Bard senior by day, fledgling game designer and blogger by night, and in the afternoon I find the time to do some minor web design work. My Joystiq column, Off the Grid, focuses on games that are not strictly digital in nature. This can mean board games, card games, ARG's, street games, and so, so much more. There's more to being a gamer than just staring at a screen, and I intend to prove it.I'm a literature major at Bard, which makes becoming a game designer that much harder. It probably doesn't help that numbers don't like me.
- First game experience: Who can remember that far back?
- Games that changed me: Metroid II was the first game that I needed to own, due in large part to the commercial. Metroid also became the first series I obsessed over, buying a Super NES solely for the purpose of playing Super Metroid. Other influential games include Yoshi (NES), Blades of Steel (NES), Galaga/Galaxian (GB), Chrono Trigger (SNES), Pokémon (GB), and Rez (Dreamcast). In terms of analog games, I played a lot of Milles Bornes as a kid, and the board game Aggravation was always a family favorite.
- Potential sources of bias and conflicts of interest: Being a hopeful game designer, I'm not going to be so keen on -- as Vlad so aptly put it -- "burning bridges." This does not mean, however, that I will not be forthcoming in my writings. I might occassionally review or discuss games or companies that I have a pre-existing or potential relationship with, but in these cases I will always practice full disclosure.
- Why I'm blogging about games: It might seem odd to aspire to be a game designer, and start out in games journalism (considering many consider the two to be mortal enemies), but the best angle to start looking into games is a critical one. I've always believed that the media has the one of the most important jobs in the industry, and that is criticizing the content for the sake of both the consumers and the developers. Writing is also one of best ways to flex the intellectual muscles, and I'm going to need to be in pretty good shape if I plan on breaking into this industry in a year or two.
