I would like to explore the area of conversation, or abstracted but direct communication with game characters as a viable space for gameplay. Acting on this desire, I constructed a sequence of requirements that must be met, and the conclusions I have reached.
Continue reading "Game Conversations: A Creative Gameplay Space" »
Overview
Scattergrams is a literary composition toy designed for deployment over social networking websites. It provides the player with a daily delivery of seemingly random words and challenges them to quickly re-arrange those words into an interesting message that will be automatically sent to their friends at the end of each play session. In addition to free-form play, Scattergrams also includes cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes.
This is mostly for interested third year students who might have a use for someone with 3d modeling skills. There's work here from several professional projects and some images from my undergrad school work.
Overview
Elfenland is a board game by Alan R. Moon for 2-6 players about a group of young elves who must travel through the world as part of a coming of age ritual. The manual states that it is a revised version of a game called Elfenroads which was not played as part of this analysis.
In my reading of Chris Crawford on Game Design I was introduced to a particular innovation in game design philosophy that has been spiraling through my consciousness for the better part of two years. Put simply, games should be about people rather than things. Crawford is a controversial and idiosyncratic designer, but there's something fundamentally right about this concept regardless of how one might feel about its provenance. It is obvious to any observer of human nature that people are generally more interested in themselves, in other people and in the relationships between people than they are interested in objects. It logically follows that it would be wise for us as designers to embrace this interest by making games about people. But what does "about people" mean when applied to games?
Here is my analysis of play money for all to enjoy.
I've been trying to figure out what to do with this blog. A week ago I received a series of emails explaining how to use it, but none as of yet have mentioned why to use it. I'm not much of an exhibitionist but I do have a lot of thoughts about game design that might be of interest to my contemporaries. I also appreciate it when I come across a blog that is composed primarily of thoughtful essays and memoirs, so thats what I'm going to try to do here. I'm going to begin this dialog with a short exposition about why I am here at USC, and what I would like to accomplish.
I should start by saying that games are important to me. Lately I've been spending some time thinking about why, because for a while I forgot. It seems like a weird thing to worry about. Our passions in life are supposed to be self evident, they should not require a rational explanation. But that is exactly what I found myself craving. I didn't find it, but in my searching I did find something insightful that helped me get right with games again.
I was reading the news blog for Get Lamp, a documentary currently in production about text adventure games and the people who created them. The filmmaker, technology historian Jason Scott, had posted an entry that contained a link to the complete text of the original manual for the PDP-11 version of Zork. In the introduction to this manual, I found something that I thought was quite extraordinary:
"ZORK games turn your computer into a dynamic fantasy story in which you participate. You direct the action, you discover the secrets, you fight the battles, you solve the mysteries, and you claim the treasures. You directly experience the story as it unfolds, as it involves you and your computer in vividly described, compelling fantastic situations."
And I thought, who wouldn't want to do that? Even in the most primitive games that grant the player a bare minimum of agency, you are there. You. In a strange imaginary world. In the story. You are inside of a story and you are a character in it and this story will never reach its end unless you take it there. No other medium has ever achieved this level of intimacy with its audience, or demanded so much of them.
My love of games is most of why I'm here at USC, but there are some other reasons I should mention. Pursuing a graduate degree with the interactive media program was not the only way that I could be involved with game development right now. I've been a professional game developer for more than 6 years. I have worked as an artist at several major studios, including Sony, Rockstar and most recently EA/Pandemic. These studios have a lot going for them, but right now they can't offer me the one thing that I require, an opportunity to work on something that I believe is capable of greatness. The reason why these studios do not have worthwhile projects is not because they do not wish to make great games.
Modern game design is stuck in a bottleneck. Trying to make a game today feels like sitting in a traffic jam. You know you're not moving forward and you know the reason why you're halted is somewhere out there ahead of you, but its not clear yet what the obstruction is. My hypotheses as to what the design bottleneck is and what to do about it will undoubtedly account for a good chunk of this blog's future content. For now I will say that games are rarely taking me to worlds I want to inhabit, introducing me to characters I care about or offering me challenges that I want to master. Video games have so much potential right now, but developers do not yet know how to realize it.
There's no lack of innovation in game mechanics, but somehow the innovations we have seen are inadequate. Almost all mainstream games released today feel juvenile and derivative. Most of the experimental, indie and art games I have played feel aloof and impersonal. I am here because I find this situation to be unacceptable and I plan on doing something about it. I am going to make games that are worth playing.
Hi, this is David Mershon and this is my IMD blog. This entry is laudable for its brevity, but lacks interesting content.