February 06, 2011
This is a pretty cool animation of Dan Pink's talk on motivation at the RSA. (I didn't make it, just linking it here). I think he also did a similar talk at TED; and if you haven't read Drive yet, you should.
[media]#[/media]
A connection I think worth making here is that, in terms of game design, …
[media]#[/media]
A connection I think worth making here is that, in terms of game design, …
January 31, 2011
One way I like to come up with new ideas is by adding arbitrary constraints to an existing well known design and seeing what the consequences would be. For example, what would an FPS look like if you weren't allowed to have weapons? If you go down that line of thinking it raises a lot of obvious qu…
May 15, 2010
I'm sitting in a coffee shop and there's this guy sitting behind me having a very heated discussion with an older woman about whether reality is subjective, and if there are temporary realities, and the word "dichotomy" keeps getting thrown around a lot though I'm not sure if either of them knows w…
March 19, 2010
One thing I've come to believe is that it's better to generate a lot of bad ideas rather than try to wait for a couple of good ones. This might be obvious to other people, but it was counter intuitive realization to me when I first considered it, so I thought I'd explore it a bit.
A common belief is…
A common belief is…
March 18, 2010
I decided to make an iPhone app last night because I couldn't sleep.
You can drag the sunglasses onto David Caruso's face and it'll play the ">CSI: Miami theme song!!
I'm not saying it's the greatest iPhone app ever, but I mean, I think it's at least in the top five.
You can drag the sunglasses onto David Caruso's face and it'll play the ">CSI: Miami theme song!!
I'm not saying it's the greatest iPhone app ever, but I mean, I think it's at least in the top five.
March 17, 2010
Yikes, is it already the middle of the week? I should be getting the rest of my GDC coverage up soon -- the Game Career Summit might be of particular note to people looking to break into the industry, it was packed with some pretty good advice which I'll be posting soon. I was slightly bummed beca…
March 13, 2010
I think Ben Cousin's talk yesterday was simultaneously the most important talk of the conference and also not very well attended. Judging by the attendance and some of the questions, I don't think what he was saying was popular, but I do think he has a lot of well reasoned points worth considering.…
March 12, 2010
I went to Chris Hecker's talk last night, entitled "Achievements Considered Harmful(?)"
It included this juicy quote:
OHHHH! Oh no he DIDNT. He did NOT just say that! *snaps fingers while wiggl…
It included this juicy quote:
Quote:
If you're intentionally making dull games with variable ratio extrinsic motivators, you have my pity.
OHHHH! Oh no he DIDNT. He did NOT just say that! *snaps fingers while wiggl…
March 11, 2010
One of the recurring themes I'm noticing with this GDC is that the "Mainstream" doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I have to be careful with terminology here -- by mainstream I mean the sort of game you see on the cover of gaming mags, i.e., the sort of game that traditionally appeals to "hardcor…
March 11, 2010
I just got back from Mark Skaggs' talk on how Zynga goes about creating successful social games.
The gist of it is to collect metrics on everything important that players do. Skagg's refers to this as "developing a metric's mindset." In order to answer questions, you should assume you don't know th…
The gist of it is to collect metrics on everything important that players do. Skagg's refers to this as "developing a metric's mindset." In order to answer questions, you should assume you don't know th…
March 06, 2010
TMOLI_42 found this out on the interwebs: http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/
Very insightful. Yeah its 30 minutes long, watch it anyway, it's worth your time if you're a game designer.
---
Also, I'm flying out to the GDC tomorrow! I should be in SF by around 5…
Very insightful. Yeah its 30 minutes long, watch it anyway, it's worth your time if you're a game designer.
---
Also, I'm flying out to the GDC tomorrow! I should be in SF by around 5…
February 22, 2010
John Boorman, the guy behind Deliverance, wrote an interesting article about the movie business a few years ago that a friend linked me to.
Some quotes:
Some quotes:
Quote:
When I was a child in the London blitz, a blockbuster was a massive bomb that could knock out a neighbourhood. The blockbuster movie, now utte…
February 16, 2010
A lot has been said about the iPad, although one of the more interesting things to me is the market for games. Who is the market, and what sort of games will appeal to them?
Well, before we get to that, we have to talk about who is buying the iPad.
Who is buying this thing?
When the iPad came out it m…
Well, before we get to that, we have to talk about who is buying the iPad.
Who is buying this thing?
When the iPad came out it m…
December 27, 2009
One of the things I wanted to do this year was make more short form games. Short form is more conducive to creativity than long form, I think, because there's less psychological burden when writing off an idea that didn't quite work. Also, it frees you from worrying about tangential things that are…
March 26, 2009
I went to today's keynote,despite the little voice in my head screaming "keynotes are always boring! don't go don't go!". (Oh yes, I have voices in my head. I named that one Sedgwick.)
The one today was by Hideo Kojima, the creative mind behind the fantastic movie series known as Metal Gear.
The tak…
The one today was by Hideo Kojima, the creative mind behind the fantastic movie series known as Metal Gear.
The tak…
March 25, 2009
I really want to blog about the GDC, but I can't think of much to say since I just arrived tonight. I'm really grateful to be here. That's probably the best word to describe it. What always strikes me every time I come to the GDC is how humbling of an experience it is... I always leave with a sense…
October 12, 2008
So I was bored last night and started talking with a friend about what makes a conversation interesting. I'm not sure if this is going to sound clever, or like a crazy person yelling in the street. In any case, this is what I realized:
People seem to think being interesting is about saying interesti…
People seem to think being interesting is about saying interesti…
August 27, 2008
I have a weird theory: I don't think people that play MMORPGs actually enjoy them -- but they think they do. That raises the question: how does someone believe they're having fun when they're not? Well, I'll get to that.
First, I have to say, World of Warcraft is one of the most boring games ever ma…
First, I have to say, World of Warcraft is one of the most boring games ever ma…
August 19, 2008
I'm not sure how long this has been out there, but I just found this trolling reddit: Lifelike animation heralds new era for ocmputer games
Putting aside technical considerations, it is very impressive. Still not quite right but it's not nearly as creepy as other things I've seen try to climb their …
Putting aside technical considerations, it is very impressive. Still not quite right but it's not nearly as creepy as other things I've seen try to climb their …
July 20, 2008
I was thinking recently about how absurdly popular top ten lists are. You know, things in magazines like "The Top Ten ways to Look Like a Hooker". Almost everything is a top ten list now. It never made sense to me before.
Then I realized, it's all in the subtext. What it's saying is: "Hey, don't wor…
Then I realized, it's all in the subtext. What it's saying is: "Hey, don't wor…
March 15, 2008
I was reading tigsource and I saw mention of The Video Game Name Generator, which is quite possibly the coolest thing ever. Anyway, as a creative exercise I decided to generate a game idea for the first ten names I got out of it without filtering any of them. These are all pretty much... horrible,…
March 04, 2008
Anyone know of any ultra secret flu remedies? I'm pretty sure my head is on the verge of exploding, and NyQuil is making me really fuzzy.
BTW, if I happen to die I want to be buried with my stuff. Not that I'm going to die from the flu, but just in general. You know, because it's my stuff.
BTW, if I happen to die I want to be buried with my stuff. Not that I'm going to die from the flu, but just in general. You know, because it's my stuff.
February 27, 2008
By the way, this is by no means new, but if you haven't played The Marriage you should check it out. It's pretty interesting.
February 27, 2008
I finally managed to get around to posting some GDC articles on experimental games and designers block. More to come soon. I kept the one on experimental gameplay sessions intentionally short because a lot of those games are best understood by playing them (click the links to them!). The other one …
February 25, 2008
Well, after being back from the GDC for a bit I've had a chance to digest it. If there was a common theme to the GDC this year, I think it was indie games really gaining credibility, and the recognition that we need to make games that are more than just fun, they need to have emotional and intellec…
February 22, 2008
Peter Molyneux said something really interesting during one of the panel sessions he was at. I can't find my notes at the moment, but the gist of what he was saying was this: One of the more important things a game can do for a player is allow them to learn more about themselves by playing the game…
February 21, 2008
I just got back from the Game Developers Choice Awards. They were pretty decent as far as these things go, although listening to the 30th person say "no, thank you, general members of the [AUDIENCE/TEAM/DEVELOPER COMMUNITY]!" is mind numbing. If I ever win an award, the only person I'm going to tha…
February 19, 2008
I'm at the GDC now. Things don't really get into swing until Wednesday, but so far it's been quite good.
The tutorials seem pretty interesting so far. I'm taking the Game Design Workshop, which in my opinion has been fantastic. One of the points they've really been driving home is their "MDA" model…
The tutorials seem pretty interesting so far. I'm taking the Game Design Workshop, which in my opinion has been fantastic. One of the points they've really been driving home is their "MDA" model…
November 26, 2007
I've been looking into buying a new(er) car recently, and I started getting this funny feeling -- I felt incredibly guilty about it. Me and my car have grown rather close over the years. I felt like I was abandoning a faithful old friend. Never mind that my old friend likes to not start at inopport…
October 08, 2007
Rav suggested I should talk about this a bit, so this one is for you, Rav.
I've been working on writing a game in Python for a bit now (for reference, a multiplayer first person shooter). For the most part, it just started out as an experiment. I started out thinking, "Huh, I wonder how far I could …
I've been working on writing a game in Python for a bit now (for reference, a multiplayer first person shooter). For the most part, it just started out as an experiment. I started out thinking, "Huh, I wonder how far I could …
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