Unwinnable

One of the best things about GDC is the chats you have with people – with other writers, with players, with developers. One of the worst things about GDC is losing those chats to the ether the moment they are over. I was really looking forward to talking to Walt Williams, the lead writer on 2K and Yager’s Spec Ops: The Line. Mostly, I just wanted to know how he felt about the book I wrote about the game he wrote. And, as it turned out, he wanted to talk to me. So after he gave his GDC presentation on how to build characters through violence, we sat down in a quiet corner of Moscone West and had a chat. We had a chat for over an hour that slipped and slid from one topic into another and back again, from Spec Ops to videogames to writing to criticism. (more…)

We often like to think the thing that makes videogames special is “interactivity.” But this idea of being able to “interact” with the creative work doesn’t really tell us anything special about videogames at all. It’s not that videogames aren’t interactive – of course they are. But, in their own ways, all media are interactive. We don’t have to keep pressing buttons to make a film carry through from start to end, but we have to use other parts of our body (our eyes, our ears, our brains) to turn a series of disconnected, imitated scenes performed by actors we’ve seen a dozen times before filmed in giant warehouses into a narrative of original characters overcoming some challenge. We take the sights and sounds presented to us by a film, and then we interact with those sights and sounds by turning them into the textual thing we consume. (more…)

I’m playing Sonic the Hedgehog on my cousin’s Sega Master System. I’m probably about five years old. It’s the earliest memory of playing a videogame that I have. My cousin is teaching me how to jump over what my brothers and I for many years to come would call “cracks” (those gaps in every platformer ever, the ones usually lined with spikes at the bottom). I know how to jump, and I know how to move Sonic forward, but I am struggling to combine the two. I stand on the edge of the crack (marveling at the way Sonic would balance on his tippy-toes); I press jump, and then I hold the directional pad. Sonic goes straight up, then diagonally down into the crack. Dead.

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Artist’s intentionality is a tricky thing to deal with in criticism. Does the artwork mean what the artist claims it means or what the audience interprets it to mean? It’s a question that artists and critics have debated for many years longer than videogames have existed and they are going to debate it for many years more.

The truth, I think, is somewhere in the middle. The artist’s intent isn’t the be-all and end-all of what the artwork means, but neither is it to be entirely discounted. When we judge an artwork as either being a good or a bad piece of art, we are usually judging it in relation to what the author intended to do when they created it – or, at least, in relation to what we surmise are the author’s intentions from the artwork itself. Watching Inglourious Basterds, I don’t think “This is a terrible rom-com!” because, clearly, Tarantino wasn’t trying to make a rom-com. Ultimately, what the audience gets out of the artwork is final, but what the audience gets out of the artwork is, in some way, going to be influenced by what they think the artist was intending to do. (more…)

If the voting for this list is any indication, 2012 was an incredible year for games. Over 40 contributors nominated 91 games – a dizzying cross-section of games across all platforms from PC to console to mobile. Every top ten list a contributor submitted dramatically changed the standings. There were moments when games as different as Borderland 2, Hotline Miami and Dear Esther all occupied the top spot. Almost every contributor’s list had a game on it that I had never heard of before – Howling Dogs, Zaga-33, Dead Trigger and more. Mobile and downloadable games went toe to toe with the biggest AAA titles. Even more surprising, they won in a landslide.

There was a lot to love this year. The top standings wound up being so interesting that I could not limit it to a mere best ten games of 2012. A baker’s dozen seemed much more appropriate. So, without further ado, dive in to Unwinnable’s favorite games of 2012!  (more…)

Much like Douglas Wilson’s Johann Sebastian Joust, former BioWare programmer Henry Smith’s new iOS game Spaceteam embraces the play that happens on this side of the screen, between players. What’s happening on your phone’s screen is largely only there to facilitate the experience between the players as they yell commands at each other in a collaborative attempt to avoid being consumed by an exploding star. (more…)

The turkey has been eaten. The belt has been loosened. Some folks are working off their food coma in front of the TV, watching a football game or a movie. Some folks are on the computer, looking at their favorite websites. To you, we say, “Welcome!” Team Unwinnable is off with family and friends, just like you, but every year we leave behind something to help pass your idle hours. Now that you’ve fed your stomach, here’s a menu of sixteen favorite pieces from 2012 to feed your brain. Bon appetit! (more…)