Game Tunnel: April Round-up

By: Derek Yu

On: April 25th, 2007

Oi! It’s time once again for Game Tunnel’s monthly Round-up! Always an interesting read, of course. Nice to see Sam n’ Max taking the top honors this time around.

As usual, there are a lot of games on there I haven’t heard of before. Many of which I’m not very interested in… but wait! Hard Time, a prison simulation? Holy, look at the scores, they’re all over the place! 3, 6, 8, 10… and check out this quote:

“The guards fight each other at random (no inmates needed!), a guy tried to shoot a basket with a baseball bat, and another guy asked me to watch his back and then yelled at me for not doing it 5 seconds later. I get it, it’s a simulation. A simulation gone completely mad.”

And that’s from the guy who gave it a 3! Sounds awesome! Alright, Hard Time is definitely getting a review on TIGSource sometime.

Posted in Community

Rz.

yeah, i’ve got to agree with man-who-scores 3, this was pretty bad. espically since i was getting like 4 fps through the whole thing, damn.
Lorne T Whiting

Well, I think ANY game is bad at 4 FPS, Rz.
rinkuhero

Yeah, MDickie really should be more known than he is, he’s one of the best indie developers. It’s just that he tends to avoid forums and such.
http://web.mac.com/shinjisixteen Shinji16

I’m sensing an extreme lack of “prison rape” from this simulation.
Blueberry_pie

Man, this runs like poo on my PC (which makes sense, because my PC is also pretty poo). Pretty unplayable with such a low framerate.

I did manage to beat up some guys in the main hall though. Fun! I’d like to play this on a PC better suited for gaming some time.
Xander

Interestingly, I was just arrested by the guard and was aquitted for my charge. The charge of MURDER. Despite the guard being right next to Warden Austin and I during the altercation, and the fact that there’s security camera in the corner of West Block watching the murder take place, AND the fact that I kicked the guard to the ground, stole his Machine Gun and proceeded to blast Warden Austin into the next life.

So, apparently Thievery can get you sent to jail, but whilst your in there you can murder a prison warden with his own Machine Gun and carry on as if nothing ever happened.

Greatest.Game.Ever.

Another Warden paid me the princely sum of $10 to stop beating him in the face with a brick. I agreed, and shot him with a machine gun. Why during my murder trial did no one think to remove an automatic weapon form a crowded prison block I don’t know…

But yeah, the frame-rate is attrocious.
Underwhelmed

I like the idea of this game, and I really wish it worked better but the AI and almost every aspect of the game play is broken. Inmates just randomly wander around and then start beating on each other if they get too close to one another, hell even the guards do this too. The fighting controls are pretty weak, the rotational movement was a just plain stupid choice. Also, how did my leg get cut off with a broom?

To me, this game plays like an early build of a game that is going to be a lot better. I think it needed a lot more work and in no way justifies the $15 price.

Still…. I can’t stop messing around with it. I thought it was funny how the guards can end up incarcerated too if they are unmasked as corrupt. I’m not sure if this is some sort of a random event or if the guard actually did something (probably for beating up or killing another guard ) to get the tables turned.
ZombiePixel

“Another Warden paid me the princely sum of $10 to stop beating him in the face with a brick. I agreed, and shot him with a machine gun.”

Xander, quotes like that make it sound like the MOST AMAZING GAME EVER!
Xander

Haha, it almost is. It feels like a Prison B-Movie, there are so many awesome things that happen but only because the game is so rediculously broken that it ends up being hilarious.

For me, it’s quotes like “How did my leg get cut off with a broom?” that makes this sound like the best game ever!
DrDerekDoctors

I really don’t know what to make of MDickie. I mean if he honestly believes the stuff on his “about” page, it indicates person with a fairly pronounced dislocation from reality.
Xander

Wow, I hadn’t read that myself. He isn’t so much revolutionising the industry as he is releasing bizzarely rough and ugly games.

My new favourite quote for the night is simply; “Just because he’s carrying a pistol doesn’t mean he’s going to hurt someone” – Oh Judge, I am so very fond of you. I also loved it when he told a Warden that his friend was never in any real danger when I was up for attempted murder. No real danger at all! You can live a perfectly happy life according to Judge even when someone ruthlessly blew off your hand. I hearby rename Hardlife – ‘I HEART JUDGE!’
Alec

Hard Time = worthless piece of shit
Derek

This guy sounds completely and utterly insane and I’ll try any game Alec calls a worthless piece of shit, heh heh! >^___^<
Anthony Flack

MDickie really is an odd one. All his games are kind of wonky and ambitious and only semi-working, but he has singlehandedly cranked out more titles than the rest of the indie scene put together, it seems. He must be raving mad.
http://www.arsecast.com DrDerekDoctors

Yeah, I really kinda’ love that lots of his games really combine ingredients which haven’t been combined elsewhere. But it’s sad that it’s done by a McDonald’s worker in a blender rather than a Chef in a restaurant.
Anthony Flack

Man, I counted 18 complete games listed on his website, and I’m pretty sure there’s also a bunch of early wrestling games he made that aren’t on there. Although his claims to have mastered all aspects of game creation are a little… questionable… you have to admit, one thing he really knows how to do is crank ’em out. MDickie never met a project too ambitious to complete in a few months (after his own fashion). He’s a mad freakin’ energizer bunny.

Or as he puts it, “Behold an entire empire created and maintained effortlessly by one man.”
JamesRC

Mr Dickie has now mentioned the Gametunnel round-up on his front page. I quote.

“Unfortunately, its prospects were crippled by a damning 3/10 “unplayable” verdict (from a bitter peer that makes 2D freeware no less).”

He’s delusional.

And what’s wrong with 2D freeware?

2D freeware makes my life complete! ;)
Xander

“You start with text, progress to 2D, and then end up in the glorious world of 3D. All too many wannabe game developers feel that the first 2 are beneath them – and funnily enough, they never get anywhere!”

He wrote that. -He- wrote that. Has he even played his own game?!
Anthony Flack

Mike Hommel’s games aren’t freeware. He is also quite impressively prolific (Dr Lunatic Supreme With Cheese is ridiculously large).
BeamSplashX

Hmm… Dickie, the man who can only live up to four letters in his name…

That’s right, he’s a deik.
http://www.distractionware.com Echo

He’s Icki?
BeamSplashX

No, a kicd.
http://www.distractionware.com Echo

Or:

iKid.

Iced!
Hamumu

Ah, I’ve been Dickied!!!

It’s true though, I do make 2D freeware – check out my latest at the top of http://hamumu.com/gamelets.php ! I think it’s a fun one (but the 2D freeware below it, Moon Invaders, is better. I am very happy with that one!).

Bitter, yes. Peer? I sure as hell hope not.
Alec

I say worthless piece of shit, because it ran absolutely horribly on a very good machine.

It wasn’t that it was slow, it would run maybe 30fps for a second, then pause for another second. Like completely stop. Then start again. The trial only gives you 3 runs of the game, so quitting it to try and adjust your computer’s settings in an attempt to get the game running costs you.

With graphics that low poly, what the hell is he doing wrong that makes it run so badly? I don’t get it.

The concept sounds awesome though. :)