windmillstudios.tk!

That is the domain of my new website. Here you will find Flash animations, games, and a link to my blog about Flash animations and games. The name comes from the famous windmill puzzle from ICO.

There is not a lot of content yet; just a couple old animations that I made this past year. But I am working alone and with some friends on a couple projects that I hope to work on this summer. They include: a point-and-click puzzle game; a stick fight movie; a game set in a computer; and an epic music-video/action-movie set to this song.

So yeah. That's my site and my plan. Any comments, suggestions, or helpful tips can be messaged to me or emailed to thewindmillstudios -at- gmail.com.

You can also find me at Newgrounds and ArmorGames (although no games have been posted yet).

There are things that developers consistently put in video games that no one likes: stealth sequences in the middle of an action game, driving minigames, quicktime events, and dirivative fetch quests, to name a few. Yet one thing has always stood out to me as the worst, annoying, broken thing in video games.

AI partners that you have to defend.

Why do they keep sticking them in? What purpose do they serve? Sure they make it realistic sometimes, but in a game like Resident Evil 4, who cares about realism? That went out the window when you introduced Spanish semi-zombie people. Nobody enjoys these missions, so why do developers insist on putting them in again and again?

The answer: they want to be the one to get it right.

There is a big market for "getting things right" in video games. Every developer thinks they will be able to take a concept that has never worked before and spin it in a way that will work, bringing them fame, fortune, and movie rights. Look at the new Prince of Persia game; every time they talk about Elika, they say that she will be an AI partner that you don't have to worry about. Maybe that works, but then what point does the Prince serve? If she is the one saving you, can't she just go on without you? I haven't played the game so I'm just speculating, but I assume she is far from perfect. Maybe you don't have to worry about her, but her presence is still flawed.

The fact of the matter is, developers will never get the system right because it was already done right, and no one has tried it again. The one game that gave you an AI partner that you had to take care of that was not crap, was ICO.

In ICO, Yorda was one of the dumbest, sloppiest, ADD characters in all of video gaming. Yet she works for one key reason: Ico can't die. You don't have to worry about yourself and Yorda; the system revolves around you protecting her, not you protecting yourself and her. In this respect, Yorda ceases to become the AI partner and is instead to focus of the game. By shifting away from the massive, multi-tasking clusterf*** that so many games attempt, Team ICO delivered an AI partner that you could become attached to, take care of, and ultimately not hate (most of the time).

So why do people not try it again? Why not bring in the invincible protagonist to save the helpless female? It works in fairy tales, it works in video games. My ultimate point is that I don't understand developers. When people get something right, it is either emulated into oblivion (GTA III free roaming, Gears of War cover system, etc.) or forget about it. If people say they don't want AI partners, don't give it to them. Unless you are being revolutionary (like, Shadow of the Colossus revolutionary) reintroducing the same broken concept with a fresh coat of puke-green paint won't help.

I just posted a video called PvC Part 1, which is a short fight between two factions: the Pysicists and the Chemists. Anyone that watches this video, naturally, will be a bit confused about what is actually going on. So here is a quick summary of the battle between the two groups and why they are fighting.

In the webcomic xckd, comic 435 (titled "Purity," http://xkcd.com/435/) a scale of purity was created, with Mathematicians at the top and Sociologists at the bottom. Directly beneath the Mathematicians were the Physicists followed by the Chemists. Here we depart from xkcd and enter a world of my invention.

Ever since the Purity Scale was released, the Chemists have been unhappy. So unhappy, in fact, that they have decided to completely exterminate all Physicists. For ten years they built up their forces until they felt that they were stronger than the Physicists, and then they attacked. The underestimated their enemy, however, and a bitter conflict ensued. PvC Part 1 is just one tiny battle in their endless conflict.

One other note about the videos: The Chemists are the white stickmen and the Physicists are the black stickmen.

So yeah, I hope to make a lot of these short, action-packed videos over time, possibly increasing their complexity as I go. I am also working on plans to make three games on the subject (one where you play as the Physicists (a stealth game) one where you play as the Chemists (a shooter) and one where you play as a mysterious character (a point-and-click puzzle game))

Let me know what you think about the video, any ideas for the future, and anything else that you feel that you should tell me. You can email me at nppro93@yahoo.com. Also, all of my videos will be posted on youtube.com and newgrounds.com (username: NpPro93 for both of them)