The Complexity of Simple Game Narratives
Thursday, May 8th, 2008“All video games are crap,” a student asserted at an IGDA Chapter meeting some time ago, “they can’t tell a story worth a damn.” I, of course, disagreed… mostly.
The problem, I’ve come to realize, is not that video games are inherently bad at providing a linear story experience, but that it is extraordinarily difficult to [...]
NotM : X-COM UFO Defense-Introduction
Friday, April 25th, 2008Welcome to the third entry in the Narrative of the Moment feature. This ongoing, and somewhat irregular, series of posts explores the storytelling techniques of video games and other media. The current Narrative of the Moment is the classic turn based strategy title, X-COM: UFO Defense.[1]
In 1993 Microprose published a turn based strategy (TBS) game [...]
thematic mechanic
Thursday, April 17th, 2008I know we’re all busy, so I’m not going to continue flogging the design challenge horse, but I do want to continue the conversation started in this weeks podcast. Specifically, I want to address the unspoken question, “Gee, Corvus. This theme ‘n’ metaphor stuff is neat and all, but what does it have to do [...]
Exploring Theme: Which Witch is Which?
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Today we continue to the exploration of the themes of Jorinda and Joringel by examining the metaphors contained within the text.[1] If you’re just joining us, I read and discussed this Grimm fairy tale in my last podcast and followed up with a post talking about the birds that appear in the story.
Having discussed the [...]
exploring theme: for the birds
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008I was tempted to start my exploration of Jorinda and Joringel* with the witch. After all, the tale begins with the witch and she’s certainly critical to the central themes. I’ve decided, however, partly in the interest of time (which I don’t have enough of today) and partly in the interest of clarity (which I [...]
Quick Project Update
Monday, April 7th, 2008The cards I had printed for the Renown beta simply won’t work. They’re beautiful, but the small size and narrow format kill their usability. I have already mocked up some quick cards and plan on sending them off to a printer who just started doing print on demand playing cards last Thursday. This is ultimately [...]
The Story is in the Cards
Friday, April 4th, 2008Do the gents at Penny Arcade read my blog? If not, then there are powerful forces of serendipity at work in the universe today.
Today I’m going to briefly touch on four games–two I own, two I’ve heard/read about–that provide varying levels of narrative cohesion and game mechanics, exploring their storytelling potential.
Starting with the the two [...]
The CCG Resolution
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008Almost nothing I’m about to say here hasn’t been said in the comments of the previous post. But, as the primary storyteller on the site, I get to summarize it for you in my own words anyway!
There are two primary forces at work that make it next to impossible to view Magic: The Gathering as [...]
The CCG Issue
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008As promised, I’ll be building a “House of Cards” on Man Bytes Blog this week, focusing on the potential for storytelling with these thick, wax-coated bits of paste-board. To start off, I’m going to take a tongue in cheek look at a trend of card games I just can’t wrap my brain around…
I don’t like [...]