Abstract

Lines of Action, commonly referred to as LOA, is a modern abstract game by Claude Soucie. It was published in Sid Sackson's book, A Gamut of Games in 1969, but did not gain popularity until the 1990's. Perhaps interest picked up after it received a prestigious Spiel des Jahres Recommendation in 1988. Several online game sites feature LOA due to its popularity. The best thing about Lines of Action is that you probably already own a copy. All you need is a Checkers (Draughts) set and you are ready to go.

Lines of Action is both a capture and a connection game. Your goal is to connect all your pieces from opposite sides of the board together. A piece moves as many spaces as there are pieces in a line. A piece may move orthogonally or diagonally, and if there is an opponent's piece in a space you are allowed to move into, then that piece is captured. You may jump over your own pieces but not the opponent's pieces.

Dvonn is an modern abstract game of stacking​ and capturing, that has hint of the flavor of Go and Othello​. Dvonn is a serious (hardcore) abstract strategy game. A serious abstract strategy defined by the abstract strategy game community is: for two player​s, no hidden information, no randomness and nearly or completely themeless. Kris Brum, however designed ​Dvonn to target both casual and devoted abstract strategy fans.

I was raised on graphic adventure games --they were the first videogames I ever played and have profoundly influenced my approach to games ever since. I was also raised on The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, so naturally I jumped at the chance to write about the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Remake, or H2G2 Remake for short. Unfortunately, it seems you can't turn back the clock.

I'm going to start this review off with a comic that I think sums up the male existential dilemma more succinctly than anything I've ever seen, and then link you to the author's explanation of the game. Then I'm going to say, hey! Don't read that stuff yet! Play the game first! Some fraction of you may have follow the links sequentially and are now feeling cheated. Hey, at least you aren't stuck in a dead-end relationship!

To all the diehard indie snobs out there spooked by the “casual” label: Don't worry. [Together] is an art game masquerading as a casual game, so go ahead and crank your snob-meters up to 11.

Located somewhere on the emotional spectrum between Braid and Passage, [Together] casts the player as a blue Boy who emerges from a mysterious cave to take his pink Girlfriend on a majestic flight of fancy. The couple chases down a variety of evasive flying hearts while being pursued by the smoke monster from Lost (here known as "the beast"). The creator's descriptive blurb sums up the mood: "Fly to the depths of the ocean or to the ends of the galaxy, together. As long as you have each other, there's no limit to where you can go."

Knytt was one of the first freeware titles I ever downloaded; Niflas's atmospheric mood piece was a deciding factor in my burgeoning interest in indie games. The game was an exercise in minimalism that eschewed complexity and difficulty in favor of tone and 'feel.' Whether or not you cared for Knytt will determine how you'll feel about !Xorpl. If Knyttis a Brian Eno mood piece, !Xorpl is this song
minus the vocals.

The popular first-generation arcade game meets the next generation of fluid physics in this awesome abstract game. The basic rules of Pong still apply (move the paddle to reflect the bouncing ball), but in addition, you can project (by pressing the left mouse button) or absorb (with the right) a jet of a color-changing, plasma-like fluid from your paddle, which fills your screen, making it look trippy, and in which the ball will move according to the fluid dynamics.

Everyday Shooter is the ultimate genre orgy. We see a lot of stuff that subverts or explores the mechanical design space of a specific genre, particularly in the realm of shmups, but this here is the king crab of shoot-em-ups, the Kermit the Frog of shmuppery.

Mark Johns considers this his best work. There's a reason for that. Standard Bits is pure. It's the first kiss under the desk in Kindergarten. It's jumping off a fifty-foot cliff into a river while blown. It's an attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. It's the subtle, asexual infatuation you had with The Secret Of Mana's level designs when you were four.

Have you ever taken psychedelics? Have you wanted to, but feared the legal complications?

I have the solution for you. Read up on the Hawaiian Baby Woodrose plant. You can order seeds of this legal plant cheaply, and plant them. They are not intended for human consumption. Recommended dose is 4-6 seeds.

Then play Mondrian.