Indie Game Reviews: Story Nexus

You might remember me discussing Fallen London a while ago.  It is on a website called Story Nexus.  Since I shared Fallen London, the Story Nexus website has added the ability for anyone who wants to, to be able to create their own storygame.  Storygames are sort of like choose-your-own-adventure books, which you might have read as a child.  You read a story and then you get to choose what the main character does, which affects what happens in the story.  These games are like those books mixed with a traditional role playing game, where your choices affect your abilities and you develop specialized skill sets.  These games are made by different people.  Some are authors, some are game developers, and some are even scientists.  You can play all of the storygames other people made or you can make your own.  My favorite, and the most developed, storygame is Fallen London, which I discussed before.  In this game, your character lives in a seedy steampunky version of London, hence Fallen London.

Other storygames I have played on the site are Cabinet Noir and Zero Summer.  I didn't really enjoy Cabinet Noir.  In that storygame, your character is a French Detective.  It's just not the sort of book that I enjoy.  Surprisingly, I really enjoy Zero Summer.  It seems like more of a Western and takes place in Amarillo, Texas.  I think I enjoy it because the main character, who you play, is a man with amnesia who has to rediscover who he is.  Somehow that appeals to me.  The other game that I am the most excited about playing, but haven't yet, is called The Hour.  The premise is fairly simple; you have to live through the same hour over and over and over...forever.  It sounds like it should be very thought-provoking.

Update: It's not at all surprising that I really enjoy Zero Summer because now I learned that it is set in post-apocalyptic Amarillo, Texas.  I don't think I've told you, but you may have realized, that post-apocalyptic worlds are my favorite settings for both books and movies.  Insane asylums are a close second.  Reason 5,981 why I'm weird.

There is a storygame for everyone, humor, history, romance, scifi, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, educational, and quite a few that defy all labels.  Also be sure to check out the Winter 2012 World of the Season winners, Samsara (1st place, Zero Summer (2nd place), and Evolve (3rd place). (I forgot to mention that there's a competitive element involved in the world creation part.)  Click here to see all of the worlds and find one (or six) that you enjoy.

Home Sweet Home

So as I mentioned the other day, I'm all moved into my new place now.  My mom doesn't like it because it's right next to some frats and across from some sororities.  Also, she heard a girl on the front steps planning with a couple of guys how much pot they're going to smoke in the park.  I told her that people probably did that in the dorms too. Also, at first she thought that this place was dirty, but later she realized that it's just old and sort of discolored in places.  I met some of the people who live here.  There's Old Drunk Guy, Stand-Up Comic, Ex-Navy Guy, Supposedly Antisocial Guy, Rebel (which is how he introduced himself and I had to clarify if he said Red Bull or Rebel.  He said I can call him either.), and Rebel's Friend Whose Name I Don't Recall.  Those are the only people I've met so far.  I've gotten most of my stuff unpacked.  I took some pictures of stuff in my room.  It's a very small room so every bit of surface space is covered with stuff, but it works.  As an added bonus, none of the mattress springs stab me, unlike at my old apartment.

Some of the stuff that's piled places is really pretty.  I got these lovely teacups for 50 cents each at a
yard sale, and I got this H.G. Wells treasury at a thrift store for 50 cents.  It's 50 years old!

The yard sale where I bought these teacups had so much vintage stuff!  I know of so many Etsy sellers that would have loved those things to sell, or blog people who would have loved those things to have.  But, alas, I am not made of money, far from it.  I just filled out a job application for Jack in the Box, at a really sketchy Jack in the Box location, where what my buildingmates refer to as "wannabe crackheads" hang out in a group of five or more at a time and gawk at passersby.

My parents found me this clothes rack thing at Walmart, because this room has no closet.

I'm actually really liking it here so far.  As you can see from the second picture, my room gets a ton of light.  Everyone I've met has been really nice.  Old Drunk Guy lives on my floor and he likes to come by my room and ask me how my day was.  He always invites me to go hang out on the porch with some of the guys who like to talk and drink PBR around 5 o clock.  I'm not quite ready to be that social yet, but I'm doing pretty well.  I have even left the house at least once every day since I moved.


In other news, I adore Felicia Day in "The Guild" webseries, and I just started watching her vlog called "The Flog" and, unsurprisingly, she's just as awesome as her character in The Guild.  There are only 16 episodes of The Flog so far and I may or may not have watched them all today.  In one of them, she recommended this browser game called Fallen London and I started playing it.  I may or may not be addicted to it now.  It's actually a better game to get addicted to, because you keep on having to wait for all your stuff to refresh after you use it up, for about 8 to 9 minutes.  So during that time, why not do important stuff that you weren't doing while playing the game?!  And then if you do important stuff for about 15 minutes at a time and then play the game as a tiny break, it's actually super efficient and doesn't make you get tired of doing the important stuff.  The storyline for Fallen London is slightly ridiculous and incredibly interesting.  It also lets you choose between lots of different options for things, so everyone's game will end up different.  I think it's pretty wonderful and will definitely keep playing.

So to recap: I like my new place despite it being very very small, Felicia Day is a fantastic role model for females, and Hidden London is a super fun game that also allows you to be productive.


And in other other news, G took me to watch Ted yesterday and it was completely hilarious.  I got an ab workout from all my laughter.  After that we went and cooked dinner at his mom's house, because she has an indoor grill thing to put over the burners.  Protip: Steak tastes really really good if you use a spice rub of salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  And it smells amazing when it's cooking.