“I don’t know how I got to this article and now that I’m here I’m confused and alone. Help.”
Category Archives: Writing
BUILDING THE FRONTIER
I’d like to believe that under every Skype for Business conversation, there’s a sewer full of goblins.
THE LABYRINTH
“In a well-designed game, you see the outcome begin to emerge before the end of the experience. You know you’re low on food, you know your alliances are fraying, you know you’re a hair away from the end of the level, you know what might come next. It might be success or it might be failure, but it will make sense in terms of what came before.”
HOW IT HAPPENED TO HAPPEN
Somewhere, right now, an indie developer is about to do something tiny and casual that will alter the whole of gaming for the next 50 years. Possibly it’s you.
LET’S TALK ABOUT TEXT
“What narrative structure do we see in games? Honestly, not as much as you’d expect… Games don’t yet have established formal constructs like chapters or poetic metre.”
/kəˈbal/, Part 2
[ The following is an extract from an article Alexis wrote decades ago, in 1996, for British roleplaying magazine Valkyrie. It’s juvenilia, and some bits make him wince – but it’s an insight into his early style and fiction which later became Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Cultist Simulator. Part 1 here! ] “…when they […]
THE LAW OF BOOB
I wonder if I and my heterosexual feminist principles are a blocker for good business decisions.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF EVERYTHING (OR, DON’T UNDERESTIMATE BARDS)
There’s a definite drive towards narrative excellence in our industry, but it’s the stories that have faith in their players’ intelligence – the stories that want you to connect the dots, rather than rendering gorgeous and definitive dots for you – that really lead the pack.
IT’S (NOT) THE REAL THING
Nuka-World. It’s a bit like being an ocean tuna transported to a very nice aquarium. It’s chock-full of specially constructed tuna-tainment, but the coral’s all plastic.
/kəˈbal/, Part 1
The Caldecotts have a reputation for serious eccentricity that doesn’t really even approach the truth.
