If you like gaming and the Gashlycrumb Tinies, there's a lot to love here. Brentalfloss has done a full A-Z series of these in the style of Edward Gorey's fantastic series.

The full series is split into multiple posts. See them all below.

http://brentalflossthecomic.com/?id=143
http://brentalflossthecomic.com/?id=144
http://brentalflossthecomic.com/?id=145
http://brentalflossthecomic.com/?id=146
http://brentalflossthecomic.com/?id=147
http://brentalflossthecomic.com/?id=148

I sent Jon and Sean at Analgesic Productions some questions about their new game, Anodyne. Read on to find out about the development of Anodyne, their feelings on gaming, and why you shouldn't fight baby chocobos.

Sean and Jonathan, thanks for agreeing to talk with us! Anodyne is creating a lot of buzz lately in the indie gaming scene and people are really enjoying it. Have you been surprised at the response?

Jon: I have been really surprised. After working on it for so long, it was hard for me to get a sense of the project as a whole, fresh experience. I feel like we just sort of had to put it out there, believe in it, and hope for the best.

Sean: I guess I'm a little surprised things turned out how I was hoping they would - having a good number of people liking the game, and generally positive reviews! I'm very thankful for all of it.

Some have compared Anodyne to early Zelda games but it seems to have been influenced by far more than one franchise. Can you share your influences in creating this game?

Jon: Graphically, some people recognize elements of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Pokemon, and other Gameboy/SNES games. I didn't look at a lot of games specifically while making Anodyne, but certainly studying the graphics of many games has helped me figure out how to use pixels in general. A lot of the NPC dialogue was inspired by things that I had heard people say or thoughts that I had had that stuck with me.

Sean: World design was strongly influenced by Yume Nikki's way of juxtaposing varied areas in jarring manners. I wanted to go for that at first, but Jon helped me decide it would be better to attempt a coherent narrative instead. I wanted to give a sense of wonder and discovery in finding the new areas that wasn't totally incoherent once thought about for a bit (Though it may come off as jarring initially). Game design - obviously took a bit from Zelda and tried to see what I could do with a few mechanics. Music, well, a ton of game music and music in general really - little passive influences here and there.

It took me a long time to figure out the trick to the first boss fight. Then, I got lost and ended up backtracking. I was reminded of my early days of gaming, staying up until my eyes were burning too much to keep them open, trying to find that next item or location. How important was the focus on self-reliance and trial and error in the development process? Also, do you think modern games tend to hold your hand too much?

Jon: I think there is a lot of rich design philosophy that can be sifted from old games. You have to be really careful, because sometimes it's really hard--or maybe it's kind of impossible and everything just depends--but it can be pretty hard to separate the good from the bad. A general trend in some big budget games is to explain the story and game mechanics really clearly. In a way it seems like a common sense progression of good design. How would a player feel empowered or engaged if they don't know how the game works? But really, moments of figuring out or working around mysterious things can bring a great sense of wonder or fulfillment to a player.

Sean: I think if the player figures things out themselves (and you design in a way that eases that), without lots of guidance, they are better set to tackle the exploration of your game world! Thus you need to be a little bit axiomatic at how you introduce mechanics. I haven't played a lot of modern AAA games recently, to be honest. Skyward Sword might have been the most recent, I think one of the newer Ratchet and Clank's...both were pretty linear, so maybe hand-holdy in that sense, but that's okay with Ratchet and Clank (more action I think), with Zelda it wasn't really that exciting or adventurous... I haven't played enough to really say for sure!

There’s a particular puzzle that you’ve said is too hard, and that you’re going to fix it in a patch. Was this puzzle designed this way, or is its difficulty a bug?

Sean: It was designed (poorly) that way - the clues just were misleading and unhelpful. In the most recent patch it's been replaced with *good* clues by Jon which are much easier to reason out the solution with.

You recently ran a promotion on The Pirate Bay, allowing anyone to download the game for free, as a response to finding it had been submitted there. How has this promotion gone for you?

Very well :) I made a little write-up on it at http://seagaia.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/anodyne-pirate-bay-promo-post-mortem/ . In short, much more traffic, many more sales, many more people playing Anodyne, which is wonderful!

As an indie studio, how do you feel the indie gaming scene is affecting the industry as a whole?

Jon: It's kind of hard to say. While in some circles it sort of seems like indie games are the future and everything, even the income from the biggest indie games wouldn't support a huge game studio. There are just different measures of success, because indies are working in small groups, so they can have more niche audiences and still succeed. I hope big studios are excited by and interested in some of the design innovation found in some good indie games. I don't know, though.

Sean: Possibly through design innovation. I doubt indies will ever take over though, large game companies seem to be pretty well-off. It's pretty good now, companies of all sizes seem to be getting along fine, and I think I'm fine with it that way - there are games worth making that need large teams, if only large corporations were able to take more risks more often!

Would you ever kneel before Zod?

Jon: Nah, the Power Warrior Courageous will defeat Ultra Zod. I have no idea what I'm talking about, I just took that from Wikipedia.

Sean: If he gave me a bagel. Who is Zod?

The music in the game is perfect for the mood. What were your thoughts and influences when composing the music?

Sean: Other composers that were influential were - Joe Hisaishi, David Kanaga, Rich Vreeland (disasterpeace), Terence Lee (lifeformed), Yasunori Mitsuda, Satie, Chopin, Ravel, Liszt, Mussorgsky. As for other influences, sort of just life and remembering certain feelings from experiences - banal as walking up a staircase to some nice nature-y sort of thing. I usually wanted to evoke a mood for the area in order to help build up that area's aesthetic in conjunction with the art and gameplay for the area, and for doing that I would take that mood/feel and look to a sort of musical vocabulary I've built up with influences, from music and life, to try and convey that feeling.

On the bandcamp page you mention you used free soundfonts, I wonder if you could share what those were?

Sean: Yeah, I used: Earthbound, Ultimate Megadrive, "Vintage dream waves", some harp, and I think that was it.

What was the overall tone and feeling you were trying to convey with Anodyne?

A sense of unease and isolation, maybe even a little bit of anxiety, complementing Young's activities in the dream.. I think that tone helps in complementing the game's story and themes, as well as the darker areas, and forms a nice underlying tension in some of the calmer places.

What were each of you doing before starting Analgesic Productions? How did you get where you are today?

Jon: I was, and still am, an art major at Carleton College. For money, I was doing stuff like web design and poster design. For art, I'm interested in comics, books, animation, and games.

Sean: I had just finished up a crappy platformer, Inspiration Dave, and was studying computer science in schoool (still am). I made a handful of small, not very good games before that, and had writing a bit of music too.

When you aren’t writing games, what games are you currently playing?

Jon: I just played through To the Moon. I think it's a great example of why working low tech can actually have a meaningful purpose. People tend to see small sprites and pixels and assume that the only reasons they were used were to appeal to nostalgia or to save time. While these are often contributing factors, I believe that there can be effective and intentional use of these design elements. For instance, I am almost certain that I wouldn't have been nearly as impacted by a version of To the Moon with next-gen, movie-like graphics and full voice acting. When you limit the amount information conveyed to the player, they fill in the blanks with their imagination and experience. This is a fundamentally different experience then trying to transmit to them a fully-realized alternate reality.
I have logged a ridiculous number of hours on The Binding of Isaac, and still play that now and then. Also recently played Antichamber and Portals 1 and 2, all of which I appreciated and enjoyed.

Sean: Ah, I'm always trying to finish The Real Texas, but it's pretty tough! A lot of conversing and talking, but I want to see what mysteries it holds. I was playing Secret of Evermore but got a little tired a bit into the 3rd world - the fighting felt a bit clunky, and I got tired - just picked up Seiken Densetsu 3, we'll see how that goes! Another in-progress game is Phenomenon 32. I'd like to finish that at some point. I finally finished Braid the other day, and I did play through Antichamber once! Both ar great.

Would you rather fight one adult chocobo or 100 baby chocobos?

Jon: Definitely one adult. It would probably kick my ass, but at least I wouldn't have to hurt any baby chocobos!

Sean: Do I get more experience points fighting the 100? Depends on my gear. I guess you could like, fashion a weapon out of the bigger chocobo's bones, make a helmet with its skull, and maybe in general just get this really grim set of gear from it. The 100 babies would probably give me like 300 EXP max, plus nightmares. And then you could sell off the big chocobo's other parts for money. Killing the babies might give you bad press, you could spin the story when fighting the big one to say it was attacking you.

How do you feel the recent push toward cross-platform gaming, and new consoles like the SteamBox and Ouya will change how and where we play games in the future?

Jon: I haven't got any new (used) consoles since a PS2 in high school. Usually there are a couple console exclusives that I'm interested in, but not enough to want to invest the time, space, and money into getting a new machine. I'm not really sure what effect SteamBox and Ouya will have. I think I would be more excited about developing for a more open handheld console. I guess smart phones are a thing, but I still am pretty attached to the directness and physicality of buttons in terms of design and experience.

Sean: Hmm, the "where" doesn't interest me so much as the "how" - I'm open to the idea of an open console in that we won't have to deal with all of the shit with porting between platforms, and dealing with whatever wacky crap Microsoft/Apple decides to do with their OS's in the future. It'll take a while though, and the OUYA/etc. will have to keep growing, before the audience is large enough for that to be financially viable to develop for. But one uniform platform that is widely adopted would be ideal to develop for, but I don't think that will be a reality for quite a while - the computer is closest to that, though we have the different OS's.

What are your top five games of all time?

Jon: This is really tough. Here are some of my favorites. I don't think they're all necessarily the best in terms of objective qualities, but these are just some I really enjoyed and that stick with me: The Binding of Isaac, Final Fantasy IX, Megaman X4, Pokemon Red and Crystal, Link's Awakening.

Sean: Hard to say and rank. I really enjoyed: An Untitled Story, Fez, LoZ Oracles, Metroid Prime, Cave Story, some great worlds in those.

What’s next for Analgesic Productions?

Sean: Steeeaaamm???...heh, well, not sure. If Steam, then we will probably be financially well off enough to do another game together in the near future. In any case I'll be working on prototypes in the meantime and seeing what happens!

Jon: It's still uncertain! I hope getting Anodyne on Steam, but maybe that's not what you meant...

For the past few months, jdodson has been bringing you interviews with members of the community. Recently, I turned the tables on him!

Why did you decide to start Cheerful Ghost?

jdodson: I wanted to share all games I owned with my friends and I knew of no good way to do that. Secondly I wanted to read people’s thoughts on games they loved. I used to scroll through the Amazon reviews for games because I liked how people honestly gave them a fair shake. I tried reading other game sites, but felt the reviewers were overly cynical and jaded and I didn’t enjoy the community that fostered. So I decided I need to fix that and launched Cheerful Ghost 4 months later.

On a personal note I also wanted to prove I could build something people could love. I have had experience working as a Software Engineer working on projects that go well and some that don’t. At the time I was kind of wondering if I could release something really cool that people loved. I think I was able to do that and am really happy that I could prove it to myself and the awesome people that use the site.

What are some of your most memorable experiences on Cheerful Ghost?

jdodson: Having your interview with Ryan Gordon hit the front page of Slashdot and be picked up all over the web. It was epic.

On par with that is just making friends and talking with the community. The people are beyond awesome and its cool to talk about awesome stuff. Reading what people are into is really interesting to me. Its cool to come back to the site and have a ton of updates waiting for me, when I come back and see the chatter it gets pretty surreal.

For people curious about the tech, what’s running the site?

jdodson: The site is powered by the Ruby on Rails web framework. To get the site to work the same on Phones, Tablets and Desktops I designed the site to be simple and to make that happen I use the amazing Bootstrap HTML/CSS framework. To get the nice JavaScript fadey swirly components I use jQuery. I use a few other open source plugins to do various things on the site like select2 & more. My thought is to use as much Open Source code as possible to “stand on the shoulders of giants” to make the site epic. Its cool because with Open Source code you can “bootstrap” things to take you farther than you could writing everything from scratch on your own. Whereas, yeah I can re-invent the wheel and that may be uber leet in someway that doesn’t matter to me, no actual user cares about that as they just want an awesome thing to use.

You use Windows, Mac, and Linux on a regular basis. What do you think are the strengths of each?

jdodson: So I grew up on DOS so thats how I started thinking about computing, at a console. Later on as things progressed Windows 95 and 98SE were my jam. I delved heavily into Linux around University and the start of my career because I liked the culture and I could do things that would cost thousands with licensed software. To be able to setup a server or build a web app for nothing is a really interesting prospect to a poor University student or something starting a web app. Back then Open Source didn’t rule the roost for new businesses like it does now. But yeah now, the thought a startup would pay for software or server licenses to do its thing NOW seems kind of silly to me.

That said, plenty of game developers use toolkits that cost an arm and a leg and I understand why they do. If I were to make a game, and someday I may very well, I would roll with open tools and the ability to port your game to multiple platforms. I find the notion of having the thing you do, like a game or web software beholden to commercial licensing to be totally un-rad. It might not be hot to wrap your sweet game in GCC Objective C but no single commercial entity controls the destiny of that project or what you can do it with it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t harsh people for making the right choices by them or their project, but for me and my stuff? The open the system the better. But who knows, I might change my mind over time. Its just how I think about that stuff now.

Oh right I didn’t answer your question :D

Strengths of each:

Windows: Games.

Mac: It wraps Unix in a really bitchin’ UI. Like really, its an extremely elegant system over Unix.

Linux: This stuff powers the Internet and the rising majority of phones and devices. This may very well be one of the single pieces of tech that is the most exciting going forward, but not in a way that any actual user needs to care about. Like Gabe Newell says, Linux is the “get out of jail free card” for the industry. I use it for CG development and its where all my files live and consider it my primary desktop.

Gamestop is shutting down hundreds of stores; some say this console generation is stagnating; others are predicting a new video game crash. What do you think will rise from the ashes? Or, what do you think will save gaming and prevent this from happening?

jdodson: Gamestop needs to do what’s right for their customers, if closing a hundred or so stores is the right thing then fine by me. Things are going more digital, which is awesome but I wish it didn’t come with some stuff flying out the window. Like the used game market. I mean, I love Steam but I can’t resell a game on Steam or loan one out. And yeah, I totally do that with my console games and movies for that matter. I think thats a problem “they” should solve.

I don’t think there will be a video game crash and if there is indie studios will still survive. We do what we do because we love it, not because millions of dollars await us. I am not saying indies shouldn’t chase making a living, please do, I know I will but I really happy just existing in the video game space. If EA closes down because people don’t want to buy their stuff, well, so be it. But honestly, the game industry will survive. I mean, how can you stop people from building something people find value in? I don’t think you can. Being that I work as a Software Engineer i’ve seen my industry displace many, so a market changing over time doesn’t bother me too much. If there is a market, the game will get made and money will change hands.

I am more interested in new voices in gaming being heard and making a living that continuing the same old rinse+repeat triple A cycle. Its just, for me, I am more excited about the indie stuff coming out than the triple A games. Not trying to be all hipster here, its just genuinely more interesting to me. But I do get excited with triple A stuff, its just that with the start of the new year, most of my excitement is aimed at indies making cool games.

You’ve been skeptical of JJ Abrams taking over Star Wars, but they are also announcing multiple spin-off movies, telling the story of Boba Fett, Yoda, and others. This could go so badly.

jdodson: First of JJ is going to nail the new Star Wars movie because he is an amazing film maker. Now I have some reservations about him being tied to both Trek and Wars, but don’t get me wrong, he is a bad-ass film maker that will allow Han to “shoot first” as it were. But I want more perspectives on awesome stuff like Trek and Wars and wish another person could do Star Wars because I prefer variety. JJ, being fantastic, is only one take on how movies can be awesome. How bout Paul Thomas Anderson for Star Wars VII? That said, Disney is making the right choice from a business perspective, JJ is the man and he will produce something fantastic I have no doubt I will love. But I am happy JJ gets to do it because I know how much he loves Star Wars and as someone that loves Star Wars too, i’d love to be part of it in some way as well.

As far as the Yoda or Fett films I am open to the, and actually would like to see other angles on the Star Wars universe. I wouldn’t do much with any of the main characters like Yoda or Boba Fett personally but perhaps do something with... Porkins maybe :D

We recently started up a second Cheerful Ghost Terraria server. How awesome is that game, seriously?

jdodson: Its a superb game that is in a funky state with IP and development. I am optimistic that they will do well going forward, but even if the game we have now on PC is all we will get there its really quite incredible.

If you could add one feature to Cheerful Ghost, what would it be? (Get it, because you CAN!)

jdodson: Hah, yeah I guess I can. I am working pretty hard to bring people Cheerful Ghost site Memberships. I have some fun stuff to offer people and plan on adding more a bit after launch to sweeten things up. I plan on continually tossing in stuff to make Memberships much more awesome over time kind of like how Mojang keeps adding features to Minecraft. The reason why this is important is so the site can grow to get better over time.

After that I want to add a few other rad features that will really ratchet up the sites sweet-ability factor but i'll talk about that in the upcoming weeks.

Joss Whedon has completed writing the pilot for the S.H.I.E.L.D. tv show. Are you looking forward to more Marvel goodness, or do you think they’re overdoing it?

jdodson: I think they are serving a certain kind of Marvel audience with the show. That said, I don’t watch a lot of TV these days. From time to time I have been going through Star Trek: Deep Space 9 one show at a time. Finished up The Next Generation last year, which was really fun.

I want a modern Dinosaur’s TV show though. Seriously, live action people in Dinosaur costumes? More of that please. Absolutely no sarcasm injected here, I really do want that.

Diablo 3 has gotten a lot of deserved and undeserved criticism, but it seems Blizzard has done a lot to improve it. For you, is this too little too late, or will you dive back in?

jdodson: I will keep up on it from time to time but I don’t know if a game like that could hold me for as many hours as something like Terraria could. Killin’ stuff is awesome, and I sort of crushed on Diablo III for a few weeks but after that I wasn’t sure how to keep having fun. I’m glad I picked it up and the Collectors Edition is something I have on my self I really appreciate. Having fantastic art books I can look at is very cool to me.

Listened to the score start to finish again today for what its worth.

What’s the best music to write/code to?

jdodson: I can’t say as any is, I listen to music based on my mood. If its the morning I listen to Classical and drink tea. If I am pretty amped up, I listen to some heavy shit and have been known to do some epic drum fills like a lunatic between writing code and Software tests. If I want to listen to video game music i’ll do that too as it brings me a happy kind of spot other music often doesn’t. If I don’t know what I want to listen to, I click “dat shuffle button.”


What is your greatest gaming achievement?

jdodson: Cheerful Ghost from concept to launch in 4 months by myself while having a regular job ONLY working in the evenings and on weekends. Very proud of that fact.

As am I, it’s been nothing but spectacular. Do you have an achievement in a game that sticks out?

jdodson: :D Building my first house in Terraria? It was pretty fun and really reflected what I wanted to see. It was fun jumping off the side and repelling to the bottom with the ol’ Grappling Hook. Though something that comes back to me over time was an old play-though I had of Secret of Mana. My cousin and I had a competition of sorts to see who could grind their characters to the highest level. It was fun entering the Mana Fortress and seeing my characters get a little bit better over time. In the end he beat me, I never really had much follow through with that kind of thing.

What are your top five games of all time?

jdodson: Not really in any particular order. Links Awakening, Doom 3, Final Fantasy IV, Fallout 3 and Tetris. If those were the only games I could play for the rest of my life I could be content with that.

I have never played Chivalry, but the presence of low-gravity servers coupled with the reaction characters have to being up in the air makes me want to buy it. This is hilarious, and looks like some wacky multiplayer fun you wouldn't expect from a game about knights.

This time, all about the Songbird. I seriously cannot wait for this game.

Do you love game bundles? Sure, we all do. Three dropped today!

The Indie Royale Valentines Bundle 2.0
http://www.indieroyale.com/

• Serious Sam 3: BFE


• Shad'O


• Oozi: Earth Adventure


• Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time


• Lunnye Devitsy 2013


• Wake 2013

The IndieGala Colossus Bundle
http://www.indiegala.com/

• Subversion City Generator


• Voxel Destruction


• 7.62 MM


• Talisman Prologue


• Darwinia


• Multiwinia


• Defcon


• Uplink


• Hearts of Iron III


• Demigod

Bonus games will be unlocked as the bundle proceeds.

The Groupees Be Mine Anniversary Bundle.
http://groupees.com/bma

• Eschalon Book 2


• iBomber Defense Pacific


• Livalink


• Party of Sin


• Major Mayhem


• Men of War: Assault Squad


• Two Worlds 2


• Edna and Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes


• Planets under attack

And various other extras. Bonus games will be unlocked as the bundle goes on as well.

(Oh, and in case you're wondering, that's a *bundle* of kale. GEDDIT?!)

Sources at IGN report that this is the prototype for the new PS4 controller. It's just a prototype, so the design may change by launch.

What you're seeing is all the standard stuff from the PS3 controller, along with a built-in mic or speaker, a touchscreen like what the Vita has on the back, and what appears to be the glowing part of the PS Move controller.

Sony is having a press event next week, where we will probably hear a ton of details about the next Playstation. Stay tuned!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/14/is-this-playstation-4s-controller

If you have the bandwidth for a whopper of a file, 35 GB, you can download the tools id used to create RAGE and its expansion, The Scorchers. What kind of mods do you hope to see?

http://www.bethblog.com/2013/02/08/rage-tool-kit-available-today-on-steam/

Our favorite plumbers cross streams with the Ghostbusters in this incredibly-made fan film. I expected to be annoyed by this, truth be told, but was left grinning.

Come join the fun now!

The server is terraria.cheerfulghost.com

Join the CheerfulGhost Steam Group chat room to get the password, or IM one of us on Steam.

Want to join us and don't have the game yet? Win it here: http://cheerfulghost.com/panickedthumb/posts/956