Feedback Loop: Many choices, or none, make a game.

Is just one choice all it takes to turn a novel into a video game? Before you say yes, consider when a game is created out of many choices and when we are left with none.

Richard Eisenbeis looks at Katawa Shoujo in an April 24 Kotaku article. Eisenbeis holds up the dating sim/visual novel as proof that one choice is all it takes to turn a novel into a game. It is a shallow analysis and the implication that one can stick a choice in a novel and have a game is just false.

If we step away from the screen with only Eisenbeis’s assertion, we lose out on understanding what developers have to do to take a story and turn it interactive.

Creating a good game means understanding the times when a million choices create an interactive work and the instances where no choices are required.

Feedback Loop: Getting beyond marriage

Cara Ellison is fed up with games that remind her of how single she is. And in a brilliant personal essay over at Unwinnable she uses the interactive novel, Don’t Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain’t Your Story, to

Do we need Metacritic?

No. No we don’t. It’s more complicated that that, of course. Before today, Metacritic was a good concept gone insane, a website for vengeful gamers to post zero out of ten reviews on games they haven’t played as much as

Opening the IGF's doors

In an alternate world, I have the power to fix the IGF. Why this alternate universe exists instead of a fun one where we can all fly I cannot tell you. I don’t, of course, and I don’t even think

My tinfoil hat and I can prove it: The end is NIGH

  House Bill 85 was struck down in the Wyoming State legislature by a vote of 30-27. It was nicknamed the Doomsday Bill, and for good reason. The bill called for a community task force to be assembled in the

The Rise of Stoic And The Independent Studio

Innovation is considered a risky commodity amongst most of the larger developers. It’s a much safer bet to stick with ideas that have already proven to be profitable. It’s understandable; titling a game with something gamers are familiar with virtually

Devil Survivor 2 is a commodity

The original Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor for the Nintendo DS was one of my favorite games ever. Its cousin, SMT: Persona 3, sits beside it on any “Favorite Game Ever” list I’ll never be commissioned to make. Both of

Rabid Speculation: Genetics in Pokemon Black and White 2?

We’ve got another one of those entries in a popular franchise whose announcement can be solely, “It exists, get hype!” and get away with it. At least with this one we have some images of combined Pokemon to go with our speculation apetizer. Are these direct sequels? The full titles for both games are Pokemon Black Version 2 and Pokemon White Version 2, so these could very well just be expanded variations on the games. Naturally our most interesting speculation comes from the only content we’ve now seen of the games; the images of Zekrom and Reshiram that appear to have fused with the disaster-causing Kyurem.

Let the speculation begin!

Run, Jump, Scavenge: The Next Generation of Apps

  Good news everyone! I have seen the future of app games and it is good. Today I bring you, Zombies, RUN! and SCVNGR. They may not be video games in the strictest sense, but they are an interactive medium.

Why some game developers shouldn't like games

Why can’t we gamers accept that someone who doesn’t love games with the fervent passion we do can make them? I’m proud to say one of my favorite games of all time—Katamari Damacy—comes from the mind of someone who doesn’t