It’s Simplicity Itself
Friday, October 26th, 2007I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one button design. It seems to me that severely restricting the interface of a game has a great many advantages and that the disadvantages can be relatively easily overcome.
The advantages primarily revolve around accessibility. The simpler the interface, the more easily anyone can pick up and play your [...]
Layers of Narrative
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007Aronofsky’s dreamy film, The Fountain is comprised of three distinct, albeit intertwined, layers of narrative. There’s the modern story of a cancer researcher driven by his desire to save his wife, the story of a Spanish knight seeking the freedom of his queen and a mystic space farer seeking eternity as he is drawn to [...]
The Zelda-fication of Combat
Friday, September 28th, 2007This was meant to be Thursday’s feature post, but Time got away from me, as it is want to do. I’ve threatened to manacle Time to my desk if it’ll insist on being elusive like that, but it just laughs at me as it slips out the back door. Pesky Time. Right then, on with [...]
East is East, West is West
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007This month’s Round Table asks us to think about ways in which the gap between casual and hardcore games (and/or audiences) can be bridged. I thought it might be useful to kick things off with a brief look at what makes a game hardcore or casual.
My first impulse is to say that hardcore games tend [...]
That Single Grain of Sand…
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007I’ve never paid a lot of attention to the White Stripes. Ms. Z is fond of them, so they’ve crept into my awareness and our household playlist. They also appear in a segment in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes with a Tesla coil. Despite negligible acting skills, their proximity to two of my favorite iconic [...]
Artificially Unintelligent
Friday, July 27th, 2007Brilliant coder I am not, but even I can tell that AI and Game AI are too separate things. Game AI primarily consists of lightweight scripts that tell things you’re shooting at when to duck, jump, or shoot back. Or if you’re Bethesda, AI consists of lightweight scripts which tell things nearby to begin discussing [...]
Ludology, Narratology, Poketology
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007Whee! More storytelling talk. AI chatter will happen later this week, honest.
As I go through my first major rewrite of the white paper, I’m trawling the web looking for more evidence that I’m not a complete nutter (I’m not). I’ve found some interesting posts which certainly add fuel to the fire. There’s Michael’s gauntlet dropping [...]
May Clive’s Soul Find Comfort in the Dark Places
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007…in a good way!
…Gaming is a great way to do what we need as human beings….to take ourselves away from the impressive, sometimes depressing facts of our lives and go somewhere where we have our own controls.
Source: NextGen
If he’d rather, his soul may find comfort in the warm, sunny fields instead. And who am I [...]
Those Lazzi Fools!
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007I was speaking with a gentleman (in the true sense of the word) who is an avid reader, history buff, quoter of Shakespeare, and referencer of ancient Greek philosophers and poets. He had requested to see the white paper and I was following up with him to get his impressions.
I asked if he felt the [...]