Why are really good games fun? Here’s an attempt to deconstruct one in detail. PopCap’s Peggle: a Masterpiece of game design. I tend to like a certain kind of game. Half-Life, Call of Duty, Halo . . . See a pattern there? A lot of my friends play similar games. You know – hard-core gamer […]
Read more "Anatomy of Fun: Why Peggle is a Masterpiece"Saturday night I was at a house party in Brixton. I only knew the host, so between nacho-scoops of guacamole, I found myself repeating the opening gambit of ‘The Party Conversation’ (TM) several times. “Hi, I’m Philip,” I’d say, extending my hand. Handshake. “I’m Melanie. Hi.” “Nice to meet you.” “So, Philip, what do you […]
Read more "I’m a Game Designer, Dammit."Video games are still estranged from old media in one sense. There’s no culture of stars in video game design and production. Yet. There should be. There are a few exceptions, of course; Shigieru Miyamoto and Will Wright, maybe – but their names are still mostly known by fanboys. Everyone knows who Super Mario is, […]
Read more "Video Games Need Auteurs, Too"Ever find yourself checking your Facebook feed absent-mindedly, on the off chance that there might be something new and interesting there? Ever follow an eBay auction obsessively, or get a burst of happiness when someone gives you a high seller rating? Ever spend a day in anticipation, wondering how many views your YouTube video will […]
Read more "Irresistible Online Journalism in One Diagram"Six Days in Fallujah, which I wrote about before, is still alive and kicking, despite fierce opposition and lack of a publisher. Its opponents say its very existence as a game belittles the sacrifice of those who died there. Its supporters say it’s an honest record of the battle. It should be published. Then we […]
Read more "Six Days in Fallujah and the Dirty ‘G’ Word"So who’s seen Milo? Those of you who are avid gamers like me know what (who?) I’m talking about. The Natal system was unveiled last week during E3: a motion-sensing, controllerless interface for the Xbox. It’s bleeding-edge stuff. The system performs motion-capture in real time, can recognize faces and voices, and allows for a whole […]
Read more "Milo and the Ethics of Xbox Natal"Are corporate websites a thing of the past? I don’t think so. But that’s the headline of a recent post by Robin Hamann of Headshift. Robin knows social media inside out. He used to be the BBC’s blogging guru (in fact, it was at one of his sessions that inspired me to start this blog […]
Read more "Corporate Websites: Not Enough, but Not Irrellevant"The Norman invasion of England. It seems like the perfect topic to approach with gaming. It’s history, it’s dramatic, and best of all it’s about battles. The game was developed by Preloaded and published by Channel 4, to go along with the drama series of the same title. I’m a huge fan of Channel 4’s […]
Read more "1066 – Game Design FAIL"I was just on a panel presentation at Futuresonic’s Social Technology Summit in Manchester. The slides were a bit bare of text and we were short of time, so here’s everything I meant to say. Our panel was tasked with answering the question: “How can companies, creative producers and developers prepare for a digital economy?” […]
Read more "Futuresonic 09 – Why we Must use Games for Good"Today opened with a very interesting talk today by Stowe Boyd. Here are my live notes – also available on the original Google docs, where the table at the end is actually properly laid out. Stowe Boyd – A Well-Ordered Humanism Society used to be full of ‘Centroids’ – mass identity – mass affiliation to […]
Read more "Stowe Boyd @ Futuresonic ’09 – Live notes"
Philip Trippenbach 