Charles J Pratt

@eggplantshow @cosmoddd In the interest of transparency I should say that ninety percent of the time my feedback on a dice game is "what if there was more Yahtzee in this" But Greg's game is amazing. I'm really happy to hear that I'm a very small part of its story!

@lawofgamedesign Yeah, it's interesting that this distinction makes total sense to someone that plays and designs games, but not to someone that only plays one game (the one that requires a lot of memorization).

@charlesjpratt This feels like the interviewer is completely in thrall to chess’ cultural power. Fischer: “Chess is all about memorization.” Interviewer: “But you also have to be smart!” F: “A little, but mostly just memorize.” I: “But also be smart!” F: <sigh>

Bobby Fischer on game design: youtube.com/watch?v=P349Bd…

@danctheduck Realized I had never actually posted it anywhere

Totally forgot about this puzzle game prototype I made during the pandemic until a student reminded me of it: charlesjpratt.itch.io/triple-tile Very inspired by @danctheduck's Triple Town, obviously!

@RobotMeyer It's very rare to see a game designer engage in a detailed, clear discussion of how the craft of game design works at the AAA level, especially outside of GDC. We were really lucky to have him!

Rob Meyer, NYU Game Center alum and Combat Designer on the new God of War, came to the department and gave an excellent talk on his work a few weeks ago. The recording is now on our YouTube channel! Check it out! youtu.be/6iTBqcBv5QA cc: @RobotMeyer

@WinWinIrwin Yeah, that's my theory as well. It's easy to forget that we're actually trained from a very young age to understand, interpret, and analyze stories. It's not clear that it comes naturally!

@charlesjpratt My hunch is that real-deal gamey mechanics (for lack of a better term) are still difficult to write about in a satisfying, compelling way. And writing about stories is something everyone does since grade school. So it’s easier. But not the most relevant or interesting subject IMO

Interesting that in some circles The Last of Us show is considered a vindication of the maturity video game storytelling, but there's also a reasonable interpretation that it proves what some have been saying all along: "You should just make a movie..."

@LudwigK So, the people who are following this 'narrow' definition are being reasonable. That other stuff certainly adds to the experience, but it genuinely just doesn't excite them to talk about it.

@LudwigK I mean, this is where I part ways with the 'narrative design' folks. You can make an argument that more goes into the 'narrative' of a game but that doesn't change the fact that when most people say they like stories they mean 'the characters and the stuff that happens'.

@GWBycer I mean, it's hard to know where this habit comes from. My theory has been that game critics often don't have a language to discuss mechanics cogently, and are uncomfortable with it, so they fall back on the thing they all learned in school: the book report

@charlesjpratt It makes me think about how much do people put stock in analyzing the design and mechanics over the storytelling. As there were a lot of big budget games that people gushed about the storytelling, but I found a lot of issues with how the gameplay worked

@jessefuchs Man, if that review of God of War: Ragnarok had been about history, politics, drugs, and hanging out I would be all for it! Like, give me the review of TLOU that's just about doing cocaine with Neil Druckmann and arguing about the importance of crafting bench placement

@charlesjpratt it’s because hitting things in the face with an axe is our love song 🥰

Which is fine, maybe! I've been saying for years that the "Crack-Up" is coming, and it's probably that the fissures are just widening faster than I expected. Still, gotta feel for all the game designers toiling over the neck stabbing mechanics in The Last of Us: Part 3.

Right now this habit is limited to big-budget action-adventure-RPGs (or what I call 'The Videogame, one word'), but I feel like it's starting to have a knock-on effect where other kinds of games don't get serious critical assessment.

@RobotMeyer @NetflixAnime It's pretty exciting! There is one sequence where I'll be interested to so how they translate it.

@NetflixAnime @charlesjpratt

PLUTO, the award-winning manga from Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka, is getting an anime adaptation! Based on Tezuka's legendary manga Astro Boy, the series will stream on Netflix in 2023. #PLUTO stars Shinshu Fuji (Gesicht), Yoko Hikasa (Atom) and Minori Suzuki (Uran).