EA to Travel Back in Time, Destroy Fallout, Bloodlines, Planescape
Electronic Arts corporate headquarters -- A leaked video from an internal Electronic Arts news release appears to conclusively prove that video-game enthusiasts are if anything not paranoid enough...
View ArticleChoices and Journals and Characters
As production rolls along, we're doing all kinds of interesting stuff. Some of it I can talk about, and as always, much of it, even disguised cleverly under Wild West Football metaphors, would be...
View ArticleOn the various varieties of evil
So an incredibly toxic week of listening to people yell about my company has led me to excise at least one CRPG website from my reading list. There's an extent to which one needs to hear people spewing...
View ArticleAn Extremely Long-Winded Post About Shortening Dialog
Why do old-school CRPG people like words so much?Mass Effect wasn't wordy enough for them. I look at Mass Effect, including the parts I wrote, and I see places where, if I'd been in the room when the...
View ArticlePick your Passion
Longtime readers of the blog may remember a very early post about scope in video game design. You start with all the ideas in the world, and then you see which ones you can make easily, which ones are...
View ArticleNot for work
And then, just to go back on myself: I'm playing Ninja Gaiden 2, which my mother got for me as a Father's Day present. I am playing it for work, but not for a project-specific reason. I want to be able...
View ArticlePre-Writing Almost Done
Looks like we're gearing up to write next week. We've got our tools where we need them, and we've got a story that is going to hit hard and often. Now we just need to, well, do it.One of the things...
View ArticleState of the Unnamed Title, Redux
Had approximately half a work week this week, given that the boys were sick, as was our daycare provider. That said, it was a good and productive week, and a lot of things began to come together for...
View ArticleIn which bad people react badly to good news
Today's game:Outrage at Mass Effect being chosen as the top Xbox 360 game by IGN or outrage at Connecticut legalizing same-sex marriage?EPIC FAIL! (Answer)Dear god, someone put this (deciding group)...
View ArticleStar Wars: The Old Republic
BioWare has announced the MMO that some of my buddies in Austin have been busting their asses on. At least some of their hard work can finally see the light of day.
View Article1000 words or less
I hit this today in the context of work, but it's true in any kind of writing, for me, anyway.For me, the sign that I've written a minor character well is when I find myself saying, "Okay, yes, he's...
View ArticleThe lines you live for
Someone said something on a messageboard about how most of our dialog wasn't really very good, and I took offense, because, you know, dude, nobody except a BioWare writer gets to trash BioWare writing....
View ArticleBelated Galactrix Review
I finished Puzzle Quest Galactrix awhile back but was unmotivated to write anything about it.Which, honestly, is kind of a review in and of itself.There's so much potential greatness. I love the new...
View ArticleDeep Moments of Characteriza...ah, screw it, let's blow stuff up
This week, much like last week and, I think, the week before it, was writing followers -- the "Hey, let's talk about my childhood" conversations that make or break that dude who hangs out behind you...
View ArticleWait, No, I Meant that in a Good Way
The English language is limited in so many interesting ways. There's no way to say "I don't care" with a positive connotation, for example. Someone comes to you with an idea about what to do on a...
View ArticleMinion Yell Number Six: Hark, enemies yonder!
So on Mass Effect 1, my main man Kaidan Alenko had a saying I just loved as I went through the game. We'd be in the middle of some fight against mercenaries or pirates or ninjas or something, and...
View ArticleIt Belongs in a Museum!
This phase of the VO process is, I believe, like running from the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. You run. You run fast. The boulder moves behind you at a steady rate, and as long as you keep...
View Articlerachni fate by age
someone on the me boards is asking an interesting question. shepard finds imprisoned queen insect alien, her people thought extinct. player frees her or kills her (last time her race invaded galaxy,...
View ArticleSpecial things
Some poor person posted that they'd like to hear my ramblings on general CRPG theory. So, briefly, I hope, one thing that has jumped out at me lately is this:You get one special thing per level.One of...
View ArticleThis is sort of the stick
So there's a game, Shadow Complex, that was inspired by Orson Scott Card's Empire and which trades heavily on Card's name. And some gamers are refusing to purchase Shadow Complex because of Card's...
View ArticleSound Sets
(Going through a level with a bunch of designers, specifically listening for both follower and enemy shouts during the fight.)Me: Do you want to do something so that you can't die?Boss: (insulted) NO....
View ArticleNew Playthrough
I started a new playthrough of Mass Effect 1 at home this weekend, with the blatantly metagamey plan of hammering AI Hacking with an engineer until it got unlocked as a bonus skill due to the...
View ArticleState of the Job
I finished another Mass Effect 2 playthrough over the weekend. Every time I play this game, it's looking better. The endgame had me on the edge of my seat, which is absurd, since I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.I...
View ArticleFor Fuck's Sake, People (homophobia trigger warning)
OH RPG GAMING SITES NO!Quote of note, in regards to Dragon Age: Origins having homosexual romance options:"David Gaider must really get a kick out of writing homosexual relationships. In any case, I'm...
View ArticleDead Islands Trailer
So I have opinions.There's an upcoming game called Dead Island. It has a very disturbing trailer. In that trailer, a little girl runs from zombies, gets caught, gets bitten, is pulled into a room, and...
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