MeFi Projects

Six years ago I released my first PC game called "Starcom: Nexus" (previously). For the past four years I've been working on a follow-up title called "Starcom: Unknown Space". Today it graduates from Early Access on Steam. [more inside]
posted by justkevin on Sep 2, 2024 - 6 comments

Learn about the videogames you should play and how to think about them! Have You Played is a free weekly newsletter for novices and experts alike, written by an award-winning game design and journalist. Every post starts with a simple description of exactly how the game works and what you do in it, then explores what makes it uniquely good or flawed. I've covered games including Pentiment, Season, Terra Nil, Cyberpunk 2077, Honkai: Star Rail, and many more!
posted by adrianhon on May 24, 2023 - 3 comments

My book about gamification is out! You've Been Played (Bookshop.org, Goodreads) examines how points, badges, and leaderboards are creeping into every aspect of modern life as tools for profit and coercion. It’s a critique of gamification, sure – but by an actual game designer, games journalist, and former neuroscientist. And it goes far beyond the usual suspects like Fitbit and Duolingo to look at the historical roots of gamification. Foucault, Lewis Mumford, Skinner, medieval indulgences, Taylorism, ARGs – this book has it all! Reviews, talks, and excerpts inside... [more inside]
posted by adrianhon on Oct 9, 2022 - 2 comments

It feels like there's a Wordle clone for everybody nowadays. But I decided to go in a slightly different direction when I made DNDle, a game in which you try to guess the Dungeons & Dragons "monster of the day" by assigning values to its attributes and being told where you've got them right. [more inside]
posted by avapoet on Feb 16, 2022 - 2 comments

Mixolumia is an entrancing, musical block-clearing puzzler released on itch just the other day. I wound up documenting the 18-month development process in a big twitter thread (also in twitter moment format) that folks have found interesting. Besides bringing a fresh twist to the puzzler genre, Mixolumia also has a dynamic soundtrack (by Josie Brechner and myself) that responds and evolves as you play. The cool thing is that the music system is open to players to create and share their own songs/sound packs. There's documentation on how to do that if you're interested in reading how it works. The game comes with a wide range of color palettes and players can customize and create their own as well. [more inside]
posted by davejh on Aug 10, 2020 - 2 comments

Hello, I'd like to present to you the game I'm working together with my game dev team at Theta Division Games.

It's a cyberpunk point and click adventure called VirtuaVerse. I'm doing the story and soundtrack, Valenberg does the pixel art and elder0010 is our coder.

You can see some videos with gameplay and other stuff on our pages on Facebook and Twitter

MASTER BOOT RECORD
posted by MASTERBOOTRECORD on Nov 10, 2017 - 4 comments

Odlaw (as seen on Waypoint) is a two-player stealth game about visual distraction. You and your opponent must seek each other out in a field of one hundred fake players, but with such a populated space, the first challenge is to find yourself. There's also a black-and-white mode for folks who have trouble discerning color.
posted by brecc on Jan 28, 2017 - 0 comments

Hocus Growcus is a puzzle bullet hell game about a witch trying to switch majors in college. When you are forced to take the entrance exam to your new major, you have no time to study, so you go in blind -- all you have is your wits, a minor magical plant-growing talent, and the ability to change the flow of time. In order to succeed, you must face down twenty waves of enemies, but without a direct means of attack, each encounter becomes its own puzzle. Can you pass the test? [more inside]
posted by brecc on Dec 6, 2016 - 0 comments

A found poetry/ruins exploration game about a mysterious facility in the desert, inspired by this article about creating a nuclear waste disposal site so that it's left undisturbed for ten thousand years. The trailer can be found here!
posted by brecc on Oct 29, 2016 - 2 comments

One of the most fun projects I worked on this year was a recreation of William Higinbotham's 1958 videogame, Tennis For Two, which has been installed in the New York Historical Society's Silicon City exhibition, up through mid-April, 2016. I worked with Brookhaven National Laboratory to build an accurate recreation of the original game in Unity, and the end result is something that I'm quite proud of. I wrote a bit of a postmortem about it. If any of you will be in New York City during the exhibition, I think you'd enjoy it. For best results, bring a friend to play against!
posted by GameDesignerBen on Nov 23, 2015 - 3 comments

Tetrakinesis is a puzzle game for windows that's easy to learn, but difficult to master. 25 levels of grid destroying madness. [more inside]
posted by symbioid on Oct 20, 2015 - 3 comments

Monkey Pop is a local 2-player game you play on a shared keyboard. You can play it right in the browser, or download a Mac or Windows version. Computer only, no mobile version, sorry. It's sort of a retro single-screen platformer in the vein of Joust or the original Mario Bros, except with monkeys and saws and brain control helmets. [more inside]
posted by churl on Jul 27, 2015 - 2 comments

@Play, my old four-year column on roguelike games, play, history, theory and development, has returned.
posted by JHarris on Feb 27, 2015 - 9 comments

A humorous interactive fiction/visual novel game about dealing with customer service representatives. Available free for download on Windows, Linux & OSx (40mb .zip). [more inside]
posted by subject_verb_remainder on Aug 26, 2014 - 1 comment

"These automatic arms" is a short Windows game -- maybe 15 minutes long. You appear not to be in control of your arms. Bystanders may be in danger. A tin foil hat may help? Reunite with your child and give them a proper hug. [more inside]
posted by nobody on Apr 2, 2012 - 4 comments

Every week, I ask the strangers of the internet to submit the title and short description of a video game that doesn't exist. I'll then draw the box art for someone's pretend game and post the results each Saturday. A semi-dorky blend of lulz-y photoshop practice and a heartfelt love for video games.
posted by cheap paper on May 20, 2010 - 8 comments