Weekend madness
(crossposted from Facebook, two posts in one)
On Saturday we went to the Boston Festival of Independent Games, which was a lot of fun. Two big rooms (one for tabletop games, one for electronic games) filled with indie game developers and their prototypes -- some more polished than others. (A lot of them were like, "you can play our demo but we aren't selling it yet -- here's the link to our Kickstarter." Though a few were all the way to the "scan our QR code to download from the App Store" stage, and some of the tabletop games were available to buy.)
We played a bunch of interesting games with names like "The Gravedigger's Dilemma," "Killer Croquet," "Kitty in the Box," and "Soda Drinker" (in which you apparently wander around a roller rink drinking soda). Ruthie spent a long time playing a game called "A Tofu Tail" in which you are a block of tofu -- I swear I am not making this up -- who has to wander through various levels collecting gems for a magical fox. We also enjoyed one where you are a cat and your goal is to roam your person's apartment knocking stuff off of tables, desks, beds, etc. -- the more stuff you knock over, the more points you get. (You can supposedly play the demo of this game at catlateraldamage.com although I haven't managed to get it to work yet.)
Our favorite game overall was one called "49" in which you use play money to try to outbid other players for numbered spaces on the board, the object being to get four spaces in a row. We played it twice and then decided to buy a copy to take home. Fun game. We'll have to see how it holds up to repeated playing. Check it out at thegameof49.com.
Sundays are for sleeping in, which is why I didn't get up until like 10:20 yesterday morning, although I had been awake for a while, playing with my iPad in bed and trying to decide whether I really wanted to go to the Boston Local Food Festival. So I staggered into the kitchen around 10:20, glanced at my phone, and saw a text from a friend -- sent two hours earlier -- saying: "Six Flags? We're leaving at 10:30."
I think I blinked at it a few times, then turned away and went to the bathroom. After doing my business, I came back and re-read the text and had a bleary thought along the lines of "why do I have insane friends?" and put on water for my morning tea.
Moments later the phone rang. Of course it was the same friend. She's like, "So, you ready?"
I'm like, "dude, you are crazy. I just got out of bed."
She goes, "well put your tea in a travel mug, throw on some clothes, and tell the children to put on their shoes. We're coming to pick you up."
So I put my tea in a travel mug, threw on some clothes, asked the kids whether they'd rather go to the food festival or Six Flags (and yes, I knew that was a dumb question), told them to get dressed, slapped some peanut butter onto some bread, and the next thing you know we're hitting the highway with Monty Python singing "Sit On My Face" on the car stereo and the kids munching kettle corn for breakfast. WTF? Is this my life?
We had a good time at Six Flags, although there wasn't enough time to do everything we wanted (especially after waiting in line for an hour for the Sky Screamer), but we did plenty. And each kid came home with at least two carnival game prizes, mostly of the stuffed-animal variety (a squid and a monkey in Ruthie's case; an inflatable alien and stuffed Zombie Bugs Bunny for Isaac) so it was all good. There might be some awfully cranky faces at school today though....
On Saturday we went to the Boston Festival of Independent Games, which was a lot of fun. Two big rooms (one for tabletop games, one for electronic games) filled with indie game developers and their prototypes -- some more polished than others. (A lot of them were like, "you can play our demo but we aren't selling it yet -- here's the link to our Kickstarter." Though a few were all the way to the "scan our QR code to download from the App Store" stage, and some of the tabletop games were available to buy.)
We played a bunch of interesting games with names like "The Gravedigger's Dilemma," "Killer Croquet," "Kitty in the Box," and "Soda Drinker" (in which you apparently wander around a roller rink drinking soda). Ruthie spent a long time playing a game called "A Tofu Tail" in which you are a block of tofu -- I swear I am not making this up -- who has to wander through various levels collecting gems for a magical fox. We also enjoyed one where you are a cat and your goal is to roam your person's apartment knocking stuff off of tables, desks, beds, etc. -- the more stuff you knock over, the more points you get. (You can supposedly play the demo of this game at catlateraldamage.com although I haven't managed to get it to work yet.)
Our favorite game overall was one called "49" in which you use play money to try to outbid other players for numbered spaces on the board, the object being to get four spaces in a row. We played it twice and then decided to buy a copy to take home. Fun game. We'll have to see how it holds up to repeated playing. Check it out at thegameof49.com.
Sundays are for sleeping in, which is why I didn't get up until like 10:20 yesterday morning, although I had been awake for a while, playing with my iPad in bed and trying to decide whether I really wanted to go to the Boston Local Food Festival. So I staggered into the kitchen around 10:20, glanced at my phone, and saw a text from a friend -- sent two hours earlier -- saying: "Six Flags? We're leaving at 10:30."
I think I blinked at it a few times, then turned away and went to the bathroom. After doing my business, I came back and re-read the text and had a bleary thought along the lines of "why do I have insane friends?" and put on water for my morning tea.
Moments later the phone rang. Of course it was the same friend. She's like, "So, you ready?"
I'm like, "dude, you are crazy. I just got out of bed."
She goes, "well put your tea in a travel mug, throw on some clothes, and tell the children to put on their shoes. We're coming to pick you up."
So I put my tea in a travel mug, threw on some clothes, asked the kids whether they'd rather go to the food festival or Six Flags (and yes, I knew that was a dumb question), told them to get dressed, slapped some peanut butter onto some bread, and the next thing you know we're hitting the highway with Monty Python singing "Sit On My Face" on the car stereo and the kids munching kettle corn for breakfast. WTF? Is this my life?
We had a good time at Six Flags, although there wasn't enough time to do everything we wanted (especially after waiting in line for an hour for the Sky Screamer), but we did plenty. And each kid came home with at least two carnival game prizes, mostly of the stuffed-animal variety (a squid and a monkey in Ruthie's case; an inflatable alien and stuffed Zombie Bugs Bunny for Isaac) so it was all good. There might be some awfully cranky faces at school today though....