MTV’s Multiplayer blog has an excellent series of articles about black professionals in the game industry. The entire series is a really interesting, and I recommend that you read the whole thing. I decided to post about the series because one of the topics that is discussed is the Resident Evil 5 trailer, which, as […]
Most racing games have checkpoints. The typical implementation gives the player a time limit to reach the next checkpoint, and adds time to the clock when the checkpoint is passed. If time runs out, the race ends prematurely and the game is over. Ever stop to wonder why racing games have this checkpoint system? I […]
In part 1 of this series* I discussed how horror games differed in approach compared to most other third person genres in the transition from 2D to 3D graphics. When we left off, I was describing how the scheme used by games like Resident Evil allowed developers to use dramatically composed shots by making movement […]
One of the key elements in modern horror games is visual storytelling. I’m not talking about cut scenes or character design, I mean the nitty-gritty details of shot composition: lighting, camera placement, and camera motion. Today I want to talk a little bit about how the horror genre developed the idea of a cinematic camera […]
I know that I can be pretty harsh when it comes to bad games. I mean, this is a research blog and I am interested in why bad games are bad, but I’m also a gamer, and being frustrated by a bad game that I’m playing for research is just as annoying as when it’s […]
I’ve posted a new feature with a lengthy title: The Changing Utility of the Otherworld in the Silent Hill Series. This article is about how the use and meaning of Nowhere, the Otherworld that appears in every Silent Hill game, differs from game to game. I wrote this after thinking about how Silent Hill: 0rigins’ […]
In my review of Haunting Ground, I argued that the over-sexualization of the protagonist hurt the game’s ability to be scary. My point was that the bouncing breasts and mini-mini skirt that follow Fiona around throughout the game amount to fan service, and ultimately distract from the game’s primary goal of being scary. Leigh Alexander, […]
A couple of weeks ago I posted a message about how Cold Fear was driving me up the wall with a sudden spike in difficulty. This post proved to be somewhat inflammatory, and a lot of you came out to tell me to stick with it a little longer. I did, and you guys were […]
Wired is running an interesting article by Clive Thompson (blog) about horror games being more effective than horror movies at generating scares. I think there’s something significant here in Thompson’s insights, but I think I need to give it a little more thought before I am sure I know what it is. While I mull […]
Today I attended a talk by Scott McCloud, author of the amazingly great Understanding Comics, a comic book about the mechanics of comic books as a medium. McCloud’s work has been inspirational for me (and many others) because he so effectively dissects a pulp medium (comic books) to show its core traits and characteristics. In […]