Books the handsome fat man recommends

Busy preparing for The Screenwriting Expo, tweaking scripts and pitches, so finding something to post about, well, that ain’t comin’ easy. So here are three books I strongly recommend: PLAYING TO WIN by David Sirlin You can read this for … more→

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If you’re not playing Bastion, you’re missing out

If you aren’t playing Supergiant Games‘s amazing RPG adventure Bastion, available now on Xbox Live Arcade and Steam for PC, you’re missing out. For $15, you get a game with more value and heart than the vast majority of full-priced … more→

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The “good” dumb action flick (aka, watch Captain America)

I saw Captain America: First Avenger over the weekend. It’s trite, it’s silly, it’s varying levels of cornball, and it’s a blast. It’s a dumb action flick, but a good one. There’s no contradiction here: what too many folks forget … more→

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Classic DOOM is not the kind of game it pioneered

Listening to the most recent Giant Bombcast, someone asked Giant Bomb‘s ever-knowledgeable podcast panel why DOOM 3 was such a horrible game. The general consensus was simple: DOOM 3 is a poor imitation of the FPSes present at its release … more→

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Conflict: easy and hard

Coming up with suitable conflict fitting a character’s personality and goals is insanely easy and mind-numbingly difficult. The easy part: adversity is everywhere. Fuck, I can think of adversity right now: aspiring writer has a blog and, while writing in … more→

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Bunk

What is bunk? Bunk is a friendly synonym for BS. Any claim, assertion, etc. not backed by empirical evidence, but often backed by anecdotal evidence (e.g., I saw a mermaid!), logical fallacies (e.g., You can’t have morals without God; “climategate”), … more→

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Extra Credits is awesome and you should totally donate to them

However, as of August 9, 2011, they may not be called Extra Credits anymore. They’re leaving The Escapist. Modding this post to take down the donation links, in case the donations don’t make it to the Extra Credits guys (though … more→

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I cannot watch Seinfeld anymore

Man, Seinfeld made Thursday nights bearable, that horrible evening before the last weekday before an uneventful weekend before a horrible Monday morning. What better way to waste half an hour than watching four sociopaths’ shenanigans and how they all tie … more→

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Story outlining: methods and software

8.7 bazillion writers, both established and aspiring, swear to 8.7 bazillion different methods of outlining. Some insist that writing IS the outline, and just do draft after draft. Others insist you must outline every last piece of your story before … more→

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Game mechanic analysis

Topical game discussion series and websites aren’t all made equal: there’s the good (Giant Bomb, Extra Credits), bad (Game Overthinker, Kotaku), and in between (most gaming news sites in general by virtue of having some mix of quality and jackassery). … more→

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“I watch movies to be entertained”

“I watch movies to be entertained.” How many times have you fucking heard this? And it’s always when you’re trying to explain why you didn’t like or don’t care to watch the latest summer blockbuster/soulless fantasy/James Cameron or Roland Emmerich … more→

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Welcome to handsomefatman.com!

Welcome to handsomefatman.com, official website of aspiring screenwriter, wannabe game designer, opinionated dude, and self-described handsome fat man Carlos Alexandre. I’m a fat white guy looking to talk about everything in that last sentence: writing, games, and anything in between. … more→

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