$3 is a No-Brainer

I have purchased my first-ever micro game. Expect more of these in the next while, hopefully all with as simple a way to buy in.

The game is Windosill, a very simple Ambient Point-And-Click Puzzler. Describing the game is difficult. Each scene is a window into a strange world. The window sill has a block car and a locked door. You have to find the cube that unlocks the door so you can get the car to the next window.

There is lots of stuff to click on. Sometimes you have to solve a small puzzle to get the cube, sometimes not. Mostly it's just fun to interact with everything to see what it does.

The first half of the game is free. And it's a great hook. You get to the middle and the game asks you for an activation code to continue. The code is $3. I had that sitting in my PayPal account, chances are you might too. So I paid.

I'd do it again too. Even though the game is short, and doesn't have much for replay, the price was right. At $3 and under it becomes an impulse buy. Like a chocolate bar or bag of chips at the gorcery store checkout, it's not something that you need but it is something easy to pick up with a cheap enough pricetag that it takes almost no justification.

You just buy it.

What's Your Rush?

I just played Blurst's newest release: Paper Moon. Go ahead, have a go, it's free. It's a very basic platformer. The twist is that you can pop select pieces of the scenery in and out. These bits are either behind, on level with, or in front of the scene.

This means that jumping puzzles can have an added element where you have to jump and then pop the next platform into place. The neat part comes when enemies start showing up. You can pop scenery in to bump the baddies out. bump them forward and they fly at the screen with a satisfying Bop! Be careful not to do it to yourself though.

Not that death really hurts. The game has no lives. You spend most of the time collecting fruit and navigating the simple areas. There are some physics puzzles, but they didn't seem too complicated. Being bumped off screen, touching baddies, or falling into bottomless pits makes you respawn at the last checkpoint you passed. These are fairly frequent, so any setback is minor.

The issue I have with the game is the completely unnecessary timer which results in Game Over when it runs out. There really isn't any story to the game (it's losely inspired by the song "It's Only a Paper Moon") so I don't know what the motivation to hurry is. I'd rather spend my time exploring and collecting fruit. And dying, I do that a lot.

Why are you making me hurry through your game? I want to play it again because I want to see more of it. But I also probably won't because my skill level means that I probably won't see that much more of it anyway.

This could have been a wonderful casual platformer with a slick graphics and a nice gameplay twist. I could have killed a couple of hours on it exploring every nook and cranny. As much content as you put into it, I would have searched out. But instead you timed me and only got my 5 minutes. It was only a paper moon.

Five (Short) Games You Should Play Before the Year Ends

There has been a lot said on these games already. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to add anything new, so I won't bother including my review. There's a short description, so at least you know what you're getting into. Most of these have great audio, so turn up your speakers. Have fun!

You Have to Burn the Rope (Flash - Kongregate)
I think you can figure out what to do. Stay for the song at the end.

Auditorium (Flash)
A puzzle game fusion of light and sound. The game is still in development, so there are only 15 levels available. Bend the flow of particles and try to fill the audio bars. The music builds as you succeed.

Aether (Flash - Armor Games)
Explore the solar system. Use the sticky tounge of the beast to swing from clouds and asteroids. Fling yourself to other planets. See great things. Bring colour back to the people you meet.

I Wish I were the Moon (Flash - Kongregate)
Take pictures to re-arrange the members of this strange love triangle. Try to find all the endings (7 plus a secret one).

Night of the Cephalopods (Windows)
A simple survival horror game with a Lovecraftian narration that works to set the tone of the game as you play.

Casual Smash

I'm sitting at my computer right now while, in the other room, my wife and her sister kick each other's virtual butts across the screen in Smash Bros. Brawl. This is something of an oddity. Morgan (my wife) is a casual gamer, but often shies away from the more hardcore games. Ruth (her sister) is a gamer, but is usually found playing RPGs, strategy games, and other less action-oriented games on her DS. Even I'm not the hard-fun type of gamer who would get into Brawl. A couple of years ago I probably wouldn't have even bought the game. How did this come to pass?

I think it has something to do with the Wii being a social gaming machine. I bought the game because I like having things to play when other people are around. It's the same reason I bought Mario Party 8. I like being able to throw people into games and let them have some fun. I figured that I know enough gaming people that there would be challenge for the hardcore among us and crazy-cute fun for the casual. I'd probably have the tar beaten out of me, but we'd all get a good laugh. I've so far not had the chance to have a 4-person brawl, and yet I've played a lot with the game, and this surprises me.

I think that we've enjoyed it as much as we have because Nintendo did some very subtle things to make playing enjoyable for everyone.

Beefy Single Player
Making the Subspace Emissary a primary and detailed part of the game is the core to giving Smash Bros. a wider appeal. Firstly, it gives more solitary players like myself something to do. This is good because a game made solely of the Classic Mode, Brawls and Events would have been shelved 24 hours after purchase out of sheer boredom. I can handle a few hours of tedium, and I will probably work my way through Classic, All-Star, Boss, Stadium, and Event modes with most or all of the characters eventually. I'll do this out of a desire to unlock more of the statues and strive for 100% completion (which I'll probably never achieve). I will not do this because it interests or stimulates me. It will take months, and I'll probably lose interest. If I had to do that kind of thing to unlock the extra characters, it would have broken the game for me. Playing through the Subspace Emissary was a treat, and it unlocked all but a handful of characters and get me interested in playing more of the game. It acts the hook.

Secondly, it introduces just about all of the characters. Brawl has a wide range of characters, may of them obscure. Now the Subspace Emissary doesn't explain back story or origin, but it does tell us who they are, and allow us to play a little bit with each. We get a better feel for them without the stress of the brawl-style 2-minute combat. This leads into the third thing, which is that playing the single player game allows you to get better at playing. I improved by leaps and bounds. I'm not a master player (and will never be), but I don't just fall off the level any time I play anymore, either. Lastly, the Subspace Emissary gives you a low risk way to introduce other players to the game style and controls with a lot less of the frustration.

My first experience with Brawl was the last version, on the Gamecube. I hated it because I didn't know what I was doing, how to do any of it, and I usually spent most of my turns playing dead or dying. This is because I was introduced to it in a crowd situation against people who already knew how to play. Very conducive to frustration, and not much else. But by providing a mode where one or two players can explore how the game works in a lower-stress, but still engaging way (practice and training modes are bad at this), you can hook people into playing. That's what I did. I showed them the basic controls, and then let them play in the game.

They've moved on to brawling (usually each other, and some moderate CPUs). They don't really care if they win or lose (I don't either). I can join in, and I can even handicap myself a little by playing with a more difficult control scheme (WiiMote Only - gah!). It is pure fun. And because the game has enough cute and funny elements, it remains amusing over time. Morgan and Ruth played a whole session with Ruth trying each character and Morgan playing Kirby to see what Kirby looked like transformed into each character. Verdict: Kirby is cute.

The best thing is that they are both getting better at playing the game. I've watched over the past few days as they've battled, and even as I've joined in. They are having less difficulty with the moves, and with getting the characters to do what they want. For a game that initially lends itself to players with a desire to master controls, challenge themselves to complete difficult tasks, and generally throw themselves against game shaped walls, Smash Bros. has enough casual hooks to get a lot more people playing.

I think that it also helps that you can unlock a lot of the core game stuff (characters and levels) just by playing through. You don't have to be a master of anything.

Return to Reality

(Image used without permission from Savage Chickens)

Returning to work after the holidays always feels like coming down off of some strange sugar buzz. I've had a week and a half of no responsibility, no deadlines, and little stress. I've had time to read comics, play games, visit family, relax. And while the time off has not been free of busy-ness, it has been free of a lot of the structure that I live on.

So going back to work feels like a big downer. Winter has me depressed, and the year, while shiny and new, is a long road ahead. But I'm being self indulgent and depressing. No one wants to read about how blah I feel (not even me!). Better to look back at the fun I just had and all the good things that happened. Like how I got my Mom to play Mario Party.

Actually, I had a couple of nice successes with the Wii this Christmas. Just before the office closed down for the break, we decided that the last Friday (the 21st) would be a short day, followed by pizza and relaxing. Morgan and I were planning to be on the road early the next morning, so packing for a week in Saskatchewan had already begun a couple of days before. I planned to take the Wii with me, so I packed it up on Thursday and schlepped it to work on the bus with me for our Friday Fun Day.

We didn't get a lot of time to play with it, due to an abnormally busy day, but play we did. Bowling and Mario Party on a projection screen. And I got a bunch of people, all a fair bit older than me, to play. I got to show them that all video games are not quite beyond them.

Then the trip to the middle of nowhere, where my parents live. We brought the Wii with us the last time we visited, in the summer. I got my Dad to do some bowling then, but my Mom was a staunch holdout, preferring the safety of the couch. But after a little pleading, and a bit of bullying, we got her playing too. First it was a bit of bowling (which seems to be the ultimate gateway game), and then some Mario Party 8. I think that once the controller was in her hand she realized that it was easier to use than she had thought. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets a DS in the next year.

I also got to play Guitar Hero (3) for the first time. Not my own copy, but a friend's. Took on a few songs on easy, and even managed to 3-star a couple of songs on medium. I get the appeal, and I had a good time with it. I just wish I could justify the price-gap. Perhaps my birthday will yield the gift cards required.

There was also some board games, and card games. I tried to play something at every chance I got, and I got a few chances. I don't think I'll ever get tired of playing games, or learning how to play new ones.

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I suppose with it being a new year and all, I should be reflecting on 2007 and speculating on 2008. Except that last year was a blur, and a fairly unproductive one for me. And I have no idea what I want for 2008. Too much introspection makes me antsy, and I don't want to get lost in the woolgathering. It's time to get back to work, and make the next year as full and worthwhile as possible. Here's to getting over the holiday hangover.

Toys

Did you know that there are still people complaining about Wii Sports? And half the mini-game based games for the Wii. These rants and screeds usually devolve into complaints about the game graphics, or lack of depth, or even the control scheme. Some even go so far as to claim the Wii has no real staying power because the games released so far have been targeted casual gamers. But Wii Sports (and Wii Play) aren't games: they're toys. And because they are toys, they are perfect for getting people interested.

This post started in my head as a series of complaints against Wii Sports and Wii Play. I am a gamer, and I do seek more depth to the games that I play. These two titles are the mental equivalent of those ball-bearing spatial puzzles. I can play with them for a little while, but they become boring and repetitive. They lack even the mental addiction of having achievements and awards to collect. They are McDonalds(tm) Happy(tm) Meal(tm) toys and Cereal Box Boardgames. There is the potential for a a lot of interesting gameplay, but these games are not intended to provide it.

I would love to see well visioned golf game using a similar control to Wii Sports. Or a fully developed tennis game, or bowling tournament game (build and manage your bowling alley, while developing your bowling skills for online tournament play!). You could do more sports - like hockey, skiing, curling - and add levels of training, competing, and online play to flesh out the games into serious amounts of play. I'd love to see a full billiards simulation with multiple games/rules, trick-shot challenges, online play, and serious tournament handling. All of these ideas could even still use the Miis for avatars, just make the games deeper.

But Nintendo didn't want to the first games that new players encountered to be games of depth. Or real games at all. The best way to hook the uninitiated isn't to swamp them with detail, it's to give them a toy. What is the first game you are going to give to your non-gamer aunt to play: Twilight Princess or Wii Sports? The game that takes hours to play, or the toy that she can play with for hours? How about your uncle who loves sports, but hasn't touched a game since Pong? Would you dump him into an advanced golf or tennis game where you need to play tournaments and learn advanced skills, or would Wii Sports be the very first thing he plays and then the other sports games later?

Nintendo knew that the way into people's homes was to create something that everyone could play, and that everyone would play. Hook them by removing the mental barriers that the video game community has built around itself. Nintendo knew that toys have a much lower mental threshold than games do. So the first things you encounter when you buy a Wii are toys. If you get hooked, you'll look for more depth on your own.

I originally thought that Wii Sports was just a glorified tech demo. Something packaged with the system to show off what would be possible, and how to use the new controls. I was wrong. Wii Sports comes with the system so that you can show it to everyone you know, gamer or not, and they can play. It comes with the system so that the grandmother who buys the system already has the first toy, no video game store confusion. It comes with the system because it is the gateway to gaming: toy play.

Now Nintendo just has to get the real games to the waiting public. What's the hold up Nintendo? That's another post.

Waving My Arms in Delight

In the last couple of days I've taken up Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Golf, Boxing, Fishing, Billiards (9-ball), Cow Racing, Target Shooting, and a couple of other sports. All without getting off of my couch. Unless I want to.

That's right, I got myself a Wii. Thanks to a conspiratorial inside tip at a local Zellers, an early-ish Saturday morning, and the store having enough stock for all that arrived, I secured my third console gaming platform. I got to experience a small pre-opening lineup (over half a year after the initial release of the system), complete with mini-rush to the electronics department. I now own one console from each of the Big Three, and my first "next-gen" system.

Ah, the joys of new toys. Of course, now that I've had a taste of the modding scene, this system will be lucky to last a few weeks before open it up. The first improvements will be colourful LEDs for the Wiimotes (link).

I don't have much in the way of real games for the system yet. Just Wii Sports, and Wii Play. But with a monthly gaming night coming up in less than 2 weeks, and a friend with 2 additional controllers, we should be able to get some good 4-way gaming action going. I can't wait to see the party power of the new system.

Now I need to fill up my Mii Plaza, so help me get a Mii Parade going. Won't you be my Wii Friend?

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Free Candy

Giveaway of the Day is a website that offers full copies of licensed software, one a day. Quite often these are the mediocre shareware programs that you can find and download from any number of shareware portals around the internet. Except that Giveaway is offering, for a limited time, a full, registered, and unrestricted copy of the software.

Now, not all the downloads are useful. Not all software is worth having. All of it is for Windows. But, on occasion, they host a real gem.

"What's the catch?", I hear you cry. You have to download and install the software on the day that it is offered on the site. There is a small activation step that registers the software, and grabs the license. The software is yours to use, under limited but reasonable terms (like non-commercial use with no support or updates), forever. So long as you don't have to re-install.

Oh, did I mention that they have a Game Giveaway of the Day as well? While many of the games that I've seen are casual, clones, or both (leading to a lot of mediocre offerings)... you do get interesting, and even indie, titles showing up.

Like today. For a limited time you can get a full copy of Bullet Candy, for free.

What are you waiting around here for?

Short and Sweet

The official reviews of Sam & Max’s second episode are in. I didn’t review it after I played it mostly because I was busy, but also because I played it back in December, via GameTap, before it became widely available. I’m in pretty good agreement with the reviews that I’ve read (link, link, and pdf – near the end): the game is a good second episode, and fans of the series will like it. It is noticeably easier to solve the puzzles, which fit together a bit more loosely, allowing for better casual play. The dialog is, if anything, better than the first episode, tapping further into the odd wit and dry surreality of Purcell’s world.

If you don’t know what to expect, the first two episodes of Sam & Max are:

• Short – 2 to 4 hours of gameplay, including hearing all of the banter and descriptions, depending on your speed of play
• Casual – Easy to play (one-button), easy to understand (clear interface), easy to solve (light puzzles)
• Wacky – They are, after all, Freelance Police

This all well and good, but the question remains: are they worth the money? Let’s do some comparison and analysis to find out.

Money Talks

Let’s compare the cost per episode for Sam & Max to other available episodic content. It took me 3 hours to complete the last episode, sucking as much entertainment value as I could from the game, and without getting stuck for more than 10 minutes (twice, I think). The cost: $9 USD. This gives us $3/hour of entertainment. If we get a season pass ($35 USD), and assume that all the episodes will give us about the same amount of play time, totaling 36 hours (the first was about 3-4 hours, I didn’t play it in one sitting), we wind up with $1.94/hour.

So what do we have to compare it with? iTunes sells episodes of television at $2 USD, which amounts to 44 minutes of entertainment, usually. DVD collections usually clock in at about $2 per episode as well, and some animated stuff is only 22 minutes per episode.

• Family Guy Volume 4: $30 USD, 14 episodes + extras, $2/episode
• House Season 2: $40 USD, 24 episodes + extras, $1.70/episode

An episode of Sam & Max, based on play time, is equivalent to 3 or 4 episodes of hour-long TV drama. The cost is roughly equivalent to what you would pay for a season of your favorite show on DVD. The price seems right to me. Cheaper actually, as 24 episodes of television is only 18 hours.

Timing is Everything

So what about the release schedule? So far, there have been 2 episodes. There was a gap of 2 months between the pilot and the second episode. The intended schedule now is to release the remaining 4 episodes once every month. At the equivalent entertainment time of 3-4 hour long TV episodes (commercials do not count as entertainment), this would be the close to the one episode per week format of most shows. Especially since many primetime shows produce 22 to 26 episodes to show over 32+ weeks, leaving the occasional programming gap. Except for winding up with all of your entertainment time bunched into a single session (or a couple of shorter ones), this seems timed right to me.

It’s All What You Like

This leaves a final question: is time spent playing a game as entertaining as watching television?

If it isn’t, then why are you playing? Some people like to watch comedy, some drama, some romance. Some like to play platformers, or shmups, or shooters, or MMOGs, or adventure games. If you don’t like the format, then the entertainment is never going to engage you. You can’t force someone to like a show; all you can do is offer it to them.

Rent Control

This leaves a final comparison. Thanks to a plethora of rental options, I can watch all the TV on DVD I want for much cheaper than the purchase price. I use the Canadian equivalent of NetFlix to rent and watch a whole lot of movies, many of which I may never own. What equivalents are there for games? I can see two clear options:

If episodic content starts to show up on consoles – perhaps delivered via online services like Live – then collections of these episodes would likely become available through the traditional disc formats as well. These would be just as rentable as DVDs.

Subscription game services, like GameTap, provide a single monthly cost to play any of their available games. This includes all past and current episodic content. The concept is very similar to a subscription rental service, but the games are available immediately (pending a download) and you can “check out” as many as your hard drive can hold without having to return them between.

Telltale’s Got It

I don’t know if someone at Telltale did this math when they were laying out the overall plan for Sam & Max. I don’t know if being comparable in price, length, and schedule to existing episodic formats mattered to them when they laid out their business plan. All I know is that Telltale has worked out a system that, to me, is just as valuable as TV. They have also married it to a story that suits the format. I continue to look forward to the rest of Sam & Max Season 1, and I have high hopes episodic games in general.

Reindeer Games

Holiday music usually sends me into a bit of a state. Don’t get me wrong; I love this season, filled to the brim as it is with good will, holiday cheer, and rampant consumerism. The thing that gets me – what really makes me twitch – is the repetitiveness of it. How many times can you listen to “White Christmas”? How many badly sung and poorly arranged pop-girl versions of “Frosty the Snowman” can one season take? And the radio stations and malls have been playing this stuff since the middle of November, without pause. Which is why I tend to retreat into the obscure back aisles of holiday music. If I must recognize the season through song (and I must), at least I try to do it via underplayed, unrecognized, and unusually odd jingles.

Without further ado: 5 Obscure Christmas Songs Games

5) The Same Christmas Cake (The Arrogant Worms)

Christmas makes me realize how greatly things do change
Friends lose touch, people age, and family moves away
But it is what had stayed the same that gives me the most tears
For I've had the same Christmas cake for almost thirty years

Granny made it back in sixty-eight and gave it to my mom
Who gave it to her uncle who gave it to her son
Who then gave it to me and that is where it stuck
For I was only three months old and clearly out of luck

Here’s your basic Match-3 rip-off, casual game. You have to escape the curse of the Christmas Cake, and to do so must match and remove the festive coloured candied fruit pieces. Not much here, except a theme, a thin back story, and a really odd song.

4) I Want an Alien for Christmas (Fountains of Wayne)

I don't need any ugly sweaters
And I don't play much basketball
But there's something kinda special
That I want most of all...

I want an alien for Christmas
Bring me an alien this year
I want a little green guy
About three feet high
With seventeen eyes
Who knows how to fly
I want an alien for Christmas this year

I have two pictures that pop into my head here. One is of the crappy two-minute flash games where you are either dodging or catching something that is falling from the top of the screen. The second is a 2-D platformer where you go on a mission to get an alien for Christmas, then have to take care of him, and play with him. I think that the two could be combined into a short Flash-based game where you have to jump dodge and fetch various items while avoiding bad presents, federal agents, and angry alien parents (but perhaps not all at once). Again, not the deepest of stories or gameplay – just something fun for a holiday break.

3) Chiron Beta Prime (Jonathan Coulton) [Bonus Link]

Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime,
where we’re working in a mine for our robot overlords.
Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime.

On every corner there’s a giant metal Santa Claus
who watches over us with glowing red eyes.
They carry weapons and they know if you’ve been bad or good.
Not everybody’s good but everyone tries.
And the rocks outside the airlock exude ammonia-scented snow.
It’s like a Winter wonderland.

I think that this song has only one place to go: Christmas ‘Shmup. Start as a Christmas convoy from Earth, carrying presents past the defenses of the Asteroid Mining Company to the indentured workers on the surface of Chiron Beta Prime. Levels could include: Open Space, Asteroid Field, Ammonia Winter Wonderland, Mine Shafts, and Escape from Chiron. Swoop in, drop of the holiday cheer, and escape with your life (and maybe a few freed slaves – I mean volunteer workers).

2) Oh, Santa! (Veggie Tales, Silly Songs with Larry)

Umm… this one needs a video.

This is a social game, involving the sharing and passing of cookies. Something like a cross between Lost (the game, not the show – invite here), and the Zune commercial with the never-ending DRM-infected cookie. Only without the icky DRM. You start with a few cookies to share, but you need to hurry or they can be stolen. Share them and you’ll get more as your friends share theirs. Or steal cookies from already invited friends to keep your stock up. The game could run as a special promotion in the weeks running up to Christmas. You need to finish the week with at least two friends and one cookie to get a special “gift” from Santa. Incentives go to the sharers, and while the game seems easier if you steal, it winds up being easier to lose (I think that you’d become a bigger target for other thieves).

Basically a light, social game to promote sharing and community during the holiday season.

1) Elf’s Lament (Barenaked Ladies)

I'm a man of reason, and they say "'Tis the season to be jolly"
But it's folly when you volley for position

Never in existence has there been such a resistance
To ideas meant to free us
If you could see us, then you'd listen

Toiling through the ages, making toys on garnished wages
There's no union
We're only through when we outdo the competition

I make toys, but I've got aspirations
Make some noise
Use your imagination
Girls and boys, before you wish for what you wish for
There's a list for who's been
Naughty or nice, but consider the price to an elf

This song (and if you haven’t heard it, I’d encourage you to find it and have a listen) has the most depth, and as such has the most potential to inspire gameplay. I could see this being enacted as a full-sized economic sim and construction game. Cross the building and management play from a Tycoon game, with a deeper economic strategy (to manage the work force and changing product demands), and then give it the visual styling of the later Santa Clause movies.

Build the North Pole from a tiny little one-room workshop into a bustling hidden city of candy-coloured buildings and toy manufacturing machinery. Deal with all sorts of obstacles of progress including unionization of the elves, outsourcing of production, time and resource management, campaigning and funding to support the internal economy, and more. Create whimsical production devices by combining simpler assembly gadgets into larger contraptions. Micromanage by assigning work shifts and duty rosters, or let the elves manage themselves and reassign as factories become automated.

Delivery’s a snap, it’s making the toys that’s the challenge.

Sam & Max: Freelance Review

Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock is going public on November 1. It has already been live on GameTap for a couple of weeks now. In honour of its pending release to the unwashed masses (and hopefully to its riotous success) I present an homage and a review.

Inauspicious Beginnings

Steve Purcell created these dynamic and slightly deranged characters back 1980, where they made their debut on the campus of the California College of the Arts. By the end of the 80s they could be seen and read in their own full-length comic book. They were then picked up by LucasArts to be turned interactive. By far their most popular venture, Sam & Max Hit the Road released in 1993 to become a cult classic among adventure gaming. Their next stop took them to television land where they found themselves fighting crime, freelance-style, in a Fox-produced Saturday morning cartoon. In 2002 LucasArts announced the long-awaited sequel to Hit the Road, Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Fans were delighted, only to be disappointed by its cancellation in early 2004.

That might have been the end for the Freelance Police. Doomed to obscurity, and kept locked in the hearts and closets of fans and collectors. Fortunately, a clause in the licensing agreement with LucasArts has released them. Without a game released or in production the rights reverted to Steve Purcell. Now Sam & Max are shooting their way back onto the video gaming scene. Steve Purcell has teamed up with Telltale Games, made up primarily of former Sam & Max developers, to bring us more surrealistic crime fighting adventures. One episode at a time.

Inane Questions that Start With ‘W’

Who? Sam is an anthropomorphic dog with a prodigious vocabulary and an over-sized revolver. Max is a hyper-kinetic rabbity sort of thing bent on wreaking havoc and mayhem.

What? They are freelance police, and together they fight crime. They are called up by the Commissioner to tackle the wackiest of situations that the sane of us would not venture near. They dispense justice with excessive dialogue and unnecessary violence. Usually in that order. Right now there seems to be troublemakers down on street-level bothering the neighbourhood businesses.

Where? Inhabiting a world of gritty reality, not unlike out own, our heroes deal with some of the zanier underbelly the city has to offer. The city is a place where both garbage and paranoia litter the streets. The air is thick with fear and smog. Culture Shock conveys this through use of colour and texture in every scene. You get the sense that this is a cartoon, but at the same time you are aware that it is a mirror of life. It also avoids the pitfall of becoming too dark and dangerous, opting for a light-hearted edge to the darker comedy. Culture Shock finds a fun balance between cynical and zany .

Whuzza? The characters you meet help too. A tattoo artist turned psychoanalyst, a conspiracy-minded convenience store owner, and a rash of 40-year-old midget child stars, brings out the surreality that epitomizes Sam & Max. While the game only takes you to a few locations (with some hints at future ones), each is well thought out. Graphical details fill each scene; many of them are even clickable, revealing additional depth through dialog. Thought and care has gone into making the areas you explore both interesting and reusable. The characters are narrow enough to provide instant comedy while allowing for future growth that will keep them fresh. Chances are that we’ll see them all again in future episodes, and there will be new things to look for and learn.

Episodic-ly Delicious

I’m happy to say that Sam & Max fit amazingly well into an episodic format. Admittedly, there is only so much of the rampant banter one can endure. Having a shorter game, complete with satisfying Sam & Max-style conclusion, on a regular schedule will serve to extend the play value over a longer (and more endurable) time. Teaser glimpses provided at the end of the episode will also hook players into coming back, assuming they liked what they got the first time. The plot and flow of the story has been well developed for this format with concessions made for shorter play times, limited locations, and casual players. The game has definite scenes, and while it is strictly linear (all you generative story/multiple paths people can leave now) the depth of character makes it feel as if you are controlling the pace, causing the story to unfold.

Everyone Can Enjoy the Mayhem

As a fan of adventure gaming, I found the first instalment of Sam & Max to be both satisfying, and far too short. I’m used to games that have dozens of puzzles, some obscure enough to require outside assistance, and 10-20 hours of total gameplay. I’m not everyone. Sam & Max clocks in at about 5-10 hours, assuming that you explore all of the wacky and verbose dialogue (which is very well worth it). There is also a complete lack of mindless tasks and incomprehensible puzzles. Getting stuck will mean that you spend a few minutes (not hours!) trying a few very logical, and limited, options. If you get really stuck, jut head over to the official forums for a quick hint or solution.

As a dedicated adventure gamer I’ll admit that many adventure games are simply not user friendly. Oddball leaps of logic, aggravating pixel hunting exercises, and indistinct or indefinite goals (with near unlimited useless objects) are just a few of the things that have haunted this genre and kept it from the mainstream. Telltale Games has done everything in their power to keep these pitfalls far away from their game. The result is something easy to interact with, easy to follow and succeed at, and fun to play.

The most obvious design choice Telltale made was to keep all interaction to a single click. There are no symbolic icons or cursors. There is no confusing verb list. You don’t have to combine inventory items to create some wacky gadget. You point to something, you click, Sam does whatever he needs to do. Sometimes he’ll make a witty remark (with occasional retorts from Max). Sometime he or Max will do something (from the mundane to the bizarre). Occasionally he’ll pick something up to use later. Even driving the Desoto is handled entirely through the mouse and the left-click.

What Stood Up

The episodic format snugs nicely with the story-telling style of Sam & Max. This makes the game feel naturally paced and coherent. It also means that I have five more experiences waiting for me over the next five months.

The game looks great. It’s not photo-realistic, but it is gritty and full of life. The game runs with the cartoony-ness of the world, keeping the lines and colours simple, while allowing a vast amount of detail to sneak in. The game should also remain playable on a wide variety of systems because of the simplicity of the overall design.

The dialog is great. If you have memories of watching the cartoon, then you will enjoy every tongue-twisting and brain-warping syllable. The voice acting is well done, deserving compliments for sounding polished and consistent.

What Fell Flat

While the dialog is plentiful, creative, and pithy the animation leaves something to be desired. The quantity is lacking. After the fifth time that you see Max make the same gesture, you’ll understand what I mean. The game could have used a few more unique animations to pair with the dialog options, or a few more general animations that would prevent us from seeing the same ones over and over again.

Driving in Sam & Max is unnecessarily broken. It is a laudable goal to create a varied experience that pinions on a simplistic interface. However, when fine control is simply abandoned for uniformity then something is wrong. The DeSoto is driven by clicking to the right or left of the car. This leads to slow response, massive over- or under-steering, and a generally frustrating driving experience. Left-clicking on the car should have simply locked/unlocked steering to the mouse movement, leaving Max to drive when you relinquish control to do other things. In any case, this was the part that was most frustrating and disappointing to me. Fortunately it only plays a small role in the first episode.

Case Closed

If you are a fan of Sam & Max, or enjoy a good adventure game (and pine for the days of LucasArts glory), then I highly recommend this game. I know that I will be waiting for the rest of season one eagerly. The game itself is fairly standard adventure fare, with a much lower point-of-entry than many games of this genre. This makes it a good game for casual gamers and those unfamiliar with the rigours of point-and-click adventuring.

I’m not going to rate the games I review, because I find that most review numbers are arbitrary and rather meaningless. I would rather suggest games to people based on what a game offers and what a player expects and wants. Only through matching play-styles to games can you really get a good experience. To that end, Culture Shock is not a game for most hardcore players. Players looking to be told a story in a casual setting are going to be far more interested. This game is easy, linear, not very replayable, exploration-based with almost no action, and friendly to most ages. It also has a very odd sense of humour. Sound like your kind of bullet?

Casual Games, Serious Experiments

Casual games have become an industry buzzword in recent months. A few bean counters discovered that there was money to be made in them thar internets, if only we could tap into all the people who don’t play Counter Strike, or Battlefield, or Half-Life, or Everquest, or World of WarCraft. People who just want to play a simple game, with fun mechanics, for a few minutes at a time will actually pay money to do so. An industry is born, and with it comes all of the usual problems.

I don’t have to go into it: clones. Create or discover anything of significant popularity and you wind up with clones. Copycat companies spring up like weeds to steal, subvert, and ultimately destroy the core ideas that made the original so popular in the first place. Inevitably you wind up with an industry filled to the brim with sludge. The bejeweled are still there (pun intended), but so are all the rest. So where does the next great idea come from? Out on the edge, of course.

Edge of the World

At the edge of any popular industry is a small group of people looking for the next big thing. Saddled with an uneasy task, the fringe developers are not often ignored and shunned by the mainstream. Working on a shoe-string budget, often with hare-brained ideas, these innovators are the source of the next wave. These are the inventors, the research scientists, the garage bands, the weekend engineers, and the true indie developers.

When it comes to games, casual and hardcore are two sides of the same coin. Both are popular forms of recreation, indulged in by thousands. Both are big money industries, if you can get the magic spark in your game. Both have the same problems with clones, dross, and bloated industries. And both are carefully looking towards the fringes for the next big thing.

So where do we start? Well, from a casual perspective: innovative gameplay would be a good place to start. What better way to create something fresh than by adopting a new gameplay mechanic. Perhaps an innovative twist on an existing theme will be the breakthrough. Sometimes all it takes is looking at the problem from a different angle and coming up with a new way to use a stuck and mired interface.

Weird Science

If you have not, I highly encourage you to check out the Experimental Gameplay Project. Started in 2005 by four grad students at Carnegie Mellon University, their goal is to find and rapidly prototype as many new forms of gameplay as possible. It is now more than a year later and they are going strong. Encouraging game designers to be innovative and try new things, their site is a testament to practical testing of gameplay.

What they develop may never make it to the light of day as you see it on their site. Most of the prototypes they host are simple toys and games that you wouldn’t play for more than 10 minutes. But each is the practical application of an idea. Not all are good, and few make it to the realm of success. But if only one or two prove to be truly inspired, and go on to spawn new game ideas, then they have accomplished much more than an industry filled with Match-3 games ever will.

For games to live healthy, and move forward, be they hardcore or casual, there needs to people at the edges. Creative minds who can look beyond what we have and into what we could do.

Dice Wars

Darius, Jeff, and Craig have all posted on Dice Wars (originally linked from Zen of Design). Actually, the first place I saw it was Jay is Games back at the end of June. I did a quick look at the screenshots, skimmed the post, and passed it by. Bah, I thought, another dumb risk-esque game. They never allow for good strategy, take forever to play, and have AI that is frustrating as hell to compete against. It was Darius' link that I wound up following to the game. If there is anyone for me to blame, it is him.

I was actually impressed the first couple of times through the game. It was simple to understand and easy to play. It contained a high level of randomness, while at the same time it managing to encapsulate a fair amount of strategic possibility. Despite a couple of problems with the initial setup of the game, I find that it is rather compelling to play. It managed to elicit emotional reaction (Yes! Aghh, Nooooo! I'm going to get you, green dice!), and hooked me for more than three games. Not an easy thing to do unless you bring some underlying story or character. The game itself feels like distilled strategy - Risk on Speed.

Problematic Setup

There are issues with the game, but I find that they centre primarily on board setup. In Risk you have a defined map; you can learn the relationships between countries and continents. In Dice Wars the land is generated randomly. While this prevents the development of dominant strategies, it also creates problems. The algorithm is good at generating interesting land, but the layout is not always balanced. This leads to highly indefensible land and/or severely bottle-necked areas (think Australia in Risk, but anywhere, and sometimes multiple).

There is also an issue with country selection and dice distribution - it is also random. The game shows you the map, with everyone’s dice already laid out, and asks you if you want to play. If your position sucks you select NO, it regenerates the map. This means that I spend a good five minutes clicking no until I get a layout that give me at least some chance of survival. The reason I do this is because I don't know when I'll get to play. The play order is not revealed until you click YES, and then you just might wind up last in line. It is entirely possible, with a bad layout, to be eliminated in the first round, before getting to play.

Intense Conquest

However, should you live past the first couple of crucial turns, you just might have a chance – if you play your dice right. The game is simple from here on out: capture all the land. Any space you occupy with 2 or more dice can attack an adjacent space. If you out-roll (tie goes to the defender - just like Risk) you capture the land, and move all but one die onto it. Lose and you keep only 1 die on the attacking space. At the end of your turn you receive 1 die for each consecutive space you hold (in your largest area), randomly distributed to your occupied spaces (up to 8 dice on a space).

From here out is luck and strategy. Equal stacks of dice have a just about equal chance of winning (slight favour to the defender), so attacking less defended areas is better. Winning means moving dice, and leaving the previous area almost undefended. Being too greedy usually means that you have a fair defence around the perimeter, but an easy to attack middle. Chinks in your armour can often be created by a single failed attack. And no, you cannot relocate dice. Patiently building up your defences through slow expansion and skipping turns means a better core defence, but at the cost of your enemies building up faster. The random placement of reinforcements can be helpful, or can force you to fall back and rethink a poor attack.

Yeah, you can be decimated by a string of bad rolls. I've seen the same thing happen in better strategy games. As you near total conquest, you become a behemoth, trampling you enemies beneath your feet. I've been beaten like this in Settlers of Catan. Either way, you can't help but root for your little purple dice. They are your strong warriors, or your hopeful underdogs. You get a little jolt when you achieve a narrow victory, an inner (or outer) wince when you lose a sure bet. Yeah it's gambling, but a lot of strategy games come down to the roll of the dice, or the fall of the chips.

I like long-form strategy. I'm fair at it. I can plan my moves a few turns ahead. I can compensate for losses and unexpected changes. I can even predict likely behaviour. I just don't always have the time to sit down and play a 3-hour game of risk. A 10-minute game of Dice Wars I can manage (even if the setup is lousy sometimes). In fact, I think I can get a couple in right now.