Weekly Links #36
I was tempted to just skip this newsletter. Few links last week, little to say about them, and having full time work these days is not a combination conducive to creativity. (Well, and having my creativity channeled in another direction as of late.) But here I am anyway.
First thing that grabbed my eye is this tweet, itself quoting a longer conversation. And you know, maybe I'm missing some context, but are two of the world's best game programmers arguing that programmable-pipeline OpenGL is too complicated, and software rendering is better?
Yeah, yeah, I'm biased. But next time you're struggling to get basic stuff working properly with the "easier" modern technologies, you want to ask yourself if you really need all the fluff.
In other news, recent experiments are increasingly blurring the notion of what a game even is. Like this guy who got two Twitter bots playing Gorillas (yes, the famed QBasic demo) among themselves. Or the British Library hiring an interactive fiction author. For that matter, here's an explanation of
why Gone Home isn't just a "walking simulator". (Not that I needed any convincing.) Ultimately, it's Jeff Vogel who put it best in this recent interview:
“Is this a game?” (Answer: If you are asking, then yes.)
Which is great, because frankly I don't care at all for rigid genre conventions these days, either in fiction or gaming. And everyone else seems intent on following recipes. So, more space for me to play in.
But that assumes I'm working on anything game-related right now, which isn't the case. Oh well, until next time.