Video game Quadrilateral Cowboy is developed by Brendon Chung and has a release date of July 25th. Quadrilateral Cowboy lets you become the hacker you dreamed of being. (via Blendo Games)
Education, video games, are they a perfect match?
Movies like Hackers or shows like Mr.Robot makes the world of breaking into computers seem glamorous, dangerous, and fun. There are people who have the know-how to hack, but if hacking isn't your thing Quadrilateral Cowboy is your chance to experience the hacking lifestyle. Developed by Brendon Chung, creator of indie hit Thirty Flights of Loving, the game is a blocky (think Minecraft) first-person espionage adventure set in the 1980's where players hack their way through various levels. Players will type lines of code to turn off alarms, open doors, and sneak around undetected. When it was first announced, the indie world went nuts over it. The only problem is the game has been in progress since 2012. An early version of it was showed off in 2013. Then it seemingly fell off the map.
Now the wait is over. After what feels like forever in the gaming world, Quadrilateral Cowboy will be available for the PC on Steam and Blendo Games on July 25th. It'll make its way to the Mac and Linux in September. Chung shared the good news over on Twitter last week. So why did it take so long to get the game ready? In an interview with Endgadget, Chung reveals he had to find the perfect balance between actually working on the game and marketing duties. He decided to stop doing press for the game altogether. "This is going to sound kind of artsy-fartsy, but I get this feeling sometimes when I start writing, that it's not me anymore," Chung said. "The piece that you're writing just starts to kind of steer itself, in a way. The game did that to me."
Looking at the trailer, the game takes advantages of the retro lo-res style that's taken over the gaming world for the last three years. The 3D-blocky style is both pleasing to look at and charming. As for the gameplay, it looks like a lot of puzzles that require you to type and connect different wires to figure out the solution. Considering the gameplay of Chung's past games, it probably won't be that difficult. But like with any game that's been in development hell, can Quadrilateral Cowboy live up to the hype? There are way too many examples in the gaming world of fans waiting for a much talked about game and being disappointed when it comes out. Look at Duke Nukem Forever or the much hyped Watch Dogs. Granted, Chung's game hasn't been in development for 14 years, but it's been a significant amount of time since its announcement.
There seems to be more pressure on indie developers to be the next big thing. Lately, we expect heavy hitting titles like Call of Duty or Battlefield to be either good or bad. But, thanks to games like The Stanley Parable, Undertale, and Limbo, indie game developers are the future of gaming. They offer unique experiences, innovative gameplay, and excellent story telling. This means the pressure is on and, like everything else in life, not every game that comes out of the indie world can be a hit. Will Quadrilateral Cowboy crack under the pressure? We'll have to wait to find out. One thing you can look forward to is the number of Let's Play videos of this game that we'll flood YouTube next week.
Education video games - will they finally reach and inspire?
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