Understanding Games

Through Raph Koster: German Pixelate have developed a series of flash games (or animations with game cut-scenes )  about games titled “Understanding Games” (part 1-3). The idea is to make a game like Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, which is a comic discussing comics.  Good basic stuff about what makes digital games tick, I  surely will consider using these  as part of introduction to game research and game design to relevant audiences.

Discussion of Game Engines suitable for Serious Games Development

Serious Games Source has published a feature Serious Game Engine Shootout by Richard Carey. It discusses the best engines for building serious games. The notion of game engine for serious games used in the feature is based on the general notion of a game engine (Wikipedia) and enhanced with the specific requirements for serious games; e.g. player behaviour and action recording and possible integration with external systems. The feature discusses five game engines built specifically for serious games: Breakaway’s mōsbē, Numedeon’s NICE, Forterra’s OLIVE, Muzzy Lane’s SIGMA, and Virtual Heroes’ Unreal3 Advanced Learning Technology as well as commercial game engines such as Gambry, Quazal’s Eterna, Torque, Multiverse, Unity, Neverwinter Nights and Second Life. The feature gives basic information on all the engines as well as a short review.

A Continuation to the GD Event in Jyväskylä

Good news indeed, the organizers of the original GD event @ Jyväskylä are planning another event. A good thing, this is, (sic) as I was hoping that we can keep the network alive. These kinds of ties are the kind that will help you onwards on the things you want to achieve (designing games in this case).

Traveling

I just spent a little more than a day in Oslo, Norway for the KickOff of our new Nordic project. I will include more info on the project when our press release comes out. And maybe some pictures of Holmenkollen. I do realize that my blog has been a little scarce lately, but I’ll try to improve a bit.

Sun’s Darkstar Online Game Platform to be Published as Open Source

As reported by Raph Koster: Sun’s flexible online game platform, Project Darkstar, is going to be released as open source. Early release binaries are already available and the source code for version 1 will be released in May. The platform seems to have potential; it is reported that you can implement clients easily with the technology that you prefer and even the server-side is not restricted to Java. From a quick look the main platform seems very well thought out and flexible so that it supports the development of many kinds of games.

Blog Journalism Culture meets the old-school in Serious Games area

I have been following the Blog of Clark Aldrich for a while now. The idea behind the blog is very clear and the execution is very crisp providing a very useful resource for Serious Games designers and researchers alike. One post, however, did catch me as a bit odd against the blog setting: the bio of Clark Aldrich himself.

The biographical post describes the author of the blog in a summary manner. The content is in all regards what people would expect to see. The aspect that strikes me as odd and non-blog-like is the presentation: the bio of Clark Aldrich is written in third person. Yes, this is the norm for old-school media such as printed books and television, but it in my opinion it is against the basic conceptions of blogging. Blogs are usually written in the first person and when people describe themselves they give a personal account of themselves. The bio as it is seems to distance the author from potential readers. Maybe tha’s one possible explanation why there aren’t many comments in his blog?

Nothing major here, just this random note. By the way, check out Clark Aldrich’s blog if you haven’t yet. It’s an ever-growing collection of different mechanics, notions and design patterns useful in serious game design.