Get your Candy Crush Saga On!

Ok, so I've mentioned cheesy little games and time killers before, but today's Daily 30 is about one of my favorites, Candy Crush Saga.

Candy Crush Saga and I have had a tumultuous relationship.  I started off loving it, then hated it because it was hard, then loved it as I figured out the hard levels.

Then more happened, but that's for another blog. Leave it at "administration problems that they fixed."  It's an older game, but I wanted to bring up a favorite that I don't feel is dated. 

Either way, I never stopped loving the gameplay, the new inventive problems, and the catchy sound effects.  This is your basic color match Bejeweled clone, only with candy.  There's nothing (now) that you ever need to buy with real cash, and the game itself is free.

Just be careful!  Once you start playing it, it becomes very addictive. Saying "just one more level" will become a mantra.

Seriously, I would suggest that if you pick this game up, you practice dodging interventions.
(I skipped 3 myself).

So have fun, and I'll see you next time, if I can stop playing long enough… ohh SWEET!

Download a cheesy game!

Today's Daily 30 (seconds) is a simple thing to kill time, download a game!

Casual games are the new fad, the new craze, and the new black (whatever that means). Most of them are free to play, with little add-ons that cost real money but usually they're not required to play or enjoy the game.  There are puzzle games, thousands of Bejeweled clones, running games, matching games, dripping games, and all kinds I don't even think I can describe.  What would I suggest you do? Go to iTunes or the Google Play Store and just click on the top downloads in the free games section. I was sure I'd never like this kind of game, but now my current time waster is Minion Rush.  They're great for waiting at a bus stop or during a bad movie!

So go, find a free game that looks fun and go waste a lunch break, it's what they're for!

Have fun!

Wheaton's Law

Sorry it wasn't posted yesterday, but Today's Daily 30(seconds) is a topic we all should know, Wheaton's Law. (Much of this is paraphrased from Mr. Wil Wheaton himself, but I felt it was very worthy of being repeated)

This law was announced back in the early days of PAX, when online gaming has proven that when you're not face to face with someone, when you're anonymous to the people that are playing with you, the opportunity to be an arrogant little shit becomes available.  If some people act the way they do on those games when face to face, then they'd have their heads beaten in.  All this law wants you to do is just think about what is going on and remember you have a choice in how you act.  Everyone needs to stop, evaluate themselves, and follow Wheaton's law: Don't be a dick.

Thanks Wil!

Curse the Darkness

For today's Daily 90 (seconds) I'm going to talk about a new RPG that I picked up recently and can't say enough good things about.  Let's talk about Curse the Darkness.

I had wanted to wait until I could run a game before I reviewed this, but the chance just hasn't come up yet so this is my unplayed once-over.  Maybe I'll do another one when I've played.

Curse the Darkness is a deep, gripping setting with an amazing storyline and very strong sections of fiction, combined with the rules system that was made to support it.  To be honest, I got my copy of the game based purely on the setting itself, I found it so enthralling that I had to see the game based around it.

This game makes you think about ideology as it fits into the human condition, and on a much more basic level it makes you really think about what you would do to defend your rights as a human being.  All the mechanics, from character creation to challenge resolution, even to death and second character generation, are all based around making sure the mechanics don't get in the way of the story you're trying to tell.

In a nutshell, ten years ago the world was conquered by Him, a mysterious being that has outlawed all forms of ideology, which includes nationalism, religion, racism, and the like.  It's been ten years since he crumpled the world, forming from it the scattered huddled masses of people struggling to survive.  He keeps his laws with ruthless ferocity and his shadow-dwelling servants know and see all. The game circles around your one intrinsic choice. Should you stand up and fight back?  Should you strike out and even if you don't survive inspire others, or at least die knowing that you died a free man? Or do you just cower, cursing the way the world is because you know you're powerless to change it? In other words, do you Light a Candle, or simply Curse the Darkness?

We all love Hollywood, right?

Today's Daily 60 (seconds) is a way to make a quick one-shot game.

What's your favorite movie that no one else has seen.  Go on, I won't tell anyone, but you know you have one.  Is it Repo, The Genetic Opera?  Maybe it's Sharknado, or Twilight.  Maybe it's Equilibrium, or Expendables?  I could go on for ages naming campy or cliquey movies, but the point is that everyone has that one that the odds are most of their friends didn't see.  Well go watch it again, something campy, or fun, or pure action, or whatever.

The point is that you should pick a scene, or section of the movie (or if it's a low-plot movie, take the whole damn thing) and make an adventure out of it.  If you're lazy, you could probably even search online and find someone who made a host of NPCs on your movie.  Either way you could probably fashion a game out of that movie in an afternoon or evening and play the next day.

Give it a try, don't avoid the hollywood stigma, play it, run it, and use it.  It makes them millions of dollars, abuse their research groups and try a game yourself tonight!