Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 0
[Here you sit, in the dark, worrying about the state of The Industry; fretting about the state of The Medium, when you're supposed to be dreaming. Or, failing sleep, you're at least supposed to be finding an angle back into professionalism. You should be putting the finishing touches on a personal project, or shot-gunning interviews, or going back to school, or any number of healthy and productive actions that your brain stubbornly refuses to latch onto.]
"UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games that span a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot 'em ups to puzzle games, roguelites, and RPGs. Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design."
[Watching your father play R-Type in an arcade bowling alley was the single most experientially arresting thing in existence, but there was a catch; every attempt cost a quarter, and unlike many children, you knew the value of a dollar.
"Chapter 13 Bankruptcy" was as relevant in your lexicon as the names and color-coded proclivities of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, (much like Donatello, you wanted to "do machines.") Helping balance the family checkbook was a little homeschool math task that doubled as a way of explaining why groceries wouldn't contain those overpriced Lunchables or Go-Gurt pods; why there would only be so many LEGOS come di-annual present times.
So when you were offered a quarter and a turn at the joystick and buttons, you declined. Your father could combine multiple condiment packets into tangy sauces for the nightly mess; he could stretch that single quarter past the Bydo swarms deep into Level 3 before succumbing to the hell of bullets.
That same quarter would have evaporated in the process of your learning the controls. You were okay with watching, because it was the right economical thing to do.]
"UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games from the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and Catacomb Kids. Explore a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot 'em ups to puzzle games, roguelites, and RPGs. Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design."
[So when the Nintendo Entertainment System arrived at a friend's house, it fundamentally broke the relationship between losing at a video game and being a huge financial strain on a single Father and his aging Mother. The 800 quarter cost of the system and 120-200 quarter cost of each game was obfuscated because there were no slots on the front of it for money to disappear into.
Super Mario Bros. all but rewired your tiny mind, which was apparent to any adult in earshot with eyes to see you making Goomba sprites on graph paper or designing levels on broad sheets of butcher paper salvaged from behind a local grocery store.]
[Your guardians knew that come layaway or high water, the NES could NOT be allowed to come from your estranged but financially stable and re-married Mother. She could send you a game for it, and would choose Dr. Mario since the "real" Mario game was part of the package. This has never occurred to me before, but in hindsight, that gift of a game where you need to be able to tell the difference between red and blue pills must have reinforced the fact that your mother wasn't a part of your life; she didn't know that we still had a black & white television, or that you would spend hours squinting and guessing your way through bottle after bottle of viruses before we could afford a color TV.]
[Making video games is one of the only things you've ever wanted to do for a living, so why does it now feel impossible to be a game designer? What else could you POSSIBLY be at this point?]
Fuck it. There are probably a million even less healthy ways of processing whatever the hell all this is.
Welcome to Fifty Days of UFO 50.
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