Player’s Bill of Rights

By On February 3, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In Adventure Games, Game Design, Level Design, Puzzle Design, User Interface Design

Years ago, when I used to play with interactive fiction languages, I happened upon The Player’s Bill of Rights by Graham Nelson. It was a part of his Craft of Adventure essay and it was mostly lost to the archaeological strata of the Internet. Despite its age and obscurity, the Player’s Bill of Rights more »

Continue Reading →

How Process Changes You

By On May 6, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Uncategorized

I’ve been struggling with the start to the book I want to write. The urge to write it hasn’t faded, and I have the opening scene in my head. The problem is that I’ve changed in the many years since I used to write regularly.

When I used to write, I would sit down with more »

Continue Reading →
miner engineer

Virtual Life in Crags

By On October 30, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Cancelled Games, Game Design, Game History, Post Mortem, Strategy Games

I was hired at Media Station, Inc. (MSI) in 1997 as Senior Producer/Designer for multiple game titles. At the time, MSI specialized in children’s titles developed for Disney and Hasbro, among others. Although they had just finished a core game title (Extreme Tactics), they wanted to make improvements in the design and process for their more »

Continue Reading →

Music from Shadows

By On September 26, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Cancelled Games, Game History, Post Mortem

I found an archive of Shadows, which included the music. It was great (and sad) to hear it again after all these years. The Main Theme was especially moving for me, since it was closely tied to the game’s story as well as our development of the game.

You can listen to the MP3s via more »

Continue Reading →