Even though we are all still searching for the ultimate interactive storytelling experience, it is hardly arguable that video games have made progress in bringing slices of interaction into storytelling or, given their nature, storytelling into interaction. They have managed to do this in many ways, some of them definitely more effective than others, including examples such as Indigo Prophecy, KOTOR or Story Machine games such as Civilization or any sports game.

But there is a particular kind of interactive storytelling that I find more compelling than the others, even though I do not really think it holds the key to the zenith of interactive storytelling. I am talking about game mechanics that tell stories: player interactions that are charged with meaning and go beyond simple button presses – they are translated into story elements that bring us closer to the characters and closer to the story. Continue Reading »

Balloon Man

A bit more than a week ago I had the pleasure of participating on IGDA’s first Global Game Jam and had a very good experience. The event kicked off with this brilliant keynote by Kyle Gabler and so we were off into our 48-hour design and development adventure.

It took us quite a while to finalize our concept and game idea, but when it happened, it was one of those magical moments where you just know everyone is on board. And when everyone is on board, I always find myself engulfed by this feeling that nothing can go wrong.

This time, though, there was plenty of room for a bunch of things to go wrong. We were working with Flash and did not have a Flash programmer, for example, and our two artists (me included) did not really have much experience with Photoshop (or Illustrator, for that matter).

However, everything started working out slowly. Concept art looked promising, early music finds were good, and general vibe was definitely good. We were making relatively good time and coming up with something we all liked.

And then it happened. We realized it, completely out of nowhere. We were making an art game.

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