What do you get when you put together a writer, artist, designer, academic, and activist all in one? Mary Flanagan and her work at Tiltfactor, the first academic center to focus on social activist games. We had the chance to nab up an interview with Mary all about her work and role in feminist game design. Because, yes, games can be feminist!
“Judgment day is at hand, and it’s time for a showdown with the guy downstairs to bargain for Bosco’s soul.” Just another day in the lives of Sam and Max, the popular characters debuting in a series of Telltale’s episodic games. We nabbed up Director of Design Dave Grossman for an insightful and fun interview about all the happenings over at Telltale. I mean, who wouldn’t be having fun with chumps like Strongbad to hang out with?
How would you like to travel the world for inspiration and research to create the art direction of a cross-console Next Gen game? That’s just the kind of experience former UbiSoft Art Director Raphael Lacoste had exposure to while working on the beautiful Assassin’s Creed. Although he’s since decided to move into films, he reflects here at Notes on Game Dev on his final game work.
The depth behind the main character Kratos from the God of War series is immense. One story of many tells of how Kratos’ skin is gray because he is covered in the ashes of his family. Although this has not explicitly appeared in game content thus far, the layers of stories add to a rich background that fans gather together. And who is responsible for this level of detail? Game writer Marianne Krawczyk, who took the time to talk about her experience working on the God of War games, which are undoubtedly continuing with the currently in-development God of War 3.
So what’s it like writing for Massively Multiplayer Games? Definitely intense in research and writing. Tracy Seamster, once a quest designer for Sony Online Entertainment’s EverQuest II, has now moved on as a writer for The Agency, a merge between FPS and MMO with a modern setting. After years of medieval writing, she’s now transitioning to modern dialog and quest storylines as the game develops for PlayStation 3.
Today at the Masters of Digital Media program at Great Northern Way Campus, Will Wright (does he even need an introduction? okay, the guy behind SimCity, The Sims, and Spore) visited the students for lunch and a preliminary discussion before his evening talk as part of the Krazy! Exhibition through the Vancouver Art Gallery. In his ever-friendly manner, he invited the group to ask questions from the get go, and had helpful advice and insights for people interested in game design.
About a month ago, Notes on Game Dev started up a conversation mostly added to by members of the International Game Developers Association Women in Game Development group. The initial discussion inspired a series of interviews with women in the game industry.
First up is moboid game designer Heather Kelley for her involvement in everything from AAA next-gen console games, interactive smart toys, handheld games, to web communities for girls. Most recently, she was the Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and Adjunct Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center, both at Carnegie Mellon University. And by the way, on the side, she co-chairs for the IGDA Women group, whew!
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, developed by Naughty Dog, has an artistic style that I haven’t seen before. I know I’ve harped on it before, but there’s nothing like watching your character get his jeans wet in the water and it actually changes the appearance until he dries off over time. It’s real! Reeeeeal! Christian Gyrling, Animation Engineer, talked a bit about Naughty Dog’s approach to making believable characters at the recent Vancouver International Game Summit.
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I have to admit, what’s going on over at BioWare in terms of animation excites me the most right now, but that’s because I’m a game writer. With their tools for the conversation system, writers too can take part in the aesthetic elements of the game through camera angles and manual control of movements to create performances. Brad Kinely, Lead Animator on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, provided insights into BioWare’s process of development at the Vancouver International Game Summit this week.
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I was over at the Vancouver International Game Summit in lovely Vancouver, British Columbia (it was finally sunny for the first time this week for the whole of Vidfest and the Summit) checking out the Animation panel. Several perspectives were offered on creating successful believable characters, so I’ve broken them down into bite-sized pieces.
First up, Atomas Goldberg, Electronic Arts’ Director of Animation Technologies, gave a run down of the EA Animation Toolkit (ANT). Goldberg feels that the real challenge to create lifelike believable characters that are both visually engaging and highly responsive to player input is more about philosophical approaches than the tools themselves.
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