Jump to content

Welcome to Obsidian Forum Community
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!

Joshin' Around!



Photo

building better worlds

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 12 September 2012 - * * * * * · 8038 views
world design
building better worlds Oh.  Hello there.

I wanted to put some ideas into words to help express what it means to build a world at Obsidian.  It takes a lot of time and effort from a boatload (dirigible-load) of people, but there are some guiding principles that keep us focused on building worlds we love that we hope players will love, too.

No matter what the flavor of the...



Read Full Entry →
11 Comments

Photo

high-level writing principles

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 07 March 2010 - * * * * * · 2387 views
dachshund grooming tips
At work, we have a lot of rules for how to write.  These range from punctuation (single-spacing after terminal punctuation) to spelling ("all right" vs. "alright") to structural (where a "goodbye" response should be relative to a "start combat" response and where that should be relative to a "friendly"...



Read Full Entry →
10 Comments

Photo

tunin' tips and tricks

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 09 November 2009 - - - - - - · 802 views
and 1 more...
At work, I am often directly involved in an aspect of game design that not all designers really deal with: system and content tuning. This is the process by which system rules and content are adjusted to produce a specific effect for the player. E.g. you want the player to feel like he/she really gains a great advantage when he/she gets the raccoon tail in...



Read Full Entry →
3 Comments

Photo

1-bit alpha

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 14 June 2007 - - - - - - · 1022 views
and 1 more...
I dream of a day when 1-bit alpha will go away.  It looks terrible.  There are excuses for why we have to do it right now, but MAN does it look bad.  Tree leaves with 1-bit alpha?  Horrible.  Hair with 1-bit alpha?  Awful.

I have a dream.  Share this dream with me.  Together... we can make it real.

5 Comments

Photo

clarity of purpose in system design

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 07 June 2007 - - - - - - · 820 views
dachshund grooming tips
One of the most important attributes of a good designer is the ability to apply critical thinking to any aspect of a game.  At a convention recently, a bunch of game developers kept repeating how important critical thinking was.  An audience member asked, "Well, what is that really?"

There's this:...



Read Full Entry →
1 Comments

Photo

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (review)

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 23 March 2007 - - - - - - · 604 views
the art of egon schiele
I played GRAW2 back-to-back with Rainbow Six: Vegas, and I found the former lacking in many areas.  Though I would say elements like the GUI, level design, animations, and sound were reasonably solid, the core gameplay itself was often frustrating.  The problems were a culmination of bad AI, a poor command interface, some other generally clumsy mechanics,...



Read Full Entry →
8 Comments

Photo

Rainbow Six: Vegas (review)

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 17 March 2007 - - - - - - · 343 views
suki the cat
Caveat lector: I have not played any of the other Rainbow Six games, so I did not come into this title with many expectations.  Also, I'm just jotting down thoughts in no particular order.

This was the first game I've played for more than a few hours on my Xbox 360.  It felt easy to get into.  Though the game had a lot of mechanics, they were...



Read Full Entry →
4 Comments

Photo

Video Games: Mature Themes

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 02 March 2007 - - - - - - · 1668 views
and 1 more...
Even video games with good writing are usually banal and puerile in their content.  The exploration of themes in games is typically shallow and any didactic purpose the writers attempt to achieve is usually aimed very low.  When an eleven year-old already inherently comprehends and accepts the lesson you are trying to impart, you know you're not...



Read Full Entry →
16 Comments

Photo

rpg mechanics 'n stuff

Posted by J.E. Sawyer , 15 February 2007 - - - - - - · 1222 views
and 1 more...
I have written before about the strange position occupied by RPGs in modern computer gaming (PC or otherwise).  In summary: tabletop RPGs and most of their CRPG kin were born out of mechanics necessitated by the realities of playing a game with dice, paper, and pencils.  Everything was either uncontested expression on behalf of the player or a simulated...



Read Full Entry →
22 Comments




← May 2013 →

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
192021 22 232425
262728293031 

Recent Entries

Recent Comments

  1. Obsidian Forum Community
  2. → Community Blog
  3. → Joshin' Around!