Machinarium, Free Xbox Indie Game Code, and Serendipity

Where to begin? There's only time for a quick mid-day post and I want to cover a few things.

Just here for a free Xbox Indie Game code? Skip to the end for details :)

First, Machinarium. I played through the demo while sitting across the table from my wife. It was nearing lunch time and I asked Liza what she was up to. She mentioned that she was "trying to get a robot across a bridge." As it turns out, we were both playing the same demo at the same time.

I had read about it during my daily RSS feed troll (I try to follow lots of indie game feeds). Liza had played a previous game by the same developer called Samorost. She liked the game so much that she joined their mailing list and found out about Machinarium that way.

I just love the fact that both of us were playing the same game at the same time without even realizing it. And without either one of us telling the other about it.

Another great thing about Machinarium: One purchase gets you the Mac, PC, and Unix versions of the game. Great for a family like ours who use multiple platforms. Looks like I'll be purchasing it for the both of us.

What might be super fun (since we like to play some games together) is to play it on the big screen. I just need to hook up a wireless mouse and keyboard and we can play the game together on our Lovesac, just like we watch movies or play console games. Sweet.

Free Game Code Details Here

On to Gum Drop Celestial Frontier and Xbox Indie Games. I blogged about this game a while back and @mechagost (creator of the game) and I had some back and forth discussions about the game. His thankyou gift was a free code for the retail version of his game. Of course, I had already purchased the game. So, I pass on the savings to you, my readers.

Want the code? Tweet me @jackalshorns. Only one code available, so first responder gets the prize.

Quick thoughts: Uncharted 2 and Delta's lame in-flight game service

A couple of quick thoughts in between travel for work (doing some consulting on social games) and pleasure (Anacortes with friends, Chicago for a wedding).

Uncharted 2. This blurb appeared in a Facebook comment I wrote (a couple of friends were discussing the game -- one thought it "set the bar" the other thought "meh"). It's not really all that well considered and thought out, but is more of an initial reaction after playing a couple of hours:

So, I loved (loved loved) the first one. And I loved (loved loved) the intro to the second one -- a super treat for fans of the previous game and IP.

I've had a couple of lulls in the action through chapters 4 and 5 (getting stuck, being confused) but I'm super into it and can't wait to play more.

As far as cut-scenes go, they set the bar in v1.0. Then games like GTA IV met the bar. I think that they met the bar in this game, too. I actually WATCH all of the cut-scenes and enjoy them (PS -- I never watch cut-scenes in any other games).

Story quality-wise, so far it seems like a virtual copy of the v1.0 story. So, unless they shake it up soon my judgment is "serviceable but not great". Technically it's awesome (voice acting, mocap, direction) but the story itself is only serviceable.

In other news, while flying back to Seattle I had the "privilege" of not experiencing Delta airline's in-flight gaming options.

That is to say that I completely ignored it in disgust after being asked to pay $5 for the right to sample their game wares.

Now, $5 for 4.5 hours of entertainment is an entirely reasonable price. Heck, I'd pay more than that for a 90 minute in-flight movie. But charging for games before letting me try them out? It just doesn't make any sense.

Many of the games seemed to be versions of freely available titles already on the web. I had worries about the input device (touch screen) and have had mixed reviews trying out games on other in-flight consoles (I talked about Virgin airline's options in another post). Not having a try-before-you buy option is a non-starter for me.

But, the bigger question to me is: Why charge at all? The model that I have to believe would work better for all involved (Delta, game publishers, and the passenger) is to offer free-to-play content. Publishers would pay for access to the captive audience. Their motivation would be to provide fun addictive games to passengers to drive awareness and customer loyalty. Delta would get money from the publishers for distributing their content. Passengers would get high quality games that would endear them to both publishers and the airline.

And me -- well, I'd have a reason to request regular coach-class seating. The touch screen is too far away from my seat to reach it comfortably while sitting in an exit row.

Amazon.com/GameDownloads: Initial Experience

So, in a much anticipated move after their acquisition of Reflexive Entertainment, Amazon.com launched their videogame download store beta: http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=979455011

Here are some thoughts re: Initial Experience.

First, the good:

• As an existing Amazon customer, time from "hit the download button" to "playing the free demo" was less than 5 minutes. Not bad considering I needed to install the downloader first. The default install pipeline was simple (with advanced options available) for someone like me who has used other installers and is familiar with the drill.
• Every game has a Free Demo. Yes, yes, and more yes. You listening Wii Ware?
• First hit is free. I failed to notice the Free Demo policy initially (see my comments below), but even better than that is the offer of 3 games for free. Basically Amazon games is saying "try our product and install pipeline for free -- we're banking on you liking it so much that you'll be back and buy some games". This is the kind of personal utility that will cause people to log in -- or even sign up for a new account if they don't already have one.

Now, the "Needs Improvement" (I realize that many of these features are probably already in the works for the next Beta or full release, but mention them to be thorough):

• Free Stuff. Free Trial. I didn't notice any of these messages on the page at first (even though they are featured prominently above the fold). Why not? Probably because I'm there for content (I'm scanning box art to see if I recognize any games or if any of them look cool and fun to play). I'll bet if we used eye-tracking we'd find that the user's flow was from 'pretty game box art' to 'pretty game box art'. And the only other thing there is "Price: $9.99" in bold red text. There needs to be a way for the user to learn that the game he or she is interested in has a free download version just by looking at the box art. It should be at least as prominent as the price sticker.
• Box art was too small for most games. There is cool and well-branded content available -- but it's hard to notice. I like the fact that there is lots of white space (easier on the eyes), but I want bigger pictures. This is supposed to be FUN.
• Note that Amazon has attempted to solve both of the above issues on other pages by having larger images with mouseover hot spots that provide purchase/wish list options. Just change this to purchase/download free trial options.
• Where are my community features? I want ratings, reviews, discussions, tags, uploading of high scores, videos of game play cheats and quirks...
• Where are my personalization features (obviously we need to wait for better data before implementing this, but I can't wait!)
• The top-center graphic (a rack of dozens of games) looks like the interactive "lazy susan" on other pages that I should be able to spin by mousing over it. But I can't. And that makes me sad.

But what do I most want to see? I want a platform experience that rewards my loyalty. I want Achievements and Gamer Points. I want Friends Lists and Leaderboards. I want aggregated play data on what folks are downloading, playing, and loving. And I want to share all this information via a Facebook App.

All in all, a great first step. I can't wait to see future iterations.

NOTE: Full disclaimer... I'm a former Amazon employee (community and social features) and frequent customer.

Boomshine: A frivolous (and fun) romp

I just checked out Boomshine (a free Flash based game). It was easy and pleasant to play, had a decent initial learning curve, and had me hooked until I the learning curve went from... well... a curve to a straight vertical line.

The object of the game is to trap a target number of bouncing balls on the screen. You have one chance to detonate a bomb that expands to a maximum blast radius and then fades. Each ball that enters the blast radius explodes (expanding and shrinking) and this can cause a chain reaction. The idea is to place the initial explosion in a spot that will cause a chain reaction that eventually traps the desired number of balls before the chain reaction fizzles out.

This mechanic has been done in other games. The use of sound, music, and color in this game were the differentiators: The resulting venn diagrams of color were really cool, and the sound effects of the detonating balls complimented the music very well. It was pleasurable to set the initial bomb and then just sit back and watch.

At first, the game reminded me a bunch of Stair Dismount, a physics simulation that was incredibly addicting. You simply positioned a rag doll body, watched it fall down stairs and take damage, and then restarted the game -- but the next time tweaking the positioning so that you could increase the damage.

However, at the highest level of difficulty I was able to attain, it started to seem less like an exercise in aiming and precision and more like an exercise in chance. I could decipher a few principles that seemed to serve me well as far as where to place the initial blast. However, the resulting chain reaction seemed to be nothing more than a roll of the dice in terms of how predictable the outcome would be. I was never able to complete the level, and even though I got agonizingly close (54 out of 55 balls detonated), as often as not I would end up with far fewer. It was still fun to watch and listen to as a simulation, but ceased to be a game.

Free games: Why not?

I decided to check out an arbitrary "best 10 free games of 2007 on the web" website via one of my gaming news RSS feeds.

I checked out 3 of them so far, with mixed (but mostly interesting -> entertaining) results.

• Bloxorz. Very polished in terms of actual gameplay visuals and and sound. The game mechanics are accessible and fun.
• But... There was no interactive learn-as-you-play. Starting a new game meant you had to page through 8-10 screens of boring text.
• But... The challenge ramp was too steep. I failed to complete the 5th or 6th puzzle. I think part of this is related to the lack of a learn-as-you-play where the player is introduced to concrete principles and then gradually encouraged to develop more abstract reasoning that allows the user to feel smart and challenged while puzzles get more and more difficult.
• Fold. I loved how the game just dropped me in and let me struggle and figure out the controls (a very console-like experience -- but risky when using a mouse and keyboard because there are so many potential inputs).
• But... The challenge ramp was way off and I failed to complete the second or third puzzle. This, again, is related to the absence of learn-as-you-play design of the initial experience. The gameplay required some sort of abstract/advanced reasoning far too early on -- I needed more grounding in the basic, concrete gameplay first.
• Launchball. Very nicely done game shell. I could quickly decide whether to do some tutorial levels or dive right in. The layout was clean and the gameplay was fun. Lots of good mouseover text. I completed the core game (but not the user content).
• But... The hint system was ineffective. Generally speaking I used hints when I was genuinely stuck and required specific help (e.g., place an item for me in the correct spot, or give me a specific concrete instruction to follow). Instead, hints took the form of general statements of principles I already understood. What would have dramatically improved the hint system was an escalation chain of hints (from general principles to more specific recommendations).

I look forward to playing some of the other 7 games on the page. Kudos to the free game developers!