Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Poetry To Doom Lessons

In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the official posting guidelines. This Week's Standout Expert Blogs The Gaming Renaissance Movement (Wanda Meloni) Wanda Meloni, market analyst with M2 Research, delivers a sobering statistic: 8,450 -- that's the number of games industry professionals laid off since July 2008, with 75 percent of that number originating in North America. But the silver lining is that many of the recently jobless have gone on to establish small, agile and creative independent studios, leading to what Meloni calls "The Gaming Renaissance Movement". Doomed To Invent Our Mistakes (Adam Saltsman) Designer Adam Saltsman recently revisited the original Doom, and he thinks that modern FPSes could learn a thing or two from the game, released way back in 1993. He details the problems that he has with modern FPS conventions such as hiding, reloading, A.I. and aiming mechanics. Are FPSes getting better, or worse? Gameplay and Story: An Ode To The American Junior High School Dance (Matthew Allmer) Design veteran Matthew Allmer exercises his creative writing chops with "Gameplay and Story: An Ode To The American Junior High School Dance", a brilliant 38-stanza poem describing video games' awkward tango between gameplay and story. The ballad breaks its ABCB rhyme scheme in just one instance, when Story demands of Gameplay: “You step this way, / that way, then switch. / You jostle me around / As if I’m your…slave". Toward Better Readability In Adventure Games (Nels Anderson) There are a few adventure game design traditions that should be deep-sixed, according to Nels Anderson, gameplay programmer with Penny Arcade Adventures developer Hothead Games, but linearity should be the first to go. "Why must adventure game puzzles only have one solution? Why must every one of them be solved to continue?" he asks. Going Commando (Adam Saltsman) Saltsman has been busy on the Gamasutra blogs, posting yet more read-worthy material with some important tips about freelancing in the games industry. One of the most important skills is trusting your gut: If your gut tells you a potential client is a jerk, Saltsman says, "They are, in all likelihood, a slimey douchebag that you should avoid at all costs."