Reason from First Principles in Game Design

Is there such a thing as a new idea? Or are all creative products ultimately a combination of existing things? When a newly announced videogame was presented via analogy with two existing games, I had to consider how much of a role existing works should play in the creative process.

A while back I was on an email thread discussing the newly announced game by Trion, Atlas Reactor. There was a positive response, and someone commented, “Dota meets XCOM. I’m in.”

Here’s the trailer:

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Certain Affinity’s Majestic Map Pack DLC Drops Soon for Halo 4!

The Majestic Map Pack is launching soon for Halo 4, and Certain Affinity developed and produced the pack in co-development with 343 Industries:

 

Halo jazz: How 343 Industries and Certain Affinity collaborated to create the Majestic Map Pack

 

Review of Steam Mobile App for iPhone

Steam mobile iOS app icon

I’ve been posting a bunch recently, and I’d kind of like my bold statements about the uniqueness of story design within game development to stay near the top of the blog a little while longer.

But Valve, damn their tardy-but-impeccably-engineered brilliance, have gone and unleashed a closed beta of a brand new Steam Mobile app for iPhone, and probably iPod and iPad. In fact, hell, I just checked the press release and it says ‘iOS and Android devices’, so even Google gets some love. Continue reading

Batman: Arkham City Gameplay Preview and Exclusive Q&A

Apologies for my tardiness in blogging over the past week. I was writing a piece for the next edition of IGDA’s Perspectives newsletter, which I’ll be sure to link to when it comes out.

I have not been idle, however. A week and a bit ago, I attended the Eurogamer Expo at Earl’s Court, and last Friday night I went to a preview of Batman: Arkham City at BAFTA. So… impressions?

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