It seems like time to show off some new screenshots. Keep in mind that these are works in progress and contain some elements that will be replaced in the finished game. But, this should give you the flavor of what the game is like. Click on the thumbnails to get full-sized versions.
Continue reading New Braid Screenshots.
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Understanding Games episodes 3 and 4
A while back I posted about Understanding Games, a small series of games that teaches simple aspects of game design.
Episodes 3 and 4 have now been posted:
My comments about episodes 1 and 2 apply to these as well, with the added caveat that I don’t think episode 4 really works. It has significant problems that weaken the points it’s trying to make, that some more tuning in the interactive portions could have fixed. But it’s still a worthwhile effort and I would like to see more things like this.
About This Blog
Originally, this was intended to be the blog for development news about the game Braid. But since it was started, most of what I’ve wanted to post has been about other games, festivals, and issues relating to games as an expressive medium.
So whereas Braid development notes will still be posted here, that’s become a secondary purpose; mainly, this blog is now about the other stuff. It’s still called “Braid” because I haven’t thought of a different name for it yet.
I was thinking about doing some interviews, because I am dissatisfied with most developer interviews that I see on the web. But upon reflection I feel like Jason Rohrer’s interviews at Arthouse Games cover a lot of the ground that I would be hitting, so I don’t necessarily feel that is so necessary now. I still may do a couple, though.
The Realtime Art Manifesto
The Realtime Art Manifesto was written in 2006, but I’ve only just read it now, and I figure that many others may have been unaware of it too.
This manifesto is about what kind of games we should be designing and building. It is very thoughtful, and written in a poetic style. Many of the statements can easily apply to areas outside of games.
There have been several game-related manifestoes over the past few years: some focus on independent development, like the Scratchware Manifesto and the Manifesto Manifesto; some are area-specific screeds, like the Turku Manifesto; there are manifestoes I don’t really feel like linking, because they are misguided and damaging, like Dogma 2001; and there are manifestoes about manifestoes, such as The Videogame Revolution I Want. But the Realtime Art Manifesto is by far my favorite. It has its heart in the right place, and it’s a deeper place than where the rest of the manifestoes reside.
The Realtime Art Manifesto is not perfect — it is at times too specific about certain kinds of games; this specificity makes the document less universal, and also too long. But I wish that more designers thought this way. All designers should read it. Here is the link again, so that you can read it.
The Marriage is now available.
Rod Humble’s experimental game The Marriage is now freely available.
Rod presented this game at the 2007 Experimental Gameplay Sessions, and also at Nuances of Design the next day. It’s a very interesting piece that expresses itself mainly through the rules of gameplay — not through the graphics or the sound or a story made of words. If games are really going to come into their own as a medium, we need to work hard in this area and develop it further.
I wish Rod hadn’t explained the game so thoroughly on his page, because for me part of the magic of the game is seeing the rules for the first time as you play, and building in your head your own version of what they mean, but also wondering about the ambiguity of some things. So I think there are some major spoilers on that page. If you don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading as soon as you see the heading “Rules Summary:”.
Understanding Games
Understanding Games is an interesting effort modeled after Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics— it’s a game on the subject of how games work. It’s a 4-part series, but only two parts have been posted so far. Here are the links:
FuturePlay Game Competition deadline is very soon!
FuturePlay is a conference happening November 15-17, 2007, in Toronto. They’re holding a competition for artful / experimental / indie / serious games to be exhibited at the conference. You can read more about the competition here.
The first deadline is coming up soon on March 16, 2007; at that time you only need to submit a textual description of your game, so entering is pretty easy. If accepted, you need to have the game Done Enough by August 1st.
A Very Special GDC Event
At the Game Developers Conference on Thursday March 8th, I will be hosting an unusual session called Nuances of Design. The session is a collection of four presentations by four different speakers; the unusual thing is that you play the speakers’ games during the presentations. The idea is that by playing, you can more directly share in experience they are trying to express than you would as a passive listener at a lecture.
The speakers are:
- Raph Koster, with his experiences developing the Andean Bird game, which is about what it feels like to fly;
- Chaim Gingold, with a prototype he used to develop the touch and feel of Spore’s cell game, how “programming and touching is believing”, and various tricks he learned.
- Rod Humble, with his games The Marriage and A Walk With Max, which are about expressing emotions directly through gameplay;
- Jonathan Blow, with some experiments about how small changes in a game design can greatly influence a player’s intention and play experience.
I hope plenty of folks will come and help make this session a success. To fully participate in the session, please bring a laptop running windows XP…
Details on the Gameworld Exhibit at Laboral Centro de Arte
They don’t have the list of games posted on their page (here is the link summarizing the exhibit), but the list has been emailed to me, so I am sharing it here.
The exhibit seems to be split into four parts: classic / genre-defining games, current experimental games, machinima, and films about games being played.
Continue reading Details on the Gameworld Exhibit at Laboral Centro de Arte