IRL vs gaming vs challenge vs fun

Typing about my imaginary Gardening game got me thinking about other In Real Life (IRL) activities that may be simulated in games.  There are some obvious ones:  Racing, for example.  I hear that Grand Tourismo series, and its competitors, are all about the ultra-realism in terms of physics.  I hear that Mario Kart is all about ultra realism in terms of fun.  I think they both succeed in their own ways.

But In Real Life, things are always way different from games.  For example:  In games, the risk-reward system is... well, skewed.  When you wreck your car, even in the most realistic of all racers - you don't die.  You don't break your pinky finger.  You're not even scarred for life!  Hell, for that matter, you probably get a continue or something.  This is an extreme example.

It's not just video games. In baseball, for another hyperbolic example, you aren't ritually executed when you are thrown out at first.  This is good, because being thrown out at first happens a LOT.  Hundreds of times every day during the regular season.  But playing baseball is WAY harder than playing video games.  Then again, it pays better, I think.  

But I guess I mostly want to talk about challenge.  There's a pretty fun article about challenging games over at Gamasutra.  I've been enjoying it.  It's got a lot of tasty retro stuff that I love.  It's a long article- thankfully presented in ten tasty bites- I've been reading it over a series of days.  It emphasizes skill building, and expertise at different games. I think I'm more interested in the quality of challenge in games, than the amount of challenge.

Sometimes the challenge is in achieving a perfect balance.  And that balance can be elusive. Following the garden example, proper watering is a real problem when nurturing a plant.  You can fuss with a plant so much that you kill it.  Smothering can be as bad as neglect.  It is this way in other IRL activities, like cooking.  There is also a fine balance struck with cooking.  You can definitely worry a dish into mediocrity, when leaving it alone may have produced something fantastic.  I do this all the time.  Are there any games that demonstrate this sort of delicate balance?

I guess I'm looking for something like this in gaming.  And as I'm typing, I thought of an interesting idea: Achievements .  That is to say, what if a game was released with no achievements whatsoever, and the achievements were submitted by players after they had made them.  Just submit a screencap, and the game moderators will decide if it is a worthy achievement.  Then keep a directory of them.  That could be fun.  Has a game done this yet?  I bet team fortress 2 has.  It seems like the kind of game that would do that.  Anyhow, I'm stumbling into seriously out of touch zone, so I should shut up.

But yeah, it's fairly obvious why many IRL features aren't included in games.  They don't sound fun at all.  Like, for example, the RPG trope of 'life points' and 'potions.'   Got a gaping wound in your belly?  Down a couple potions, you'll be fine.  Life doesn't even closely resemble that.  Most of us don't deal with gaping wounds, just scratches and tiredness.  Food helps, and caffeine, but there are no potions.   There is Nothing that works like that.  

And, like I said, it doesn't sound fun to have to rest your RPG characters because they're tired from walking around all day.  A game where your characters need Exercise, a balanced diet and plenty of rest. BO-ring.  And yet, somehow it sounds interesting to me, to balance the in-game system with more realistic needs.  I often find myself contemplating Player Stat and Item systems for imaginary RPGs that are more realistic, somehow.  I think this means I am a giant nerd. 

-D

Who's this, and why is he posting here?

Hi everybody,  I thought I'd stop by and drop a post on this here blog, just to let you know I'm still around, and I'm alright.  Through a series of shifting priorities, I have lost touch with my posting schedule.  After work I feel about as creative as a slug, and these days on weekends, I tend to have plans.  Saturday mornings were always the best time for me, I'd wake up early, make some coffee, play a few moves in my online chess games and then I'd start writing.  Sometimes I'd finish up a post I had been brewing for a while, other times I would just crank one out cold.  Sometimes I'd do both, and then pick one to publish now and one to publish later.

Well, all of that has been screwed up lately.  The floating cloud of shit passed through the giant jet engine at my work, right around June 1st.  Though for a couple months before that we were all saying: 'what's that?  I think it's a giant cloud of shit!  shouldn't we turn around?  Umm.. Guys?"  which was pretty stressful as it was.  Stress is a funny thing, you might think that writing helps me relieve stress, and it sometimes does.  But the high levels going on there pushed me past healthy stress relievers, like writing, jogging, rock climbing-- and straight into bad stress relievers like late nights and booze.  Woops.  Anyway, suffice it to say, my rhythms are all screwed up.  

But I haven't lost touch completely.  I'm here to say I care.  really, I do.  I want, nay, need you all to know this.   See how desperate and pleading this post has become?  That's what I'm talking about.  (Coffee always helps with hyperbole, I've noticed.  Been drinking a ton of that as well, lately!)  I guess it hasn't been all bad.  I went camping, hiked at Horsetail falls, and tomorrow I'm hitting up Mt. Tam.  So, that's pretty sweet.  Which reminds me of something video game related.  Someone once called Proteus a 'hiking simulator' -- I'm totally down with that description.  

Here's a short list of video game related things I've been meaning to write about, but can't seem to gather my consciousness into a focused ball, and project into script:  Sequels, what makes a good sequel? (inspired by my love for Zelda II); RYUU fantasy card game (really want to research this one, it looks pretty cool); Steam greenlight game: residue; Meta Tetris (you figure this one out); Ti99 games: Wumpus, Amaze-ing; Word/Number Munchers!  Atlantica Online; Reus; Online Rental; Ultima PC vs NES.

I take these notes all throughout the day.  I really to enjoy spending time meditating on a particular topic, doing web research (the web is AMAZING for research) and then writing.  Funny thing is that even when I am writing regularly, I often have a hard time being patient enough to write and edit a posting to my complete satisfaction.  It's sort of this way with all my hobbies, though.  

Okay, so, that's all for now.  Thanks for checking in,  I'll be back.

D


P.S.  The World War Z movie suuuuuuuuuuucked!

Impressions from Cooperative Gaming Co-Op #1: ARCADE GAMES curated by Zach Gage

This is how the installation looked from the outside

Okay everyone, so here is  my first in a series of posts giving my impressions of the games I played at the San Jose Cooperative Gaming Co-op's Arcade Installation.  As I mentioned in my previous post, this show was put on by my friend John Bruneau and James Morgan.

There were tons of games there, and they were all set up in Arcade Cabinets.  Each cabinet was curated by a different person.  The curators chose what games would be available to play, and also had a hand in the design of the cabinet.  I don't really have any pictures, so I can't show you, but there were some pretty cool designs.  Check out the cooperative gaming co-op's page for any updates or information.

The installation was essentially a free arcade featuring experimental and indie games.    Many or most of these games had an 'arcade' feel.  Games where the action starts instantaneously, and I died, I wanted to play again.  Given the chance, I would feed a bunch of quarters into machines featuring these games.  There was also a game-swap on site where you could take a game as long as you also left a game.  I didn't participate in this, but I imagine I will at some future date.

The Arcade was in place from Sept 28th to Oct 20th, but I was, unfortunately only able to visit once in the second to last week.  So there is a touch of Irony that I am going to be spending this time promoting an event that has already ended.  However, I also got to play lots of great games, and they will live on!  As will John and James, and the great artists, programmers, curators and appreciators of this event.  The next time I hear about something like this, I'm going to try to get out there sooner.

So, for now, I'm going to dedicate my time to talking about the games I played.  Many are available to play online-- for free!  So I will provide links to that.  It's not the same as an arcade, but we can't have everything all the time.  So, without further ado, on to the first cabinet:

ARCADE GAMES: curated by Zach Gage

• Shoot First by Teknopants

Shoot First is a two player co-op game with action that reminded me of Gauntlet.  It was really tough though, and I died really fast.  There were some subtleties to the control I didn't quite figure out.  You can collect stuff and upgrade weapons and all those sweet RPG elements. Randomly generated levels, like Diablo. I heard you can also call this genre: rougelike.    
Shoot First is available for Windows and there is a download link.......here.

• Chang Chang by Michael Brough

I really liked playing this game.  This is another 2-player game.  It is kind of like a variation on Chess, or like a very low-fi tactics game.  It pays in real time, and each piece can move in any direction while the time is running, destroying any opponents pieces that come into contact with the fuzzy bars protruding at different angles.  
Available for Mac and PC.  You can download it here as part of a package called kompendium, containing nine different two-player games, all by Michael Brough.  What's really cool about this game is that it is tailored for two people to be able to play on one screen with one keyboard.

• Rescue: the Beagles by 16 x 16

Rescue: the Beagles was interesting.  The visual was really nice; I like the art style.  The gameplay was kind of frantic, and pretty harsh and unforgiving.  I just kept dying!  I think, perhaps, once I get a hang of the gameplay, I'll have more fun.  In the meantime, I enjoyed the graphics and the challenge.  I dont know what platform it's available, but you can download it here.

• Super Puzzle Platformer by Andrew Morrish

This game is tons of fun.  Highly intuitive but very challenging.  Charming graphics.  This game feels like an idea that was waiting to be made real.  Let me tell you the idea, and you'll see:  You are a little jumping platform guy with a gun, trapped in a puzzle game.  There are blocks falling from the ceiling and you have to shoot them to destroy them.  Combos and weapon upgrades follow.
You can play it free in-browser, so go do that, it's fun!   Also available to download for PC and Mac.


ARCADE was a fun cabinet with great variety. Entertaining, interesting and challenging.  I think to really crack into these games would require at least one dedicated weekend of hardcore gaming. 

Never Stopped Feeling Like a 12 Year Old Geek.

Last Thursday, Conklederp and I were having Coolman over for a game of Munchkin and I had previously thought that a d10 die would be perfect to keep track of your level, which apparently Steve Jackson and Company had previously thought of, but are no longer producing.  Now between the two of us, Conklederp and I have three full sets of D&D dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 & d100) and I didn't want to take the d10's out of each little box and possibly lose them.  I wanted dedicated dice for the sole purpose of being used in Munchkin.

The obvious solution was to go to a pseudo close by gaming store, except the closeness of said gaming store meant driving through a downtown area of a smallish yuppie-ville, over an apparently crumbling bridge and then all the way back.  So a 16.6 mile round trip for 6d10 worth of dice.  Enter Yelp to see if I could locate a closer gaming, or even a comic store that might sell d10 dice.  As it turned out, there is a gaming store less than five miles away.  I'll go there, and pick up some Dutch Bros. coffee on my way back, because I have a horrible love affair with caffeine.

We'll now jump ahead to the part when I'm at Dutch Bros., after I was convinced that I had been on the wrong road for Epic Games and made a U-turn, only to discover 3/4 of the way to Dutch Bros., that I was, in fact, on the correct street.  So I pull up to the ordering window, order my iced ER911 and sit back.  Then the  guy at the window turns to me and says, "So, what are you doing today?"  It's a simple/normal enough question.  I just wasn't expecting to be talked to after the initial ordering.  I also took a moment to answer.  My first thought was, "Well, I'm going to a gaming store to buy some d10's for a game of Munchkin that I'm going to be playing with friends later tonight."

For some reason, I felt mildly shamed at possibly replying with that sentence.  And that bothered me.  The fact that I'm 32 years old, and I felt even the slightest bit like I'm being judged in that I was out to do something incredibly geeky as buy dice  Not to mention that it wasn't a six sided die either, but one with ten sides!!  So I ended up just saying that I was going to a store to buy dice, not bothering to mention the Munchkin part of it in fear that I would have to talk to this person further and try to explain what Munchkin was.  Don't get me wrong though, he didn't seem like a bad/intimidating person, I just get uncomfortable talking to people, mainly when they're people in public.  Or people on the phone, but that will come up later in Friday's post.  So naturally (??), the guy said "You're buying dice?  What're they for?"  Now, I get that he's just trying to be nice and trying to make conversation, but in my head I was thinking "God damn, please stop talking to me."  I instead say, "They're dice, for um, like Dungeons & Dragons."  He then said something about needing coffee for that, I said something like "Yup."  I then received my coffee, I thanked him, then drove off blaring Russian folk metal, because that's what I was listening to before I drove up to the window.

As I drove away, I thought, "Holy shit, that was similar to part of Ken Levine's keynote from PAX 2008." 

The entire keynote can be watched here.

 Granted in Ken Levine's story, he actually was being laughed at and I felt like I could've been laughed at.  

The point is, I shouldn't have to feel like that.  Ever.  And I shouldn't let myself feel that way just because the purpose of my leaving our apartment was to buy coffee and buy 6d10.  I guess it's something that I'll still have to learn to get over.  And in the meantime, I'll listen to this song again:

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Part III of Munchkin Will Be Published On Friday.

Confession Time:  I was actually working backstage in the main theatre at PAX when Ken Levine was giving his keynote address.  At that time, I hadn't played Bioshock and didn't even know who Ken Levine was.  And it wasn't until I got the PAX08 DVD's after working PAX09, that I watched his keynote that I finally saw what all the visual jokes were.  I'm pretty slow on some fronts.

Munchmadnesskin

In my last post, I mentioned that I was able to play Munchkin for the first time.  I was intimidated at first.  Partly because I'd heard of the game, but knew nothing about it and was playing with people who were familiar with the game and its mechanics.  How familiar?  I didn't ask, but they seemed to know a lot more than me, which during a card game, can be quite a lot, especially when there is more than a single rule.

It's like going to play Killer Instinct or Street Fighter IV with someone and you've never played that game before.  All of a sudden, you're up against someone who knows a handful of specific moves or how to properly execute a Combo Breaker.  It was a little frustrating in that, like in any card game, I didn't want to reveal what cards I had in my hand, but at the same time, understand when I could play a card.  Specifically a monster card.  Not a "Wandering Monster" card, just a regular monster card.  A monster card that happened to be a Level 16 Undead King Tut.

Don't get me wrong, the rules were explained and understood as best they could, considering we were all a smidgen tired, having driven 101 miles to just outside of Astoria, then an additional 15 miles (which took about an hour) to get to a Safeway and back for all the camping things we forgot to bring; like firewood for one.  And we had been drinking steadily for just over an hour and I had broken out a bottle of Fireball to share/introduce.  So really, the non-comprehension was mostly all on me, so I'll take the blame on that one.

In the end though, I really like the game that Steve Jackson has created.  So much so that only after 1 1/2 times playing Munchkin, I have bought the basic deck and three expansion decks.  Specifically, these ones:

I also plan on purchasing this expansion deck once it becomes available.  Another nice thing about the expansion decks, is that each card, from each expansion has their own tiny logo on the front of the card that tells you it's from an expansion deck.  In case you want to play with the standard deck and not The Guild or Monster Enhancers deck, you can easily find them within the massive stack.  It's a great, simple little idea.  Oh, oh, oh!  And the expansion decks are all relatively inexpensive at only ~$5, or there abouts, depending on the deck.

One of the things that drew me to this game (or really, buying the game), was that upon further examination, all of the decks are the same.  You could go out and buy five copies of the Munchkinomicon and all 15 cards in the pack are all the same 15 cards.  There are no "rare" cards.  Sure, you can buy the Boxes of Holding which come with two additional cards that you can't acquire on their own, but they're not going to be the rare cards like in Magic: The Gathering that are "so rare" that they'll fetch hundreds of dollars.  Sorry, correction, thousands of dollars.  You can also purchase blank cards to come up with your own rules of sorts that will blend in with the rest of your deck.  And everyone plays with the agreed upon deck.  If you introduce a card that no ones seen before, it goes in the deck with all the other cards.

Something that I find interesting, is that I went into this post intending to talk about my most recent trip to a new gaming store to buy some d10 dice for some rounds of Munchkin that Conklederp, Coolman and I played last night, but that somehow turned into this conker of a post.  On Monday I'll go into my gaming store non-adventure.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Brain Has It's Own Plans

Two Card Games The World Plays Wrong

I'm going to move away from video games again for this post and move into card games.  Cards are just fun things to have around at almost all times.  Years back when The Kid and I went to Disneyland, I brought a deck of cards for us to play 5 Card Draw when we were standing in line.  We even got a couple of people to play with us while in line for the Matterhorn.  This week I wanted to cover two card games, one's a single player and the other is traditionally a two player game although rules exist to have more people.  I don't remember exactly when it was that I found out that I play both Pyramid and War differently than pretty much the entire world, but it was one of those moments when I began to wonder why everyone else was playing it wrong.  Let's begin then with Pyramid.

Pyramid
I learned to play Pyramid from my Mom when I was don't know how old.  It was a simple enough concept. You deal cards out in a pyramid shape then add two cards up to 13 and remove them.  Ace = 1, King = 13, Queen = 12 and so on down.  You go through the deck once, after that, if you don't have all the cards cleared, the game's over.  It wasn't until I got my Mom a CDRom compilation of card games that I found out we had been playing the game wrong for over a decade.  And our "wrong" way of playing was so much better than the official rules.

The only variation we played with was that all the cards are faced down, except the bottom row and any cards that you uncover and are able to flip over.  I really don't understand why you would have the cards face up?  From my perspective, it would be like having the cards faced up when playing Solitaire.  I feel like having the cards face up makes the game too easy.

How I was taught how to play:

Ignore the fact that I'm missing one row of cards.

Versus how the "real" rules say how to play:

Playing this way feels like cheating.

Anyway, I guess I just suggest try playing it both ways and see which way you prefer.


WAR
I don't remember when or where I learned to play War.  My first memory was from my neighbors across the street from my parent's house when I was in 1st or 2nd grade, so it was probably some time around then.  The basic rules, I play the same as everyone else:  highest card wins; two of the same card, start a war.  It's the rules/procedure for the war though that seem to differ from everyone else I've ever played.  And, the version I've been told my numerous people, is even different than the "official" rules that are up on Wikipedia.

In traditional rules, when two players deal the same card, a war happens.  For this war, each person deals three cards face down, chooses one and that determines the war.  I've also seen it played that after you deal three cards face down, the forth card dealt is face up and that determines the outcome of the war.

The rules/procedure that I've played with, and still insist on playing with are as follows:

• Three cards are dealt face down
• Each player flips over one card at a time
• Two out of three battles wins the war
• Any war to occur during these battles negates the previous battle count.

I just find this way of playing War and Pyramid to be more interesting.  It could also be that phenomenon when you prefer something the way you learned it, or the version of a song you heard first.  I'm sure that's a real phenomenon but I can't think of what it's called or find it on the internet, but I know it's real because my brain told me so.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Voices Are Subletting Again.

Controller Style Confusion

I was playing Super Meat Boy the other day, or more likely, I was trying to play Super Meat Boy and since I don't have a USB or an xBox 360 controller for computer games, I was forced to use my keyboard.  The keyboard controls for SMB (Not that SMB), uses the arrow keys to move and the space bar to jump and shift to sprint.  I didn't make it through the first level.  I didn't like using the arrow keys to move, although, more specifically, I didn't like using  my right had for directional controls.  That last thought is what got me thinking, because that's a contradictory statement based on my controller preferences for games on other systems.

I started my video gaming life playing the Intellivision and the Atari 2600 and for both of those systems, I played right hand directional control and left hand/fingers buttoning.  With the advent of the NES controller, that all flipped to left handed directional pad and right handed for buttons.  Despite the apparent flip in hand orientation, this layout seemed very intuitive and I never questioned it.  With Goldeneye 007 on the N64, you were allowed to customize the N64 controller so you could decide which buttons moved you, meaning either the directional C-pad or the joy stick.

So now we'll go through the differing control styles that I seem to favor and if there's a reason why.

Consoles Games

The majority of games on consoles and hand held consoles are played by moving around with the directional pad with the left hand or the analogue stick and button mashing with the right hand.  The exception for me though is with FPS'.

When Turok: Dinosaur Hunter came out on the N64, I was pretty new to FPS'.  I had played a bit of Doom and Castle Wolfenstein, but only very little, and only enough to know that I didn't like that you could only look left and right, but not up or down.  But with Turok, my world was opened, and I gladly entered.  The controls for Turok were that you moved with the C-pad and looked around with the joystick, which is what I used when I began playing Goldeneye, which had an even greater amount of semi-customizable (new word) control styles and I quickly fell in love with 1.2 Solitaire, the same controls as Turok.

What drew me to moving with the C-pad buttons, controlled with the left hand instead of the joystick which would be controlled with the right hand, was the fact that I felt that I had more control when looking with the joystick and the C-pad felt very stilted.  Granted, moving with the joystick, you could go between walking and running, but I felt that was a bit unnecessary.

Oh yes, and the y-axis controls (up/down) had to be inverted.  Why?  It just felt more natural for me.

This control style held true for the other FPS' that I've played on consoles, which coincidentally were also made either by Rare or those who split off from Rare to create Free Radical: Perfect Dark, TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.  Additionally, any time that I play any FPS' on a console, I always have to go to the controller customization and tinker around until I can move with the left joystick and look with the right and making sure that the controls are inverted.

The only problem I've run into with the above mentioned control scheme was with Halo and Left 4 Dead II, both games had the ability to jump which took my right thumb off the movement controls to be able to jump. I don't recall if there was complete button customization or presets to choose from, but I remember that I wasn't happy with the control set up.  Oh, and with Perfect Dark: Zero, which only had one control scheme and it was something that I didn't like and couldn't get used to.  I think I fired a single shot, opened one door and turned the game off.

PC Gaming

Control styles in PC games can be a bit more varied, but my preference for "moving" is with the WASD keys.  Going back to SMB, I can't stand moving by using the arrow keys with my right hand.  I feel very uncoordinated and clumsy.  However, with platformer PC games, I still feel very clumsy using WASD with my fingers instead of using a directional pad with my thumb.  I mean I could probably fumble my way through SMB with either the arrow or WASD controls, but it would take a lot of frustrating time.  Think going through Super Metroid with only WASD for movement.  However, with VVVVVV,  despite the fact that I haven't beaten the game yet, I find using the arrow keys to move around very easy to get used to.

As for FPS' on the PC, it's all about WASD for moving and the mouse for looking.  With the mouse y-axis being inverted.

Huh.  I guess it's slightly simpler than I had previously thought.  But when playing any game, on any system, I know that I might have to tinker around with the controls to suit my personal taste.  And when transitioning between say, Doom III and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Which I like a lot more than Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and I'll cover at a later date), I know that my brain won't have any troubles moving from one control style to the next.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

up-up-down-down-left trigger-right trigger-left trigger- right trigger-b-a-select-start

And now I present to you the ultimate in controller design:

It can only be called "Awesome."

Bridging the Gaming Continent: Risktego

Since Dr. Potts and I started this blog, I liked the idea that when we talked about being gamers, that that would also include other areas of gaming besides video games.  Like Penny-Arcade's Omegathon at PAX, I like the idea of branching out into other areas of gaming, but still maintaining our main focus on video games.

So I was talking to Conklederp yesterday about the boardgame Stratego and explaining the rules the the easiest way possible, mainly because I didn't have any visual aids and verbally explaining the rules of a game you've never heard/seen could be confusing.  So I'm talking about the different pieces and ranks and how they're used in battle.  Then my mind goes to the other war based game that I know and have played very little of, being RISK.  I played Castle RISK a bit when I was younger and last year I played one of many RISK variants called Risk Godstorm.  Anyway, the point being that I have a lot more experience with Stratego than I do with RISK, so any hardcore RISK gamers might be upset/irritated/annoyed with my lack of proper RISK terminology/knowledge.  (And just to note, the word "risk" is starting to look like it's not a real word anymore).

My idea for Risktego is a pretty simple one.  You would play RISK normally with almost no alterations to the rules.  The only difference is in how the battles are conducted.  Instead of rolling dice to determine the outcome of the battle, you would then move into a separate game albeit modified version of Stratego.  Right now, one can see a potential difficulty with the RISK battles being run in the Stratego game.  In RISK, as far as I know, there's no limit to the number of armies attacking any given area, whereas in Stratego, you're limited to a maximum of 40 units, including bombs and the flag.  The following rules set for Risktego, will probably annoy any RISK purists, but they'll just have to deal with it.

¡¡¡¡Awesome Logo Splicing Action!!!!

Rules for Risktego

You will need:

• 1 RISK boardgame
• 1 Stratego boardgame

RISK is the primary game being played and only moves to Stratego during skirmishes/battles.  During skirmishes/battles, the following rules apply:

• Each side pre-selects the Flag Tile in Stratego.
• For every single infantry unit in RISK, randomly select 3 tiles from Stratego.
• In RISK, if you are attacking or defending with 13 or more infantry units, you play with all of your Stratego pieces.
• When two pieces of the same rank meet in Stratego, the attacking piece wins.

So those're basically the rules, have fun as you will.

Side Note:  After completing this article, I looked up "risktego" on google just because I was curious.  As it turns out, there's quite a bit about combining both RISK and Stratego together to make one massive game.  Rules from a couple of the pages I looked at vary, but some seem to be built around the "rule" that with any battle, you play a full 40 vs 40 game of Stratego.  Which, for me, then feels like it takes away any strategy in army building.  However, that could be said as well for the rules that I've put up here.  

Whatever, it was an idea I had, free of outside influences that just happens to have been not an uncommon idea.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Disclaimer:  Games Will Last 3 Hours to Never Being Finished.

It's A Sad Thing That Shadowgate Only Had Two Games to it's Name!!

Ahhhh...... Shadowgate.  Or is it supposed to be Shadow Gate?  Nope, it's the name of the castle.

I don't recall the first time I ever played Shadowgate.  I'll just guess that it was over at Dr. Potts' place sometime around 1990.  Anyway, the exact time doesn't really matter.  What matters is that this game was played.  Was it beaten?  Hell, no.  I think I was only able to solve a handful of puzzles the entire time I had it (stupid shark).  I was, on the other hand, able to get myself killed in more ways than I had thought descriptively possible.  

Coming across these types of descriptive deaths was uncommon, if not unheard of in Nintendo games in 1990, and could possibly be rated a high "Teen" in todays market.  This kind of material was golden.  It was as if the game was challenging you to find out how often and in how many ways you could die!  Dying no longer was something to fear, as you had to get over it quickly because it was going to happen very often. 

The music too, dear god man, the music!  This was another early game that I fell in love with the music.  And it didn't help that I couldn't beat the game and find out who the composer was; remember, no access to the internet in 1990.  And even with the internet, it took a while to find out that the composer/programmer was Hirojuki Masuno.  Just give, what I consider to be the quintessential Shadowgate theme a listen, although the track is titled "Entranceway."  Even the music that was played when you were dead was as interesting to listen to as the rest of the music in the game.

So Shadowgate was a point-and-click adventure style game that was very text heavy, as you can tell from the death images above.  Only two other games that I know of, Déjà Vu and Uninvited, used a similar/identical format.  At the age of 10 (and even now really), it was like reading an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure book that came with it's own soundtrack.  I didn't extensively play Univited, and I only dabbled around with  Déjà Vu  when they were out on the NES.  When Shadowgate Classic came out on the Gameboy Color in 1999 (wow, only 9 years after first playing the original, it seemed a lot longer than that), I bought it and made a considered effort to beat the game, which I ended up doing, with some help from the internet to solve some of the harder puzzles, like how to stop dying.

That same year that Shadowgate Classic came out, Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers was released on the N64.  I rented that game from the video rental store I worked at, at the time and had a blast playing it.  It was a similar game, compared to the original, as in a point-and-click type adventure, except that since it was on the N64, the game was in a three dimensional space and played similar to an FPS minus the shotgun and automatic rifles.  Like the original though, you still wandered from room to hallway to room, trying to solve puzzles without killing yourself.  It was a pretty fun game, from what I remember.  The music wasn't as catchy as the original, but listening to the soundtrack on it's own, the music is more atmospheric and more like a film score than a video game soundtrack.

There were also plans to release a sequel to Shadowgate 64 titled Shadowgate: Rising, but the rumors say that it was in development for the N64 as the Gamecube was coming out and production ceased.  There was also an online comic that I followed for a while that was going to lead into Shadowgate: Rising

Now at the end of this article, I have to ask the obligatory question: Why aren't more indie game companies making point-and-click style adventures?  In theory they don't seem too difficult to create as it's mostly just script writing and then a series of images.  Yes, I understand that it's a pretty dated concept, but it falls into the whole nostalgia phase.  So if anyone reading this either knows someone in any form of game company or is in one themselves, you now have a new project on your hands.  I'll be looking forward to the end result.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Awaiting the Masses to Join the Call

First Impressions: Mutant Mudds (3DS)

I first heard about Mutant Mudds quite a while back when it was still in development from Renegade Kid.  You know, the people who brought us Moon,  Dementium: The Ward and Dementium II.  I like to support developers who are somewhat small that create great games.  I'm looking at you too Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness, Too Human).  Anyway, back to Mutant Mudds.

With the recent acquisition of a 3DS system, I purchased Mutant Mudds from Nintendo's eShop.  The game runs as a simple and basic platformer.  You have your character, platforms and enemies.  You're armed with a water gun that shoots more-or-less the width of the screen.  Your life meter is 3 hearts and so far, there has been nothing in the game to replenish your life meter.  If you land on spikes, you die (a la Mega Man) and have to start the level over from the beginning.  You have one life, but infinite continues.  The level length is really well constructed as well, with levels never seeming too long.  The first time through though, I sometimes wondered how much longer I could go with only 1 heart left, but on subsequent playthroughs, the levels almost seemed short, but that was because I knew what to do.

You also have a hydro-jet pack that lets you pretty much hover for a short time (Think Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2).  On specific tiles, you can jump to the foreground or the back-back-ground.  Things in the other "grounds" don't get in your way and cannot affect you, you just know they're there.  In each level there're 100 "coins" that you can only collect once, even when replaying the level; you are able to pick up coins you missed though.  I don't know how many levels there are, but I think there're around 40.

Renegade Kidd, in my opinion has nailed a great 16-bit style platformer.  Even the music is simple and somewhat reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. 2.  It makes perfect use of the 3D effect and even if you don't have the 3D effect turned all the way up or even if it's off, it still looks great and plays the was it's supposed to be played.

At the moment, I've only played four of the levels, but it's still a blast and well worth the $8 I spent to tell a smallish game developer, "Hey, I really like what you do.  Keep at it."