- The insistent ramblings of creative writer and game industry veteran Joe Houston.Learn more...
work Archive
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Fairy Tales for Adults: Framing Game Violence
Posted on January 20, 2013 | Posted In: The Game Industry | 3 CommentsBy my estimation Twitter, the Grand Pooh-Bah of the 140 character micro thought, everyday produces 8,167 times more text than the world record holder for longest novel (Proust’s In Search of Lost Time). This seems to me a pretty fine argument that people really hate to write more than a… -
Unwritten: That Which Happened
Posted on January 14, 2013 | Posted In: The Game Industry | 1 CommentWhat better place for a shameless, self promoting, plug than my own blog? This is the Kickstarter for our new project, Unwritten. Permanent decisions and infinite variety. Create a nomadic tribe and guide them across a randomly generated tundra to meet its God.… It’s weird, exotic, and challenging on -
Published Elsewhere: Why I Quit Arkane to Go Indie
Posted on November 16, 2012 | Posted In: The Game Industry | No CommentsAnticipating the understandable reaction of my friends and family, I’ve been percolating on why I decided to make the risky leap to go indie and “make games for nerds”. After two weeks of fretting and navel gazing the product is now posted at Gamasutra as a promoted blog post. Big… -
Roxlou Games: That’s Me
Posted on November 8, 2012 | Posted In: The Game Industry | No CommentsNow that my last day at Arkane has come and gone, things are humming on the indie games front. I’ve partnered with artist Lee VanWallene, and together we’re gradually seeing our game world coalesce. But don’t take my word for it, funneled through this blog in sparse updates. We’re Roxlou… -
Now Entering the Independent Space
Posted on November 1, 2012 | Posted In: The Game Industry | No CommentsA more detailed explanation of my thoughts and feelings are to follow soon, but in short I’ve decided to go out on my own for a while. To that end my last day at Arkane Studios is tomorrow. I can say that I’m excited about the transition, and that I… -
The Golden Child: Dishonored Goes Gold
Posted on September 28, 2012 | Posted In: The Game Industry | No CommentsAt the time I’m writing this we are ten days out from Dishonored’s US ship date, but that number has lost all meaning to me.
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In fact the whole statement is surreal on its face. Over the course of three and half years of development, you learn to -
Arkane Looking for Gameplay Programmer
Posted on April 17, 2011 | Posted In: The Game Industry | 3 CommentsArkane Studios, sister company to Bethesda Softworks and Id Software, is looking for a Gameplay Engineer for their current AAA original IP. If you’re a video game programmer with 3+ years of experience contact Quin Matteson in HR for specifics. Make sure to mention that you were referred to the… -
Thinking Your Way Out of Tick Order Hell
Posted on April 10, 2011 | Posted In: The Art of Engineering | 2 CommentsAnyone that has worked on an active simulation has probably spent a few days in tick order hell. This is the pernicious state where your result differs based on the order you construct your simulation frame, usually involving brain-bending circular dependency. For example you may find that your game camera… -
Stupid Interview Questions Everyone Still Asks: Reverse the Words in a String
Posted on February 23, 2011 | Posted In: Stupid Interview Questions | 31 CommentsEDIT – Called out on my sample implementation not handling whitespace well so I updated the example. Well played Internet, well played. The Question: Can you write a function that reverses the words in a string? In this case “the quick brown fox” becomes “fox brown quick the”. Demonstrate on… -
Stupid Interview Questions Everyone Still Asks: C/C++ Volatile and Mutable
Posted on February 12, 2011 | Posted In: Stupid Interview Questions | 12 CommentsEDIT – 02/13/2011: If you’re getting ready to flame me as part of an elaborate love letter to the keyword volatile read this first. This author does a better job of explaining the point I’m trying to make. I muck it up a bit by trying to be “colorful”. You…