Writers Cabal Blog

Get Social, Get Writing, Get Educated

writerscabal — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:10:18 +0000

Since GDC09, we’ve been busy with appearances and projects. Anne recently spoke at Digital L.A.’s Games Go Social panel in May and discussed the social aspects of games and how successful social games, iPhone games, and casual MMOs are bringing games to the mainstream. Meanwhile, I analyzed the current crop of social games and offered [...]

#1 mistake in game development

writerscabal — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:40:49 +0000

Gamasutra rather ingeniously decided to examine all its game postmortems over the past 3 years and actually look for common denominators. Thank goodness, since I wouldn’t have had the stamina to do it. Their study resulted in a list of 10 problems that repeatedly tripped up developers in making great games on time [...]

System-level Thinking Needed For Narrative Too

writerscabal — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:01:14 +0000

In the book, Changing the Game, by David Edery and Ethan Mollick, the authors give several examples where business failed to understand system dynamics. Basically, retailers didn’t talk to wholesalers or salespeople didn’t communicate with upper management about the circumstances on the street. So, when the salespeople had a sale to move a slow-moving widget, [...]

Highlights from GDC 2009

writerscabal — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:44:02 +0000

If you were at the book signing for Writing For Video Game Genres: From FPS to RPG at GDC 2009, thank you for coming! As you can see from the photo, several of the authors were in attendance. The interest was so high that the publishers even brought down the first IGDA Writers SIG book, Professional [...]

Book Signing at GDC 2009

writerscabal — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:53:14 +0000

If you’re headed to GDC next week, be sure to pick up the latest IGDA Writers SIG book, Writing for Video Game Genres: From FPS to RPG. It’ll be on sale at the GDC bookstore as well as on AK Peters’ Web site, Amazon.com, Borders.com, and in most major bookstores. Plus, a special “Meet the Authors” [...]

Five for Writing Interview

writerscabal — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:34:39 +0000

Short post, short interview up on Richard Dansky’s personal site, Snowbird Gothic. Each week, he gives five questions to writers of all kinds: game writers, comic book writers, novelists, etc. This week, it’s me. Also, if you’d like to vote on Game Design Aspect of the Month’s next topic, please go here. Posted by Sande for Writers Cabal, [...]

A Return to Storytelling

writerscabal — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:12:57 +0000

I’ve just returned from the Engage! Expo (formerly Virtual Worlds 2009), which focuses on virtual worlds rather than MMOs. In the case of virtual worlds, sometimes developers have the Field of Dreams notion of “if you build it, they will come” and there’s nothing planned for activities or story other than “they’ll just do social [...]

Got a problem? Fix it.

writerscabal — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:33:34 +0000

That’s what engineers do! This post brought to you by Writers Cabal, a game writing and design partnership. Found this blog entry useful? Click here to e-mail it to someone.

It’s Coming: Game Design Aspect of the Month

writerscabal — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:04:55 +0000

Here’s your chance to contribute to a new blog! I’m seeking contributions for Game Design Aspect of the Month, a thought-child generated by the new IGDA Game Design SIG mailing list. Each month, guest bloggers from the game industry analyze a game design issue, delve into past examples, highlight elegant solutions, or present new ways of [...]

Game Console Photo Spread

writerscabal — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:39:35 +0000

Think you know game consoles? Then take a walk down memory lane with Sande’s presentation at the IGDA NYC’s Pecha Kucha night! For Pecha Kucha night, each slide lasts 20 seconds. There are 20 slides in all. Are you ready? Here we go! Did you manage to guess any names or dates? This post brought to you by Writers [...]