I picked up Anodyne last week during The Pirate Bay sale. Since I am a sucker for game soundtracks, I opted for the deluxe version that came with the score. I am playing it on my PC and the game runs flawlessly.

Anodyne is a hard game to write about. From the very start it brought back memories of playing my NES. The moody tone hit me as very Link's Awakening-esque but unlike Link's Awakening that ramps you up, Anodyne hits you with the ethereal mood from the start. As the game continues past the opening area and beyond the first dungeon it opens the colors, music and tone a bit but the underlying ethereal current is always present.

If you are expecting a game to hold your hand this game isn't your jam. Just to be clear: I am having no problems making my way through this game at all. That said, after the first dungeon the game opens up very wide and if you don't pay attention you can get quite lost. I don't mind taking time getting acclimated to things and love exploring. I started playing Anodyne with the thought that this would be more of an experience than anything else, and to that point it hasn't let me down.

Using the overall design, art and score the game is pulling some interesting punches I don't see too often. When I load up my save and start walking around I am immediately flooded with feelings of discovery and a genuine wonder of what will come next. The game has surprised me with how well it plays to old Zelda and Final Fantasy design notes but then goes an entirely different direction. Often times I am not entirely sure what the game is trying to say with a particular set of events but the open nature of it isn't lost on me. Sometimes there really are few answers to things and Anodyne doesn't try to answer them all.

I have read a few reviews that knock the cryptic nature of the game and cite it as a flaw. I don't think this is a flaw and for me Anodyne works very well because not all games need to round every jagged edge and way point each mission. Its a refreshing take on the genre and its simplicity I consider a strength.

Fighting the 2nd level boss: http://i.imgur.com/qfKSof8.png
Talking to a cat that started following me around: http://i.imgur.com/IJj7UGR.png

If you are interested in reading some information on some of the design thoughts in Anodyne, Sean Hogan blogged about them here.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/SeanHogan/20121026/180270/Joys_in_writing_game_music_frustrations_of_the_place_of_games_in_society_and_the_potential_of_games_that_convey_experiences.php

Right now on Steam there is a really great deal on the Unreal series of games for $14. You get Unreal 2: The Awakening, Unreal Gold, UT 2004 Collectors Edition, UT 3 Black, and the original Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition.

I know many of you have picked this up in previous Steam sales, but if you didn't know is a good time to add it to your collection. The original UT alone is worth the price of admission.

Get it on sale for the next 24 hours!

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/683/

Continuing the Cheerful Ghost community interviews, this one featuring @vdogmr25! I want to thank him for taking the time to to do the interview with me! If anyone has any follow up questions, toss them in the comments!

jdodson: You recently posted on Cheerful Ghost that you are having issues with your PC, what have you been playing while your PC is out of commision?

vdogmr25: I just picked up FTL for my Macbook, and that's been fun to play in between classes. I was hesitant because I thought it looked too simple, but the simplicity makes it awesome. I've also been pounding through Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Pokemon White, and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

jdodson: I was looking through your Cheerful Ghost game list and saw you played Baldur’s Gate. Wonder what your thoughts on this game looking back on it now?

vdogmr25: What stuck with me about Baldur's Gate was how tight the story side of the game was. Everything was well told, and characters and "characters," like Lilarcor from the second game, made the game amazing. Thinking about the graphics, controls, and sound, makes me want to try the recent enhanced version to see the game with a little more modern tech behind it. Those parts of the game were good for the time it was made, but an update couldn't hurt.

jdodson: What's a game that you started playing this year that you really have enjoyed?

vdogmr25: Penny Arcade's On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness has been a lot of fun. I grabbed all three parts during the last Steam Christmas sale, and I really like that it's something of a choose your own adventure PA comic. It's also nice that it's a solid RPG I can run on my MacBook during my shift in the lab. Haven't gotten to part three yet, and I'm looking forward to the change in art style in that one.

jdodson: What are the games that top out your list stopping at 5?

vdogmr25: Oh geez, that's kinda tough. Okami and Majora's Mask come to mind immediately. Majora's Mask is dark, difficult, and amazing and Okami is like Zelda game, but in an art style that forces a continuous eye-gasm. Bastion, in my opinion, is probably one of the best games ever in terms of aesthetic and story telling, and that coming together makes me cry every time I play through it. The Civilization series is phenomenal. My dad and I have been playing since 3 was released, and we've been keeping up fairly well with it. As much as I love the game, though, if I'm gonna play, I'm gonna play with someone, and I'm gonna play completely through. Sadly, that can take several hours, and between other games and only small windows of schedule overlap, my dad and I haven't gotten to play for a while. Starcraft should probably be up here too. I don't play it as passionately as the other games. What makes it stand out is that out of all the games I see in my list and think, "I should play that again," Starcraft is pretty much the only one I actually play again. Something about the campaign keeps bringing me back.

jdodson: I also see you have Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast in your list as well. This is an interesting bit of DLC as it ups the graphics the game is capable of and inserts a pretty cool level in the game. Did you play this after you played Half-life 2 and also, what did you think of it?

vdogmr25: Well, my first foray into HL2 and Steam was with the Orange Box. Lost Coast downloaded before HL2 did, so I jumped in on that first. I knew it was more of a tech demo and didn't pertain much to the story, so I thought I'd play it while I waited for the game itself to download. When I booted it up, I stared at the water for about 5 minutes. I didn't have much in the way of next-gen consoles and games with cutting edge graphics at the time, so this BLEW MY MIND. I'd be looking through the world, and getting angry that people were shooting at me during my sight-seeing. When I started Half-Life 2, I was a little disappointed, due to my expectations with Lost Coast, but I knew it was a tech demo and that HL2 had more to process in terms of sheer volume than Lost Coast.

jdodson: According to Steam you have played the hell out of Torchlight to the tune of 251 hours. First off, congratulations about that and second off, what kept you coming back to the game so many times?

vdogmr25: I'll be completely honest, that isn't all me. My dad and I shared my account for Torchlight so we wouldn't have to buy two copies. About 100 hours of that is me, and the rest is my dad. That's the reason we kept going back to it too. It's something we both enjoy, and that pushes us to play the heck out of it. Both of us enjoy dungeon crawlers, and we used to play Bard's Tale on the NES together. It gives us something to converse over, even when we aren't technically in the same game. I wish I could be in TL2 with him now, but, again, computer troubles, so it'll have to wait.

jdodson: As I have been typing up this interview over the last few days I have been thinking about a few games. Right now I am thinking about Sword & Sworcery as I am creating a post talking about a S&S remix album. Wondering what your thoughts are about the game and how it sat with you?

vdogmr25: S&S was absolutely stunning. Everything about this game felt tight and well made. It may have been different for the mobile version, but the PC version was glorious. It's funny you brought up the music in particular, as that was the main point of immersion for me. I've tried playing the game with the sound off and found myself feeling completely detached from the experience. When I'd boot it up later with the sound on, the music completely pulled me into the world. What also got me was how the game was lightly memetic. There's little bits and pieces of internet speak in this game, and it strangely enough helped me feel more connected to the game, but maybe that's because I spend too much time online. As a sidenote, Dogfella is the best character.

jdodson: Any thoughts to getting into making games yourself?

vdogmr25: I would say I'm attached to the glamour of making games. It's a dream of mine, but when I look at what it takes to be good at it like time and resources, I'm not sure it's for me. It's something I've been trying to sort through quickly because I'm graduating this year, but there's just a lot of uncertainty around the idea for me. There are other coding jobs I know I wouldn't mind having, but at the same time, if I don't follow through with game making, I wonder if it would be the wrong choice.

jdodson: If you could add one thing to Cheerful Ghost what would it be?

vdogmr25: If there was a way to increase the Steam functionality with the site, I would be ok with it. Sirdan1013 recently made a steam group, so finding a way to integrate group information to the site like currently online members and the games they are playing could be cool.

jdodson: If you could force any game to be made, what game would that be? Genie and a lamp kind of thing here!

vdogmr25: Six Days in Fallujah. The idea of a tactical shooter based on an actual event that (hopefully) describes said event accurately and maybe even challenge the concept of the American War Machine would be fantastic. I enjoyed Spec Ops: The Line a ton because of the way it turn the US mentality on war on its head a bit, and I think more games need to do that.

jdodson: I am watching Judge Dredd right now with Carl Urban and he just shot a dude in the mouth with a kind of flaming bullet. The persons head started burning from the inside. Needless to say the bad-guy died. Why is Judge Dredd so angry?

vdogmr25: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was cancelled shortly before the events of the film, leaving his soul empty, and slowly building a general feeling of rage.

http://cheerfulghost.com/vdogmr25

OCRemix is hosting the new album "Final Fantasy: Random Encounter" a series of remixes from the original FF game. Very good and well worth the price of free.

http://encounter.ocremix.org/

John Carmack talked about native Linux ports and Wine on Reddit recently. I don't think comparing the sales of Quake 3 to the modern market is fair, but he brings up fairly pragmatic points.

http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/17x0sh/john_carmack_asks_why_wine_isnt_good_enough/c89sfto

The awesome kids over at Indie Games compiled a cool list of the top 10 best free Indie platformers. The game "I Wanna Be the Guy Gaiden" looks to fuse Mario World and Contra and leaves me somewhere between a head scratch and a high five.

http://indiegames.com/2013/01/top_10_free_platformer_games_o.html

After hearing about Pixelscopic's latest Kickstarter for Delver's Drop I frantically emailed them because, like you I had some questions about the game. I was put in contact with Ryan Baker and was able to shed some light on The game itself and some of the planned character classes.

I want to thank Pixelscopic and Ryan Baker for taking the time to talk with me and I hope you guys checkout the Kickstarter and support them.

jdodson: When I play a combat Magic user I totally dig the epic nuking of my foes and big explosions. I wonder if you are considering this play style for the Sorcerer and if you could give us a bit of a taste of what we can look forward to with this class?

Ryan Baker: The sorcerer's Attacks will be dependent on what wand you have equipped as your primary weapon. Some will be weaker, with limited range or area of effect, while more powerful ones will definitely satisfy your interest in explosive firepower. Almost all of his attacks will be some sort of projectile, though we're still determining what his special ability will be — it might be some other form of magic, but will most likely be offensive in nature. We should also eventually have other magic users — some more offensive-based, some defensive with self-protective or buffing abilities.

jdodson: In the Kickstarter video you mention the other games Pixelscopic has worked on outside Delver’s Drop. I am wondering if you could share a bit about some of them?

Ryan Baker: We have done a number of game contracts, as well as several websites and motion graphics videos. The two commercially-released games Pixelscopic has developed since it was founded are Moshi Monsters: Moshling Zoo and Moshi Monsters: Moshlings Theme Park, both for Nintendo DS (in cooperation with Mind Candy, Black Lantern Studios, and Activision). But Delver's Drop is our first original IP effort.

jdodson: As your survey the landscape of other Indie game companies, other Kickstarters or Greenlight projects I wonder what awesome ones come to mind?

Ryan Baker: Some of the games that have captured our attention in the last couple of years are Hotline Miami, Triple Town, Hero Academy, Pid, Machinarium, The Binding of Isaac, and Desktop Dungeons. Some recent Kickstarter projects that we've supported include Barkley 2, Tiny Barbarian, Legend of Dungeon, Telepath Tactics, Mercenary Kings, and probably quite a few others. We have pretty wide interests in game design, and play everything from the AAA PC/console games to tiny flash games. Anything that's inventive in design, has beautiful graphics, tickles the nostalgia itch, or is just solid fun… all of these are probably on our radar. And honestly, we're hoping that our games check off all the items on that list for our audience as well.

jdodson: I really appreciated the scenes in the video where the character was throwing around a ton of bombs and being a general bad ass. I wonder how you guys are building Delver’s Drop so that I can play out my dreams in this way? You can finalize the question by rating how the game accomplishes this on a bad ass scale from Woody Allen(quite low) to Danny Trejo(very high).

Ryan Baker: Hahaha… well I'm sure you know that the infinite bomb section of the video was for testing purposes. But! a couple of ways you could live out that fantasy are 1) we might add a power-up that gives you a time-limited infinite use of one item like the bomb, or 2) you can mod the heck out of the game to give yourself as many bombs as you want. Achievements and such might be disabled if you do, but we want people to be able to essentially "cheat mode" the game to enjoy it however they want. Games are supposed to be fun, right? And modding / cheating / bombing everything in site are all pretty fun. So on your scale of Woody Allen to Danny Trejo, Delver's Drop scores a Chuck Norris.

jdodson: What part of Delver’s Drop has proved to be the most challenging so far?

Ryan Baker: Honestly, just keeping the company in business, keeping contracts rolling to pay the bills, and trying to get the Kickstarter launched (and continue generating interest) are the biggest challenges. Some times it feels like the company/contracts/PR type stuff are the day-job, and Delver's is our rewarding midnight project. But that's what the Kickstarter campaign is all about - to free us to make Delver's not just a passion project, but THE thing we do everyday, full time, full steam, full attention. We want it to be amazing, and amazing often equals challenging.

jdodson: The game is fairly customizable and I am wondering if players can build playable levels to share with each other in some fashion?

Ryan Baker: Yes, all you'll need to build your own levels is a copy of the freely available software Tiled — plug in some of our data, open our the tile sets we package with the game (or make your own), and you're good to go. We're hoping to build a really robust community around the game, and may even promote the most interesting mods on our site or social media.

jdodson: I have an idea for Delver’s Drop class I want to run by you. THE BEASTMASTER, a class too epic to use normal word casing. THE BEASTMASTER wields its epic might in a few ways. One attack SNAKES IN A CAVE, summons a bunch of snakes that attack everything on the screen. THE BEASTMASTER has to be played so epically that he can avoid them or have them get out of his motherfucking way with a punch to the face or tail. Another one of his abilities is DINOSAUR ATTACK!!! DINOSAUR ATTACK!!! summons a few dinosaurs to attack things and stomp around the screen a bit. The attacks could be normal damage or if the enemy is around stomping, some kind of stunning effect. I appreciate you adding particle effects to Delver’s Drop because when the Dinosaur’s stomp around they kick up dust. I am also thinking of something to do with Dolphins that can live outside water but haven’t fully developed it yet.

Ryan Baker: Whoa, you just stunned me with all the awesome. And the all caps. And the dinosaurs. But you're in luck! One of our class ideas is in fact the Shaman (pretty much your Beastmaster), who can to some extent control enemy monsters (as long as they are biological), and has special abilities to summon more monsters and familiars to his/her aid. As for snakes, dinosaurs, dolphins… those are all, shall we say, "possibilities." Some more legitimate possibilities than others. :)

jdodson: I live in Portland and am pretty spoiled that the Indie Game community is as awesome as it is. I am wondering how the Indie game community is in Springfield?

Ryan Baker: Well… I would say it's fairly small. We have a friend Andrew Bilyk (http://www.apbilyk.com/blog/) who recently went Indie, and I've heard about a few other people who work on games, but haven't actually seen any of their projects. We would love to host some events in the future to bring other devs out of the woodwork, or simply encourage others to go into independent development, or game development in general.

jdodson: I wonder what your thoughts were after watching Indie Game: The Movie? Do you find any similarities in how the journey of Pixelscopic and Delver’s Drop has been?

Ryan Baker: Yes, we really enjoyed the documentary, and honestly felt like our own struggles were validated by it. There are definitely some similarities — showing up to PAX with what we thought was an inferior gameplay demo, working from home (around the clock), hoping for interest and praise from the community… definitely all things we've experienced. It's the combination of passion and sacrifice for the art form we all love and want to succeed through.

jdodson: In your Kickstarter backer levels, I wonder what benefits excite you about bringing to people beyond the game itself?

Ryan Baker: I think that we're really excited about the physical DVD boxed copy and the art book + strategy guide. It will also be really fun to get our first hand-crafted figurines from Leah Williams (https://www.facebook.com/littlelazies)

jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today and as we are departing what last bits of awesome do you want to leave us with?

Ryan Baker: Thank you for your time and interest as well! As for a last bit of awesome — it's currently hidden toward the end of the 2nd mechanics update we posted today on Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelscopic/delvers-drop/posts/411164), but we're about to more fully unveil some of the more unique features. Specifically, when your character dies, they leave behind an undead skeletal version of that class, equipped with the same weapon you last carried. You'll have to defeat this past incarnation of your character when you replay the re-randomized level. The dungeon also encloses secret rooms containing people caught between life and death. They can be freed from a magical imprisonment… but they themselves may also be the greatest danger in the dungeons.

Hopefully that little tease will whet everyone's appetites a bit! We really hope to blow past our Kickstarter goal and reach some of the Stretch Goals, so please support us and tell your friends about the campaign.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelscopic/delvers-drop
http://delversdrop.com/

"After over 50 days of rendering FPM Endgame is finally done. I've always said that if I'm going to do a sequel it has to be creatively worth doing.

Software used: 3dsMax 2012, After Effects, FumeFX, Vray, Krakatoa, and Premier."

Gratz to YouTuber @fredlew for making this really epic video. Hadn't considered id be able to see the World 8 level from this perspective. Nearly forgot that level was in the rain too. :D

http://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew?feature=watch

"Starbound begins with you fleeing your homeworld in a space shuttle, just as it’s destroyed by an unknown enemy. With nothing to guide it, the escape pod shoots into space without direction, becoming hopelessly lost in a sea of stars. As luck would have it, the space shuttle makes contact with an abandoned space station and an adventure begins that will take you hurtling across the universe. Starbound contains both quests and story driven missions, buried inside its vast sandbox universe.

So basically Starbound is a 2D sandbox in space with limitless procedurally generated planets to explore. They also mentioned you can "take over" certain planets if you want to, which I find really cool. I was pretty impressed to see spaceships and mechs as awesome vehicles to take you from place to place. Oh right and this 2D epicness comes with multiplayer and is slated to come out some time in 2013.

Recently they posted that you can try an online character creator to see what kinds of ways you can customize your character. Its not a final product, but shows off some of the features we can expect.

http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/online-character-creator-update-part-deux.15383/

Another interesting bit is that Starbound and Stardew Valley are both published by Chucklefish. Both games look amazing and it looks like Chucklefish is publishing a few others work looking into.

http://playstarbound.com/

"In the third of our three StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm preview videos, Community Manager Cloaken takes a look at how eSports looks to be evolving with the coming expansion, the look and feel of the multiplayer game, ladder play, and more."

Coupled with the majority of Indie Kickstarter and Greenlight games, I add SC2: Heart of the Swarm to my most anticipated games in 2013 list. Next month can't come fast enough!

Who else is going to pick this up at launch? Bueller, Bueller...

Many outlets are covering the new PS4 unveiling including Twitter, but for the part of you not following all that, I have compiled some interesting bits about the PS4. Please add the things you find interesting to this thread.

The confirmed specs will be 8G RAM, X86 CPU, hard drive and new video card. Not much in the way of details, but a few confirmed facts that were speculation just a few months ago. They didn't say much about if it will come with BluRay, but I can't imagine it won't. The new DualShock 4 has a touch pad and seems a bit nicer of a design but largely the same. No huge need to change the controller much, in my opinion its already quite good.

Blizzard announced Diablo III will ship on the PS3 & PS4 confirming to me that this current generation of consoles will get way more life that the last ones.

Did you see any bits in the unveiling you found interesting?

http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/02/20/2353229/sony-announces-the-ps4
http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/8717945

Over the last few weeks I have heard a fair amount of praise about the Skyrim score but only just recently picked up the 4CD set. Over the last week or so I have been listening to Jeremy Soule's score and needed to say a few words about it.

If you love ambient, earthy scores weaved with the right amount of classical you need to pick this up. The song featured in the video above "Masser" showcases how elegantly Soule weaves various elements to immerse you in Skyrim's Nordic ascetic.

Often times with other game scores I come to a song that is thematically out of place or more pomp and show than substance. The Skyrim score contains songs that are woven elegantly together in a way that start to finish there are no out of beat moments. Soule's score earns its high moments by taking the listener a journey. In fact, Soule's score might stand alone in terms of thematic elements that fit together, in my opinion. In the age of the iPod, where composers write each song to stand alone, often times this makes a score a tough thing to listen to start to finish. Soule's Skyrim score doesn't institute this philosophy and is a refreshing take on what a video game score can be.

Clocking in at 3 hours and 38 minutes the score doesn't feel its length and find that the end comes faster than I want. Soule's Skyrim score made me an instant fan and I am going to actively seek out more of his body of work.