crunchy obsession
One unfortunate side effect of being in this business that I don't play other games till mine has shipped. This year I've missed out on two games that took noteworthy new approaches to narrative in games, a subject I think about constantly. I swear I'll play Bioshock as soon as the game I'm working on goes into submission, and I'm going to try to get to Portal even before then (short gameplay might be a plus right now).
Speaking of Portal, Gamasutra published an interesting conversation with Kim Swift and Eric Wolplaw. Surprising comments on gameplay testing, character development and -- oh yeah -- narrative. I loved this comment: "There's the "story story" which is the cutscenes and the dialogue, and the "gameplay story" which is the story that's described by the actions you take in the game world. The theory was that the closer you could bring those two stories together, the more satisfying the game would be." That's what we're all aiming for, and it's harder than it sounds.