Author: Ellen

Novelist and experienced game developer

Host Master and the Conquest of Humor

Do you like old point-and-click adventure games?

Then you’ll love (or at least find rather amusing):
Host Master and the Conquest of Humour!

Play as Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine Productions, and a name inextractably linked to such games as the Monkey Island 1&2, Grim Fandango, …and other games you can surely find yourself, but I feel guilty mentioning because I don’t own/haven’t played them.

Anyway, Host Master is super cute, if the puzzles are slightly contrived (you cut something to get something that you have to cut to get something else).  It’s terribly kitsch and self-aware, and was great fun.  Make sure you get all 22 jokes (not a spoiler, because if you don’t get them, they tell you that you only got x of 22 jokes), and start a new game, just for a little extra laugh 🙂

Ps, Thanks to Brendad for the link 🙂

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HOTEL DUSK – Room 215

I just looked over at my stack of DS games, and sitting on top is possibly my favourite: HOTEL DUSK – Room 215.

I’m trying to think back to why it was so enjoyable to play.  There were parts where the characters simply ranted at you, and you had this feeling of, “OH MY GOD, I DON’T CARE~!”  Which is annoying, right?

Well, somewhere along the way, they decided to make Kyle Hyde, the player-character, totally dispassionate towards other people, unless they happen to be able to help him.  He’s putting together a puzzle, and only listens and makes nice just in case someone happens to know something that could help him.

He’s the strong, silent type, who is far from having no character.  However, he’s pretty much as passive as the player is when it comes to people’s personal stories, and this comes through in his characterisation.  He wants to find out secrets, and he only listens to sob stories because he feel obliged to.  He’s far from uncaring, though, and pretty much everyone he meets seems to like him, and he likes them.

I’ve got to say, the characterisation of Rosa and Louis were awesome, too.  They were my favourites, but whoever the translators were for this game, they were top-notch.

I’d highly recommend this game for anyone who wants an adventure game with fairly logical puzzles and engaging characters.

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Dreamgate Escape

Dreamgate Escape is a super-short flash game, packed with huge amounts of tension and clever mini-twists.

Playing it, you enter a dream world, full of nightmarish intrigue.  You don’t know what will or won’t be significant.

This is a perfect example of a well-made demo:  it wouldn’t be hard to present this to a company and say, “So, it’s just like this… but the journey continues.”

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coil

I just played a little experimental flash game called, “coil.”

It has an interesting storyline, and I was, quite franky, saying, “wtf?” with each new level.  I went in there with absolutely no idea of what it was about, so I’m not going to say anything.  The only controls are mouse movement, so it’s fairly easy to play.  It can just be a little tricky figuring out what you need to do, and then trying to achieve that goal.

It’s a little dark in tone, but nothing depressing.  Pretty enjoyable, as it is intentionally twisted, and there’s nothing making the game “cheat” you or make you feel ripped off.  Enjoy 🙂

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SissyFight vs Left4Dead

I was thinking about SissyFight and Left 4 Dead.

One is set in a schoolyard, is free, and all players are totally anonymous.  It focuses on teaming up to take others down.  It’s not really suitable for kids, in my opinion.  But there’s nothing to stop 12 year old girls playing it.

The other has guns and blood, there are zombies attacking you, you have to pay to be able to log in, and you can look up information about players’ accounts.  It focuses on teaming up to keep everyone in the game, because you are likely to fail dismally if you don’t work together as a team.  Sure, you can be on the opposing team, but once again, you have to work with your team.

Which would you prefer your kids to play?  Violent, dark, teaches teamwork;  Clean, light, teaches bitching?

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SissyFight!

I just played SissyFight for the first time.  It was pretty funny.  I played with a friend, and we acted like couple bitches, and it was kinda fun to see how other people responded to it.

I haven’t really ever been the type to get into bitch fights, because generally the best defense is to just smile and walk away.  I guess bullying only works if you let it… This is a gross overexaggeration, but I’ve had plenty of bullying directed at me during my life, but somewhere along the line, I was told (probably by my Mother), that if you just smile and play with them, there’s really nothing they can do.

One of the (obviously more feisty) players decided to accuse my friend and I of being the same person, with two accounts.  Then we went into a game and locked them out.  Win.  Then we played a game with them, and after the game, the feisty one RAGEQUIT!!!

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They get you while you’re sleeping

I don’t play Left 4 Dead for a week or so, and what happens?  My subconscious decides that I obviously haven’t been killing enough zombies, so I should live out this desire to play L4D by making me dream about Zombies.

In my dream, some guy had a white Pit Bull that seemed very handy at killing zombies for a while.

Which reminds me:
Have you played The Outbreak?

It’s an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure style web film.

But I want to know… why does it always seem to be night time when zombies are around?

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Katharsis and the Deuteragonist

While I want to explore and delve deeper and deeper into Freud (dreams + play), I am constrained by what I can achieve in one year, with both an exegesis and a creative component (in my case, this will be a design document).

My main thrust is Katharsis (or Catharsis)-  this continues from my discussion of Othello/Iago.  If Othello is the Tragic Hero, and Iago the protagonist, it then follows that Iago must also “be audience,” to Othello’s tragedy, which obliges him to experience fhte same Katharis that the audience would.

This also prompts another thought: does the Player-Character (PC) always have to be the Hero or Title Character?

Postmodern narratives delight in the idea of exploring a familiar narrative from an unfamiliar perspective (no new stories, only new ways of telling them).  Othello could have been both the Tragic Hero and the protagonist, but it is more dramatically effective and interesting to feature Iago as the Protagonist.

When I mentioned this to a friend of mine doing his Honours in Theatre studies, he argued that Iago is the Antagonist, but I rebutted by saying that he must be the Protagonist, due to having the most active role, Othello getting in the way of his plans, and also being the character most featured in the role.

But, if Iago is neither the Protagonist (he is not the Hero) nor the Antagonist (he is not just trying to put blocks in Othello’s way, as he is trying to ruin Cassio more than Othello), then he must be in the support role: the Deuteragonist.  My friend mentioned how it is often the Deuteragonist that has the direct dialogue with the audience, by way of asides and soliloquies, and shares the same position as the audience in regards to Dramatic Irony.  The fits Iago’s role perfectly.

So why is the Player Character necessarily the Hero, Tragic or otherwise?

I have some theories “Why,” which refer to Joseph Campbell and Freud, but this is both too big for me to tackle this year, and also not as illustratable as I’d like, which prohibits me from producing an effective creative component to my Thesis.  So, instead, I want to turn this on its head and discuss the possiblity of having the PC as the Deuteragonist, and ask, “Why not?“

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Too Big for Honours

I’m frustrated, because there are all these things I want to look into, but they’re just too big for Honours.  This means, if I want to investigate them, I’ll start thinking about a DCA… and I haven’t even finished my Hons.  Gettig ahead of myself, much?

I want to write them here, but I’m nervous that people will take them and do their own research on them… which will be good for the industry, but not for me.  And I feel like being selfish 😉

But all you need to know is that Freud may be on my side…

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