Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age

Mark Wilson:  "A brand-new platform. A tiny studio. A hard launch date with no opportunity for delays. Broken Rules cofounder Felix Bohatsch shares how the team pulled it off."

Kevin Ohannessian: "One of the most acclaimed games of the year is one of the most unusual--a game that has players discovering the unfinished world of a madly creative king. Creator Ian Dallas talks about making a game about creativity itself."

Simon Hill: "Griefers, the people in games that deliberately try to annoy others, are a problem for gamers. So how do developers plan design a game knowing that a small group will actively try to undermine their work?"

"I always ask my game design students: "Where in this game is there a moment where the player is faced with an interesting choice?". These are the moments that give a game depth because players will want to explore the possibilities of their decisions"...

In a whimsical attempt to eradicate the narrative debate from the game design process, this talk tries, through theory and the speaker's own work, to define an ethic of development, an “affectionate anarchism” leading back to the original source driving creation on any support: poesis.

Matthew Reynolds:  "LEGO Lord of the Rings sees Traveller's Tales take on yet another movie franchise, but with a few twists, constructing an open world and using role-playing game elements to make an experience with more depth and scope. We chat with producer Nick Ricks about the challenges of recreating Middle-earth, how side-quests were approached and how film dialogue was used in-game" ...

Frank Cifaldi: "Creating a living, breathing, believable city is one of the biggest challenges to developers of open world gaming, so we asked the creative director of the upcoming Assassin's Creed III to share his secrets with you."

Jason Schreier: "Words bounce and move in certain directions, with certain cadences and beats. You can tell when the pulse isn't there"...

The catchiest videogames, the ones that grab players immediately, share a certain set of traits that designers ignore at their own peril, says a veteran gamemaker...

"It’s been sort of fortuitous that this week in Transmedia Los Angeles it’s been all about Game Mechanics. I was able to attend three informative events, and compiled helpful information that I feel can come in handy to all of those interested in incorporating a gaming aspect into their Transmedia projects."

I'm frequently asked whether it's important to learn how to program in order to make games or work in the games field. In general, my answer is yes, learn to program.

The Ubisoft senior producer discusses the new game based on the Tintin movie.

Our recent posts and discussions on GeekDad about Super Mario 3D Land got me wondering what it was about Mario that makes him such an enduring character...

Ahead of the release of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and the Assassin’s Creed: Embers animated film on November 15th, we got to speak to ‘transmedia development director’ at Ubisoft, Julien Cuny, where we found out about the creation of the Assassin’s Creed Encyclopaedia as well as the quality control in place to govern Ubisoft’s ‘transmedia’ approach to the franchise, all while discovering the secrets of Ezio’s final adventure.

Videogame storytelling has made some astounding leaps over the past few years, but there's one element that game designers just can't seem to master: the art of the cut-scene.