Electron Dance Highlights
The Lost World
It happened without warning, as it often does. My wife’s hard drive died.
This was 2016. Everything of value had been on a separate data drive which was, of course, backed up. But this was the Windows drive which we never bothered to back up. It rarely seemed worth it and, personally, I like the opportunity to start afresh on a new drive.
But then I remembered Minecraft... and the blood drained from my face.
Reverse Shock
This is the third in a series of short musings on Control. The first was Behind the Poster and the second was Use of Weapons.
There will be spoilers.
Black Rock Quarry in Control is a visual wonder. Few games get me to marvel at rock - caves were the worst part of INFRA (Loiste Interactive, 2016) - but, my God, I was screenshotting up a whole folder of rock formations. Here’s some rock. Here’s Jesse standing in front of some more rock. Here’s Jesse looking into the distance, by some rock.
Combat in Control was settling down, a little too much. I was comfortable with most fights and had become somewhat complacent. Bored, even. But the quarry threw a screwball into the process.
Discussion: The Four-Hour Copy and Paste
Welcome to the slightly late February newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):
Now picture the scene. The Depressurizer window is open. It lists every game I own. Each entry is enriched with yummy data like how long I’ve played that game. We’re almost there - all we need to do is copy and paste the data into something else. And this lovely open source project… doesn’t support it.
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Phase Two
At Rezzed in 2016, I dabbled with a game called Vignettes, which I described as “a Vectorpark game not made by Vectorpark.” It was simple but genius: rotate object in 3D space until its silhouette matches the silhouette of another object – into which it then transforms. And repeat to find more objects. It was a little rough around the edges, being an early build, but intriguing.
Not intriguing enough for me to snap it up when it came out on mobile in 2017. Nor desktop last year. My imagination couldn’t fill in a particularly daunting blank: what else could there be except rotating objects into objects ad infinitum?
Unable to answer this question, I waited two years before trying Vignettes (Skeleton Business, 2017). And that’s a shame.
Discussion: Selling the Inscrutable
Welcome to the January newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):
I’m reminded of a short discussion I had with Jake Birkett at Rezzed when I mentioned how exciting it had been to see so much local multiplayer on show. Birkett couldn’t understand the surge of local multiplayer games because it was such a tricky commercial prospect. If you wanted to forge a successful indie business, why would you get into local multiplayer?
Dear subscribers, if you feel like chatting about anything at all from the newsletter, please speak your mind in the comments here.
Save Everybody
“He’s here! Alpha level, near the service shaft!” came Neil’s distorted voice through the walkie-talkie. Neil was one of the sharpest guns in SubSec but it was unlikely he could take down the Orange Ghost alone.
Sonia was on Delta, a full minute away from Neil if she sprinted up three levels of stairwell. She could take the service elevator but it was a sluggish thing designed to shift fragile equipment. Someone had mentioned getting a fast elevator installed to relocate security in a time of crisis. Money doesn’t grow on trees, they had been told. At least not until the city-in-progress had been completed.
Gunfire crackled over the walkie-talkie... and then it went dead. That probably went for Neil too. Oh God. That SubSec elevator had been Neil’s idea.
Sonia spotted the service elevator was now on its way down from where Neil was killed. She had a hunch who was inside.
She took up position behind a pillar opposite the elevator, aiming her handgun at the doors. Sweating, she watched the floor indicator. Beta. Gamma. Delta. Ping. The doors opened with a grunt.
There he was. The strange man in his orange exoskeleton covered in alien writing. The bastard who had slowly been killing his way through the other waystations and offices across the globe, searching for the underwater city-in-progress. He looked uncertainly out of the elevator, raising an assault rifle that had seen better days.
Sonia fired three times. Two hit the chest plate of the Orange Ghost's exoskeleton, but the third found his forehead. He slumped against the wall and slid down. His rifle clattered on the floor.
Sonia ran over to make sure he was dead, just as a small silver display on the Orange Ghost’s left arm flickered. Some text appeared. It looked like QUICK 10 AD? Or maybe LOAD? She leaned down to
Sonia spotted the service elevator was now on its way down from where Neil was killed. She had a hunch who was inside.
She took up position behind a pillar opposite the elevator, aiming her handgun at the doors. Sweating, she watched the floor indicator. Beta. Gamma. Delta. Ping. The doors opened with a grunt.
Use of Weapons
This is the second in a series of short musings on Control. The first was Behind the Poster.
There will be spoilers.
The first boss battle is with a floating person called Alberto Tommasi. Al pushed me to the brink. I considered quitting Control, despite the hefty sum I had exchanged for it.
Boss battles are often exercises in choreography where you have to improvise your footsteps against a partner who knows every move. Learning to dance through bruises and blood. Al would float around, throw a rock at Jesse and she would always get it in the face. The rocks came quicker than I could make Jesse dodge. After a couple of hits Jesse was ex-Jesse.
And then I watched the loading screen for two minutes.
A Donation for The Button
What can I say about Interactivity: The Interactive Experience (Aetheric Games, 2019) outside of its unbearably long name and its unrealistically shiny environment powered by Unreal?
Interactivity belongs to that category of “games about games” and is reminiscent of The Stanley Parable (Wreden & Pugh, 2013). At first I thought it was a little bit too Stanley, but it charts its own course. Frustrating in places but the frustration is also sometimes the point. I liked it.
It’s quite short but I’m about to spoil it with extreme prejudice - and by that, I mean spoil it to commercial death - so you should go check it out if you want to draw your own opinions first.
Advance ye not who fear the spoiler.
Discussion: Filter Bubble
Welcome to the December newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):
In a strange moment of synchronicity, this troubling thought came to me while I was on a business trip to New York. I realised, unusually, that I could hear the world.
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Recent Comments
"Oh, what a lovely idea! Great photos :)" – The Lost World
"Here is a seriously necro'ed comment about some general mechanics in Stephen's Sausage Roll. Doo doo doo spoiler space for the Recent Comments Sidebar and..." – Discussion: Sausage Souls
"Congrats, Matt! Final win-count should be 226 I believe, [cyhf guerr obahf beof, ohg lbh pna'g trg gb gur shyy jva pbhag jvgubhg gurz naljnl..." – Tail Meets Head
"I agree totally about comedy in the margins generally falling flat. I was wishing for Control to have had comedy at its heart (though comedy..." – Use of Weapons
"Thanks Shaun, Andy. My wife knew how eye-wateringly painful the cost of saving the video drive for A Field of Flowers was and wondered if..." – The Lost World
"Before I read the conclusion to this story I was thinking "aw hey, it's the journey that counts", following Mrs HM's shrug. Instead, what a..." – The Lost World
"I have been trying to build a Minecraft replica of Highclere castle for my partner for about 10 years. I have lost it TWICE to..." – The Lost World
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