gamedesignerben

1. Make games for all: Time to invent interactive experiences for adults.

This is already happening.

2. Change our paradigms to something other than endless violence.

This is already happening.

3. We should make games that “say something.”

This is already happening.

4. “Become accessible: Let’s focus on minds, not on thumbs!”

This is already happening.

5. Bring other talents on board.

Yes. Game developers need to learn how to collaborate with other creative people.

6. Establish new relationships with Hollywood.

Qualified yes. This is a specific example of number 5, but should not imply that successful Hollywood creatives are necessarily the only, nor the best source for these collaborators. That said, I can’t expect anyone but myself to create the sort of collaborations I would most like to see; that’s my job.

7. Censorship: the marketplace’s gatekeepers are too conservative.

This is basically only a problem for big commercial games, and it seems likely that changing attitudes about this will have to come from a surprise hit bubbling up from the weird fringes. Think “Freaky Minecraft.” The conditions for this happening already exist.

8. Criticism: more analysis, less numerical scoring.

This is already happening.

9. Gamers need to vote with their dollars.

Capitalism predates the videogame industry. This has never not been happening.

Back in November of 2012, Keita Takahashi gave a talk at the Games For Change Festival in Australia. In it, he reprised a 2006 talk he gave at GDC, and talked about a vision for the future with a rebirth of the arcade through installation games.

It’s a bit of work that will require opening multiple browser tabs, but I recommend taking in the half-hour talk by listening to the audio while reading the text of the talk combined with the content of its slides.

text & slides: http://venuspatrol.com/2012/11/venus-patrol-presents-spreading-love-peace-through-games-with-keita-takahashi/

News broke earlier this week that Zynga would be shutting down underperforming games CityVille 2, Party Place and The Friend Game. While I’ve never been more than a dabbler in Zynga’s Facebook titles, there’s a disappointment over seeing the rather innovative Friend Game shelved after launching only in December.

When I was little, I was surrounded by weird board games like Dungeon and Zaxxon that my grandmother would pick up from the weird second-hand store around the corner, or a church rummage sale. My uncle was a constant source of Apple ][ and Atari 2600 titles of dubious providence. These memories still inform what I think of games today when I try to make my own.

The dark side of the Game-As-Service model is that when something appears and fails to find an audience, it’s probably just gone. Swallowed up like it never existed. There’s no finding a beat up old copy at a garage sale. There’s no picking it up again in a few years and finding how it informs games that went on to greater success.

That’s a shame.

Mac | Win | Linux

For reasons of foul language and admittedly blatant copyright issues, I did not officially submit my game to the GGJ13 archives. But my experiment, using “Visual Novel / Dating Sim” engine Ren’Py to adapt Telltale’s Walking Dead conversation mechanics to cringe-humor HBO series Girls, seems to prove out my theory that it is at least technically possible.

This is based on a scene from season one’s “Vagina Panic” episode. I picked it because I think it works reasonably well, even if you don’t know anything about the characters when you start.

I had plans to replace all the visuals with my own art style, but 48 hours is not a lot of time to learn a new scripting language and make art, and I had to at least attempt to write branches of the script that approximate Jessa, Hannah, and Shosh’s voices.

I’d like to spend more time on this and do it up right.

Send your comments, questions, etc. to @GameDesignerBen on the twitter.