Category Archives: Gaming

Kard Combat

Kard Combat for iOS | iPhone/iPod, Reviews, Card games, Strategy

Kard Combat by Hothead Games is a new strategy card game for the iOS. What first made me especially interested in the game was that it was co-created by Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering as well as countless other strategic card games. Kard Combat didn’t disappoint. There is a lot of strategy involved, and it’s very fun!

Interview with Royal Quest Developer

Royal Quest Interview | Preview | Game Boyz

In my coverage of Another Night in Moscow 2011, the 1C Company press event, I discussed a new MMORPG, Royal Quest. I had the chance to get some of my questions about the game answered by the developers. For those who missed my initial coverage, let me recap a bit about Royal Quest. Developed by Katauri Interactive, Royal Quest is a colorful, vibrant game that seemed like a fast-paced click-fest. While it has lots of modern MMO ideas in it, I see echoes of Diablo and Ragnarok Online in its core gameplay, and I really enjoyed what I played of it. I was told that you could acquire castles, lakes, goldmines, and gardens as well fight others for their territory, raise pets, find rare cards, and earn loot through PVP. I’d recommend reading my preview in my last article if you’re interested or watching the trailer. You’ll find my interview following full of clarifications and additional information about Royal Quest. Do note that as English is not the developers’ primary language, I took the liberty of editing the responses for clarity. After some answers, I’ve included my commentary on the answer.

Yay for interviews!

Another Night in Moscow 2011

Another Night in Moscow 2011 | Preview | Game Boyz

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Another Night in Moscow 2011. It was my second time attending Russian game publisher 1C Company’s fantastic annual event held at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Founded in 1991, 1C Company is the largest publisher and distributor of video games in Eastern and Central Europe. On 7/7, I got to check out all of their latest and greatest titles, eat authenticate Russian food, and of course, drink a lot of vodka.

Street Fighter IV: Volt

Street Fighter IV: Volt | iPhone/iPod, Reviews, Fighting

Recently Capcom provided me with their latest Street Fighter iOS title, Street Fighter IV: Volt. Capcom has always iterated on its Street Fighter franchise, and the iOS platform is no exception. The big feature of Volt is online multiplayer! …if you already own the original, it simply comes down to whether you want to pay the asking price to play online. If you’re a competitive player or if you just like some human interaction, it’s worth it, but if you play mostly for the single player, you might not want to upgrade. That said, if you don’t already own Street Fighter IV on your iOS device, I think you should ignore the original even if you only like playing solo and jump straight to Volt. Street Fighter IV: Volt is the best fighting experience on iOS

Games in June

I haven’t made a Game Journal update in a while!
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
I finished The Ballad of Gay Tony. It had been a while since I played the original campaign or the Lost and Damned, but I think I liked the original best followed by The Ballad of Gay Tony. The characters were all very entertaining. The relationship between Tony and Luis was cool, Yusuf was a fun character, and the ending mission was a lot of fun.
Portal 2
gem finished this, but with my computer down, there’s no chance at playing co-op anytime soon.
Worms 2: Armageddon
I picked this up for the iPhone a few weeks ago. It’s pretty full-featured, but I suck a lot so I stopped playing it.
Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting
Fun but short. It didn’t have any RPG elements besides being able to upgrade weapons and armor. There isn’t even any exploration. It reminds me of the Arena in Armored Core.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
I was playing this regularly for a while, but now I haven’t touched it in a few weeks. With my room off-limits, I haven’t moved it downstairs. I was enjoying it though!
Save Toshi
This iPhone puzzle game tasks you with throwing balls at platforms so that the girl standing on top falls onto the goal platform. If you hit her, you lose. It’s surprisingly fun if you turn off the terrible voice-acting. I beat this, but it was shorter than I expected. It turns out I was playing a version that was basically a demo for a longer version.
Cell Bound
Another iPhone game! It’s kind of like Puzzle Bobble except the bubbles come from all sides towards the center, and you can rotate the center. It was fun, but I stopped playing it as soon as I posted the review.
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
More iPhone gaming! This just came out, and as I loved the console version, I had to pick it up. It’s a little difficult because it uses tilt to steer, but it’s better than I would have expected. I haven’t put too much time into it, but I plan to play it more.
Plants vs. Zombies
I’ve been playing this more than anything else lately. With the newest update, the iPhone version finally received some mini-games. One game comes immediately, and then there are two packs of three that can be purchased with the in-game currency. I bought the first pack but haven’t made enough money for the second. The update also brought the Zen Garden that allows you to raise plants. It’s fun!
A Slice of Life
The last iPhone game, I promise! The goal is to have your character succeed in the various parts of life – job, education, social, etc. It’s like the Sims but only menu and button-driven with no direct control. It kind of sucked.
Sonic Generations Demo
The demo only features one level of the classic gameplay, but I enjoyed it. It almost seemed a little too fast, making it hard to focus, but I didn’t run into any traps, making the speed okay. The graphics seemed odd because it was clearly inspired by the classic graphics but still 3D. I liked it a lot more than the photo-realistic background of Sonic 4. I’m looking forward to playing more of this for sure!
A.R.E.S.
I’ve been playing this a bit the last couple days. It looks a lot like Mega Man X, but in A.R.E.S. you can control the direction in which you shoot as well as spend recyclables dropped by dead robots on grenades, repair kits, or upgrading weapons.
Metal Drift
I wanted to play this because I enjoy vehicular combat games, but it seems odd from the tutorial. You can shoot in any direction, including shooting directly behind you while driving forward. It seems difficult to be able to do that.
Nimbus
Okay, last game. Nimbus is a flying, side-view racing game in which you can’t directly accelerate. You reach the goal by attempting to keep your momentum, flying into cannon-things (think barrels from Donkey Kong Country), colliding with bouncy pads, etc. I’m enjoying it so far.
Besides playing PvZ regularly, nothing is really pulling me in a lot right now. Right now I’m mostly playing A.R.E.S. and Nimbus at home, but I have to kind of push myself to do it. We’ll see. Maybe I should hook my Wii back up again.
I also signed up for a second 365 Project, the photo-a-day site. While the first I’m using for photos as intended, my second account is now for screenshots. We’ll see how it goes. It’s here

Visually Directing the Player

UCLA Game Lab » Visually Directing the Player

…one philosophy that I try to abide by in game-design is that there are no bad players-only bad designers. If a player feels stupid, cheated, or frustrated, it shouldn’t be the player’s fault. It should be the designer’s responsibility to prevent the player from feeling this way, and in order to do this, there exists the much beloved activity of play-testing.
There are many problems that arise out of a good play-test, but I’m going to focus on the aforementioned one of “visual direction,” to guide the player a specific way.

Joshua Nuernberger, creator of the fantastic adventure game, Gemini Rue, recently (or not so recently as the case may be) posted an essay on providing visual cues to direct players in game. It’s an interesting read if you’re fascinated by game design decisions. Also, if you haven’t played Gemini Rue (as it’s an under-marketed indie game, you probably haven’t) and like adventure games, you definitely should. I love the visuals in the game, and it has a fantastic mood, setting, and story.