Archive for the 'Flash Games' Category

Obfuscation

Posted by Zubon on January 31, 2012 in Flash Games and Guild Wars. 4 Comments

The opposite of Pixel Click Bosses appears in games that are too eager to give the player data. They want the indication to be clear and highly visible. Unfortunately, the game is still going on underneath those indicators. The game is not hiding the new factors by using too few pixels; it is hiding the existing factors by using too many.

I cited this with Arkham City. Chuck the Sheep is a recent flash game with the same problem whenever you reach a new section of the map. “Congratulations! Welcome to the next area! We’re using font size 72! Oh, and there is a duck flying at you underneath this text!” Guild Wars does the same thing in Tahnnakai Temple. Like all the Factions missions, it is timed, but it has a visible timer because you can lose by taking too long at each stage. That timer occupies the exact same real estate as the NPC pop-up text explaining what is going on.

: Zubon

Oh, and do you want to read what is going on? Every minute you spend reading the quest text is one less that you have to reach the Master’s reward.

Use the Medium

Posted by Zubon on January 14, 2012 in Flash Games. 1 Comment

Two online collectible card games that Kongregate introduced to me are Elements and Tyrant. While Elements has more grinding and is more vulnerable to perverse randomization, I find it a superior game design. One of its virtues is that it takes advantage of being a computerized card game, rather than calling for physical cards.

This is typical with exporting existing things to new media or material. I recall the early encyclopedias on CD, some of which probably even made good use of hyperlinking, but they were largely a data dump of text into something more compact than a meter-high stack of books. In our gaming world, you had arcade ports to home systems without changing the dynamics built around “insert 25 cents to continue.”

Elements has cards that you could not exist in a physical CCG. Some of them are possible with a sufficiently large pre-made set, but let me give you some examples. Continue reading ‘Use the Medium’

Uniqueness

Posted by Zubon on November 14, 2011 in Flash Games. 3 Comments

The latest Kongregate giveaway may interest you, because it is for $10,000 of gift certificates (over 10 years), although the gameplay involved is not interesting. No, what interests me is this: what work is “unique” doing in the game’s description, “Choose from one of six unique races”? In what sense are dwarves, elves, and humans unique? Are they saying that they are not identical with other and trying to use “unique” as some kind of superlative for “different”? Is it a translation error?

At least they did not go on to claim that their races were the most unique.

: Zubon

Being In Love, Rendered as a Platformer

Posted by Zubon on October 30, 2011 in Flash Games. 10 Comments

One and One Story, a game in which the mechanics change with the story and your relationship. “Hold it, hold it. What is this? Are you trying to trick me? … Is this a kissing game?”

On the microtransactions front, the soundtrack is available at standard MP3 rates.

: Zubon

Rarefied Grind

Posted by Zubon on October 9, 2011 in Flash Games. 7 Comments

In our continuing series of games that take a single mechanic and run with it, we hereby present Coinbox Hero from Armor Games. The coinbox gives out coins. You use them to upgrade your coin-generating and collecting abilities. Ultimately, you will destroy the coinbox.

There is also polka music and a TWIST ENDING.

: Zubon

Flash Not-Really-MMOs

Posted by Zubon on October 2, 2011 in Flash Games. 4 Comments

Over the past week, I have responded to quite a few requests, ads, etc. for F2P browser-based “MMOs,” CCGs, etc. They have been, to a one, poor. The winner, though, is Call of Gods, a game that applies the Evony/Civony/Travian economic model to what looks like a mostly PvE game. Combat plays out automatically with no player intervention. The developers recognized that this was really boring, so they added a button to skip it … which demands the RMT currency. Yes, it is a game that invites you to play and then offers to let you pay for the privilege of not doing so.

: Zubon

Improving Their Respectability

Posted by Zubon on August 11, 2011 in Flash Games. 10 Comments

respectable ads
If I told you that a browser-based “strategy” game was advertising itself with ad banners reading, “One Click for a Roman Orgy! Click Now!” could you guess the game? I cropped the name out of the picture, to avoid giving them that bit of free advertising, but… wow. The big surprise, really, is that they are still in business.

: Zubon

Advertise discreetly, my lord.

Not To Scale

Posted by Zubon on August 2, 2011 in Flash Games. Closed

Not To Scale is a little flash gem. It takes a simple game mechanic that you know (swap the tiles to assemble the picture) and adds a twist (the “squares” are different sizes, and the tiles stretch themselves to fit). I don’t know that I see anywhere further to take the idea, but it is a novel variation on a classic puzzle that utilizes the strengths of the computer, the way that Elements does for collectible card games with mechanics that change and duplicate cards in ways you could not with physical cards.

: Zubon

Human-Hating Text Adventure

Posted by Zubon on January 13, 2011 in Flash Games. 1 Comment

If you enjoyed Viricide, how about its companion text adventure, which is run by ABOMI from the first game. Because too few of your games explicitly hate you.

: Zubon

Portion Size

Posted by Zubon on November 11, 2010 in Flash Games. 2 Comments

There is little silliness quite like using a souped-up, thousand-dollar PC to play flash games, but I tend to enjoy them when MMOs run stale. As I have heard many say about no cover charge DDO, it is a low commitment, short duration, high yield gaming experience. They are intended as self-contained blocks.

Most flash games do not feel the need for padding. If you are selling a game, you add in grind, repetition, fake difficulty, and other playtime extenders, because your players expect 40 hours of play for their money. If your business model is “none” or “ad revenue plus tips,” adding in an unfun hour benefits no one. So you get not only smaller portion size but higher content density within it.

The downside is that independent trials lead to quite a few failures. If you log on WoW and run your dailies, you know what you are getting. If you play the latest featured flash game, it could be really horrible. But there again, they are self-contained, so lousy parts are not defiling a larger game/world.

: Zubon