Video games, like films, always starts with story. Or at least the games that get it right. A Penny Arcade Expo 2009 panel, entitled “Media is the Massage,” hoped to address this notion with an all-star team consisting of Denis Dyack (President, Silicon Knights), Joseph Staten (Bungie, Creative Director), Tim Schafer (Founder, Double Fine), Greg Zeschuk (Group Creative Officer, RPG/MMO Group of EA and Co-Founder, BioWare) and moderator Adam Sessler (Editor-In-Chief, G4). My quick and dirty notes after the jump. read all »

Seems like no art form is without the argument of “what is indie?” I got a glimpse of this argument in the context of video games at a lively panel at Penny Arcade Expo 2009 moderated by N’Gai Croal (Consultant, Writer, Columnist, Hit Detection LLC). Below are my quick and dirty notes. So what is an indie game to you? read all »

If you didn’t catch the Festival this year, we presented the first ever Planet Illogica Award for New Media: Directing to Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, the duo behind the groundbreaking PlayStation Network game “Flower.” We’re not stopping there, however, and are developing the video game aspect of the Festival into a full blown initiative called “CineVegas Arcade” that will highlight independent designers and companies who push the boundaries of, what is essentially, interactive storytelling. With that in mind we will begin blogging about this world through our CineVegas prism and what better way to begin then highlighting the setting of Vegas in video games. read all »