I had a great conversation with one of my best friends today on IM. She's not in the video game industry but somehow is doing researches about games. And by sharing my thoughts on video games and art with her I learned a lot myself.

In short, video game can be Art if you make it.

And here are my lazy IM notes...

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The Hollywood trades paper, Variety, is running a piece today on ten innovators in entertainment, and we are humbled to have been named one of them! Alongside luminaries the range from LucasFilms to La Blogotheque, we're totally stoked to have gotten a nod.

Articles and video interviews can be found here.

Yahoo! News Featured this little ditty on their front page yesterday:

Great Games for Small Budgets

from the article:
"Gas prices got you down? Mortgage rates keeping you up at night? As the country teeters on the brink of a recession, are you feeling the pinch? Never fear: although your entertainment budget might be strained, you don't need to go without fun altogether. Check out this collection of cut-price classics -- including a few Best of 2007 game nominees -- all widely available for under $30."

I think it looks a feels and lot better. You can navigate sans mouse, games and add-ons are easier to find, and overall it loads much faster (although there seems to be problems with individual icons appearing). Also, you can see if you have already downloaded a game, as opposed to the old system where they would just disappeared from the store all together.

Featured Items:
Original flOw game w/ fancy Game Developers Choice Awards Recipient logo on it!
flOw Bundle (original game + expansion for $8.99)

Hooray!

What are your thoughts on the new store? How do you think it could be improved?

The development team Tale of Tales is somewhat of a sister studio to ours. They develop games that explore richer emotional themes and content not traditionally found in the current video game market landscape. Most recently, they were finalists in the Independent Games Festival with their game "The Path," a dark and haunting game that toys with the player's sense of direct goals and achievements while the story of the game plays with the themes of "Little Red Riding Hood."


They've been gathering quite an interesting interview series, the last of which, we are honored to say, is an interview with our Creative Director, Jenova Chen.
The same TGC concepts you are probably familiar with are explored, but Jenova goes into much more depth about his background and beginnings as a game developer, and I think the dialogue becomes more interesting in lieu of the nature of ToT's games.

Click here for the interview.

Our friends and former colleagues at USC published a Postmortem on their Independent Games Festival Student Showcase 2008 entrant, "The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom." Mentions of Jenova and thatgamecompany aside, it certainly rings true with out experience on student games, and I thought it might be helpful for those of you out there looking to start your own.



Read the article here.

Sorry for the radio silence over here! As usual, it's coming right before another deadline - a playtest on Monday!

Inspired by the Portal's team commitment to a playtest each week, we've ramped up our own playtest schedule to once every 4 weeks. Maybe we can ramp it up even more! Playtesting is the single most exciting and terrifying moment as a game developer. It's exciting to get real answers to some of the questions you've been having in your head such as "Will they be able to figure this out? Will they even notice this? Is this the suckiest game that ever sucked?" It's terrifying because you have to sit in agony as players show you they CAN'T figure it out, they DIDN'T notice that, and your game really IS the suckiest game ever.

I usually don't do Fan Art Features in such quick secession, but this drawing from 7-year old Pol just warmed all of our hearts this week.



"My name is Pol and I'm from Sant Cugat, near of Barcelona, Spain.
I seven years old
I like your game so much."

Thanks, Pol! We love this drawing!

I was going through my YouTube "favorites" folder this morning, and came upon a video I found a couple of years ago.

It's a clip from a documentary titled "Chambre 666," shot during the Cannes Film Festival of 1982. During the festival, director Wim Wenders set up a camera in this hotel room and invited various directors to come in and discuss their thoughts on the future of cinema. A 1982 Steven Spielberg(post-Raiders of the Lost Ark, pre-E.T.) shares his thoughts.



I get an eerie sensation watching this video. Possibly because the subject he addresses is so similar to the subject that game developers have been harping on for the last few years. And maybe this makes me feel like I'm seeing the future of video games in this weird way, by watching 1982 Spielberg discuss his frustration with the business of film making, but knowing that he would go on to create hit after hit after hit. Did he intentionally or accidentally contribute to the very problem over which he expresses concern? Does he wish he had made more personal films, or did his opinion on this subject change?

At any rate, whether you read into this clip as much as I do or not, I hope you enjoy this interview with someone from what's known as the first generation of directors who were able to study film in college, and went on to change the film industry as it was understood at the time.

Forum member APVangeliLMS was kind enough to post this PSP theme for us.

Thanks, APVangeliLMS, for letting us flOw-out our PSPs!

Download the .ptf file here.