User:Thijshijsijsjss/Gossamery/UFO50

A page for digesting UFO50. As a game. As a commentary on games. As a nonlinear experience. As a lot of memories.

UFO50 is a game project and collection consisting of 50 retro-inspired games. It is is published by 1-person publishing house Mossmouth and developed by influential veteran indie developers Derek Yu, Jon Perry, Eirik Suhrke, Paul Hubans, Ojiro Fumoto and Tyriq Plummer.

UFO50 contains a collection of 50 games. These are 'chronologically ordered' according to the fictional date of release of these titles. Together, they present a narrative of a fictional game company, UfoSoft, and their console the LX-III. Within this narrative, the development team were the ones who found and revived the old hardware and redistributed it as an emmulated experience. The project goes to great lengths to sell the illusion of this narrative. Not only are the games inspired by retro games of the time (1982-1989), chronologically increasing in technological, visual and mechanical complexity over time, the collection contains callbacks to 'earlier' games, presents franchises, tells a history of the company through game descriptions and has ever-changing boot splash screen. That said, it is not just an immitation of this era. While having constraints such as prohibiting sprite scaling (a costly operation on 80s hardware) and a palette of just 32 colors shared among all 50 games[1], the developers did not restrict themselves to genre conventions of the time. Most of the 50 entries feel fresh and could stand on their own in the contemporary gaming landscape. And by their collective presentation, these experiences are lifted to a level beyond a simple nod to older games. UFO50 is a true love letter to gaming, an homage to the early DNA of videogames and a celebration of an evolving medium.

[1] gamedeveloper.com interview with Yu, Plummer and Suhrke regarding the projects visual style.

[2] The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast episode, in which Trent Kusters interviews Yu, Perry and Suhrke about the development process

[3] Eggplant: The Secret Life of Games podacast, series of episodes discussing one UFO50 game per episode, with many guests

Consoles as a nonlinear meta gaming experience

(About UFO50 not as a collection of games, but as a game itself. About fantasy consoles)

Compound action selection

(About an essay on Avianos, 4x strategy games, and how an analysis of decision making in these games might inform CYOA stories)