Category Archives: China
Tiger Eye: Curse Of The Riddle Box
Passionfruit Games‘ first title, Tiger Eye Curse Of The Riddle Box> is out this week. This new game blends casual adventure gameplay with the paranormal romance novel Tiger Eye by Majorie M. Liu. I was in the beta last month, … Continue reading
Colorado Or Bust
I have post-conference deflation. After a couple days filled with fascinating presentations and impromptu discussions on the nature of play and creativity, on using games to solve problems and change the world, it was deflating to be back at the … Continue reading
Passionfruit Hutong
New development studio Passionfruit Games contacted me the other day about beta testing their new puzzle/adventure game Tiger Eye Curse Of The Riddle Box. Passionfruit is made up of many HER Interactive veterans — the team who worked on Nancy Drew … Continue reading
Silkroad Society
This Joymax press release on multiplayer games, virtual societies, and Asian culture, landed in my inbox the other day: Joymax, an independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment for the global market, today announced the launch of a third “Clean … Continue reading
Buzz Off
So, how about that Google Buzz, huh? Google’s last toy, Google Wave, was kind of a flop for me because it seemed like a neat collaborative tool, but none of my friends were on it yet. (On a reread, doesn’t … Continue reading
Waiting
Eight or nine years ago, I worked in a diner while on a, ahem, break from college. The Pioneer Valley is full of similar college-age breakers, finding themselves, forming bands, creating art, getting that awful first novel out of the … Continue reading
Extreme Shopping
Cooking Mama 3’s shopping game is uncannily like shopping in a Chinese supermarket. Mama sends you out to find 4 pieces of unwrapped, unrefridgerated meat, but as you search the store to fill your reusable carrier bag, you’ve got to avoid oddly familiar store characters — shouting shop assistants in pastel uniform aprons or a girl with a basket of squid, shellfish and other distinctly Yantai seafood — who’ll slow your shopping progress by trapping you into minigames. Higher levels add loose eggs, heads-on fish and mushrooms to your shopping list, and more people to the store. I keep trying for the elusive perfect score, since I imagine it’ll unlock a “Sunday In The Auchan” extreme challenge level. Continue reading
NoDa, Charlotte
A few weeks ago, I was trying to pin down what I don’t like about Cary. I know some of it is feeling like Cary is an extended blank verso between the close of our Beijing adventure and the beginning … Continue reading
Scenes From Imaginary China
I came across this book when I was home in New Jersey cleaning out my old room. (Yeah, my mom said something about how I haven’t lived there in ten years and she’d really like a guest room and that … Continue reading
Montezuma’s Revenge
I say that we’ve been playing multiplayer, but actually I think we’re playing two entirely different games that just happen to look similar. Let’s start with the fact that Stick likes to sing the Civilization themesong… which doesn’t have words. I don’t even turn on the sound. It’s not that I don’t like the song, I just don’t care too much for in-game sound effects. I played the game for months before we happened to play a hotseat game on his PC, and I learned that the units speak in their native languages on activation. The Chinese units (usually mine) say “What do you want?” and the Romans (usually Stick’s) say “What are your orders?” Continue reading
