Just a short update this week, as I did not get much of a chance to work on Unearthed due to some family obligations and the Maple Leafs breaking my heart.

The crazy comprehensive sprite asset list I mentioned last week is now complete! You can take a look at it on the starmen.net forums. I’ll be adding completed sprites as I edit them, and as they are sent to me by community contributors. It’s been pretty quiet thus far, but I’m hoping to build some momentum by the time that May is out.

As usual, you can follow me on Twitter for more up-to-date progress reports. And for inane ramblings.

May 14, 2013 Michael Unearthed No comments

WildStar is my most anticipated game of 2013. Although there are a number of MMOs on my radar, WildStar is the only one that seems to possess that magic combination of innovation and rock solid production value I look for.

Still, I worry.

WildStar isn’t special. It’s not going to be ushered down from the heavens on its launch date, heralded by a cherubic chorus of angels. The game is going to have to overcome the same hurdles every MMO is faced with, and there’s a good chance it will fall flat on its face.

Today, I’d like to identity three major pitfalls WildStar will have to overcome if the game hopes to carve out a plot of land for itself in the MMO frontier.

Content Clout

Digital soothsayers like to point to World of Warcraft‘s upcoming ten-year birthday as the expiration date of the juggernaut. Nobody, they say, wants to play a ten-year-old MMO – you might as well be trudging through the original EverQuest or Ultima Online!

May 12, 2013 Radiostorm Online Games, Random Thoughts No comments

With the upcoming re-release of EarthBound on the Wii-U console, I thought it was about time for some “real talk” with all you fan boys and retronauts interested in buying a physical copy of the SNES classic. First and foremost:

EarthBound is not a rare game.

Really, it isn’t. Not even close. Anyone who advertises it as such is a liar.

There were 140,000 copies of EarthBound sold across North America. This isn’t an especially huge number, but is large enough that you shouldn’t worry about supplies drying up any time soon. Log in to Ebay and you can peruse numerous EarthBound listings, with or without the various extras (guide, box) that came with the original game.

So why do people think the game is rare? The fact that there was never a re-release (something that is about to get remedied) has made it less accessible for the average gamer. Savvy sellers are also keen to capitalize on the overwhelming enthusiasm of the fan base; jacking up cartridge prices and hoarding copies to make complete sets.

May 10, 2013 Michael Random Thoughts No comments

I’ve been a big bogged down with logistical work this week, so just a quick little update today. I’ve been working on a forum formatted sprite asset list for use at Starmen.net, in an attempt to recruit a bit of assistance over the next couple of months. I’m confident enough in my spriting abilities to get most of the work done myself, but the more assistance I can wrangle the quicker the project will move along. You can check out the forum post RIGHT HERE.

If you’d like to join in on the spriting fun, feel free to toss me an email or just contribute to the forum post that I linked to. I will warn you ahead though: I have a pretty high standard of quality. If I think I could make a better version of a submitted sprite, I will probably reject it outright. Although I do want to speed Unearthed’s development along a bit, I don’t want to do so by sacrificing quality.

May 5, 2013 Michael Unearthed No comments

(where Michael deconstructs discontinued franchises, and puts forth ideas concerning hypothetical sequels.)

Overview

I know what most of you are thinking right now: “What the crap is Equinox?”. Released in 1993 as a sequel to the NES classic Solstice, Equinox failed to generate much buzz upon hitting the market. Players derided its intense difficulty level, occasional glitchiness, and unusual gameplay mechanics. It was quickly designated as a sub-par entry into the Super Nintendo’s extensive library, and soon faded from the gaming scene all together.

But a few players managed to overlook some of the game’s quirks to see it for what it really is: a unique, isometric, puzzle-platformer unlike any other game released in its era. Is it unpolished? A little. A bit too hardcore? Definitely. But Equinox is a severely underrated title that the gaming community certainly needs to take another look at.

May 1, 2013 Michael Game Design, Random Thoughts 2 comments

As some of you may remember, there is a short portion in Unearthed that occurs in the magical realm of 8 BIT FLASHBACKS. Although there aren't a lot of sprites to make for this part of the game they took a good while to put together. It was a little tricky to match the pseudo-NES style I created for the map tile-sets!

First up, we have the laboratory administrator. He's a mustachioed moderator.

April 28, 2013 Michael Unearthed No comments

After my enthusiasm for the previous two installments of the Shades of Ice trilogy, I had high hopes for the thrilling conclusion. Set in the rugged wilderness of the north, it seemed an apt repose from the confined urban environments of Written in Blood and Exiles of Winter. Also, there was a strong potential for wooly mammoths – always a bonus!

Unfortunately Keep of the Huscarl King wound up being a massive disappointment. I was bored, my players were bored, and I think the universe even became a little bored for having to accommodate this slog.

The trajectory of Keep of the Huscarl King is more straightforward than the prior two scenarios in the trilogy. The scholar Skagni has revealed to you the location of a weapon of ancient power in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. It resides in the ruined fortress of a legendary Ulfen warrior once known as the Huscarl King. The Shadow Lodge intends to claim this weapon for their own purposes, using it’s power to garner an advantage against the Pathfinder Society. The players must race on foot to the ruined keep, contending with Shadow Lodge agents, territorial native Kellids, and tundra beasts along the way.

April 27, 2013 Radiostorm Pathfinder, Reviews No comments

I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but I thought I’d share this little tidbit of news with all of you. In March 2012, Anna Anthropy released her book Rise of the Video Game Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form and my hack project HyperBound was given a three page write-up!

This was a bit of a surprise for me! I hadn’t received very much HyperBound press after the deluge in 2007/2008, and I was never contacted about my inclusion in the book. In fact, I only found out a month or so ago, after it was brought up to a friend of my in passing conversation.

I’ve included an excerpt of the book below for your perusal:

April 24, 2013 Michael HyperBound, Indie Games, News No comments

I've been working pretty hard over the last couple days to put together some sprites for the Glensborough portion of Unearthed. Making farmers and townies is a bit trickier than I thought it would be, due to the somewhat erratic art style within EarthBound. I've tried to edit existing sprites while adding my own personal touches, to create new NPCs that still fit the artistic direction of the original game.

First up, a couple of very important sprites: Mitchell's mom and dad. RS commented that the mom looks like a kindergarten teacher while the dad looks a lot like Eric Nagler.

Coming up next we have an assortment of sprites for Chase's friends. I sampled clothing styles from a few different eras, and ended up with a group of kids that look like "generic troublemakers" from across history.

April 22, 2013 Michael Unearthed No comments

This scenario is kind of mean.

Not unfair, mind you. I don’t think there’s any encounter in Shades of Ice: Exiles of Winter that tips the balance of power too steeply in the game master’s favour. There are no inescapable death traps or plot devices that funnel players into tactically miserable situations.

But mean. Definitely mean.

Exiles of Winter picks up where Shades of Ice left off. Having learned that the lost scholar Skagni is being held in a Shadow Lodge stronghold in Irrisen, the players hop on the first caravan to the lands of the Baba Yaga. Disaster strikes as a band of marauding ice trolls kills their escorts, leaving the players with the daunting task of infiltrating the walled city of Whitethrone on their own.

April 20, 2013 Radiostorm Pathfinder, Reviews No comments