Archive for August, 2008
GoW2 vs. Spore… or not.
I’ve been watching quite a few gameplay videos recently, and I view the games I see as roughly falling into two categories: Those with complex stories and prescribed actions, and those that act more like toys – Gears of War 2/Darksiders as opposed to Spore/Mercenaries 2. Up until now, I’ve been making little predictions about which titles are going to be successful and which aren’t (the latter games I mentioned being the successful ones).
I’ve been meaning to write a post on why “toy” games are more fun, but I keep running up against a certain few Biblical verses before I get them written. Those verses are the beginning of Ecclesiastes..
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
So is there a time for story-driven and a time for sandbox gaming, too?
I’ve talked a little bit before about story vs. choice, but when it comes down to it, I think its largely a matter of personal preference. Sometimes playground-games are a good thing, whereas other times it’s more fun just to sit back and enjoy the story-driven ride that the developers prepare for us. After all, ultimately it’s about having fun, right? And we can have fun either way.
p.s. I thought I might as well clarify that I don’t always play all the games I talk about. I run Linux, and don’t play many commercial, violent games. I’m sure my opinions and thoughts aren’t perfect because of this, but they wouldn’t be perfect anyway. If you think I’m missing something, please comment and add to the (polite) discussion!
Add comment August 30, 2008
Things I don’t like about the Pandora
I raved, now I’m ranting a bit. 
Though I’m 90% sold on the Linux-based Pandora – a handheld gaming console – I still have a few things I think they should change (though not in this version. I imagine the design is pretty well finished by now). So, here are my thoughts… (more…)
Add comment August 28, 2008
Do you like game music?
Because I do! Tonight I remembered an Internet radio station that I used to listen to… played Nintendo music. A quick search revealed nothing, but I did find this!
Add comment August 28, 2008
CDN Contest Postmortem
The CDN Speedgame contest has ended. Blendenzo and I spent a great deal of time working on our entry, only to be caught by an incredible bug near the end of development. Though we weren’t able to get our entry in, having a 3-week development cycle taught me a great deal about game development. I’m hoping this information might be helpful to other Blender game developers out there, so here are some tips and things I learned during the last few weeks…
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1 comment August 28, 2008
Drooling over Pandora…
A Linux-based portable gaming console? That’s just… WOW, people! [/linuxfanboy] (more…)
1 comment August 26, 2008
Games are experiences – who’s making them?
A recent blog entry by Leigh Alexander (who’s blog is great – though you may wish to be careful, as skimpily-dressed game characters show up frequently) brought to mind something that’s been turning around in the back of my thoughts for a while – about the last 15 minutes. (more…)
Add comment August 12, 2008
Reading vs. Playing…
In another attempt to make this look like a deep-thinking game-designy blog, I post another ramble on game structure… (more…)
1 comment August 11, 2008
