Sunday Free Game - This is the Only Level

This is my favourite Flash game.

Play This is the Only Level

Gosh, I wish I'd come up with this idea. I'm so insanely jealous of designer/programmer jmtb02. What he/she lacks in a real name, he/she makes up for in brilliance.

I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't said what this game is, or why you should care, and I'm going to keep it that way. This is the Only Level looks like a platformer, and it plays like a platformer, but it's not a platformer, and that's all I'm saying. The more you know before you play, the less you'll enjoy it.

Without saying anything about the content of the game, however, I do want to draw attention to the structure. As you play, notice how little happens when you die. The feedback you receive is perfectly minimalistic, yet perfectly communicative, and you're immediately returned to the game. There's a place in games, of course, for more elaborate death sequences, whether drawn-out animations or Mario's simple shrug-to-the-camera-and-jingle, but sometimes the best solution is an uninterrupted return to play. Even compared to Super Meat Boy, the delay between death and rebirth in This is the Only Level is miniscule. If you make a mistake, your progress is impeded, but you're not punished.

You must learn from your mistakes and prove your knowledge to succeed, and you are not discouraged from making mistakes. This is the secret to good teaching.

This is the Only Level is essentially a tutorial. This is a game that teaches the player skills, but, more importantly, this is a game that teaches the player to think and act according to its own internal logic. Most games (like most teachers) think that education must be solemn and straightforward. They lecture and they test. They demand perfection, with no room for trial and/or error.

This is utter nonsense.

Play the game, and pay attention to what you're being taught, as well as how you're being taught. Then feel jealous that you didn't think to make a game like this first.

Saturday Supplemental - Back From the Dead!

 John Cleese on Creativity
This is not directly about video games, and it's maybe a few decades old, but it's about creativity, which is timeless and encompasses games. If you are involved with making games, please, please watch this. If you're not, watch it anyway, unless you hate listening to smart, funny people say smart, funny things.

Al Lowe on the leisure, the suit, and the Larry
I never get tired of hearing about the old days at Sierra. Plus, Al Lowe seems like a swell guy. This interview gets the Hot Lavy Seal of Approval.

Playing Saints Row and The Witcher on Facebook Works Surprisingly Well
The future is arriving even more quickly than I predicted.

The secret to a strong tutorial: Make it fun!
You don't actually need to read the article. I just like that ideas like this are so radical that they can make the front page of Gamasutra. Fun video games? Ha!

Star Command Demonstrates How Quickly Kickstarter Funding Can Disappear
You mean an easy solution to a difficult problem isn't as perfect and foolproof as people think?

Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
You mean Microsoft is arrogant?

It Came From the Molyjam: Peter Molyneux
I give Molyneux a hard time on this site, but, as a person, I like him. Most of the articles written about him these days seem to revolve around isolated quotes, which are easy to mock. This, however, is a lovely chat with the man, and for once he isn't trying to promote an overly ambitious game, and he isn't being monitored by Microsoft PR. Just a passionate, eccentric guy talking about his love of games. This is the Molyneux I like best, even if he's not as funny as Mr. "I hate buttons."

Wise fwom youw gwave!

AOL Keyword

Here's a dumb concept for an article, but the dumb ones are always so much fun to research.

Ancient Video Game Homepages

I got the idea to do this after my older sister sent me a link to the still-functional Space Jam Web site, which is every bit as amazing as you'd hope. I might continue with this topic tomorrow depending on how many old game pages I can find. It's really quite tough, but if the official Space Jam page from 1996 still exists, I know there are more treasures waiting to be discovered.

Sunday Free Game - Octodad

I first played IGF Student Showcase winner Octodad about a year ago, after Ryan Davis (of Giant Bomb) described it as a college student's first experience smoking pot turned into a video game. More recently, Jonathan Holmes (Destructoid) offered a fairly literal interpretation, positing that the game is about struggling through self-doubt, and coming to terms with one's identity as a spouse and parent.

Play Octodad

Octodad, on the surface, is about an octopus in a suit pretending to be a human dad, which should be reason enough for everybody to play it immediately, but it's the rich subtext that makes it memorable. A wacky concept alone does not a good game make, and Octodad is absolutely a good game.

By the by, there's a remake/sequel in the works. Freed from the constraints of student game development, Octodad: Dadliest Catch will be made with such wonders as time and a budget. It looks just as hilarious and weird as the original, and it's near the top of my most-anticipated games list. My only concern with the trailer is that Octodad's previously dead eyes seem more expressive now. It could signal a major shift in tone and theme.

But then I listen to the Octodad (Nobody Suspects a Thing) song again, and you know what? I'm down for whatever tone they want to throw at me.

Saturday Supplemental - Fun Pass

The Wind Waker Concept Art
I've played enough video games that I have to hesitate before calling any game the best anything, but... Wind Waker is the best-looking game ever made. Here's a huge collection of concept art, much of which is sketchy and unfinished because it's concept art and you don't need beautiful, gallery-quality paintings to explore concepts. Take some notes of the process, publishers and developers.

Cutscenes Aren't A Failure State
Thanks, Jim Sterling, for articulating my opinions in shout-y Internet videos!

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel passes away
The biggest news of the week. Thanks for everything, Jack!

Box vs. Box
A Tumblr page comparing Japanese boxart with the American equivalent with a new entry every day. I've seen a thousand one-off articles that make the same comparisons, but putting it in the format of daily entries is one of those beautifully obvious ideas that makes me crazy jealous that I didn't think of it.

Dev says lack of focus makes for bad games
Yep!

9-year-old's DIY cardboard arcade gets flashmobbed
Cute! Clever! This is an adorable story that ends with one of the lamest flashmobs I've ever seen, but the rest is nice. (Sent to me by my older sister. Thanks, Jaime!)


Super Mario Advance 4 - ALL Exclusive Features in World-e
I'd heard that the eReader-enhanced Game Boy Advance port of Mario 3 was the definitive version, but I had no idea it was this insane. Probably the coolest ROM-hack I've ever seen, and it's an official Nintendo release. Totally crazy.

Q&A: Mega Man Creator Wants Japan to Admit Failure
Nope, I'm still not tired of hearing Inafking complain about modern Japanese game development. I wish America had a high-profile counterpart.

OP-ED: Where Do Gamers Draw the Line Between Creator and Creation?
Smart and challenging writing that makes me uncomfortable and doesn't offer any easy answers. Yay!

100 Games Cupcake Game
On the opposite end of the spectrum, here are some cupcakes decorated to resemble 100 different games. This gallery is two years old, but it's new to me.

Videogames Can’t Afford to Cost This Much
I don't like GameStop, but any publisher or developer who uses used games as an excuse for their game's poor sales is just being lazy. Anyone who sacrifices quality and features in the name of combating used games sales should get out of the entertainment business right now.

Is this fun yet?

Work, Work

Friday's article should go up sometime Saturday. I just got back from work after a very long day, and I have to get up in four hours to go back, followed by a few hours at home, and then going back in the afternoon to close again.

Take My Control... Please!

Today's article is about Smash Bros., but it's really not about Smash Bros.

Control Texture in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I originally intended to write about several different instances of what I've dubbed "Control Texture," but it's exceedingly rare. One could make the argument that that driving games have textured controls - there's a curve to acceleration, the car handles differently on different surfaces - but this is control which is still perfectly predictable.

That's why I focused on one game for the article, but I have another example of the effectiveness of textured controls.. Outside of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the best use of random (but purposeful) control flaws is in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. As you encounter horrific monsters in Eternal Darkness, your character loses sanity, and eventually you experience fourth-wall-breaking "Sanity Effects." Bugs crawl across your TV screen, blood drips from the walls, and your character's head falls off and recites Shakespeare, to name a few of the many hallucinations. Afterwards, the game generally admits that it's messing with you. The screen flashes, and your character shouts, "This can't be happening!"

But sometimes it's more subtle. Sometimes your character will swing his or her weapon without input from the controller. You'll press left, and your character will drift right for a split second before obeying your command. I would argue that this fine texture - the barely perceptible randomness in the controls - goes further in toying with the player than any other effect in Eternal Darkness.

As the definition of video games expands, I want to see more of that.