“What would you make if someone gave you a million dollars?” “Probably something terrible.” – Alexander Bruce (creator of the wonderful Antichamber) Every creative project has constraints: limited time, budget, skills, platforms, etc. That might sound like a bad thing, but it’s not. In fact, most advice says that constraints are a necessity, a solution to […]
Read more →Today, I’m proud to finally announce my next game: Darknet. I’ve been working on it quietly for a while now, and the time has come to share it with the world! It’s by far my biggest project yet, and I’m aiming to make it into one of the defining early games of VR. Here’s the gist: Darknet is […]
Read more →As the developer of an upcoming Oculus Rift game, I was eager to see the VR sessions at Steam Dev Days. They ended up being the clear highlight of the conference for me. Since the whole “off the record” thing seems to have been interpreted pretty loosely so far, I thought I’d give a general […]
Read more →The past few months have seen a torrent of articles about Free-to-Play business models, often discussed alongside issues of ethics in games (for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). These pieces have addressed the effect on addiction-prone players or children, the possibility of corrupting artistic intent, the sheer amount of money being spent, and other […]
Read more →Note: This was written in response to Gamasutra’s call for blogs about game funding. I funded my indie game career from my own savings. It’s weird to talk about “funding” myself, as if this were a well-considered investment instead of the long shot that it is. I figure that the odds are stacked against new […]
Read more →There are certain TV shows that I enjoy watching, but still try to avoid. One example is TLC’s Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a series documenting the lives of a impoverished rural American family. The show could be sociologically interesting, but instead it seems to prioritize ridicule and humiliation. I’ve found that I can enjoy […]
Read more →Bombball is an abstract sports game that I released on the OUYA last week, on 6/26, one day after the OUYA launched. The game was inspired by Hokra and the indie eSports panel at last year’s IndieCade, and it was first created for Kill Screen’s 10-day CREATE game jam, for which it won a minor […]
Read more →Last Friday, Penny Arcade Report posted an article that detailed the issues that indie dev Kurt Bieg had with the indie game community. It was pretty disheartening, especially since it clashed so vividly with my own experience. The indie community has been an enormously positive force in my life, and so, as before, I want […]
Read more →At the 2013 Indie Game Summit, indie dev Noel Llopis asked the audience “Why are you making games?” It was a good question, and so simple that it had never occurred to me before. Noel’s accompanying speech rang true: “…Once you go indie, it becomes really important. Even though I’ve now been indie for 6 […]
Read more →…You don’t want to revisit the thing. I mean, readers are always disappointed when you talk about your work. You have to say to them, ‘Look, you’re talking about work you may love … I’m talking about work that I loathe …’ It’s nothing to do with me any more. Really, it has nothing to […]
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