Alt+Games is a blog about games by a couple of gamers. Role-playing
games , computer and console games , board games etc. Focus on games that
enable playing together , whether in the same room or over the net. We
try to feature interesting stuff you don't hear from elsewhere.
Evoke, the new serious alternate reality game by Jane McGonigal, kicks off on March 3rd. That's next Wednesday, folks. I'm interested about experiencing and dissecting the game and I hope that you are too.
So, what's in the genre definition serious alternate reality game? Alternate reality games (Wikipedia) or ARGs use real world as a platform and leverage multiple media to mix fictional elements with the real world elements. Serious games are essentially games for other purposes than pure entertainment. McGonigal puts Evoke in her 'Invent the Future' category of games. The previous major gamein the similar vein McGonigal was involved with was World Without Oil (Wikipedia), which received wide media coverage, but contrasting reviews about its effectiveness of actually fixing the world.That's what I thought, at least, but turns out that I can't find the reviews I seem to remember. Here's one example of a review of World Without Oil calling the game basically a bore.
Anyhow, when I've discussed this game and similar games with people (there was a discussion on Ropecon and we had a reading group session last Autumn in Helsinki that included a lot of talkabout this matter) and read other discussions, such as this on on Story Games that have included critical viewpoints of the ability on these kinds of games to have an effect of fixing the real world.
This is why I'm particularly interested in exploring the game. I'm interested in discussing the game with other people with a critical
eye on the effectiveness, impact or the idea of this game. What does it
do well, what does it lack, what is it made of and so on. I've already signed up for the game and I hope you do as well if you want to discuss it with me.
The discussion I'm proposing can take place in blogs, forums or even face to face when possible. I really think that McGonigal's views on games changing the world are valuable and worthwhile, however I'm not sure that World Without Oil or Evoke represent the pinnacle of this frame of thinking. And I'd like to leverage people to think about what direction the pinnacle might lie.
Are you interested? Please sign up to the game and let me know!
There's really not that much info on what the players will actually do in the game, even what kinds of elements they will interact with. Here are some resources to Evoke (see the web site too) and McGonigal's thinking about world-fixing games in general:
My family just received a new member this Monday. It is a baby girl we like to call X (there's a bit of mystery for you :), Supergirl and The Thing. Everyone involved is fine and in good health.
On much smaller news Alt+Games also got a new graphical look last Weekend. I was never completely happy with the old one, mostly because of the wacky banner graphics I threw together (sorry 'bout that :). The template is Jamba from JoomlaShack with a green-black color scheme, the Alt+Games logo is based on the old one but this time it's sleek, cool and toned down and not ugly at all.
The icon banners in the right-hand top corner of the site are new too, there will be more of them later. Most of the banners are based on icons from MySiteMyWay , a very good source for royalty-free icon graphics.
There's potential for more changes, we'll see about the schedule. Maybe our Supergirl can help.
I just found out that the amazing physics based hammer-swinging game, Hammerfight by Russian Konstantin Koshutin and previously known as Hammerfall is available to purchase on Steam for €6.99. It has actually been available for a while as fun-motion.com reported it last Autumn. I'm gonna get the game so I can see how much has been improved and added to the commercial version compared to the free demo. I'll write a review afterwards, so wait for it (or get the game yourself if you are curious enough).
I did a feature on the Hammerfall demo on the old Alt+Games site, and now seems a good time for a re-run in the new site. Here you go:
I think that the FunMotion blog entry about this game started it. The Hammerfall v0.21 demo posted on a Russian GameNow.ru forum by a user with nickname GKosh has raised interest and inspired numerous blog post among indie game bloggers recently. I dl'd the demo and now it's official: I'm joining the bandwagon. Hammerfall is indeed a very promising and innovative action game demo for Windows machines.
Steampunk Action
The player controls a stempunk-style flying copter thingy which drags a massive rock on a chain behind it. The basic idea is to swat at enemies by swinging this rock-in-a-chain. The copter is controlled with the mouse; the rock follows behind following the laws of physics (yes, this game uses physics engine, too). The player can swing the rock into action with a circular flying motion.
