CarneyVale Postmortem on Gamasutra
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!
February 24, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: News
Tags: carneyvale, GAMBIT, post mortem, showtime, Singapore
Mega Man 9 is freaking hard
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!
February 23, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Games, Rant
Tags: capcom, game, mega man
What We’re Playing: The Legend of Princess
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!
February 17, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: 16 bit, game, joakim sandberg, Konjak, What We're Playing, Zelda
Fire Hose is going to GDC 2009
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. (more…)
February 15, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Events, News
Tags: accessibility, audiodyssey, GDC, lecture
Flower out on PSN
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!
February 13, 2009 | | Comments (2)
Category: Games, News
Tags: cloud, flow, flower, jenova chen, kellee santiago, News, thatgamecompany, USC
What We’re Playing: The Redistricting Game
Serious games are a category of games which, in my opinion, tend to get a bad rap. People hear the terms “serious” or “educational” and run in the other direction screaming, and frequently for good reason! Serious games tend to be less fun, as they frequently sacrifice bits of fun in the name of getting their point across.
Not so with the Redistricting Game, a great title that came out of USC a few years back and was developed in part by Chris Swain. In the game you take the role of a congressional gerrymandering panel, trying to carve up states in an effort to get the most votes for your congressman. The game is really fun, I suggest giving it a shot!
Follow the jump for a bit more analysis as to why I think the game succeeds. (more…)
February 11, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: change, chris swain, game, redisctricting, serious game, USC, What We're Playing
Who has time for long games?
I can’t speak for everyone, but I find that I am less and less inclined to play games that are too long. This weekend I popped in Fable 2, a game I’ve really been looking forward to for some time, and I just stopped caring after about an hour of game play. I guess I’m just not really interested in games that have extended tutorials that go longer than 10 minutes, and I found the lack of ability to do whatever I wanted stifling.
However, I think my problem isn’t with Fable 2 as much as it is with long games in general. Nowadays you see games that come out with 40, 60, 80 hours or more of gameplay, and I just don’t really know who has the time to play these games anymore unless they are making it their second job. As a result I find myself being more and more drawn to shorter games that promise 4 hours or less of gameplay (like You Have to Burn the Rope). This weekend, for instance, I played Mega Man 9 for two or three hours, and I suspect a large part of the reason was because I knew in the back of my mind that the game would be over sooner rather than later.
What do you think? Any other long time gamers finding themselves frequently passing on longer, more polished AAA titles for shorter games?
February 8, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Games, Rant
Tags: fable 2, game length, Rant
What We’re Playing: Boston Global Game Jam Games
Last weekend was just chock full of games, with MIT’s battlecode final tournament, the robotic competition final tournament (post coming soon), and of course the Global Game Jam, the latter of which produced a bunch of terrific games!
The full download list for all the games made at GAMBIT are posted here. Of special interest in my opinion is Move Mouse to Fulfill Destiny, an artistic title by Dan Roy, Will Jennings, and Filippo Beck Peccoz. You can read the description about how you are a farmer making friends, but if you ask me it’s much more fun to just play without thinking too much. The Beat is an interesting two player puzzle game which is all about timing your actions with the actions in the world, and was made by Marc Flury, Jesper Juul, Van Nguyen, Randy O’Connor, Filippo Beck Peccoz, and Daniel Costello. You can’t play it alone so be sure to find a buddy! It has an especially entertaining “scream” option, which doesn’t seem to accomplish anything but sure is fun to do.
Of course there were several other games made at GAMBIT, and hundreds made all over the world! Check out as many as you can at the GGJ game browser.
February 5, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Events, Games, What We're Playing
Tags: art, game, game jam, global, What We're Playing
MIT’s Battlecode AI competition round up
Last night MIT’s annual battlecode competition had it’s final tournament, with the top teams squaring off against each other for the title of baddest ass programming team. After a long arduous battle that lasted the better part of the evening, team g2g ice skating lessons won in a nail biting come-from-behind victory. Steve Bartel, Spenser Skates, Randy Shults, and Karen Sun had apparently spent the entire past month quarantined in their rooms writing AI scripts in their bid to win. Steve is actually an ex-GAMBINO, having worked on Muzaic this past summer. Congratulations team!
Follow the link for a quick synopsis of the competition. (more…)