Ammunition > Heroics

Yesterday there was a basketball game at the high school I go to... Here we are required to participate in pep band, but we only need to go to a certain number of games. I already went to enough, but this was the last game against our school's big rival or something so I went anyway.
It's fun, but I much prefer marching band...
Anyhow, our team won by five points in double overtime. It was pretty late by the time it got done... So I didn't end up having time to watch any movies when I got home, like I had wanted to.
We're finally down to the last Rocky movie, you see. We've been watching them lately. We started several months back and have been watching another one every couple weeks or so... I like them, for the most part. There were a couple I didn't enjoy as much, but I forget which ones they were.

You know what's funny? The GMC. I go there every now and then to see what people are working on with GM and such. I always like to watch the development of new games...
Of course, 90% of everything there is lame. But then, 90% of everything is lame. Some science fiction writer said something to that effect once, I think. And now they call it so-and-so's law. Or something. As you can see I only have a very vague idea of what I am talking about...
Anyway, as I was saying. Occasionally I'll come across really neat stuff there (I'll be sharing some if it later in the post). But naturally, that's not the humorous part.
The part that I find funny is dumb people. Dumb people are funny. And I like laughing at their posts. Not that I ever laugh audibly at them. They've made me snicker a bit though.
As I've said in the past, I don't tend to laugh out loud at things I read unless they're Dilbert or something.
Here are a couple examples of ignorant comments I've read (I don't remember the exact wording, but I think I've got it more or less right):

wow this is a great game i love it u should make it 3d

Riiiight. I'm sure he'll get right on that. The way the next generation is being brought up scares me. Do they really think 3D games are somehow superior to 2D ones? Or that 2D games can be "made 3D"? That's like saying "Wow, this painting is great, but you should turn it into a sculpture." Heh...

This game is Flash worthy!!!

Uhh...? Even if Flash was some kind of industry standard (which it isn't, thankfully), that doesn't mean it's the epitome of good game development tools. I actually think it's kind of a weird tool to be making games with... There are great ones made in Flash, of course (N, for instance). But the post is made even more ridiculous-looking when you realize nine out of ten Flash games make you want to smash your head into a wall because they're either boring or terrible. But usually they're both. Then again, 90% of everything...
But my main point is that there are a lot of ways to make good games. Even if one way was better than another, that doesn't mean something is "worthy" of a better method.
In summary, then: That is the lamest complement I have heard in a long time.

Anyhow. The clever people over there (there do seem to be quite a few of them; I think they overwhelm the ignorant people, fortunately) tend to say humorous things as well, such as:

You should probably go back and edit that post so that it makes a lick of sense.

...I dunno, I just found the wording to be very funny, somehow. Maybe it's just me.



Now. Do you need some random small-scale games to waste time with? Because I have a ton of them (a ton). I think I need to share them with you.
Note that the majority of these are made with GM and will only run in Windows. Some of the others are not made with GM but will still only run in Windows.

Jumpman
I just discovered this yesterday, or maybe the day before that. It's a traditional, old-school platformer. It's pretty tricky and quite fun to play.
It's not really unique -- I don't think that was the point -- but there are two interesting features:
1. There is very little friction so your character slides around a lot
2. You can rotate the levels. This is actually a pretty unusual feature, but it's not like it hasn't been done before.
There's also some nifty visual stuff... You can see upcoming levels in the background, and you zoom back into them when you finish the one you're on currently.
(By the way, this one does work on Macs. I think it might run in WINE, too.)

30 Second Hero
This is a very, very small game. But it's different, so it's fun.
You should also try out the sequel to this game (not exactly a sequel since the gameplay is entirely different), 30 Heroes, which you can get here.
In the first game, you get thirty seconds to beat the game. It's arranged like a classic RPG, but the world map is incredibly small, and all battles are totally automated. There's a shop you can go to to purchase three different equipment upgrades, healing, and extra time.
It's sort of about strategy; you have to choose what you buy carefully... I've won once already, but it seemed kind of cheap so I've tried to win after having purchased full upgrades, but I have not been able to do so yet.
In the second game, you send out many many heroes to move along the top of the screen and do battle with various monsters. You basically just give your heroes equipment and send them on their way. As you defeat more monsters, you get more equipment to use. It's pretty tricky, actually, but I managed to beat this one as well.
...Oh, I suppose I should mention that both games are entirely in Japanese. They're not that hard to figure out, but if you need a translation for the first game (which is less straightforward), you can find one here (third comment on the post).

Muon
An interesting little platformer with randomly generated levels. I've had it for a while, but I haven't played it much lately. I guess that's because it's very simple. But it's a very fun distraction for a while, or to come back to every now and then.
This game is on the YoYo Games site... if you want, there's a specail plugin you can install so that you can play the games "from your browser". I don't actually recommend this, however, as in actuality it's still installing the game. So my recommendation is that you just download it.

Skullpogo
This is a fun little game with surprisingly unusual and solid gameplay. It also has really nice graphics and catchy music...
Another reason I like it is because it's one of those game where the setting makes you go "Pffwhaaaat?": You're a skeleton who jumps up and down on a pogo stick, smashing pigs and bats.
We need less games with generic settings, I think. This one is great.
(This one is also on YoYo Games; my earlier comments apply to this as well.)

Loot
A very simple card-based dungeon crawling thing. It's unique, because most dungeon crawls are deep roguelikes or ARPGs, but this one has very simple gameplay. It's easy to learn and a lot of fun to play.
...That's not to say that I don't like deep games. I love them. But sometimes you just want something minesweeperesque. Simple games have their place, too.
(Also on YYG.)

Frozzd
Here's a game by Jesse Venbrux, one of my favorite developers these days. He's made some really amazing stuff; it looks like he has a great future ahead of him.
This is the biggest of the lot, but the main game is quite short and there's no extra stuff to explore, really. It's a fantastic game; it's too bad he hasn't come back to it and given more reason to keep playing...
(YYG, once again.)


...I could show you more, but this should be plenty for now.
Have fun wasting time!
=P

:::Source expected
:::21.02.09
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