Fate happily ever after Storytron release?

Well, this was wasn't what I was expecting.

Industry legend Chris Crawford gave up on traditional game development 1992 after giving his Dragon Speech, and then went down a different route to develop something completely new; a system for interactive storytelling.

Imagine that system. I certainly have. I share a dream with Chris Crawford.

"I dreamed of the day when computer games would be a viable medium of artistic expression — an art form. I dreamed of computer games expressing the full breadth of human experience and emotion. I dreamed of computer games that were tragedies, games about duty and honor, self-sacrifice and patriotism. I dreamed of satirical games and political games; games about the passionate love between a boy and girl, and the serene and mature love of a husband and wife of decades; games about a boy becoming a man, and a man realizing that he is no longer young. I dreamed of games about a man facing truth on a dusty main street at high noon, and a boy and his dog, and a prostitute with a heart of gold."
- Chris Crawford, Chris Crawford on Game Design

After 16 years, Storytron is now ready for the limelight and Chris has released the first public interactive story built with it; Balance of Power: 21st Century. I tried it. My first game, or story, lasted about a minute, and this was the end result.

Fate happily ever after USA super-tiny? Yeah, not entirely what I was expecting after all those years. My second game lasted longer; it never seemed to lead anywhere. To be fair, I will give it both a third and a fourth shot. Chris might be crazy but he's not stupid, and I still believe that, despite the horrible presentation and the surreal english, there might be something to it.

UPDATED: Response from Chris Crawford in the comments.

Today we were betrayed

The 18th of June was the day when the Swedish parliament decided to start spying on their own citizens. We were betrayed.

A black day.

Interviews from launch event

There are a bunch of interviews with me online, from the Oslo launch event. I was interviewed by 2 groups of journalists, and the following interviews seems to be from the same group. Check it out on Ten Ton Hammer, Spong and mmorpg.com.

Age of Conan has launched

We've launched Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures!

I've spent almost three and a half years as a designer on Conan, and it is with joy and pride I see our depiction of Hyboria leave the Oslo offices to meet the world.

Here is our launch trailer.

DICE believes in the web as platform

Something I've touced briefly on in an blog entry about indie game production is the realization of the web as a gaming platform for "real" games. Apparently, Ben Cousins - executive producer at DICE - agrees with me:

'In a response to a question about the possibility of a 'one console future' Cousins answered, "Yes and it's going to be the web, and it doesn't care if it runs on a phone or runs on a Mac or the PC."'

Quote from gamesindustry.biz.