Off the back of Adrian Hon’s excellent post on the Death of the BBC and the case for public service games, I’ve been taken up in discussions with a couple of work colleagues about whether the BBC should make games at all. Some say that the BBC shouldn’t get into gaming, because then it would […]
Read more "Should the BBC make games?"Whew, it’s done. Hive Mind Challenge 1.0 has come and gone like a whirlwind. You’ll remember that the Hive Mind Challenge is a game that Adrian Hon and I developed. It’s a cheating pub quiz – you’re allowed, and supposed, to use any means necessary to answer the questions. This includes searching the internet and […]
Read more "Hive Mind Challenge: the Wrap Up"One evening a couple of weeks ago, my mate Neil called me. He wanted to know something specific: which of the Great Lakes drains through Niagara Falls? This isn’t usually the sort of thing he calls for, so I was a bit surprised. But it turned out that his girlfriend was at that very moment […]
Read more "Hive Mind Challenge"For a big part of my life, I’ve made and maintained friendships through violence. Not real violence, of course. But simulated weaponry and fantasy combat is the glue that binds my gang in Montreal. It’s also cementing the connections between members of the pick-up Halo team that I play with here in London. Playing together […]
Read more "Blow me away, my friend"Here’s something really cool. lose/lose is a video game the plays like an old-school space shoot-’em-up. It’s got your vertically scrolling spacescape, full of presumably hostile aliens. It’s got your lone gunship out to destroy them all. And it’s got one hell of a twist. Each little alien sprite you encounter on your deadly cruise […]
Read more "Backup your hard drive: it’s lose/lose"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"
Philip Trippenbach 