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This is the blog of Larcenous Designs, LLC, through which I (Nathan Rockwood) will be publishing thoughts and ramblings related to my business' projects, which may include anything related to games, game design, and the use of gaming in education.
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Filtering by Tag: Games as Lit
Today, shockingly enough, marks the fifth anniversary of the formal founding of Larcenous Designs, LLC. While the idea had been kicking around for years beforehand, this nonetheless feels worthy of celebrating!
Read MoreDontnod’s Life is Strange is my current favorite example of a game as literature--and as one can probably tell from the tattoo that now covers my forearm, I have invested a considerable amount of thought into this. Too much thought, in fact, to fit it all into a single blog post or essay.
That said, I figured I have to start somewhere! First, in this post, I’m going to go through rundown of LiS’s most prominent theme and how it gets delivered through both narrative elements and game mechanics. If I can find the time, I’ll get around to other things about the game--its complicated relationship with the presentation of mental health issues, a discussion of the endings, situations it handles well or poorly, etc--in other posts.
So, why do I have this tattoo (image after the cut) on my arm? Read on to find out!
(And here's a video for a closer look at the tattoo!)
Note: Spoilers abound, and I’m not going to be simply reiterating the plot here, so please: go play the game before reading further! Or, at least, watch the amazingly complete playthroughs and theorycraft videos of Geek Remix, which I watched to help refresh myself on the game while writing this!
Read MoreRunning a class of approximately 30 English students through a video game wasn’t something I’d done before, but it went surprisingly smoothly. Here are some notes on what I did and how it worked out.
Read MoreAs the 2015-2016 school year draws to a close, I finally find myself with enough time to turn some of my notes on games I’ve used in class into readable after-action reports. I’m starting here with my first foray, Flower, and breaking this into two parts. This post will detail why I chose the game, including my reasons for considering it to be a piece of art and literature; the next post will cover technical implementation and results!
Read MoreThis is the third part of an ongoing series about teaching games--both video games and tabletop role playing games--as literature.
I’ve discussed my reasons for using games as literature in school, but I’ve mostly stuck to the theory so far. Time to address the practical side of this issue: What are the quantifiable outcomes, both benefits and drawbacks, of using games as literature?
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