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Divercast Ep.16: Divercsat Q&A - We Answer your questions!

7/27/2015

Welcome to a special edition of Divercast! In this episode we answer questions that have been submitted to us via email and tumblr page.

The team at Deep Digital Design answers questions such as: What is your opinion on early access games? Does it seem like game dev engines are moving away from raw programming development and going into a more GUI based format? What is your game design process?

So sit back, relax it is time for Divercast!

Divercast Ep. 16: Q&A! by Divercast on Mixcloud

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
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- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Indie Arcade : Frail Shells

7/1/2015

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Straight Into The Fire

Welcome to the July edition of Indie Arcade. Quick announcement, I have been working on a lot of projects, the podcast and etc. So, unfortunately I am going to have to cut future Indie Arcades short. The good news is, Frail shells is a game that is better if you go into it with little to no introduction.

Premise

You are told that your mission is to go behind enemy lines and save agent Mackenzie. You are dropped straight into a chaotic battlefield, completely surrounded by enemy troops.

After the mission is over, the player returns home. Back to their family and job. To live our the rest of their life in peace.

Note: Spoilers from this point on.

Art and Design

The HUD is almost completely bare. The only thing on display is your health on the top left corner of the screen. There is nothing else no radar,map or objective marker.

The terrain. Trees and rocks are all made of simple 3D shapes with a solid color texture added to them. The enemies and your gun have the appearance of pixel paper cut outs. When enemies are shot and killed, they flip around like a piece of cardboard being tossed in the air.

The battlefield features a lot of rocky terrain. The gun you are equipped with is accurate and will drop any enemy in a single hit. The player can take multiple hits, but they have no way of restoring or regenerating their health. Players will have to make use of the terrain to take cover and return fire.

On my first playthrough I found myself taking mental notes. I was immediately analyzing the game as a shooter. I was checking boxes in my head about what rules the game was breaking as an FPS.

I got through the battle and found myself back home. I was tasked with going about my daily life. Wake up, eat breakfast with my partner and go to work.

I did this again, and again. Until, slowly the sounds of battle, my gun, they slowly began creeping back onto the screen. My options weren't "Turn off" alarm clock, it was shoot. Only, I wasn't told to shoot it, I just did. And I kept shooting Everything around me. It was my only way of interacting with the world. I kept shooting until the game ended.

It all clicked to me after the second time I played through the game. I noticed more elements of the battlefield that had crept into my home. Frail Shells is a commentary on PTSD. It subtly shows the frailty of the human psyche. The hard shell of a soldier begins to crack under pressure of war and for this solider, their shell crumbled after they had already returned home.

Cracked Under the Pressure

When I first saw Frail Shells, I immediately though it was going to be your standard FPS. I feel like this was done intentionally, draw in unaware consumers to download the game.

It worked. I fell for it and don't regret it. I found an experience that left me richer afterwards. It also reminded me that shooters can show us the horror and impact combat has on humanity, although many of them never venture that far in their narrative.

When I was at E3 this year, I saw many new FPS games being advertised. I began to wrestle with the topic of whether or not current FPS games glamorized war. My first was thought was "No of course not", but then I thought about how these games never really ask the player to think about the people behind the guns on screen. We are never really asked to deal with the repercussions of war.

Frail Shells addresses something we don't see often in our shooters. It reminds us that the men and women in our military are not the fearless killing machines they are often portrayed as. For that reason, I recommend you play Frail Shells.