Category Archives: jason rohrer

Chains Of Meaning

Post-GDC, it takes forever to get back to normal. Like, weeks! I’m still working on it! But here are a few fun things I’ve been working on in the meantime.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a big fan of Jason Rohrer (remember when I got to play Sleep is Death with him last year?) This GDC, he participated in Eric Zimmerman’s annual game design challenge, where a panel of sharp designers are tasked with creating a concept based on a certain theme. This year’s was religion, and you can read about how Rohrer won the challenge in my coverage here.

I did an interview with Rohrer on his new game, Inside a Star-Filled Sky. He’s a fascinating person to talk to, and despite the whole “art game” thing that canopies much of his work, he’s terribly pragmatic and upbeat (that contrast between his heavy death themes and his approachable personality is one of the things I asked him about).

Anyway, Rohrer’s challenge-winning Chain World design is now at the center of something of an interesting controversy. If you haven’t heard about it, catch up here. The most interesting thing about the debate is that even though it seems that Rohrer’s intentions for Chain World are being “subverted” (depending on whom you ask), this very sort of discussion and debate — what defines “good”, what is the fate of the “holy object”, who can participate, should money be involved and what principles are most important — is inherent to religion.

I haven’t asked Rohrer about this but I have to think he was aware of the possibility that people would disobey his “rules” for Chain World, or that it would mutate in some fashion beyond his foreseeing. But that we’re still discussing the “chain of meaning” behind that little USB key is even more proof that his design was a success, I think.

Other than that, I’ve launched into an analysis of the narrative of pretty much my favorite album, Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me, speaking of meaning. It’s a very personal album to me. Probably only people who are curious about music or who like the record would be interested, but I did it one disc at a time: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

Special thanks/blame for the Joanna series goes to friend/hero Kieron Gillen, whose idea it was. By the way, Gillen just got married this past weekend, and I regard him more highly than most people I know, so feel free to spam his inbox with congratulatory notes, because he isn’t busy CONTROLLING THE FUCKING X-MEN or anything.


Today’s Good Song: “I’m Losing Myself“, Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes) feat. Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear) [via Said The Gramophone]

Linking And Dreaming

Real busy, so just a few quick links for you guys today:

I got an early look at Jason Rohrer’s Sleep is Death. Full story at Kotaku, which I would love for you to read, because this game is like nothing else I’ve ever played and deserves all the exposure it can get.
At Gamasutra, I’ve written on why I think the demise of the console game has been greatly exaggerated, and on wondering why I’m really not that into FF13. Y’know, emotionally.
Check them out, please, and lemme know what you think. Meanwhile, did you get an iPad? I can’t really tell if I would be interested in one or not — it’d need to be financially possible for me to know how I’d feel about it, and it’s not — but no, I don’t have one.
I had a dream I did, though. In this dream, I wandered into my messy living room to find one that I’d apparently forgotten buying, lying on top of a blanket. Realizing I did indeed own an iPad, I felt silly for making fun of people who couldn’t shut up about them on Saturday. However, in this dream, my iPad needed its screen cleaned, and as I tried to polish it gently with a tissue, I caused an enormous gouge to appear on its face. Deciding I’d rather have no iPad than one with a big scratch on the screen, I tossed it aside, reasoning, “guess I’ll never use this again.”

Post-GDC Mega Catch-Up, Yeah!

Well, I’ve been home for a few days from GDC — every year it’s an amazing, inspiring and invigorating time. I got to see Jason Rohrer discuss his new DS game, Diamond Trust of London (but Brandon Boyer’s writeup of Rohrer’s Sleep is Death is far more interesting than my article); he was talking alongside Molleindustria’s Paolo Pedercini, whom you know I adore.

I saw some truly impressive Unreal Engine tech demos and received reassurance on the future of AAA gaming from Epic’s Mark Rein (despite the concerted attempts of social gaming venture capitalists to discourage me) ; I heard wonderfully wacky Metroid and Wario Ware visionary Yoshio Sakamoto discussing his creative strategy, and I was refreshed to learn that at ThatGameCompany, development process actually comprehends that game developers are human beings and not design robots that produce when crunched upon.
It’s amazing what happy people who work well together can create, isn’t it? One of the highlights of my GDC was meeting many of the members of the team at Naughty Dog, who swept the Game Developers’ Choice awards (which I also attended, enjoying the hosting talents of Kyle Gabler and Erin Robinson). Friend and awesome person Andy Schatz won the IGF with Monaco!
To be quite honest, I have never been a big fan of the Uncharted games; when people ask me what I think of Uncharted 2, I use words like “impressive” “an achievement” “a beautiful game” and “very well done.” I mean all those words, of course, but when I’m writing criticism I tend to prize other traits. And I always like to root for underdogs; while I knew there was no chance whatsoever that Demon’s Souls would beat Uncharted 2 as Game of the Year at the Choice awards, I selfishly wanted to see it happen! I also would have preferred to see Brutal Legend recognized for writing, but hey.
However, having met a handful of the team’s senior members during GDC, I’ve gotta say I’ve never met a nicer or more humble group of game developers, and can’t help but feel that nobody deserves the recognition more. They are the kind of people who, when you ask them what they do while chatting at the bar, are humble to the max –you have to push to even get them to admit they made the Game of the Year, and they all seem thrilled and bewildered by the recognition.
(Leaders on a certain couple of 2009′s other major game successes often do not deign to socialize with us commonfolk, and if they did they would come in all popped collars, snakeskin boots and chest pounding over what they developed.)
The Dogs told me they feel like a family and love working together. I think that makes a difference. I would love it if more publishers got the idea that the way to get developers to make excellent games is to allow them to work according to their own internal culture (provided it’s a positive one).
These are the kinds of people and ideas that inspire me most when I am at GDC, although the indies tend to be my very most favorite. The Los Angeles Times has just run an article by me on the constituency of the Experimental Gameplay Project, many of whom I got to say hello to at the event this year. While at GDC I also heard 2DBoy’s Ron Carmel explain how a group of indie “angels” hopes to support independent designers in self-publishing.
I spoke on a panel, too. Mia Consalvo, Manveer Heir, Jamin Brophy-Warren and I discussed issues of diversity and race both within video games and on the development side. My friend Michael Abbott of Brainy Gamer fame (who is so warm and nice I cannot quite believe he is From The Internet, and who as usual I did not get to see enough of!) did an excellent write-up of our discussion. There seemed to be a great response to the discussion in general, and Cliff Bleszinski said it gave him ideas and “white man’s guilt”!!
Friend and fellow Kotaku columnist Tim Rogers completed a speaker evaluation of my panel that indicates he would not recommend it to others out of the desire to “keep it as a secret weapon,” that all speakers received zeroes except for I who received a rare “heart” ranking, and that “Bikini” is required to improve the panel. This was my favorite GDC Souvenir:

(courtesy of Tim, the high-res version of his speaker evaluation is here.)
The combination of hard work and hard drinking killed many of my brain cells, I’m sure — it was a whirlwind time and I’m glad to be back bumming around in Brooklyn with my snobby cat and not-snobby friends, but there’s nothing like GDC. I had a wonderful time, and to those of you who did come up and say hello to me, it was nice to meet you!
Don’t forget, you can find all of my GDC coverage, as well as the fine and excellent work of my colleagues, at Gamasutra’s designated GDC 2010 landing page.