Create

Last year’s game design challenge was to design a game that would win the Nobel Peace prize. This question was also posed on the WolverineSoft email list before GDC, which shows that a lot of people are interested in the question. It’s a tough question. It’s easy to make a game built around violence, just look at, well… pretty much every videogame out there, if we take the broadest sense of “violence”. It’s an exaggeration, I know; and I’ve spent a lot of time arguing against it elsewhere, but as an (over)generalization it holds up pretty well. In most games (sports, racing, simulation, and puzzle genres excluded), the solutions to your problems are to punch, kick, slash, shoot, stomp and/or explode everything in your way. But in how many games do you end your conflicts by talking, disarming, or negotiating? Few people would think of these actions as exciting, and building compelling game mechanics around them is even more difficult. Yes… life is hard for the pacifist gamers out there—luckily, most of us are able to tell the difference between fantasy fiction and reality.

(more…)

The game design challenge is always a rousing and inspiring session at GDC, and this year was no exception, but I was a little let down with the results. This year’s theme was to design a game based upon a needle-and-thread interface, and the contestants were Harvey Smith (Deus Ex), David Jaffe (God of War) and Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris). I’m not going to give in-depth descriptions of each game, since you can read it here (and I recommend that gyou do, if you were not sitting in on the panel) but instead, I’ll offer my analysis.

(more…)