Here’s a few words I said to kick off BoardGameCamp this morning. It was 9:30 and some people had been traveling a long way. Hi Everyone. Early start today eh? Let’s see who was up the earliest. Seven o’clock? [many hands] Six o’clock? [a couple fewer] Five o’clock? [a handful of people] How about four […]
Read more "Ludo, ergo sum."Yesterday evening the BBC Halo team had its second official inter-company match. Edge won, with a score of 7 to 3. Their prize will be The Shards – we’ll be crushing an Xbox controller and mailing them its remains in a jar. It’s their prize for a game well played. I’ll be sure to post […]
Read more "BBC vs. Edge: the Results"GameCamp 2 is done. What a rush. I’m really pleased with the way it went, and judging by the reactions I’m seeing, a lot of other people liked it, too. The unconference format makes everyone’s experience of a day like this different. As an organizer, I spent most of my time running around and making […]
Read more "GAMECAMP – insert coin to continue"This weekend I made a game about pregnancy. As you do. It was at the Rewired State hack day, held Friday and Saturday at the Guardian’s splash new offices in King’s Place. The idea of the Rewired State events is to bring together: a bunch of government people with challenges clever hackers who can solve […]
Read more "The Bump Game"The original GameCamp was the first unconference I ever went to. It was a fascinating day of discussion about games and gaming, from the tabletop to the console and everything in between. It was inspiring and exhilarating, and left me with a new idea of what was possible, as a good unconference should. At the […]
Read more "Get your game on – GameCamp 2 is coming for you"Whew, it’s done. Hive Mind Challenge 1.0 has come and gone like a whirlwind. You’ll remember that the Hive Mind Challenge is a game that Adrian Hon and I developed. It’s a cheating pub quiz – you’re allowed, and supposed, to use any means necessary to answer the questions. This includes searching the internet and […]
Read more "Hive Mind Challenge: the Wrap Up"Here’s something really cool. lose/lose is a video game the plays like an old-school space shoot-’em-up. It’s got your vertically scrolling spacescape, full of presumably hostile aliens. It’s got your lone gunship out to destroy them all. And it’s got one hell of a twist. Each little alien sprite you encounter on your deadly cruise […]
Read more "Backup your hard drive: it’s lose/lose"Why are really good games fun? Here’s an attempt to deconstruct one in detail. PopCap’s Peggle: a Masterpiece of game design. I tend to like a certain kind of game. Half-Life, Call of Duty, Halo . . . See a pattern there? A lot of my friends play similar games. You know – hard-core gamer […]
Read more "Anatomy of Fun: Why Peggle is a Masterpiece"Six Days in Fallujah, which I wrote about before, is still alive and kicking, despite fierce opposition and lack of a publisher. Its opponents say its very existence as a game belittles the sacrifice of those who died there. Its supporters say it’s an honest record of the battle. It should be published. Then we […]
Read more "Six Days in Fallujah and the Dirty ‘G’ Word"The Norman invasion of England. It seems like the perfect topic to approach with gaming. It’s history, it’s dramatic, and best of all it’s about battles. The game was developed by Preloaded and published by Channel 4, to go along with the drama series of the same title. I’m a huge fan of Channel 4’s […]
Read more "1066 – Game Design FAIL"
Philip Trippenbach 