In this episode of the Ludus Novus podcast, I discuss the basic minion summoning and equipment mechanics of Overlord, and how they both encourage tactical gameplay and maintain the characterization of the player character. The music for this episode is from “medieval evil” by Baal Anamelech and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 … Continue reading Ludus Novus 020: Acceptable Losses →

This podcast episode is about an unreleased game from 1990 that a guy showed me at GDC. It’s called Awesome Zone, and it was created by developer Theodore Alby for a company called KnowSoft over the course of a six-week nervous breakdown. The music for this episode is from “Three Goes On Forever” by Time … Continue reading Ludus Novus 019: False Narrativism: Awesome Zone →

This post is long overdue. At the beginning of the year, The 1UP Show was cancelled, which killed the best traditional games journalism work on the net. Shortly thereafter, several of the people who made The 1UP Show great, including my personal favorites Ryan O’Donnell and Jay Frechette, started a show called CO-OP. It’s basically … Continue reading Always Down for that CO-OP Action →

This podcast episode is about three games that should have been named Half-Life 3: Episode 1, Unreal Tournament 4, and Star Wars Dark Forces 3: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast: Jedi Academy.

In this podcast episode, I present and discuss my definition of the word “game.” In short, a game is an interactive simulation that provides metrics which allow a user to track progress toward a goal. Listen on to hear why Microsoft Paint is a game and why winning and losing are really the same thing. … Continue reading Ludus Novus 017: The Rules of the Game →

This week’s episode is a special False Narrativism piece, discussing the obscure but visionary Polish game Oszustwo, or Incongruity. I can easily envision a world in which this game never existed, but fortunately we have access to the most technologically-advanced, creepiest, and hardest-to-play game ever developed.

What do we look for in digital game sequels, and why is it different than in other forms of media? Why don’t we see more sequels that give us more of the same good stuff? References: Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 directed by Sam Raimi Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the … Continue reading Ludus Novus 015: Curse of Ludus Novus →

The classic Super Mario Bros. Let’s take a look at its influence and its gameplay. References: Super Mario Bros. by Nintendo The Legend of Zelda by Nintendo Final Fantasy by Square Bubble Bobble by Taito Pac-Land by Namco Adventure Island by Hudson Soft Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Wrecking Crew by Nintendo Mario Bros. by … Continue reading Ludus Novus 014: From Side to Side →

In this podcast, I talk about exploration games. Exploration games, as I categorize them, are games with an open world that offer an array of paths at any one time. They’re awesome because they appeal to players’ curiosity and completionism, and they help deal with player frustration. References: Morrowind Metroid Super Metroid The Legend of … Continue reading Ludus Novus 013: Over the Next Hill →

In this podcast, I discuss digital games genres and how I think they’re silly. They’re arbitrary niches based on a few popular games, and using them to describe games limits the way we think about making and playing games. I discuss the evolution of our genre system, from Crawford in 1984 to the modern overstuffed … Continue reading Ludus Novus 012: Genre Fiction →