Orson Scott Card interview

I came across this interview over the weekend and it seems that most of the major sites have jumped on it as well. Ender's Game is my favorite book of all time, fueling my love of science fiction when I read it in the sixth grade. When I thought about what to name my blog, this was the only source I wanted to go for inspiration. The writer touches on some great topics such as the role of story in games and the effect of violet games on kids. I was most attracted to the comments Card made on a series of games set in the Ender universe, ranging from what sounds like RTS's to first-person shooters to action-adventure games.

Don't look for one "Ender's Game" game. Look, instead, for games bearing the Ender's Game brand.

The Battle Room. I see several game modules here, using the same graphics base but with quite different game play. There's the game where you're an individual soldier; the game where you're a toon leader; the game where you command.

I have always wanted to interact with this world. The Battle Room, while possible strategy based, would be a very cool. I have always imagined while reading the book how this would play out as a game: teams maneuvering through zero-g and bouncing off the walls, blasting each other with lasers and rotating the room in three dimensions. It would be very cool. He also suggests a game based of my blog's namesake.

Then there's the "mind game" or Fantasy Game from the novel. This would be the hardest to design, since there are so many areas where free-association would need to be rewarded. But it would also be the most fun to explore!

The game in the book was open ended, giving the player the freedom to do anything he wanted. It was essentially one of the first sandbox games. The game would be impossibly difficult to actually create but as emergent AI improves and games continue to become exponentially more complex, it is feasible in the near future.

The Battle Room, and more specifically the simulator from the end of the book, is actually the inspiration for one of my first attempts at creating my own game. With design combined with a popular board game of my youth, I hope to start prototyping and developing in the near future.