The Empowerment Fantasy – How To Write A Successful Video Game

It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that just seems to be growing bigger and bigger. It’s now at the point where people will willingly spend their time, making their own Indie games without even thinking about getting money back from it. Everybody plays video games as well. Statistics show that a whopping 48% of women game, only 4% less than men. 39% of gamers are also over the age of 36 so it appears that there’s no limit on that either.

My Big Reveal!

My followers, I know, I know, I’ve been pretty quiet on here lately, but there’s been a good reason for that! Back in November, I quit my day job and started working as a Narrative Designer full time on a critically acclaimed MMORPG called “Path of Exile”. With around 16 million active players, this is a pretty big deal, and one I have felt greatly honored to be a part of.

Today, the first fruits of my hard work have been revealed. A trailer, announcing the new expansion for the game. So without further ado, I give you “Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath”

Writing Meaningful Games: Establishing Narrative Design As A Form Of Literature

A few days ago, my boss posted an interesting comment on a Game Writing Facebook page we both belong to. His question was this:

“What is the most ‘meaningful game you’ve ever played… and why did you find it meaningful?”

He asked this question because as a fairly well established Narrative Designer, he’s been as of late experiencing a little bit of a career crisis – he can’t for the life of him find any games that he actually feels ‘changed’ by.

We’ve been discussing this off and on for a few weeks now, and the question has gotten me thinking. What is a meaningful game? Are there any out there? If not, how do we as narrative designers need to write them?

The “Don’t Show The Monster” Rule: Ambiguity, Terror and Dislocation In Weird Horror

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A highly important rule in horror, in particular Lovecraftian/Weird horror is the rule of not showing the monster. Although this is perhaps a bit of a mislabeling, what we are looking for in this style of horror fiction is not necessarily the omission of the monster or monsters, but the tasteful showing of said creature, paired with a respect for suspense throughout the story.

Allow me to unpack this a bit further.

Horror, especially in film mediums hinges on the understanding and following of this rule often times. The reason why some horrors work while others don’t is due to this factor of ambiguity. The ones that do work work because the story plays with and cause us to question things that we know to be true. A successful horror story needs to combine some element of fear of the unknown.

“The Shallows” A Coming Of Age Survival Horror?

Once again, my partner and I found ourselves on a rainy New Zealand Sunday with not much to do. We decided to jump on the bandwagon and head long with our flatmates to the cinema and check out the latest Shark attack movie The Shallows.

The Shallows is an American film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Run All Night), written by Anthony Jaswinski (Vanishing On 7^th Street) and starring Blake Lively (Gossip Girl). It follows the horrifying story of a young medical student named Nancy who arrives at the unnamed beach her mother visited while pregnant with her, and ends up stranded atop a coral reef 200 yards from the shore, while a gigantic great white stalks her from the water.

American Horror Story: A Marketing Merry-Go-Round

With the advent that is American Horror Story returning shortly to our screens via Season six, the internet is being flooded with promotional material for the show – trailers, posters, articles, etc.

In fact, to date, we have 19, yes NINETEEN teasers for the new show, all toying with the fans and asking that infamous question: What is this season’s THEME?

Yes, American Horror Story is back at it again with generating intense interest among fans and skeptics alike as to what exactly it will be about this time around. It’s amazing to me how well they do this.

Post Colonialism In From Software’s Bloodborne: The Foreigners’ Journey

Authors’ note: This Post is Part 1 in a 3 Part Series. Stay tuned for more.

Authors’ note: Due to the nature of Bloodborne lore, certain bits of information in this article may change over time to reflect a more accurate understanding of the games’ story and mythology. While I will always try my best to deliver the most accurate information as possible, due to the constant changing nature of theories around Bloodborne I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy all the time. I will however strive to make sure that the post colonial analysis of this series remains equally valid even if some of the smaller details do change.

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of From Software’s 2015 game Bloodborne. So much so, that I have already written articles about it several times in the past. Recently, during some academic study I have been doing, I was prompted to find myself a copy of RedGrave’s seminal work – The Paleblood Hunt and give it a read. The Paleblood Hunt which you can read here, is essentially an 80 page analysis of the complex and confusing story of Bloodborne by which, the author submits ten chapters unpacking each of the multifaceted stories contained within the game’s narrative, layering upon them as you read through, until hopefully the game makes a little more sense.

Strange Flesh: The Use Of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction: The Glittering World (2015)

Authors Note: This is Part 6 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 and Part 5

The Glittering World is a 2015 novel by author and award-winning playwright Robert Levy. It tells the story of Michael “Blue” Whitley, his best friend Elisa, her husband – Jason and Blue’s romantic admirer, a young twenty-year-old named Gabriel, or Gabe.

Traveling to Blue’s estranged childhood home town and ex-commune of Starling Cove in Canada, the gang intend to sell the house of Blue’s even more estranged grandmother, which was left for him in her will. Upon arriving however, Blue finds himself strangely drawn to the mysterious forest surrounding the township and begins to hear voices calling from the trees, beckoning him to come home.

Strange Flesh: The Use Of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction: Providence (2015-Present)

Authors Note: This is Part 5 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 and Part 4

Providence is a 12-part graphic novel series by the author of such noted works as “The Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta” – Allan Moore. Providence is the follow-up prequel to Moore’s 2010 graphic novel “Neonomicon” and is set approximately 88 years prior. Because the series began late 2015, is still going and covers a lot of ground, this article will simplify the plot for time’s sake and focus on two important aspects and their relation to Lovecraftian tropes and the Queer perspective.

Strange Flesh: The Use of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction – Mysterium Tremendum (2010)

Authors Note: This is Part 4 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1  Part 2 and Part 3

“The entire tradition of cosmic horror fiction can be regarded as a heroic but doomed attempt… …to communicate the uncommunicatable, by suggesting – in the absence of any possibility of explicit description – the sheer enormity of the revelation that would be vouchsafed to us, were we ever granted permission to see and conceive of the world as it really is, rather than as it appears to our senses: deflated, diminished and domesticated. It is for this reason that “the cosmic horror”, conceived as an entity is by far the most elusive of all the icons of horror fiction, almost definable by its indescribability. Its presence can be felt, but only the merest glimpses can ever be caught of its form. Its description and definition can be tentatively approached in various ways – one may observe that it is daemonic rather than demonic, and that it is more akin to the alien than the traditionally supernatural – but can never be completed or clarified.” (Stableford, 2007, p. 71)