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Pajitnov, with needle and thread, wins Game Design Challenge
The game design challenge is an honored tradition four years in the running at the Game Developers Conference, pushing creativity in a competitive, humorous environment. This year's winner was Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov who managed to create a viable action-puzzler using needle, thread and cloth. He bested both David Jaffe (Calling All Cars, God of War) and last year's winner Harvey Smith. The following is a pseudo-live blog of the event from earlier this afternoon. Read on for a full description of each game proposed.
MTV hosts game designers roundtable
MTV News' Stephen Totilo somehow managed the Herculean task of getting four major game designers -- Harvey Smith (aka Witchboy; Deus Ex), Will Wright (The Sims), David Jaffe (God of War), and Cliff Bleszinski (aka CliffyB; Gears of War) -- to sit down and talk to each other ... during the week of E3. The roundtable took place at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight amidst the backdrop of their currently running I AM 8-BIT art show. Though it begins with more input from host Gideon Yago, it quickly evolves into a conversation between the four designers, running the gaming gamut from design to violence in games to the art question, all with a healthy sprinkling of (the outspoken) David Jaffe's trademark pottymouth.While MTV only ran an edited version, MTV's online-only Overdrive channel is hosting the whole shebang. It's unfortunate that MTV decided this didn't deserve to be aired on television even though they've managed to make room for another half-dozen airings of the Gears of War promotional special. But seriously, if MTV's doing this, what does G4 do nowadays?[Warning: Ever attuned to the pulse of the younger generation, MTV had the foresight to recognize that nobody under the age of 34 uses Mac OS and, accordingly, they've made their Overdrive site only compatible with Internet Explorer running on Windows.]
GDC: A game worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize
What kind of game concept would be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize? That's the question GameLab CEO Eric Zimmerman posed to the group of developers competing at the third-annual Game Design Challenge.The winning concept (as judged by audience response), Peace Bomb, developed by Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith, would be a multiplayer game for the DS. Players would join together and trade resources, eventually leading to real world flash mobs — a crowd that assembles suddenly in a public space, performs a notable act, and then quickly disperses. It's Smith's hope that the Peace Bomb flash mobs would erupt around socially constructive movements, encouraging players to transform an entertaining game into an effective social project.
