Author Archives: Mark

Super Mario 3D Land (Can Nintendo save us again?)

Posted on 05/01/2012 by Mark

Crisis had returned to the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser had kidnapped Princess Peach and once again the plumber Mario was tasked to rescue her. That is the plot of the new Super Mario 3D Land game for the 3DS. Quelle surprise! … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Review | Tagged , | Leave a comment

First student games

Posted on 27/12/2011 by Mark

The first semester of my diploma this year had a heavy focus on games. This was fine with me, but it wasn’t so fine with other students in the class. The lesson learnt here is that if you’re going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Study | Leave a comment

Where to now?

Posted on 25/12/2011 by Mark

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Today seems like a good time to update this neglected blog of mine and talk about the recent past and the future. It’s been neglected for two reasons. 1) I was finishing off my … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Study | Leave a comment

Tales from the Geek Side

Posted on 05/10/2011 by Mark

Should we call ourselves geeks or nerds or dorks? (I’m going to just use ‘geek’ for the remainder of this post because as far as I’m concerned, they’re all synonymous terms but if you want to debate their etymology then … Continue reading →

Posted in Geeks | 2 Comments

Sexism in Gaming Culture

Posted on 29/08/2011 by Mark

I didn’t attend this year’s Freeplay games festival held in Melbourne but I did listen to the audio from the panel at it titled ‘The Words That We Use’ in which the panellists were unable to name a single female … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Thoughts | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Sims Social

Posted on 20/08/2011 by Mark

I have a gaming confession. I have never played any games in The Sims series on the PC. They are a hugely successful series and in total, have sold more than one hundred million copies globally. I once had a … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Review | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Comeback comes back

Posted on 12/08/2011 by Mark

On Tuesday evening I attended the IGDA Bits & Piece: Finding Funding event at The Arthouse Hotel. It was an evening to learn about finding funding for game projects and also to meet other game developers and playtest their games. … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 2 Comments

The Comeback

Posted on 31/05/2011 by Mark

I’ve been working on a game with some other people from class for a little while now. It’s a platform game for iphone called The Comeback. It’s about a middle-aged, formerly famous but now retired rocker named Nicolas Dagger who … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 12 Comments

Introduction

Posted on 18/05/2011 by Mark

And so it begins. Hi! I’m Mark Duval. I’m a games design student at the moment at a college in Sydney, Australia. I’ve been playing games for longer than I can remember. Now I make them too. I enjoy games … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 3 Comments