Comments on: Hal Barwood – Introduction & ACG Interview http://hardydev.com/2009/01/04/interview-with-hal-barwood-on-mata-hari/ indie games/animation design, development & appreciation Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:55:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Igor Hardy http://hardydev.com/2009/01/04/interview-with-hal-barwood-on-mata-hari/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Igor Hardy Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:07:03 +0000 http://hardydev.wordpress.com/?p=24#comment-7 Personally, I can have pretty different tastes than the general public, so I'm still very curious about this game. For example many people deemed the action parts in Insecticide (another game by ex-LucasArts fames) uninteresting and not up to the standards of the adventuring bits. I found them to be a lot of fun and very well designed, even if not particularly innovative. As for the 400 rules project, good rules are not of such a great help to make a good game I think. They allow designers to avoid certain basic flaws, they serve as inspiration, but that's pretty much it (that's still quite a lot if you treat their appliance seriously). I've been wondering about what constitutes progress in game design lately and ultimately I think you can't really dissect the creation of enjoyable playing experiences into formulas which you can keep making better and better. Why none goes about improving the rules of chess to make it more fun for instance? I may try writing some longer piece about this. Personally, I can have pretty different tastes than the general public, so I’m still very curious about this game. For example many people deemed the action parts in Insecticide (another game by ex-LucasArts fames) uninteresting and not up to the standards of the adventuring bits. I found them to be a lot of fun and very well designed, even if not particularly innovative.

As for the 400 rules project, good rules are not of such a great help to make a good game I think. They allow designers to avoid certain basic flaws, they serve as inspiration, but that’s pretty much it (that’s still quite a lot if you treat their appliance seriously). I’ve been wondering about what constitutes progress in game design lately and ultimately I think you can’t really dissect the creation of enjoyable playing experiences into formulas which you can keep making better and better. Why none goes about improving the rules of chess to make it more fun for instance? I may try writing some longer piece about this.

]]> By: Andrea Morstabilini http://hardydev.com/2009/01/04/interview-with-hal-barwood-on-mata-hari/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Andrea Morstabilini Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:26:02 +0000 http://hardydev.wordpress.com/?p=24#comment-6 The interview was very interesting. Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein and amongst the few designers of ol' Lucas Arts that I really appreciate, for their sense of history and the pacing of their intrigues. Unluckily, it seems that Mata Hari is nothing more than a botched experiment, and whilst I still hope that this is not the case, I can't help but wonder why write 400 rules for a great game design and then deny them in the actual practice of a game -- if MH is so horrible like the reviewers (and users) are saying, maybe it was an intervention from the publisher which twisted Barwood and Falstein's intentions? Uhm... I guess we'll have to wait for the actual game! The interview was very interesting. Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein and amongst the few designers of ol’ Lucas Arts that I really appreciate, for their sense of history and the pacing of their intrigues. Unluckily, it seems that Mata Hari is nothing more than a botched experiment, and whilst I still hope that this is not the case, I can’t help but wonder why write 400 rules for a great game design and then deny them in the actual practice of a game — if MH is so horrible like the reviewers (and users) are saying, maybe it was an intervention from the publisher which twisted Barwood and Falstein’s intentions? Uhm… I guess we’ll have to wait for the actual game!

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