January 2006
jay is games: Best of 2005: Top 20
The Best of 2005 is a celebration of the best games reviewed here at Jayisgames over the past year. It is not an exhaustive list of all the best games available since we can only review the games that we come to know about. If you have a game, or are part of a team that produces them, and would like to have your game considered for a future review here, then please use my email address in the sidebar to submit a link.
November 2005
Lost Garden: Mini Game Design Reviews: Guitar Hero and Wierd Worlds
"I wanted to briefly mention two very different games that I’ve been spending time with recently. The first is Guitar Hero by Harmonix and the second is Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space by Digital Eel. Neither is a traditional game, and both have some good lessons about game design to share."
Video Game Media Watch — The Video Game Journalism Review » Interview: Smatbomb Co-Author Heather Chaplin
“Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution“ is the first book from husband-and-wife team Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby. Chaplin, a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Fortune and Salon, agreed to answer some questions about the writing process for us.
Raph’s Website » The Wisdom of Crowds
In those other cases, it’s the presence of a wide array of specialists that generally makes the difference. In Surowiecki’s world, it’s the presence of a wide array of people, period, that allows startlingly accurate assessments to come forth.
October 2005
Pixel Kill » Farenheit
"Essentially, it’s a story first and a game second. The developers didn’t go “We’re making this genre of game, now let’s tack on a story”. Instead it feels like they fleshed out the story then built successful gameplay systems around it."
Grown Up Gamer » Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy Review
After playing the demo of this game, I was really looking forward to playing it. It was almost as if they’d read the half-baked game ideas in my head and actually made a game out of them.
1
(18 marks)
