Taro Omiya

Taro Omiya

Software Engineer, Game Designer

  • Strange Free Games: Katawa Shoujo

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    Warning!  I am about to introduce a Japanese-style erotic visual novel, better known as eroge.  While this game does offer an option to turn off the adult portions, be well aware that this is made for a far more mature audience. And by “mature,” I mean emotionally.

    New week, new game.  This week is about Katawa Shoujo, a visual novel from the members of 4chan, no less.  As a love simulator, this game has one simple twist: every girl you can date is handicapped.  While I’m sure many of you will find the origins of this game uneasy, I can affirm that the subject matter is handled very delicately.  By the end of it, it’ll make you realize the truth behind a frequently told but rarely understood point: the difference between a normal person and a disabled one is only skin deep.

    Katawa Shoujo is playable at their own website.

    You play as Hisao Naoki, who one day collapses from a sudden heart attack.  Upon recovery, he learns he has a fatal condition called arrhythmia: a disorder that causes the heart to react erratically.  Forced to stay in the dreadful hospital for months, he’s finally given a decision one day to move to the Yamaku boarding high school, an educational school specialized in tending students with medical conditions.  In an attempt to start life anew again, Hisao agrees, and ventures into the high school for disabled students.  Little does he expect a huge emotional roller-coaster when trying to make friends in this initially-peculiar high school.

    As the genre “visual novel” implies, Katawa Shoujo reads a lot like a choose-your-own-adventure novels. The majority of the game is devoted to characterizations and observations, but occasionally the game gives you a few branching choices that determines how the story progresses.  While that seems like a chore at first, several features in the game helps alleviate the hours-long text.  First there’s an auto-mode that automatically clicks through the text for you at an adjustable pace.  For the really impatient, there’s the skip-mode that fast-forwards to the next multiple-choice question.
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  • Weekly Game Music: Gameboy Tune (Machinarium)

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    New week, new music. This week’s music is Gameboy Tune by Tomas Dvorak. Despite it’s overly-optimistic beeps and bloops, it’s a surprisingly mellow tune. It best accents the neon game arcade room in an otherwise old-and-rusty game, Machinarium.

    Machinarium is a no-text, all visual point-and-click adventure of a weak but determined robot to get his kidnapped girlfriend back. During his travels, he learns the kidnappers has caused a ton of mayhem to the townsfolk, and even hung a time-bomb on a tall tower for a good measure. Frantically working to find a way to diffuse the bomb, our hero must…slowly help remedy each denizen’s misfortunes. Point-and-click at its finest.

    Sarcasm aside, Machinarium is a rare game that successfully tells a story without a single use of text or voice acting. It’s puzzles — which ranges from distracting the guard to slip by him, to unlocking a door using a Rubik’s cube — can sometimes veer towards nonsensical and frustrating. Fortunately, there’s a consistent and easy way to find the solution of every puzzle in-game. The minor usability improvements helps guarantee that anyone can play this game.

    Machinarium was originally released on the PC, Mac, and Linux in 2009. It has also been ported to iPad and Android as well.

    Extra!

    Title: The End [Prague Radio]
    Game: Machinarium
    Composer: Vojtech Zelinsky


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  • Strange Free Games: Souvenir

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    New week, new game. Here’s an incomplete student game that still feels polished and playable. Souvenir is a meta-physical recount of a girl’s experience at college. It’s M.C. Escher-isque visuals best conveys the confusion one experiences when living away from familiar, and traveling into the new.

    The game begins on a stage, portraying an unnamed girl starting to pack. Not after long, you end up in a greatly distorted world, bleak and twisting. As you choose the 8 “things to pack,” you start recalling various different memories, some mundane, some happy, and some depressing.

    Souvenir plays like first-person puzzle game. Clicking on a surface causes you to fall to that location. Due to the twisting nature of the game, you frequently end up upside-down or sideways on various different surfaces. Collecting different items provides a fade-in text telling a recount of the character we’re playing. This slowly fleshes out our character’s personality, problems, and resolves.

    Souvenir is playable at it’s own website.
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  • Updated Solitaire Double-Deck HD

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    A quick update.  I added two new links to the Solitaire Double-Deck HD.  You can now play it on the iPhone and the Nook!

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  • Weekly Game Music: Me and My Little War (Elebits)

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    New week, new music. We’re at war. A war composed by Naoyuki Sato and Michiru Yamane. Me and My Little War is a fitting title for Elebits hero, Kai. The music’s exciting outbursts, followed by a childish melody, best depicts Kai’s selfish attempts at getting his parent’s attention, even in a middle of a crisis.

    Elebits is told through the eyes of Kai, a seemingly neglected child. Kai’s parents, both Elebits researchers, rushes out one night on an emergency blackout. Disgruntled, Kai attempts to create his own power by collecting wild Elebits — power-generating spirits — using his father’s trusty gravity gun.

    Elebits is a physics toybox that utilizes Wii’s motion controls to grab and throw nearly everything in the game. The game begins with a rather under-powered gun: you can only lift small things, like boxes and toys. As you collect the Elebits hiding behind objects, though, your gun grows gradually stronger, eventually letting you throw trucks and buildings with ease.

    Elebits was originally released on the Wii in 2006. It’s sequel, which plays nothing like the original, was released on the Nintendo DS.
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  • Strange Free Games: Tower of Heaven

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    New week, new game. Remember Tower of Heaven? Probably not. It was one of the earlier Weekly Game Music I’ve introduced. In any case, it’s a fun and extremely challenging platformer with Gameboy-like graphics. It’s Book of Laws adds a unique, challenging twist to the classical platformer genre.

    The game starts with Eid, a big-headed silhouette, entering the Tower of Heaven. Upon entering, an omnipotent voice grudgingly welcomes our hero, warning him almost immediately that the path is dangerous, and that time is limited. When Eid ascends a few floors, the disgruntled voice forces him to carry the Book of Laws. As Eid climbs higher up the tower, the number of laws imposed by the book increases.

    As mentioned earlier, Tower of Heaven is hard. Breaking any of the laws written in the Book of Laws causes instant death. These laws include, “don’t touch the side of blocks or walls,” “don’t walk left,” and my personal favorite, “don’t open the Book of Laws.” The laws points out the frequently unwritten rules in difficult platformers such as touching the side of platforms on mid-flight will lead to death.

    Developed by 3 people (including the composer), Tower of Heaven is playable at NewGrounds.
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