23 Jul, 2011
Have you ever wondered where some of the most fantastical and quirky games come from? Sometimes it’s from the most mundane idea, and sometimes it comes from someone else’s work. We all have to find our muses somewhere.
One of these fantastical and quirky games is Bastion, an endearing and unique indie title released by Supergiant Games. Kicking off this year’s Summer of Arcade on Xbox Live, Bastion is anything but just another indie game. In fact, if you haven’t taken a moment to look at it, then you’re missing out.
Featuring artwork reminiscent of the good old Super Nintendo days, a progressive narrative style, and simple-yet-fun combat, Bastion stands above the rest with its simplicity, and yet underneath all that simplicity is something more.
How did Bastion become what it is though? It definitely wasn’t on a whim, but it wasn’t all about deadlines either. Greg Kasavin, creative director for Bastion, wrote in a blog post on OXM that it takes a little bit of story, and a little bit of the right feeling.
“I realized the games that I remember most are ones that create meaningful, emotional experiences through their worlds and characters,” said Kasavin. “They’re ones that stick in my mind and get under my skin. My favorite examples range from massive blockbusters like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Red Dead Redemption to smaller, unassuming games like Braid and Limbo.”
One thing that Bastion excelled at was its creation of such a world and characters. While it might seemed overwhelming to be tossed into the fray of things at first, everything would be explained in time. It was part of Bastion‘s irresistable charm – you simply had to press on to find out the story. Why did the Calamity happen? Why should we care about Caelondia? Who is this guy who keeps talking into my ear?
“Making good games takes a lot of time, so it might seem like a bad idea to spend any of that time making content no one will ever see,” said Kasavin. “That’s not true of backstory. Sometimes you’ll start a game like Red Dead or Limbo and get blown away by the level of detail in the world. Such experiences don’t just come from good art direction; plenty of great-looking games are filled with cliches.
“…I think the secret to deep and interesting game-worlds is having a lot of rich backstory beneath the surface. It’s the unspoken stuff about why a game’s world is the way it is, what the characters in it want, and what it’s all really about. When you play a game where the world comes alive and sucks you in, that stems from the developers having carefully crafted a backstory.”
Would we have cared about John Marston if he hadn’t been introduced as a man who was trying to escape his past, and that he was simply a bounty hunter out to find a couple of guys? Probably not. We tend to not care about characters who don’t have a story of their own. Bastion‘s tiny cast of four main characters were enough to create the rich world of Caelondia, and backstories are plentiful.
From the quiet main character, to the sarcastic guiding voice, we’re painted a beautiful picture that is far too easy to fall in love with. It’s a matter of how these stories were told that completely breaks from the norm. We’ve all noticed that all games share certain mechanics and conventions. Borrowing never hurt anybody, but it all starts to look the same after a while. That’s why Bastion went the way it did.
“All we want from a game’s universe is for it to be internally consistent – to play by its own set of defined rules,” wrote Kasavin. “Yet many instead play it safe, borrowing other games’ conventions rather than justifying their own design choices. This standardization makes these games easier to pick up and play, but it can also make them less interesting. …After all, if you’re making a game, it’s tempting to follow the successes of what’s come before or to make decisions designed to reach the broadest possible audience. But that’s not how the most memorable games are produced.”
If everyone played it safe, we wouldn’t have games like Left 4 Dead, BioShock, or Bastion itself. But it’s not all about the fun either, said Kasavin. Part of the correct formula is to make players feel the natural flow of things. “The controls should make you believe you’re in the world of the game,” said Kasavin. “Accepting that not everything in games needs to be fun is no excuse for clunky, awkward gameplay…”
We can go ahead and marvel at a game because of its beauty and fall in love with its story, but nothing makes us want to toss a controller out the window more than dying because you can’t see where you’re going. In some cases, we’re not even sure what we’re supposed to do either.
Supergiant Games has already made a big splash with Bastion, and we’re all hoping they’ll come up with some more charmingly quaint games in the near future.
Bastion is now available on Xbox Live for 1200 MSP.
Via OXM.
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