Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Not-So-Scary Horror To Rapid Prototyping

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, including the recent lack of horror in horror games, the lost lessons of Mario's grandest adventure, and the advantages of prototyping a game quickly.] Member Blogs can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while invitation-only Expert Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- are written by selected development professionals. We hope that our blog sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information, check out the official posting guidelines. Here are the top member blogs for the week: - The Problem With Games That Scare (Martin Avenue) Martin Avenue looks at how the survival horror genre has evolved into a more action-packed -- and less satisfying -- form. - Solace Rewrites Grief Into Something Beautiful (Cassandra Khaw) A cross-post from South Asian gaming site TK-Nation looks at the "staggeringly beautiful" Solace, a game the author describes as "a mind-warping amalgamation art and technical detail." - From Novice to Expert - Skills, Rules & Knowledge (Bew Lewis-Evans) Ben Lewis-Evans looks at a framework for game design that breaks human behavior into skills, rules and knowledge, and how it can be applied to user interfaces. - What have you done for me lately? (Lo Pan) A long resume doesn't guarantee a job in this environment, especially if your experience is getting even a little out of date, as Lo Pan explains in this short postl - Super Mario World in retrospect (Xander Markham) Xander Markham examines how Super Mario World fundamentally changed the focus of the franchise games that preceded it, and how subsequent sidescrolling Mario releases have largely forgotten its lessons. - The Importance of Rapid, Iterative, Prototyping (Shelly Warmuth) Shelly Warmuth explains how rapid prototyping -- without over-designing or thinking through all issues carefully beforehand -- can actually be a good way to get a project moving quickly and cheaply.