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Listen Up! Ken Levine and Amy Hennig Are Talking
Game design, particularly for big-budget, blockbuster console titles, is an incredibly tricky and intricate process. In the most recent episode of the Irrational Interviews series, the creative directors of two renowned franchises compare notes on how they work, what creative design really means, and how the games ever get out of the door. Ken Levine,…
By Kate Cox -
The Emotions Free-to-Play Games Prey on to Get Players to Pay
“In a freemium game it’s not a rational decision to pay; it’s an emotional one.” Wednesday at the East Coast Games Conference in North Carolina, former BioWare design manager Ethan Levy explained how free-to-play games can harness to emotions of their players in order to profit. Up until recently Levy, who delivered the “Game Design…
By Mike Fahey -
That Glorious Moment When Video Games Win Against Marriage
Unlike in-game marriages, real-life marriages can be problematic when video games are involved. Andrew Allen, a USC film student and a lifelong gamer, acts out these troubles in his latest episode of games versus marriage. Featured is Gears of War, which has undoubtedly ruined many people’s social and marriage lives. But Andrew (or, rather, the…
By Tina Amini -
Word Off Makes Spelling Into A Territorial Death Match
Word Off is, well, a face-off… with words. It’s an asynchronous Scrabble-scored Boggle fight, played on a strategy game’s grid and covered in a Roy Lichtenstein touch. Many word games have a sense of gravitas about them, something in their art style that holds up a hand at shoulder height and says, “You Must Be…
By Kate Cox -
This Video Puzzle Made with Four iPhones Makes My Brain Hurt
Four iPhones are arranged, rearranged, and rearranged again to the tune of “We Are Young” by Fun. I can barely wrap my brain around how the planning and choreography it took to get this down right. I can’t fathom how much work went into creating this YouTube video, but it took them 238 takes to…
By Tina Amini -
A Minute’s Worth of Guild Wars Lore
With the first Guild Wars 2 beta weekend kicking off today and the seventh anniversary of the original game in full swing, The Game Station crew attempt to condense the lore of the first into an easy-to-digest one minute video. How’d they do? There are inconsistencies, at least that’s what the folks in the comments…
By Mike Fahey -
EVE Online Producers Declare Player’s Attempt to Destroy Game’s Economy “Absolutely Brilliant”
In most MMOs, if a player spearheaded a public, concerted crusade to destroy the game’s economy, the game’s producers would find a way to put a stop to it. But EVE Online isn’t quite like most other MMOs. High-ranking EVE Online player The Mittani was temporarily banned from the game after an unpleasant incident where…
By Kate Cox -
Ask a Game Developer Anything: Your Excellent Questions Answered.
Hey Kotaku readers, I’m back at it again this month. Apparently things went well enough last month that Kotaku decided to keep me going… Well either that or they just forgot to revoke my press badge. Anyway, sorry if I’m a little late, my wife and I had a daughter this month! Our very first…
Jeremiah Slaczka, Creative Director, 5TH Cell -
There’s a Perfectly Rational Explanation for Why I Was Doing Bourbon Shots Before Noon Yesterday
As the games media panel at the East Coast Games Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina kicked off yesterday, moderator and Epic PR manager Wes Phillips set shot glasses in front of each of the participants. Then he filled them with bourbon. Then came the cupcakes. In the early planning stages of the “Game Media: From…
By Mike Fahey
