Comments on: Nuances of Design next week.

By: Jonathan Blow

Jonathan Blow — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:27:10 +0000

The exact format depends on the game. But the core idea is to communicate things that are already in the game, and just use the words to help people see / feel what is there.

Last year we did 4 games at 20 minutes per game (I think).

When it comes to Mr. Heart — it depends on if there’s something you feel you can effectively communicate that people wouldn’t get just from playing the game. One of the things about that game is, it feels very simple and it communicates itself pretty well. So there would need to be a point to the talking part, you know? Anyway send me email if you want to talk about this (jon .. at .. number-none.com)

By: Zaphos

Zaphos — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:28:20 +0000

I’m intrigued! But I don’t really understand the format … does the lecturer just talk as people asynchronously play the game, or does he/she try to guide their progress in a checkpoint fashion (ok, now solve this puzzle. I’m giving you 30 seconds!)
I suppose it’s up to the presenter, but could you share more details of how it’s been done, or what you’d suggest? And how short is a ‘short session’?

I live in Berkeley, so if you want I could potentially do Mr. Heart Loves You Very Much. (I don’t have any tickets to GDC or anything, though; hopefully someone could let me in to where-ever the session is?)

By: The Independent Gaming Source

The Independent Gaming Source — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:58:23 +0000

[…] Jon is also running an interesting-sounding session at GDC next week, called “Nuances of Design.” […]

By: Jonathan Blow

Jonathan Blow — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:03:08 +0000

Hmm, well, I don’t necessarily want to do games where the authors are not present to talk about them. But I do like Harpooned though, and I encourage people to try it out!

By: Conor

Conor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:40:05 +0000

I won’t be at GDC myself, but if you think it’s suitable you can distribute my game, Harpooned, for your audience to play.

Get it at http://harpooned.org

It’s a free game, around 10Mb and it runs on pretty much any Windows computer. It a fairly straightforward shoot-em-up, but it deals with the subject of Japanese whaling of endangered species in Antarctica. Rather than being an obvious protest, it’s a satire, allowing the player to take on the role of a Japanese ‘scientist’ performing research. It only takes around six minutes to finish the game so it would be quite suited to the format of play and discussion I think.