Mike-Brinker.com

There are quite a few good games being created out there in the Indie scene that are free to play and have some great moments/elements to them.  More and more I am starting to see a trend, a trend in the direction that these games actually speak very deeply to the player, having more to say than just “save the princess” or “destroy anything in site”.  I happened to run into one such title a few days ago and really needed to share with you all the complexities of it.  Not only does it say a whole lot, but it encompasses a standard game play methodology that speaks as loudly as the actual theme of the story.  It’s called, “Every day the same dream” and it requires you to only progress through a series of choices that speak volumes about life and your path through it.  I can’t help but wonder how this game came about; what the author was thinking and why they chose what they chose.  The game is rather simple, has a nice visual style and implores the use of only the arrow keys and the space bar.  What you find out as you play is that routine and monotony are the enemy, and that your only salvation is to search, look and try different things in order to break free and understand.  This simple connection between adventure game mechanics and the idea that life is only interesting and meaningful when you take the less traveled road is up for some debate but I found the point to be immensely, if not overwhelmingly, powerful as it relates to me and my own life.

Sit down, relax and let yourself go with this one.  It’s well worth it in the end.  Hats off to the music and the graphical style.

I would have to say that I was reminded heavily of Daniel Benmergui’s work, especially his “Today I Die” game.  His work is a bit more poetical…a bit more out of the box and requires a deeper reason to stay connected to the work for longer amounts of time.  However, there is still a wonderful journey there, even if you can’t figure out what to do in the meantime.

There are some powerful things going on here, and I can only hope the Indie scene continues on that trend.  And I hope the mainstream picks up on it, implements it, and moves it forward so that games as a commercial endeavor can also become ones that actually say something meaningful; thus changing the way pop culture looks at interactive media.

Great little post on NY mag I found regarding menu’s in restaurants.   This one covers the higher priced places but references some chain restaurant tricks as well.  I always knew there was a lot of pscycology behind advertisments in general but I hadn’t thought about the structure of a menu in a restaurant and how it contains all kinds of wonderful little tricks.  Give it a look over, I think you’ll find it interesting.  Oh, and apparently this is an excerpt from a book that will be coming out this year entitled

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)

Read more: Author William Poundstone Dissects the Marketing Tricks Built Into Balthazar’s Menu — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/62498/#ixzz0cAp0ckWi

I think what is so fascinating about the article is not necessarily the content but what it implies about restaurant hierarchy and what the “do’s and don’ts” are of each tier.  My head is filled with images of a caste type system for the structure of restaurants; societal in nature.  I can see the higher priced cuisine restaurants that carry specialty items on the menu just sneering down at the chain food restaurants and their despicable habits, while the chains are looking at themselves with pride, touting a better, more healthy meal than those bottom of the barrel fast food joints.  And what do they have to look down on?  Taco trucks?  Street Vendors?  Sometimes those 2 am street vending hotdog guys can give you a run for your money there, Mr. Snooty fancy-pants restaurants!  Oh if only walls and carts could talk…

I found this noteworthy during work this week so I thought I might pass along the information.  Working in games and rapidly prototyping them on a PC using Flash has always brought up the difficulty of user input, which is mostly left to the keyboard and mouse.  As a game designer, it’s really necessary sometimes to use a joystick for input when testing certain types of games.

Not too long ago, Microsoft has added support for plugging in an Xbox 360 controller into your windows enabled PC.  With a few mouse clicks, the drivers are automatically downloaded and installed.  Viola, a gamepad that works on your PC as well as your console.  But what about using it for Flash to control flash enabled games?  This has always been a problem and still continues to be a pain.  However, some smart joe has cooked up some code that allows you to use your 360 controller to it’s fullest potential in the Flash IDE.  Behold, I give you Simon Joslin’s 360 gamepad server!  This gem of software development allows for full control of all parts of the joystick in either the Flash IDE or in AS3.  He even included a sample .fla file in order to show you the commands to call in your flash scripts and to test that his work actually works!  It requires three simple things and a C# app that runs in the background.  Not too shabby.  Here’s to Simon for his work, and we are all anxiously awaiting support for using this gem while running standalone .swf’s!  That can’t come soon enough.

And if that doesn’t float your boat, there’s always the great fall back JoytoKey that I”ve been using for a long time now.  Program your flash app as usual with keystrokes from the keyboard…run this simple exe file called JoyToKey and map all those keys to the buttons and viola, you have your joystick working properly (for the most part) in flash!

Yes, if video games were to mimic the drug crack cocaine and it’s lethality/addiction, this game would be it. Yes, it’s an XBLA game, but sometimes big fun comes in small packages. And sometimes those packages grab a hold of your life and yank it around by it’s proverbial testicles.

For those of you who don’t know what this game is about, it’s a physics game involving a guy on a moto-cross style motorcycle. His job is to get from point A to point B, doing so in a straight line. There is no third dimension to the game play, it’s straight up 2D side scrolling goodness with a bunch of 3D elements surrounding it. Sounds simple, right? Let me throw this at you though, basically the motorbikes wheels and shocks are physics based (springs) and you get control of the gas, brake and weight of your racer (forward and backward weight of the dude). The game is a royal scream and it begs the attention of just about anyone who liked Excite Bike or stunt games with physics. Caution: this game goes from racer to puzzler VERY quickly, and there is no mercy or warning when it does so. Track racing nuts beware, this game is fun, but in a different kind of way than trying to lap your opponent. But for you time junkies, all the rewards are there for beating it under certain conditions, and of course their are leader boards to back up your claims.

The origins of this game are kind of tricky, as I’ve traced it back to as far as 2004 over at miniclip.com where it made it’s debut. Now it’s in it’s second iteration there and I’ve heard stories that it’s also on steam, but I haven’t checked that out yet. Thank god it made it’s way to a dynamite HD platform with proper controls.

I happen to have gotten my grubby mitts on an early developer version of the game before it’s release, and I must say it is an absolute gem of a title already. The game is tuned well and graphically spit shined for an arcade game. It’s major update is a nice 2.5 D look much like my other favorite XBLA title BC ReArmed. The game plays really smooth and the controls are finally given justice, two analogue triggers and an analogue joystick to round out the play experience. I don’t know what Matos was thinking when he reviewed it, but the controls on a PC keyboard have always sucked. Anything analogue is what you want for this game And that’s really all you need, as this game goes from fun to addictive in seconds flat.

Favorite parts of this game include the many explosive items in the tracks, the insane stunts, the full blow track editor, driving around on fire and well, just the whole darn thing! Don’t believe me? Just watch this trailer and tell me you don’t think this game is out of control fun. And here is a wmv if you want it TrialsHD-Trailer-720.wmv

UPDATE 8/17/09: It’s out! Go get it now! Very fun!