A free, searchable archive of public domain footage from U.S. government films. Search by describing what you see — CLIP-powered visual search, not keywords.
Really neat search engine for public domain documents and images. Was tipped off to it by this youtube video. Probably useful for people (like me) who love to use public domain material in projects.
It’s just so bad, in so many different ways, on so many different levels. Trying to ignore or excuse any one of the points against it will still leave you with dozens more.
For many games, dialogue choices are a core mechanic (sometimes the only core mechanic), and so they are a means to many different narrative ends. That they don't uniformly have the same level of stakes or "consequence" is, for those games, a feature and not a bug.
The first reveal of a game is the most uncomplicated enjoyment you'll ever have of a game, and to finally play that game when it is released is to play it in its worst, most vulnerable just-launched form, thinking of the game it could have been, the game you wanted and needed it to be.
Really good writing from Pat on games, game design, game development, reward loops, and self-improvement.
We are so used to making games for people who don't want to actually play them, that the idea that people could just play the game because they want to play it is considered naive at best.
A textbook-like anthology of classic essays and articles about video game narrative design.
Amazing resource for games narrative and storytelling techniques.
Thus the video game writer is by nature a very political animal, whose job involves not only writing story but advocating for it and adapting it to changing circumstances as the project evolves. Often the role of producers and team leads in video game studios is to shield their teams from having to throw out work because of iteration; narrative really is no different.
Great post from Bruno about game narrative and how it functions. Highly recommend reading if you're interested in any of this.
The writing I do for a game is our writing, not my writing; it's the game's writing. Its strengths and weaknesses emerge not from the strengths and weaknesses of my soul, but from the strengths and weaknesses in the relationships I have with the team.
laura putting it excellently of course, since she is a great writer.
I am not suggesting we should be paranoid about the tools we use, but I think this sudden interest is indicative of how people are aware that art production is a social activity. Our peers and fans are increasingly familiar with the way we create stuff, and this level of scrutiny is both welcoming and debilitating.
Good piece on the recent Ren'Py generative AI debacle. For what it's worth, I'm making a game in Ren'Py and have no intentions of stopping doing that, but this sucks in a very particular way. I hate the modern age sometimes, you know.
Write branching dialogue games with RPG elements in plain text, with skill voices, 2d6 checks, equipment, and fail states, and share them with a link.
Web based gamedev tool for making Disco Elysium style diceroll text rpgs. Intriguing. I hope there's a downloadable version one day, I like the simplicity here but hate that it's cloud-tethered.