Addictive Game

Mike over at Skudfisher has created this wonderfully addictive game Super Swap Blocks. Go check it out if you have plenty of time. :)

Hugo Awards - no games

I was looking at the shortlist for this year's Hugo Awards when it struck me that there is no category for games. Considering that so many games have a basis in science fiction and fantasy, this seems a little odd. Perhaps SF fandom needs to get into the modern world? :)

Sitcom - no luck this time

Just received an e-mail from Channel Five saying that my sitcom script wasn't suitable for them. Back to the drawing board...

SC1 proposal

I've just finished the proposal for my SC1 game. I also have a prototype demo to acompany it, so I now need to start the process of approaching the publishers. So, fingers crossed...

Mr. Smoozles progresses

I've actually surprised myself that I've been able to maintain a daily schedule with Mr. Smoozles on top of everything else I've been doing. I've just spent this morning doing the art for a couple of strips and writing another bunch of scripts. I have just finished writing the script for strip 50, so I'm currently about 20 ahead of today's strip.

Gamasutra article

Gamasutra has just published my Day in the Life article, for those interested in what my day consists of. They did, however, make out that I wrote BASS and all the Broken Sword games and of course I didn't, just the third Broken Sword game (along with In Cold Blood and Eld Dorado, of course). Sorry Dave, it's their fault, honest. :(

Making games for the PSP

Gamespot have an interesting piece on DIY PSP games. Now, if this allowed you to create commercial games I'll be in there like a shot. :)

Nico - concept work

I was just rooting through some old stuff when I came across the following concept art that I did for Nico, one of the main characters in Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon.

Decisions, decisions...

Over at Gamasutra, Tynan Sylvester has written an interesting article on Decision-based Gameplay Design. I like the principles of what he's talking about and they echo my ideas on Interaction Density.

There is, however, a tone that I found surprising and wondered if it happens a lot in this type of article. Perhaps I'm guilty of this myself and should look at my own pieces again in case this is so. What I'm talking about is a tendency to see things as exclusive. The following quote shows what I mean:

"The ace that gaming has up its sleeve is that it gives the player opportunities to make decisions and then observe the results of those choices in a consequence-free zone. This is why people play videogames instead of watching movies."

Now as far as I'm aware, people do not play games instead of watching movies. They may spend more time playing games than watching movies, but all the game players I know watch movies too. He also generalises and implies that all people play games instead of watching movies, which we know is not the case.

Also, strangely, the three examples he uses (Counter-Strike, Starcraft and Bejewelled) are not games that appeal to me, so although I appreciate what he's saying about decision-making, part of me now wants to find good examples in the games that I do enjoy.

Marketing

Ron Gilbert, over at his Grumpy Gamer site has written an interesting piece on marketing. It explains why certain games fail to do well in spite of the fact that they are so well put together.

Mr. Smoozles - any thoughts?

My new comic strip, Mr. Smoozles has been going for over three weeks now and I've managed to keep to a daily update schedule so far. I wrote scripts for a dozen episodes over the weekend, which will introduce another character, as well as taking it in a direction I didn't expect. Hopefully you'll all like the strips that will appear over the next couple of weeks.

Because I'm no longer posting the strips here on the blog, there's no opportunity for anyone to give feedback (should you want to). So I thought I would post an entry every so often which will allow just that. If any of you have any thoughts or comments on the strip, I'd very much appreciate your feedback.

Thanks in anticipation.

SC1 Feedback

I did some more work on SC1 last week during the evenings and over the weekend I let a couple of people take a look at what I'd done in the hope of getting some feedback. Thankfully, what they said was very positive and very constructive, so I'm feeling pretty encouraged. The next step is to fix a few minor things that were pointed out to me and finish off the proposal document. Then I can approach publishers with the hope of gaining some funding.

Sad news for the UK industry

Blue 52, the company behind the game Stolen, has had to close its doors due to not being able to cover its overheads.

Gamasutra has the full story, here.

It seems to back up the claim by ELSPA that the UK Games industry needs some serious backing from the government as mentioned in this Gamasutra piece, here.

It made me laugh #12

My partner, June, works in a customer service centre (helping the public with enquiries about local services and the like). The centre has been undergoing some renovation and because a wall was re-plastered, the clock that hung upon it was propped up on a table on the other side of the room. They were so busy today that no one was keeping an eye on the clock. Two young boys, thinking that it was a toy, took it apart.

:)

Dubious slogan

Am I the only one who thinks that in this promotional photo, an attractive female displaying a T-shirt with the slogan, "The First to be Touched", is a little on the dubious side? :)

Edit: As pointed out in the comments, you have to be registered at the site to see this picture, sorry.

Nico in The Sims

Someone here, has posted links to character packs for a version of Nico from Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon. Looks pretty cool.

Interaction Density article

GameDailyBiz has just published my article on Interaction Density in their My Turn section.

I hope that you'll take the time to read it and to post some feedback as I'm interested in learning what others think about this subject.

Another Code - preview

There's a preview for Another Code over at Adventure Gamers. I must admit that I share a lot of Marek's excitement over this title and can't wait for it to come out. However, one area that I think he's not though through, is the idea of point-and-click using the stylus.

Point-and-click on the PC is done through moving the mouse cursor around and then clicking with the mouse button when an object in the background highlights in some way. As Tony Warriner, over at Revolution, pointed out to me, you cannot do this with the stylus as you'd constantly have to sweep the stylus across the screen until you held it over something that was highlighted. Then, because you are already pressing on the screen with the stylus to do the "pointing", how would you "click"? There could be a way of doing it taking a different approach, but I'll save that for a different post...

Nintendo DS - initial thoughts

At last, the Nintendo DS has come out in the UK and I have one in my posession. :)

The feel of it is superb and the demo for Metroid Prime Hunters is an excellent example of how the touch-sensitive screen can be used to good effect. Using the thumb strap widget to move around is almost as good as a mouse and much better than using an analogue thumbstick. It would be great to see other FPS games appearing on the DS.

I bought Asphalt: Urban GT as part of the bundle pack because I really like to pick up a racing game for short periods just to have some fun. I'm glad I got the game as it fits perfectly into that category. It doesn't rival GT4 for looks, but the quality is excellent and very responsive.

One aspect that I really like is that there are two game slots available, which means that you can have a DS game and a GBA game in the machine at the same time and alternate between them for variety. It's a shame that you have to switch off to do so, but it's not like you have to wait an age for it to boot up.

Overall, it's an excellent piece of kit, with the only downside being its weight - I find that I'm resting it on my lap most of the time I'm playing. But I guess that you can't have everything.

Lastly - I'm so pleased that the games now come in plastic cases instead of the crappy cardboard boxes the GB and GBA games came in.

PC Zone - Hollywood Writers

I have no idea where my mind went on that one. A guy called Pavel Barter wrote the piece and as soon as I saw his name I remembered instantly.

Although it's a subject that could have done with a more in-depth approach, it's probably not in the style of the mag to do so. However, the piece was well put together and covered quite a lot of ground in just two pages. I also feel quite chuffed that I was given a full paragraph and a mug-shot amid all this talk of Hollywood writers. I'm pretty pleased that I was able to help represent the writers who've grown from within the industry.

In PC Zone

This one is a little strange. According to this thread over at the JA Forums, there's an article in the latest (UK) PC Zone which has me saying things about story telling in games. I say it's strange because I don't remember this. I remember doing something for a guy who was writing an article (he said) for Edge magazine, so unless he sold it to PC Zone instead, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone... :)

Dreamfall media

Gamespot has some video footage of some gameplay from Dreamfall. It looks really wonderful, plus it's good to see that Broken Sword 3 paved the way for this game's feel. Though it's clearly slicker and more advanced than BS3, the roots are striking. This looks like it's going to be an exciting game.

Mr. Smoozles 12

I have changed the format of the strip so it fits the web pages better. I also think it reads better in this format, too. Go the the Mr. Smoozles site to see the new format.

Mr. Smoozles 11

Because Mr. Smoozles now has his own pages, and partly because he was in danger of taking over the blog, there will be no further strips posted here on the blog. If you wish to read the strips on a regular basis, please visit the site.

For those of you who wish to jump straight to the beginning, you can do so here.

At the moment the strip is being updated every day, so be sure to check out the site regularly.

Copper

I have just discovered a wonderful comic strip called Copper by Kazu Kibuishi. It's one of the most charming strips I've ever seen, both beautifully written and drawn. I heartily recommend that you check it out immediately - I'm sure that you won't be disappointed.

Mr. Smoozles 10

Mr. Smoozles 9

What are you playing...?

Saturday bits and pieces

Saw much of my close family today (parents, sons, grandaughter) and took my mother some flowers and a card for Mother's Day tomorrow.

Bought Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind volume 2. The first volume was excellent and I'm really looking forward to continuing the series.

I've got the opportunity to write articles for a couple of good gaming websites, so I'll be doing those over the next few weekends. I've just spent the last hour blocking out the first of them and will refine and polish it tomorrow. I'm rather pleased with the way it's come together, so I hope it makes sense to those who read it.

I posted a little plug for Mr. Smoozles on the Comixpedia website and it's brought me lots of new hits to the strip's pages. So a big thanks to all those new visitors and I hope you make it as far as this blog.

Mr. Smoozles 8

I can't quite tell...

Mr Punch

For those of you with a love of the writing of Neil Gaiman, you can listen to the radio adaptation of Mr Punch, here. It was broadcast by the BBC last night and will be available to listen to for a month.

Mr.Smoozles 7

Down, tiger...

Mr. Smoozles steps up in the world

I have decided to give Mr. Smoozles his own pages. You can check out the pages here or here or even here.

Mr. Smoozles 6

One of the most memorable games...

Mr. Smoozles 5

It's Ed!

Demos

I've just been playing some demos for the XBox.

I hated Star Wars Republic Commando because there didn't seem to be anywhere to flip the Y-axis and I kept shooting the ceiling or the ground before getting killed. That lasted about a minute. :(

Unreal Championship 2 was great fun in spite of me losing. The levels are laid out very well and look amazing. I shall be playing more of this one.

Area 51 seemed very sluggish and it wasn't clear who the enemies were at times until they started firing on me. Didn't fill me with the need to play more.

Timesplitters: Future Perfect was pretty good, though the graphics were a little simplistic in places. However, this was more than made up for by the sight of the huge burning craft crashing in the background and the partially invisible creatures.

Constantine, as a game, was actually more fun than I was expecting, even if a little simplistic in it's setup. I hate that it's so different from the comic, though.

Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams looked like real fun, with wonderfully rich colours in the backgrounds, but I got frustrated at one point and maybe need to have another go to be fair to it.

XBox Fantasy

"Hironobu Sakaguchi has revealed a few details about the two RPGs that his development studio Mistwalker has signed on to produce for Xbox 2."

This piece on Eurogamer gives more details. This - or something like it - is what should have happened for the launch of the first XBox - there simply aren't enough quality story-based games for the console.

Mr. Smoozles 4

The voice of reason?