Five smart, different, creative indie browser games
Posted: September 1, 2011 Filed under: game criticism, game review | Tags: adslife, browser games, indie games 2 CommentsWhile preparing the script for the next Gamamoto game I have been researching for interesting, creative browser games. I present here some results of the search, plus a shameless self promotion at the end. The games here listed are small production that IMHO have the conceptual (in story and design) depth that often AAA games lack.
1. 1899 Steam & Spirit
The game has an original and interesting plot and is filled with puzzles cleverly put together – moreover the steampunk design makes fills my heart of love and compassion.
Play here: Winston
What is quite amazing is the fact that this game is a pure HTML + JavaScript game, which means that you can happily play it pretty anywhere.
The authors: this is the author’s blog:
How to like it: The game’s first page has a link to PayPal for donations.
A mini site dedicated to MadMen games
Posted: August 30, 2011 Filed under: Adslife game, game review | Tags: browser games, don draper, madmen, madmen game Leave a comment
We’ve put online a mini site dedicated to MadMen games – if you find more, tell us and we’ll add them to the list!
Some tips for Adslife reviewers
Posted: August 2, 2011 Filed under: Adslife game, game review | Tags: adslife, adslife review, browser game Leave a comment
Being Adslife a browser game played in turns with pauses in between, it may take some time to complete a review. Here are some themes / ideas / features one may consider:
– The story evolves in time: just foolin’ around the office and the club for the first game day will not give you a complete picture of the possibilities.
Creating your ad “as Mad Men”?
Posted: July 14, 2011 Filed under: Adslife game, game review | Tags: don draper, don draper game, facebook app, mad men, mad men game, madmen Leave a comment
Just seen this cute Facebook app where you seem to be able to do something like creating an ad but you can’t actually do a thing but upload a photo in a fixed color contest.
From action transfers to stories on the iPhone
Posted: May 3, 2011 Filed under: game review | Tags: action transfers, fablescapes, game storytelling, kalkitos, trasferelli Leave a comment
Do you remember Action Transfers or Kalkitos (or “Trasferelli”)? With them you could compose a story . You had just one chance, and you could neither change your mind nor make mistakes – unless you had unlimited economic means. Now there is an iPhone application that comes to the rescue: with Fablescapes you can pick and drag your characters, on a fixed wide background, and stick them where you want, in your favorite size and position. Traditional Action Transfer ended there; Fablescapes manages to respect the spirit of that way of playing, while adding interactivity. Read the rest of this entry »
On Angry Birds’ pigs
Posted: April 4, 2011 Filed under: game criticism, game review | Tags: angry birds, angrybirds, game storytelling, hero journey 5 Comments
Angry Birds may seem a simple game that is substantially without a narrative structure. And why is it so addictive? The common explanation is that many of us are addicted by it because of the clever usage of “tap & drag” to sling birds, and the cute resulting effects. Its success is the result of luck, of getting the right effect at the right time – this is what I heard developers say, last time a few days ago at a lunch with a couple of iOS developers.
I think instead that the addictiveness of the game is rooted not just in the clever artillery physics, and is not a result of chance. I am unconvinced that it lacks a narrative logic, and here try to articulate myself. Read the rest of this entry »
Games we like: Dinner Date
Posted: March 15, 2011 Filed under: game review | Tags: dinner date, game storytelling, stout games 3 Comments
Julian is waiting for this girl, waiting, waiting, waiting. Mumbling, thinking, drinking wine. Julian is passive, uncertain, and waiting for his date to appear.
The so-so apartment, the uncertain dates with fellow girls / boys at the university: the generation of Europeans that has done Erasmus study exchanges will immediately project themselves in Julian Luxemburg. The basic loneliness, not being able to steer life in any direction.
But as a girl friend of mine remarked when I showed her the game, from a first look at his apartment it is clear that no girl will appear.
Dinner Date is a game where the player lives a segment of the emotional life of Julian; this life fragment is consistently and masterly depicted and transmitted in this game. Read the rest of this entry »
Gamamoto 
