New Mr. Smoozles strip

I just posted the latest Mr. Smoozles strip.

It looks like the picture is clearing after the reality change.

Story to Nowhere reaches 50!

I've just posted the latest Story to Nowhere episode. This is the 50th episode and it seems that I've reached this minor milestone very quickly. Although the 50th episode coincides with a very powerful moment, I didn't design it this way as I'm not thinking ahead as I create it, taking each one as it comes. This has thrown up a few small surprises for me along the way, but this is how I want Mike's story to develop. Hopefully it will be more true to life this way.

If you want to start reading from the beginning, the first episode can be found here.

Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso - Special Holiday Price!

To celebrate the forthcoming holiday season, Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso is now on special offer at the new holiday price:

3.99 USD, 3.49 Euro, 2.99 GBP

New Keyboard

Today I bought a new PC keyboard. Looking around I found that the one which looked to best suit my needs was one of the cheapest in PC World.

When I bought the new keyboard I wondered if it was a good idea getting a cheap one, but it actually feels so much better than my old one. Well, I say old, but I only got it earlier this year but never really liked it from the start. The beauty of this one is that it feels more like the older style keyboards with greater movement on the keys, which is something I like, having learned to type on a manual typewriter with big key movement. It’s also not one of these compact layouts where all the keys are squashed together or the backslash key has been moved to a new location.

Suddenly, my typing fingers are happier again. I just hope it lasts long enough.

Not a Good Start

I like to read a lot and it's not unusual for me to have two or three books on the go at the same time as well as magazines. It's important to read a broad range of books, particularly outside of the game development arena, but it's also imprtant to keep abreast of what other writers and developers are doing within the industry.

With this in mind, I've just started reading "The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design" by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten. It's a book I've been meaning to read for a little while. I was a little surprised that I was still in the Introduction when I found something I disagreed with strongly.

Under a section entitled, "Our Eleven Video Game Survival Commandments", the first of these is "We're In the Entertainment Business, Not the Game Business."

How can you write and design games and not be in the Game Business? Why does being in the Entertainment Business preclude you from being in the Game Business? Games are, after all, a form of entertainment. What's wrong with saying, "We're in the Entertainment Business AND the Game Business"?

If you don't approach writing for games with the game uppermost in your mind you run the risk of writing at odds with it and not having the story, characters and gameplay fit into a cohesive whole. It's very easy to run away with the story and characters and have the developer tell you that you have to pull back because the engine won't deliver what's been asked for. Most importantly, every game is different and what gives it that difference will affect the way the story can be told.

Although it's not the best of starts to a book, I'm hoping that the rest of it will prove to be better.