Obscure References
I've been a gamer since I was maybe 6 or 7 years old. When I was younger, I'd play and finish most games I played. Now, I play almost any genre at least enough to "get it", but I particularly love experiencing and fiddling with as many diverse mechanics as I can. I still have hundreds of console, PC and Amiga games in my garage as a hoardy record of my journey.
And given that I've been around for "most of games", there are a lot of weird old, often obscure, game mechanics rattling around in me. I still remember the patterns for Pacman, but I also harbor a secret love for the spell-crafting in an Amiga game from 1990 (it's the first link below).
Throughout my career in game design, those games and their mechanics have served as my personal historic record, my mental guidebook of shoulders to stand on and sweet ideas to steal and build on or squish together in compelling or silly ways. People who've worked with me are familiar with the "there was this one game back on the Apple II..." opener that would inevitably preface me spending 10 minutes passionately explaining every detail of an obscure 30-year-old game just so that everyone would have context for the weird little mechanic from it that was germane to the discussion.
This odd little corner is intended to be an evolving collection of obscure (and some not so obscure) games and their mechanics that I've either applied elsewhere or which I am still looking for a game to cram them into because I love them so much. I have no idea if these will be interesting or if this will just be a personal Cabinet of Curiosities. You be the judge.
(Click screenshots for details)
And given that I've been around for "most of games", there are a lot of weird old, often obscure, game mechanics rattling around in me. I still remember the patterns for Pacman, but I also harbor a secret love for the spell-crafting in an Amiga game from 1990 (it's the first link below).
Throughout my career in game design, those games and their mechanics have served as my personal historic record, my mental guidebook of shoulders to stand on and sweet ideas to steal and build on or squish together in compelling or silly ways. People who've worked with me are familiar with the "there was this one game back on the Apple II..." opener that would inevitably preface me spending 10 minutes passionately explaining every detail of an obscure 30-year-old game just so that everyone would have context for the weird little mechanic from it that was germane to the discussion.
This odd little corner is intended to be an evolving collection of obscure (and some not so obscure) games and their mechanics that I've either applied elsewhere or which I am still looking for a game to cram them into because I love them so much. I have no idea if these will be interesting or if this will just be a personal Cabinet of Curiosities. You be the judge.
(Click screenshots for details)
