Ah, the Quick Time Event.  How do I love thee?  Not very much, honestly.  There was a time when I did love them, back when they were first born in the games Dragon’s Lair and the slightly lesser known Space Ace arcade games…
In “the day,” they were absolutely amazing. I can’t even begin to [...]

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Was playing more Rock Band tonight (big surprise, I know), and started thinking about what they might do if when they release the sequel to it. There wasn’t a whole lot in the way of innovation between the Guitar Heroes; just a ton more difficulty piled on to keep their “subscriber” base happy with [...]

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I finally was able to grab the new patch for Rock Band, the one that gives you the new store, and from a business perspective I find it an awesome experiment in user interface.
Since November of 2007 there’s been quite a few songs released (71 by my count), and I’ve been downloading the ones I’m [...]

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Seriously, Riggs.  Like the elderly ignoring the internet and cellular methods of communication, I feel as if I’m hitting a wall when it comes to “new” games and their control schemes.
I tried playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl (SSBB) at work last Friday, and while I recognize the appeal and the quality, I had a hard [...]

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I saw this today at geekologie, and instantly thought “what an awesome interface.”

So often we as humans inadvertantly overexplain things while putting so much effort into making sure we’re communicating effectively that we wind up muddying everything up, and create information overload. This beatbox (while too simple for my tastes; I need to work [...]

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Was playing some Naruto:  Rise of the Ninja at work today, and did some head-to-head vs. mode combat.  It turns out it was good research/competitive analysis, because Naruto only uses two attack buttons, and it seems that’s the direction a lot of modern titles are heading in for combat as well.  The idea is that [...]

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User Interface. It’s the bastard child of the gaming industry. Often cast aside and forgotten about ’till the last minute, typically an afterthought, it is hardly ever given its due when it comes to game design discussion.
I’ve been giving UI (user interface, specifically the “menu” design) a lot of thought lately, as I’m [...]

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