The age of pre-order bonuses is here

Uncharted 2 pre-orders are here and Amazon, Best Buy and Game Crazy join GameStop on the pre-order bonus frenzy. Pre-order bonuses have been around for a while now, but it became popular relatively recently to offer in-game content as incentive to pre-order a videogame. Whether it’s a limited edition power, a special weapon, an extra level or a temporary bonus, in-game content has become the ultimate reward for customers ready to put down some cash in advance for an upcoming game.

Pre-orders bonuses are, at least at first glance, a win-win-win situation. The retailer pays the developer (I assume) to include the customized content; in turn, customers buy more advanced copies from said retailer, ensuring an early revenue from the game; and finally, players get to enjoy an extra bit of content from a game that they, in some cases, were going to purchase anyway.
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The flow of Henry Hatsworth

This weekend I finally got to borrow a copy of Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, a game designed by Kyle Gray, an ETC alum, when he was still working at EA.

I had the pleasure to meet Kyle last year at the ETC when he came and gave us a very good talk on how he successfully pitched Henry Hatsworth to the EA higher-ups and got it green-lit. Right then I made a mental note that I should play this game as soon as it came out, and it wasn’t until now that I actually got the chance.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is, as the title cleverly points put, a puzzle-adventure game: think Bejeweled meets Super Mario Bros. Since the game is made for the DS, it’s very convenient to have the Sidescroller Platformer on the top screen and on the bottom one the Puzzle, where the stylus is most helpful. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Blog Posts featured in Gamasutra

I am very happy to say that the two blog posts that I have re-published in my Gamasutra Blog have been featured shortly after their publication in the front page of Gamasutra. The Phantom Hourglass post was featured last week and the “Games mechanics that tell stories” post was featured at the end of June. Also, the latter was chosen as Gamasutra’s top standout member blog for the week it was released on, back on June 29th.

I encourage everyone interested in writing about design to go and open up a Gamasutra blog, since they are good with catching interesting posts and featuring them in their home page.

Phantom Hourglass’ amazing mistake

Below are spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. Though nothing from the story is spoiled, be warned that a whole temple is.

In my opinion, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is an amazing game. I’ve been a Zelda fan for a long time, however I had never played a handheld Zelda before. I expected to be overwhelmed by a full scale Zelda experience and in turn was pleasantly surprised with a much more streamlined, to-the-point adventure. This is not, however, the point of this post. For in this great game there was one thing, one amazing thing, that I just could not take: the Temple of the Ocean King.
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Mana Burn is dead: a rant

Magic: the Gathering is largely responsible for my first steps to becoming a game designer. I started to look games seriously in the eye around the same time that I discovered Magic, and have come to cherish the process of assembling a 60-card deck as a sort of ritual. When I get an idea for a deck, I go into a trance. Even now, several years after I bought my last Magic booster pack, Magic stays constant as my foremost example of design excellence. But now the rules are changing and I find myself lost in the confusion. Read the rest of this entry »