Belated Weekly Roundup

July 20, 2011 - Readings

This week at Robot Geek, I hash out some of my thoughts on how to analyze storytelling style in games: Pieces of Story. It’s my little contribution towards a world where we never have to hear to terms “linear” and “nonlinear” in reference to games again.  Here’s some of what I’ve been reading this week:

Where’s your God now, Mario?  John Markley’s fun historical piece on religious censorship in early Japanese imports.  That “Pearl” thing always confused the hell out of me.

Killing Call of Duty: Jordan Magnuson’s “The Killer.”  Fraser Elliot on the impact of killing in an art game.  (Incidentally, another word I’d like to eradicate from the universe is “notgame.” C’mon, Magnuson. Have some dignity.)

L. A. Non-Noire.  K. Cox finds L. A. Noire lacking in the structural elements of film noir.

Dark Past (part 1): On the immersive sim, mechanics, and mod communities. This is the first part in a recently concluded (?) 4-part series on the mechanics and level design of Thief-like games, by Radiator developer Robert Yang. That makes it sound much too dry, though – it’s a big, sprawly, freewheeling discussion on the meaning and craft of complex level design, and it’s fantastic.