Games, movies, basketball, books (and occasionally the dog). Welcome to my life
What I’m about to tell you isn’t about games or game development. Not directly, anyway. Let me cut to the chase: I’m bipolar – Bipolar Disorder 2, not the more seriously life-affecting Bipolar 1. You might be more familiar with the term “Manic-Depression,” a term which, for reasons I don’t understand, isn’t used much, if […]
To my amazement, September 2023 marked my 40th year in game development. I’m not sure how I’ve survived so long in a business that more typically burns people out in… somewhat less, let’s just say. That said, I have some thoughts about survival and an urge to tell the story of how I today find […]
I posted a thing earlier today about statements – the last success criterion I wanted to talk about. I thought about waiting to post the conclusions that follow. There’s every possibility you may suffer from Warren-fatigue. Then I thought, “What the heck.” I had this written already and there are other topics I want to […]
Last time, I talked about the fourth of my success criteria – walking in someone else’s shoes. (And before anyone starts giving me a hard time, recall that that’s the one I feel I’ve fallen farthest short of so I’m way more down on myself about it than any of you could be!) Anyway, it’s […]
I uploaded a version of this post a while back (like a looong while back) but recently I’ve been thinking about it in a new way – not as a standalone thing but as part of an overview of my success criteria – part of a SERIES about those criteria. So, with apologies to those […]
Last time I posted something here, I talked about the first thing I think about when the word “success” comes to mind – empowering players to tell their own stories and create their own unique experiences through play. “Every player a story-teller” basically sums up the Immersive Simulation genre – and “Player Powered” – for […]
A couple of weeks ago, I listed my success criteria, particularly as they relate to “player powered” games—aka “Immersive Simulations”—like the ones OtherSide Entertainment was created to make. This week, I want to talk about the first, and maybe (maybe…) most important of those criteria—Player Empowerment. My journey to Immersive Sims began in 1978, on […]
People ask me all the time why I make games or, more precisely, why I make the games I do. That’s summed up in the motto and mission of OtherSide Entertainment – “Player Powered.” Paul Neurath of Looking Glass fame founded the studio with that game style in mind. In other words, he wanted to […]
August 25, 2015. David Brooks posts a column called “The Big Decisions” on The New York Times website. It’s an interesting column, to say the least, and surprisingly relevant to game design. Go read it and then come on back here. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/david-brooks-the-big-decisions.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0 Back? Good. If you were too lazy or busy or just didn’t feel […]
Back before my last studio, Junction Point, was acquired by Disney, I had a grand plan – a mission, really, that I wanted to explore. (I’m going to talk more about mission in a future blog post, but just go with me here.) My mission had two parts: First, I wanted to take inspiration from […]