One Excellent Textbook about Video Games

I read forty-four books this year, which is not as many as I have read in previous years. I read a lot of articles and blog posts about video gaming, but only two books about it (an indication of the location of all the hip criticism at the moment, I think, though Dan at Digital Ephemera has an impressive list). I've already told  you my thoughts on Extra Lives; this post is about Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction.

In short, I loved the book. It was easy to read and elucidated all the things I was confused about (including some a hint that Aarseth's taxonomy of interactive games is impractical, why didn't I think of that?). The game history section focused on the evolution of the form, being aware of the limitations of hardware but without getting caught up in a specs discussion. I also loved the chapter on narrative. The overview of video game "risks" seemed a little overly dichotomized (psychologists' research vs anthropologists', essentially), but it gave a good overview of the state of things (most research from psychologists oversimplifies the variable of "video game").

These guys really did their research! If you're overwhelmed by the amount of serious literature on video games, this book will have you covered for a while, though it does not cover current issues like the rise of the indie game and viral marketing things. It also has a disappointing amount of punctuation and sentence errors. Anyway, I liked this book so much that I wrote the only Amazon review for it (some small part of me is sad when good books like this go unnoticed). Hope you've had a great holiday!

Distributors other than Steam!

I love that Steam exists and that I can buy a game and probably own it forever (even if my hard drive gets wiped and my house burns down). However, lately I've noticed that some games I want to play (like Towns) aren't on Steam yet, and sometimes Steam misses out on non-American games (although if they get popular enough they usually get there in time). Here are three other digital distributors of games that keep coming up, which maybe you didn't already know about?

 

- Desura: The indie little sister of Steam. Also focuses on mods and a developer community.

-Playism: Japanese indie games. Well, many are not from Japan, but some are, including this little gem (ecological god game with charming art). Also, sometimes American games look cooler on Playism (And Yet it Moves takes on an air of foreign bizarreness).

-Good Old Games: They don't have everything, but they probably have one of those Windows '98 games that will never play on your computer again. Plus they are having a 50% off sale (that means Planescape: Torment is $5)!

Did a guest post over at Rampant Games on what indie games can do that bigger companies can't afford to do (usually)!

Update: IndieCity? Those prices are more my speed.

Update 10/30/2015: Desura is becoming unpopular now, and itch.io and the Humble Store are the new hip stores to get DRM-free indie titles. 

Sky Island is a difficult game that looks like Fez

I was poking around for good Christmas games (so far Sufjan Stevens' game is the only one worth mentioning) and I found Sky Island. Quite honestly, it looks like a prototype or clone of Fez (that one game from Indie Game: The Movie that still hasn't come out yet). Basically, you can only move in 2D space, but you can rotate this space. It is kind of mind-blowingly difficult for me. I think the concept of moving your camera and changing the landscape is cool, but so far I haven't been impressed with the game's teaching me how to navigate space.

I admit, most of the time if I get frustrated with a game I usually put it down. I like the idea of games gradually getting more difficult and teaching me to get better, though I concede that the whole Dark Souls difficulty discussion makes me wish I cared enough to persist through abusive games (oh, excuse me... games with a "Darwinian learning curve"). I think players need to feel some sort of attachment to a game before it throws something really difficult out there, which probably explains the whole boss-battle cycle. Anyway, some games are hard and I just give up.

List of indie games at Minecon

I've been searching the internet for a list to links of the indie games that were on display at Minecon, but I'm coming up empty-handed. So to make things easier for the world, I'll make my own list (I'll work off the indie theater schedule from the agenda, but I'm not sure if all the games were in it? And not all the games showing at the indie theater had displays, so, confusing). So, here's a buncha blurbs about indie games featured at Minecon.

The ones I saw/played:
Code Hero: A game that teaches you how to code. I love the idea; the game is still in development.
3D VVVVVV: Still difficult as heck.

At A Distance: I didn't get a chance to play it, and I couldn't really figure out what was going on by watching. Lots of abstract shapes and two players having to work together to do... something.
No Time to Explain: Kind of a silly, cartoony platformer. I admit, I was kind of put off by the art style.
Catapult for Hire: Looked like a pretty straightforward 3D physics puzzler (but maybe everyone was playing tutorial levels?). I think it gets cooler later on with story and adventure elements.
Dragon Fantasy: JRPG in a retro style for iOS, kinda like Cthulu Saves the World.
A Valley Without Wind: A metroid-like with procedurally generated levels.
Retro/Grade: A rhythm shooter compatible with guitar hero guitars where you can go back in time.


All the others:
Snapshot by RetroAffect: upcoming game about taking photos which looks cute.
Octodad: 3rd-person adventure about being a dad? I'm downloading it now.
Here Comes Launchman: retro-styled platformer with things you can stick to and throw, maybe?
Airmech by Carbon games: some kind of 3rd person shoot 'em up
Influence: another one of these zen games where you build up your little sphere to consume all other things.
Incredibots: A machine building game.
Retro City Rampage: retro-styled action parody game.
Frozen Synapse: A tactical game that has been pretty popular and was featured in the last indie bundle.
Zombie Grinder: I think the title sums it up.
Jesus vs. Dinosaurs: Make cars with tetris pieces, then run them together to see who wins. Oh and the playable characters are Darwin and God. I can't tell if I should be offended or not.

If you had a game at Minecon, leave a comment and I can add it to the list. Also, if you'd like me to review your game, feel free to e-mail me.

November Utah Indie Game Night

Indie game night tonight was at Wahoo's studio. Lee Baker from Sandman Studios gave a presentation. Sandman studios started out as a special effects company (they did the effects in Pushing Daisies), but it looks like now they've branched out into flash mini-games, children's picture books, and maybe animated movies. They do good stuff. He talked a lot about what they do and how they do it.

One of the interesting things about a visual effects studio is that they make a lot of bids on jobs, so they really have to know how much it costs to do certain things. To get backers for other projects, they have to prove they can do it and that their investors can get their money back somehow. I think with games you can see effective and ineffective pitches over at Kickstarter (I think the general concepts would apply to non-kickstarter pitches as well). I'd like to help make a game someday so I'm kind of fascinated by how you really have to have a good-looking prototype before you can get any money.

There were a couple of games there, including McKay's ongoing Flexitris project (super-customizable tetris), Siphon Spirit (an action game kind of like Osmos), and some other games. The guys who are working on Me and My Zombies were there and it was kind of fun to have already played the game and use the time to give/hear feedback.

I'm still trying to figure out how I want to cover indie game nights. I'd like to mention games as I find out about them and then review them when they're fairly complete, and I think Greg does a pretty good job archiving indie game night (which games appear when). Oh, and I've added photos to the Minecon posts.

MINECON

Enderdragon

Minecon! It was exhausting and fun. There were tons of kids and their families, as well as lots of nerdtastic people like me. Here are some highlights:

Friday:
-Getting C418's CD and autograph and hearing him and some other game composers talk about their work was pretty awesome. C4 takes kind of a coy position to things, but the other guys were very open about their work. Basically, they got started asking around to compose video game music and most people making games need music, so it works out.

-Another panel from game artists provided some insights into how their process works. For Scrolls, they cut apart their dudes and move around files in Flash to make running animations quickly. Cool.

-Right before the exhibit floor closed for the night the lines for things were actually manageable. I got to play the "dig through square blocks that look like Minecraft to find previous stones" game and buy loot from Jinx (Minecraft magnets! Fridge art!). 

won this keychain at the IGN booth

Saturday:
-I finished getting diamond stickers for my scavenger hunt entry form thing. Some of the diamonds were for doing cool things, but at least two of them were for signing up for a service online (blaah). The longest line after Jinx was probably the Curse booth, which took your photo with green screen and then gave you your diamond sticker. So, somewhere on the Internet is a photo with me, a Minecraft sword, and a creeper. I didn't win anything, but I had the full experience!

a completely random person with a Minecraft chicken

-I went to a panel where people talked about how Minecraft helped bring their family together. All anecdotal data of course, but interesting nonetheless. I might post about it more later, but Minecraft is nice for strengthening bonds because it lets people problem-solve and create together, in a shared space, and chat at the same time. There was also some comments about how Minecraft's lack of a tutorial forces kids to look things up online and promotes Internet literacy.

-I played Cobalt! It's a 2D platformer/shooter. It has some interesting mechanics. You can slow down time in a small radius around you and punch back bullets. You roll everywhere and depending on where in the roll you release the bomb or whatever, it goes further. I like the quirky/cute art style. That said... it is really hard. Hopefully in the final version they will have more tutorial things or something.

platform with switch for turning on Minecraft

-We decided to walk to the club from our hotel which was maybe a bad idea, but we got to see the strip at night. I wasn't dressed right for the club (apparently strapless miniskirt dresses are the way to go? I think they look terrible), and it was super crowded. I'm glad we went though. I guess I thought clubs were only in movies but it turns out they actually exist.

I'm not a super social person in line but I met some people and generally everyone was very nice. I'll put up photos to go along with everything later (there were some awesome decorations, including a nether dragon). I would have liked to hear more from Notch on a panel or something (he didn't participate in any of the developer panels), but it was pretty good to hear from all the other devs. Have a good Thanksgiving, and check out all the cool new stuff in Minecraft 1.0!

Minecon swag!

Me and my husband made it to Las Vegas and registered for Minecon! You know, the convention about Minecraft. All of the restaurants are ridiculously expensive but at least our hotel room is nice. We registered and got our official swag.

Anyway, here's what we got:
-creeper drawstring bag. Bright green and kind of iconic.

-Razor mousepad that looks like a dirt block with grass on it (I will totes use it).

-Minecraft paper crafts sponsored by Thinkgeek--which I think is genius of them as there are plenty of kids here who will like it (and me).

-Jones soda! 

-Exclusive in-game cape, but only if you register with XBLA through an xbox, which I don't own (sad face).
-Normal convention things like name badge, schedule, ads, etc.

There's an official afterparty at a nightclub this Saturday. And it says that the dress code is enforced, but nothing about what that dress code is. I've never been to a night club before, but it sounds like there's dancing and stuff, which could be cool, but my husband was like "it's just a glorified bar." Anyway, I might try it out if I can get in with my cardigan and skinny jeans.