It's Friday, dearest readers, and that means I've got my game face on, which according to relatives is this concentrated sort of snarling grimace I'd make when I was little that in my mind totally made Sonic jump higher. (As did wildly jerking the controller around while I played, of course.) This week we've got a dreamy bit of interactive art that'll only cost you a few minutes of your time, a crosswalk that's home to some truly ridiculous carnage, a ship stranded in space where you're the AI and the only thing you can do is potentially psychologically damage the inhabitants, and a little boy who has some strange theories about the application of fire extinguishers and axes to cheese.
Space Incident - Vogd's sci-fi sim about being an advanced Artificial Intelligence on board a space station whose mission suddenly goes awry is a pretty neat idea despite a rocky narration liberally peppered with spelling issues and other errors. You can only communicate with the people on board the ship when they want to speak to you, and they'll trundle about the place, taking care of problems and themselves, turning to you for advice when trouble arises, and your responses can have a negative or positive impact on their psyches and the outcome.
Crossing Fury - Ah, the pedestrian. Nature's squishiest, arguably dumbest creature. In this very silly physics arcade game from Y310Games, you're in control of traffic at a crosswalk, and depending on which game mode you're playing, your job is either to ensure pedestrians make it safely across... or, well, not. The catch is that not every person or car behaves like they should according to the law, so if they're forced to wait too long, or if there's a lot of chaos, well... they're gonna do what they darn well please. Which is basically just like real life, anyway. THE LIGHT IS RED, LADY. RED.
The Yearning Tree - Alexander Ocias delivers a lovely, relaxing bit of experimental interactive art as you find yourself at a sprawling, dreamlike tree at night, with a little fire crackling merrily at its base. You can drag and navigate around the tree, clicking to interact with the tiny creatures that make their homes in their branches. The game should literally only take you a few minutes to play, but if you're looking for something sweet, relaxing, and surreal, this is it.
FingerBoy - A demo for a larger project, this lovely, sketch-art puzzle game is about a little boy making his way from room to room in a dark house at night. He hates shadows, however, and won't move forward when part of the floor lies in darkness, so you need to figure out what to click on the game, and in what order, so you can light the way. Some of the solutions are definitely a little weird, but the strange storybook charm and style are worth checking out.
Just finished Space Incident... It is GREAT! I loved to see the characters' psychology unfolded bit by bit as you talked to them... greatgreatgreatgreatgreat game!!!!
In Space Incident, how do I kill Bill? I can see how to kill the others, but not so much Bill.
Oh, here's a "mini" walkthrough for Space Incident.
To Get Away:
Ask the crew for opinions about what to do with the laser, then ask Jackie and use his suggestion.
To Kill Jackie:
Send Jackie out to do an engine repair, then immediately tell Bill it is safe to turn on the engines.
To Kill Dummar:
Ask the crew for opinions about what to do with the laser, then ask Dummar and use his suggestion.
To Save All Three Men:
Have Jackie have enough crises that he talks about the other AI. This will give you a new dialogue option.
To Save the Shuttle:
Have Bill have enough crises that he talks to you about the ship to calm down, particularly "something interesting". This will give you a new dialogue option.
Those in different combinations should be enough to get everyone all the endings.
In Space Incident, how do you manage that no one panics, especially Dunmer?
Update to my question:
It seems that the "do not panic" ending only applies to surviving members. The ones who are supposed to die may panic ;)
The only thing that could have made Space Incident better would have been the option to skip ahead to dialogue where choices need to be made after the first playthrough to improve replay value.
Yearning tree:
Is there anything to do with this other than to spin the tree around looking for very tiny dark objects on dark branches in the dark, then click on them a few times to read their dialogue?
I seem unable to change the viewing angle other than to move in a cylindrical plane at a fixed distance around the top half of the tree.
There are no controls, not even to quit the game. (Red X recommended... early)
Interactive: barely. Sweet: OK. Surreal: not especially. Relaxing: not at all.
Update