Game Fodder

December 31, 2010

tags: game design.

Man, this article is a bit esoteric but really gets at something deep. The crucial segments of this involve stimulating the gamer to dream, as well as the old adage of “show, don’t tell.” Some really mysterious and magnificent worlds were “sparingly suggested over painstakingly detailed” and that gave them a lot of wonder and amazement. We must emulate that.

Phantom Leap: ” Room to Dream by Nick 12.13.10 A few days back, my friend Jamie alerted me to a fantastic SMB3 retrospective by Eurogamer’s Christian Donlan. It’s funny and poignant and awesome. I loved this: ‘Most crucially, however, for me at least, the truly killer thing about Mario 3 is the way it stitches its levels together into maps. These little top-down chunks of real estate gave the whole thing a rakish non-linear aspect, obviously, but they also did far more than that. They suggested a broader, more coherent imaginary world in a way that the side-scrolling roads, cliffs, and pits somehow couldn’t do by themselves. These really were different places Mario was travelling through, and they were filled with their own distinct landmarks, such as the head-bobbing shrubs of Grass Land, the sweet archipelagos of Water Land, and Sky Land’s spire, complete with bizarre blue pipes and destructible battlements, that corkscrews you upwards into a fresh run of levels set amongst clouds.’ The “

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December 27, 2010

tags: business.

GDC Online 2010: Limbic Software's route to App Store success

Solid information here about navigating the App store for a game developer. Free with micro transactions definitely seems the way to go.

GDC Online 2010: Limbic Software’s route to App Store success: ” Android coverage by humans AOL Tech AOLMAIL You might also like: Engadget, Download Squad and More TUAW MainMaciPhoneiPadVideoPhotosApp ReviewsTUAW AppAbout UsSend Tips & Feedback Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iOS GDC Online 2010: Limbic Software’s route to App Store success by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 5th 2010 at 7:00PM Print this page|Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LifestreamEmail I’m here in Austin, Texas this week for the Game Developers’ Conference, and Limbic Software’s Arash Keshmirian kicked off the iPhone gaming track this morning with a panel about how the company found success with their TowerMadness tower defense game. Limbic’s story is similar to a lot of others that we’ve heard before — the app released to little fanfare, but a few solid tweaks, strategies, and even lucky breaks after release led to lots of sales and lots of development lessons. ‘What really started the company,’ said Keshmirian, ‘was when we decided to make the game free.’ Lik”

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

The Brainy Gamer: Impotent narrative

Quite simply just an amazing essay on the nature of video game narratives.

The Brainy Gamer: Impotent narrative: ” The Brainy Gamer Thoughtful conversation about video games ABOUT The Brainy Gamer is a blog and podcast devoted to video games and the community of gamers. Your comments and feedback are always welcome. —Michael Abbott

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

Building Transmedia Worlds | Game Industry News, Interviews and Videos | Game Theory

What I gathered from this article is that really successful stories like that of Star Wars create a world in which multiple plots and stories can be made. To me this screams of mythology: it already has a rich world and already formed stories that we can adapt and repurpose to our benefit.

Building Transmedia Worlds | Game Industry News, Interviews and Videos | Game Theory: “HomeBlogVideosContactAbout Building Transmedia Worlds By Danny Bilson on Sep 29, 2010 in Convergence, Storytelling, Video Games2 27 Share Transmedia storytelling, the art of telling related stories across different media platforms, has recently become the topic of much thought, discussion and implementation. This is not a new concept, but with technology now offering us more platforms, it is finally becoming a substantive and legitimate one. A story can originate in a video game, a book, a graphic novel, a movie, a television show or even a toy. Star Wars is an important modern example of transmedia storytelling. It began with a film in 1977, and has told its stories of galactic empire and revolution across many media platforms. Fans have been able to carry on interactions with that galaxy far, far, away, in video games, toys, cartoon series, books, comics, radio plays, and almost every entertainment medium that exists today. But Star Wars is not simply the story of Luke Skywalker a”

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

The Brainy Gamer: Cue the star

Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the best game designers in the history of anything. So, it behooves us to learn from his ethos. Specifically, we need to learn to do what he does with Super Mario 64: design the game around our Star (i.e., the protagonist). The game revolves around the protagonist, never the other way around.

The Brainy Gamer: Cue the star: ” The Brainy Gamer Thoughtful conversation about video games ABOUT The Brainy Gamer is a blog and podcast devoted to video games and the community of gamers. Your comments and feedback are always welcome. —Michael Abbott

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

The Brainy Gamer: Passion play

While the general consensus is that Epic Mickey was kind of a flop, the latter half of this article gives some good design maxims. Especially the morality segment — I agree with Spector. I don’t like when developers tell me what’s good and what’s bad, as usually the game as a whole strives towards goodness, leading the evil route kind of empty and shallow. Morality is so much more complex than good and evil. Furthermore, the section on consequences is also interesting in that consequences should be more than narrative based, but also ludic based (to borrow a word from Professor Travis).

The Brainy Gamer: Passion play: ” The Brainy Gamer Thoughtful conversation about video games ABOUT The Brainy Gamer is a blog and podcast devoted to video games and the community of gamers. Your comments and feedback are always welcome. —Michael Abbott

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

Living Epic: Video Games in the Ancient World: Halo: Reach as practomime

I’ve bought into the theory proposed by Professor Travis here that video games are practomimes and can be an excellent modern interpretation of bardic artistic creation. Additionally related to that, there is the idea that Halo is a purposefully crafted epic, not only in terms of story but also gameplay mechanics. He proposes this and I also agree. That the ammo in Halo is scarce which leads to the feeling of monumentality and desperation is clever, even genius. We can and should try to emulate this in our design ethos, this attention to detail to try to make all aspects of the video game to be concordant.

Living Epic: Video Games in the Ancient World: Halo: Reach as practomime: ” THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 Halo: Reach as practomime The scarcity of ammunition dominates the campaign of Halo: Reach, at least for a non-elite player. This domination is entirely ludic: as the player depresses the triggers of his or her controller, the amount of available ammo goes down very quickly in relation to the toughness of the enemies around Noble 6, the player-character. Noble 6 is always, always, running out of ammo. No powerful weapon, like a rocket-launcher or en energy sword, ever lasts for long; semi-powerful weapons like the Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) and even the Magnum are in constant danger of becoming useless; even the lowly Assault Rifle often has to be exchanged for a Needler or the even lowlier Plasma Pistol. Not infrequently, the current checkpoint has to be abandoned simply because there’s no more ammo on the map—not something that’s ever happened to me in a game before. Indeed, and more importantly, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a ludic situ”

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

Tobold's MMORPG Blog: My narrow definition of "good game"

I love Tobold’s posts, he’s generally full of great insight. Here, he makes a good distinction between games-for-entertainment and games-for-art. However, he doesn’t think there’s much overlap between the two. I disagree. For us, our main focus is the ‘art’ of our game, however we’re savvy enough to realize that a game is still meant to be played and should have a high entertainment value. We just need to keep both of these forces in balance during the development.

Tobold’s MMORPG Blog: My narrow definition of “good game”: ” www.Tobold.com Tobold@GMail.com A blog mostly about MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games ) and other games I’m currently playing. Please read my Terms of Service Archives • My narrow definition of ‘good game’ Tobold’s MMORPG Blog Tuesday, September 28, 2010 My narrow definition of ‘good game’ Nils and I have agreed that our lengthy exchanges on opinions are better handled blog-post to blog-post instead of totally overwhelming the comment section, and this already lead to a marked increase in the number of commenters here. Our current discussion is on the subject of what a good game is, sparked by a comment from Ben who said ‘Britney Spears isn’t the greatest artist of all time, it’s really not that hard to understand the discrepancy b/w sales and quality.’ Now it is easy to get 100 people to agree to the statement that Britney Spears isn’t the greatest artist of all time. I’d sign that too. The problem is that if you ask those 100 people who they”

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

How Fast Should We Play Games?

This article has some merits, but it is still flawed. It’s written by a person who has a predilection for collecting McGuffins, things that don’t really matter to the overarching plot of a story. If you consider the beginning of the article, with the quote from the Borderlands developer, they created a very compelling story and then hid it. I never understood that, why would you want to hide your proud creation? There’s something to be said about being able to add flavor and not to hide story.

How Fast Should We Play Games?: ” login Styling Our Video Game Characters in Real-World Fashions #column #fashion The Year In Motion Control Video Games: The Hype, The Horror, The Happiness #2010yearinreview #kinect The CityVille How To: A Guide to Building the City of Your Dreams #guide #cityville The Luckiest Non-Gaming Moments Ever #clips #lucky 2010: The Year In Good (Video Game) News #2010yearinreview #goodnews Kotaku FAQ. Include # before tag: #speakup, #deals, #editorialboard, #tips, etc. Denver, 8:59 PM Mon Dec 27 36 posts in the last 24 hours AU | BR Get Kotaku in your inbox: KOTAKU TEAM Tip us: tips@kotaku.com Editor-In-Chief: Brian Crecente Email | AIM | Twitter Deputy Editor: Stephen Totilo Email | AIM | Twitter Reviews Editor: Michael McWhertor Email | AIM | Twitter Senior Contributing Editor, Japan: Brian Ashcraft Email | AIM | Twitter Contributing Editor, Oceania: Luke Plunkett Email | AIM | Twitter Reporter, East Coast: Michael Fahey Email | AIM | Twitter Reporter, Weekend”

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December 27, 2010

tags: game design.

The Brainy Gamer: Riffing on the flagpole

For you two music fans, this article gives an interesting comparison.

The Brainy Gamer: Riffing on the flagpole: ” The Brainy Gamer Thoughtful conversation about video games ABOUT The Brainy Gamer is a blog and podcast devoted to video games and the community of gamers. Your comments and feedback are always welcome. —Michael Abbott Email Me SEARCH WWW www.brainygamer.com RECENT COMMENTS MrAkPublishing on The most important game of 2010 MrAkPublishing on The most important game of 2010 jm on The action is in the margins Michael Abbott on The action is in the margins Michael Abbott on The action is in the margins Christopher Hyde on The action is in the margins Michael Abbott on The action is in the margins Michael Abbott on The action is in the margins Michael Abbott on The action is in the margins Michael Abbott on The action is in the margins BOOKSHELF I. Bogost, S. Ferrari, B. Schweizer: Newsgames: Journalism at Play D.B. Weiss: Lucky Wander Boy Tristan Donovan: Replay: The History of Video Games Tom Bissell: Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter Mary Flanagan: Critical Play: “

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Game Fodder

Mainly for my chums Andrew and Mike. This is a link blog for the various video-game and app related (or anything else I find relevant) articles that I find.