Edu games can be fun: My Little Cook
Posted: June 5, 2012 Filed under: game criticism, game design | Tags: gamesforhealth, gamification, seriousgames Leave a comment »
My four year old son was nervously jumping from one fast paced game to another, actually bored at the iPad. I asked him:
“Do you want to try a new game?”
“Hmmm…”
“It’s about preparing and cooking a cake.”
“But I can’t do that!”
“Let’s see.”
So we started playing My Little Cook: in the game you a young cook that moves in this cardboard made animated house, has to get the right ingredients, mix and cook.
Diorama art as videogame inspiration source
Posted: April 16, 2012 Filed under: game criticism | Tags: art videogame, videogame art Leave a comment »
Seen often discussed “videogame is art?”, but maybe it’s the other way around. Two pictures of a beautiful work by Thomas Doyle, and more works here.
You can follow me at @ppolsinelli.
The limits of chocofication
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: game criticism, marketing | Tags: game design, gamification Leave a comment »
This post is just a bit of “curation” for this stimulating Google Tech Talk by Jesse Schell: The Pleasure Revolution: Why Games Will Lead the Way.
Schell first makes the point that “gamification” works only in specific contexts, and can backfire.
Then introduces self-determination theory as motivation for games as distinct from “fun”.
Also clarifies the distinction between “hafta” software and “wanna” software, articulates the evolution of software today from efficiency to pleasure.
Thanks Professor Schell for your teaching (and for your splendid game design book)!
I’ve collected the links referred to in the talk in this Licorize booklet. Thanks to Vincenzo Santalucia for pointing this out.
Storytelling and video games
Posted: November 8, 2011 Filed under: game criticism, Storymoto | Tags: game design, game story, game storyboard, linear narrative 10 Comments »
In this writing I try to give indirect answers to the question: what is the role of storytelling in video games?
Creating narratives for video games results in finished products that elicit storytelling. Stories get fed in game production processes; the resulting games generate storytelling experiences that are not immediate results of the original stories.
Narratives for games are components among others of the complex video game production process. Let’s see more about such narratives.
Five smart, different, creative indie browser games
Posted: September 1, 2011 Filed under: game criticism, game review | Tags: adslife, browser games, indie games 2 Comments »While preparing the script for the next Gamamoto game I have been researching for interesting, creative browser games. I present here some results of the search, plus a shameless self promotion at the end. The games here listed are small production that IMHO have the conceptual (in story and design) depth that often AAA games lack.
1. 1899 Steam & Spirit
The game has an original and interesting plot and is filled with puzzles cleverly put together – moreover the steampunk design makes fills my heart of love and compassion.
Play here: Winston
What is quite amazing is the fact that this game is a pure HTML + JavaScript game, which means that you can happily play it pretty anywhere.
The authors: this is the author’s blog:
How to like it: The game’s first page has a link to PayPal for donations.
The wonderful, horrible kitsch of browser games
Posted: August 3, 2011 Filed under: game criticism | Tags: adslife, browser game, do you wanna date my avatar 2 Comments »
Note: in the real web page, she even blinks her uncanny eyes. At you.
For reasons not entirely clear to me there is a strong link between browser games and kitsch esthetics. A few examples follow. If you have more examples, do post them in the comments.
Games Brief on “What is a social game”– and Adslife
Posted: August 1, 2011 Filed under: Adslife game, game criticism | Tags: adslife, browser game, social games Leave a comment »
Games Brief published an interesting collection of answers to the question What is a social game? What emerges is that there is an ambiguity in the question, on whether it is meant games played not alone (as most game are in some way) or games played through a social network.
Creating a new kind of social browser game: Adslife
Posted: June 30, 2011 Filed under: Adslife game, game criticism, game development | Tags: adslife, browser game, dondraper, HTML5, madmen 2 Comments »
Here we analyze our new game Adslife which has just been released in beta. You can play it here:
As the post is quite long, you also find it in the form of slides on Slideshare here. All the references of this post can be found together here.
On Angry Birds’ pigs
Posted: April 4, 2011 Filed under: game criticism, game review | Tags: angry birds, angrybirds, game storytelling, hero journey 5 Comments »
Angry Birds may seem a simple game that is substantially without a narrative structure. And why is it so addictive? The common explanation is that many of us are addicted by it because of the clever usage of “tap & drag” to sling birds, and the cute resulting effects. Its success is the result of luck, of getting the right effect at the right time – this is what I heard developers say, last time a few days ago at a lunch with a couple of iOS developers.
I think instead that the addictiveness of the game is rooted not just in the clever artillery physics, and is not a result of chance. I am unconvinced that it lacks a narrative logic, and here try to articulate myself. Read the rest of this entry »
