Author: Michael

Some noteworthy IGF entries

I had a more thorough look at all the entries to the main competition of the Independent Games Festival. The diversity is impressive. I have tried to select some entries that I feel are worthy of attention and/or likely finalists in my opinion. I have done this based on the information available, which ranged from screenshots to playable demos. Entries that didn’t have more than one screenshot were ignored.
I also did not include games that were decidedly hobbyist projects or games that fit a very specific market (and will probably find it without the help of the IGF). Obviously, given the high number of entires, I may have failed to recognize some really good titles. I hope the jury picks them up for me.

As it turns out, the games I selected can be divided in three categories. I call them pinball games, simulators and games with content. The first are the most likely to be noticed by the IGF jury, in my opinion, and the last make the least chance. As it happens, my personal favourites are in the last category. I hope I’m being too pessimistic because there’s some very remarkable titles there.

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Endless Forest turns EVIL!

Halloween in The Endless Forest

For the occasion of the Velocity Festival of Digital Culture in Lancaster, The Endless Forest will be shrouded in mist during the month of October. Undead deer will be roaring, wolves howling and bats fluttering in preparation for All Hallow’s Eve and Day of the Dead.

You’ll need the latest Endless Forest client (3.1) to trick or treat.

You can be the very center of the mayhem, if you use the machine installed in the Furness & Midland Hall in Carnforth Station in Lancashire. Check here for information.
We’ve heard that opening hours may be “erratic for the first few days of the festival”. From Tuesday 16th to Saturday 3rd November the venue will be open to the public from 10am – 4pm Tuesday to Sunday.

Play Cultures starts today

Play Cultures

Tonight at 7 pm local time, the exhibition Play Cultures starts in the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in Novi Sad (Serbia). It runs until October 25th.

So that makes 4 shows that feature The Endless Forest at the moment? Now wonder it’s getting crowded. 😉

The exhibition “Play Cultures” is an international exhibition that presents contemporary artistic production that uses the language of digital games and shows one possible view of how the genre of digital games can be used in a creative and engaging way. The exhibition consists of standalone games, mods, video works, multiplayer games and interactive storytelling.

Artists:
AES + F (RU), Alon Tzarafi (IL), Afkar Media (SY), Fiambrera (ES), Gonzalo Frasca (UY), Jodi (BE, NL), Molleindustria (IT), Personal Cinema (GR), Persuasive Games (US), Robert Praxmarer (AT), Serious Games Interactive (DK), Tale of Tales (BE), Vladan Joler (RS), Vladimir Todorovic (RS, SG), Urtica (RS)

Organized by napon.org, Institute for Flexible Cultures and Technologies.

Phase Three of The Endless Forest is open!

After a few months of intense beta-testing with the players (read: messing around with strange bugs that make your deer do silly things), Phase Three of The Endless Forest has now been declared officially open!

The Endless Forest Phase Three: Fawn & Stag

Be a fawn in an entirely new area with birch trees and cycamores. Or collect blue tits and red breasts on your antlers and play hide and seek among a bunch of large boulders.

Download the new client now!

It’s free!

Phase Three was made with the latest version of Quest3D and contains all new animation blending and forest rendering, making the application faster, require less memory and the download even smaller than Phase Two.

Conflict and gender

Game developers and journalist often stress the importance of conflict as part of a story and (thus?) of a game. I have always questioned this claim. Mostly because they used it as an excuse for throwing more monsters and bigger guns at us. So I figure only men like conflict in their games.

But hearing the (predominantly female) players of The Endless Forest talk, has changed my mind somewhat. I think women like conflict in their entertainment just as much. Not conflict as such but also, just like men, because they get a kick out of resolving the conflict. It’s just that they tend to resolve conflicts in a different way.

I hope readers of this post don’t think I’m sexist for saying this. And please contradict me if I’m wrong. But from what I have seen, women tend to want to keep the peace, above all. They are quicker to apologize, consider other people’s arguments more deeply (or pretend to) and are generally happier when everybody gets along, sometimes even at the expense of their own status or pride.

I used to think that this type of behaviour meant that women (or men with similar tendencies) don’t like conflict in games. But seeing how much they enjoy the “peaceful resolution”, I have changed my mind about this. Perhaps they get as big a kick out of peacefully resolving a conflict as men get out of blasting the monster into oblivion.

Are there any games that cater to this desire?

Peaceful conflict resolution probably doesn’t lend itself well to spectacular visual effects (explosions etc) but it could perhaps introduce a new form of play. And open up a new audience.