TheDustin's blog

If you're like me you most likely have fond memories of the games of yore, and also haven't played all of the classic games you should have. Enter Hardcore Gaming 101. I just recently stumbled upon the site and am impressed by both it's breadth and depth of coverage; it approaches series and individual games from an historical viewpoint while also discussing gameplay mechanics. It isn't as thorough or in-depth as Dessgeega's dissertations, but still is an excellent primer for any games you might have missed over the years.

Sorry for my lack of input lately; I'm in between internet connections and nihilism's got me down. If anybody has had any passport problems since, say, 9-11 and knows what to do after your passport gets denied please drop an email. But enough personal bitching, here's something totally awesome. The fine folks over at Glorious Trainwrecks are planning a game-making party and you're invited. They were put off by the lack of quantity of games made at this year's (EDIT: Scratch that, last year's) Global Game Jam (a measley 370) and plan to one-up them by at least another game.

Sound the trumpets, Terry's platforming opus is released today! Click on the link to play the demo. In the meantime you should check out the soundtrack. It's glorious stuff.

EDIT: It's out! Check out the demo on Kongregate (already linked to), be amazed, and purchase the full version. Once I stop hyperventilating, play through the game, and arrange my thoughts in a coherent fashion I'll update this and the review.

What a year to be indie. We've had tons of amazing games come out within the past 365 days; I'm sure we all have our favorites. Mr. "Meat Boy" McMillen compiled his top ten Flash games, and the fine gentlemen at IndieGames.com made a list of their own. I humbly suggest that Tim and Michael had a couple glaring omissions in their list, but this could be attributed to the strength of the titles that came out this year. The following are nothing more than personal preference, I actually encourage you to discuss your own favorites. Without further ado, here's my top five.

5. -- Captain Successor
Modular Lego construction, Asteroids shump-ness, and real-time player-generated content... all in one title? Throw on top of all this an open-ended Roguelike progression system and you have a game that is mathematically proven to be awesome. And for you that haven't made the upgrade from Forever yet, you really are missing out. My ramming spike monstrosity (with bubble shields, natch) could totally kick your ship's ass.

4. -- RunMan: Race Around the World
This game is just really, really, fun. If we didn't have the stiff competition of the two platformers below this would have been an easy game of the year. Screw Sonic -- how 'bout that banjo music?

3. -- Home
This game moved me. The gameplay brought a tear to my eye, all the while having assests that would be at home on an Atari title. Forget Rohrer-what's-his-name, Stephen Lavelle is the king of the art game. Check here sometime next week for further proof.

2. -- VVVVVV
This is one place where Tim, Michael, and I agree on. I love this game and it's still only in beta. If it weren't for a couple of 4chan dicks said beta would still be available, but the wait is indeed worth it. I mean every word of my review. I wish I could have grown up playing it, so I could have fond memories of the game right now.

1. -- Mother effing Spelunky
This game changed the way I view the medium. This is the future. Derek Yu opened the Pandora's Box of procedural generation for real-time games and there isn't any going back. I've played for countless hours and hundreds of playthroughs and I still can't get enough. I've felt the joy of exploring a world Metroid-style, blowing up giant spiders with a shotgun straight from Doom, and feared for my life in a dark jungle level infested with ghouls -- all in one playthrough. This is by far my favorite game of the year, and it's high up there on my all-time list. It makes you excited about the future of our medium, doesn't it?

(Honorable mentions should go to both Doom, the Roguelike and the iPhone's Hook Champ for devouring a good deal of my time this year as well.)

From fumbling about the landscapes of Link's Awakening to wandering around the dystopian wasteland of Fallout 2, exploration has always played a large part in the games I enjoy. (If you think I can't go a post without mentioning Spelunky or Knytt you're right, as both are games of exploration at their core). I was pleasantly suprised that the most recent Ludum Dare was on the subject. Here's my favorites, if there are any that are criminally underrepresented give them a shout-out.

This is Infinity --Cactus wows us again with another experimental title. Very lucid, could be compared to being on Speed and DXM at the same time. Cactus himself says the experience can be "alien and incomprehensible" given that the objective and goals aren't initially clear. If you can't decipher what you're supposed to do click here for a walkthrough. At the very least you should download this for its graphical wizardry, it's pretty trippy.

Apocalypse Adventure -- A "Fallout-esque top-down adventure game" made by Hempuli. An ambitious game given the 48 hour constraints; the balancing and UI could use a little work. Nonetheless I had a blast with it.

Obviously platformers would lend well to the theme, these are the ones that grabbed my attention.

Cat Planet --A charming and minimalistic romp. Fly around, meet some overexcited cats. Why, you ask? Because you're on Cat Planet, silly. Why not?

Explorium -- A bite-sized and laid back Knytt-lite. Wander around and soak in the aesthetics.

Mindploration -- My favorite platformer of the compo. Pretty odd. I know it sucks to hear that 'explaining would ruin the experience' but it holds true here. Give it a little time and you'll, erm, appreciate it or something.

Finally, there were two games that let you explore their worlds without any visual input:

Soundscape and Lavelle's Forest are two interesting attempts at playing only with sound. They both need a lot of work but it's interesting ground they're covering.

So long story short, I should be in college this year but I'm back home in the nether-regions of Alaska. I'm working full-time (till February) to raise enough funds to spend a year over in Thailand, where I'll be doing some volunteer work teaching English and whatnot. I think it's going to be pretty cool.

I'm a substitute teacher (and 19); they've got me working in both elementary and middle school basically every day. This week I'm teaching second graders, and one of my students is autistic. During my lunch break today he came in my room with his aide, and saw me playing Spelunky. He asked if he could play, but Spelunky's obviously out of his range. so I fired up Knytt for him. I put on the long jump cheat and he was in heaven; his face lit up every time he jumped over a pool of water, and asked me questions about all the NPC's he came across. I had to help him with some of the more challenging bits but he was pretty proficient at it; he was content to explore the world. He actually found more of those hidden shortcuts than I did, so I guess you could say he's better at it than I am. =) When he was done he gave me a big bear hug and ran back to his aide, excitedly shouting "I play game!!". I can't think of any other game he'd be able to play, so I have to tip my hat to Nifflas for giving the gift of video gaming to a little kid.

If you're reading PTT you're awesome. As a thank you for your patronage, here's some Japanese flash games I dug up for your entertainment. I won't go too in-depth about them, but they are pretty cool diversions worth your while. Enjoy! =)

Daydreams: http://mogera.jp/gmflame?gid=gm0000000226
A surreal Knytt-like platformer that has great atmosphere and (naturally) a dreamy feel to it. It's more linear and a tad tougher than Knytt, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Underworld Trip: http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2009/05/underworld_trip.html
A masochistic platformer starring an African-American in Mario garb. The graphics are very blocky, but there are some cool effects laced on top. The music is effective too. You go through descending levels of hell; I have a vague notion that the feudal lords at the end of each level are a combination of the designer and player that force the gullible protagonist ever downward, making him die repeatedly for your amusement. I dunno, just a thought.

Koi2: http://mogera.jp/gmflame?gid=gm0000000309
Made by the makers of Kissma. Move with the mouse, click like a caffeinated 5-year old. Watch odd shit unfold. Not really a game, but it's pretty weird. Japanese culture can be pretty out there sometimes.

XENORAIDER: http://babarageo.com/e/2005/01/xenoraider.html
Made by the designer of Ginormo Sword. It distills the Zelda experience into its core: wander around, get item, use item, wander around some more, kill the occasional enemy, etc. The enemies can't even hurt you, they're there just for pacing. It's all about the allure of false progression. Control everything via mouse.

To top it off I'll link to two free albums I recently discovered that you might like:

Starscream, Future and It Doesn't Work
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/discography/8BP099
It's like Koji Kando collaborated with the dude who made the NES Mega Man games' soundtrack. 8-bit chiptunes haven't sounded so glorious.

8CLYINDER, assorted
http://www.rhinoplex.org/8cylinder/
Quirky-yet-endearing. It's as if they gave Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth and Trent Reznor some ketamine and Game Boy synthesizers and let them at it.

Well, there you have it. Hope you found something here to whittle away some time out of your weekend. Thanks again for hanging around these parts; stick with us, we got you covered. =)

Dustin

I guess you can say I'm pulling a Rohrer.

Hypothetically, let's say that I got really baked last night. If we continue this hypothetical situation, let's say I played Super Mario Bros. and listened to The Modern Lovers (an amazing band, btw. Hugely Velvets' influenced, and the vocalist is a cross between Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. Gotta love the proto-punk.) While doing so, I made a lot of realizations on the nature of games, akin to how I felt after playing Pazzon a couple times. After doing so, I ruminated on the genre (a personal favorite of mine, since the days of Super Mario World. I love the vocabulary the system gives you, the aesthetics of the genre's best, and just generally mastering the spatial constraints of the games.) While doing so, I thought of making my postmodern take on the genre. I do need to learn my way around Game Maker to craft my adaptation of Passage, and it'd be great to make an homage to the genre. The game would start you being an NPC, going through scripted dialogue with other robotic NPC's. For whatever reason, your character inadvertently takes the red pill, and becomes conscious of the fact that he's in a game.

Here's a couple things I've been throwing around in my head lately: