Introduction and Interview

 Hello readers, welcome to my games design blog. My name is Niall (it's in the blog title) and I am a student at UCS Ipswich studying Game Design as a degree. I will be regularly updating this blog with new posts all about what I am learning as a games designer.

 This first post is to let my readers know the kind of person I am, to do this I have been interviewed by a fellow student and will now go through my answers.

What is the last Fiction book you read?
 I recently finished reading a book by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle called 'Lucifer's Hammer'. Published in 1977, this novel is split into three parts and follows the stories of several different people as they react to the imminent threat of a comet hitting earth and how they struggle to survive after the event. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, especially the first part in which it shows the transition between denial and acceptance, resulting in apocalypse preparation, religious 'explanation', looting and general widespread panic. I do, however, think that the writers were trying very hard to preach the superiority of technology; which is evident in the last part of the book as the survivors try to take control of a nuclear power plant whilst fighting religious cannibals.

What is the last Non-Fiction book you read?
 Rather than reading through non-fiction books I tend to use them for reference and research (be that work-related or for personal interest). At home I have several books borrowed from the library at UCS Ipswich related to games design, such as 'Gameplay and Design' by Kevin Oxland and 'Rules of Play' by Salen and Zimmerman. I also run D&D campaigns when I have the time which requires me to constantly refer to the 'Player's Handbook'.

What is the last live performance you saw?
 During the summer I went to BoomBap Festival, a British Hip-Hop festival that I have been going to since it started in 2012. There were acts from all over Britain (and this year some from America) all weekend such as Ghost Faced Killa, the High Focus artists and many more. There was also plenty of food and drink stalls, a mini arcade, merchandise stalls and blank walls for graffiti artists to fill.

What is the last film you watched?
 Over the past couple of weeks I have watched all four of the current 'Evil Dead' films. The original trilogy is fantastically over the top with its story, gore and action and will remain some of my favourite films for a long time. Also, the remake of the first Evil Dead that came out in 2013 is extremely good as a horror film and modern take on a classic. The hero of Evil Dead (Ash, played by Bruce Campbell) turns up at a cabin in the woods with some friends where their lives get turned to chaos. Ash has to survive staying at the cabin in the first two films, eventually opening a portal to banish the evil at the end of 'Evil Dead 2', which he gets sucked into. The third film, 'Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead' follows Ash as he tries to stop the army of Deadites he accidentally raised in an attempt to get back to his time.

What is the last thing you watched on TV?

 I have recently been watching 'Gotham', which is a crime drama series about Jim Gordan (a character from 'Batman') as he starts trying to clean up the fictional city of Gotham. As a big fan of Batman I was interested to see how the writers at Fox would redefine the well known origin story of not only Batman, but many of his allies and enemies; so far I am quite impressed and I look forward to seeing how things turn out for the characters.

 I have also been watching the original series of Cosmos with Carl Sagen as I absolutely loved the modern series with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Both series' are very interesting and are filled with awe-inspiring science and science related history.

How often do you check news sources?

 I usually read the headlines of newspapers as I see them (in shops and such) but I do sometimes scan through my parents copy of the Guardian. I get most of my news from the internet, from websites like RT; but most of the time I look into game news and watch new trailers using websites like Edge and Gametrailers.

What was the last museum you went to?

 In the summer I went to New York City and a couple of days before I came back to England I went to the Museum of the Moving Image. At the time there was an exhibition on Chuck Jones (the artist behind many popular cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck) which was interesting and inspiring. The museum contains many props and costumes from popular films with descriptions of how they were made, there is a section all about filming methods through the ages, and there is a small section on the history of video games; which contains many playable arcade machines from Pong and Frogger to Mrs. Pac Man and Gauntlet.

How many hours do you spend playing video games a week?

 It varies, but mostly between 20-25 hours a week, which is split between short bouts on 'smaller' games such as indie games, online games, puzzle games etc.. and large periods of time on 'bigger' games such as RPGs and strategy games. I will also occasionally put a great deal of time into playing MMORPGs, but find myself getting quite bored and then not playing them for weeks.

How many hours do spend playing non-digital games a week?

 Again it varies, but on average about 2-4 hours a week playing games like Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, etc.. I also like to find other small games to try with friends such as small Trading Card games and board games.


Thanks for reading, watch this blog for updates on what I'm doing at university.