103% Interview with Maddy Thorson

(This is a lightly edited article from 2012)

Hi gang. In this 103% Interview, we talk to Maddy Thorson, who also goes under her developer name Mady Maek Game. Usually working alone or with friends, Maddy has produced an impressive array of games including An Untitled Story, RunMan and the Jumper series, all available to download from her website. She's also had success making some of the more playable games on the Adult Swim Arcade. Just check out  Mady Maek Game, fill your boots with some fun, and then come back and read this interview once you've experienced some of his works...

One of the multiplayer maps in An Untitled Story.

103%: You've made some impressive games as a solo developer and sometimes involve a small team of people close to you. Nonetheless, you're generally iron-manning the entire development process. What drives you to make games?

MT: Just a desire to create I suppose. At this point, it feels like if I wasn't making games I would be nothing.

103%: I've found that a lot of people who make games don't play them much. Does this apply to you? If not, what kind of games do you like to play? 

MT: Yeah I don't play nearly as many games as I did as a kid. I still play a lot of Team Fortress 2, and recently 100%'d Rayman Origins. Other than that I usually just play indie games here and there, because I'm curious where my peers are taking game design in a way that I'm not generally curious about big-budget games.

Rayman rules. Team Fortress 2 is also good.

103%: Will there ever be another epic adventure game like An Untitled Story?

MT: I love designing with exploration and an open world, but it's hard to control. As my games get more ambitious in scope and polish, it seems harder and harder to maintain an open-ended project like that. But on the other hand, I just read an article on Zelda 1 design that really got me thinking about it again.

103%: Making games for Adult Swim's website now are we? How did all that come about?

MT: Edmund McMillan had put me in contact with the Adult Swim guys when I was looking for a buyer for MoneySeize. They rejected it, but when I finished Give Up, Robot I had a feeling it would be more their style. They ended up being amazingly accommodating and we really saw eye-to-eye on everything for Give Up Robot 2 and Fat Wizard. As far as contract work goes, they're probably the ideal company for me to work with (when I'm okay with selling a game's IP).

Look me in the eye and tell me you don't want to play a game called Fat Wizard

103%: Your minimalist style is celebrated and distinctive.  If you were magically given a team of code ninjas to make games with you would you keep this style or would you want to try some more complex visual techniques. 

MT: Shit I don't even know. It's so hard to separate what I've done out of necessity from stylistic choices at this point, because I started so young with such a limited skill-set. If that situation arose, I'm sure it would take a lot of experimentation for me to figure out what I even want to do. My limitations are a huge part of my process.

103%: Do you have any game-making heroes?

MT: If you make games you're passionate about, you're my hero.

103%: Simple question. Do you own any game consoles?

MT: Right now I have an Xbox 360 and a Wii.

103%: Ogmo cameo'd in Super Meat Boy. Would you ever consider making a premium game or do you like keeping it free?

MT: Yeah I feel like I want to start selling my games straight to players, and build more of a direct conversation with them. And it seems like the business side of indie game development is shifting in a way that will allow me to do that.

Pictured: Ogmo a.k.a "Jumper"

103%: Are you working on anything at the moment?

MT: Two things! A big collaboration with a couple friends that I'm not sure I should talk about, and a solo platformer that's starting to feel like a follow-up to Jumper or MoneySeize in a lot of ways (although it is not a sequel).

103%: Finally. Who (or what) is Ogmo?

MT: I'm not entirely sure. I remember he was just a red square for the entire development of Jumper 1, then I added his legs/face after all the levels were finished. I guess that makes him either an extension of the level design or an afterthought. Both kind of fit his character.

END TRANSMISSION

And there we conclude another exciting edition of 103% Interviews. I'd like to thank Maddy again for taking the time to answer these questions and invite all you readers to play some of her games once more.

If you have any real-life human being gaming heroes (or villains!) that I should know about please let us know of their existence. Thanks. 

Arkham Asylum Hard Mode - A Difficulty Mode Post

Hi all. In this new occassional series we'll review the various "hard modes" of certain games. Hardcore gamers like myself relish the challenge that some games have to offer but find that whereas some games offer a firm but fair challenge in their hard modes, others are just a plainly horrific waste of time and a clear sign of lazy game development. In this feature 103% Complete writers will sort the wheat from the chaff for the hardcore following. For this first iteration we have Batman: Arkham Asylum's Hard Difficulty on the chopping board.

As you would expect. Batman is well 'ard.

When you graduate from Normal Bat to Hard Bat in Rocksteady Studio's modern classic Bat 'em up, you will immediately notice the main difference between the two difficulty modes in that you lose the 'lightning bolt' warnings for incoming attacks in the Freeflow fighting sections. To the uninitiated, these lightning bolts appear during the frequent fights with the game's Black Gate Thug henchmen and warn of an incoming melee attack from one of them. Since you are almost always severely outnumbered, and the fact that these Thugs' attacks have a small counter-attack time window, these very bold warnings of an incoming attacks swiftly become a feature the player depends on and takes for granted. Hard mode pulls the rug from underneath the player who has already played through easier modes and asks them to re-master Freeflow from the ground up.

In Hard mode, the Black Gate cons don't telegraph their attacks nearly as much.

Now in the transition to Hard Mode from Normal mode, rather than merely increasing the number and variety of enemies fought at once (although this happens) and increasing the amount of damage taken for taken hits (although this happens too), Arkham Asylum fundamentally changes the fighting style that the player needs to adopt and forces the player to always be thinking five moves ahead in order to survive the regular onslaught of hand to hand 30 versus 1 rumbles. They do this in a sensible way (in fact it only adds immersion to the fighting) and as a result the level of satisfaction  from clearing a section is all the greater for not solely being a rescaled version of the Normal story.

I should also mention that the Predator sections are also more challenging but not in the same fundamental way that the combat is. But this is probably for the best. Given the critical amount of damage taken for being discovered in these stealth modes, taking away the essential Detective Mode from the player would have been a step too far and the game designers were wise not to go down that route. All in all, Arkham Asylum's Hard Mode is a challenge that is worth a second playthrough for.

Verdict: A great example of a challenge mode

“The only thing good to come out of the past is history”- Things that gaming is glad to be rid of

As with most things, aficionados of gaming often have a tendency towards an overly strong fondness for the retro. Hence the reason everyone still loves the original “Super Mario Bros”, why people continue to lament the decline of Sonic, and why people still punish themselves with the hideous difficulty of early “Castlevania” games.And I, for one, am most certainly a part of this dewy-eyed nostalgia, although if I’m brutally honest those games were not my personal “golden age”; rather, the N64 and Playstation were my generation’s console of choice. But I was still very familiar with those styles of games as a child, and I’m surprised to see the hangover of that period still having a strong effect on video game design today.

Admit it, getting a game over screen after getting to the boss of labyrinth zone is a kick in the nuts.

Given how often (particularly older) gamers lament how gaming has lost its way, and become a charmless,
homogenous corporate predictability, I find it strange how often people forget many of the more annoying aspects of older games. So as a counterpoint to this moaning, I’m going to try and remind people how much gaming has improved.
Firstly, save features and save regularity. Many older games do not have a save feature of any kind; you simply had to complete the game in one run, or if you were lucky got a password system. Do you know what’s great? Autosave. Been playing “Oblivion” for 2 hours without saving and it crashes? Sorted. And on a related note, respawn points in general are a massive plus. If I have proven I can reliable do a section of a game, I probably don’t want to have to play five more times just for another crack at the harder section that follows it. Everyone likes a challenge, and I would not want games to be toned down, but involuntary repetition is not challenge, just boredom. This next one may seem a little petty and irrelevant, but the normalising of wireless controls is criminally underrated. I am as guilty as anyone for taking this for granted, but the jump between Wii and Gamecube becomes painfully clear when I trip up passing dogs with my attempts to sit more than 3 feet away from the TV. Wireless controllers are tidier and simply more convenient, not least when you lose you rag, as you can throw them that much further.

This wireless gamecube controller fetches $130 dollars these days. I can see why!

Removal of lives systems. I’m only going to try again, so unless there is permanent limit on lives for the entirety of that games life, it ain’t gonna work. And probably the biggest complaint I see from hardcore gamers is that games have become too easy. My first response to this is, quite simply, that they haven’t. You played “Super Meat Boy”? “Bayonetta”? Have you forgotten that they still make “Ninja Gaiden” games? My second response is that, even if they have, it is probably a good thing, as games were stupidly unfair at points. I also think that truly hardcore gamers should seek out and create their own challenges. The quote in the title of this article is from “Bastion”, a relatively easy action rpg, which contains so many optional difficulty modifiers it is possible for any gamer to modify the game to their skill level. Games like “Castlevania” and “Contra” just came with one mode; hard. We still have these difficulty levels, they are just buried behind the more welcoming aspects of games. And I refuse to believe gaming being more accessible can ever be a bad thing.

Play My Puzzle Game: Linesweeper

Yes you read right... I kinda invented something. "Linesweeper" is not too unlike popular Japanese puzzles except I guess it's not Japanese since I made it (so we I guess we should call it one of those "British Puzzles?") but this is all fluff. I should tell you all how you can play it online and where you can do so.

Linesweeper is hosted on the website of a great guy called Otto Janko, (I've mentioned his excellent site before) and he has kindly made a Javascript applet for what would have otherwise been solely a pen and paper based grid puzzle so you can actually just do it all in your browser right now!

There is a good explanation on the main page on how to solve... but it's in German so unless you want to use a translator to figure out the rules I'll just explain it here.

LINESWEEPER RULES!


1. The object is to create a path through the grid which forms a single closed loop. You can only ever move up, down, left or right (not diagonally).


2. The loop can't cross itself or have a fork in it, just one uninterrupted loop.


3. The numbered cells can't be passed through and tell you exactly how many of the 8 surrounding cells should contain some part of the solution path. (e.g. "0" means the 8 surrounding cells can't be passed through at all).


NB: There is only ever one solution and no guesswork is required.


There are 20 puzzles on the site at the moment and I've already written another 5 personally and perhaps other puzzle authors out there will create their own problems in the future? Watch this space!

Your Alternative Super Mario Fix

Hello readers! I have a big bag of Mario awesomeness to dispense today so let's get right down to it!

First up is the so far excellent Super Mario 63, which is so far quite frankly an incredible flash game in which the traditionally "3D Mario" games get a 2D makeover and the result is pretty cool from what I've played until now. The game starts off with its own take on the 'Bowser kidnaps Peach' and although they play this pretty much straight there are some Mario gags that fanboys like me will just eat up. 

But honestly, they've whacked everything in here! The non-linear castle exploration and paintings that act as portals to worlds with many missions is from Mario 64, as is the health bar and red coins but we have Silver Star missions (DS Mario 64), FLUDD and Shine Sprites (Sunshine), Star Coins (New Mario Bros), and even the Star Slings from Galaxy! The Mario sprite hails from the Mario and Luigi RPGs on the DS and There's a whole host of backgrounds and sprites from Yoshi's Island --where I have yet to see the little green dude but I have not had a full playthrough yet. This is all before I've even collected my first Shine Sprite so I'm uber excited to play more of this game. There are bosses to fight with set piece puzzle weaknesses and although the levels are all in 2D, there is a great deal of non-linearity here and one can even zoom in and out of levels to see more of what is happening.

Mario can dive, jump, double and triple jump, use FLUDD nozzles and do spin attacks and ground pounds from the start and I imagine many other abilities become available further in the game. My one complaint is that Mario's movement and jumps can feel a bit clumsy sometimes but I was able to adjust rather quickly and it doesn't ruin the gameplay for me. SM63 is an excellent and exciting game. Please have a go. 

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If that's all a bit too modern for you, we now go all retro and visit the UPDATED version of Super Mario Crossover. I say this because the original version of this game came out a while ago and there have since been some improvements. Anyway, for those who have never played this game, Super Mario Crossover is basically the original Super Mario Bros. NES classic with the option of playing through the game with (at time of writing) 6 other NES characters including Megaman and Samus Aran in all their pixelley glory.

The characters are all roughly controllable exactly as they were in their own NES games and attack accordingly. Megaman has his buster, Samus has her Power Beam and Link has his sword. However since they are guests in Mario Land, they play by Mario's House Rules in that if you take a hit from a Goomba or fall down a bottomless pit, you die. Mushrooms and Flowers each have their own unique effects on the characters and as well as offering the usual one hit shield before being vulnerable again, characters usually get a weapon upgrade. For example, Megaman can charge his weapon and acquires his headgear in Mushroom Mode. Purely a nostalgia love festival this but it's very well made.    

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I also intend to delve into the dark scary world of Super Mario World rom hacks and recommend some particular titles soon so watch this space.