Thanks to Liza Daly, I have a guest blog post up at Threepress about interactive storytelling — it’s not mostly stuff that will exactly be new to readers of this blog, but it’s aimed at writers or publishers who might want to use interactivity.
Linkage
Worth a look: Why Moral Choices in Video Games Are No Longer Fun. It’s mostly decrying black-and-white moral choices as found in Fable, BioShock, and Knights of the Old Republic; despite the title, it’s not an argument that moral choices have no place in games, only that they’re currently being done too poorly to deserve the name.
Latest HiS
About an HBO-advertising interactive film project. Here.
Broken Legs review on JIG
Over here. (Not by me.)
Gamasutra interview with Susan O’Connor
There’s an interesting interview over on Gamasutra with Susan O’Connor, who has written for a number of major games, including BioShock and Far Cry 2. There’s a wide range of stuff in there, including her personal background and some observations about the industry, but what struck me as especially notable for readers of this blog were her comments at the top of page 3 (too long to just quote here), in which she talks about managing how much of a gameplay conversation is about conveying gameplay mechanics and how much is about story.
More Flash Progress
Some more images from the game in progress, showing gameplay power-ups. The winged sandal speeds up play, but gives a score bonus; the staff of Hermes arranges the letters in a sorted pattern, making them easier to use; the Gorgon’s head just freezes them all in place, which is also useful, though less good than the sorting.
(Some game design notes from mid-project, in case anyone is interested, and for my own future reference.)
Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling 