I flew from California for my first visit to Dallas late on a sunny afternoon in early September. I had left my job a couple of months earlier, quitting a toxic work situation without an immediate backup plan for the first time in my career. I’d been in California for a couple of years, and …
Dallas Developer: Twenty Years of Making Games in North Texas Read More »
Warning: spoilers for the midgame of Starfield, including some companion details. The first game I can remember playing where I cared about a player-centered romance storyline was Bioware’s Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. The romanceable companions each had a deep storyline that ran in parallel with the main plot. Though there were a few …
Equal Measures Tragic and Creepy: A Starfield Love Story Read More »
There’s an analogy I like for game development that I’m fond of stretching beyond plausibility to make a point. I first used my favorite metaphor years ago when I started blogging, and I’ve been itching to expand on my original premise ever since. For as many years as I’ve been in the game industry, I’ve …
Climbing High: A Tortured Metaphor for Game Development Read More »
My son started eighth grade in the Texas public school system last week – trudging to the bus with an overladen backpack on a muggy August morning, returning in the afternoon’s 100-degree heat exhausted and overwhelmed. My son is a great student. He’s rules-bound, focused, and more concerned about his grades and pleasing his teachers …
My stepfather is one of the smartest people I know – an engineer and a mathematician, a polyglot descendent of a Scottish poet, and a whiz with computers long before they were in every household. I’ve written before about how he first introduced me to games; to no small extent, I owe my career to …
Barriers Tumbling: AI and the Future of Game Development Read More »
There’s a moment early in Baldur’s Gate 3 involving an owlbear that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. It made me sad, then it made me wince, and then laugh. It has it all – pathos and comedy in equal measure, executed perfectly by Larian Studios, the veteran RPG developer entrusted with what’s sure …
A while back, my dad sent me a quote that I immediately stuck on the wall next to my desk. It’s applicable to his long career in geotechnical engineering, but it’s attributed to A. R. Dykes, who was talking about structural engineering: “Engineering is the art of molding materials we do not wholly understand into …
Fumbling Toward Fun: Game Design and the Great Unknown Read More »
My dad, a retired engineer who operates a maple syrup farm in New Hampshire, rarely “comes down off the mountain” (as he puts it). When the occasion calls, he’s extremely hospitable and social with friends and family – but in his free time he prefers solitude and getting out in nature. When it comes to …
In the difficult days following a game studio’s shutdown or a round of layoffs, ex-employees often feel overwhelmed. Besides figuring out their next career step, the uniquely American employer-funded healthcare system means they’re forced to cope with the additional stressor of ensuring their families stay healthy while job-hunting. Thousands of think pieces have been written …
So. How’s your last three years been? When I accepted a full-time role at BonusXP in April 2020, I’d just returned from a family trip to Florida, including a somewhat ill-advised trip to Disney World the week before all the theme parks shut down for COVID. I had no idea what was about to unfold …