so is there one specific person (her) who is most sensitive to the problem? if so, would avoid any specifics on her solve that? would it make it just too vague, the work? is there merit in a work so vague it says nothing about anything in the end?

Play While telling with the eyes in your browser

I will ramble. Please forgive.

One day, on a whim, I contacted a few fellow game makers to see if they would be interested in taking part in a little experiment. Following up on my whims has been my modus operandi since I started making games, so this just seemed appropriate. A few caught on, and what we set out to do was make a game each, and then switch around the credits, so each of us would release a game that was not of our respective creation.

As me and the friends I contacted discussed the finer points, I got questioned as to why something like this could be a good idea, what I was trying to achieve. I truthfully responded that I was not trying to achieve anything, that this was just a game, something fun to try out, a bit of a silly prank. I never explained where the idea came from, though.

I have a hard time reconciling my selfish desires with my outlook on life. I believe that everyone and everything is just a part of a whole, and that any sense of self that we have is an illusion that is normally convenient to let us do the best we can, but, for our species, has gone out of control, and selfishness has become the norm. Copyright law is just one concrete expression of this selfishness, in the realms of culture and economics. This belief clashed with my need to become good at what I want to become good at, and be recognized for it as an individual, to be favored in some fashion. So, I guess I had this in mind when I became suddenly intrigued by the thought of having another person take the credit for a game I’d made.

The people who participated were Jonathan Whiting (a.k.a. MrPiglet), Michael Brough (a.k.a. brog), Noyb, and I. A theme was convened, ‘masquerade’, which seemed appropriate. The games are the following:

• Ascension
• The sense of connectedness
• Face time
• Doppelganger

They were all released on December the 1st. During this last month or so I haven’t been in my best mind, so I didn’t concern myself as much with the outcome (or even the preparations) as I could have, but I believe that it was a positive experience for us all. From reading my fellow conspirators’ thoughts, I understand that they were not entirely comfortable throughout, and this mirrors my initial dilemma; I think that being aware of such unpleasant emotions results in a higher understanding of our self, so I’m not sorry for having sparked this charade. Me, I was surprised to find myself so anxious about what to do with the game I was to display, not because of the game itself, but because I had to consider the actual author’s feelings for their own game, their attachment to it, their willingness to place it in my hands. Even though it wasn’t my game, I made it a point to treat this one as I would any of my releases, but whatever I usually did with one, Jonathan might not have agreed. Frustratingly dealing with this dual standard (in my own mind, as he never argued) was the low point of the experience for me.

But now, game’s up.

A game of logic exploring gesture-based input. Saying more would probably mean to spoil it.

Play Ascension (Flash)

Also read: an important note.

Another arbitrary span of time, another game. I can’t really explain much about this one.

Play Intervalo… (Flash)

(It was about time I posted this.)

Perhaps you remember a Ludum Dare entry I called Climbrunner—well, this game is an evolution of that idea. Here, you run around a tricky series of screens, up the walls and ceilings, only with the ability to jump to avoid the obstacles that get in your way. There’s no dying, just lots of cursing over missed jumps and having to do it all over again. It’s a short game, but if you think it was fun once you first finish it, there’s still a second path you can try.

All you need to know to play it is that you jump with the spacebar.

Play Runnerby (Flash)

It’s a single player game, but is intended (not to a very interesting result) to be played together with other people, passing the controller around. This is why the level design has lots of ‘sticky’ places: parts that keep you in a loop until you decide to jump out, so you can safely hand over the controls. It is also how I rationalized the frustration aspect, reminding of a time in which, as a kid, I played video games with friends or my cousins, and we would take turns playing/wincing at the ‘obvious’ mistakes the others were making as they played.

I didn’t really take it where I wanted it to go, as my ambition clashed with my lazy attitude about creating the content. I submitted it to Gamma IV (despite it not fitting into the 5-minutes-per-session rule) with no positive result, and then tried Indiecade just because I really wanted it to find its way to a large event, again to no success. What it was supposed to be was a much larger world, with each screen offering challenges to reach each of the exits (at least two per screen). The reward for the challenges would not be a destination (a goal), but exploration itself: discovering what lies further into the game world. Since this was intended for an event with a massive attendance, I wanted the world to feel different depending on your whereabouts; then, whenever you glanced at the screen where the game was being played continuously for the duration of the event, you’d see someplace new. The actual finished game is really just an imperfect compromise, an abortion of these ambitions, so I’m not surprised it didn’t do well.

Credits

• Uses Adam Saltsman’s Flixel.
• Sounds by ltibbits, RealRhodesSounds, and teleport8.
• Some implemented ideas as suggested by Noyb.
• Testers: Sigal, Javi, Javy, Ilan, Mariposa, Stephen Lavelle, Terry Cavanagh, Bennett Foddy, Zaphos, Greg Wohlwend, Jasper Byrne.
• Texts quoted from Miss Mulock’s Tom Thumb.

In the second hour of yesterday’s KOTM I made this Flash drawing thing.

Give it a try

Download nkytt

This month I made a kind of klik that took advantage of the foundations laid out in Wirewalk, Prosopamnesia, and other unreleased experiments also dealing with image searches. This made it so easy to make, that I achieved my initial concept within the first hour. This first idea involved no interactions, so I used the following hour (of two that the monthly event lasts) to add that layer of interactivity.

Deconstructivism (Flash)

You may leave it untouched and it will ‘play itself’. Or you may click and flick on the image displayed to alter it manually. If it takes too long to load, or if you want a new picture, refresh the page.