Friday, December 2, 2011

60 Games in 30 Nights

Update (12/31): Should've never started my list with Binding of Isaac and Dungeons of Dredmor, mistake!

As I thought, kind of dumb. I have plenty of excuses for why I didn't get remotely close to my goal, but why bother airing them out here? No pouting I say! I have dipped my toe into about two dozen of these games already, and want to see this list through to the end--even if it's going to take longer than I'd previously hoped.

So I'm giving myself a two week extension, and hope to have all these games played by January 14th. That's a soft deadline now though, and realistically I probably will need the rest of the month to write about them. I'm alright with that though. Now it's less about the ridiculous time crunch I put myself under (which admittedly isn't really fair to the devs of the games I'm previewing/reviewing), and more about the full completion of the list. Now I can take some time playing games on the list that aren't meant to be tackled in a couple hours, or even a couple days.

Definitely a failure on my part in some ways, but on the other hand I'm pleased to have forced myself into finally trying out these great games. More updates soon.

Original: I'm trying something a bit dumb to me, but it has to be done. The title says it all, I have 30 days to play and write about the 60 games listed below. Must of them are indie, and hopefully short enough that I can get a full look at for review purposes. If not I'll be posting preview, impression pieces as well.

They'll be going up throughout this month on the blogs/sites I write for. However this will be the central document for my progress. I'll put a link in the sidebar, and update the list with hyperlinks to coverage as it's posted. I'm a busy man, so I don't suspect this will be easy or entirely possible for that matter. Wish me luck!*

  1. To The Moon
  2. InMomentum
  3. The Binding of Isaac
  4. Wizorb
  5. Octodad 2
  6. A.R.E.S.
  7. Atom Zombie Smasher
  8. Defense Grid
  9. Dino D-Day
  10. Dungeons of Dredmor
  11. Fate of the World
  12. Galcon Fusion
  13. Killing Floor
  14. Nation Red
  15. Zombie Driver
  16. Numen
  17. Polynomial
  18. Puzzle Dimensions
  19. Really Big Sky
  20. Sanctum
  21. Scoregasm
  22. Shatter
  23. SpaceChem
  24. Steel Storm: Burning Retribution
  25. Swords and Soldiers HD
  26. Time Gentlemen, Please/Ben There Dan, That
  27. Trine 2 Beta
  28. Vertex Dispenser
  29. New VVVVVV Content
  30. Xotic
  31. Alpha Protocol
  32. The Ball
  33. The Graveyard
  34. King’s Bounty Series (Something from it)
  35. The Longest Journey
  36. Nimbus
  37. The Path
  38. Puzzle Bots
  39. Revenge of the Titans
  40. Runespell: Overture
  41. Samorost 2
  42. The Scourge Project
  43. Windosill
  44. Zen Bound 2
  45. Syberia
  46. Dragonsphere
  47. Another World
  48. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
  49. Bionic Commando Rearmed
  50. Fort Zombie
  51. Dark Void Zero
  52. Pathologic
  53. Vizati
  54. Planet Buster
  55. Proteus
  56. Smuggle Truck
  57. Project Zomboid
  58. Fatale
  59. Fortis
  60. Amnesia Custom Stories
*Oh, and for the record I took the first day of this month off mostly because 60 games in 31 days doesn't sound as cool--and as we all know this sounds too cool to mess up.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Off to PAX Prime!

I'm right in the middle of a 12 day stretch where I'm travelling all over the West Coast (and slightly to the right.) Been pretty insane, as soon as I get comfortable it's off we go again. I doubt I could do this all the time, but it's been a pretty fun summer given how busy things are.

Driving to and from Vegas to see old friends was much needed; but just three days at home before turning around to fly up to Seattle for PAX is harrowing at best. Especially with all that's going on at the moment. Heir today, gone tomorrow ay? (Love that game, despite it's unforgiving nature.)

When I have been home, I've been head down working on making room maps and finishing other tasks we have to complete before A Valley Without Wind beta arrives. We're so very close now. It appears public beta is still on target for the first half of September. We'll see how everything goes, but I can say loudly and proudly that the game is gelling together in ways I can't describe and I can't wait for people to finally get a chance to play.

Would love to chat more--in fact I plan to in September once I stop spinning--but I have to get at least a few good hours of sleep before a very odd series of flights to Seattle tomorrow. May have a PAX post here, and we'll be busy over on DIYGamer, Gaming Dead and my YT Channel too. If you're into what's going on at the northwestern nerd mecca, keep an eye on those spots over the next few days!

Monday, August 15, 2011

A Valley Without Wind Updates and Gameplay Video

We've emerged from the Arcen labs to share a new press update for our upcoming game A Valley Without Wind showing off a lot of good (new) stuff. The biggest item has to be the character model updates, where we've totally ditched our previous method and models as they just couldn't match up with these new ones. Pictured is an example, and you can check out 16 new concept art images over on Chris's blog.

On top of that, Chris has put together a solid 17-minute video of pure gameplay, along with an accompanying post. Have a look (or even better head over to YouTube and watch it in 1080p):

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Interview with Rudolf Kremers on DIYGamer

Wanted to direct you to a piece I put together for DIYGamer featuring Rudolf Kremers of Omni Systems. If you're unfamiliar with the name or company, there's a good chance you've at least heard of their title Eufloria. A seamlessly evolving RTS, wrapped in a beautifully ambient package.

It's really blissful stuff, I suggest you at least give the demo a try PC/Mac'ers; and those who own a PS3 can look forward to a PSN port sometime later this year.

Now for the picture break down: Rudolf is wearing a ballin' shirt. My hair is ridiculously long, and I'm representing my hometown with a t-shirt I bought from local awesome-shop Octopus Garden. Modestly priced whats-its and weird crap, stop by if you're ever passing through South-Eastern Washington.

IndieCade Game Jam Video Interviews

I hate to admit it, but my buddy/cameraman Kevin Harland is getting quite good now that he has a pretty, new piece of equipment to back up all the experience. We attended IndieCade's mobile game jam this past weekend and got some excellent interviews and other footage to check out.

My recently started YouTube channel has three new HQ videos to peruse:

IndieCade Mobile 3D Game Jam - Akira Thompson and Chris Bell of IndieCade [Interview]

You can also check out our photo dump of the event over on DIYGamer. That's where I'll be writing up and publishing some written info around the videos, along with some other articles covering the event. I'll probably pass them on here as well.

Welcome to Game Connoisseur!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my personal blog, where I mostly talk about professional things as unprofessionally as possible. This is where I'll be updating all my projects (gaming or otherwise), as well as where I'll publish articles I write that don't fit on my other sites including personal musings and such.

My goal is to update this a couple times a week (or more if there's a lot to share/about.) I'm always frantically busy it seems, but for some reason I yearned to start something like this...so away we go!