Posts tagged with “andrew”

Generoso Fierro has just posted a set of podcasts on paper prototyping on the GAMBIT website. Since this seems to be something mysterious that new game developers frequently wonder about I figured it’d be worth reposting here. Disclaimer: I haven’t watched the videos yet, but Gene regularly puts together kick ass stuff so I’m guessing they’re pretty good.

Gene writes:

Have you ever wondered about the first stage of creating a video game? GAMBIT’s Technical Director Andrew Grant along with GAMBIT’s Lead Game Designer, Matthew Weise lead a group of three game designers (Kevin Laughlin, Alexis Brownell and Sophia Foster-Dimino) through the paper prototyping stage of videogame development. Video Produced by Generoso Fierro, Music and Editing by Garrett Beazley.

PART ONE: Andrew and Matthew present our game designers with a concept for a game. Here begins the process of creating the gameplay! Our designers use markers on paper, blocks, string and a host of other tools to make the game a reality.

PART TWO: Our game designers have decided to abandon the “paper” stage of development and go right for the whiteboard to hash out their game.

PART THREE: Design Consultant Tim Stellmach comes by to play and review the prototype the designers have come up with based on the game concept.

If you like these videos be sure to check out episode 2. Cool Stuff!

If you come visit us at Fire Hose (and you should!) on any given day you will hear many bizarre comments, like “Always the joker! Ha ha…” , “Ahem…. hem…”, and “We’ll be fine, just GO”. At this point you’d probably think that we’re totally bonkers and/or completely awkward, but in reality you’d be only half right – we’re really referencing Facade, a terrific if not strange game by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern.

Facade is a very weird 2005 title in which you are invited to a dinner party by a pair of old friends, Trip and Grace. During the course of the evening the happy couple reveals that they are kinda miserable, and their marriage disintegrates in front of your eyes. Personally, I like to see how quickly I can get thrown out by being a jerk; Ethan has managed to get booted before even setting foot in the door. The really interesting part is that the game does natural language parsing (albeit poorly) and you interact with Trip and Grace by typing with the keyboard.

This game pushes the boundaries so much it’s terrific. It’s free too, so go download it now.