Game Writing

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Policenauts Review & Interview with Marc Laidlaw

November 20, 2009 in Game Industry, Game Writing, Mainstream Games, Retro Gaming | 2 comments

I’ve been dying to review Policenauts for months, but wanted to try something slightly different since it was an unpaid, unofficial, translation team that took on the job of translating this Japanese cult classic into English. I managed to track down Marc Laidlaw, the lead translator on the project, who was generous in answering some questions I had about the game and the localization process.

The editors and writers of 4colorrebellion were gracious in offering me a space for such a wonderful interview. Specifically, I wish to thank my friend Jamie Love for his hard work in setting me up over at 4CR, and putting together the entire article in its final form. Head over to my 4colorrebellion article to read the entire inter-review.

Retro Luvin’ Goodness

February 22, 2009 in Game Writing, Retro Gaming | 4 comments

Although I’m a bit slow on the trigger, I’d like to pass along the news that the talented folks over at Retroaction Magazine have put together their inaugural issue of RETROACTION. If you are at all familiar with the fantastic print mag “Retro Gamer”, you’ll find Retroaction a comparable mag with the extra dosage of love that comes with a free publication wrought from the keyboards and minds of dedicated retro gaming fans.

According to the authors (one of which is our very own gnome of The Gnome’s Lair!), Retroaction will be issued one per season; four times a year. The first issue is roughly separated into four parts – a main feature on The Legend of Wukong (a new Sega MD/Genesis title), pretty darned in-depth coverage of the 2008 Retro Remakes Competition, a small feature on the UK-based television show “GamesMaster”, and a wonderful assortment of articles that focus on games for (mostly European) systems like the ZX ‘Speccy’ Spectrum, BBC ‘Beeb’ Micro, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, etc. Like any good retro gaming publication, the types of articles vary so much that I think anyone should find something they like in it.

Interested yet? Head on over to Retroaction and download the first issue (in Adobe PDF format). If you like what these dedicated authors and publishers have done, be sure to drop them a line over at their forums and let them know!

If you’re interested in what I think about Issue #1, read onwards…

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New Games Journalism is Dead. Long live New New Games Journalism.

February 9, 2009 in Game History, Game Writing, Irritating Rants, Mainstream Games, Philosophy | 30 comments

In this article I confront the New Games Journalism movement, and take a look at where it went. As a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek article over at Hardcasual.net parodies, it is becoming obvious that we produced a dysfunctional and narcissistic child. While I cannot pretend to have the “answer” or “fix” for our current crisis, I do offer what I think is a credible alternative. We need to open a dialogue on this issue, I think, instead of diagnosing and treating it like an out-patient. This involves our very identity as gamers, and without a hard look at ourselves we are at risk of repeating a long, uninteresting, history.

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The Storied Imagination: Finding Meaning in Games

February 6, 2009 in Artful Games, Game Psychology, Game Writing | 5 comments

This is a short post, in reply to an articulate exposition of the concepts of “szujet” and “fabula” by Corvus over at Man Bytes Blog. His patient and detailed consideration of fabula – a theoretical consideration of the narrative order of events – gives us an idea of what the Russian formalists had in mind when they conceived of narratives and stories. So please, head over to Man Bytes Blog and read his post and the comments to it before continuing here, as I will respond to his analysis of narrative as best I can. I apologize if this seems a bit of an academic conversation, but I think we are in ripe territory for a powerful re-imagining of what the story means in relation to storytelling in games.

Note: This is way too long, but it is the quickly-written culmination of six years of study in my life. I’d like to thank Corvus for launching us into the heart of the problem concerning stories and games. Without the kind of community that has come together through Man Bytes Blog, this quality of discussion would never be possible.

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Narratives and Interactivity Still Misunderstood

August 7, 2008 in Artful Games, Game Writing | 28 comments

Ico cover art by bigdogsleeping.

Michael’s “Narrative Manifesto” post at the Brainy Gamer gave me an opportunity to think about what’s at stake when we talk about interactive narratives. Although I can only sketch out some of the issues involved, I’d like to take a stab at understanding a few ways we tend to think about interactivity and narratives, and the kinds of assumptions they come with. I hope that I don’t come off too strongly here, but I think we’ve continued to repeat a grave mistake in our understanding of interactivity, and because of that are headed down a blind alley in terms of story development.

The basic premise I have is that the word “interactive” can be understood on at least two levels in video games. We tend to forget that one level of interactivity is more important than the other, often end up in situations where a player fights with the game instead of enjoying it for what it is. Instead of beating our collective heads against the wall as we try to design games that let players live out their wildest desires, we should be developing worlds that encourage players to explore them as living, breathing, places.

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Stepping into the Dragon’s Lair: What’s Left after All the Fallout 3 Hype?

August 5, 2008 in Game History, Game Writing | 5 comments

After years and years of development, beginning its life as Project ‘Van Buren’ under the skillful hands of the illustrious designers at the Black Isle Studios (later to be cancelled by Interplay), Fallout 3 found new life again when it was licensed to Bethesda Softworks.

In the intervening years, Fallout fans (I among them) have jostled and argued over the fate of their sacred cow. Most fans are deeply concerned that the developer of The Elder Scrolls series (Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion) will misuse the license and produce a bastard Fallout-Oblivion hybrid unfaithful to the original series.

On the other end, the folks over at Bethesda face the pressure of developing a game that simultaneously satisfies the whims of rabid doomsayers, doubting thomases, FPS fans, hardcore role-players, post-apocalyptos, apathetics, ambivalentés, and Bethsoft believers. After the early fanatical hype and later discord of TES: Oblivion, Bethsoft has a lot to get right this time around the may-pole.

Rather than a simple, Carmackish, “It’s done when it’s done”, the folks over at Bethsoft have been surprisingly candid with their experiences of developing the game, have tried to maintain a positive relationship with the ardent Fallout fan communities, and have pushed hard in the last few months to hit every major online and offline publication with the latest preview of their game.

The hype has been all over the place. People who’ve played it for a few minutes seem to love the graphics and atmosphere. The developers are fanatical about the “VATS” pseudo-turn-based targeting system. FPS lovers are intrigued by the freeform exploration and stunning apocalyptic vistas. Other gamers are up in arms over the same issues: the world looks like Oblivion dipped in mushroom gravy, the gore is gratuitous, VATS is a shoe-horned hack, epic vistas and scenery aren’t the focus of the Fallout universe. Every celebrated feature for one person is a potential disaster for another. The hubbub reminds me of debates that raged when David Fincher’s Alien3 made its debut and forever transformed the face of the Alien series.

Although all aspects of the game seem to be staked out, there are a couple of details that have remained ominously silent in most publications. In this article I take a quick peek at the Writing and Music of the Fallout series, and what it might mean for Fallout 3.

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The Joy of Role-Playing

June 29, 2008 in Game History, Game Research, Game Writing, Philosophy, Retro Gaming | 11 comments

Sketching out dungeon maps on graph paper, marveling at the trinkets or “feelies” in Infocom and Ultima games, vigilantly reading every manual and printed material in the box, and writing pages of quest notes. Whenever my girlfriend sees me meticulously doing any of these kinds of things I get the same befuddled smirk my parents gave me when I played games as a 10-year-old: only another nerd could truly appreciate this. Yet, these are exactly the kinds of things that draw me closer to games and give me a sense of intimacy that allows me to appreciate them not just as works of art, but as worlds.

Recently, Michael of the Brainy Gamer wrote a brilliant (yet terribly misunderstood) exploration of the phenomenology of keeping a scorecard at a baseball game. Sounds a little boring eh? You bet… until you understand the level of intimacy that he creates just by writing down a few numbers and thinking through the game. In this post I’ll try to do justice to just what Michael might have meant by the word “engagement” by talking a little bit about what people do when they “engage” themselves with a game. Before you read this, it’s critical to read Michael’s post first… because I’ll be referring to it throughout. Trust me, it’s worth it.

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Revitalizing Dead Culture: Why Game History Matters

April 22, 2008 in Artful Games, Game History, Game Writing, Philosophy, Retro Gaming | 19 comments

One of my guilty pleasures is in retro gaming and retro computing. My basement storage room is filled with arcane devices and hundreds of games: a venerable Commodore 64, an Apple ][e rescued from a garage sale, a local family's Apple ][gs that was donated to me, a MAME arcade cabinet, a Mattel Intellivision II - the list goes on indefinitely. I just can't bear to see these things tossed out. Lately I've found myself playing Ultima VII: Serpent Isle on my 486 DX2/66 (now with a Roland MT-32!), and my 360 has sat untended for months.

But does playing these old games matter? Does writing about them matter? What value is there in sweatin’ to the oldies? Is it only for reminiscence or nostalgia? In this article I make a few arguments about retro gaming/computing that outline the meaningfulness of tying together the past and the future in the present..

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The Making of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

April 20, 2008 in Game History, Game Writing, Retro Gaming | No comments

Microscopic Space Fleet

“Not being a games designer, Douglas was still thinking linearly,” says Steve [Meretzky]. “As we got more comfortable working together, and I began to assert myself, and Douglas got more familiar with the possibilities of non-linear storytelling, that changed – the majority of the game has the most fiercely non-linear structure of any adventure title I’ve ever worked on.”

As a followup to friday’s link to Andy Baio’s archeology of Milliway’s (which incidentally made Slashdot), I remembered an excellent article posted in issue #45 of Retro Gamer magazine. Since this is a rather obscure magazine I decided to scan in the entire article because getting back-issues of the U.K. based magazine is rather difficult. You will notice that several of the Infocom folks who contributed to the article also commented on Andy Baio’s page, which gives a sense of interconnectedness to the situation. The article gives a quick look into the creative forces behind the games as well as a sense for the creative environment engendered at the time.

Warning: each page image is over 500kb. It may take you less time to order it from the U.K. than wait for it to download via 28.8k modem.

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

Edit: I forgot to include a link to the publisher’s web site! If you’d like to order a copy of, or subscribe to, Retro Gamer – which comes with my highest recommendations – head on over to Imagine’s eShop to order it online.

Infocom’s Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Look From the Inside

April 18, 2008 in Game History, Game Industry, Game Research, Game Writing, Mainstream Games, Retro Gaming | 3 comments

It has been a long time since I had something worth posting here, so I hope I don’t disappoint with what I think is an utterly fascinating story. Yesterday, Andy Baio of Waxy.org posted a story reminiscent of a game archaeologist’s dream that he pieced together from internal e-mails, design docs, and prototype builds all culled from a network drive image of Infocom’s shared network hard drive. Yes, someone made an image of the “Infocom Drive” before splitting from the company in 1989 and has kept it safe for all these years. Revealed on the hard drive are (quoting Andy):

design documents, email archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made.

So why does this matter? Because he went through the drive and weaved together the tale of why Milliway’s: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe was never completed nor released. If you have not played the excellent Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy IF game (designed and created by Steve Meretzky and Douglas Adams) you’re missing out on a crucial piece of computer game history and a damned fun (difficult!) game. I’ll let Andy tell the story, except for two points:

It tells the story of a venerable game company in decline; crisis even. Being 1989, Infocom had already merged with Activision and Milliway’s had been languishing since its inception in ‘85. The company closes with not a bang…
It comes with a playable prototype of Milliway’s (!!)

Comments from the ex-Infocom folks on the story seem to agree with some of Andy’s story, however it is quite clear that there is more to this than meets the eye. It will be interesting to see what comes of this in the following weeks, as it quite clearly has ruffled a few feathers – and for good reasons.

Thankfully Jason Scott’s new documentary, Get Lamp, is scheduled for release some time this year. I suspect that his own exploration into the world of interactive fiction, complete with interviews of major designers and programmers, should be just as utterly fascinating just as his epic BBS: The Documentary was.

Inviting the Imagination: The Power of Words

January 19, 2008 in Artful Games, Game Writing | 15 comments

Pictured above: ‘Sigil View’ by Fuflon, courtesy of deviantART.

A few weeks ago, Michael over at the Brainy Gamer wrote some final thoughts on his play-through of Planescape: Torment, a cRPG that many consider to be one of the best role-playing games to ever hit the PC. The beginning of his post caught my attention right away:

Planescape: Torment is a text-based RPG. True, it manages to squeeze every bit of isometric splendor out of Bioware’s Infinity Engine. And yes, the game occasionally treats you to a pre-rendered cutscene. But these are merely window dressing. Planescape: Torment places all its narrative eggs in one giant 800,000 word basket.

In this article I begin to explore the idea that photorealism in games ultimately detracts from immersion and gives players the feeling that the story and characters are contrived and un-real. I suggest that immersion and dramatic investment aren’t a product of good technologies, they are a product of good artisanship.

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Game Writing

Policenauts Review & Interview with Marc Laidlaw

Retro Luvin’ Goodness

New Games Journalism is Dead. Long live New New Games Journalism.

The Storied Imagination: Finding Meaning in Games

Narratives and Interactivity Still Misunderstood

Stepping into the Dragon’s Lair: What’s Left after All the Fallout 3 Hype?

The Joy of Role-Playing

Revitalizing Dead Culture: Why Game History Matters

The Making of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

Infocom’s Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Look From the Inside

Inviting the Imagination: The Power of Words

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