The new thing
So this site is emerging from the ashes of Gameintestine.com. GI was a site I created when I thought the road to video games was through FAQ writing and games reporting. Although I got some press (The Escapist Magazine) and a loose contingent of fans (Kotaku), the work I was doing was very very time consuming with few rewards. It was fun but unmanageable.
Back in GI days, I was too scared to make games. I had a computer science degree but I was always intimidated by the intensity of the programming. Games are real time, they must run fast, and they need to look awesome. But somewhere around 2007, when independent games really became more mainstream, I saw some really interesting games that were not huge graphically-intensive multi-media explosions. I went for it.
Now I still don’t know much about game programming. But since going to GDC 2010, attending some IGDA meetings, and participating in my first game jam, I am totally committed.
I want my games to reflect my personal interests and to be more about the real world. Without going into too much detail (I will save it for another post), games (both indie and mainstream) are afraid to even mention the real world. For instance, if a movie or a TV show were to mention the New York Times or I don’t know…. Joan Rivers, it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. However, it would be jarring in a game world. Games seem stuck in a world of magic or at least one on a different dimensional plane than the one we live on. But, I am not proposing Serious Games which are usually heavy handed screeds about the war in Afghanistan or the BP oil spill. I just want my games to have an awareness of current events.
Well, I should wrap this up because I really need to get back to that game programming that I said I would be doing. This blog is intended to track my progress. It will include tutorials for techniques that stopped me cold before figuring them out. I will post screen shots and mission statements for my games. Maybe even interviews with other people. It is just going to be salad of stuff.
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