Game Design Advance

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of participating in the Art History of Games conference, put together by Georgia Tech and SCAD. Recently they posted videos of the talks. You can see mine here.

One of the things that really stuck with me about this conference was the intersection of two different talks that spoke to each other in a surprising and powerful way.

The first talk was the one given by the (non)game designers Tale of Tales. ToT made a presentation which boldly and provocatively declared once and for all that Games Are Not Art. Games are games and they are fine as far as that goes, but they have no place engaging with the serious and important problems of art, to elevate the human soul, to struggle towards transcendence, to contemplate great truths, etc. Game technology might do that, but not games.

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While we take a couple of months off between seasons, we thought we post a few recordings of different events that have happened around New York that people may have missed (especially if you don’t live here)!

Our first bonus episode is a recording of an informal panel on games and art that was conducted at the Greenpoint gallery Cleopatra’s during an exhibition by the artist Billy Rennekamp called Win Win. The panel include myself (Charles Pratt), Simon Ferrari, and the artist himself. We cover topics such as the place for games in galleries, cheaters vs spoilsports, and the relationship between game designers, artists, and appropriation. Introducing the episode is Noah Sasso and Simon Ferrari.

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Bonus Episode 1 – Win Win

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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Another Castle is taking a couple of months off!

Noah and I sit down to thank all the people who have made the first season of Another Castle possible, including our incredible guests and Ariyoshi, the Japanese restaurant where (almost) all the episodes have been recorded. We also talk about our favorite episodes, why we started the podcast, and potential guests for the next season.

Thanks to everyone who’s been listening!

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Episode 20 – End of Season

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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Industry veteran and lead game designer on Uncharted and Uncharted 2, Richard Lemarchand, sat down with us to talk about his career and his thoughts on the art of making games. Recounting his rise through the game industry Lemarchand touches on a number of other topics, including storytelling and the challenges of designing a multi-player cart racer. We also talk about indie and art games and whether he would ever consider leaving AAA development to work on more personal projects.

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Episode 19 – A Conversation with Richard Lemarchand

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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Preface – Below is the text from a four minute talk I delivered at the Games for Change Festival in New York a few weeks ago. It was one in a series of talks organized by Colleen Macklin and Richard LeMarchand.

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So there were a lot of games, a lot of big games, released last year, some which I didn’t play and some of which I did, but what I played the most of, by far, is a little game called Shadow Complex.

When Shadow Complex was released it was compared mostly to Super Metroid, and this is a pretty fair comparison; they’re both side-scrolling action games with ‘lock and key’ style progression and large worlds to explore.

The thing is, the reason I played so much of Shadow Complex was not primarily for the ways it was mechanically similar to Metroid, which was the explanation for many people that praised the game. Instead I was drawn to one of the particular ways that the game could be played.

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Adam Saltsman, co-founder of Semi Secret, developer behind Canabalt, and creator of Flixel, sits down to talk about his career and his different projects. We talk about how and why he got into game development as well as his thoughts on game design and the long slow process of creating Flixel. We also spend a little time talking about the genius of Super Street Fighter IV.

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Episode 18 – A Conversation with Adam Saltsman

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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Sitting down with us this week is Naomi Clark, a game designer and producer and a veteran of the New York City development scene. We talk about he career as a game developer, including some stories about her former work at GameLab. We also discuss her opinions of Farmville and her idea of the ‘Fantasy of Labor‘ that she says is the reason for the game’s popularity. Finally she gives some brief advice for those thinking about working on game in New York.

Note: There were some audio problems with my mic that caused me to sound very quiet (which is perhaps for the best), but you can hear Naomi very clearly!

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Episode 17 – A Conversation with Naomi Clark

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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Train is a game that almost no one can say much about.

One of the few things you can say about Train is that it is a racing board game where players roll dice in order to load cargo onto their train and beat the other players down the track (or not). Players can also use cards to impede other players and quicken their own pace (or the other way around). However, that’s about as much as you can say about Train, because you’ll only be able to play it once or twice, if you’re lucky.

Train is a game that you aren’t allowed to look at too closely. The game’s creator has thus far refused to release the ruleset, meaning that no one can create a copy of the game themselves. As a result most people’s impression of Train is based on what they’ve read. Unfortunately, Train has only been exhibited at few places, often in public, so those who are writing about it haven’t gotten to spend any real time with the game. The trap is that the experience from a single session of play is probably more indicative of that individual instance than of the game in its entirety.

Perhaps it’s best to see Train not as a game, but as a move in a larger game played between the cultural forces of ‘fine art’ and ‘games’. Games have always been non-terminal acts of creation, and this is anathema to an art world that was born in the worship of sacred objects. In disavowing its promiscuous nature as a game Train is granted an ‘aura’ and entrance into the white cube.

Train is a successful piece of conceptual art. Whether or not it’s a successful game design no one can say, but that seems beside the point.

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This week our old friend, Kevin Cancienne, who’s the Director of Game Development at area/code, dropped by to talk about his career as a game developer in New York City. In the process we get the story behind their hit game Drop7, as well as advice for aspiring game designers who also know how to program. Finally, we talk about Kevin’s experiment with league level play in Valve’s Team Fortress 2.

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Episode 16 – A Conversation with Kevin Cancienne

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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McKenzie Wark, media theorist and all around brilliant guy, sits down with us this week to talk about his book Gamer Theory. Wark talks about what place games have in the contemporary condition, and how we can use them to understand and critique the world in which we’re living. We also get into a discussion of the 50s and 60s group the Situationist International, and the board game, Kriegspiel, that was designed by one of its key member, Guy Debord.

The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:

Another Castle Episode 15 – A Conversation with McKenzie Wark

The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.

We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.

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