Rock, Paper, Shotgun

“Twentieth Century Cyberpunk.” That’s Quadrilateral Cowboy’s elevator pitch, but “hacking that’s not just some awful minigame” would work just as well. I played Blendo’s latest during PAX, and my heart grew three sizes that day. Also, my brain turned into a copy of William Gibson’s “Neuromancer.” I quite like it, is what I’m saying. Afterward, I sat down stood in a deafeningly loud convention center corner with dev dynamo Brendon Chung, and we discussed Quadrilateral Cowboy, Thirty Flights Of Loving, how to tell a good game story, and the difficulties of integrating such things into, well, games. It’s all after the break. 

Read the rest of this entry »

I think I have every right to consider myself a master hacker. I mean, videogames told me so. Let’s look at my qualifications: I can arrange electric pipe mazes, solve obnoxious word matching puzzles, and make my way through colorful, LED-hued node spiderwebs. That’s right, governments of the world. You know you want me to lock down your security systems for you. Nice and tight. Mmm-hmm. OK, that got weird. But anyway, let’s be honest here: hacking minigames tend to have zero basis in reality, and often end up feeling annoying, awkward, and out-of-place. In Blendo‘s  (they of Gravity Bone, Thirty Flights Of Loving, and Atom Zombie Smasher fame) Quadrilateral Cowboy, however, hacking is the entire game. So, how’s it work? Incredibly well, if the demo I played during PAX is any indication. 

Read the rest of this entry »