Video Game Blogs
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Ian Bogost
A bold new metaphysics that explores how all things—from atoms to green chiles, cotton to computers—interact with, perceive, and experience one another.
Edmunds Dev Blog for gay nerds
So there were a few minor bumps with the launch, came out a few hours late, the launch build was actually an older beta build without achievements and minor music issues.. but we were able to update asap and patch the issues right away. For most of the day Isaac was the #2 highest grossing game on Steam! amazing stuff! thanks to everyone who picked it up and did video play throughs, podcasts and livestreams of the game, its been yet another surreal launch experience . It might not make sense to most, but launching a game really takes an emotional tole on you regardless of how the game does, so i really want to thank all of you who went out of their ways to live stream the game, sent me awesome emails and fan pics, you really picked me up.... so now to give back!
News - Opinion: Love, It's Working - Meaning And Action In Games
[In this editorial, Gamasutra's Christian Nutt looks at the way games use interaction and escapism -- with real-world parallels -- to see what actions can be meaningful, and what kinds drill down to meaningless button-presses.] I just got back from Ikea. I hate going to Ikea. I hate it because the store's design is intentionally obstructive to navigation, and because, inevitably, it's very crowded.In my column You Build Worlds , I talk up the importance of a well-made world by slagging a game that doesn’t have one: Crackdown 2 . Why did I pick on Crackdown 2 ? Because it’s a shallow, silly, slim-budget knock-off of its predecessor. At the same time, it’s also a hoot—a fun, raucous game that I keep coming back to again and again, namely, every time I’m filled with rage and want to blow stuff up.
Just Another World: Crackdown 2 « Save the Robot
Sexy Videogameland
I'm not really into being called a "geek" or a "nerd." Everyone tells me, "of course you are: you're in video games for a living." They roll out checklists, even, a litany of things I like, things I did in high school; skills I've got, things I know, or even measures of how much I know about those things or how much I like them, as if to make sure I know how nerdy I am.
The video-games-writin' set has an odd set of preoccupations, and many of them hinge on the question of legitimacy. The is-games-art debate, the Citizen Kane o' games question, they're all about the stature of games in the cultural marketplace, where they stand in the artistic pecking order . (Here's a hint: pretty fucking low .
Versus CluClu Land
Alchemy is a dark art, but a romantic one. Who doesn't love the idea of combining disparate, arcane elements, and, surprise!, coming away with something new and valuable and beautiful? Maybe it's why some people love crafting in games so much.
Fullbright
The GAME OVERTHINKER
I'll be starting my weekend-long stint at PAX East tomorrow afternoon. If you see me around the floor, feel free to say hi - in addition, I'll be featured at the following two panels on Friday night: Escapist editors, Shamus Young, the LoadingReadyRun crew, The Space Janitors, myself and others present select episodes of The Escapist's most popular shows (including some never-before-seen new stuff!)by Daniel Bullard-Bates Some video games are designed to deliver a complete, finite experience. Sometimes these games deliver story and character arcs, other times merely a series of levels with little to no narrative coherency. These can vary in length, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, but at the end of that play time, the game is over. Other games are designed to be played eternally.
Press Pause to Reflect
Introduction Are reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames? Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games, small games, indie games and user-generated games?
Shawn Elliott
WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5
If you'd like to read my most recent blog posts, head over to WIL WHEATON dot NET: In Exile , my backup blog at Typepad. Hi there. WWdN is currently undergoing a redesign and some maintenance.Applied Game Design
I resist this rant. I resist its leading title, and I resist the will to fight. I will not turn against my fellow developers who have supported me through 30 years of my career. My Dungeons & Dragons DM said this to me when I started working at Sir-tech Software on the Wizardry series of games.I'm not a a game designer, but every year I eagerly look forward to the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. I learn more in one hour-long GDC session than in a month of reading theory books or playing games. If you want to understand the inspiration, ingenuity, and complex collaborative process behind the games you enjoy, GDC is the place to be. That's why I'm in San Francisco this week. The organizers of this year's event have scaled back on keynote addresses from industry luminaries - talks I've found generally disappointing over the years - and focused the conference's lectures and roundtables on the three major thematic threads that typically characterize GDC sessions: 1) How We Did It. 2) Big Ideas. 3) Where Do We Go From Here? I try to arrange my GDC schedule to include a healthy sampling from each category.