Why I like Fireworks.

It’s the fourth, work is closed for the holiday, but I still wanted to write about something. So I am going to deviate from the subject of Game Design, though I will attempt to circle back to it at some the point, and share with you why I still enjoy fireworks on the 4^th of July.

There is something magical about them, even after a lifetime of schooling and developing an understanding about how such things are made. Seeing that first one go off and explode in the sky, it has to be magic.

The interesting thing about fireworks is that they are a universal experience we have all had. It transcends geographical boundaries, age differences, and even language. Nearly everyone has seen fireworks at some point in their life. Because of this shared experience you can ask just about anyone what their favorite firework is. And here is what happens.

First, they get this look in their eye, because they are remembering back to a specific event, probably a childhood where they found wonder watching the sky, or from running away after lighting a bottle rocket, or holding a sparkler. And the secondly they will proceed to try to explain these colors and these motions of the firework they remember, looking goofy all the while.

Another interesting thing I find about the 4^th is the experience you end up sharing with the people around you. It’s like a movie theater effect, where as soon as the first one goes off, all eyes turn towards the sky. I watched the fireworks on the 3^rd, this year in Burlington with something like 100,000 other people. And for that moment, while you’re watching the fireworks you become connected to everyone else by this one experience.

This happens at sporting events, at concerts, at rallies, where we become part of a larger whole, selfless for a time. Afterword everyone dissects the experience, relating their own opinion on what they saw and comparing their thoughts to the person sitting next to them.

Games do this too, but in a different way. Two people, who play the same game, share the same experience, but it happens at different times and sometimes with minor differences. Yet afterword we do come together, just like at after fireworks, and reflect and share our interpretations of it.

Games that allow for a wide diversion for individual adventures are the ones that do this the best. They get people talking, get them engaged and excited about the subject. How many Minecraft stories have you heard? How many different adventures have you been on in Skyrim? This is all thanks to procedural content generation.

As a designer I am hugely interested in this field. I want players of our future games to tell their own unique stories about their experiences and to get excited about what else they could discover next. Loc does this, but in a very small contained way. By having players able to potentially create their own path on the levels they can create their own unique story. Watching two people in the same room play is fantastic, “How did you do that?” or “Oh, I did it this way.” A dialog begins that bridges two people's experience.

This is just the beginning hopefully, and with our second game, whenever we get around to it, we can explore this phenomenon further. But for now, I can just be satisfied by hearing about what someone thought of the fireworks.