The Production of Subject and Space in Video Games

My latest article has been published in GAME, the Italian Journal of Game Studies, along a number of very interesting other articles.

For GAME, go here.

For my article, go here.

Finally a doctor!

I’m very happy to announce that I received today my PhD degree in game studies, after a succesful defense of my dissertation titled “Interaction and the Problem of Video Game Narrativity”.

I’m thankful to everyone who contributed in this process, first and foremost my thesis adviser Prof. Dr. Beybin Kejanlıoğlu, the members of my thesis observation committee Prof. Dr. Mutlu Binark and Assoc. Prof. Sevilay Çelenk, and my jury members Prof. Dr Uğur Halıcı and Assist. Prof. Burcu Sümer.

Many people have given me support without even being aware of it, but they took their times to read or comment on stuff I wrote or they inspired me to write stuff that was directly or indirectly related to the content of my thesis: Kerem Yavuz Demirbaş, Assist. Prof. Levent Kavas, Hakan Karahasan, Dr. Gabriele Ferri, Dr. Tonguç İbrahim Sezen, Prof. Dr. Veysi İşler, Assist. Prof. Güven Çatak, Sande Chen, Darren Tomlyn and Richard Terrell (aka Kirbykid).

I’m grateful to all of you!

I dedicate my thesis to Kayhan Önal, Magister Ludi and friend for a lifetime, who is the most passionate player I’ve ever encountered on this planet. Keep playin’!

Now it’s time to celebrate ;)

Contemporary Screen Narratives Conference

I was in the UK last week to deliver a presentation at the Contemporary Screen Narratives Conference at the University of Nottingham. I had a great time there, meeting a lot of interesting people, and having the chance to meet Henry Jenkins and Jason Mittell in person.

I hope I can be part of such a nice event soon again, and I’m very grateful to the people at Nottingham University who organized this event. Thanks, Anthony and Aaron!

You can find a version of my presentation here on gamasutra.

New Digital Games Book Release

A year ago I wrote an article for a turkish book on digital games. After almost a year of waiting the book has finally been published by the turkish publisher Der Yayınları in İstanbul: Dijital Oyunlar (eds. Gülin Terek Ünal and Uğur Batı).

The title of my article is “Dijital Oyunlarda Oyun Hakimiyeti ve Montaj Sorunu” [Video Game Controls and the Problem of Sequence Motion]. You can read a description of the book here (in turkish).

I hope you enjoy the book (and my article, of course!)

Top 5 Member blogs @ Gamasutra

I’m happy that my latest blog on Gamasutra made into the top 5 list of standout member blogs of the week!

I wrote about Games That Can’t Be Won, and you can check out the other standout blogs of the week here.

Global Game Jam 2011!

We’ve been again part of the Global Game Jam this year! Once more we had lots of fun during the 48 hours game development marathon.

The host at our location Gazimağusa was again the Eastern Mediterranean University. 17 people came together to start on a number of project and we were happy to complete one of the projects in time: A game title “Nerdic Geek Jam”; a parody of the 48 hours that a jammer goes through during the Global Game Jam.  The game is far from being perfect, has functionality problems, and most important, there are huge accessibility problems. Yet we see it as a foundation for further development efforts of the game.

Top 5 Member Blog Post at Gamasutra!

My recent article on three-act structure and its usefulness in understanding the narrative structure in video games got featured as one of the top 5 member blogs on gamasutra this week.

There was a bit of critique from readers that the article forced the relation a bit too much, but I’m glad that the gamasutra editors saw the article worthy enough to be regarded among the best articles this week.

You can read the news here.

A comparison of video games and feature films in regard to three-act structure

My latest article on gamasutra questions the usefulness of three-act structure in the narrative design of video games. The article first outlines the basics of the three-act structure. Later on it takes a look at classical coin-op arcade games to draw conclusions on the similarities and differences in regard to plot structure, character development and planting of middle acts.

Read here.

Cursor in Fabula

My latest article on Gamasutra, “Cursor in Fabula“, takes a look how point&click interfaces are used in the articulation of narrative elements. After identifying three layers of narrative structure and three types of narrative articulation that take place during gameplay, it goes over to analyze the very simple but intuitive interface design of the Blizzard classic Diablo.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Top Member Blog Post on Gamasutra

My article Proportion in Narrative Design has been chosen  one of the top 5 gamasutra member blog posts of the week. This is the fourth time that one of my articles has been chosen into the top 5. I’m very happy of course!