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CFP: "Different Games" at NYU Poly, due Feb 1
Different Games is a new game conference in NYC that focuses on race / gender / sexuality / disability / politics in games. If you have something to say or make (game / installation / workshop / talk)...
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Tiny Soccer Manager Stories, by Pierre Corbinais
My very strong favorite of the TIGSource "Sports" compo is Pierre Corbinais' "Tiny Soccer Manager Stories." It's a 20 minute-ish puzzle game made in Adventure Game Studio that tasks you as a substitute...
View ArticleTriple Jam Pile-up this weekend!
This weekend is the classic monolith of game jams, Ludum Dare #25! Theme is still pending for a few more hours...Also, this weekend in New York City is a special game jam hosted at Parsons called "Game...
View Articlesome more words on the AAA manshooter / text games
I have a knack for sending too much material to journalists when really they just want a quote or two. I promise to stop doing that. In the meantime, John Brindle's posted up the rest of my response...
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new game: "Barback" for Ludum Dare #25
"Barback" is a 1-2 player cooperative / competitive Tapper-ish variant about 2 brothers and a bar. It should take you about 15-20 minutes to play through. It's a Ludum Dare "jam" game, which means I...
View ArticleHow do you explain insanity
I remember talking to a game journalist about the difference between interviewing AAA developers and indies. He said a lot of indies and academics never stop talking, but AAA developers get quieter...
View ArticleA confirmed heart
A month ago I wrote about the Heart in Dishonored, and I'm glad my suspicions (it's a dressed-up radar / hint system / audio guide) were correct in this semi-interview at RPS with Arkane devs.I can't...
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Deceptive epistemologies in strategy game interfaces, and a theory of strong...
When you play Command and Conquer or Starcraft, you're supposedly some anonymous commander at a console who can see everything and command everyone via some combination of technology and/or space...
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Just around the corner, always out of reach...
The ballad of the bloodthirsty poet. Still a lot left to do...Current to-do list:- redo door textures- redo hologram textures- fix the buttons so the level is completable again- add gubbins and...
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Amnesia Fortnight design notes / analysis: "Autonomous"
I played the Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight prototypes without watching their pitches or videos or reading anything at all about them, so my descriptions / genre framing might be different from the...
View ArticleThe 2013 Queer Feminist Agenda for Games
Identity politics in video games are on the rise: there are more transgender, gay, or queer people in games speaking out about their experiences, and more women are speaking up about harassment and...
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Convo's current epistemology spec / knowledge model
In Convo, characters do not have fixed names or skill stats, exactly. Instead, they have knowledge that they selectively believe about themselves and represent to others.One character might have...
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Kentucky Route Zero (Act 1), by Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy
The first act of Kentucky Route Zero is now available for purchase, conveniently on the same day as the news that it has more or less swept this year's IGF nominations. The praise is well-deserved....
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The unportalable: games as paratexts and products
Several years ago, I sat-in on a "games as literature" course, and promptly got into an argument with the instructor. We were talking about Portal, and he argued the dark metal unportalable surfaces...
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At some point, I think I forgot I was making a game. It became more like this expansive simulation of every possible reality, folding into itself; I caught myself wanting to make everything...
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Devlog: "Conanbowl"
(lighting / color test with random NPC mobs)Me and Eddie decided we should make a game this past / current weekend. It started with our usual process: clicking "random page" in Wikipedia until...
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More talk, more rock: on algorithmic game narratives, speculative narrative...
Last time, I wrote about procedural narrative in the context of "process intensity." Here, I expand more on designing the procedural / process part.Back in an expertly-conducted 2011 Rock Paper Shotgun...
View ArticleMy Spring 2013 at Parsons
This semester at Parsons, I have two things going on:1) I'm teaching an undergrad / grad studio elective course. Currents: Building Worlds was originally pitched as an "introduction to Unity" class,...
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Narrative systems workflow; using Fourier analysis and level design metaphors...
This assumes familiarity with Shakespeare, a procedurally-branching narrative system that I'm designing. For an overview / introduction, read "More talk, more rock."I started by arguing that...
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A smoother triplanar shader for Unity.
To review: procedural UVs are amazing and you should consider using them in your games. Now, the old triplanar shader I posted was great at hard-edged cubes, but it didn't handle the transitions...
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