Essay Games Footnotes | May
Hello folks!
I’m currently on an early train to Boston to participate in Godot Con. This afternoon, I’ll lead a workshop called Narrative Design for the Solo Dev, where I’ll walk through some techniques, concepts, and code implementation of using Ink with Godot.
But since I couldn’t sleep, I thought I’d send out my short missive updating y’all on what’s been happening with Essay Games since launching Bundle of Joy at the end of March.
I’m blogging!
Inspired by other game devs and artists, I’ve restarted a weekly blog. In the first couple of weeks, I wrote about Blue Prince, Chants of Sennaar, and my first postmortem piece about Bundle of Joy in response to calls for “making small” or “personal” games. It’s been fun getting back into weekly posting and motivating myself to write about what I’m playing, reading, seeing, and contemplating.
Make sure to add me to your RSS reader!
The Gamer Review!
BoJ has had a couple of new, very thoughtful reviews since I was last in touch. Most notable was a nice, and oddly Dad-brained, review in The Gamer by Ben Sledge. The writer is about to become a Dad for the second time (congrats!) and I loved hearing their take on the chaotic but cathartic experience of playing my game. He writes:
“[Bundle of Joy] never feels like a cautionary tale. It nails the inherent humour of trying to apply cream to a wriggling baby’s bum, but juxtaposes that with some of the introspection that new parents rarely get a chance to reflect on.”
Read the full review here:
Narrascope!
I know I mentioned in my previous update, but I’ll be speaking at Narrascope at Drexel University in June. My talk Re-learning Narrative Design Lessons from Children’s Books will be on Saturday, June 21st at 5:30 PM. I’ll talk about reading books to my youngest kid and recognizing storytelling patterns that I’ve noticed in games like Outer Worlds and Disco Elysium. The talk will be streamed and recorded, so stay tuned for details!
Also, I was super honored to be asked to be a juror for the first Narrascope Games Showcase this year. I’m looking forward to checking out all the amazing submissions from this year’s jam/competition. You can also take a look on itch.io.
Check out the event details below:
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OK, I’m going to get a bit of sleep before arriving at Back Bay Station. I’ll be sure to update y’all with how the workshop went and post my slides/talk after I get back to Brooklyn.
Thanks, as always, for supporting Essay Games! I’ll share more details about our summer plans next month!
Nicholas
Essay Games