Joakim Sandberg has just released Noitu Love 2: Devolution and I highly recommend you check it out. You can pick up the demo for free, but it’s worth the $20 for the full version. It’s the answer to a single burning question: what would happen if you made a platformer that properly incorporated both mouse and keyboard? It gives three perfect answers. Click through for the discussion and minor spoilers.
No sooner do I post about constraint in games than Shamus Young over at Twenty Sided contradicts me. Continue reading The Sims and Constraint
Earlier this week I played a game called Yume Nikki (or Dream Diary, apparently) by Kikiyama. A post on the IndieGames.com blog turned me on to it; you can get an English translation (with complicated installation) there. The game is about a girl who refuses to leave her room and her journeys through creepy and labyrinthine dreams. The game is one of the most open and goal-less games I’ve played in a while, and it brings up some questions on the nature of goals in games.
Continue reading Yume Nikki and Constraining the Player
I just finished Karoshi 2.0 by Jesse Venbrux. It’s the sequel to the game Karoshi, which I discussed in Episode 009. It’s interesting what choices Venbrux took with this sequel; the original had gameplay centered around pushing boxes and touching switches, with rules that were generally understood by the player ahead of time. The sequel, however, is much more metatextual.
Continue reading Karoshi 2.0
At Grand Text Auto, Andrew Stern has reopened a discussion that ties into my last podcast. In that episode, I asked whether an NPC that ignored the player’s input but gave the illusion of reacting could still be called “interactive.” In his post, Stern asks a question about the other extreme. How can we allow the player to understand how the NPC’s mind works without blatantly exposing the logic?
Is the illusion of player agency as good as real player agency? Isn’t a video game just a simulated game master? Is the Chinese Room a good game? If the author is dead, what about the algorithm?
The music for this episode is “The Acorns. Seedin Time in The Oak Room.” by Loveshadow, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.
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Alec Meer of Rock, Paper, Shotgun has “a blind, silly prejudice” against quick-time events. Those are the reaction-testing interactive cutscenes that I discussed way back in Episode 001. A cutscene pops up, but (surprise!) you have to press a button or get eaten by a dinosaur.
I like the idea of quick-time events. Cutscenes usually feature the player character doing something interesting, and instead of taking that away from the player, quick-time events let you participate, even when the actions being performed are ones that aren’t part of your normal interface.
I’ll admit that the implementation of quick-time events can be a bit slipshod, but unlike Meer, I’m excited by their inclusion in a new game. In this case, it’s the FPS Aliens: Colonial Marines. There are events in FPSs that are cool, but don’t fit into the standard gameplay. Wrestling. Diving out of the way of things. Conversing. As long as the events don’t break the immersion – and I argue that it’s possible for them not to – I’m all for random button-presses to survive a cutscene. From Meer’s description of how A:CM is implementing them, I’m going to have to try this game out for myself.
Death in games is usually a mistake. In these four indie games, it’s an intended part of the experience.
The music for this episode is “Make You Cry” by Jonathan Coulton, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 license.
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60 years of video games. How are we doing?
The music for this episode is “Brilliant Day (fourstones.net mix)” by fourstones and DeBenedictis, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 license.
References:
The next episode will be about four games that inspired each other in an inbred tale of exploration.
Amnesia. Can anyone remember why it’s so common in interactive entertainment?
The music for this episode is “Forgettin My Identity” by Jane His Wife, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 license.
References:
The next episode will be about the progress and state of the art of the video game industry, as compared to another form of entertainment.
