Interview: Ten Ton Hammer
Here’s an interview I recently gave to our friends at TTH.
Recent interview linkage.
Here’s a recent interview I did for MMOSite (there was a bit of a language barrier, so be nice about typos and such) and here’s another quickie over at WarCry (guest-starring Adam Gershowitz).
Cutting out the middle man (a note to the fanhood).
I’ve been getting more and more questions (via email, PMs on boards, comments here, etc.) regarding stuff like beta access, contests and what have you. I really have nothing at all to do with any of the contests, beta acceptances and so forth because people more important than myself decide when and how folks are granted access to things. If you drop me a line about those types of issues, I’m almost certainly going to direct you to our community manager James (which I don’t mind doing, as it’s always nice to hear from you guys, but it’ll save you time to cut me out of that loop). You can reach him via PM on any of the major boards or by using the handy-dandy feedback form on the WARHerald.
Please note: James isn’t going to be able to magically let everyone into the Beta either, but he’s certainly better-suited for answering questions about what the different Beta Center account labels mean and so forth.
Cloverfield.
We did our best to resist, but the urge to guess what the Cloverfield beastie is going to be has overwhelmed us all. Guesses from the team appear after the jump.
HEEEEY!!!!!
Now THIS is a video game commercial:
My kid brother and I used to get in fights over who got to play Pole Position on our TI-994A – 3.0 MHz of pure POWER.
Know where you came from.
I was fussing about at home over the weekend and I came across an old notebook of mine from years and years ago that had – among other things – quotes and snippets of wisdom that I thought were applicable to making video games. There are a bunch of Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes comics in it, as well as a bunch of old Bartle Test navel-gazing, among other things.
On the inside cover, however, was probably my favorite bit:
GOOD DESIGN:
1) Fulfills its function.
2) Respects its materials.
3) Is suited to method of production.
4) Combines these in imaginative expression.
It’s a quote from Eliot Noyes – one of the lions of mid-20th century industrial design – and as far as I’m concerned, every producer, designer, artist and creative director in the video game industry should have it tattooed to the inside of their eyelids.
An Insider’s View II.
I can’t believe I forgot to include this gem earlier:
BOOM!
WARNING: This is – at best – peripherally related to WAR. It involves good friends of the project who I just happen to be a huge fan of, but folks seeking hardcore game-related data may want to back away slowly.
Our good buddies at BOOM! Studios (publishers of – among other fine products – the Warhammer: Forge of War comics) have made the bold and excellent decision (in my humble, funnybook-obsessed opinion) of making digital .cbz format versions of some of their books available online FOR FREE at the same time they hit shelves at brick and mortar stores.
Obviously, they’re going to get a fair number of free-loaders who grab the freebies and never bother to pick up a single issue at a store (shame on you), but they’ll also get significantly more eyes on their product than they would otherwise. If the product is good, that will pay dividends.
Comic fans are by nature collector/acquirer types. We love possessing tangible publications almost as much as we love the stories contained within them. I’m a huge fan of collected editions and will gladly shell out $30, $40, $50 or more for a volume that collects a story I really enjoy. Whetting my appetite for your product with a free taste (or in this case, a whole free meal) and proving it’s high-quality will make it VERY likely that I’ll send the money your way when a collection comes out.
So kudos to Ross and the gang at BOOM! I’ve spent some time with them in the past and you’ll never find a group of people that LOVE comics more than they do. Make sure you check out North Wind and if you like what you see, give some of the other books BOOM! puts out a look (I’m just going to assume you already own all of the issues of Forge of War).
An insider’s view.
Why, this may as well be a 30 second documentary on our quaint little industry, I tell ya!
Bonus points for the use of literal armchair designers.