Category: What We're Playing
What We’re Playing: CellCraft
Some of you may know that in a past life I worked on Immune Attack, a game that teaches immunology to high school students (be sure to check out the new version coming soon!). It was a great project and I loved working with the team on it. However, we had a lot of challenges in development regarding tradeoffs in how to present biologically accurate material and how to keep the game fun and engaging.
Enter CellCraft, an awesome game that is about cellular biology. The game is basically a microscopic RTS in which the player controls a single cell and has to perform the various actions real cells perform to defeat/survive bacterial and viral infections. What *I* find shocking is that:
- They didn’t dumb down any of the terminology in the game (one of the first instructions you get is to create a pseudopod (latin: fake foot, it’s how cells move around). Your fuel is ATP, your units are the organelles themselves, and as a result when you are done playing you know all the terms. Awesome!
- The behaviors taken by the cell are realistic too. At no point do you whip out lasers to kill bacteria, but you do get to go all pac-man-y on them and eat them.
- The game is legit fun! This is a huge accomplishment; when was the last time someone told you that biology is fun?
If you haven’t tried it yet, you really need to go play this game now. If you really like it you can even download it for free onto your computer. Hooray for government grants leading to free games!
One more thing worth noting is that there has recently been some controversy about the game concerning whether it endorses evolution or creationism. This is, of course, a bit ridiculous as the game has absolutely nothing to do with either and is concerned with cellular biology, but hey some people like to dig for meaning anywhere they can. I’m glad the controversy happened because it’s driven many more eyeballs to a highly deserving game (sure, it was for the wrong reason but who cares?). If you’re curious you can read about the developer’s thoughts here.
July 21, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: bacteria, biology, cell, CellCraft, cellular, controversy, creationism, education, educational game, evolution, Immune Attack, immuology, organelle, RTS, virus
What We’re Playing: Enough Plumbers
A lot of times flash games have some sort of innovative, but ultimately gimmicky, central mechanic that doesn’t get used especially well. At it’s surface, Enough Plumbers would seem to be one of these games. You star as an overall wearing plumber trying to complete several levels by reaching the flag. The fun twist is that when you get a coin a clone spawns, which functions with the same keyboard controls as all the other plumbers (it feels a bit like Ninja Bros).
What’s impressive about this game is that there is actually a good level progression where the mechanic is explored nicely over 25 levels, and some of the later challenges are pretty damn difficult. It’s also got a lot of nice touches, including fun sound effects and music, cool power ups, and a terrific final boss battle. Oh, and in case it’s not obvious, the entire game is a homage to Mario, which is especially apparent in that boss battle (Miyamoto-Bowser!) Why are you still reading this? Go play it!
Incidentally, one of the guys that made this is Glen Forrester, the nut behind Gnilley.
June 29, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: Bros, clone, enough, forrester, glen, gnilley, homage, Mario, Ninja, plumbers, satire
What We’re Playing: Every Day the Same Dream
Video games are fun, fast paced affairs in colorful worlds radically different from our own with fantastic challenges and amazing scenery. At least, MOST video games are like that. And then there’s Every Day the Same Dream, by Molleindustria (the same guys that did the McDonald’s video game, which is probably deserving of its own post). EDtSD is very different from your typical video game fare; in it you play as a worker in a factory looking for some meaning in life. The game is slow, the colors are drab, the action is uninspiring, and the goal unclear. But the game really shines as an analogy for what life can be like, and is definitely worth playing through until the end. Go give it a shot!
Oh, and this game is totally ert.
June 4, 2010 | | Comments (2)
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: art, Day, Dream, Every, existential, life, McDonald's, Molleindustria, Same
What We’re Playing: Super Mario Bros. Crossover
There comes a time in everyone’s lives when they accept the calling of their muse and realize the only course of action is to dedicate themselves to their passion. For one long year, Jay Pavlina relentlessly hunted an elusive fantasy harbored by countless souls across the globe. And on this glorious day, he has presented us with the fruits of his labor: Super Mario Bros. Crossover.
Seriously though, why Simon? He can’t even change direction mid-jump! Let’s replace him with Ryu for Super Mario Bros. Crossover 2.
Want to learn more about Jay’s story behind the game? Click here for the GameXplain interview.
May 3, 2010 | | Comments (1)
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: free mario game, mario crossover, Mario flash, Super Mario Crossover
What We’re Playing: Sydney Shark
Any time a game gets you laughing they’ve done something right. Sydney Shark is a ridiculous, over the top game in which you control a shark hell bent on killing everything and anyone in its path. The game play is very simple; dive deep, surface quickly to jump, and chomp on everything in your path with the A key. What really makes the game stand out is how fast paced and hilarious it is. Pulling down flying jets/gliders/helicopters/UFOs is a blast and when they crash into the water with a satisfying explosion you are rewarded with tons of points and achievements. The game even has hilarious things pop up from time to time, ranging from a bonus point spinner to shark images to Steve Irwin yelling “Crickey!”, and they all feel great.
The game doesn’t have tons of replay value (you’ll probably cover everything you want to do in 2-3 play throughs) but that will be enough for you to have a lot of fun and probably a few laughs. Give it a shot!
April 19, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: Australia, funny, glider, helicopter, hilarious, internet meme, jet, Shark, Steve Irwin, Sydney, UFO
What We’re Playing: Particulars
Particle physics and casual game play melded together? YOU’VE GOT MY ATTENTION. Particulars is a fun little game from Paul Sztajer (his first game) and is a great way to waste a few minutes. You take control of an up quark in the nanoseconds after the Big Bang, and your mission is to survive for as long as possible by avoiding your counterpart, the antimatter up quark. It’s a tough job, as the particles attract and repel each other and photons from matter/antimatter explosions can bounce you around. If that sounds ridiculous that’s because it kind of is, but you’ll still have fun playing it.
There are a lot of nice touches to this game that make it addictive and fun to replay. You can swap your particle for a down quark by ramming antimatter down quarks, and then can change back to an up later. The sound effect of an explosion is really enjoyable, and when you get many going per second it feels great, like matter/antimatter popcorn in a microwave. The doubling score every few seconds is exciting to watch as it gets up into the thousands and tens of thousands. Personally I love the tangential physics; now you know what quarks are! And that matter/antimatter explosions release energy, here in the form of photons! And that photons can bounce around particles even if they are massless. Then again, maybe I’m reading too much into this, and it’s just a fun, silly game.
My high score is 77K, can you beat it?
April 7, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: antimatter, Big Bang, down, matter, Particulars, Paul, photon, physics, quantum, quark, Sztajer, up
What We’re Playing: Robot Unicorn Attack
Need a laugh? Have a burning desire to play more video games that look like they were based off the old Trapper Keeper binders from middle school? Well, you’re in luck! Robot Unicorn Attack is a new video game from the nuts over at Adult Swim Games and is definitely worth a play. The premise is pretty simple; you’re a robot unicorn chasing dreams and fairies with your three wishes. The aesthetic is what’s truly memorable (nauseating) as you’ll see when you start playing. I highly recommend playing with the sound on – the soundtrack is epic.
As a side note, I have to hand it to the Adult Swim Games guys. Rather than just churning out crap titles based on their well known IP they focus exclusively on new content that generally has a really catchy idea behind it, and their games are generally higher quality as a result. Well done!
I beat 20,000 on one wish. I challenge you to do better.
February 19, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: adult, always, attack, erasure, fairy, robot, swim, unicorn, wish
What We’re Playing: RunRunRunJump
The Global Game Jam was last weekend, and a lot of amazing games were made (for a recount of how one went down check out Jason’s awesome dev blog). A full run down of the more interesting Boston offerings is coming soon, don’t worry!
The current front runner for our favorite GGJ game? That would have to be RunRunRunJump, a delightful and short game by Owen Macindoe, Scott Macmillan, Daniel Perry, Alex Schwartz, and Stephie Wu. The game is a simple platformer, but what is interesting is that the environment literally tells you what to do – if the ground says run, then run! If it says jump, then jump! The soundtrack is especially amazing as it is self referential as well – listen for a few seconds and you’ll know what I mean.
Of course, the theme of the game jam was deception so you should expect a couple of twists to be thrown at you as the game goes on. Keep playing though – the victory screen at the end of the game makes it all worthwhile.
One important thing to note is that the game requires the Unity web player to work, download it here. And then go play RunRunRunJump!
February 3, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: game jam, global, jump, run, runrunrunjump, unity
What We Played in 2009
2009 was an awesome year for games! And we played a lot of them! Here’s a recap of the great games we played this year. If you haven’t tried them yet, now’s your chance! They are all FREE and just waiting for you to enjoy them.
Our year started off with a great little platformer called Eversion that has a scary twist (a retail version is in the works). We then laughed a ton while living out the Olympic dreams of QWOP. There were a few fun games in the Boston Global Game Jam, and The Redistricting Game taught us about how messed up our current electoral system is.
The Legend of Princess gave us a glimpse of what could have been a sequel to Zelda 2 (on the NES), and Dino Run ate up a bunch of our time as we ran away from Armageddon with our dinosaur brethren. Speaking of dinosaurs, have you checked out Robot Dinosaurs that Shoot Beams When They Roar yet? It’s a pivotal work in gaming. Gemcraft is an addicting little tower defense game with a fun chromatic twist, and Facade is an older game (2004 or 5, I think) but still a lot of fun to play today.
Effing Hail is a neat little flash game where you destroy buildings, airplanes, and satellites with hail, or if you are in a more constructive mood you can try building with Grow Cube. Don’t Eat the Mushroom (and Knytt Stories) is a hilarious game about what happens when you do (or don’t) eat the mushroom, and is a must play for any serious gamer. Finally this year we enjoyed racing through the apocalypse in Canabalt, and subsequently relaxed with the music of Auditorium.
These were all terrific games, if you haven’t tried them yet be sure to go play them all now!
December 28, 2009 | | Comments (3)
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: 2009, Auditorium, Boston, Canabalt, cube, Dino Run, dionsaurs, don't eat the mushroom, effing hail, eversion, free, fun, game jam, Games, GemCraft, global, grow, legend, mushroom, princess, QWOP, redistricting, roar, robot
What We’re Playing: Auditorium
I like music games. Rock Band, Guitar Hero, the new DJ games, AudiOdyssey, if it is a music game I’m gonna play it. Auditorium is made by Cipher Prime and Will Stallwood, and is a fun new flash twist on a music game. Rather than being a traditional rhythm game in which you have to “play” (type) notes in order to hear a famous song, Auditorium is a fun puzzle game in which you have to push colored light into music boxes which then play a sort of repeating classical tune. It starts off fairly easy but gets pretty damn hard after a few levels, and most (if not all) of the levels are solvable in many, many ways.
Personally I think the game is great. The pseudo-classical music is nice, and the neon lights on black background aesthetic is quite compelling and enjoyable. I think that normally I would find such a complicated game frustrating but the music is so nice that I don’t mind spending huge amounts of time figuring out each puzzle. I also like how each music box plays a different instrument so you can hear each individually before combining them for the full song. My only gripe about the game is that once you do solve a level you don’t get to hear your composition for long, as the game almost immediately flows into the next stage. Having an option to keep listening for a while would be nice.
Normally we only feature games that are free in “What We’re Playing“, but Auditorium only has a free demo of a couple of levels (you have to pay for the full game). In this case we thought the game was good enough to mention it anyway.