Author: by Staff

In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics including how the mechanics of video game death tie into a game's narrative death, "what is the game?" and completing tough games on one credit. In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs - What Is The Game? (Yung Sing Lim) Yung Sim Lim asks, "What is the game?" It's a broad question with no single answer. "Or maybe, just maybe, that game is life itself. Maybe it’s bigger than life. Maybe there’s a bigger system in place, and we’re just a cog in that system that’s also just a part of another even bigger system." - Opportunistic Development (Alexander Bruce) Here, Alex Bruce, the indie behind the IGF game Hazard: The Journey of Life, shares "some of the development philosophy that I've found useful over the years for people who are looking to break into the industry or generally get more out of what they're doing." - Narrative Death vs Game Mechanic Death (Alistair Doulin) Alistair Doulin argues, "It’s watered down when you die 25 times leading up to the cut-scene with the narrative death. If this common gameplay mechanic [of death] can be separated from the narrative death we will see even more powerful narratives in our games." - Is Your Studio A Mountaineering Disaster? (Andrew Grapsas) Andrew Grapsas asks, "If your studio or team were an expedition to a cold, high altitude mountain, how would it fare?" It's a metaphorical question, of course. - One Credit Completion (Michael Molinari) To complete an entire game on one credit is a fairly big accomplishment, in terms of gaming that is. "What's my personal drive for attaining the [one credit completion]? Pulling off a 1CC means that I fully understood the rules by which a game is bound," writes Michael Molinari.