Electron Dance Highlights
This Link Drag is Pointless
Last time there were twelve links. This time, merely a dozen. In this episode: thoughts on the first-person screamer, the blurring of casual and hardcore, Facebook makes a play for the next big space, and does art need to have a point?
On Writing Twine
It's Twine Week on Electron Dance. This is the last of five posts.
I never had any experience of using Twine until I wrote Truth is Ghost, which was released as part of the Fear of Twine exhibition in February. I had heard all sorts of things. It’s really easy. It’s better than parser IF. It can make your voice heard. It’s the remedy for capitalism. It can make English Breakfast tea.
Now, with a little experience of Twine tucked under my Batman utility belt, I have a few thoughts to share.
Counterweight 12: On Fear of Twine
It's Twine Week on Electron Dance. This is the fourth of five posts.
In this specially extended episode of Counterweight, Eric Brasure and Joel "HM" Goodwin go through the Fear of Twine exhibition (2014), curated by Richard Goodness.
Contents
Room One
01:30 Debt by Tony Perriello "It's almost like a text movie"
05:30 Duck Ted Bundy by Coleoptera-Kinbote "It is manic"
10:00 The Conversation I Can't Have by Morgan Rille "She wasn't writing as a victim"
14:00 The Matter of the Great Red Dragon by Jonas Kyratzes "This is the kind of thing he does and he does it well"
Room Two
19:15 Zombies and Elephants by Verena Kyratzes "I really like this twine"
27:45 Workers in Progress by Konstantinos "Gnome" Dimopoulos "It makes sense to view it as a work of speculative fiction"
Room Three
32:45 When Acting as a Wave by David T. Marchand "This is my personal favourite of the entire set"
37:00 The Girl in the Haunted House by Amanda Lange "This is an example of something you couldn't do in the short story format"
40:30 The Scientific Method by Evil Roda "I like this one because I'm a sucker for end of world stuff"
44:00 Drosophilia by Pippin Barr, Gordon Calleja and Sidsel Hermansen "What is going on?"
Room Four
47:45 Abstract State-warp Machines by Ivaylo Shmilev "It had a lot to say"
51:30 The Work by Cayora Rue "You don't know it's secret, do you?"
57:45 Coyotaje by Joseph Domenici "It's not about big picture, it's about what people go through"
63:15 TWEEZER by Richard Goodness and PaperBlurt "It's kinda charming, right?"
Closing Thoughts
70:10 "My feelings towards Twine have changed"
73:15 "Look at the twines I found most successful, they were probably also the ones that were the most technically complex"
Download the podcast MP3 or play it right here in your browser:
References
- My top three: When Acting as A Wave, Zombies and Elephants, TWEEZER
- HM has written micro-reviews of every entry on the Appendix forum
You can subscribe directly to Counterweight via iTunes or RSS.
Twine Week
- Monday: On Reading Twine
- Tuesday: On Truth is Ghost
- Wednesday: On the Achievement
- Thursday: Counterweight 12 "On Fear of Twine"
- Friday: On Writing Twine
On the Achievement
It's Twine Week on Electron Dance. This is the third of five posts.
Richard Goodness and Julius “PaperBlurt” Olofsson made a Twine RPG called TWEEZER (Goodness & Olofsson, 2014). Well, that’s what they said, right? Sure. Cheap laughs are not for me. Sadly, I had committed myself to engaging every Fear of Twine entry and I couldn’t skip TWEEZER without drawing undue attention to myself, so my fate was sealed.
What is surprising about TWEEZER isn’t how much work has gone into its visual presentation nor that it is silly fun. What I find surprising is how complex TWEEZER is.
I recommend everyone have a go because I am about to tell you the brief story of how I tracked down TWEEZER’s Secret Achievement.
On Truth is Ghost
It's Twine Week on Electron Dance. This is the second of five posts.
For the Fear of Twine exhibition, I made a twine called Truth is Ghost based on some short stories I wrote some years ago.
The critics have been unanimous:
Amanda Wallace: “Truth is Ghost is clear as mud.”
Emily Short: “I played through it twice, and it made maybe slightly more sense the second time, but not to the point where I felt I could explain the plot at all.”
Jed Pressgrove: “I feel I am lacking the context needed to identify what the story is trying to say.”
And I can hear you now, reader, whispering, “Phew, it wasn’t just me then.”
With just ten days left until Fear of Twine closes its doors, it’s time to talk about what I was trying to do. It’s spoiler time.
On Reading Twine
It's Twine Week on Electron Dance. This is the first of five posts.
So I wrote about how I had problems with the Twine format. But this year I participated in the Fear of Twine exhibition and, as a result, forced myself to read the other 15 works in the exhibition so I could write about them.
Do I still have problems with Twine?
Stop Crying About Choice
In his epic Dark Souls Diaries series, Matt “Steerpike” Sakey wrote about a key moment when he felt guilty for killing an NPC he had intended to save. Sakey didn’t have long to mourn. Rather than leave him to wallow in his misery, one commenter told him there was actually nothing he could do. Don’t feel bad about it.
Player guilt is so easily destroyed, it seems, if we learn everything is a foregone conclusion. We are fascinated by what lies behind the curtain and the fear that the game might be making a fool of us, exploiting us through an illusion of agency. No one wants to be Stanley of The Stanley Parable (Galactic Café, 2013), the developer’s puppet.
We crave the weight of consequence yet revel in its destruction. How do we make sense of this contradiction?
Silver Bullet Cure
Over the last couple of years I’ve found it difficult to play games for actual fun. A game, after all, is a potential Electron Dance article so I approach each one like a loot-filled mansion ripe for burglary; there are words in there somewhere, I just need to figure out how to liberate them. This careful, methodical approach means that play can really feel like work, so I often put off games that might be more work than the norm.
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’m going through some medical shenanigans. It’s obliterated my concentration and hollowed out my interest in writing. I still like the idea of publishing a piece of writing, but I just don’t have the motivation to do all the other stuff that goes before it. You know. The actual work.
Disaffected with the site, I unplugged from the Twitter world as my feed descended into GDC hysteria. There are only so many monetize your teens ha ha and moments astounding of truly inspirational and must-play jeez you gotta recommended I can absorb in a single hour.
And I found myself doing something unusual. Which was playing games. For fun.
Three on the Door
This week's real post is proving difficult to finish and it's grown out of control, like a mutant zombie cyborg alien amoeba run amok. Soon, it'll be so long I might as well publish it as a book.
To tide you over, here are three games I've played recently. I'm not sure I can come up with something interesting to write about them but that does not mean they are less deserving of attention.
Today let's look at a platformer-painter, a rock hard 3D puzzle and an FPS roguelike.
Subscribe for Updates
Keep In Touch
Commentary
"Did you guys read this interview with Richard Goodness? I think he covered what Twines tend to be like and what more they can be..." – Counterweight 12: On Fear of Twine
"Yaaay misspelling "nitpick"" – This Link Drag is Pointless
"Looks like you've made another discovery." – On the Achievement
"Oh Gods dammit." – On the Achievement
"As far as web development goes, and I include Twine in this group, it has gotten far easier to do basic things. There was a..." – On Writing Twine
"Gordelphus, HM: Thanks for the replies. OK, so clearly Kairo is intended to 'reflect' the Japanese for circuit. But I am still left wondering whether..." – The Secret of Kairo
Friends
Developer Blogs
- Die Gute Fabrik
- In the Games of Madness (Frictional)
- Jonas Kyratzes
- Michael Brough
- Pippin Barr
- Retro Remakes
- The Astronauts
Link Power
Electron Dance on Twitter
My Tweets
The Slow Feed
- Monetisation in different marketsThis is an extract from a white paper by inMobi. Download the full white paper here The first decision in a monetization strategy starts with understanding which types of games are popular in which regions. For example, Chinese and Korean gamers are far more likely to prefer RPG/adventure games while Americans prefer puzzle games. Developers must then consid […]
- Launch Trailer #2 For TLF!From the creators of AI War: Fleet Command comes an all-new grand strategy title with turn-based tactical combat, set in a deep simulation of an entire solar system and its billions of inhabitants. You are the last of a murdered race, determined to unify or destroy the 8 others. But you must work from the shadows, using superior technology -- bring your cap […]
- A week in three photos, 9 – 16 April 2014We went to the A MAZE festival last week – got into Berlin on the Tuesday, festival on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. A good time was had. This is an image of the remains of an excellent game by French collective One Life Remains that pretty much involved bashing buttons and fast as possible and so […]
- Steam KeysSteam keys are games you really want to play. Steam keys are games that you can add to your Steam library and maybe sometime play. Steam keys aren’t yours. Steam keys are bundled, six for a dollar. Steam keys are bundled, pay more, get more. Steam keys are found in number, in bundles. More added […]
- Grognard Trailer for TLF! And Ruminations On The Throughline From All Our Past Games.From the creators of AI War: Fleet Command comes an all-new grand strategy title with turn-based tactical combat, set in a deep simulation of an entire solar system and its billions of inhabitants. You are the last of a murdered race, determined to unify or destroy the 8 others. But you must work from the shadows, using superior technology -- bring your cap […]
- Review: Earth Defense Force 2025Shaun and AJ stand back to back, staunchly defending the Earth... and EDF 2025 while they're at it.
- Trip Report: PAX East 2014I arrived at PAX East 2014 on Friday morning. I didn’t make any specific press appointments this year and my schedule for panels was pretty sparse. I walked into the convention center with an open mind, wondering what would grab my attention. At first I felt overwhelmed. The expo hall at PAX East was as loud […] The post Trip Report: PAX East 2014 appeared f […]
- Understanding games designed for retentionFrom Deputy Editor Zoya Street Read the latest posts in the retention games series: Dark Orbit Reloaded - clan events designed around real-life social groupings Dawn of the Dragons - forum badges for playing on different platforms Neverwinter - daily rewards and diminishing returns Free-to-play games are designed differently. Unlike pay-up-front games, they’ […]
- Drawing: Here’s Lookin’ At You[…]
- Retention design in different cultures: know your playersDeputy Editor Zoya Street recently caught up with Ray Livingston, head of product marketing at Bigpoint, to talk about how their approach to free to play game design has moved forward with the development for Dark Orbit Reloaded. He learned about how internet cafes in Turkey have affected the way Bigpoint designs their end game. Before moving to Bigpoint in […]