From the N+ Interview
“What could be more modern than minimalism?! If anything the graphics in N are postmodern; they were heavily influenced by Deridda’s poststructuralist critique of gaming’s bourgeois, elitist culture. We reject logocentrism and other forms of artificially imposed order! On the other hand, they could also be said to be post-postmodern, or even pseudo-modern, as they are firmly grounded in our belief that the individual’s action is a necessary condition of the cultural product. Go PoPoMo! Woo!”
(link)
Twitter Updates for 2008-02-27
- Playing the music box heart #
Twitter Updates for 2008-02-26
[snerk]
Twitter Updates for 2008-02-24
- Drat. Can’t get youtube up. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WASTE TIME NOW?!?! #
- Whew… now I can watch john.he.is again. For the LULZ! http://tinyurl.com/38kkbt #
TV issues
Dream
Had a long dream about joining a society of Minotaurs. I was invited by a priest of their religion, and proceeded to live among them for a period of years, during which I was taught the art of shapeshifting, as well as the social mannerisms and religion of the Minotaurs. There were specific ways one would clack hooves together to indicate mood as well as important holidays that no one would miss (conducted in a huge golden temple with purple banners all around). I lived on the surface, but several times a year would descend through the sewers into the deep tunnels which lead to our home. Only once a year were most allowed to wear the true form (the classic Minotaur), all save the soldiers, upon whom a powerful and expensive enchantment was woven. Once my 5th year was completed, I was fully accepted into Minotaur society. However, to become a soldier, one had to spend several years shapeshifting into various animal forms and helping humans and other animals learn the wisdoms of our religion. In addition, there was a huge amount of money required to pay for the ingredients for the enchantment to become a soldier. I knew I only had about an eighth of the cost, but I was determined to find the money somehow. I was ready to proceed upon my training, and changed into a fox, stepping through a portal that showed a landscape with green fields and a stormy sky.
Twitter Updates for 2008-02-21
- Does anyone else read program version numbers for their gematria values? #
- still worn out and sick. getting lots of stuff done, just nothing work-like. #
Game 3.0
I signed up for the IMU Studio forums, where they are discussing an upcoming game called Prince of Thunder. I’m interested because I’ve seen a lot more focus on interaction in the game design process recently, and I’m curious as to how the mechanics of these situations work. Also interesting was the fact that I discovered the studio through Twitter, which led to the following comment by Robert Strutin, a representative of IMU Studios (I assume),
I am fascinated with bringing this interactive open social experience to 3D. Not only into Video Games, but through them to all other technology
Please, tell me more about what you do, and why Twitter means so much to you
I thought it was a really good question – here we have a juxtaposition between interaction in gaming and interaction online, so this was my reply,
Well, Twitter is a conversation – a huge ongoing conversation that can be endlessly recursive. In the same way, I’m very interested in games where the creators are actually talking to the people who want to play games. thatgamecompany is another game design group I like a lot, and they just racked up the top number of downloads on the Playstation Network. Interaction is becoming more and more important to people, and I want to see where it goes.
fl0w was recently revealed to be the number one downloaded title on the Playstation Network (note that the original flash version is here) with a highly anticipated PSP port on the way also. Jenova Chen and Kelly Santiago of thatgamecompany have been very nice and have spoken to their fans quite a bit on their forum, and I find that sort of interaction refreshing (big shout-out to Supervillian as well, for taking care of fl0w very well).
I really wrote this post to highlight this new trend in gaming (the game as a conversation between designer and player), which I see as the real “Game 3.0“, and hope to see it continue to spread.
