Earthling Priorities Launched!

It's been years, I know, but Earthling Priorities has finally been launched for Windows! Sporting the wonderful music of Chris Christodoulou, the excellently animated pixel art of Daniele Giardini, and the coding devilry of Jim Spanos, I must admit I'm really happy with this short, silly, and sci-fi adventure game. I believe you will be so too. It might even make you laugh, and it will definitely change the way you see doors.

Play it here. It's freeware.

An Earthling Update Of Priorities

I realize now that I originally announced Earthling Priorities back in May 2014. I also realize that this was almost three years ago, that time does fly by even things do not go well, and that the game should have been released ages ago. But, life is relentless, and even though Daniele created dozens of lovely animation frames, Chris composed some utterly amazing music, and James quickly coded a proper demo, I simply failed to find the time to bring this project to conclusion.

Yes, making games is indeed hard, adventure games even harder, and it was only sometime during the end of 2016 when I finally managed to bring all Earthling Priorities related  procrastination to an end. The puzzle design has now been updated, new animations have been prepared and implemented, descriptions have been added, the flow of the game has been improved, and I've almost finished writing all of the dialog. Provided nothing explodes, I will actually be emailing James before the weekend with all sorts of things for him to add to the game.

By the time he's done, I'll have hopefully edited most of the texts one more time, completed a few relatively minor tasks, and prepared the required sound effects. Or, well, most of them. Add in a bit of testing, some polishing, a few re-writes, a couple extra builds, and I'm certain this nice little adventure game will soon be available for all to download. For free of course. 

Estimated launch date: sometime before the summer of 2017!

(crosses fingers)

Out of the blue and Into The Basilica

Sometimes my brain works in mysterious ways. Some other times the poor thing gets hopefully confused, and on even rarer occasions it decides people should have free access to the Into The Basilica: Revisited PDF. Why? Well, because I think it's a nice little booklet I had fun putting together, and because it's a document oozing misguided pre-launch optimism. Oh, and it's not been available anywhere else since that one time it appeared as a Bundle In A Box bonus.

Also, the pictures in it are interesting, as are the words. Apparently and for some incredibly odd reason I still have fond memories of the making of Droidscape: Basilica too...

Progress Harder with Workers In Progress: Special Edition

I announced it a while back and it finally happened. Huzzah! Just like that and in the most magical of ways possible the brand new WIP is here and it's no longer a WIP, so, please, do take a moment to welcome and several to play Workers In Progress: Special Edition - Progress Harder. The definitive be-the-working-class-of-Greece simulation and, thanks to the amazing twine-powers of lectronice, a truly beautiful and polished text-based game.

But looks and fancy typography are not all that's changed. I've actually edited and partly re-written most of the game which, handily, can now be played in English, French (translated by EnsembleVide), Turkish (translated by Işık Barış Fidaner) and Spanish (translated by Pablo Martínez). Oh, and there's still a book suggestion for every ending you reach!

WIP:SE-PH can be played online on philome.la or downloaded from a variety of sources to be enjoyed off line and in the browser of your choice.

Reminder: I could really use your support via Patreon in order to survive long enough to make more indie gaming (and gaming in general) words and, of course, actual games and things. Thanks! 

The Paradise of Issyos, Priorities and Progress

Two freeware games I'm most proud to have helped with have been released and that, dear reader, does make me rather happy. Here you can download Locomalito's excellent arcade platformer The Curse of Issyos and here you can play the Greek version of educational/political/strategy twine The Paradise of Debt (Ο Παράδεισος του Χρέους). I did come up with the Greek names for monsters and things for the former and translated the latter. 

Now that you know, I suppose it's time for me to get back to finishing Workers In Progress SE: Progress Harder which is almost done and looking way better than I expected it to and Earthling Priorities which has stalled again but is really close to release.

Let's Tell A Story Together

Words can do amazing things. Beautiful things. Ageless things. And though interactive words haven't yet managed to surpass the things static, printed words have accomplished --which is only natural for a particular sort of words that has been around for mere decades-- they have managed to create a more literary, more engaging and, usually, more demanding genre of gaming: interactive fiction. Or text adventures, but let's not argue terminology here.

Jimmy Maher does after all cover terms and definitions brilliantly at the beginning of his 2006 book Let's Tell A Story Together (A History of Interactive Fiction). Actually, Mr. Maher does an impressive job of getting you all excited about interactive words, introducing you to the many charms and idiosyncrasies of the parser, the intricacies of designing text adventures and even a more or less complete history of interactive fiction and its evolution.

From the late seventies and Adventure to Infocom's golden era and contemporary interactive fiction, Maher's book really does save me the trouble of doing anything beyond suggesting you read it. Read it even you've never dabbled with a parser in your life, read it if you have always loved the genre and, by all means, read it if you are an interactive fiction author. 

Let's Tell A Story Together, besides being well written and thoroughly researched, offers unique insights into defining text adventures and a comprehensive approach that covers over 30 years of parser driven gaming. Handily, it's also generously available for free both as an online hypertext and downloadable ebook.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• An Interview with Robb Sherwin
• Arcadia: A Pastoral Tale
• Love, Hate and the Mysterious Ocean Tower
• Get Lamp: A DVD Review

Fantasy Freeware Frolicking For Fun

Now, if everyone would kindly ignore my pathetic attempts at alliteration, I'd be more than happy to let my faithful reader know that my Freeware Annarian Games list has been updated. Yes, again, and you can find all the new freebies that made it in right where you'd expect them to be. Right among them older ones.

But, as this is neither the first nor the last addition to the list, there really doesn't seem to be a point in writing this very post, does it? Shockingly, it does.

First of all, I'd like to make sure you know the list is constantly being updated with the best freeware stuff I can find and, secondly, this freeware talk is the perfect chance for me to let you know that I've started writing for Rock Paper Shotgun. Yes! Woohoo! I'm doing a daily column called Freeware Garden which, you guessed it, is all about the best free games for the PC and I believe you'll love it reader.

Oh, and what with the humble but crucial support I've been getting via Patreon I'm still contributing articles to both Warp Door and IndieGames.com.

Now you know. 

BITBITJam and the Classic Hardware Freebie Indies

Jams are a lovely thing. A varied thing also and even the one jam I never expected to see happen, well, happened. It's the BITBITJam and it tasked developers with creating games for actual, vintage machines. Not retro-inspired games, that is, but games that would run on your very real, rather old, most probably dusty ZX Spectrums and Sega MegaDrives.

And lo, 10 brand new freeware games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Sega MegaDrive, Nintendo Game Boy and MSX have been released! Download them all here.

The Speccy is a bit over-represented, which is always a good thing, and has gotten itself five offerings, followed by the MegaDrive with two, while the other platforms got one (lovable) game each. As for me, I only tried a few of said offerings, really loved Conspiralove and Leovigildo's Murcian Conspiracy and am aiming to play through the rest of said entries as soon as possible.

Mind you, in order to play everything, you will probably need several of these handy emulator thingies: WinApe (Amstrad CPC), ZX Spin (ZX Spectrum), BGB (GameBoy), blueMSX (MSX) and Kega Fusion (MegaDrive).

Reminder: I could really use your support via Patreon in order to survive long enough to make more indie gaming (and gaming in general) words and things. Thanks! 

The Extremities of Alpha: Pike & Shot

Alphas are, generally speaking, not particularly enjoyable bits of gaming code. Yes, they can show all the promise in the world and maybe even hint at greatness, but, unless I'm playtesting something for a close friend, I do tend to avoid them. And I rarely suggest people try them out.

Unless, that is, we are speaking of the (currently Windows only) alpha of Pike & Shot by James Edward Smith, which I frankly believe is worth everyone's time. It's still little more than a decent looking prototype mind you, but the core gameplay mechanics that have been implemented so far are way too enjoyable to ignore. You get to directly command a unit consisting of pike-men and musketeers in a tactical arcade game pitting you against all sorts of enemies, each requiring a different approach.

Moving around the battlefield and choosing when to shoot and when to protect your missile troops is both satisfying and an impressive evolution of the North & South battle mechanics; a fine reflexes/strategy balancing act. A balancing act I seem to keep repeating over and over apparently.

And as Pike & Shot already looks pretty much okay with its cute pixel-men and there are a ton of things that can be added and/or fine-tuned, I know I'll be keeping an eye out for it. Hopes are high! 

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• VVVVVV: Make and Play edition
• Workers in Progress
• The 8-bit Lawless Legends RPG
• The best Monkey Island possible

VVVVVV: the creatively free Make and Play Edition

Don't know if you remember the happy days dear reader... The days when we both didn't have a care in the world and the sun was shining. The days during which I went on and in the most careless of fashions made a little VVVVVV level called Nasty Drop. Remember how we laughed at the hairy invader? Remember how many times you died making that vertical dive?

No? Oh, well. Still, those were the days indeed, though thankfully Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV remains an exquisite platformer and, even better, one that has just been ported to iOS, Android and Ouya.

More importantly, you can now enjoy a certain edition of VVVVVV for absolutely nothing. Granted, it may be a build lacking the brilliant level design, silly plot and demented rooms, but it also happens to be one  wisely focused on unleashing your creativity. It isn't called VVVVVV: Make and Play Edition for nothing; it's a freeware version of VVVVVV for Windows, Mac and Linux that includes only the game's level editor and some of the better community created offerings.

It is thus an excellent and incredibly easy to use tool, that will let you use and manipulate the VVVVVV engine in order to craft your own small games, try out platforming ideas, possibly remake Manic Miner and experiment with designs before sharing your creations with the world. Here's a lovely tutorial to get you started!

Reminder: I could really use your support via Patreon and survive long enough to make more indie gaming (and gaming) words and things. Thanks!

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• A shining VVVVVV review appears...
• Current project: Earthling Priorities
• The 8-bit Lawless Legends
• Droidscape: Basilica making-of

Avaus Text Adventure -- So you wish to become a mighty software developer?

Certain cautionary tales do have to be circulated it seems, if only to save those poor starry-eyed children from a dark and desperate future. But, let's not start by discouraging those young, creative people, shall we?

Better have a go at the free, browser-based Avaus Text Adventure instead; the one subtitled "So you wish to become a mighty software developer?". It's simple, highly enjoyable, plays like a proper piece of interactive fiction and sports some delightfully lighthearted dev stereotypes. Oh, yes, and several extremely well-designed puzzles that are definitely worth your time. Also, after spending over an hour with the thing, I haven't finished it yet, so please do let me know if it's as good as it seems.

Workers In Progress - a work in progress

The first months of 2014 have been the worst in my life and that, dear reader, was the main reason I haven't been able to write on Gnome's Lair and let you know about my latest game: Workers In Progress. A political simulation set in Greece that plays like a choose your own adventure.

Workers In Progress is part of the Fear of Twine exhibition, which was organized and curated by Richard Goodness; an exhibition sporting 14 games created with Twine and includes such varied masterpieces as TWEEZER, The Girl In The Haunted House, The Matter of the Great Red Dragon, Abstract State-warp Machines,  Zombies and Elephants and Truth is Ghost. Fear of Twine will be live until April 18, 2014.

As for my game, Workers In Progress, it is still not really finished and thus appropriately WIP. The basic skeleton of the political simulation is there and you do get to play as the Greek working class and make big, meaningful choices, but things really have to be done. It still lacks in characterization, needs quite a bit of writing and could certainly do with more choices. Hopefully, I'll have a final version ready within this very month.

[UPDATE :] With Fear Of Twine over, here's a temporary version of Workers In Progress.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Droidscape: Basilica
• The making of ZX Spectrum R-Type
• The Laffer Utilities ver.4.01
• Dan Marshall of Size Five Games

It's Behind You: The Making of ZX Spectrum R-Type

Coding on the ZX Spectrum was tough. As was creating decent art and making sure everything moved along at a respectable pace, and that's why a mere glimpse of R-Type running on Sinclair's humble 8-bit was more than enough to drop jaws all around Europe. The thing felt arcade perfect and quite frankly unbelievable, and that's why said conversion is considered one of the machine's finest, while casually finding itself in all sorts of best-of-all-time Speccy lists. 

Finally, you are about to find out how (then) bedroom coder Bob Pape managed to pull it off by reading his just released ebook It's Behind You: The Making of a Computer Game. The 138 pages long book is surprisingly well written, filled with all sorts of information, artwork, ads, bits of code, designs and, well, the complete lowdown on R-Type. Interestingly, you'll also find quite a few words on the Rampage conversion and the whole Spectrum era in there too.

A brilliant and most enlightening read indeed and a freeware PDF you simply have to download! Oh, and do not forget to check out those lovely book extras too.

Silent Hill: Genesis finds its scary, visual novel self on Sega's 16-bit console (!)

In an era when 3D graphics scared artists left and right and console storytelling was in its early infancy, Silent Hill managed something utterly impressive: it was interesting and atmospheric. It felt right and more than a bit scary, and promptly went on to become such a commercial and critical success as to be nowadays considered a classic.

I, having only played three hours into the thing, am sadly in no position to seriously discuss such a lofty status, though I can happily inform you that you can now play Silent Hill: Genesis on your Sega Genesis/Megadrive (something that would probably involve a lot of technical trickery) or your Sega 16-bit emulator of choice. For that I would suggest you grab the incredibly handy Gens.

As for Silent Hill: Genesis, it is a most interesting, freeware and properly indie adaptation of obscure GBA visual novel Silent Hill: Play Novel using story and graphical assets from the original Silent Hill. Yes, it's pretty weird and definitely not a gameplay extravaganza, but it also is an obvious labour of love and way more enjoyable than I expected it to be.

You can grab it from this lovely place, though do keep in mind it's still in beta. Haven't run into any problems myself, but we all know how finicky betas can be, don't we?

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The best Monkey Island games possible
• Free Vintage Gaming Magazines
• Eye^Game^Candy: Perihelion
• Interview with Mark Jones

Forget that Norton guy; it's The Laffer Utilities Ver. 4.01!

Nowadays nobody seems to remember neither them PC Tools nor those over-priced Norton Utilities we  all used to install in order to have our PCs actually come close to doing stuff, and I frankly do not particularly miss this part of the era. On the other hand, you can't really complain when you are 14, even if the only Sierra product you can afford are the obscure Laffer Utilities. The Laffer Utilities Version 4.01 to be precise; a set of wacky little programs promising to make themselves handy "for everything you do at the office that has nothing to do with work".

Of course being 14 I couldn't really appreciate this kind of humour nor find any particular use for fax covers. An office sounded, well, it sounded implausible at best and, admittedly, Mr. Lowe's jokes aren't always what I'm looking for, but, still... Hey, I actually managed to have fun with the Laffer Utilities.

I printed silly signs filled with the bits The Office writers chose to cut, tried to entertain my parents with semi-randomly generated tabloid-esque headlines, gawked at the brilliantly drawn and incredibly vivid low-res 16-colour graphics and even fooled around with the rudimentary parser-driven AI that answered all questions with a selection of five catch-all phrases. In a desperate effort to squeeze even more fun from said piece of counter-productivity software (it really, really, wasn't suited for my age) I even tried to organize my friends' phone numbers into Larry's database, all the while wondering what on earth a betting pool is.

Ah, yes, good times.

Somewhat surprisingly, I quite enjoyed myself for far too many hours with the thing and Larry's non-gaming offering is something I still remember fondly. I regularly re-open its filled-to-the-brim box and browse the manual to this day. What's more, the complete set of the Laffer Utilities has been made available by Al Lowe himself and you can download it for free over at his radically updated site.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The best Monkey Island possible
• Interview with Steve Ince
• Quest in Space with them Space Quest Remakes
• The Adventures of Willy Beamish

Scrolls, Lists and Freeware Games

So, yes, it did have to happen. After years of playing through hundreds of free games and after writing about dozens of the things, well, the time has come for me to finally set up a nice and update-able list with the best of the lot or, to be precise, those I enjoyed the most. Have a look and worry not; more playable freebies will be added to it.

Analog Investigations in Arkham

Deduction, despite what Sherlock Holmes would have you believe, is not a science. It's a method. A method that could arguably make the life of all fictional investigators much easier and can definitely be applied to board-games as the classic Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective so effortlessly proved over 30 years ago. What's more, deduction is what you'll be using when playing the freshly released and rather excellent Arkham Investigator.

Designed by Hal Eccles, Arkham Investigator is a board game you can download, print and play for free, either solo or with up to 9 more people (preferably friends or at the very least attractive members of whichever sex/sexes you find attractive). Heavily inspired by the Sherlock Holmes game, Arkham Investigator is all about gathering clues and piecing together what happened in each of its cases; a process that requires quite a bit of thought, patience and no luck whatsoever. 

You'll get to explore Lovecraft's Arkham, read newspapers, contact allies, dive into directories and try to prove yourself to Dr. Armitage by solving cases and figuring out mysteries, all the while trying to avoid shanity-shattering dangers and limiting the resources used.

The first (and currently only) case released, A Grain of Evil, is a fine and engrossing showcase of what Arkham Investigator is all about. It comes with an investigation book and an edition of fictional newspaper Arkham Advertiser and managed to provide me and a couple of friends with roughly two hours of excellent gaming time.

Oh, and the closest thing to an official website I managed to come across was the Arkham Investigator facebook page, which is where news and whatnot get posted.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Not a review of Dreadfleet
• GW's Space Hulk
• Maziacs: The Boardgame
• Steal Away Jordan

The Strange, Stylish & Endlessly Running Tale Of The Button Affair

Do you remember The Cat That Got The Milk and what it did with/to Kandinsky? Excellent! The Button Affair has absolutely nothing to do with it, apart from the fact that it's vaguely in the same wide genre of action games, looks absolutely stunning itself and is the work of the very same, very talented developers. As a further way to differentiate itself from its predecessor it even sports a plot that goes a bit like this:

The Button Affair is the story of Enzo Gabriel. His quest. To steal the priceless Button Jewel from the infinitely wealthy business tycoon Victor Meirelles.

Yes, that definitely does sounds like something taken straight from a '70s action movie and is perfectly complemented by the game's beautifully stylized visuals that can't help but remind me of the elegant aesthetics of Another World. Just have a look at this trailer and you'll see for yourself dearest reader:

Oh, and if you simply have to know, The Button Affair is one of those fashionable runners that seem to be cropping up everywhere. Only not boring. And actually enjoyable. And very well done too. Also, innovative. Helps charity too and will happily run on both Mac and Windows PCs.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Thomas Was Alone But Got Reviewed
• The 2011 AGS Awards
• Let a Thousand Free Games Bloom
• A Size Five Games Interview

How to Contact Press & Entertain the Possibility of Feeding Your Indie Self

If you are an indie developer and aren't aware of the excellent online resource that is Pixel Prospector, you are seriously missing out. It's a true goldmine of information and inspiration, it is. What's more, the Pixel Prospector has compiled an invaluable little PDF booklet about contacting the press: the aptly named How To Contact Press. A free offering I can't help but endorse, as it simply makes sense and covers everything from press releases and press emails to who to contact and how to organize a press kit. Invaluable really!

Kicking it off again with Agent Trinity - The Ultimatum

The Ultimatum, Agent Trinity - Episode 0 - The Ultimatum to give it its full name, is an AGS game crafted for the experimental gameplay project. Now, as this month's experimental competition was all about the manipulation of time, Agent Trinity has you literally manipulating a clock; the ultimate time measuring device. By turning its hour hand two hours back into the PAST no less!

Yes, this is a funny little game indeed and LostTrainDude definitely knows his humour. Apparently, he knows his point-and-click/stealth hybrids too, which is definitely a good thing.