Blurred lines.
Blurred lines.
To where no one has gone before.
All night long.
The fire department is on its way.
The joint-less hero is back.
Here comes the blue blur.
Follow me into the green pipe.
Time to replace that 72-pin connector.
If you’ve still got an NES kicking around your entertainment center, chances are it’s been a long time since it’s had a brand new cartridge popped in. Lucky for you and your forlorn, reliable console, there’s a fresh game slated for release early next year. Although there have been a smattering of games released for the NES recently, Armed for Battle is pretty unique. Not only was the project put together by a solitary programmer, but Frank Westphal is giving us something the king of ‘80s consoles never had before: a real time strategy game. Frank was nice enough to take some questions about his development process, his game, and what he expects from Armed for Battle. Budding homebrew developers and fans of the NES will learn a lot from my conversation with Frank.
Another Kickstarter darling finally sees the light of day.
Say what you want about Kickstarter, but it has breathed games into existence that otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance, and allowed artists to construct personal expressions without having to resort to eating dog food to survive. The end results may not always be extraordinary, but sometimes they are still triumphant, as with Lilly Looking Through, a Kickstarter success that asked for $18,000 and ended up with $33,000+ for a point-and-click adventure starring a little girl with time-traveling goggles. The game is beautiful, but brief, with amazing art direction and sublime animation.