TOJammers working into the night on Day One. (Angela Lau for The Toronto Game Jam)

If you missed it, you can find day one of my TOJam development diary here. Here we go with Day Two.

Saturday, May 12 – Day Two

7:45 am: My alarm goes off. I do a quick Google search for Notepad++ only to discover that it’s not compatible with my Mac, so I restart my laptop in Windows (it’s partitioned) so that I can at least download the software. However, the only other program on the Windows half of my laptop is Magic: The Gathering Tactics, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to find an alternative to Notepad.

I do encounter some minor trouble with the Word document that has my entire game script. For whatever reason, it simply doesn’t want to close. Fortunately, I’ve been saving my work at regular intervals – I emailed it to myself before leaving TOJam last night, so I’m not dwelling on the problem.

9:55 am: I arrive at Day Two of TOJam. Several individuals have brought sleeping bags and pillows and are sprawled out on the floor in corners and between tables. Nobody regards this as unusual.

10:03 am: I open up the Apocalypse Later script and discover that the document only has 950 words – or about half of what I had written yesterday. The file I emailed to myself is similarly lacking in content. Word has apparently been half frozen since around 5:00 pm yesterday and never had the decency to tell me.

Thankfully, the auto-recover function on my computer is amazing. The most recent version of the document – as in, the one that has the full script – pops up alongside the corrupted document when I open Word, so the issue resolves itself before I can even get stressed about it. Which is good, because otherwise there’s a chance that the shards of my laptop would still be embedded in the carpet.

10:15 am: We’re told that team photos are being taken on the sixth floor. They’re on a tight schedule, so this is a one-time only opportunity. Mladen (Stambolija, our team artist) is yet to make an appearance today, leaving David and I to represent for Team Apocalypse Later.

David is rocking the bathrobe that he’s had on for much of the weekend. Since he’s one of the many people sleeping at the venue, he figures that he might as well be comfortable while he codes and I can’t argue with the philosophy.

It looks like an extremely comfortable bathrobe.

10:27 am: There’s finally coffee in the kitchen. While I’m grateful for any form of sugar-free caffeine, the coffee is yet more proof that living in an incomplete school building is somewhat less than ideal. We have only two ordinary 12-cup coffee pots to service our entire gathering and the measuring scoop is a Styrofoam cup with a squiggly line drawn around the outside. Given the inaccurate utensils and the high volume of conscripted baristas, there’s an extreme degree of variance in the quality of the coffee. In most cases it’s too thin for my tastes, but thin coffee is better than no coffee so I readily gulp down several pints of java.

Bagels from St. Lawrence Market provided much-needed chewy sustenance. (Angela Lau for The Toronto Game Jam)

11:02 am: [TOJam volunteer] Alex Bethke announces that bagels have arrived, prompting yet another stampede to the elevators. The rational half of my brain tells me that I should wait a few minutes until the line has withered, but the other half says that I really want a fucking bagel. I end up waiting for 20 minutes, but this morning’s offerings from St. Lawrence Market do not disappoint.

11:30 am: More script writing. Apocalypse Later now has seven key puzzles and Mladen is furiously pixelating everything that my deranged mind can come up with. We’re almost ready to start putting this game together.

12:20 pm: The Apocalypse Later script is complete! I’ll make edits right up until 8:00 pm on Sunday, but I’m nevertheless satisfied with what I have in place.

Writing a game script is unlike anything I’ve tried in my other creative pursuits. That’s primarily a function of choice. In an effort to make our largely linear game as interactive as possible, I’ve constructed lengthy dialogue trees that branch in multiple directions. I’m only creating the illusion of choice – most of the options loop back to the same conclusion – but players expect every button click to lead to something different. The illusion won’t work unless I take the time to write five punch lines to every joke and every path has to be just as engaging as all the others.

Needless to say, that’s proven to be a bit of a struggle. In a play, each line can assume that you’ve seen the one before it and a scene has an internal logic that allows the next line to contextualize your understanding of the previous one. With Apocalypse Later, one line can lead to several different outcomes and all of those options still have to make sense. I think I’ve managed to do that without sacrificing humor, but I won’t have any accurate sense of pace until the game is up and running.

12:31 pm: Our Notepad++ issue rears its head. David wants to convert the entire script into an .xml document and he doesn’t have time to write the code himself. That means that he’s going to have to teach me how to code.

Within half an hour I’ve learned how to create a conversation bubble, move from one sentence to the next, and construct a choice bracket before David severs my lifeline and leaves me to fend for myself in the digital wilderness.

12:57 pm: More coffee.

1:01 pm: Another bagel. They’re out of onion, so I have to settle for sesame.

1:18 pm: I spend the next four hours writing code and – much to my surprise – I’m actually enjoying myself. The task is mechanical, but it’s forced me to confront writing challenges that I never knew existed. For instance, line breaks gain added importance when dialogue must be read in sequence. I’m keeping everything pithy in the hopes that Apocalypse Later will at least have some narrative momentum.

I’m slowly realizing that the toughest task will be infusing our protagonist Gary with enough life to make him recognizable as a character. Traditional media like theatre and film tell stories with live actors who can reproduce human emotion because they are, in fact, human, and can consequently tap into a lifetime of experience.

Games, on the other hand, attempt to recreate those same sensations in an inherently lifeless format, insofar as the computer has absolutely no regard for emotional fidelity. Nothing happens unless I tell Apocalypse Later exactly what to do, and while it’s a bit of a power trip, it makes it frustrating to produce a believably human piece of entertainment.

Eric and Will interview TOJam mastermind Jim McGinley. (Angela Lau for The Toronto Game Jam)

2:40 pm: Yet more coffee.

2:46 pm: One more bagel. My stomach is not grateful.

5:07 pm: The TOJam volunteers wheel across the lobby with several large moving dollies. When they return, the dollies are piled high with Chinese food, catering dishes traversing the building like roving mountains of tin foil and chow mein.

5:25 pm: Once again, Alex Bethke returns to tell us that we may now eat the Chinese food. Against my better judgment, I get a little bit of everything and walk away with a buffet plate piled high with noodles, rice, vegetables, and MSG.

I tell myself that I’ll eat half of it now and save the rest for later, but that proves wishful thinking. I devour the entire plate and send my stomach into paroxysms of agony, although I do manage to grab another cup of coffee before heading back downstairs.

7:51 pm: Dork Shelf boss Will Perkins turns up with a digital recorder. I’ve coded about 75% of the script, so I’m ready for a break.

8:14 pm: Jim McGinley is yet to partake of the Chinese food so our interview gets delayed until 9:15.

8:33 pm: I’ve got some time to kill and I’m in the area so I grab a second helping of coffee and noodles. I wish I could tell you why I thought this was a good idea. My intestinal track is in complete and utter disarray and the constant injections of caffeine and MSG are proving to be equally deleterious to my cognition. I ask Will to sit in on my interview with Jim, partly because I think it will be fun and partly because I no longer trust my brain to form coherent thoughts.

9:15 pm: We track down Jim McGinley and commandeer a small office for our interview. I don’t want to step on my own toes here – we’ll be running the interview in its entirety here on Dork Shelf – but I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun during an interview because Jim is essentially a real-life Emmett Brown. I’ve never met someone who is nicer or more genuinely enthusiastic about everything, so Jim, Will and I happily spend an hour talking about TOJam.

10:03 pm: Jim, Will and I discuss the merits of using Jam games as educational tools to teach the public about the power sets of the various Avengers. Yeah, it was one of those kinds of interviews.

Then again, our conversation is probably indicative of average discussion you can expect to have at TOJam. You’re spending the weekend with hundreds of intelligent and creative people who like to talk about interesting and creative things, and the outlandish chats are one of the more underrated aspects of the event.

10:45 pm: Hackers. Seriously, they’re showing Hackers. I spend the first five minutes quoting dialogue in real time until someone asks me to stop, but I’ve got my own dialogue to code so yield without much protest.

The other viewers are not quite so accommodating. Hackers is basically Rocky Horror for computer nerds (not to be confused with Rocky Horror for Rocky Horror nerds) and the showcase rapidly devolves as thirty people point out all of the ridiculous things that happen in this movie. The running commentary is hilariously brutal, although the consensus seems to be that – despite its flaws – Hackers is phreakin’ entertaining.

10:50 pm: I am writing code while watching Hackers. This is, without question, the coolest meta-moment of my life. My bucket list is one item shorter thanks to my new-found kinship with the proletarian hero Zero Cool.*

A photographer turns the lunch break into a one-man dance break. (Angela Lau for The Toronto Game Jam)

12:45 am: Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap. Hackers is over, as is the illusion. The lesson: I am totally not elite. I’ve been coding for close to ten hours and David just pointed out that I haven’t closed a single dialogue node since I started. My script won’t work in game as currently structured, so I hunker down for a long night of bug fixing.

Did I mention that I’ve never written code before?

12:47 am: Whew. I still feel like an idiot, but at least I’m consistent with my mistakes. Since I haven’t been closing any nodes, I realize that I can just paste </node> below every dialogue box in Text Edit. I scroll through the entire script and the problem is fixed within 15 minutes.

I’m learning that there’s a unique logic to code. Errors are easy to address as long as you know where they are, and my gaffe proves to be less costly than expected because every instance requires the same solution. I’m not trying to figure out how to make something work, nor am I trying to find an errant backslash in a haystack. I’m just cleaning up some text, which isn’t particularly scary once I know what I’m doing. I once again catch the last subway home and I’m in bed around 2:30 am.

One more day to go. We have a script, all of our artwork, and a hell of a lot of code that I managed to write myself. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get to feel like a legitimate game developer.

Stay tuned for an action-paced Day Three of TOJam.

*All Hackers references in Apocalypse Later were written prior to Saturday’s viewing of the film. Just for the record.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the latest installment in the Ghost Recon franchise from Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier tries to set itself apart from other titles in the franchise and from other third-person shooters by focusing on getting players to tactically work together by using near-future technologies (such as using a drone to pinpoint enemy locations) and special combat tactics (such as suppressing fire) to defeat one’s foes.

We had a chance to talk with Tommy Jacob, Creative Director on Ghost Recon: FS’s multiplayer, while at the game’s launch event in Toronto. Most of our discussion revolved around Red Storm’s relationship with Special Forces soldiers, how those relationships influenced the game, and the contrasts between a video game and real-world Special Forces tactics.

Dork Shelf: How important and influential are your relationships with Special Forces soldiers in relation to creating a game like Ghost Recon?

Tommy Jacob: Red Storm, just based on our entire history, has had a close relationship with Special Forces. We have several advisors that we have long term relationships with that help us understand everything that we need to know in terms of combat, tactics, technology, and how that influences what the soldiers are doing in the field today and how that’s gonna be influencing how we are going to be fighting wars in the future. So those relationships are extremely important to us, and not just within the Special Forces but with the military in general, and is something we take a lot of pride in.

DS: Were there any conflicts or tensions when trying to remain faithful to the lived experiences of the soldiers while still keeping the game fun and enjoyable to play?

TJ: I can’t say really that there was. I mean we know that authenticity is something that we regard as very significant to the brand but we also recognize that it’s a game. So I don’t know that there was a point where it became any type of a challenge where we felt like something needed to be too authentic. Now certainly, as a Creative Director, that’s one of my goals: to ensure that we don’t push authenticity so far that the game is no longer fun or that we don’t pull back on authenticity to the point where it’s no longer Ghost Recon because that is a core component of what Ghost Recon is. That balancing act is part of identifying what experience we want the player to have but I don’t think that it ever became an issue where it created any problems.

DS: You mentioned earlier how combat is one of the key pillars of this game. Was there ever any incentive to try and include more non-combative elements in the game or was it always just focused on the battlefield?

TJ: Because it’s in the shooter genre obviously combat is something that, just from a mechanics standpoint, you need to work out early, early on in the experience: How is it gonna feel when the player is moving around and shooting? But for us very, very early on in the game we put an emphasis on teamwork. We wanted to see if we could take a game that’s going to be listed within the shooter genre and make shooting secondary. Can we make shooting of the gun something people could choose to go into a match and completely ignore and still be an effective teammate? And I feel like through what we’ve seen through the fresh eyes of testers what we’ve done up to this point and then through the beta we’ve definitely seen that. Where people will go in they’ll fly the drone, they’ll collect intel, they’ll focus on taking objectives, and they’ll shoot when they need to but their focus getting into the match is not how many kills can I get. And that was something that we felt from the very beginning was gonna be critical for us to do. To fill a void. And it was something we acknowledged very early on that we wanted to do: to fill a void within the shooter genre.

DS: Often in military shooters the main characters feel like afterthoughts next to the guns they hold in their hands. Was there any focus on having the player connect with the main characters and in turn the Special Forces guys you worked with?

TJ: Well, that all comes down to the quality of the writing throughout the campaign. And, from an authenticity stand point, something we learned with the relationship we have with some of the Special Forces is that Special Forces guys are not just highly trained soldiers in terms of their combat skills, they’re some of the most intelligent people that I’ve ever met. And we wanted that to be reflected. The character of the Ghosts needs to reflect the authenticity within Special Forces and how controlled and intelligent these guys really are. They’re not just run and gun with a goal to just be in combat all the time. In reality with Special Forces they’re goal is to avoid combat. When they go on a mission they would love to go in and achieve their target without having to get into large combat. But for gameplay, as you can imagine, that would not necessarily make for a very compelling experience. So we wanted to replicate the focus they put on who they select for the Special Forces programs based on, not just their abilities in combat, but based on their intelligence. So that all comes down to just good writing and good dialogue for the characters in the campaign.

DS: On a similar note: action games often use very clear distinctions between good and bad (or evil) actions in order to facilitate fast-paced gameplay. Does Ghost Recon engage with the concept that right and wrong are not always necessarily clear when in a battlefield situation?

TJ: That’s a good question. I guess I would say that because of the fact that you’re on a mission where, even though it’s a game, you are killing. So if anything, as I mentioned earlier with the Special Forces, when they go on a mission their goal isn’t to drop every human being that they encounter from the time that they get there to the time that they leave. So in that regard, from an authenticity standpoint, I can say that there may be a component of that where you’ve got this mission that because gameplay requires that we give the player somebody to engage, there is some contrast between how true Special Forces would handle a situation like that: They may choose to take the more tactical route around to avoid combat but that may not translate well into gameplay. So we put the player in situations where they have to engage and they have to take virtual life in the game and in the story to make combat fun. So I would say in that regard: in contrast to the amount of a causalities that take place in the game versus what the goals would be of an actual Special Forces soldier, it might kinda create that contrast.

DS: The game features an incredibly robust weapons customization system. Did your relationship with Special Forces influence that system and is it possible to customize a weapon to the point where you are unable to complete a mission or where you just can’t compete online?

TJ: The weapon customization, the idea of that was certainly inspired by Special Forces. Special Forces guys don’t take a gun off the shelf and then go into combat. They set-up the weapon and they work with armorers to modify the gun to perform the way that best suites their combat style. So the idea of providing an element of that to the player through the Gun Smith feature was kinda a no brainer for us. We wanted to see how robust could we make it? The idea of the inner parts was a big deal for us: being able to modify your trigger system and being able to modify the gas system to where the gun you are using, based on the role that you play, it might have more recoil than what suites your play style. So you can actually go in there and modify that. You can under gas the systems so it may not actually have as much stopping power; cause there is an impact on these changes. They’re not just cosmetic and they’re not all buffs. If I go in there and I under gas the weapon its not gonna be as powerful, its not gonna do as much damage. But it’s gonna be more controllable. So it was important to us to take that part of the reality of how Special Forces modify their equipment and provide that to the player.

As far as you being able to modify a weapon to the point where you wouldn’t be effective in combat, because of the way the system balances the gun based upon the modifications you make you wouldn’t necessarily create a weapon that would make you ineffective in combat. But it could make you less effective in certain types of combat. If you take a sniper rifle and you modify it to where it’s all about long range, you’ve got the most powerful scope, you’ve got the longest barrel, and you get into a close-quarters combat scenario and you’ve got a sniper rifle; you may not come out on top. But you’re not gonna modify the weapon to the point where the modification is going to cause you to lose a mission.

I had originally intended to write one development diary chronicling my experiences as a first-time game developer at TOJam, but one article simply couldn’t contain everything that happened throughout the weekend. What follows is consequently the first in a three-part series telling the story of Apocalypse Later, a new adventure game about an ineffectual child hellbent on global domination. You can play Apocalypse Later here, or you can continue reading to learn more about the people (and the process) behind the game.

All times are approximate. All memories and sentiments are true. Let’s begin.

Friday, May 11 – Day one of TOJam

8:15am: Wake up time. TOJam doesn’t start until 10. I toy with the idea of a morning work out but laziness and TOJam curiosity win out.

10:05am: Twitter informs me that my teammate @DavidSGallant (aka David Gallant) has already arrived at #TOJam. Twitter will be a constant companion throughout the weekend. In fact, I’m not even certain that #TOJam exists without a hash tag. I think I spent three days there, but it might have been a Twitpic hallucination.

10:35am: I finally make it to TOJam, where there’s a short lineup for registration. Thankfully, the process is relatively painless. I sign a waiver allowing the organizers to use my likeness in future TOJam material before being handed a nametag and a lanyard that officially makes me a part of TOJam 2012.

10:36am: TOJam veteran and 2012 super volunteer Alex Bethke pulls me aside to confirm that we’re still on for an interview with TOJam co-founder Jim McGinley for Saturday at 8:30. I’m pleased to say that we are.

10:40am: While the primary host of TOJam is bunking up on the fifth and sixth floors of the George Brown College School of Design, Apocalypse Later is situated on the ground floor in a small lounge with far too many windows that will become known as the fishbowl.

10:41am: I find David and #ApocalypseLater is officially underway. David is a programmer who works primarily in Flash and he plans to build our game using Actionscript 3 and Flixel. I don’t really know what that means, but David does and that’s good enough for me. David and I formed Team Apocalypse Later back in April and had a brief brainstorming session prior to the Jam, so we’re more or less on the same page heading into the weekend. I’ll be providing the general design concept and writing the entire script, while David will be taking care of all of the other stuff that makes Apocalypse Later a game.

To keep things manageable, we’ve opted to build a top-down point-and-click adventure game about a boy trying – and failing – to bring about the Apocalypse. The structure will place an emphasis on dialogue and story – I have no programming experience so I’m not good for much else – and we’re planning to limit the scope to one or two rooms so we can pack those rooms with as much gameplay content as possible.

Apocalypse Later draws heavily on the 2012 TOJam theme, “The World’s NOT Ending.” A true Apocalypse consequently isn’t in the cards, but I won’t know how the game plays out until I write it so I crack open my laptop and create a new document in Word.

10:53am: In a spurt of severe randomness, I decree that our main character’s name shall be Gary.

11:01am: A team of volunteers is frantically trying to set up an Internet connection for the fishbowl after the George Brown network proves to be finicky and unresponsive. The whole kerfuffle is illustrative of the unique limitations of an art jam that relies on digital technology, and there is much grumbling and general consternation until a wireless router is placed on top of the recycling bins.

11:55am: David and I collectively decide that lunch and coffee should be the first items on our to-do list. Subway and Starbucks facilitate our procrastination.

12:31pm: After a few aborted attempts at humour, I’ve settled into a writing groove that carries me through the day. Given the demands on our time, the process is inevitably scattershot and I’m raining down references with all the focus and precision of an epileptic monkey dancing on a keyboard. The dance culminates in a script that includes references to Evil Dead, The Walking Dead, and 16 and Pregnant, as well as an entire sequence that doesn’t make sense until the fifteenth viewing of Hackers. Other highlights include a brief-but-heartfelt shout-out to Mother’s Day, a tribute to MCA, and numerous tips of the cap to the occasionally inane logic of adventure games.

The whole experience feels a bit like improv since there’s not enough time to craft the sort of multi-tiered narrative associated with more polished entertainment. Most of the punch lines are either pop culture references or TOJam in-jokes and I’m desperately trying not to take myself too seriously. I want Apocalypse Later to be fun, so I’ll be happy as long as I can communicate a certain level of manic energy and general madcap silliness within the game.

12:46pm: I was expecting chaos but thus far TOJam is almost disarmingly tame. It turns out that many of this year’s Jammers have what are colloquially referred to as “real jobs,” so the bulk of the TOJam populace won’t be appearing until business hours have concluded.

1:04pm: Dissatisfied with lunch, David and I make a supermarket run to stock up on energy for Friday. It is the first of many astonishingly poor food decisions. I devour half a bag of almonds despite already being full of ham sandwich and my stomach now feels mildly distended.

2:05pm: Our artist, Mladen Stambolija of Blinker Studios joins Team Apocalypse Later. Mladen had originally registered as ‘floater,’ a free agent offering freelance artwork to other TOJam teams. This year, over-registration forced the organizers to cut back on the number of floaters so Mladen was added to Apocalypse Later to help manage the overflow.

This is our first meeting with Mladen and he proves to be an invaluable addition to the team. He’s willing to roll with the concept that David and I have in place and – more importantly – he’s able to create a visual representation of a world that currently exists solely in our heads. Mladen provides consistently awesome 2D pixel art that infuses Apocalypse Later with a distinct old-school aesthetic, although I won’t get to see much of his work until much later in the day.

Mladen does tell us that a friend of his is a sound designer, so we file the information away for use later in the weekend.

3:43pm: One of the TOJam attendees has decided to provide Eggs Benedict for everyone at TOJam. I don’t know the identity of this mystery chef, nor do I know how this monumental feat of culinary engineering was accomplished in a George Brown hallway. All I know is that the eggs – topped with hash browns, smoked salmon, and hollandaise sauce – are delicious. I return to my computer and immediately write new dialogue to incorporate Eggs Benedict into Apocalypse Later.

4:47pm: The population of the registration lobby grows to a crescendo as the gainfully employed participants begin drifting into the venue.

6:15pm: Team Apocalypse Later is in full swing. I’m still plugging away at the script, Mladen is bringing Gary’s house to life, and David is building a dialogue system and writing code that allows our protagonist to move.

The early artwork and gameplay treatments look amazing, but I’ll admit that I get a little nervous monitoring the progress of other teams. Apocalypse Later has an extreme demarcation of labor, so while some people already have nearly finished games we’re just going to have to pray that our disparate elements come together as intended.

7:14pm: It’s time for the opening ceremonies. The volunteers drag us to a parking lot behind the Toronto Sun building while Jim McGinley stands above us with a megaphone and reads the list of official TOJam sponsors. Jim isn’t sure if we’re allowed to gather in this parking lot so we all breathe a communal sigh of relief when the helicopter passes overhead. We’re harmless, but I can imagine how a horde of 400-plus people and a megaphone might be misconstrued.

We’d all like to get back to making games, but the impromptu ceremony is otherwise a memorable way to kick off the weekend. TOJam now feels like an event, while I feel like one of many in an exclusive crowd of game developers. Considering that I’m normally a journalist, it’s an unexpectedly invigorating sensation.

8:30pm: The organizers have promised us free coffee but numerous elevator trips to the sixth floor kitchen have yet to yield any caffeine. There is a candy stand set up in the octagonal room on the fifth floor, so I stock up on popcorn and Rice Krispies Treats that I don’t particularly need or desire.

I do, however, manage to ignore the free cans of Red Bull. I prefer my caffeine without sugar and I’m sick enough with the Rice Krispies Treats and popcorn, so I shudder as I ponder the potential effects of Red Bull on my stomach lining.

10:22pm: It’s around this time that I head to the washroom and conclude I won’t be using the bathroom stalls at TOJam. During every trip to the urinal there’s invariably some anonymous stranger unleashing a diarrheic cacophony in the stall next to me and the smells sliding underneath the frame are enough to convince me that I don’t want to be the guy on the other side of the door. My apartment is blessedly a short subway ride away, so I resolve to delay more pressing concerns until I’m safely ensconced in the privacy of my own home.

This, as you might suspect, is the unsavoury part of TOJam that they don’t tell you about in the brochures. Strip away the creative atmosphere and TOJam is essentially a high-tech commune with 400 people under one roof and the three proper toilets simply aren’t adequate for the demands of the collected population. As a mild germ-o-phobe, I’m willing to travel for an alternate solution and some privacy.

11:04pm: I’ve now run consecutive Google searches for “Crystal Meth” and “whiskey still designs,” both of which generate information that will eventually appear in Apocalypse Later. I’ve been given free reign to write whatever the hell I want and I plan on abusing the privilege.

11:45pm: A late night falafel run is the closest I get to dinner. The falafel, unfortunately, is dry and disappointing.

12:31am: I call it quits at 1,950 words. I’ve written six of our seven adventure puzzles, but I’d like to get some sleep tonight so I grab the last subway home and make plans to return at 10am. David tells me to look into a program called Notepad++ so I budget some extra time to download software in the morning.

All in all, it’s an eventful and satisfying day one of TOJam.

Starhawk, from LightBox Interactive and Sony Santa Monica, is an ambitious game that combines several genres in an attempt to create a unique experience for gamers. Unfortunately, Starhawk seems content with stuffing its well-crafted and genre-bending gameplay into a very standard — and safe— game with few surprises and little ingenuity in terms of game modes and game types.

Starhawk is part tower defense, part third-person shooter, part vehicle combat game, and part combat flight-sim. The good news is that all of these disparate genres mesh seamlessly together and nothing feels out of place or lacking in detail and focus — the flight mechanics are particularly fun as we were able to perform aerial acrobatics with ease. The major issue with the game is that the ingenious melding of genres simply treads old ground. We found that Starhawk’s unique gameplay can feel underwhelming due to the game’s lackluster singleplayer campaign and its reuse of all the multiplayer staples gamers can find in any major release.

Starhawk’s gameplay revolves around building structures and armaments to defeat waves of enemies. If the player wants a tank, a dune buggy, or a Hawk — the game’s mech/flying vehicle — he/she must build the structure that allows him/her access to those vehicles. However, reducing Starhawk’s gameplay to a mere construction-worker-sim does not do justice to the game.

Once the player builds a structure he/she must also defend that building with turrets, engineering arms — objects that repair damaged buildings and vehicles — and walls. All structures and objects are built with Rift Energy: green orbs that one collects from fallen enemies and barrels scattered throughout a level/map. Players spend Rift Energy to purchase structures and objects. The more powerful the structure/object is the more Rift Energy is needed to purchase it. The give and take nature of spending Rift Energy to create structures/defenses and the need to attack incoming enemies to collect more Rift creates a surprisingly tense and strategic gameplay experience.

At first the build mechanics make the singleplayer campaign feel fresh and inviting, but once the clichéd sci-fi/western action narrative starts hitting every expected beat with every expected character stereotype — including a gravelly voiced protagonist dealing with a dark past — the campaign quickly devolves into a derivative form. As well, the overly dramatic narrative does not quite fit with Starhawk’s cartoony and over-the-top action. In fact, singleplayer feels more like an extended five-hour tutorial to prepare the player for online play than a fully engaging campaign.

Co-op is where the game’s strategic nature shines. Co-op gameplay is essentially a “horde-mode” game type where players must defend a particular area against waves of enemies. Players must work together to survive each wave otherwise they will be quickly overrun by the multitude of enemies trying to destroy everything in site. Building turrets, walls, and vehicles becomes a frantic race as players try to adapt to each new enemy thrown into the mix.

The rest of the multiplayer suite focuses on the classic multiplayer game modes every big title has: deathmatch, capture the flag, and a version of king of hill called Zones. The build and fight mechanics work well in each game mode but we cannot help feel that the game’s mash-up of genres should also include some fresh/new game modes — something to really show how combining genres can create unique experiences. Instead players get a standard set of multiplayer games that only feel slightly different thanks to the build/defend/fight gameplay. That being said, Starhawk certainly outshines most other games when it comes to having dynamic multiplayer maps. Since players are always building new structures every map will have a slightly different layout each time a player respawns, which helps give the multiplayer a bit of extra life.

Throughout our time with Starhawk we were impressed at how well the development team managed to merge all the disparate gameplay elements into every game mode. However, in terms of the game modes, Starhawk seems happy to simply repeat what others have done in the hopes that its build mechanics are enough to keep players interested. Ultimately, the build mechanics add a layer of strategy and dynamism to online battles but we found the game can feel all too similar to what we’ve already experienced in other games.

On Monday, gaming fans lined up in front of electronics and gaming stores to await the midnight launch of Diablo III, Blizzard Entertainment’s latest action role-playing game in the series that kick-started the genre back in 1996. Gamers had been waiting more than 12 years since the last installment descended upon PCs and devoured the lives of millions, so what was another 12 or so hours?

People wait in line outside the Best Buy electronics store at Bay and Dundas Street in downtown Toronto at around 11:00 pm. Many near the front of the line sat patiently in their lawn chairs. The line stretched to the street corner and around the bend, slowly growing south down Bay Street.

Angelo Kiustenglou entered the line at 12 noon, fully dressed as a Necromancer from Diablo II. It’s his first-ever cosplay. Best Buy (and the Future Shop up the street) offered contests exclusive to people who made the effort to show up in costume. Plus, Angelo says, “it’s the one chance I get to stand in the middle of downtown with a suit of golden armour on.”

Angelo’s 15-year-old brother Frankie came dressed as a Barbarian, and spoke entirely “in-character” with a growl and the occasional guttural warcry. As he shouted during our short chat, passersby shouted in reply, and it became an impromptu Waaaagh!-off in the middle of the city.

When asked how the wait had been outside, shirtless no less, he described it as “painful,” although that might have had more to do with his not having the game in his hands yet more than anything.

“And I’m kind of hungry. But, you know, I’m committed here.”

This Demon Hunter was called out of line for photographs almost constantly, thanks to her fantastic costume. In case you were wondering, those are special contact lenses, not camera red-eye.

These two cosplayers were part of Best Buy’s launch party crew, which included people giving away mousepads, posters and energy drinks to those waiting in line.

First in line were Oscar “Cayo” Gonzalez, left, and Tad Yuan. If Cayo looks familiar, that’s because he was at the front of the line at the very same store at the Starcraft II midnight launch in 2010.

While both are die-hard Blizzard fans, Yuan is in line specifically for the $100 Collector’s Edition. “I just want the collector’s edition. I got a Starcraft II collector’s edition, and a WoW [World of Warcraft] collector’s edition.”

“So you’re collecting…collector’s editions?” says Cayo.

“Yeah,” replies Yuan, sheepishly.

Why do they love the Diablo games enough to wait in line for 12 hours? “The replayability, and the random nature of the game,” explains Cayo. “And the loot, man. The loot.”

Best Buy’s entrance was adorned by a display from graphics company AMD, including Diablo III trailers, mousepads, and headsets, along with the Health and Mana-coloured light-boxes.

We’re not sure why DiRT 3 was loaded on the main computer. If they were trying to promote the upcoming DiRT Showdown, it fell on deaf ears.

Outside the Future Shop at Yonge and Dundas Streets, the lineup stretched west past the future site of the Silver Snail comic store, all the way to Gould Street and Ryerson University.

A man on a bike passes by. He asks: “Yo, what’s everyone lining up for?”

“Diablo III!” answers one man.

“Oh, shiit!” the cyclist replies.

Left to right: Shanker, Tyler, Eric, George and their friend Michael (not pictured, holding the fort on the lawn chair behind them) arrived between 6 and 7 am Monday morning to make it to the front of the line. The group works at the same company. They booked off vacation time to wait in line.

They’ve been in line for the entire day, as the store opened and closed for its regular hours. “We were here before the store opened. We watched people walk to work, and then laughed at us when they were walking home from work,” said Tyler, who also plays Starcraft II competitively.

“Blizzard owns us,” said George, on behalf of the entire group of Diablo veterans. “We’ll do anything they say.” They described the plan to come to the midnight launch, including coming in a large enough group to get food while others keep their place in line.

Anton Richter showed up dressed as the archangel Tyrael, including a garb that completely obscured his face and possibly scared the heck out of a few pedestrians.

The 18-year-old was introduced to Diablo II by his father, and his love of the games grew from there. “I’ve just been a fan of Blizzard games for a while, I really like the Diablo games, and I just felt like doing something for this.”

At the new EB Games store closer to Yonge and Queen Streets, the doors were wide open well before midnight. Clerks clocked in the sales ahead of the actual launch. At 12:00 am, those who had already paid needed only to show their receipt, get a stamp and pick up the game.

The two-tiered launch system had worked out for EB in the past. According to several of the associates and supervisors working the midnight event, this allowed them to move roughly 500 copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 during its midnight launch last November.

The EB Games store five minutes to midnight. Fans, their receipts in hand, slowly filed to the resigter area for a second time to pick up their copies of Diablo III. They then walked up and down the streets, carrying their bags and purchases proudly.

Of course, had they known the ensuing days would be plagued with server errors and downtime, perhaps some of them might not have made the trek for the launch. But for the moment, it was a coming together of fans and die-hards for the most pre-ordered PC game of all time, and something surely to be remembered.

Kat, the main character in Gravity Rush for the PS Vita (SCEA, PlayStation.com)

Every so often during a gaming event, you come across a game tucked away in a corner that people seem ready and willing to ignore. In some instances the lack of attention is warranted, but sometimes they represent a true glimmer of ingenuity within the onslaught of sequels, explosions, and cookie cutter franchises. Gravity Rush (known as Gravity Daze in Japan), developed by Japan Studio, was a wonderful surprise and it was a shame the game did not have greater representation at PlayStation’s Spring Showcase.

Gravity Rush revolves around a young woman named Kat who lives in a floating city and mysteriously gains the ability to defy gravity (there is also an unexplained “gravity storm” and enemies called the “Nevi” that Kat must defeat in order to protect the people of her home city). At first the gravity defying gameplay was disorienting but the game’s logical design quickly became apparent.

The player can make Kat float by pressing the right bumper. While she’s floating, the player can aim her (either by using tilt controls or by using the analogue sticks) at an object or building and send her careening in the direction the reticule is aimed. Kat will “stick” to whatever surface she comes in contact with during flight. Using her powers, she can walk along walls, on the underside of bridges, up lampposts and so forth.

However, Kat can only use her gravity-defying abilities for a short time; once her power meter runs out she will plummet to the ground. We also managed to these powers to pick up objects and fling them at enemies. Kat can also perform a powerful flying kick by floating in the air and attacking an enemy.

Gravity manipulation can result in some unusual viewpoints and situations. (SCEA, PlayStation.com)

All this gravity manipulation might get old fast, but the game’s ingenuity became apparent when we completed a story mission requiring stealth. The mission was simply to get to a location and steal an object without being spotted by the police.

Since Kat does not have any special stealth skills she needs to rely on her ability to walk along walls and the sides of objects in order to avoid detection. This means the player needs to strategically and carefully plan out where to sneak past the police, dictating a more thoughtful approach than simply making Kat blast through the environment.

The game also boasts gorgeous visuals, beautiful comic-book/anime style cutscenes, and an intuitive touchscreen world-map. Gravity Rush seems like a game that uses the Vita intelligently without forcing Vita based controls on the player. Gravity Rush could be just the kind of game Sony needs to promote in order to entice gamers to pick up a Vita.

Gravity Rush launches in North America on June 12th, exclusively on the PlayStation Vita.

Mors Westford brings the pain in Game of Thrones: The Game. (Cyanide Studios)

Fans of the Game of Thrones television show should take care: Game of Thrones: The Game is first and foremost an old-school role playing game. The game looks as though it was designed with RPG fans in mind as opposed to offering something more familiar for fans of the television series. In many ways, GoT:TG has more in common with George Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books than the HBO drama. Still, the developers managed to work in the likenesses of some of the characters from the show offering a little continuity between the game and the HBO series.

GoT:TG relies on standard RPG systems of inventory management, loot gathering, skill trees, lengthy dialogue scenes, and slower/strategic combat. The section of the game we played took place in King’s Landing – specifically Chataya’s Brothel and the dungeons and labyrinths below the Red Keep. The visuals are not overly impressive but the twisting alleyways of city and the dark dungeons under the Red Keep feel right for the world of Westeros.

It seems that most of the player’s time will be spent in combat or engaging in long conversations between characters. Combat centers on selecting, readying, and activating skills and abilities to create a series of attacks. This means that the player must choose carefully in order to ensure that Mors or Alester can use ranged, melee, and healing abilities in the right order for maximum effect.

Character abilities are accessed through radial menus. While accessing them, the game does not pause but everything simply slows down (similar to what you’ll find in The Witcher 2). As a result you can still be attacked while searching for the right ability to activate, which offers a bit of extra tension and strategy to the game.

Thankfully, it looks like the Game of Thrones RPG is not trying to pander to the fans of the HBO series but is a game designed with gamers and RPG fans in mind. Fans of the books may also have incentive to play since the game will visit locations the HBO series has either ignored or not yet covered. The game also features its own unique 30-hour narrative that takes place near the end of book one – Atlus’ Aram Jabbari mentioned that people around the realm are still talking about Ned Stark, “and it will rhyme with his first name, if you know what I mean.”

Overall, Game of Thrones: The Game looks promising as a throwback to old-school RPGs with a focus on careful character progression, thoughtful leveling, and strategic gameplay. It launches May 15 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC

Make sure to check out our interview with Aram Jabbari, PR & Sales Manager at Atlus, as he talks with us about Game of Thrones.

Lena Headey's likeness as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones: The Game (Cyanide Studios)

Much of the western world is currently enthralled by Westeros, thanks to the HBO series Game of Thrones adapted from George R. R.  Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels. It’s probably no surprise, then, that a videogame is in the works. What might surprise you, however, is that Game of Thrones: The Game has been in development for more than seven years.

Cyanide Studios, the company known for other videogames based on classic fantasy franchises such as Blood Bowl and Confrontation, got together with HBO when both parties were deep in development of their respective projects to make sure that the game included some of the now-iconic elements of HBO’s interpretation.

We spoke with Aram Jabbari, PR & Sales Manager at the game’s publisher Atlus, at Sony’s PlayStation Spring Showcase. We chatter about what players can expect when they boot up GoT:TG and how familiar the settings and characters will be to those who have been faithfully following the television series.

Dork Shelf: When did development start on the game, and how did you interact with HBO while it was working on the television show?

Aram Jabbari: The game’s development began well before the show. The developers, Cyanide, came to George Martin with an idea for the game that added to the canon but didn’t break it. They wanted something that was like a new book. They worked on it together and they got it to a point that it was true to Game of Thrones.

(Cyanide Studios)

DS: How familiar will the game be to those who watch the HBO show, but haven’t read the books?

AJ: James Cosmo, who plays Commander Mormont, lent his voice and his likeness. Conleth Hill, who plays Lord Varys, lent his voice and likeness. Lena Headey lent her likeness to the game. It’s a really great partnership with HBO. The developers reached out to them and they were able to forge that relationship.

When HBO aired the show, Cyanide had the opportunity to work with HBO to put in the voices, the likenesses, those elements, the music, into the game, and you can kind of see that, especially in the pre-order bonus art book that we’re giving out.

But there are things, in almost every place, [from the original designs.] But no one who watches the show will say to themselves, “this looks very different.” A lot of elements are very loyal to the very successful interpretation that HBO created. But there are vestiges of the fact that Cyanide has been working for seven years, from the conceptual stage to the completion, to make this game a reality.

DS: Who are the characters that we follow in GoT: TG?

AJ: You play as one of two original characters, Mors Westford and Alester Sarwick. One of the reasons for two original characters is the ability to tell a new story as opposed to being locked into deaths and all sorts of other fixed histories that the other characters are in.

Mors is a sworn brother of the Night’s Watch, Alester is a red priest of R’hllor. They both get a mission to find a girl by the name of Jane, and by that point forward, they are on a collision course with each other. So you don’t really know what this girl’s nature is, or what the purpose of this is, but that’s where things really get going. And you go from The Wall to King’s Landing, you go to new areas as well. Overall it’s like: you’ve read it, you’ve watched it, now you get to play it.

DS: At what point during the Song of Ice and Fire timeline does GoT: TG take place?

AJ: The events happen roughly around the end of the first book. You’ll hear people talking about Ned Stark, and it will rhyme with his first name, if you know what I mean.

DS: What locations will we see and visit throughout the game?

AJ: There are a number of different places in King’s Landing – for example the Iron Throne Room. At The Wall you’ll be able to visit Castle Black. You’ll be able to go to Mole’s Town, but as well there are a number of elements, characters maybe, who don’t appear in the HBO show, who either haven’t appeared yet or maybe have been written out entirely, like Chataya and her brothel in King’s Landing, Quorin Halfhand, and references to a lot of other characters in the books.

DS: How open are the environments in the game? Will we be able to explore the cities in any great depth?

AJ: For the most part the game is linear, because it’s so heavily driven by the story, it’s not an open world game in the Skyrim sense. It’s much more akin to a game like Dragon Age: Origins, the original Witcher. You’ll go to new areas and you’ll have the opportunity for main quests and side quests and things like that. You’ll be able to explore around King’s Landing, for example, but ultimately the game is a chapter-by-chapter perspective that alternates back and forth just like the books, and you’re moving towards, ultimately, the narrative’s conclusion.

DS: What was it like harmonizing the videogame with the television show when Cyanide and HBO were already knee-deep in their own versions of the projects?

SJ: That’s one of those things where the developers had done a lot of work, but they recognized the importance of how popular the show would become, and it was one of those things where they felt like it would add much richness to the game. To have the music, this is so iconic to the show, to have the visuals and likenesses that are so iconic.

Stay tuned later this week, when Dork Shelf’s James Farrington takes up the sword (or DualShock 3, as it were) and gives us his gameplay impressions.

Game of Thrones: The Game launches May 15 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

It’s always a pleasure to see a game that has such an imaginative structure and design that we cannot help but smile as we play. Papo & Yo from Minority Media (@we_are_minority) is a puzzle-platformer that tasks the player with manipulating the environment in order to reach new areas and, in turn, progress through the level. On the surface the game might sound boring, but the ways in which the developers have created dynamic environments is so whimsically delightful that everyone who picks up the game should be grinning from ear to ear.

More surprising is a narrative that focuses on the difficulties of dealing with alcohol addiction. In Papo & Yo the player controls Quico: a young South American boy with an overactive imagination.

Quico must manipulate his environment in order to create platforms that he can jump across to reach new areas. In our demo the puzzles predominantly focused on moving small square buildings to create platforms. Quico interacts with these buildings through magical white levers, keys, gears, and… cardboard boxes?

Cardboard boxes (with windows and doors drawn on them) allow Quico to “pick up” buildings and move them. Basically a cardboard box, made-up to look like a house, is connected to a “real” building in the environment. Picking up the box makes a building float off the ground. Move Quico, and in turn the box, and the building will follow. Drop the box and the building drops in the new position the player has moved it to. Now combine all of these different interactive elements and there is the potential for a truly engrossing puzzle-platformer game.

Beyond manipulating buildings the player also has companions in the form of a small robot named Lula and a monster named… well, Monster. We did not get a chance to interact with Monster but we did play some with Lula. Lula gives Quico the ability to extend the length of his jumps and Quico can throw Lula to buttons throughout the environment to unlock doors and move platforms.

During PlayStation’s 2012 Spring Showcase we had a chance to talk with Charles-William Bibaud, Line Producer on Papo & Yo, about the development of the game, its unique narrative, and the challenges of trying to translate lived experiences into an interactive medium.

Dork Shelf: Can you tell us a little about Minority Media, such as any particular goals you have as a developer?

Charles-William Bibaud: Minority was founded a little bit more than a year ago by a small group of relatively experienced game developers that decided to go and found an independent studio to be able to provide some more, I would say, different original content that you’re maybe not used to seeing that often coming out from big companies.

DS: How long has Papo & Yo been in development?

CWB: It’s been in development almost a year now.

DS: Could you talk about how working with Sony’s Pub Fund changed the development process on the game?

CWB: It’s a great initiative and a great help. We are in Canada so we have a bit of support from the Canadian government as well, through the Canada Media Fund. So this also helps independent developers to create great content. But Sony also supports the developer financially, and on a promotion level, which is a great help to us because sometimes independent developers have great ideas and original content to bring, however they do not have the financial means to bring that great content and product to market. So Sony’s support is great.

DS: What can you tell us about the origin of the narrative in Papo & Yo?

CWB: It’s inspired from a true story from our creative director, Vander Caballero, who is also one of the founders of the company. He was a small, poor kid in South America dealing with a tough relationship with his father, who was addicted to alcohol. So it wasn’t always easy. He wanted to tell his own story through a game.

DS: Was there any particular difficulties in trying to translate a true story into the creative medium of video games?

CWB: Yes. Absolutely. That was one of our main challenges because we not only wanted to provide a great gameplay experience but on top of that we wanted to make sure we can tell a relatively deep and intense story through this game. It’s a different medium than film, of course, so it’s mostly told through interactivity but also some cinematic sequences that help you to understand a bit more.

DS: The game takes place in South America, could you explain how the locales you’ve used in the game influence the puzzles or vice-versa?

CWB: Obviously it influenced the look of the game because South America is super colourful, even though those places are sometimes in poorer regions. There are plenty of small houses to interact with via magical elements through the game. So it [South America] provided a great environment to do super interesting stuff. It is inspired from there but there is also the use of the imagination, which allows us to be more creative and free in terms of gameplay and interactive elements.

DS: We’ve seen predominantly urban environments so far. Does the game take place in any other environments?

CWB: I don’t want to reveal too much of the game because I think the best experience is when you discover it. You begin in a place that is a relatively realistic looking with a touch of imagination. However, you will move to a different type of environment in terms of realistic environments like jungle, with more plants, but also in terms of the imagination side of it. Sometimes you progress through the main character’s own emotions. So some levels will be darker some others will be more abstract because just like when you are dreaming your dream is not always as focused. So you’re going to see some really funky stuff.

DS: Is the narrative in the game predominantly linear or are there chances for branching paths?

CWB: The narrative is predominantly linear because we really wanted to tell the story and it is a relatively complicated story to tell through the game. However, the relationship you’re building with the characters is purely interactive. You’re going to build your relationship with Monster and with Lula, the little robot, and as you play with them you will develop a real attachment to those characters. And they will help you to solve puzzles and progress through the game. So there is interactivity in the actual character development.

DS: We’ve seen some of the interaction with the characters but can you tell us, without giving too much away, how those character interactions influence the gameplay and puzzles?

CWB: Yes. When you meet the new character Lula, he will provide you with some special abilities. You will also be able to trigger some special magic elements that Quico maybe would not be able to do by himself.

Same thing with Monster. He has the downside of going into a frenzy if he eats frogs. So that creates another dynamic  – he is your friend and you love him but if he turns into a rage because he’s eaten a frog he’s going to be uncontrollable. So now you have to solve the puzzle with Monster being frustrated. Sometimes he is also calm so he is going to also have his own specific things that only he can do to help you go through some of the different puzzles.

DS: We noticed in the demo we played that there was a brief interactive cutscene. Could you explain how important interactivity is to each element of the game?

CWB: We thought that most of the emotions you feel from the game should happen through the game mechanics. When you actually live the story it’s even stronger than just watching it. So we wanted to provide as much of the story, and you’re experiences you are actually living, in an interactive form. So that’s why we tried to put as much as possible into the interactivity. Of course we can’t do it with all of it because sometimes there are things that need to be told more cinematically.

DS: Thanks for your time and we are looking forward to the completed game.

CWB: Thank you.

Starhawk (PlayStation 3)

At the Sony Spring Showcase preview, the latest swath of games you’ll see on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita took centre stage on top-of-the-line high-definition televisions, while developers, PR managers and invited journalists lounged in comfy leather couches. Catering by The Food Dudes offered mini sliders with cucumber and flatbread squares topped with wild mushroom, arugula and a white balsamic glaze.

In short, it’s nothing like the typical gaming environment for someone between the ages of 13 to 45 years old, where Cheetos and a dusty living room couch are just as likely companions to you and your controller. Yet it still served its purpose, which was to make the previews of Sony’s latest upcoming games as palatable (if contrarian) as possible.

Sony showed off its best wares for the upcoming summer season, including its front-line exclusive games leading up to next month’s E3. They also showed off some of the best Canadian game talent, including titles by some of Toronto’s talented indie developers such as Dyad and Sound Shapes.

First, however, we’re taking a look at three of Sony’s marquee titles for the next quarter of 2012.

Starhawk (PlayStation 3)

You might have seen the reviews for Starhawk already, a game by Lightbox Interactive and Sony Santa Monica that has more or less flown under the radar up to its release. The sequel to 2007’s Warhawk, the multiplayer-only third person shooter with a heavy emphasis on in-flight dog-fighting action, takes a turn for the Firefly and adds a single player storyline campaign.

We tried out a few slices of action from the campaign, putting on the hard workin’ bots of Emmett Graves. Graves is one of the Rifters on Planet Dust, space miners who cultivate a fuel source known as Rift Energy. Thing is, they’re constantly attacked by Outcasts – humans who have OD’d on Rift and turned into monsters not unlike the Husks from Mass Effect.

Throughout the game, you’ll be running and gunning on foot, armoured vehicles, and in the game’s titular Hawk aircraft. New to Starhawk is the ability to reconfigure your Hawk into a Bayformer-like monstrosity that can massacre ground forces with ease, and stomp on the ground causing even more havoc.

On the standard flight controls settings, maneuvering with the Hawk was quite simple and satisfying. A flick of the right analog stick throws your ship into a barrel roll, or a loop-de-loop to avoid enemy fire. While wailing away on the machine guns felt cathartic, the lock-on rockets proved far more effective in dispatching enemies.

On the surface of Dust, we took a look at one of Starhawk’s new features that one doesn’t usually expect in a fast-paced third-person shooter: base-building mechanics. The Build & Battle system, or B&B, is fuelled by Rift energy globes you collect from fallen enemies.

Within seconds of choosing where on the battlefield your impromptu terrain should appear, a couple hundred tonnes of cargo drops onto the ground with a shuddering crash, much like the crude delivery systems in the Dawn of War strategy games.

The B&B system worked fairly well, and in the case of missions where you have to defend your Rift Extractor base, absolutely essential to the mission. In the frantic pace of a battle, however, if can be difficult to figure out just where to position your new defenses while as enemies rush to your territory.

Combat on foot, like the Hawks themselves, is fast and fluid especially compared to other third-person shooters. You can destroy canisters of Rift energy in case there aren’t any enemies around, which seems counter-intuitive to a miner protecting the stuff, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Some concerns we have for the full version are whether the B&B gameplay will become an asset or a hindrance for sprawling 32-player games, and whether the single player campaign will offer anything of real substance. Will we learn enough to really care about Emmett Graves and the rest of the Rifters? - Jonathan Ore

Starhawk is available on the PlayStation 3 now.

Sorcery (PlayStation 3, Move)

Sorcery (PlayStation 3, Move)

If you are one of the gamers who purchased a PlayStation Move with dreams of having HD games with advanced motion controls that translate one’s waggles into responsive and engaging/fast-paced action… then you are probably rather disappointed by now, as the Move has yet to live up to expectations.

Thankfully, at this week’s PlayStation Spring Showcase, we had the opportunity to try out Sorcery, a Move exclusive. In Sorcery the player controls a sorcerer’s apprentice tasked with protecting his homeland from invading enemies. The plot is rather basic but the gameplay is surprisingly fun.

Sorcery’s gameplay features short, quick, and responsive movements as opposed to relying on over-exaggerated flailing meant to represent physical empowerment. Simply put: you flick the Move’s wand in the enemy’s direction and a spell emerges to wreak havoc (something akin to how wands are portrayed in the Harry Potter films).

Even switching between differing spells is satisfyingly quick and responsive. Each spell has a corresponding gesture that, at least in our demo, requires the player to move the Wand in quick half-circle motions. Again, each of these half-circle gestures is easily performed with a quick flick of the wrist as opposed to over-emphasized arm waving.

The player can also combine spells – one example had us using the fire spell to create a wall of fire, and then firing off our basic attack spell through the fire to create a fireball. The fire spell also has two attacks: the aforementioned wall of fire, which is cast by moving the wand either left or right, and a close-ranged explosive attack cast by flicking the wand towards the screen.

We also saw a very rudimentary puzzle that was a little disappointing in regards to motion gameplay, but hopefully these puzzles will become increasingly complex as one progresses through the game. Sorcery looks primed to give Move owners an intelligently designed and satisfying title that is less focused on waggling/flailing and more focused on giving players fun and responsive controls. - James Farrington

Sorcery will unravel its magic for the PlayStation 3 Move on May 22.

Resistance: Burning Skies (PS Vita)

Resistance: Burning Skies (PS Vita)

Of Sony’s major first-person shooter franchises, Resistance tends to take the backseat to Killzone, what with the latter sporting whatever new technology the company wants to promote. It’s a shame, since the early 20-century setting and mostly-likeable protagonists of the Resistance series provide something fresh compared to the general milieu of super-soldiers and one-dimensional bad-asses we see in the genre.

Burning Skies takes place in the mid-1940s, in the alternate timeline where the Chimera alien forces have just begun to invade the earth. The new protagonist, Tom Riley, is a firefighter from Staten Island, New York when the Chimera begin their assault on the city. While he’s as physically capable as his career demands, the married father of one is certainly “a fish out of water” when facing the Chimeran invasion, according to Sony’s marketing director for PlayStation Canada, Matt Levitan.

The first thing you’ll notice about Resistance: Burning Skies are the visuals, which impress even compared to its bigger brothers on the PS3. The areas are noticeably smaller and more linear than the more open environments from Resistance 3, however.

The controls are also nothing to sneeze at, either. The introduction of dual analog sticks makes all the difference in the first true first-person shooter on the Vita. Aiming, shooting and strafing are just as easy and natural as it comes on a full-sized controller.

Burning Skies inherits the series’ insane arsenals infuse the touch screen functions into many of their secondary firing modes. The Bullseye rifle, for example, now requires you to touch the enemy on the screen to tag it, allowing you to fire at it from around the corner. It’s a little odd at first, but we got used to it after a few tries. We’re not sure if our fingers will be able to handle the more intense firefights in the later levels of the single player campaign or on the fast-paced multiplayer modes, however.

Multiplayer matches have been reduced to 2-on-2 or 4-on-4 modes, which Levitan helps facilitiate the shorter playtimes on a handheld system. “You can set timers to be longer or shorter, but we wanted to make it so you could play two-to-five minute games that you could play in between meetings or class,” he explained.

Resistance: Burning Skies looks to translate the first-person shooter to a portable format better than most of its predecessors, with some crazy guns and contraptions to boot. It launches on the PS Vita on May 29. - Jonathan Ore

TOJam organizers address the troops at the 2011 Jam

TCAF may have been crazy, but it’s nothing compared to the encore. TOJam 2012 is currently underway and I’m getting a crash course in game design in one of the most intense creative environments imaginable.

What is TOJam, you ask? TOJam is an annual video game jam organized by Jim and Em McGinley, the co-founders of Big Pants Games and all-around awesome people. The weekend-long event kicks off Friday at 10 AM and lasts until Sunday night at 8 PM, during which time a few dozen teams of varying shapes and sizes are tasked to develop a full video game in accordance with a pre-selected theme.

Since 2012 marks the seventh year of jamming – the event has been ominously dubbed The Sevening – our theme is ironically non-apocalyptic. Specifically, we’ve been told that “The World is NOT Ending,” although I might need to remind myself of that at several points throughout the weekend. I’m a charter member of Team Apocalypse Later, so despite a complete lack of game design or programming experience, I’ll be bunkering down with approximately 400 other individuals for a three-day binge that will (hopefully) culminate with something resembling a video game.

I’m more of a writer than a developer, so I’ll also be chronicling the experience with a development diary to provide my take on the jam from the perspective of a participant rather than a journalist. I make no promises about daily updates – it’s likely that my brain will have turned into silly putty by the middle of the day on Saturday – but I will be tweeting on behalf of Team Apocalypse later so follow me @harry_houdini if you want to play along at home.

Us jammers, meanwhile, will be holed up on the top two floors of the George Brown College School of Design. I wouldn’t recommend making an appearance at ground zero – 400 people can get pretty ripe after three consecutive days of programming – but you will absolutely want to check out a few of the games that emerge during The Sevening. Game jams are founts for crazy games and even crazier ideas – last year’s event brought us the inimitable Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure – so there’s no telling how inspiration will strike during a weekend on which the world most certainly isn’t coming to an end.

As for me, my full development diary will run on Dork Shelf sometime next week, as will my interview with co-founders Jim and Em McGinley. TOJam has officially begun so stay tuned for more updates from The Sevening.

Be sure to check out some of Dork Shelf’s previous TOJam coverage, including this video feature we produced way back in 2010.

While crowd bustled about the convention floor, it was still more relaxed and even more intimate compared to the gargantuan Fan Expo that overtakes the downtown core every fall. But despite the comparative lack of big newsmakers and superstar panels on a cool April weekend, Comic-Con was still the place for all nerd, dorks and geeks to be.

For the first part of our Comic-Con roundup, we’re highlighting the fans who dressed especially for the occasion, in costumes based on our favourite comics, video games and television shows.

Poison Ivy

The Riddler

Wonder Woman

The Joker & Harley Quinn

Clark Kent

Scarecrow & Phoenix

X-Men and (She) Punisher

Green Lantern, in a darling one-piece

Kick-Ass

Supergirl

Invisible Girl

The Avengers, 2012 film cast-friendly

Lara Croft

TRON

Star Trek - Klingon and "He-Uhurua"

Silent Bob

Homer Simpson as Pie Man

Sailor Moon & Sailor Scouts

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim soldiers

Thanks to all the attendees and fans who stopped for a pic from Dork Shelf! Stay tuned for interviews with some of the star guests and even more photos.