Indie games roundup!
The best from the independent dev scene
In this Critical Distance digest, I'm bringing you three little collections of pieces published in the past week about some of the latest hit indie games. We'll be exploring action movie pacing, the awkwardness of interactivity, and how to make the familiar feel terrifying.
Superhot
The release of Superhot has many reviewers drawing comparisons with action movies, not simply because of its violent content which directly draws on hit films, but because of the way that pacing and the gaze are used.- Superhot review | Eurogamer.net Christian Donlan considers dramatic tension and Superhot
"Turns out there is a killer trick to creating hyper-violent entertainment: do the slow stuff fast, and the fast stuff slow."
- ‘Superhot’ Is the Shooter Game for People Who Hate Shooter Games | VICE | United Kingdom Ed Smith explains why Superhot appeals to a different play style than other shooters
- SUPERHOT Review Impressions | ZAM
Anatomy
Kitty Horrorshow's latest release Anatomy is inspiring thrilling discussions of the meaning and experience of a house.- Uninterpretative | Short on Games: January/February 2016 How Anatomy sees the house as a body
"The theory of houses espoused in Anatomy is of the house as body. The tapes tell the story of living room as heart, bathroom as digestive tract, bedroom as mind, and basement as subconscious."
- ANATOMY Review Impressions | ZAM Claris Cyarron looks at Anatomy from her perspective as an architect and game designer (full disclosure: Claris and I have a close professional and personal relationship).
Firewatch
Interesting discussions about Firewatch have continued apace weeks after its initial launch, with some critics starting to push beyond the "walking sim" label to look at how actions centered around technology provide tactility, as well as how some interactive elements undermine it.- How Firewatch hearkens back to relationships on the early internet | Gamasutra (Content warning: spoilers) Kat Cross describes the interpersonal intimacy of Firewatch through the terms of another medium.
"Cibele takes on the online dimension of this phenomenon forthrightly, but Firewatch abstracts it away from even the mediating force of the Internet, instead exploring all the other ways we can have ineffable but meaningful contact with human life."
- Firewatch Debrief | Experience Points: EXP Podcast #366: How Firewatch uses the physicality and immediacy of videogames for storytelling
- Bad Hands in Firewatch | Pippin Barr Pippin Barr offers an amusing critique that seems to have been missed in most writing on it so far (note, I'm sure the problem raised is a technical issue that will be patched in future, but I like this narrativist reading of its effect on the experience.)
Online casino bankrolls largest-ever, ruinously expensive war in Eve Online
![CeqmljNW8AA5WrX](http://web.archive.org./web/20160404072252im_/http://i2.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CeqmljNW8AA5WrX.jpg?fit=600%2C360)
Eve Online (“spreadsheets in space”) is the infamously intricate massively multiplayer space trade/conquest game where real cash can be exchanged for in-game currency , making the battles fought there consequential in a way that sets it apart from other games.
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Russia bans Polish "Communist Monopoly" board-game
![russia-bans-polands-communist-monopoly.](http://web.archive.org./web/20160404072252im_/http://i2.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/russia-bans-polands-communist-monopoly..jpg?fit=600%2C393)
Kolejka (“Queue”) is a popular satirical Polish board game that lampoons life under Stalinist rule; the Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has banned publisher IPN, the Polish “Institute of National Remembrance,” from distributing its Russian version of the game unless they remove “anti-Russian” elements that are “excessively critical” of the USSR.
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Shower curtain that looks like a Nintendo cartridge
![iqor_retro_gaming_shower_curtain_inuse](http://web.archive.org./web/20160404072252im_/http://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/iqor_retro_gaming_shower_curtain_inuse.jpg?fit=600%2C600)
Thinkgeek’s $25 NES-themed shower curtain will class up your bathroom a treat; pose in the see-through panel to be the star of the cartridge (try to look as 8-bit as possible). (via Geekymerch)
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WIN A $1,000 Apple Store Shopping Spree!
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Lose your iPhone? Wanna step up to the latest iPad or Apple TV? Or maybe you’ve been eyeballing one of those Apple watches?The possibilities are endless…but extremely doable if you’re the lucky winner of Boing Boing’s awesome $1,000 Apple Store Giveaway.What do ya get? Just what we toldja…1,000 bucks worth of Apple credit to throw […]
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Tech up with a Complete Computer Science Bundle: Now 89% Off
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If you didn’t go to college for your technology training, there’s a good chance that you probably wish that you had. But today, so much quality IT training happens off tradition collegiate campuses that it’s just about finding the RIGHT package of learning that’ll set you up for the career you want.And if you can […]
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Save 90% on Complete Java Programming Bootcamp
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Bootcamps are all the rage these days and if you’re going to drill obsessively deep into any core programming discipline, you probably won’t find a more deserving recipient of that super-intensive study time than Java. Java’s simple, adaptable and – probably not coincidentally – one of the most widely-used programming languages and platforms across the […]