Grammar of Fun: New Yorker features Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski

November 1st, 2008 by tim finin

This week’s New Yorker magazine has an article, The Grammar of Fun, on Cliff Bleszinski, the design director of Epic Games. Here’s how the ACM TechNews summarized it.

Epic Games, with its best-selling Gears of War game, illustrates the trend in the video-game industry to develop immersive games that mirror real life in that they require tactical thinking, subtle judgments based on paltry data, constant awareness of multiple factors as they change throughout the course of the game, and the spatial sensitivity to control one’s movement through a space in which the appropriate direction is not always obvious. The environment of Gears of War stands out from other game environments in that it has a specific mood, while the third-person viewpoint allows the player to assume the dual role of both participant and observer. The central avatar of Gears of War also is more realistic in terms of behavior, in his display of caution and even fear, than most game characters, which are often cyphers without personalities. The game’s mechanics are instrumented to present a world that has the illusion of internal consistency while also supporting a compelling experience for gamers. For example, the game is designed to punish players who do not seek cover. Games with multiplayer options are very popular, given that single-player games can produce a feeling of isolation.

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