A Field of Flowers

No Man’s Sky. Go anywhere. Encounter unique flora. Encounter unique fauna. Encounter unique rocks. Trade with other species. Encounter unique rocks. Swim in the sea. Fly in the air. Sting like a bumblebee. I treated the hype and wild speculation with the contempt it deserved.

I still don't know how I stretched this project out over two years. But there's a Behind The Scenes video with some answers...

LINKS

• Bateman & Zagal's paper, "Game Design Lineages: Minecraft's Inventory"
• Electron Dance interview with Ed Key
• Blake Patterson's tweet of the strange creature
• Jeff Vogel's article referencing stealing ideas to make new work

UNRELEASED BAD GAMES

• Original @moshboy tweet
• @mousefountain
• @fromsmiling
• @ragzouken
• @brie_irl
• @erikaverkaaik
• @molleindustria
• @regisRquoi
• @boxheadpixelart
• @david_is_neato
• @saltire
• @jplur_
• @PaleFeatherZen
• @horsman
• @Sleeper_Games
• @sam_suite
• @Fenreliania
• @Burrito_Tim

CREDITS

MUSIC

• Stephan Bodzin “Birth”
• Cid Rim “Surge”
• Colleen “Ritournelle”
• Oliver “MYB”
• Skalpel “Theme from ‘Behind the Curtain’”
• Professor Klik “Bust That Bust This”
• Stanley Myers “The Martian Chronicles Theme”
• Funki Porcini “Back Home”
• Bernard Herrmann “The Day The Earth Stood Still Theme”
• Kölsch “Opa”
• Ron Grainer “The Prisoner Closing Credits”
• Stu Phillips “Buck Rogers Theme (Closing Credits)”
• Sakari Oramo, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Helsinki Chamber Choir “Graffiti: Bar 403”
• Superpoze “For We The Living”
• Monstergetdown & Rhett “Sanctuary”
• Biosphere “Shenzhou”
• Louis Philippe “Your Life”
• Adhesive Wombat “8 Bit Adventure”
• The Dead Texan “Aegina Airlines”
• Nitin Sawhney “Daybreak (feat. Faheem Mazhar)”

GAMES

• qrth-phyl, Verran
• No Man’s Sky, Hello Games
• Quarries of Scred, Darkest Kale
• Recursed, Portponky
• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• Out There, Mi-Clos Studio
• Mirrormoon EP, Santa Ragione
• Proteus, Key & Kanaga
• Minecraft, Mojang
• Noctis IV, Alessandro Ghignola
• Pac-Man, Namco
• 3D Monster Maze, Malcolm Evans
• Dungeon Master, FTL
• Mercenary, Novagen
• Ultima IV, Origin Systems
• Elite, Braben & Bell
• Star Raiders, Atari
• Zork, Infocom
• Adventure, Atari
• FLOP, Bennett Foddy
• Domina, Bignic
• Archaica: The Path of Light, Two Mammoths
• Chromatron, Sean Barrett
• Aargon, Twilight Games
• The Incredible Machine, Kevin Ryan
• Deflektor, Vortex Software
• Laser Chess, Mike Duppong
• Breakout, Atari
• Sky Diver, Atari
• Video Olympics, Atari
• Space Invaders, Atari
• Pelé's Soccer, Atari
• Bientôt l’été, Tale of Tales
• Soma, Frictional Games
• Only If, Creability
• Faith, Airdorf Games
• Cart Life, Richard Hofmeier
• Endlight, Bigpants

FOOTAGE

• Donald Trump 1980 Interview, NBC News
• Farage: ‘Let June 23 be the UK’s Independence day’, ITV News
• USA Trump World Tower Celebration, AP Archive
• Boris goes bananas as Brexit battle bus visits Stafford, Staffordshire Newsletter
• The Inauguration of the 45^th President of the United States, The White House
• The ITV #Brexit Debate – David Cameron, Nigel Farage on the EU Referendum
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
• Horror Express (1973)
• No Man's Sky - E3 2014 Gameplay Trailer at Sony Press Conference
• Planet of the Vampires (1965)
• Mary Poppins (1964)
• A Clockwork Orange (1972)
• Farscape episode “We’re So Screwed, Part III: La Bomba”
• The 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards

AUDIO

• Imphenzia Universal Sound FX

FREESOUND AUDIO

• DISTANT EXPLOSION 01.wav (sandyrb)
• Mechanical-Keyboard: Typing (M4taiori)
• crackle_glitch (dotY21)
• Insert cd into car player (interior) (NLM)
• cd case.wav (jrssandoval)
• Whip 01.wav (erkanozan)
• epson receipt printer (azumarill)

Film Update: Nov 2018

I have been working hard these last few weeks and took a day off work today, just to meet a self-imposed deadline. It's not done done, but I feel okay making the date public.

The Drake Incident: A Dark Souls Story

Ding dong, the Bell Gargoyles are dead. I ring the bell. Where next for my lonely undead hero...?

Watch the film below or direct on YouTube.

HOW IT WAS MADE

If you're interested in how the film came into being, which is partly through luck and partly through bloody-minded determination, here's How I Made: The Drake Incident.

FEATURED GAMES

• Dark Souls, From Software
• Temple of Apshai Trilogy, Epyx

FOOTAGE

• 1970s Cinema Intermission Intro
• Intermission Time
• Home Alone (audio of scream)
• Odeon adverts and trailer package
• Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!
• WarGames
• No Country For Old Men
• Kill Bill Vol. 1

MUSIC

• Motoi Sakuraba "Firelink Shrine" (Dark Souls)
• Motoi Sakuraba "Bell Gargoyles" (Dark Souls)
• Kokenn "Without"
• Quantic "Common Knowledge"
• Vladimir Platine "Destiny"
• Motoi Sakuraba "Centipede Demon" (Dark Souls)
• Motoi Sakuraba "Dark Sun Gwyndolin" (Dark Souls)
• scntfc "Lost (Prologue)" (Oxenfree OST)
• Robin Trower "Bridge of Sighs"

What I Really Thought About The Witness

Hidden inside The Unbearable Now was access to a secret video. After three weeks, I decided to make the video public for everyone. Here it is, twenty random observations about The Witness (Thelka, 2016) which had no home in The Unbearable Now.

There be much spoilers for The Witness from the very beginning; the focus is more on puzzle mechanics.

Also here’s the audience retention graph for The Unbearable Now! Click the image for a larger version.

The red band indicates the twenty second challenge. I was pleased to discover that the audience who hung on this far stayed for the ride and did not let me down. The green circle seems to be interest in Sokobond, but I can’t be sure. The spike at the end is clearly a lot of viewers trying to solve the mystery of the secret video.

Into The Black: The Movie

How do videogames undermine those players who enjoy exploring virtual worlds? Here is the fourth Electron Dance film, a hybrid of Into the Black and Chekhov's Collectible.

Watch this video below or direct on YouTube.

FEATURED GAMES

• Obsolete, Orihaus
• Proteus, Key & Kanaga
• Flight Simulator II, subLOGIC
• GTA III, Rockstar Games
• Fuel, Codemasters
• Dear Esther, The Chinese Room
• TRIHAYWBFRFYH, Connor Sherlock
• TIMEframe, Random Seed Games
• Secret Habitat, Strangethink
• Bernband, Tom van den Boogaart
• Aeon, Orihaus
• Lumière, Orihaus
• Césure, Orihaus
• Xaxi, Orihaus

FOOTAGE

• Scuba bubbles
• Landing at Meigs Airport in a Piper Archer II
• Banksy takes over Springfield

MUSIC

• Jerry Goldsmith "The Cloud" (Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack)
• Rémy Bourgeois (prev. Aaren Reale) "Bal de Nuit"
• Max Richter "Maria"
• Andrew Hewitt "The Double Theme (Version 2)" (The Double OST)
• Andrew Hewitt "A Boy Held Up By String" (The Double OST)
• Jerry Goldsmith "Ilia's Theme" (Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack)
• Max Richter "November"

Bioshock Infinite Is The Worst Game Of The Year

The original script for this video essay was written in January 2014 and then I spent a mere 18 months thinking about making it. Two years after Bioshock Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013) was released to huge critical acclaim, I finally have a video about it. If you love the game, you're going to hate me. If you hate the game, you're going to have a laugh.

Oh the hyperbole. Not just a bad game. The worst game. Maybe he meant the worst out of those games that get called “game of the year”? That would have been okay. But I can’t think he really meant worst compared to all the crappy clones that are foisted on mobile users every month.

Watch this video below or direct on YouTube.

REFERENCES

"On Videogame Reviews" by Tevis Thompson

"Stanley Scores Reviews" by Joel Goodwin

Video Transcript

Counterweight podcast where Eric and I trashed Bioshock Infinite.

MUSIC

Adrián Berenguer "Iaia"

Tipsy "Tuatara (Remix)"

Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra "Educating Stanley"

Jurassic Park Theme (slowed down 1000%)