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Feature: Keep cleaning up in 2019
Cleaning is miraculous. It is the ultimate de-stressor for me. I have no patience for an unmade bed or dishes left in the sink. I pride myself on my cable management, I love making to-do lists, and nothing makes me more excited than an itinerary. Perhaps it's why I love inventory management and city sims! But even I can fall behind on my organisational prowess.…
Feature: Girls who like swamps
For the purposes of brevity I’m going to refer to Porpentine’s new game as “Almanac”, rather than its full title of “Almanac of Girlswampwar Territory & The _girls Who Swim As Fertilizer Through The Warm Soil Cloaking The Roots of The Glorious Tree of Eugenics”. But just so you know, that is the full title of this weird lil' adventure romp. Having never played one…
Feature: Free games to love and share
Hey, RPS. Things are a bit different in this space! My name is Kat, and I’m a writer and academic out of sunny southern California, taking over the Free Games of the Week column from the inimitable Jupiter Hadley. I’m a PhD student, so I love a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. I teach game design, so I love a game with a solid…
Feature: Exploring a decade's work
"Hello," he adds, a moment later. "I think I've found the way in. A small metal door with a fiendish puzzle lock." >x lock There are a large number of small moving parts. "Yes, quite fiendish indeed," Peyton says. "And very intricate." He draws back a foot and then kicks the door hard. The puzzle lock comes apart with a twang. "Too intricate for its…
Feature: This week's best free games!
All right boys, its lights out. I know you’ve all had another tough day behind bars but thems the breaks when you’re a convicted felon. Back to the cells, come on. Hey Johnny what are doing with that huge explosive propane tank? No, stop. Stop what you’re doing Johnny. Please stop.
Feature: Four games about alien life
Stories about alien life raise interesting questions about what humans are, and whether there's any other way we could be; about communication between very disparate cultures, and whether it's even possible; about extremely alternate perspectives on earthly life. If you also like these stories, this week I have four pieces of IF about alien life forms to suggest:
Feature: Why Birdland won so many
Earlier this year, the interactive fiction community held its annual XYZZY awards to celebrate the best interactive fiction pieces (and a few types of technical work) from 2015. The XYZZYs are one of the longest-running awards in gaming, celebrated every year since 1997, when they honored the best IF games of 1996. This year one game dominated the awards, with good reason: Birdland.
Offer me the chance to step inside one of Porpentine's worlds and I'd laugh, cry, shed my skin, then run screaming into the woods. I can't say I'm not curious about her alien landscapes, cruel societies, lost people, and strange loves, though. Good news! New technological advancements mean you can now virtually peek inside 3D recreations and experience emotions in a controlled environment before safely…
Oh sure, maybe you have been a beautiful frog, a ruthless cyberpunk businesslady, an artificer serving a dark empress, and Ke$ha herself, but not quite like this. Yesterday Porpentine released Eczema Angel Orifice [official site], collecting 25 of the former RPS columnist's hypertext games together, updated and coming with director's notes and a viewing guide to find the right one for you right now. It's…
Looking back over the years, we've barely posted about Porpentine's games. Cara was into Ultrabusiness Tycoon III and Love Is Zero and I really dig With Those We Love Alive but beyond that... huh! That's a bit weird, given how funny and interesting and unsettling and probing our former Live Free Play Hard columnist's games are. Well, now I can cover most at once. Porpentine…
One of these symbols I drew on my arm is a lie. With Those We Love Alive tells you to draw icons on your body to represent key choices and reactions, see, which is a lark until you realise you're marking and changing yourself in response to cruel and oppressive things. One icon represents something I like to think about myself, but know isn't true.…
Feature: Smash Together
No, not the beloved Homestar Runner animation, this fortnight it's a celebration of teenage girls and their sexual agency being front and centre of the narrative! "Hey Cara," I might hear you say, "I have never heard of a game that even gave the tiniest crap about teenage girls' libidos!" Well, I'd say, you've clearly never been near the Otome genre, or a copy of…
Feature: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
I wonder how many of you have played our Live Free Play Hard correspondent Porpentine's games. I've just finished playing her latest: Ultrabusiness Tycoon III, and as usual, I grinned at the jokes, smiled at the references, and was very moved by the end. Come with me now, on a journey through time and space...
