I thought K:TG was popular, but apparently not popular enough! My new goal in life is to have my next internet joke result in a Jeopardy question like Leeroy Jenkins (movie). The blank look on the faces of the contestants is worth the time to watch the movie (found via Kotaku).

Jason Booth talks at length about what it was like to work on Guitar Hero. This project, he notes, was the first time he wasn’t on a project from the beginning, and wasn’t central to the whole thing (having experienced this myself on Shadowbane, it’s a very interesting way to gain entirely new perspectives on how things are done). One note:

I’ve developed a very controller centric view on design. I try to think interface forward a lot of times, instead of trying to map the game play back to the controller. I find that thinking this way has helped me maintain consistency and user friendliness in places where it could easily be lost, and that the controller choices often dictate what is possible to ask of a user in the game play space….But in Guitar Hero, for the first time, there was the possibility of changing the controller….it was possible to adapt the controller to the game instead of the game to the controller.

Note: I’m up to the 5th group of songs on Hard, and finally getting to the point where I have to figure out how to play the solos instead of hitting just enough notes to scrape by.

Kotaku also points out this mindmelting interview Harry Knowles had with so-called director Uwe Boll.

What is Uwe Boll like? Well, at the screening last night he was charming, warm, funny, frank and hilarious. But then, I’ve often held that really bad filmmakers had to be charming as hell, otherwise, how could they get the money with which to victimize audiences? Hell, word was that Ted Bundy was a sweetheart.

Don’t miss the part where Uwe takes the time to slam Spielberg, but it’s for the ending of War of the Worlds, so you know I’m vaguely sympathetic.

Last, Raph points out “Think Like a Player”, a bunch of design tips for Interactive Fiction that are also illuminating for those making commercial endeavors.