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
I’ve just uploaded a couple of bug fixes and a Linux build for Cultist Simulator: – Bug fix: the Consent of Wounds can now be found in a certain book. – Bug fix: newly created cards should no longer disappear when dropped in an unsuitable place. – TOTALLY UNTESTED Linux build now available. That’s Read more
This is the side project I’ve been working on for the last few months. It’s really only an alpha: just a sliver of content, rough edges on the UI, some bugs. In an unusual commercial strategy, I’m going to halt development on it next week and not touch anything for some months. This is annoying for Read more
Here’s a screenshot from the content I’m working on at the moment. Our protagonist’s occult studies have taken their toll, and the money’s run out. To cover his expenses, he’s been forced to take a job at the lamentable Glover & Glover. Needs must: that Starvation token in the background has just grabbed another Health Read more
Chris Donlan asked if I could write something about queen sacrifice in Eurogamer this month. It was an even more fruitful topic than I expected. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-10-royal-blood
I can now finally confirm that yes, the Stellaris 1.4 codename ‘Kennedy’ patch is in fact named for me and not, for instance, the airport. It’s an interactive cosmic horror novelette; one of the inspirations is pretty obvious from the title; and it’s out on the afternoon of Monday 5th December! I’ve written more about it Read more
I have a monthly column now in gamesindustry.biz as well as eurogamer.net, and the deadlines coincide. So I’m writing them as companion pieces where I can. This month, they both have to do with the relationships between games and the real world. The Rhetorical Effects of System Design, and Toilets Games In Difficult Times Meanwhile, I’ve been Read more
Related information here.
When you hear the phrase ‘choices in games’, what do you think of? It might be this: or this: or indeed this: But equally it might be this: or this: Lots of choices! Where are you going to send your crew, what are you going to repair, should you teleport your boarding party home and Read more
