Saturday, 30 June 2012

Dead Cyborg

Dead Cyborg  is an indie game that I've just found out about. It's set in a strange run down nuclear future where your character wakes up in an isolation chamber with no memory of who you are or how you got there. It's a text based puzzle game (haven't seen one of those in forever) that is being released in episodes. It's currently free to play, but donations are more than welcome. Basically you pay for the game if you think it is worth it.
To me, this game looks fantastic. Looking at the screen shots I'm hit by fond memories of playing Doom as the game is played from a first person perspective, but has a puzzle element to it's gameplay that I've always loved. And since you progress by navigating your way round a maze and pick up items to help in your journey, it seems to add an almost dungeon crawler feel to the game. The graphics are bright and almost cartoon-like in some places, especially the text for me.

The only problem this game has for me is the episodic release schedule that is entirely dependant on people choosing to donate, basically meaning that the story might never be finished if people don't choose to support the game. I've wondered in the past if episodic games are really worth making, a great example of it going wrong would be the Half Life 2 series. With a game being released in episodes you run the risk of the game not fully being funded, or developers losing interest halfway through. With Dead Cyborg the problem is due to a lack of funds which is a bit depressing. The first episode was released almost a year ago and last time I checked Episode 2 is only 65 to 70% complete.

Even with the possibility that the game might not get finished I still think it deserves a look in. It's a short game, only a couple of hours long, and seems like a nice wee distraction.

Thanks for listening to me ramble and if you have any opinions or episodic games I'd love to hear them. Or if you want to know what I thought of the game after playing through it, leave me a comment and I'll let you know. Or if you want to check it out for yourself here's a link to the game: http://www.deadcyborg.com/

Saturday, 9 June 2012

Late night internet searches

I don't know if this is a common thing, but I usually find that my brain is annoying active when I'm trying to get to sleep. For the whole of the day I may make one remark that is worthy of being heard, if I'm lucky it might even make sense. But, in that moment of wanting to give up and try again tomorrow by brain decides that it wants to think, now.

I work on a laptop so it's almost always close to hand. If not I have plenty of scraps of paper to write down my  madcap theories, but the internet provides access to a thought process that doesn't require much thought. I think of a question, usually Google has an answer, or at least a distraction.

So for the most part my internet history is pretty uninteresting. A quick search for info on a game I want to play, or a book I'm keen on reading. Pictures of cute boys with cats, or my shortcuts to various flash games. It's all pretty standard. Except for the times I look up practical spaceship design, or reference pictures for old WWI bombers, or the anatomy of a triceratops.

Is this something else that people do?