I alluded last post to a couple of projects I'd completed, that I was almost ready to share with the Universe at Large (aka my mom and whoever else is reading).
The first one of these projects is a game called Hush.
I co-developed this project for an Intermediate Games class with Devon Johnson, and we're both pretty proud of it. If you know me, it's not quite what you might expect... it's a game where you play a mother singing to her child, trying to keep her baby from crying during a long night in 1994 Rwanda.
So yes, be forewarned, we're going after a different tone than Transperator. We're strongly considering entering this is a Games for Change competition, and before we do, I'd love to get some more input from people about the experience.
Here's my dilemma: in it's current form, Hush is not completely ready for open distribution, even in this informal space. Our long-distance artist, Chris Baily, is still working on our final images, and in the meantime we have some pictures in the game that we don't have explicit permission to use: we could get in trouble if people started passing our game around. I could hold off until the final art is done, but I think it'd be valuable to get feedback from people who played the game before and after we change it for this next round.
So current solution is as follows: I'll send out links to download Hush, either for Mac or PC, on request. If you want to try out this for-playtesters-only draft version of Hush, send an email to johnqplaytest at gmail dot com. That's right, John Q Playtest... of course you can send the request to my personal email as well if you know it, but we all know that's not half as much fun.
If I already know you, I'll send you the link... if you're a longtime listener firsttime caller, we may still be able to work something out, like a sit-down session with the game.
Does this seem like a lot of pomp and circumstance for a download? I feel the same way: but at the same time it's always good to get feedback. Email me if you're interested in being a part of the process, and you'll probably see the final game up here sometime around January 1st, 2008.
Very shortly I'll also have another experiment to link to, a long-term project that's a step on the long road toward the Cache. I'm REALLY excited about that as well and I'll post more about it this week.