Category: Game Budget
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No One Argues About The Reactor
In 1957, British author C. Northcote Parkinson described a fictional committee with three items on their agenda. First: signing a £10 million contract to build a nuclear reactor. Second: a proposal to build a £350 bicycle shed for the clerical staff. Third: £21 a year to supply refreshments for the committee itself. The fictional committee’s…
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Prove It
I used to pester the user research team every time I heard a playtest was scheduled. Can you ask if they understood the narrative? Can you ask if they prefer the way this gun sounds or that one? I wanted feedback from people who weren’t on the project team badly enough that I made myself…
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The Name On The Pitch Deck
I was once part of a company that got bought out. The new owners did what new owners often do — looked for ways to trim costs, pushed out anyone approaching retirement age, declined to renew contracts for people who asked for what they’d already been promised. Efficient, on paper. Sensible, probably, from a certain…
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Narrative Structure Is a Budget Decision (Part 3)
If you’ve read Parts 1 and 2, you now have a vocabulary for the distinct structures that tend to get lumped together under “branching narrative.” This is the part where I tell you how I actually use that vocabulary — and why the most important conversation about narrative structure usually happens in a budget meeting,…