This month begins my game self-promotion blitz. I intend to upload several games I have made over the years between now and March, either updates of old games, incomplete projects that I have finally finished, or updates on old games you might not have gotten a chance to play.

Before you start exploding in paroxysms of joy, know the following 3 points:

1. I am no graphic artist.

Most of my games have terrible graphics, thanks to my inept hands on the mouse. The first uses some of my own weird graphics and some from the Adventure Game Studio community, so it isn't all bad. The second will have all graphics from me, my brother and a friend of mine, but we're sort of all pretty inept in the picture department, so what you see is what you get. The third is about half stock graphics and half my own, again, expect mixed results graphically.

2. I like big, complicated projects.

Game 1 was a huge project for its time, breaking many of the limits of the scripting program I used at the time, and several clearly stated design rules for Adventure Games. The second is a platform/action game in the tradition of Jumpman, but with around 130-140 levels! The last is just an Asteroids clone, but with a few bullet-hell-like qualities that make it insanely difficult. The fourth project may be stalled into next year given my crazy work schedule.

And there are always secrets, for the completionists. That's just how I roll.

3. I am no programmer with teams of paid staff.

I make these games on scripters, such as Adventure Game Studio and Multimedia Fusion. I don't have teams of coders, or even one guy who can do everything. In other words, don't expect the good stuff that was most of the indie scene last year (your Braids and your Caste Crashers and what-have-you), but do expect solid, working games with weird humour, complicated challenges, and my own gameplay innovations. They are decidedly amateur, but largely not irritatingly so, if that makes any sense.

That out of the way, let's look at the first I will be releasing this year. Edge of Reality!

So what is Edge of Reality?

About 9 years ago I came up with the name "Reality" for a town others had developed on the Adventure Game Studio boards. Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw thought he would add "on-the-norm" and create the first in a series of community games featuring his own character, Davy Jones. Since then, dozens of writers, scripters and artists have created their own twist on the Reality-on-the-Norm series, adding many new characters and ideas.

I made one of the first elongated demos for an ugly but bizarre game called "Edge of Reality" Bugs and life issues, and just creating the huge amount of content this game required kept me busy since mid 2000, but I'm back, and though buggy, the game is now 99.9% complete. It's on an old engine of AGS, meaning bugs (save early and save often) and it's about 70% ugly, and it also may not run on some newer computers, but it's done, and just needs a few polishing touches.

The plot centres around Mika Huy, Journalist, and her increasingly bizarre quest to find out who wants to destroy the city of Reality, and why. It broke almost all the limits of AGS at the time, and was one of the longest RON projects of all time.

I have two trailers, one from 2005/2006, one from just a few weeks ago. Both give you the general idea. The game WILL BE RELEASED on JAN 24 2009.

First Trailer:


Second Trailer: