Games

This is a quick update, as I’ll be traveling over the weekend and don’t have much time to write a longer post. In short, Animal Crossing has captured my mind. It’s a cleverly simple game that lets you focus on whatever grabs your attention. While my initial weeding endeavors have fizzled out, I’m very much invested in trying to obtain every fish and bug I can over time. Fashion and interior decoration don’t excite me overly much (I probably only have about 7 things in my house), but I’m playing the game to get to the point where I can have free reign over the island. ...

I mentioned in my previous post about creativity during quarantine that I was working on writing a new game. I’ve been interested in trying to write something that moved away from text adventures and went into open-world RPGs. I’ve been inspired both by the Republic Commandos game run by Mikhail on an episode of OHAC (and in-person during college), as well as the Campaign Podcast he recently got me into. ...

I played my new text adventure, Coffee and Donuts, with Jack and Mikhail the other week. It didn’t end up going that well, but the process of having something end a bit poorly was a positive learning experience. There’s a lot to consider when trying to pace a game, create puzzles that are satisfying at the target level, and creating situations that are easy to engage with. I think I had some very good thoughts on this one (I’m particularly proud of the map I created), but the execution of pacing and some puzzles left a lot to be desired. ...

In the most recent episode of OHAC, we played my newest text adventure Homestead, which broadly is about outdoor survival. We had a good time playing it, and it took twice as long as my previous adventure, Sail Away. I also learned a lot from doing it the first time to create a more reasonable set-up, and organize my document in a more logical way (at least to myself). I’ll upload the blank PDF here (and can provide the LaTeX source file upon request); the completed version after finishing the game is also attached to the show notes of the OHAC episode. ...