The premise for Cookie Clicker is fairly simple. Click the cookie to get cookies. Save cookies to buy things that help you get more cookies. Buy powerups with Cookies to get more Cookies. Rinse repeat till you have zillions of Cookies.

The game is very simple, yet terribly addicting. The game stores its state in your browser and keeping it open for longer nets you more cookies. I've shared my progress above, how are you doing with your Cookie empire? Or are you going to skip this entirely?

pro tip: Keep a look out for the golden cookie, if you click it awesome things happen.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/

Our friends over at Night Dive Studios recently released the classic adventure game, "I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" on GOG.com. Based on Harlan Ellison's book, this game takes the players through a dystopian world where a rouge AI kills all but 5 people. Over the course of the game you have to make choices that prove humanity's superiority to computers. It's a really compelling game that weaves in lots of social elements to make this very interesting classic game.

http://www.gog.com/game/i_have_no_mouth_and_i_must_scream

Death Road to Canada was one of those games I was very impressed with at PAX 2013. It has 21 days to for its Kickstarter and it is doing quite well. I want to give the game more exposure on the site because this game needs to be made.

I want to thank Kepa Auwae and Rocketcat Games for doing the interview and I wish them to a speedy game launch and Kickstarter funding!

jdodson: For me, Death Road To Canada was one of the most compelling games at PAX. How did your experience at PAX 2013 go and how do you think people responded to the game? Did Tarn and Zach bring the star-power the booth needed?

Kepa Auwae: Thanks, glad you liked it! PAX 2013 did really well. Got to meet a lot of people and other developers, and people seemed to respond well to the game due to the promises of teaching dogs how to drive cars. Tarn and Zach were a huge help, especially since my voice gave out halfway through.

jdodson: Where did the inspiration for Death Road to Canada come from?

Kepa Auwae: Initially it was going to be similar to Sarah Northway's "Rebuild", so that was the initial spark. But then we decided to make it more of a road trip, like Oregon trail but with way more focus on the Choose Your Own Adventure stuff and with new action-adventure city exploration. Wasteland Kings was also an inspiration for the animations, and then there's stuff like River City Ransom and Walking Dead and older zombie movies where you have the group conflicts.

jdodson: Rocketcat Games is made up of 3 guys that all live in different states. How did you guys meet and at what point did you decide you needed to start making games?

Kepa Auwae: We met through an old MMO called Asheron's Call. Long after we stopped playing that game, we still hung out in a chat channel we made for it. I just kind of arbitrarily decided to make games one night, probably due to working swing shifts. I convinced the others and we just went for it. Some time later I learned of Paul Pridham through his work, and we made Punch Quest together.

jdodson: Death Road to Canada boasts that some sections will feature 200 Zombies on screen all trying for your brains. I am curious if the game will require you to kill them before you progress or if avoiding them can be a viable strategy as well?

Kepa Auwae: Avoidance is usually a better strategy than killing them. Killing them can waste time and make noise, attracting more zombies. You really want to dash through the city, fighting when you must, as you grab whatever loot you can. When you get to 200 zombies onscreen you're probably not going to survive, so it's best to get out before that happens.

jdodson: In the Kickstarter video you mention you guys wanted to add more in game content. I am curious what you have planned here?

Kepa Auwae: We want lots of different Choose Your Own Adventure events. We also want to do more survivor personality types, more Unique Survivors, and some rare locations. We'd also like to do rare easter eggs you can find in the cities while exploring. Mostly we want to make it so you can play the game many times over, and still find weird little surprises.

jdodson: One feature of Death Road to Canada is the ability to randomly acquire characters for your party. Wondering if these characters will have set abilities or if they will be randomized somewhat? Also, how will the Mounty, Panda Bear or Elvis play compared to each other?

Kepa Auwae: Many party members are randomized. Random faces, bodies, accessories, names, traits, and personalities mixed and matched to make a person. Then there are rarer Unique Survivors, that have set attributes and names and apperances. These include Mounty, Panda Bear, and Elvis. The Uniques have their own CYOA events and story events, while normal survivors have their events determined by their personality.

jdodson: How did the Zombie-pocalypse come about in the story for Death Road To Canada?

Kepa Auwae: The old classic explanation: no one knows. All the undead simply rose up from the ground, in massive numbers.

jdodson: Any chance Santa Claus may show up as an in game event and fly you to the North Pole? I imagine part of the charm could be a mini game where you make toys for the worlds remaining children. Since the world has been savaged by Zombies I don’t imagine you would have to make many toys.

Kepa Auwae: No minigames, making toys for children would be handled through a complex sequence of decision making through Choose Your Own Adventure events.

jdodson: For you guys, what games are you playing right now? Anything you have enjoyed recently that you recommend people check out?

Kepa Auwae: I haven't really played anything recently but Dark Souls. Check out Dark Souls if you haven't already. Oh and 868-Hack on iOS came out recently, that's a really good strategy game.

jdodson: What is the worst Zombie movie you’ve seen? I don’t mean campy awesome, I mean terrible.

Kepa Auwae: There was a later Romero movie where the zombies were slaves and the lead zombie was wearing a mechanic jumpsuit and leading a zombie gang and they were all slowly learning how to use weapons. That was pretty bad.

jdodson: Death Road to Canada looks like a game that would really work well with controllers, any thought to adding support for them in the PC version?

Kepa Auwae: Yeah, we plan to have controller support. Xbox controller support seems really common now.

jdodson: I have one suggestion for a random character for Death Road To Canada. Canadian born William Shatner. It might make sense to have him in a faux Star Fleet uniform so people could recognize him.

Kepa Auwae: I don't know if we could afford William Shatner. We'd probably need a bigger Kickstarter.

jdodson: When do you anticipate we might see the Kickstarter Beta for Death Road and the final game launch?

Kepa Auwae: We're shooting for the end of Fall for the final game launch, and a late beta of about a month or so before launch. Maybe a little longer beta if there are problems.

http://www.rocketcat-games.com/

"The idea of watching a stranger play a video game for hours seems counterintuitive to many. But they are actually quite popular. HUGELY POPULAR, in fact. Let's Play Video creator Pewdiepie currently holds the record for most subscribers, with over 12 MILLION!!! Considering that people could just play the games themselves, what's behind the immense popularity of Let's Play Videos? Is it about learning game strategies? Entertainment? Community? Mind Control?! Watch the episode and find out!"

New episode of Game/Show drops and talks about the Let's Play epidemic and why it's so big. I they were big, but I didn't know they were that big. Game/Show really digs in on the topic and as with the first episode, this one is great.

One really cool element of Game/Show episode 2 is that for the last half of the video, Jamin Warren responds to some of the YouTube comments. I love this addition to the show and his comments are really poignant and respectful. Kind of love how PBS is elevating the game discussion with Game/Show and doing something new as well.

A recent Stardew Valley development video has dropped and shows off the new fishing mechanics. With each update the UI, graphics and mechanics seems to really improve drastically and in this video it really shows.

They say the game will launch in 2013 and when a more formal date is announced, you will be the first to know.

http://stardewvalley.net/dev-update-10/

SimCity 4 was released 2003 and I picked it up a few years ago in a discount bin with every expansion and a few other Sim games tossed in. How could you go wrong? Possibly no DRM(its on the discount bin), all the expansions AND it's a SimCity game. I mean, even if it sucks a bit it won't suck that much because again, SimCity. Well... about that. SimCity 4 wasn't fun. It had the epic scale I wanted as you could build huge cities and spend time managing things, but it just wasn't fun.

my history with sim games

Some of the most magical moments of gaming have been related to Sim games. Making a planet and populating with creatures that evolved in SimEarth was incredible. I sunk a jillion hours making all kinds of awesome cities in SimCity for Super Nintendo. I also spent way too much time in Junior High invading the house in SimAnt. And when my wife decided to surprise me with Roller Coaster Tycoon I was sucked in to building epic and profitable theme parks.

Yeah, I love Sim games. But it has been hard getting on board with new Sim games. They either are not very fun or delve into territory I don't want to hang out in. The new Simcity game looks interesting enough but I am certain I don't want to pay to frustrate myself with EA's DRM. Couple that with the fact that most people i've talked to that have played it don't like it very much. But I love Sim games and want to play something new.

Well, as luck would have it there is a totally awesome new sim game out called Prison Architect. How awesome? Well, so awesome I sunk something like 10 hours into playing it this Sunday. I know for many gamers that's a drop in the bucket, but let's put that into perspective. The last time I spent 10 hours playing a game was Fallout 3 back in 2009. Playing Terraria got me close that number, but it was a bunch of smaller chunks of time. No, no, Prison Architect is apparently my new thing. And I don't mind saying that because the game is totally bad-ass.

prison architect has something to say

I play lots of games and most of them keep it pretty "light" in terms of getting you to consider that your choices have any real consequence or make you think about the world around you.

Prison Architect is a bit different. It takes a topic, like managing a prison and makes you think about the real world implications of your actions. From the outset of the Introduction the story is compelling. A teacher admitted to and was convicted of a double homicide and is awaiting the death penalty. You must build an electric chair and upgrade the prison to handle the execution. During the events the Prison CEO tells you to not worry about what you are doing in that "society has judged him, we are just doing our jobs." As I completed the tasks and got everything ready I was facing a scenario I never considered. A scenario where doing your job means someones death in a situation I don't agree with. During the introduction a Priest mentioned that if the Teacher was convicted of the crime in another district he wouldn't be on death row because of different laws governing the crime. I won't spoil the entire game introduction, but it's compelling, raw and edgy. It takes games as a medium for discussion and turns the dial up to 11. And that's just in the introduction.

Introversion Software says they are going to make more of the introduction when the game is more complete and I can't wait for them get to that.

a mesmerizing mix of fun and serious business

You need to build a holding area for your prisoners to stay while you build them their individual prison cells. If you don't have an area for the prisoners to shower they will be upset because they smell bad. Ensure you build your Kitchen next to the loading area so your cooks can ferry food quickly back and forth and also make sure the Canteen is next to the Kitchen so the Cooks can get the food delivered quickly. If the prison is dirty, the prisoners will be upset they are wallowing in filth. Make sure you have a Laundry room because they won't love wearing the same clothes every day for a year.

Oh right and did you build enough stuff for them to do with their free time? If you don't they might riot, dig an escape tunnel or start a fight. But they will do that anyway even if they are happy, so stay vigilant! Prison Architect is built on some really great concepts that work together to make the Prison seem alive. It also helps that each prisoner, guard, cook, visitor, janitor, warden and builder is on screen and has some really interesting AI governing their actions.

how will your prisoners spend their day?

Like SimAnt, it's a ton of fun just watching the prison work day to day. It also helps that you can control the prisoners day too. Currently my prisoners "Regime" is as follows:

my prisoners regime:

• 10PM - 5AM: sleep


• 6AM - 7AM: shower


• 8AM: free time


• 9AM - 12PM: work


• 1PM - 2PM: eat


• 3PM - 6PM: work


• 7PM: free time


• 8PM - 9PM: eat


• rinse, repeat

So far, this seems to be a pretty good routine. Since they are working in the Kitchen, Laundry & Janitorial I can save on wages. I make a few extra bucks in the Workshop when they make license plates plus the prisoners not working get free time. This seems to work pretty well and since the prison is squeaky clean and everyone gets freshly laundered clothes, they seem much happier.

My first prison was a right wing hell hole in that I had no idea because I had no idea how to play the game or keep them happy so I gave them little and handed down very harsh punishments. I responded by putting the prisoners in solitary confinement for each infraction, which was way more heavy handed that I wanted to be but caused them to be morally disillusioned and they that caused them to stop rioting for a time. In the end this was a really bad strategy as if in Prison Architect you ignore the majority of the prisoners needs they will be very upset and riot often.

Since then, I have been playing the game as a sandbox, giving myself ample amounts of cash, to understand the game better and come up with a solid build to making a sustainable prison. But also one that sort of reflects how I would run one if given the real world opportunity. I have a solid block of work time, but keep things clean and make sure they have enough space to roam free, workout, call and visit their family, stay clean and get enough food.

fin

If you are looking for a great Sim game that takes the genre and goes beyond to create something special, Prison Architect is that game. Can't wait to dive back in and learn more about the game. Prison Architect also has a pretty involved community on Steam Workshop of awesomely built prisons you can upload and tear apart.

But at the end of the day, Prison Architect is just a hell of a lot of fun.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/233450/

YouTuber Resonance recently compared the NES with the Famicom side by side and the difference in terms of audio is seriously compelling. Like him, I had no idea the Famicom shipped with superior audio quality. He compares Castlevania, Zelda & Metroid. The NES sounds a bit more muted and does less with the score. I would say each song sounds better on the Famicom to my ears but the changes in the original Zelda are very interesting and something I am not used to hearing.

If you want to skip the side by side scrub ahead to 1.15m.

Capcom dropped its Street Fighter 25th Anniversary documentary on YouTube. Previously it was available only to the purchasers of the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary collectors edition. The documentary covers the franchises history as well as some of its more rabid fans and collectors. The doc also highlights the different versions of the game, which is pretty incredible as there are now, so many.

Check it out and toss your thoughts in the comments!

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighter-Anniversary-Collectors-Playstation-3/dp/B0085O6XF4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter

One game at PAX that drew some large crowds was Crypt of the NecroDancer. They had the game setup on a large monitor with a Dance Dance Revolution pad and people lined up to dance in this unique dungeon crawler.

The beat drops later this year as a Steam Early Access for PC and MAC and features the music by the amazing Danny Baranowsky(Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac, Canabalt).

If you are looking for a bit more of an explanation of how the game works, Northern Lion posted an early alpha build demonstration that shows it off well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dikSjbCRrPA

In the PC community Garry's Mod is a well known sandbox game built off the Half-life 2 engine that allows you to do... mostly anything you can think of. The game is still very popular and much awesome strangeness encircles its community. Facepunch Studios, the company behind Garry's Mod has a new game in development called Rust, an open world survival game. Interested in this I hit up Garry Newman to talk to him a bit about Garry's Mod and Rust.

I want to thank him and @Travis for taking part in the interview and I wish Facepunch Godspeed to Rust 1.0!

jdodson: Garry’s Mod was released in 2004 and came to Steam in 2006. Most people don’t work on a project for 9 years, what kept you going as long as you have?

Garry Newman: Well, the popularity of it! I don't think I'd have worked on it any longer than a month if it wasn't as popular as it was. I'd be deeply ashamed of myself if I'd given up working on it considering the amount of people that play it. They pay my wages - I should do something for that.

jdodson: Many people have made Mods inside of Garry’s Mod. Do you ever plan on running Garry’s Mod on top of Rust? If you did them people could run a mod on that which would instantly cause MOD-CEPTION! But, its possible you could go deeper too...

Garry Newman: It's not something we've put much thought into. I guess our plans for Rust are that open ended that all the 'modding' is going to be done in game.

Travis: All the different Source games and the Steamworks addons players have made give us almost endless possibilities with Garry’s Mod. Is there anything big you’re planning for the future besides bug fixes and compatibility with future Source games?

Garry Newman: I have a few things I want to do with Garry's Mod. Gamemodes have been good for us. A lot of people play Garry's Mod and never even touch the singleplayer - they go straight to TTT or prop hunt. So we'd like to find a way to reward the people creating those gamemodes. Financially.

jdodson: What’s the strangest thing you have seen someone do with Garry’s Mod?

Garry Newman: Oh man. That's like asking me the strangest thing I've ever seen on the internet. There's that much stuff out there that it's impossible for me to choose.

jdodson: Are you working primarily on Rust or Garry’s Mod these days?

Garry Newman: I'm flicking between projects. We have a lot of plates spinning right now at Facepunch. The last month or so I've been hitting Rust pretty hard. But I think now it's where we want it to be, I can start to lean off it a bit and let the other guys plough it forward.

jdodson: I know you may have answered this question a million times... but do you call it “my mod?”

Garry Newman: Haha! I call it Garry's Mod. or GMod.

jdodson: Rust is an open world survival game that features crafting and building. From what I have seen of it, it looks really cool. Will Rust be a procedurally generated world or a more narrative driven game?

Garry Newman: The worlds aren't procedurally generated. They're more iterative. They evolve as the players build houses, srongholds, towns.. and destroy them. We're planning to have farming and stuff - which will change the landscape hugely.

jdodson: Do you have any rough idea for when Rust will be released? 2014 or beyond?

Garry Newman: We don't have any aims or any plans beyond a couple of months. We don't know where the game is going or what it will become. We're discovering the gameplay as we release updates, seeing how it plays, then making decisions from that point.

Travis: You’re now selling alpha keys for Rust via a “Dutch Auction” model. This is an interesting alternative to something like Kickstarter for early backers, which in a way makes buying the game a game itself. What was the inspiration for this model, and do you have anything else like this planned?

Garry Newman: We wanted to let a limited amount of people in. If we'd have done it using the old model the keys would be gone in 10 seconds. So we had a think and this way everyone has a chance to buy - their limitation is how much it's worth. It also means we don't have to put a price on the keys - they choose how much they pay.

jdodson: Rust has been in alpha now for a few months. I am curious how this has been going and the direction development is headed right now?

Garry Newman: It's been going great!

Travis: Earlier in the year you said “we hate zombies and are going to replace them with other NPCs at some point.” What ideas do you have for the enemy NPCs?

Garry Newman: We've got lots of ideas. But they're just ideas right now. We want to concentrate on wildlife that attacks you right now. This seems to make a lot of sense to us because you can harvest them for their pelt, meat and bones. Further down the line we have some big ideas - but we don't want to talk about them until we're there.

Travis: Rust seems, at this point, to be heavily PvP-based. Are there any future plans for a “friendly” mode where players team up to take on the NPC enemies and there’s no friendly fire?

Garry Newman: Yeah this is something we are hating. We're trying to boost cooperation and make players treat each other friendlier. There's a bunch of ways we can do that. Adding voice chat was a big step in that direction.. but we appreciate it's still a problem so we need to keep experimenting.

jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, is there anything you want to say before we wrap things up?

Garry Newman: Thanks for taking the time out to send the questions!

http://www.facepunchstudios.com/