Something new...

... at least, something not connected to So Blonde. :)


I've been experimenting a little with a new style. Not fully sure, yet, how it will actually work in game and which game I'm going to use it on, but I think it would be fun to do.

Congratulations Rhianna!

Unfortunately, I didn't win the Writers' Guild Award. However, a big congratulations to Rhianna Pratchett who wond the award for her script for Overlord. And many thanks for the very kind words in your acceptance speech, Rhianna.

Well done, too, to Andy Walsh who fought our corner when there was the inference that game writing wasn't "proper" writing. Thanks, too, to Tom Jubert, a fellow nominee, who I met for the first time and it was good to do so. I think we can say that the rest of us came joint second place.

The ceremony was a lot more prestigious than I was expecting and BAFTA was filled with lots of great actors, writers and other TV and film people. Amongst the many there were Lesley Phillips, Rita Tushingham, Prunella Scales, Timothy West, Edward Fox, James Corden (who, with Ruth Jones, won best TV comedy award), Rick Wakeman, David Nobbs, Alan Plater, Andy Hamilton, David Croft and Jimmy Perry.

One of the high points, though, was when I met and chatted with Andy Serkis, the guy who did the acting behind the CGI of Gollum and Kong. It was a pleasure to meet such a genuinely friendly guy.

But as Jeremy Hardy (the host) said, I'll have to try harder next year. "How hard can it be?" he asked. "It's only writing, for heavens' sake. It's not like you're trying to cure cancer." :)

Edit: There's a news piece here, along with a picture of the winner.

Writers' Guild Awards

Tomorrow night is the awards ceremony for the Writers' Guild Awards. For those of you who'd like to see me win the Best Game Script category for my work on So Blonde, please wish me luck, keep your fingers crossed and sacrifice a goat in the hope that it will influence the outcome in some way.

And while you're doing so, see what you can do about keeping the snowy weather at bay, too.

:)

Creativity in games 2

Either I've not been paying attention or there's a lot more creativity coming out of the gaming woodwork at the moment than there ever has been. I just saw an article on Eurogamer about the forthcoming game, Love.

This looks like a truly creative and exciting project and something I find intriguing, particularly as, with a name like Love, I never would have expected it to contain combat. I also like the way that he's specifically looking back to older games for the combat style. The first Quake game works much better for me than the recent ones which are becoming too realistic. But then, one of my all time favourite first person shooters was Heretic (the one that used the Doom engine). Blimey, I wonder if I still have a copy of that somewhere...

I also saw the trailer for Love, which looks fabulous. Certainly a game to keep a watch over.

So Blonde Review - 4 stars

The gaming site, Adventure Gamers, has just published their review of So Blonde in which they awarded it 4 stars (out of 5, in case you were wondering).

"Top-notch writing; compelling story with some meaningful undertones; well-rounded, likeable characters; spectacular graphics; excellent voice acting; rich environments to explore."

Thank you Andrea for a great review.

Creativity in games

Yesterday evening I was over at Hull University giving a talk to the local section of the British Computer Society entitled, Games - the Creative and the Technical. Basically, I looked at how the technology of tools and modern game engines allows developers to unleash their creativity.

One of the great things about the games industry is that we have such a wide variety of excellent games to match all kinds of tastes, from Hotel Dusk on the DS to Bioshock to Peggle to the wondefully artistice delight of Braid released recently on XBox Live Arcade.

But what I think epitomises the whole notion of creativity in games is something I discovered this morning (and now wish I'd seen yesterday to include it in the talk). Crayon Physics Deluxe is a delight, judging by the short video on the website. What a great idea and so brilliantly executed.

The art style perfectly matches what it is meant to represent and complements the game's design wonderfully well. I can't wait to try it out for myself.

Blimey, Another Interview

Those awfully nice people over at Adventure Gamers have been kind enough to publish another interview with me on the subject of the game, So Blonde. This time they also took the opportunity to include Jerome Britneff-Bondy from the fabulous Wizarbox team and the resultant piece feels quite substantial. Do be a good sport and check it out, will you?

New Interview, New Site Design

I've just done a new interview with the GameBoomers site, which has just been posted.

Also, I've been re-designing the Juniper Games website and have posted up the new pages this afternoon. I felt that the previous design was a little too busy and wanted something that was simpler but that still had a colourful feel.

So Blonde Review - 8/10

Team Teabag is a blog I've not seen before, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that they'd reviewed So Blonde and given it 8/10. So a big thanks to Tigervamp, the author of the piece.

"it’s nice to see that there are some people out there who still care a great deal about the genre."