If you haven’t read Clive Thompsons article on Halo 3 in Wired, what are you waiting for? Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play

It’s an amazing article about designing games and play testing, and has a great quote on what it’s like to design a game compared to making a movie:

“The ideal in gameplay, the goal every developer aims for, is an experience that keeps players in a “flow” state — constantly surfing the edges of their abilities without bogging down. Modern videogames are often compared to Hollywood movies, but the comparison, many Bungie designers will tell you, is inaccurate. A movie is static. “You sit there and absorb it all in a single two-hour shot, and it’s perfectly linear,” says Frank O’Connor, one of the writers tasked with scripting the story line in Halo 3.

Creating a game, in contrast, is like a combination of architecture — constructing environments that influence the behavior of people inside them — and designing a new sport. Gamemakers have to devise a system of rules and equipment that gives players a few basic goals and then allows them to find their own ways of achieving those goals. The flow comes from constantly discovering innovative ways to solve these open-ended problems.”

Hopefully this marks my return to the blog.