Warstorm!!

Back in the late 90's I became addicted to crack. Not actual crack that you smoke, but crack that some men call "Magic the Gathering."

If you don't know what Magic is, I'll wait while you Wiki it.

Ah, you are back. Good. I started playing Magic around the year it came out. I was a pretty early adopter. I didn't have a Lotus or a Mox, but pretty much everything else. The problem was, I have a little problem. Call it a personality disorder or an addiction. I had too much disposable income and not enough sense. I bought booster packs all the time. You see, games that have additional buyable content - Heroclix, Warhammer 40K, any CCG - they are all made to suck money out of my pocket. I had so many cards that a friend and I (another game designer - co-incidence?) used to play what we called "Iron Man" Magic - whenever a card was destroyed, we ripped it up. WE HAD THAT MANY CARDS.Then I had no one to play against. (even the Iron Man guy) Then I moved. Then I had no friends that played Magic. Then I had lots of boxes of Magic cards sitting around my house for over 10 years. Then I grew resentful of those boxes. Then I gave those cards away to a kid I knew who was interested in Magic. No more Magic for me. (By that time I was into Warhammer 40K)

So no Magic for me for about 12 years. I was cured.

Then came Warstorm. It looks like Magic, there are cards with elves and fighters and demons and orcs and they line up real nice and they even fight the game for you. And oh look, you can buy packs of cards or individual cards or decks just like Magic. And you can use "fake" in-game money or you can USE REAL MONEY to buy more cards. And you don't have to worry about storing them - because they aren't real! And I know have friends all over the internet to play against - and they don't even have to be on-line for me to play against them.

The end (or the beginning) to this story is that I am re-addicted to crack. It is virtual crack, but crack none the less.

Who wants to play?

Get some closure

Kotaku has been running a really good feature on indie games. Their most recent entry on Closure has pointed me to a game that is extremely original and atmospheric.

In it, you are a character that can only see by the light he carries. But Closure gives you a good reason to be afraid of the dark - you see (or don't see - ha ha), whereever the light isn't is where you can fall to your death. Mix a stylish scratchy art style with a moody soundtrack and you have a sinisterly clever puzzle game. It reminded me of the old Mac classic Dark Castle. (and that's a good thing!)

Worth playing!

Time to Level Up!

I am very very proud to announce my new book "Level Up! The Guide to Video Game Design"

"Level Up!" is a practical guide to game design, chock-full of proven tricks and techniques from all my years of game design, as well amusing stories and over 400 original drawings and diagrams. If you've followed (and like) this blog or attended any of my talks, you'll have an idea of what this book is like.

"Level Up!" is available NOW for pre-order at Amazon.com (and other fine e-tailers of books) - please do me a huge favor and pre-order a copy today!

Big announcement coming next week!

OK, so I know I'm lousy about updating this blog. But that's because I've been busy with something BIG!

Keep posted, I'll let you in on all the details next week!

Tuper Tame

Is it Mario Bros. or is it Tetris?

It's BOTH. You have to play Tuper Tario Tros. - it's very compelling and has got my mind spinning to what other great games would taste great together...

Pac-Man and Burger Time?
Sinistar and Quake?
God of War and Legend of Zelda?

The Horseman Cometh!

Tomorrow is the release date for Darksiders - a big sprawling action adventure game from the talented team at Vigil Games that I had the pleasure to help make.



If you like killing demons with giant swords, fighting through dungeons while solving massive environmental puzzles, gigantic bosses and trampling down bad guys with a kick ass horse with fire for hooves, then you should buy Darksiders. You will not be disappointed.

Happy New Year!

There's some big things coming in 2010. Big things.

Stay tuned!

Pac-Man World!

Thinking about working on Pac-Man World fills me with pleasure and pain. It was a very difficult process and we had almost no idea what we were doing, but I made a lot of great friends and we made a hell of a game.

You can read all about it at the Playstation Museum where they have great article and a whole mess of my game designs too!

Another blast from the past!

Pac-Man Ghost Zone was the first version of Pac-Man World I worked on for Namco.

It was canceled (technically, it morphed) into Pac-man World but you can read all about in this great article at Playstation Museum.

You find some interviews and lots of drawings by yours truly including these:

I have no idea why I didn't post this before...

I'm sure everyone on the internet has already played Canabalt, but here's a link anyway.