Category: Games

Nathan Vella, host of the 2015 Independent Games Festival, closed out the awards show with a plea to the better side of everyone:

This past year has exposed a lot of hatred and some significant unpleasantness in our industry. As of tonight, there continues to be women, people of color, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer artists who are being trolled, and spammed, and threatened, and doxxed, and hacked, and even driven from their homes.

It’s no longer possible for those of us in this room to ignore or minimize these issues with our industry or these issues with our art.

I know you all believe it. I know you do.

Pause for applause.

But just as this year has exposed all that ugliness, it’s also exposed a new generation of creators and activists who are fighting for video games and video game culture. They’re fighting for us, the independent games community.

I really don’t think they want our gratitude at all. I think they need our support.

I think they need us to work together as a community to show people a new way to engage with each other and play.

So let’s all fight back against this hate the best way we know how: through our games, and through our teams, and through our collaborations.

Let’s make sure our games aren’t embodying any stereotypes or caricatures.

Let’s make sure as a community we are supportive of one another, and we are as welcoming as possible to any and all new voices.

To me, this really gets to the core of what it’s about to be an independent developer.

We don’t have any stock prices to fret over. We don’t have any entrenched political dogmas.

We own our art.

This gives us a real opportunity to be the change that we all want to see in this industry.

And I think that we can change, for the better, together.

We own our art.

Four small words that lay down a huge challenge.

While a number of people think that games are just for fun or for kids or shouldn’t be subject to grown-up criticism, games are important.

They have meaning imbued in them by their designers. The mechanics and aesthetics are communicating something about the world, and since games are interactive, it means the player is not only learning how to play the game but also to interact with the greater world.

While I don’t believe playing violent video games turns innocent children into killers, I do think that if the only interaction they are exposed to is “attack”, then it shouldn’t be surprising that people grow up to have trouble resolving conflicts.

Instead of figuring out how to create solutions to arguments or disagreements, people learn that destroying the opposition is the way to get results.

All that said, violent shooters or games played “just for fun” aren’t bad games. They are thankfully just one facet of the entirety of games, and having a healthy, diverse set of experiences allows for more well-rounded play, which should translate into more well-rounded players.

Now, I’m not saying I think games will bring love and kindness to everyone.

But knowing that there is a game about people who aren’t like me, and learning about the creators who aren’t like me, means I have a chance at learning about them as more than a stereotype, so when I meet people in real life I’m more likely to treat them as human beings worthy of dignity.

We own our art. What we create is our uncompromised vision of what we want to bring out to the world for others to experience.

What kind of vision of the world are you delivering to your players?

As someone with a full-time job and trying to work on a business on the side, I find that I don’t play as many games as a game developer probably should. Most of the games I have access to are many, many years old, so I’m a bit out of touch with the latest offerings from major publishers.

Most of the time, though, I don’t seem to miss it. There are plenty of indie and major publisher games that are available that I still haven’t played, so I’ve got quite the backlog to tide me over.

But some friends of mine were playing online regularly, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some quality time with them and also join my first MMO since playing Runescape about a decade or so ago.

Unfortunately, Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t available for Linux-based systems, and WINE support sounded like I could expect to install the game but not really find it playable.

What follows is basically me whining, so feel free to find a better use of your time.

I booted up Windows for the first time in over a year on my desktop system, and I start downloading the installer, which required setting up an account.

It turns out that it installs a launcher, which then patches itself by downloading for a bit. Soon, I’m able to…

…start retrieving the minimum download.

There is text that pops up to inform me that until the full game is downloaded, I can only play on the starter worlds. Ok, fine by me. I’m new to the game anyway.

Except, how do I start the game? The Play button is grayed out.

Then my system blue screens. I haven’t seen that color in a long time.

After rebooting, I find that the minimum download in progress is at negative 100%. After waiting and hoping it would resume from before, and after searching online for help, I found that rerunning the installer helped. I think it was downloading, but the progress percentage was displaying wrong, and reinstalling the launcher made it display correctly.

Then, I waited almost an hour before it finished downloading the basic client. Hey, the Play button is accessible now!

I texted a friend to ask what server they were playing on, but since they are probably having fun, I didn’t get a response right away, so I chose one that seemed probable, and I started creating a character.

Once the character was created, I had to “activate” the character, then I could play.

I saw a loading screen with some text about the smuggler’s activities when suddenly I was looking at my desktop.

Huh.

So I started the game again, and when I finally got back to that loading screen, it crashed to the desktop without so much as an error message again.

And then again.

So, a couple of hours later, and I still haven’t started the game, let alone been able to join in the fun with my friends.

And the best part?

My friend finally got back to me to say that he doesn’t remember selecting a server. He said they are part of Starfleet, and you can choose between Starfleet, Klingon, or Romulan.

Wait, what? I just spent the entire evening struggling to install and play the wrong game?!

At this point, I’m simultaneously happy that I don’t have to fight with Star Wars: The Old Republic anymore and frustrated that I now get to start the entire download-for-hours-without-playing experience again with Star Trek Online.

I understand that these are huge, expansive games with a lot of content, so I probably should have prepared my computer before the scheduled gaming session, but from what I read online, I’m not alone in needing to find time to play games only to discover that the time is spent downloading updates or patches or otherwise preventing game time from including game play.

For now, I’m going to bed.

Someone mentioned the word “games” at a party I was at, and my radar picked up on it. Unfortunately, I was really annoyed by the conversation that followed.

Me: “Did someone say games?”
The Other Person: “You wouldn’t have heard of it.”
Me: “Uh, ok. I’d LIKE to hear about it.”
The Other Person, dismissively: “It’s an indie game.”
Me: “…and I’m an indie game developer. Which game?”
The Other Person, still dismissive: “It’s an indie BOARD game.”

What a jerk.

Obviously this person decided I wasn’t cool enough to know about some new game, not knowing anything about me or my interests.

And the idea that somehow I would lose interest in the conversation if it was a board game versus a computer game? How ridiculous! I love games, no matter what medium I play them in. I almost wanted to continue pestering this person just to annoy them, but I decided to take the hint and stop trying.

There are people today who think that games grew up with them, that “The Past” consisted of Sony Playstation and the CDROM versions of The Oregon Trail.

I fall into this trap as well. My childhood was spent playing games on the Apple II c+, Atari 2600 and NES. When I say, “Remember when…”, I know I make some people feel old when they think about their childhoods being defined by games played on the PDP-1, at the arcade during the golden age, or hosting a BBS.

But even before, there were games. Games have been around for almost as long as humanity has existed.

That people decided to make games on computers as soon as the computers were capable shouldn’t have been a surprise.

But no one should pretend that video games or computer games are all there is or that they are somehow superior to board and card games.

My childhood was also spent playing card games and board games. Scrabble and Battleship and Monopoly were played regularly. Some games held my interest more than others, but video games always seemed more diverse and fascinating.

When I was introduced to some very cool games in the last 10 years, I learned that it wasn’t just Uno and Monopoly, that there is a lot of entertainment to get in traditional, non-computer games. Settlers of Catan is typically seen as a gateway to Euro-style board games, and I was fortunate to have met people who could introduce me to it and to some of the other games in their collection.

I got a late start, but I’ve been really interested in playing card games and board games beyond the standards that Hasbro keeps publishing. I enjoy perusing the massive collection of games at my local comics and gaming shop, talking with the workers there and getting their recommendations. My most recent purchase was Mage Knight after someone tweeted about the game designer Vlaada Chvatil. After talking with someone at the shop, I got a few recommendations for some of Chvatil’s games, and walked away with this super complex game that also lets you play by yourself if you can’t find anyone willing to play it with you.

So, The Other Person, you can keep your snobby, secret conversation about a game I supposedly wouldn’t have heard about. There are plenty of games to go around, and I’m sure I won’t miss it.

Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of Gaming by the Women Who Love It is a book I have been waiting for ever since I first learned that my friend Lars Pearson was interested in publishing a book about women and games.

Mad Norwegian Press is known for their Doctor Who-related books, including the Hugo-award winning Chicks Dig Time Lords. Their “Chicks Dig” series features essays from female fans of Doctor Who, comics, Joss Whedon’s creations, and now games.

Lars didn’t ask me to write this post, but I wanted to let people know about this book because I think more women should have their voices heard in the game industry.

You can learn more details about the book at the Chicks Dig Gaming page at Mad Norwegian Press.

Wired reported on Ishac Bertran’s experimental game consoles that let you make only one move a day.

Slow Games from Ishac Bertran on Vimeo.

From his Slow Games page:

I’m using Slow Games as a platform to experiment with low pace, long lasting gameplays, and explore game mechanics that keep players engaged throughout weeks of play with simple rule variations

At first, I thought, “Apparently Bertran hasn’t played games such as Diplomacy or chess by mail.”

Recently I started playing Neptune’s Pride after a long break, and I was telling a coworker. He hates the idea of a game that doesn’t resolve for weeks. And he hates the idea of even slower action games such as what Bertran’s consoles provide.

So, as actual games, they’re not for everyone.

But this project is meant to explore our relationship with technology. We expect instant feedback, and if that feedback mechanism was slowed down dramatically, how would it change our interaction?

Focusing so intently on the technology only gets you so far for these games, so would we start paying attention to our surroundings more? Or would we get antsy?

No matter what, these consoles are tiny, can fit next to anything on my shelf or desk, and I want one for Christmas. I don’t see any indication that they are going to be for sale, though. B-(

I haven’t backed many projects on Kickstarter, but That Dragon, Cancer by Ryan and Amy Green is one of those projects I can’t see passing up.

We created That Dragon, Cancer to tell the story of our son Joel and his 4-year fight against cancer. Our desire is to craft an adventure game that is poetic, playful, full of imagination and of hope. This is how we choose to honor him and his memory.

– Ryan and Amy Green

That Dragon, Cancer is a heart-breaking game for any father to make. Ryan Green calls it a “love-letter to his son” with a goal of encouraging the people who play it to love one another.

God at Play‘s Josh Larson worked with the parents to create this game, which is fitting. Josh hosted the Meaningful Game Play Game Jam back in 2011, which had the purpose of developing prototypes to explore deeper experiences in games.

Ryan Green participated remotely and submitted Giga Wife, which explored the idea of being a good husband. I remember him reading the introduction and talking about how much he loves his wife, and you can tell he has a big heart. The game was humorous at times, but also deals with the very real complications that a relationship can have.

I know Josh personally, and he is a very deliberate and conscious person. He’s a game developer I admire because he is always pursuing impactful experiences. And now Josh and Ryan are working together on a game that is very meaningful to not only the Greens but anyone who has had to fight the battle against cancer.

Please consider backing the project. I backed That Dragon, Cancer on Kickstarter because I want to support their efforts and see them succeed.

I also support the idea that a game can be the chosen medium for something such as this tribute to a beloved child. A game with an agenda of love is something I want to say I helped make available.

As of this writing, they are 57% funded after an initial burst of media coverage, but most Kickstarter projects hit a slump soon after. I would hate for this project to miss its goal. Pledging even just a small amount helps.