Voting

Only a few more days left to cast your vote if you haven't already done so.

Manifesto Games

Greg Costikyan, over on his blog, has announced the formation and launch of Manifesto Games.

This is an incredibly exciting development in PC gaming and is something that really appeals to my sensibilities. I'm sure that the venture will be a great success, but I'd like to wish him luck anyway - Good Luck Greg!

I'm more excited about this announcement than any of the talk of new consoles. This is game development that returns to its roots - designing and developing original games that game players will have fun playing.

Strangely enough, it parallels some of my own thinking over the last six months and Greg's excellent articles over at The Escapist, here and here (along with other pieces I've read) helped crystalise those thoughts. Though I'm not quite ready to say what this means for me, expect something to come along in the not too distant future.

Character Competition Voting

Don't forget, if you haven't already done so you only have one more week to get your vote in for the character competition. Voting is taking place on the Juniper Games forums, here, and you'll need to register in order to cast your vote.

I'm actually surprised that the voting isn't much closer as I really like all the characters equally. One of the reasons each of them were chosen was because they would work within The Sapphire Claw. In many ways I'll be sorry that four of them won't make it because I already have ideas of how each one would be used if it wins.

Mr. Smoozles Reaches 100

Today's strip is the 100th Mr. Smoozles strip created. I have some big plans for Mr. Smoozles, which you'll all find out about in due course.

Game Writers Conference

I've been asked to help promote the Game Writers Conference that's taking place in Austin, Texas on the 26th and 27th October. It's running in parallel to the Austin Game Conference and the Women's Game Conference (but don't ask me how you split yourself in three).

Not having awealthy company behind me to pay for the fee, flights and hotel, I'm afraid that I won't be going. But if there are other writers who don't happen to have heard of this and are interested, be sure to follow the link. If you can't afford it by being there, perhaps you can support it by spreading the word.

Development costs

Although I read this piece on Eurogamer with interest, I actually think that it's quite unclear what is meant by average development costs. For instance, taking only 13 XBox titles makes it very subjective and could be designed to make the other platforms appear better to develop for.

What's also not clear is whether those average figures are for titles developed exclusively for that platform or for titles that are spread over a number of platforms. If it's the latter, should we then assume that the average development cost of a game is 388 million Yen (or 2.87 million Euro)?

Bone, the game

I wanted so desperately to like this game and to say great things about it, but in all honesty I can't.

I downloaded it and played the demo. I had misgivings even then, but I bought the whole episode because I've been a long-time fan of the comic book series.

I finished it in two and a half hours!

But it's not just the length of play that disappoints me - it really doesn't do justice to the comic book. The richness of the story and characters is lost in a game that feels like it's aimed at five year-olds. And not in a good way where adults can really get something out of it, too.

Also, considering that the makers are all supposed to be ex-LucasArts employees, the game is really buggy and lacks the polish that you'd expect from a professional company. For instance, with all of the excellent 3D games that exist, could they not see that there were serious problems with the modelling of the characters and the 3D shading? Was I the only one who got dumped back to the desktop in the middle of a chase sequence, which resulted in my having to start the sequence again? 20 times!!

I know that Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) was heavily involved in the development of the game, but I've got to wonder if he's happy with the outcome. Sorry Tell Tale, I think you could have done so much better.

Chinese Development Magazine

I just received a copy of the first issue of the magazine China Electronic Entertaiment Developer (CEED), for which I'm writing a regular column. The first one is my article, "My Fingers are Blistered and Bleeding - Writing for Games" which originally appeared on GIGNews. It's spread over three full pages, which seems pretty impressive, though they've printed a large picture of me on the first page, which looks rather scary so big. :)

Been Interviewed Once More...

You can read it, if you like that sort of thing, over at Amped IGO.

Please ignore the fact that I'm referred to as "Scott" at the beginning of the piece. :)

Character Competition Voting

The voting in the character competition starts at midnight tonight (16th Sept).

Please go to this thread in the forum to refresh your memory of the entries and to cast your vote.

You have the chance to have your say and decide which character becomes a part of Juniper Crescent - The Sapphire Claw.

Downloading Games

I posted this on a number of forums, so I thought it only right that I should post it here, too. :)

After the heated debate on Adventure Gamers in the "New Business Model" thread (http://forums.adventuregamers.com/s...ead.php?t=10363) and some of the reactions to the cost versus playing time in the "Bone" thread (http://forums.adventuregamers.com/s...ead.php?t=10390) I'd like to pose some questions if I may.

I'm not comfortable with the idea of asking gaming fans to part with cash in advance of any development, so I'm trying to work out some way that will enable me to bring my game ideas to fruition. I would appreciate as many serious answers to the following as possible.

1. A number of people feel that the price of $20 for four hours of gameplay (Bone) is a little too much. What would you feel is an acceptable amount of gameplay for $20?

2. Now that online payment and downloadable content is here to stay, how happy are you to buy your games this way in future?

3. If an alternative format (CD, say) was offered for an additional charge, would you prefer this?

4. If you downloaded a game to play, how big would the download be before it put you off downloading it?

5. Does the size of the download depend on the style of the game in any way? A cartoon game over a "serious" game, for instance.

6. Have any of you downloaded and paid for games in other genres?

7. Have any of you downloaded any "casual" games?

8. Have you any other thoughts on downloading games?

Thanks for your time.

Character descriptions and artwork

I've posted the character descriptions and the artwork for each of the finalists. As specified in the rules, all the finalists' characters have been re-drawn by me to fit the style of the game and to create a more level playing field.

Voting will begin on Friday 16th September.

Character Competition Finalists Announced

The finalists in the character competition are as follows:

"Skid" by Jean-Louis Sirois
"Andy Warthog" by Corvus D. Elrod
"Marcus Roadkill" by Geraldo Ramos Falci Jr.
"Root Monkey" by Colin Panetta
"Lucille" by Stathis Riso

Many thanks to everyone who submitted entries. It was really difficult to narrow the field down and it's a real shame that we couldn't choose everyone.

The character outlines and artwork will be appearing on the website finalists page shortly, please check back later.

Voting will begin next week.

Long Live Games

Everyone is probably linking to Greg Costikyan's two part article Death to the Games Industry: Long Live Games, but in case anyone has missed it, you can find it here: Part One, Part Two.

While the first part concentrated on the state of the industry and the stifling of creativity, it was the second part which was far more interesting to me. The idea of an online retail and marketing company is excellent. Although not offering games for download, Her Interactive started selling their Nancy Drew games through Amazon and grew to the point where they were able to self-publish. However, if the online route is the best way to go, Her Interactive could come full circle.

Something that Greg didn't cover was that some gamers actually like to own the product in a box, but even this could be accommodated by offering a disc version at a greater price and an additional cost for shipping.

Perhaps the time has come for me to rethink my strategy...

The Return of Mr. Smoozles

Firstly, let me apologise for the temporary hiatus of the strip. The last couple of weeks have been very busy for me and I simply couldn't find the time to do the strips. Hopefully I'll be able to provide regular updates from now on.

I've just finished putting together the strips for this week, so the first of these will be appearing tomorrow (5th Sept). Thanks for your patience.

Games Market Europe - a disappointment

GME has been pretty awful. If it wasn't for the fact that I had a couple of interesting meetings the whole trip would have been a complete waste of time. I really don't know what the organisers were thinking of when they put this event together, but it really wasn't planned at all well.
It seems to me that they must have had a small event in mind from the beginning because the Business Design Centre is not the largest of places to hold an event of this nature. If they had gotten a good response and had lots of companies requesting stands, then I don't know what they would have done.
The bar area was the only place to hold meetings and this was a very public place for people to discuss business. Not really an ideal situation if you ask me.
GME has completely failed to put London back on the map as far as game events go and unless they can really shake things up for next year I'm afraid that I won't be attending. I shall endeavour to make the effort to visit the Leipzig GC and take Martin Ganteföhr up on his longstanding offer to buy me a beer. :)

My first meeting was a discussion that continued for about four hours and which could be very beneficial to all concerned if we can turn those ideas into concrete projects.
The second meeting involved a get-together with a number of other game writers. Because the whole writing process can feel very isolated at times, it's always good to take advantage of the chance to get together and bolster one-another, particularly when the writers involved are such a friendly group.

Because GME was so poor, I went around all the stands in less than an hour, even with a few conversations along the way. So, after a pub lunch I decided to visit the British Museum, some that, to my shame, I've never done before. So, again, I managed to find something to do that didn't make my time in London a complete waste.

The hotel is a bit basic, but I guess that's what comes of booking something cheap online. Everything is clean, but it all has a very worn look to it. There is also no en-suite bathroom or shower, so it's been a case of traipsing down the corridor to the bathroom. One thing I must give them credit for is the breakfast - it was excellent.