Though I spend my time on this blog commenting films and television, often at such length that I wonder if anybody actually takes the time to read what I’ve written, my main creative interest remains game design, especially when it comes to pushing the medium further in narrative directions via my system of interactive dialogue. Cinema’s a fine medium, but sometimes it’s so passive that I long for an escape into more lucid flights of fancy. It’s a feeling that’s harder and harder for me to ignore while watching movies that focus primarily on video-game culture like Tron Legacy or Summer Wars, and if my own reviews of those recent pieces of science-fiction appear to be conspicuously absent on this site, know that it’s mainly because I don’t quite feel that I could adequately cover how I feel about them in mere prose.
Perhaps at some point I’ll tackle them via some kind of shallow game-review as I did with Film Socialisme, but until then, I thought I’d share this latest game of mine, which follows suit with the same spirit in which I approached Godard’s most recent curiosity. Before, I was merely reviewing a film by making a game, rather than making another film as the New Wave pioneers sought to do. This time, however, I’ve made a game itself the subject of my ludological rant– or rather, two games. I’d like to think that Adam “Atomic” Saltsman’s Canabalt has become widespread online and on the iPhone enough for some of our readers and/or contributors to know about it by now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s as new to all of you as Tristan Perich’s one-of-a-kind Kiljet. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the indie-gaming scene, however, they’re two of the most essential releases out there, and when it comes to putting together an opinion on them goes, I don’t think that simply writing does either of them justice (though I did plenty of that for my own work).
A good game can help you forget about your troubles by inventing new ones, for you. By and large, that’s what both Canabalt and Killjet do, and in some small way I hope that Talkpack does the same. At any rate, you can follow the link above to my own blog, and then to Play This Thing, where my written review is posted. Saturday’s a good day for things like sci-fi, cartoons and video-games, anyway, and if I’ve made just one person’s brains rot a little more with this contribution, I’ll call that a job well done.
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If I’m interested, I’ll read Mr. Clark. Otherwise I’ll skim over. Saturday is a good day as you say for escapist fun, and your talent is a real one for this kind of thing. When I was much younger I was obsessed with Pac-Man and Donkey Tonk, and I actually entered some tournaments with friends. The key with that game was speed and some coordination. And you had to know what the general path was on the game machine you were playing. I think one of your previous designs reminded me of Pac-Man, not this current one, which is still interesting.
It might’ve been “Limbo”. That was actually the first platformer I’d made, and obviously has a “Pac Man” by way of “Twin Peaks” visual design. It’s way behind my recent stuff (no animation, multi-button conversation control), but it’s at least a stepping stone from the past. I also updated it later on, but by and large I’m past that stage (just barely).
Original: http://designersdilemma.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/return-of-the-dead-eye-seriously-im-rather-tired/
Update: http://designersdilemma.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/like-a-rolling-stone/
OK, very nice. I see the similarities. Sorry to hear about that asthma. Super Mario Brothers was a good one.
I too do not feel fulfilled unless I am playing my video games. I’d have to get really loaded on booze and drugs to feel anything close to the nirvana I am experiencing as I destroy airplanes, tanks, jets, helicopters, and of course personnel…
I like anagrams too…and backgammon…and Ultimate Risk. Tell me if it is possible to play live players online…in Risk…the world conquest game as it were.
Life is so much more boring when one has done it all as I have done. I don’t mean to claim to have killed anybody or had a Brokeback Mountain type episode exactly, but I have done a lot of damage to myself and others over the past three or four decades.
Playing Risk online would be the answer to all my prayers. No more would I have to leave my house to play this silly game. One guy I knew quit the Risk game after I tore him a new asshole in the southern United States and South America. He’d been hanging in watching me and the other player having at each other waiting for his chance to take one of us out so I finally turned on him and redefined the order of battle.
He had a nervous breakdown and screamed at me and then he up and left…he up and left…
After thirty years I still grieve…
Andrei, don’t I know it? I was a long time fanatical adherent to board games, and had my RISK phase, my CLUE phase, my MONOPOLY phase, my STRATEGO phase and my SORRY phase. I was once the vice-president of the Jersey City State College chess club, and did well in tournnaments till the very best players came along to kick my ass. You know, the ones who call “math” their best subject! I love Pac Man too, and have imparted my passion for games to pinball in recent years. Bob’s talents here are remarkable.