spudmuffin

Hey!

My name is Matthew Eagleman, aka. Muffin. I'm a lifelong video game lover, and have always been fascinated by their inner workings. I'm pursuing a career in video games.

Video games are such an interesting medium of art and storytelling. I've spoken with many people who respond to my career choice with "oh, I don't really think video games have any inherent value". yes, actually. Pretty bold, right? I've never really understood this thought process. Music, art, and storytelling have been around potentially as long as we, as a human race have. These are the things that make up culture itself. They have had ages to evolve and change with things like books, film, sculpture, theater, etc. and video games are just the newest form of this age old tradition. They take music, art, and storytelling, and combine them in brand new, interesting ways, that we've only really been able to refine the past 70 odd years.

Someday I think people will look at old video games with the same reverence and respect as they would for something from Shakespeare, or Van Gogh. Not necessarily MY games, though that would be pretty cool, wouldn't it.

Here are a few video game tropes and mechanisms that interest me:

• Massive, god like, almost eldritch beings

One example of this would be GLaDOS from the portal series. In the second game there is a scene where you have to run from her as she frantically tries to stop you, smashing together ginormous testing chambers and changing the very world around you. It gave me such an awesome sense of scale, of how big and terrifying she is. She's basically the god of your world. It makes it just as satisfying when you successfully escape her clutches as well.

• Dynamic music

I love music, and I think its so cool when developers program the music to react to the world around you. It makes the environment so much more immersive. Hollow does an amazing job showing off dynamic music, and is one of my favorite examples. As you go from place to place they will play different versions of that areas theme. It'll be more intense for areas with lots of enemies or hard platforming, or sometimes even go away completely to create suspense before a bossfight. They have motifs for many of the characters that'll play for events related to them leading to one of the most emotionally impactful final bosses I've ever played.

• Fighting to keep control

Imagine things like someone trying to remain conscious while transforming into a zombie, or two consciousnesses battling within the same host body. That type of concept is so fascinating to me! It can lead to really interesting or sad scenarios where, say, you're desperately trying not to harm your loved ones as you feel your mind slipping. Deltarune runs with this idea in a very interesting way. Spoiler warning ahead. Throughout the game the main character, Kris, is battling for control of their actions against you, the player. This is shown by Kris literally ripping out their soul, which represents the player, in order to act on their own accord. This is an awesome way to portray the concept, and gives me chills everytime. So tough.

If you like my stuff and want to work with me let me know! I'd like to make this my job, and I'm always looking for opportunities to make cool games with cool people.