I’ve been really surprised (and thrilled) by the response to Ruins since I released it about 3 weeks ago. It was written about by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Popmatters, Boing-Boing, PCGamer, IndieGamesChannel, IndieGames.com and Nightmare Mode, as well as some really nice posts by game developers I greatly respect: Robert Yang and Bredon Clay. I wasn’t expecting this response, but I’d like to take the current when it serves and submit this game to the Independent Games Festival for 2012, the deadline for which is October 17th.

I can’t currently afford the $95 entry fee to the IGF, so in an attempt to raise that amount (Update: Thanks for your support! I have enough for the entry fee now!) I’m offering a “special edition” of Ruins. The special edition includes audio commentary, a folder of flowcharts & text files that comprise the full text of the game, and a few pieces of music I wrote for the game but didn’t end up including in the release, all packaged on a USB thumb drive. For a bit extra, I’ll also include a small, handmade painting based on the imagery in the game.

The special edition will only be available through the end of the week: Friday, October 14th. All done — thanks for your support!

Ruins is a game about a dog chasing rabbits through a shadowy, dreamlike landscape.

Download for Mac
Download for Windows

Notes:

• This is a very short game (and some pathways are shorter than others), but it’s also not possible to see all the content in a single play-through.
• I’m not sure what the minimum system requirements are for this game, but it’s a bit more graphically intensive than the other’s I’ve done. Apologies if it doesn’t run smoothly on your computer! It runs very smoothly on my Macbook which is about a year old, if that’s any help.

Balloon Diaspora is a 3D point-and-click adventure game with music by Oliver Blank. Explore a foreign culture, make new friends and ride through the clouds in a hot air balloon.

Read more & download now.

I’m excited to announce Kentucky Route Zero, a magic realist adventure game about a secret highway in Kentucky and the mysterious folks who travel it. This game is currently in development and will be released around the Fall of 2011 (on PC, Mac and possibly other platforms). I’m developing it in partnership with Tamas Kemenczy, a long-time friend & collaborator, who is providing art direction for the game.

We’re currently running a campaign on Kickstarter to fund the development of the game. Check out our pitch page on Kickstarter for more information about the game!

‘A House in California’ is one of 8 finalists for the Nuovo Award at the 2011 Independent Games Festival! The Nuovo award is a category of the IGF designed to “honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games.” I’m totally thrilled to have the game next to some other awesome finalists like The Cat and the Coup, Nidhogg, Dinner Date & some others new to me that I can’t wait to play. I also feel very honored to know that the game was played & appreciated by the Nuovo Award jury, whose roster reads like an art games syllabus.

Hope to see you at GDC in March! If you’re going and would like to meet up, drop me a line!

A House in California is now available for download on Windows, Mac, and Linux along with source code: http://cardboardcomputer.com/games/a-house-in-california/

A House in California is finished! It will be in the Learn to Play exhibit this Friday at Euphrat Museum of Art in Cupertino, and also in the Meaningful Play conference in Michigan next month. I’ll be releasing the game as a free & open source download on November 1st.

I’m also experimenting with a new release model; the game will be released in a limited edition (of 50) hard copies with nice packaging and additional artwork and writing, available for pre-order now on Kickstarter. The fundraising goal is set to the amount it will cost me to get materials for the limited hard copies. I’ll release the game free & open source whether the fundraising succeeds or not.

Hummingbird Mind is a short visual novel / interactive story about distraction, daydreaming, and working from home.

Play it now in your browser!

Here’s a short video of the gameplay in ‘A House in California,’ which shows Lois exploring a few different rooms. The game will be released in late June or July 2010 Update: I’ve shuffled my schedule around and I expect this game to be released at the end of October 2010.

And here’s a new still:

Cardboard Computer is currently working on three different games. I like to work on multiple projects at once, switching organically between them to follow inspiration and freshen my perspective. I’ll be sharing more information about all three games as they develop, starting with some music for an adventure game called ‘A House in California’.

‘A House in California’ is a Flash game about four people building a house together. As I mentioned in a recent interview with Indie Games Channel, the game is a graphic adventure in the vein of King’s Quest or The Secret of Monkey Island. I’m experimenting with some unusual input methods, which I’ll share in more detail once they’ve really firmed up.

Lois (A House in California soundtrack) by Cardboard Computer

This music is for the first section of the game, in which the player controls a character named Lois. It’s set outdoors, at night.