Recommendation: Katawa Shoujo

      You know what happens when you want to write about a game, but what you wrote is too long for the student publication you usually write for, and you don’t want to admit to the student body as a whole that you actually liked a game about romancing young disabled anime people? You start actually writing for your blog again!

      So, anyway, I’ve always stayed far away from ren’ai games, a genre of visual novel in which the player romances anime girls, for many good reasons, the primary of which is that “gamifying” human relationships and applying challenge and reward mechanics to them seems like a difficult thing to do without objectifying people.  So, even though I’ve heard astoundingly positive things about the visual novel Katawa Shoujo, I was hesitant to play it because it was made in the ren’ai tradition. What I expected was a game that was, at best, cheesy*, and, at worst, voyeuristic or misogynistic. Much to my surprise, KS was none of those things – instead it was probably one of the most inspiring gaming experiences I’ve ever had.

Proteus review, Waker update of sorts

And here's a review of Proteus that I just wrote for Beta Fish. I swear that I'll get back to critical game analysis and the Waker devlog sometime soon.

The main reason that I've been quiet about Waker  lately is that it's getting progressively harder to share screenshots and info on the game's progress without spoiling it. Development hasn't slowed down as much as I thought it would since the semester started - I'm stilling managing to find a couple of hours every other day or so to dedicate to the game.

Here's what I can share about the more recent changes I've made to the game: Giants! Explosions! Eye lasers! Commentary on eye lasers! Character back story! Revised dialogue! Improved scene of ruined ghost town in snow that now longer looks like ass! In-game camera that isn't centered on the main character square on! It's damn fine.

Kentucky Route Zero Review

I just wrote a review of the first act of the highly excellent Kentucky Route Zero for Beta Fish. Y'all can read it here.

Another Great Nghtmare Mode Article

Jonas Kyratzes wrote another great article, basically answering the question about how games have unique capabilities for storytelling, but using Photopia as the example instead of Shadow of the Colossus like I had. He does a better job of answering the question than I do, too.

Living for Yourself and Nobody Else: Why Skyrim Left me Cold

I was really, really confused when I had finished my playthrough of Skyrim. It was probably the most critically acclaimed game of 2011, everyone I knew who played it enjoyed the game, and there were many among them who absolutely swear by it. If you ask any gamer about Skyrim, they will tell you it is amazing. Starting the game for the first time, my expectations were high, but by the time I ended my quest, I found the entire experience to be unmoving and unrewarding. I felt totally ambivalent toward the game.

At first, I thought that I was just insane. The game's world is massive, detailed, and immersive. The amount of freedom given to the player is vast. The soundtrack is epic.The game is so gorgeous that I would often stop and remove the HUD just to take screenshots. Most of my friends who are enthusiastic about the game are people of good taste. Normally, I'd just leave it at a difference of taste and move on, but the more my Skyrim-enthused fans talk about the game, the more I found myself thinking about it, and I've since realized that I might not be entirely insane.

Now, an incredible effort was put into Skyrim's world-building. Not only is the literal, physical world massive and detailed, but great effort was put into creating the Tamriel, game world's, history and cultures. It may possibly be among the most well-developed fictional worlds of recent time.

This is an incredible waste, though, because I didn't give a shit about Tamriel or the people in it. I was never given a reason to.

Brilliant Article on Games, Social Identites, and Violence

Here's another great article on Nightmare Mode, this one about how typical game violence is so far removed from real world violence that attempts to satirize it are ineffective and how privileged groups own the means of production as pertaining to video games. It's brilliant.

Waker Update

First off, I am excited to announce that I've been in contact with the talented Jack Menhorn, and, as of right now, it looks as though he'll be producing audio for Waker! This should definitely speed up the production process a bit and add a lot of extra "umph!" to the game that would otherwise be lacking.

Second off, now that I'm fairly settled on the game's graphic style, I'm going to start posting less screenshots of the game world and more screenshots of dialogue snippets, since the game's writing is probably going to be the heart of it. There's more below the jump.