Essays
These are full-blown essays, papers, and articles.
Presentations
Slideshows and presentation materials from conferences.
Interviews and Panels
Reprints of non-game-specific interviews, and transcripts of panels and roundtables.
Snippets
Excerpts from blog, newsgroup, and forum posts.
Laws
The "Laws of Online World Design" in various forms.
Timeline
A timeline of developments in online worlds.
A Theory of Fun for Game Design
My book on why games matter and what fun is.
Insubstantial Pageants
A book I started and never finished outlining the basics of online world design.
Links
Links to resources on online world design.
All contents of this site are
© Copyright 1998-2010
Raphael Koster.
All rights reserved.
The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily endorsed by any former or current employer.
The wall of the warehouse EXPLODES inward. A massive polar bear, scarred and starving, lunges through the gap. Its breath steams like a locomotive.
Suddenly, a CRUNCH. Heavy footsteps on permafrost. Then a low, guttural GROWL—not human, not wolf. Something bigger.
Across from him, MAYA (20, tactical goggles pushed up, face wrapped in a shemagh) cleans a modified flare gun. A polar bear skull hangs from her backpack. Da Hood Arctic Script
O-Dog was a fool who thought the cold cared about his reputation. Out here? Ain't no "respeck." Ain't no "block." Just the freeze. The freeze don't care if you was king of the projects. It'll turn your blood to slushie the same as everybody else.
Maya doesn’t panic. She stands her ground, aims center mass. The wall of the warehouse EXPLODES inward
Maya grabs Tyrell by the hood.
The wind howls like a pack of wild dogs. Outside, it’s negative 40. Inside, it’s negative 20. A single oil drum fire flickers, casting long shadows on walls made of stolen plywood and permafrost. Suddenly, a CRUNCH
Tyrell freezes, hand halfway to a rusty machete.
