Sometimes when playing a game, you think to yourself, “why didn’t the developers think of that?” It’s the thought which gives all of us confidence that in some way, we can all design and develop at least part of a quality video game.
Today’s installment isn’t something I’ve come up with personally, but it’s something that has been used so sparingly that it’s nearly a shame. That something is Clock-Triggered Events.
Every current console has an internal clock that has the current time and date. But back in the days of the Sega Saturn, it was something that hadn’t really been used before. And the Sega Saturn used the internal clock to great effect in select games. For instance, the NiGHTS Into Dreams: Christmas NiGHTS demo had certain holiday events occur during the Christmas season, such as Nightopians (the citizens of the game world) dressed in Santa outfits, snow covering the ground, Christmas trees and gift-wrapped packages everywhere, and Clairis, Elliot and NiGHTS himself decked out in holiday gear. Even the music changed to reflect the season.
But what was so cool was that the game did so much more. At specific times of the day, the game would offer extra content. And on other dates, such as Valentine’s Day or April Fools Day, the game world would offer something completely different. It was a great example of the potential use of the internal clock.
Other Saturn games used the clock, but not always in the same way. I remember booting up Enemy Zero on New Year’s Day and getting a “Happy New Year” greeting from the in-game computer. Burning Rangers, another Yuji Naka title, also made use of the internal clock. There are undoubtedly many others that I’m not familiar with that had used the Saturn clock in a variety of ways.
But since then, there haven’t been any memorable titles to use the internal clock to the same effect. As a matter of fact, I can’t think of any with the current generation of consoles, sans Animal Crossing. Recently Microsoft offered a premium download for Kameo that changed the game characters to wear Christmas outfits, but this wasn’t time triggered, and didn’t effect the game world in any way. I know MMORPGs have holiday content, and it attracts a lot of attention from the gaming community. Why this feature in consoles has gone the way of the dodo is beyond me.
Providing this kind of seasonal content keeps games fresh and keeps gamers coming back to them long after the initial gaming experience.