Pak Watch Deluxe: Point-and-Click Adventure games

This is a Deluxe edition of Pak Watch because it features 4 games instead of my usual one or two.  I recently completed 'Six Days a Sacrifice, and I wanted another taste of the point and click adventure genre.  It appears that this genre is thriving on the internet;  when I started looking, I just kept finding new and interesting information about the genre, least of which is the Adventure Game Studio community.  More on that later, for now, some games:

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Shardlight

Developer:  Ben Chandler and Francisco Gonzales
Publisher:  Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games

Shardlight is a post-apocalyptic game, that I can find minimal information about, and the same four images over and over again.  But I really like what I see, and I'm very interested to see how it works out.  I love the post-apocalyptic genre, and the 'world of junk and ruin' aesthetic looks solid here.  I can't speak for the story, but here's hoping.  

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unprintable MAGENTA
Developer: Fitz
Publisher: (Unknown) 

Another link I got from Indie Game News.  Unprintable Magenta has a strange, low-production visual style that piques my curiosity.  It looks to take place in a modern, superhero setting, and has plenty of room for silliness.  I appreciate that.   

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Thimbleweed Park
Developer: Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick
Publisher: Kickstarter, kind of.  
 
Maniac Mansion is back! Or at least, the creators of that classic game are back, with a very successful kickstarter for a new game called Thimbleweed Park.  Viewing the promo video for said kickstarter, I think we can count on a true retro delight.  There are hilarious referential jokes all throughout the kickstarter page.  Have a look if you have any interest at all. 

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Project Scissors: Nightcry 
Developer: Hifumi Kono and Takashi Shimizu
Publisher: Playism games

And one more game with celebrity developers: a horror game from the makers of the Clock Tower series and the director of JuOn (the grudge).  That was enough to get my attention.  Then I got scared after viewing some of the images.  Maybe I don't have the guts to play this game.  Do you?

-D

Game Idea: Star Trek

Watching reruns of DS9, it has occurred to me that it is time for a new Star Trek game.  Of course, I say this having not played most of the star trek games released.  So I guess what I really mean is:  It’s time for me to play a star trek game.  Or, more specifically, it’s time for me to play the star trek game I’m imagining.  Does it exist, I wonder?

What I’m imagining is basically a Maniac Mansion style adventure game.  I have some vague memories that a Star Trek game has done this in the past.  The idea being to solve puzzles using a crew or away team and a set of equipment and specializations.  Tricorders, med packs, phasers, engineering skills.   All that good stuff. 

I think the potential for level and puzzle design might be very high when you consider all the different possible things a Tricorder might detect.   Invisible Gasses, energy waves, life signs.  It’s the basic structure of any Star Trek episode.  The captain says ‘give me a reading’  and someone says ‘I’m detecting high levels of _____ radiation.  That could be causing the ______ to ______”  now ship it off to Michael Okuda to fill in the blanks.

I suppose what I’m interested in is capturing and augmenting the experience of watching the show.  I don’t necessarily want to dream up a fully functioning, open-world star trek universe (though that is obviously a cool thing to exist).  My thought is of rich scenarios,  clever puzzles, interesting characters and engrossing drama.  I’m imagining something akin to Mass Effect, but with less fighting and more puzzles.  

One game design question would be how you control your party.  Is it five independent people, all controlled by the player, or does the player just control the commanding officer, and issue orders to the others?   The second option seems the simplest.  Your commands can include ‘scanning’ or ‘advisement’ or ‘batten down the hatches.’  Well, some star trek equivalent anyway. 

Also, it seems obvious that getting actors from actual star trek series to do voice overs is a good thing.  On the other hand, the Star Trek universe is rich, and with good writing, I know I would happily embrace a new cast and crew and a new setting.  I've done it four times already.  

I don’t think these ideas are original by any means.  But in the past, Star Trek, like any licensed product, has had a series of rather mediocre games.  I’m just hoping there is a higher production value game that shows a true understanding of the beloved show and universe.  Of course, by now it’s likely that any new game would be set in the re-imagined Original Series universe, which is full of non-stop action.  Yawn.  I left my heart with TNG.  

-D

P.S.  http://www.pixeltrek.com/  for a digital tour of the Enterprise D

Nintendo Power and Me

So, earlier today, I asked Jack what his first issue of Nintendo Power was. In response, he sent me this picture. Using the picture, he was able to determine which issue was his first, and I think I got a bead on my first one, which was Maniac Mansion. Looking at the picture of all of those Nintendo Power covers next to each other really go me going, and I started typing an extended email, which I decided I should just turn into a post. The results are shown below:

Metal Storm, a gravity shifting shooter.  Different from VVVVVV

Totally Rad. I remember a lot of these. Actually, what's really got me thrown is that the Super Nintendo was released so early on in the progression of Nintendo Power. I had this idea in my head that it took a while longer. But another thing I notice is that you can see both Castlevania II and Castlevania IV in this set of pictures.

I wish I had them too. The nostalgia is pretty strong here, I remember these issues, and I can almost remember what's inside them. I definitely used the game reviews very heavily. Metal Storm, I remember that one, there was lot of that 'model' art in the issue. I remember the power blade cover for some reason even though I never gave a crap about that game. Battletoads, definitely. And so on, and so forth. 

...omg, I just googled Nintendo Power and the first link that came up said "for 24 years our magazine has..." and I was like, holy shit. 24 years. I remember almost all of that. First issue was July/August 1988. So, if I started with Maniac Mansion, I think that puts me at about January 1990. Must have been my birthday. My 9th birthday. 

So, this will definitely become a post. This picture basically says it all. I don't really care to see any of the issues past 50 to tell you the truth. 1-50 pretty much covers it. 51-100 is probably pretty good too, but 1-50 gets the job done. Anyhow, I think it's interesting. When I got older, people gave me shit for Nintendo Power being "pretty much an advertisement for Nintendo." And yeah, sure, fine, whatever. The thing is: Nintendo had awesome products. They were a rad company. Nintendo Power was a great magazine. 

And I think it got me thinking critically about games for the first time. Maybe not so much about the Gaming Industry, which was a veritable Utopia for Nintendo fans from 1988-199X. But games themselves. Seeing level maps, and reading guides gave me a critical eye. It helped to teach me what to watch for. Also, it was like a form of readers digest, after a fashion. I had the source on games that were coming out, if they looked interesting, I could rent them. 

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The email ends here. Well, just after I talk about how this email would be a good post, but how I have to do laundry, so I'll post it later. But, then I decided "Some things are more important than laundry!" Well, that's not true. Nothing is more important that laundry. That's not true either, I just decided that I really don't want to go to the laundromat today, and I can still hold out and do it tomorrow or the next day. So, without further ado, back to the topic at hand:

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I love Nintendo Power. It was the first magazine I ever got. Well, we also had a subscription to MAD magazine that I used read, but it was for everyone. Nintendo Power was for *me*. I would get the mail every fucking day, for a least a week before the arrival date, just in case it had come early. I'd read it cover to cover, and then be insatiable for a weekend game rental or for the next issue to come out in 28 days. I hung up the posters, lined up the mags on a bookshelf.

I also wrote to the editors at Nintendo Power. I wrote dozens of letters. Most often telling them about my ideas for video games. It got to a point when they started sending me applications to Digi Pen Applied Computer Graphics School, which opened up when I was a teenager. Expensive Private School. In fact, I remember, at one point, they didn't even bother writing a letter, but would just send me the application packet. Like "shut up, you annoying kid, go design video games!"

And that is something that I'm going to ressurect here, my different, cocamamie ideas for video games. By studying video game design at home, by reading Nintendo Power and playing video games, I came up with bunches of ideas about how games could be. And I used to just send these, willy-nilly to the Nintendo Power Counselors (I think they called them counselors, go fig). Anyhow, I think I will post some of these ideas to the blog, A sort of "Message in a Bottle" to the internet, so that maybe someone out there with the resources and time will make a game similar to my little brainchildren. Sort of like a dandylion I am blowing out into cyberspace. 

I really liked that part in the article Jack links to about "being too old for games" -where the writer says: "They're just making the games I asked them to make ten years ago!" Or something like that. That really resonated with me, because I was asking the industry to make games. I had many ideas, general and specific that I wanted to see. And, in truth, a lot of it has come true, which is a truly wonderful thing! 

I am seeing much more customization and much more non-linearity. True, there's also plenty of junk still, but I'll trade it out for VVVVVV, Braid, Minecraft, Portal and all the others. And there's still so much I don't know, because I have given up competing for the latest, greatest games. If the game is that good, I'll find out about it eventually, and maybe even have a chance to play it.