Friday, March 19, 2010

I've rarely met a rant I didn't like

The always-amazing anna anthropy recently posted "a series of rants" on her site, auntiepixelante.com. Hopefully she won't mind if I share a few of my favorites here.

Game-making tools: "We need more tools for people who aren’t programmers to make games with. Game Maker is a start, and it’s brought a lot of people into making games who wouldn’t otherwise be, but we aren’t quite there yet. I want to hear the voices of people who aren’t already entrenched in game culture."

Get personal: "I want to hear stories that are personal. I’m tired of epics, I’m tired of saving the world and I’m tired of masculine wish-fulfilment fantasies. If I’m tired of that shit, there’s no way it’s going to mean anything to a player."

Storytelling: "Storytelling in games does not mean cutscenes, and it does not mean reading pages and pages of static text. We have to learn to tell stories with rules, with design, and with play instead of aping other cultural forms."

A screenshot from anna anthropy's latest creation, redder.
Check it out
here.

Sadly, I'm not sure many game designers/developers/publishers agree with the things this self-proclaimed "pixel provocateur, dot-matrix dominatrix [and] artdyke" has to say. Actually, strike that--I'm not sure many mainstream game designers/developers/publishers agree with or even understand the things she's saying.

I can't imagine she's going to stop saying them, though, so hopefully the proverbial light bulb will go off over their heads sooner or later.

4 comments:

Viewtiful_Justin said...

I love her. Her games are amazing and wonderful, and her opinions are so refreshing. I played Redder for quite a while the other day...

Bryan Ochalla said...

Is redder any good? I've been meaning to play it...

Viewtiful_Justin said...

It's really fun! Very explore-at-your-own-pace. It's a little bit Solar Jetman and a little bit Mario and a little bit Metroid...and all Auntie Pixelante.

Bryan Ochalla said...

OK, you've convinced me -- I'll be giving this game a go this weekend. I used to *love* Solar Jetman, and of course I love Metroid and Mario.