Jake

It's wildly different from Schafer's stuff (no dialog! very traditional almost non-gamey puzzles) but Machinarium is a very cool, atmospheric game that you can get on Steam. It has a sort of handmade aesthetic that sits well next to Broken Age.

In my opinion, for all it's strengths (which it has many), Grim Fandango is a shitty introduction to adventure games because its puzzles are insane. Right when you think you've got a handle on it, the game dumps you into the petrified forest. The art and story and music in Grim are some of the best things in games, but I think that to people who aren't already versed in adventure gaming (and worse, have other game genre experience*), Grim is an almost unapproachable first entry into the genre. I think if you're going to start anywhere with Schafer games, start with Full Throttle. The game has a narrative trajectory which motivates you to solve most of its puzzles without the post-solving rationalization that I think hits a lot of Grim's weaker points, but it still has atmosphere and story and uniqueness unique to Schafer's games. Its puzzles only get truly ridiculous in the final third, by which time you've built up a vocabulary/accumen at approaching and solving them. (And like Grim, it's not goofy, but instead a good balance of drama, serious stakes, with occasional action and witty moments when the story needs them.) * I think for a specific someone who has played NO games and has no expectations for how a game is played or should progress, but who generally likes long pensive media and likes puzzle solving, Grim Fandango could serve as a starting point. People who are decades games literate but have never played an adventure game, Grim feels a but like a toss off the deep end into some of the more mechanically ridiculous trappings of the genre.

Idle Thumbs 105: XCOM Obama It's Discovery Week here at the Thumb, where we play a bunch of games whose fun comes from learning how to play them. We finally sit down and play our first campaign of Risk: Legacy, Chris falls into CandyBox and Starseed Pilgrim, and Sean takes to the stars to face the nation's most formidable foe. Games Discussed: Risk: Legacy, CandyBox, Starseed Pilgrim, XCOM: Enemy Unknown Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

This mostly comes down to me dragging my feet forever. The music is recorded *and* mastered now, and I plan on getting it to the record manufacturers by early next week. The music being fully done also means I can put together the comprehensive digital package too so I will get on that. Also at that point we should put out a Kickstarter update! (Including a request for new mailing addresses for vinyl-grade backers.) That would probably freak people out.

Sean wasn't talking about Hack N Slash (though I don't know what he was talking about).

They're undeniably different types of surprises though. Surprises at the end of a story are almost universally surprises which, when known, can be unpacked to tell the entire path to get there. Surprises at the beginning are often the hook on which the premise rests. Writing this out is a reminder that spoilers are at worst dumb and at best frustrating to have to consider when discussing a work.

The over worlds not matching the levels is the worst bit of that to me. The aesthetics are otherwise really clean. The Toad House spots just seem like they're there for variety at this point. They were random in Mario 3 as well, but seemed slightly weighted by world (you could get a frog suit from Toad in the water world where it was helpful). The notable difference in SMB3 is that you had an inventory on the map screen, so you could bank all the items you get from Toad, on-map Hammer Bros etc, and use them later.

I do Coming soon: being better about that again.

Tom Lehrer used to teach a course at UC Santa Cruz called The Nature of Mathematics which was apparently basically that. He changed to a course called "Infinity" which I missed the cutoff to get into, and was bummed because he then stopped teaching.

Idle Thumbs 119: You, Fisher Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton joins us for talk of some recent sneaky games and tries to sell Jake on a 3DS. Chris gets lost in a spooky cave and pushes some guys out of the way. Plus, we can't stop talking about those guys who can't stop talking about Sam Fisher, Fisher. Games Discussed: Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches, Skulls of the Shogun, Spelunky, Saints Row IV, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Crusader Kings II Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Seems like there is a crucial sign missing.

I think that's mostly Rob humoring us with an Idle Thumbs meme.

Oh man Boo Buddies yum.

When did they get renamed "boo mansions" instead of "ghost houses?" Also when did they get changed to just "Boo" from "Boo Diddley?" I guess that happened immediately post-SMB3 and its musician-flavored naming localizations.

I just listened through the web player but it's the same file (the site back end only looks in one place for an episode mp3 regardless of what is querying it). Weird.

Dr. Mario is in the house! His prescription: K.O.s.

the site WAS a parked domain up until we took it over, so thanks people who have the power to clear those things for clearing them This forum has powerful Internet people on it it turns out.

We're in San Francisco not Portland so we have our own offices which we move into on December 1!

I can hear it all. May be you!

Idle Thumbs 131: Real Life Just when you think Chris has fallen so deep into Spelunky there's no escape, out of the darkness emerge two open arms, ready for the catch. Jeff Green joins us this week for talk of games journalism, SteamOS, live streaming, his decade-later return to Black Mesa, and more Spelunky. Things Discussed: Games journalism, Spelunky, The Wolf Among Us, Grand Theft Auto V, Black Mesa: Source, SteamOS, The Stanley Parable Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Ugh the FLUDD stuff is still in Mario's character in the upcoming SSB games? That made him unplayable for me in Brawl on the Wii, when he was my go-to in Melee and N64. I ended up switching to Luigi for my Mario Bros needs (as one should) but I will probably be forever bummed about Mario's move set post-Melee.

I liked Sunshine because parts of it were just hard as fuck. I also liked the Fluud thing although it's not something I'd ever want to see return again. My favorite parts of Sunshine were when the game was at its most abstract and crazy (which was usually when it was at its most difficult) and those parts seem to be what most clearly informed Galaxy and other post-Sunshine EAD games.

I'd be pretty stoked if we could externally visualize dreams, cultural repercussions be damned.

Idle Thumbs 132: Kobe's Last Shot Oh yeah. We meet in the temple and we fence, and then we read. Beautiful. Nick pretends he's really tall, but few care despite his seven rings. Even more beautiful. Oh yeah. Games Discussed: Foiled!, Device 6, NBA 2K14 Listen on the Episode Page Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed

I think death currently creates cascading irreversible sadness. Internally I believe people now get more sad relative to how well they know the deceased crossed with how much they liked them, which fixes it significantly.