First Post

Hello all,

I'm Chris, and I've been making games for a couple of years. Some of those games have been focused on narrative, and I wanted to start a blog to share some of my thoughts related to narrative design, game writing, and games in general.

I'll try to keep things specific to narrative design - I hear that a good blog should be about one thing. However, at times I might digress and end up discussing subjects related to the industry, storytelling, and this crazy art form that is "making games." Things will happen, and I'll have thoughts. I tend to have a lot of thoughts.

I plan to add a few posts a week, and to make each post specific to one game or one subject related to narrative design. For every game that I write (or rant) about, I'll discuss the things I like about it, maybe a few things that I don't, and try to relate the whole thing back to a single subject that applies to games and stories in general (at least that's the plan).

But first, one super important point about game development.

It's so easy to put on the "critic" hat and tear a game apart (also a little fun). And you could even argue that games need harsh critiques to keep the whole medium moving forward.

BUT...

As a developer, I've learned something about games, and that is one simple fact:

Every game that ships - that goes through all the slings and arrows of development to actually make it out the door - is a MIRACLE!

No matter how bad you think a game is, no matter how much you want to go up to the developers and say, "What were you THINKING?!!" I can guarantee you that there was a dedicated team of professionals who put their hearts and souls into making it. This industry runs on many things (mostly money), but it mostly runs on the hearts and souls of developers.

And without the dedication and love that developers put into their product, there would be no games industry at all. We should never forget this. Games are hard to make, ya know?

Anyhoo, that's enough for the first post. In my next post, I plan to write a bit about choices in games.