Strange spacecraft discovered by lone crank.

Posted By: Ben JohnsonOne of my former grad school professors, Carnegie-Mellon University's Jesse Schell, has finally published his book,The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. I was privileged enough to receive a couple of early drafts and offer feedback during its production. The focus is on "[showing] that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality videogames." I should note that Jesse isn't arguing that all roads lead to videogames, rather the book takes that kind of approach because most people who buy "how to design a game" books are interested in videogames, and Jesse's argument is that you can exercise those same game design muscles by making any kind of game, and it's probably more feasible to start with something non-electronic first.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. Currently running for about $50 for 600 pageson Amazon.

[1] Hey Ken,

Black Cadillacs is an RPG where the player characters are soldiers in war. There's all of the stuff that you'd expect in that setting (I like to think of it as "killing, running and terror"). The early portions of play are strongly collaborative, although there is a "GM-type" role. Borrowing from Trollbabe and Lacuna, it's just the players who roll dice -- which results in a very player-driven narrative.

But the game doesn't stop there.

The most exciting part of play (for me) is the post-session reflection everyone engages in. You re-tell moments of play as war stories (maybe it's a letter home, maybe an after action report, etc.) The catch is that you don't simply regurgitate them, you alter the events of play to suit your own editorial view. Watching the stories change and evolve over a campaign is exciting.

I have tons more to say, but I'd rather hear some more questions from you!
D

Posted By: Ben LehmanPaul: That's a map by a friend of mine, and frequent SG poster.

yrs--
--Ben

Posted By: Ben LehmanPaul: That's a map by a friend of mine, and frequent SG poster.

Posted By: Paul Czege[1] I know I've seen this one somewhere before:

http://www.handmaps.org/mapsind.php?mapID=36

And they're asking for information about it.

Tokyo Fantasy: Images of the Apocalypse. Great pictures for your Japanese Gamma World game.

Posted By: Grant DavisLink- Researchers prevent addiction relapses in mice - by eliminating memory related to the addiction. Also says that memories are susceptible to alteration at the moment of recall.

Braid is out and it's ingenious. Everyone with an Xbox 360 should buy this game right now. Everyone else should buy it when it comes to PC. I played it for something like an hour and a half and I was floored.

[2] I don't own an Xbox 2(I played on a friend's), but I do have one of the wired controllers just so I can play console-style games on my computer. That being said, the platforming in Braid is not as important as the puzzle solving. This game is important and it has given me ideas for how to make magical realist gaming happen. It is Tony Takitani, the puzzle platformer.

Posted By: Jonathan Walton[2] Zachary, you're right that I overlooked Pelgrane, Exile, and Fat Dragon. My apologies to those folks. I guess what I was looking for was a product that doesn't present itself as a traditional roleplaying product for a traditional roleplaying audience. In my mind, I guess, the awards this year seem to suggest (as has been the case in the past) that "crossover" indie games modeled on what the big companies do can perform well in the ENnies, but less traditional products just don't fly with that audience. Some of my disappointment, based on my own gaming interests, came through in that post, and I'm sorry for that. I guess folks that are more interested in non-traditional games will have to stick with the Indie RPG Awards and the Diana Jones, which I supposed is plenty of recognition.

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others. John McCain has often said he witnessed a thousand acts of bravery while he was imprisoned, and though not every one has been submitted into the public record, they are remembered by the men who were there (one such only recently reported by Karl Rove though it escaped mention in any of Senator McCain's books). But as Swindle said, this is a "desperate group of people trying to make something out of nothing."