Rob Zacny Legacy Author, Author at The Escapist

To Die at the Hands of Your Own Creation

Alan Wake‘s mixed critical reception and poor sales were a disappointing end to the saga of an ambitious project from a promising developer. ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorFebruary 1, 2011

Massively Casual

Digital Cardboard and Electric Dice

A couple of times a year, my friend and colleague Julian Murdoch crams his house full of friends, beer, and board games. The ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorJuly 27, 2010

Anatomy of a Game Design

The Player and the Pusher-Man

“Addictive” was once high-praise paid to an absorbing game, but over the last several years it has become much more conflicted. This shift ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorMay 25, 2010

Blue Planet

Slow Death In a Shady Glen

One of the most sobering moments I’ve had in a videogame occurred during my second session in The Hunter. Inept and impatient, I ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorApril 20, 2010

Good Eats

A Gamer in the Kitchen

Cooking has sent me to the hospital twice: first for a deep knife wound across my thumb when I tried to rush through ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorFebruary 9, 2010

Season's Gamings

Are You Happy Now?

Even though I had been watching the street and listening for the sound of our mailbox’s rusted hinges for what felt like weeks, ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorDecember 8, 2009

The Front

The Agony of Defeat

Most videogames don’t portray defeats. They brush past them the way morning commuters can practically step over the panhandlers outside a subway station ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorNovember 3, 2009

The New Deal

A Penny Saved Is a Dollar Spent

Starting about a year ago, my partner and I decided to sit down once a week and examine our spending habits. We focused ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorSeptember 8, 2009

e-volution

The Incredible Disappearing Teacher

When I was a tutor in college, my biggest challenge was dealing with students who thought my job was to make learning effortless ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorJuly 14, 2009

Press-tige

An Endemic Problem

An enlarged and framed EGM cover hangs in the lobby of 1UP’s downtown San Francisco office, highlighting a feature on “The Future of ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorApril 28, 2009

Carrot on a Stick

Bridging the Skill Gap

A scene from my favorite screwball comedy, The Lady Eve: Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Coburn, a pair of con artists and professional card ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorApril 7, 2009

Hideo Bruckheimer

The Cutting Room Floor

One of the greatest games I’ve ever played is also one of the least interactive. The environments are pre-rendered and unchanging, and the ...

By Rob Zacny Legacy AuthorMarch 31, 2009

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