Crispy Gamer

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  • Four Things You May Not Know About Masaya Mastuura

     

     

    Before the start of GDC this week, the crew from Majesco was on hand to show off the final build of Major Minor's Majestic March, which should be in stores just in time for the end of March (get it?). Also on hand was designer Masaya Matsuura, famous for his Parappa the Rapper series and generally regarded as the father of the modern rhythm game genre. Look for some impressions of Major Minor on the site soon. For now, here are some interesting tidbits from my quick interview with Matsuura:

    1. He considered making Parappa a clam: Mastuura said that artist and collaborator Rodney Greenblatt had a "very strange reaction" when he was first told about the idea behind the design for Parappa the Rapper. After the design for the gameplay was worked out, it took the pair a few months to work...
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  • Watch out for that beverage cart.

     Well, since I just landed (9:00 PM PST) there is not a lot to tell. I check in to the hotel after a hellish flight from South Carolina.

    Did you ever see that episode of Seinfeld where Elian ends up in coach and Jerry goes to first class? Well the person in that episode was that evil flight attendant on the flight and he was very rude. He hit this poor woman with the cart and she screamed "I'll report you!" to which he retorted "Whatever!" $7 pillows and $7 drinks and $15 to check your bag and the airlines are still going broke? Come on US Air.. 

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  • Fun with Crayons

     

     

     

    At GDC, Petri Purho, creator of Crayon Physics Deluxe, just delivered a funny, engaging post-mortem on his mega-popular puzzler. The Finnish developer gave shout-outs to 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler, who seemed to be trying to stay incognito in the packed room. In his 30-minute talke, he extolled the virtues of prototyping. One slide read “Prototyping = the foreplay of game development.” Purho added,  “I call it that because most guys want to skip it. It’s worked out well for me, though.”

    Purho said prototypes really equal the finished game so prototyping helps deal with the gap between the original game idea and where you want to . It gets the crap out the process, he said

    He went on to talk about the origins of Kloonigames as a project blog and told stories about other developers...
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  • The GDC Dilemma
     
    Let's say you're at the Cannes film festival. You're looking at your schedule and you have two options. There's a panel discussion right down the hallway where you'll be able to see Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo Del Toro and David Gordon Green talk about the craft of movie making. Chances are there will be tons of up-and-coming directors in the audience asking them questions. Your other option is to take a meeting, where you'll get an early look at the trailer for Escape From Witch Mountain II. The choice seems simple, right? You go see the artists talk about their craft. Save the press stuff for later. But there's an increasing pressure to take meetings at GDC. Sit in on previews of games. To basically do the same kind of stuff you're going to be doing at E3. I...
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  • Daddy, where do tote bags come from?

    Son, I'll tell you when you're older... 

     

    What you're looking at is a line of volunteers frantically stuffing brochures, show guides and assorted promo materials into the tote bags every GDC attendee gets. I snapped this pic around 3:30 on Sunday, before the show opened. 90 minutes later, it was all gone like a figment of imagination.  If you're at GDC, touch your tote lovingly and know that many a papercut was suffered in assembling it.

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