gamegirladvance

Space Invaders Cutting Board

Pretty nice!

The Uncluttered Workspace

This is interesting and inspiring -- people posting photos of their workspaces in a flickr group: unclutter.

I am torn between going completely bare and clean in my home office and keeping around bits of color and shape that I find inspiring. Right now my office is also the disorganized storage space where borrowed items, surplus goods, and outdated game technologies live. My nature is to keep things, I am not sure why. But I get a little pleasure out of knowing that I can still dig out my N64 and fire it up to play GoldenEye or Mario Kart 64 or Ocarina of Time. I have a PS1 too, which is almost utterly useless except if I want to play old-school Final Fantasy Tactics again....

But I do like having some color and interest in my office. The textile designer Etsuko Fuyura had some beautiful animal/floral designs that I thought would make a fantastic cover for the wall behind my desk, just under my shelf. But I can't seem to commit to just one.

In any case I do need some suggestions for how to better organize my power cords and all my computery accessories. Right now they get shoved into a drawer and when I need them I spend a few minutes pulling out cords and puzzling over them. What's the solution? Labels?

Guitar Hero III Groupies

Ok, that's it. I wasn't psyched about the direction GH3 was going in, but the new web portal they're working on has achievements in the form of collectible groupies. That is so lame.

Activision, this is 2007, we don't have groupies anymore, we just have fans - but you're rapidly losing yours, so I can see why you'd misunderstand. Get your ass out of 1978 and come join us in modernity when you're ready.

Kokoromi's FEZ

It's so close! Pals at game art collective Kokoromi have released a terrific trailer for their game, Fez. Looks so cool, and cute to boot. Congratulations!

One of the creators explains the technology behind the game, which they call trixels. OMG. Even the tech names are cute.

P.S. Perhaps it is also oddly fitting, then, that Kokoromi.com resolves to a website focused on showcasing the cuteness of two adorable French bulldogs.

Tree Story

I came across a design doc for a game, Tree Story, inspired by My Neighbor Totoro. That's one of my favorite films, and the idea behind this game is really quite charming!

I wish I could create graphics like that - it helps so much in creating design docs. Being able to visualize what the game will look like is an invaluable aid in "seeing" how the gameplay will work. Concepts that are clumsy to explain on paper - especially since we still lack a unified lexicon to describe gameplay elements! - are elegantly expressed in a sketch or drawing.

I've been knocking around a game design idea in my head, that I've been talking over with my friend Matt. I should break out my watercolors and get sketching!

Less Grind, More Story

It's because my Night Elf Thistletoes has stalled in the mid-40s in Stranglethorn Vale that I can heartily agree with Richard Garriot, who commented in his keynote at the Develop Conference, "The obsession with damage inflicted over time as the mechanic behind combat reduces games to data management... The fact that people use the nomenclature 'grinding' to describe what they do in online games is a bad sign. Missions have been reduced to taking the next pellet from the slot machine."

And you know, reports are that Tabula Rasa is not looking that bad. And it sounds like - with the targeting system and the reduced HUD - that they are going for a more mainstream, less MO-focused audience. More actiony, perhaps, than usual for an MMO.

I also like that it's NOT MEDIEVAL FANTASY. Seriously. I am, yes, a dork, but I've spent too many hours messing about with trolls and elves now and at this point I'm ready to leave them behind. So the former Lord British's transformation to General British (will he turn his castle into a giant alien ship?) suits me just fine.