There is no reason, in 2018, not to make a video game. The kids and I made their mom a pretty awesome Christmas present that I haven’t taken the time to tell you about until now. It turns out that it’s a story that’s longer in the making than I realized. Some years back I made a bold claim, as I’m known to do from time to time. It was made on this blog, publicly, in an attempt to keep myself honest. 2012 is the year I make a video…
Look, I’ll level with you. I did not play the Wing Commander games when I was a kid. In the early 1990s, I certainly spent some time with the old Lucasarts flight sim Battlehawks 1942 (if you click through to watch, turn your speakers down), and later sunk some time into X-Wing and sunk many many many hours into TIE Fighter. Suffice to say, I have a lot of nostalgia for old-school flight and space sims, and it’s an itch that hasn’t been scratched for a long time. Enter Wings of…
I hit a link directing me to a new GTAV gameplay trailer earlier tonight and ended up on this imgur thread. Read the first few items on it. This is why Jack Thompsons and the like exist. When you see those kinds of comments — which are not infrequent in the gaming community, and anyone who says otherwise is either willfully ignorant or just happily so — it’s easy to understand why America would be so eager to tramp all over the First Amendment to restrict access to these kinds of games.…
What happens when Trevor subjects Natalie Joy to games she’s never played before? Gamer Fail of course! Have any suggestions of games Natalie Joy should play terribly? Throw them into the comments section below. Thanks for watching! Cheers! NJ P.S. Apologies for some weird audio sync issues. It gets better as the video plugs along, and I’ll fix it for the next installment of Gamer Fail. Think you can play Psychonauts better than me? (It’s not hard!) Find it here! http://amzn.to/116Sba6 Trevor’s site! http://spillway.ca/ You can find me on: Twitter…
It’s another Sunday, and that means it’s another edition of Sunday Reading! Folks, I had a Saturday off yesterday and it was about the best thing ever. I forgot what that feels like. I may be working more and harder than I ever have in the past but you know what? I HAVE SATURDAYS BACK. That’s okay. Saturday, in this week’s case, meant spending time with family, hunting stuff with which to pamper the impending puppy, and generally resting up. How’s your weekend been? While you ponder your own downtime,…
Well, folks, the Starfleet Corps of Tiny Engineers are fed and watered and are raring to go, but I should probably give you something to read with your second cup of coffee (or third, or fifth, if you’re anything like me) before the three of us vanish into the workshop for a couple of hours. Here are some fantastic, optimistic reads from around the web this week. It’s Time We Put the Bald Space Marine Away. It’s Time to Make Games for More People. – Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku I…
And that’s about the size of it. Paddle your own canoe, folks. -Trevor
Trigger warning, in advance, for discussions of and links to documentation of rape culture, threats of sexual violence, death threats There has been a fairly intense – debate? Argument? – happening on Twitter and across blogs for the last few days regarding sexism, misogyny, violence against women, online conduct, and gaming culture. Maybe you’ve seen it; Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist pop culture media critic, launched a Kickstarter to fund a series examining the depictions of women in games. Tropes v. Women in Video Games has already been fully funded, with…
I made a pretty bold promise in Throw It Against the Wall* a little while ago. That was that 2012 is the year I make a video game. I really thought I had it figured out. I wanted to finish and put to rest an idea that’s been kicking around since, probably, seventh grade. It’s evolved since then, but the core of it has always been the same. A story about relationships in wartime, about disparate definitions of right, about making tough choices and taking terrible, necessary action that you know…
Yes, this is a nerd thing. 100%. I came across this list of what games say about the people who play them. I find them unnervingly accurate. What do your favourite games say about you? Here are mine: Minecraft: You’re a very attentive lover. No comment. Starcraft: You like cooking, but not baking. Check out some Throw It Against the Wall for discussions about how much I don’t like baking. And how much it doesn’t like me. Portal: You’ve started a Twitter hashtag game. Several times. Sigh. Civilization: You get excited by the bulk…
So, late in 2010, I bought myself a SNES. It was the first console I’ve ever owned. I have seriously fond memories of playing NHL ’94 (at least, I think it was ’94–the one that brought in fights), GT Racing, Mortal Kombat etc. over at my buddy Paul‘s place down the street. Bikes would get piled out in front of the garage and the neighbourhood kids (our group, who I now refer to as “the Briargreen Old Boys”) would get piled up on the couch, swapping controllers between four or…
