Modesty Studios

 These are games I have played or observed others playing to give context. (This post is a Work in progress, I will likely come back to correct things. Genre - borrowing from movie and book categories to give you a shorthand sense of what the tropes, characters, and stories are like. (i.e. Western, High Fantasy, Space Opera, etc) Setting - A bit more specific than genre, it will include specific things like time period, location, character types, and world premise.  Dice Type - a quick description of what kind of dice and how many might be needed for playing a game. Some systems may have special dice specific to that game while some may have alternatives.   Difficulty - this is from a brand new player perspective but this incorporates how complicated the rules can get as well as how in-depth the lore might be.  Easy - rules are intuitive and there's only low-level world building Average - you can skim rules and kind of learn as you go, the lore is based on tr...

Another bit of a rant about games, or really one game. Angry effing Birds. As an iPhone game developer, I can assure you that the easiest way to piss us off is to ask us about Angry Birds. In casual conversation when I bring up my profession, guaranteed 100% of the time the person will ask something along the lines of: Oh iPhone games, you mean like Angry Birds. Or my personal favorite: "Oh you know my son/daughter plays this one game alot...what was it?" Me: Angry Birds. (There is no intonation of a question in this response. It's a factual response.) "Yes that's the one." What. The. Duck. Seriously, has Angry Birds become the FACE of the App Store? It really feels like it has. Yay for that company...they have made it into infamy. And I get so pissed off seeing their fisking merchandise at the mall. Jealous? Perhaps a bit, but on the other hand I'm REALLY glad that an iPhone game has gotten that huge. That makes the platform meaningful for a wi...

So I spent some time catching up on all the buzz about E3. Well some of the buzz really. And while some may be excited, I've found nothing on the horizon that lifts my spirits. I'm starting to worry about the game development industry. Nintendo Not Cool Anymore? You know, I grew up with Nintendo. Its the company that got me back into gaming and was the only console we ever owned. I'm nervous about what this company is doing. The WiiU seems like a smart step as it is well...an iPad in disguise. Although I like the 3DS, I don't see any interesting or fun release titles. I bought a 3DS in part because of the new Zelda and Kid Icarus but mostly because I wanted a new DS that actually connects to my wireless and I can download games on. (Because its a platform my company is considering in the future). Perhaps Nintendo is banking on their portable devices since their gimmick devices are not doing so great anymore. However, the series that got me back into gaming, Legen...

Controversy and gaming can almost be synonymous. Reasons why or subject matters will offend differ between parties. However, most of this thought bubble was actually inspired by an anime series I started watching and feel confused about my feelings towards it. I feel like I have accepted the 'offense' no longer or never really offended me. Rooms with Elephants The series that sparked these thought bubbles is called " Hetalia: Axis Powers " which is an anime series where the episodes are 5 minutes of loose history about the relations of countries during WW2 and other points in history. All countries are 'personified' as characters with certain stereotypical traits. While the stereotypes are funny generalizations, they are generalizations made by a Japanese perspective. I've only gotten through season 2 but I keep waiting for that 'elephant in the room' to be acknowledged. The Axis powers did some pretty terrible things. Also America did something te...

Straight up opinion this round, but I have recently started watching Glee after the encouragement from my sister. I've been making my way through the first season somehow but it's becoming harder and harder to continue to like the show. It brought up for me a couple of other things people have mentioned about romantic comedies and high school dramas. Now for me, the only thing that keeps me interested in Glee is the music. I love musicals and having a TV show that is essentially a musical has some appeal to me. And it should come as no surprise that I was actually part of my school's "Glee Club" although we called it "Swing Choir", but it was basically the same thing. Wear a costume, choreograph a dance and sing at the same time. It was a mixed-bag experience for me because I love to sing and dance but felt bad that there was a lot of rivalry and politics between the teacher and students. Let's talk about romantic comedies. One of my fellow podca...

One of my not-so-secret pleasures about some games is the ability to MOD them aka modify. It takes a lot of time, talent and a workhorse of a computer but the results are amazing. Unfortunately I haven't been able to create my own mod for years thanks to work. Mods Mod communities are a proverbial cesspit of creative and talented folks sharing game content for FREE...usually. Utilizing the limits of the game to add something new and provide MORE playtime with that game. If I find a mod community for a game I usually download a thing or two. (Or a million in the case with the Sims). What makes a good Mod Mods can vary in type from program fixes, hacks and cosmetic changes to full blown extra stories, missions or DLC. One of my university courses was to create a Mod using the Neverwinter Nights 2 Toolset for game writing. The whole experience taught me what really goes into creating a good mod. Pre-planning has a lot to do with it and learning is the other half. Planning and experie...

What's this? I'm playing a game only recently released!? Quick, run outside because it's probably raining candy as well. So actually this was just a case of good timing. Around this time last year, I gave up video games for Lent so I had to stop playing Dragon Age Origins. Then I got consumed by other things happening in my life that prevented me from coming back to the game until a week or two ago. I finished DA:O finally and DA:2 had come out only a week or so prior. To be honest I wasn't all that aware of this sequel nor of what it would be like. I wrote it off as a disinterest until seeing a video review on it. So I knew of the disappointments beforehand. And therefore set my bar pretty low. Right before buying, I check the DA wiki for information about the stuff I cared about...the romance options. This is always a selling factor for me in a game. And lo! What did I find? A. CHASTE. ROMANCE. OPTION. <---------- <:O WAHHHH? Despite it costing...

When I was young, I role played all the time. When it was snowy out, I'd pretend I was a dinosaur and build a nest out of snow and pine needles. Sometimes I was an arctic fox or a squirrel or a unicorn. Sometimes I'd be my favorite Ninja Turtle or a Time Traveling Scientist. And there's some part of us that never really out grows this love of role playing...being someone we are not. RPG You could argue that ALL video games are in a certain sense a role playing game. (Just not in the genre). In a first person shooter, you are playing the role of a soldier, in a flight simulator you play the role of a pilot, in a real time strategy you play the role of a god. Yes you can be whoever you want to be in a game. You can disregard the rules of proper society and set things on fire without remorse or guilt. However, the concept of Role Play as in the RolePlaying Game is vastly different than my child-like concept of playing pretend. I don't get to immerse myself in a role playi...

Oh Bioware you feisty badgers. It took me a lot of time to get through some of this game before I could say I had a good first impression. It's a better impression than Kingdom Hearts. But I've played a few of Bioware's titles by now. One thing that sort of bugs me about Bioware games is that every title while has similar style game play always has different movement controls. For example, in NWN2 you can right click somewhere and the character will head to that spot. But in Knights of the Old Republic (KoToR) you can't do that. Dragon Age (DA:O) you can again. Must be something they reserve for fantasy games. *shrug* Granted every franchise should have its own control scheme but my beef is (and it's a small beef) that I will play K0ToR for awhile using NWN2 controls and screw up. But essentially it's still a dialog tree with some point and click battle systems. The battle systems are all different but it's mostly background differences. NWN2 follows D...

So since I started my project on Ren'Py , I've been introduced to another facet of the game creating community. Visual Novels. My intention for the engine was something different than what it's usually used for...I think. I have seen a life sim created on this engine so I know it's possible. Visual Novels are a genre not very popular in the Western World. I used to wonder why...and now I get it. Originally when I heard "visual novel" I imagined something a bit like "Hotel Dusk" where it was very interactive. Or even a choose your own adventure. However, I downloaded someone's free visual novel to check it out. I kept clicking (and not reading) wondering WTF I would get to make a choice. It was then that it dawned on me that perhaps I don't get to really MAKE a choice. OR it took a LOT longer before the player could make one. And it was boring as hell. I could NOT believe how this was popular. Something on a computer or game system is interact...