Category: Videogames

  • An Evening of Videogame Appreciation

    Last month I curated a selection of nine games at the AGO, one of the largest art museums in North America. After the audience had a chance to play them, I went around to each game and explained the cultural value I felt it offered. Seven of the nine games had creators attending them, so I was able to ask them a question about their process. This format encouraged the audience to engage with them afterwards, sometimes their first time talking to a game artist — I was happy the audience was a broad mix of game-curious art patrons, students, kids, and game community members. I’ve documented my selections and rationale below — for further context, feel free to read the AGO’s Foyer piece.

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  • Parallel Play

    When I describe what I do in co-organizing Toronto Games Week, people often say that it sounds stressful and like a lot of work — as opposed to writing or creating stuff, which people think sounds like fun. But they’re both fun in certain ways, stressful in others. 

    When my organizing schemes are going well, I wonder to myself: why doesn’t everyone want to do this? It’s so fun! I’ve always felt my creative side and my organizer side were complimentary, but now I’m almost wondering if I may have become an artist so I could be a better arts community organizer.

    More on that subject later — but Toronto Games Week starts Thursday, so here are my top picks for you rated with difficulty levels…

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  • An Abandoned Punk House

    Is there a thing you know you should do, but don’t? With me, for years, it was paper prototyping. Paper prototyping is the process of sketching out a game design, literally, with pencil and paper, and then playtesting the design ideas you have before you ever sit down in front of a computer. Instead of a computer modeled character you can use an action figure. Instead of generating a random number you have dice throws. Most games have many mechanics that can also work in a board game context, though there’s obviously lots of gamefeel related aspects that need to be digitally tested.

    It’s the same as the filmmaking principle that “paper is cheaper than film”, that ideas in a paper script can be added and removed and problems solved far more easily than after a scene has been shot. I would never dream of shooting a short without a script, but it took a familiar motivator to get me creating my first paper prototype:

    When it’s hard for me to do something for myself, I can often do it to help someone else.

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  • VR is Weird — Let’s Go With It!

    Consumer Virtual Reality is kind of dead, and that’s great news… It’s as though an alien spaceship fell on earth and all the aliens died… and now we have to figure out how to use this strange technology for our very human desires. (From Stranger Playthings: Remaking a VR Counterculture)

    VR is weeeird. So we made a weird game with it called Manimal Sanctuary. It’s a lurking simulator where you play a creature that’s part coral reef, part Cthulhu, who feeds off of the emotions of humans.

    It’s also weird to exhibit VR games: “Hey, mind strapping this box to your head in a way that effectively blinds you and makes you look silly?” And it’s boring for the people who aren’t wearing the headsets.

    We addressed those issues… by doubling down on the weirdness.

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  • Manimal Sanctuary

    The last six months or so I’ve been writing and designing a VR game prototype:

    Manimal Sanctuary is a lurking simulator. It leverages low-end VR technology to enable every player’s ultimate fantasy: to play a creature part coral reef, part Cthulhu, who consumes human emotions. Set on the Toronto Islands after the rest of the city is consumed by gibbering monstrosities, you eavesdrop on the survivors and their dramas involving things like bad potato crops and graffiti tags. And if those everyday emotions aren’t filling enough, you can always uncover some devastating secrets…

    UPDATE: The free demo is available now for iPhone and Android phones that can run Google Cardboard apps.
    Daily Vice did a 4 min vid on it filmed on Toronto Island.
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  • Walk Away With Wonderland, for Free

    Does your mom like puzzles and historical mysteries, and own an iPhone? Why not surprise her on Mother’s Day by installing Wonderland?

    Wonderland is an audio drama game set circa 1914, in Toronto’s rough-and-tumble Junction neighbourhood. The end of each chapter poses a puzzle — solve it, and unlock the next one. Stuck? Just put your iPhone in your pocket and go for a walk… every 100 steps, one of the letters in the puzzle is filled in.

    Just in time for the start of prime walking season, Wonderland is free for the month of May. Walking simulators are so 2012 — take our walking stimulator for a stroll instead!

    Install it for free here

  • Finding Authentic Agency in Black Rock City

    Cover by Trish Lamanna

    You're at Burning Man, with six choices to make before the world goes white.
     Choose wisely. Or wildly. The dust storm won't care.
     [ PLAY BLACK ROCK CITY ]

    As a linear storyteller, branching narratives have been challenging for me. I usually have a story I want to tell, and in writing choice-based games I often found myself having to write a bunch of branches I wasn’t as interested in, and I always looped them back to converge with the main story. I preferred making parser games because it felt like I was giving the player more autonomy, even when new parts of the story were gated by puzzles.

    But upon reading Sam Ashwell’s “Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games” I liked the idea of trying different structures, and was taken by what he calls Time Cave. In the past I think I’ve regarded this structure as inefficient somehow — inferior because it didn’t reuse writing in a clever way. But seeing a bunch of these typical structures side-by-side in the article let me drop the notion that there’s a “proper” way to do CYOA, and I decided to try the Time Cave. There’s something pretty beautiful about the way it spreads out exponentially. It does need a lot of writing, but I like writing a lot. (more…)

  • Texture is Born

    Pretty Sure

    I’m very proud to announce the official release of our interactive fiction authoring tool, Texture!

    Logo design by Beehive Design

    At the top of the post is Jonathan Wyke‘s cover art for Pretty Sure, the first game I made with it. It’s about parenting after Earth is colonized. You can play it on anything with a web browser but it’s especially nice on a tablet.

    Juhana Leinonen and I have been chipping away at Texture for a few years, and it started with wanting to make an interactive fiction interface that was approachable and touchscreen-friendly. (more…)

  • Wonderland Launched!

    IMG_8426

    My new iPhone game, Wonderland: A Solvitur Ambulando Mystery, is now on sale for $3.49 on the App Store! Check out the brand new website and trailer, which stars my mom. You can also listen to the first chapter there, which thanks to my collaborators is some fine, fine audio drama.

    We launched the game on Saturday night at Junction Brewery with a nice crowd of well-wishers, including a lot of my fellow interactive fiction game makers: Emily Short, Will O’Neill, Sam Barlow, Jason McIntosh, Squinky, Doug Orleans and Christine Love. Check out some pictures here.

  • Wonderland an IndieCade Finalist, Everyone In Silico

    indiecade

    I am taking a quick break from prep for our upcoming Toronto fancy videogame party to toot that my upcoming iPhone audio drama adventure game Wonderland has got a nod from the jurors at IndieCade! I love the Los Angeles festival, held in the cozy Culver City neighbourhood, so I’ll be using the excuse to fly down south again next month even if I have just returned from Nevada.

    (And yeah, wow, was that ever worth the hype. There is a range of human expression at Burning Man, from “peace and love!” to “fuck you!”, that I’ve never seen co-existing. You work like a dog and play like a god. It’s deeply dirty and utterly innocent. I am a convert.)

    But! Continuing the 15th anniversary giveaway, my free ebook this month is Everyone In Silico.

    Are you ready to upgrade to a fully modifiable and personalized reality?

    In Vancouver, 2036, people are tired of the smog and the rain. They’re willing to give up a lot for guaranteed sunshine.

    “Munroe drops in excellent touches — bioterrorists planting seeds, not bombs; home cloning labs — that help make Silico one of the freshest and scariest, yet most hopeful, near-future yarns in a long time.” —Time Out New York

    Cover art and back cover copy & more blurbs here.

    Download here

    Free in August: Angry Young Spaceman (now pay-what-you-want)
    Free in October: Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask
    Free in November: An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil
    Free in December: Therefore Repent! (illustrated by Salgood Sam)
    Free in January: Sword of My Mouth (illustrated by Shannon Gerard)

    If you want to find out when the new book’s up follow me on Twitter or even better, subscribe to the blog — so we don’t have to rely on a corporation to keep in touch.

  • The Tour Guide: A Playful Fiction

    plinth-web
    One of the things I got up to when I was an artist-in-residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario was make a game. It’s a simple video choose-your-own-adventure set in the AGO, featuring a rather unusual tour guide.

    It was a fun opportunity to work with Rachel again (who was the human spam in Ghosts With Shit Jobs) and a good excuse to poke and prod at the protective membrane that surrounds any institution. The folks at the AGO were really good humoured about it and now have even installed it in the Walker Court arcade for the next little while on its own plinth, as pictured above — possibly til the end of the year. It’s a site specific piece and it’ll only be viewable at the AGO.

    But there’ll be an excellent opportunity to check it (and a number of other cool art performances) at the AGO’s First Thursday event on Thursday May 7th, tickets here! It’ll be projected large, myself and Rachel will be there and I’ll be giving a little talk about it close to the beginning of the event.

  • Artist Residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario

    Magi's Rendering screenshot

    Quite flattered and surprised to announce that I’ll be the artist-in-residence at one of North America’s largest museum galleries, the AGO. During February and March they’re providing a studio, a stipend and institutional support to make art — in my case, game art — and engage the public. What the public engagement will look like is still in the planning stages but I’ll be posting more about it as event details firm up.

    In related news, I took part in a hackathon and made this art game in about six hours with the guys at Verold. The Magi’s Rendering is my first 3D game, and you can play it now in most recent browsers. Credits and design notes below. (more…)