No Time To Play
newsletter archive

Weekly Links #151: new beginnings edition

Happy New Year 2017! Things picked up noticeably the week after Christmas, so we can begin anew with aplomb. For one, a very good friend bought me a Pico-8 license, and of course I couldn't resist playing with it. It's an incredibly polished experience for such a restricted platform, one that immediately inspired me to start remaking one of my early games. I'm not sure quite what makes it feel so good, but it's one of those systems that feel designed, not just thrown together, and that's rare today.

Given that, it's especially appropriate that Rock, Paper, Shotgun just published a series of articles about working with the Pico-8. I do have one quibble: ideas, my friend, are a dime a dozen. If you have to go around hunting for ideas, maybe you don't have anything to say right now. Go out and live some more.

On a similar note, Kotaku is running the story of a game journalist turned developer. And it sounds not so much like someone who learned just how hard it is to actually make those games they used to criticize, as someone who grew up and learned to assume good faith. A win, either way. Can't even blame them: I used to have my troll-ish moments as a delayed teenager. Haven't we all? So it's all good.

To end with a couple of actual releases, here's Roguelike One, a quick, simple game that could be played with a NES controller (in the sense that it only uses arrow keys and two action buttons). No prize for guessing what it's a fan game of. :P And in the retro department, Prime Mover is a Construct 2 title carefully made to resemble a ZX Spectrum game, down to the way controls are responding. Which, of course, is a lot more work than making it for the Speccy like my own two attempts. Nice!

On that note, I wish you the best until next time. Thanks for reading.