Gamasutra member blogs: From checkpoints to story-centric design

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, such as implementing checkpoints in games, story-centric design approaches, and more.] Member Blogs can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while invitation-only Expert Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- are written by selected development professionals. We hope that our blog sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information, check out the official posting guidelines. This Week's Standout Member Blogs Keep Moving Forward... (Kimberly Unger) Any first-person shooter player worth their salt breathes a sigh of relief when those words flash across the bottom of the screen, “Checkpoint Reached”. The actual verbiage might vary, but the meaning is the same. Playing Dark Soul: Desperate Acts And Our Shared Humanity (Jorge Albor) Jorge Albor says that to venture into Dark Souls, even for a moment, is to remind yourself of a universal truth: everyone has the capacity to transcend expectations, even you. Story-Centric Design Approaches (John Mawhorter) If you're going to tell an interactive story well, the mechanics must harmonize with the narrative. John Mawhorter examines two approaches to this. Identifying Entities In The Game World (Philip Fortier) Philip Fortier shares his evolving thoughts on how to identify game entities (and other resources) in the game engine so they are accessible from scripts and the like.