Blog #10 ------------ Indie games

Growing up, all I really played was popular games like Halo, Guitar hero, Kirby, Call of Duty, basically any game that a parent would recognize as a video game if they heard the name.

I’ll be honest, I never play indie games and I don’t really like them at all. That being said, why am I going into the gaming industry? Good question, I have no clue.

So for the rest of the blog, I’ll be talking about random indie games that I’ve probably never played… But if I see one that I have tried, I’ll let you know!

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a game. <- That’s essentially all I know about it. From the amount of posts I’ve seen about it on the internet, it must be a really great indie game. I believe the player is a security guard and has to survive (Five nights at Freddy’s).

I’m currently 2 pages into google and I still haven’t found an indie game that I’ve actually played. There’s definitely a lot that I’ve heard of though, like Super Meat Boy, and I Wanna be the Guy.

I guess the only thing I have left is a crappy game that was made in 2 days that nobody wants to hear about: SwipeRite.

SwipeRite is a game created by a small indie company called Stormforged Productions, which is basically just two people. Michael Billette, who just happens to have the same last name as me, is the game designer and does all the art. Cole Pollock is the programmer for the company.

The game itself is pretty simple, each of them put in about 24 hours to create it. It’s a memory and reflex game that assigned a random colour to each direction. You have to remember which colour is which direction and swipe depending on what appears on the screen. As your score gets higher, the amount of time you have available to swipe decreases.

Jumping back a bit, I Wanna be the Guy was a popular indie game. It used music and art from many other video games. What was interesting about it is how fucking difficult it was to even get past the first level.

The game basically doesn’t care, it just wants to mess up the day of whoever’s playing it. If you want to go on a low difficulty, the game insults you and calls you a wuss. It also doesn’t even make the game easier, it just gives you more save points.

Mari0 is a cool indie game that combines Mario and portal, theres really not much else to say about this game, but I think it’s a pretty cool mix, and for an indie game, they did a pretty good job.

QWOP! The one indie game that everyone has played. It was created back in 2008, and after 8 years, there’s still not a single person that can play it properly. Actually Roshan Ramachandra managed to run all 100m in just 51 seconds.

Thanks for reading my terrible blog post.

Blog #9 ------------- 2005-2009

2005: This year was a very significant and vital year for gaming. It brought out the release of one of today’s most influential games- Kirby: Canvas Curse. Of course, that’s only what we call it here in North America. In Europe, the momentous game is known as Kirby: Power Paintbrush, and in Japan, it’s known as “Touch! Kirby”.

The day that Drawcia emerges from a strange portal out of the sky and casts a spell over Dream Land, turning into a world of paint, was the day that everyone knew what they needed to do: Follow Drawcia through the portal with Kirby, and help him defeat her as she throws Kirby’s old foes back at him.

“The best Kirby game to date”. That’s all I should need to say about that.

2006: Every year my family has a celebration because of what happened on December 4 this year. I believe that everybody should remember and celebrate the important event that occurred on this day. Kirby: Squeak Squad, “The best Kirby game to date”.

Sadly this game was only released on the Nintendo DS, and unlike Canvas Curse, the player used face buttons instead of the touch screen to control Kirby.

2007: This year was, without a doubt, the absolute worst year in all of video game history. I remember being a sad 10 year old wondering… “Why wasn’t there a new Kirby game released this year?” I don’t even know if I can continue this blog… I guess I can just talk about some other trash game that got released this year

Team Fortress 2, Portal, Halo 3, Guitar hero 3. I’ve probably only spent a few hundred hours playing these games. They’re not even really worth noting, but I have to mention something.

2008: Finally! A new Kirby game. Well, not really new… Kirby Super Star Ultra was released this year for the DS. It was just a remake of Kirby Super Star, but with new enhanced graphics, music, and included some new fancy 3D cut-scenes. “Best Kirby game to date”.

2009: This, once again, was a terrible year for the video game industry. If I can’t go a day without thinking about Kirby, how can I go a year without receiving a new Kirby game? Honestly I don’t understand how the video game industry can survive under these conditions.

This year was fairly important though, because of an amazing game called “Call of Duty: 1v1 me fgt”, which included a new game mode called “Quick scopes only or I’ll report you” as well as “g3t n0 sc0p3d k1d”

Modern Warfare 2 was my favorite game in the Call of Duty series (until Black Ops 3). I’m trying to find something sarcastic to say so it doesn’t seem like I actually like COD, but I played this game every day for about 2 years straight.

Dragon Age: Origins also came out this year, which is essentially the exact opposite of MW2, which is probably why I never played it, but I heard it was a good game.

Blog # 8 ----------- 2000-2004

This is a great set of years for me, because these years are when I really started getting in to gaming. It’s sad that I missed out on all the old classics that we’ve been discussing for the past 8 or so weeks, but there are still some great games that spawned in this era. They were good enough to get me addicted, and to spark my passion for gaming, especially my first game: I-Ninja.

Now, I know this game was released in 2003, and that I usually go in chronological order, but this game is incredibly special to me. Strangely, I had completely forgotten about it until class last Thursday, but once I saw it, the nostalgia hit hard.

This game got me in so much trouble, I got lectures and speeches about how all this gaming is gonna rot my brain and destroy my eyes, but it was worth it. I-Ninja was just addicting. Hours and hours of slicing open enemies all to save my sensei who really just needed to “stay here and try not to die again”.

It wouldn’t be fair to base this whole blog on one game, so let’s move it back a bit to the distant future, the year 2000.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Now I know what you’re all thinking, again Daniel? Kirby? Wasn’t this discussed in class already? To answer that last question, no it was not, but it should have been.

Honestly I don’t have a lot to say about this game. It was a 2.5D platformer which is pretty cool, but other than that, I only included it because it’s Kirby.

2001 brought the release of Halo: Combat Evolved. This was mentioned in the powerpoint, but it was mistitled as just ‘Halo’, therefore:

Halo was my first FPS, and I was… Terrible at it. But, the fact that you could use system link to have such a large amount of players made it a large part of my childhood. We would have a TV in one room, and another in the room behind it, with a cord running through a hole in the wall. It was my first non-single player game.

I’m just gonna skip right over 2002 because I probably don’t care about any of the games released that year other than whatever 8 versions of Tony Hawk Pro Skater came out.

2003 was honestly just a great year for gaming. Crimson skies took up so much of my time, obviously not as much as I-Ninja, but it was up there. There’s about 10x more information on Wikipedia about this game compared to I-Ninja so I’m beginning to regret choosing it for my presentation. Either way, it had a difficult development due to [7 paragraphs worth of information], and was a difficult game to play (at the age of 6).

2004 brought us some MMORTS called world of witchcraft of something stupid like that. I only played it for like 11 years, it was aight. Pac Man World was also released this year, which I don’t actually remember playing, I only remember fighting over the controller trying to play it.

In conclusion, these 5 years were obviously extremely significant for gaming, and if I hadn’t been introduced to gaming during this time period, I might not be here.

Blog #7 --------------------- 1995 to 1999

1995: There’s not much notable about this year. It was 1 year after the Playstation came out, so many games are being released for it, but the majority are still for the SNES. One big game that came out this year for neither console was Warcraft 2: Tides of darkness, released by blizzard. It was a much more refined version of Warcraft and was very popular.

1996: Following my theme from last week, Kirby Super Star was released for the SNES in this year. This game was one of the last major releases for the SNES, and is said to be one of the best games in the Kirby franchise. Kirby’s Block Ball was also released in May of this year for the Game Boy, it was more of a ‘Breakout’ clone than an actual Kirby game.

1997: This year is a very important year for gaming, not because it was the beginning of the Fallout series, but because it was the year that many of the people in our class were born. Although maybe Fallout was a bit more important. The game had its own game engine made for it by Tim Cain. It took him 6 months, but after it was developed, he had 30 people working on it for 3 years to make Fallout, an RPG series that is arguable the most popular of its kind today.

The game Introduced the SPECIAL system, which was a new way to keep track of character statistics. It stands for: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. The player and every NPC in the game would have their own unique set of stats, which would constantly be changing throughout the game, and determine the outcome of certain situations.

1998: A huge game was released this year, which I really hope wasn’t covered in the presentation. Blizzard released Starcraft, which might not have been very popular, but it started the franchise that eventually released Startcraft 2, which is one of the most played games in the world.

Also in 1998, only a year after the initial release of Fallout, Fallout 2 became available on Windows and Mac. This one took plays approximately 80 years after the first game ended. Although the game has essentially the same graphics as its predecessor, it has a much larger world to explore.

1999: The year that the perfect score on Pacman was reached, only 19 years after its initial release. This year, a company that used to actually make games, valve, released the first version of Team Fortress. It was just a modification on Quake, and used the same engine, but focused mainly on competitive team games, such as capture the flag, and featured 9 classes to choose from.

Finally, one of my favourite games that I grew up playing the sequels to: SoulCalibur. From a technical point of view, this game was a big jump for fighting games because of its 8 way walking. For me, I’m not sure why, but it’s the only fighting game I’ve ever enjoyed. Although if they hadn’t removed Amy in Soul Calibur 5, I might actually play it.

Blog #6 ----- 1990-1994

I honestly don’t know how to start off this blog. I've got a head cold and my thinking is pretty clouded, but I’ll try and make something somewhat readable.

We start this post in 1990, the beginning of the greatest decade in the 20^th century. Why? Not because of any ground breaking games, but because it’s the decade that I was born! (I'm totally not narcissistic)

Even though I would love to keep this blog about me (again, totally not narcissistic), it’s time to discuss the games that were released in this time frame. 

During this time period… and I suppose since its initial release, Mario has been a very popular franchise in both Japan, North America, and around the world. In the 90’s, Nintendo had the bright idea to combine Mario with something a little Tetris-like. They came out with Dr. Mario, which was the first game I ever played on the Wii. 

The game was originally released only for the NES and the Game boy consoles. It was extremely popular, is featured on many “Best Nintendo games of all time” lists, and has been remade for every Nintendo console.

1991 was the year that Yoshi was released! Err… Super Mario World, which is the first game to include Yoshi. This was also the year that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released, adding one more game to the most popular franchise to this date.

1992 Was an interesting year, because Mega_Man_4 was released in the US on January 15^th.  The game must have been very short, because the same year on December 31^st, Mega_Man_5 was released. The game has little innovation in plot and gameplay, but the graphics were amazing for its time.

In 1993, the game Doom was released by id Software. I believe this was covered in the presentation but I also believe that this game is too important (for me) to not mention.

Not only did this game have a whole new engine created for it, and advance 3D graphics for computer games, it also started a huge franchise that included many spin-offs and even a movie. There are 14 Doom games, including the one that will be released this year.

The main reason why this game is so important is because it’s the reason I'm here (Again, totally not narcissistic). Technically this wasn't my first game, but it was the first game my dad played and got into. He was so amazed by it, that he bought almost every fps that was released after that, and even went on to win UT tournaments. If he hadn't been so into games, I wouldn't have started playing games (that I shouldn't have been playing) when I was 6, and I probably wouldn't have the passion that I do today.

And finally, 1994. This was the year that Warcraft was released, which started a franchise that you may or may not have heard of. This was a very big jump for RPGs.

Blog #5 --- 1985-1989

I’d like to start out this post by asking, why are people from America, Mexico, Romania, and Russia viewing my blog? 19 people from America? Unless my mother found my blog, I find that a little bit concerning.

Someone once told me:

“The second half of a decade is what’s remembered, and what defines the decade”.

I would say that person was you, but it turns out my teacher isn’t the only one reading this, so that might be a little too direct.

The statement is definitely true in the gaming industry, with huge releases that would have many sequels, such as Super Mario Bros 3, Dragon Quest 3, Zelda 2, and even final fantasy, all games which anyone today would recognize, even the one person in Romania who found my blog.

1985 was the year that Bethesda was created, but they didn’t release their first title until one year later, which was called ‘Gridiron!’ which is “a frame of parallel bars or beams, typically in two sets arranged at right angles, in particular.”

Seriously though, I learned about this game when I had a tour of the EA studio in Burnaby. Bethesda focused not on graphics, but trying to make the physics as good as possible. It was so impressive that EA bought it and used it for Madden, so technically, this game spawned many successful football games.

The next game the released was called ‘Vortex’, meaning that, again, I have to be extra specific when I google it. Due to the fact that it has no wiki page, and the only description on any site is that it’s “an action game published by Bethesda”, I’ll have to assume that it wasn’t very successful.

[Literally 0 images of Vortex]

1986 was a very successful year in the gaming industry, many amazing games were released such as [that one game you discussed in class], and [those other 2 games you discussed in class]. One that wasn’t stolen mentioned in class, was Starflight, and EA game that went to sell over a million copies.

The game was originally developed for IBM compatible and Tandy systems (Which I’ve never heard of), but due to its success, was later released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh and Commodore 64. The game was set in the year 4620 and blah blah blah I’m running out of words and I’ve only covered 2 years. 

1987 looks like the year that video games start becoming real business. EA and Activision are going around buying companies, and Nintendo is suing [A company that was named during the lesson].

This is also the year that Zelda was released, which is said to be the longest running and most popular series of games. I played Zelda on the Gameboy when I was about 8, but it was too late. I had already been corrupted by Halo and World of Warcraft.

I’ll skip ahead to 1989, which is the year that I was ‘born’ according to every social media site I joined when I was 12. This was also the year that Lucasfilm Games, which is a bit redundant, released Pipe Dream, renamed to Pipe mania. You can find this game on essentially any platform nowadays. It’s a game that visually represents hacking a computer.

Blog #2 – (Again because I deleted it the first time)

I have a Bandaid on my index finger so typing this is terrible, and it’s due in less than 2 hours from my starting point, so this should be really fun.

The game designer that I have chosen after 14 seconds of searching is Markus Persson, who is responsible for the game “Minecraft”. You probably haven’t heard of it, but it’s a game that I’m sure took the creativity of an absolute genius to design. It’s like life, but cubes!

Now obviously I’m not too fond of Minecraft, I’ve tried it on multiple occasions (thanks to my brother forcing me) on PC, PS4, and XBOX ONE. All of which were completely disappointing and I felt as if I was just wasting time.

I have to admit though, some of the Minecraft that uses Augmented Reality that I’ve seen is very impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgakdcEzVwg – Around 2:45 is where it gets crazy.

Moving on to the actual designer, Markus Persson (aka Notch – which I did not know until now) is a game designer (and programmer) who founded Majong with Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser in late 2010.

The point of Majong’s creation was to continue the work of a first person sandbox game called Minecraft, which gained popularity in 2009 after its tech demo. Since the official release of Minecraft in 2011, Persson has won multiple awards, such as the BAFTA games special award, and has gained much recognition in the industry.

After the game’s release, Markus passed creative authority over to Jens Bergensten, and in November of 2014, Markus left Majong after it was sold to EA for 2.5 billion.

Markus got an early start when it comes to gaming. At the age of 8 years old, he made a text based adventure game using his father’s commodore 128. He has also started 7 competitions for the Java 4K Game Programming Contest, such as “Left 4K Dead”.

Markus isn’t only known for Minecraft though, although it is his first major game after working as a developer for King.com for 4 years.

Markus Persson and Jakob Porser came up with the idea for Scrolls which include elements from board games and collectable card games, although Markus made it clear that he would not be as involved in this game particularly. Bethesda sued Markus Persson over the name (Because of their Elder Scrolls serious). Markus challenged them to a Quake 3 tournament to determine the outcome of the dispute. In the end, Markus was able to keep the name.

0x10c is (or was going to be) Markus’ next game. It was a space game “Set in the distant future of March 2012”. It was essentially going to be Minecraft in space, and the same composer of Minecraft’s soundtrack was even hired to make, well, the soundtrack. Production was halted by Persson in August 2013.

Although Mark Persson is a very interesting person, and I still have 4 more games to discuss… I’m running out of time, (Plus I’m at 506 words) woooo.

(I think he wears a fedora in every single pic)

#enlightened