Curious Arcade

Exploring the influence of Walt Disney on the theme-park-like world of Psychonauts 2.

This one begins with a throwaway line from Lili that casually reveals the design philosophy of Psychonauts as a whole. To truly get it, we need to go back to the days that Tim Schafer, the writer of Psychonauts, worked for Ron Gilbert on the Monkey Island games. When creating the first Psychonauts game, Schafer clearly had Disney, and Monkey Island, in mind. 

What follows is a rundown of the key design principles behind Disneyland and Psychonauts 2. Hubs, secrets, false fronts, textures, magical transitions, and wienies are the hot topics. If that last one confuses you, just know it has something to do with Walt Disney’s dog. Or if you’d rather not hear such tales, you can skip to the last chapter ‘Recap’ for a two-minute crash-course summary.

Besides Disney, this video also touches on the level design of pioneering shooter Doom, the concept of the Potemkin village, and the swish spy headquarters of sixties spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. While the ideas of Disney have helped shape the world, these pop-culture influences have lent it much colour.

CHAPTERS 

0:00 “a theme park after hours”

1:11 Hubs

2:32 Secrets Within Secrets

4:21 Wienies

5:40 False Fronts

6:21 Murals

7:20 Textures

8:52 Seamless Transitions

11:36 Recap

#Psychonauts2 #Disneyland #Design

Exploring the strange and arcane lore of Lies of P, starting with the word ‘apple’.  

With alchemy at its heart, this video covers a multitude of topics, including the devil, Paracelsus, the wonderful world of Oz, Gnosticism, the Bible, Greek myths, greed, ancient meteorite worship, Blade Runner, and Pinocchio (of course). 

Beginning with the word ‘apple’, this video rollercoasters across a range of alchemical-related topics. Watch the video from start to finish or skip to the desired chapter if you prefer a quick snack. Below, I’ll list a few points of interest.

The Pinocchio chapter lists (almost) all Pinocchio-related references in the game.

The Monad chapter lists the allusions to real-life alchemical figures, and includes a brief summary of Gnosticism.

The Oz chapter discusses the colourful landscapes, magical items, and grisly monsters we can come to expect in the sequels to Lies of P.

The Paracelsus chapter examines the similarities between the game’s Paracelsus and the historical and mythical Paracelsus.

The God chapter dissects the god who was torn apart, in relation to the Greek notion of sparagmos, the alchemical process of solve et coagula, and ancient gods such as Dionysus and Osiris.

The Ergo chapter touches on a very likely inspiration for the name.

The Devil chapter looks at the myth of Faust, made reference to in the game through the painting of Pinocchio, and villains such as Victor and Simon Manus.

Enjoy the ride.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

0:21 Apple

1:48 Blue

3:09 Covenant

4:26 Cure

5:39 Curse

6:46 Devil

11:47 Ergo

14:06 Father

15:27 God

20:21 Human

22:03 Immortality

25:29 Jesus

28:08 Knight

29:18 Legendary

30:17 Light

31:38 Metals

33:19 Monad

35:26 Night

36:26 Oz

41:28 Paracelsus

42:56 Pinocchio

44:57 Quest

45:54 Reincarnation

46:27 Simon

48:34 Sophia

50:32 Trinity

51:56 Uroboros

53:50 World

55:36 XYZ

#LiesofP #Pinocchio #lore

My honest thoughts on Lies of P, in relation to goats, mountains, and Italian aperitifs.

After completing Lies of P, at long last, I started to question whether I actually enjoyed doing so. A complete novice to the Soulslike genre, I muddled through the boss fights, mostly with the help of explosive throwables and bait in the form of a battle Specter. Still I thought I was enjoying the game. Until the final chapter.

This is a meaty experience. Upon reaching chapter 6 of 11, I was surprised to see I had been playing for over 20 hours. It’s difficult to complain that this game isn’t long enough. But whether it is too long is another matter.

For newcomers, I gathered that this is a game best played in short bursts. A desire to blitz through it will only lead to heartbreak, and possible brain-break. It’s something you take your time with, like a tall glass of wine. Try to take too much in one go and you may feel like a bridge has fallen on your head. Which is appropriate because this game has you falling through plenty of them. In fact, if you come across any surface made of wood, it’s well worth analysing with a suspicious eye. Or, if you’re too lazy for that, just goad one of your puppet friends into stepping on it first.

Central to this discussion is the question: Is this game fun? Putting aside the frustrations, there is much to enjoy, whether it’s the moreish puppet-farming feedback loop, the motive, and emotive, sound design, or the brilliantly animated character designs. The music is pretty nice too, as are those mysterious belle-époque vistas. Lies of P offers pleasures aplenty. But after scraping through three bosses in a row, you aren’t really thinking that. You are just trying to get your brain back in gear and your heart rate down to a steady ticking.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro

0:53 Level Design

2:41 Gameplay

5:06 Difficulty

8:26 Enemy Design

9:37 Story

12:15 Conclusion

#LiesofP #honest #review

Exploring the world of immersive audio gaming with The Vale: Shadow of the Crown.

The Vale places you in the shoes of blind princess Alex. Your father is dead. Your brother has been crowned the new king. Meanwhile, you are being whisked away to a small keep in the Borderlands, on the outskirts of the kingdom. That is until your caravan is attacked by an invading army. From there you find yourself alone. But not for long. This is a heroine’s journey, set in a medieval fantasy realm brimming with colourful places and characters. Except the colours are left largely to your imagination.

Similarly to the blind swordsman Zatoichi, you must heighten your sense of hearing in order to successfully navigate the realm. This one is full of vicious animals, monsters, and tribal warriors. Being able to pinpoint the position of your enemy is vital for combat. The creaking of armour, the snarling of a wolf, the grunting of a soldier. The sound of feet shuffling around you in a quarter-circle. You must listen before you act, whether it be with words, a shield, or a sword.

What makes The Vale special is not so much the individual elements as the manner in which they are presented. A routine rat-hunting mission gains a new dimension in the world of audio-based gaming. Skulking across a squelchy cellar floor, you must listen out for the sound of squeaking and gnawing to locate each individual rat, before striking out in their direction with a shovel. Traditional role-playing missions gain a new level of intimacy, as you are forced to slow down, and make note of your surroundings, before making a move. At the same time, the immersive audio places you right in the centre of the action.

The Vale is built for the visually impaired in mind, but it can be enjoyed by sighted players too. Perhaps the best way to think of it is as an interactive radio play. The voice-acting, sound effects, and music are of the same quality you would expect from a top-tier radio drama. But the binaural audio adds an immersive quality, more so because the audio reacts in real-time to the player’s movements. Which is all to say that playing The Vale for the first time is like experiencing a brand new type of videogame, made up of elements that are at once strange and familiar.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro

0:49 Development

1:30 Story

2:29 Gameplay

5:49 World

7:13 Likes

8:05 Dislikes

9:03 Conclusion

#TheVale #Audio #Gaming

Exploring the links between Lies of P and The Adventures of Pinocchio, as well as that one forgotten film adaptation that currently sits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.

When developing a new Soulslike game, South Korean developer Neowiz Games wanted to make sure it had widespread appeal. For the setting, the art team focused on the concept of “Gotham Paris”. And so the architecture in the game is belle époque with a gothic twist, at once familiar and darkly different. While, for the story, the writers turned to Pinocchio for inspiration. But not so much the Disney version as the original Italian novel by Carlo Collodi.

The Adventures of Pinocchio is far more ghastly than the simplified Disney adaptation. For instance, the Disney film shows Pinocchio and his friend Lampwick being turned into donkeys. But it conveniently forgets Lampwick’s fate from the novel – he is worked to death at a farm – so that Pinocchio, and the audience, can revel in the puppet’s feel-good transformation. Other episodes from the novel that didn’t make the Disney cut include the killing of the Talking Cricket by Pinocchio with a hammer; the hanging of Pinocchio by a pair of assassins; the catching and near-frying of Pinocchio by the Green Fisherman (a monstrous cave-dwelling humanoid); and the surprise appearance of four ink-black rabbits carrying a small coffin meant for the boy puppet.

Lies of P focuses on the darkness of the original tale. Those four black rabbits are now a ragtag brotherhood of assassins, who seek to persecute Pinocchio whenever he spins a lie. The three mentors – Geppetto, the Blue Fairy, and the Talking Cricket – all feature in somewhat altered forms. Geppetto is less an aged grump and more a suave, fashionably dressed genius inventor, likely harbouring a dark secret or two. The Blue Fairy is Sophia, a blue-haired woman with magical powers, an otherworldly voice, and a curious affinity for butterflies. The Talking Cricket is Gemini, a crackle-voiced computer program housed inside a lantern. The characters have been changed to fit the fashionable, and automaton-centred, world of late 19th-century Paris.

There are characters in the game that merely allude to characters from the novel. For example, there is a flame-powered robot called Fuoco, who alludes to the character of Mangiafuoco from the novel, the menacing head of a puppet theatre. Similarly, the Parade Master, the very first boss in the game, alludes to the character of the circus ringmaster, a top-hat-and-tailcoat master of ceremonies who rules the donkey-Pinocchio with an iron whip. Through these playful allusions, Lies of P invites the player to think about the inspiration behind a name, and rediscover the classic children’s tale on which the game is based.

0:00 Introduction

1:07 Pinocchio

2:54 Sophia

3:22 Gemini

4:07 Parade Master

4:49 Antonia

5:07 Polendina

5:39 Mad Donkey

6:04 Geppetto

6:46 Venigni

7:18 Shark Sub

7:51 Fuoco

8:47 Black Rabbits

9:50 Conclusion

#LiesofP #Pinocchio #Soulslike

Exploring the Gothic (and Belle Époque) architecture of Lies of P, while ignoring the killer puppets.

When designing the Paris-like city of Krat in Lies of P, the arts team were asked to focus on the concept of “Gotham Paris”. Whether “Gotham” is a mistranslation of “Gothic” is up to debate. But the point is the designers were asked to steep the game in an atmosphere of mystery. The castle-like structures, moody vistas, crows, and cobblestone plazas contribute to this effect. Walking the streets of Krat feels like stepping back in time. Investigating all the little nooks and crannies makes one aware of an extra level of history, one which stretches beyond the late 19th century setting on which the game is based.

The level design pilfers from the best of European architecture. It’s not just France. The art-nouveau-inspired Alchemist’s Bridge can attest to that. There’s lots of continental eye candy on display. However, it is Parisian design that seems to hold the most sway here. Whether it’s the curving canopies above entranceways or the petite lamp posts atop parapets, one can see the city’s influence in almost every facet of level design. Ornamentation is the name of the game, and Lies of P has it in spades. 

What sets Lies of P’s environments apart from Bloodborne’s is the melding of Gothic elements to Belle Époque architecture. These are opulent surroundings that the player won’t much mind returning to time and time again. (This they are bound to do due to the game’s rock-hard difficulty.) The mysterious Gothic motifs, involving snakes, candelabras, and alchemical symbols, lend themselves well to the swirly cast-iron structures of Krat. The art nouveau decoration provides the eye candy. The strange motifs, and historical settings, invite the eyes to dig a little deeper.

#LiesofP #Gothic #Gaming

***

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro

0:44 Central Station

1:54 Station Plaza

2:54 Hotel Krat (Ext.)

5:36 Hotel Krat (Int.)

7:26 Elysion Boulevard

7:59 City Hall

8:20 Alchemist’s Bridge

9:31 Outro

***

Music Credits:

Django 'N' Go

Royalty free music by Giorgio Di Campo for @FreeSound Music 

http://freesoundmusic.eu

https://www.facebook.com/freemusicfor...

 / freesoundmusic  

Original video:

 • Django 'n' Go   n...  

Dark Walk

Music: Dark Walk by Kevin MacLeod

Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3612-dark-walk

License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Clouds in the Sky

Royalty free Music by Giorgio Di Campo for FreeSound Music 

http://freesoundmusic.eu

https://www.facebook.com/freemusicfor...

 / freesoundmusic  

Original video:

 • Clouds In The Sky...  

Download mp3: https://link-to.net/49870/CloudsInThe...

Siamo Venuti

Royalty free music by Giorgio Di Campo for FreeSound Music 

http://freesoundmusic.eu

https://www.facebook.com/freemusicfor...

 / freesoundmusic  

Original video:

 • Siamo Venuti  -  ...  

Download link mp3: https://link-to.net/49870/SiamoVenutiMp3

Exploring the strange and curious history of typing games, from the late seventies to the modern day.

Take a leisurely tour of this offbeat, yet surprisingly profitable, gaming genre. It begins in the late seventies with the work of freelance writer (and programmer) Dick Ainsworth, who was commissioned by Bally to make an “educational” game for their home arcade. Ainsworth laid the foundations for future typing games, pioneering a programming technique that helped advance the field of AI. The tour continues to the early eighties with the first proper typing games and commercially successful educational games for the home computer. MasterType (1981) and Typo Attack (1982) added a keyboarding slant to addictive tried-and-tested arcade gameplay. With more professionals taking up the computer, there remained a gap in the market for a serious typing game. That gap was plugged by Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (1987). Soon enough the mysterious master typist became a software icon. Stories abounded about her miraculous typing exploits. But reporters just couldn’t seem to grab hold of her. Super Mario took on her mantle in Mario Teaches Typing (1992), a typing platformer (typeformer?) published by Nintendo. Then onto the late nineties where Sega performs some strange alchemy, mixing a zombie-blaster with a typing mechanic in Typing of the Dead (1998). It’s a weird but somewhat winning formula. Sega dabbles with the formula all the way through to the 2010s, releasing a steady stream of variations on their type-to-shoot classic. The last stop showcases some fresher takes on the typing genre, with the parodic David Lynch Teaches Typing (2018) and the demonic The Textorcist (2019), games every bit as strange as their titles suggest. The tour ends with a questioning gaze cast over the future of typing games. With phones practically glued to children’s fingertips, and more exciting forms of interaction emerging in the mainstream, one might ask if the keyboard even has a future…

0:00 1978: Bingo Math

Music Credits:

Cool Vibes by Kevin MacLeod

George Street Shuffle by Kevin MacLeod

Sidewalk Shade - slower by Kevin MacLeod

Modern Jazz Samba by Kevin MacLeod

Pixelland by Kevin MacLeod

Welcome to the Show by Kevin MacLeod

Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod

Lobby Time by Kevin MacLeod