Monthly Archives: February 2009

CarneyVale: Showtime is rocking the XBox Live Community game channel. You knew this. But did you know what went in to the game? What mistakes were made during development, what neat tricks the developers pulled while making the game, and how many eclairs Desmond had to eat in one sitting before getting sufficiently “inspired” to do artwork? If not then I highly recommend taking a peek at the especially interesting post mortem that he and Bruce Chia just wrote for Gamasutra. It’s a good read, check it out!

I spent a *lot* of time playing Mega Man 9 this weekend. More time than I probably should have. When did the game get so difficult? Every level is flush with spikes, pits, enemies that knock you into holes, and mini-bosses more difficult to kill than James Bond. After chugging through the whole thing for hours I finally know the boss order, but even that doesn’t help as the weapons have been seriously nerfed (remember killing Air Man in one go with the wood sheild? Or Shadow Man in 2 seconds with the top spin?). And just to double check, I played through Mega Man 2 + 3 to make sure that the game was in fact harder and that I wasn’t just suffering from Old Man Syndrome (it is, I’m not).

AND YET, despite all this, I don’t know if I’ve had more fun playing a video game for some time now. I don’t know what it is about Capcom, they keep making these impossible games that for nostalgia or whatever reason I can’t put down. They should keep up the good work!

This game has been getting a lot of press recently, and deservedly so. Remember Zelda 2, that weird side scrolling sequel for Zelda on the original NES? Well enter The Legend of Princess, the awesome what-if Super Nintendo follow up that never was, made by talented young developer Joakim Sandberg. It does a superb job of showing what Zelda could be like as a more modern side scroller, with Link running, jumping, hookshoting, and throwing chickens around a dungeon while trying to save a princess trapped in a crystal. The game has numerous references to the other Zelda games, like Link’s spin charge and dash, and those goddamn annoying bombchus.

The game is short, and is really one one level (the dirt temple) of what could be a much more encompassing and complete Zelda game. How awesome would it be if Nintendo would contact him about making a version of this for WiiWare? Too bad it will never happen, as Nintendo is super protective of its IP. Anyway, we should enjoy what we’ve got, it’s a great ride. Go download it here. See if you can beat my record of 1512 rupees!

That’s right! The whole Fire Hose crew is going to San Francisco for the last week of March to check out the annual Game Developer’s Conference. GDC is an insane free for all where a couple ten thousand game developers convene for a week to network and discuss how awesome/shitty the past year was. We’ll be going and blogging about what happens, who we meet, and what neat lectures we see. It should be really fun!

I’m also going to be giving a talk on AudiOdyssey and Video Game Accessibility on Monday, and it should be really cool! If you are going to be at the conference I’d love it if you can come and check it out, it’ll be very sad if I end up speaking to a room full of crickets. You can read a full synopsis of the lecture by clicking on this pretty button. Continue reading →

Yesterday Flower came out on PSN, the second title by thatgamecompany. The game looks absolutely beautiful, featuring some of the most stunning graphics I’ve ever seen with its fantastic grass/environment engine. In the game you control the wind and try to pick up flower petals in the breeze, and the experience is centered around relaxation and exploration more than fighting bad guys or beating levels. A highly innovative offering, I strongly recommend checking it out if you have a PS3, as does everyone else.

The game is especially interesting because it comes from a super talented team coming out of USC’s game pipe lab EA Game Innovation Lab. It’s something of a spiritual sequel to Cloud, a project that Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago (among others) worked on while pursing their masters. Congrats on the amazing title guys!