The Last and Final Word: Radstronomical
Radstronomical has just begun his journey into independent videogame development. He scored something of a hit with his first release, Ultimate Flirt-Off. It was a game that he wanted to expand upon but he worried that the complexity of his vision might take away from the bare-bones concept.
The Wiki Game
thewikigame.comThis is an inventive little browser game that capitalizes on something that we’re probably all familiar with. You go to Wikipedia for one thing and ten minutes later you’re browsing a page for a completely unrelated topic and you’re left wondering how you got there. Well the point of this game is to get from Point A to Point B in the quickest amount of time with the least number of clicks. It’s really fun and very addicting. It beats most traditional time-wasters and if you’re lucky you might learn something through osmosis.
;) - The Sugar
Flight Rising, A Kickass Dragon breeding game
flightrising.comGuys. You have to- Guys. Guys you have to try this game, it’s amazing, high quality, and you can design your own skins for your dragons and stuff. Add me! (Smooshkin)
Lord of Ultima
Okay, so, Meg’s bf Jeremy got me into Lord of Ultima (that’s my reference link — click it and join and I benefit from that somehow (I don’t know how, so just do it so I can find out!!)). I play on World 22 and World 24 (East Coast, ftw) with the tag Lawliet17 (my usual tag variation: Lawliet16, Lawliet19, Lawli, Law.Ari, Lawless, TheLaw, etc.). I was skeptical at first, as I usually am with these kinds of games. I love how Travian (oh look — another reference link!) is set up and played, even the new t4 business (the link is to the us7 server which is the only .us server on t4 atm. The us4 server is starting soon though and I’ll be putting up another reference link for that one too! :) (p.s. I know what I get from this one — 50 gold!!! Of course, you have to make it to a second villa first)). But I’ve played Evony too and I got bored quick with that one.
Lord of Ultima appears to be a combination of the two. Not a bad combo though, a good one. It has a bunch of different features than the two that defines it as it’s own game as well. It is much more complex than Travian, but not as hard to figure out as Evony.
Anyway, I figured I’d follow my travels in Lord of Ultima (and I’ll probably do Travian as well) by starting a new server (same tag, you can’t change it between servers unless you start a new account which requires a new email and a new password (or two new passwords if you make a new email) and that’s way too much work lol), and documenting what I do each day. I still don’t understand everything about the game (I’ve only been playing for a week), but through my knowledge of these types of browser based games, I think I could be of some help, even if only to answer a few noob questions here and there about basic things. I will also use what I put in here to help myself on future servers, assuming I continue playing and enjoy it.
IMPORTANT I am in no way trying to tell everyone what they should do (I can’t believe I’m doing this…). I am new to this game and I am learning as I go (by “this” I mean writing a disclaimer…). I only hope to be of possible help to anyone who has some kind of question that I may have figured out (please don’t flame me…), and for my own records (anything I don’t like will be deleted).
Yes, that's better
I have now gone back and uploaded screenshots for all the games in my little “Freeware Recommendations” posts. I like it much better that way. In case you’ve ever wondered what some of these games look like, you can check out those posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
A Closed World is Closed, Itself
sardonicious.digital-flux.comA Closed World is Closed, Itself
Here’s a story I’ve been meaning to tell you all since, well, this thing got posted. A Closed World, as you might remember, did manage to touch a part of my life which I haven’t really had to wrestle with for a while despite not quite living up to what I and a number of other LGBTQQAI folks feel like a game which is meant to tell straight folks what’s what should have been. It’s nice for what it is, and it might even give some gay or lesbian kids some hope while they’re wrestling with the idea of coming out to their families, but like I said a lot was left out. That’s what we’re going to talk about now.
The simplest way to approach the topic is this: The game’s too simple.
Your character is either male or female. Rigidly. The gender binary is upheld throughout, because telling straight, cis folks that the whole thing is a sham would be too hard for their fragile sensibilities. They’d just fall apart if they heard mention of trans* people, or gender-fluid, gender-neutral, third-gender, gender-queer, and so on down the line, right? Right.
[More after the break! Follow the link!]
Freeware Recommendations
From time to time I find freeware games that are interesting and worth a play, but that don’t really warrant a full review. Here are the latest, all of which are playable in your browser:
Depict1 - When this game starts, I admit I rolled my eyes at the prospect of another indie game with an unreliable narrator/instructor. They say to go right, you go right and get killed and learn all about thinking for yourself, blah, blah, etc. If you’ve played Loved, you get the idea. But give it a minute, because this game is actually much better than other games that use that device. For starters it is simply a really solid platformer that just feels good to play (can’t say the same for Loved). And the unreliable narrator aspect, rather than being used just to make a point or make you feel stupid, is used almost as a series of puzzles. You have to figure out what to do based on what the instructor says and the clues you can get from your surroundings. You get to use your brain a bit to figure out your next move and then also get to use your twitchy platforming skills to pull it off. I’m glad I gave this game a chance, because it’s a really solid effort from top to bottom.
A Mother in Festerwood - This one is interesting. You play as a mother with a small child, trying to survive in the area near your house, which is infested with all sorts of monsters. You use the mouse to corral your child. If you keep him close to the house, he will be safe from the monsters, but he won’t become strong either, which means he’s more likely to get killed once he gets old enough to go out on his own. But if you let your child run around, he will get experience and level up, and help protect you against horde, but he may venture too far off and get himself killed. The designer made the game based on how his mother must have felt when he went off for college.
Wicked Rider - This one reminds me a bit of Neon Race which I profiled a while back. It’s still got that Rad Racer thing going on, but now there are other racers with you, and you’re on a motorcycle. It’s simple but difficult, and has a great sense of speed. I like the way the nitro is implemented and the background visuals are very nice. This is not going to blow your mind, but it’s fun and worth a play.
The Last and Final Word: Alillm
Alillm has made a name for himself as a independent videogame developer, making browser games. Even as a part-time, hobbyist developer, he seems to have struck the right balance between living off the cash he gets from sponsorship and being able to experiment. First impressions might give you a clue that has has been quite strongly influenced by the likes of cactus, Terry Cavanagh and Loren Schmidt. His games include the likes of 41st Reality, Hash and MercX.
Bonus link at the bottom of the interview.
