Monday, March 30, 2015

Week Eleven: Gaming and Narrative

Here are the links that Jake Porterfield and Melina Perez have curated for this week's class. There are games to play ideas for topics and some general notes dispersed throughout. Let me know if you have suggestions, additions etc...  

Writing Assignment: Write a review of one of the games you have played for this week. What should be in your review? How personal, how impersonal should it be? How focused should your review be and what perspective do you have to offer as a reviewer of games?

Things to Play: games listed are free unless otherwise specified

Interesting and innovative narrative experience: Gravity Bone download from Blendo Games Site

Download Narbacular drop, the game whose mechanic inspired Portal.


The Old Tree a short free-to-play cinematic puzzle game about a newborn alien baby. (Requires Steam)

Thomas Was Alone play the demo here the full game Costs 10 Dollars

I Saw her standing there, a simple love story about a boy and a girl who is a zombie (play in-browser)

Catlateral Damage you are a cat, knock things over (play in browser)


Coma (play in browser)

 Depression Quest not a traditionally “fun” gaming experience but it explores what can be done with the medium

Cube Slam weird, surreal 3d pong (play in browser)

Pandemic 2 You are a disease, infect the world (play in browser)

DOOM Experience the original shooty monster game (play in browser)

Gods Will be Watching, a minimalistic point and click thriller that presents complex moral choices play the demo, the full game on steam Costs 10 Dollars

Superhot, a unique take on fps mechanics, play the prototype

Winter Walk for Android

Super Monsters Ate my Condo, fun action puzzle game developed by Adult Swim, available on Apple devices and in the Google store (mostly included because of the title)

Spaceteam, A cooperative shouting game for phones and tablets. Available on Apple devices and in the Google Store

Mountain is difficult to describe so I won’t try. Made by the artist responsible for designing the videogame in the movie Her, Costs 1 dollar.

80 Days a unique, substantive and addictive mobile experience, well worth checking out, Costs 5 Dollars

Year Walk, Experience the ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking through a different kind of first person adventure, Available on Steam Costs 6 Dollars


One Chance - you have 6 days to find a cure that will wipe out the human race.

Haunt the House - you're a little ghost that needs to scare all the people in the house. Also an App.

Plug and Play - a surreal interactive animation. $2.99

Moonbase Alpha - Free on Steam

Chivalry
Limbo
Bastion
Journey
Shadow of the Colossus


No Man's Sky, a game getting a lot of recognition for it's countless number of planets.

Japanese Gaming we should hit more of the controversial aspects of it, too. Such as the censorship and some that have been localized and the ones that haven't.

Hatsune Miku Project Diva - since it's after the class on anime and manga, it's a good transition. A rhythm game based on the popular idol.

Dating Sims - Hatoful Beautiful, Conception 2, DMMD

Visual Novels - Zero Escape, Ace Attorney, Professor Layton


RPGs - Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Atelier series, Persona (or Shin Megami Tensei in general)

Themes in Drakengard / Nier

I know Egoraptor did a few lengthy videos discussing the difference in games from their originals. Normally dealing with how they are dumbed down.

Sequelitis Megaman & Legend of Zelda

The Rise of Horror Games

Outlast
PT
Five Nights At Freddy's
Alien: Isolation
Hektor

Movie Games - How game mechanics have been lees about gameplay and more on the story, and sometimes graphics.

The Order 1886 (controversial because of game length)
The Last Of Us (has gameplay)
Heavy Rain
Beyond Two Souls (blockbuster actors)
Life is Strange
Until Dawn

Videos: Videogame related stuff to watch (that aren’t Let’s Plays)

Leo Wichtowski’s on the fuzzy definition of what makes a game a game. The rest of his videos are also brilliant, hilarious and occasionally weirdly moving.






Read/Listen to Developers speak about things:


Extended Interview with the delightful Tim Schafer of Double Fine (creator of such games as Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and Psychonauts)

An interview with Peter Molyneux designer of the Fable series, on his (failed) kick-starter project Godus. Molyneux is widely known in the gaming world for his unbridled enthusiasm and creativity, but also for generating cosmological sized expectations for his games that the finished product rarely lives up to. None-the less he has some fascinating insights on Kick-starter culture and the future of gaming.

John Carmack Rambling about the Oculus for 90 minutes at Oculus Connect 2014 a long video, but worth a look if you’re at all interested in what one of the most brilliant technical minds in gaming has to say about virtual reality.

Games and gaming trends you should probably be aware of:

Franchise Gaming- The McDonalds of gaming, churned out on a regular basis with a varying degree of innovation year to year. Worth examining the cultural assumptions posited by these annual experiences. What makes people keep coming back to these franchises? Is it just familiarity (like a McDonalds Hamburger) or is their some other force; cultural, social or economic that drives their popularity?

Call of Duty and similar gritty first person war games are often accused of promoting jingoistic attitudes and distinctly Western Militaristic point of view. (See Spec Ops the Line for it’s largely successful ideological counterpoint)

Battlefield

Assassin’s Creed- actually examines the franchise phenomenon and the idea of history turned-mass entertainment in a very meta and curious way in the later games.

Madden/FIFA, still a thing

Halo

GTA- a biting satire of consumer culture, violence and class in modern America or a crass and misogynistic, male crime power-fantasy? (Tonal inconsistencies in GTA 5, is it a cartoon or a gritty crime drama?)

Remember Guitar Hero? What happens when an intellectual property is horrendously mis-managed i.e. bled dry. The danger of the franchise

The Japanese gaming world- despite producing some of the most innovate and medium-defining properties recent trends suggests that the Japanese gaming industry has fallen on a period of creative stagnation. Japanese developers atre staring to incorporate elements from western developers into traditional Japanese game structures. What does this mean for the future of Japanese games? Is this the start of a more pluralistic global game development community? Also worth discussing the influence of Nintendo not just on videogames but also on global popular culture, they are in some respects “The Disney of the East.”.

Mario

Dragon Quest

Monster Hunter   

Final Fantasy

Resident Evil

Silent Hill

Metal Gear
…. Etc.  

Games as Educational tools, “Lego-Set” games- these are games that don’t offer a singular experience so much as they give you the tools and an open environment to explore creative solutions in a variety of scenarios.

Learning to Code with Minecraft the Minecraft phenomenon is really a topic unto itself however educators are learning to use Minecraft as a platform to explore new ways of teaching.



Kerbal Space Program, one of the few games where completing in-game objectives may actually qualify you for a position at NASA. Kerbal Space Program As Played By A Real Astronaut.

Little Big Planet

Total War Series

Age of Empires (a childhood favorite)

Civilization

Besiege

Simulators for every topic imaginable, most notably Train and Farm Simulator

Games with Something to Say

Paper’s Please

This War of Mine

Gone Home, one of many recent first person, non-shooters

Spec Ops the Line

The Binding of Isaac

Papo & Yo

Hotline Miami

The Wolf Among Us, and other recent Telltale games

Among the Sleep

Kentucky Rout Zero

Crowd Source Success Stories/Digital distribution platforms; is digital distribution a viable long-term solution for indie developers, what is the eventual outcome of digital distribution? Does it spell the end for traditional console platforms? What does the popularity of digital distribution say about the way modern consumers demand and consume content from developers?

Steam/Steam Greenlight


Minecraft was self-published

The Hardcore Games Revival-Tried of the recent trends in gaming like intuitive user interfaces, edifying game design and linear difficulty progression? Then these throwbacks to the golden days of real games are for you! (*Authors note all the games in this section are actually very well designed though they do lack some of the accessibility of their more commercially successful “mainstream” counterparts)

Dark/Demon Souls The link is to an Honest Trailers, but I think the video gives an excellent overview of the hardcore games phenomenon. (Favorite quote “Bugs are just features that make it more extreme!”)

Mega Man (these games are all impossible why does anyone even bother, discuss…)

The Witcher 2, definitely not for the first-time RPG player, also manages a nuanced and adult narrative. Handles sex in a mature fashion and has well-realized female characters. (Good job Poland!)

How to do world building in Videogames Properly (The Portal appreciation corner)

Portal and it’s sequel Portal 2 are a master class in game design, game mechanics and immersive, indirect storytelling via excellent writing and art design.  

The complete Cave Johnson audio diaries, beyond the comedic appeal note the specific character choices the writers make that indirectly informs you of the world (Portal 2 spoilers obviously, but it’s been three years people)


Hardcore Competitive Multiplayer- not really my area of expertise but I just wanted to acknowledge that these kinds of games are hugely popular and represents a very dedicated and diverse fan base.

DOTA and other MOBAs

Counterstrike

Starcraft

“Comedy Games”- Do modern games take themselves too seriously? These developers seem to think so. The recent indie game boom enabled by digital distribution has created a flood of mid-to low budget games hat are frankly far too dumb to have ever been funded by a major publisher.    

Goat Simulator

Surgeon Simulator

Bread Simulator  

Octodad Deadliest Catch


Let's Plays

PewdiePie - The biggest LetsPlayers and how he made a career on it

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