Categories
Game Design Narrative Design

Narrative Context.

On several occasions I’ve recounted events that took place while I was playing a game. I’ve described in detail the actions I took and the consequences of those actions, as well as explaining my motivations and emotional reaction to such events: Jumping out I threw a Molotov at the pursuing vehicle. The Molotov hit the […]

Categories
Game Design

Exploring Meaning.

In order to consider and analyse the explorative form of games it is necessary to present the game mechanics, the logical game space, in some visual manner. The interconnected nature of objects and actions, nouns and verbs, within a game can make any attempt at a complete representation of the entire possibility space prohibitively complex; therefore some […]

Categories
Game Design

Mechanical Exploration.

Warning: This post contains mechanical spoilers for Gravity Bone. If you don’t believe that’s possible and have yet to play the game I assume no responsibility… In the comments to my previous article on the difference between literature, film and games, Chade questioned my use of the term explorative to describe games. He made two […]

Categories
Films Game Design Literature

Communicating Intent.

My previous post was vague and though some of that was intended to promote comment and discussion, I feel I may have been unintentionally cryptic in both the post itself and my comments. It was not my aim to imply any order of worth to each of the forms of media mentioned, and I also […]

Categories
Films Game Design Literature

The difference.

Literature is descriptive. Films are representative. Games are explorative. That’s a fundamental difference. Expansion and clarification can be found here.

Categories
Game Design

A matter of appearance.

When Fable was released a big deal was made of the technology (that Lionhead had previously created for Black & White) that caused your protagonist to change their appearance based on your actions. “Evil” actions cause your character to develop dark skin, glowing red eyes and eventually horns. Whereas “Good” actions lead to a glowing […]

Categories
Game Design

I can’t see you.

The demo for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was released yesterday and though I enjoy it for a variety of reasons there’s one element that stands out, something I’d not expected. Due to either a design decision or a bug (regardless of which, the fan reaction means it may well be changed) it’s impossible to play […]

Categories
Game Design

I can’t see you.

The demo for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was released yesterday and though I enjoy it for a variety of reasons there’s one element that stands out, something I’d not expected. Due to either a design decision or a bug (and regardless of which, the fan reaction means it’ll likely be changed) it’s impossible to play […]

Categories
Game Design

Different Vocabularies.

Games can be thought of as a language of communication by which the player communicates their intent through the use of nouns (Objects) and adverb-verb pairs (Actions) and the game responds by changing the adjectives (Properties) describing the nouns. The grammar of the game defines the type of sentences that have meaning within the current context; […]

Categories
Game Design

A measure of morality.

Apparently I’m a nice guy. At least that’s what my trusty Pip-Boy 3000 (Model A) tells me. I’m glad it does this because I probably wouldn’t have known otherwise, what with people commenting on how nice a person I am or how much of a “goody two shoes” I’ve been. Fallout 3 is giving me a curious sense […]