Ludus Novus » choice http://ludusnovus.net The Art of Interaction Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:05:48 +0000 en hourly 1 2006-2008 Gregory.Weir@gmail.com (Gregory Weir) Gregory.Weir@gmail.com (Gregory Weir) 1440 http://ludusnovus.net/images/ludusnovusblog.jpg Ludus Novus http://ludusnovus.net 144 144 The Art of Interaction ludology, games, game, design, rpgs, interactive, fiction, video, game, theory, interactive, art Gregory Weir Gregory Weir Gregory.Weir@gmail.com no no Convergence http://ludusnovus.net/2011/04/18/convergence/ http://ludusnovus.net/2011/04/18/convergence/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:29:16 +0000 Gregory Weir http://ludusnovus.net/?p=1261 I was recently linked to “Convergence,” the first game by a group called Streetlight Studios. It’s a Flash game about growing up and making choices; it could be described as a mix of “Passage,” “Pathways,” and “How to Raise a Dragon,” which is a pretty amazing combination.

The game asks you to follow a character from infancy to old age, making choices along the way. Infancy makes you crawl around your house as a baby getting toys before your sibling, in an odd exploration platformy way. Adulthood has you balancing love and work; I’m glad that they didn’t make this drag on too long. Shades of “Every Day the Same Dream” here. Old age, at least in the ending I got, was more of a little vignette to cap off the choices made in the rest of the game.

Looking up at my description, this game sounds like a mixing-together of various art games, and it’s definitely inspired by the work others have done before, but the polish and design in “Convergence” makes it feel fresh. Definitely something to check out for fans of blocky pixel games about life and choices.

]]> http://ludusnovus.net/2011/04/18/convergence/feed/ 4 Saving Professor Booster: Choice and Agency in Cave Story http://ludusnovus.net/2010/10/21/saving-professor-booster-choice-and-agency-in-cave-story/ http://ludusnovus.net/2010/10/21/saving-professor-booster-choice-and-agency-in-cave-story/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:44:44 +0000 Gregory Weir http://ludusnovus.net/?p=1077 Cave Story is a classic of the indie games movement. It single-handedly showed many people that a single developer could make a game with dated graphics that was as good as AAA commercial games. This was already clear to some, but Cave Story‘s prominence means that it has heavily inspired much of the work done by the modern indie games culture. There are a lot of things that Cave Story does well; its handling of mood and narrative structure are great, as well as its balancing of humor and pathos. One thing it does badly at, however, is providing the player with effective choice and agency.

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]]> http://ludusnovus.net/2010/10/21/saving-professor-booster-choice-and-agency-in-cave-story/feed/ 24 “Narthex” Released http://ludusnovus.net/2010/07/14/narthex-released/ http://ludusnovus.net/2010/07/14/narthex-released/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:36:44 +0000 Gregory Weir http://ludusnovus.net/?p=1005
I’ve finished up a little game that’s partially a test for a conversation engine I cooked up. It’s called “Narthex.”

After a long journey, you will reach the Narthex, the waiting place before the oracle. There you must wait until your time. Then you will be given the answer to a single question. This game has two endings. The second is not worth getting.

Play “Narthex” at Ludus Novus.

]]> http://ludusnovus.net/2010/07/14/narthex-released/feed/ 22 Never According to Plan http://ludusnovus.net/2009/05/13/never-according-to-plan/ http://ludusnovus.net/2009/05/13/never-according-to-plan/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 22:53:16 +0000 Gregory Weir http://ludusnovus.net/?p=455 The players in a tabletop roleplaying game never do what you expect them to.

Case in point: I’ve just started up a campaign of Promethean. It opens with the player characters being drawn to a mysterious, sprawling house, where they discover an otherworldly being called a qashmal who dispenses a cryptic riddle.

This is the second time I’ve run the beginning of this campaign with different players each time. The first group did what I expected: they searched the building top to bottom for clues, then proceeded to follow up on the riddle. This latest group, however, decided against that.

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]]> http://ludusnovus.net/2009/05/13/never-according-to-plan/feed/ 8 Ludus Novus 013: Over the Next Hill http://ludusnovus.net/2008/09/13/ludus-novus-013-over-the-next-hill/ http://ludusnovus.net/2008/09/13/ludus-novus-013-over-the-next-hill/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:04:18 +0000 Gregory Weir http://ludusnovus.net/?p=40 In this podcast, I talk about exploration games. Exploration games, as I categorize them, are games with an open world that offer an array of paths at any one time. They’re awesome because they appeal to players’ curiosity and completionism, and they help deal with player frustration.

References:

The music for this episode is “Space Doggity” by Jonathan Coulton, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.

]]> http://ludusnovus.net/2008/09/13/ludus-novus-013-over-the-next-hill/feed/ 1 0:24:49 In this podcast, I talk about exploration games. Exploration games, as I categorize them, are games with an open world that offer an array of paths at any one time. They’re awesome because they appeal to players’ curiosity and completi[...] In this podcast, I talk about exploration games. Exploration games, as I categorize them, are games with an open world that offer an array of paths at any one time. They’re awesome because they appeal to players’ curiosity and completionism, and they help deal with player frustration. References: Morrowind Metroid Super Metroid The Legend of Zelda Shadow of the Colossus The Grand Theft Auto III series Knytt (free download) Noctis (free download) An Untitled Story (free download) Half Life 2 Deus Ex The music for this episode is “Space Doggity” by Jonathan Coulton, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license. Podcasts Gregory Weir no no