Unreliable Narrator

While I can trot out any number of more obscure interactive fiction titles or pieces of cinema and literature that have gotten me to the place I currently inhabit as a game director and writer, it’s fair to say that Metroid has been the thing that has inspired me the most. It’s Samus who points to the future and crystallises for me why videogames are the medium worthy of my labour.

Staring at a map screen. Looking at the had dealt in puzzles and mazes, but few had made this meta brain tinkering the minute-to-minute focus of the player. All the backtracking and scrutiny are transformative. Familiarity and mastery of the map makes it real and it becomes imprinted on your imagination. Most games aren’t like this – you enjoy them in the moment, the content sluicing through and out of your mind like nutrient goo.