KNYTT Stories

I have long held the belief that PCs are not for games. "If God had meant us to play games on a PC" I would say in my haughtiest tone, relishing the looks on the faces of the 5 or so people who were about vehemently disagree with me "He would have put joystick ports on them".

I have learned my lesson, by which I mean, in a shocking turn of events, my facetious comments weren't, in the strictest terms, truth. It is not the compulsive charm of a game in which I click on things and tweek numbers that has brought about this transformation (these are the kinds of games *they* like to play), but the plethora of awesome, shining hand crafted nuggets of burning spirit real people (by which I mean, largely, ones who don't make games for a living) give away for free on their webs. Watch the intro for Dwarf Fortress. If you are not freaking out and partying at this point, the doctor suggests you may be dead inside.

KNYTT, the original version, is one of these games. It's "best" described as a 2D exploration focused ICO, if ICO had been made by Hudson in 1991. It's meandering, goal-less, a bit confusing, and engrossing. The author has just released KNYTT stories, which uses the same engine to tell more focussed, level-like "stories", 5 of which are available from the website. I've yet to play it, but I suspect it's a real treat. Go on, give it a try yourself. This will be on the test.

http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?main=02Knytt_Stories

(Cross posted from my LJ in leiu of actual content that I *promise* will be forthcoming and actually good):

WELCOME WORIOR MEET MY BORLAX KA KA KA KA
Or something.

I am developing a mild obssession (possibly due to wild flights of fancy brought on by having to look at pictures of guns) with 1986 arcade game Wizard of WOR. If I had my druthers, and wasn't attached to the name I have enough already, I'd be weaselling around my internets changing it to Wizard of WOR right now. It's already being used as one of those "generic names for things" that I keep in reserve; my current windows media player playlist is called Wizard of WOR for example - it's awesome (WORSOME~!), by the way.

But I digress. Wizard of WOR!



Check it out! I love how there was a period in the early eighties (CF: The Adventure Game) where Spelling Things Wrong and/or heavy sounding vowel rearrangement were the new black. Anyway, to illustrate: WIZARD of WOR!