Deus Ex writer creates software to help novices make games

Sheldon Pacotti, writer of Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War, released a series of videos yesterday that walk viewers through Game Blocks, a program he created to help novice game writers plan and execute their projects.

Pacotti created the software to use in a course he teaches at the University of Texas at Austin called "Writing and Narrative Design for Video Games." In the workshop, students study "premise, character development, story structure and the creation of multi-level worlds."

You can check out the introductory video above to hear Pacotti explain the program and how to build scenes within it. Game Blocks is available as an open source, free download from New Life Interactive's website, which also contains links to many in-depth tutorials.