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Stars over Half Moon Bay

 

 

A computer game by Rod Humble

 

Download the game:

The game is windows.

 

Click here for the exe

http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/SOHMBSetup.exe

or click here for the zip

http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/SOHMBSetup.zip

 

 

 

Instructions:

No clicking is required just explore the game by moving the mouse around. Please try and just play it without instruction but If you get completely stuck go here

www.rodvik.com/rodgames/help.html

 

 

Background:

 

Stars over Half Moon Bay

 

Looking up at the stars and playing with them in your mind is a pastime with a long lineage, I can make no claim to originality with the theme of this game.

 

The game was borne out of frustration. After the most pleasant reception of "The Marriage" I spent over six months working on a separate longer game, which remains maddeningly incomplete at the time of writing.

 

One evening driving home from work I was going over the same design problems in my head that I had been thinking about for months, when suddenly I looked up at the stars in the sky. In that one moment as my mind took in the awe of the night sky while it simultaneously flitted over the creative problems of the day, this game was designed.

 

This is a game about two things which is reflected in the two titles. The feeling of looking up at the stars and makings patterns with your mind but also a symbolic game about the creative process itself. 

 

There are three segments to the game. The first a free flowing place where things are curved and fluid, the second a rigid place of straight lines in which permanent structures are created. In between is that magical place where human ideas change, the bite of the serpent into its own tail. That place remains inexpressible; I can only point to it with signs.

 

After "The Marriage" it is (I hope) unnecessary to give a detailed explanation of the games rules meanings and its symbolism the above should set you on your way. One of the few things critics both positive and negative agreed on with my earlier work is that I wrote about it too much and didn't allow the player the intellectual freedom of interpretation.  I plead guilty. If you are looking for a method of understanding "Stars over Half Moon Bay" my notes on "The Marriage" will serve as a useful starting point.

 

I should note this game addresses more difficult themes than "The Marriage" and this will necessarily make for a smaller audience. Art works concerning philosophical problems are notoriously problematic, let alone ones as thorny as the relationship between observation, symbolism, exactitude and the creative process.

 

So here it is, a game of looking at stars made in the 21st century. While the ancients had all the time in the world to lay patterns in the sky, we moderns must grab moments while we can.

 

I hope you enjoy the game

 

Rod Humble

 

Half Moon Bay, September 2007/ February 2008

 

 

 

Music by Critical Monkey http://www.criticalshit.com/ and the ever talented Robi Kauker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you's

 

It was a good year for the advancement of games as an art form, the tireless Jon Blow and Jason Rohrer in particular deserve much credit. I would like to thank both of them for their honest criticism of this game during its development.

 

Making Stars over Half Moon Bay was difficult, long and hard, many times it was only the art game press and community that kept me going.

I would like to thank everyone who covered "The Marriage" and art games in general in particular Stephen Totilo, Oliver Klatt and Jim Rossignol who have heroically used their positions to push games as an art form.

 

You would imagine that making a game by yourself would mean credits are easier to write, but it gets worse. There are dozens of great people out there supporting art/indie games right now I would be sure to miss someone out so I have not tried, you know who you are. Raph Kosters website is a good starting point for links. http://www.raphkoster.com/ as is http://grandtextauto.org/ or Jasons very own http://www.northcountrynotes.org/jason-rohrer/arthouseGames/index.php

 

 

Stars over Half Moon Bay was first shown to the public at GDC 2008 as part of two sessions exploring new kinds of game play I would thank everyone on the EGW for their incredible work year after year.

 

http://experimental-gameplay.org/

 

http://braid-game.com/news/

 

I am making the game available as a follow up to those talks.

 

Download the game:

The game is windows.

 

Click here for the exe

http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/SOHMBSetup.exe

or click here for the zip

http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/SOHMBSetup.zip