Sunday, November 20, 2022

I'm writing a graphic novel, a new medium for me. Like a novel, time in a graphic novel is infinitely stretchable and compressible. And there is no budget -- the artist can blow up the planet as easily as show someone's foot scratching an itch on their leg. But a novel is such a bigger canvas. I'm trying to pace this as fast as possible, but not faster. At least half of this thing is outside my wheelhouse, so it's all a big stretch. Wish me luck!

2:22 PM

3 comments

Post a Comment

Wednesday, November 09, 2022

I chatted with someone who's sidling into the video game industry on the strength of her superpowers in other media. She said she doesn't play games, and I said "well, what games are you playing?" She's been watching her boyfriend play brain-straining puzzle games, so I suggested that before she writes off a medium, she play different kindsa games. Here's my list of games to check out. This is a list skewed towards narrative (she's a voice director), not too difficult games, and Mac games (she has a map); I'd have made a different list for someone else. But you may dig these, too.

Mac/PC - small games
• 80 Days: based on the novel by Jules Verne, if Europe didn't colonize the world
• West of Loathing: really silly and adorable side-scrolling stick-figure Western
• Return of the Obra Dinn: puzzle game in which you must figure out how the 60 people on the Obra Dinn died, and therein lies a sea story
• Black Book: a Slavic witch on a very dubious quest. This is a game where you build your deck of powers -- a "deck-builder."
• Unpacking: A weirdly moving game in which you move into a series of new places to live. Seriously, though.
• Passage: a truly tiny free experimental game about life
• Gorogoa: a sort-of puzzle game where a story unfolds as you move pictures around
• Baba Is You: A word puzzle game. Gets difficult eventually, but you can stop any time.

Mac/PC - bigger games
• Disco Elysium -- a decayed detective trying to solve a murder gets caught up in the politics of an equally decayed Empire
• Contrast: You are the circus girl who is the invisible friend of Didi, an 8 year old trying to uncover the secrets of her past. You can become your own shadow, and walk on shadows.
• Stray: My favorite game of the past twelvemonth. You are a cat, trying to escape a city of robots.

Mac/PC - games where you have to hack and slash a bit
• Cult of the Lamb: you are a sheep trying to bring back a bloodthirsty elder god
• Boyfriend Dungeon: date your swords
• We Happy Few: three slightly horrible people try to escape an insane, groovy dystopian England.
• Banner Saga: Vikings and killer robots from space. Turn-based tactical combat, meaning that you can take as long as you like.
• Into the Breach: Fight giant bugs with mechs. Totally addictive turn-based tactical. A gem of its kind.

PC Only - small
• What Remains of Edith Finch -- What happened to the Finch family in this creepy old house?
• Journey: a mysterious character tries to get to the top of that mountain.
• Papers, Please: a depressing and powerful game about being a bureaucrat in a vaguely Eastern European dictatorship
• The Stanley Parable: an iconic game about choices
• Where the Water Tastes Like Wine: how folk tales grow

5:31 PM

2 comments

Post a Comment