I love iindependent game makers. Some of these people are living the dream. They're making games and getting them published. Some dream of making a living from it, others just want to finance their next project. Others are just happy that someone is playing something that they built.
I went through the Indie Games section of Xbox Live Marketplace last night and looked at the variety. They have everything there from neat, polished games that you would not be surprised to see on a store shelf to rough attempts by novices. Some are clever concepts and others are just clones of something else. It really is a mixed bag, but some things in there are true treasures. Others look like they were made by immature teenagers to amuse their friends.
So as I looked through there, I downloaded a few demos. Due to budget issues, and a problem with my credit card I can't buy anything until later this week, but I noted a few promising games that I'll try to feature.
One that impressed me was Avatar Deathmatch. Basically, you take your avatar and play your friends. You shoot foam darts, similar to a Nerf gun. There are various powerups such as God Mode (invincibility), Health kits, and better weapons. This is on my list to buy. I can't wait to play against some of my friends with this one. I recommend checking this one out.
I plan to talk a bit more about others that catch my eye later, but if you see any fun indie games, whether for Xbox, or for PC, or for anything else, let me know and I'll give it a shout out. You might be in on the ground floor of the next Angry Birds or Minecraft. Or maybe you'll make some kid's day. Maybe you'll inspire some kids to really learn their stuff and someday put out a Triple A title. Even Jordan Michener started out as a kid with a computer, a little knowledge, and a dream.
So when you can, show the indies a little love. Take the time to read the catalogue and see what's there. You may find a fun game and you may make some kid's day.
Note: I'm not saying that you should buy a bad game just to encourage some kid (unless it's your cousin or something), but take the time to see what's there and reward someone for good work when you can.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
What is geek?
Well, the easiest way to answer that question is to just grab a dictionary.
geek/gēk/Noun: 1.An unfashionable or socially inept person.
2.A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest: "a computer geek".
What it means to be a geek has evolved during my lifetime. When I was in school, being a geek usually meant that you were unpopular, and bullied. Today, geeks are sometimes the most popular people in class. They are free to show they intelligence and creativity and to revel in their own quirkiness. But is also means that "geek culture" has expanded as well. Today, Anime geeks no longer have to wade through piles of catelogs to get their hobby imported from Japan. Often times, they were bootleg copies and poor quality. Today they can just log onto Amazon.com and not only can they get a copy, but it will be a high quality copy legal copy. The price of computers has dropped dramatically, so more kids grew up knowing computers and video games and these hobbies have gone mystical to mundane. Most people today have a rudimentary knowledge of computers and sports fans even have a huge selection of video games dedicated to them. Even the stereotype of a geek has changed from a heavyset man with thick glasses and poor hygene to a releativly normal person who simply loves science/anime/games/whatever.
In many ways, this is good. It means that people are more accepting of who others are and those of us who are a little different or have a deep love of a unique hobby can express ourselves without fear. I sometimes feel a little envious of younger people who can grow up and find peers with similar interests and who can wear a tshirt to school with their favorite passtime on it without fear. My own life in school was a lot liek Revenge of the Nerds, except I never really found my Tri-lams. Instead, I supressed how I expressed things and tried to fit in. I even played football. I'll admit, I enjoyed playing, but I was never any good, I never fit in, didn't really like the sport. I just liked being a part of a team and being accepted as a part of a team. Every now and then, I need to resist the urge to tell kids, "you don't know how good you have it!" But reall,y who wants to hear an old guy like me gripe?
Now, there are anime geeks, tabletop gaming geeks (D&D, Warhammer, etc) video gamer geeks, music geeks, and many other kinds. And we're all out of the closet and thanks to the internet we can find people who share our hobbies and suddely we're not alone anymore. We've banded to gether to become a much sought after commodity as well. Whole channels like G4 are dedicated to us, colleges woo us with offers to teach us how to enter our favorite industry, sites like YouTube allow us to show off our skills. Some of us have even found a way to turn our hobbies into an income they can live on.
A while back there was an ad campaign with the message "it gets better." It did get better for me. It it will keep on getting better for all of us because now we can truely be who we are.
We can let our geek flag fly.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go roll for initiative.
geek/gēk/Noun: 1.An unfashionable or socially inept person.
2.A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest: "a computer geek".
What it means to be a geek has evolved during my lifetime. When I was in school, being a geek usually meant that you were unpopular, and bullied. Today, geeks are sometimes the most popular people in class. They are free to show they intelligence and creativity and to revel in their own quirkiness. But is also means that "geek culture" has expanded as well. Today, Anime geeks no longer have to wade through piles of catelogs to get their hobby imported from Japan. Often times, they were bootleg copies and poor quality. Today they can just log onto Amazon.com and not only can they get a copy, but it will be a high quality copy legal copy. The price of computers has dropped dramatically, so more kids grew up knowing computers and video games and these hobbies have gone mystical to mundane. Most people today have a rudimentary knowledge of computers and sports fans even have a huge selection of video games dedicated to them. Even the stereotype of a geek has changed from a heavyset man with thick glasses and poor hygene to a releativly normal person who simply loves science/anime/games/whatever.
In many ways, this is good. It means that people are more accepting of who others are and those of us who are a little different or have a deep love of a unique hobby can express ourselves without fear. I sometimes feel a little envious of younger people who can grow up and find peers with similar interests and who can wear a tshirt to school with their favorite passtime on it without fear. My own life in school was a lot liek Revenge of the Nerds, except I never really found my Tri-lams. Instead, I supressed how I expressed things and tried to fit in. I even played football. I'll admit, I enjoyed playing, but I was never any good, I never fit in, didn't really like the sport. I just liked being a part of a team and being accepted as a part of a team. Every now and then, I need to resist the urge to tell kids, "you don't know how good you have it!" But reall,y who wants to hear an old guy like me gripe?
Now, there are anime geeks, tabletop gaming geeks (D&D, Warhammer, etc) video gamer geeks, music geeks, and many other kinds. And we're all out of the closet and thanks to the internet we can find people who share our hobbies and suddely we're not alone anymore. We've banded to gether to become a much sought after commodity as well. Whole channels like G4 are dedicated to us, colleges woo us with offers to teach us how to enter our favorite industry, sites like YouTube allow us to show off our skills. Some of us have even found a way to turn our hobbies into an income they can live on.
A while back there was an ad campaign with the message "it gets better." It did get better for me. It it will keep on getting better for all of us because now we can truely be who we are.
We can let our geek flag fly.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go roll for initiative.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Screw you for judging me! (Hello Kitty Review)
Out of boredom, and maybe a little masochism, I downloaded "Hello Kitty Beauty Salon" on my Android phone. It is free, and I believe also available for iOS. It contains all of the characters you'd expect from HK, plus a few I've never heard of (which is everyone but the title character and maybe the penguin-looking guy).
It's a pretty common gameplay style that you'll find across mobile games - customer comes in, you serve them, they pay, and they leave. You can find this gameplay for car shops and cafes and whatever else you like. This is pretty much a re-skin of a common gameplay type. It's free to download and they give you enough points to hire one helper, but you need to buy more points with real world money to hire more, which will probably limit your ability to advance at some point. Your other items can be upgraded with tokens earned ingame, so there is that. For some reason, all of the customers appear to be humans with bunny ears. I'm not sure why they need a hair stylist since they never remove the bunny hats.
In short, this game could kill some time waiting in the doctor's office of a boring ride on the train, but it does nothing spectacular that you couldn't find elsewhere, so if you're a Hello Kitty fan, you might get a kick out of downloading this. If you're not, and can get over the excessive pink inherent to the HK franchise, it's worth playing to kill a few moments if it just happens to be on your phone or whatever device you're playing.
And as a prank, it's fun to "share" it with a friend who might freak out that you sent him Hello Kitty.
It's a pretty common gameplay style that you'll find across mobile games - customer comes in, you serve them, they pay, and they leave. You can find this gameplay for car shops and cafes and whatever else you like. This is pretty much a re-skin of a common gameplay type. It's free to download and they give you enough points to hire one helper, but you need to buy more points with real world money to hire more, which will probably limit your ability to advance at some point. Your other items can be upgraded with tokens earned ingame, so there is that. For some reason, all of the customers appear to be humans with bunny ears. I'm not sure why they need a hair stylist since they never remove the bunny hats.
In short, this game could kill some time waiting in the doctor's office of a boring ride on the train, but it does nothing spectacular that you couldn't find elsewhere, so if you're a Hello Kitty fan, you might get a kick out of downloading this. If you're not, and can get over the excessive pink inherent to the HK franchise, it's worth playing to kill a few moments if it just happens to be on your phone or whatever device you're playing.
And as a prank, it's fun to "share" it with a friend who might freak out that you sent him Hello Kitty.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.
At last weekends PAX I got a chance to see the third episode of
Precipice on display. I didn't actually get to play it, but I liked
what I watched. It looks like old school RPG action of of the first
final fantasy game.
So after getting home, I decided to check out the first in the series. I've put it off for a while because I was afraid that it wasn't my thing, and I was right. But despite that the genre wasn't quite my style, I really liked it. The story was just silly enough to be worthy of Penny Arcade and the gameplay was, while not a style I like, really solid. The fact that I enjoy the game despite it not quite being my genre is a mark of how well the gameplay is built. A good game should draw you in despite the things that would not ordinarily appeal to you and this does that well.
It's a slightly lovecraftian setting with an occasional item of steampunk tossed in. The basic plaot is engaging and I liked the fact that rather than just letting you control Gabe and Tycho, you get your own player to interact with them. It was also fun seeing other characters from the strip get worked in in various ways. They even included the former roommate Jim. Well, part of him...
Overall, I'm not sure if a diehard RPG fan would like this, but any fan of Penny Arcade will find this worth the price and time. I'm looking foreward to playing part two.
So after getting home, I decided to check out the first in the series. I've put it off for a while because I was afraid that it wasn't my thing, and I was right. But despite that the genre wasn't quite my style, I really liked it. The story was just silly enough to be worthy of Penny Arcade and the gameplay was, while not a style I like, really solid. The fact that I enjoy the game despite it not quite being my genre is a mark of how well the gameplay is built. A good game should draw you in despite the things that would not ordinarily appeal to you and this does that well.
It's a slightly lovecraftian setting with an occasional item of steampunk tossed in. The basic plaot is engaging and I liked the fact that rather than just letting you control Gabe and Tycho, you get your own player to interact with them. It was also fun seeing other characters from the strip get worked in in various ways. They even included the former roommate Jim. Well, part of him...
Overall, I'm not sure if a diehard RPG fan would like this, but any fan of Penny Arcade will find this worth the price and time. I'm looking foreward to playing part two.
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