I’ve added a very small update to the Cultist Simulator prototype: I’ve changed a key quote, added a couple of rather significant ritual descriptions which had fallen off, and stamped a big KICKSTARTER link on the menu screen. There will probably be one more content update before the KS. The image below probably won’t be Read more
Launching a game project is more like launching an expedition than it is like launching an arrow. Supplies are important, but knowing where the hell you’re going, and why, is much more so. If you take the wrong heading, you can miss the oases and end up in the deep desert, wondering what all those Read more
A commenter asks: It wouldn’t be greedy but it’s probably not going to happen. The Kickstarter is currently set for September anyway, so you won’t have long to wait. But it’s actually somewhat better news than that. Here’s why. It’s common for Kickstarters to offer (for instance) an alpha-access tier, a beta-access tier, a standard tier Read more
A year-plus ago, I left Failbetter, the company I founded. I said: “I’ll be walking the earth like Jules in Pulp Fiction walking the earth like Caine in Kung Fu. Oh all right I mean I’ll hang out my shingle as a freelancer. I have the entrepreneur’s bug and I’ll probably found another studio eventually, Read more
[This is basically a copied/pasted Slack post from a discussion I had with the team on a client project. I’ve tidied it up for the blog, but I haven’t rewritten it.] ‘QBN’ [quality-based narrative] – I coined this term, but I now wish I hadn’t. It’s not a term more than like two hundred people will Read more
I’ve been asked: you got to work for [client]! How did you manage that? The answer is: I spent seven years building a games studio with a reputation for interactive writing. This isn’t a route available to most people, so it sounds glib to say it. Another answer is to talk about the criteria that I used to hire writers Read more
I did an interview with Eurogamer, in which I talked about writing for the Dragon Age franchise. It went up yesterday with a slightly more provocative title than I expected: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-05-19-writing-the-next-dragon-age Okay, that’s an inference you could make from what I said, but it’s not what I said. We’re in GLOMAR territory: I can neither confirm Read more
Actually my title was ‘How Things End’, but I prefer their subhead. I’ve written about the way endings in games have changed in response to technology and biz, and where we might go in the future. I’ve really enjoyed the Eurogamer columns! But my brain is full of dragons at the moment (yes, I’m allowed Read more
This is a post about depression and suicide, not about games. If you work in the games industry, you certainly know, or will know, someone who suffers seriously from stress and depression. That person may be you. Today would be the forty-second birthday of my brother, Hugh, if he hadn’t killed himself when he was Read more
There’s not much point blogging during GDC – only like six people will ever read this – but it’s timely today and I keep meaning to blow the dust off this thing. Failbetter, the company I founded and later tearfully sold, is concluding a very successful Kickstarter for their next project, Sunless Skies, a narrative Read more
