All Work and All Play

Makes me a well-balanced person, I guess.  I've been doing a lot of work lately, staying extra at work and then working on my own shop stuff when I get home.  But it's fun work.  I'm making flower crowns for my shop!  So before they're crowns, they're a pretty bouquet in my room.

fake flowers in a vase that I thrifted today for $1!, plus a sneak peek of my art wall

And I got my new game the other day, so that's awesome.  (It's one of the ones that needed funding help, Pandora: Purge of Pride)  The weather was finally nice enough to go hacky sack in the park yesterday, so I did that for almost an hour.  Then I accidentally made new friends who live in my house and one of them made a big dinner for all of us, that I could actually eat :)  (Let's call him The Chef)  It was really tasty.  There was chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce, and potatoes.  And The Chef also commisioned a necklace from me, which is super cool.  Then I hacky sacked with the other friend, who did alright despite not hacky sacking since 8th grade.  (We'll call him The Rollerblader, because he roller blades.)  And then I went to bed, because that was a whole lot of human interaction and it made me sleepy.

And in other notable events, I discovered the wonder that is Desura, and specifically Desura's free games, and downloaded a bunch of them.  So far I have only played (and completed) The Kite.   That game will make you feel feelings.  It is intense.  Seriously.

And I've also discovered that I don't hate documentaries; I just hate boring documentaries.  Now I am that person who says, "Oh, I actually just watched a really interesting documentary about that" during conversations.  Here are some documentaries that I have watched and enjoyed on Netflix recently (with handy dandy links and my ratings, out of 5 stars):

• Happy 3 stars
• Nerdcore Rising (I'm actually watching it right now, so no rating yet, but I love it so far)
• Indie Game: The Movie 5 stars
• Afterlife 4 stars
• The Human Experience 5 stars
• Bomb It 5 stars
• Dive! 4 stars
• Buskers 3 stars
• The Antics Roadshow 3 stars

I also watched two documentaries that are no longer on Netflix, but I still highly recommend them: What the #$*! Do We Know!? and What are Dreams?: Nova.  I give them both 5 stars.

Nerdish Delight: Amazing Indie Games that Need Your Help

The other day I was looking at posts in the Indie Games community on Google+.  It's a really great community for indie gamers and indie game creators.  I came across two games that I really want to play.  They both have funding campaigns going on, one on Kickstarter and the other on Indiegogo.  I really want these games to get enough funding so I can play them at some point, but unfortunately I can't back them myself.  My hours at work are incredibly erratic, I'm looking at schools with web design programs, and I'm going through some lady problems that I won't go into (I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow).  All of these things are using up my money.  Plus rent, obviously.  So I am doing what I can with what I have.  And what I have is a blog, so I am blogging about these games.

The first game is called Pandora: Purge of Pride.  The campaign has 17 days left and is nearly halfway to their funding goal.  I would want to play this game for the art alone (but the gameplay is also incredible).  Seriously, look how good it is!

In Pandora: Purge of Pride, you'll play a Victorian woman named Pandora (in the picture above).  (High five for female protagonist!)  She accidentally unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins on her mansion and she must recapture them all to stop them from spreading.  When you capture Sins, you gain new powers related to the Sins.  For example, capturing Sloth allows you to slow an object down.  You can read more about the game on their Kickstarter page.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this game is the fact that is was created entirely by just four Interactive Media and Game Development Students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who make up High Class Kitsch.


The second game is called 42 Light Years.  This game only has 7 days left, and is a little over a quarter of their funding goal.  It's another game that I would play for the art alone, but it also has great gameplay.  (If you know me at all, you know that art is a huge deciding factor in the games I play.)

This game involves the manipulation of time as the main mechanism for solving puzzles.  And as someone who loves Legend of Zelda games, that's a mechanism that I can really get behind.  Unlike in The Legend of Zelda games, the hero is not the one traveling through time.  Instead he can send different objects forward or backward in time in order to solve puzzles.  In 42 Light Years, you play a hero called Quarante who wakes up on an unknown planet and can't remember why he's there.  He has to survive and does this with help from a lifeform who gives him the Timeball, which allows him to do the aforementioned time manipulation.  You can read more about this game on the Indiegogo page.

And again impressively, this game was created by a team of just 4 members.  They are from Guatemala.

And if that isn't enough to convince you, these games both have really great perks for contributing funding.  Even if you can't contribute, if you like indie games, you should really check these two out.  These games are both very unique, and sound like they'll be shining examples of what an indie game can be.

Update: Everything is good with me health-wise and I have gotten more hours at work, so I backed Pandora: Purge of Pride.  You should back it too! Please? I want to play it

Update 2: Pandora: Purge of Pride reached its funding goal (and exceeded it by over $1,000!).  You can pre-order it here for $9.99.  There is also a demo you can try at the same link.

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.