So hey! Sexy Videogame Developerland, the little scrapbook project I started to offer audiences a quick glance at the human side of the games biz, is starting to take off! You might notice that there are many new profiles, and I'm so pleased at how awesome the contributions are that I've started asking friends and colleagues for ways to make the site a more compelling visit -- after all, as I've said, the site will thrive only on how many people are interested in checking it out and contributing to it.
MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo suggested that I add to the submission field a line asking devs to share "One thing you don't know about my game", as a way to add interesting extra content that will keep people checking back. I loved that idea, and Bethesda's Fred Zeleny was kind enough to be my guinea pig. Check out the neat little Fallout 3 personal touch that we added to his profile.
Fred actually submitted a bunch of his favorite little FO3 things, and while I just picked one for his profile for the sake of universal brevity on Sexy Videogame Developerland, I just had to share the full list:
One of my favorite things about a huge game like Fallout 3 is that everyone in the company had a chance to tuck little details into their work, and add a lot of love to the many dark corners of the world. A few of my favorite little touches I added to Fallout 3 (some of which may include minor spoilers):
* The Mechanist's pseudo-heroic line: "The scaly claw of tyranny must be destroyed by the cold, unfeeling pincers of justice!"
* Really, all of Moira's lines, from worrying about "those poor little Mole Ratties" to the many nasty ways the player can vent their frustrations at her, to the 20-years-later epilogue that she gives at the back of the game's special edition strategy guide.
* The Summer Release Schedule in the basement of Hubris Comics, where I got to come up with titles like "Drake Tungsten, Chrono-Cowboy" and "Grognak the Barbarian: An Axe For All Ages." I also got in touch with my inner fanboy with the furious Letter to the Editor, which refers to the Grognak's original, genius author, "Mr Moorellis" - a mashup of two of my own favorites.
* And finally, the most obscure reference I put in the game, the nearly impossible-to-find unique version of the Alien Blaster called "Firelance" - a reference to the Martian Firelances in the fake plot-text in the paragraph book for the original Wasteland.
If you've already submitted your SVGDL profile, it's up to you whether you want to add an additional line to it about your favorite little-known item about something you worked on. I'll edit any profiles that choose to update, and I've incorporated Stephen's suggestion into the guidelines for SVGDL.
And Stephen also found his own way to get inside game devs' heads. Over at MTV Multiplayer, he's published a really intriguing look inside the video-gamey dreams of Mirror's Edge producer Tom Farrer, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, and more. Check it out!
Anyway, I think Fred's contribution demonstrates how neat it is to remember in such a tangible way that a game can be, in many respects, a collection of personal creative ideas, and that there's probably a little story behind everything you see and do when you play. If you like the idea behind Sexy Videogame Developerland, I humbly plead your continued support with submissions, links from your sites, y'know, stuff like that.
