Working as a Game Designer in Montreal, currently I'm working on an RPG for the iPhone.
I'm an overly active volunteer with the IGDA, you can see me posting news on the Game Design and Women in Games Special Interest Group blogs as well as on the Montreal Chapter blog. I'm also on the advisory board for the Montreal Chapter and the Women in Games SIG. Plus I have my own blog elsewhere on the web.
So why not add another one to the list? ;)
I wrote this article years ago, after the first ARG, The Beast, had reached its conclusion. I interviewed the lead writer on the project, Sean Stewart, about what their vision was and how they managed the execution of it as it expanded and evolved.
This reminds me a lot of Story by Robert McKee that I'm reading right now. I think that a lot of games could learn by taking a more technical approach to building stories. With the right foundation a lot of games could be a lot stronger, story-driven or not.
I'm sad to say that I've encountered this before, activision isn't the only company. When I was lead designer/writer on a murder mystery game, I was forced to rewrite everything because the higher-ups didn't want a female to be the murderer. They said that people wouldn't believe that a female ...
Great post There are so many ways that people can tell stories, it took movies a while and an advance in technology to get past the need for words. American cinema can be pretty bad for exposition sill though. Hopefully we can get games to that point sooner than later:
ha I love the honorable mention for No More Heroes, it made me laugh every time I played With the added 8-bit sound effect when it was full, that never got old.
tough choice there were a lot of quality downloadable games this year. I only player one in your top 5, but 3 in your honorable mentions. Castle Crashers has to be my personal fav though.
