Latest Updates

23rd January 2007
New Musing : Slamdance festival has withdrawn the nomination of Super Columbine Massacre RPG, a landmark in intelligent games, for fear of crippling lawsuits. Why aren;t games judged using the same criteria as movies and novels and can this ever change?

1st March 2006
New Musing : Microsoft may be entering the handheld gaming market, but how does its machine stack up?

19th December 2005
New Musing : The launch of the X-Box 360 was the most audacious in videogaming history. However, J Allard's aspirations and sheer scale do not necessarily mean that the launch was good. Conxumers expect more than hype these days, they demand that manufacturers deliver: and in massive quantities too.

21st November 2005
New Musing : The trouble with high concepts is that they are easily enough committed to paper, but represent years of work for many people and a budget in the millions of dollars. With this small capacity for realising such ideas, which ones should be focussed on and why?

16th November 2005
New Musing : Finding a game that a couple can share in the same way that they'd snuggle up and watch a movie seems like an impossible task. Only when games are a taken-for-granted part of the fabric of daily life will such products be made.

12th September 2005
New Musing : It's not that I don't have high hopes for what this little unknown could emerge as, but I am also realistic. Please prove me wrong Nintendo, I'd be delighted.

30th June 2005
New Musing : Recent brain scans show undeniable similarities between being violent and playing a violent game. Here's a scientific look at why Dr. Mathiak's conclusions could be very wrong.

12th May 2005
New Musing : Can the industry work without crunch times? Europe is trying to enforce just such a law and the UK's resistance may not succeed.

10th May 2005
New Musing : The closure of former employer Elixir Studios triggers thoughts about the future of innovation in the games industry.

2nd May 2005
New Musing : Machine learning could offer much greater enhancements to gameplay than emergence promises.

3rd April 2005
New Musing : Don't complain so much about working in games. It's much better than you think it is.

21st March 2005
New Musing : Gameplay is a misleading term that locks game developers into a very unhelpful and restricting paradigm.

16th March 2005
New Musing : Ambituous, clever and full of potential. Here are some screenies and links to some better pages where you can find out more info on Spore before E3.

14th March 2005
Completed Rant: Emergent systems promise a wealth of opportunity for games. Here we explain what emergence is in soft scientific terms, examine a framework for classifying emergence in games and finally take a look at whether it is even useful or achievable.

11th March 2005
New Musing : Nintendo are truly hoping to maximise sales in with their latest iteration of the Zelda franchise by paying hommage to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and hoping that its cache will bring the consumers flocking.

8th March 2005
New Musing : There are some golden rules to learn about making games for internet download. Learning from those that get it wrong is the best way not to make common errors.

22nd February 2005

New Musing : How can banning the sale of games be a good thing?

17th February 2005
Links Updated: New sites added to links section, including a whole new category for quick dip in and out games.

15th February 2005
New Musing : There is a dearth of original games at the moment. Conservatism is one cause, but if games are too innovative even current gamers might have a hard time understanding them. The solution? Take the 'R' out of revolution, and bring the gamers with you on the journey.

4th February 2005
New Musing : Why are certain aspects of the industry slavishly pursuing the goal of Art for games, when so far most attempts have barely been playable?

28th January 2005

New Rant: Complex, dynamic, emergent systems promise a wealth of opportunity for games. Do developers realise that this may be the gingerbread cottage of games: a tempting dead end?

26th January 2005
Front Page: Updated Tsunami appeal info and placed it on a seperate page. Added Holocaust Memorial Day info.

19th January 2005

New Rant: Academia can help games design and production by finding out where the illusory conflict of rules vs. story becomes real.

17th January 2005

New Musing: Trying to make a game as realistic as possible jars horribly with making it as fun as possible. Is there a way to do both?

10th January 2005

New Musing: Combining cameras, glasses and WIFI could put the game into your house, giving endless possibilities for new types of gameplay.

6th January 2005

Front Page: Added the Tsunami appeal. Please donate now

Front Page: Created the layout selector. Now you can have your front screen in one of three varieties.

5th January 2005

Front Page: Two RSS news feeds added, to keep you up to date with the hottest gaming industry, product and business news.

New musing added: There is a big change coming to games, but it's got nothing to do with the new generation of consoles. This change is going to take a lot more money and a lot more time than developing for PS3.

20th December 2004

New musing added: Designers exploit a player's knowledge and experience to create a satisfying experience. All too often designers assume too much and make the experience impenetrable for the non-gamer.

9th December 2004

New musing added: Non-linear games are great fun, but linear games can do things that they can't. Why is it that some goals just aren't fun in a freeform environment?

24th November 2004
New musing added: Solving the hard problem of 3rd person cameras with realtime neural nets.

18th November 2004
New musing added: Intelligent tools are the way ahead.

New Site Layout: Hopefully an improvement over the verdant green monstrosity.

3rd November 2004

New musing added: What games have to say for themselves.

25th October 2004

New musing added: Why depth, not breadth, should be the focus of the independent developer.

18th October 2004

New musing added: What peripheral could destroy the biggest barrier to entry: the standard pad?.

12th October 2004

New musing added: Interconnected stand-alone titles might be easier and cheaper to run than massive persistent worlds.

CV added: Several parties requested my CV, so I decided to post it here.

2nd October 2004

Links Updated: New sites added to links section

17th September 2004

New musing added: Some games are packed so full of action that the fun is squeezed out.

9th September 2004

New musing added: The industry has a fundamentally skewed view of what gaming in its current form can achieve.

8th September 2004

New musing added: all current games are a rehash of another game.

7th September 2004

The first version of the site goes live, but it is still under construction