Matt James, the man behind hermitgames, has already made what I think is the best XBLIG title of all time with Leave Home (It’s also available on PC.) Soon, he’ll be back with the intriguing 3D Snake-alike – although the correct term is probably Blockade-alike – QRTH-PHYL. While we wait for that, I thought we could find out what he’s been playing on his smartphone. And he’s been playing quite a lot.
First stop? Gridrunner. “It’s the first iOS Minter game that’s really clicked with me and has that rushy feeling of being pulled along slightly too fast that he manages to do,” says James. That’s about as good a Minter Description (MD) as we’ve ever heard, frankly. What else?
“I’ve given up playing Spelltower,” James admits. “Because I had this one perfect game that I’ll never better. Best word was “dreadful” and I cleared all the blocks at the end and everything.” I stopped playing when my wife got “pineapple”. I’m like that.
That’s it? “Adam Saltsman’s Capsule which is on PC and only for Venus Patrol people at the mo but was supposed to be an iPad game I think. It’s a minimal glitchy terminal thing that manages to be cloyingly atmospheric and tense. Hopefully it’ll end up on iPad one day or something. And I still play Forget-me-not. Really like how solidly the mechanics fit together, there’s no flabby arbitrary bits hanging off, every element fits in the design perfectly. It’s like a cabinet made by a master carpenter or something. Like using the key as a shield to your own bullets from wrapping sections, which happens more nearer the end of the level, when you’re more likely to have the key. And then one of those blue bastards steals the key off you, argh.”
Surely that’s your lot? Aren’t you meant to be actually making games or something? “Chaos HD – cacky port really of speccy Chaos (you can’t do diagonal moves properly) but it’s still Chaos: the best strategy game ever made. Raising a Manticore from the dead and spitting those little yellow pixels is the best. There needs to be a proper asynchronous online version of this because it’s hard work persuading people to come round my house and play it. I’m kind of expecting Mojang’s Scrolls to be similar to Chaos.”
