State of the Union 2013
I've had a lot going through my head lately. A jumble of thoughts, intense, not entirely organized, with a fevered pitch. I've refrained from writing because...
Metal Gear Rising: Thoughts and Impressions
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SNo8h-KfAU] That feeling you just felt was the voice of a million fanboys crying out in terror. This video at the...
Game Design class: A retrospective
This entry marks the final assignment for the class for which this blog was created, CSC 126, also known as Game Design and Development. Whether or not I...
Games that hate their players
As I'm sure many who know me are aware, I have a soft spot in my heart for games which... shall we say, put the player outside of their comfort zone. In...
Self-handicapping in gaming communities
One of the more interesting phenomenon in gaming (or perhaps it's simply depressive, depending on your perspective) is the way that virtually all gaming...
Robot Unicorn Attack: A brief analysis
Robot Unicorn Attack is an extremely straightforward "on rails" platformer. You control the eponymous robot unicorn of the title, who moves from left to...
Fallout New Vegas: a brief analysis of structure
Having recently read an excerpt on game story structure taken from a Lee Sheldon textbook, I was intrigued. Particularly, I was taken by this sentence: "[The...
Invincible Death Lazer: creative vision
I have had an idea stuck in my head since approximately July 14th, 2008. That idea was for a game, almost appalling in its simplicity, but immense in its own...
Gaming and time
Other people have said it before, and other people have probably said it better. There is also a risk I am delving into platitude here, but nevermind....
JobQuest: Reflections
Having completed my first full game in GameMaker, I suppose it is time to collect my thoughts on the subject. Broadly, I will contemplate on what went right...
Gaming as a social activity
There is a stereotype about gamers, which borrows rather derivatively from stereotypes about various "nerd" and "geek" demographics in a more generalized...
Video games and the social context
This is something I touched upon a bit in my post on skill and salience, but would like to examine more deeply. Video games (or for that matter games in...
Game verbs in A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
I should start by saying I love this game. I love how cyberpunk it is. I love how nonsensical it is. I love how so many other people don't get it or...
Aesthetics in video games
There is this problem I have, and maybe you have it too. I will be having one of those ever common "are videogames art?" discussions, and my opponent will...
Video games and terrible endings
Suffice it to say there will be spoilers for various games in this article. Having recently elected to build a new computer for what is, in terms of my...
Music games: cliches and conventions
Undoubtedly the genre with which I have the most experience, music games represent a genre with surprisingly little variance. The general gameplay mechanics...
Achievements
As far as gameplay features go, Achievements easily rank as one of the most critically detested. The complaints are all fairly well established: they detract...
Why I play games
I have to admit, I am not intensely fond of taxonomies as they are invented for purposes of describing social or psychological phenomenon. They always seem...
Murder simulators: Are games a reflection of us?
I had the privilege of running across this quote from one Slavoj Zizek, and it brought my attention back to what has been a "debate" for some time now...
Adapting a life-experience to a game
My life experiences are an eclectic mish-mash of horribly boring and extremely depressing. Therefore I am in an awkward position when trying to draw from my...
Emulators and piracy: a brief apology
At present, piracy is easy, rampant, and essentially unstoppable. This is especially true for older games. Even if there weren't websites you could go to...
Skill and salience
This weekend, I attended NDK Denver, an anime convention that has been held annually in Colorado for the past 15 years. As has been the case for me for the...
One-week, one-button game: PhaseBall (alpha)
This was the first game project for my fall Game Design class. Made in GameMaker 8.1.
BBB video games and multiplayer communities
A phenomenon which has drawn my interest as of late regards the manner in which games that are critically panned and disliked by mainstream gamers will...
The early days of Nintendo
As a company, Nintendo Co., Ltd has been more or less synonymous with platform gaming for more than 20 years. When looking at even the most modern platform...
The retro aesthetic in modern games
As games have progressed from their earliest iterations, graphics have substantially changed. This has largely occurred in tandem with the march of...
Why I am interested in game design
Games have been a part of my life for essentially as long as I can remember. From educational games like Treasure Cove and Oregon Trail, which featured in my...
Huzzah!
Not going to bother with protracted self-aggrandizing. This is my new blog. It is mostly for school, but I guess it doesn't hurt to have it public. It is...