Project Bone! A community-based indepth look at a single game.

Project Bone! A community-based indepth look at a single game.

Game: Project Bone

Website: www.blendogames.com

Platform: PC

Size/Media: 24mb Direct Download

Free/Cost: Free

Time Frame: 30 Minutes Maximum

Link?: http://www.blendogames.com/files/gravitybone.zip

Since the "yesteryear" idea is apparently dead and since I was really idea into the idea im trying to cut down on the fat and make it a leaner and quicker thing to do. First of all most of the rules go away and the 2 days only of discussion. My plan is to post up a small game (probably indie or freeware) to play and then have a discussion about it with whoever turns out. As time goes on we can then work in longer games if its a success and also from week 2 (fingers crossed) onwards we can have people submit and vote on the game which we then play. This is open to those who have never played the game and also to those who have long ago.

If you are interested in this then lets play:

So everyone who would like to have a good discussion about a game, including those who have already played and completed it, then heres you chance, head on over to www.blendogames.com and download the game. For those who have already completed it (in the past or just now) then keep anything that isnt the first level from the first few posts for those who are just hearing about this and going to download it.

If you intend to join it then please do not read further down this thread since it will contain spoliers and cloud your own view of the game.

Thanks for reading and thank you for anyone whos interested. Im off to replay Gravity Bone to make sure my discussions are as accurate as possible and to relive its awesomeness.

Project Bone! A community-based indepth look at a single game.

Game: Project Bone

Website: www.blendogames.com

Platform: PC

Size/Media: 24mb Direct Download

Free/Cost: Free

Time Frame: 30 Minutes Maximum

Link?: http://www.blendogames.com/files/gravitybone.zip

Since the "yesteryear" idea is apparently dead and since I was really idea into the idea im trying to cut down on the fat and make it a leaner and quicker thing to do. First of all most of the rules go away and the 2 days only of discussion. My plan is to post up a small game (probably indie or freeware) to play and then have a discussion about it with whoever turns out. As time goes on we can then work in longer games if its a success and also from week 2 (fingers crossed) onwards we can have people submit and vote on the game which we then play. This is open to those who have never played the game and also to those who have long ago.

If you are interested in this then lets play:

So everyone who would like to have a good discussion about a game, including those who have already played and completed it, then heres you chance, head on over to www.blendogames.com and download the game. For those who have already completed it (in the past or just now) then keep anything that isnt the first level from the first few posts for those who are just hearing about this and going to download it.

If you intend to join it then please do not read further down this thread since it will contain spoliers and cloud your own view of the game.

Thanks for reading and thank you for anyone whos interested. Im off to replay Gravity Bone to make sure my discussions are as accurate as possible and to relive its awesomeness.

Oh and for the sake of clarity the reason its called "Project Bone" is because while searchign for the download link to gravity bone I kept calling it Project Bone (only realising my error on the blendogames.com page) and the fact its mean to cut out whats unneeded of the "yesteryear" idea so ive cut it down to its core, or the bone if you will. 

I played this a couple weeks back, It was quite fun. I was sad that it only had 2 levels though.

I'm just here to say I'd prefer a good ol' community game night, but maybe I'll check out that game, right now I'm going to sleep.

" I'm just here to say I'd prefer a good ol' community game night, but maybe I'll check out that game, right now I'm going to sleep. "

Isnt that a seperate thing? A bombing run or something its called. This is meant to be a seperate thing where we individually play a game then discuss it as a group rather than play as a group on one night.

@ververdan0226 said:

" @Pazy: I'm in, I guess. But I don't think people will notice it, they sure as hell didn't notice my idea. Well, good on ya! Did you attach this to the forums by the way, that's the way to get it done... "

If youve played it then start discussing it, its far enough down to let people read the initial post and download without seeing spoliers now :) Ill join in later once ive replayed it.

I'm in! Downloading as we speak!

Do we begin posting comments?

" Do we begin posting comments? "

Not really sure how the discussion will go, but whatever. Let's start with some text and see what happens.

For being such a short game (two levels) it was incredibly intuitive in some places with how you got from point A to point B. It wasn't that hard though and the puzzles didn't take a lot of thinking to solve (if any thinking that is).

The story was kind of non-existant but it was still a surprise to see that that boy-scout looking woman, who turned out to be your employer and also your killer, even though one possibly should've expected it.

I've written too many reviews in my life.

Ok well i just finished and i think it would be way better if it was a bit longer. but as it is its pretty amazing.
and i didnt know she was your employer : (

" Ok well i just finished and i think it would be way better if it was a bit longer. but as it is its pretty amazing. and i didnt know she was your employer : ( "

I  thought the game represents the expression: "What goes around comes around"

When I first loaded up the game the first thing I noticed was the graphic style, if no one had told you would you even have noticed it was on the Quake 2 engine? It looks awesome because its got a style. This is why World of Warcraft - released in 2004 - looks really good still and something like The Matrix Online - released in 2005 - was showing its age near the end. In addition to just the general style the colour in the game was amazing, its sad so say (because weve been saying it for years) that games need more colour, weve had too much brown, grey and greens. The Blockhead style of the characters was a bold choice, perhaps drawn from the fact they couldent go super detailed they went 'no' detailed, which in part gave the game is unuiqe look.

Looking at this game almost makes me wish that Microsoft and Sony had gone for a less powerful system and forced designers to try harder with current hardware and introduce new styles and ideas. The first games in a generation normally just up the textures and make the worlds bigger and near the end of the generation (or perhaps the middle) is where the new ideas come out and the graphic styles start coming out in full force.

Ill post up more about the gameplay itself later but what are your guys's opinion on the graphical style of the game?

" I  thought the game represents the expression: "What goes around comes around" "

I think it had a really nice diversion between the colorful areas like the the plateau where they served drinks and the basement like areas.

They had definitely packed in a lot of neat things in the areas like the small signs telling you what to do instead of having a large pop-up saying "PRESS SPACE TO JUMP".

" @Absurd said:

" I  thought the game represents the expression: "What goes around comes around" "

What made you think that? Personally I didnt get that vibe at all from it. "

" @Pazy said:

" @Absurd said:

" I  thought the game represents the expression: "What goes around comes around" "

What made you think that? Personally I didnt get that vibe at all from it. "

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the first level, you help poison a man and then in the last level, you get killed? "

" @Pazy said:

" @Absurd said:

" I  thought the game represents the expression: "What goes around comes around" "

What made you think that? Personally I didnt get that vibe at all from it. "

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the first level, you help poison a man and then in the last level, you get killed? "

Thats true but I didnt quite get a direct link. It seemed more like a spy getting betrayed or simple killed by another spy. If that was the intention of the creator then it could have been a bit clearer by making it the same method of killing or having your killer be visibly of the same faction as the person you killed.

@Azteck said:

" I think it had a really nice diversion between the colorful areas like the the plateau where they served drinks and the basement like areas.They had definitely packed in a lot of neat things in the areas like the small signs telling you what to do instead of having a large pop-up saying "PRESS SPACE TO JUMP". "

EDIT: I have copied my next post into this to allow me to post again to bump it for those who was asleep (at 2am no less ;)) and to catch other time zones.

@Azteck said:

" @Absurd said:

" @Pazy said:

" @Absurd said:

" I  thought the game represents the expression: "What goes around comes around" "

What made you think that? Personally I didnt get that vibe at all from it. "

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the first level, you help poison a man and then in the last level, you get killed? "

Didn't even think about that actually, but now that you mention it it may be correct. Or is it all coincidence? "

I didnt even notice on my first playthrough that the birds photograph actually jump off there perch and blow up. Maybe its about in the spy buissness that everyone you meet gets killed or you do?

The other thing that is really interesting is the last say 10 seconds. After you have chased the women you get shot again by her and fall over the walkway and begin to flashback. The flash's are of a car in a driveway getting blown up, a gun fight on speeding cards and some sort of athletic race.

Does anyone have any thoughts on then?

When I saw the car flashback it looked to me like it was his (or her?) car getting blown up rather than them blowing up the car for some sort of mission. My first thought was actually of Austin Powers in Goldmember where Austin's father is remembering a family holiday to belgum with his wife and 2 children where his car (with his family inside) got blown up by rival spy's and he only managed to rescue one son, Austin. Because of this that flashback makes me think Spy'ing is all the character has left in life.

I also got this impression from the way you moved between the levels. You exited the level by pressing the button and presumable got some sort of transport out of there and then a projector based slide show of what you had just done and what it meant for your organisation and a tally of how much you earned (and why) and then suddenly your in he next level and your objectives are written on a peice of card. Those objectives are only half of them and the other half is contained next to your equitment. This gave me the feeling you are shuttled between various objectives in a rapid fashion.

Thoughts?

Bumped for those who were asleep at my original posting (for me 2am) and for those in other time zones etc. who couldent catch it now that its hidden in the back. If anyone wants to play and join in the discussion please do :)

" @Pazy:  I remember when I played this a while ago.  I got linked to it from... something, but that's not the point.  The article or whatever I was reading was about how games like Half Life gradually introduce new concepts in the first half of the game and you use them in various different way throughout.  Gravity Bone came up because the author thought that it was doing exactly the same thing, making you think that it is going to be a lot longer than it really was."

It seems to do exactly the opposite to me the first half of it teaches you how to play the "game" then shoots you and makes you chase someone down dodging trains. Thats a pretty big difference in gameplay in that you begin as a "spy" and you complete objectives to the last half being a chase/platforming game.

Though I do think it is turning a method of teaching into part of the narrative in thats the gameplay (along with other factors) makes you feel a certain way it manages to quickly get you into the swing of things to allow the sharp change of direction to impact you a lot more than it would have had it been a shooter where you shoot people, you get shot then chase them down and shoot them. 

My main wonder about this shift is that would it work as a longer game? If you had played the spy gameplay for 8 hours, and assuming the spy gameplay itself stood up and was involved, and then in the last 10 minutes instead hitting the high point in spy gameplay you hit that change in gameplay.

I think gives some backstory to the player character.  I thought that was a little odd. "

" @Pazy said:

"The discussion up until now has mostly been focused on the spy portion but the flashback is really intersting as well. You could easily say the car bomb and gun chase are spy motifs but what has the racing got to do with anything? "

Now I'm stuck for words.  I can't think of a reason for the race.  Surely someone can come to my rescue, call me an idiot and get on with a plausible explanation? "

I took it to mean that he was at the head of the pack in the spy game but now a new person has essentially replaced him

" I took it to mean that he was at the head of the pack in the spy game but now a new person has essentially replaced him "

One last bump to make sure everyone has had a chance to see this. If anyone wants to keep discussing the game, even if you havent played it yet and want to do it now, then go ahead. Later on tonight or perhaps tommorow ill post up a peice on what weve learned, or at least though about this game, and whether I think this was a success. If you want this to continue or put your own comment on what we can do to improve it (and im open to all ideas) then post it up on the thread I post later or here if you want.

the title "project bone" make me giggle...

What  really surprised me about  this game is how good it looks. I guess the quake 2 engine is seen as bad because when it came out computers couldn't handle too much. I had no idea it could support these really high-res textures. I wish more games would go with more cartoony or abstract styles. When everything tries to look realistic it all starts to look the same, I'm about sick of the color brown. Plus, as someone said earlier, realistic stuff ages poorly. I can still play the Spyro the Dragon series and Um Jammer Lammy on the PS1 without thinking about the low amount of polygons, but PS2 games like Red Faction show their age pretty well.

Hey would anyone be interested in doing a community podcast about are experience with the game?

" Hey would anyone be interested in doing a community podcast about are experience with the game? "

My first thought with this was Portal, not sure why. Stylistically the basement scenarios made me think of portal. 

"big importat looking schematics lying out. "

I totally never thought about that until now, your taking pictures of birds which then kill themselves when theres schematics which are the normal spy thing to be spying apun. Maybe its foreshadowing, saying that this isnt actually a spy game?

Great post, glad to have your contribution.

I'll try to check it out tomorrow.