The Gleeve: Frog’s New Power Glove So Frog Design has a new unstructured-play concept called the Gleeve. Cool concept that lends itself to horrible blog puns and nightmares of Nintendo’s abortive power glove. I think it has potential, although the description does seem a little light on details. I’m not about to criticize a simple […]
Tag Archives: videogame
Game Designers Actually Write?
Game Writers Aren’t the Only Developers Who Need Writing Skills “Game designer” is an oft-misunderstood label that, like all labels, sometimes fails completely in describing the variety and depth of tasks tackled by the many talented people who fall into this bucket. Many times game consumers and friends have told me they thought game designers […]
Game Design Tips from Jordan Mechner
Game design pointers don’t get any better than when they come from Jordan Mechner, the man who designed Prince of Persia, The Last Express, and one of the main reasons I became a game designer, the elegant and stylish Karateka. Here’s his blog on story-based game design. Today I’m giving props to design tip #6: […]
The Avatar Movie
Game Writer Thoughts on Cameron’s Avatar Movie The Avatar movie is all the rage right now, and with good reason. Here are my quick, spoiler-free thoughts. Gorgeous. The Avatar movie is simply gorgeous. It feels real, although it does have a heavy Halo texture to it too. To be fair, Cameron’s already trod this territory […]
A Game Hero Should Be Voiceless: Part Two
The Rude Game Hero The voiceless game hero? He’s an ass. Well, inadvertently. Have you ever noticed how a voiceless game hero fails to respond to mid-mission communications? I recently finished Resistance on the PS3, and the game’s avatar, Nathan Hale, is a classic, cliche game hero with little to say and a lot to […]
Videogame Shoutout — From Sheep?
Game artist: caught clipping
A game artist goofup A game artist has a hard life. You spend years – nay, a lifetime – honing your skills and craft. You sketch incessantly, driven by your passion for visual expression. You paint, you sculpt, you design, you draft. After your traditional art training, you pick up the digital tools of creation. […]
Game design innovation… in today’s market?
I guess a few game designers were paying attention The game design plaint that I most routinely dispense is doubtlessly one you’re familiar with. Game design is a dying craft. Publishers have forgotten what makes great games. Sequels are the spawn of Satan. But maybe I was wrong. A few fresh game design ideas are […]
The videogame writing smackdown of the month
The videogame writing quandry Videogame writing often gets overlooked in the modern videogame development process. There’s no hiding from the raw facts. From EGM’s review of Alone in the Dark for Xbox 360: AITD wants to emulate the presentation of serial television, but neither the writing nor the “performances” compare to even TV’s least-essential shows. […]
JJ Abrams’ Lost Thoughts on Creativity
JJ Abrams’ Lost Thoughts, get it? Ha ha… sorry. Anyhow, a friend recently turned me on to TED.com, a site where you can view talks from the cognoscenti from all sorts of incredible fields and backgrounds. On TED, I recently found this entertaining and thoughtful lecture by JJ Abrams, the creative guy behind Lost, Cloverfield, […]