Shut Up And Play This Game: “Record Tripping”
“Shut Up And Play This Game” is a recurring feature here at Warp Skip! The deal: you read the blog post, then you play the game that we link you to. No questions asked. See the first “Shut Up” post for a full description, or view all of the “Shut Up and Play This Game” games!
If you asked me how you could create a video game that was relevant to my interests, I’d say “aww shucks, I already play video games! Just keep on making great games, folks!” But if you kept insisting, and forced me to make a list of things I like that should be in a video game, I think it’d look something like this:
- The music of Gorillaz and Spoon
- Rhythm and puzzle gameplay elements
- References to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” books (I can’t help it; it’s a programmer thing)
- Pretending to know things about turntablism
- Bill Murray
“Record Tripping”, a game by the Bell Brothers, combines the first four of these elements (and until all five are incorporated in something, a boy can dream) into a short, fun Flash game that makes use of the mouse wheel in a way I’ve never seen before. It starts off very easy, but by the end its challenges made me think a bit about how to complete them. It’s nice that while you’re graded on how well you do each stage, failing to complete the challenge doesn’t block you from seeing the rest of the stages. The whole time you’re working over loops made out of music by artists like Gorillaz, Spoon, and Death Cab For Cutie. Forget about the disappointment that was DJ Hero and play this game for a few minutes— it’s free, and you might as well get some precious Flash gaming in now before HTML5 kills it forever.
SHUT UP AND PLAY “RECORD TRIPPING”
—Casey
Shut Up And Play This Game: “Choice of a Dragon”
“Shut Up And Play This Game” is a recurring feature here at Warp Skip! The deal: you read the blog post, then you play the game that we link you to. No questions asked. See Casey’s post about “Small Worlds” for a full description.
“Choice of a Dragon” is a short, text-based, choose-your-own-adventure-style hypertext game. You are a dragon. You make choices in the story, and your choices earn you points, which in turn affect the way the rest of the game turns out. The humor and joy comes from the narrative voice, which bubbles with sarcasm and fourth-wall winks. Also, let’s face it: it is fun to eat something after having set it on fire with your breath.
The game does a remarkable job of making it seem like your choices change the outcome of the game, and the character of your protagonist—which is more than any BioWare conversation tree has managed to do.
There are iPhone and Android versions of the game available, which you might download later. But right now, you’re going to…
SHUT UP AND PLAY “CHOICE OF A DRAGON”
—Adam
Shut Up And Play This Game: “Small Worlds”
I’d like to introduce a new feature at Warp Skip called “Shut Up and Play This Game,” or “Shut Up” for short. I know how it is in this day and age— someone tells you in 2002 to check out this band called The Mountain Goats, you kind of shrug it off, whatever, you forget about the band, then in 2006 you pick up Get Lonely and you say OH GOD WHY DIDN’T I LISTEN TO THAT FRIEND FOUR YEARS AGO
We are that friend now. We are the arbiters of taste. Because you’re here, right? You trust us. You believe in us.
So here’s the deal. You read the blog post, then you play the game that we link you to. No questions asked, no bookmarking the game for later, no closing the tab, none of that. The link to the game will always be at the bottom of the post, so you can’t claim to not be able to find The games in “Shut Up” will always be free, will always be cross-platform, will generally be relatively short, and will always be awesome.
The first game in this series is “Small Worlds”, an entry in the sixth JayIsGames Casual Gameplay Design Competition. It’s here because the graphics and the music put together are mesmerizing. It’s a relaxing few minutes and anyone can play— and finish— it. You have no excuse not to go enjoy this game.
SHUT UP AND PLAY “SMALL WORLDS”
—Casey
