The holiday season is upon us, with December 19 marking the start of the annual Steam Winter Sale. It’s nearly impossible to experience a “gamer slump” this time of year – too many great titles flood our discovery queues. So this week seems like a good time for a quick rundown of the games I’ve …
When I start rambling about weird niche board games, my industry friends politely smile and nod. But I can tell when they’ve started looking for the quickest possible exit to the conversation. “That sounds cool,” they might say, “but not relevant to what WE do.” There’s no way to get them to tune out more …
Climb and Dive: Clever Mechanics in a Niche Boardgame Read More »
How to build great narrative content in games is a topic that’s always at the forefront of my mind. Crafting game narratives has been one focus of my career, and I’ve been around long enough to see several trends in narrative design come and go. The industry has undoubtedly improved at delivering stories over the …
Battle Lessons: The Superior Narrative Stew of Zephon Read More »
Two hours into Dragon Age: The Veilguard I started to get worried. The introduction to the game had been crisp, an action-packed sequence reintroducing Varric, a much-loved dwarven companion from the previous games, and Solas, the antagonist from the twist ending to Dragon Age: Inquisition. The action combat felt immediately good and impactful; the environment …
Comfort Food: Dragon Age Veilguard First Impressions 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 …
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 »
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 »
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 »
It’s no secret that the last couple of years in the game industry have been rough. Tragic layoffs continue, though the pace has slowed compared to last year’s bloodbath. Though the indie scene is still vibrant, triple-A studios are struggling creatively. As I wrote about last week, developers have responded to the tough times with …
Unlike my typical lengthy discourses on the joys of niche games, this week’s blog is a brief one. I couldn’t let a week go by without commenting on a couple of recent industry headlines. The first stunner was word that Microsoft recognized a union formed by the staff at several Bethesda studios. The second, following …
Slice of the Pie: The Game Industry Gets Organized Read More »