Posts tagged with “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. Continue reading →

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.

When was the last time a game made you laugh? Not smirk, not smile, but actually laugh out loud at how ridiculous it is? If you just played QWOP then the answer would have to be “a few seconds ago”. Less of a game and more of a punchline, QWOP chronicles the efforts of your country’s sole Olympic representative in his bid to run in the 100 meter whatever. While it sounds easy, the game’s ragdoll physics makes this a bit… challenging.

The game is one player and the instructions are straightforward, but I highly recommend playing this with friends around, or taking turns. You’ll enjoy it a lot more. See if you can beat my high score of 23 meters.

Update 1/29/09: To be clear, we did not make this game. Someone over at Foddy.net did.

Got a free half hour, and looking to lose some of your sanity? Check out Eversion, a new game by Tows Guilherme. While the game at first glance appears to be boring and derivative, after a few levels you’ll get to notice that there is something… different. I strongly recommend playing in the dark by yourself for maximum effect. A quick rewiew (with some well marked spoilers) awaits you if you follow this shiny link Continue reading →