by Annie | Jul 9, 2010 | Game Design
If you’ve ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink, you might be familiar with the power of thin-slicing, the ability to gauge the essence of something or someone within a very narrow period of experience. In the blink of an eye, say. Think about the last person you met. Chances are, you were able to tell within the first few seconds of conversing with them whether or not you could be great friends. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing with games. Game-slicing, if you will. Luckily, the VFS resource center is stocked with enough Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii titles to entertain me for at least a few thousand hours, so I’ve been checking out about 10 games at a time and playing each for about 15-20 minutes. The downside of playing games for such a short time is that I spend a lot of time getting used to the controls and aiming with minimal accuracy. But the upside is that I get to sample tons of games. So far, my game buffet plate has been filled with titles like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, God of War, Guitar Hero II, and even The Urbz: Sims in the City. If you have any suggestions for games I need to add to my list, feel free to let me...
by Annie | Jul 8, 2010 | Game Design
Those of you who know me well might have been surprised when I declared a move to Vancouver to study game design. After all, I don’t have much game playing experience under my belt, and it was only recently that I’d even heard of such acronyms as MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) and RPGs (role-playing games), terms commonly thrown around by gamers in the know. I haven’t been completely engrossed in a game since Super Mario Bros. back in elementary school, as my allowance couldn’t quite keep up with the ever evolving consoles after that. Thus, I’m currently undergoing a baptism of fire of sorts. It’s now nearing midnight, and I’ve been playing or thinking about games since 7am this morning. Our class of 30 spent most of the day playing a team-based diplomatic relations strategy game, then moved on to a multi-game, multi-console tournament, which lasted until dinner time. A quick meal later, we rounded out the day by discussing pre-production techniques and trying to come up with effective pitches for medieval Japanese fighting games. Within the last 15 hours or so, some people completed open heart surgeries, prosecuted infamous criminals, or piloted trans-Atlantic passenger jets. Me? I played games. All day. And I loved...
by Annie | Jul 6, 2010 | Game Design
Today was my first day in the game design program at the Vancouver Film School (VFS). Game design has long been a male-dominated field, which is clearly showcased in my class of 30 people: 28 guys, 2 girls. (So far, the one big bonus of the male-female skew is that there’s never a line for the ladies’ room. That’s gotta count for something.) Being a typical female gamer, I spend most of my game time with popular casual games like Bejeweled, Zuma, and Plants vs. Zombies. Thus, I spent most of my day thinking, “WTG?!” or, in other words, “What’s that game?!” as title after title were thrown out in casual conversation with most people in the room nodding in agreement and stroking their chins at the awesomeness of the games while reminiscing over hours of gameplay. Me? I spent most of the day nodding and smiling obliviously, secretly adding titles like Ocarina of Time and Mass Effect 2 to my to-play list. Never before have I heard of so many games I haven’t played all in a single day. Luckily, we have a “study hall” in the building (i.e., a games lounge stocked with PCs, playstations, Wiis, etc.). I’ll definitely be doing tons of “studying” within the next several months. Yes, be jealous. So after the first day, I’m definitely overwhelmed, but also tremendously pumped and excited for all that I’m going to learn within the coming months. Awesome people, great discussions, fun games – what more do you...
