Soren Johnson

Designer Notes 10: Nina Freeman

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In this episode, Adam Saltsman interviews indie game developer Nina Freeman, who is best known for her personal vignette games How Do You Do It?, Freshman Year, and the upcoming Cibele. She is currently working at Fullbright as a level designer on the upcoming game Tacoma. They discuss why all VR games are about sitting in chairs, how a background in poetry influences her work, and how to write about your own personal flaws in a game.

 

Games Discussed: How Do You Do It?, Cibele, Digital: A Love Story, Gone Home, Dys4ia, MMOs, Final Fantasy 10

 

https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/nina-freeman

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So the talk about poetry and how it relates to games was absolutely fascinating, even if you know nothing about poetry (like me)

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Great episode. Loved hearing about the struggle of writing about yourself in a game. I did notice that near the end of the podcast, about 50 minutes in all the audio pans to the left speaker. Definitely didn't sound intentional. 

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I really loved this episode. I think it's interesting how Adam's interview style is much less biographical than Soren's, or Steve's on Tone Control. Gives a different feel.

 

I'd only been familiar with Nina from retweets before this, so it was really interesting to hear her talk about her games and her approach to design. I took the advice and played How Do You Do It? in the middle of listening - it was really cool! I love the idea of vignette games like this and it gives me confidence that a couple ideas I've got could eventually become actual games.

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I recently downloaded all of the episodes and this one is really interesting because it feels like both people are sharing their experience despite it being an interview. Very natural and informative. 

I never really heard about the game before and I had a hard time thinking it is something that would appeal to me (not an MMO or Adventure games fan), but the human aspect of it sounds really interesting to me and reminding me of ready-player-one story in a way.

(first post btw)

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