Art Pipelines

Let's talk art! Because I make art!

I've developed an interesting method of creating paperware art. I start by creating digital guidelines, since adding a computer to the mix makes that much easier. Then I print those lines out and follow/interpret/trace them with a pencil on another piece of paper.

Hotline Miami And Story Games

Any cursory exploration of my game analysis/design content should reveal that I am really into artsy story games. I like a game where you have a reason to be doing what you're doing, and I don't have a lot of patience for games with a pretentious storyline or hours of filler gameplay devoid of context. This is an interesting thing about Yahtzee's triangle. It's not just about how games are balanced, but how people's tastes are. I like context above most else in a game, and you've probably heard me ranting about how game X had a dumb story, or game Y had repetitive gameplay, but none of those personal partialities keep me from really digging Hotline Miami.

Direction In Game Design

When I was a kid I started several novels. I managed to finish only one of them, and that by gluing together several different pieces of writing I had done separately. I didn't fail because I couldn't handle the level of writing or storytelling required, and I didn't fail for lack of creativity. I failed because I would start and write half of a novel without knowing why. Once I was halfway through and directionless, the realization would hit me that everything up to that point had been nothing more than a bunch of disconnected ideas that I thought would be cool.

At this point, traditional wisdom dictates that I draw a connection with the reader by asking the question, "What does this have to do with game design?"