freshen the experience. I could earn credits throughout the game to buy new weapons, but anything I purchased was lost upon death. Given how easy it is to die in this game, I didn’t feel much incentive to keep going.

I went into ORION expecting a robust single-player mode, hoping to find a fleshed-out campaign that would explain how humans (armed to the teeth, of course) and angry dinosaurs wound up on the same island. I wanted a story that would open up several different gameplay possibilities. I was hoping to see dozens of different types of dinosaurs come to life across a number of different locales. What I wound up getting was only one game mode, only a few dinosaur types, and a meager three maps.

ORION: Dino Beatdown was a major letdown for me. I haven’t been this disappointed by dinosaurs since the first time I saw The Lost World. The game falters because of a severely limited amount of content and a pile of glitches the size of a stegosaurus. There’s reason to hold out hope that things will improve, as Spiral promises constant patches, updates, and free DLC in the future. It could eventually become that amazing dinosaur-centric FPS I was hoping for. Until that day comes, however, I can’t see myself coming back for another Beatdown.

Brainsss, an iOS puzzle game from Lonely Few, isn’t about resisting zombies, but rather is about giving them a helping hand. The object of the game is to turn all humans into mindless members of the undead by guiding zombies across each level with the touch screen. Any human that gets turned into a zombie will become playable and can be used against any remaining human resistance.

Opening levels offer a decent tutorial, not only explaining the touch-based controls, but also teaching various tactics for completing each stage. Surrounding humans and giving them a friendly bite proves easy enough for the first round of levels, but quickly becomes more challenging when more durable humans enter the fray. Expect to make use of more advanced tactics once armed humans arrive in later levels, as they’ll mow down zombies faster than Herschel at the end of last season’s “Walking Dead.”

Brainsss is easy to pick up and play, but the controls can be slightly finicky. This proves to be especially problematic on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Micromanaging zombies starts to become a hassle and it’s easy to lose track of which ones are currently selected. I also found it difficult to lock onto a specific target. I’d tap near a speedy scientist to send my undead army lumbering his way. Unfortunately, they’d stop near his original location while the scientist would continue running for dear life. This led to me spamming the touch pad in a vain effort to give chase.

I also had some trouble keeping track of humans. On more than one occasion, my zombies would simply stand and look around with seemingly nothing left to do, yet the level wouldn’t end. After maddeningly scrolling across the map, I’d find one last pesky human hidden away in a corner. This wouldn’t normally be an issue, but time is a factor in Brainsss. Lost seconds will often result in a lower star rating and lost rewards.

Aside from these issues, Brainsss is an enjoyable zombie experience. I like the idea of rallying a group of zombies to chase down pathetic humans. The game’s controls can be a bit of a struggle for on-the-go iPhone users, but shouldn’t cause any trouble for iPad owners. There are a number of stages to play through, as each “phase” is divided into about a dozen individual levels. Lonely Few is also adding new phases on a weekly basis at no extra charge, which means I’ll be revisiting Brainsss on a frequent basis.

Brainsss is available now on the iOS App Store for $2.99.

Ski Safari, from Defiant Development (Rocket Bunnies), operates on this same principle, but if you’re going to go out, at least you can go out in style.

Ski Safari is a casual game in which players control a runaway skier trying to keep out of the path of an oncoming avalanche for as long as possible. It’s crafted in the style of a freerunning game and the object is to avoid as many obstacles as possible. It’s a familiar formula with simplified controls that take advantage of the iOS interface. Performing backflips has never felt easier, though I wish there was more of a stunt variety available.

The fun in Ski Safari comes in the form of animals that the skier rushes past. Penguins and yetis are also trying to outrun the avalanche. In humorously-cartoony fashion, players that bump any of the animals will start riding them. Riding penguins and yetis allow players to absorb extra hits and bump into obstacles without penalty. The only trouble I had with this aspect of the game was in recognizing how much extra punishment I could take. While I recognized that I could take an extra hit on a penguin, it was hard to guess how many hits I could take with a yeti, since it took tons of abuse before finally shaking me off.

Ski Safari sessions will last a couple of minutes at a time, but there were enough objectives to keep me coming back. Part of this is because only three objectives are displayed at a given time. Once those objectives are complete, three new goals are assigned, and so on. It’s a better incentive to keep playing than trying to tackle dozens of goals and finishing in a single playthrough. I also like that this system allows for a better sense of focus, letting me concentrate on a singular goal.

Ski Safari’s replay value helps set it apart from similar iOS games. The objective system expands the game’s life significantly. Online leaderboards and Game Center support also offer reason for numerous playthroughs. Overall, it’s a fun way to pass the time while waiting in line for summer midnight screenings, especially because of how well it works on the smaller iPhone/iPod Touch.

Ski Safari is available now on the iOS App Store for 99 cents as a universal app.

Things are about to get biblical, as Crankshaft inches towards completion on Party of Sin.

Party of Sin is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer, putting players in the role of one of the seven deadly sins. The sins begin the game in captivity deep within the bowels of hell and the idea is to lead them on a chaotic march to heaven. All of the sins have different abilities. Sloth, for example, can use his powers to slow down objects or characters, while Greed utilizes a hook made of gold. Players can switch between these characters on the fly and use their powers where they work best. With seven different sins to choose from, Crankshaft hopes to create an ideal co-op environment.

Co-op players will have to work together to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, but friendly fire will be enabled throughout the game. While single player places emphasis on puzzle-solving, co-op encourages friends to mess around with each other. “You quickly find out that all the sin powers that worked against enemies also work against other sins,” explains Menard. “This means Gluttony can swallow and spit out other players. The same is true for Greed and his grappling hook. Each power is designed with a good and evil use in mind, so with Gluttony you can boost a player up by spitting them on to a ledge, or throw them into lava and watch them die. Party of Sin actually encourages you to be bad, while still forcing you to work together.”

The friendly fire mechanic often leads to players accidentally (or purposely) bump off other players, something Menard says is central to the Party of Sin experience. “It creates a lot of hilarity,” said Menard. “Sometimes, someone else will get in your way as you try to solve a puzzle, and you have to get a bit clever. The nice thing is you can always get back at them. In co-op the game is less difficult, because you can always spawn near your teammates, so you make steady progress through the game and you have plenty of opportunities to screw with your friends.” Menard also mentions that the griefing aspect of the game has also led to some new game modes, such as a 2×2 race mode.

Crankshaft has run into some challenges during Party of Sin’s development. One of them is that the team is scattered across different regions — the programming team is in Montreal, the art team is in Washington DC, and the sound designer is based in California. Despite this obstacle, development has moved forward to the point that Menard was able to show off Party of Sin at this year’s PAX East.

One area that has yet to move forward, unfortunately, is a console port. The Party of Sin website’s FAQ notes that limitations (primarily file size) have prevented Crankshaft from looking into an Xbox LIVE Arcade port for Party of Sin. I asked Menard about this and he maintains hope for a console Party of Sin. “We really want to make it available on consoles,” said Menard. “The main setback has been the cost and time investment of porting to consoles and getting the game onto these marketplaces. Our current plan is to release on PC first, then follow up with a console port later.”

With Party of Sin’s development making significant progress, Menard recently made the difficult decision to leave his job and devote himself fully to Crankshaft. Menard admits that this is a heavy risk, but ultimately finds the decision best for Crankshaft’s future and for his own. “Part of the benefits of going full-time is that I don’t have a day job eating up 40 hours a week,” said Menard. “I have more time to think about games and be creative. It’s likely that Crankshaft will look into mobile and tablet games in the future, but nothing concrete has been decided yet. I have plenty of ideas, but Party of Sin is my top priority at the moment.”

With Party of Sin currently in an alpha state, Menard was unable to provide a solid release date. However, he is certain the game will hit PCs later this year.

Lililput reimagines the old typing tutorial formula. Similar to other games of this genre, the object is to fend off oncoming waves of enemies by typing words that appear on-screen. While this game is all about typing and rewards speedy keyboard strokes, it’s far from educational. That’s because all of the words that appear are scrambled. The knee-jerk reaction is often to type out words as you remember them, but Lililput asks you to intentionally scramble your brain and quickly spell out words exactly as they appear.

Lililput is a clever concept and is only hindered by the brevity of every game. Even the most proficient of typists (certainly not the most proficient of spellers) will find their games lasting no more than a couple of minutes. That’s a shame given how much I was enjoy the chiptune Bach tune from composer Spamtron. I had hoped the game would exercise more of a wave system and separate waves into their own individual levels. Instead, enemies only get faster and more intense, meaning your game will likely end as fast as it began.

Despite each session lasting less than a few minutes, Lililput is an enjoyable time-killer and offers an unconventional twist on an old formula. It’s another example of Incredible Ape making the most out of a simple concept, making me even more eager to see what they come up with for their next full-scale effort. Lililput is currently free to play on Kongregate or directly from their Ludum Dare entry page.

Bithell also has an independent side project that he’s working diligently to complete — a debut solo title called Thomas Was Alone.

Bithell describes Thomas Was Alone as “a minimalist game about friendship and jumping.” It’s described as a puzzle-platformer with a bit of a twist, as Bithell explains that multiple characters are introduced over the course of the story. Players will need to control one character at a time and work them in tandem to send them all to their respective goals. These characters, all different shapes, will also have their own unique abilities. “Some [characters] jump higher and further, others can double jump, act as bouncepads or are anti-gravity,” said Bithell. “Things get very cool when you have to start combining these abilities.”

Another aspect of Thomas Was Alone that looks to help it stand out is the use of narration, which will be incorporated into the main game. “The narration is always there, framing the story and giving a greater context to the rectangle jumping,” explained Bithell. “It also foreshadows events in the world, and provides some handy hints early on. In a game with such a minimalist look, it does wonders for fleshing out the space, filling things out for the player. There are no cutscenes, so this is where we do our story.”

Since narration is such an important aspect of Thomas Was Alone, Bithell reached out to a big name to fill the role. A recent trailer revealed that writer/actor Danny Wallace had been cast as the game’s narrator. Wallace is no stranger to the gaming world, having previously given his voiceover talents to the Assassin’s Creed series as Animus-researcher Shaun Hastings. Bithell was surprised at Wallace’s willingness to jump aboard. “I’m a fan of Danny’s, and wrote the script with his kind of delivery in mind,” Bithell said. “When it came to casting the role, I thought I might as well email him a build of the game and some info. Amazingly, he played it, liked it, and wanted to lend his voice to us.”

Although Bithell describes Thomas Was Alone as a “minimalist” game, it has seen its share of delays. A large reason for that is due to his responsibilities to Bossa Studios, which has severely limited his free time. Bithell attributes postponement of his game to his busy schedule, but notes that his game can handle a few delays. “If I didn’t love both projects [Thomas Was Alone and unnamed Bossa Studios project], I imagine I’d be feeling the pain right now,” said Bithell. “As it is, it’s more of a dull ache. As for delays, my announcement trailer said the game was due April, which I’m not going to manage. Ultimately, I’m loyal to both games, but Thomas is more flexible as far as release date goes.”

Bithell remains fully committed to his project and advises aspiring game developers to show the same kind of conviction. “The big advice is to start making something,” said Bithell. “There is no method of learning game design and development like making one. Prospective employers are also going to be much more impressed by a candidate who has a cool game to show.” Bithell also urges would-be designers to be as nice as possible. “Think before you tweet or publicly say something which might offend a player or a game maker. It’s a small industry.”

Thomas Was Alone is set to release on PC and Mac, though Bithell is open to the possibility of bringing it to other platforms. He hopes to have it ready for a June 30 release. In the meantime, check out the game’s Indiegogo page, which is still accepting contributions.

Noodlecake Studios, co-founded by Jordan Schidlowsky and Ty Bader, is an experienced Android developer, having previously made Super Stickman Golf and Lunar Racer. They now look to make fellow developers’ lives a little easier by launching the Game A Week Project.

This initiative basically amounts to Noodlecake taking iOS games and fully translating them to all Android devices. It’s a tall task for a staff of eight full-time employees, so I asked business and marketing director, Ryan Holowaty, more about it. In particular, how does the process work?

“After we went through the massive headache of rewriting Super Stickman Golf so we could release it on Android, we decided there had to be a better way to go about that process,” said Holowaty. “It then prompted the creation of some custom tools that allow us to run the native iOS code on Android without the need of a full rewrite. The process is not a turnkey instant solution, as it can vary vastly depending on how the game was originally written, but it is significantly faster than any other options out there.”

The process has worked well for Noodlecake. After they launched Super Stickman Golf on iOS, the conversion to Android took nearly six months. Using the custom tools they’ve developed since then, they were able to convert Lunar Racer from iOS to Android in two weeks. It’s a much quicker turnaround time, something Holowaty believes will greatly benefit developers turned off by the hassle of dealing with multiple Android devices.

“The most common complaint is the support issues that arise from the sheer amount of different Android devices out there,” explained Holowaty. “Small teams can hardly handle the variance in Apple devices and the process of making sure their game runs great on all of them. On Android, this issue is exponentially worse with all the different hardware/software configurations and screen resolutions among the various tablets and phones. There have actually been cases of developers actually pulling their Android app because it was taking up too much time and money to deal with all the extra overhead. By having a large collection of devices, as well a team of developers who are quite familiar with Android, we are able to tackle these issues where other teams may not be able to.”

Holowaty expanded further on the differences between developing for iOS and Android, particularly the varying assets of different name brand phones and tablets. “On iOS, you have a standard framework that applies across all devices,” he said. “Graphical assets may need to be changed based on the different resolutions of the iPhones, iPods and iPads. However, once it works on the device, you’re pretty much set. With Android that is not the case. Multiple aspect ratios, hardware configurations, and quality of hardware can range wildly among the devices. Hypothetically, you may have something working perfect on an Acer tablet, but on a Motorola Xoom, the touch interface is unresponsive or the application simply crashes. Building and optimizing for thousands of different devices is a painstaking process and most developers do not realize how involved it can get until it’s too late.”

Noodlecake’s custom code accounts for dozens of different Android variables. The only major complication, so far, has been found on devices with aging hardware. “Many of the lower end devices from 3+ years ago have pretty outdated hardware that causes serious performance and touch response issues,” notes Holowaty. “What consumers do not realize is that it’s very similar to trying to run a new PC game on a system that is 5+ years old. They assume because it’s an Android phone, all Android applications should work fine, when, in reality, new mobile games are becoming more advanced and require better quality hardware to run smoothly. Fortunately, though, it seems the newer generation of tablets and phones are now able to handle most games.”

Noodlecake’s porting process has drawn interest from a number of developers, enough for them to continue the Game A Week Project through the summer. The GAWP is set to begin on May 10 with Lunar Racer, with Matt Rix’s Trainyard making its Android debut a week later. Even with their services in high demand, Noodlecake hopes to see their customer base increase further as more developers learn of this initiative.

“By utilizing our expertise in Android, our relationships with the marketplaces and our current base of Android users, we have created a company that basically takes all the hard work out of Android for developers,” said Holowaty. “They basically just sit back and get a check each month while we handle all the issues with support, distribution, cross promotions and more. Also, since we re-compile the native iOS code, we can push out updates quickly to keep android versions in-sync with iOS versions, something you would not be able to do easily if you maintain a separate code base.”

Bringing a game from Apple’s iOS devices to Android just got a little easier. Developers interested in utilizing Noodlecake’s iOS-to-Android conversion service can contact the company’s email or Ryan Holowaty directly.