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Video: The struggle between game and story

"It was really embarrassing to find how often I'd look at what I'd made and just think, 'This is exactly the same shit I pan people for all the time in reviews.'" - Game journalist-turned-developer Tom Francis.

Kris Graft, Contributor

March 12, 2013

1 Min Read
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"It was really embarrassing to find how often I'd look at what I'd made and just think, 'This is exactly the same shit I pan people for all the time in reviews.'"

- Game journalist and writer-turned-game developer Tom Francis reacts to the ham-fisted way in which he tried to jam story into his upcoming game, Gunpoint. Game mechanics and story are often at odds in video games, and making the two play nice is one of the biggest challenges of game design. So it's interesting to watch the affable Tom Francis, a PC Gamer journalist and an author, attempt to solve this conundrum in a developer log for his first game, Gunpoint, a stealth puzzler that he's developing when he's not writing about games. While this is his first attempt at making a video game, Gunpoint has already earned recognition as a 2012 Independent Games Festival Excellence in Design finalist. Veteran and new game developers alike can relate to and learn from from Francis' challenges, which he lays out here in simple terms.

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