Games
Gaming While the Baby isn’t Looking
Last week, the Los Angeles Times informed me that I am weird. This, I already knew, but it is nice to see the confirmation in print. It turns out that only 1% of married couples with children of a certain age include a stay-at-home dad. Since this March (more or less), I have been one of that particular one percent. I wrote a little bit about what it’s like to be my particular flavor of new parent before. It involved much moaning and wailing about finding time to play videogames. I can report that a couple of months on, things
My Party (Kit), My Rules
Rules are meant to be read, not followed – or so the mentality goes. That’s where I invariably step in. Silent limitations are given a voice. Chaos is contained. Rebellion is met with a metal cage. Passes at “imagination” to save one’s skin are denied. And decisions only have finality after being scanned for correctness, like a manic security drone equipped to stun threats without hesitation.
Best Board Games of 2013
2013 saw the creation of Unwinnable’s Board Game Club. Maybe you’ve seen the hashtags on Twitter or the numerous photos on Instagram. On January 19, 2013, Stu asked the question, “Anyone want to play a board game tonight?” Like the Founding Fathers, four men descended upon Unwinnable headquarters that night to take part in a battle of wits and cunning. Nearly every week since, we’ve played board games.
Best Games of 2013
How do you compare Grand Theft Auto V with Papers, Please? Or Assassin’s Creed IV with Gone Home? These are the kinds of questions that have defined 2013. In the year after small studio games dominated the conversation, we’ve not entered the Indie Promised Land. Instead, we found ourselves in a strange landscape, of new consoles no one cares about, of endless debates, of thoughtful AAA games and ephemeral indies. We spent several annoying months hearing people ask, “Is this even a game?” This is all good news. The binaries – indie vs AAA, formalist vs zinester, LOL vs Dota
Our Game Dev Story
Our first release as Mr. E Games was an educational golf game titled Hole in Fun. It sold a respectable 28,000 copies, but it didn’t make us rich. Our ambition in those days was strong. It was resources we lacked. Even after two decades – two decades that I would defy anyone to describe as anything other than a blazing success – we still largely got by on a project-to-project basis.
Enabling the Cause of Accessibility
Mike “Broly” Begum is one of the best competitive fighting game players in Texas. In 2010, he ascended the competitive Super Street Fighter IV circuit to become a major state contender, while simultaneously achieving the distinction of being Texas’s number 5-ranked Super Smash Bros. Melee player. While accomplishing either of these feats is impressive, and accomplishing both simultaneously is even more so, perhaps most impressive is that Begum, at least ostensibly, would appear to be one of the least likely fighting game champions around.