Only by marriage, though, and he’s a gamer-in-snark, so that might make it tolerable. My son-in-law, Kyle Hughart, is trying to get a parody rpg, Ragequest: the Worst Game, greenlit on Steam.
“You know I can’t stay,” he said softly. “And you can’t go. The house wouldn’t be the same without you.” She didn’t speak. She couldn’t find the words to respond. She just watched his figure grow smaller, and smaller until it was gone. That’s how I would end a romance novel about a congresswoman and a snowman if I were to write one, but I didn’t. Instead I made Rage Quest: The Worst Game! A snarky, low-def odyssey through the trials and frustrations that unite gamers everywhere.
You’ll play as Ivy, a daring and cynical adventurer, as you spend 3-4 hours traversing a modestly-sized world of cheeky dialogue, terrible puns, and lovingly crafted artisanal frustration. Will your skills and irrational dedication to finish what you’ve started triumph over the forces of bad camera tracking, long cut scenes and useless allies? What other perils might lie in store for your delicate temper and extra-throwable wireless controller!? Find out for yourself as you explore the game already being called “Game-changing,” “Extraordinary,” and “Graphically extant” by a sentence you’ve read! Rage Quest! Mean-gift it to your enemies!
I worry that my daughter will starve. If you have a Steam account, vote for this game so my son-in-law can buy a package of ramen. Or maybe two.
If he sprouts a trilby you might have to take him to the vet and get him put down.
Is it better than ProgressQuest?
I think I’ve been playing it, continuously, for over ten years now, getting close to winning, I’m sure.
Making a parody game is risky business. The most effective technique games have is putting the player right in the thick of whatever they’re depicting – but if they’re depicting an intentionally bad game, you’re asking players to essentially play through a game the developers know is bad. ‘So bad is good’ is not really a thing in games.
You’re related to a…..?!
RUN!
Get out of the house!!
What’s that?
You left someone behind?
Forget them! They’ve already been consumed!
Just save yourself!
Last time I bought a parody game, it ended up pissing me off… I did appreciate the Mills & Bass novella, though, so I’ll give it the requisite clicks.
My only worry is that I’m not sure how throwable my controller is – last controller I threw was for a Sega Saturn, most likely after I was moidered by an invisible monster again in Enemy Zero. I guess I’m just not much of a gamer anymore… although I did once drop my mouse while I was playing Ace Patrol at Costa while eating a sandwich and waiting for my friend to arrive, if that counts? The back came off and everything!
Can’t your daughter feed herself?
Voted! If it makes it through I shall happily contribute the required moolas for ramen!
That’s why I prefer tabletop gaming. While it may not be the healthiest of cuisine, you almost never go hungry when pizza, Dorritos, and Chinese take-out is usually aplenty.
I suggest you and your son-in-law brace for the inevitable onslaught of 8chan and whoever took up the mantle of Gamergate. “The worst Essjaydoubya game since Gone Home,” etc. etc. …
Thanks for posting this! Much appreciated.
Pharyngulization attempted. I’m actually not quite sure if it went through or not.
Ugh.
Snarky is close to funny, but has narrower appeal and usually has a shorter life-span of relevance.
Seems like a bad strategy to me. Why not try to make a funny game that’s cool? ‘Cuz a snarky game is uncool and implicitly alienates part of your potential customer-base.
Voted, and best of luck to him.
@tezcat
I’m a PhD student. I only married him so I could start eating meals that weren’t just comprised of hoarded free cookies from seminars.
Wait, you’ve been eating my food?
She is a parasite who clung leechlike to us for many years. We were greatly relieved when she found a new host.
When I’m not at work, I’ll go vote for this just for the description.
I don’t get enough time to actually play all the games I buy anymore, but if I at least get a smile out of them it’s worth some ramen :)
@kylehugart
I hate to be “that guy”, but I feel like I have to be honest. The most highly regarded, worthwhile RPG Maker games tend to have original art assets and at least get somewhat creative with the mechanics. I feel that games like LISA and Stray Cat Crossing should be the standard for games like this.
I don’t really expect that you’ll completely re-do your game on my behalf, but I still think your game would benefit from having more custom artwork. There are quite a few low-budget RPG Maker games on Steam, and even more goofy parody games. You need something to make your game stand out to make it look like it’s worth buying.
@emergence
I don’t mind criticism, and thanks for being so polite and thoughtful. This is my first game and I don’t feel I have the experience and/or resources to compete with games like Lisa or Stray Cat Crossing. I’m shooting for success more around the level of 199X: a game that is little known but highly reviewed on Steam despite using 100% stock art and making some clear mistakes (It’s very well written though!). When I started working on Rage Quest, I was considering distributing it for free, but 500 hours of work and hundreds of dollars of art later, I’ve decided to try and sell it for between 1 and 3 dollars instead.
I’ve had pretty positive feedback from the few people I’ve had playtest the game, but unfortunately most what I feel makes the game unique doesn’t lend itself well to screenshots and trailers, and would often just spoil key elements and ruin the gameplay. My hope is that enough people enjoy my writing and one-liners to vote yes on greenlight and drop a couple bucks on the game, ideally leading to some favorable reviews. I will likely try contacting game reviewers online who do smaller games like mine as part of my attempt to get greenlit.
@emergence
Oh yes, and as for adding more custom art, I’ve still got more coming, but I just don’t have the thousands of dollars it would take to make something truly visually unique, and I wouldn’t dream of asking anyone to crowd fund my first game, so… RPG Maker stock art it is for now. If it goes well, I’ll consider putting a larger investment into another game further down the line.
@kylehughart
That seems fair. Making a game is expensive, so I can understand that someone who was just starting out would need to use shortcuts. I hope that this goes reasonably well and you start to make even more ambitious games as you gain more experience.
One other thing, this isn’t a criticism, more just a question from someone who might want to make their own game projects at some point: why is it so expensive to produce art assets for a game? Is it because the subscription to the software costs that much? I was under the impression that, if I wanted to make a game as a solo project, I could just do all of the art myself and not have to pay for commissioned art or anything. I’d like to get a better handle on what sort of expenses are necessary to make a game.
@emergence
That works fine if you are an artist, but I’m not, so I have to contact art to get something that looks decent. This is my primary artist’s website
http://adyrn.weebly.com
She has prices listed, so that should give you an idea of what art costs to contract.
Given existence of Desert Bus (now on iTunes), its claim to title of “Worst Game” seems egregious marketing hype.