Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 4


Last night at the weekly ETNO hangout, [That's his "local" extended family of gamers and mentors...] UFO 50 was sampled on the discord stream, with my first taste of a few games:

  • Attactics (June, 1984) "The release was delayed because our team spent too long challenging each other to battle!"
    • I'm overwhelmed by tactical density before I manage to figure out the movement restrictions, or that I should be swapping units with each other
  • Magic Garden (February, 1984) "An early game to take advantage of the LX-II, which allowed for more colors per sprite."
    • This Pac-Man/Snake hybrid seems like an hors d'oeuvre, but hides surprising depth behind the volition to spawn enemies and trade score for safety
  • Fist Hell (August, 1987) "Our first game to depict blood."
    • River City Ransom with modern mobility and movesets; I predict this is one of the games I'll never manage to beat
  • Bushido Ball (April, 1985) "To promote the game's release, a big tournament was staged at a local bar."
    • Oh. OH! I never played Windjammers, so that's... wow
[You can't just type "Windjammers, neat" and wander off to keep playing it for an hour and a half. That's not a blog entry!]

Right then. Let's take a peek at:

Onion Delivery (April, 1986) "The directorial debut of programmer chiffon bola, who once had a job as a delivery driver."


This might be the first game in the collection that hasn't immediately struck me as particularly novel. Essentially Crazy Taxi by way of the original top-down Grand Theft Auto, the combination feels familiar somehow, despite the fresh, charming presentation.
I suspect the physics and driving controls are sort of the developmental reason this exists. Just when I felt like I was starting to get a handle on the traffic and reckless jumps, they throw UFO invaders into the mix to ensure that no delivery will feel breezy or routine.

Even though I essentially "bounced off" Onion Delivery, I find myself relating the experience to that little narrative scrap about this being the product of a team working with a new creative director that's probably also the engineering lead. Is the fiction entirely incidental, or was it written with some "this one's a little wild & wooly" intent? Will Chiffon Bola be mentioned again in a game further down the chronology in a game that convinces me the character hit his directorial stride?
Suddenly I want to beat one of these games just to see if there are fictional characters in the credits too...

I think the reason these little fictional development histories appended to each game are hitting me so hard is they represent a lot of things I've lost. Being in an office that's completely separate from other life spaces. Working with teammates toward common goals. Side-busting conversations and debates about game design. Team lunches. Even commuter train rides that act like podcast portals through space; anything that helps bring work and life into some sort of equilibrium.
Also possible some of the UFO 50 developers feel the same way, since a lot this game was made remotely. These are "post-COVID" development realities that we'll just have to deal with going forward, given that tons of people are still getting sick with permanent reductions in well-being.

[These blog entries are "good for you," in the sense that they're a schedule, but without the obligations of others interacting with yours, it's clear that time doesn't work the same for you.]

Well, in the spirit of being afraid to visit public spaces and attend social events, I've also been slightly afraid to hit the A button on that little icon of a neglected doll...

Night Manor (September, 1988) "Our only game to require a warning text, and the first game directed by longtime designer Greg-Milk."


[You realize, of course, that if you're late to post on Day 5, they're going to know what happened to you...]

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