Archive for June, 2008
Make Better Games by Reducing Interactivity
Jun 29th
Most people believe that interactivity is what separates games from other kinds of media, so how can you make games better by taking away that advantage? Back when we were creating the interface on BioShock, Ken was the one who always pushed for a simpler interface. The main method we used was to remove options More >
Making Flash Games into a Platform
Jun 25th
Today, I finally announced a project I’ve been working on. It is a service called “AlwaysOn SaveGames” that provide remote storage of save data similar to Valve’s SteamCloud but open to Flash developers. You can read the announcement for more details, or the about page for an overview of what I am trying to provide. More >
Why Sky High Development Budget is Good for Publishers
Jun 22nd
The cost of developing a game has increased exponentially over the past few years. The first game I worked, ‘The Punisher,’ had a development budget of six million dollars. I would say that’s in the middle range of development cost during that time. Nowadays, just marketing a high profile game will cost that much, with More >
Cast of Characters pt 1 : the Burnout
Jun 18th
If you want to work in the games industry, know that it is filled with geeky guys. Be prepared to put up with a certain amount of ‘eccentricities.’ In this series, I offer up a sampling of the types of people you might meet in your journey. The first personality I’d like to talk about More >
The Games Industry Needs More Competence Not ‘Innovation’
Jun 12th
One of the perennial complaints leveled against the games industry is that the industry is ‘Stagnant’ and needs more ‘Innovation.’ I’ve fallen into that train of thought myself a couple of years ago during the period known as ‘The Time of Brown Military Shooters.’ Gradually, I came to another realization, what I really want to More >
Dear Developers: button layout loading screens must go
Jun 9th
I recently downloaded a bunch of demos from the Playstation Store to check out some of the games I’ve missed. After playing through a bunch of them, I noticed that all of them included a loading screen that tells you what each of the buttons do, the “Button Layout” screen. Here is an example of More >
The Lies We Tell : We never lie
Jun 5th
Actually, I lied in the title, everything you hear from video game marketing and press releases are 100% the literal truth, as everyone knows. However, they are crafted to tell the truth but make people see more in the statement than there actually is. They do this through lies of omission or lies by implication. More >