Spoke to Mom and Dad tonight, and they had some comments about the redesign. Like quite a few people, Dad misses the cartoon. He even suggested I might lose some readers! The cartoon, however, was one of the things that made it imperative (for me and only me perhaps) that I redesign the site.

But why did I redesign in the first place? Well, I’d been increasingly having people from the games industry and other non-bloggers coming to my blog, people around whom I feel I have to be sort of respectable. Call me silly, but I was a little self-conscious directing people I work with to a page that has a cartoon of me in a skimpy purple latex outfit.

I felt I needed something a little less sexy, but definitely wanted to remain feminine, and include the gaming angle more clearly. Wanting to avoid breaking completely from the design of the chronicles’ first three years, I kept the yellow exclamation mark. The other icons allowed me to get rid of the cartoon, but still have a fun and colorful graphical element. They reflect the fact that I talk of personal things (not just games), modern games, vintage games, and the star is a symbol that if you know me, you know I adore.

The initial pink redesign came from my desire to reflect the feminine aspect, but it was too over the top. By then I’d realized that there were enough elements to suggest femininity, without being so blatant with it. Having successfully brought the elements I wanted together (gaming and girl), I could bring the whole thing down a notch, and lose the Pepto Bismol.

Anyway, enough of this navel gazing. Thanks to all who provided feedback, with special thanks to Sadia.

Stay tuned for content!

He’s talking about game level-design tools, but it applies to so much more:

“The dark side of tool use is that, in your eagerness to make the tool cost-effective, you start to distort your approach to design problems to make them fit the special capabilities of the tool. The old saw that beautifully expresses this idea is, ‘When you’ve got a big enough hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.’ … We must always be vigilant against the subtle influence that a tool exerts on our thinking”.

- Chris Crawford on Game Design, 2003. (Emphasis mine)

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this about the usability of this website or that software package: “By now it’s trained me to use it the way it wants to be used, and I can no longer ascertain whether it’s actually well designed”.

I’m sober now. It’s not staying pink.

Still not the final redesign, but getting closer. Hope to finish tonight. Thanks for everyone’s comments.

Yep, I’m currently reworking the look of the blog. This is nowhere near what I have in mind in terms of the final look, but it’s at least tolerable until I get the design finished. Tips from competent designers are most welcome and paid for in beer and brownie points.

I love things that combine gaming with being a real girl, and Sadia says it best:

I thought “Hey I could get used to this video game thingy…” when suddenly… blank screen. Like BLZZZPT! Nothingness. He had yanked the cord or something. He rolls over onto me with a big grin and says (exasperated but affectionate stroking my hair), “Look, if I don’t get to DO you RIGHT freakin’ NOW, I will die.” Not terribly romantic I know, that was never his strong suit, but hey… we got through several “levels” if ya know what I mean.

I sense a whole new alternative language emerging. Been a while since I’ve killed a boss, if ya know what I mean.

XBOX 360 is experiencing crash problems.

In the words of my good friend Dr. Wank: “Latest Microsoft product crashes a lot. Also, water is wet”.

XBOX 360 scalpers clean up on eBay, with one system going for 3000$.

No, I don’t have one yet. Stop asking.

The hardest thing about my job, I would say, is dealing with the changing desires of clients who often do not really understand software development. The games I’ve made have always been based on existing properties, like TV shows, films or books. Clients are thus filmmakers or TV producers, and sometimes authors. They deal with linear narratives in which they control their audience perfectly. Games have to give players choices, which means a sometimes branching narrative, and in that way at least they’re a little more complex to build.

Whenever a focus test changes the client’s mind about what the audience will want next year, they casually ask for things like:

“The first level (which has been done for months and approved) needs to take place in space, not at sea” (I’m serious)
“We need the main character to not be human, but an alien” (I’m serious)
“Yes, I know we asked for a shooting game, and the game is now fully designed, but now the emphasis of the movie has moved onto the character’s deep seated love of singing, so we can’t have any shooting” (Yep)

I read an article in Game Developer yesterday about working with Hollywood and how wonderful the interaction would be for our industry, and what a great influx of experienced talent this would bring to games. A couple of weeks ago, Don Daglow (maker of the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers game) extolled how wonderful it had been to work with the filmmakers, with Weta changing the movie’s production schedule to make art assets available to the game makers earlier. Uh, WOW.

Still, I can’t help but be a little skeptical. In my limited experience, Hollywood is the true creator, and I make swag (a game) aimed at marketing their product (a movie). Perhaps mutual respect will come the day when Hollywood makes as many movies about games, as there are games made about movies. Hopefully someday, our content will be rich enough to warrant this.

Today, someone found my site by Googling “Miss Uncool”.

Nice to corner a market, no matter what it may be.