When “Myst” came out in the ’90s, it was the best-selling PC title of its time.

So introducing the game to a whole new generation of gamers on a popular handheld platform would be a no-brainer, right?

Not exactly.

When industry veteran Manny Granillo decided to acquire the license and make a DS port of the game, he had trouble finding a publisher. “You’d be surprised,” Granillo told Multiplayer at a demo of the game last month. “The problem is you get doors closed from publishers because they’re so focused on ‘What’s my next quarter? Where’s my sequel to whatever game?’ They’re not seeing the bigger picture.”

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What platforms is the new “Puzzle Quest” game coming out on?

Earlier this week, I wrote that “Puzzle Quest: Galactrix,” the sequel to “Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords,” would be released on PC, DS, Xbox Live Arcade as well as the PSP and “possibly Apple Mac,” all according to the official website. However, when I checked the next day, on Tuesday, February 26, the PSP and “possibly Apple Mac” versions were removed.

I put in a request to D3 Publisher of America to ask them why. Would there be a PSP version on the way, since “Challenge of the Warlords” on PSP was one of the first platforms released alongside the DS? And would we ever see an Apple Mac version? (Last year, we also learned that the ESRB rated the PS3 and Mac versions of “Challenge of the Warlords,” but we have yet to see them.)

Here’s the response I got from D3 Publisher of America:

“The Infinite Interactive site is maintained by the developer, separate from D3 Publisher. They were likely updating game details (posted intermittently since March 2007) to align with details announced during the first look last week. At present, ‘Puzzle Quest: Galactrix’ is confirmed by D3PA and Infinite Interactive for DS systems, PC and XBLA. There is the possibility that more SKUs will be announced. We’ll keep you updated as new details about the game are revealed.”

What other platforms would you like to see “Puzzle Quest: Galactrix” made for?

San Francisco — Who knew a “Bejeweled“-style puzzle game with RPG elements would become the year’s sleeper hit?

Infinite Interactive’s Steve Fawkner didn’t.

At one of the final sessions during the Game Developers Conference last week, the CEO and Lead Designer of the Australian-based studio talked about how they created “Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords,” which was released on multiple platforms last year.

According to Fawkner, the idea for “Puzzle Quest” came about pretty easily. “I really like ‘Bejeweled,’ and I really like RPGs,” he said. The game was originally called “Warlords Champions,” but after some focus testing done by D3 Publisher, it was changed to be more appealing to both hardcore and casual gamers as well as more androgynous to lure to both genders (although no one liked the name at first). Focus testing also led to a change in the game’s graphical style; it was originally more in the vein of the medieval-style “Warlords” but was altered to something “more Eastern-oriented” and “heavily anime.”

One of the biggest lessons learned was that there were too many words in “Puzzle Quest.” The game had over 100,000 words, which caused painstaking localization issues for French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese. “You should not construct sentences as a designer,” Fawkner warned. To boot, he found that players were often skipping the lengthy conversations within the game anyway.

However, Fawkner promised that the new science-fiction-themed “Puzzle Quest” called “Galactrix” will be different. Read more…

On Friday, November 2, I joined MTV News’ Tim Kash in a face-off of video arguments against Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal and author Heather Chaplin.

We played “The Metagame,” a game show created by game designers Eric Zimmerman, co-founder of Gamelab, and Frank Lantz, co-founder of Area/Code.

The game lasted 70 minutes and was among the most fun things I’ve done on the beat all year. We’ve presented 20 minutes of highlights on video here.

This post lists every argument we had to make in the game. Any time an opinion was challenged, the audience had to decide the winner.

Here are three samples. Read on for the rest… and you decide where justice was served and where my team (Team MTV) or Chaplin/Croal (Team Brooklyn) were robbed.

Opinion: “Tetris” has more randomness than “Resident Evil”

Argument: Team MTV said it does. Team Brooklyn challenged.
Verdict: Overruled — The audience agreed with Team Brooklyn.

Opinion: “Virtua Fighter” is sexier than “Super Mario 64″

Argument: Team Brooklyn said it was. Team MTV said it wasn’t.
Verdict: Upheld — The audience sided with Team Brooklyn.

Opinion: “Adventure” for the Atari 2600 makes better use of writing than “Street Fighter II”

Argument: Team MTV said it did.
Verdict: Uncontested — Team Brooklyn sided with team MTV.

Read more…

No one ever bought “BioShock” just to do plumbing.

No one bought “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” to play cards.

And as great as it was to make a big catch, did anyone really play “The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time” just to fish?

Let us stop and praise the mini-game, the little diversions tucked within the epic adventures we love to play. Who makes these things? The guy on the development team who isn’t trusted to contribute to the larger experience? How is it decided if and where the mini-game fits? Why are these things even necessary? Who makes sure they aren’t annoying (or fails to figure that out)?

This post is the first of a series of interviews with the people behind the mini-games that were tucked into some gaming greats.

First up: “BioShock” Hacking. I got the details about this one last week during a 15-minute phone interview with 2K Boston designer Dorian Hart, one of the designers on the current best-reviewed game of the year.

Hart and I discussed the inspiration for the game, the mixed fan response, what Hart and team would have done differently had they had the time and the new twist that employees of 2K Boston have put on the hacking game when they play it in the office.

An excerpt:

…we knew going in that some people would think it was great and want to do it over and over again — and that some people would enjoy it at first and gradually come to think of it as a chore — and some people would hate it right from the start.

Read on for the full interview.

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