Game design

2015
15 Jul

From 'Inanimate Alice' to 'The Fantastic Flying Books': How Transmedia and Digital Books Are Transforming School Libraries

What is a book, anyway? If players of the brooding computer game Dear Esther can consume a full-blown ghost story simply by wandering at will through a deserted island in Scotland's Hebrides (finding fragments of letters, music, and clues as they walk), shouldn't that be called a book? Critics can't seem to agree on a name for this new genre reflected in Inanimate Alice: multimedia online novels, ebooks, touchable TV, paratext, or technotext have all been used.
2015
29 Jun

A Frissonic Monday MBD Update: Who'dathunkit?

So now that you're getting used to a MBD update mid-week....SURPRISE! Let's mix-it-up-a-tad and slot one into the Monday mix [this could be the last for a while, as that workaholic mode is gonna be revved up high for the foreseeable future - so let's go at it full pelt, shall we?]: Locking in the interview date/time for "
2015
26 Jun

Sunset, Tale of Tales and FailGames

After reading the news that the experimental game studio Tale of Tales has sadly ceased game development after their latest game, Sunset, sold only 4,000 copies, I immediately reached out to one half of the ToT's crew, Auriea Harvey. Auriea and her partner in all aspects, Michaƫl Samyn, have been creating work in the same online spaces for as long as I have.
2015
25 Jun

MBD Mid-Week Update: Happenings + Shenanigans

So here we are again having made it past hump-day, and I'm in the mood for another MBD update - just don't get rampantly addicted to these, as they depend entirely on whether I'm trapped in a workaholic timesink [I'm currently in such, but I'm also in lovely warm denial]. Let's whiz through this week's happenings at MBD Headquarters, shall we?
2015
18 Jun

This Week at MBD: Digital Fictions, Peer-Reviewing, Publications + Reviews

Alright, so this week - although only being officially half-over - has contained some absolute gems in the rampant-excitement-department: let's quickly cycle through em, shall we? #PRISOM has been delightfully analysed in "Thinking Through Digital Media", a book that: "...offers a means of conceptualizing digital media by looking at projects that think through digital media, migrating between documentary, experimental, narrative, animation, video game, and live performance.