#but many point and click puzzle games I used to see would have horror elements or be 'scary' in some way

[icewindandboringhorror]

my personal Media Genres tier ranking and also Neopets Species tiers. put together in the same post just due to being adjacently related because they're on the same website lol

links to the specific tier makers: Media Genres --- Neopets

[devsgames]

I have been sitting on this thought for some time and I want to hear your opinion about it as a fellow game designer.

Is horror a game genre?

TL;DR: Horror as a category is useful, but it doesn't quite fit as a genre in a system where we define it by gameplay In game design, genre is often associated with mechanics. If in an analysis of a game we leave only the key mechanics, then we can determine the genre. It works the other way around - puzzle has some mechanics, a shooter has different ones. But horror doesn't have key mechanics? This made me wonder if horror IS a game genre. A similar example for me would be "Educational Games". Is edutainment a genre? Some of them are puzzles, some of them are action games for quick reactions. It’s easier to say that this is a “modifier” of a game and because of it the approach to design changes, but if you remove all its elements, you still end up with a game. It’s the same with horror games, if you remove horror from Resident Evil, then it’s action. If you take the horror out of Clock Tower - it's point and click. FNaF is a puzzle game, Slender, Outlast - an adventure game, and so on. In my opinion, horror is not a genre, but a modification, since the core genre of the game will always be hidden under it. However, it should be noted, that as a game category, it still is useful, especially for consumers.

Right, so before diving into any talk of genre I need to be clear that I don't think "Genre" as a concept itself is a hard-coded categorization system. It's sorta just a vague notion that two pieces of media are related, and once you try ascribing rigid definitions to everything it all (rightfully in my opinion) falls apart. The realm where people sit down and try to hardcore categorize game genres like it's some kind of science (looking at you, The Berlin Interpretation) is incredibly contrived and frankly just goofy. I think once it reaches this point it quickly crosses into the realm of being mindlessly rigid and 'genre' as an idea stops being useful as the high-level-establishing reference point that it is. (Related: Get someone to define a universally accepted definition of the "Role-playing game genre" for me.)

To that end, I've long held the belief that trying to categorize games by genre is a fruitless endeavour that is ultimately circular. Generally I find the practice just amounts to little more than a fun thought experiment. It's sorta like how it's fun to ask someone if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable (spoiler alert: the actual real answer is "technically it can be both and to most people the distinction doesn't actually matter"), or like asking someone if a bowl of cereal is a soup. It's for fun but when you get down to it doesn't really solve many problems. I get it, we as humans just like putting things in neat little boxes, but I don't know that it actually matters that much.

That being said: "If in an analysis of a game we leave only the key mechanics, then we can determine the genre" -> I see where you're coming from, but I think this also sort of fundamentally misunderstands "genre" as a wider media concept.

"Genre" is defined by what media contains in all its elements. Just because games have mechanics while other media don't, that doesn't mean game genres are implicitly and solely defined from these mechanics (despite what games marketing might have you think at times).

While mechanics can inform genre, just because games contain interaction doesn't mean that is purely what defines their game genre. Take Horror as an example; in games and otherwise "horror" is dependent on building up specific emotions (usually being horror/terror) and as such mood and realization play a key component in evoking those fear responses in people. Elements like theming, artistic choices, narrative structure, and so on inform the genre of 'horror' just as much as the mechanical gameplay within them.

To that end, you can say that Five Nights at Freddies and PT are similar in genre (because they're both trying to spook you) and Five Nights at Freddies and Papers, Please are of genre (because they're both told through the 'administration simulator' framing with gameplay mechanics revolving around 'desk management'). While the latter might have more in common mechanically, in the end they both have like concepts and that could serve as a reference or build to an understanding between the two, so they're both roughly similar in genre.

As a more extreme example, "Call of Duty" tends to glorify war and military violence, while "This War of Mine" paints a desolate picture about what war does to a community. CoD is an action-packed First Person Shooter while This War of Mine is a slow-paced management simulator. Both are very different tonally with little mechanical comparisons between the two, but both deal in similar narrative and thematic genre (being war and its various interpretations and impacts). The wrapping might be different, but there's still cross-genre trappings there to connect them.

I think treating "Horror as a modifier" is interesting because if anything I tend to view it the opposite way, where mechanics modify genre instead. A Horror game at its base, modified by "First Person Shooter" as a mechanic, or a Educational game modified by "Puzzle" as a mechanic. It's all apples and oranges at some point. 🤷

As you said though, I think genre is primarily useful as a tool for analyzing media or as communication shorthand to help a viewer 'at a glance' understand what a piece of media is related to. Once you start trying to get into the weeds with trying to draw hard conclusions on what is/isn't 'genre' it all becomes overall less useful and more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[lihimsidhe]

Full Review: https://youtu.be/nMBgmV3QMwY

Summary

Stories Untold is a sci fi psychological horror adventure game released in 2017 by the studio No Code Lt and published by Devolver Digital.(1) Adventure games are characterized by exploring, puzzle solving, and narrative interactions with game characters. (2) The ‘adventure’ label hails from the 1st known adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure developed during the 1970’s. (3). In Stories Untold the player will do mostly 3 things: enter text into a writing prompt and hope what they entered progresses the game forward (text adventure), click around the environment to find interactive elements and utilize these elements in a specific order (point and click), and do some very light exploration.

Stories Untold’s origins lay in Ludum Dare; an event where game developers around the world challenge themselves to make a game from scratch in just a few days aka a ‘game jam’. (4)  House Abandon was the product of such a game jam. (5)  House Abandon would prove to be so well received that it is the very spark that would grow to become Stories Untold. (6).  House Abandon became just one of the four stories featured in Stories Untold.

Each story has the player assume the role of an unidentified person using various electronic equipment ranging from locations that include an abandoned house, a laboratory, and a remote radio station in a blizzard. There is a fourth chapter but to explain its location and tasks can easily wade deep into spoiler territory.  

It’s very difficult to reveal if this game attempts to execute on a specific message or not without spoilers. So treading as carefully as I can I will say that yes there is a message to be found here. A tragic takeaway that can hit hard for some players who put in the work to leave no narrative stone unturned.

Analysis

Disclaimer: I’m not a fan of puzzle games, or puzzles in games. They too often devolve into ‘guess what the developer was thinking’. More on this in a bit.  Back to the regularly scheduled program:

The development studio behind Stories Untold, No Code Ltd, describes the game as the following:

“Four Stories. One Nightmare.

From the prototype 'The House Abandon' comes the critically acclaimed, and BAFTA winning, 'Stories Untold', the latest madness from No Code. Four short stories, tied together in a complex web of psychological-horror, intense visuals and genre-bending adventures.” How does this game execute on these selling points? Let’s address the last line first: genre-bending adventures. In my playthrough I walked in expecting a fairly basic adventure game with excellent presentation and left having experienced that same notion.  This is all to say that Stories Untold, as far as I can tell, is not bending any genres.

The text adventure portion of Stories Untold doesn’t make a noticeable departure from one of the earliest text entry experiences ELIZA; a program created in the 1970’s that simulates a psychologist by responding to a user’s text entries (7).  In fact after having played around with some ELIZA clones online (8) I’d say that Stories Untold actually underdelivers in this genre compared to ELIZA that was developed nearly fifty years ago. Point and click began with the game Enchanted Scepters in 1984 released on the Mac (9). In that game you do much the same as you do in Stories Untold: Moving your cursor to find an interactive point that hopefully drives the game forward. An activity unfavorably described as ‘pixel hunting’. 

While I do concede that Stories Untold executes well enough on its mechanics would I also concede it is genre bending?  Absolutely not.  Mechanically speaking it falls very strictly within its genre.

As for the intense visuals the game advertises it has? I’m strongly inclined to agree.  This game’s visuals are a love letter to the 80’s. It’s as if the game reached into the past and brought a portion of that era forward in time both temporally and visually. 

Stories Untold also executes on psychological-horror aspects as well. There were times I was genuinely frightened both via jump scares and/or the dense atmosphere the game draws the player into. This game evoked feelings of fear, mystery, and foreboding of what was behind the next event.

“It is up to the designer to provide the appropriate information to make the product understandable and usable. Most important is the provision of a good conceptual model that guides the user when things go wrong.” (10) -Don Norman

The promise of a text adventure sounds great on paper: enter some text and the game reacts to what one entered driving the player’s progress forward. Just the thought of that fills my mind with excitement at being able to utilize my conversational skills I’ve learned in life to interact with a game sounds incredible The thing is, and the reason I’m personally not a fan of puzzle games is that they almost always seem like playing a game of ‘guess what the developer was thinking’ instead of the player applying their common sense to solve a puzzle.

If for example in a text adventure game you are trying to walk around a house you simply typing ‘walk around the house’ may or may not work. Perhaps the developer perceived ‘walk into yard’ as walking around the house. For me this creates a schism where it stops being about me vs the game and instead becomes a battle of how my exact wording for doing something very simple differs in verbage in how the developer would write it. So instead of walking around the house and losing myself in the story I’m now trying to guess what the developer thinks are the right words to say.  What compounds this here is that the feedback is binary; either what I typed works or it doesn’t and I get the equivalent of an error message that doesn’t offer any guidance on exactly what the developer was thinking. This ‘guess what the developer was thinking’ issue wasn’t as pronounced in the point and click sections of the game. These were almost always tests on one’s observational skills and parsing over every little detail until the path forward reveals itself.  Some of the puzzles I was willing to endure and some… I just looked up a walkthrough to solve them so I could get back to enjoying the game’s incredible atmosphere. The crazy thing about Stories Untold is me as a player desperately trying to scrutinize every little detail to move forward shares a strong connection to the game’s narrative.  I really appreciate that despite my misgivings with this game’s puzzles.

As for the game’s narrative itself… I say I left the game mostly satisfied. Throughout the game the music, visuals, and gameplay really got my mind racing with the possibilities of the world that was spilling out before me. “Where could this story be leading?”, I excitedly pondered.  And sometimes I was even afraid the game would provide an answer.  Seeing how it was resolved was a bit underwhelming.  I won’t lie.  I went from a mind racing with possibilities to a flat, “Oh it’s that? Well that’s something I guess.”

If there was one thing I wish this game did differently it would have been to have focused entirely on the text entry mechanic presented in House Abandon. I said before I went and played with some ELIZA programs online and I loved that there was no failure state. The conversation just continued even if the code emulating a human would sometimes spout nonsense. I don’t expect anyone, let alone Stories Untold, to conjure up a fully realized artificial intelligence to amuse me for my 3 hour adventure game. But I can’t help but muse about a more realized text entry loop.

This game has 12 total achievements to earn. (11)  Since the game utilizes a level select system, there are no missable achievements.  Most achievements are earned by just progressing through the game.  The ones that aren’t awarded in this manner are obtained by light exploration and finding some collectibles. All in all very easy to 100% in one sitting.

Significance

Stories Untold has received several notable awards (12) including British Academy of Film and Television Arts Game of the Year in 2017 (13).

Steam Reviews has it sitting at ‘very positive’(1)  while Metacritic has it at a 7.0/10 user score. (14)

It has sold at least over 100,000 copies on Steam (15). If Steam sales remained roughly the same on the other platforms it was ported to (Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox) that would imply at least a few hundred thousand people have decided to enter the world this game provides. While adventure games have drastically changed since the days of Colossal Cave Adventure with games like The Walking Dead and Until Dawn, text adventures have mostly fallen out of mainstream gaming discourse. For that reason the fact that Stories Untold managed to break through in the way it did favors it being a touchstone for many adventure and text adventure games going forward.

Recommendation

Ask yourself the following: Do you like arbitrary puzzles?  Do you mind some psychological horror in your entertainment?  Do you ever wish you could just play through chapters in your favorite book? If you answered yes to both these questions then this game was made for you.  

What if you’re like me and you can barely stand puzzles in games because they seem to evoke a ‘guess what the developer was thinking’ type of feeling? 

I would still recommend this game.  The reality of the game is that it can be completed in just a few hours.  When you get stuck, look up a guide, solve your roadblock, and get back to enjoying this game’s stellar atmosphere.  It’s really worth experiencing. Especially if you lived through and/or are a fan of the 80’s

If you’re completely puzzle adverse but still enjoy interactive narrative?  It might be worth looking up a playthrough or livestream.

Sources

1. Dev & Publisher: Stories Untold on Steam (steampowered.com)

2. Adventure Game Def: https://www.britannica.com/topic/electronic-adventure-game

3. colossal cave adventure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure

4. ludum dare: https://ldjam.com

5. game jam: http://www.nocodestudio.com/development-updates/2016/9/5/the-house-abandon

6. dev interview: https://www.pcgamer.com/crafting-the-unique-genre-defying-horror-of-stories-untold/

7. ELIZA (origins): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00146-018-0825-9

8. ELIZA (interactable): http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/eliza.htm

9. 1st point click game: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/01/history-of-graphic-adventures/

10. Don Norman: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E257T6C/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_2BZA3S6D0KPFSKXFKHVM

11. Achievement List: Steam Community :: Stories Untold :: LihimSidhe

12. Various Awards: http://www.nocodestudio.com/nocodegames

13. BAFTA: https://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/british-academy-scotland-awards-2017-winners-announced

14. Metacritic: https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/stories-untold

15. sales: http://www.nocodestudio.com/development-updates/2017/9/21/stories-untold-news-patch-indiecade-awards

[nancydrewnetwork]

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: @naancypants​!

Back at it again with our third member spotlight! This week we are honoring Kaitie! She took the time to fill out our member questionnaire so please make sure to show her some love as she recalls some of her favorite parts of Nancy Drew!

Q: What is your earliest memory of the Nancy Drew games? Playing MHM when I was 6 years old and being confused & scared beyond comprehension!

Q: What is your favorite game, and why?  CUR. I love the aesthetic, the manor, the rich historical elements, spookiness, length, sleuthing & exploration, the puzzles are pretty rad for the most part, the plot progression and cutscenes, the music... everything, honestly!!! 

Q: What is your least favorite game, and why? Aside from the obvious MID & the original SCK, my least favorite game is TMB. A lot of the puzzles are just............. not in my wheelhouse haha, nor am I really a big fan of the music or setting.

Q: Who is your favorite character, and why? A quick browse through my tags will easily reveal that my favorite character of all time is Joe Hardy, but as far as suspects, there are a few frontrunners for me but the one on my heart at the moment is Grigor from LIE. Just... what a story. (LIE SPOILERS AHEAD!) A poor, impressionable kid who made mistakes and ended up getting involved with the wrong people. Out of everyone involved in the crime ring, Grigor is ultimately the one to pay the price (the 'fall guy', if you will). It's so tragic, I'm so sad for him! And he puts up that bodacious, flirty persona because he's an actor and it helps him feel more outwardly comfortable/confident, when in reality he's been through so many struggles in life... ugh. Anyway. LOL, clearly I have a lot of feelings.

Q: What is something you’d like to see in an upcoming game?  The old dev team back making the point & click games we love. Okay but really lol, if we're using MID as a starting point then I would like to see better graphics, less dialogue, and less linear gameplay. That's really the most important thing to me, so I haven't thought much about plot & theming.

Q: What is your favorite memory from the games and/or the books? I can't think of anything specific, but all of the memories combined mean the world to me because playing these games defined such a significant portion of my childhood. I do remember that after I played each new game for the first time, my mom would sit in and watch me play them on my 2nd round because she was also a fan (from afar)!

Q: What is your favorite thing about the Nancy Drew fandom? I love how thoughtful and respectful this fandom is! We've never had any bonafide fights break out over differing opinions and we're always quick to support or encourage each other. It's a cozy place to be.

Q: Anything you contribute to the fandom (such as fanfiction, artwork, graphics, memes, reviews, meta, etc.) that we can give you a shoutout for? I started & host the weekly Clue Crew Podcast. I also dabble in joke posts, fanfic, and discussion posts, but not really all that often these days 

Q: Any other hobbies and/or interests? I love the sims, writing, mystery/horror/story-rich games, story & character analysis, and I also do a bit of video editing when the mood hits. I also love trying new restaurants with friends, but uhh, that's been kind of hard lately haha.

Q: Do you have any pets? I have a shih-tzu/lhasa apso named Romeo :) we call him Romey for short

Q: What is one thing you'd like everyone in the fandom to know about you? Aside from the Nancy Drew series, I also love a lot of other games that are spooky/mystery/exploration/story rich/walking simulator/horror!

Q: Anything else you'd like to add? This is your time to shine! Nope, just a hearty "I LOVE YOU ALL" to the Clue Crew and a big thank you for featuring me on the blog! I'm honored!!

Congrats again, Kaitie! And thank you so much for all the things you do for the fandom! :)

[timeagainreviews]

Doctor Who and Video Games

We live in the era of the franchise. Everything it seems is getting the franchise treatment. After the success of the MCU, everyone wants that sweet sweet money. We’ve got the failed Universal Monsters reboot, the Harry Potter extended universe, and endless Star Wars movies. However, some franchises, it would seem, struggle to grow further than their core narrative. Star Wars never strays very far from the battle with the Empire. Which is one thing you can’t really say about Doctor Who. Doctor Who has done fantasy, sci-fi, period drama, schlocky horror, whimsy, and utter rubbish. I’ve always admired Doctor Who’s flexibility as a property. It lends itself beautifully to a wide range of mediums, such as audios and comic books. But what about video games? Are there any good Doctor Who video games? Could there be?

Over the past week, in preparation for this article, I've completely immersed myself in the world of Doctor Who video games. I feel uniquely qualified to have an opinion on the subject. But before we continue, I give a word of caution. I'm talking directly to you, now. Never in your life, should you ever play "Doctor Who: Return to Earth," for the Nintendo Wii. It's not worth the £1.80 that I spent on eBay. You don't ever deserve to do that to yourself. I don't care what you've done, nobody deserves that. If like myself, you have played this game, you have my deepest sympathies, especially if you paid for it new.

It doesn't interest me to make a list of the worst Doctor Who video games, as many people have done this already. It's nothing new to say that Doctor Who has a video game problem. When I wrote that Doctor Who should be run by Disney, I don't actually mean it should happen. I was merely illustrating that Disney knows how to take care of its properties. I would venture that Doctor Who has always had a bit of a management problem. Merchandise from Doctor Who has always reminded me of Krusty the Clown merchandise. So much of it is some bullshit they slapped a Dalek on said: "10 quid please!" Barring the occasional home run or third-party licensing, a lot of the merchandise is pretty uninspired. Which is bananas, because the world of Doctor Who has so much colour and potential.

Video games based off of movies and television are almost always as bad as movies and television based off of video games. They're rarely breaking the mould in their new medium. Most of the time, tie-ins such as these are quick soulless cash grabs. You can see this a lot in the Matt Smith era. There are at least seven games featuring his Doctor, and then a sudden decline. Matt Smith was the Doctor during one of the show's biggest points in popularity. Never before had the show been embraced on such an international level. Of course, the Beeb wanted to push as many video games out as possible.

The problem is, they didn't throw a lot of money at it, and not one project seemed to get the focus it deserved. I won't pretend to know the motivation behind the BBC's forays into video games, but it seems to be a trend with them to overdo something, and then be scared of it in the future. They changed the 5.5" figurine set to a 3.75" scale and nobody wanted them. Because of this, we haven't seen nearly as many 5.5" figures since. They once put out a figure of Lady Casandra's frame after she exploded into gore. We used to get figures like Pig Lazlo and the Gran from "The Idiot's Lantern." Now we'll be lucky if we get everyone's favourite- Graham O'Brien. They also did it with the Doctor Who Experience. They make this brilliant Doctor Who museum with the OK'est walkthrough story, and then put it right in the middle of Cardiff. They wondered why it never made any money. I've been twice, and I gotta say- they should have put it in London. It would still be open.

This isn't to say all of Matt Smith's video games are bad. In fact, the Eleventh Doctor adventure games referred to simply as "The Doctor Who Adventure Games," are some of my favourite in the entire lot. And as much as I would like to blame the BBC for their lack of caring, the fact is Doctor Who is not easy to translate into video games. Even if they do care, they still need the right team on the job. Oddly, it's one of the Doctor's greatest charms that makes Doctor Who hard to translate into a video game, and that's the Doctor's stance on violence. If the Doctor could pick up a laser pistol and just frag some Daleks, we'd probably have an entire series on our hands. Unfortunately, most developers go one of two ways. They either ignore the pacifism or we get countless mind-numbing puzzles.

Puzzles are by far the worst element of any Doctor Who game. In the browser-based "Worlds in Time," there were a plethora of Bejewelled type mini-games and pipe matching puzzles. The puzzles got increasingly harder even if the player wasn't also getting increasingly better. Even the platformer "The Eternity Clock," was mired in constantly stopping to do puzzles. They pop up in the Adventure Games, but other than the infuriating "don't touch the sides," puzzles, they don't detract much from the gameplay. There were moments where I felt a bit like a companion because I was decoding a Dalek computer for the Doctor, which is really the money spot for a Doctor Who video game. Any time a Doctor Who game can make you feel like you're in Doctor Who is time well spent.

When asking my friends what kind of Doctor Who video game they would like to see, many of them mentioned they would like a survival horror type game. We sort of get this in many of the Smith era games. In "Return to Earth," the mechanic is sloppy and infuriating at best. In "The Eternity Clock," and the Adventure Games, it's a little more manageable. It's a nice way to add a challenge to a non-violent gameplay style. It would be interesting to see what a game team from something like "Thief," or "Resident Evil," might do with the sneaking aspect.

Another way the games have completely side-stepped the non-violence and puzzles is by having the Doctor act as a secondary character. The player is put in the position of the companion or perhaps a UNIT soldier as in the case of "Destiny of the Doctors." If you've not played DotD, I wouldn't blame you. I was hitting my head against the wall just trying to figure out what to do. The only real reason to play that game is for one last chance to see the fabulous Anthony Ainley reprise the role of the Master. He's in totally smarmy ham mode, even if it's a bunch of gibberish they shot in a day. You can find the entirety of the footage on YouTube and it's surreal.

The problem with having the Doctor be violent is that it doesn't feel true to the character. Sure, Three did some Venusian aikido, Four broke that dude's neck in "Seeds of Doom," and even Twelve socked a racist in the face, but these are isolated incidents. The spirit of the Doctor is lost in 1992's "Dalek Attack," when the Doctor is forced to go full on bullet hell on a Dalek hover cart. It's funny then that one of my favourite Doctor Who games incorporates a violent Doctor. In the Doctor Who level of "Lego Dimensions," the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to make villains fall apart in a very safe Lego style violence. I can excuse this mostly because the game is not primarily a Doctor Who game at heart.

Funnily enough, the Lego game does something I've always wanted in a Doctor Who video game. I've always wanted to have a Doctor Who game where you could regenerate into different Doctors, and also go into their respective TARDISes. Sure, some of the games on the Commodore 64 allowed you to regenerate, but it was pretty naff in its execution. I tell no lies when I say I spent a lot of time regenerating and reentering the TARDIS to explore the Lego versions of their respective console rooms. Really, the biggest problem with the Lego Doctor Who game is that it wasn't it's own game. Lego Dimensions was its own failure. If TT Games would come out with an entire Doctor Who game, I would buy it yesterday.

The overarching problem with every Doctor Who game is the same problem Torchwood had- if it wasn't attached to Doctor Who, we wouldn't be interested. While I did have a lot of fun with the Adventure Games and Lego Dimensions, not one Doctor Who game has every element right. One has a good story, but poor mechanics, another has great mechanics but doesn't feel right. It's a bit of a tight rope to find the perfect balance, but I don't feel it's impossible

One of the reasons I would love to see a proper Lego Doctor Who game is that they have a history of good adaptations. They're not exactly beloved games, but I myself play a lot of them. One of the most impressive things I've seen them do was in Lego Batman 3, where they made each of the planets in the Green Lantern mythos a visitable world. Could you imagine the same treatment for Doctor Who? Visiting Telos and Skaro, and then popping off to medieval earth or Gallifrey? You could get different missions depending on which Doctor you were, or what time you arrive in. And the collectable characters! So many companions, and Doctors, and baddies, and costume variations to unlock! Doesn't that sound nice? You can buddy Jamie and Amy with Seven and Twelve and have an all Scottish TARDIS! A Zygon could ride K9!

The fact is, we probably won't see a very expansive Doctor Who game. I would be very enthusiastic for an open world Doctor Who game, but even as I type it, it sounds difficult to pull off. I may be able to say what doesn't work about the games, but saying what would work is admittedly, not as simple, but this doesn't mean I can't think of at least one good game. Piecing together some of the things I mentioned earlier, I think the best genre for Doctor Who is point-and-click adventures. I know I keep singing the praises of the Doctor Who Adventure Games, but it's because I think they were actually onto something. It's sad then that they scrapped any further developments to work on the inferior "Eternity Clock."

Could you imagine a point and click Doctor Who in the same vein as "Day of the Tentacle," or "Thimbleweed Park"? You walk around as the Doctor, pick up bits, talk to funny characters and solve complex problems. If you throw in a bit of horror survival, you've basically got the Adventure Games, which is my point- Do more with what they've already done. Grow the concepts. Improve the mechanics. A Doctor Who game should be jammed packed with Easter eggs, unlockables, and mystery. The point is, do more. Even their phone apps are abysmal. You know how much I would play a “Pokémon Go,” style Doctor Who game? You go around trapping baddies in cages you set off with your sonic screwdriver or something. I. Would. Catch. Them. All.

We still have “The Edge of Time,” coming to PC and consoles in October, and I'm pensively excited. While the graphics seem really top notch, in no way does it feel like anything more than a fun little VR experience. The game is going to remain exclusive to that small subsection of gamers that own a VR headset. Before it has even been released, it's closed itself off to yet another section of its very wide audience. Let's just hope that it doesn't scare the BBC away from making a proper Doctor Who game in the near future. And in the meantime, I'm going to have to borrow my friends' VR set, because of course, I'm going to play it. It's Doctor Who.

Well friends, thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun “researching,” this article. Playing Doctor Who games all week? Oh no, twist my arm! Sadly, a lot of these games are no longer available from their original sources. I was able to find a lot of them on the Internet Archive. If you want to give them a go, I would definitely suggest it. A couple of them are even capable of being emulated on your browser from the Internet Archive. The game I had the hardest time locating was “The Gunpowder Plot,” but I was eventually able to find it after some digging. I didn’t play any of the text-based games because I’m not very good with spatial awareness, and so text-based games are usually a nightmare for me. Sadly, Worlds in Time is lost forever, but I remember my character fondly. I also discovered I’m pretty good at Top Trumps: Doctor Who. Go figure.

[playeroneplayertwo]

The Ten: 5.19

It seems a good icebreaker, or as good an icebreaker as any, to lay bare my top 10 of all time. Clear the air, so to speak. Get to know each other. It’s fair to say that this may be a make or break moment for us. Hopefully, I won’t lose you. Let’s see.

This is a list I imagine I’ll update periodically (which is why it’s dated), as my wife Kathleen (Player Two) and I play a lot of games, and a lot of new games. I’m a notoriously curious and searching type, and I love trying new games, sometimes to my wife’s chagrin. More often than not, my spare change goes to new games for the house. New games that make a splash tend to spike pretty high and then slowly fade. It’s not a great trait to have, especially in someone who tries to speak or write critically about quality (ie write reviews). But being that I’m aware of this, I hope that tempers it at least somewhat.

Anyway, where’s the list, you say? Here we go:

1. Brass: Birmingham (2018)

Oh boy, it’s a new one. Cult of the new? To be fair, Kathleen and I have played this game fairly regularly for the last eight months. By our third play or so, I knew it had locked itself into my top spot. I’d done a fair bit of research on the OG Brass (now Brass: Lancashire) prior to purchasing Brass: Birmingham, and by the time I eventually took the dive and purchased Birmingham, I was as excited to try it as I was unsure we’d actually enjoy it. At the time, it was the heaviest game we’d played, and it also relies heavily on route building–it’s in fact one of the most important parts of the game. I mention this because tactical spacial elements are not Kathleen’s forte. In fact, it’s one of her least favorite mechanics.

This is a good time to tell you that Kathleen and I think (and play games) very differently. Kathleen is a strategic player, relying on long term planning and execution to maximize scoring/performance. I, on the other hand, do not make long term plans. I find it not only remarkably difficult, but also unenjoyable. I’m a short term/tactical player. On my turn, I’m more likely to look over the board, get a lay of the land, and make the best, most advantageous play available to me at that moment.

Brass: Birmingham remarkably manages to cater to both of our play styles, which is one reason it ranks so high. Birmingham presents a myriad options for players to pursue. You’ve got a whole pile of different factory tiles you can build, a whole mess of locations or regions to move into, and about as many different strategies to pursue on your way to the end game. I don’t think I’ve ever played the same game of Brass: Birmingham twice, nor have I ever pursued the same options. The card play means, for me, that I will go where the cards lead, and I find using these cards as a guide to build my engine incredibly satisfying.

2. Covert (2016)

Dice placement. For some reason, this mechanic sounds incredibly unappealing to me, and I think it’s because it’s literally a portmanteau mechanic consisting of the worker placement mechanic using dice, two individual mechanisms that I seem to enjoy less and less. Dice I tend to avoid for their randomness (yes, I know that’s the point), and Worker Placement, in it’s most stereotypical application, I find frustrating. Why can’t I just put my worker wherever I want and just run my engine? Being stymied in a worker placement game just annoys the hell out of me.

So why do I love Covert?

It’s a pretty straightforward points race built around mission cards that have specific requirements. And using the dice as workers seems a fairly typical euro mechanism, but what I like about Covert is how puzzly it is. When you place your dice workers, they’ll be placed on round tracks with spaces numbered 1-6, and you won’t be able to place a die unless it’s adjacent to another die. In this case, you can do anything you want, but only if you plan correctly and work well with the other players. It becomes an order of operations puzzle, which may frustrate some, but I love it.

Also, I can’t get enough of that spy theme. And the production is fantastic.

3. Eldritch Horror (2013)

Ah, Cthulhu. For being the spawn of such a troubled person (HP Lovecraft), I find Cthulhu’s mythos and surrounding universe positively enthralling. 

But dice! Ugh yes, this is a huge, sprawling, long, and [sorta] bloated game that is built all around a very simple dice rolling resolution system. I have no way of justifying why this doesn’t bug me, but it just doesn’t.

Maybe I’m just a sap for the theme (Indiana Jones + Cthulhu = Win). Or maybe it’s nostalgia, considering this is the game on my top ten that I’ve played the most and had the longest. But, if I try to dig into the real reasoning here, it’s probably because this game manages to give you a big, rich, story-based experience that feels like an event when it’s over. Yes, it’s the biggest, longest play session on this list. But I love every minute of it. Even those maddening bad dice rolls.

4. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (2011)

A long time ago, Kathleen and I came to this hobby via Magic: The Gathering, the deep, long standing king of the collectible card game. Magic is a great game, but it brings out the worst in me as a gamer. Playing Magic makes me both a bad winner and bad loser. Frankly, that’s a terrible combination. Why would you want to play with me at all?

This obvious problem led us to cooperative board games. If I’m gonna lose, why don’t I just lose with you. That’s a refreshing change of pace!

And speaking of losing, hey let’s talk about Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The word used most frequently when talking about this game–by me and pretty much anybody who’s ever played it–is PUNISHING. And yes, it’s punishing. Kathleen and I have played a few punishing euros at this point (feed those people), but this is something else. Get a few bad card flips from the encounter deck and you’re suddenly up to your eyeballs in LOTR baddies. Orcs and goblins? Oh hai. But your dwarves or hobbits or whatever are never really out of it. Smart deck building (and luck) definitely has carried us out of the tall grass on more than one occasion. And there’s something to be said for a game as well balanced as Lord of the Rings. More than once, a game has concluded on a turn where we either win or lose based on that single turn’s outcome.

The theme doesn’t really do much for me, but I took the dive on this game because it looked like a well-designed and well-supported cooperative card game (of which there really aren’t too many). It’s stood tall over the years, and I hope it continues for a while. When I first played Arkham Horror: The Card Game, I figured it would knock this down a peg or two. But the designers’ ingenuity in the LOTR quests and encounter deck designs has been (for me, at least) a much more rewarding experience.

And I appreciate a cooperative game where you actually lose more often than you win. It seems a rarity in the co-ops we have.

5. Great Western Trail (2016)

I’d heard and read so much about this game prior to purchasing it that I almost didn’t even want to get it (which is exactly how I feel about Concordia and Trajan, subsequently). I dig the cowboy theme, but beyond that, I’d pretty much phased out all the actual details on this game’s gameplay.

But yeah, it really is good. Ya’ll were right. I love games that are heavy but are built around simple gameplay, and Great Western Trail epitomizes that. One your turn you move your cowboy on the (effectively) huge rondel board and then take an action on the space where you stop. That’s it. 

The beauty of the game comes from the remarkable breadth of options you can pursue. Using cowboys to buy cows, hiring engineers to move your train and build stations, hiring carpenters to build buildings and busy up the board, and completing objectives are some of the main tasks you’ll be focusing on, and what really clicks for me with Great Western Trail is that it’s a tactical player’s dream. The board is constantly changing, and as it changes, so must your plans. The objective cards steer you somewhat, but you’ve really gotta cut your own path across the wilderness here.

Oh, and I love deckbuilding as a sort of side dish mechanic. It isn’t always enough to sustain a whole game, but it’s great as a single piece of a pie.

6. Gloomhaven (2017)

All right, so this big beast has moved all over my ranking in the year+ since my first game. I won’t lie, it sat at #1 for a while. Then it slid a little, then a little more. I mean, it’s still at #6, so it’s not exactly plummeting. It’s the Board Game Geek #1 game of all time (as of this writing), and it’s hard to say if it’s deserving of this (and if not, what deserves the spot instead). Again, this is so subjective, and games like this or Scythe tend to be lightning rods for people who want to take a shot at the new hotness.

But yes, it’s good. It’s very good. I’m not as enamored by the sprawling nature of it as I was, nor the campaign, but being a person who loves variety, it’s scope is certainly a nice bonus. But after you haven’t played it in a while, it becomes a HUGE box that takes up a whole shelf and is a bear to set back up. And even though the box is 20lbs and takes up a whole shelf and the game takes 20+ minutes just to set up, the card play in Gloomhaven is just stellar. I love that this is essentially a tactical minis game with a euro engine. Tactical minis games rank incredibly low on my chart o’ interest, but this game takes that standard tactical minis expectation and smashes the shit out of it. 

Despite its niggling flaws, it’s an excellent game.

7. The Exit Series (2017-?)

This is the last co-op game on my list, and I just looked back and saw that there are four on here. I was just talking to Kathleen about how much I’d rather play competitive games instead of co-ops, and apparently I said that in a moment completely lacking self-awareness. Also, this is a cheaty kind of entry considering we’ve played at least eight Exit games.

Remember when I said that I liked Eldritch Horror because it was an event game that provided a big, rich experience? Well, the Exit games give you a meaty, brainier experience in a slightly shorter time period. There’s not much story–despite the designers really trying to cram one in there–but I’ll always love Exit because it’s become our Date Night game. Kathleen and I will get some nice booze, take out food, and sit down with a new Exit after we put our son to bed. The experience can be frustrating–remember we think very differently, but each experience has always been something to remember (except the Secret Lab; what happened in that one?). Special props to Exit: Dead Man on the Orient Express, in particular.

The puzzles are really satisfying when you crack them, especially after working on them for a while. We take longer than average to do these because we resist those hint cards as much as possible, so our games can stretch. But Exit should be an event, and when savored like one, it doesn’t let you down.

Also, if you have concerns about the value of an Exit game, if you look at it as an event (like going to the movies or *cough cough* playing T.I.M.E. Stories), it’s actually a very good value. Recycle it!

And finally, yes, Exit trumps Unlock any day of the week.

8. Glory to Rome (2005)

That Glory to Rome is out of print is a cryin’ shame. Our copy isn’t even a real copy, I printed a crappy DIY version at Staples and then cut and sleeved them with old Magic commons. Our copy looks bad, is cut unevenly, and has eery MTG watermarks shining through the thin weight paper, and I couldn’t care less. This game is awesome. It’s got about a million different combos that are all seemingly game-breaking, but the fact that everything is so powerful is really what makes this game so exciting.

Multi-use cards are one of my favorite mechanic, and this game is completely built around them. And like any well-designed game that is build all around cards, the design of this never leaves you feeling hamstrung by bad card draw. If you’re doing badly at Glory to Rome, it’s your fault. Sorry. You haven’t found the combo that will win the game for you. I can say this because I’m terrible at Glory to Rome, and I know it. That’s not saying I’ve not won before. I have, but more likely than not it was because I accidentally stumbled onto something good. 

Like Brass: Birmingham, no two games of Glory to Rome are the same. There are so many cards in the box, and the subtle sense of humor that permeates some of the cards just tickles me (please see: latrine).

It’s fast and exciting, and giving you options on other players’ turns is also one of my favorite mechanics.  I’ll happily play and lose Glory to Rome anytime.

9. Nippon (2015)

Full disclosure, this is the newest edition to this list, and Kathleen and I have only played this a few times, but there’s something about this game that really fascinates me. 

At first blush, it feels like Brass, but it’s not. Like Brass, this is an economic engine, but it doesn’t allow the multi-turn build up to The Big Turn like Brass. Then I thought it was a little like Great Western Trail, but it’s not really like that either. Great Western Trail presents a ton of options, but by the end of the game, you really need to work on all of them, at least a little bit, or else your score will suffer. Nippon, however, doesn’t make you do a little bit of everything. There are a number of elements in Nippon (like trains), that can be all but ignored except for certain circumstances. It’s a game built around area control via slow burn engine building. A number of other elements to the game are very specific tools you can use to hone that engine, but could just as easily prove useless under the wrong conditions.

This may be misdirected musings by someone who hasn’t played the game enough, but it feels right to me. The last time we played, I came to the realization that the game felt so fraught because I was trying to do too much. The game presents you with a large amount of avenues to pursue because you don’t actually have to pursue them all; you can’t, there’s not enough time in the game (or money!). You need to choose your actions and build the best engine as quickly as possible.

Nippon is a cutthroat fight that feels both wickedly fast and frustratingly slow at the same time. Special bonuses for completely subverting the worker placement mechanic with its own implementation that runs the whole game. It’s a puzzle that I have relished greatly.

10. Star Wars: The Card Game (2012)

Two Fantasy Flight LCGs on the list? Sweet Christmas!

But yes, this is a great game. I’m not sure it ever got much love, and it saddens me that it’s now dead, but it’s such an interesting design. That it does a fine job of simplifying deck construction is just a bonus.

I appreciate that Star Wars feels like a game of high stakes gambling. The first few turns are slow and quiet as you work through your deck and build your forces, but once conflict erupts, everything tends to break wide open. Each decision you make has massive repercussions, as single large mistakes will lose you the game. Add in some actual bluffing and a ticking clock, and this is the simplified and streamlined (if safer and less wild) version of Doomtown: Reloaded, another card game that I absolutely love. 

But where I think Doomtown ultimately fails, Star Wars succeeds. The game doesn’t get bogged down in complexity, and instead feels relatively streamlined considering its medium weight. Every time I play this game, I’m impressed by how smart Eric Lang’s design is. I feel like he played a ton of Magic: The Gathering, and then he removed all the things that bothered him (and bothered me, too).

I think this game is overlooked and underplayed, and dare I say forgotten, but for my money, it’s absolutely worth revisiting. And played over and over again.

Please remember, this list will change. Check back occasionally to see how. If you have any questions or opinions of your own, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Eric (Player One)

[edomtheproject-blog]

Devlog #2 - 22/10/2018: What about an isometric perspective?

Hey, what’s up?

Today we’re gonna talk about the first steps of our game. As you’ve already seen in our first Devlog, we intend to share an alpha-demo with you guys until mid-November and that’s around one month from now. But this idea was born somewhere between July-August and we’ve been talking a lot about Edom since then.

THE FIRST IDEAS

We gave birth to Edom way before we would stop to think about names. Back in the day, it was only four of us: Jão, Carol, Paulo and me (again, I talked about the team in the last Devlog). Actually, everything started with a wish Carol had. She didn’t exactly think of whole a game, but a specific character: Ariel (if you’ve been following us on Twitter and Facebook, you probably have already seen something about her). She not only imagined the character physically but also had some ideas concerning Ariel’s personality and background. It was only a matter of time before me, Dave, becoming the guy who would create a more sophisticated lore concerning the character.

In our first meetings, we talked a lot about what we had imagined for the game, if Ariel would be the only char available and what really was our purpose with Edom. After a few minutes exploring the initial ideas, we got to a common-sense: it should be a horror game. But we still wanted to create something different from what we’ve been seeing out there.

Srsly, listen to this awesomeness

Firstly because we still have some limitations (and this is our first serious project, therefore we have no experience with this whole thing). We wouldn’t be able to create a 3D Game in this very moment since none of us is exactly a master at 3D-modelling and stuff like that. Secondly, we really wanted to challenge ourselves with a project that could explore our abilities. More than that, we wanted to create a thrilling atmosphere in a pixel-art style, what we initially imagined it wouldn’t be possible (however, we are very optimistic about it right now).

We also wanted to make things different. We have lots of AAA on the market who are filled with jump scares and all these clichés (not saying these are bad games, pls). As a writer, I’m really fond of trying to create an ambiance through a good narrative and other artistical elements. We wish to see players creating bonds with the characters and, once this link has been established, we want (well, I do want) to crush your sanity and your feelings through an immersive plot and environment (seriously, our artists - me included -  are working hard to make you cry and ask for your mama or your psychiatrist). And I’m really confident that it’s gonna work.

Thanks a lot @the_games_guild

WHY ISOMETRIC? WHY?

We’ll get there soon, I promise.

So, we also had to make sure which elements should be applied to the game. I personally wanted something filled with puzzles and enigmas that would sometimes rely on lots of exploration, just like some Survival Horror’s out there. Besides that, one of the feelings that we think it would be nice to explore it is the idea of loneliness and helplessness. To accomplish that, we imagined a huge mansion as the setting, implying that you’re confined, but at the same time, you can get easily lost if you’re not paying attention enough. We also wanted to make this game to be one of those where the players aren’t supported by any kind of power, so… Yah, no guns or baseball bats for you to kill your enemies. You can only run to the hills.

Somehow, at some point of our meetings, we considered that this game could be a weird Metroidvania-like, but we eventually noticed that this wouldn’t be suitable at all. However, the perspective of creating a 2D game, similar to some old point-and-clicks (which I really loved, I’m totally into adventure games) wouldn’t fit as well. And then, someone (I don’t remember who, but I’m sure it wasn’t me) suggested: what about an isometric perspective?

And we were like “woooooooooow”! And one second alter we were like: “but how the duck are we gonna do it? We know nothing about it and we already have this huge idea that probably won’t be finished and…”

And then someone (probably me) was like “IH, RESPEITA O JOGO, RESPEITA O TIME” (that is something like “c’mon, you should respect our game and our idea, and also trust our own abilities, we can do it” but it sounds WAAAY better in Portuguese).

Anyway, isometric just seemed the right thing to do. Then we had our first animations and scenarios created by Carol in a beautiful pixel-art piece of art. Jão was also doubting his skills, but he is the type of person who can do anything (seriously, we call him “the yes-boy”, cause he always says “yes, I will [manage] to do it” to everything). And, well, I’m glad to say it’s working.

This is only a test.

We had a few problems during the first weeks. Since none of us had any experience working with isometric perspective, we had to ask for help from other people from GDP (if you don’t know about it, you should read the first Devlog). It was at this moment that our team got our first new members. Nayara and Tomás were fundamental to help Carol with this new perspective, giving her some tips and making a better job of it. Nayara, currently one of our artists, has also been doing some great job. Tomás would be our Game Designer (yeah, we didn’t exactly have one before everything started), but he decided to focus on other projects - that’s when Victor shows up and saves the day.

Despite the decision, we still thought of the game following up with the previous idea of a Metroidvania, not as a whole but at least some elements and the level design. Part of it would be useful to increase the idea of loneliness mentioned above. We got ourselves guided by Mark Brown Boss Keys’ video talking about The World Design of Super Metroid and we agreed that we wanted to apply the same concept in our game, so the player would feel motivated to explore each corner in each room. And this obviously took us to talk about Level Design.

We also don’t have any experience with LD and puzzles or things like that. Since the beginning, we’ve been studying and researching about it in order to provide good riddles to the players, in a way they may feel rewarded when solving it. If you already played Super Metroid or watched Brown’s video, you certainly noticed this genre presents you with a huge map, but some parts of it can only be accessed once you got a special ability (for example, you can only access a certain passage if you acquire a double/longer jump ability in another point of the game). We really wanted to include this idea of progression in Edom, but how would we do it if our main character is a simple girl?

STOP WITH THIS “CLIFFHANGER” BULLSHIT BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS AND ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION. HOW’D YOU DO IT?

We would create a few more characters. Initially, we imagined only three, but our musician, Paulo, thought of a very specific character and we decided to include his idea. Each character has a “special ability” (nothing really special, but they are good with certain things that the others aren’t, simple as that) and you can only access certain areas if you discover these other “guests” around the house.

That was a good choice since it would help us in three important aspects: a) the Metroidvania progression X reward system, which is awesome and contributes to exploring; b) would make possible for us to think of many creative puzzles, since you can explore the mansion with different characters; c) instead of one character for you to love with all your heart, you have four of them (and consequently your suffering will be four times bigger). We are also testing the portrait system, in which the player may access a portrait of another character and change it whenever he is in an appropriate place to do it (for example, you’re controlling Ariel and you find a portrait of Clarice, then you interact with it and change characters). This system will be implemented, but there’s still a lot to discuss.

You can’t see the changing system, but notice the portrait on the wall.

Things seem to be okay for now. We haven’t faced many problems after that and the pixel-art is flowing. Jão, the programmer, has found some problems with layers in Unity, but after three weeks of intense research (and a lot of coding), he managed to solve it. In the meantime, we worked to add every command that would be important to the game: walk (in 8 directions), run, pull/push, interaction and using special abilities.

I guess this is it for now. We hope to publish here once more this week, focusing a little bit more on the music and writing. Stay tuned. And follow us on our social media (FB and Twitter), since we’re updating them regularly.

XOXO

[princehandsome]

So, I wanted to make a list of all of the games that came out in 2017 that I actually played, and kind of briefly discuss what I thought of them. 

The list ended up being longer than I thought, so the games and such are under a readmore! Everything is pretty much spoiler free, minus some very light, first-hour spoilers I talk about when it comes to the premise of a game.

The main highlights of this list are: Resident Evil 7 is my game of the year, because it’s so damn good, and also it was a really rough year as a Dangan Ronpa fan, because New Dangan Ronpa V3 fucking sucks.

The year kicked off really strong with Resident Evil 7, which I was incredibly excited to play after the electrifying E3 trailer, and the playable teaser. This was fresh off the cancellation of P.T., so there was a big hole in my heart to fill, but Resident Evil 7 knocked it out of the park with ease. The whole experience is so amazing, managing to inject some good survival horror elements into a tired franchise to revitalize it, while not losing that over-the-top, B-Movie Resident Evil charm. The DLC only elevates it, with the Banned Footage tapes being bite-sized additions of the gameplay you love, while stuff like Not A Hero and The End of Zoe changes up the gameplay in fun and amazing ways.

Hitman has never been a franchise I’ve been into, but I decided to try the new episodic version of it that’s come out recently, and it’s a lot of fun! I’m god-awful at stealth games, but the game offers you some pretty cool guided assassination plans, if you’re terrible like I am, while more experienced people can find faster or more elaborate ways to do it, off-script. It’s a lot of fun, and if you’re into stealth based games, I’d definitely recommend it.

Being a recent Switch owner, naturally I had to pick up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as my first game on it, because, duh. It seems like a fun game, but there’s something there I just can’t get into; maybe it’s not giving me the story fast enough? Maybe it’s the sometimes wonky controls? I really can’t say. The combat is easily my favorite part, but I find myself losing interest when I’m not finding hidden treasure or slashing enemies to pieces.

An extremely controversial game to come out this year was Mass Effect Andromeda, the newest Mass Effect installment and the first one to not be made by the main Bioware team, as far as I can recall. It’s true that a lot of the faces are wonky (or at least, they were on launch, I’m seeing that patches have made them better) and that some of the writing is weird, but I still really enjoyed it. Combat has never been better, and the RPG elements are still satisfying enough to keep you invested. Any game that lets me really customize my character and pick some relatively diverse speech options has my heart from the start, and there really wasn’t anything in Andromeda that lost me. Frankly, I’d love to see this team tackle another Mass Effect game, using what they learned from Andromeda, but that probably isn’t going to be a thing after the reception to it.

Being incredibly into Dangan Ronpa, it may come as a surprise that I’ve never played Zero Escape, so when I got Zero Escape: The Nonary Games as a Christmas gift, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m barely an hour into the game, but I’m super into it so far! The puzzles are cool and fun, all of the characters are interesting so far, and the plot gives a very effective air of tension to everything happening. This game is definitely going to be what ends up scratching my Dangan Ronpa itch for 2018, but I’ll speak more about Dangan Ronpa below.

Being a huge Persona 4 fan, I was pretty optimistic about Persona 5, which my fiance @shutupshea was really hyped up about. I’ve gotta say, I really don’t care for it. Persona 4 was a game bursting with optimism and love, with tons of warm interactions with total random strangers, and even through the dark events, the main theme of it was friendship, and love, and the different ways that can manifest. The only real theme I got out of Persona 5 was... the world is bad, and people are bad? People in positions of authority will always abuse their power in the most over-the-top, cartoonish ways? Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are a thousand shitty people in a thousand positions of power, but it just feels overly cynical to get beaten over the head with it in every line of dialogue from every single character. The gameplay seems fun and deep, I just can’t really get into the narrative of it.

Being a fan of Outlast, and a super fan of the Whistleblower DLC, I was really pumped up for Outlast II, and it was... okay? It was kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, I think there were a lot of good gameplay improvements, and the overall pacing of the story felt like it moved along at a better clip, leaving me less frustrated. I also thought the ending was much, much better, via having greater emotional impact. On the other hand, I felt like some of the dark elements were... too dark? Not to say they like, personally offended or disgusted me, moreso that they made it difficult to take the game seriously. When you see the fifteenth mass grave, it less horrifies you, and more makes you go “how can there possibly be this many dead people in one town?” Overall I liked it, and I’d recommend it to horror game fans, but it was a lot weaker than the first game, and doesn’t even hold a candle to the Whistleblower.

Prey is a game everyone’s super into, and having played two or three hours of it so far, I’ve got to admit... I don’t super get it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun, and it reminds me a lot of the original Bioshock; the design is good, the weapons are varied, there just isn’t anything there that keeps me... super interested, I guess. It wasn’t like Rapture, where it’s filled with all of these incredibly colorful characters and antagonists, it just seems to be goo aliens and your dickhead brother trying to stop you from regaining your memories. I’m assuming some big bombshell is coming soon, but my main issue with it is that the plot feels incredibly... vanilla, in the early game.

I think I wrote a blog post about the original Injustice, which I was gaga over, and Injustice 2 is an improvement... somewhat. The gameplay is good, and the customization of each hero/villain is awesome, really letting you craft a distinct visual and gameplay style. That being said, I feel as though the story was much weaker (until the very end, the last couple of chapters are very emotionally strong) and the roster of characters was a little disappointing. No Nightwing... No Deathstroke... No Doomsday... What’s the point? Overall, it’s a worthy sequel, but it didn’t top the first, in my heart.

I didn’t want to put any remastered games on my list, but the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy earns a spot through virtue of being a remaster of such an old game series, leading a lot of people to play it now for the first time. I’m a huge Crash Bandicoot fan, it was my game of choice growing up, and I still fondly remember playing Crash Team Racing with my parents (where’s that remaster?). All in all, it’s a very competent remaster, with basically all of the weird quirks and certainly all of the difficulty in-tact, and I’d highly, highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played Crash Bandicoot before.

Telltale’s Batman Season 2 managed the unlikely feat of making me really enjoy a Telltale game, episode by episode. I really loved the first season, it being the first Telltale game I’ve ever enjoyed, but I had to ask myself if I’d still like it if I had to wait 1-2 months in between each episode. Would it hold up, having larger expectations for each episode? As it turns out, it certainly holds up! Having cool and original twists on each classic Batman baddie, a tone and visual style that’s right at home with the best of the Arkham games, and just generally dynamite character writing, Telltale’s Batman is fantastic for fans and newcomers alike, to the whole Batman mythos. Now, where the heck is Deathstroke, and where’s my Batfamily, Telltale!?

Back when it first came out, I played about two weeks of Destiny, non-stop, before I got really bored and jaded. I never bought any of the DLC, because I’me one of those people that thinks that you shouldn’t have to pay money to have a good game, but it got at least a solid chunk of my time, and some good memories with my buddies doing Vault of Glass. Destiny 2 held my attention for about two hours before I went “this is boring” and turned it off.

Never played anything in the Divinity series, but a buddy of mine recommended Divinity: Original Sin 2 to me, as it’s an Oblivion RPG, and it was new, and I could play it for free off of his Steam account. I must have put, I dunno, ten hours into it? It’s an extremely good RPG, but mostly I was put off because, and I’m showing my age here, it just felt too old. I didn’t hate it for that, but eventually there’s only so long I can spend in a top-down view of tiny character models, clicking buttons on a hotbar. There came a point where I just got sort of tired of the gameplay, but if you don’t mind stuff like that, then Divinity: Original Sin 2 is probably like, one of those hundred hour RPGs.

Now, I’m obsessed with Dangan Ronpa. My avatar is Dangan Ronpa, my header is Dangan Ronpa, I talk about Dangan Ronpa almost constantly. It’s safe to say Dangan Ronpa is my favorite franchise ever, even moreso than stuff like Star Wars, and Super Dangan Ronpa 2 is probably my favorite game of all time, despite my misgivings with it. So, you’d think New Dangan Ronpa V3 would be an easy GOTY for me, right? I’ve played through two chapters (the prologue, and Chapter 1) and I got a little bit into Chapter 2, and I reached the verdict, almost right after Chapter 1 ended, that New Dangan Ronpa V3 actually sucks a butt, and is probably the worst Dangan Ronpa game thus far. Whereas other games had very strong emotional cores and casts of characters you instantly fell in love with, New Dangan Ronpa V3 has left me feeling cold on... just about everyone. There are a couple of characters I like, here and there, but for the most part, I just... don’t care about what happens to any of them. Anybody could get murdered, and anybody could be the culprit, and I’d basically feel nothing. I don’t find myself curious about what the overarching mystery is, I don’t find myself pondering the identity of the master mind, I just... don’t care about any of it, which is probably the most damning thing I could say about a Dangan Ronpa game.

On the subject of sequels to games I liked, The Evil Within 2! I always thought the first game was actually pretty good and a lot of fun, and I’ll love Joseph Oda until I die, and the sequel was... pretty good? It falls into that area for me where I think all of the gameplay improvements were great, but overall the story was much weaker, and so were the characters. It didn’t feel as fun or varied as the first game did, like it had the same amount of imagination, but in much lesser quality. Out of the three main bad guys you fight, only the first one is really interesting, and the recurring Anima enemy was the only super memorable boss fight. Overall, it was a fun followup, but I still like the first more.

Doki Doki Literature Club came out of nowhere and took the world by storm, and I’m so so glad I was able to avoid spoilers about it and go in relatively blind. I knew that it had a horror twist to it, so I was expecting it to start glitching out and having eerie stuff happen, but I really wasn’t expecting to get so invested in it. It’s an experience that’ll stick with me for a long long time, and I’ll never forget the best girl, Natsuki. The game is amazing, and if you’re reading this and haven’t experienced it, go do it! It’s free on Steam, and try to stay as blind as possible!

I’m one of those people that buys Call of Duty every year. I always have fun with them, they always keep me occupied for a few months, and I generally don’t have anything bad to say about them. There’ve been some weak years, especially with Black Ops 3 for me, but Call of Duty: World War 2 is a competent little package to bring CoD back to its roots, in both a literal and figurative manner. An emphasis on classes, boots on the ground, World War 2, it’s basically everything the fans asked for, and it’s pretty solid! My only complaint is that I think I’m getting too old for twitch shooters, because my aim and reflexes are getting god-awful, even though I used to be amazing back in the CoD4 days.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is an even more controversial game than Mass Effect Andromeda, from Loot Boxes to laggy servers to yadda yadda yadda... I never really had much of a dog in the fight, to be honest. I play stuff like Overwatch and Counter Strike, so loot boxes are pretty par for the course (Counter Strike even makes you pay them to open the box!) and while these boxes did technically give an advantage, I don’t find that the Star Card system allows for anything too wild, as far as power gap due to lootbox elements. By and large, I didn’t care, but it seems as though the narrative of the game has basically become the loot boxes, leaving many people unaware that it’s actually a fun game! There weren’t any paid lootboxes present at launch, so all lootboxes here are earned in-game and in-game only, and usually just contain garbage anyways, so most of what you’re going to be doing is from gameplay too. All in all, it kind of makes me sad that this was the game people decided to rail on for lootboxes (despite so, so, so many other games having them and getting away just fine) instead of holding it up as a massive improvement over the first game. Overall, I still think it has some flaws, but with a full year of free DLC and many features (like trooper customization!) being confirmed to be on the way, I’m really happy to be playing it now. Honestly I think I play Battlefront 2 more than Call of Duty, or... any game on this list. I really really like it.

[obwcmp]

Year 2 Semester 1

It’s only the end of week 3 and already so much has happened. Scrap that it’s now the end of week 6! It’s been a super busy first half of semester and there’s still heaps of stuff left to do. 

And now it’s the end of week 9, after the mid semester break. So, let’s get to it! 

At long last, welcome to the end of week 12. The end of the semester. From today I have one more week of work left before the super long mid year break. This has turned into a semester look back post after 9 weeks of keeping it in my drafts. So, let’s get to it!

My four courses for this semester consist of three compulsory, core CMP classes, and a single elective. I picked a first year course, Visualisation for Media Production (VIS) as my elective, and then Cross Media Production (CMD), Working with Scripted Material (SCR), and Portfolio and Dissemination (PRT). 

VIS is interesting for a first year course. To make a good end product requires as much work as a second year course if not more. Of course, given that it is a first year course, it allows for students to make something which isn’t necessarily incredible. Take last years animations as an example (something i never got to show on this blog, sadly).

We have two main parts of our final hand in at the end of the semester. The first is to create a character concept through mixing two different story worlds and having the resulting character make sense within one of the worlds. So in my case, i took Piglet from 100 Acre Wood, and created a character which had the essence of Piglet, but made sense in the world of Mad Max. We had a selection of different worlds to choose from, and i thought that combination would be funny.

The end goal with the character part of the assignment is to show our developments and a final rendered character drawing, alongside a prop and a vehicle. It was supposed to be done by the end of Week 7, and here we are 4 weeks later with it still not done. Fun!

So many moodboards...

A small slice of the development stage, these are a bunch of silhouettes for various characters I made up. Of this selection (we were aiming for 50 initial silhouettes) we had to pick three which were based on the same character and then develop 30 more from those three, but this time we were fleshing out the inner details. I’m up to this stage now.

Currently my character is based on Piglet, who used to be a circus performer before dropping out and joining forces with bandits. A master of playing the fool without being overly conscious of it, while always hiding their true identity behind a mask. They still have their circus shoes, but they’ve been modified over the years to be more combat ready. A long coat to protect from dust, the usual cargo pants seen in Fury Road, and a pig mask, the details of which i’m still fleshing out. As for the prop and vehicle, i’m thinking of a gliding flying machine (given piglet seems to always be carried away by the wind) and their prop is a spear with a spinning ring of chainsaws in the shape of a flower at the end.

My work so far, the two lower right side ones are the ones i’m going with despite their lower bar of detail.

The second part of the assignment it to take a scene from a selection of different movies, and break it down shot by shot into a storyboard, including rough and final storyboards, and then turning the finals into an animatic. It’s definitely the easier part of the assignment, at least from my point of view. I’ve picked the scene from Mad Max 2 when Max meets the gyrocopter pilot for the first time. 

The rough storyboard of the scene. I’m yet to go through and create a clean looking, multi layer final version which can then be translated into an animatic.

Next on the list of courses is Cross Media! It’s an interesting course in that it’s almost a taste of what’s to come in third year. We were given a brief, “Don’t mind the generation gap” where we were tasked to make a cross media narrative that plays upon, goes against, or has something to say on generational differences and stereotypes. Being that the project is cross media, we have been tasked with using two different mediums to tell the same story, and as an extra challenge we also have to take into consideration a narrative requirement between being location based, time based, or data driven.

I had an idea which I really liked but was hastily written and had role descriptions which I think scared people off. The mediums consisted of a game, a sculpture, and was location based. The game was a web based point and click adventure game which utilised real photos taken around Wellington, which were then manipulated to add certain elements, particularly puzzles (this part of the idea was blatantly ripped off an idea Marie had where we would use a 360º camera to take pictures and create a point and click game with that (think geoguessr, or Myst III as opposed to Riven)). In the game you would be able to go to the location where my location based sculpture would be set up. The sculpture in this case is an interactive computer terminal which tells the same story in a different way. Completing the story the terminal tells, and also taking into account clues placed around the terminal allows for the ‘true’ ending to be unlocked in the point and click game. Along with this, the location in the game and the actual physical location have many differences, and it takes you to see both to see the differences (for instance, the hints around the terminal can only be found in the physical game, and are only hinted at in the web based game)). 

My roles included wanting to use Unreal Engine 4, amongst other things, so that idea flopped. I ended up joining groups with Paris who had an AR game crossed with a location based ‘book’ in the form of a poster campaign on public transport. Along with Paris and I joined Clara, Kennedy, Grace, and Jacob. We called ourselves Paris’ Little Bitches, and got going! The whole project has developed fairly far since the initial concept was laid down. Originally, we were going to locate the posters on public transport but the lecturer Birgit was quick to point out that from an access standpoint that was far from ideal. Currently we are thinking of hosting the posters in malls, and public places where there is a wide range of audiences passing through. 

In week 11 we had our demo for the project in class 1D04 which was fun! We printed hand outs and had our game functioning at a very basic stage on a couple of different computers. Our moderators, Bridget and Kerry Ann from the school of music and school of design respectively, seemed to like what we had done which was a relief. 

A laggy screen capture of the basic button functionality which works with AR, i’ll have a final version available on my portfolio after 7JUN

Next on the list is Working with Scripted Material. This course has been fun as we’ve had a lot of creative wiggle room to do what we want, but at the same time we get a slice of how harsh things like money and time can be on creativity. A good reality check in other words. Back in week 1 we were given a triptych to use as a “story starter” so we used these three images, which had some basic dialogue and set pieces, and created a story from them. My idea didn’t get picked, it was ridiculously ambitious as are most of my projects, and instead I joined Hunter’s idea which involved Lovecraftian horror/thriller type stuff but set in New Zealand. 

Thus In The Harbour Troubled Waters was born. Jonathan, our tutor, couldn’t stand the old name. In our group we had Morgan as director, Hunter as producer, Paris as writer, Ebeney as production designer, Tim as script consultant and editor, and me on marketing. 

A very low resolution screenshot of a poster Morgan made for the final hand in.

Our project, at least in our eyes, got the most criticism from Jonathan which was honestly super helpful. We’ve come out with a pretty solid concept to hand in, and along with that he likes our script. What a relief! 

Lastly from my selection of courses is Portfolio and Dissemination! This course has been such a good kick in the arse to get myself to make my portfolio which for most of last year was just a handful of .html files sitting around in my project folders. Something else amusing about PRT is that this blog became part of my assessment! Not intentional at all but an added bonus. As a result the navigation on this blog has been cleaned up, and there’s now a link to my portfolio at the top of the page! I’m thinking of adding social media links here too.

A sneak peek at my homepage. My portfolio is at obw.neocities.org!

The first half of the course just had us working on our portfolios and looking into what makes a portfolio good. I had a very good conversation with our lecturer and tutor, Sim, about our thoughts on what makes a portfolio stand out and how that is changing over time. Sim really wanted us to tell our story as a creator, and show progression and growth, whereas I was more of the understanding that only showing your absolute best in a compact and punchy portfolio was the way to go. 

I mostly stuck to my guns with what I showed in my portfolio, for example my ridiculous VFX reel which is less than a minute long:

I’m not kidding!

Sim and my friends liked it though so i’m happy. 

Our second part of the course was interesting, as we had to plan an event which could be used to promote our portfolios through. Josh came up with an idea for a game jam type arrangement where participants would bring in their own assets which were then added to a pool which all the rest of the participants could pull from to create pretty much anything, not just a game. 

Thus, Multi Asset Slam House or MASH was born. 

Bright pink, glitchy marketing was the path we took with this

We presented our idea earlier this week (week 12) and people seemed to really like it, including Matthew who is the course coordinator for some of the film courses in CMP which is yet another relief as he is very critical with his feedback. 

That about sums it up for my courses! Along with this stuff I got close to starting a club with some friends, went to Global Game Jam in Wellington back in January, Massey Digital’s attendance grew exponentially. Expect another post soon with those events and what’s to come in the near future.

[builtinadaygames]

itchy tasty: Free Games on itch.io, issue #3

Hi, I'm Kevin Beissel and I make videogames under the name Built In A Day (@builtinadayKB).

This is the third post I've done about games on itch.io, you can read the others here or you can read them on my personal site, builtinadaygames.com/blog

This post is slightly different than the others.  The devs covered in this post have released well-regarded indie games thru publishers like Devolver and Adult Swim (Terri Vellmann and Andrew Morrish) or self-published on platforms other than PC (Powerhoof).  The previous posts focused on devs with only self-released work (and no titles on Steam).

I had played games by all three of these devs on Steam and was pleased to find they had work posted on itch as well.  Since itch has all types of games, especially small and experimental work, it was fun to play something by these devs that could explore a bit more and see them try things that might not work in 'commercial products'.

Not to say that they're work on Steam is generic or traditional or (worst of all) 'safe'.  But there is value in watching an artist experiment, fail, take risks, embrace weirdness and just try stuff, whether they 'succeed' or not.

So, my motivation for this post is basically two-fold: to let other gamers know that itch has cool, experimental work by devs you already know and love, and to encourage devs of all types to keep making new stuff (especially the small or weird ideas they have).

Here are the ground rules:

The purpose of this series is to cover some of the free games on itch.io, from a developer and fan perspective.

Before we get to the games, I just want to clarify why I'm doing this and what I hope it accomplishes.  So here's the what, why and how:

The WHAT

Discuss free games available on itch.io

I've got a list of profiles to check out, but please send along any recommendations.

There are no restrictions on genres.  The whole point of this is to be curious and ask questions.  So no dumb rules like "No walking sims" or "No puzzle platformers", which would prolly eliminate half of the available games anyways.

The WHY

I want to become a better developer and playing experimental/small/art/trash games should help.

Getting an audience is hard and getting constructive feedback is even harder.  I can't help the devs covered in these posts with the former but maybe I can with the latter.

The HOW

There is no rating system.

There is no alter ego here, these are not 'angry' reviews.

These aren't even really reviews.

The goal is to focus on the design choices that were made and discuss the reasoning behind them.

I don't really care about being right, I don't really care about sounding smart ("Yeah, no shit" the reader grumbles), I don't really care about agreeing with you.  I'm more interested in looking at the hierarchy of ideas (to borrow a phrase) that form game design.  By working at the ends and working in the middle we can find out more about it, right?

Enough with the formalities, let's get started.

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Profile: Powerhoof (@Powerhoof, powerhoof.com, powerhoof.itchi.io)

Games: Murdercide 2017 and Peridium

Style: point and click adventure games, cyberpunk/comedy and horror/suspense respectively

Powerhoof is the two-man team (Dave Lloyd and Barney Cumming) behind 'Crawl', the excellent local coop dungeon-crawler on Steam.  They have a diverse selection of games on itch, but I'll be covering only three of them, tho each one is worth a look.

The point and click genre offers the chance to show off their narrative skills, with plenty of good dialog and superb voice acting.  Their games always have appealing visuals, so it was exciting to see that skillset paired with a good narrative.  It's also remarkable that both games are so different in tone, yet work so well.

Each game can be played in less than ten minutes, so describing the plot would spoil a huge chunk of your playthru.  So think of them like this: if you like Douglas Adams or 'Blade Runner' then check out Murdercide and if you like 'The Thing' or 'The Shining' then check out Peridium.  And if you like all those things and were also a fan of LucasArts adventure games, then for sure check out both.

Also, these games are much more about atmosphere than they are about the traditional elements of point and click games.  Yeah, you will have to use an inventory item to interact with some scenery, but none of it gets in the way of the setting and the story.

If I'm not mistaken Powerhoof has hinted at doing a full-length adventure game someday.  I've been mistaken before tho (turns out if you mix an acid with a base you get a reaction, you know like mixing drain cleaners?), so they'll prolly make something else that's dope.

Game: Riders of Rhea

Style: top-down, action, roguelike

Elevator pitch: It feels like an 8-bit version of 'Mad Max'.  I guess this is the perfuntory part where I point out that Powerhoof is based in Australia.  But this elevator ride is almost over, so fuck it.

You ride on a motorcyle thru a desert wasteland and track down groups of enemies using a mini-radar.  Another panel displays stats about your bike (armor/shield, heat, speed).  When you defeat enemies you get random drops, usually a small decrease from one skill (-1 usually) and a larger boost to another skill (+2 or higher).

The controls took awhile to get the hang of, but I eventually could take on small groups.  I can get overwhelmed easily (are we still talking about the game?) but that level of challenge makes each success feel more satisfying.

I've been searching for interesting action games lately and this one certainly fits.  Great minimalist art-style, nicely blends offensive and defensive tactics, and has a 'one more run' charm to it.

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Profile: morrish (@int_main, andrewmorrish.net, andrew-morrish.itch.io)

Game: Tough Love Machine

Style: puzzle, pretty colors

Andrew Morrish has two games available on Steam, 'Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe' and 'Kingsway'.  I haven't played the latter, but SPPD has a great concept, fantastic visuals, tight controls and a diverse group of playable characters.  I didn't know he had stuff on itch, but TLM was recommended by Steven Miller (@stevenjmiller37, who also has a bunch of cool games on itch too).  It's a great puzzle game: fun, intuitive and a joy to look at.

There are two hearts and two arms on the screen.  Using the arms (WASD for the left and arrow keys for the right) you reposition the hearts until they are either stacked or side-by-side.  This seemingly simple formula yields impressively deep results.

One thing I always look for in puzzle games is how clearly they visually communicate concepts and rules.  In games like 'Stephen's Sausage Roll' or 'Baba Is You', the concept and mechanics work seamlessly, because the visual cues and puzzle design are so well done.

Those games ('Roll' and 'Baba') force you to very carefully consider the space you're given and how the rules you know can be applied to them.  I know that sounds like something that ALL puzzle games should do, just like regular exercise is something that ALL people should do, but we know that's not the case.

So when I got stuck in 'Roll', it usually meant there was some part of the level I wasn't utilizing, despite the design/visual cues clearly pointing me towards it.  TLM does a similarly good job of keeping the puzzle design uncluttered and avoiding bullshit red herring solutions, another common puzzle game pitfall.

BTW, I haven't actually beat it yet.  I'm stuck on the level called "you might actually be getting worse".  My God, this game sounds like my ex-wife.

Just kidding, I don't have an ex-wife.  I'm not kidding about being stuck but don't spoil it for me.  You can spoil it for my ex-wife tho, she always hated surprises.  Or maybe she just hated me.

Whatever the imaginary case may be, just make sure you don't hate 'Tough Love Machine'!  You could say it's TOUGH not to LOVE it.  You could say that, especially if you wanted people to hate your writing style.

------

Profile: terriv (@terrivellmann, terriv.itch.io)

Game: TANKITA

Style: roam-around tank-shooter

Terri Vellmann recently released 'High Hell' (which I'm very excited for) but I've been playing 'Heavy Bullets' for just about a year now and I love it.  I was a bit put off at first and it took awhile to develop effective strategies (I can get to level six out of eight so far), but a good run in 'HB' is super satisfying, even tho they all end in an abrupt death.

TANKITA (or 'Bounty Hunter Tankita') is a tank-shooter with nice 'roam-around' style maps.  Each map has bases to destroy or enemy waves to fight off.  All of it is done in a low-res style but with bright colors and appealing cartoon-style character/vehicle designs.

You control the tank's movement with the L-stick and weapon aim with the R-stick.  The left and right bumpers are your main and alt fire, and the A button is jump.

As much fun as the game is, the control style caused some mild frustration.  The only issue I have is with the jump.  Circle-strafing enemies is pretty effective, except you have to keep moving your right thumb to jump or risk taking heavy damage from missiles.

However this frustration led to a worthwhile thought experiment: If I were to remap the controls, what changes would I make and how much would they change other gameplay elements?

I'll preface this by saying (or writing, at least) this:

A lot of well-intentioned game design feedback suffers from a common problem: the proposed solution has far-reaching consequences and would alter so many facets of gameplay that the amount of work necessary would far exceed being just a 'small tweak'.

So, my first instinct is to eliminate the jump entirely and focus on the weapons.  The problem with that is the tank is now largely defenseless, so the enemy behavior and the map layouts have to change drastically to compensate.  For starters, the enemy's missile fire rate would need to be adjusted (even tho you can shoot them down with your own missiles) or the amount of damage they do has to be heavily nerfed.

My next idea was to eliminate the alt fire and just have the main weapon and the jump ability, and map them to LB/RB.  This allows a good balance between offense and defense, but still requires that many enemy/level elements be reworked.

I like the second solution better.  Either solution would take a lot of time, but the second has a higher 'ceiling'.  You could compensate for the lack of an alt fire several ways:

Create opportunities for 'massive' or 'chain' style damage - like lure a group of enemies near a fuel truck, pepper the truck with your main gun and watch the explosion cause a chain reaction among the enemies.  Incentivizes the player to group enemies together and utilize environmental elements, which would mean reworking each map's layout.

Have Contra-style weapon drops - sometimes you get just the right weapon and other times you pass it up.  It's asking a lot of the player to go thru a game (even a short one) with only one weapon type.  The control style is still simplified to jump/attack, but the player can still have some variety.

Still, 'TANKITA' is worth checking out, as is Vellmann's other work on itch.  I like his visual style and something like 'mundo lixo' is a good chance to admire the aesthetics without any pressing gameplay demands.  

------

Well, folks, thanks for reading.  May other people indulge you to the extent that you've indulged me.

Love & Respect,

==KB==

[chanteashworth5-blog]

Play Beast Truck Games * Free Truck Games

Today simply by using a computer system with internet connection you can have complete entertainment by keeping the boredom away. There are various types of online free games to play where you don't need to spend any money. These free online games are becoming very popular and they are in hype these days. There are numerous websites available on internet where you can play games free online. Variety of online games available for free. They are suitable for all types of gamers from hardcore to occasional ones. Adults as well as kids will find some games that will suit their preference. Some of the most appreciated and loved genres available on internet are dating simulation, RPG, puzzle, strategy, horror, action, sports etc. The graphics and sound quality of the games range from amazing to incredible. In order to search such free games you simply need to type the related keywords on any reputed search engines like Google etc. Once you type the keyword you will be provided with a list of innumerous websites offering these types of games for free. Now it depends on you how much time you require to find out the best websites offering such games. There are various games available on internet and these games are designed in the format known as flash. This is a type of platform that is mainly used to produce animated clips. However, this platform is also utilized to create some interactive webpage elements. The designers and developers of these games ultimately harness the capabilities of this platform. But the interesting fact about this platform called flash is its minimal size. The reason behind is that the scripts that are used are very simpler than other platforms out there. Apart from this the graphics and the sound quality are really very stunning. The designs of the games are also amazing especially for those individuals who need gaming consoles for playback. Moreover, they also get downloaded onto your computer system very quickly because of the small file size. So, you can start playing games online in no time. These games are not like other games that consume long hours to get downloaded. Another feature of this game is fast response time. That means the action and the controls of the games are always in sync. Moreover, you can also understand the game on the first trail and the controls of the games are not very tough to understand. The browser is the major thing that will be required to playback the flash files. You don't need to purchase any kind of special player or to install in your system to play these free online games. But certain plug-in is required and essential to play these online games for free. But you don't need to worry about anything because the web browser will let you know about the plug-in if required and most of the plug-in can be downloaded easily without paying any money. So, start your search today to find out the perfect website where you can play these full of fun games for free. For further any details you may refer internet. About Author: I am having great curiosity in Games To Playonline. In this I offer the special free web games like sports games, Fun Girl Online Games , bike games, multiplayer games etc. for those one who love to play online games. For more details please visit www.onlinegameshost.com.

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There will most certainly be different letters in you see, the gaming community and practically all the heroes have proved to be placed in the category. Nowadays, men are serious in taking up towards the web games. The brand new levels actually are usually most hard on beat, or it is going to take great skill to finish a succeed with at these kinds levels. Other will use championships, escapes from crime scenes, pays challenges or car trifles. Is your child a Ben 10 devotee? If so, online Ben 10 games could be their best associate to get rid of his dullness. There are different types of games ready for use on the web, which are based on the distinguished cartoon character Ben 10. These games are able to catch the awareness of the kids. Moreover, according to the recent studies and surveys done online, it has been also confirmed that the cooperation of Ben 10 games is extremely powerful and natural between the kids. As these games are earning a lot of recognition in the gaming world, there are many additional versions made public on the internet everyday. In Ben 10 games, Ben goes with a variety of risk-taking missions. So, the contestant has to fight with the monsters. These games will also aid your kids to keep their mind flowing. When you're probing on the web, you will come across a lot of Ben 10 games. Nevertheless, some are considerably well-known between the kids. A few of these games are mentioned below: - Aliens versus Villains - Alien force quick shot - Total transformation - Ben 10 Puzzles as well as Memory games Most of the games involve various tasks to be completed. Consequently, before starting the game, it is really valuable to be acquainted with about the players duty in the game. If you read the introduction part implemented in the game, you will come to be acquainted with more about the mission, controls, enemies as well as other essential aspects of the game. Even though Ben 10 games are crowd-pleasing, there are also other options like car games ready for use on the internet. If you do an understandable study, you will come across a lot of options. Therefore, you can choose the right one according to your selection. These are some of the substantial things to grasp before playing online games. To find the greatest car games out on the internet, visit Big 10 games by clicking on the link.

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Asus ROG GL553VE: Mid-segment gaming Computer

Laptops constructed for gaming are usually brawny and heavy, and accordingly, I was surprised after I noticed the ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE (Rs 1.37 lakh). A chunk bigger than an ordinary 15.6-inch notebook, the GL553VE, didn’t experience too heavy due to its plastic production. That stated, it seemed well-constructed and the orange accents on the lid and the toes, together with the ROG brand, pointed to its gaming heritage. The GL553VE sports activities both an optical power and a USB Type-C socket, one of the few modern-day-era notebooks to accomplish that. The strength button is a part of the backlit keyboard, and the first time I.

Proper and Awful in Gaming Gaming is certainly one of the biggest interests and even careers in the world. People play games for fun or studying even as others file videos approximately the games. In this newsletter, I’m able to recognition greater on gaming itself and not so much the aspect of the way to make gaming movies. Game enthusiasts are available all distinct a long time, genders, religions, places and shapes. The backgrounds of those who are Game enthusiasts make gaming that much more amusing.

Backgrounds of Game enthusiasts can play a part inside the kind of games that Humans play. There are all kinds of combinations for distinctive categories relating to the kind of games and sort of Gamers. You really want to examine the sport’s website to get all of the pertinent records earlier to buying.

There are numerous on-line systems in which you could buy video games from such as Steam or Humble Package deal. Those websites will provide you with the outline, movies by way of the corporation, photos, user, and non-person tags, evaluations, website, organization and their social account(s). Be aware the game’s internet site might not display you the whole lot you need to recognize. At the least, a gaming enterprise will display a short sales pitch description, small quantity of photographs (five at excellent), one or movies with the aid of them and their social debts. The maximum they may offer is an informative description, their social bills, consumer evaluations and movies with the aid of them.

Permit’s dive right into what’s perceived as negative about gaming. The majority of the negative matters approximately video games come from the real existence Human beings on The one’s games, the form of video games and the kinds of video games for the wrong person. A game may be poorly made but it’s no longer always the case in which the sport itself is Horrific. It is able to be where it turned into the incorrect sort of recreation for the incorrect individual. That is in which the types come in. Maybe a sport has A bit of violence. That doesn’t make it Horrific; it just makes it the incorrect kind of recreation for a seven yr old. Or Perhaps you purchased a puzzle sport for a person who loves movement Kind video games. So the movement loving man or woman might not experience it, but That does not make the puzzle recreation Terrible!

The forms of video games are countless from nudity, tablets, and alcohol, horror, gambling with money and extra. These differing types are incorrect for children Gamers in addition to wrong for folks who do not like seeing such things.

Gaming has Suitable and Terrible facts much like the whole thing else. The secret’s how Suitable and Terrible are The one’s aspects. As an example, some video games have a Terrible facet with players that want to combat lots. This is not unusual in video games. Apprehend for a number of Gamers this is not a big deal; but, for young people who are new to the game or maybe gaming in widespread, this could be frustrating. There are times when you need to avoid the Bad sides all collectively. There are times whilst the coolest outweighs the Terrible. If this takes place and there are not any issues with the game itself; then the Terrible fact is just that one little fly in your room which is not any large deal. Warning: If the Terrible outweighs the coolest, I would strongly recommend feeding off that recreation.

Any other component that Human beings will nag a sports developer or writer about is an illustration. Need to I say, a lack of illustration which isn’t confined to race, frame Type and message in the game. In case you are able to customize your individual, then of the direction, you may no longer have a hassle with representation. There’s a problem in some video games wherein they do not represent sturdy and clever girls, minority females and males, big, small, tall, and quick girls and males. Notice how I didn’t position “adult males” after lady for sturdy? It really is because men in video games are usually represented as sturdy and clever.

In video games that show a male strong and smart, he will normally in all likelihood be white, tall, skinny, film star looking and buff. you’ll rarely see him be a minority, short, overweight, now not buff, nerdy searching, whilst nevertheless being strong and smart. You notice this even Less for ladies. a few women in games are also white, tall, skinny and robust whilst displaying pores and skin like no day after today. You most effective see Those ladies in MMORPG games (Hugely Multiplayer online Role Playing recreation) though. RPG video games are intended for delusion worlds in which you ordinarily fight Humans and monsters. Of direction, the women’ stats might be robust but they won’t look strong.

In maximum games, once they upload an individual if you want to play they always add a white male first, then a white female, then a black male, and then a black female. They do not even surely add people who are mixes of races or in between. With regards to the black characters they handiest add one coloration of “black” or “African-American” and no longer each black character on the earth is that shade.

In video games, The general public of the characters is constantly skinny and tall. You don’t simply see characters that are brief and thin, tall and obese, short and overweight, and many others. There are plenty of people who are not thin and who aren’t tall.

Then ultimately, There’s the mental message that is going with the gender, race, and body Kind. What do I imply by using the mental message? a few games ship an oblique message about that character being sturdy and smart or something else. whilst for other video games, it can be an intellectual message either on the cause or no longer. For instance, in the game you play and also you see a minority female who is short, obese, nerdy looking and her developments are to be a goof ball, naive, and dumb. It is able to ship a mental message to you that Humans that appear like her are just like her. They’re now not smart, they aren’t skinny, and are not tall. They did poorly in faculty, and many others. and so on. So that you start questioning The ones things primarily based on not simplest seeing this in that sport again and again, however, while it occurs in different games too.

The worst element is NONE of this stuff is actual. Sure, a few Human beings aren’t skinny, tall, and Maybe no longer that vivid; however now not Anybody is like this! You do have short overweight minorities who’re clever as all get out! You have all forms of mixtures of those who ARE smart! Of course, all these items approximately gender, race, body Kind, and messages are not just in gaming; They’re in films, Television indicates, commercials, and so forth. What is exciting is that a number of the creators who make the video games, movies, Tv suggests, advertisements, and many others., are minorities themselves and they make up the populace of the earth. (Search “world populace by way of race 2016” and click the primary 3 links If you do not accept as true with me.)

A brief disclaimer: I am no longer BASHING Anybody! Yes, I used to be shouting that. This segment of the object is telling you what I realize, examine, pay attention and experience in gaming.

In case you do not trust me cross-examine modern day Television suggests, movies, advertisements, and video games. A show to look at for Appropriate illustration is Milo Murphy’s Regulation. two games to examine as a reference for Properly illustration are OverWatch and Atlas Reactor. Now in These fields, it has gotten better for illustration especially gender, race and just now beginning frame Type (mainly in this order). some video games even add robots and creatures as playable characters to avoid having problems with representation. This removes the hassle of users trying an individual to symbolize their actual or favored gender, race, or body Type due to the fact now There is an individual maximum customer can agree on. In spite of everything, you can not please Each person.

All right, now that I ranted and got the Terrible stuff out of the way; Permit’s get into the coolest parts of gaming! You have got Game enthusiasts as young as 3 years old and as antique as ninety+! Regardless of your age, race, gender, religion, a way of life, or area gaming may be True for Anybody. Gaming can not best be amusing, but beneficial and academic.

A benefit with gaming is it could assist teenagers to have more confidence in themselves and be extra social. In the event that they play a web multiplayer sport and communicate to different players around the world, this can help then get used to speak to different People besides the circle of relatives and that they gain confidence in what They’re announcing. They can cross from an introvert to a social fanatic! it is able to take place fast or slowly. Although it is no longer a game but an area for Gamers, artists, style designers, automobile fanatic, and many others. to speak; it will still help them be more social. Hold in thoughts although, typing to someone after which voice chatting to a person are two distinctive reports. kids can be very social whilst typing but very shy while voice chatting.