Notgames Forum

Creation => Notgames design => : Erik Svedäng March 24, 2010, 09:05:35 PM



: Less talk more rock
: Erik Svedäng March 24, 2010, 09:05:35 PM
A good read: http://boingboing.net/features/morerock.html


: Re: Less talk more rock
: God at play March 24, 2010, 10:20:45 PM
Nice find. :)

My input:
Very nice.  This document is basically advocating more work that appeals to the right side of the brain.

The left side of the brain is where most language comprehension occurs.  It also deals with logical, sequential, and analytical thinking.

The right side of the brain reads faces, thinks holistically, intuits, understands art and music.

To put it another way:  Less left-brained, More right-brained.

Our society right now is extremely left-brained biased.  The games we make are naturally a result of that societal bias.


: Re: Less talk more rock
: Michaël Samyn March 25, 2010, 09:15:31 AM
Hehe. I just linked to this in the "Check this out! (http://notgames.org/forum/index.php?topic=166.0)" section. :)

I like the 132 bit. But I think his attack on language and intellect is inappropriate. Or at least simplistic. We've always avoided text in our games at Tale of Tales. We know why. But language is also capable of poetry and ambiguity. Maybe we should approach language more with our right brain half instead of always thinking of it as this rigid neutral communication system. I'm all for idiots shutting up, though. So if we lose a few poets in the process, maybe it's worth it.  ;D

But "make the game, then design it", or "132" is good advice, I think. :)


: Re: Less talk more rock
: Erik Svedäng March 25, 2010, 04:14:04 PM
Yeah, approaching text/words from a rock perspective certainly works within music so why not in games.

The main reason I wanted to link to the article here is actually because when he defines what "the native language of video games" is, he never talks about winning or losing or competition or power struggle or anything game like, instead it's something quite inspiring:

This was the native language of videogames: synesthetic audiovisual expressing a meaning, where sound and image and logic come together and feel right, where the communication is nonverbal but nonetheless articulate, where you understand what's going on the same way you 'get' the communication of a song, the same way you can be blown away by a painting or a piece of sculpture.

I like that, it emphasis that these are the things that are easiest and most natural to achieve in video games. That doesn't mean that other things should not be done (gameplay, language, etc) but they are not the most perfect fit. Even though that's something that we have talked about a lot here it's nice to see other people write about it, especially at a site as big as Boing Boing.

I played the Superbrothers game (Sword & Sworcery) at GDC and it certainly has some notgamesthink in it.


: Re: Less talk more rock
: Michaël Samyn March 25, 2010, 11:04:19 PM
I guess I missed that definition because it was so obvious to me.  :-[

Thanks for pointing it out. It's nice indeed. I just hope it wasn't intended as a euphemism for game design.

When is Sword & Sworcery coming out?


: Re: Less talk more rock
: Erik Svedäng March 27, 2010, 05:16:57 PM
I think they said in a couple of months... but we all now how hard game development is! :)


: Re: Less talk more rock
: God at play March 29, 2010, 02:02:59 AM
I got to play that at the IGF Pavilion.  Great atmosphere!


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