Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson has
officially announced his company's next project:
a hybrid online board game/trading card system called
Scrolls. Spearheaded by Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser (
interview) and with backstory penned by Penny Arcade wordsmith Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, the game will consist of turn-based battles between collectible "scrolls,"
illustrated character cards strategically deployed on an abstract gaming grid. In an interesting inversion of the
Minecraft model, the game itself will be free, while updates in the form of additional scroll packs will cost a nominal fee -- a business model gaming analyst Sean Maelstrom decries as
"snake oil." Mojang, for their part, is unafraid and even eager to target an untested slice of the gaming market, and is angling to get their playable prototype of
Scrolls ready for a possible Alpha release this summer.
posted by Rhaomi
on Mar 2, 2011 -
128 comments
There is No Such Thing as a Girl Gamer, says Hellchick, a veteran game developer that happens to be of the girl gender. There are no "girl gamers," she says, but there are gamers that happen to be girls, and anyway, it shouldn't matter either way. "It’s not my responsibility to wear some kind of online burka because you lack the maturity to handle the mere presence of a woman in your game."
posted by Cool Papa Bell
on Feb 12, 2011 -
79 comments
Happy Birthday, MeFi, here's a fun free* game!
Ikariam is sort of like a Skyrates version of Civ, with the real-time MMO combat and diplomacy that might bring to mind. Also, it's set in Olympian Greece, but only kind-of. Enjoy!
*Batteries not included. Some registration required. Suggested age: 8-and-up. Some implied violence and consumption of alcohol (wine). Expansion materials may be purchased but are not necessary to enjoy the game and are, by the judgment of this MFGA (MetaFilter Gaming Authority) member: "some kind of bullshit."
posted by Navelgazer
on Jul 14, 2008 -
20 comments
M.U.G.E.N [
wikipedia] is a 2D fighting game engine, originally developed by Elecbyte and released in 1999. The engine is highly customizable;
characters,
backgrounds, and sound files -- whether from existing games or original works -- can be easily integrated. Some examples of the engine in action [youtube]:
Homer Simpson vs. Peter Griffin,
Ryu vs Popeye,
Green Power Ranger vs Osama Bin Laden,
Fat Albert vs Juggernaut,
Marvin the Martian vs. Duck Dodgers. Also, game crossovers:
Homer in NES Land,
Thunder Force III vs. Duck Hunt. [mi]
WARNING: some of the videos are very loud.
posted by milquetoast
on Jun 17, 2007 -
10 comments
Fun Motion - a blog dedicated to physics-simulating games, currently with 49 reviews (and counting) of well known favorites like Stair Dismount and Truck Dismount, Towers of Goo, Toribash and many, many more. (A follow up to my
previous YouTube post.)
Kiss your precious, fleeting motes of productivity goodbye, cube-farmers!
posted by loquacious
on Oct 19, 2006 -
26 comments
Games by Tony Pa. jayisgames just reviewed tony pa's new flash game, Geartaker. Geartaker has you leaping from cog to wheel to gear in a precise ballet of timing and angles, completed by an eclectic, interactive retro-synth soundtrack. After a good 30 minutes of that, I explored Tony's site more thoroughly, enjoying Trinks, Nelinurk (haunting soundtracks both), the othello like simplicity and complexity of Shooot. There's also the fiendish puzzler Gemsmith, the shocking anti-consumerist geometry of Save the Shoppers, and the fun is rounded out by the tiny retrolicious BoatRider.
Unfortunately, there are no links straight to the games, and trying to link to them directly results in getting redirected to the home page. Suffer through the start page, and you'll be rewarded with a treasure trove of novel and engaging flash entertainment.
posted by boo_radley
on Aug 5, 2006 -
21 comments
DotQuest Can you survive the deadly ghosts in this text adventure?
via languagehat's blog in an oblique fashion.
posted by boo_radley
on Mar 24, 2006 -
24 comments
SMW - The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public. Dedicated to Koji Kondo.
posted by Pretty_Generic
on Aug 13, 2005 -
20 comments
Princess Maker 2 - Stressed out from current events? I doubt the game is as much fun to play as it is to be bewildered by, but either might help.
"...is basically a perverse sports management simulation where your entire team consists of a single ten year old girl that you have to raise to adulthood. Much like any decent sports manager game you have to keep track of a nearly overwhelming number of statistics that fluctuate based on training. In Princess Maker 2 these run the gamut from the mundane like "strength" and "charisma", to the droll like "cooking" and "conversation", to the bizarre like "sin" and "temper". "
posted by soulhuntre
on Oct 28, 2004 -
13 comments
September 12: A Toy World "September 12 is a free Shockwave game where players try to solve the terrorist problem - a sort of editorial cartoon rendered in simple simulation." It's not really much of a simulation, and the 'argument' is simplistic to the point of inanity. But as a new medium, interesting. (via
gamegirladvance)
posted by jcruelty
on Oct 2, 2003 -
18 comments
"
In the game, the player plays the role of a character called The Postal Dude. He lives in a town where there are all kinds of people, white, black, skinny, fat, straight and gay. You can play the game in a passive role without killing anyone," Desi said.
"We are not political," he added.
posted by donkeyschlong
on Jan 23, 2003 -
17 comments
"Hey there, sport! What's all the racket?" "It's The Stupid SIMulated Human Pet Tricks, Daddy!" No really this is good. Stupid. But good. If anyone's ever wondered what some of the characters from
The Sims would look like in hokey live-action Not Ready For Television commercials, now's your chance!
This site requires the Quicktime and
Flash Player plug-ins. Be careful. This site crashed my computer once.
posted by ZachsMind
on Dec 11, 2000 -
0 comments
Curiouser and curiouser... They are talking of making a movie based on the new game, of which some of us enjoyed the recently released
demo. Since I thought the mood of the game was better than its playability (granted, I have yet to find a game whose playability satifies me), this could be pretty cool.
posted by rushmc
on Dec 7, 2000 -
0 comments
Alice demo (
Download, 78MB) has been released. Even if you're not big on video games you might want to give this one a try. *Requires a PC with 3D graphics accelerator and fast connection to download in sane amount of time.
posted by physics
on Dec 2, 2000 -
9 comments
