OHR News: November 2009

In this section, you'll find the latest game releases, contest announcements, and information regarding the OHR engine. If you have any news to submit, send it to paulclementharrington@gmail.com!

Latest releases:

• Do You Want to be a Hero? by Mogri
• Dragon Ball Z by Awful Waffle
• Genesis by Rebecca & Taylor Bair
• Legends Of Nedaria by NeoSpade
• Necromancer by Deadmanintheocean
• OHR House Heroes: Complete by Red Maverick Zero
• Sailor Moon: Another Dimension Version 6 by Buni Pickney
• SHiIDA by Baconlabs
• Sleepover by Charbile
• Spooky Test by Twin Hamster
• Tetris OHR by shakeyair

Contest News

Voting is open for the 2009 OHR Halloween Contest. Head over to Castle Paradox and let your voice be heard!
Polls
What were your favorite articles of HamsterSpeak #31? Let us know! Select as many as you'd like.
Cover Review - Gato Sucio: SE
Review - House Escape Review - Phantom Tactics
Review - Qwerky Quest Review - Sailor Moon: Another Dimension
Review - Wandering Hamster Commentary - Super Surlaw Chef
Feature - Ask Surlaw #2 Feature - Characters and Voices
Feature - In Pursuit of Pleasure Feature - OHR Icons: Bob the Hamster
  
 pollcode.com free polls
Some Words from the Community
 
  • Every month, we'll spotlight some comments from the readers regarding the previous month's issues. Here's what our readers have to say about last month's issue.

  • "Ah, yes. Zach's Evil Plan. I remember that abomination. The whole Covered with Dust article was good.

    Bobblin Surlaw. I never would have guessed, but it does seem right for aliens to have alien names (I used to think his name seemed out of place next to Gulob and Salom, but not anymore!).

    The TMI article was good, too. Heck, I loved everything I read in this issue." -Nathan Karr

  • "I'm really happy about the review I got for my game (Dawn). It pointed out a lot of bugs I wasn't even aware of, as well of a lot that have been on the "to do" list for well over 10 months (Olmins' broken after battle script). Hopefully I can get some serious bugfixing down the next few weeks, and maybe even re-release it, up to the same point, with a lot less bugs. Thanks so much for having the time for the review!" -Blue Train
  • I enjoyed "The Art of Exposition" the most. I think anything that opens with "Screw It" as its first technique has to win the Article of the Year award. For a last minute addition, I think it stole the whole issue away. And even if I'm embellishing a bit (and let's be honest, I probably am), it was certainly one of the better articles I've read on the subject in a long time. I mean, wow, it even managed to make Mortal Kombat the movie look like it was well written. Most million-dollar directors can't even do that. Excellent work.

    I thought MSW did a good job, too. I'm still not a fan of the academic articles and all that number sliding became cumbersome after awhile. But it was a solid concept nonetheless. I do think it was accurately summed up in the last paragraph that "playtesting is key." Charts mean nothing if you don't have an internal sense of what actually works in balancing information." -Pepsi Ranger
    •
    "The icons in the Ask Surlaw article are delightful! I especially liked how he'd change to suit the topic being discussed, or the person being answered. I'll have to come up with better questions for next month.

    I, uh, wasn't really sure what the deal on the Community Mixer was. It was bizarre and unnecessarily long-winded. Not only that, but the way the flavor text didn't match, and in some cases directly contradicted, the answers was rather inexplicable." -Uncommon
    "I liked the Exposition article the most, and I voted for it, although I guess it could have had more depth, or perhaps used more mainstream examples.

    Some of the articles this month are just... confusing. And feel very pointless. They felt very much like in-jokes that totally went over my head, sort of like Fenrir's old comics. But hey, not like I'm writing anything for the magazine lately, so I can't complain too much here.

    I'll be honest, I did not make it too far in to Okédoké, but I am puzzled as to how it warrants such a long... uh, dissertation. Not hatin' on the game; just puzzled here.

    While I'm not against the art sections, they feel like of random with so few submissions. With a bit more, it might feel something like Nintendo Power's old art sections (sporadic quality is more fun than all of it being good, IMO).

    Again, while I do like the idea of Covered With Dust, I wish it applied more to recent games so that active authors would have a chance at improving their work instead of people who are long-gone and would probably just be embarrassed to be reminded of some of this stuff.

    MSW's article is an interesting subject, kind of a no-brainer though. I don't care for using math to explain a literary concept, but that's me. I feel that kind of logic leads to shutting the creative process down to too many rules, which restricts innovation, which is especially important in video games. But hey, I guess it could work for some designers." -JSH