The Aftermath
One thing that’s frequently interested me about games is the aftermath, as in you’ve done what you’ve set out to do what comes next?
This mostly happens in sandbox games, as you’re left roam the world that once gave you purpose.
Mild Spoilers for From Dust and Far Cry 3 below, like really mild.
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Game Dev North 8′s Night of Entertainment
So coming up at the next Game Dev North is bit of entertainment which should be good laugh.
I present to you “We’re not talking about multiplayer right now.” - A Game Dev North Panel Show
We’re pitting two teams of developers and journalists (okay, one journalist) against each other in a battle of who is the wittiest and who knows the most about the game industry.
So who’s fighting to be the very best?
Well on Team Indie we have White Paper Games’s Ben Hill, Caroline Powrie from Boss Baddie and Dan Whitehead (my arch rival) from Word Play Narrative Consulting .
Then fighting for Team AAA/Press there is Adam Smith, a writer at Rock, Paper, Shotgun then two guys from Relfections (Ubisoft’s studio in Newscastle) William Brown and Terryll Garrison.
I can’t wait to see how it goes down!
Game Dev Christmas
Have you ever wanted more than just a tenner in your Christmas card? Well, we’re different to your close family as instead of “money” we’re going to give you a splendid indie game, which you’ll find in your Christmas card provided you’re not on the naughty list this year (or luck, it’s more likely luck).
What games you ask? These games!
Boss Baddie Games is giving away:
Really Big Sky (Steam)
Lunar Pack (Wake and Lunnye Devitsy on Gamers Gate)
Toxic Games is giving away:
Q.U.B.E (Steam)
Alistair Aitcheson Games is giving away:
Greedy Bankers (App Store)
Clawhammer Games (Mark Foster)
Hyper Snake (App Store)
and possibly more, once we hear back from the developers. If you want pitch in, then get in touch through the eventbrite page: http://gamedevnorth8.eventbrite.co.uk/
Of course we’re still doing all the normal GameDevNorth stuff (Drinking, Quizing…raffling?).
So, grab your self a ticket and I’ll see you there.
Samuel Mottershaw is a UK-Based Game Writer / Narrative Designer and he spent many days thinking up the name for the show. Tell him you like the name, he’ll be pleased.
Also big props to David Hayward who did this kind of thing back in 2006 with Never Mind the Polygons, which I would have loved to have seen.
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Game Dev North 7 – Liverpool, 13th October
You guys certainly know how to fill a room up.
It’s come around again like a friend with a copy of blur, a bottle of expensive rum on a Saturday night.
Yes Game Dev North will be on the 13th October at Leaf in Liverpool from 6pm.
Once again we’ll treat all you Game Devs to a night of networking, quizzing, prize winning and most importantly drinking.
Sponsors will be Sheridans, Microsoft and TIGA who will be providing the previously mentioned drinks, prizes and of course the venue.
If you didn’t know already, you can sign up for ticket right here: http://gamedevnorth7.eventbrite.co.uk/and if you want to know a bit more about the whole sherbang why not look at my history of Game Dev North page? Why not indeed! You can do that here.
If you need anymore convincing you can take a look at what people tweeted last time, or the photos from previous events or you could ask me.
See you there!
Samuel Mottershaw is a UK-Based Game Writer/Narrative Designer/Marketer/Event Organiser/Chef/Professional Rum Taster/Unprofessional Blur Player/Semi-Professional Game Industry Networker, oh yes. But ideally not at the same time, he needs time to breath.
Read MoreAnnoucement: Working on Odd and Useless
Yes I’ve started working on the story for new project which is the slashy/actiony/castlevania Odd and Useless
Still early days, but it’s exciting to be working on this game!
Samuel Mottershaw is a UK-Based Game Writer/ Narrative Designer and couldn’t be consider odd or useless. His friends told him so.
Read MoreIt’s a thinking Sam’s game
Recently Spec Ops: The Line came out, I’d been quite interested in it since the original trailer aired way back in 2009:
From the reviews it seems like the kind of game that makes you dwell on what you’ve done, what takes place and has all sorts of complex ideas flying around. Makes the writer in me all giddy with sadcitement (It’s like excitement but about something that will make you sad).
I’ve played a lot of games in my time and the ones that make me think and reflect on what they are talking about tend to stick with me, so I’d thought in preparation of Spec Ops: The Line being released I would list a few of the games that got under my skin.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I never really played much of the first one, since I got to it a bit late but I was really interested to play this new one after hearing good things and man oh man did it stick with me.
The whole debate surrounding mixing people and technology is something that goes around my mind a lot, mostly because I find myself spending every moment of the day with a machine almost feeling like I can’t leave it, it was something I wrote in the storyline for QUBE actually.
Just before I played Deus Ex: Human Revolution I saw the brilliant TV Drama “Black Mirror” by Charlie Brooker which focuses on how people/humanity lives with technology and where it might go. If you’ve ever met me, you’d probably find I talk about Black Mirror.
So I was primed and ready to think about man and machine intently. During and after playing through Deus Ex: HR I found myself constantly thinking about augmentations, were they right? Would I get them? How big of a gap between the have and have nots would it create? As I reached the ending I came to the conclusion that people wouldn’t stop progress no matter what.
I was a bit sad for a while after playing Deus Ex: HR, but my god what a game!
Fate of the World
I had to stop playing Fate of World, I really did.
For those who don’t know, Fate of the World is a turn-based strategy/management game in which you’ve been placed as the head of the Global Environmental Organisation who can give special orders around the world to governments in order to combat global warming/climate change. You do this through a series of cards in each region.
It sounds a bit odd and I was a skeptical about the whole card system but it really works very well.
It’s a incredible game, as compelling as civilization as you try to repair the worlds problems conquering each one at a time until you prevent an apocalypse.
I imagine that’s what it’s like for other players, but not me. For me, the game is still compelling but I just can’t stop all the problems and it becomes crushing.
There’s starvation, protests, riots, overpopulation, wars break out, governments ban you from their countries, the temperature rises, nuclear wars breaking out and no matter how hard I try I just can’t stop it. So I can’t play the game again, because I can’t face the world falling apart piece by piece even when I try my hardest.
That was probably it’s message, the future is not going to be easy if we don’t act. It certainly got me more involved in the anti-global warming efforts, not that I didn’t think it was real before but I didn’t think it was quite this bad.
I would also like to mention the writing in the game, because it is just amazing even managing to cheer you up when you’re surrounded by all this crushing despair
Such as the Card “Last-Chance Gourmet” which describes itself as “The region has numerous species of wildlife very close to extinction. It would be criminal to allow them to pass into history without finding out what they taste like. ”
Made me chuckle at the time, until I saw “Gene-Plague Gamma” and found myself using it.
I think that might have been when I stopped playing.
Defcon
Ah, Introversion. What an awesome company they are, they made a Nuclear Tactics (read: depression simulator) game called Defcon.
Great tagline too.
It was a fun little story how I got hold of Defcon, you see I’d always heard of it and sounded kind of interesting but it was one of those games I never got around to buying until one day I was in a game shop that wasn’t GAME/Gamestation and I’d been looking around for 20 minutes or so just to kill sometime, but then I felt bad because I was the only person who had come in for 20 minutes and they couldn’t really compete with the big shops, and yet here I was looking around their shop not really helping them at all, so out of guilt I looked around for what I could buy with the money on me and that turned out to be Defcon for a tenner.
It’s a superb minimalist strategy game where you attempt to out-fox other nations when it’s come down to nuclear war through a combination of defense and counter-attacks.
It’s most impressive parts however is in the feeling. It’s mostly communicated through the sound amazingly (You’ll know this if you’ve played it), it uses a combination of eerie music, quiet noises of people dying and all sorts of other ambiance to really unnerve you.
It really got to me when I started playing competitive online games with a friend and I really starting thinking about how I was playing just to beat him. You see in Defcon there are two kinds of targets Military and Civilian, Military targets are silos, airbases and radars while there are hundreds of cities filled with people. You don’t get points for destroying military targets, only for the population you’ve taken away from the opposing country. I found myself ignoring the military targets in order to get the most points wiping out entire nations, just for my own benefit, no concern for defending the people of my cities.
This horrible feeling was perhaps heightened by watching the disturbing documentary/drama The War Game
If you can get past the Christmas section without curling up into the fetal position, you are a stronger person than me.
Taking into account the after effects of my wars in Defcon, certainly made me think about what I was doing.
So all in all, these games had a pretty profound effect on me and when I do play Spec Ops The Line make sure to check on me afterwards, perhaps give me a hug. I think I’ll need it.
Samuel Mottershaw is a UK-Based Game Writer / Narrative Designer and is going watch so many TF2 shorts in a bid to try and cheer himself up again after writing this.
Read More“You Only Know the Half of it” – Interview with Indie Game Magazine (March 23rd 2012)
So there was that scaled down article which talked about the lost story of QUBE but here’s the full interview!
http://www.indiegamemag.com/you-only-know-the-half-of-it-the-lost-story-of-q-u-b-e/
If you’re interested in QUBE’s missing story then take a look!
Samuel Mottershaw is a UK-Based Game Writer / Narrative Designer and got upstaged by thatgamecompany, he’s not bitter at all. (Gosh Journey looks good)
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