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Sadly, in many adventures, character interaction has presented itself as extra window dressing rather than as a primary gameplay element. At most, it is useful in the way that talking to a character sometimes provides clues as to how to solve a puzzle; other times, it is simply a fun little diversion and nothing more. Save for a relatively minute handful of exceptions, what you say or do to characters has no significant effect on the game itself — if you make someone angry by choosing one dialogue option, it is virtually forgotten by the time you go back and choose a different one. Although a mixture of clever writing and careful limiting of possible choices can effectively maintain the player's suspension of disbelief in this regard, it still begs the question as to what an adventure game would be like if non-player characters did remember how the player treated them. This is a question I plan to explore at length throughout the making of Chivalry is Not Dead.

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Whether your chosen medium is pictures or language, food or formulas, everyone has the capacity to be creative in their work. But we can often lose our motivation to create, making it difficult to stay focused and excited on a project. So how does one keep their creative well from drying up?

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In our weekly game design column, Activision's James Portnow discusses the many different kinds of arcs in games, and how they can serve as a means of keeping a player invested in a game.

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At the 'Once Upon a Time… Storytelling in Games Today' panel at this year's Penny Arcade Expo,
Sam & Max developer Dave Grossman, former LucasArts creator Ron Gilbert and Nate Fox from Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper) talked at length about linearity, choice, death, and tragedy in modern games.

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Videogames shouldn’t try and develop more complex stories, because designers haven’t found a way to make it work well enough, according to two of the industry’s longest-serving storytellers.

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Activision’s James Portnow analyzes the various methods of penning stories for games…

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This article is about creating a window into player activities by using passive tracking systems to measure and improve the player experience.

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My introduction to adventure games may be unique or it may not, but it's my story. There are probably as many stories of how this genre entered into someone's life as there are adventure gamers. So what draws someone to this genre and why do they stay?

For me, there are a few things, and they continue to affect the games I choose to play. The primary reason is the idea of escape. That is the original reason I got so hooked. Being on Myst island meant leaving behind the tough cases, temperamental clients and annoying co-workers, if only for a few hours. One of the best ways for me to escape, and to honor my investigative tendencies, is lots of exploration. Even when playing adventure games today, be it first or third-person perspective, full of other characters or not, I love being able to travel around the environment and have a look around, even if there aren't many things to click on. That is one of the reasons why I love Syberia so much (and have replayed it at least three or four times).

The other main reason why I love adventure games is the story.......

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Balancing one’s day job and game production is not an easy task. There’s a great thread about How to balance game production and your day job at the new game producer forums. The thread contains some excellent pieces of advice, and I simply had to share these with you blog readers.








I’m sure all of us would like to know how to get more hours… but sometimes it can be about how to spend the few hours we have.








Here’s some tips from the members about how to balance game production and your day job.

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There are three important principles I’ve practiced to get traffic to my website. This article covers how these principled helped me to get 206,670 visitors to see what I have to offer. The article headline actually contains all these principles - in an erroneous manner.

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Game business question regarding profits was posed at the Indiegamer thread. I made a brief post at the forums, and decided to describe bit deeper these factors on the blog too. Here are 11 factors that can kill your game business.

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Activision's James Portnow examines the methods games use to create a sense of reward that keeps gamers coming back for more.

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Why do so many of our characters fall flat? In his weekly game design column, Activision's James Portnow explores why so many videogame characters turn out to be "anemic marionettes."

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Anyone who thinks they have come up with an idea that is completely new, and not influenced by any existing work, is either:








* An absolute genius (or possibly a messiah of some sort)
* Delusional
* Lying








With all the folks I've met over the years, I never had the pleasure of meeting the first type, but plenty of the second two.

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How many people have you killed? How many animals have you slaughtered? How many planes have you shot down? Aliens have you murdered? Anthropomorphic-turtles have you bopped?







Are you ... evil?







Videogames are violent affairs. No gamer can deny he's committed hundreds of awful acts that in normal society would have him captured, maimed or killed in retaliation. Not that all violent acts are evil, but it's safe to assume at least someone would be upset that his loved one was not coming home from the battlefield. Players never really think about the consequences of their virtual violence, and that is by design.

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Defining the precise role of a scriptwriter in the videogame industry is not as straightforward as pointing out the rather obvious "dialogue" tip of the game development iceberg. Although scriptwriters are a moderately recent addition to the dev team, their function can be surprisingly widespread, and when properly involved, a professional writer can turn an ordinary game into an extraordinary entertainment experience.

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In his latest column, Activision's James Portnow has a "eureka" moment about one of the biggest issues in game design: choice. You may be surprised with his conclusion...

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It's time once again for another edition of that annual favorite, Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! Since last year I've collected up another batch of Twinkie Denial Conditions from my readers, which I present for your edification and entertainment.

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Follow along as Activision's James Portnow delves deeper into one of the most dizzying game design elements: choice.

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Our design expert discusses clear goals with John Romero

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Game Designer is one of those mythical positions everyone wants to fill. What isn't cool about getting to actually make the games you love so much? What isn't cool about being able to brag to all of your old-school gaming buddies that you are a real live game designer? What isn't cool about getting to come up with awesome ideas and having the programmers and artists implement them? Well, there isn't anything uncool about any of that. Unfortunately, reality is a bit different.

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This essay looks at the foundations of interactive storytelling, with a focus on their relevance to computer games. Tabletop RPGs (and the related medium of adventure gamebooks) are an important part of the background and history of this new medium, but will forever by a minority pursuit. Computer games, on the other hand, look set to take the reigns of interactive storytelling and bring them to a broad, diverse and expectant audience.

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Death on the Nile, the downloadable game, sells 10 million copies in six months as casual gamers hop on board

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