Author’s Note: This was written the day of the election. Obviously, by Wednesday morning, the sentiments and predictions that it was based on are out of date, and we’re waking up to a whole new world. I’m still doing my usual repost to Medium and leaving the content of the original post as-is. Once again, […]
The Day After: Election 2024, Gaming, and Beyond Read More »
My 15-year-old, born in the summer of 2009, barely makes the GenZ cutoff. It’s a source of pride for him. He describes the up-and-coming Gen Alpha kids in the grades behind him as “scary” and “nearly feral.” For my part, I like to constantly remind him how lucky he is to have a couple of
Gamer Kid: Revisiting the Classics with GenZ Read More »
I remember when I first played SimCity. Will Wright’s masterwork was a breath of fresh air – a playable simulation of real-world urban planning, a topic that sounded like a terrible idea for a game on paper but was incredibly compelling in reality. Like Civilization and other 4X games, SimCity and its descendants weave an
Ant Farms: Three of the Quirkiest City-Builders Around Read More »
95% of the time, this blog is about games, game development, and game design. I had the usual sort of article half-written yesterday – a design dissection of why CD Projekt RED’s masterful games, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk, are so great on a second and third playthrough despite replayability not being a primary game
The Calm Before the Storm: Hurricanes and Elections Collide Read More »
Useless biographical tidbit: I have a law degree. I don’t talk about it much, I don’t use it for anything, and I never passed the bar exam so I’m not an attorney. It was a waste of thousands of dollars, though I did pick up a few techniques on how to really annoy people in
Past Lessons: Innovations and Flaws in Ara: History Untold Read More »
Like many gamers, I’ve always got a “game of the moment” going – something I’m playing in my off-time, sometimes a board game, and sometimes a video game. Games have been the passion of my professional life and my hobby for as long as I can remember, back to when my mom let me drop
Decision Tree: Picking a New Game to Play Read More »
Ages ago, my industry friends and I had a running joke about young designers who viewed themselves as the “idea guy.” The framing stems from an uninformed view of how games are made – the concept that there’s a lonely genius on a team somewhere, possibly with a fancy title like Creative Director, who comes
Idea Guy: The Myths and Realities of Game Inception Read More »
It’s Photo Album Week here on the blog. I mentioned in passing a few weeks ago that one of the small but nice things about working in games was all the free swag that flows your way. Developer t-shirts are a mainstay, but over the years I’ve collected a veritable mountain of cups, clothing, and
Swag Collection: Physical Memories from a Game Career Read More »
In between consulting work, I’m plugging away on a solo project. While I’m not ready to talk about the details of the game itself, the process to date has been educational. Regardless of when I finally deliver it, I’m happy with the approach I’ve taken. The last time I worked on a solo project, just
First Steps: Lessons from Indie Game Prototyping Read More »
Ages ago, when I was a kid growing up in New Hampshire and Maryland, summer stretched out to Labor Day. It wasn’t until September that I’d wearily trudge back to the bus stop with a backpack full of fresh notebooks and pencils. Not so for my son in Texas, who starts his school year in
Dog Days: Hobbies from a Game Developer’s Summer Read More »