Another week comes and goes, with school ramping up for the finale. Sometimes it makes you want to be an animal without a care in the world.
Fortunately, our next game of the week solves that problem: Goat Simulator. Come by n Gaylord 2030 at the usual 6 p.m. on Tuesday to hear us talk more about it.
For now, you’re stuck with me.
Goat Simulator, for the uninitiated, is one of the most fun broken games ever. The game is hardly about simulating real life and looks to make a broken game fun.
I mean everything is janky. The animation, the gameplay, the textures, it all just looks and feels weird.
And yet, the game is incredibly charming. The goat can ram and lick (with a very sticky tongue).
These are all you really need to interact with everything in the game and go for achievements. These can range from doing a front flip from the huge diving board to licking a rally car to drift with it. Some items can be picked up, like a jackpet, to cause extra mayhem. Really, the game is about exploring all the fun interactions you can find. Its player created humor at its best, a game designed to intentionally make you laugh at how dumb it is.
I really don’t have much else to say, it’s a fun game from my younger years. But I’m sure you can hear more about it from our committees at our meeting this week! See you there.
Welcome back game developers! The Game Developer’s Association is back with our first meeting since Spring Break.
This week, we’ll be talking about the sandbox, open world exploration mystery game, Outer Wilds. We’ll be meeting at 6 p.m. on April 4 in Gaylord 2030.
Unfortunately me and some of the other officers got very sick from the trip to the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, so this post will be short.
Also because I don’t want to spoil this game! It is one of those games where going in blind is recommended.
You play as an alien who is recruited into the Outer Wild Ventures. Your goal is to explore the solar system and report findings.
As you explore, you learn something very quickly: the sun will collapse in 22 minutes. After it does or you die, you wake up on your home planet only to be trapped in a time loop.
Throughout the game, you try to uncover why this is by discovering ancient ruins, old spaceships, and varied planets. My favorite thing about this game is the lore, and the freedom you are given to explore it.
There are many planets to explore and secrets to uncover. Plus, because the world is not too big, your time limit never seems daunting as you can get back to where you died quickly.
Flying your spaceship feels freeing, but I had a lot of trouble learning how to pilot it, leading to many crash landings.
The art and sound also deserves praise. I love how it feels like you are on a hiking trip, with the aliens living in cabins, the folk inspired soundtrack, and the trails you uncover.
The story, as I touched on, is one of my favorites in a game. The lore goes very deep, and the past lives of characters is intriguing.
Definitely give this game a go if you love exploring and mysteries, you’ll love it.
You can also hear all about it at this week’s GDA meeting! See you there space cowboys!
Want to know what the Game Developer’s Association general meetings have in common with our week seven game of the week? Pizza.
That’s right, we’re talking about the webgame from Gen Z’s childhood, Papa’s Pizzeria. We’ll be talking in-depth about this adorable yet stressful flash game on February 28 at 6 p.m. in Gaylord 2030.
While I usually like to include a quote from the developers, I could not find an interview with Flipline Studios, (creator’s of the Papa’s series). What I do know is they are a Cleveland, Ohio based game developer who develops web games.
For the few who don’t know, Papa’s Pizzeria is a game that stars Roy, a normal pizza delivery boy who is tasked with running the restaurant while Papa Louie, the owner, is out of town on vacation. Now Roy must run a pizza restaurant all on his own.
The game is very simple yet accomplishes so much. There are four areas you have to manage all at once: the order counter, the prep station, the oven, and the slice counter.
You can guess what each area does. Each one is a different minigame for you to manage.
This is where the fun comes in, as you must take orders while frying a pizza in the oven, and scoot over to slice up the pizza to prepare it to go, and then prep a pizza with the ingredients, then back to serving that sliced pizza, and so on until the day is done.
I do also want to mention how cool it is for a flash game to have dynamic music. As you go between areas, the music shifts depending on what you are doing. Cheery music plays while you finish slicing up a pizza, but a more percussion focused track plays while you are waiting for pizzas to cook in the oven.
After finishing an order, you get ranked on how well you made the pizza for each category. Then, you are awarded with tips.
You can serve me pizza!
The more tips you get, the more your rank goes up. The more your rank goes up, the more customers you unlock.
Each customer always has a certain pizza they want to order, and every time you make the pizza well, their star rank goes up. The more stars they have, the higher they tip.
And you go on forever making pizzas till you exit out of your browser.
I used to play this game and some of the other Papa’s games all the time back in my elementary days (Papa’s Hot Doggeria being my favorite). But besides bringing back childhood memories for me, it also brought back just how good this game is.
I found myself pretty stressed while playing this game, as it simulates the feeling of working in a restaurant in real life. Managing different tasks is important, as you don’t want to disappoint your customers but you don’t want them waiting too long.
You can believe me, cause I used to work at a pizza restaurant. Fun fact, I used to deliver pizzas by bicycle a few summers ago. And when you get a call from a customer wondering where their pizza is or why we didn’t follow the order, it is not fun.
The bike I rode on for a local pizza restaurant. It was a huge cargo bike with a heavy metal box on the back.
But Papa’s is really fun. It takes that stress, makes it into a small fun game that my childhood and adulthood self love.
Plus give it some fun artwork that looks straight out of a webcomic, and you got yourself one heck of a masterpiece for all generations.
Learn more about it and share your favorite web games you’ve played at our next general meeting on February 28 at 6 p.m. in Gaylord 2030.
I cannot believe we are already on week six for this spring semester. Man, how time flies, which coincidentally is also one of the themes of the Game Developer’s Association’s game of the week, the RPG maker modern cult classic, OMORI.
OMORI at first glance looks like a game riding on the popularity of Earthbound and indie-hit Undertale. However, this game differentiates itself by exploring life’s themes in only a way a game could.
OMOCAT, developer of OMORI, commented in an interview from Cydonia about how adapting their story, which was originally a comic, into a game was the best option.
I created the blog (comic) because I was dealing with a lot of personal stuff, and it really helped me get through that, by expressing my feelings and all my problems. After a while I wanted to tell his story to other people, but I didn’t know which one was the best option. So then I thought that a game would have probably been the best way.
Sometimes, using a game is the best way to tell your story and themes. OMORI demonstrates that idea fantastically.
Two quick disclaimers before I continue. First, I have only played through the first few hours of the game, which means this review is more of a preview that goes over the feel of the game and not as many story beats.
Second, this game does discuss heavy themes such as depression, anxiety, and a bit more. While I will not try to talk about it much to save readers from spoilers or to trigger any hard feelings, it will come up in this review. The game also does warn players when booting up the game about its themes, which is very nice for accessibility.
OMORI is one of those games that is best played by knowing little about it. But I hope this review-preview will help you know if this game is for you.
The game’s main character is Omori, a boy who sometimes lives in a dream-like world inhabited by his friends and odd creatures, as well as white space, a blank bedroom where Omori has a hard time getting out of.
Omori doesn’t talk a lot but his friends, Kel, Aubrey, Hero, and Basil, do. The game revolves around their journeys throughout the whimsical land.
The artstyle of Omori is gentle on the eyes, with colorful characters and childlike drawings all around. The pixelated landscape is cheery and fantastical as well.
The music is a huge standout for me, with fun bleeps and bloops coming in for the combat, reminding me of Kirby games I played when I was younger. Gentle electronic or piano music follows you as you explore forests, caves, clouds and more.
This all compliments a simple yet engaging combat system. Enemies and friends come to life in charming crayon drawings.
Omori and his friends all have a regular attack and skills, as you would expect. Where it deviates is the emotions system and follow-up system.
There are three different emotions: happy, sad, and angry. Skills can affect a friend or foe emotions, which affects stats. For instance, a sad enemy may not attack as much, but has a higher defense.
There is also an emotion triangle of effectiveness. Happy beats angry, angry beats sad, sad beats happy.
The follow-up system lets characters have the chance to perform an extra move after attacking by using energy. Energy is gained every time someone is hit.
After an attack, a pop-up menu comes up, allowing players to choose a follow-up move. Kel’s follow-ups are my favorite. He pitches his ball to another friend. Depending on who he pitches to, a different thing happens. If he pitches to Omori, Omori gets sad and loses one HP because he can’t catch the ball.
Much of the game also consists of traditional RPG tropes like fetch quests and long dialogue sequences. But to me this plays into that feeling of comfort and nostalgia. I’ve been here before, I know what to do.
If there is one thing all of these aspects make me feel, it’s a dreamy sense of nostalgia. I remember when I spent my days playing games like Kirby and playing outside with my friends. Making up adventures, making friends, and just trying to have fun and do good.
But there is more to this game. This game plays with your nostalgia in a surprisingly unique way. (Minor spoiler warning!)
Omori plays on that nostalgia by bouncing back and forth between the dreamy landscape and reality. When Omori wakes up, he is a normal boy who is about to move away from his hometown near the end of high school.
He hasn’t seen his friends for a while and he suffers from anxiety attacks and depression. The game scares you by causing a sense of dread or fear anytime you wake up from the dream world.
The first time you wake up, hands creep from the walls. You are hungry but too scared to go down the stairs to grab food.
This juxtaposition with the dream world makes the player fear the real world. When you go back to white space after your first encounter with reality, what was a boring and sometimes ominous space now does not seem so bad.
This struck a chord with me. As I grow up, I yearn for things of the past. The joy of playing with my neighbors, of booting up my DS to play Animal Crossing, making up stories to play out.
I miss that sometimes, and Omori tackles those feelings in a way that really hits home for me.
Dealing with hard feelings such as anxiety can really weigh heavy and make you want to escape to an empty space or for the perceived simplicity of childhood. As I continue playing the game, I’m excited to see how Omori explores those feelings.
Omori’s journey is a slow burn, which may frustrate some players, but it works very effectively for me. It plays up both emotions of nostalgia and fear, even if it has familiar trappings of RPGs like fetch quests and long dialogue sequences.
But this game uses those mechanics to really play with your emotions. To put it simply, it’s brilliant.
As I wrap up this review, I would like to say first of all, if you are ever struggling with feelings like anxiety or depression, please reach out to someone. You are not alone in this world and you have someone who wants to see you succeed. Other things such as counseling, journaling, or activities that feel comforting are good options too, whatever makes you feel grounded. OU offers low-cost counseling at https://www.ou.edu/ucc or at (405) 325-2911.
The GDA will also be talking more about OMORI on February 21 at 6:00 p.m. in Gaylord 2030. Stay safe and see you there!
Love is in the air, but recently in Oklahoma, it’s more like bitter wind and rain in the air… But no worries, come and warm up with your favorite game developers this Tuesday.
That’s right, the Game Developer’s Association will be meeting on Valentine’s Day, February 14 for our week five general meeting. We’ll be talking about the obscure Playstation 2 kissing game, Chulip.
The developer of the game, Yoshiro Kimura, loves working on small games and loves the indie game scene.
My feeling is that you should have a spirit of freedom. And now, everybody – big companies and small companies, and even junior high school-aged people and university students – everybody is fighting in the same place, now. So the most important thing isn’t being an indie – it’s about having freedom in mind and spirit.
Chulip is a small, delightful, but sometimes frustrating game.
It follows the story of a young boy who dreams of kissing a girl under the Lover’s Tree. He then wakes up in a moving truck with his single dad.
After moving in, your dad encourages you to go out and meet the neighbors, who for some reason do not like you because you and your dad are poor.
Even more surprising-but-not-really-surprising, you meet the girl from your dream. Of course, you attempt to kiss her first thing which ends up in rejection.
You go back to your dad, who tells you to write a love letter. But after delivering it, a little man who looks like a potato on legs tells you it sucks.
This man, named Mr. Suzuki, teaches you that to win someone’s love, you must find the right time to kiss them, write the ultimate love letter, and have a strong heart.
Thus you go about town learning about the residents and kissing them to get a bigger heart, while learning how to write a love letter. It’s a bizarre concept, but in a really charming way.
This game is wildly strange, yet tells a grounded tale. It’s a simple story about love told in the weirdest way possible.
Over the course of the game, you’ll go about your day learning about the townsfolk of Long Life Town. There is a day and night cycle, which means that every town person has different schedules.
Much of the game plays out like an old point-and-click game combined with Animal Crossing. You’ll learn the schedules of the people and through that, try to solve problems in the game.
This includes getting a letter back from an angry dog, clearing your family’s name of the crime of blocking the railroad tracks with a boulder, or simply learning when to kiss the residents.
All of the citizens are very fun and quirky, and I don’t mean that lightly. There is a whole underground town that helps the people above live their lives, with many wacky residents to learn about and kiss. The dialogue adds to the fun, with it having a weird writing style that adds to the weirdness.
While learning about and kissing the residents is fun in concept, this is where Chulip shows some of its age and translation problems. Chulip can sometimes be frustratingly vague at times.
While I did not complete the game in time for the writing of this review, this was due to most of my time being spent wandering around town aimlessly. And even though the town has a lo-fi and handcrafted aesthetic, it can get tiring walking around when trying to stumble upon the right time and right place to kiss someone.
On top of that, the game’s translation is charming, but confusing. I am not sure if the writing is as vague and open-ended as in the Japanese version, but some of the dialogue that was supposed to be hints did not seem helpful at all.
Many of the solutions are also not obvious at all, due to the strange tone of the game. In order to fix the button to cross the sidewalk, you have to ask Mr. Suzuki, how his day is. Make sure to talk to everyone!
On top of that, Chulip has a health system. The boy you play starts off with a weak heart, which means five heart points.
If you try to kiss someone and they are not ready for it, you get slapped and lose some points. Sometimes it feels more random, such as one of the underground residents, who is a telephone pole with a face, who will kick you if you go too far from the town.
While it is funny to see yourself get a game over from picking up a pile of chicken poo, it can also lead to frustration due to the game’s save system. Your save state is by using the bathroom in your home, which sometimes I didn’t do for a long time.
When I died from playing on a jungle gym, I laughed and said “What?!” because I had to restart my whole day.
After doing some research, I found that back in 2002 when the game came out, it included a manual that had a literal walk-through of the first couple hours of the game. So finding that manual or walkthrough may be the way to play it today.
However, all of these annoyances pale in comparison to the sheer charm of the game. The art style is cozy, the writing is funny and full of heart, and the music is catchy.
The music is also composed of acapella songs that play when you walk around town, kiss someone, or just stare at the dog on the title screen. It wonderfully matches the bizarre tone.
The story itself, while out there, tackles some interesting topics. It covers everything from classism, workers rights, alcoholism and of course love.
Chulip is one of the stranger games I’ve played, but I won’t stop thinking about it any time soon. It may sound like most of my time was frustrating, but I walked away pleasantly surprised.
Rachelle Phipps, the Graphic Designer / Newsletter Manager for the GDA, would agree. She said about the game:
Chulip is an outstanding game. It goes where other games are too afraid, too timid, and too un-innovated, to match. At its core, Chulip just wants to tell a beautiful story about a young boy who finds the love of his life—and of course, wants to kiss her. But, the difficulty is that, as a new young poor boy in a strange town with your father, your heart isn’t strong enough. So with the advice of your father, you decided to write her a love letter, and with this love letter, you profess your deepest desires. Chulip as a game gives such an impact to one’s understanding of love and how to express it. Especially while kissing nearly 50 residents around the town.
To be serious, however, Chulip is also an interesting, dare I say a bit, uh, frustratingly strange puzzle adventure game. The game has many systems in it that although make sense in theory, can sometimes confuse the player too much. For example, each character has a set schedule they follow and in order to correctly achieve their kisses, you must study or be aware of these schedules to progress the story. Added to the fact you cannot progress until a certain section of the game if you miss a character’s schedule well…you’re a bit out of luck. There are also little hints throughout the game with details on how to get the kiss for different residents, however, these hints seem more like passing glances, throwaway lines in dialogue, than something to remember. Despite its drawbacks, Chulip has a unique art style and approach to its graphics, giving each character an individual look that gives insight into their character and development. Its comedy is in between the lines and is enough to give you a chuckle if you’re ever stuck.
Although it has a strange presentation, Chulip is quite heartfelt and a hilariously fun game to watch or play with that special someone to get some good laughs. So if you want your Valentine’s Day with the person of your dreams and are having second thoughts about how to engage that first kiss…I’m sure Chulip can teach a lot about…love.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Chulip offers a unique game that has such heart. You can’t help but smile the whole time you play. It has a lot to say without being too loud.
The game is only available on Playstation 2 for a couple hundred bucks. Or you can get it on your PC through… unconventional means.
Or you can learn all about it by visiting the GDA general meeting on Tuesday, February 14 in Gaylord Room (TBA ROOM NUMBER). See you then!
For week four, the Game Developer’s Association will be reviewing the hidden JRPG gem, Octopath Traveler. From the team behind the Bravely Default series, Octopath Traveler is a modern take on the classic JRPG formula.
The developers took into consideration their success and setbacks with their work on the Bravely Default series. Through closed and opened betas and surveys, they found common issues that players had and took them into consideration.
It was very important for us that we were able to receive so many opinions from players around the world, as this gave us an objective sense of which parts of the game still needed work. And so, rather than by fixing and refining various aspects by trial and error, we were able to streamline the process by focusing on and addressing specific points of concern.
This led to important changes such as difficulty balancing and adding a run button. The end result is a charming journey through a beautiful world with a simple yet engaging combat system.
I should note that I have only played the betas and demo of this game. I have gotten a sense of the games systems and stories, but have not interacted with everything it has to offer. I have researched mechanics that I may have not encountered.
Octopath Traveler follows the storylines of eight characters. This includes Ophilia, a cleric on a sacred pilgrimage, Primrose, the dancer making her way in the world after working for a corrupt boss, Olberic, a warrior looking for answers to his past, and many more.
While each story is very different and the characters bump into each other throughout, there is not really a sense of cohesion. Each story is individual and important as the last.
However, you still get to create a party of up to four characters for battle, with each bringing a unique set of abilities. These abilities can help you off and on the battlefield.
For instance, Cyrus the scholar lets you discover a weakness of an enemy at the start of battle, while Tressa the merchant can haggle and buy items you normally can not.
Later in the game, you can even get another job to add more customization as you get further in your journey. Ability selection and party make-up are important to your success.
The battles themselves take a lot of inspiration from the games of old, like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Persona. Your characters have regular attacks with different weapons, and abilities and magic that costs SP (special points).
Each enemy has a Breaking Point, indicated by a number in a shield. If you hit their weakness, which includes different weapon and elemental types, you lower that number each time you hit. After reducing it to zero, the enemy Breaks, can’t attack for the current turn or their next, and take more damage.
On top of that, each character builds Boost each turn. Boost can be used to attack multiple times on a turn, or power up magic.
These two systems work together to create a timing puzzle. It’s simple at first, but as you get more characters in your party, you gain more abilities to totally demolish your enemy.
I found myself wondering things like, “I could Boost early and break this enemy’s defense, but what if I defend now and wait to strike my next turn and break all the enemies at once?”
It’s a really fun system that can feel more like a puzzle than a battle. It evokes the feeling of playing an old RPG with a bit more depth to it.
But what really sells this package is the sound and art. This game’s artstyle is one of a kind, like an upscaled Super Nintendo game.
There are tons of lighting and particle effects, from lamps hanging from dark caves that illuminate the water dripping from the ceiling to sparks of metal as your warrior wails on a big boss.
Enemies are also gorgeous to look at. The pixel art for them is superb, and sometimes makes me feel bad as my party turns them into dust.
The music and sounds are also excellent. The orchestral score highlights the high fantasy elements of the game. It plays melodic tunes in relaxing towns and fast violins as you enter combat.
The sounds of attacks, magic, and clicking through the menu are really satisfying. Again, it sounds like playing an old RPG, but modernized for modern ears. Beeps and bops are replaced with big clashes and subtle sounds.
While we didn’t get any reviews this week, I can tell you that if JRPGs are your jam, you owe it to yourself to try out this game. Or wait for the sequel coming this year.
Octopath Traveler is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox consoles, and PC. You can also find out more about the game by coming to the Game Developer’s Association general meeting on February 7 at 6:00 p.m. in Adams Hall Room 3208.
Welcome to the spring 2023 semester developers! It is almost time for the Game Developer’s Association to start meeting again.
For our first week, we will be discussing the hit sandbox game, Terraria. Join our meeting on January 31st at 6:00 pm in Gaylord Central Lecture Space 2030 to learn about how the game was developed.
This semester, we’ll be doing short reviews of some of our games of the week so that you can get to know the game a little better and see if it is for you. Plus, hear thoughts about the games from some of our officers.
“I think that’s what’s important. Giving players the option. No two gamers are alike, and we know that very well as gamers ourselves.”
Andrew “Redigit” Spinks, Designer and Programer of Terraria
Depending on who you ask, Terraria can sound like a completely different game. Some say it is a game about designing cool houses, others a deadly gauntlet of bosses, another player might just spend the whole time mining.
What made the game a hit is that it is all three and more. Terraria is a 2D sandbox where the goal is to do whatever you want in your little world. Sure, there is a final boss to fight, but players can make their own goals as well.
The game starts the player off with very little, just the tools necessary to mine, chop trees, and defend themselves from enemies. As you continue to explore the world, you’ll run into different biomes and gather more loot to make yourself more powerful.
You’ll also encounter characters on your journey who will join you if you build them a house. They will provide tips, shops, and items that will help you on your adventures.
All the gameplay ties nicely into a good loop of fighting, exploring, decorating, mining, and building. I had a ton of fun in this loop, especially since I played through with a friend.
We started out frantically mining and fighting for our lives. Playing on the hardest difficulty is challenging.
Once my friend and I gathered enough loot, we decided to take on our first boss, the Eye of Cthulhu. This monstrosity is a giant flying eye with a mouth that will eat you alive if you are not ready, which we definitely were not.
But the next time we fought it, we had gathered more loot from underground caves and killed monsters. By giving players the decision of doing what they want to do, when they want to do gives the player a great sense of choice.
This choice makes the world feel like your own. You decide when to progress, fight, build, and more.
While you are exploring and fighting, you’ll never grow tired of the phenomenal chiptune soundtrack. The catchy melodies and unique electronic sounds makes it one of the most iconic video game soundtracks.
Also special props have to be given to the art department and content designers. The 16-bit style art is always a joy to look at. The art is consistent but also varied, from creepy bosses to adorable pets and decorations. The game just looks fun and is fun to play. Plus, there is so much content in the game that you’ll be finding new things even a hundred hours in.
But don’t just take it from me! Our officers had some great thoughts to share:
Malorie Riggle, GDA outreach director, said,
10/10 game. Love it wholeheartedly, even though the bosses stress me out it is still very enjoyable.
My husband, Skyler, introduced me to the game to bounce off my excitement from Minecraft. I’m the type who likes the building, exploration, and decorating aspects of a game. Hence why I love games like Minecraft and Animal Crossing.
Skyler on the other hand likes the excitement and fun of building up your character, so he would spearhead the boss fights. With this combination, we’ve played many hours and on many worlds.
I also played for many hours with my friend. The multiplayer is top notch.
Jerrod M.B., GDA president, said,
I appreciate that Terraria’s progression is measured in bosses. When you spawn in for the first time, you’re not given a backstory or concrete instructions, you just meander around your world until the big eyeball kills you, the mega worm/brain eats you, or you get shrekt by the skeleton. Once you figure out how to beat them, the primary game loop revolves around continuously finding the next large thing to kill until you run out of large things to kill. After that you start a new world/character and do it again. 10/10 game.
Fully agree! This has to be one of the most fun games ever created.
You can learn more about the game on Tuesday, January 31 at 6 p.m. in Gaylord Central Lecture Space 2030.
Terraria is available on both Windows and macOS, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and iOS and Android.
