Digital Games

300 Game Mechanics

In the spirit of The 400 Project (which is a growing listing of 400 game design patterns), Sean Howard has started a site that will list 300 mechanics: Every day for three hundred days, I will post a gameplay mechanic that has (hopefully) never been seen in a commercial video game. Three hundred mechanics. No more. … Read more300 Game Mechanics

Cinema Games: MSNBC's NewsBreaker

newsbreaker

Theatre-goers have been having fun playing ‘crowd gaming’ at the cinema, courtesy of MSNBC.com. The official press release explains:

Msnbc.com liberates movie audiences from the out-of-date trivia, static billboards and the impatience of waiting for the summer blockbusters to begin with NewsBreaker Live, the first in-theater, audience participatory video game. Modeled after classic video games, NewsBreaker Live combines live msnbc.com RSS newsfeeds, the movement of the audience as a human joystick, and the big screen as a game board to bust audiences out of their pre-movie doldrums with an interactive game that delivers real-time news headlines to kick start the moviegoing experience.

Here is a video of the game in action:

Read moreCinema Games: MSNBC's NewsBreaker

Some new blogs

Here are some new sites or sites that now have blogs that readers of this site may find interesting: Ian Bogost’s blog Well known serious game designer at Persuasive Games, co-editor of serious game site Water Cooler Games and ludologist Ian Bogost has started his own personal blog. Indeed, it is part of a full-blown personal site aggregating his … Read moreSome new blogs

Creating TV & Serious Games for Xbox

 The New York Television Festival and Xbox are running an “Xbox LIVE Originals Contest”: The “Xbox LIVE Originals” contest will invite a wide range of artists and Xbox users to create a 5 to 15-minute pilot episode introducing an original television series.  The pilots may be live-action, animated or both.  All entries must be submitted before … Read moreCreating TV & Serious Games for Xbox

Filmmakers that Think Outside the Film

Lance Weiler — an acclaimed director films such as Head Trauma (that I posted about here) and The Last Broadcast — asked me to write an article about films and cross-media for the Workbook Project (a free resource for content creators). Of course I agreed to! So, I wrote a long article about the some of nifty things … Read moreFilmmakers that Think Outside the Film

OK, now for some light relief…this is sooooo cute

Sony announced at GDC earlier this year this wonderful game that is being developed by Media Molecule for Playstation 3: LittleBigPlanet. [youtube Taiurn541SE] It is described on the Media Molecule site as follows: The LittleBigPlanet experience starts with players learning about their character’s powers to interact physically with the environment. There are obstacles to explore, bits … Read moreOK, now for some light relief…this is sooooo cute

Clash of the literacies: Making a "ludocinematic future"

Recently, a top Hollywood special effects company — Digital Domain — announced that they will be investing 25 million into making “creating a video game that matches the quality of a feature film”. Well, as you can imagine, the gaming community found this claim pretty insulting. Well respected game designer Clint Hocking rants at his … Read moreClash of the literacies: Making a "ludocinematic future"

My Talk on ARGs @ Game_On next week

The Brisband chapter of the IGDA have invited me to give a talk and workshop next week in Queensland: GAME_ON: talk and workshop- tues 5 june, 5-7pm @ KGUV Community Hub, Carraway St, Kelvin Grove ‘Alternate Reality Games: Multi-Platform & Multi-World Design’ In this talk Christy Dena will provide an overview of the pervasive gaming … Read moreMy Talk on ARGs @ Game_On next week

SXSW Alternate Reality Games transcript online

Dan Hon, COO of Mind Candy has put the transcript of the 2007 SXSW conference panel: ARG! The Attack of the Alternate Reality Games transcript online. It is a fantastic talk that addresses alot of questions people have about ARGs and marketing and emerging trends. I’ve cherrypicked some quotes that stand out for me.

Read moreSXSW Alternate Reality Games transcript online