Showing posts with label GAME DESIGNER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GAME DESIGNER. Show all posts

Friday, October 30, 2009

Without further ado: Haruhiko Shono




How hard it is to manage a website - a network of internet contents - on one's own. CoreGamers begun as a project where different sorts of articles could be inserted, from modern to retro gaming, from purely nonsensical delirium to the rigor of profile and interview articles. Of all the plans and expectations I deposited in that site, together with the absent co-founder, I have only been able to carry out the one which I think to be most important; the one where I am able to contribute with a small amount of information about creators who, in spite of their importance to the field of videogames, are not usually taken into consideration by mainstream media.

Some months ago, I advertised the rare chance I was given to interview Haruhiko Shono. As mentioned in the Profile and Interview article I publish today, his name might not be of importance to the witless videogame players of the current generation. I'm sure that even older generation players will have a certain difficulty in associating his name with an actual game title. But one single word, as if by magic, might help telling apart those who truly admire the art that exists in videogames and those who claim to the industry from inside out: and that word is GADGET.

Other relics from times past make their appearance in the article; the ethereal ALICE, one of the first interactive works to appeal to the love for Arts; and L-ZONE, in which the author expresses his matured admiration for video art, machinery and the coming of the digital age. Exceptionally, I've also prepared a long gallery of media to support the article: apart from the unreleased projects, published in the parent visual blog Pixels At An Exhibition, and the several materials I've been publishing for the last months, there will be high quality videos documenting his major creations. Given the fact that the Internet has been rather useless in the research for information concerning this admirable videogame designer, I felt the necessity to bridge the gaps and provide a substantial - while not definite - account of his career and the creations that define it.

This was by far the hardest research project I've dealt with in the last months, although it is extremely rewarding to receive such a positive reaction to the article from Shono himself. And it is at times like these that I understand more clearly that all this work is not in vain: it is an opportunity to learn and to pass that knowledge to others. Lastly, I would like to renew my acknowledgement to Sorrel Tilley whose help in the translation department has proved essential to the fulfilment of this personal goal - and to the many others, friends and strangers who have supported me in the completion of this piece.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Into the Night with Jason Rohrer and Chris Crawford


What an unlikely pair: Franco-German TV arts and culture channel Arte selected two of the most important videogame personalities of different generations and brought them together for their latest edition of the feature Durch die Nacht mit (Into the Night with). Jason Rohrer, the young game designer who is best known for his work in games such as PASSAGE and BETWEEN meets Chris Crawford, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject of video game design.

The documentary was shot in San Francisco, the city that hosted this year’s edition of the Game Developer’s Conference – the starting point for this spontaneous conversation. As the night slowly replaces the day, Rohrer and Crawford wander about the city, engaging in a rather deep albeit contagious dialogue about the root of video games and the process of their creation. While I do not endorse these creator’s visions in full, Rohrer and Crawford do raise some pertinent questions. Based on my first impression, this is by far the best television documentary on the subject of videogames ever made: profound and thought-provoking in its casual and unassuming way.

Apart from the small except embedded in this post, I also took the liberty to upload the full documentary in two parts that can be obtained here and here.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Eric the Ready


Na semana passada recordei-me de um projecto anunciado para o Mega CD que nunca foi concretizado. O seu nome é SHADOW OF ATLANTIS.

Tão pouco podia imaginar, há uma semana, que me iria começar a corresponder com o game designer do mítico projecto, Eric Quakenbush.

Já trocámos algumas mensagens e ele disponibilizou-se a responder a algumas perguntas. Foi extremamente prestável, o que comprova a teoria de que nem todos os criadores de jogos são prima-donnas. Actualmente residindo no Havai, Eric esteve associado à Apple na sua época de ouro e à SEGA aquando dos lançamentos dos add-ons para a Mega Drive, assim como trabalhou com muitas outras companhias de software (uma olhadela ao site dele não magoa).

Esperem uma entrevista, devidamente traduzida, brevemente no COREGAMING.