Thursday, March 5, 2009

Summer

As weeks go, it’s been a good one. We haven’t got much done the last few days on game designs, but sales through the web site and through distribution have been brisk. Considering the state of the economy, we feel very fortunate. Thank you to everyone who has purchased our games!

Fortunate.

For those who don’t know, I’m a huge Terminator fan. Yeah, I know T2 had a mega budget and amazing stunts, but I prefer the original. Watch it again sometime. The script is amazing. Virtually every line of dialog is crafted to convey some vital bit of information about the world or characters. When I design a game, I strive for this same level of excellence. Nothing is wasted. I’m also a big fan of the TV show. Josh Friedman has done a great job of making an episodic story out of one-off movie storylines. Of course, having Summer Glau looking beautiful as she walks around blasting stuff doesn’t hurt either.

Nothing is wasted.

I had a chance to meet up with John Wick at a recent Los Angeles game convention. John and I worked together at AEG on the 7th Sea CCG about 10 years ago. John is a gifted storyteller. Had he been born a few hundred years ago, he’d have been the king’s bard, telling tales of heroic battles, tragic romances, and vengeance carried out most cunning.

Telling tales.

So you might be wondering if there’s a point to all this. I’ve wanted to be a game designer for decades, and now it looks like it’s coming together as a way of making a living. I view games as a means of telling a story where the players get to control the tale.

Fortunate. Nothing is wasted. Telling Tales.

4 comments:

  1. Good suggestion. I haven't seen the first Terminator in a long long time. I think I'll rent it this weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excellent!

    One scene that really impressed me is Kyle and Sarah are in a car trying to escape the terminator. As the action unfolds, Kyle explains about skynet, the war, and terminators.

    In a minute, he explains everything we need to know, all while driving at high speed.

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  3. Hmm... a weird thing. The first time I tried to post a comment, it asked me to verify some letters - but didn't display any letters. So I typed in some random letters.

    It gave a failure message.

    I tried submiting the comment a second time, and it displayed the verification letters. I typed them in, and it worked fine.

    I'll address this in the next entry.

    ReplyDelete