Most commercial triple A video games are a waste of time. When I play video games I want to feel fulfilled, I want the experience of playing the game to feel unique and that it could have only been done or done best in this medium, I want it to make me feel things, I want its narrative to explore meaningful topics and be on par with the stories of other mediums like films and books and I want it to shape the way I think and the way I think about art like works of other mediums do, to have a lasting influence over me.
I played Breath of the Wild all the way to the end, trying to explore and do most of the things I liked doing in the overworld. I did around 100 of the total 120 shrines. I spent around 100 hours total in the game. Once I defeated Ganon and witnessed the conclusion of all the tropes the Zelda franchise refuses to change, that I felt like I had wasted my time, which could have been used in other more rewarding experience including the consumption of other art that is meaningful to me.
I had played previously Night in the Woods an independent game that focuses on its narrative heavily. Although my experience with NitW was not perfect, its focus on the story and it being great, I felt much more fulfilled than with BotW, and it only took 17 hours to finish (still a bit long, but more like a well written TV show). BotW focuses more on its world, mechanics and gameplay and it does all of those extremely well but without a good story, message or exploration of anything, the fulfillment of that experience is only short term because it's fun to play. Perhaps the only savable quality is that people might be inspired by the world and characters designs, the mechanics and the gameplay and use this to subvert the good qualities of BotW into a more meaningful experience in the future.
NitW on the other hand focuses only on its story and characters the gameplay is almost nonexistent and works mostly to take you through the story beats, the problem with NitW is the delivery of the story through text. In my case it stopped me from playing for longer sessions the game, because I wanted to talk to every single person and learn everything I could about the world and its characters, but eventually I would grow tired and feel like I would not be absorbing the nuance of the writing anymore because I was tired and bored of the repetition. With all of that NitW had a more profound impact on myself because the story was great and had a meaningful message to tell. Now I have no problem with enjoying some free time with games that have nothing to say, I do it from time to time, but when it is so time consuming it becomes harder to do, knowing full well it is just a time passer with no reward at the end.
“Un Jardín Propio” is a multimedia, interactive web page project made by Ecuadorian investigator María Rafaela Palacios Correa and Mexican artist Casandra Sabag Hillen. The web page showcases the cosmovision of indigenous people of the Cañar province in the southern Andes of Ecuador. The page mostly focuses on the ancestral knowledge of its indigenous population about botanical medicine, which is still being used. The web page also has many recipes for all your natural botanical medicine needs. The page is currently only in Spanish but for those that want some background into the history of the Cañar people I wrote the following introduction into their history:
The Cañar province was the home to Ecuador's (probably) most advanced civilization, the Cañari. The Cañari according to legend are descendants of a serpent and evidence suggest that before the Incas conquered them they may have had calendar and writing systems. They also had their own language, origin myths, funeral traditions, and clothing code. When the Incas started their invasions of what is now Ecuadorian territory, the Cañari were very successful in pushing them back, but eventually they surrendered and offered their vassalage to the Incas. It also believed that during this time Túpac Yupanqui, the Inca ruler during the invasion of Ecuador territory, had his heir son Huayna Capac born in the Cañari city of Tumipamba (modern day Cuenca). The Incas made many architectural projects in Cañari lands and initially planned the most important city of the north of the empire be situated here, before they conquered the Kitu-Caras and its confederation of other indigenous cultures, that tried to resist them in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. That's why today the Cañar province contains the most important architectural sites of Inca and Pre-Inca times in Ecuador because all the places in Quito were burned by Ruminahui,the last shiry (equivalent to king) of the Kitu-Cara kingdom, and what survived was later demolished to use as materials to build Spanish buildings. Today it is also believed that the unique accent the population in Cañar and Azuay provinces have comes from their Cañari heritage which is now an extinct language.
Photo of Ingapirca sun temple in the province of Cañar
What Remains of Edith Finch. Thoughts and ramblings.
What Remains of Edith Finch surprised me because at certain moments I witnessed a boundary moving creativity for this medium. Throughout the game you play various small vignettes that tell the story of different characters and each vignette has something that makes it stand apart from the others mostly through the mechanics or the visual style. The way that Giant Sparrow, the development team, connects the input from the controllers, mouse and keyboard, with the game mechanics, and the mechanics connect with the story narrative, create a surprisingly strong connection between the player and the character he is supposed to inhabit for that section of the game. When it works well you experience a unique emotional connection with the computer character, like when you play the guy working at the fish tannery.
With the mouse you control his arm, moving it to grab fishes that must be beheaded and placed in the conveyor belt. While you do this a small superimposed second screen has you control the daydreams of this character with WASD keys for movement. It works extremely well and the approximation of how it feels to daydream while doing a monotonous job, through the creative implementation of the inputs and mechanics creates a strong emotional connections with this computer character and with his narrative.
Moments like this to me showcase an untapped potential of video games. I have always been a fan of what I will refer from now on wards as: input-mechanic-narrative connection, in games. When this input-mechanic-narrative connection is done well the experience and emotion it creates is unique to this medium. I always remember how in Brothers: A tale of two sons, the big plot twist near the end incorporates the input-mechanic-narrative connection and how it makes that moment so much more emotional than any other interpretation of that story in any other medium like film or book could have been.
What remains of Edith Finch still is not a perfect game, sadly the story is very simple and lacks any depth or meaningful explorations of anything, it lacks the creativity which the mechanics of the game showcase, but still is an important link in the input-mechanic-narrative connection that this game does so well.
Favorite Upcoming (Hopefully) 2017 Video Games - Part 2
Manifold Garden
Created by William Chyr (game developer and installation artist) Manifold Gerden boast a detailed and hypnotic Escher visual style. The game looks like a cerebral puzzle game blended with some first person exploration gameplay.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Developed by Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) this projects has a visual style based on old Macintosh graphics that looks very environmentally atmospheric while complementing the mood of the game well. Story wise the game revolves around the mystery of the disappeared crew of the Obra Dinn ship.
Cuphead
Developed by Canadian brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer of Studio MDHR. Cuphead has an impressive old school cartoon visual style along with equally amazing animation and character and world designs. The gameplay looks action packed reminiscent of classic run and gun games like Contra, Metal Slug and the games by Japanese developer Treasure.
Finding Paradise
From Kan Gaos developer Freebird Games, this is the direct sequel to the fantastic game To the Moon. I will admit this games visual style doesn't appeal to me as much as all the other entries in this list but it makes it up with the potential in its narrative. I love Kan Gaos humanistic and thoughtful storytelling which will surely carry on in this next game.
Kentucky Route Zero
This one is kind of cheating, but this year the final fifth act of this game will release and the game will be finally complete. Developed by Cardboard Computer this modern point and click adventure is a magical realist mystery revolving a secret highway.
Part 1: http://japantz.tumblr.com/post/156417174032/favorite-upcoming-hopefully-2017-video-games
Favorite Upcoming (Hopefully) 2017 Video Games - Part 1
This list will highlight in no particular order the games that I am the most exited to play in 2017 (hopefully there are no delay). I think that the games I have picked show interesting, original and innovative: visual art styles, narratives and mechanics.
The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti
Developed by Johnny Galvatron and his small team called Beethoven and Dinosau. This game has an amazingly creative art design full of bright color and an illustration quality to its visuals. The creativity in the character and world designs is also great. The narrative seems to follow a self discovery adventure which sounds promising.
Night in the Woods
Developed by Scott Benson (amazing animator, check his work on Vimeo), Alec Holowka (Designer of Aquaria) and Bethany Hockenberry story writer for Night in the Woods. The animation and visual style is outstanding with a polish reminiscent of Scott Bensons animation work, but from what we know so far Night in the Woods will also have a polished and meaningful story to share.
Rain World
Developed from the concept of Joar Jakobsson (Swedish ilustrator and graphic designer). Rain World has an incredibly detailed pixel art visual style coupled with a cinematic look and interesting game mechanics. The narrative so far seems to be explored through some thoughtful environmental storytelling.
Tacoma
The second game from Fullbright, the team responsible for Gone Home. Fullbrights developers have extensive experience in the video game industry and include Karla Zinmonja and Steve Gaynor developers in the Bioshock franchise, Tynan Wales and Nina Freeman (Cibelle). Tacoma is a narrative driven game which uses its detailed environments to tell its story and craft a meditative experience.
Old Man's Journey
The next game from Vienna developer Brocken Rules (And Yet It Moves and Secrets of Raetikon) won me over with its short trailer. The game showcases great world building, creating a vibrant world from that short trailer. The story seems intriguing so far and introspective too.
Part 2: http://japantz.tumblr.com/post/156417177617/favorite-upcoming-hopefully-2017-video-games
Indie Video Game Movement: Part 1 - Indie, Retro, Walking Simulator and Shareware
The video game industry has become predictable and most games done by the big publishers are sequels to successful franchises. In recent years the indie movement has created the most personal, artistic, innovative and creative games. The indie movement has revitalized the range of experiences that can be played in video games. Big publisher games must make a profit and thus take no risks. The independent developers are taking the risks necessary to advance the medium into territories not yet explored. Most people when they think about independently made games think of: Cave Story, Braid, Journey, Limbo, Minecraft, Gone Home and Super Meat Boy, all of which have been important in establishing an independent movement and showing that the tools are available for anyone to create their own games, and that there is a marketplace for different types of video game experiences.
This movement was catapulted by the success of Cave Story which brought back the mechanics, 2D visuals and sound sensibilities of the games made during the NES and SNES generation. The impact of this game created an independent retro movement were various indie developers created games influenced by the pixel-era games. Indie developers embraced the pixel aesthetic and created visually stunning games in this style far more intricate and detailed than the games in the SNES, likewise the chiptune soundtracks were also embraced and improved creating melodious and catchy songs to complement the games. Supported by the rising popularity of the internet and websites like Newgrounds independently made 2D games found a community in this site, especially those made in Adobe Flash. While the movement of retro inspired independent games is still going strong today many games are starting to change the mechanics and narrative to create different experiences like Lucas Pope´s Papers, Please.
Part of the success of the indie movement came from the availability of new tools used for game creation and online market platforms making distribution easy and inexpensive. GameMaker Studio released in 1999 and gave an easy to use tool for game creation in 2D to aspiring game developers. Another tool available since 1992 for game creation and still going is RPG Maker. RPG Maker allows developers to create RPGs by giving them all the assets necessary for designing a game. Steam released in 2003 and originally had a library consisting of Valve games, but by 2007 the platform had gained partnerships with lots of big and independent developers and the platform became profitable and widely used. Since Steam various platforms and marketplaces have opened, indie friendly, like Humble Bundle a website that since 2010 has created indie bundles with prices determined by the buyer and its proceeds going to charities and game developers. Itch.io is a video game hosting platform allowing indie developers to share their projects and showcase an array of projects in its storefront. Kickstarter has been also influential in giving indie developers an option to crowfund their games and gain an audience from the beginning of game development. New systems like mobile phones have been embraced by indie developers and VR is already showcasing some indie games in its catalog. Finally, Lets Play shows by Youtubers have also been influential in showcasing small indie games, introducing them to their audiences of millions of viewers.
In the 2010s a new movement of independent games currently referred as the “walking simulators” took influences of the 3D first person narrative dense games like: Bioshock, Half Life, System Shock, and Deux Ex. Far more different in gameplay to their influences these games are experimental and create a detailed 3D world in which deep and personal narratives are explored. Player agency and immersion also influence the visuals and mechanics of the games, HUDs, instructions and any sort of tutorial tend to be removed in order to immerse the player completely into the game. This immersion and player agency is similar to the one found on older games due to technical restrictions of the time like Super Metroid which told its story almost entirely through the gameplay and visuals. “Walking simulator” games became popular in 2012 with the releases of Dear Esther, Journey and Thirty Flights of Loving all critically acclaimed.
Often overlooked in the 90s there was an equally important movement of independent developers creating their own games. The marketplace and tools in the 90s were much less indie friendly to developers but passionate hobbyist who new how to code, self taught in some cases, and with access to the internet, started to create games as early as the 80s. Most of those games have been forgotten as they tended to be clones of other games and compared to the games in consoles they were far more primitive. But nearing the end of the 80s and throughout the 90s the hobbyist perfected the shareware model and the quality of the games in some cases surpassed what was being done in the consoles. Games like Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen, ZZT and Scorched Earth became influential towards the development of PC gaming and 3D gaming.
The shareware model of the 90s worked like this: the first campaign, level or part of a game was uploaded to the dial up BBS, an old internet server popular in the 70s, 80s and midway through the 90s, the game would be available for free download, players would play essentially a demo and decide if they wanted to play the complete game, inside the game developers would include a message with details describing how to send them money in exchange for the next part or complete game.
The shareware model of distribution was pioneered by Apogee Software´s founder Scott Miller and sometimes it is referred as the “Apogee Model”. Before this model shareware games were available but relied monetarily on the player sending the developers money after having played the entire game for free.
In part 2 we will discuss one of the earliest high quality shareware games “The Adventures of Captain Comic” released in 1988.
A weekly post with 3 captivating video game projects
Bot Vice
Bot Vice is an upcoming third person 2D gallery shooter inspired by Wild Guns, Time Crisis and Mega Man X. Developed by the brothers Alberto and Dani of Spanish developer DYA Games. This new project shows great pixel graphics and fluid animation with bright, eye catching colors. The presentation of the game is very retro and reminiscent of 16-bit games. The gameplay looks frantic and fast paced, requiring precision and mastery from the player in order to keep the waves of enemies away from you. With different weapons like a spread shot, grenades, a blade and many more.
Pathway
Pathway is an upcoming “turn-based tactics procedural adventure”, developed by Robotality, based in Germany, and set to release in 2017 for PC, MAC and Linux. The game takes place in a “1930s pulp adventure scenario” with a cast of “eccentric characters” on a quest to uncover a lost civilization. The presentation of the game looks great with a voxel-pixel hybrid visual style allowing for dynamic lighting and shadows which improve the atmosphere of the game. The gameplay will involve team management, exploring procedurally generated levels and turn-based battles.
Far From Noise
Far From Noise is an upcoming game by George Batchelor, he described the game to Killscreen: “The game is essentially a story that takes place over a day and a night,”. The game is built around a dialogue between a woman and a deer, taking place over a day. The game takes place entirely in the location shown in the images, with a car balancing on the edge of a cliff, the protagonist inside, and a deer. Advancing the dialogue will lead to choices which lead to different branches and endings, which will add replay value. Visually the game looks stunning with its low-poly graphics and dynamic lighting changing gradually the color of the scenery in a cinematic way.
Knuckle Sandwich is an turn based JRPG indie game by developer Andrew Brophy, based in Australia. The game takes place in a contemporary western city and features many wacky characters and a chiptune soundtrack by Gyms and Captain Beard. This game is heavily influenced from the Mother/Earthbound franchise and Undertale. This game is also coming out in a period of a trend of Earthbound-like games by indie developers: Lisa released in 2013, Citizens of Earth in 2015 and Undertale in 2015. All of those game have gone on to receive critical and fan acclaim worldwide. “Muse: Together Is the New Alone” is another upcoming Earthbound like game by Baiyon, art director of “PixelJunk Eden”.
LISA
Undertale
Citizens of Earth
Earlier than all of those games, a hacking community formed itself around Earthbound. It started with the translation for Mother 3 and patches to fix bugs in the games, but eventually people started to hack the the game and use its assets to tell their own stories. The earliest evidence of a hack for Earthbound I have been able to find, is Clyde Mandelin´s a.k.a Mato, Earthbound Zero Remake which hasn't been finished to my knowledge. After that in 2009 Hyperbound by Michael Iantorno is the first finished and playable hack. Even earlier than these hacks some people have claimed that the 2004 cult horror RPG Maker game Yumme Nikki is also an Earthbound influenced game due to its similar graphic style.
Hyperbound
Returning to Knuckle Sandwich the combat system seems to be mechanically more inspired by Undertale. It uses a precision minigame, similar to the one in Undertale, to measure how much damage is dealt to the enemy. The minigame concept inside the battles is taken much further than Undertale when using the “Special” ability which requires you too succeed at much more complex minigames like the ones found on a WarioWare game. During these battles the backgrounds are very psychedelic reminiscent to Earthbound and the soundtrack is equally wacky. The trailers also show sections of the game were you must work at your daytime job at a diner.
Pokémon Sun and Moon is the new and seventh generation game of the franchise, the second one on Nintendo 3DS handhelds. Developed by Game freak, and releasing worldwide November 18 as commemorations for the franchises 20th anniversary. Hawaii is the new setting for this generation and the name of the region “Alola”.
One of the most important aspect of the Pokémon games is the presentation. Sadly from what has been shown the Pokémon designs keep getting worst in this game, and the revealed starters show a lack of creativity. From another stance point I like that the starters for this generation represent animals found on Hawaii, apart from Litten. Rowlet the grass/flying starter seems to be based on the endemic to Hawaii Pueo owl. Litten the fire type starter seem to be based on the Iriomote cat which is endemic to Japan. Litten seems to be out of place since the Iriomote cat is not found on Hawaii, but actually Hawaii has a problem with an overpopulation of feral cats, so there is a connection. Finally Popplio the water type starter seems to be based on the Hawaiian Monk Seal. All the influences for the starters are endangered species that are endemic to one place. Perhaps this could mean that this generation will have an animal preservation message.
The game will take place in various islands and from what has been shown in the trailers the setting is very tropical, green and mountainous. It seems the world of the game will add some verticality in some areas due to its unevenness, instead of the flat areas from previous games. It also seems that towns will be more modern, with car roads and modern buildings, a trend that started with Pokémon X and Y. The day and night cycle along with the character customization seem to be returning for this generation. The character customization allowing players to choose their gender, color of skin including black for the first time in the franchise and clothes.
In June 2 more information will be revealed, so in the mean time check out all of the trailers released so far, below:
osu! is a freeware rhythm game developed by Dean “peppy” Herbert. The game is available for Windows, OS X, IOS, Android, and Windows Phone. The gameplay is inspired from Nintendo DS rhythm games: “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan” and “Elite Beat Agents” both games directed by Keiichi Yano. Because of its inspirations and name it is safe to assume that osu! is a fan made spiritual successor to Keiichi Yano games.
Keiichi Yano co-founded the video game developer iNiS in 1996. iNiS would specialize in rhythm games with its first hit being 2001 “Gitaroo Man” for PS2. Although the game sold modestly, since release it has garnered critical acclaim and a cult following. For their next game “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan” Yano used ōendan culture for its presentation and soundtrack. Oendan in Japan refers to a cheer leading group that emphasize noise to cheer, they usually dress in long black coats and pants and wear a red or white headband. Because of its small niche audience outside of Japan, Yano made his next game “Elite Beat Agents” Blues Brother influenced in order to appeal to a more western audience.
Oendan influenced “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan”, 2005
Blues Brothers influenced “Elite Beat Agents”, 2006
Gameplay wise these games, including osu!, play very differently to the regular Guitar Hero or Rockband rhythm games. As the song begins different circles will appear on the game field. Using a pointing device you must tap this circles along with the rhythm. Some circles have sliders which must be followed by the pointing device and sometimes a large circle will appear which you must spin holding down the pointing device. If you make to many mistakes you loose the level. After winning a level you are scored by your accuracy and combos. This type of gameplay leads to a much more varied, captivating and visually appealing presentation than the Guitar Hero inspired games. It also creates a feeling of fluidity when you play, having to move the pointing device with precision. Music wise these games usually rely mostly on Asian music and beat heavy tracks, but in osu! you may download additional tracks from the internet created by the game community.
Below an insane ozu! gameplay clip showing the input method and the game in action:
osu! has grown into a huge community with over 8 million players and the game is frequently updated.You can download osu! here: https://osu.ppy.sh
Production on Trainspotting 2 the sequel is underway and its release date is expected to be January 27, 2017. Sony Pictures recently released a teaser for the film using footage from the legendary first part. It has been confirmed that the main cast of the first film is returning for this sequel. Danny Boyle, who directed the 1996 adaptation of the Trainspotting novel, is returning to direct the sequel as well.
The film is going to be adapted from the novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, Porno published in 2002. Porno is the sequel to the original 1993 Trainspotting and takes place 10 years after the events of Trainspotting, though in the film its going to be 20. In the novel Porno the gang cross paths again in the pornography business, but it is unclear if the film adaptation will maintain this storyline as Boyle has stated: “ The idea of them coming back together again, in the book it's 10 years and in ours its 20, and it's very different. It will be called an adaptation, but it won't be called 'Porno. ” It is unclear how close the film adaptation will be to the novel but Irvine Welsh is involved in the production as a “partner”.Check out the teaser below:
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