Search Results for: gaming OR game
On Flappy Bird, Games Culture and the Problem with ‘Innovation’
This is how Flappy Bird‘s time in the public eye should’ve occurred: it should’ve been just another lo-fi, challenging mobile game with an immediate and obsessive, albeit niche, following. People would download it, having seen other iOS players mention it on Twitter. Personal high scores would be tweeted back and forth in unofficial challenges. Game Center Leaderboards would be refreshed as everyone tries to beat out their friends. A few people would tweet, just once, how they don’t ‘get it’ and how they are slightly baffled by its success. Just once. Then they would move on and talk about something
Mind Games
It is a commonplace that horror games draw on the stock character of the “criminally insane” to create their bogeymen and bad guys. Even reasonably uncomplicated titles, like PlayStation’s original Crash Bandicoot, had a little of that flavour: the Hammer Horror mad scientist who enjoys nothing better than genetically splicing innocent island creatures while cackling maniacally at his plans, even if this was set in a world of Wumpa fruit, floating platforms and totem poles.
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
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.
Pretension +1: Indie Gaming Console Launches to Minimal Fanfare
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – A loose-knit collection of programmers, anarchists and baristas launched an indie gaming console to little or no fanfare Thursday. The collective chose not to give the gaming device a name, a standard set of specifications or even a price point. “We’re trying to avoid the whole gaming hype train,” said hacker/forestry science major Arturo Gutierrez. “I mean, when I think of a brand, I think of cowboys searing the flesh of innocent cows. This isn’t about cattle capitalism.”
Pretension +1: Gaming With a Baby
Knowing something is one thing. Grasping it can be something entirely different. I have long known that parents are hard-pressed for time. There’s a lot that goes into keeping a small child alive. You must feed them, change their diapers, stop them from crying and keep them from accidentally killing themselves in a world pretty much designed to harm small, incompetent creatures. These mandatory tasks don’t leave room for things the childless might take for granted, such as an afternoon spent playing a videogame or an unhurried bowel movement.
The Great and Secret Gaming Photographer
I’m a very accomplished photographer. My photos have been in magazines, newspapers, textbooks, blogs, online videos, television and any other medium that you can think of. My work has been seen by millions and will be one of the most important resources for the history of videogames. The only catch is that I’m almost never credited and don’t get paid for it.
