Slow gaming (minor Portal 2 spoilers)

So I finally got around to watching that Wolpaw interview, good stuff. Loved the part where we was talking about play testing "early and often", players playing levels "all the time" . . . really solid. Also, there's that one part where he talks about Richard Lord and the Animal King. That makes me happy...

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captain obvious

I know this might come across as kind of a shock to some of you, but I'm going to have to say it anyway. Not all games are the same. I say this in light of having just read Ian Bogost's article on conservative and aberrant reformists in game design (and the aesthetic filter). But really, that's just the trigger for this post. I've been talking about this for months, although my fervor was slightly diminished when I found that Jim Gee had already touched on the topic.

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Gamers 3

I've never actually written an elevator pitch for a film, let alone a treatment, let alone a screenplay. Still, at the end of the day I'm from Los Angeles, and it's a proverb as old as the the Santa Monica Mountains that everyone in Los Angeles has a film to pitch. Of course, I don't live there currently, and I didn't come up with this idea while living there, but . . . yeah, while, here's the idea:

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An open letter to the code geeks who keep hatin'

A note about this rant: I started it many months ago, and it felt like there was a reason for it at the time. Now I'm not really sure if it's warranted. Continued after jump . . .

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On Alan Wake - the bulleted version

I finished Alan Wake the same day I finished Portal 2. That was unfortunate for Alan Wake, but extremely good for helping me think through the construction of narrative in linear games. Spoiler averse post continued after the jump . . .

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