Hello, everyone! I forgot to mark the start last time, so let me at least mark the ending: as of a day ago, PROCJAM 2020 is complete, with over two hundred entries to look at. Haven't done that yet myself, so you're on your own.
This time there aren't many news of interest otherwise, so I'm gonna try to provide a little commentary:
- First, we have a personal write-up about Experiencing a classic for the first time: DOOM (1993) (Gemini Protocol link). How ironic to see it described as a "FPS distilled to its essence" when it was later games that burdened the nascent genre with unwanted baggage. The original Doom was seminal precisely because it was so pure! That said, it's good to see people enjoy a classic like that in 2020. Gee, you mean polygon counts aren't everything? We've only been shouting that from the rooftops for years! Ten and a half in the case of No Time To Play.
- Then comes a brief history of cyberpunk games, courtesy of Eurogamer. No prize for guessing the occasion. It includes classics, games no-one's heard about, and one entry that's as surprising as it is a perfect fit in retrospect. Glad to see people talk about the themes of cyberpunk again, as more and more of them figure out that the aesthetics were superficial and hollow.
- Thirdly, just this morning I learned that retrogaming fans are about to get the First New Dizzy Game in 26 Years. And yes, it's designed by the Oliver Twins then implemented by people who had worked on Dizzy games before. How cool is that?
It would be nice to cap this newsletter with one last link, but I simply don't have anything. This blog will be on autopilot for a while, as I'm busy writing fiction instead. That, and it keeps getting harder to find truly worthwhile news. Something's got to change.
Meanwhile, have fun and don't stop creating beauty.