Michigan

Have a Small Snapshot of Detroit’s Indie Game Community from 2019

~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

I was looking through the notes app on my mac and just saw this big list of games in one doc. I’m not sure why. Given the amount of student games on here, these may have been notes I took of the indie games conference thing that Lawrence Tech University in Southfield was doing at the time. It was by no means a big event but it’s been 7 years (the notes are from April 21, 2019), so I thought I would dump this all here with any commentary I have, and a games historian can stumble across this in 10 years and pick out the interesting bits. I don’t think this will be of interest to many folks but I think it’s good to have it available anyway. The titles of the games are in bold and my commentary is in unbolded text.

Some of these folks are still making games, some not, and it looks like a few of the students here ended up going into the games industry so that’s lovely to see too. Not going to name them because that feels like doxing to me even if they’re success stories, but I still love to see people doing well.

MageQuit
https://store.steampowered.com/app/572220/MageQuit/

top down view of wizards shooting at each other

MageQuit is a multiplayer game where you duel each other as little wizards. A very fun game. I believe at the time this was in Early Access since the release date on Steam is October. I think it did well judging from the number of Steam reviews and it getting releases on consoles. It’s two brothers who make up the studio, I’m not sure if they’re still in Michigan, and at the time of this writing they’re working on a new game, MageQuit Dungeons.

Golden Treasure
http://www.dreamingdoor.net/

a giant dragon talking to a smaller dragon

Another cool one. They created a visual novel about dragons called Golden Treasure (Steam/Itch.io) that I would recommend. I think there were attempts to make a follow up to this but judging from the last news posting being in 2023, I don’t think this will happen. Hopefully I’m wrong.

Beat Blast
https://bigduke6.itch.io/beatblast

lots of wavy red glowing things heading towards a center

Pretty sure this one was a student game. I know I played it but don’t really remember my feelings on it. But since my memory is a bit crap in general, I don’t think that should reflect on the game. Given that it’s a twin stick shooter and looks nice, I should play it again.

Circular Logic
https://bunsengyro.itch.io/circular-logic

triangle flying in a maze

Another student game. The way I remember the game dev program at Lawrence Tech working is that all the students would split off into groups and make games. From looking at the credits for this one, maybe they could do solo projects as well?

RAD
https://knick-knack-games.itch.io/rad

green guy running through a city

Oh hey, this one is still in development! RAD, which changed its name to RAD-venture after Double Fine’s RAD was announced, is a collect-a-thon. I backed the Kickstarter for this….last year? Maybe the year before? It’s one of those games where it will come out eventually but I haven’t followed it closely enough to know when. But the early builds I’ve played, including the ones from this time seven years ago, have all been great. It doesn’t seem like there’s a demo currently available but you can play the student game version here. The student game version was not through Lawrence Tech.

A Killing in White
https://attemptingent.itch.io/akiw12819

top down view of someone in a house and some rebellious pans saying "is it such a crime to want to be used to make some damn pancakes?"

I remember playing this one! This one was a student game that I remember liking. I haven’t heard from Spencer in a while but I know they made a lot of other lovely games and interactive fiction that you should check out on Itch.

BroBots
https://fuzzistudio.itch.io/brobots

big green guy and a little guy using a giant laser to destroy spiky robots

BroBots! Another one that wasn’t by student, I remember liking this one quite a bit. It’s kind of a twin-stick shooter co-op game. I think the studio planned on doing more but I don’t believe that happened. I do remember it originally being $2, it’s the only game I’ve bought on GameJolt, but at some point they made it pay-what-you-want for everyone to enjoy.

Obelisk
https://amastroi.itch.io/obelisk

top down view of a guy with an afro fighting monsters in a dungeon

A student game doing a Binding of Isaac thing. I think I played this one but have no memories of it or the table.

Astray
https://stavnash.itch.io/astray

top down view of a guy next to a garden

As it says on the page, a student game. This was a short adventure game. All I vaguely remember is enjoying it.

Zicon Zero
https://opsage.itch.io/zicon

space ship in an asteroid field

Oh hey, one I actually remember playing. It’s an arcade space sim that was made by a large-ish team. I still have a little pin from this one. The teams were encouraged to make little things to give away at their table, I assume to give them experience tabling for cons, so I have various stickers and pins from some of these games. Maybe I can update this post later with photos of some of them.

[MEMORY_LEAK]

Had to double check with the dev who was working on this. It’s still alive and in development. It’s a turn based rpg inspired by Paper Mario. All I had in my notes were a twitter link but the dev has moved to Bluesky years ago at this point. No Bluesky account for this game but they do have one for their other game in development, Admit One.

WaveCrash!!
https://flyover-games.itch.io/wavecrash

two people shooting waves of blocks at each other

Oh hey, one I really know. Steven co-founded local indie game collective Locally Sourced with me so yes, I know he’s still around making stuff. WaveCrash!! eventually got a release on Steam if you only want to play games on that platform. He’s currently working on a puzzle game.

Unto the Breach
http://www.templargames.com/

top down view of a guy named conrad in a house saying "That'd be nice. Although...reading about history isn't as good as experiencing it firsthand. If we have the time while we're here, do you think we ccould check out a few places of interest?"

I don’t know if this one is still being actively developed but if you poke around the page you can see the developer has done a bit and I know he’s very active with local Warhammer and other tabletop communities.

Stardust Hyperdrive

top down view of a ship in space shooting at others

This was a top down arcade game for the Android. It doesn’t seem like it’s available anymore which is too bad because I remember liking it. I never had an Android device so I was always hoping it would get ported to other stuff but I don’t think it did. You can already read more about the game on the dev’s site, where it also lists the soundtrack. I also made a MobyGames page for it.

AstroYeet
https://jmarsh411.itch.io/astroyeet

top down view of a ship dodging asteroids and lasers

Hey, I remember this one. It’s a top-down runner-like arcade game where you dodge asteroids and lasers being shot at your ship from the ships chasing you. Josh is still involved with the local game dev scene, I think through IGDA Detroit.

Interstellar Symphony
https://whitestar505.itch.io/interstellar-symphony

two robots dancing on a stage

Another student game, this was a cute arcade dancing game by a team of students. I have a sticker or business card for it somewhere.

Sagebrush
https://store.steampowered.com/app/864100/Sagebrush/

low res house at sunset

Great game (also on Itch) and it eventually led to other projects like Cellular Harvest. Nate now works at New Blood, where he works on games like Gloomwood. This one wasn’t a student project. The showcase/convention also had commercial games and projects by non-students there.

End of the Line
https://beefystar.itch.io/playeotl

I’m not actually sure if this one is still in development, doing game dev as a hobby while also being a parent is tricky, but I really liked what is there. He’s also made other games on his solo Itch page.

There was also a System Shock mod at this thing from a non-student. I’m not sure how that happened but I love it. I tracked down the mod and it’s called Lazarus Decλy. My notes had a link to a Facebook page but that’s no longer active.

a guy on a pirate ship with a cannon firing cannon balls
Student game Misadventure

There’s some others that weren’t in my notes but I found through some digging on Itch. Some more student games at the showcase include:

  • There’s GlowPunk, a student group project game.
  • Misadventure is a short platformer where you are on a pirate ship. I remember it doing some fun physics stuff and the team just being very happy that folks were checking out their game they made.
  • Isa’s Edda is a 3D platformer I know I did not play, but some of the same folks went on to make a first person adventure game Farewell Call that I remember liking.
  • Saviour is a cool one where you are navigating a space in pitch black and relying entirely on sound.
  • Prison of the Damned is a first-person puzzle student game that I remember being at the showcase but did not have time to play.
  • I do remember really liking Crime and Nunishment, a top-down game where you are a nun shooting at nuns. It had a really cool art style that slightly reminds me of the 90s fps ZPC. I have a sticker from their booth.
top down view of a nun shooting a monster
Crime and Nunishment
inside a block with a smaller block inside it
Aesthetisphere
vaporwave statue and rubiks like block
Vaporstride

Another pair of projects that I didn’t have in my notes but suddenly remembered were the pair of first-person vaporwave. My memory is that it started as one but then had creative differences and split off into their own projects. So here are A E S T H E T I S P H E R E and Vaporstride for you to play and enjoy.

Anyway, those are my notes. Like I said, this is probably going to be boring to most folks but I wanted to document it anyway. Feel free to correct me if I’m misremembering this stuff or left any games out. These are my memories of a games event from a long time ago. I just thought it might be good to preserve this stuff somewhere. A long time ago I made this Itch collection of local student games and some of them may have been in this showcase as well.

Felt Sad About the World So I Went to the Art Museum

~ mpklamerus ~ 2 Comments

After feeling depressed about the US starting yet another pointless war, I tried to take my mind off things by going to the Detroit Institute of Arts. If you didn’t know, residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb can get in for free because of the millage we’ve passed.

mural of auto workers in an assembly line

Every time I go, I love to see the murals in Rivera Court by Diego Rivera. This is just part of one wall of four. Love that some of the most famous art in the city is by a Communist. You can read more about it here and it’s very funny that they had a plaque about him in the 50s denouncing his politics.

three sarcophagi

My oldest has been into Egyptian history lately so we looked at the Egyptian art they had.

self portrait of vincent van gogh and a postal worker painting by him

They’re still remodeling the museum so they put a lot of the more known works together in a smaller exhibit such as their Van Gogh paintings.

sign for the Contemporary Anishinaabe Art exhibit that ends in April

They had a really nice exhibit that I was happy to see before it wraps up soon.

painting of two punk rockers titled Punk Rockers Nancy and Andy by Norval Morrisseau
photo of Iggy Pop singing by David dominic, Jr.

It was a little surprising to see a photo from a concert I’ve been to. Maybe this means I’m getting old. There’s also a dvd of this concert and I make a brief appearance for a few seconds while Iggy Pop stands next to me and sings.

Flyer for something at Belle Isle called Gays Eating Garlic Bread at the Park. It says to bring your own bread

It looks like I missed the Gays Eating Garlic Bread at the Park by about a year.

the outside of the Detroit Shipping Co. at night while it's snowing

The day ended with me eating Ethiopian food at Detroit Shipping Company.

Maybe not the most exciting post for some folks but not all of them can be about video games. If you’ve got one or two near you, maybe visit some of your local museums and relax for a bit.

ICE Spotted in Ypsilanti, Michigan

~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

Generally not a fan of linking to MLive but they have a post up about how multiple parents of Ypsilanti students were taken by immigration enforcement on Tuesday. So if you live in the area, be aware and get involved if you can. Despite what mainstream outlets are reporting, they have not pulled out of Minneapolis either and the fight continues. Abolish ICE is the bare minimum of what needs to happen.

Touched Grass and Volunteered at the Library Today

~ mpklamerus ~ 1 Comment

I won’t post about it every time I do it but occasionally I volunteer at my local library and I did it again today. I started doing it because I thought it would be good to get some experience at a library while in grad school but while I remain on the fence about continuing that, I think I’ll keep volunteering at the library as long as I don’t have a job at one. It’s just been a good way to interact with people since I normally spend the day in my basement programming for work, and it turns out that people are usually nice to you when you are helping them do something for free. Today there was a thing for local groups to have tables and that’s where I learned (getting real local to Metro Detroit here) there was a local amateur radio club as well as a YIMBY group. While I don’t have any radio experience, it’s very cool to see and maybe I’ll try to listen? Quite a few gardening and pollinator groups too. I sometimes help out with my local environmental restoration group too because of course that’s something I’d like to see, but it’s also just good exercise and a way to learn about plants.

Anyway, if you’re able to, consider volunteering for a local thing. You get to meet neighbors and at least for me it’s generally been a good time. I suspect there’s quite a bit more frustration when it’s helping a political group, those are important too, but if you don’t have the energy for that, even just doing….something…can be nice. When I got home I looked at Blue Sky and immediately took psychic damage so if you want another reason, it keeps you from looking at your phone for a bit too.

Proposals A and B Passed in Ann Arbor!

~ mpklamerus ~ 4 Comments

Local library posting again but it’s wonderful to wake up and see that proposals A and B passed in Ann Arbor. This means that a parking lot that has been sitting next to the library for over a decade will be transferred to the library where they can build a new, larger library that will also include affordable housing. My limited understanding is that it had a vote in 2017 to make it a park, which it was never suitable for nor did the city or the citizens group that pushed for that vote ever do anything with it. As relatable as I can find “no really, I’ll get right to doing this task any minute,” I’m glad that it will belong to the library. The amount of misinformation being spent and put out by this group saying that the vote was to destroy parks was intense and I was worried it wouldn’t pass. It turns out it wasn’t even close though.

“We’ve replaced a parking lot with a library and affordable housing” is my dream scenario for any city and a great thing to wake up to.

I was hoping the proposal for Livonia to build a lot of new buildings for the city would pass but didn’t expect it to and it didn’t. It’s Livonia, which is a lot more conservative, and I knew that a monthly increase of $10-15 per month in taxes would be a tough sell.

But I’ll take the new downtown library in Ann Arbor. Congrats to the city!

The Ann Arbor District Library Archives

~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

Shoutout to the Ann Arbor District Library archives for no reason other than they’re just a lot of fun to search. I’ve posted before about The Cybertub, but it’s fun to just browse the tags and search to find old computer history. The World Wide Web tag is a lot of fun and I can search for local businesses like Borders Books and Music (who started in Ann Arbor) and find tons of old ads and stuff like that. If anyone has any libraries that have easily searchable archives like this, please link them to me!

Apparently the original website for the AADL is still up and preserved too!

PBS Passport

~ mpklamerus ~ Leave a comment

After the defunding of public media happened here, I subscribed to my local Detroit PBS station’s Passport streaming service that people have been recommending on social and this thing is alright! It’s just $5 a month for a bunch of things that are probably exciting to only me. I didn’t realize that it had so many local Detroit shows for streaming, including talks at the Michigan Theater going back to 2015. I recently watched the Pet Shop Boys: Dreamworld concert, which I thought was great. I also started watching British mystery shows, since I guess that’s something you have to do if you have access to PBS.

Anyway, good service. I also supported my Detroit NPR. I sure wish we could just tax rich people to pay for this stuff.

The Ann Arbor District Library Summer Game

~ mpklamerus ~ 3 Comments

This is my first summer participating in the Summer Game at the Ann Arbor District Library and I’m hooked! It’s a yearly event organized by the library, and the 15th one in its current run, where you can get points through a variety of activities and use them to get prizes like shirts, little toys, stickers, etc.

Activities to get points can include:

  • Entering codes you find around the city on signs at buildings, front yards of people participating,
  • Codes can also be found at events held by the library
  • Getting badges, which are challenges like finding specific items in the library’s catalog and plugging in info from newspaper archives, which I believe will be used to help the library later.
  • And of course, reading

It’s turned my oldest and I into point goblins and we see a code on the side of a bus or at the top of a building and lose our shit. We just started a week ago and she already has the points for the flamingo stuffie at the shop that opens in the middle of July, so anything else is just a nice bonus for her. I’m hoping to get a nice t-shirt and poster. It’s just a really nice way to get you to explore the library’s branches, the city of Ann Arbor itself, encourages reading, and educates people on everything the library has available for checking out.

If you live in or around the city of Ann Arbor, I cannot recommend it enough. You do not need to be an Ann Arbor resident. I’m not, and I was encouraged to join by the director of the library. Many of the activities are virtual too so you don’t not need to drive into the city every time you want to participate.

Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival

~ mpklamerus ~ 3 Comments

This year the family and I attended the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival (also known as A2CAF) at the Ann Arbor District Library and it was great! We’ve been going for a few years now. It’s a free comics convention at the library aimed towards children but they get some big guests every year and it’s nice to have an event focused completely on comics. There’s some comic conventions in my area that I haven’t gone to in a long time, partially because they’re incredibly crowded and covid, but also because they’re all just focused on pop culture stuff now. Whenever I leave A2CAF, I feel excited about comics as a medium again. It’s the same energy I get when I go to my local zine fests and I think it’s because all of these events are very focused on how anyone can make comics. I think it’s also good for my kids to be exposed to that DIY attitude, although I would strongly recommend the event to local folks even if they aren’t parents.

We also signed up for the Summer Games challenge that the Ann Arbor District Library also does. I’ll probably do a big post about this later this year since it’s really interesting. I’ve never done it before but it’s been fun so far. You do NOT need to be an Ann Arbor resident to play.

Also shout out to my five year old who I thought had a more nuanced question planned for Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud at the Q&A but instead yelled “HOW DO YOU DO THAT?” into a microphone at the Michigan Theatre.

Libraries are the best. Go support them. I think I’m turning into someone who is getting shirts from all their local libraries.