More on Reviews

I got to do another game review. I don't want to say too much about the review itself, but man did I enjoy doing it. I love getting my name out there, seeing my writing published in an official capacity. Now, the review isn't out yet, so I can't say anything about it really (I mean, I need you guys to actually go to the site and read it, right?) but I can tell you about the process.

​First off... this is the game I reviewed.

I wanna talk about it so much, but I'll be a good boy and just talk about the process. It's actually pretty cool. Normally I would just go through a game, looking at it just for it's enjoyment factor, but unfortunately you can't write an entire article about the game just saying "it's fun." Now that I'm paying attention to the plot elements, the mechanics, and taking screen shots every so often, I'm seeing a bit more of what the developers put into the game.

I was fortunate enough when I was studying in the Netherlands to meet some friends in the IGAD program. Basically, it's a program for game development. The people there were awesome and I even got to play test some stuff for them. Thanks to them, I was given a taste of all the hard work that goes into a making a video game come to life. Now that I'm reviewing games instead of just playing them, I'm taking what they showed me and using it to pick apart the experiences these games are offering.

It's not just about "I had fun," but it's about what mechanics are involved in playing. It's about whether the story actually gripped me or if it was completely ancillary. This is good for me to practice as I can definitely use this in my future writings. When I'm putting together a novel, I need to know what elements are actually important and what are merely there to be there. I need to know what feels like it was phoned in versus what seems well put together.

I'm having a ton of fun doing these reviews and I can't wait for the next one. Hopefully my experience here will lead to even better opportunities down the road. Oh! And for those who haven't seen it, make sure you check out my last review on World to the West over on dlh.net.

​Until tomorrow, Be Excellent To Each Other.