Game Cities: The Motionless City

Did you know that I spent over 10 years of my adult life almost exclusively studying cities, urban planning, the geography of cities and urbanism? Well, it's absolutely true. I even have the PhD, papers and teaching experience to prove this and, to cunningly and swiftly change the subject, as I've always been fascinated by those intricate, built manifestations of society and loved working on games, I've decided to bring the two together. My first attempt was that ambitious City RPG that's been --to put it mildly-- put on hold, but now more things are afoot.

I've already started consulting on city matters and exercising my fantasy urban planning skills for an amazing indie project I cannot say much about (yet), am actively looking for more work of the sort and have even slowly began organizing a book about the crafting of cities and settlements for games.

What's more, I thought it might be a nice idea to start writing a few simple articles about games and cities. Or even about the principles of urban planning that can be applied to level design. About storytelling via the built environment. Then again, a series of articles might be too time consuming to be a great idea after all. We'll just have to see how that goes I suppose, as I'm in no position to make any promises. For now, let me attempt a first take at an article of the sort.

Eye^Game^Candy: Life and Death

It may have been released across all major computer gaming formats and may have looked impressive on the Amiga, but it was always the CGA, MS-DOS version of Life and Death I considered the more appropriate. Its garish colours had an uncanny ability to make the subject matter just a little bit more disturbing to turn each operation into an exercise in bloody horror, whereas the PC beeper powered scream was simply unparalleled in its other-worldliness. Oh, yes, and this was actually the version I've always owned and loved complete in its magnificent box with the surgical mask and that brilliantly written The History of Surgery book. 

Find out more about Life and Death on MobyGames and Abandonia.

The City and the RPG That Never Were

I have been mentioning a certain RPG on and off for the past 15 or so months and have been working on it for longer than that, but it apparently just wasn't meant to be. Not yet at least and, shockingly, due to the very same reasons the wise Jonas Kyratzes was afraid of, but, admittedly, that's indie development you. There's always a chance you'll spend hundreds of hours for absolutely nothing.

Even more so if you are not a programmer and/or do not have access to several thousand dollars, euros, pounds, doesn't-really-matters.

Despite the fact that I am capable of fully comprehending this harsh reality, it remains incredibly disheartening to see such an ambitious and promising project simply die. Despite all the days poured into it and the brilliantly talented people that never gave up on it, the Kyttaro or City RPG as people used to call it will most probably never happen.

All I can do, after over a year of pre-production, countless pages worth of words, dozens of sketches and almost two prototypes, is attempt to give you an idea of what would have been and, in a way, preserve the game's memory. It was pretty important to me, you see, and having it cancelled almost made me give up games entirely, but, well, I do at least hope you'll find reading about the RPG-that-never-was interesting.

The Watchful Indie Watch #16.10

Now, that's more like it game dev dears. A healthy but not overwhelming week of new and intriguing indie things, that's managed to include a healthy mix of genres, styles and ideas.

On the retro-esque side of things, here's a little something I haven't played: That Dam Level. It's obviously TMNT and NES inspired and is cheap enough to be worth the risk.

On the generally sparsely populated adventure-platformer-RPG side of thing on the other hand we have Wanderer. It's seeking funding on Kickstarter and looking stunning.

Tale of Enders by Thunderware is way simpler. It's an ASCII maze exploration game and a refreshingly elegant one at that. Also, cheap.

Also, also, graveyard exploring, tombstone reading sim Boon Hill has been released and it's as fun as it doesn't sound. A very interesting and somber piece of gaming.

The Mooseman has appeared on Steam Greenlight. Looks wonderfully moody and has a shaman as its protagonist. I do love shamans.

Oh, and if you are looking for a seemingly addictive strategic-RPG-of-sorts-thingy, I suppose Templar Battleforce is worth checking out. Feels very Space Hulk-y and very good, though admittedly I've only played for an hour or so.

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!

Strolling through the texty fields of 2015 IF Comp

The 21st Interactive Fiction Competition, the aptly named 2015 IF Comp, has opened its virtual doors (to its titular virtual fields obviously) and you can now either download a single .zip archive containing all 55 --I think-- texty entries, or simply follow this link to the comp's games to download and play stuff individually. 

Many will work better online, some might require you type words, others will come with digital feelies and most parser-based ones should probably be played using an interpreter like the excellent Gargoyle, but, I know, you care not for the details.

You love your interactive fiction, crave text adventures and deeply appreciate CYOAs. You are my precious reader and it's this texty time of the year when you get to play, discuss and judge an excellent selection of i-f offerings. A selection that's so far proven so amazingly good, I couldn't help but think that an exhibition might be a better idea than a competition after all.

As for the games I've already played, well, I've been writing about them over at the Impish Words, Spirited Games page on facebook, though I do suppose I could edit and post some of those mini-reviews here. Actually, I just did:

The Watchful Indie Watch #9.10

Not much content posted on Gnome's Lair this week, I know, but not only have I been busy writing for IndieGames and Warp Door, but I've also been working on a rather huge article on that RPG that never was. You'll love it. Anyway. Here's the news:

Cyberpunk, pixel art adventure Read Only Memories has been released for  Windows, Mac and Linux and looks glorious and as close to Sega (Mega) CD Snatcher as we'll ever get. Haven't played it yet, but am looking forward to doing so very soon.

Shardlight has been announced by Wadjet Eye Games and it's a wonderfully post-apocalyptic game all about disease, death and hunger. Shardlight will be released sometime during the spring of 2016. The debut trailer's stunning too.

Prehistoric and suitably retro-like action platformer There Was A Caveman has made its debut on Steam. Love the pixel-art on this one.

And speaking of fresh releases on Steam, one simply has to mention Lumber Island - That Special Place for Windows. It is --quite obviously-- a first person horror thing.

Game of Drones is the latest update to excellent sci-fi explore-'em-up Duskers, that unsurprisingly focuses on drones. A list of additions and an appropriately nerdy video update have been released.

Arcade first-person shooter Devil Daggers has been announced and can already be glimpsed and voted for on Greenlight. It's being developed by Matt Bush of Dustforce fame and is looking decidedly '90s, which can only be a good thing.

Metroidvanias are also generally considered good things. You could go on and try creating your own with the pretty clever and aptly named Metroidvania Game Kit.

Memoranda is very close to becoming a magical reality point-and-clicker inspired by Murakmi's work. All it needs (and deserves) to make its stunning self a (magical) reality is a bit of Kickstarter support.

Bertram Fiddle, the colourfully nosed animated victorian adventure, is currently crowdfunding its second episode. Judging by the quality and humour of the first, this simply has to happen.

It's the month of the adventure gaming Kickstarter; that much is obvious. Here's the promising Demetrios - The Big Cyninal Adventure campaign and here's where you can vote for it on Steam Greenlight.

Oh, and now for one final Kickstarter campaign. This one has absolutely nothing to do with point-and-clicks. It's the cartoony RuGBoT and it's all about blasting things.

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!