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Randy Smith

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  • The Art Of Telling Stories

    Great games, like great stories, are more than just a random collection of good scenes.

    A medium is anything a signal passes through, and one can build up from the physical layers, the wires, speakers and photons, and cross into the abstract layers, such as paintings, songs and movies. These group further into similar art forms, such as ‘the moving image’, ‘the visual arts’, or ‘the auditory arts’. Part of the excitement surrounding videogames is that we’re part of a whole new species of art, ‘interactive art’, and therefore siblings with any other art in which the audience can change the content in real time.

    July 27, 2009
  • What Does It Take To Make You Care?

    It's all about simulating emotional scenarios: Randy Smith concludes his series of columns about the challenge of making games that aren't fun to play.

    If someone doesn’t defeat the monsters in the cave, the villagers will be forced to abandon their ancestral homeland, but you only care about what’s in it for you. Why are you such a heartless bastard?
    June 29, 2009
  • Bad Ideas For Games That Aren’t Fun

    Part three in Randy Smith's musings over making games that aren't fun to play.

    It’s painful to watch as Theo Faron drags himself out of his jaded, selfish mire in the film Children of Men. His ex-wife offers him a chance to help her rebel cause, but he refuses until she’s also offering cash. Time and again he opts to watch his own back, until the stakes are so high, the values become so close to his heart, that he finally undertakes those outrageous risks and makes sacrifices for what he believes is important.

    May 15, 2009

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aryshirazi's picture
from aryshirazi

Hi Randy, my name is Ary Shirazi, i am a recent game design graduate and i've been working on my own brand of "interactive animation" (i.e a 'game' story) for the past 2 to 3 years.

Altho there hasn't really been any info on LMNO....it sounded like it's a game returning to the LucasArts days of progessing a story being the whole point of the gameplay... in any case im glad that people are working on such a mysterious project.

I've only recently bumped into your blog on the edge-online website, but have read a few of the coloumns you've written in the back of the magazine... the things you are discussing struck me, as ive been writing and preaching similar thoughts during my time at art college 4 years ago and during my degree.

I'm also drawn towards Steven Poole's views of the medium as well as Ernest Adams (if you havent read his article Where's Our Merchant Ivory? on gamasutra i highly suggest it)

However, id like to suggest you read through my dissertation which talks about the unique properties of game time and game space, interactivity, immersion and flow (with research into mihail czk ... you know who i mean) the outdated narrative design (or screenwriting) in games today... and how the young generation of game designers graduating now is reminisant of the first film students coming out film school pushing the medium to a true art form..(i'm not sure how to "attach" a document here as this isnt an email, i will send you the document if you wish to read it)

We aren't designers that sit behind desks.... we're a new kind of artist.. artists of the globalised 21st century!

Any sort of feedback would be highly appreciated - The dissertation is linked to my interactive animation project (my attempt at gamings equivalent of the 2 hour movie).. i think its possible.. and in fact, id love to see a video game story win an Oscar in my lifetime.

Cheers

Ary Shirazi

April 29, 2009
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