Posted in Film, Games, Writing on Jun 5th, 2010 No Comments »
It occurred to me recently why I don’t generally like sci-fi that much, and conversely why I love a good historical setting. I want a world I can believe in, that subtle sense that these places are real, and you could go there if only you could charter a plane, or a time machine… Sci-fi [...]
Some links for perusing purposes: The psychology of avatar customization, Patrick Redding on co-op narrative and NPC interaction, intriguing insight into Valve’s design process, and a cool new animation blog and podcast. Enjoy responsibly.
Posted in Games, Writing on Jan 30th, 2010 No Comments »
This is old, but I was re-reading it recently and there’s some great points about game writing in there… Bloodlines is one my favourite games, a real diamond in the rough; unfinished in places, but community patches have solved most issues and at its best it rivals classics like Deus Ex for character interaction and [...]
Posted in Film, Games, Writing on Jan 23rd, 2010 No Comments »
The story discussion continues. Again, SPOILERS… The heart of a good story are its characters. They don’t have to be likeable, but they have to be interesting and above all believable. Sometimes a character will say or do something that just seems wrong… People change, certainly, but you know that character would not make that [...]
Posted in Film, Writing on Dec 5th, 2009 No Comments »
FOCUS Deleted scenes are deleted for a reason. Maybe this is controversial, but I felt Peter Jackson got a little carried away with the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. Now, I *love* Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with the exception of The Two Towers I find the cinema version vastly [...]
Posted in Film, Writing on Nov 29th, 2009 No Comments »
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this for a while. Stories are fragile things. One false note can easily pull apart that carefully constructed illusion and your audience, once you’ve lost them, are lost forever. Sometimes you can’t help but wonder what possessed someone to make such baffling story-choices. I’m going to use [...]
Posted in Design, Games, Links, Writing on Oct 19th, 2009 No Comments »
I agree with this.
Posted in AI, Animation, Design, Games, Ianim, Writing on Jun 19th, 2009 No Comments »
I just got an article published on Gamasutra!
The intertubes of course are a never-ending supply of interesting things to read, so here’s a selection of the intriguing persuasion: Splinedoctors walk three ways… Jordan Mechner has an epiphany about player motivation … and expands on the development of Sands of Time. Hans Bacher makes an interesting point about restraint and 10 things are [...]
Posted in Design, Games, Writing on Nov 27th, 2008 No Comments »
I read this post on Steve Gaynor’s Fullbright blog and was compelled to respond: Good storytelling is underrated. “Player-generated stories” aren’t usually all that good. They offer good moments, but not good narrative. I agree that games should give the player an interesting place to visit, but that’s not enough. If it doesn’t go anywhere [...]