Experience It And Derive Your Own Conclusions

Much of Kentucky Route Zero is dependent on players' interpretation of the game's events along with the dialog choices players make while playing.  Because of this heavy reliance on player interpretation, I'm not sure spoilers impact this game as severely as they do other narrative-driven games.  However, I will be discussing a few specific events that occur in Act I of Kentucky Route Zero, so if you're on a media blackout for this game, come back and read this post after you've had a chance to experience it for yourself.

Otherwise...

Kentucky Route Zero moves at a very deliberate pace.  Like the game, main character Conway travels along the backroads of Kentucky without urgency.  All through Act I, the game's pacing has been nothing but slow, a stark contrast when stood next to most of the video and board games I've been playing recently.  This slow pacing is a thing I quickly grew to love.

My favorite moment in the game occurred when Conway had to walk up a large hill with a busted leg.  Conway stood at the bottom of the hill, I clicked once on the landing at the crest of the hill, and Conway began his slow, beleaguered trek up.  As a player, there was nothing more for me to do until Conway finished climbing.  Many games actively avoid presenting players with lulls in interaction with the game's systems for fear of losing player interest.  The developers at Cardboard Computer obviously do not share this fear.  They never shy away from design decisions that force players to slow down, and I think the game benefits because if it.  As Conway limped up the hill, I paid a special attention to the spectacular environment art and equally spectacular ambient soundtrack that had been working so hard to create a setting I enjoyed exploring.  I actually had time to digest what I was experiencing.

This game, at least what Act I had on display, is a game with little player agency.  The only decisions I was allowed to make were dialog decisions, and these decisions had absolutely no influence on the arc of the main story.  However, while the main story barreled along a set path no matter what input I provided, the dialog decisions I did make had a HUGE affect on my perception of the story the game was trying to tell me, or rather, the story I was imprinting upon the game.

A perfect example of this was an encounter Conway had toward the beginning of the game.  Here, a man at a gas station asks Conway about the dog he is traveling with.  The three choices I was given in response were:

• "His name is Hunter."
• "Her name is Blue."
• "Just some dog: I don't know his name."

Right away when presented with these choices, I knew Blue and Conway had been together a long time.  Conway is a private man of few words, but he has always opened himself up to Blue.  For 11 years, Blue has been at Conway's feet for every story he's told.  She may be old, but Blue is the most vibrant thing in Conway's life.

This is the story I chose to tell, but another player's Conway might be traveling with a strange dog he picked up off the side of the highway only hours before the encounter at the gas station.  Again, the dialog choices I made had no impact on the overall story, but given dialog options that are so disparate, something I've never seen in story-driven games, helped me craft a very vivid and personal narrative.

More than anything else, Kentucky Route Zero feels authentic to me.  The setting, events, and inhabitants are unbelievably strange, but everything included in the world feels like it has purpose.  Admittedly, Kentucky Route Zero does not offer much gameplay in the traditional sense, but it has given me a welcomingly weird (I'm talking Twin Peaks weird!) interactive world that I want to explore more of.

Cheers,

Danny

Humble Bundle 8

The Humble Bundle 8 is live!  As of Friday afternoon, for $6 you can net 7 well-received indie games, 6 soundtracks, and Steam Keys for all 7 games!  The games bundled this time are Hotline Miami, Proteus, Little Inferno, Awesomenauts, Capsized, Thomas Was Alone, and Dear Esther.  If any of these games make your insides tingle, speak up, buy the bundle, and I'll be sure to cement part of your purchase into the club's schedule of upcoming games!

Cheers,

Danny

Just a thought

For future games to play I recommend we play anything from Game Jolt. All the games are indie and free to play. Just saying.

Let's Discuss

The Omaha Game Club was started to bring together Omahans who love video games, and to provide structure to play and discuss games together.  We're three games into the summer, but thus far, few conversations about these games have taken place on this blog.  More than one member has pointed out this lack of conversation, and I agree it's an area that needs some loving.  As such, the club will not be playing a new game this week.  Instead, if they haven't already, I hope that members will write about the game club games they have played, post about them, comment on other members' posts, and incite some thoughtful discussion about Monaco: What's Yours is Mine, Kentucky Route Zero, & The Button Affair.

If you haven't played one of the three games the club has already played, this week is your chance to go back and delve in.  There are no rules or restrictions to what you write, so don't hesitate to post whatever you feel like typing up.

Next week, we'll start playing a new game as usual.  Hopefully by then we'll all be a bit more comfortable posting content on this blog, and discussions about the games we play will not be so uncommon.

Thank you to the members who have voiced their concerns in an attempt to make the Omaha Game Club something worthwhile.

Cheers,
Danny

What do you want to play next week?

I hope you all enjoyed The Button Affair as much as Marcus did!  I purposefully (and selfishly) chose a simpler, shorter game to play this week b/c my schedule was stupid full.  Next week, I've got some time to dedicate, so the beautiful people of the Omaha Game Club are deciding what we play!

Cthulhu Saves the World

Don't Starve

Kerbal Space Program

Since the club is currently still small, our process of voting is going to be a little different.  Rather than simply naming a game, name a game & include your reasoning for wanting to play that particular game.  Every valid & well-thought-out reason you provide counts as a vote for your selected game.  So, if you can rattle off 100 reasons, you can cast 100 votes.

I'll tally everything on Sunday night, and post a little something about the game that emerges victorious.  Go forth and vote in the comments!

Cheers,

Danny

Kentucky Route Zero, an exit I would skip

5/22/13

Kentucky Route Zero’s developer, Cardboard Computer, describes their creation as a, "magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folk who travel it." Also of note, the Steam store page states it has, "a focus on characterization, atmosphere and storytelling rather than clever puzzles or challenges of skill,” and that it featured a soundtrack of old hymns and bluegrass standards.

Based on that information and several stunning screenshots, I started playing Kentucky Route Zero expecting it to be less of a game and more a piece of interactive fiction. Pretty, yet boring and requiring little meaningful interaction. Something that may be more interesting than it is fun.

And I found that preconception to hold true as I played the first of five episodes the developer has planned.

Kentucky Route Zero’s high points come from its artistic direction. Crisp vector art and use of contrast create depth. Empty space, light and shadow are used effectively to create a lonesome and ghostly atmosphere. The screen zooms and pans as the player moves about the environment in a way that arouses the mystery of what lies beyond the beam of your headlights as you drive down the highway. At its best, it evokes the everyday sense of adventure of late-night travel in unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar people, which is definitely a good thing.

In a couple segments, the player is presented a top-down view of a road map and asked to navigate to a specific location with directions that reference landmarks. Venturing off the main highway is rewarded with a vignette or moody descriptions. They help capture the feeling of a solitary delivery driver traversing unfamiliar territory at night, particularly because locations aren't displayed on the map until you're close enough for your digital headlights to shine on them. It really brought me back to my days as a pizza delivery driver, and worked very well with the established characterization.

So Cardboard Computer did a good job of creating atmosphere, but how does it fare on its other promises of characterization and storytelling? There, Kentucky Route Zero’s chords rang discordant to me. After you are done admiring the style, most of your interaction with Kentucky Route Zero is spent reading and selecting seemingly arbitrary dialogue options. Your enjoyment depends on how well you resonate with the story and your patience.

To summarize the plot, Conway needs to make an antique delivery in the dead of night to a place that isn’t on any map. To find it, a gas station attendant tells him he has to visit an implied ghost, who tells him to go to an old mine. So he goes to the mine, where he meets Shannon and they look for a highway onramp in a cave, which is ridiculous. When they don’t find anything, they return to the ghost’s house and fix her television which makes a phantom highway appear in the barn out back, the titular Kentucky Route Zero. Nothing about the way any of the characters react or interact makes sense except as a way to move the plot forward.

The player fills in the backstory of the characters through dialogue options. But without context or meaningful outcomes, most of the dialogue choices presented to the player lack impact.

In one part Shannon is having a conversation over the telephone with an unnamed individual and player has to choose her responses without hearing what is being said on the other side of the line. Without that context and with no or little variation of results, how are the player’s choices meaningful in this situation?

An especially disjointed section at the beginning of the third scene has the player choosing dialogue for both characters in the same conversation, which is confusing and potentially immersion-breaking.

Kentucky Route Zero gets high marks for demonstrating how art and music combine to create atmosphere, but with little for the player to do, I can't help but wonder if the creative minds behind it shouldn't have made an animated film as opposed to an interactive story. I certainly might have gotten the point better.

Kentucky Route Zero (Act One at least) is an experience that can be subtly personalized. But it’s not a game anymore than a Netflix can be considered a game when my internet drops and it prods me to interact with my Xbox controller to sign back in so I can continue my movie. Because if the mysteries presented don’t intrigue you, that’s about the extent of the player’s interaction with Kentucky Route Zero. Brainless mouse clicks to continue a story.

-Jim

Marcus Review - The Button Affair

First I would like to admit that I was actually a bit surprised by this little game. After first initially watching the game trailer I thought it might have over hyped the game. But once I started playing it did it justice.

Story- The story is entertaining and yet pretty simple. A thief/ladies man tries to steal a ruby called "the button". An through the three levels it shows the capture, escape and payback of the hero. Also at the very end there are two alternate endings. One is happy and the other is bad so choose carefully.

Music- This games music fits perfectly for what they were trying to accomplish. It diffidently gives the vibe of a 70's spy film or the original Oceans Eleven movie or modern version if you are not into films before you were born. Plus the soundtrack is all original and is free for download.

Design/Game play-The design for this game is simple yet satisfying, kinda like its controls. The only keys that are used are the up,down, left and right keys. Use the up key to jump over obstacles and the down to roll under neath.  Now the game itself with is simple controls can be a bit tricky especially at the end of level 2 and level 3 for the most part. There are times were timing is key to make it to the next checkpoint. Though it is not to hard were one would rage quite. But you will die in this game which in itself is not too bad since each death has its own short cut scene which can be entertaining. Which brings back to the art of the game, where all of the characters have no faces but the text bubbles and body langue convey who each person is. Also each level its own set piece with its own challenges.

Overall this game is simple yet quite enjoyable. Though a down/upside is that it is very short(will take 10 minutes at most to beat) but that works in  its favor cause any longer it would be just too repetitive. Though one can not really complain with a free game.

Now Playing The Button Affair

We're playing a freeware title this week!

The Button Affair is a super stylish auto-runner revolving around a thief as he attempts a heist to nab the priceless Button Jewel.

Download the game here.

Cheers,
Danny

Marcus AKA Tuxcedo Ninja's Game Proposals

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a visual upgrade to a classic shooter. For the most part it is just like Counter-Strike: Source but may be a bit easier to play for newer players. I is a game that one must play at least once.

DLC Quest is a little game show how ridiculous the game industry has gone when it it comes to downloadable content. The best part of this game that it is like $2 so its worth a try.

Planetside 2 is a free to play, open world, always changing, first person shooter. It is a pretty fun game but easier to play when one is part of a platoon that communicates.

Jim's Proposed Games

Dwarf Fortress
Infamous for its ASCII art style and steep learning curve, Dwarf Fortress is the inspiration for countless games and game systems. It is one of the few games deemed worthy to be collected in the Museum of Modern Art. In addition, the donation-driven development and long-term vision of the game is bold and exciting. Let us bloody our hammers for the glory of Armok, together.

Crusader Kings II
Crusader Kings II is the latest, and most accessible, release in Paradox Interactive's brand of grand historical strategy games. If you're intrigued by the political intrigue and style of war portrayed in a Game of Thrones, you should find interesting the stories you make up yourself as you play this game.

Cart Life
The only one of my suggestions that I haven't already played. This grey-scale, pixel art game was made by a first-time developer, and won several awards, including "Excellence in Narrative," at the 2013 Indie Games Festival.

Sim City
The SimCity franchise is a cornerstone of video game history, but the newest installment was highly controversial for its always-on DRM and complete re-imagining of the game engine. Despite reddit drama, the game is not completely void of value, discussion would prove interesting, however, it is on the pricey side and if you guys haven't already purchased it I would withdraw this suggestion.

Retro City Rampage
I'm a sucker for nostalgia, and I heard this game mashes up a bunch of my old favorites from the Nintendo days into an open world action game.

 ---

In agreement with other proposals by Omaha Game Club members, I second the following already proposed games: 

 

Resonance - It was made by a guy from Omaha, which is as good a reason as any for us to play it!

Don't Starve - The creepy, gothic art style perfectly complements the challenge of trying to stay alive in an unforgiving world.

Frozen Synapse - Wasn't even on my radar until I read Danny's description. The video I watched kind of reminded me of XCOM, which I loved. I'm totally psyched to try this.

Mark of the Ninja - I've heard great things about how this game brings stealth gameplay to the next level. Plus, I already own it but haven't played it yet.

Amnesia - I played about an hour of it a year ago or more and it was spooky. I've been meaning to play more, in a properly dark room at night with headphones, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Cthulu Saves the World - I bought this a long time ago and never played it. This would be a good enough reason for me.

Sid Meier's Civilization V - I haven't played it since the latest DLC launched, which supposedly brings more action to the end-game, where the Civ series needs it the most.

---

In addition to the above, I conditionally suggest these games that are currently in development in case they release a full version or working beta during the scope of this blog's life.

 

Starbound - Looks similar to Terraria, which I'll have more of, please.

Banished - A city-building strategy game with some elements reminiscent of Dwarf Fortress.

Planetary Annihilation - This is a genre I've always dabbled in, but never been particularly good at. The scale and graphics of this game intrigue me, though.

Legend of Dungeon - Yet another rogue-like dungeon crawler. This one's dynamic shading combined with pixel art make it stand out to me, though. 

Under the Ocean - A side-scrolling, craft-to-survive game à la Terreria and Don't Starve. A type of game I seem to be entranced with.

Castle Story - A dwarflike with cutesy graphics I've had my eye on for a while.

Kerbel Space Program - Unleash your inner rocket scientist. It's more of a sandbox than a game, as the mission/reward elements have yet to be added to its current alpha state. Upon release I think this game should be part of high-school curriculums every where.

Prison Architect - Once I bought a game at WalMart for five bucks called Prison Tycoon 2. It was the worst game I've ever played, but it goes to show that I've wanted to run a prison for some time.

Now Playing Kentucky Route Zero

Welcome to week 2!

From Monday, May 13 to Sunday, May 19 we will be playing Kentucky Route Zero.

From the developer's Website:

Kentucky Route Zero is a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folk who travel it .  Gameplay is inspired by point-and-click adventure games (like the classic Monkey Island or King's Quest series, or more recently Telltale's Walking Dead series), but focused on characterization, atmosphere and storytelling rather than clever puzzles or challenges of skill.

The game is developed by Cardboard Computer (Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy).  The game's soundtrack features an original electronic score by Ben Babbitt along with a suite of old hymns & bluegrass standards recorded by The Bedquilt Ramblers.

Kentucky Route Zero is episodic, and will release in five acts to tell its story.  Currently, only the first act has been released, but the second act is set to release in the next couple of weeks.  After that, Act 3 will release in July, Act 4 in October, and the final act will release in January of next year.

The game is available for PC, Mac, and Linux.  You can pick up all five acts on Steam for $25, or you can buy it all DRM-free directly from the developers.  Buying directly from the developers also nets you soundtrack mp3s, Cardboard Computer's private monthly newsletter, and a Steam key for the game.

Damn this game is pretty:

See you on the roads of Kentucky!

Cheers,

Danny

Monaco Co-Op

What times this week can you log into Steam to bumble through meticulously planned but hilariously executed thievery in Monaco: What's Yours is Mine w/ your Omaha Game Club brothers and sisters?

Leave a comment w/ all the times you're free, so we can get our group planning on!

Also, the club is currently experiencing an alarming dearth of sisters.

Cheers,

Danny

Now Playing Monaco: What's Yours is Mine

It has been decided!  The Omaha Game Club's inaugural game shall be Monaco: What's Yours is Mine.    Monaco won the 2010 Seumas McNally grand prize at the 2010 GDC Independent Games Festival, and was just released for Windows on April 24.

Monaco is a top down stealth/heist game with a retro aesthetic that is designed to be played cooperatively.  The Omaha Game Club will be setting up games of Monaco so members can play together and get a taste of that sweet, sweet co-op!  Also, there's a Monaco four-pack available on Steam, so members should coordinate their purchases to save some cash.

Andy Schatz, Monaco's lead designer/developer and founder of Pocketwatch Games, actually Skyped into an Omaha Game Developers Association Meeting in March 2012, and gave a great talk to Omaha's aspiring game devs.  That talk lives here!

Also, the Schatz man gave a kick ass presentation at GDC titled "How to Win the IGF in 15 Weeks or Less."  The presentation is free to view courtesy of the GDC Vault.  Highly recommended.

Brandon and Taylor (and any as-of-yet uninitiated members), get ready to heist some shit!  The games begin on Monday!

Cheers,

Danny

Taylor's Proposed Games

Monaco: What's Yours in Mine.

This game is a long time coming and it looks crazy.  It's a top down stealth/heist game, but the twist is that your character can only see what is in his line of sight, all else is only the blueprints of the floor you're currently on.  It's also a four player cooperative game, so members of this club could play together.  It's on Steam.  

Don't Starve

Don't Starve looks like an interesting take on the Minecraft formula. Instead of being able to dig and mine, the emphasis seems to be creating cool contraptions and interacting with the weird creatures of the world.  I could see myself spending just as much time on its crafting wiki as I would be in game.  That seems like a fun time to me. It's available on Steam.

Mark of the Ninja

I love me some stealth games, but I never got around to play this.  It's a 2D stealth game that I've heard great things about.  It's available on Steam.

Resonance

I love adventure games, and I've heard good things about this retro looking point and click. Also, it's made by a single guy in Omaha and I love supporting local talent.  It's available on Steam.

Machinarium

Did I mention I love adventure games? This one is a bit more of a puzzle game, but still in the same vein.  It looks beautiful and very atmospheric, I just never have had time to play it.  It's on the Steams.

Cave Story

Again, another game I've never gotten around to play.  I'm not a big fan of Metroid, but I've heard good things from this, so maybe it will change my mind about the genre.  

Dark Souls

I haven't played Dark Souls or Demon Souls, but I heard both are amazing. Danny and Brandon have already said everything that needs to be said about this game proposal.  My only apprehension is that this club only requires two hours or so playing a game per week, and it looks like this game may require much more time to fully understand it and appreciate it.  It's available on PS3 and PC.

System Shock 2

This is a game that needs no introduction.

It's on GOG.

Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden.

I played this game a while ago and had a blast.  It's the funniest game I ever played, and the gameplay is surprisingly good and addictive.  This game is on my unofficial list of games everyone should play at least once.  I've been wanting to play it again, but since it is a game I've already played, it's kinda low on my list of games for this club.  It's available free online.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

This game is also on my unofficial list of games everyone should play.  It's a dark horse of a game as it released with a bunch of bugs and in the shadow of Half-Life 2.  It's a case study on how to do perfect atmosphere and never take your game too seriously.  Though it's about vampires, it's as far away from Twilight as possible, and I chose the above image as the box art doesn't do the game justice.  Again, I've also played this game, but it's almost time for my annual play-through.  It's available on Steam, but it is way overpriced, at 20 bucks for an eight year old game.  Also, since Troika is bust, your money goes instead to the creative publishers at Activision, who have brought us Call of Duty 25: The Mountain Dewening. So, if you do want to play this game, maybe you should *cough* pirate it *cough* and then *cough* send Tim Cain twenty bucks in the mail *cough*.  Just a thought.