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Why ‘No Man’s Sky’ Can And Should Only Be So Deep

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

I’m looking forward to No Man’s Sky – which is apparent if you see my Twitter, Facebook, blogs, or just talk to me. The procedural space adventure fascinates me as it pushes all my buttons – and of course I’m big on procedural generation, so of course I’m following it.

Acknowledging this, this is fair warning you’re gonna see some No Man’s Sky posts. It’s relevant to my interests, to what I do here, so I hope they’e informative and interesting.

As I’ve scanned internet posts and Steam communities, one useful insight I’ve seen is that the game may face an issue of being “a mile wide and an inch deep.” A game, in short, of great breadth but not a lot of depth. I think this concern is worth addressing, as it reveals some truths about games, procedural games, and their development.

The concern is one I feel is legitimate for some in the audience. NMS’ videos make it clear that the game presents an enormous Sandbox galaxy, with straightforward systems of crafting, exploring, fighting, trading, and reputation-building. This may be enough for many (such as myself), and certainly enough for a broad, wide adventure – but it may not be enough for everyone attracted to the premise.

The “mile wide” may stand for people, but for some people the game may not have the depth they want – or the kind of depth they want. You won’t be building structures, negotiating trade agreements, or going on elaborate story quests – hallmarks of other games and science fiction. For some NMS will have everything they want – for others it’ll be a beautiful galaxy that might not have what they want, or enough of it.

I analyze what I see from NMS’s designers and ads, because watching this dream game evolve has taught me a lot about games and procedural generation. The concern about NMS not having the depth some one made me ask, simply, what if the game tried to add more?

It’s not hard to imagine adding some more classic science fiction elements from the novels that inspired it. Take the simple alien language engine and add some negotiation and trade deals. Allow some encounters to spawn some quests – like smuggling something thorough a blockade. Maybe even a bit of building or improving buildings. Just a bit more maybe . . .

. . . and this is where it gets complicated.

First, even if there is a desire to add “more” we’re talking a game with a setting the size of a galaxy, filled with procedural content so large the devs had to make in-game probes to study the worlds. Any addition of new features could produce development nightmares, adding them onto an already careully developed and tweaked engine.

Second, the developers would have to choose what new features to add to their already polished set. What would sell? What do people want? S much work is procedural, so much unknown, can the devs predict what people will want? Will they be able to balance demands? They can’t be sure how people will react to the game – potential pirates may become explorers, traders decide to cut out the middlemen and become pirates, and explorers may drop their archiving duties to just swap rare minerals for cash. Throwing in more features requires careful consideration of how the audience will reacts.

Third, if the new items could be added, then comes the question of testing. Adding new features onto procedural content produce a new nightmare of testing it and making sure nothing else broke and all the pieces work together. That “mile wide” part means a lot more testing work when you try to make that “inch” a bit deeper.

Fourth and finally the extreme “width” of the game means that, with too much “depth” the game might become a muddle of choices and options. NMS may give you the stars, but its focus on being a kind of space exploration/survival game provides useful boundaries for play. Throw in a few more features and a game that already provides little direction could end up a muddle.

Those concerned about depth have a legitimate concern – for some of the audience (again, I think most people buying NMS who are informed will know what they’re getting). But I think the creators have a sweet spot of features for this grand enterprise, and changing beyond that is fraught with dangr.

Is it the right choice? Well, we find out in June 2016 . . .

– Steve

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com

An Experiment in Citizenship – March 2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Anil Dash tweeted out some suggestions on political engagement awhile ago that got me thinking. And, yes I lost the links and am too lazy to search for them as I’m busy being politically engaged.

Anyway, his rough ideas was to at least follow your representatives and write them regularly. I’m always thinking about how to be more civically engaged, and this struck a chord. I wonder often “what should we as citizens do” for our friends, family, organizations, country, and world. How should one be politically engaged – and, bluntly, what is the minimum we should expect of people.

I’m obviously a bit obsessed with the idea (I wrote a book on civic geekery). His posts have led me to this – an experiment in “projectizing” my civic engagement to find a good way to be regularly, appropriately engaged as a citizen.

So here’s what I’m doing – I challenge you to do the same.

STEP 1: Join And Follow

First, find reliable organizations that support causes you believe in, and follow them – via Twitter, newsletters, what have you. Make sure you’re getting reliable information so you’re informed.

Many of these organizations also support petitions, raise funds, do marches, etc. That gives you plenty of ways to get involved.

Oh, and if you can, actually join them and slap down that membership fee. They probably need it.  Some even have magazines.

STEP 2: Follow Your Representatives

Second, find and follow your representatives – at least on the national and state level (and try county and city). Follow them on Twitter or Facebook, get their newsletter, whatever.  Make sure you have a way to know what’s going on, and find the right web pages to write them.

STEP 3: Pay Attention

OK, so you’ve got:

  1. Organizations you follow.
  2. Your regular news feed (you have one, right)?
  3. News from your various representatives.

So you’re informed. Next . . .

STEP 4: Get active

Now simple, pay attention so you’re aware of what they’re doing, what they’re saying and what’s going on – and look for a chance to make a difference. Retweet. Sign the petition. March. Hell, take that part-time opening to do a vote drive.  Whatever.

STEP 5: Reach Out

Once a month (minimum) pick an issue you’re concerned about and write your appropriate representatives. Maybe this time it’s your Senator next time your city council. Whatever, just make sure your concerns don’t sit around in your head – go tell the people you bloody well elected what needs to be done – and be civil.

Chances are if you follow the news, you’ll quickly find things to talk about.
I’ve tried this for a month, and it’s already pretty informative. Among my findings:

  • My Representative is far, far more LGBT-right friendly than I knew.
  • Not all my state representatives are as high-tech as I expected (one guy isn’t that big on social media)
  • My new city is damned engaged in development and listens to people (I found some of that out when I dated someone from the city staff).

Also my monthly reach-out to my national reps was over North Carolina’s hideous anti-Trans/anti-LGBT laws. So I let my voice be heard on that – I got one response (sure it was boilerplate but it was something)
So, you up for this? You up to take the challenge? I challenge you to do the same thing – and blog the results, post to Facebook, whatever. Let me know when you do.

(Oh, and by the way, beyond this stuff, you should be voting and closing other forms of civic engagement like speaking or literacy programs or other stuff.  I may write more on that)

  • Steve

How I Write #7: The Publishing

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

Well back to discussing how I write, and we’re to the end – the publishing part. Simple, right? Not really.

Publishing could almost be multiple posts but I don’t want to bore people in the wrong way. So before I cover the parts, lets cut to the point here – publishing your book after the writing, after the editing, is something not everyone can do on your own. You’re going to need help somewhere unless you’ve got the right experience.

Even after plenty of practice, I don’t have all the skillsets.

The Cover

About half my covers are done by other people. This is because, beyond my basic business books, the style I’m capable of (Genially Boring Professional) doesn’t work. In fact, I’m probably going to do enhanced editions of some books I have done covers for at some point. Because yeah, I could do better, and I’m sure you can think of which ones.

So first, I ask if I can do a cover on my own, in my style.

Let’s say the answer is yes. This is almost inevitably the case for my smaller business books and ebooks. In this case, I’ve got some basic approaches to covers I’ve used over the years that are pretty successful. In fact I grab the latest cover and mostly repurpose it for my next book.

In some cases I’ll want art. I try to avoid public domain and any art where the ownership is at all a problem, out of ethics and a desire not to have issues. For new art I got to www.canstockphoto.com which has great deals.  I’ve seen other self-publishers use it, which both speaks to its stock, and warns you to make sure you search Amazon for any similar covers.

Once it’s done I take the cover and run it by some friends and writer’s groups and the like, see what people think, modify it, and done. Again this is often ebooks.

Now if the cover needs to be custom art . . .

In this case I tap the artists I know. Usually that means Richelle Rueda as of late, and she, like any, is a person I fan-sourced – meeting people via fandom connections. Meeting someone that way lets you see them in a more artistic, playful, personal element and you get a better feel for who they are and what they do.  And yes, consider that a reference for Richelle.

I always pay artists.  Exposure is bullshit payment in many cases, so hand them cash or trade in kind unless they offer.  Art takes a long time.

I actually have the skills to format the cover, do the back, etc.  You can probably develop those skills, but don’t be afraid to outsource that as well.  Like, say, to the artist you just paid . . .

Formatting The Book

Formatting the book for publishing is something I do on my own – because it saves time, because it’s a good skill to have.  I learned formatting the hard way – by doing it and having to waste money on failed prints and times on failed e-books.  After a few tries I’m not only better, but it’s one more thing I can do myself

Formatting for me has two paths.

First is general formatting. I go through and make sure that the titles are properly done, that the bullet points are in place, and that the page breaks are right. This is stuff that’s relevant to doing the book right no matter what the format. Its surprising how many mistakes can get made – once I had inconsistent titling capitalization on a 300 page book – and I didn’t find that until the printed drafts.  I often roll this formatting into read-throughts.

Now it gets interesting. When I’m very (very) sure the book is in good shape I split it into print and ebook (if there’s both)

First is a document formatted for print. This can be pretty challenging as I have to format it so pages break, pages face the proper sides, paragraphs split (or don’t split), and so on. It’s amazing how having to make a document physical affects how you perceive it. Also if you don’t get this right you spend a lot of time reprinting the damn book.

Secondly is a document formatted for e-publishing. I use Jutoh, which is good for all formats – but recently I’ve gone Kindle exclusive. Kindle kinda won the e-pub war and I surrendered, but I still use Jutoh because it’s a damn good tool.

Formatting an electronic document is way different because you face:

  • Formatting that may change on device.
  • Conversion issues (often bullet points) to e-book format.
  • Flow issues.
  • Getting your chosen tool to generate the damn Table of Contents.

I split the books, and then edit one at a time – but I keep them both available because, while formatting, I often find errors. I then correct it in both documents and often the original documents, because I’m anal retentive as hell.

It used to be worse when I did Kindle, ePub, and PDF as I’d have to keep one doc for physical, one doc that became Kindle and ePub, and one for PDF. It was bad enough I think I repressed it.

So the formatting phase becomes pretty extensive as I basically split the books, then format the physical (and add changes to the other doc), then format the electronic document – and sometimes feed changes back to the previous. It turns into a nasty little oroborous of problems at times.

Finally, I give the physical doc a good look through. Then it’s on to pre-publishing this stuff . . .

Prepublishing This Stuff

I go through CreateSpace for physical books now, and Create Space, much like Lulu, lets you set up a book and publish it – without making it available. You can send yourself a copy for approval. Which, I assure you, you’ll want.

While I wait on that to get delivered, I generate the electronic copy of the book. This is where it gets complex again. See people read ebooks on various devices, so I usually generate it then check it on:

  • My computer.
  • My tablet.
  • My phone.
  • Anyone randomly in the house.

You have to consider use cases for your ebook to make sure it works for your audience – and putting it on various devices often reveals problems. Bad formatting, poor flow, an extra space, all become apparent. It’s a good test to make the document readable (and you may find additional errors).

Then at some point the book arrives, and I go through that. With a pen. I mark every page with an error, folding the page down, and underlining what’s wrong. I usually go through the entire book – then fix it in the publishing document, and at ties the e-book document. Sometimes there’s even issues with the cover you have to fix.

Then it’s running both over again, ordering another copy of the print book, and regenerating the eBooks. I’ve had to do the print book over four times at some point (note, that is due to rushing formatting so half that was my own damn fault).

Once it’s good enough (meaning I can make a pass through both without seeing an error or at least one I care about by that time), it’s a go. I upload the eBooks and I give confirmation the physical book is OK.

I’m published.

By the way, by now the feeling isn’t so much triumph as relief.

Looking Back

Publishing is often my least favorite part of doing a book. OK it is my least favorite part. This is why I try to get good formatting done early (I use templates for my books), finish covers, and check carefully. Once you get into this publishing cycle of actually getting the book out it can feel like a hideous grind.

It is a hideous grind, who am I kidding.

At this point I’d take a break, but there’s usually marketing to be done. I’m not going to write on that for awhile as I kind of am not great at that. Perhaps when I get further i’ll talk about it

But there you go, how I write. I hope it helps.

. . . I kinda feel exhausted at this point.

  • Steve