A Leonard Cohen Cover

Here's a cover of Leonard Cohen's fantastic song. I sing, play guitars, and devised some of the swirling atmospherics. Bryant Moore plays drums, bass, and horns. While recording I wanted to see if I could come up with an emotive harmony to accompany the already amazing melody, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with -- though I use it sparingly, only at the end of the second verse and chorus.

I should note here that I screw up the lyrics in one spot: in the second verse I sing "...you set yourself..." while the original lyric goes "...you fixed yourself..." It's impossible to say why I misremembered this line but the damage to the song is minimal, I think. My addition, while not better, is weirdly ambiguous.

Game Theories: The Whiteboards

Over a year ago I left a nice job at Griptonite Games near Seattle, Washington with a mind to seek my fortunes in the east. My plan was to move to New York City after taking two months off to finish a few lingering personal projects and begin a few more. That almost happened, until life intervened. But that's another story.

The day before leaving, I brought my camera into the office to execute pet project that had been simmering in my head for a long time. I wanted to take pictures of my colleagues' whiteboards. Over the course of my many years in the game industry, I had grown fond of the messes that accumulated on the small doodle stations adorning every cubicle in the building. And I mean, every cubicle. Griptonite was as generous with whiteboards as they were with staples. And thank heavens, too, because they always came in handy....

The fact that nearly everyone had access to a whiteboard is precisely the cause of what I love most about these pictures: the juxtaposed variety of evidence of every discipline in the studio -- programmers and artists, designers and producers -- haphazardly scribbling to make their ideas known, to solidify concepts, or just let off a little steam. The whiteboard empowered everyone.

It's too obvious to admire the remnants left behind by the clearly talented artists in these pictures, through fun all the same. But what I like best are the wrinkled diagrams and the hastily scratched notes. They are visible evidence of a halfway point in an otherwise inscrutable creative process; these are middles of so many unknowable ideas. Ideas that started in someone's head, leaked out on to a whiteboard in any one of five or six colors, and then perhaps, if it was lucky, eventually made its way into a game that you yourself may have played only last year. Just maybe.

Click on through to see more. And click on the photos themselves to blow 'em up bigger.

Random Thought

Internet forums are the future of literature.

Assassin's Creed Revelations: A Bibliography

If you happen to enjoy Assassin's Creed Revelations and would like to know more about the era, its people, and the city of Istanbul, these are a few of the books we used to bring our tale to life. Tread heavily, dear adventurer, for history is a muddy, murky place, and rewards only those with long and solid strides.

Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, by Caroline Finkel

The Ottoman Centuries, by Lord Kinross

Istanbul: The Imperial City, by John Freely

History of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, Vol. 1, by Stanford J. Shaw

Mission to Constantinople, by Liutprand of Crimona

The Turkish Empire: The Sultans, the Territory, and the People, by Rev. T. Milner.

History of the Ottoman Empire, by Edward Upham

History of the Byzantine Empire, George Finlay

The Fourth Part of The World, by Toby Lester

DK Eywitness Travel Guide: Istanbul, by Rose Baring

Some books from Turkey with loads of pictures that Mustapha brought back from Istanbul

Google Images

Wikipedia

Rumors

A Call To ADVENTURE

This is a quick note to say that the book I have been working on for the past five years -- called Adventure -- is now FINISHED.

Buy it here.

What happens in Adventure?

A young boy, fed up with life under the constant scrutiny of his parents, sneaks from his bedroom into the wild and woolly world in search of a life of adventure and intrigue. Wayfaring far and wide, he makes his way to a town named Proscenium--a quiet, mid-sized metropolis build on a cliff at the edge of the known world. What lies beyond that hazy border is anybody's guess ... but our young boy is determined to discover it. A comic picaresque, served up in a surreal cloud of imagination and fading memory, Adventure is both a celebration and a parody of the well-worn coming-of-age novel.

Bonus Points: If you see any typos in the manuscript, do let me know. I'll hook you up with a free copy of the book if I manage to made a hardcover version.

Extra Bonus Points: If you are a visual artist, and happen to like the book, and would like to contribute visual media to accompany it, please contact me. Eventually I hope to publish Adventure with 20 to 30 illustrations, paintings, collages, etc. included with the text.

Triple Bonus - here is the opening paragraph:

"I was wide-awake when my adventure began, I hadn’t slept for days. Without saying goodbye, or goodnight, or feeling a twinge of remorse, I set out that first evening finally fearing nothing, emboldened by a hunger for newness. I was a boy still, more or less, and though there weren’t many good reasons to disobey my parents, I did it regardless. I steeled my will and disobeyed them casually, sneaking out into the world well past my bedtime. This wasn’t a rational decision—not in those days, when so much of my comfort was at stake—but it had to be made. Parents are in charge for too long before they give up, and I couldn’t wait the length of my youth for that miracle. It was midnight and my will was strong, and my opportunity ripe. It was time to begin the adventure."

Thank you for your kind attention. Enjoy.

Darby McDevitt

Random Quasi-Informed Thought

L.A. Noire seems to contain about as much "Noir" as Troll 2 contains trolls.

Additionally, among those who have reviewed the game -- positively and negatively -- I haven't found any great pieces written by fans whose familiarity with Film Noir extends past L.A. Confidential and Chinatown. Not that this is a terrible thing, but it does seem like a wasted opportunity to educate.

Folks, for starters:

Out of the Past
Kiss Me Deadly
Touch Of Evil
Criss Cross
In A Lonely Place
Night and the City
Double Indemnity
The Big Sleep
Murder, My Sweet
The Killers

Back to games, this article is great. Not simply as a review, but as a critical evaluation of the pitfalls and possibilities of storytelling through games.

New Everything

It's been a long time since I posted anything. Not for any good reason, but I have been busy indeed. Moved from Seattle via New York to Montreal to work at Ubisoft Montreal. I'm writing things for them. In due time I'll be able to say what exactly.

More later, maybe.

Game Theories: A Practical Guide To Game Writing

Gamasutra published another article of mine about a month back. In "A Practical Guide to Game Writing" I teach interested, dedicated game developers how to get the most out of their writers. Check it out.

Game Theories: The Deaths of Game Narrative

An article I wrote for Gamasutra is up. Called "The Deaths of Game Narrative", it's a whimsical look at death, design, and storytelling in the digital world. An excerpt:

It's been quite a year for epic, narrative-driven games -- titles vast in scope, grand in ambition, and gorgeous in execution -- and I have fought my way through a few of the best.

In recent months I have transformed into an exiled Florentine nobleman thirsty for vengeance in Renaissance Italy; I masqueraded as a continent-hopping, chiseled chunk of vainglorious derring-do in search of lost treasure; and I traveled the western wilds of the United States as a battle-scarred loner fighting to restore his dignity and return to his family.

To the ear of an outsider, this might sound like a pretty diverse scrapbook of experiences, and I'd say this was half right. But there's one element that draws all these titles together under a cozy umbrella. In each game, the protagonist -- my avatar -- is a mass murderer...

Mark Hollis, Come Back

Today, a friend reminded me to take my monthly Mark Hollis. I rarely forget, and fall ill when I do.