A Few Thoughts on Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design

a photograph of several books about game design

As I may have pointed out, I’m currently plowing through a bunch of my game design literature, primarily because these books have ended up in the “nice to have, I might use them as references but then end up never referencing them” part of my bookshelf. Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design is such... Continue Reading →

2023-01-03 0

Entitlement

One of the problems I have with the outliers of game development and gaming culture is the feeling of entitlement and ownership that some people, primarily men, give voice to. I’m not sure if you’ve ever had the conversation around “this is what players want” and the next minute be confronted with the inaccurate statement... Continue Reading →

2022-12-30 1

Interactivity and other distractions

I’m reading a lot of older game related books because of my intentions to try to get through the massive pile of literature that I have accumulated during the years. One thing that has continuously struck me is the lack of the player’s voice, mostly when it comes to books written by men. They talk... Continue Reading →

2022-12-20 0

Refuse Unicorndom

The classic image of a person standing with a broom in their hand, shouting "clean all the things!"

It bugs me a bit that in the world of game development you still have to be EXCEPTIONAL! At least according to job ads. BE PASSIONATE! BE A ROCKSTAR! A NINJA! A UNICORN! (Strangely enough there’s nothing about cowboys or pirates. One would assume that with ninjas they would follow?) I’ve been trying hard to... Continue Reading →

2022-12-18 0

Game Dev Heroines – Caroline Livingstone

A simple drawing of a girl in red staring down a tiger against a yellow background

I’ve had the immense pleasure of working with Caroline while I was at BioWare, but I knew of her long before that. She has been a dialogue coordinator on many of the most lauded games from BioWare, and her influence, I think, is keenly felt in all of them. I wobbled quite a bit between... Continue Reading →

2022-12-16 0

Why Is My Time Worth Nothing?

A button featuring a serious princess Leia looking into the camera. A white text on a red background reads "we are the resistance"

I’m reading a book called Game Production & Development written by Erik Bethke. Bethke states on several occasions that crunch is a result of bad planning. I agree with that statement. Crunch IS a result of bad planning, in combination with feature creep and a lack of timely decisions. But crunch is also a result... Continue Reading →

2022-12-12 0

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