Category Archives: Games

Inspirational: Indie Game: The Movie

Posted by Chad Knick on

Hey there folks, so tonight, I can’t sleep. I’m driven mad by the desire to do artwork, create, imagine, sort out my ideas and my passions. I’m enthralled by the allure of what may very well, one day, be on video screens and consoles everywhere – but first I have to gather my pants together logically and realize something drastic. The video game industry that I see on television and news, and perpetuated in magazines is probably not going to be the same reality I’m going to have to face. It’s probably not going to be a walk in the park, and I’m probably going to get my face stomped on more than a couple of times by idea bashers and nay-sayers.

I’ve grasped this concept. Do I still want to move forward and be a game designer?

You bet your sweet Princess Peach backside I do!

Now this week I’m discussing a movie, that quite honestly, I’m ecstatic that something like this is finally being made! Those of you in the gaming world have probably heard of movies like King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters or Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade. Both of these movies are excellent documentaries of the old school video game arcade market, but now, the gaming industry has switched it’s attention to the indie circuit. The newest documentary to loom it’s lustrous digital locks in the face of the world, is a movie called Indie Game: The Movie.

The movie chronicles the game development process and interviews some of the most prolific indie game developers currently on the market. The creators, James Swirksy and Lisanne Pajot, take you on a journey through the lives of the designers and give you and inside look at the struggles trials and tribulations that game designers must overcome to succeed as independent entities in this industry. I personally can not wait till this movie comes out, and I want to see it in theaters.

If it doesn’t make it to theaters, I think I will be deeply saddened, but that just gives me even more incentive to buy a collector’s edition of the DVD whenever it’s released. If I get an opportunity to see the movie I will undoubtedly be writing a review for it, but I personally think that any designer worth his [ or her ] giga-bytes should definitely take a look at this movie. If you’re serious about getting into game design, it’s a really good glimpse inside of a very challenging field. It doesn’t scare me really, but rather, the movie gives me hope and inspiration to continue working hard towards my goals.

I know I want to be a designer for the video games industry, and the only way that I’m going to make it there is by having confidence in myself and practicing my abilities over and over until I end up with products like the fine gentlemen represented in the movie: Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes [ Super Meat Boy ]; Phil Fish [ Fez ]; and Jonathan Blow [ Braid ]. If you like any of these games, if you like games in general,  if you have a desire to see how games are actually made, or you’re just hankering for some cool nerdy movie art – I suggest you check this out!

I personally feel like, as designers [ or aspiring ones ] we become motivated and driven when we see other people’s successes. We begin to believe and have that ” I Can Too!” attitude like the books of our childhood emulated. Our minds begin to unfold the many vast ideas of our youth. Our childhood dreams and wishes come flowing out onto the paper, and if we use this sudden rush of inspired wisdom to the fullest, then success is surely in our midst. I feel like we grow as people from learning from other designers. We witness what they’ve done, how they’ve drawn, what mechanics they’ve implemented, what rules they’ve imposed, and we take the best and most entertaining to us and we warp them to fit games that we want to make. So – as you’re watching this, I ask of you, take away from this movie:

Drive, Inspiration, Motivation, and Determination.

Enjoy and I hope everyone gets a chance to go out and see the full movie!

Gaming With A Cause: Spent

Posted by Chad Knick on

Today’s Game of the Week relates to recent topics that I’ve discussed on Gastrogamer. If readers will remember my admiration of Jane McGonigal, then you’ll see why I think this game would fit fondly into her game design forte. McGonigal is all about the development of humanity through gaming, and Spent gives a player to experience a part of the human society that I think sometimes we can overlook. Spent was developed by the Urban Ministries of Durham and a company called McKinney. Urban Ministries of Durham help in serving homeless shelters and providing for food for impoverished families in Durham, NC. The goal of Spent is to give players a chance to see if they can deal with the same hardships that many people go through daily.

Can you live for a month on 1000 dollars?

The game is pretty simplistic as far as mechanics go. The game only requires a mouse click to choose options, but what makes this game unique is that each choice you make is important to your survival and completion of the game. You log on and immediately you are thrown into an interface that challenges you with a premise:

“Urban Ministries of Durham serves over 6,000 people a year. But you’d never need help would you?”

“PROVE IT!”

The immediate human response that we get when challenged is to prove to others, as well as ourselves, that we can do the scenario that’s been posed to us. Spent forces the player to be in the position of an alternate scenario as if it was their own life. Each decision you make is met with trivia that expresses the hardships of low-income families. This game touched me emotionally, because it gives life a different perspective and makes you value every humbling reward of your life. You value your families successes, your financial security, your insurance, etc. You learn to appreciate your own life as you play through this game. This is why I recommend at least viewing it.

People often need aid from others, thus the Facebook attachments to the game, provide an even more realistic view to this simplistic game. Everyone, on occasion, requires the need to lean on other people for assistance. This game teaches us that we can’t always rely on ourselves to make it through our struggles, but sometimes we need to look to our friends and family for aid. It really opens up our eyes to the value of friendship and love and how hardships can bring individuals together.

I think the best portion of this game was the music though, because it gives a foreboding suspense to every decision you make throughout the game. This game is enlightening and gives an eye-opening experience that I feel like movies and television can’t even begin to grasp. Movies and television only allow us to visually experience a scenario, but given a game that puts us in the position of poverty, Spent gives us an even deeper understanding of the seriousness of our financial crisis and poverty.

I recommend this game, because games like this give us a deeper view of the world going on around us. It may seem like a depressing, dark, and foreboding game, but overall, the emotional impact of the gameplay is worth taking the challenge for. You can learn more about the Urban Ministries of Durham here:

http://www.umdurham.org/

Hopefully more games like this will come to fruition in the future, so that we can clearly see challenges that happen every day in our human society. We may sit at home and feel so secure, but in an instant, anyone can become unemployed, homeless, or living paycheck to paycheck. I feel so passionate about this movement, especially since the designers come from an area close to where I grew up. I would love to see more games discuss real human difficulties.

Please don’t give me more zombie apocalypses, or space warfare. These games are unrealistic and give me, and many players, fantasy realms to escape our dire realities from. If we spent more time as designers focusing on human hardships, relationships, and struggles ; then perhaps we can find cures, aid, and suggestions for some of our societies biggest problems. How many hit-points does my orc’s armor have in World of Warcraft? – I pray is not someone’s end-all-be-all lifetime concern for this world. If so, I really hope they consider the many struggles others are going about life with before they see their lack of proficient raiding armor as “a struggle.”

Now does that mean that all games should be ultra-realistic and I want to see all fantasy games destroyed? No, not at all, but I think a lot of games can take a page out of Spent’s playbook by giving players problems to solve and decisions to make. Bioware, Blizzard, and many MMO companies have been good at trying to implement these aspects into their games, but the truth is, they’re only aiding in solving fantasy problems.Where is the game where our fantasy hero is a person, not some fantasy Spartan, or some inhuman fantasy character who can tinker his, or her, way out of everything?

I want to feel like my choices in a game make a difference, teach me something that I wouldn’t have learned without playing it, give me a deeper understanding of the world around me. These are the types of games I look forward to going forward in the history of our world, and I believe that Spent is only a small trinket of gaming goodness that can be used to create even more meaningful and commanding experiences for us to learn from as human beings.

Enjoy folks! – and here’s your question: Can you Prove It?

http://playspent.org/

Game of the Week: Cut The Rope

Posted by Chad Knick on

And now for something completely different, for those of you who like more vibrant graphics and perhaps a little more cuteness in your gameplay than 8-bit zombies. Now I’m sure quite a few of you have heard about a little smartphone game dubbed: Cut The Rope.

If you haven’t you’ve been hiding in a cave, away from all smartphones, and you’re probably just now discovering that there’s products called apps. If that’s the case then, don’t worry, I won’t be insensitive and I’ll gladly guide you through the wonderfully cute, and rather addictive, physics based world of Cut The Rope.

Cut The Rope is an app game developed by ZeptoLab, and quite honestly, their little dinosaur character would make Walt Disney squeal with joy. The concept is you have been given a pet dinosaur, affectionately named Nom Nom, and your goal in the game is to get a single piece of candy to his mouth. This is accomplished through a series of physics based puzzles and each level gets progressively harder.

The overwhelming love I have for this game is primarily due to it’s accessibility. The game is all done with touching, and though timing is sort of a prerequisite for certain tasks to be completed fully, the accessibility is really high for this game. Most, if not all, actions can be done with just one hand. Instructions for new abilities are written on the back wall of levels for deaf gamers, and it’s just got a very cozy feel to the gameplay. Cognitively impaired players may have a tough time with some of the further levels, but overall it’s a simple, addictive, and thoroughly enjoyable experience. You can pick up Nom Nom and his candy grabbing escapades in Cut The Rope for .99 cents in the App Store and Android Market.

The smartphone version has tons of puzzles to sort through, but you can play the browser version right here. I promise you’ll probably get a cavity from all the candy grabbing fun:

http://www.cuttherope.ie/

Game of the Week: Organ Trail

Posted by Chad Knick on

Hey folks! Well, The Last of Us, isn’t getting here any sooner than my little grubby fingers can get a hold of – but while I wait for it [ for months and months on end! ] I can at least simulate the plot line right? Right? Absolutely! – well, sort of, anyways let me explain. This week I’m going to be posting up MORE THAN ONE Game of the Week. Yeah – I know! Two, Three, Four – for the price of one – you don’t know how many I have in store – and thus it begins!

You are isolated, stranded in a station wagon somewhere in the middle of an infested town. You and your buddies are all that are left standing in a world filled with zombie mutants – and you run on MSDOS programming. What are you? Why you’re none other than a nostalgically accessible indie game from the developers The Men Who Wear Many Hats. No, I’m not just saying they like hats, that’s actually their company name [ though they actually do like hats.] The game is called Organ Trail and it’s reminiscent of one of my favorite games growing up as a kid – Oregon Trail.

Now what’s different here? Well take the you + a team of friends concept that’s in Left for Dead. Toss in MS-DOS 8-bit graphics and a chip-tune soundtrack – and you have a road trip of awesomeness ahead of you!

The gameplay mechanics are simplistic, and for the most part one-handed. The only requirements for this game are that you get a list of options to choose from and you pick a choice based on the corresponding number. There is no timer so you can take as long as you like, and shifting from menu to menu is as easy as the enter button. The the only problem players may face is the scavenging sections as that requires two hands really to navigate precisely, due to the WASD keys for movement on the computer version and use of the spacebar to fire the gun. The coloring is a bit off putting – lots of bright neon colors over a black asphalt floor, so it may be a bit odd for color-blind gamers. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have a text to speech function for blind gamers, but other than those minor issues the game is pretty accessible overall.

I’m not sure how the functionality will change when the game is ported to iPhones, but all I can say is this game is fun, and it’s overwhelmingly accessible. If you love vintage games you should try this out. The game is simple, but addicting fun. There’s nothing like seeing one of your best friend’s names pop up like ” ________ has contracted cholera.” or ” _______ has been bitten by a zombie” – plus there’s an option to kill off infected party members just like in Oregon Trail.

Now why do I bring this game up you ask?

“This game seems archaic when I could easily be at home playing Zombie’s mod on my Black Ops disk.” Sure. You could – but it wouldn’t nearly be as cool as the ability to carry the game around with you on your PHONE!  Yep! The Men Who Wear Many Hats has used Kickstarter to license their product to iPhone App stores everywhere – I assume that it will probably come out for an Android market too, but I wasn’t able to find that out as of yet. You don’t have to have a phone to play though, shoot you don’t really have to have any friends. You can just play here on your browser for free till the game comes out for you to carry around.

Organ Trail:

http://hatsproductions.com/organtrail.html

Just wait. Eventually you’ll be out and about in public, playing Organ Trail on your phone, and you’ll disturb some fast food restaurant by screaming out “Aww! Really?! I contracted Typhus from the drinking water!” – and thus many a hilarious lawsuit may commence. Enjoy your 8-bit zombie killing escapades folks. I hope your party lives through the night in this 8-bit indie rebooted masterpiece. Much love Men Who Wear Many Hats. Thanks for bringing back one of my favorite vintage games and putting an incredibly accessible spin on it!

Gaming With A Cause: Where’s My Water?

Posted by Chad Knick on

Hey there folks. Now I know today I just released an opening statement to the mass internet populous about being an advocate for the disabled gaming community, and I am wholeheartedly, and it’s not often when a game comes along that I find would be an excellent casual game for physically challenged folks, while also helping raise money for an entirely different charity at the same time. Neat huh? Now sure you’ve probably seen by now my links to sites that deal with getting more information on medical conditions, or other disabled gamer websites which you are free to check out and enjoy if you’re curious. This, however, is my first game to be reviewed on the premise of accessibility – so I hope I do well! [ If I don’t and you feel there are points I may have missed, please feel free to let me know! I love feedback from fellow gamers and it really helps me grow as a writer and developer.]

So, what game are we talking about well it’s called “Where’s My Water?” designed by Disney Mobile.

Now you’re probably thinking to yourself – “Oh come on Chad! A Disney game? I’m all grown up – what do I need with a Disney game?” – well, there’s a special reason behind this game that I think most folks will enjoy, and it’s highly accessible to all types of groups.

In “Where’s My Water?” we’re introduced to this lovely and adorable looking – alligator named Swampy. The essential scheme of the game is that Swampy is an alligator who loves water, and thus, loves taking baths. The game uses physics and your mouse dragging to guide the water through puzzles that ultimately have to end up getting into the pipes so Swampy can be clean. So why is this important at all? Well, I’m glad you’re concerned. The ladies and gents over at Disney Mobile have started a movement that I am in total support of. They have teamed up with Conservation International to help raise money for helping conserve ecosystems and fresh drinking water for families all over the world.

How does this relate to the game? Well, “EVERY DUCK COUNTS” is their slogan. Every good alligator needs a rubber ducky to accompany him to the bath. In the game as you try to get the water to Swampy and his many other bathing pals throughout the game, if you let water hit the ducks you gain extra points for every duck you gain. For every duck collected it goes towards the total donation amount that Disney and Conservation International are able to provide. So, now on to the important part: How is it an accessible game, and for whom is it accessible? Well, I can only provide my first hand experience, but I’ll give my take on the gameplay to the best of my ability.

The gameplay is smooth and it really is a click and drag, almost one-button input technology. You really don’t have to do much more than dig a path for the water to go or press a valve to make water spray from it. This is great for patients who lack major muscle movement and can only move one hand. The puzzles, while easy at first, do get rather difficult as you go on – so gamers with cognitive impairments may have trouble playing the game in later stages, but overall the game looks and sounds great. The sound isn’t a requirement to play the game either, which gives deaf app users the ability to play the game flawlessly. Sadly the game really isn’t set up for blind players, as it requires you to be able to see the pathways of the water to make sure you gain success, but overall the game functions incredibly well for a wide audience of players – and it’s helping out a wonderful cause. What more could you ask for?

The game is available in the iPhone App store for FREE, and you can play for FREE online here. I do believe that it’s available on the Android market too, but I’ll check and get back to you folks. Here’s a link to the game, please enjoy and get to duck huntin’ – that water’s not going to move itself!

http://disney.go.com/wheresmywater/game.html