Tony

Now that the holidays are over, and people have gone back to the grind of reality, I have returned in an attempt to make your productivity plummet. In what will likely be the last of my “surveys of the flash gaming world” I will be like the mother bird and feast upon the flesh my runt offspring. I josh. Instead I shall provide you with your wings, so you may begin to wander the wild world of flash yourself.

Newgrounds

Founded by Tom Fulp, the programmer behind the dynamic developer duo that is Behemoth (creators of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers), Newgrounds is likely the largest site of user-submitted and peer-reviewed content on the web. The site primarily relies on amateur or very small independent developers to submit their flash game/video to the community. Then it is up to the community to either protect it and push it to the top, or to “blam” it and keep it from ever seeing the light of day. But the selection here isn’t limited to only flash games. You can also find a huge supply of music and art assets and many flash videos; some excellent, some not so. In fact there is so much to explore and discover that it seems a lot of the great stuff could easily get lost in the muck. Fortunately, the site does a great job of featuring some of the best submissions on their front page, saving you a lot of the hassle. However, if you are brave, there are many deep, dark horrible holes you can crawl into to see what is likely the best representative of the darker side of humanity. At least the more “dick-joke” centric side of humanity. A site both for consumers and producers, Newgrounds is great if you want to create, critique or just plain see what’s new.

Kongregate

Kongregate may be my favorite flash portal if only because I’m a dirty achievement whore. That’s right. They took your achievements, and they got Flash in them. Or did they take your Flash, and get Achievements on them? Either way, the badge system set up in Kongregate provides incentive to really dig deep into certain games. It helps that they typically only give badges to games worth spending a large amount of time on. And why would you want badges? To get more points! What do the points do? Increase your level, duh. And the level does….well nothing really. But you can still vote on your favorite flash games! Kongregate even includes a pay out for the most popular new release in a week and the most popular new release in the past month. All in all, the average quality seems to be a little higher than what you might find in a Newgrounds, but there is much less content and games here tend to be on a “second run” of sorts.

Now these two portals are far from the only way to find new flash games. Armor Games is similar to both Kongregate and Newgrounds, but usually games sponsored on Armor Games will find it’s way to either of the two featured portals. Jay is Games is a really good site for uncovering some really neat gems, but so much of their selection skews to the very casual that there is a lot of sifting required to get to the good stuff. I am also partial to the Indie Games Blog, but again the focus of the site is on indie game development, regardless of whether it is or is not a flash game.

So there you have it. There are many doors to chose from; many more pages added to the your choose-your-own adventure novel called Life. No worries, I’ll still be here. I just want to spend some time not only showing where to find great flash games, but really celebrating where flash is heading and what it could become. Don’t get me wrong, if I stumble upon greatness, I will absolutely let you know. But flash is in a place to really change the future of gaming. Will it start a revolution? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s a debate for later. For now, waste some time enjoying and discovering some great flash games.

Welcome back to my little hovel of a weekly blog known as the World of Flash. So at the end of last week, I told you I was going to inform you about where to find these flash games in nature. Well, I lied. I know. I’m horrible. I’m a monster. Get over it. I only do this for you. The world of flash games is a big and scary place, and I’m not ready to let go of you just yet. Instead, this week I’m going to take you on a journey to a small but really intriguing niche of flash game, perspective based puzzlers. There are only a handful of games that fill this genre, but what they do is so unique and interesting that I feel they warrant a little more attention. So open your mind and get ready to adapt a whole new point of view.

Coign of Vantage

Well it takes a while to put a million pieces back together!

Made by two guys named Markus and Philipp based out of Vienna, Coign of Vantage has the player adjusting their mouse to line up pixels in such a way that a 2D image is formed. The twist is that the pixels are scattered in 3D space, and all you you can control is the camera. Did I mention the time limit? Time begins to count down from thirty seconds as soon as the first pixels appear. However, with each image you complete, you gain more time to complete further images. Still, as the clock winds down, your mouse starts flailing more and more as you try to find just where the hell you need to put the camera. What’s the goal? Points, baby, points! Finish as many as you can to earn the high score and gloat to your friends about your more worldly perspective. Or don’t and just enjoy the game and the music’s soothing piano accompaniment.

Starlight

Seriously, those squiggles mean something…

As you may have concluded from the name Starlight has you manipulating the heavens themselves; bending them to your god-like powers, all in the name of pretty 2D pictures. Imagine if you looked up in the sky, connected the dots to make a pretty picture, and then your jerk brother came up and spun the stars around in 3D so you couldn’t tell what you were looking at anymore. It’s now your job to spin those stars back into place so that the world may marvel at your celestial vandalism. The game has three difficulty settings, meaning you can choose just how casual you want your casual gaming experience to be. Take all day with the easy difficulty and tie thousands of others for the high score. The middle difficulty provides a higher score for faster completion, but you can still take all day to finish them should you choose. Pro mode, on the other hand, comes in with a fistful of whoop-ass and gives you 30 sec to finish as many of the 64 puzzles as possible. Even with the 2 sec extension per completed picture, it is still quite a task. Also, I’m not sure what it is with these perspective gaming guys and their fetish for piano music, but the music does provide a nice calming background for whichever mode you feel like playing.

So that’s it for this week. I told you, very niche, but I feel as though there is a lot to be had there. Now I’m not gonna make any promises about what you will get from me next week. Do you remember paragraph one when I told you I was switching up the game plan? You got sooooo mad, I thought you were gonna throw something at me. You know, you should probably see someone about those rage issues. Or go play some Starlight. Seriously, that piano is MAXIMUM relaxation music. Check you next week, dear readers.

WHADDUP BLOGOSPHERE?!? Do people even call it that anymore??

After a long silence, here I am. Once again back is the incredible, not so rhyme animal, Incredible T. Or perhaps the incredible, inedible Tony. ‘Lo what could stir the Tony so strongly that he found it necessary to write again? The answer, my esteemed friends and colleagues, is Flash Games.

I’d like to begin with a discussion of the qualification of a Flash Game. A Flash Game CAN be made using Adobe Flash, but I really use this as a general term for browser based gaming. There are slight variations between engines used, but the point is that the code is compact enough to be download and then ran within the confines of your browser window. A Flash Game is typically an independent production from a single person or a small team. However, there are known contradictions to this, in particular the Dragon Age Journeys game put out by EA2D. So as you can see, there has been a large amount of evolution to the Flash Game genre. Now take my hand and join me on a trip to visit a couple of the latest and greatest residents of magical world of flash.

Canabalt

CHEESE IT!

Ah, here is a game marvelous in its simplicity. Known as an iPhone app from a group called Semi Secret Software, Canabalt really has its roots in the hands of two prolific indie designers; Adam Atomic in charge of the game and it’s visuals and Dan Baranowsky in charge of the music. As some sort of perfect storm of simplicity, the game is highly addictive. In fact, these guys keep it so simple, your only means of control are a jump key! Originally mapped to the x and c key, as an iPhone app you find yourself frantically trying to tap the screen (or click for the browser version) to jump over all the obstacles dumped in your path. And what, pray tell, are you running from? Who the hell knows. I just know it must be scary as hell because the more obstacles you miss, the faster your little man books it from the left side of the screen to the right. The game also derives a lot of it’s atmosphere from the fast retro-esque music and sound design, as well as the carnage ensuing in the background. If you enjoy this fantastic work that was first constructed on the flixel engine, be sure to check out another fav of mine called Gravity Hook.

The Company of Myself

“I’m Sparticus!” “No I’M Sparticus”

This game, created by Eli Piilonen (known as 2Darray), features the “these are my clones” style of gameplay that has recently been showcased in major titles like Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. While you navigate with the arrow keys like you would in any other platformer, the main mechanic of the game is restricted to a reset button which starts the level over with a shadowy clone enacting what you just did. On certain levels, you need many “yous” in order to complete your objectives. But on other levels this mechanic is abandoned you are given an assistant that you swap between using the same key as the reset button. Otherwise you’re trying to jump over chasms and off of your clones in an attempt to reach a door that you would not be able to get to yourself. Not only are the mechanics of the game sound, but the art style (provided by Luka Marcetic) and the music (from David Carney) provide a melancholy atmosphere that fits perfectly with the game’s story displayed through on screen text.

Continuity

Not for the weak of mind

A current entrant for the 2010 Independant Games Festival for the student competition, Continuity is definitely one of the best twists on the traditional platformer I have seen in a long time. Created by a group of students that live in Gothenburg, Sweden and call themselves Ragtime Games, Continuity gets a little bit of your sliding puzzle in its platformer. Or is it a little bit of its platformer in your sliding puzzle? Either way, players have to navigate their little stick dude through 32 levels that become both increasingly complex as a platforming maze and as a puzzle. The aesthetic is kept to simple shapes with solid color backgrounds which allows you to more easily see which pieces line up correctly and in what fashion. The sounds design takes an interesting twist with a very calm, quiet and melodic tune while zoomed out that stands in contrast with a fast paced steady electronica rhythm to accompany the zoomed in platforming. Your goal? Simply to scarf up all the red keys in a level and then make it to the door. There is no time limit, so the game lets you take it at your pace. Just don’t be surprised when you find yourself checking the time and a couple hours have passed.

So there you have it, a quick introduction to some of the most recent cool cats to enter the Flash Gaming scene. But this is definitely only the tip of the iceberg that is the Flash Games community. In fact, there are now several communities that make their living as portals for thousands upon thousands of browser based games. I hope you enjoyed this first foray into the World of Flash and look out for the next installment where I’ll talk about where many of these games make berth (yes I used a nautical term).

Nope, this isn’t a blog about my love for the Back to The Future video games. This is basically a love letter to my #1 RPG (tied if not only a hair in front of Final Fantasy 3/6) of all time, Chrono Trigger. I was originally going to write a piece on how nostalgia can affect the appreciation of a video game. Then it occurred to me during my current playthrough on the DS Chrono Trigger remake. My love for Chrono Trigger doesn’t come from some childhood love of a good game built in my mind to be great (read: Galerians). Chrono Trigger is in fact a nearly flawless, but not perfect, representative of the RPG genre from it’s golden age on the SNES. Sure Ayla isn’t the best character; and they kinda force you to use her for her charm skill. Hell, the entirety of 65,000,000 is kinda lacking (of course that might be just my opinion); still there are characters and moments that have had a long lasting influence. SO to get to the meat of it, here is a list of my favorite aspects of Chrono Trigger:

1. No Random Encounters: Now before you say “Wait, but Tony, there were times where I’d be walking towards a door and all of a sudden I got in a fight,” give me a second. So let’s say a spiky haired punk with a sword, a preppy girl wearing too little clothing holding a crossbow and a complete dork with a gun bust into your home.  What are the odds that you will mill about in plain view until they tap you on the shoulder and inform you of their wish to engage in completely lopsided combat? Sure your simple friends may have just stood there in their little pow-wow circle and waited for them to show up, but aren’t you gonna try to hide and then ambush them when they go to open the door or peruse through one of your many boxes of treasure? Now that I’ve thrown that out there, is it still “random” when some dude attacks you at a doorway? I didn’t think so. Either way, there have been far fewer invisible enemies since.

2. The Fetch Quest: Yes, you heard it here first, I’m giving credit to Chrono Trigger for the invention of the fetch quest. Yeah sure, we’ve all made the grind for levels or gold for equipment, but Chrono Trigger has the distinction of being the first game where I’ve grinded for item drops from monsters to later trade them directly for equipment. Yeah, hunting for horns and feathers wasn’t the best, but neither is hunting for wolf pelts or bird beaks nowadays. Point is it stuck, especially when it comes to MMORPGs. I’m sure there was something else out there before hand that had something similar; but as far as I’m concerned my future full of fetch begins here.

3. Team Attacks: Seriously…how pimp were they? I mean, I remember the first time I got X-Strike I was dumbfounded. Both Crono…and Frog….dashing through the enemy at the same time? COULD IT BE TRUE? Man, then I learned the triple tech Delta Attack? My young mind was blown away. It hasn’t quite been used to the same effect since, but it has left its mark. Persona might be the best example off the top of my head.  There was also some FFIX (completely underrated game) fusion between Steiner and Vivi. Either way,  I think there have been 0 people who conceive of it as a bad idea.

4. More Endings Then Your Body Has Room For:  Chrono Trigger’s baker’s dozen of endings is the most an RPG had seen up to that point. Full of all kinds of ridiculous (in particular the “Developer’s Room” ending), I always found it incredible when a game would reward you for trying a feat of complete jackholery. I mean seriously, one spiky haired punk vs. a life force draining parasite with near infinite power fallen from outer space? What are the odds? (Pretty good actually, especially if your spiky haired punk is dealing 1000 dmg a pop) Oh yeah and it’s influence? Didn’t Fallout 3 say it had like…80 billion goddamn endings?

5. When a New Game just isn’t enough: Wouldn’t it be cool if Cecil was still a high powered Paladin and Rydia could already summon Bahamut right at the start of the game? Well Chrono Trigger gave you just that feeling with their New Game+! While not necessary for any RPG, it does make it a hell of a lot more fun when you restart the game and then immediately one-shot Yakra. Since then there have been varying degrees of success with its use, but New Game+ was a vital part of the Chrono experience (especially when you take into account reason #4).

6. GOTTA GET BACK IN TIIIIME!!: While not the first game to have time travel, Chrono Trigger has done it in a way that was clever, innovative and sometimes tricky the entire time. The new content in the Chrono Trigger DS game takes full advantage of the time mechanic, with frequent jumps back and forth being essential to finishing anything. But the best part wasn’t just the traveling, it was watching the world grow. Being able to follow certain lineages all the way from 65,000,000 BC to the future of 2300 AD was a really awesome experience. Then, being able to noticebly effect that future with even the slightest of actions provided for really rewarding, and sometimes incredibly humorous, situations. All I know is I do wish the Epoch looked a little more like this.

Well there it is. I could ramble (even more than I just did) for hours about the merits of Chrono Trigger. But I’ll save that for another day. All I know is that Doc just showed up muttering something about my kids…

Sorry. The first issue of  Age of Wings: The Aegis Wing Chronicles: Fanfic: Lemon: Hardcore Extreme Edition has to be put on hold. The secondary applications are now going to become my life. However after these are done, expect me to have ridiculous amounts of spare time. That means reliable issues and reliable blogging. However, if you can’t wait, please check out my Twitter. It is updated frequently and usually contains just fun things I find or minor updates on life. http://twitter.com/TonyDivito, go there. Hopefully I’ll be blogging soon. If anyone is reading/cares, haha….awww.

I’m BAAAAACK! If only for a little while. Primaries are just about done. Thank the lord. I suggest this as a life exercise: Sit down and write a personal statement. It doesn’t have to be for any application, just do it for yourself. You’ll discover a lot as you write it. Ok, on to video games.

I’ve realized that I’m a whore for flash games. Not the kind that Ex-Gov. Elliot Spitzer would pay thousands for, more like that dime whore on the corner that will let you do really nasty stuff for a couple bucks. Only I’m spreading my legs for stuff like Corpse Craft and Kongregate. These games have a really interesting hold on me. As a fan of artsy-fartsy stuff (I really really liked the end of No Country for Old Men), these independently produced games have a lot more leniency for their art direction. This unique opportunity allows for the game player to experience something that either can’t be found or is exceedingly rare on the mainstream console space. However, I think things are about to change…but not fast enough and not in the best ways.

Everyone who follows new games news is familiar with Microsoft’s XNA, the community based forum for creation/production of games. When I first heard about this, it made me think of websites like Kongregate or Newgrounds. If you’re unfamiliar, this are web portals that allow people to post flash-based games and the massive user populous is allowed to vote on them. Then I heard about XNA’s system that gives good/prolific reviewers more weight; a key aspect to Newgrounds grading scale. Where the whole system falls short in my eyes is the payscale; 200, 400 or 800 points. No, free is not an option. I’m not enraged, but aren’t I paying $50 a year for a service that is being crept up on by Sony’s free PSN??? It just seems like improper marketing. Should I be expecting higher quality games than those I can find on the interwebs for free? Perhaps from some but I feel that most of these will be rehashes on old themes (read: PopCap-like games). What will the demo system be? All I can imagine is again a PopCap-esque time-limit or gimped version. ON the other hand, there are games where the developer should be paid and Samurai Dishwasher, or whatever it’s called, deserves every penny I’ll pay. But this brings me to another point: What will happen to XBLA?

Without a doubt quality will have to become higher. You as a mid-range developer had no competition against your 800 point crap game. Now you have a series of independent 200 or 400 point games that do what your crap game did and more. So now what’s to justify your 800 point game? It’ll push the companies to produce better product, but at increased cost to the company. Well, this all being a meta-game for making money, the burden of that expense will be placed upon the consumer. So now we have XBLA minimums at about 1200 points? Now, if this means those really crap shovelware games going for $60 are finally choked out by less crap XBLA games going for $15, then good. I see a shift coming, but how soon, we shall see. I wanna hear your guys opinion on this and you might just hear it in a podcast.

BTW, it has been promised, so it will come. Expect Tony’s next blog to feature the first installment of what will hopefully become a weekly affair; Age of Wings: The Aegis Wing Chronicles: Fanfic: Lemon: Hardcore Extreme Edition (Oh and yes, there will be plenty of MSPaint-shopping). Here’s the scary part of this, it’s time for me to do some field research; wish me luck. Also, I’m gonna work on making my blogs shorter (no word on the fanfic though). Some changes coming soon, I hope all 3 of you are excited.

…and certainly not in blogging. Sorry guys, I thought I’d be able to get more blogs in. Unfortunately, personal statement writing was gravely underestimated by this Med School hopeful. However, on the bright side, my MCAT score was high enough to warrant handshakes and words of approval from my already graduated co-workers. SO for all those interested, here’s a little bit about the primary application process.

Most of it is very simple. You tell them your name, age, other vital statistics. Then, they drop two giant inconveniences in your path. 1) Not only do you have to SEND your transcript, but you must also COPY your transcript….Yeah, they wanna make sure you/your university wasn’t lying??? 2) The personal statement (aka Why do you think you should be a doctor, but don’t answer that question directly, do it in a roundabout essay-esque format). Ugh. I’d rather take a belt sander to my scrotum.  Hopefully my enthusiasm for the field will drive me through this hellish ordeal and on toward victory!

And I think that is the key to my personal statement. What I have on my side isn’t my GPA, it’s very average to below average for the schools I’ll be applying too. What I do have on my side is experience and geniune excitement. I feel like some applicants are going into medicine because of their parents or other external influences. I, on the other hand, have seen industry, research and medicine. I know what working in each would be like. And I know what I like. I like medicine. I love talking to the patients and I love being able to do my small part to help them out. The reason I want to become a doctor is because not only do I want to do more, but I feel like I CAN do more, and do it very well. Besides, I love the science behind it. There was a reason I stuck with Biochemistry even after I decided (in error) that I wanted to go to Law School. The human body is an INCREDIBLE machine that is the prime example of how powerful cooperation can be.  Man can move mountains, but when it comes down to it we’re all a pile of fat, water and enzymes (amongst other things). Also, the patients have this very complicated dichotomy. They are both simulatenously a person and a puzzle; and I love that. Each of these problems will have a problem that will challenge me intellectually. And each of these people have lives that I can hopefully return to them. My reward as a doctor will not only be the solving of the puzzle, but the satisfaction of knowing that I helped a patient get back one of the things they treasure most, their health.

SO I guess that’s it. There it is, my personal statement. I mean, what you just saw there was my own stream of conciousness (and I guess it took about 20 minutes), so now it’s time to dress it up. Put on the bow, make it look pretty, provide some more examples of just how this will thrill me. But that feels a lot better. I’m one step closer, and I hope this will work out. Wish me luck peoples.

BTW - As someone who has taken both the MCAT and the LSAT, if you have questions/need advice for either PLEASE let me know. I can help point you in the right direction and to some good resources.

So, I missed a week. It’s not like I haven’t posted for nearly a month like other podcast members (glares at just about everyone else). However, this isn’t gonna be a great week. Why? Well I kinda have these essays to write. For Med School. It’s a lot of writing. Then editing. Then re-writing. Then scrapping. Then rewriting again. Needless to say, I’m kinda burned out on typing words. In the words of Ringo Starr from Helter Skelter, “I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!!” I suppose the difference is that I won’t throw my keyboard. If I get some sort of great inspiration, look for another blog. Either way, after the awesomness this weekend will have, you should expect something great next week.

“Dude…This controller sucks.”

“This game is cheating for you man!”

“Wow, this AI is CHEAP!”

“BULLSHIT!”

You’ve heard all of these before. Hell, odds are you’ve even said one of them. And if you haven’t, then you’ve definately said something just like it. So, what’s my point? I just find it interesting that how big the collective ego is for gamers. But the question is, what drives it?

Certainly you can say it is likely an instinctive response. Competition is a driving force in evolution and blah blah blah blah *snooze* (which by the way, is the weirdest looking word ever). Then you have those who would argue that it’s some kinda Freudian response to wanting to bang my Mom and kill my Dad. Which is cool. I’m all about banging Moms; just not my Mom. Instead, I’m prone to think that gaming is where we let our egos fly free. We have to prove that we are better than the random schmucks out there. We have to know that xXD1ngl3b34rr135Xx on XBox Live is screaming in frustration over the interbutts because I just pwned him. And all of this is fine; until you let it cloud your judgements.

Damn you FraggedUrMaker….Damn You…

What do I mean “cloud your judgement”? You know that game where you just aren’t as good as everyone else. The one where, no matter how hard you try, you can be adequate at best. It’s a dumb game, right? Somewhere along the way they just screwed up the programming and it’s just not a good game. Or is it a good game, but the frustration of not being the best is blinding us? Some games are bad, and no amount of being good at them can save them from said fate. But some games were great and due to frustration, no one ever got the chance to see how great they are. I’m looking at you…Quest 64.