Scratching an Itch

Winterwrath by DctrElectro is a point-and-click narrative game. It got second place in the winter game jam, and it has an interesting setting—folklore horror. Apart from having gorgeous graphics, I couldn’t stop playing so I wondered why we are so driven by stories to complete them. That’s what I ramble about in this episode.

Rogue by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold defined the roguelike genre, so I wanted to see what it’s like—turns out it’s roguelike. Usually, I play itch games, but I decided to go rogue. Ok, that’s enough of that.

Boss key: a key dedicated to hiding the game from your superior when they walk past. I though that was funny.

With Yokai Madness, I reached the goals I had set for myself before entering the jam:

* Program a game from scratch (tutorials allowed, no AI code)

* Submit a game that can be replayed multiple times

* Rank in the top 30 (that one was close)

Click here to check it out. It’s only two taps away, and you can play it in your phone browser!

This was my first game jam where I would do the coding, so that would be my only focus (along with the game design). So as...

Cookies Bakery by leafthief is a cozy Christmas game for this merry time. I hope everyone is having amazing holidays!

Although it says that it’s a Visual Novel, I think it’s what GameDiscoverCO called a find-em-up. This is the first one I played (I think), and it’s basically this loop:

* A person has a problem and they come to you

* You’re the expert and do more research to figure out their problem

* You help the person

I believe this appeals to two things: altruism and mastery...

Picokaiju by spoik is very cool because it’s inspired by two other games and we get to see the evolution of a concept—its iterations! Very cool, that’s kind of what I talked about last week.

Crush, crumble, and chomp by Epyx inspired Chomp! by Picardy Third Entertainment which then inspired Picokaiju. Long story short, to me it looks like a lesson in removing stuff and fluff:

“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” - Bruce Lee

It’s lik...

Solitomb by Jakub Wasilevski is a roguelike deck-builder based on solitaire and using poker hand mechanics. That’s a lot of concepts, and while I don’t unpack them in this episode, I just ramble about what it means to have concepts.

Why are they so important? We try to shoehorn games into specific niches and most reviews start by comparing a game to some other well-known games. The key is “well-known“ because knowledge (previous experience) is what people base their understanding of new things on. We use metaphors to quickly map new things and make them less sca...

Dungeon Crawler on Demand! by redpangilian is definitely an interesting experience. Mostly for the fact that it crystalizes the very feeling that makes slot machines so addicting into a small mobile game.

The variable reward ratio, discovered by the behaviorists and perfected by casinos…and video games! It is fancy-speak for the simple fact that not knowing when a reward is going to drop is very enjoyable for our brain because that keeps it entertained. I haven’t yet played a game that so purely distills this like Dungeon Crawler on Demand. Sure, you’ve got your Diablo...

Oh, the French! my first narrative game, and it’s inspired by absurdist fiction. You can play it in the browser on itch, and it (probably) takes less than listening to this podcast to complete one play-through. Please check it out!

I learned many, many big things by making this very, very small game. But why did I pick this project? Interactive fiction games are thing of the past with no audience! There is a thriving community, I’ll have you know. I was simply aiming to make something. I tried to follow the good old advice: fini...

Web Hotel by FunnyGameDev, made me feel comfortable! It deservedly got first place in the micro jam 48.

My key takeaway: Tying the game together using narrative design helps make it more enjoyable. By using narrative design (for me that includes the theme as well), you can turn your game into a holistic experience. The theme for the jam was webs, so in this game you create webs in rooms by standing in front of them. This could have been it, but FunnyGameDev did one more. Why are you webbing up rooms? You are trying to ruin a...

Tiny Tarantula Tower by SeeOne is very very fun! Why? Well because you get to see whether or not you are the best in the world. But who am I, why should you listen to me? I am ranked 1st place worldwide in Tiny Tarantula Tower (as of this writing).

Leaderboards: they work. Comparing yourself to others is the killer of joy in daily life, but in games it is flipped around, it can be the provider of fun. Well, only if you feel like you are progressing or winning. This is why very large competitive games...

I’ve played three versions of the same game:

* Robotron 2084 by VizKidz

* Robtron 2084 Remastered by Parsimmon Factory

* 2600 by dungeon

My key takeaway: enemies support the main mechanic

As a designer, enemies are your friends. In Robotron, the main thing is moving and shooting. So in the first level you already have an enemy that makes you move and shoot, and one which prevents you from moving everywhere. Later enemies demand even more map awareness and precise movement, i.e. they increase the difficulty by requiring greater skill.

nubitoad’s Bomb or Kill puts you on the spot by demanding jokes. You play a comedian in front of an audience who needs to get laughs to get money. I found it interesting that the comments were so amazed by the technology, they forgot their pitchforks!

This game definitely KILLED.

My takeaways:

* Each mini-loop works toward making you feel the emotional core of the game.

* A perfect theme to use AI in the best way

* The scope and design is a certified chef’s KISS: keep it simple stup...

Break the Tower

A chaotic but addictive arcade game by torcado. The Ludum Dare entry’s core loop is a twist on Breakout (I keep saying brick because there was a Color Switch mode with that title [those who nose]): you bounce a ball off a platform to break through layers of bricks, collect coins, and unlock upgrades like faster dash recharge. The unique twist mechanic is charging and redirecting the ball mid-air and something special, which I can’t spoil.

Key insight for me:What makes the game memorable isn’t the great mechanics—it’s the...

Voices in Static - the.sus

I played howling dogs, an award-winning interactive fiction game, by porpentine.