Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Artsy fartsy Yahtzee

It's Wednesday (or Tuesday, from certain, fatter perspectives), and that means it's time for Extra Punctuation. This week, in the aftermath of my Deathspank/Limbo double bill, I discuss the artistic renaissance of 2D platformers about small children with big heads.

"Now, when you're developing a game, an important part - some might say the very first part - is to figure out who, exactly, you're developing the game for, and factor that into your gameplay, story and difficulty level. Lucidity, a 2D platforming thing by LucasArts of all people, appeared to be targeting its gameplay at retro arcade players, its story at 70 year old grandmothers and its difficulty level at self-flagellators."

It also mentions Cave Story, which if you haven't played then you have no excuse for not currently downloading it as we speak.

13 comments:

  1. could you, or someone, please say that again in english, french or german please.

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  2. Yahtzee m8, i as a ? for u, ur wicked new bok ting, is it guno be out in da proper bok stores nd tht? kl

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  3. Yahtzee, je suis a? Pour tu, les signature de livre de tu, quest-ce que tu vas releaser dans le boutique de livres?
    That being said, I'm far from fluent in French

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  4. Interesting way to speak about a recurring theme. I don't think these games really hit the spot commercially speaking, maybe because people don't really feel like being put into a position of being lost, but it does make sense that they receive critical acclaim in the indie realm. Braid and Cave Story were fun to play above all else, which was nice.

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  5. From certain fatter perspectives? If you hate Canadians, then please don't lump us together with the Americans.

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  6. Must say I loved cave story back when i played it. It's so simple in some aspects, yet, pretty deep, I heard someone is making a prequel about the story of king and the fight against the red demon.If I find it I will see to post the link.

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  7. Nice write up. Have you played Spelunky? Its an artsy game about a large headed man (who is not Indiana Jones) exploring a huge, scary cave. A pimped out version is to be released on Xbox Live but the original old style version is available free for the PC.

    http://www.spelunkyworld.com

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  8. I'm convinced that Cave Story is the one game that created this whole indie gaming boom.

    Check out Odin Sphere, though I'm not sure if you would like it.

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  9. You didn't mention Kyntt so I'm not sure if you've played it. It's certainly "Small, big-headed boy in a large desolate world" distilled to its purest form. And the follow up Knytt Stories allowed anyone to make their own "SB-HBIALDW" level, and there's been plenty of good user-made ones.

    Worth a play if you haven't tried it already:
    http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=Knytt

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  10. I started playing Cave Story. Not really seeing the appeal yet, but I'm only a little past the boss in the dragon egg nursery (in other words, barely started).

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  11. Got a bit further with Cave Story. I've found it's much more playable with a gamepad.

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