March 2006
January 2006
November 2005
IGDA - Articles - Bill of Rights
by bcpbcpI first presented A Game Developers' Bill of Rights at a keynote presentation at the Montreal International Game Summit in November 2005. The Bill of Rights was part of a larger talk called Making and Breaking Rules: Game Design as a Critical Practice , which touched on issues of game design and the culture of games, as well as the business of the game industry. Following my talk, I prepared this short essay for the IGDA site.
Game Design Challenges | Collateral Romance
by bcpbcp"Eric Zimmerman has run "Game Design Challenges" at several GDC's now. At each, he picks a difficult topic to design a game about, and then lets loose three designers to come up with a game based on the topic. I participated in the inaugural one in 2004, losing to Will Wright's "Collateral Romance" idea, which involved setting non-combatants down inside a first person shooter, with the task of making it to the other side a la Casablanca, and hoping that they would form attachments along the way. Warren Spector didn't come up with a game idea, and I presented what's below."
The Philosophical Roots of Computer Game Design
by bcpbcp (via)"This is an approximate transcript of the text of my lecture at the 2004 GDC. I present it in this form because the nature of the material does not lend itself to the traditional paper format. Also, because the lecture is informal and to some extent ad-libbed, this is not a verbatim document."
Lost Garden: Mini Game Design Reviews: Guitar Hero and Wierd Worlds
by bcpbcp"I wanted to briefly mention two very different games that I’ve been spending time with recently. The first is Guitar Hero by Harmonix and the second is Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space by Digital Eel. Neither is a traditional game, and both have some good lessons about game design to share."
Only a Game: A Game Design Grammar
by bcpbcp & 1 otherWhat does it mean to talk of a grammar of game design? And does specifying such a grammar give us an insight into the underlying structure of games, or a new method for approaching game design - or both? Because games vary from pure mathematical formalisms (at the ludic extreme) to behavioural descriptions (at the opposite extreme), any formal reductionistic system will either be focused primarily on the former, or require sufficient latitude to express practically infinite diversity. One such approach is to define a categorial grammar of game design.
Yaroze 2006 Sony Game Design Competition | Dexigner
by bcpbcpSony Japan is holding auditions to unearth new talent in the area of game creation.The Game Yaroze! 2006 (also known as "Let's Play a Game!") competition has been running since 1995.
October 2005
Reinventing Public Diplomacy Through Games Competition | USC Center on Public Diplomacy | PD & Virtual Worlds
by bcpbcp (via)USC Center on Public Diplomacy is looking for people to showcase their talent with a bit of world class game-making. The challenge to the game mod community, and current and aspiring game designers is as folllows: design a prototype or modify a game incorporating the fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy.
The Forge :: GNS and Other Matters of Role-playing Theory
by bcpbcp. My goal in this writing is to provide vocabulary and perspective that enable people to articulate what they want and like out of the activity, and to understand what to look for both in other people and in game design to achieve their goals.
Games * Design * Art * Culture - Greg Costikyan
by bcpbcpRecent Presentations: games and storytelling, create new game styles
September 2005
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(19 marks)