In this episode we attempt to verbally describe a comic book. But not just any comic book. Scott McCloud's 1993 "Understanding Comics" is a comic about comics; not necessarily how to make them, but how they "work" for readers. Your librarians Tom and Joe jump about the book in no particular order, picking apart what they personally got from the book, and highlighting areas where we think there's something interesting in there for an indie dev.
TOPICS INCLUDE:
> how videogames are interactive cartoons
> semiotics and the psychology of images
> how "gaps" and "holes" in stories create engagement
> nonlinear narrative in different media
> starting projects with "ideas" vs starting with craft
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 intro
01:45 why this book
06:15 overview
11:35 indie games and cartoon aesthetics
14:02 two mediums with the same status issue
16:22 iconic representation and identification
18:55 history and definition of comics
23:02 the semiotics of comics
30:12 the three types of image
41:00 gamers love a ruined city
44:48 time is weird in comics
49:45 "closure" in media psychology
52:33 non-linear moments in comics
57:29 the meaning of lines and colours
59:20 showing & telling / multimodality
65:35 self-referentiality as a sign of a mature medium
68:50 McClouds 6 Steps of Creativity
73:20 finishing projects vs starting new ones
68:13 what's next?
OTHER REFERENCES:
Juniper Dev on Little White Guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=banRsciq1ww
Ian Bogost's 2023 essay on Gone Home: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/perpetual-adolescence-the-fullbright-companys-gone-home/
"Storyteller" Comicbook-Interface Puzzle Game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1624540/Storyteller/
"Her Story" Narrative Puzzle Game https://store.steampowered.com/app/368370/Her_Story/
"The Beginner's Guide" (example of a "reflexive"/self-referential game) https://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/The_Beginners_Guide/
wiki page of Pierre Bourdieu's "Distinction" (sociology of taste) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinction_(book)
The original game design "MDA Theory" paper: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf
McCloud's 6 Steps of Creativity explained using SoundCloud Rappers: https://rudycraiglcgr.blogspot.com/2016/08/this-for-lcgn-class-we-had-to-read.html
Derek Yu on finishing games: https://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game
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