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Hamilton has long been synonymous with the "Steel City" moniker, but a growing market for entrepreneurs is helping to re-shape that perception.
This, along with the growing popularity of online crowd-funding models like Kickstarter have allowed developers like Nathan Dworzak, Parker Martin and Michael Huynh to gather support for their own online action role-playing game they're calling Dragon of Legends.
The three are founders of Thrive Games, which they initially began in 2013 as Thrive! Entertainment. The project, their first game developed from scratch, is described on their Kickstarter page as a "2D online [action] RPG inspired by Celtic and Norse mythology" and resembles the style and art reminiscent of video games in the early 90s.
"If you grew up playing the Super Nintendo, it's kind of tapping into that aesthetic," explained Dworzak.
"But we're also adding more advanced mechanics, like being able to play the game on any device."
At the time of writing, the game had accumulated nearly 500 backers and $18,000 on their Kickstarter with a couple weeks left in their campaign to reach their $60,000 goal.
While the team made the decision to briefly shut down the campaign as they didn't expect to reach their end goal, Dworzak went on to explain that an investment firm had very recently stepped forward to cover 80 percent of their costs.
The campaign is expecting to re-launch on Kickstarter before the end of February with a more modest goal of $12,000 for the project to be fully funded.
The project follows in a style of games that have grown in familiarity in recent years. Cult-hit titles like Shovel Knight, and more recently, Undertale, have demonstrated that independent developers like Dworzak and his team can experience critical success with their games, despite having a minimalist approach to the game's aesthetics.
However, the team at Thrive has certainly spared no expense in attempting to flesh out the world that they're promising on their Kickstarter page, and the wealth of information they've provided on the world and the mechanics of their game indicate just how serious they are.
With a team that Dworzak has estimated to have involved up to 25 people, the input and background of the team has had a variety of influences as well, both within and outside Hamilton. While Dworzak graduated from Wilfred Laurier University with a degree in music composition, Martin graduated from McMaster University with a background in Multimedia/Theatre & Film.
However, the three co-founders have grown up as friends in Hamilton since middle school, and have shared a passion for video games that they've been able to turn into more than just a passion project. They’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with The Forge, a start-up accelerator associated with McMaster, as well as McMaster’s Innovation Park.
“For me, it was just a passion, and I’ve always wanted to make games,” Dworzak explained. “But as a composer, I was limited … I managed to be lucky with the people I knew.”
“We shared the same vision in what we wanted to do; we wanted to create a gaming company that would create heartfelt experiences.”
With their Kickstarter set to re-launch, they’re hoping that others will share in their passion for these experiences.
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As much as I have been obsessed with the artistic potential in video games, there have been very few experiences that felt like they could be recommended to a more general audience in the same way that a great film, novel or album could be. Even the classic contenders for the “Best Games of All Time” are steep time investments that make them a hard sell to a less committed audience.
The most prominent titles this year focused on providing hours and hours of content, or using their multi-million dollar budgets to perpetuate the clumsy additions of “cinematic storytelling.” Yet a small Kickstarter-backed game made by director and composer Toby Fox stands out as not only the clear winner for best game of 2015, it may very well have a shot for one of the greatest, and most important games of the modern era. Regardless of whether or not you have dabbled in the medium before, you have to experience the fantastical and complex world of Undertale.
On the surface, Undertale is a relatively straightforward, five-hour, turn-based role playing game, developed using Game Maker: Studio, a free engine. You assume the control of a nameless child, who has fallen into an underground world of monsters, and must encounter its strange residents, solve puzzles, and explore a variety of different environments in their journey home.
Yet, unlike the traditional role-playing game, Undertale allows the player to complete the entire game without killing a single enemy. Almost every character interaction and plot point is changed heavily depending on whether or not the player has chosen to kill or show mercy: to play as a pacifist, or to kill every single character in the game.
The world within Undertale is whimsical, humorous, and as charming as it is deeply moving. It is reminiscent of some of my own favourite works of fantasy, that blend a humorous cast of characters with just the right amount of dark undertones subtly found throughout the plot. Every monster you encounter, though potentially violent at first, are never purely malicious, and it can be just as addicting to flirt with slime monsters, pet a Great Dog knight, or “unhug” a monster and respect their boundaries. The potential interactions during random encounters and boss battles make the pacifist route much more rewarding than traditional turn-based combat.
Undertale really punishes players in emotional form just as it does in terms of difficulty when one chooses the genocide route, and Fox does so by forcing players to consider the weight of their actions on this fictional world. There is no sense of heroism or justification in the genocide path, the game itself acknowledges that the player is really only doing it because they can. Monsters who would otherwise be the best of friends will desperately try to defend their loved ones against you, and their deaths are gruesome as they are desperate.
While the strong cast of characters, writing, and tight battle-system would make a great title in its own right, Undertale’s commentary on some of the inherent traits of the video game medium is what pushes it to masterpiece status. Undertale acknowledges the absolute power the player has over the game itself, and in the face of that, begs and pleads that he/she shows mercy to its charming characters and world. Yet, while Fox actively encourages the player to follow the path of the pacifist, the world and characters that he created actively acknowledge that the player will eventually choose a genocide run out of some morbid curiosity, some “completionist” impulse or at the very least, watch the violent playthrough on YouTube.
Yes, one of the characters will call out those who choose to watch a genocide run on YouTube. That same character will acknowledge your attempts to reset and undo some of your accidental killings, and many more recognize that certain situations feel “nostalgic” after you decided to reset and play the game again. A genocide run followed by a pacifist playthrough will permanently prevent the player from getting the true, happy ending that typically follows the Pacifist run. The characters themselves will even can even beg the player not to reset the game following its completion, as it would undo the happy ending in their world. There are no true resets, and no true reloads.
A small Kickstarter-backed game made by director and composer Toby Fox stands out as not only the clear winner for best game of 2015, it may very well have a shot for one of the greatest, and most important games of the modern era.
Breaking the fourth wall is not just a novel gimmick in Undertale. It is a critical part of the in-game story, and it is more importantly an open acknowledgement of the absolute power players have over video games themselves. This is a critical part of Undertale’s spirit, and what is arguably the most important aspect of its presentation. The ability to save, load, reset, manipulate files and even share these experiences online is an intrinsic part of the medium, and the game uses these components as a more powerful form of storytelling than any of this year’s cinematic attempts. Undertale is one of a kind, in that the relationship between the player and the game is allowed to go beyond the experiences directly within the game, and its exploration of the relationship that the player can have with the game itself is a radical new world for game developers to explore in future titles.
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Transitioning from Telltale’s episodic The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, I went into Life Is Strange not entirely sure what to expect. The premise was simple: an interactive adventure game played from the perspective of photography student Max Caulfield. However, it throws time travel and the butterfly effect into the mix to make one of the most intriguing games I’ve encountered this year.
The game is set in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, where protagonist Max is in her last year of high school at Blackwell Academy. The episodes take place over the course of one week in October 2013, and the first episode opens with Max’s discovery of a sudden ability to rewind time. This, I discover later, allows me as a player to redo virtually any action I take in the game. While that sounds like a welcome contrast to games where you have to watch your character fade off behind a “Game Over” screen, Life Is Strange is quick to remind its players that it isn’t as nice and convenient as it seems.
The butterfly effect is heavily incorporated into the gameplay, and I learn early on that each of my choices, no matter which one I pick and how many times I rewind time, may have long-term consequences. In this sense, there’s a blurry line between the right and wrong choice, and instead, I’m left nervously waiting for my own choice to backfire on me. This, I believe, contributes most to the intrigue of the game. Instead of being given the chance to truly start over from scratch, you suffer through the possibility of being wrong. It’s a feature that allows the player to be deeply involved, and to have an emotional attachment that’s not purely to the character you’re playing the game through. There’s a connection to the storyline brought by the knowledge that it is your choices that are shaping the story, and that any of your actions can influence how the game will ultimately play out for you.
We also get a glimpse of potential themes in the game, an element I appreciate in a storyline featuring adolescents. The teenage aspect is strong and constant, and it’s nice to see that playing through Max actually feels like being in the mind of a teenage girl. She’s not perfect, and when you are making choices through her, you get to truly experience the uncertainty and frustration that would come if you were to make those same choices in real life. Some of the conversations throughout the game feel stilted and nuanced, but the emotional undercurrent remains present in the implications that grow stronger as more is revealed of the central characters.
Online reviews criticize the awkward dialogue and the lack of lip-syncing, but these are issues that can be easily overlooked once you get into the storyline. The only problem I found with Life Is Strange is that, for a game heavily relying on choices and consequences, there isn’t always a wide variety of decisions to pick and choose from. If there’s anything to be truly frustrated by in this first episode, it’s that you’re awarded the freedom to choose, and yet trapped by options that are at some points too rigid and black-and-white. There may be game conventions to follow, but there are quite a few scenes — Max’s interactions with other Blackwell students, especially — that could have been designed better.
Nevertheless, I am hopeful for the next few episodes of Life Is Strange. There is a lot of room left for character development, and it’s exciting to anticipate what the rest of the game has in store. It’s early on in the storyline, and the game has done well thus far considering the experimental TV series format. It’s a fantasy world that’s fresh and interesting despite its clichéd flaws, and if anything, it has definitely captured my attention. The first episode has set up an interesting world left to be explored, and has shown signs of subverting video game archetypes. The next few instalments will establish whether the game can follow through on these promises.
After all, who doesn’t want to live vicariously every now and then through a time-traveling high school student?
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After hearing the incredibly positive buzz about the new Fallout 4 game, I made sure I got my hands on it the minute it was released. Since last Tuesday, I have been spending all of my waking time playing this game.
The fifth installment in the main Fallout series takes place in Boston and the Greater Boston Area in the year 2287. The events of this game precede all of the major points in time covered by the other games and their spin-offs. You explore a large chunk of New England accompanied by various companions — using a large-field editor to build settlements. A lot of this game is customizable with most of the map and character’s design is left up to the player.
After a beautifully designed opening to catch you up to speed with the opening events of the game, you can design your character. As a lover of The Sims franchise, I was blown away by the design engine created for Fallout 4. I spent my first hour with this game constructing the faces into a male version of what I’d like to date, and then the female character as myself. The character’s faces are divided up into sections — three of which are solely for the nose. I have seen numerous screenshots of celebrity lookalikes made by new players of the game — all of which are uncanny and hilarious.
In line with the idea of the game’s demographic, it’s worth noting that this isn’t your run-of-the-mill violent shooter game. This is an adventure game, where the choices you make affect the path you’ll be taking through Fallout 4. Instead of resorting to spraying and praying with a fully automatic rifle, you can use dialogue and non-violent solutions to solve major conflicts in the game. I’m not saying that this is a preferred method — I’m just saying that this alternative is an option.
As a dog lover, this game really rubs me the right way. After reaching a certain checkpoint, you meet a German shepherd who becomes your ally immediately. It’s odd, since you wouldn’t think that a dog who had just gone through a nuclear war — presumably not socialized by any humans — would be friendly to a stranger who just happened to sprint into town. But, luckily for me, this happens to be the case. You can use the dog to sniff out goodies and assist you in combat, which is a nice feature. Your dog can get hurt, but I wouldn’t advise wasting a stimpak on it, since, as I’ve noticed, the dog’s health regenerates on its own.
As usual with the Fallout games, you must keep your eyes peeled everywhere you go — leave no room unchecked, leave no table unturned, leave no enemy body clothed. I’ve been spending a lot of my time running through rooms and opening drawers, picking up useless, heavy items such as bags of cement and broken fans, but that’s just because it’s fun and you can drop anything at anytime in the game. Unfortunately, despite my ability to pick up random objects, I lost out on a freebie perception level-up by failing to notice a small Vault Boy bobble head on a table in the first quest. I only noticed it the second time around when my partner advised his friend to pick it up — something he knew about from his own run-through. Frustrating as it is, there are more little perks to be picked up along the way, so be sure to stay alert at all times.
This game isn’t without its bugs, unfortunately. The first glitch I encountered was in the opening scene where you have to take a drink of coffee but there is no animation to accompany the slurping sound.
Everyone I have come into contact with has listened to me rave about this game. I cannot recommend it enough. It is, however, $79.99 at this point. I would suggest waiting for the inevitable Steam Christmas sale, or another means of acquisition. Another reason to wait would be for upcoming patches, which will remedy the current bugs in the game. Despite this, I will say that this game is worth every penny, and I look forward to having more exciting conversations with new players of Fallout 4.
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Every year around Halloween, I like to binge-watch scary movies to get me in the mood for the holiday. This year, my partner suggested something new: binge-playing a scary game. He had read reviews and decided on the action horror game, Alien: Isolation, which has been out now for just over a year. Over the past two weeks, we took turns playing through this adventure on his computer.
I had fun playing as Amanda Ripley, a strong female protagonist, using stealth and logic tactics to avoid the single alien and other, lesser enemies. The game takes place 15 years after the first Alien film, with Amanda setting out on a quest to find some details about her missing mother, Ellen Ripley. This is the initial objective of the game, but it eventually turns into finding a way off the Sevastopol, a space station littered with the alien, androids, and human survivors. This change in objective is fine, but the game does not make that clear (suggestion: don’t give me false hope for an ending before extending the conclusion of the game by several hours.)
There are numerous positives to the game. Given that it’s a first-person game, you really get to experience the scares up close and personally. There are many tense moments, including your initial cut scene encounter with the titular Xenomorph as it slithers out of a vent over your head. Even before this, you experience the main tactics of the game: crouching, slow walking, and peeping, which are all necessary for your survival. Bullets are limited and various diversion-generating devices are plenty. This adds to the fear and suspenseful experience of Alien: Isolation.
I enjoyed playing as Amanda, but I found that the motion tracker quickly becomes the protagonist of the game. This isn’t necessarily a complaint, but I didn’t enjoy relying so heavily on the device. The sounds are a close second to ensuring your safety, but the problem with this is that it’s rather unreliable. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t without its glitches. From patchy spawning and traveling of the alien across the map, to unreliable sounds, you have to play a guessing game as to where your main enemy is throughout the 15 hours of gameplay.
In lieu of these glitches, you find yourself dying often without chance of survival. Given that I died innumerable times, I got to experience the various kill sequences by the Xenomorph. These are detailed and upsetting, but also relieving, as you have breathing time before your next spawning in a loaded save.
Save points are few and far between, which is frustrating, given the pace you travel through the game. With all of the sneaking and slinking, you assuredly won’t be making your way through this game too quickly. Additionally, it is made clear that you will need to backtrack through the station by the doors requiring an ion torch — something you will continually wonder about for quite some hours.
A main challenge of the game is hiding from your enemies. If you find yourself in one of the many lockers across the map, you can waste your health by holding your breath and lean into the back of the locker. One time, I had found my way into a small metal storage cabinet, and an android aggressively ripped me out, pulling me toward his blank, red-light-lit eyes. Sudden scares like this force you to mirror the fear Amanda is going through in the game. They also make the patterns confusing, as an enemy can discover you randomly, despite all of the precautions you take.
Rewiring stations — placed all around the map — are confusing. It took some time to figure out what the point of them was and what they added to the gameplay. Most of the time, it was nothing except a little atmospheric embellishment.
The atmosphere is built in the down time between alien appearances. Following the aesthetic of the first movie, Alien: Isolation is designed to look like the 1970s take on a futuristic space station with mechanical futuristic flourishes. The entire game is well designed, and the art is easily appreciated, despite the constant stress you are put under.
I would say that the number of hours was the game’s biggest downfall. Upon reading up on this game, my partner warned me that many people were complaining about the 15-or-so hours it took for them to complete the game, but we waved this off as a bridge we would eventually get to, but I wish we had listened. I would recommend playing this game for the first half, but I wouldn’t suggest getting too invested, given that the payoff is hardly worth it.
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After three titles and 15 years of epic gameplay, the Super Smash Brothers series is one that needs no introduction. So, when Nintendo announced that the latest title would be released on the Nintendo 3DS, many fans feared that the series simply wouldn’t translate well to a handheld title. Thankfully, I’m happy to say that these worries are unfounded, as the latest installment proves that Smash is a series that is as flexible as it is fun.
Offering a staggering 51 playable characters, and more modes to choose from than ever before, Super Smash Bros. 3DS undoubtedly lives up to the high standards set by the titles before it. What makes the game so compelling is the clever feedback loop the game employs. The more you play, the more characters you unlock and the more characters you unlock, the more stages and items are made available. This give-and-take system of play keeps players coming back again and again. More so than any other title, Smash 3DS offers the most replayability and variety of any title before it.
This is seen in the many ways Smash 3DS allows you to play. For example, classic mode is back with the added twist of allowing players the ability to choose between several battle options, allowing players enough freedom to make the experience feel fresh. Alongside this, the ability to create custom characters – based on one’s Mii avatar – pushes players to keep playing, as there are a variety of moves and abilities for the player to unlock along the way.
Gameplay wise, the success of Smash 3DS depends on how you are approaching the game. Fans looking for a pick up and play party game will be happy to find that Smash 3DS offers a wide variety of new characters, and items that will make it easy to enjoy each and every match you play. However, if you are a fan of the competitive Smash scene, you might be a little disappointed.
Amongst competitive players Super Smash Bros. Melee is often seen as the kind of gold standard for competitive play. The combination of speed, advanced techniques, and ever-evolving strategy options make Melee nearly unmatched in quality. With this in mind, Smash 3DS simply cannot compete with the high skill ceiling that Melee offers. This isn’t to say that Smash 3DS can’t be played competitively, but various changes to the physics engine still make it the inferior choice.
Still, the game is a huge improvement over the previous title Smash Brawl. By speeding up gameplay and removing the horror that was randomized tripping, Smash 3DS offers a more exciting fighting experience.
Unfortunately, the game makes few unfortunate changes that hinder it from becoming the next best competitive title. Specifically, the decision to remove “edge-hogging” single-handedly wiped out an entire aspect of the game that made Super Smash Bros. so exciting. While some may be happy to see this strategy removed, fans looking for a competitive title will definitely be disappointed.
What holds back Smash 3DS the most is the quality of online play. I can’t explain how frustrating it is to still have issues regarding lag, matchmaking, and other aspects of online play in 2014. Too often I found myself playing against an opponent with unbelievable amounts of latency, making me wonder why I was ever matched with them in the first place. While the system is certainly an improvement over past efforts – particularly in the variety of modes it offers – it’s disappointing to see Nintendo continue to struggle to keep up with a system many consoles perfected age ago.
Despite these flaws, Smash 3DS is still incredibly enjoyable, offering more than enough content to keep a player coming back for more time and time again.
