The Game Critique

Games are Structure

(Forget it, this is going up as is. – Eric Swain) My last post was really only the first half of a longer first draft I wrote on paper. When transcribing it I realized it started to meander and connect too many points, so I cut it down and resettled everything else into another post where it [...]

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October’s ‘09 Round Table Entry – Denouement: The Gameplay Slowdown

Designer Denouements How can the denouement be incorporated into gameplay? In literary forms, it is most often the events that take place after the plot’s climax that form your lasting opinion of the story. A well constructed denouement acts almost as a payoff, where protagonists and antagonists alike realize and adjust to the consequences of [...]

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Problems with Prince of Persia One Last Time

Why oh why do I do this to myself? I said that the last one would be the last one, but no. I go out to buy some chips late and I find myself thinking about concepts of the game design. My mind turns to something being debated now around Flower, most prominently over at [...]

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Prince of Persia’s Epilogue DLC – WHY?!?

I decided to not write on it immediately, get a good night sleep and and take some time to digest what Ubisoft has just done. I was angry last night when I checked IGN and found this little tidbit heading the day of news. Basically Ubisoft will release a DLC pack for their recent game, [...]

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The Proposed Story Arcs for Prince of Persia

I talked about how the story structure in Prince of Persia didn't work for me and how the various villains fit in the game's thematic consistency. Now I'm going to combine the two ideas. This may come off as a little dictating from on high, but oh well.

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Thematic Relevance of the Vignettes in Prince of Persia

The servants of Ahriman are the thematic representation of their fall from grace and at the end of the game, a representation of the Prince. Each had a desire that could only be fulfilled giving something to Ahriman, in their case, their souls. However, like Faust, they find their wishes fulfilled, but empty.

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The Failure of Prince of Persia’s Story Structure

The title pretty much sums up thesis for this essay. Prince of Persia has fallen to the trend of non-linear gameplay. It's the new buzzword in the market. That's all fine and dandy, and in the weeks up to its release even I praised the design as a merging of story and gameplay. However, now having played the game Prince of Persia has replaced Mirror's Edge as my most disappointing game of 2008. It has nothing to do with the gameplay. It has to do with the story and more specifically with the story's structure.

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