It’s been a while since I’ve done this, because my day-to-day writings on the big picture aspects of gaming don’t allow for it. But Windosill, Vectorpark’s dreamy indie Flash puzzler, begs for it.

If you haven’t, try the free version, then splurge on the $3 full edition, if only because its a cause worth supporting. Here’s your SPOILER warning, because I’m going to talk about the game in its entirety.

When I first reached the climax of the adventure, I mistakenly took it for the ending. Having successfully navigated every level — pulling, shaking and clicking on abstract creatures and fluid objects to coax out a small white cube, which acts as a key of sorts — the rolling cart that I’d pushed through each environment begins its journey up a spiraling coliseum. Eventually, the track runs out, and the cart stalls at the end of the path, yearning to drive further towards the night sky.

I took this to be a statement. Frustrated relationship, perhaps? Minutes ago, I was opening doors and enabling elaborate Rube Goldberg devices. Before that, I was manipulating the orbit of planets, and earlier still, fooling giant creatures into letting my cart pass by. Now, the path ends, and there are no more objects to manipulate. I tried to do handstands for you, so to speak, for nothing.

But that was incorrect. Faintly, a cluster of stars brighten in the sky. Click them, and the path extends on traces of white. Keep going, and the cart disappears into the background. A minute later, after clicking on a series of beautiful constellations, the cart reappears, but not as it was. Like the other shapes in the sky, this once grounded cart rolls freely in place, memorialized.

Ah yes, it’s the human life cycle. Let’s backtrack.

Windosill begins in a dark room, a faintly lit bulb the only hint of progress. Click on it, and the room lights up, revealing all the game’s major players. The cart is there, and so is the cube that’s needed to pass through to the next area. Objects of varying shapes and sizes also appear in this room, but in separate compartments. The player’s cart can’t interact with them because they’re walled off.

This changes over the course of the game. The objects witnessed in that first room reappear, but they also evolve. Their appearances change, but so do their interactions with the player. The goal of passing a cube through a slot in a door becomes more complicated, and requires the interactions of these supporting characters.

In other words, you’re growing up, and the world as you see it is not as simple as it once was.

The conclusion, of course, is death. The cart disappears into the unknown, but there’s an upshot: In the sky, you can still catch a glimpse of it. Memory lives on. The End.

To be frank, I liked the first reading better, and I wouldn’t have minded if Windosill ended in that perpetual state of trying to climb higher. But the opportunity for reflection is welcome. $3 well spent.

Theory, Indies | No Comments »

We’ll see how this goes, but I’d like to occasionally post in this manner to let you know what I’ve been doing.

Just before Halloween, I spit back at violent video game legislation for Technologizer. This piece could use an addendum with today’s news of a supposed link between violent gaming and long-term aggression in children. I haven’t read the study itself, but the CNN article doesn’t say whether the findings indicate a problem that’s worse in games than in other media. The study’s author, Craig Anderson, has made a name for himself in this line of work, and has made that assertion before. Still, a talking head in CNN’s article (Anderson’s input is notably missing) says that desensitization and imitation by “children who watch violence” are the main issues here. That could well apply to other, less-persecuted mediums as well.

I tried my hand at writing for The Game Reviews, where I mostly function as an editor. With a feature article that involves World of Goo creator Kyle Gabler in the works, I wasn’t sure whether a review of the game would be prudent. In the end I found it too difficult to restrain my enthusiasm. See my glowing praise for yourself.

Finally, this is older, but worth mentioning. Someone paid me to write a semi-humorous article about The 5 Worst Mega Man Weapons of All Time. What a blast.

Newman, Indies, Humour, Violence | 2 Comments »

I was catching up with a source yesterday, trying to get some San Diego game developer contacts, when he got me all excited over what sounded like a great trend story. The casual, downloadable games market, he said, is becoming less viable, and studios are looking to other means for distribution.

Fortunately, before I got too riled up, he revealed that he was recently quoted in a Forbes article on that very topic. Mary Jane Irwin does a pretty good job of explaining the “Casual Gold Bust.” It’s an end to the boom that arguably reached its peak two years ago, when small developers were cashing in by distributing their games through aggregation portals like Play First and Big Fish Games. Simply put:

Indeed, anyone with a little programming know-how can create a game and ship it off to publishers. As the glut grows, individual titles get less exposure, and it becomes more difficult to distinguish one title from the next. Competition from game developers outside the U.S. doesn’t help either. The result: Each title generates less and less revenue.

Given my general disdain for your solitaire clones and Diner Dash knockoffs, you’d think I’m not inclined to care about this predicament, but here’s the thing: a lot of good developers have found success in that market, either creating games that are unique in some way or selling out enough so they can work on that experimental side project. Moreover, there’s no indication that the casual gaming public even cares that the same shit is being shoveled their way over and over. Now, I say that based on Irwin’s pegging of Web-based casual game revenues at $1 billion last year. She doesn’t delve into whether the portals themselves will face a downturn.

If I’m not making any sense, Allen Varney crafted a perfect argument on why the Casual Gold Rush is bad for games in an article for The Escapist from 2006, titled “Attack of the Parasites.” The whole article is pretty brilliant, so rather than quote some of it I’ll just suggest you read all of it.

Notably, it appears that Varney has seen the Forbes article and is rightfully claiming, to paraphrase, “I called it.” Oh, and he sees another gold rush in the works, as the “exact same stupid story is playing out again right now on Facebook.”

Another forum member, KNau, responds: “The same thing is also being played out on XBLA and the iPhone. Dare I say, it’ll happen in the Flash game sponsorship market, too. You can’t stop a goldrush, even if you can predict one.”

Indies, Business | No Comments »

Here’s another essay of mine for The Escapist, out this week. It questions why so many games use death as the main consequence for failure. In keeping with the week’s theme of indie games, I’ve pointed out a few examples (Passage, Karoshi and Urban Dead) that use character death for completely different means, instead of the usual die-and-respawn model.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the article, though it was a real challenge to avoid turning it into an essay on video game violence, lest my original intent be tainted. You can see in the forums, however, that there’s a consequence to leaving that stone unturned — people still think of video games in terms of shooting everything that moves and slaying villains before they kill you, and in this context the die-and-retry model still makes a lot of sense, so people have mixed feelings on whether death-as-failure works.

But ultimately, violence is another convention that needs to change. Indeed, my appreciation for Karoshi and Passage deserve praise for punking that mode of play as well.

Newman, Indies, Urban Dead, Violence | No Comments »

Instead of going to bed on time, I just finished playing through Karoshi 2.0, the title derived from the Japanese for “death by overwork.”

Each level of this game contains one way to commit suicide, and the player must find it to advance. At its simplest, you jump on some spikes, explode, and respawn elsewhere. After a few stages, though, Karoshi takes a diabolical turn and repeatedly tries new ways to mess with you. There aren’t many examples I can divulge without spoiling everything, but at one point the game feigns exiting to Windows before popping back on and reminding you it was just kidding.

Indies, Free games, Violence | No Comments »

I got to this blog, Magical Wasteland, via GameSetWatch. For a guy who works for an indie game developer, the author writes regularly on game journalism, and a fair number of game journalism heavyweights comment accordingly.

Up there currently: The trouble with New Games Journalism, press burnout, common game magazine cliches and some fun with typos on Gamespot.

Indies, Media | No Comments »

The Internet (or at least the quadrants I run in) is abuzz with news that Target, the major retailer, is carrying a line of T-shirts with logos from experimental video games. What’s more, each shirt comes with a copy of the game.

Kevin Allen Jr. (who I linked up there) points out that the shirts are made by EGPApparel, which seems related to the Experimental Gameplay Project. I was vaguely aware of titles like “Tower of Goo” and “Gravity Head” before, but this should prove the catalyst for me to check them out while supporting the cause. To Target!

UPDATE 4/26/08: I went to Target on 225th Street in the Bronx the day I posted this. There were no shirts and the few employees I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about. Figures.

Indies, Games as Art, Free games | No Comments »

I had the distinct pleasure this week of playing Knytt Stories, a free game by Swedish developer Nifflas. The best description I read (can’t recall where) classified it as a non-violent Metroid, and the game hits a soft spot with me because it was created with Clickteam software, with which I tinkered during many of my teenage years.

This inspired me to research the author a little bit, leading me to an interview with Nifflas at Planet Freeplay that I found interesting. In one query, the interviewer laments the popularity of eye candy in commercial video games, and Nifflas responds:

Yeah, unfortunately. On the other hand, to me games are not that much about the gameplay though but more about the ambiance and atmosphere. Commercial games don’t often have much of that either (at least not an atmosphere that’s particularly unique for the game). To me, the atmosphere is all about the sound, graphics, and music but it doesn’t have to do with the actual sound quality or detailed high-resolution textures.

Conventional wisdom on this subject often splits into two camps: those that favor gameplay above all, and those that marvel over how much dynamic lighting you can fit on the screen. Nifflas appears to eschew both in favor of aesthetic. Granted, I think the gameplay in Knytt Stories is superb and the graphics aren’t so special, but the atmosphere really makes the game sing. Little snippets of music highlight new surroundings, and the minimalist nature of the scenery and sound give Knytt Stories a subdued but relaxed feel.

Indies, Free games | No Comments »

It’s been a good day all around. My story for The Escapist on Eric Zimmerman’s crossover appeal was published today. I first interviewed Zimmerman for one of my final assignments at NYU nine months ago, and it was not published. This version has more voices and more polish, and I’m glad to see it out there finally.

Although The Escapist lets me write at length, there were still plenty of anecdotes and ideas that I had to let go. I did, at one point, follow Zimmerman to Shaolin Kung Fu class, which he regularly attends. And I had some great conversations on game design with several sources. I’ve thought about posting some notes here, and I may once I get settled.

That is, I just moved into a new apartment, and there’s lots of room to sit around and play video games. I just need a few hours to set everything up.

Also of note, my post on Telespiel’s most influential games list was linked on GameSetWatch. I was sorta hoping that would happen after I posted the link as a commenter, but still, nothing better than getting a shout out from one of your favorite blogs.

With things settling down after the move and my recent freelance work, I’m ready to focus more on the blog again. That means more Random Game Ideas, some Arbitrary Lists and a few rants, plus I’ll be looking into new freelance opportunities. So for my non-commenting non-readers out there, keep on keeping on. Or speak up, even. Clearly I need to go to bed.

Newman, Indies | No Comments »

Joystiq reminds that The Independent Game Rating System has been overhauled, but they fret that a self-rating honor system could lead to abuse and scandal.

GameTunnel’s writers review games for nothing other than a free copy of the game. Surely, there must be a similar group who’s willing to do the same thing for a ratings board. Granted, it isn’t as cool as a byline, but it’s also less work. Self-regulation is better than nothing, but that’s about it.

I do think that worrying about an indie game scandal is a little silly. That scene has already had one (Super Columbine Massacre RPG), and I think it’s stronger for it.

Indies | No Comments »