Month: January 2009
-
Where the posts be at?
You may notice this week was sparse on the posts. Why is that you may ask? Because I’m organizing the local site in my area for the Global Game Jam! Over 50 sites! Over 1,750 developers! Possibly hundreds of new games being shotgunned to our collective brains in a single weekend. For everyone doing this…
-
Like watching a trainwreck with a truck full of puppies plunging off a cliff
Jon Blow’s recent blog post grabs excerpts Jeff Roberts and Casey Muratori (of Molly Rocket and the appropriately named Jeff and Casey Show) ripping into Microsoft on Visual Studio 2010 and the new Direct2D API. Both of these rants are worth a listen if for nothing else because Jeff and Casey are often times very,…
-
The Myth of the Perfect 10
Media criticism is hard. Everyone’s a critic in some capacity (you’re reading one right now), but much like elbows or other body parts, having an opinion isn’t exactly revolutionary. There are precious few critics out there who manage to rise above the fray and illuminate their thoughts with clarity, ingenuity, and sometimes even wit. And…
-
Beyond games as art
Are games art? It’s a question that’s been discussed and argued and torn apart and put together countless times. Every game from Super Mario Bros. to Braid to Metal Gear Solid 4 have been used as positive (or negative) examples of games as a legitimate artform. And a new wave of developers interested in pushing…
-
Evert! Evert! Evert!
Continuing a theme of cool games in tiny packages, I present for your consideration Eversion. Eversion is a great little platformer created by Zaratustra for the TIGSource Commonplace Book Compo. It’s a short game that should take on average a half-hour to complete. And much like another recently discussed game to read about Eversion before…
-
Female gamers and the Wii
From this article on the Wii and female gamers comes this quote courtesy of Ubisoft. “What’s driving the Wii sales is the use of Wii by women, girls and families,” Hamilton said. “It’s a really female-driven platform.” As of May 2008, according to Nintendo 79% of the people who buy the Wii are male which…
-
The genius of Gravity Bone
Before you read this post I stress that you go download and play Gravity Bone by Brendon Chung. Do it, it should run on any old computer (it uses the Quake 2 engine for crying out loud) and a typical playthrough won’t take you more than half an hour. Use your lunch break or something.…
-
The myth of the pure, true game
From Smart Football: Is there some pure, true, Platonic-ideal football? If not, then why? The answer is that there is not such a pure, true, ideal football because football is a game; all the rules – except ones designed around safety – are arbitrary. They might have in mind competitive balance, but this doesn’t make…