The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer
I did a GDC talk. I’ll be uploading the slides to my Presentations and Talks (UPDATE: NOW UP!) page. GamesIndustry.biz did a writeup here.
For what it’s worth, I know I’m packing a few extra pounds nowadays, but putting a picture of Jabba the Hutt next to me feels unfair.
This update is seriously Not Safe For Work, or for the sexually prudish. Seriously. This article is one of those. It will be one or two clicks away from porn, and not the hazy filtered Skinemax variety. That being said, if you’re interested in the gamification of man’s most basic instincts, then read on…. Continue reading
The first single-player open world game of the post-Playstation era that I ever loved was Saboteur. I realize that may seem to come a little late, but to be honest, if you’re used to the wide open worlds of MMOs for your entire career, GTA and the like actually seemed kinda … empty. After all, MMOs are massive open world games, but with people saying awful things about your mother. Saboteur, on the other hand, hit a primal chord with me.
On the surface, the game design is simple: it’s a GTA-like, but set in occupied Paris, where you play as an Irish race car driver turned French Underground sympathizer. So you can still steal, rob, and blow stuff up, but most of the time, the innocent victims were Nazis, which nicely solved the whole ‘feeling human empathy for the computer-AI driven cops you are running down’ problem that GTA has. Also, you drove a lot of period race cars, and the car radio played cool, period jazz pieces. Which was awesome.
But what grabbed me was the chance they took on the color palette. You see, when you played the game most of the time, it played out in a very Schindler’s List color palette – black and white, with reds and yellows as splashes.
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Between 2008-2013, I wrote a column for Game Developer magazine called “Design of the Times”. As part of me enjoying my time off, I created a new Page for these articles – you can find them from the Published Articles tab under the main masthead, or you can click here to read them. In particular, they are a good primer for Systems Designers looking to improve their skills and thinking about the art and craft of making games.
I won’t lie – when I was planning on when my last day with Bioware would be, the idea of coinciding it with the release of Civilization: Beyond Earth was pretty damned serendipitous. I expected to go into a six month Sid Meier coma of one-more-turn up until the money ran out and my wife demanded I shower, get a job and start bringing home bacon again. But I’ve found I’m not just reaching for the game. Instead I’m reaching for Endless Legend.
CBE is a fine game, and in many respects it is an excellent evolutionary step to Civilization 5. The game balance still has some flaws (trade is ridiculously overpowered, for example). Right now, Civ 5 + Expansions is a better game. A lot of that is just because Sid games seem to require at least one expansion to get all the kinks out, which is fine. I strongly suspect CBE’s first expansion will move it from ‘Fine’ to ‘Excellent’.
AbleGamers is a charity that I have some familiarity with. I actually spoke on a panel for AbleGamers in 2012 at PAX, when I also accepted the award for Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year on behalf of the SWTOR team. Their mission has always been noble, and from my viewpoint does three things:
Designing with disabilities in mind is often put off way too late in the development cycle of the game. It’s often easy to do if you include factors early in development, but hard when you factor it in late. Common examples of things that should always be included but aren’t include: colorblind-friendly UI design or alternate mode (8% of males are RG colorblind – this is significant!), ability to remap literally any command to allow for alternate control mechanisms, and including close captioning and not depending on audio cues for key playability. You know, all those things in the options menu that you never turn on.
About a year ago, I decided to lose some weight with the Rock Band Exercise program. In short, Rock Band on Expert Drums will totally and completely kick your ass. Along the way to losing about 40 pounds, I gold starred 400 songs. Yay, me.
Well, most of those pounds found their way back on me, and I have some time to kill while I seek out funding and/or jobs, so I’ve been picking the drums back up. I decided a good place to start would be to re-gold star the songs I’d gold-starred in the past (gold-star is above ‘5-stars’ and means ‘near perfect’ on most songs). So far my hit rate is… not good. About 40% of the songs, I’m able to gold star again. The other 40% will take me getting back into fighting shape. Some percentage of that, I have no idea how I beat it the first time through. Continue reading
I’m generally pro-boobplate. I mean, I’m not going to go and slap a pair of DD knockers on a Pokemon or anything, but as my friend Scott once pointed out, “I just think it’s hilarious that you’ve been labelled a Social Justice Warrior when you pretty much are the staunch defender of the right of the male gamer to have funny thoughts while playing Bayonetta.” And that’s not to say that I insist on boobplate: I’m equally a fan of Batgirl’s new look. In fact, I freakin’ love it. I like a variety of characters, both male and female in my entertainment, and love great character design anywhere up and down the sexy spectrum. But still, I have no problems agreeing with a lot of Anita’s points, and yet still defending boobplate.
There is a movement afoot in the universe that insists that #gamergate is ALL FOR THE DEVELOPERS. All for me and my ilk! Protecting our freedom of speech! Trying to save the games! Which is a pretty ballsy stance, considering the movement was born in the relentless and ongoing harassment and attempt to silence a game developer. Still, here’s a sample of people telling me that this is all to SAVE MY ARTISTIC FREEDOM!
Most modern armed forces, including those in the US, now recruit women as well as men. So do most terrorist organizations – 15% of all suicide bombers in groups that allow women in. Female security guards are not particularly unique – heck, Bioware has several. There are certainly women in prison – nowhere near the rate of men, of course but certainly enough to give Orange is the New Black plenty of story material. In video games, all of these are non-existent, unless they also have a speaking role.
Yes, what I’m saying is that there is a feminist argument that we should be shooting more women in video games.
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