All posts by Pike

The Android's Horn-Rimmed Glasses (Indie), The Android's Jetpack Augment (Platform), The Android's Thinking Cap (Puzzle)

SteamQuest 1: And Yet It Moves

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SteamQuest is a series based around Pike’s quest to play all the games she has on Steam. Which is a lot. Her definition of “play”, here, is at least one hour for smaller games and at least three hours for more substantial ones. Feel free to follow along!

And Yet It Moves
Developer: Broken Rules
Genres: Indie, Platformer, Puzzle
Website: http://www.andyetitmoves.net/ – and the Steam Link
Time Spent by Pike: 63 minutes – unfinished

And Yet It Moves is a puzzle-platformer that revolves around the gimmick of rotating the screen around in order to get your character from place to place. This gimmick is not a new one and has appeared in more than one Newgrounds flash game, and if you’ve played said flash games before, the first couple of levels of this one will sort of leave you with a “Huh… that’s it?” taste in your mouth.

That’s why you need to give yourself at least twenty minutes to get to The Good Stuff.

The Good Stuff, here, are puzzles that show up in the later levels and are challenging without being frustrating. These puzzles also take full advantage of the screen-tilting mechanic and you’ll find yourself, for example, herding bats around (bats will only fly to the top of the screen) in order to chase monsters away and whatnot. It sounds weird, but it works really well, and I found myself frequently very pleasantly surprised with how these puzzles turned out.

The game also has a much lauded unique paper-cutout-collage artstyle but to be honest the game could use any style and it would still be just as interesting because of the puzzles.

Did somepony say paper cutouts?

Probably my biggest gripe with the game is one that may or may not simply be a byproduct of my own, well, derpiness, and that is that I can never remember which arrow key tilts the screen which way and then I end up killing myself as I frantically try to rotate the screen in the right direction. This killed me more times than I care to remember. This is really the type of game that would work better with some sort of tilt mechanism or something. Or maybe I am just that much of a klutz.

Regardless, you will leave the game with a sense of vertigo that has you subconsciously wanting to tilt webpages or other computer programs long after you’ve quit the game. This is really a fun, compact little game once you get past the tutorial levels and I can definitely see myself returning to it in the near future and trying to complete it. I do think the $10 is a bit steep if you’re not really into this sort of thing, but it shows up in Indie Bundles every now and again and when it does it’s worth snagging if you can.

The Android's Party Cannon (Holidays and gifts)

Happy New Year – Part Two!

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Welcome to the second day of 2012, friends!

Mister Adequate recently blogged about what he’s looking forward to in games this year. Myself, well– I’ve got too many old games to plow through to start thinking about new ones!

Firstly, I’d like to finish my goal of playing through all the Final Fantasy games, a goal which has been pushed to the side a bit because I keep getting distracted by other things. Fear not, though; I’m nearing the end of Final Fantasy 2 (I think) and then I am going to acquire and play FF3, another FF that I haven’t actually played yet!

Secondly, I would like to put at least a few solid hours into every single game I have on Steam. That’s a lot of games. Over 160, last I checked. And if it’s something you’re all interested in, I think I’m going to chronicle that little adventure on this blog this year. I’ll dedicate one post to every game I have. Sound good?

It’s going to be an exciting year filled with… old games!

Wunderbar!

Onward!

The Android's Favorites

Pike’s Year In Games!

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And so we come to the close of 2011. It’s been an exciting year filled with things like, well, this blog starting up, for one. I’ve also played quite a lot of games, of course. Here’s a look back at some of the things that have struck my fancy this year:

JANUARY:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was what I was playing at the beginning of the year. I’d never actually played a Phoenix Wright game before and I borrowed this one from my sisters, who are big fans. I regret to say that I didn’t finish the game because I got sidetracked by other things, but the first three-quarters or so were an enjoyable, if somewhat benign, romp. The whole gameplay premise was new and interesting and the fun characters kept you interested during parts that may have otherwise lagged. I did have to give the game back to my sisters after a while but I hope to finish it some day!

Dashie gets things done.

FEBRUARY:
February is when I started playing Civilization IV, which I had somehow never played before. Shameful, I know. Regardless, life would never be the same.

MARCH:
March was the month that Mister Adequate and I started this blog! I was also still playing a lot of Civ IV. I think this was also the month where Mister Adequate and I, both old World of Warcraft vets who had since quit, resubbed for a month to give it another whirl. There were a couple weeks of fun as we ran around as Tauren paladins, but those couple of weeks only lasted, well, a couple of weeks and then it was back to Civ.

APRIL:
I played a lot of games on-and-off throughout April, including Hearts of Iron 2 and X-Com: UFO Defense. There was, I think, still a lot of Civ going on.

MAY:
May was when I finally got around to playing SimCity 4. Considering that I grew up with SimCity, it’s pretty terrible that I didn’t actually get around to the fourth installment until now, but there you go.

JUNE:
Ah, June. The month that I finally sat down for a proper playthrough of Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and was immediately smitten. I don’t know if a game had ever captivated me quite the same way that SMAC did that month, and I feel safe telling you six months later that there will always be a special place for this game in my heart.

JULY:
This was the month that I finally let myself be consumed first by Minecraft and then by Terraria. I’d resisted for so long and finally could resist no longer, and I spent most of this month derping around with a mining pick. I haven’t played either game in a long while, but I won’t lie: they were nice to spend long, lazy summer nights with.

Yours truly, having been caught in the act of playing Minecraft for hours on end.

AUGUST:
In August I headed back to Civ IV, because I just can’t quit it. Many, many multiplayer shenanigans happened involving Mister Adequate and I, partially because we both love Civ and partially because we can’t seem to get any other games to work with multiplayer.

SEPTEMBER:
September was a busy month that involved me moving back to my home state and getting a new job. Still, there was enough time for a lot of old favorites, as well as enough time for Mister Adequate and I to discover that Sid Meier’s SimGolf is a thing.

OCTOBER:
In October I played all of Final Fantasy. The one with no numbers after it. It was definitely neat to look back at an older JRPG like that and see just how much the genre has changed (or stayed the same.) Mister Adequate and I also gave WoW another spin, which lasted all of about two weeks. Ah well!

NOVEMBER:
This was the month that I jumped right into Final Fantasy 2 and also fell in with a lot of other great games, such as Space Empires IV and The Binding of Isaac. Somehow, though, between all of this, I still managed to win NaNoWriMo. Oh, I published a book, too. Guess that’s worth a mention!

DECEMBER:
December has been a month of two things: Paradox games (Darkest Hour and Europa Universalis 3, specifically), and Skyrim. The Paradox games come as no shock to anyone, I’m sure, especially because I’ve played them before, but Skyrim really took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as engrossing as it is. Great way to round out the year, though!

My response to the end of the video-game-playing-year. Also, this post is apparently Rainbow Dash Edition, which I'm okay with!

How has your year been in games?

The Android can't be arsed with a real topic (Weekend)

Merry Christmas Weekend!

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We might not see some of you again until after the holidays, so if that’s the case, do have a Merry Christmas or a Happy-Whatever-You-Celebrate!

For some people this weekend will entail good food, good friends, and good times spent with family, but for others this weekend means something much more important: video games, of course! If you fall into that category, what do you plan on playing this weekend?

Myself, well– I’ve still been on a Paradox kick and I’m playing all sorts of EU3 and the Kaiserreich mod for Darkest Hour, but unfortunately my computer is giving me fits and making it difficult to continue with this course of action, so I’m thinking I’ll settle down with some console games. I’ve got a lot of Skyrim to play, and I’ve also fallen woefully behind on my quest to play all the Final Fantasies, so I’ve really got to catch back up with that. Especially because I’ve already got a new quest planned, and that is to play every single game I have on Steam. Seeing as I have about 160 of them and I keep adding more (Curse you Gaben and your sales!), that’s going to be even more exciting than playing the dozen or so FF games that I’ve got.

My face, should I win Steam's newest giveaway and suddenly own every single game on Steam.

How about you guys?

The Android's Casting Magic Missile (RPG), The Android's Deranged Killing Spree (Action), The Android's Party Cannon (Holidays and gifts), The Android's Sandbox (Sandbox/Open World)

It’s Not Too Late for the Skyrim Party

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So Mister Adequate– being not just my co-blogger here at The Android’s Closet, but also my better half– bought me a couple of gifts recently. The idea was that one was my Christmas present and one was my birthday present (my birthday is in a few days.) He also graciously let me open them early!

Well. One of the presents was an Xbox 360 and the other was Skyrim.

Yeah. Best Birthday/Christmas gift EVER.

Anyways! Ever since then I’ve been dumping hours into Skyrim like there’s no tomorrow and it has really exceeded all of my expectations. It’s been a long time since I really got into a new video game in this way. Heck, it’s been a long time since I really got into a console game in this way. I keep finding myself wanting to return to this magical world and experience more of it. Even my beloved strategy games keep getting pushed aside so I can wander around Whiterun.

Fus ro derp?

Anyways, if you’re still sitting on the fence regarding whether or not to get this game for whatever reason, I urge you to look into it. I’ve just scratched the surface and I think this really is deserving of the title of Game of the Year. There’s just so much to do and the game accommodates all sorts of different playstyles, and it’s all beautifully put together.

Besides, I’m a giant fluffy tabby cat with a sword. I cannot stress enough how awesome this is.

The Android's Horn-Rimmed Glasses (Indie), The Android's Nerf Gun (Shoot 'em up)

Guest Post from Rilgon: Jamestown!

Hi, I’m Rilgon, and I’m lucky enough to have Pike and Mister Adequate let me grace the Android’s Closet! Today, I’m here to talk to you about Jamestown and why you should be buying it and playing it – ideally as part of the Humble Indie Bundle #4. I consider myself somewhat of a shmup person. I’m not the greatest, by any means – I’ve never 1CC’d Ikaruga, never even come close to beating any of Treasure’s greatest on their hardest difficulties, and playing Touhou on Lunatic’s still a pipedream. I enjoy them dearly, however, and when a good one comes along, it’s hard to not take notice! I initially bought the Humble Indie Bundle #4 for Cave Story+, but Jamestown has stolen my heart – or, at least, the adrenaline-filled shmup-loving part of it!

For a game to be good enough to grace the annals of the Android’s Closet, it’s got to be best-in-breed. This is the blog that sings the praises of X-COM and SMAC on high (worthy recipients, mind you), so anything reviewed has gotta be up to snuff – and Jamestown fits the bill. Right off the bat, the steampunk styling and quirky story will grab anyone to whom a good steampunk slant attracts. The premise is simple – it is the year 1619, and you have escaped execution at the hands of the British king. You have made your escape to what some call The New World and other call Mars on a quest to clear your name. From here… well, that would be spoiling, wouldn’t it?

Steampunk pony? Steampunk pony.

Novices to the shmup genre are more than welcome. Jamestown has a staggering five difficulty levels – Normal, Difficult, Legendary, Divine, and Judgment. Normal will be approchable by anyone who’s been gaming as long as readers of the Closet no doubt have, especially after Jamestown’s fantastic tutorial that teaches you the basics of the minimalist hitbox that defines so many bullet hell shmups, the interaction between your weapons, and the Vaunt scoring/comboing system. Those of us to whom shmups are our bread and butter, though, will be treated to some seriously intense stuff. I saw a bullet arrangement that’s right out of Touhou 8, Imperishable Night on the second stage as early as Difficult level, and I’m still struggling to finish the final stage on Legendary. Divine and Judgment are… still to come, let’s say.

Shmups are visceral things, though – you’ve got to have catchy visuals and catchy music, or the whole thing just feels bland and unfulfilling. Jamestown brings this to play with bravado. Final Form Games, the makers of Jamestown, have something great here. The soundtrack is amazing (and comes with your Humble Indie Bundle 4, hint hint!), and definitely gives both context and conflict to the game, especially its bosses. One of the bosses you face is a steam-powered battle train, and the boss theme for it is sublime. You really FEEL like you’re racing this train down a railway, dodging its littany of fire and returning attack with your own.

Oh, and if you happen to be lucky enough to have friends over, Jamestown supports 1-4 players, using keyboard, mouse, and Xbox 360 controller schemes. It will also apparently recognize multiple mice independently. And if you’re a Mac or Linux gamer (*nods to Pike*), you’re also in luck, because as of the release of the Humble Indie Bundle, Jamestown works in Mac and Linux as well! I can’t speak to how easy it is to install, given I have nothing to do with OSX and all of my Linux installs are textual, but I’m sure Pike could cook something up on the Linux front as a follow-up post, should it be needed.

Today’s post was written by Rilgon, who you can also find on Twitter and on Tumblr!

The Android's Liberal Arts Degree (Meta/Critical)

The Joy of Exploration

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I recently had a thought. (I know, right?)

This thought was about very young kids who played games. Have you watched a young child play a game? To many of them, it’s not about meeting a set objective– rather, it’s about making your own objectives, learning, and exploring.

One of the very first games I played was Dig-Dug. To this day, I still have a soft spot for it. Dig-Dug, in case you haven’t played it, is a game about digging your way to monsters and blowing them up. Did I play it that way, way back when I was clutching the joystick with pudgy, much-too-small hands? I’m sure I did. But I also recall trying to clear all the dirt from the screen for no other reason than, well, wanting to clear all the dirt from the screen. It didn’t accomplish any in-game objectives, it was just something that Baby Me found fun. I was moving the character around because of the sheer joy of moving my character around.

Good times, the 80s.

I can think of other examples, too. We had a game called Fidgets, for example, which was some sort of proto-typing game. All of the letters were represented by a crude image of a singing bird and you had to type the correct letter to shut the bird up. If you typed the wrong letter, that letter’s bird got all scrunched up to indicate that you were incorrect. I thought the scrunched up bird was hilarious and and whiled away many, many long minutes carefully scrunching up all the birds, while driving my parents crazy with the one correct bird that continued to sing one note.

Back then, you see, I made up my own game objectives.

Kids today still do this when they play modern games. If you haven’t seen Child vs. Skyrim, you probably should:

This girl is gleefully exploring, making up her own objectives, going through with them, and then, well… learning that perhaps her objectives aren’t the best way to go about things.

There is a certain nostalgia for this simplicity and I think that’s where the much-bandied about idea of “nostalgia goggles” comes from. People pine for Vanilla WoW because they were exploring and learning about a new world before they “grew up” and got their big adult raiding job. Perhaps people pine for the games of their childhood for similar reasons.

Some game devs are trying to latch on to this and design new games with no rules, but I sort of think that what the particular game is doesn’t matter as much as what the game does for you: my Dig-Dug is the little girl’s Skyrim.

Playing a game vs. playing inside the game… an interesting idea, don’t you think?

Alright, I’ve rambled on about this for much too long. Here, have a Fluttersquid:

The Android can't be arsed with a real topic (Weekend)

This Weekend – Christmaspunk Fluttershy Edition!

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I don’t really have a lot to report today– a particularly interesting round of Europa Universalis 3 has been eating up most of my free time– so I’m here to make one of the posts that our dear Mister Adequate usually makes around these parts and ask: what will you be playing this weekend?

As for myself, well– the Paradox bug has bit me nice and deep and I keep having to scratch the resulting itch, so I’m guessing there will continue to be a lot of EU3 and possibly some Darkest Hour as well. I’m also still slowly but surely working on Final Fantasy 2– although I keep getting sidelined from it by delicious strategy games– and there are a couple of indie games I’ve been having fun messing with, as well (The Binding of Isaac and Aquaria, in this case.)

Speaking of indie games, I’d also like to bring your attention to a new indie-bundle-type site that has popped up, called The Indie Gala. I’ve refrained from buying the package there yet– although I’m a sucker for cheap games so that may change quickly once my latest paycheck is direct deposited– but I figured I’d get the word out!

What are you guys doing this weekend?

The Android's Liberal Arts Degree (Meta/Critical)

Gaming’s New Paradigm

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I had an interesting thought the other day and I’m going to try my best to turn it into a blog post, although I make no guarantees on my success.

Anyways, think back to the 8-bit and 16-bit generation of games. These games offered a form of “art” that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Where were you going to find pixel art? Just video games. Where were you going to find chiptune music? Just video games. Sure, you had an emerging demoscene that was beginning to play with this stuff outside of gaming, but this particular minimalism– this style of visuals, this style of music, and this style of art— was what one thought of when one thought of video games.

We’ve reached a point now, though, where the art that video games offer can be found somewhere else. The music is orchestral and symphonic, or rock, or electronica. The visuals have stepped right out of a computer-animated film. We have cutscenes, we have storylines, we have characterization. We have art that we can find not just in games, but in movies, or books, or iTunes, or orchestral concerts.

Is this necessarily bad? Oh no, of course not. I love when games have a good storyline or good music or what-have-you. But it speaks of a paradigm shift in gaming that occurred relatively recently.

But if gaming is coming closer to other forms of art… what, then, do games have to offer that is truly unique?

I imagine it’s the gameplay itself, and various aspects of it. The micromanagement. The options. The user interface. All those comforting elements and building blocks that have been in games since the beginning. This is what is unique about games today and this is what they offer that other forms of entertainment do not.

A normal day for Pinkie Pie

Now at this point I imagine you’re thinking “What the heck, Pike, where are you going with this?” And truthfully, I’m not 100% sure myself. It’s something that’s been floating around in my brain for a few days and I’ve been trying to mold it into a blog post and I’m not sure how much success I’m having. And so I leave this post open-ended. Maybe people look back fondly on pixels and synthesized music because there was a point where those things, combined with gameplay, formed a trinity that epitomized what video games were, and we don’t really have that today? Or maybe I’m overthinking it and it’s just nostalgia goggles?

The world may never know, but if you have any thoughts, toss ’em at me. I’m all ears!

The Android's Bunker (Strategy)

Playing and Role-Playing in Space Empires IV

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I recently acquired Space Empires IV thanks to Steam’s big recent sale. My logic upon making this purchase was “Oh boy! An old 4X game that I haven’t played yet! This should be good!” As it turns out I was not disappointed; the game is relatively easy to pick up and begin playing (although in true Old Strategy Game fashion, its learning curve is steep) and it’s already got me One-More-Turning as much as Civ does.

Let me tell you what really surprised me about this game, though. What really surprised me about it is its capacity for roleplay and how much it encourages the player to do so.

First, a word on the definition of roleplay. Although its popularity in MMOs and such has largely given it the connotation of being a multiplayer activity, it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. This is how Dictionary.com defines roleplay:

roleplay
[rohl-pley]
verb (used with object)
1. to assume the attitudes, actions, and discourse of (another), especially in a make-believe situation in an effort to understand a differing point of view or social interaction.
2. to experiment with or experience (a situation or viewpoint) by playing a role: trainees role-playing management positions.

Notice that the definition doesn’t say anything about requiring other people to be involved; obviously they are, in many situations, but it’s just as valid to “assume a role” by yourself.

Rarity knows a little about roleplaying, too.

Space Empires IV wants you to do this. When you start a game, you customize a race entirely from scratch, and there are big empty text fields given to you where you can input details on your race’s history, general physical description, and attitudes. These aren’t just there “for fun”, you’re expected to fill these out because any other race you encounter will have them filled out and if you don’t, there will be big glaring empty boxes next to your own race’s description in-game, and how embarrassing would that be!

You’re encouraged to continue roleplaying in the actual game, too. Not only do you design and customize every single ship you build, but you get to name the class of ship and then name the individual ships themselves. You can also rename planets, if you so choose. Now, certainly, plenty of other strategy games allow you to rename your bases/troops/etc. But none of the others that I’ve played actively encourage you to do so the way that Space Empires IV does. The result is that you feel personally invested into your little empire in a way that you rarely do with other games. It’s one thing when a generic “Scout Rover” is killed by an enemy, but it’s another thing entirely when FSS Nemo, Ensign of Exploration Class ship of the Fenolan Alliance, is killed. It’s something I personally invested time, thought, and personality into, and as such it hurts just a little bit more when something happens to it. It’s really a brilliantly done feature of the game.

Oh, one more thing about Space Empires IV. I invented a race of master engineer T-Rexes. I think I should win some sort of award for that.

Indeed.