Design Articles

Since graduating I’ve written some article that focus on gaining a greater understanding of game design and the specific areas I find most interesting. Most of these are ongoing projects and subject to change and adaptation.

Isn’t it weird? – A thought experiment on ludic ellipses

I’m also currently working on:

Greyprints – A series that looks at cognitive/emotional focus on level design within specific games.
Visage, Visage – A breakdown of my favourite examples of character design within video games, which aesthetics are special and an exploration of the concepts of designing characters with interactivity in mind.
The Game Designer as Character Class – A taxonomy of the skills and specialisations of a game designer with a tabletop RPG style class approach.
A Game Designer’s Dictionary – A breakdown of key concepts in game design, drawing on and linking toward other writings on related topics.
Known Knowns – A series examining the different pillars of my current design methodology.
First as Theft, Then As Genre – A series exploring and mapping nascent/unformalised game sub-genres.

University Work

Here are a collection of essays concerning various game studies topics written for my degree, of which all were well received and earned a high grade (60-90).

Essays:

Petals of All Fields Unite – You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Stems: An Eco-Marxist Analysis of Thatgamecompany’s Flower (2009)

Avatars & Identity

Method Effect – The Mediated Persona of Commander Shepard

Filmic Game Design: Limbo as a Cinematic Platformer

History of the Adventure Game Genre

Personal Gaming History

Short articles:

Historical Reflections on Jesper Juul’s Introduction to A Casual Revolution (2009)

Biases and Subversions of Identity vis-à-vis Sloan on Representation, Customization, and Transformation (2015)

Research Supports Normalising Statistics of Video Game Players with Disabilities (Study: York University, 2018)

Considering the Efficacy of Reinterpreted Terminology in Rethinking Gamification (2014)