Week 762

What’s this? I’m blogging about my work on a weekly basis – a simple way to track and archive whatever it is I spend my time on.

I couldn’t be in Cologne for GDC Europe and Gamescom last week, which was too bad. Not that I ever really miss dragging myself around trade show floors for days, but a lot of talented game developers and press buddies were there, and it would’ve been nice to catch up with them.

Instead, I got back from my vacation and back to business! First of all, I worked on, but didn’t finish, big articles about auteur games and read testing, as well as interviews on Spelunky and Divekick. Most of these would be wrapped up this week.

I wrote a column about Plants vs. Zombies 2, which was in nrc.next on Tuesday and is now online (in Dutch): Groentewinkel aan spitskool. I also edited the review of ibb & obb written by Rogier Kahlmann, which was published on Friday.

On Tuesday I met up with Sjors Houkes, to talk about an audio book version of Toiletten, among many other things.

On Wednesday I was interviewed by Nadine Ancher for Passionate Platform. The article, along with a photo made in my garden, should appear soon.

On Thursday, the first big review of De verdwijners appeared, in De Groene Amsterdammer. Kees ’t Hart, who liked Sneeuwdorp way back when, admitted to not understanding the book, and called it “obscene”. I always thought this book would divide opinions (which I feel is a good thing), but it’s still tough to get a bad review. What makes it harder is that so far, there’s no big, positive review from another well-regarded publication to offset it. (Other than De Groene, only small online outlets have reviewed it. It should be noted that they are unanimously positive, however.)

Well, as a friend said: “If the literary establishment calls your book obscene, you know you’ve got a must-read on your hands!” I’m not sure whether that’s true, but it surely is a fun way to think of it.

That night, I developed games with Hessel Bonenkamp, for the first time after my short vacation break. I decided to start a new experiment instead of continuing with my earlier prototype, which was exciting. I worked on randomly growing trees deep into the night, and on Friday as well.

On Saturday morning, I went to the swimming pool with my family. That afternoon, I microwaved some leftover Chinese food. After which I drank coffee with Bram Ruiter, Jan Willem Nijman and Kitty Calis. All was good.