I don’t often do link lists but I have a few articles to share.
- After spending some time with NI’s television industry yesterday, I have to give a shout out to Greg Darby, Philip Morrow, Colin Williams and Michael Hewitt. It was good to see the TV industry united under a single cause. I would welcome many more of the indies to rally together.
- Slightly related is a C21Media article with notes from Gamesbrief director Nicholas Lovell on what TV companies get wrong when making games about their IP
- It’s not about story
- Find the fun
- Make it iterative
- Commission earlier
- Have a post-transmission plan
- Games are about retention
- Make it free, make it profitable
- Don’t think about revenue after the design
- Cater to the whales
- Learn
And to understand those, read the article.
- A poignant tweet by RocketCat Games:
Things that the game industry will never bother to touch (short list): Emergence, player agency, permadeath. It’s up to modders/small devs.
Emergence – The development of solutions and strategies not originally designed by the creators of a game, using provided tools in novel ways. This can also include social mechanics (without in-game rules) that are supported by players; e.g. the notion of conduct or fair play. (Wikipedia)
Player Agency: – “the feeling of empowerment that comes from being able to take actions in the [virtual] world whose effects relate to the player’s intention” and it “depend[s] on what’s going on in the interactor’s head, on what’s communicated between the technical system and the person, not only on technical facts like counting the number of system actions that are available at each moment.” [Quote: Micheal Mateas]
Permadeath – a situation in which player characters (PCs) die permanently and are removed from the game as opposed to having the option of restoration. The implication of a consequence to actions resulting in permadeath can create new emergent gameplay. (Wikipedia)