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?

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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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Discussion: Sausage Souls

Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory be to the sausage king." Oh yea, I have completed Stephen's Sausage Roll.

I renewed my attack on the Sausage game for the Ouroboros-spinoff book I am working on. I knew I was missing something important and needed to address it. It is likely I'll dedicate a new essay in this book to Stephen's Sausage Roll but I thought it would nice to have a comment thread on it first.

These comments will be sausages all the way down and completely naked. There will be no ROT13 here.

I mean, if you like playing puzzles and you're wondering whether to play Stephen's Sausage Roll, here's my capsule review:

• What a rush

If you want some detail, rando who is planning to play Stephen's Sausage Roll:

• Be prepared for the occasional bottleneck, particularly The Great Tower
• Do not judge a book by its first world, you're really playing for what the game becomes
• It is a hard game but in a satisfying way
• There are a handful of what feel like Monte Carlo levels (e.g. Wobblecliff) but generally you think the levels out, not guess
• Do not read this thread or go looking for spoilers, because someone will spoil Dead End
• You do not spoil Dead End
• No, you really do not

Anyway, I think it's time to hand over to the comments.

Discussion: Fetch Quests For A Dead World

Welcome to the teensy-weensy-late October newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):

You end up wandering back and forth all the time, taking an object here and an object there. It doesn’t feel like you’re solving puzzles - it feels like you’re fulfilling fetch quests for a dead world.

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Discussion: ELIZA[0]

Welcome to the September newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):

The developer’s best asset is the player, as prestige text adventure purveyor Infocom suggested in their advertising back in the 1980s. “OUR STORIES LACK IMAGINATION,” they proudly proclaimed. “Because Infocom's interactive fiction is designed to run on your imagination.”

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Discussion: Into the Green

Welcome to the August newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):

But not every day could be spent exploring the City of London, so some days were spent meandering through local parks. However, our new companions had not been trained in the art of walking-fu and needed a concrete goal for any adventure. Fortunately, they had already solved this problem and brought it with them on the plane.

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Discussion: Mythbusting

Welcome to the July newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):

Today, it is usually the open world game that generates urban legends. However, it’s difficult to know whether player reports are made in good faith or made up for clicks and likes, much like those schoolfriends who used to boast about crazy videogame happenings which never actually happened. There’s a page full of GTA: San Andreas myths from Bigfoot to UFOs.

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Discussion: Insert Coin

Welcome to the June newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):

Once I had paid tribute to the digital god, the machine would respond with the magical phrase CREDITS 01. The attract mode was likely to continue playing - but the machine was aware of my presence now. It was waiting.

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Discussion: Monument

Welcome to the tad late May newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):

I can’t bring myself to say goodbye, even though I know it’s over. I could play again but that wouldn’t be the same experience at all. The install is no longer just the mountain of bytes that comprise code and visuals and sound but personal investment.

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