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Hello!

In this post there’s gonna be some updates on what I’ve been working on, as well as ‘10 games to get to know me’.

Updates #

I’ve been working on the full version of Apparatus: Exanimus, adding new content and stuff like Steam integrations. Playtesting is happening at the moment and the build is with Steam for review—as soon as it comes back I will probably announce a release date, but I am hoping for early November. I’m very pleased with how it has come out, and I can’t wait for people to play it.

10 games to get to know me #

Loads of posts on my twitter timeline are in a format called ‘10 games to get to know me’ at the moment, where people post 10 games that they enjoy. People seemed to have all sorts of different rubrics for this, but I took it to mean ‘post 10 games that have meaning to you, personally’, and made my own list. I thought it might be fun to flesh out my choices a bit more here:

1. Garry’s Mod

   I have over 500 hours in Garry’s Mod on Steam. I spent a lot of time playing DarkRP as a teenager. I still boot it up every so often, but this time it’s usually just to explore some custom maps—I really like walking around empty RP maps and so-called ‘rat maps’.

   

2. LSD: Dream Emulator

   I think this one is easy to explain!

3. Halo: Combat Evolved

   Halo is one of my favourite series of games of all time, I think. It’s an obsession that started as a child. I remember playing Halo: CE on the original Xbox with the massive controller and finding the atmosphere absolutely enthralling. I think ‘The Silent Cartographer’ is practically burned into my brain.

   

4. Façade

   I found Façade on YouTube, like how I imagine a lot of other people found it. I remember thinking the game had a very strange feeling to it, and obviously very impressive technology. Thinking about it now as I write this, I want to look up how it works.

   

5. Fear & Hunger

   Fear & Hunger got me thinking about game design in a very different way to how I thought about it beforehand. It’s difficult to explain if you haven’t seen or played it, but I find it very interesting & inspiring. I like that a lot of it was done counter to a lot of the common game design wisdom you see these days, and I respect its commitment to explicitly targeting a more niche (and less well-defined!) audience.

   My game Vignettes: The Dream City takes a lot of inspiration from Fear & Hunger, and there are traces of it in Apparatus: Exanimus too.

   

6. Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets (PS1)

   Another one from my childhood—a lot of these are, really! I guess it shows how influential the first few games you play can be?

   This game has a crazy good atmosphere, and the levels are so much fun to explore. I think it has inspired me quite a lot in terms of the environments I want to make, and I also really enjoy how interconnected the world is, and that there are a few good secrets to find.

   

7. I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike (Project I.G.I. 2)

   This one is a bit more abstract—I have a lot of vague memories of watching this game from my childhood, and I have played it—just not for a while! Most of what I remember is not my own gameplay. The levels were quite large and they had this lonely, oppressive atmosphere as you infiltrated whatever place they were set in. I find myself thinking about them a lot when I make levels for things.

   

8. Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

   This game is the best Amnesia game in my opinion. That may be a hot take, but I think this is the one that does atmosphere (and by extension, sound design) the best. The soundtrack is amazing, the story is a lot tighter than the previous entry, and—as you probably know by now that I like—the environments are incredibly compelling to explore. The feeling of descending into the deepest bowels of a large machine (with a brick and mortar/cast-iron aesthetic!) is unlike any other.

   

9. Submachine

   Now, the last 2 games on this list are Flash point and click games. I think the Submachine series is the best example of this kind of game, and the atmosphere and world within are insanely satisfying to experience and explore. The puzzles are also really good!

   If you take one game away from this list that you haven’t played before, then I highly recommend you at least play the first two Submachine games. Fun, mysterious, and interesting!

   

10. The Crimson Room

    Finally, the last game is The Crimson Room. This was the first Flash point and click game I remember playing, and it just so happened to be one of the best. Of particular note is the sound design, I think—it really sets a tone that was unlike anything I had experienced when I played it as a kid. I think it made me interested in that sort of game and was the impetus for my seeking out of more to play!

    It’s very short so please play it if you haven’t already!

    

And that about does it—see you real soon for Apparatus: Exanimus.