Sunday is reserved for still not quite fully recovering from the clock-winding mishap that kept him up at The Game Awards. Listen, central nervous system, how much damn sleep do you want? Remember how we stayed up until 1am playing? left 4 Dead with strangers from the Muse message board and then getting up for an early shift at Sainsbury's without any ill effects? You used to be cool.
Another cool thing: reading. By the way, here are some highlights from the last few days.
One of the most interesting – or at least unusual – discoveries of TGS was Chicken Foot Covenan adventure puzzle game where you play as an elderly witch trying to persuade a furry monster to help her through the forest. It is in development at Wildflower Interactive, a studio founded by The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 director Bruce Straley, who conversation with Polygon's Giovanni Colantonio about the differences between working on this and his previous blockbusters.
“I'm scared as hell!” he says. “For me, a lot depends on this. Call it ego, call it reputation, call it outdated bullshit, whatever it is, but the fact that every day we show up and there's something new that makes us laugh and excite, I just can't wait for people to play it. This is something unique that will stand the test of time. It's not something you need to do in the next four years, a remaster, because the technology has outgrown that.”
Not quite from last week, but: What makes a good parry? Hee Hong Chan conducts research for Game Developer.
“Good parrying requires players to take a sort of counterposition. Instead of standing in safe places to avoid enemy attacks, they want to identify the space that the enemy controls with their attack and stand inside it,” Safford said. “The worst kind of parry is one that is too good. If everything in the game is reliably parried, the space-time elements of the combat system begin to collapse. Positioning no longer matters because there is no incentive to position yourself outside the enemy's attack range.”
Mobile games chief Christian Lövstedt published an open letter on his Facebook page. LinkedIn – Here resume from GI.biz if you can't access it, blame the gaming industry for ignoring this area and/or call mobile games loveless sources of gacha income. It's passionate and, I think, sincerely argued, although I'm not sure the writing pays enough attention to games (or rather business models) that are truly designed to make money without love.
Awards and the media shape perceptions of what is considered culturally or creatively valuable. When mobile is excluded, we send a message to developers, investors and publishers that mobile is no place for ambition and creativity. This history influences hiring, funding and who takes center stage on stage.
In non-game situations here A. A. Dowd for The American Prospect next – and I really like this title so I'm just going to reprint it verbatim – The Hit Hollywood Didn't Want.
Of course, Coogler isn't just alluding to the inequalities of the country built on them. “Sinners” wants something more specific about how white America covets and exploits black art. What exactly are vampires if not ruthless culture vultures such as musicians and label executives who absorbed the sounds of the blues, homogenizing it for white audiences? Coogler's personal connection to this material is evident enough in the deep love of music running through his plump veins. Moreover, “Sinners” positions itself as an allegory of black artists fighting for ownership—of their work, of their space, of their future. It's a resonant theme for a director still grappling with the challenges of making art in a big studio (sometimes for Disney, no less) without giving away his soul.
I keep watching movies, man, where's my car? screenwriter Phil Stark recalls his creation and believes: for the Hollywood Reporter – how badly it has aged.
But comedy has changed dramatically over the past quarter century. This became apparent to me after watching DWMC recently, when I was struck by how much the humor made me cringe. And it wasn't just that I was watching it with my kids, for whom I am the main source of cringe. What made me cringe is that 25 years later, some of the comedy seems so dated and even offensive. Of course, the tone is light and silly, and much of the humor comes from Ashton and Seann's charming and deadpan performances. But there is a lot of humor that is played out at the expense of transgender people, ethnic minorities, women, gays, religious cults and Fabio. Did he feel this awkward 25 years ago? I don't think so. At the time, humor seemed appropriate. However, so does Matchbox Twenty.
This week's music is a rock band from Yorkshire. Marmosetsor as I call them when I'm suffering from brain fog – definitely not the hidden result of all these L4D sessions – Band Can You Keep It ToGETH-A-AH. Have a nice Sunday.
