idea springs

as part of his lifelong (and possibly futile, but who knows?) quest to transform this Amelia girl into some kind of talented gamer chick, friend Chris occasionally sends me links and tips and reviews and sometimes actual games.

this one is called Ballpoint Universe, and these little screenshots do not do it justice. the scribbly little hills and trellises, all layered and deftly shaded--they are beautiful.

so many video games seem ugly, dull, and pointless. I probably just have the wrong point of view, though. reliving some lone superhero quest to save the world? hrm. endlessly shooting things? meh. running like crazy from or toward or through hordes of enemies? sigh.

this Ballpoint Universe game may not turn out to be anything spectacularly different in terms of play. I don't know yet. so far I've been figuring it out, jumping around, and regularly (and predictably, given my usual level of grace with game controls) falling to my (thankfully brief and immediately remediable) death. but for its quirky hand-drawn visuals alone, I like it. I haven't gotten very far, but I sense the tone of the doodles will change as the game progresses. so that seems cool.

danke, friend Chris. in return for your generous agenda of gamerification, I'll continue plotting what it might take to get you to bake a cake and blog about it, or something.