Thursday, December 17, 2009

Escapist article

My debut as an Escapist columnist was just posted. It amazes me that I'm at a point where I can just send emails to some well-known game developers asking interview questions, and they actually respond. I'm still not sure how this happened.

For students, I'd also recommend reading the editor's note to this issue. It describes a little of the culture of game development, and is a reminder that this is not just an industry of gamers, but of human beings. Sometimes as a rabid game fan it is easy to lose sight of that.

One interesting thing I just realized is that you might or might not be able to ask the same question ("what games do you keep playing obsessively?") of teachers. Yes, many game development teachers are rabid gamers... but I've run into more than a few that have no personal interest in games. But I don't think I've ever met a game designer who didn't love games. It's strange, the differences between the two worlds.

Now, I just have to decide whether The Escapist counts as a peer-reviewed publication for purposes of my CV... probably not.

3 comments:

Andy Collins said...

Nice article.

As a fellow game designer, I totally understand the attitude toward playing new games that you describe.

As it so happens, I chatted about this very topic today at lunch with my co-worker Rodney Thompson (of Star Wars RPG fame). We agreed that sometimes, we'd like to be able to turn off the part of our brain that instantly recognizes the flaws of new games we play so that we could just enjoy them.

On the other hand, Rodney wisely pointed out that it's that same part of our brain that allows us to marvel at the exquisite work in truly transcendant games, such as Portal (for my money, one of the most perfectly designed games I've ever played).

I'm sure filmmakers have the same problem going to the movies. I can still enjoy most popcorn movies, but some of my more astute friends inevitably end up complaining about the lighting or camera angle or something that seems as esoteric to me as my description of the end-game flaw in Small World sounds to an average gamer.

Glad to find your blog; I look forward to reading more of your words in the future.

Olivier said...

Congrats! :)

schools game design said...

It is happened sometimes at Which person you got faith about getting answer he did not able to give the answer!!