Wednesday, June 29, 2005

More DiGRA 2005

More on DiGRA 05:

Jesper Juul's new post

DiGRA featured at Gamasutra

There must be more out there, and I still haven't found the time to read even the previosly posted here before.

Monday, June 27, 2005

GameTap

Gamasutra has an interview with Blake Lwin on the GameTap, Turner's gaming network. Could this be the alternative distribution channel independent developer have been asking for?

Friday, June 24, 2005

Games as Toys

Complex Games has a post entitled Playing Games are playing Toys.

"Life Sims are often a Sandbox an open play system, where the object or ‘toy ‘is the game. Let’s say Sims is the toy but you create games through playing the ‘toy,’ you create goals through playing the game. There are clear goals in Sims you need to for fill your needs."

I tend to agree with that. As I posted here before, " maybe the biggest challenge in nongames design is giving the player the opportunity (and incentive) to create their own goals and see the original 'implicit goals' as the means to achieve them".

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Ludology vs. Narratology at Digra05

Apparently, Digra05 was the stage for (another) discussion on ludology and narratology. Some places to read about it:

Grand Text Auto (DiGRA05 in Pictures).

The Ludologist (N&L: I Can’t Take it Anymore!)

Greg Costikyan's blog ("No Justice, No Peace": No Truce in the Narratology/Ludology War).

Janet Murray's keynote (The Future of Electronic Games).

It will be hard to find the time to read all this...

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Book: Using the Director MX

Using Macromedia Director MX is probably the best book on Director ever written. It is one of those reference books that is so complete that makes you think the author was thinking about your own project while writting it. Gary Rosenzweig is one of the most prolific director developers, and this book is probably his best.

Buy it from Amazon.com
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

Friday, June 17, 2005

Digital arts and non-games

I have already posted on the book Digital Art. It summarizes key works and theoretical aspects of works of digital art (including photography, sculpture, web-art, etc).

There is a section on videogames and gaming (as source of inspiration and material suport). The connection between games and digital art is obvious and really strong. The overall impression is that videogames are not more broadly recognised as an art form exactly for being so successfull as an industry.

Electroplankton, by Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, is probably the best example of a videogame that could be easily placed on an exhibition (along with some Llamasoft works). Most interactive digital art works could be called non-games. coincidentally, my project share similarities to some of the works presented in the book.

Coincidences like that have two sides: in a pessimistic way, that makes me think that the project is not so original and unique as I hoped it to be. But, looking on the bright side, that also shows me that other practitioners trailed similar paths - so there must be at least something interesting about it.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Games and Movies

(via Ludology). From the British Film Institute:

"Presented by the NFT and RES, NTI* will place this amazing form at the heart of the creative life of the country. A unique and dynamic weekend of events, talks and activities includes exclusive previews of forthcoming titles, live cinematic-sized gameplay, machinima screenings, discussions with industry leaders, and a 'video arcade' with both 'retro' and contemporary arcade machines and home platforms. NTI* is accessible to anyone interested in seeing where these two forms are going. Think, talk and - most importantly - play."


The event will take place at the British Film Institute, 9-10/07/2005.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Book: Digital Art

From the Amazon.co.uk synopsis:

"Christiane Paul surveys the developments in digital art from its appearance in the early 1990s right up to the present day, and looks ahead to what the future may hold. Drawing a distinction between work that uses digital technology as a tool to produce traditional forms and work that uses it as a medium to create new types of art, she discusses all the key artists and works."

Digital art, relying on the spectator's interaction with the works of art, resemble non-games in several ways (not coincideltly, Toshio Iwai, creator of Elektroplankton, has one of his works cited).

Buy it from Amazon.com
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

Monday, June 06, 2005

Miyamoto interviewed by IGN

Our goal with Revolution is to appeal to all gamers -- the casual gamer and the hardcore gamer. On top of that, we really want to get non-gamers involved as well. So it's a console that we want people to feel comfortable with and happy that they have in their home.

Read the interview here.
Copyright, Chico Queiroz