Show & Tell

Game trailer:

Game overview:

“This War of Mine” revolves around a group of survivors trying to live out an unnamed conflict by savaging for items, finding survival aids, feeding on rats and vegetable gardens and trading with other survivors. Much of the game depends on the choices you make throughout the game as each decision not only affects the story but also affects the players in the story. You are not only trying to not starve, but also trying to survive mentally. Each decision impacts the ethical and moral mental state of the survivors.

War Isn’t All That Glamorous:

Many of the popular games today glorify war. First person shooters such as the “Call of Duty” franchise has been so popular that they have come out with copious amounts of sequels. The common story line is that terrorists invade and you are called upon to gun them down. War is glorified, which is why so many people today seem so indifferent when there is an ongoing war on the news. However, no one every talks about the civilians who are effected by the war. Just like the game “12th September”, “This War of Mine” puts players in the shoes of civilians who are stuck in a war zone with no where to run. The characters in the game are civilians and not soldiers you play as on “Call of Duty”. The lives, and mental state of civilians need to be considered before every decision. “This War of Mine” is a social commentary of the ugly side of war. Bombs and bullets do not just kill the intended target. Collateral damage is what creates broken families and war torn cities.

Screenshot

Overview

The player follows a cat wearing a hijab as she boards the subway on her daily commute. The game is a simple “point-and-click”. In the game, other characters will interact with you and you decide how to respond to them. Topics that are explored include diversity, inclusiveness, tolerance, racism, bigotry, sexism, Islamophobia, and homophobia.

Website

https://andyman404.itch.io/the-cat-in-the-hijab

Trailer

Discussion

In chapter 3, “Radical Political”, Schrank talks about how avant-garde can be used as a political tool to point out what is usually hidden like racism. He notes, “the avant-garde … attacks the cultural pillars of reality. To face these pillars is to face the very limits of language.” Essentially, visuals can be seen as a form of language . Avant-garde art is seen as nontraditional and unorthodox. With The Cat In The Hijab,  the artist uses a world of cats to portray issues people face today. Moreover, the gestures done by other characters in the game along with their dialogue clearly reveals the hidden undertones of the game.  It is the perfect blend of reality and fantasy.

Link: http://www.newsgaming.com/games/madrid/

MADRID is a Newsgame made by the same group of people who made September 12th. It was created shortly after the Madrid Train Bombings in 2004, in which 192 people were killed and around 2,000 people were injured. The game was made to commemorate the deceased in this tragedy.

The game mechanic is simple: The player can click on each candle to make them glow brighter, and the assumed goal is to make all the candles glow bright at the same time to pass the process bar in the bottom left corner. However, this is physically impossible to accomplish because the candles go out way too quickly. If the process bar reaches zero, you lose the game and the screen says “You have to keep trying.”

The message of the game is that you can’t keep the memory of the terrorist attacks alive forever. People WILL forget.

Subsurface Circular is a text-based adventure game lead by designer Mike Bithell of Thomas Was Alone fame. The game follows the story of a robotic detective taking the subway in a city filled with millions of these robots, or “Teks” that serve different jobs for human masters. The main Tek learns that other Teks are going missing, possibly being kidnapped, or worse. Theta, the main Tek, decides to investigate these disappearances, but all while on the subsurface circular (the titular subway system). The player uses dialogue choices and special detective abilities for Theta’s specific android model in order to link together clues gathered from different sources and to solve puzzles. The game’s story also deals with issues and topics of agency, control, truth, and justice, and does all of this using only text-based gameplay with no visible human characters.

Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+

The Binding of Isaac is a  is an indie roguelike video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl and was released for Windows in 2011, but was then ported to other software and consoles, such as OS X, Linux, and the Nintendo Switch. The fanbase for this game is quite big, especially with a steady release of new DLC content. The Switch version comes with all the latest DLC content, including Afterbirth+. This game has procedurally generated levels, so you will never play the same map twice, and the item drops are random as well.

Often the items combine is creative ways, giving new and inventive power-ups and causing some pretty wacky combinations. Plus, these items often deform Isaac, and it is rather weird how he changed due to the items. The more you play the game, the more items are unlocked, and the story itself take a long time to unravel, but it is a rather dark story, especially when you realize Isaac’s weapon starts off as his own tears.

After you beat certain bosses a few times, you can progress past them, unlock new bosses and items, and even unlock new characters that each have their own abilities. Beating the game with these new characters unlocks even more content. The game is endless and packed to the brim with content. And if you ever, SOMEHOW, get bored of it, the PC version is able to install mods which adds new items or even new characters into the game.

Gameplay Clip:

1:15

11:44

https://levelskip.com/action-adventure/Dont-Starve-walkthrough-Introduction

Cuphead Show and Tell

Official Trailer:

Short Description:

Little Inferno is a puzzle video game developed by the indie developer Tomorrow Corporation in 2012, and it can be played on multiple different platforms, including Wii, PC, mobile, and Switch. In the game, the player assumes the role of a kid who is able to order and burn items endlessly by using their Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace by Tomorrow Corporation (essentially a game within a game). Different items react differently as they are burned, and the player can unlock combos by burning specific items at the same time. There is no scoring system or time limit at all. The player also receives letters along with packages occasionally, which is how the player learns about the freezing world outside. However, the player is also encouraged to burn every letter as soon as they finish reading. There is essentially a loop of ordering and burning items as the player unlocks new catalogs and explores more burnable items in the game.

***Spoiler Alert***

Despite the simple mechanic, Little Inferno has a powerful narrative and ending, which is the reason I chose it. As the player unlocks new items, they would get new letters that advance the narrative. At the end of the game, the player is eventually able to escape the endless loop and explore the world outside, which turns the whole game from a puzzle game to an adventure game. The message of the game is about not burning away time meaninglessly in your life, and I think the developers did a great job conveying it.

Screenshots:

Despite veering slightly off the technical definition of an indie game, throughout Minecraft’s rise to fame it very much represented the truest form of the independent genre, its focus on content, and its content geared towards player value. Minecraft offers players a limitless sandbox in which myriad materials, structures, and NPCs generate endless  possibilities.

First and foremost, I did not enjoy playing this game. In fact, I would go as far as to say I genuinely hated it. I despised the tedious necessity for harvesting resources, and could not find any motivation to learn the seemingly infinite crafting combinations. I never found a purpose, and the few hours I did spend wandering aimlessly after my friends were quite unmemorable. But it must be said; Minecraft is an amazing game.

I felt almost overwhelmed by all the options; specifically, there was too much I needed to do. I needed resources to build; I needed a crafting table; I needed a home or shelter; I needed to be able to defend myself; I needed to feel safe exploring the landscape; I needed to contribute to the server. Minecraft‘s seemingly infinite direction can be quite misleading; it is not meant to overwhelm, but rather to empower. Players are given all the tools necessary to enforce one’s imagination on the game.

It is a little ironic that the most valuable aspect of the game had such a deterrent effect on my enjoyment of it, but a part of me wishes I had invested more time into exploring the concept of possibility. The videos below, tagged Presentation Material, demonstrate the multitude of activities in which the Minecraft community indulges. From befriending ducks to harvesting blue pickles, from killing other players to building enormous structures, there are so many options.

The second video demonstrates the intrinsic value of a simple game mechanic, manifest in the form of a “Block Save Montage,” almost three and a half minutes of a player falling to death, only to be saved by the last minute placement of a block of dirt. With so much satisfaction engendered from such simplicity, I can’t help but wonder why I couldn’t find my own value in the game.

I attribute my lack of enjoyment to an innate stubbornness, developed over the course of my time playing competitive levels of League of Legends and Rocket League. I have decided that playing a video game is much like reading an english class book; given identical schemas, the value we find is entirely dependent on what we notice. In Minecraft, focused on a purpose and begging for direction, I failed to notice all the wondrous opportunity.

I still refuse to play Minecraft, but I cannot help but appreciate all the related material that pops up on YouTube, Facebook, or Reddit. I’ve found myself vicariously enjoying the massive player built structures that appear overnight in community servers, empathizing with the streamer that throws her diamond ore into the lava, and even despair as your new pet duck falls to its unfortunate demise.

Minecraft is a free game, designed for the sake of its players, and represents the best of what indie games can be. This game has developed from an ambiguous, open-ended sandbox into a vast community of servers and mods. The culmination of player imagination is manifest in the intense variety of server environments, interface quality-of-life mods, and repurposed servers for PVP and other specific communities. The limitless concept that drives Minecraft has even been purposed towards education, teaching students to delegate resources, practical maths, and spatial awareness. Although I will never play this game, I implore you to explore its potential, and appreciate its value.

Presentation Material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn8H5CfGqq4

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/22/minecraft-education-edition-why-its-important-for-every-fan-of-the-game