Archives

Now that I’ve finally fought off jet-lag and the post-con blahs, I thought I’d spend a few days talking about stuff I saw at GDC that caught my interest. Hopefully it will interest Tap’s community, too.

First up, a quick one: a video from software called Earthsim. Not a game exactly, but an engine and visualization project. Jump below the fold for more.

As many of you know, Ethan Sicotte – known around here by his nom de plume Finkbug – died by his own hand last Friday. I put it that way because I greatly prefer the notice in his local paper: Ethan Sicotte died after a tumultuous battle that he fought valiantly for many years. His death came on his own terms on March 9.

Finkbug was more than a regular at Tap-Repeatedly, he was a fixture, and a friend. His presence extends years before Tap even became Tap, when it was still Four Fat Chicks. He’d been a part of the community for nearly a decade. Everyone who knew him recognized his singular brilliance, his singular wit, his singular nature that made him such an important part of the community.

Finkbug chose to leave us in a way that’s left a lot of people reeling, but no one can be suffering more than his family and close friends. Our thoughts are with those people in their grief. Since Finkbug had been among us for so long, and come to mean so much to so many, it seemed only right to put together a small tribute for him. Here are just a few of the thoughts and memories some Tap members have, decorated with Ethan’s own artwork. In lieu of having Finkbug around, we must take some comfort in his memory, which will be treasured by many here.

— Steerpike

I want to talk to you about a very dangerous individual whose word is, even now, spreading to your very living rooms. This individual has formed a small cadre of loyal followers and true believers on little more than force of personality. This cult is threatens to draw all of you into it if you aren’t careful.

Tappers, I want to talk to you about Commander Shepard.

This week at GDC, I attended many talks. Many of them included lessons I’m still trying to unpack and digest, especially where it comes to my development work. One of the talks happened to be on the topic of Women in Games initiatives. It was given by Mare Sheppard, who was a supervisor for the Difference Engine Initiative, a games incubator focused on female-only development. During her talk, she explained her misgivings about the initiative, discussing problems she felt existed with woman-only game development projects.

Foreword by Steerpike

It was 2008 – around this time of year, actually – that I sent an email to Jen, and asked in oh-so-casual a tone what it cost to maintain Four Fat Chicks, the beloved gaming site she had run tirelessly for nine years before announcing her retirement.

She told me. “Are you thinking about taking it over?” (absolutely not, I thought, I wouldn’t have the first idea how. I’m just curious).

And then: “You should talk to Brad. That’s MrLipid. He asked me the same thing.”

Well heavens, I thought. Maybe we could do it in partnership. That would make it a lot easier. He’d do the work, I’d take the credit, everyone would win. So I got Brad’s phone number from Jen and gave him a call.

Since Mass Effect 3 is right around the corner, I spent my precious gaming hours last weekend reviewing some stuff I missed in Mass Effect 2. Mostly, it was DLC, including the fantastic Shadow Broker story arc (we downloaded this at its launch, but it’s been in my backlog). But I had also skipped one of the crew’s character-focused loyalty missions. That crew member was Legion.

That’s the short title. It fits on a byline. The actual title of this article is “Things that I Saw This Week that Demonstrated What is Wrong With the AAA Game Development Model and Why It Is Unsustainable.” Another real title might be “What I Think About Double Fine’s Million-Dollar Kickstarter and Its Larger Meaning By Way of a Terrible Reality Show.”

Outside the circle of people who develop games, a game “Jam” event isn’t really a well-understood phenomenon. When I told friends I was going to be participating in a weekend-long game event, their assumption, perhaps a natural one, was that I was going to be spending an entire weekend playing games. These sort of marathons have become more common. Often they’re done for entertainment; other times, to raise money for charity. I think overall, a weekend of playing games is more easily comprehended than the strange animal that is a game jam: a one-weekend development event.

Slow and steady wins the race, my friends, and I have slowly and steadily been failing to make much progress in From Software’s bleakly brilliant Dark Souls, as my report here will attest. But it’s about the journey, not the destination, and thus do I share with you more of the journey. I promise, you’ll …

About five years ago, on the message board 4chan, a Japanese artist posted a charming but strange concept illustration. The picture depicted five girls, envisioned as the potential love interests in a Japanese-style visual romance novel. So far, so ordinary, but there’s a twist: all of the young women had a unique disability. One was …