Games

On Diablo II, the Horadric Cube, and the strange things we carry with us from old games. Whenever I returned to Diablo II, there was something I found myself looking forward to almost immediately: getting the Horadric Cube. It’s a little ridiculous when I think about it. I knew where to find it, I knew what it did, and I’d used it countless times before. There shouldn’t have been anything particularly exciting about getting it again. Yet there I was, making my way through Act II, waiting for that familiar little box to finally take its place in my inventory. ...

How the stories surrounding an experience can change what audiences expect from it - and what future experiences become. Recently, I found myself forming an impression of a multiplayer gaming project I had barely seen being played. One short video claimed that almost the entire server had been banned. Another suggested the organizer had admitted to being a terrible owner. A third simply asked what was going on, accompanied by a crying emoji. ...

When I start a game, the first thing I write down is never a feature list. It’s feelings. Not one line, not a neat little paragraph, but a love letter - every feeling I want you to have, poured out at once. hook started as a little story: a cabin in the mountains, a dog, a bark in the night, an empty bed in the morning. And underneath it, instead of mechanics, a wish list of moments. Moments that let you pause. Moments that make you hurry. Moments that make you think. Moments that make you dream. And music that makes you feel the whole journey: the exploring, the scenery you don’t want to leave yet, the danger, the mystical, the hollow, the rush, the escape, the belonging, and finally the coming home. ...