Intelligent Artifice

Interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky June 21, 2008

Here is an interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky from 1999. It’s fascinating - it helps if you like his work I guess. The Incal, written by Jodorowsky and illustrated by Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud is one of my favorite comics. I am sad that I will be in Paris but not at the right time to catch one of Jodorowsky’s lectures / psychoanalysis sessions.

(Please ignore the SHOUTING INTERVIEWER.)

He even has some things to say about games. Nothing mind-blowing, but interesting nevertheless:

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN DESIGNING VIDEO GAMES YOURSELF?
Yes. Last year I did in L.A. They’re doing that now. I went there and
proposed, I say, Listen, I want to make this type of story, are you
interested? They said, Yes, sure. I made two games of, and I am making a
game of the Meta-Baron, then they are doing. I think, “There is a new
artform.” Very interesting.

I don’t think that game ever came out. Pity.

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Three hundred mechanics, with comics on the side November 22, 2007

Surprisingly, Three Hundred Mechanics has nothing to do with Seven Hundred Hoboes, although I see no good reason why not.

It is a web site by Sean Howard listing 300 game mechanics (well, currently about 60). I like them. It’s like the ideas one occasionally has about game design, only with a neat formal twist, not to mention nice old school pixel graphics to illustrate them. I think it’s a really good method for writing down ideas - it beats letting them moulder in notebooks or never writing them down in the first place. Making it a flat list of 300 and not claiming any kind of usefulness means you can judge the ideas in a different way than if someone said “Look look I have this cool idea that will make a million seller”. Many of the ideas are interesting or thought-provoking.

(I feel tempted to steal the meta-idea… with credit of course.)

I also highly recommend reading Mr. Howard’s webcomics. Especially IF Only…, a not-really-a-comic about interactive fiction (again). It has a running joke that had me in stitches. The other comics are fun too.

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Batman by Dostoyevsky September 22, 2007

I’ve started reading Dostoyevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ several times, but, while I appreciate the peculiar effect the book generates, I’ve never been able to get further than about one third. Luckily I won’t have to try anymore, since R. Sikoryak has remade the book in the style of an old-school Batman comic. Behold the adventures of Raskol!

I notice that R. Sikoryak has adapted many other masterpieces of literature. Action Camus! Crypt of Brontë! Good news for people like me who lack the mental fortitude to read anything with more than ten pages. Soon I can impress women at cocktail parties with my knowledge of literachur.

(Forgot where I found the original link, sorry.)

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