jason-rohrer posts

A Minecraft mod that won a game design challenge at GDC 2011 earlier this month is now the center of a controversy surrounding one of the people who got his hands on it and now seems to be changing the rules that the game's original developer made for it. The mod in question is called Chain World. Designed by Jason Rohrer the mod was designed to be given and played by one person at a time.

Gamasutra reports that the Minecraft mod resides in a USB flash drive. A player installs the Minecraft world on a PC, then is supposed to play the game until his or her character dies. The world has to be saved and a copy is then put on the USB drive to then be given to another person.

The USB drive was given to an audience member at GDC 2011. However that audience member, Jia Ji, decided instead of playing the game he would auction off the USB drive via eBay to benefit a charity. The auction agreement also requires that after the winning player gets the drive and finishes playing the mod he or she must give it to famed alternate reality game designer Jane McGonigal.

Gamasutra reports that move has been the source of complaints with many game developers saying that Jia Ji's auction does not fit with what Rohrer had in mind when he created Chain World. Even Rohrer himself states on his Twitter page that " ... Whoever wins Chain World auction should NOT mail USB stick" to McGonigal.

The whole "pay what you want" pricing model seems to work well for the PC indie games scene, at least when it comes to brief periods of time. The recent Humble Indie Bundle generated just over $1 million in revenue in just one week for five indie games (plus two charaties). Now one game has decded to make this business model permenant, with a slight catch.

The game is Sleep Is Death, the recently released and critically acclaimed two player "storytelling game" from developer Jason Rohrer. From now on you can set any price you want to download the game. The only caveat is that there's a minimal amount that's required ($1.75) for bandwidth and payment processing costs. You still get an excellent deal even at the minimal price: Two DRM-free licenses for both PC and Mac (one for you and one for a friend; it is a two player game) along with the game's source code and several "resource packs".

[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]

With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of. This week we're going to take a look at a few of the games that have made it to the finals.

The most sought after quality of a game in the here and now is not how pretty it looks, how realistic the sound is, or even how fun it is. What matters most in a sea of look-a-likes is the all-important trait of innovation. An innovative game can get much more mileage than your average fun-but-simple experience, as people will talk about it even if it does not offer anything new in the realm of game4play or entertainment. Sometimes being made to think is a refreshing change of pace, after all. So here's five of the most innovative entries in the IGF competition.

There are a few things that one can rely on in life. The sky is most definitely blue. Grass? Well, it grows. So, as one can imagine, a men's magazine like Esquire taking notice of the indie gaming scene is very unusual. Focusing more on literature and fashion, it has evolved into the refined man's magazine of choice. This normally doesn't include independent or niche games. This is changing, though, as now the indie gamer is among those groups that Esquire caters to. If Esquire can do it, other magazines are sure to do it too.

The indie game Passage by Jason Rohrer is best described as an art game of substantial merit. It propelled Jason Rohrer to stardom in the indie community entirely on its merit of quality. Esquire took notice, and named Rohrer as one of their Best and Brightest of 2008. In honor of him, the magazine decided to be the exclusive host behind his newest game, which is cryptically titled Between. It's a multiplayer co-op adventure/platformer with Jason Rohrer's distinct style behind it, and it's affecting in the way that only his work can be. The game is offered on Esquire's site for PC, Mac, and Linux, and can be played either across a local network or through the internet.