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Trailer Review: Mightier

"At Mightier, we solve problems. We solve them with a high-powered laser beam fired from space."

How can you not get jazzed about that opening line?

Posted Feb 13 2009, 09:30 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: trailer review, cole stryker, indie games, mightier

Remember 2D adventure games in rich, 100% hand-drawn worlds? Yeah, I think the last one I played was The Curse of Monkey Island. It’s pretty safe to say that they don’t make them like that anymore.

Except for these guys, who do. And from the looks of things, they’re doing a bang-up job of it.

Posted Feb 05 2009, 10:30 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: trailer review, adventure, indie games, joe keiser, machinarium

The Writers Guild Isn’t the Only One Who Loves Dangerous High School Girls

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They’ve only been around for a year, but already I’m starting to really dig these Writers Guild of America Videogame Writing Awards. It’s not just because they’re real, professional writing awards for the stories that are told in games, though that’s something that’s been sorely needed. It’s also because they’re just so damned weird.

Maybe it’s because of the requirements necessary to be considered—not too many games writers are current or pending members of the WGA. Or maybe it’s the fact that the guild has historically been distant from the games industry, so it doesn’t have blinders focusing it on the same stuff as the gaming press. Whatever the reason, the results have been otherworldly; last year the award went to obscure PSP exclusive Dead Head Fred, beating out other games you would never expect to be considered for accolades, like Crash of the Titans and The Simpsons Game.

This year, most of the nominees are a little bit more pedestrian. Except for one, but that one couldn’t possibly be more from out of nowhere:

Posted Jan 14 2009, 01:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: indie games, joe keiser, writer's guild of america, dangerous high school girls in trouble, dead head fred

Life of D. Duck: Freeware on Acid

This post is going to require a little background info, so let me get that out of the way first. Bjørnar B. is an Internet-meme type thing that started in the early 00s; he's a fictional Norwegian teen who creates childish-yet-nightmarish drawings of Donald Duck and his family with bizarre, barely-English captions. Don't feel too out of the loop if you don't know about him; Bjørnar B. is pretty obscure unless you've been reading Something Awful (who originally hosted his site) for a long time.

That being said, if you enjoy Bjørnar's very specific and strange sense of humor, you may also enjoy his series of point-and-click adventures games that are best described as a fever dream version of Duckburg. The sequel to the original Life of D. Duck just came out, and Bjørnar was nice enough to provide the world with a trailer:

And if you're still confused and bewildered, perhaps Bjørnar's own breakdown of the story might help?

Help D. Duck in his quest to get Dasy to marry him. D Duck must get rid of Uncle Jubalon who is eating him out of his house, also ooie lui and devie escapes and D. Duck must save them.

The game is HERE. You will download it.

Posted Nov 03 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: indie dev moment, freeware, bob mackey, indie games, pc games, meme, point and click adventure games, life of d. duck, independent games

Yahtzee Says, Support Your Local Independent Developer (He's Right).

If you're 1) a gamer and 2) not insane, then one of your favourite all-time games is Cave Story. Cave Story was planned, designed and developed by one demigod, the radiant Pixel. One of the greatest games of all time came from two arms, two eyes and one brain.

Cave Story works so well because the graphics, sound, story and gameplay all compliment each other beautifully. But what if Pixel had proposed the title to, say, EA and had a hive mind work on the game? For starters, it would look and sound radically different because players today are all about the big noises and shiny things according to the Big Men In Charge (which is why Mega Man 9 has everyone leaping like dogs at a lambchop). The aesthetic shift alone would have sent Cave Story's delicate feng shui swirling down the toilet.

Yahtzee talks about the importance of indie games this week, specifically Braid on XBLA. His argument for indie titles against corporate titles is that too many cooks spoil the broth—or rather, too many faceless men in suits destroy the original intent. Sometimes we all need to step back and clear our heads with games that don't stray far from the man or woman who originally thought up the idea.

Posted Aug 27 2008, 06:42 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: yahtzee, zero punctuation, cave story, pixel, rant, atari 2600, braid, indie games, corporations

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.