I’m Alex Wiltshire. I’m a writer and editor in the world of games. I work at Mojang Studios on storytelling for Minecraft, am the author of books including Britsoft: An Oral History, Making Videogames, Home Computers and Minecraft Blockopedia, and am a former editor of Edge magazine.
There’s far too much going on in this winter photo of the Avon river. A background of trees in haze, then a bridge with vehicles. Closer, more skeletal trees against reflected ripples on the water of a river. Across it, just visible behind blurred briars and wood smoke that drifts across the whole scene, cuts a racing boat with eight – nine? – rowers. The colours are weird: blues and burned copper. But I like it.
I stumbled upon an 2002 interview of Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax by Deus Ex and Dishonored designer Harvey Smith for Game Developer magazine. The text of the interview itself isn’t particularly extraordinary. Smith’s questions are good, though sometimes betraying a little awe. Gygax’s responses are too well-oiled to give much real insight.
But here’s a founder of the RPG talking to a designer of immersive sims, a videogame encapsulation of Gygax’s ideal for the RPG, which he describes in the interview as:
“The players are not acting out roles designed for them by the GM, they are acting in character to create the story, and that tale is told as the game unfolds, and as directed by their actions, with random factors that even the GM can’t predict possibly altering the course of things.”
I didn’t play many videogames this year. Not sure why; not for a paucity of options, nor even opportunity. But they generally didn’t seem as essential as usual and when I’ve tried to sit down with so many of them I’ve struggled to apply enough attention and energy.
Some transcended this sad state of affairs, though, and the following are my favourites from the year, in no particular order. I’m actually pretty happy with the range of genres and styles, heh.
Recently I ran a session of the tabletop RPG Trophy Gold for my gaming group, and because one of us had already read all the introductory adventures, I decided to make my own one, called The Everbarrow. And since it seemed to go pretty OK, I thought I’d make it public here.
The apples from our front tree have been amazing this year. They’re juicy, tangy and sweet. Terrifyingly, and yet gratifyingly, there are hardly any worms in them. And there are lots, and we’ve managed to pick the good ones before they fell, and most are now sitting in the cool darkness of the bottom of our fridge.
Meanwhile, our back tree has hardly borne any apples. Usually it’s prolific (though they aren’t that good). Weird!
A new edition of Japansoft: An Oral History is out, available in a limited slipcase edition of 500 signed copies and a paperback!
I edited this book of interviews with members of the early generation of Japanese game developers a few years ago, and now it’s returning in a new slipcase edition, complete with a new preface chapter.
It was great to get the call that the book was to be revived, and I was even happier to get a chance to add the preface. The original’s introduction set out the historical context in which the first Japanese game developers began to work, but it lacked a more reader-focused context that addressed the question: why are Japanese games important? And what makes them special?
The product was terrible, but the game was solid. The rough edges were actually charming. The community was young and welcoming. It was fresh. It was fun.
Importantly, it kept evolving and improving every few weeks. Issues were fixed quickly. Improvements and features were added frequently. There was an incredible velocity of evolution happening before our eyes, at just the right time for just the right audience.
de_dust designer Dave Johnston on Counter-Strike’s 25th birthday.
!! Mind you, Minecraft is 15.
