Variety Friday: An Indie Game PSA

“Indie Games” means a different thing to everyone.  To some it means those crappy wanna be games, others, those small games which aren’t much more than 2D Platform and zombie games.  Then there are those that actually understand that Indie Games are games generally created on a low budget and created by a small studio/group of people.  There isn’t really a set line between Indie and full on Commercial games, but they are usually easy to spot because they weren’t created by a big studio or a large known publisher. 

What people usually don’t understand is that Indie Games play a very large part in the larger picture of gaming.  Usually the best place to find innovation in the gaming industry is indie games, and innovation is one of the major factors that moves the industry forward.  I’m not saying innovation can’t come from publishers (one example being Portal) but that you can generally find a lot more innovation from indie titles.  One of the biggest pluses for indie developers is that they usually aren’t under the pressure of deadlines or budgets, so they can work at their pace and make good games and not have to worry about the profits as much.

Also, simply, a lot of good indie games come out which can bring hours of enjoyment.  There are a few main factors for why this is; one of which being their relatively low price.  Indie games generally range from Free to $20 max.  So whether you’re gaming on a budget or are just looking for some cheap fun, indie games really are the perfect fix.  This may sound contradictory, but in some ways indie games are more polished/complete than AAA titles.  Yes the commercial titles have the large amount of testing under their belt, but Indies don’t work on strict time tables.  So while they may be slightly more buggy, they usually don’t suffer from what most games do, which is feeling like the game was rushed and isn’t finished.  The other plus is that indie devs can focus more on the gameplay aspects and if something doesn’t work, change it.

Another thing about indie development is that they can be on nearly any platform.  Such as flash, as just about all flash games are technically small indie games.  Others include the 360 (with their Indie Games Marketplace) iPhone, Android, and PC with the numerous engines available even for free (such as Unity and Source SDK) along with the multiple development platforms that accept indie games from Steam to even OnLive, just to name a few.

Right, well since it hasn’t been apparent yet, the point of this Variety Friday is to inform you that you should support indie games.  Even if you’re a COD fanboy, the magic about indie games is that there are games that can appeal to almost anyone.  From the puzzle lovers, to the story based game lovers, to the shooter/zombie lovers there is something for you on many platforms.  Though, why specifically you should support them, is for the reasons I listed above.  They really do bring great innovation to the industry and are probably going to end up playing an even larger role in the industries future.

How do you support indie games you ask?  Well it is actually quite simple.  Go checkout Steam, the Xbox marketplace, the app store, or whatever your preferred form of distribution is, and just look at some indie games, and find a few that seem like they’ll interest you and play them.  Next, try to keep track of the indie trends and watch for some new releases and just try to be a little involved, it would make the industry better for everyone.

Now, some of my favorite indie games.

PC

• AaaAaaaAAaa: A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
• Trine
• Braid

Flash

• One Chance
• Today I Die
• Loved

Xbox Live Indies

• Solar
• Kaleidoscope
• Abadddon
• Breeze

Xbox Live Arcade

• Monday Night Combat
• Super Meat Boy

Enjoy!

Variety Friday: Portal 2, an In-Depth Analysis

-SPOILERS-

Today’s Variety Friday is an in-depth look at some of the design choices in portal 2 (and 1) and how it executes them.  No, this isn’t a review for Portal 2, John is supposed to be working on that, so give him the crap, and he will probably give you some excuse such as “PSN is Down”, but anyway.  I’m going to try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but if you don’t want anything spoiled and haven’t played single player, you’ve been warned.

Main Character

One thing Valve has really excelled on with the creation of Chell is making her a character that does not speak and doesn’t have any past we know of.  But, what does happen is that Chell is defined by her actions, it’s what she does which defines who she is, as much as we know anyway.  This is a commonly used strategy as far as main characters go, especially in older games, in the days of the N64 and GameCube (Examples being Metroid, and Legend of Zelda). 

But Valve goes deeper by not only showing her interactions in games with the test chambers and items but also with the supporting characters.   Specifically between Portal 1 and 2 with Glados.  Portal 1 gave us no back-story, it started out in a test chamber and you started testing as it seemed the only viable option.  You weren’t even told the main characters name in the original Portal; it started you off with nothing but a purpose.  This one “defining purpose” is sometimes all that is needed in a game.  But then in a twist (which also created one of the most well known memes of all time) as Glados attempts to murder you, you must escape and it turns into a fight for your life as you try to escape the Aperture Science Laboratories.

Though, the interesting part comes with Portal 2, how Chell is first reunited with Glados and then goes right back to testing.  But, is later forced to work with her while still only having the main purpose of survival.  There are two major things to get from this.  First, to show how all that is needed in (some) games is a simple goal or purpose, you don’t need to have complex back stories and long cutsceens to show this.  Second, it shows the transition of friend to enemy and some of the hardships of doing this, all through action and the dialog of Glados.

Also, they didn’t make the mistake of actually giving more character to Chell; they kept it as it was in Portal 1.  Too many times are franchises hurt because a character which was defined by action was characterized and given dialog, a back story, and etc.  They stuck to the roots of Portal and I believe that this paid off.

Supporting Characters

Portal has some of the best supporting characters of all time, how?  By not having a lot of supporting characters.  It is very easy for games, in general, to have too many supporting characters so that you can’t focus on them all or they really get in the way of the story.  In general there are 2 main methods to go about not having this problem.  There is the Mass Effect strategy of giving you the option of which characters to socialize with and learn about, allowing you to care about all, none, or that one special character.  Or Portal’s approach of having a very small amount of supporting characters, locked in conflict throughout the game.

The two supporting characters being Wheatley and Glados (yes there is Cave Johnson and the Turrets but they don’t play near big a role).  Both of these characters are generally talkative, which, besides being comical, helps with interaction and atmosphere.  One thing I notice though is that Chell is almost the middle man (woman?) between Wheatley and Glados’s conflict.  This just helps build upon the mystery behind Chell, as it is almost as if she isn’t the main character at all!   It almost seems that Glados and Wheatley take care of the story, while Chell, the interaction.  It is actually an ingenious idea, having one character which you play as in the game and provides the interaction, while 2 others which provide the conflict and drive.

Gameplay

The final thing I am going to touch on is the gameplay and Portal’s unique puzzle elements.  One thing that first struck me as odd is how some people didn’t think of Portal as a puzzle game.  I believe why this is, is because for one, Portal isn’t really presented as a puzzle game, or, well, a traditional puzzle game.  It follows a story and doesn’t try to make people feel stupid.  The balancing of challenges is really what makes people not think of it as a puzzle game, because the game doesn’t make you feel like a complete idiot when playing, it is that perfect balance of not too easy, not too hard.

Now I don’t need to explain how the mechanics of the game are interesting and unique.  What I do want to briefly point out is how they flow.  Throughout Portal 2 you learn on a curve with more “weapons being added to your arsenal” as you play along such as the gels.  I really must give Valve credit for one, having the guts to make a sequel to portal, and two, executing it near perfectly, adding enough while the core concepts are still there, and not taking anything away.  Well played Valve.

Variety Friday: Why (Nearly) Everyone Should be Using OnLive

As the title suggests, this post is going to be about the service Onlive, and why nearly everyone should use it, or atleast have it download.  For those who don't know Onlive is a form of digital distribution for games.  Assumingly the first thing that will come to mind is Steam Copy, in a way that is true, but in a much large way it is not.

OnLive uses the principal of Cloud Game, what this is, is essentially the games aren't actually run on your computer but run in the cloud.  The easier way to describe this would be a YouTube for Gaming.  What this essentially allows you to do, is to run games on computers that can't run much more than TF2 on minimum settings.  So with this service even a netbook can be running Homefront.

Another thing Onlive does which Steam doesn't is allows you to rent games.  Almost all games except some newer titles (such as Homefront) you can rent for 3 or 5 days.  So instead of waiting the grueling ~7 days to send back and get a new title from Gamefly, or for those of you lucky enough, instead of driving to a redbox, you can rent games instantly from OnLive.  The pricing is competitive with other services, most games are $6 for 3-Days and $9 for 5.  

The other main feature of OnLive is their "Play Pack".  For $10 a month (First month for free) you get access to a large selection of games featuring many AAA titles like Just Cause 2 and Fear 2, Older games like Just Cause and Frontline: Fuels of War, and even indie titles like AaaaAaAAaa: A Wreckless Disregard for Gravity and World of Goo.  Recently the Play Pack has reached the 50 Games mark and is increasing every month with more games.

Yet another great thing about OnLive is their competitive pricing, not only do they have great Friday deals, such as this week's being Mafia 2 for $5.  But they also have great promotions, like just today they had a promo code which lasted for only an hour but gave you 75% off any game you want.  Steam was doing the same thing, Metro 2033 was $10, but with that code it was only $5 on Onlive and I'm guaranteed to be able to run it!

There is only a small audience that I wouldn't reccomend OnLive for, those with Beastly Computers that will last for years and/or those with crappy internet connections.  Because OnLive streams the game if you don't have a fast or have a High Latency connection there will be frame rate drops and a noticeable delay with input, so in that case games will be almost unplayable so you may want to stay away.

Then there are those of you who are like "Pfft, I don't care!  I'm a console gamer for life, I like my big TV, Surround Sound System, and my controller".  Well OnLive deals with this in two ways.  First, almost all, if not all games have support for a gamepad.  Two, they also have a box available for $100 which is pretty much an OnLive console compatible with any wired game controllers or Keyboard and Mouse.  Also, the OnLive console has a large chance to outlive current consoles, because there isn't hardware that needs to be updated.

-Recap-

-Key OnLive Features-

• Computed in the cloud, play instantly on your computer and doesn't require expensive hardware, a netbook will suffice.
• $10 per/ month "Play Pack"
• Compatible with PC & Mac
• OnLive console alternative 
• Competative Pricing
• Renting

I highly recommend that everyone (besides those who I spoke of above) atleast download OnLive and try the Trial for one of the games.  Especially if you have a fast connection yet a bad PC.  OnLive could, quite possibly be the future of gaming, and with them adding more and more games to their catalog, it's just more and more of a reason to download it.  I think Onlive is doing what a lot of other people will be doing first, a form of digital distribution which doesn't require discs or downloads, renting games digitally, and offering a large pack of games on a Monthly Fee, all across 3 different platforms.

*Note, I wasn't offered anything from OnLive or any of that, this is just my opinions

Games I Finished in March

It's that time again, March was a busy month for my gaming habit. The biggest surprise for me on this list is Batman: The Brave and the Bold which was a surprisingly fun beat 'em up. So what games did you play or finish in March? Leave a comment below and let me know.

• Killzone 3
• Fight Night Champion
• Beyond Good & Evil HD
• Inertia
• Homefront
• Lilt Line
• I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1
• bit.trip Flux
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• Pokemon Black

Games I finished In February

All right ladies and gentlemen, last month I started keeping track of games I've played and finished then I upload that list here so others can view and even post their own lists. February was a rather slow month for games until the end when we got Bulletstorm and Killzone 3. So I used a lot of February to catch up on a few games and play a lot of Marvel vs Capcom 3. Speaking of that MvC3 is on this list, while technically you can't "finish" a fighting game, I consider myself having finished it because I got the Arcade ending for each character. So without further ado.

• Dead Space 2
• Stacking
• Ghost Trick
• The Incident (iPad)
• Bulletstorm
• Marvel vs Capcom 3

So that's my short list for February, what about you guys? What games did you play in February?