Monthly Archives: May 2010

Be Careful What You Wish For

As a game designer I spend a lot of time thinking of ways I can encourage players to act in particular ways. Some are obvious – drop a few expensive & cool items into stores at a particular place I want the player to return to because I know the items will encourage most players …

May 22, 2010 – 12:56 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in My Life, The Lazy Designer | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Quick Empire Avenue Comments

It has been interesting watching the growth of Empire Avenue over the last few months. I started in the first beta when it first opened up and now as people are able to invite others to join, its growing at a nice pace. Everyday I find new and interesting ‘content’ whether that be people’s blogs …

May 21, 2010 – 9:16 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in My Life | Tagged | Comments (0)

Writing Life – Wordage

Well, five months into 2010 I’ve just passed my word count from 2009. I’m at almost 175 000 words written this year. Of course in 2009 I had been working at a dayjob up until September, so it is not a fair comparison but I’m pretty happy (overall) with the amount of writing I’m doing …

May 20, 2010 – 10:35 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in My Life, Writing Resources | Comments (0)

Through Blood and Iron

The Through Blood and Iron Anthology from Ricasso Press looks like its nearing completion. My story “The Daughter’s Oath” will be appearing in it. I was sent the table of contents the other day (which I won’t post because I haven’t seen it posted by the editor yet) and asked to complete a bio for …

May 19, 2010 – 3:01 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in Writing Resources | Tagged | Comments (0)

A Ragman’s Vow in A Thousand Faces

Just received my print contributor copies of A Thousand Faces #11. “A Ragman’s Vow”, originally published in On Spec Magazine, has been reprinted in this magazine of superhero stories. Copies of the print version of the magazine can be ordered through the A Thousand Faces website or the story can be read online there. (But …

May 18, 2010 – 7:27 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in Writing Resources | Tagged | Comments (0)

Feedback on new look

The theme I’m using here (the erudite) is quite different from the one I use over on the yourothermind.com site. Please let me know if you like it or would like for me to try something different. This site should also work nicely on the iPhone and other devices thanks to the wordpress plugin wptouch. …

May 18, 2010 – 2:57 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in Website | Tagged | Comments (2)

The Details on the Great Blog Split

This is the first post of my new blog. A few years ago I started up the blog at yourothermind.com. The intention then was a blog dedicated to my writing platform, YourOtherMind. But over the years it has turned more and more into a personal blog, discussing game design and writing. Things that make more …

May 17, 2010 – 8:44 pm | By Brent Knowles | Posted in My Life | Comments (2)

Distraction Devices

Earlier I posted about how electronic devices can really disrupt meetings. Now Richard Curtis over at [e-reads] has a post discussing Christine Pearson’s book which goes into detail on why overuse of these distraction devices causes poor work performance. Worth reading, especially for those of you who still believe mobile devices allow you to ‘get …

May 17, 2010 – 9:50 am | By Brent Knowles | Posted in My Life, The Lazy Designer | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Videogame Demos, or, Why I don't buy games anymore

Demo. That one word had the power to make us poor game developers tremble as it always brought with it crazy work hours and vague plans. And when we were finished we always wondered — ‘was it worth it?’ Well, now on the consumer side of the fence, I can heartily answer… no. But please, …

May 16, 2010 – 11:43 am | By Brent Knowles | Posted in Game Reviews, My Life | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Read this week – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I read this novel by Phillip K. Dick many years ago but having forgotten much of it, I cracked it open (in the digital sense). A fantastic, fun, read, as it was the first time. The novel, the basis for the film Blade Runner, on the surface is about a bounty hunter hunting androids but …

May 15, 2010 – 8:50 am | By Brent Knowles | Posted in Review | Tagged , | Comments (0)