The Indie Gaming Cookie

Just finished the True Ending(-ish) of Billy Basso and BIGMODE's  Animal Well , and I found it to be perhaps the most unique video game I've played this year, if not this decade. That is because  Animal Well  is not a game.  Animal Well  is a crypt — a deeply buried treasure trove of delicately designed secrets and ciphers, all under the guise of an impossibly compact, albeit somewhat basic metroidvania. When it comes to the game and its ludic elements,  Animal Well  is not like your typical metroidvania. It does not involve the traditional "powering up" and overcoming foes. Instead, you play as a weird, powerless shit-blob that can only run and jump. There is no combat; any unconventional item you find along your journey — be it a yo-yo, a bubble wand, or a top — serves the primary purpose of being "keys" of sorts that allow you to solve puzzles you would otherwise be unable to solve. Because there is no combat, most of  Animal Well 's "challenge...

       I played  Garden Story  a few weeks ago now and I couldn't help feeling its intended experience was so similar to the cozy games of its time. Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, and all these titles blew up in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic era, when everyone were confined in their homes, looking for respite in media. What better way to achieve that than through some relaxing, simple cozy simulators? It made sense, at least to me, that Garden Story, a 2021 RPG by Picogram, would draw heavily upon the needs of the average players at the time. However, the sticking point here was that Garden Story was not just a simulator, for it was also, to great extent, an action-RPG . Garden Story, through the box in which it had fit itself, had to now face a challenge: create a fleshed out, exciting, thrilling combat system within a video game also meant to be relaxing. The game attempts, in a contradictory phrase, "cozy combat", to interesting results. ...

/*** THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR  CHANTS OF SENNAAR ***/   Did you know that I got into a Twitter disagreement with one of  Chants of Sennaar 's game developers a few years ago? In a now-deleted tweet thread of mine, I had presented my (admittedly uninformed) thoughts about the game's climax based solely on what I had seen online, deeming it unnatural and unnecessary. After all, Chants of Sennaar  is a puzzle game about learning languages, understanding ways of communication, and bringing people together — what the  hell  does a creepy, early horror film, Groot -esque creature in non-Euclidean space have to do with  anything ? So, while I admired the unique style and mechanics of the well-beloved indie title, I dismissed it for what it seemed to me: a tantalizing masterpiece, ruined only by its inexplicable trope-isms and action climax for the sake of action climax.  This overtly long tweet thread of mine (overt especially for a game I h...

"A real appreciation for poetry does not come from memorizing a bunch of poems, it comes from writing your own."  - Paul Lockhart, in  A Mathematician's Lament I know game design when I see it. I have played many, many games. I consider them my pastime, my hobby, and my passion. In fact, I have made a few games in a few different places. Yet, I can't shake off this feeling that I am  not  a game designer, or that I didn't learn it the right way . I love game design. I read about game design. I know the words, the theory. I know what  cognitive load  means, or what  endogenous value  is. But look at my portfolio, at my pedigree, and you will see that it is meek, it is meager, and some may say, it is  pitiful .  I learned how to use Unity at a young age of 13-years-old, and I learned how to make games in Scratch at 11. In these platforms, I made a few fun, silly, small projects, and when I felt up to it I tuned into YouTube tutorials to m...

Hi!  It's been a while, has it not? Since now and my last blog post (June 4), so much has happened: both good and bad. For the world, multitudes of natural disasters, global tensions, and the rapid downfall of old powers. For me, it's been a stressful period of college enrollment. The one source of light that's kept me sane is my partner, with whom our relationship was made official between then and now. Naturally, the first thing we do (or, the first thing I make him do) is make a game together. I'd been wanting to create an interactive fiction / narrative game based on our then-recent graduation. Thus, over the month of June, we spent crafting and molding our latest project:  Today, We March.   (Play the game here: https://cookiejargaming.itch.io/today-we-march ) In this article, I just want to spend some time detailing some of the design and development processes we had to undertake during the creation of Today, We March. One of the  —  perhaps the —  mo...

Hey folks! It's been a while since the last blog post, I'm aware. Truthfully, I'd been busy dealing with school-related things over the past few months; namely, graduation! I'm moving on from high school and heading into college, and guess what! I'm an incoming freshman for a Game Design and Development program! This is honestly a huge dream come true for me, and I appreciate the two people who actually support me for taking this career path, and everyone else (including me) who don't see a viable long-term future. Jokes aside, I'm so incredibly happy to have gotten this opportunity, and best believe that I will not let it go to waste.  Now that the bittersweet joys and pains of graduation's over and vacation's starting, you should expect a lot more activity from me! Already, I've been thinking up some cool game ideas I could perhaps develop over the summer (besides, it's good practice for college hehe). And, of course, I've been playing ...

"The Witness is a game all about perspectives." – Joseph Anderson I love The Witness. Typically, this sentence would be followed by "I also hate The Witness," and while I certainly do see merit in the critiques of its flaws, unfortunately, I do not share the same sentiment. I love The Witness, period. However, for the longest time, I had spent wondering why people were so conflicted about The Witness. I have seen countless reviews, thoughts, and opinions online, coming from people so clearly torn on this game and how they feel about it. At first, I chalked it up to "gameplay good, narrative bad," as is the dichotomy in many things with mixed reception, and it held up for a while — the puzzles were creative, enticing; the narrative was pointless, pretentious, with no payoff. But something kept tugging on my mind about this shoddy explanation I had pieced for myself. It felt off . The puzzles weren't always creative or enticing, for in some cases they ...