My friend has been raising his new daughter for awhile now. Seeing as how we’re all gaming geeks, I realize that one day she’ll be sucked into the same obsession we all share.

I remember the kinds of games that really won me over as a kid. I was the brainy type, wasting hours with science readers and Square One. A lot of the games I loved mixed puzzles with adventure. But I’m not talking about adventure games like King’s Quest (use kazoo on camel.) None of this action puzzle stuff either (like Tetris.) I mean full-on serious brain teasing.

I suppose I never grew out of it. Every once in awhile the craving hits and I pull out my trusty Professor Layton. But there’s more to be had in this little genre that shaped my formative years. Professor Layton comes on the heels of several puzzle adventure titles for computers. Each one is chock full of classic head-scratchers wrapped in the shell of an adventure game.

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I’m currently spending a lot of time trying to get in my 50,000 words. I expect the complete manuscript to be around 90,000. Until it’s done, this website is just gonna have to wait.

NO COME BACK! I have something to show you!

You see that ARTICLES button at the top? Yeah, it’s working now. I took the time to re-edit a bunch of old articles. They’re updated with new information and some new games. If you haven’t read them before, now is an excellent time. Soon, all my best (or at least informative) posts will be collected there.

See you in December!

It’s tough replaying games. Once you know what to do and where to go, that “first-time magic” dulls with each play. This is the appeal of procedural content: it allows us to be consistently surprised by the game. A procedural game that’s only an hour long can be replayed hundreds of times without boring the player.

Well geeze, it sounds like procedural content is the wave of the future! Yeah, well it’s about damn time. The history of procedural content goes back much further than “a few years ago.” In 1983, a curious little adventure game spread through college campuses like a wildfire. It wasn’t like other games and was played hundreds of times by hundreds of people. Finishing this game didn’t mean you had mastered it.

Rogue changed everything.

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I don’t have much to say this week. I still have to work on my portfolio and get all pretty looking for possible employers.

I went on a shopping spree a few days ago. Specifically I was looking for DS games. My Nintendo DS has completely replaced all the books on my nightstand. Before I go to bed, I’m tapping away with my stylus instead of turning pages. Hell, the DS is the best system of this entire generation.

But that’s neither here nor there. What was I talking about?

Oh right, yeah the games. I was buying some new games to fulfill my insatiable hunger. During my search, I was surprised to see such low prices on considerably excellent games. They never got a fair shake and now they’re sitting in Wal-marts gigantic unsorted bargain bin. They’re all less than $20 (CAD) and some of them were a mere $10.

Sooo… I guess I’m saying that if you have a DS and you have money, you should read the rest of this post.

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This is an abbreviated article with links to the ROMs and ISOs of the games. To read the full article, please visit Hardcore Gaming 101 at the link below.

View the HG101 article here!

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This week is a cop out. I have some articles planned and half-written, but I need to clean up my website first. Also I gotta focus on my job hunting for the Big Move, so no updates for awhile. I know! It’s terrible!

Well dammit, if I’m gonna lose my (embarrassingly few) regular readers I’m gonna make sure you guys go somewhere good.

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The turnout for Ludum Dare 15 was literally nothing short of sensational. A whopping 144 entries made it through the gauntlet of a mere 48 hour time-limit. I must admit, I’m pretty damn impressed. Once I get a handle on these prototyping tools (I’m looking at Love right now), I hope to join in this sensational fray. The amount of work these indie hardcores have done in such a short time is nothing less than inspirational.

Do I expect you, dear reader, to throw yourself as a player into this large ocean of madness? Of course not, for surely many of you would drown from the sheer depth of all this gaming glory.

First, I narrowed the list down to 27 entries which I thought were pretty decent. But then I realized that 27 entries is still a bit daunting for a casual read. Many of them, like Rock Warrior and Shelter, I set aside, because I didn’t want to bore you beyond a thousand words. I still expect the indiest of you to go and have a look at all these entries for yourself!

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