A computer game by Rod Humble
The game is for Windows.
No clicking is required; just explore the game by moving the mouse around. If you get completely stuck, go here:
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 born 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.
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/
I am making the game available as a follow up to those talks.
The game is for Windows.