Elf Blood

Morning all!

Thought I’d re-do my blog-post, as I really don’t like just leaving you guys with a ‘blarg, I’m tired, here, have a comic’ post. You deserve better than that!

Frankly, I’m amazed I managed to get most of the post options right when I scheduled this page last night. I’ve been really tired all this week, and I’m not sure why. Probably just need to get more rest, really!

Anyhoo, this week during whatever downtime I’ve been able to get I’ve mostly been playing games that don’t involve a huge amount of button-mashing, as much of this downtime comes while I’m having dinner. I’ve mostly been focussed on two ‘games’: First up, Analogue: A Hate Story, which is a visual novel that has a good old-fashioned oriental royal family intrigue at its heart, by indie writer Christine Love. It’s a pretty interesting concept. Rather than the usual VN route of your character interacting with a load of characters, it takes the form of you exploring the logs of a derelict spacecraft, delving into the mystery of what happened on the ship, and piecing together from fragments of journals and inter-personal communications a fuller picture of what happened. It’s very well-presented, with a minimalist interface that gives it a shiny Appleish aesthetic, and an interesting mix of GUI interaction vs. Command Line interaction that appeals to me as a computer nerd and one-time hacker wannabe.

The best bit about the game is the fact that much of the story is presented through logs; I’ve always loved these in the more open games, from email accounts in Deus Ex to the voice recordings in Bioshock. You can build up so much complexity in a story with chatlogs, diaries and letters/emails, and though it’s a challenge sometimes to keep track of each party’s relationship with the others, it becomes all the more rewarding when you build these characters up in your head indirectly. Really, the story is half what’s being told to you and half your own imagination. Anyways, I encourage you to go try it out, you can buy it off Steam which is where I got my copy. You can also pick up the soundtrack, which is definitely worthwhile. It’s soothing and quirky, with a couple of lovely beepy tracks. I’m absolutely convinced one uses the exact same voices as the NES did. Awesome.

The other game(s) I’ve been playing this week have basically been whatever I’ve got on my Sega Genesis/Mega Drive emulator (also on Steam). Is it just me, or could we get away with much more ridiculous plots and premises in the 90s? I think modern gaming and storytelling has lost some of that charm. Okay, I’m not going to stand up and defend the 90s ‘EXTREME!’ aesthetic but, y’know, it was actually kinda fun! Streets of Rage (And yes, Final Fight came earlier and I’m a fan of that too) has a format that I really wish would see revival. There’s something therapeutic about dishing out the pain to a screen full of enemies, and I’m pretty sure that every time I play it I learn a new move. And that’s just me playing as Blaze for the last fifteen years. The story’s there, sure, but you don’t REALLY need to know it. Enemies appear before you, and you must destroy them! It’s straightforward, and doesn’t get dull, especially as the difficulty begins to up itself in the later stages. Lordy, how it ups itself. I swear I was a much better player in 1995. I’ve also been playing Kid Chameleon, which is basically 90s videogames and the ‘RADICAL!’ aesthetic rolled into a single platformer. And you know what? IT’S AWESOME! We didn’t need fancy-schmancy graphics or an in-built socialisation engine. We just had fun.

Good God, I’m starting to sound like a crotchety old man. Well, while I’m at it, LISTEN UP YOUNG’NS! There’s been a trend recently to emulate the retro stylings of these classic games. And that’s fantastic! The older games could actually be surprisingly detailed for the technology that was available. However, all you devs and budding game creators, remember: You’ve gotta capture the simple,  straightforward fun of the era too. Go out there and make us something awesome!

M.

 

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Original blog post that came with the comic. I was literally falling asleep at my tablet at this stage.

Hello all,

A very VERY brief blog post to accompany today’s comic page, as I’m currently drooping away here and ready for bed. Seriously, I tried so many things to keep myself awake. Even tried eating  a whole red chilli to try and stay aler.

Note to all: This was a baaaaaad idea. I’m now more tired, and MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE!

Now, please excuse me while I find some milk to drown this heat.

Catch you all later!

M.