Before the hiatus, I was talking about why I thought that, despite the very simple mechanics and gameplay, the game ‘To the Moon’ was a better experience as a game than it would have been as a movie. In that, I made a comment that there were a few games that I really enjoyed for reasons that were difficult to describe – not because they’re flawless, and not despite their flaws, and not because of their flaws, really, either. I also said I was going to come back to that later, and so here we are. Continue reading “Little Story, Big Heart”
Interactivity and Managing Pacing
So now that I got that rant from last week out of my system, let’s spend some time on the topic I actually wanted to talk about. Interactivity and Pacing.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about pacing in the past couple of days, because I’ve been editing, and editing means fixing up the horrendous pacing errors I made in the first draft. Continue reading “Interactivity and Managing Pacing”
Trends
This started as a post about interactivity in fiction. I will still write that post. I’m just … going to write about this one first because it turned into a Whole Rant. Continue reading “Trends”
Narrative Meaning Under External Influence
I was at Continuum Convention all weekend, so I’ve been talking to people about all sorts of things literary and interpretation-related. And then I got home, had my traditional bout of con flu, and therefore played games for a couple of days. So hold onto your hats, kids, this is an esoteric one. Continue reading “Narrative Meaning Under External Influence”
Video Games and Canon
Ok, so I’m writing this with reference mainly to Little Nightmares, but it’s also worth having the discussion about games in general – since games are pretty unique when it comes to how to think about the ‘canon’ of the story. Continue reading “Video Games and Canon”
Introduction: Little Nightmares Series
Recently a friend asked me to play a game called Little Nightmares.
This request has been one of the best arguments I have for peer pressure occasionally being a good thing, because it quickly rocketed to ‘best video game I’ve played all year’ and definitely holds a place in my top five games of all time. I’ll add some qualifiers to that, because just because I love something doesn’t mean I think it’s flawless, but it definitely qualifies for one of my top five slots. Continue reading “Introduction: Little Nightmares Series”
Imagery and Symbolism
You know the drill by now. I like being opinionated about things, and I like analysing stories. This is yet another blog post about how I like to do it. Continue reading “Imagery and Symbolism”
Mass Effect, Alien Design and the Unknowable Other
As mentioned in the intro post, this is one of my pet topics so hold onto your hats, kids. Please note: Later I say that I am about to spend a paragraph spoiling the original Mass Effect trilogy. This did not end up being the case. As of writing this edit, I’m about 1,000 words into that particular rant, so if you don’t want the original Mass Effect trilogy spoiled, it may be best to skip this post altogether. Continue reading “Mass Effect, Alien Design and the Unknowable Other”
Whimsy and Metaphor 