 |
|
|
|
|
|
Avid game design theorist; experienced programmer and software project manager; first (noncommercial) game developed was a real-time multiplayer space combat sim for IBM mainframes in 1985. Currently working as Community Manager for Storybricks (Namaste Entertainment): http://www.storybricks.com/ .
Gaming-related interests include "deep" gameplay, Explorer/Simulationist gameplay, psychology of gamers, player-centered design, massively multiplayer game design, and industry trends.
Personal game design blog at: http://flatfingers-theory.blogspot.com/
|
Member Blogs
FUS ROH DAH! The Unrelenting Force of Content Coherence  |
| Posted by Bart Stewart on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:41:00 EST in
Design
|
| In which we consider how the careful selection of gameplay elements can burn a game into our hearts and minds. |
| Read More... | 9 Comments |
|
In Defense of Surprising Gameplay |
| Posted by Bart Stewart on Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:13:00 EDT in
Design
|
| Game developers often try to find and remove all unexpected interactions in the belief that anything not intended is likely to be a bug. But this may be unnecessarily preventing the development of games in which surprise is a necessary feature. |
| Read More... | 15 Comments |
|
Play Style DOES Matter |
| Posted by Bart Stewart on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:51:00 EDT in
Design
|
| Since Warren Spector demonstrated Epic Mickey at E3 2010, there's been a microburst of gaming media coverage of his design philosophy that "play style matters." It's about time. |
| Read More... | 3 Comments |
|
Blizzard's Core Game Design Concepts: A Contrary View |
| Posted by Bart Stewart on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:41:00 EST in
Design
|
| At GDC 2010, Blizzard EVP of Game Design Rob Pardo described a number of design concepts behind Blizzard's games. While these are obviously successful for Blizzard's games, they can be seen as working only for simple action games. There are other kinds. |
| Read More... | 16 Comments |
|
Reactions to the Schell Presentation: A Playstyle-Based Analysis |
| Posted by Bart Stewart on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:11:00 EST in
Design
|
| The online reaction to Jesse Schell's DICE 2010 presentation can be understood as a reaction to computer gaming becoming a mass entertainment form. Where early gamers enjoyed intangible immersion, today's typical gamer now expects tangible rewards. |
| Read More... | 0 Comments |
|
Enabling Deeper Relationships Through Multifaction |
| Posted by Bart Stewart on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:46:00 EST in
Design
|
| The MMORPG concept of "faction" allows small choices to accumulate into big consequences. Extending this concept to allow NPC groups to have faction with each other creates even more dynamic social environments in gameworlds. |
| Read More... | 2 Comments |
[More Bart Stewart Blogs]
Bart Stewart's Comments
|
Comment In: The Arbitrary or Authored Loss of Control against Perfect & Natural Avatars [Blog - 06/03/2013 - 11:50]
|
To give this classification system ... To give this classification system fair consideration, let 's consider some edge cases. r n r n1. When I-the-player perform the action like clicking a button that is bound to Alex 's kick action, Alex kicks forward, which interacts with the gameworld in a set of ways defined by the ... |
|
Comment In: BazaarBot: An Open-Source Economics Engine [Blog - 06/03/2013 - 09:15]
|
Enginization of systems is always ... Enginization of systems is always worth doing. Some thoughts in no special order: r n r n1. Happily, Ian Parberry is alive and well and helping Nerd Kingdom on its recently Kickstartered TUG game. r n r n2. An obvious application of an economic engine is in MMORPGs. The thing ... |
|
Comment In: Today's game industry through the lens of human history [News - 05/31/2013 - 05:11]
|
I also liked this piece ... I also liked this piece a lot. It can be fun and instructive to bang two explanatory systems into each other and look for analogies. r n r nWhat books like GGS try to get at are, I think, actually two questions: r n r n1. How do groups make ... |
|
Comment In: Gamasutra got a facelift [Blog - 05/30/2013 - 01:43]
|
It 's good to try ... It 's good to try new things, freshen up a bit, and start providing device-aware formatting. r n r nOn the other hand... while I 'm good with the general reformatting, the iDevice front-page layouts are super-frustrating since you implemented them a couple of weeks ago. r n r nSpecifically: ... |
|
Comment In: Nailing down storytelling terminology [Blog - 05/28/2013 - 08:13]
|
A very nice round-up. r ... A very nice round-up. r n r nSomething I 've found useful is distinguishing plot from story in this way: plot is about what happens story is about why it happens and why it matters. r n r nGene Wolfe is said to have put it something like this: Plot ... |
|
Comment In: Tenets of Videodreams, Part 1: Exploration [Blog - 05/23/2013 - 05:52]
|
Doing more to remember player ... Doing more to remember player actions over time, and to respond in plausible ways to those actions, is something I 'm really interested in seeing more of in more games. r n r nThis could go in a couple of ways or both . One way is to let individual ... |
[More Bart Stewart Comments]
|
|
