It’s now years after the Portal 2 ARG and nobody really thinks about it anymore.  But I wanted a permanent place for my story, and so I’m posting it here.  It’s still an important time of my life, and I think this would be the biggest thing that I’ve won in my lifetime.  It’s strange thinking about it like that; my greatest achievement may be playing video games.

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Originally, I picked my screen name as “Ariel Faith Plate” only a few weeks prior to the Portal 2 launch since I thought it would be relevant and a seemingly-clever pun. Because instead of “Aerial”, it’s “Ariel” and so it almost sounds like a real name? In retrospect, it was an incredibly lame joke, and later Robin Walker told me the same thing. However, my nickname started showing up in the ARG notes and such. If I changed it, then people wouldn’t be able to identify me anymore. I was stuck with it for the duration of the event, even though it was like intentionally calling yourself “Marion” or some other tacky name.

When Anna Sweet contacted me for the first time, I assumed that it was a bad troll. She asked me to call a phone number as she was from Valve. I told her that if she was really from Valve then she could e-mail me as my e-mail address was almost completely private. When the e-mail arrived only a minute later, I said, “I’m so very sorry.”
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I examine dozens of video games every day and sometimes I get excited for them.  The one game that has me the most excited is Banished and it’ll be here in a few weeks on Steam.

Banished is a real-time strategy/city building game about a group of exiled travelers that have come to settle in a new and potentially dangerous land.  The goal is to just survive and make the colony flourish.  The game uses randomly generated maps so the challenge is different each time you start.  You’ll need careful resource management and a smart planning if you want the colonists to get everything.  It sounds easy, but the game could be called a very calm roguelike.

The most amazing thing is that this is being developed by just one person.  Shining Rock Software is essentially just Luke Hodorowicz.  There are a few excellent games that have been done by essentially one person, these include Gunpoint and Dust: An Elysian Tale.  Also, any game made by Blendo Games (Atom Zombie Smasher, Flotilla, Gravity Bone/30 Flights of Loving) are created with just Brandon Chung, although the upcoming Quadrilateral Cowboy is being done by two people.  In each of these games, the music is typically done by another person but the single developer has obviously creative control.

The second thing is that this game doesn’t use money and it has no requirements for its tech tree.  It’s absolutely possible to build end-game structures immediately as long as you have the resources.  In many games, the intent is to just maximize population but this game is very different.  People aren’t treated as a simple number or an abstract concept.  Each person in the game gets a name and they are all animated, and they all age and eventually die.  People are literally your most valuable resource and you can’t just build houses and suddenly get more.

I’m doing a poor job selling the game, because it’s hard to describe without seeing it for yourself.  I strongly suggest that you look up videos or the Steam store page and see the demo video.  All I can say is that Banished is one of those games that makes me mesmerized when I watch it.  There was a Let’s Play video of the beta build and it lasted an hour.  I watched the entire video without stopping, completely amazed, and the video ended at the hour mark without being completed.  I was almost upset because I wanted to see what happened next.

Rymdkapsel is coming out tomorrow on Steam.  Rymdkapsel means “space capsule” in Swedish, if you’re curious.  It’s a mobile game where you try to manage a space station.

Now if you think that all mobile games are just cheesy and dumb, then wait until you see this game.  I need to emphasize this:  Guess how many walkthoughs exist for this game on Youtube.  The answer is zero.  Nobody has any video proof that they’ve ever beaten this game and it’s been out for a year on the Playstation Vita and Android phones.

The game’s difficulty is really a struggle between gathering resources, building rooms, researching monoliths, and (most importantly) surviving the alien invasion.  The simplistic graphics and seemingly “casual” feel give the illusion that this is an easy game made for small kids.  But in my opinion, this game is effectively a 4X game stripped down to its bare essentials.  The win condition is quite simple:  You live at the end.

I’m strongly tempted to buy it, because I keep having this feeling that I could beat it.  It’s a strange feeling–this sensation of wanting to win at a game despite all the people are nothing but simple rectangles.

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I was going to call this my Steam Condenser as I take Steam-related stories and condense them into an easy-to-read blog.  Then I found out that Steam Condenser is a real product used by Source developers.  I’m still looking for ideas.

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The gaming company King–who makes the mobile game Candy Crush Saga–managed to trademark the words “candy” and “saga.”  For the most part, the targets have been other mobile games.  However, the latest news story has the Internet on fire.  King has sent a denial of trademark request for The Banner Saga because they use the word “saga” in it.  King admits that The Banner Saga, a turn based strategy game, has nothing to do with their match-3 game, but they want to defend their trademark.  As an aside, the first chapter of The Banner Saga is available now on Steam.
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Hi, I’m Kev.  I write Steam Blogs (Slogs)–that is, posts on my Steam page normally.  If you’re a Friend on Steam, then you can see see my posts on my Activity page.  If you’re not one of my Friends, then I suspect that this post must be very confusing and strange.

I wanted to have a more permanent location since my slogs eventually get deleted after a week or so.  I’m trying to become a journalista…  It’s the best kind of reporter.  It’s video game journalism.  One day I hope to become a Real Journalist, meaning that I can get a job doing this kind of blathering.  But in the meantime, here’s my slog.

I’m going to write mostly about PC gaming, especially if it somehow ties into Steam.  The only thing that I need help with is a name for this column.  With so many fan blogs already, I didn’t want something obvious like “The Boiler Room”.  I hope that I don’t get stuck with Kev’s Slog.  Write your comments below if you have ideas.

Here’s my first story.  Tell me what you think about it, even if you dislike it.

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