Archive > July 2008

full text of chapter by wallis on story making games

chapter about story making games - full text online with some of the illustrations

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book that would be good for aesthetics/analysis class

Image via Wikipedia
scott mccleod’s book on understanding comics
he introduces a way to analyze parts of comics, how stories are told
not explicityly about games but it’s a similar look and feel, graphic story telling
picture is of a comic I loved as a kid - PLastic Man!
here’s a review on the Words on Play blog -

Understanding Comics: [...]

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notes from chapter about storytelling in games from 2nd person

“making games tha tmake stories” by James Wallis p. 69 - 80
in games, players don’t tell the story - the game does, plot and narrative structure is predetermined and can’t be changed
story may have variables, multiple endings, but basic story predetermined
player has illusion of control because the design hides the “rails” (the predetermined bits)
in some [...]

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notes about D&D history from 2nd person

Image via Wikipedia
“From the basement to the basic set: the early years of dungeons & dragons” by erik Mona p. 25-30
D&D the root game for all rpgs, d&d terminology and game play knowledge assumed in other games - even when players move on to other games - they have their first experience with d&d [...]

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Will Wright talking about game design

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5534080568776365031 - starting about minute 14
failure and success states
successive feedback loops to give player feedback and success over and over in teh game -
talks about the calvin factor (calvin & hobbes) - do the opposite of what game wants you to do to see how the game responds, is it open ended enough to let [...]

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sites that let ya make games

Image via Wikipedia raph koster points out in this blog post that there are a lot of these make a game websites all of a sudden and mentions that they seem to foce a specific approach to game grammar - this would be something worth pursuing - what does he mean by game grammar, we could [...]

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facebook virtual world

Yoville (facebook app) - http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=21526880407
owned by/just bought by game network zynga

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might be useful gantt chart maker

a web-based gantt chart maker - supposed to be collaborative, has a faq, a very short tutorial
http://helpuplan.com/index.asp

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some pretty places in SL to check out

linden land - denby, longfellow (cg linden’s home is here - he has a tic tac toe game and the scripts to create it. There’s also a chess board, lots of really pretty architecture and plants
check out pooley - one of hte bits of land is shaped like a foot

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secondlife activities for games class

arrange a panel discussino with game creators in sl - invite lots of people to come (an event on our island) - have a moderator with some questions, then take questions from teh crowd
interview game creators in sl and post summaries/photos on web
set up a rpg using sets and such in sl
play some of the [...]

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