Catching Up

It has been over nine months since the last post was published on Thumbstruck! As my excuse, here's a quick update on what I've accomplished in nine months:

• Completed 14 more games, including Rayman Origins, Pushmo, and The Walking Dead (all highly recommended). This brings my grand total to 42 games completed since I started tracking them (September 2010).
• I proposed to the woman of my dreams, and against all odds, she said yes. We our planning our wedding and getting married later this year.
• I helped launch a lot of new stuff at work. If you own a Windows 8 computer/tablet, there's a decent chance there's a game on your computer with my name in the credits. Hooray!
• I helped run a game with Arkadium at the Come Out and Play festival on Governor's Island. The game is called Super Secret Spies, and despite the sneakiness, there are tons of photos online.
• I attended Practice, a game design conference hosted by NYU Game Center, and heard talks from some truly remarkable people. No single event has reinvigorated my resolve to create great games more than this conference. If you're interested in hearing about any of the talks, let me know!
• Got my first smartphone! I am now the proud owner of a Nexus 4 running the latest version of Android, which also means I have new free-to-play games to try out. My commute is Triple Town, and Triple Town is my commute.
• I returned to TCNJ for the Global Game Jam 2013. With my good friends (and dream team) Bryan Mayer, Ryan Epp, Chris Hallberg, and Nicole Pieri, I built _scope, a psychadelic game of Set-meets-Spirographs, with just a hint of childbirth. For real.
• My writing has appeared around the net a bit recently, including this opinion piece on iMedia Connection about the then-new Facebook App Center.
• I wrote a  feature story on Gamasutra covering five tips for better playtesting. This was recently re-published in the March issue of Game Developer Magazine, which was distributed to subscribers and at GDC. Let me know what you think!

And that's it! If you're interested in chatting about some months-old news, I'm happy to take a trip down memory lane. Leave a comment!

(Thanks to Vinny for pushing me to start writing again.)

My Existential Crisis

I was corrupted at an early age by the agents of a dark and powerful force, and for the better part of two decades this force has festered in my soul and grown stronger. Its tendrils reach my brain and re-route logical thought. Its nourishment feeds my body and makes me dependent on it. But two weeks ago, I confronted my own inner Nintendo Fanboy, and I think I may have won.

Consider that the only Nintendo system I have never owned is the Virtual Boy, and that I would gladly trade a week's meals for one, if you can name your price (e-mail me!). Or that I've been present, cash-in-hand, for the day-one launch of the Game Boy Advance, the GameCube, the DS, and the Wii. That my man-child poster wall gives Zelda more real estate than Lord of the Rings (a nerd amongst nerds?) and that my senses detect SNES cartridges on thrift store shelves as readily as most people notice loose cash lying on the sidewalk.

It seems within reason that I'd be picking up the Nintendo 3DS - Nintendo's newest handheld, a significant upgrade to their DS line that can play newer, better games and features a stereoscopic 3D screen (think Avatar) without the need for 3D glasses (and it's awesome!). Indeed, that was my plan.

But I chickened out! Or at least, that's how I first described the decision to not spend my money quite yet. Sure, it has its flaws, the launch lineup of games is terrible, some of its online features won't activate until May, and they're likely to release a new model or drop the price by the holidays, but I knew all that before this weekend. So did I chicken out? Did my miserly attitude hold me back?

My crisis wasn't in deciding whether or not to get the 3DS - the moment that seed of doubt was in my mind, the crisis became whether or not to acknowledge that it was right. I should not buy the 3DS at launch, because I might end up deciding that I don't want it. My crisis was acknowledging that there might be better options out there, a thought that terrified my Inner Nintendo Fanboy. He raged against that thought, but the instant it formed, there was no going back.

I fought and I won, but with questions still lingering ... will I eventually pick one up? Should I hold out for the NGP? Is it finally time to cough up for a smartphone that I can game on?

I suppose time will tell.