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 Quadrilateral Cowboy is a 2016 hacking puzzle game released by Blendo Games, the one-man studio of a fella by the name of Brendon Chung. Blendo is behind a few of my favourite indie titles, including Atom Zombie Smasher, Flotilla, and Thirty Flights of Loving. Playing on some kind of weird 80s nostalgia, QC eschews the usual cyberpunk trappings of pink mohawks and built-in sunglasses for the heady days of test patterns, interlaced video, and Pentiums, baby! We play as Poncho, a night school graduate who, with her badminton teammates Lou and Maisy, makes her living planning high-profile heists. Using a bulky DOS-based deck and a handful of clever gadgets, the game manages to capture the visceral thrill of hurriedly typing commands while at any moment an incipent alarm could bring the whole dream crashing down. Put simply, the game manages to be tense and exciting, without the stressful feeling of being constantly under the gun. It's not too tough, but there's value to be had in trying to commit the perfect 1980s cyber crime. Gameplay aside, Quadrilateral Cowboy is packed with little details and flavour text which, while interesting in its own right, really speaks to the passion and craftsmanship of the developer. I'll do my best not to blast through the levels, and it's my goal to show off some of the things one may have missed while trying to set the best time possible. Speaking of which, I invite you, the viewers, to submit your own best times and speedrun videos. If there's enough interest, I'll put the best times here in the OP next to the update banners. I hope I'm not overselling it, but I hope you'll enjoy one of the best hacking action games I've played!      
Skippy Granola fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Nov 6, 2016 |
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Sep 3, 2016 06:47
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Oh poo poo I keep meaning to pick this game up. This looks cool as hell Though lol at our superhackers apparently using loving HDDs
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Sep 3, 2016 06:59
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Very glad to see this - I'd heard good things, and I do enjoy a good hacktion game. Hackion?
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Sep 3, 2016 07:45
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Kinda glad I caught this video just to bring up a funny coincidence on game design. Early on you mention that in this game's developer notes, they notice that players never look up and sought to remedy this. I kinda want to bring validation to that claim with my own experience: In the new DOOM remake I got stuck for a bit on various points because, much as the devs of Quadrilateral Cowboy mentioned, I never looked up. It takes a bit of a task to make players look up though since we're so used to there either being loving nothing or boring roofs up, so as a whole people don't tend to bother looking up rather than down where there's the potential for immediate conflict there. Its an interesting thing to see how people force people to look up in game design. One example I remember prominently is Call of Juarez Gunslinger(?), where during Silas' stories you'll often have controls violently wrenched from you in order to force you to look up, where often times a gunner or a dynamite-man will be there to either be reflex-killed or be shown as a tutorial prompt. Another neat way of forcing players to look up is done by Dark Souls, where many sky-based hazards such as crusher traps or incendiary bombs are preceded by clues on the floor, where the player's attention is normally at by default. Getting players to look up is a very benign thing that is really hard for developers to make players do, and I'm a bit surprised and really glad that the guy making Quadrilateral Cowboy was aware of how to handle this.
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Sep 3, 2016 08:20
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Aw yes. I was interested in this game since it showed up on steam, and I enjoyed what I saw of your stream of it Skippy, I just haven't decided to pull the trigger on it yet, though I probably should. I like the extra little touches that really add to the 80s cyberpunk aesthetic.
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Sep 3, 2016 08:28
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That is a DANGEROUSLY cool cat.
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Sep 3, 2016 09:12
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Just this video was enough to confirm that things are bound to get dangerously complicated and convoluted by the time we get all our toys.  Game and LP both look like they're going to be pretty cool though.That cat. 
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Sep 3, 2016 11:45
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Happy forums register anniversary Skippy! We should all be giving you something made of wood, and here you are giving us another quality LP instead.
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Sep 3, 2016 15:09
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Something Blendo games do really well is, as Skippy said, the labeling on everything. You can see it most clearly in your co-worker's apartment, but every object has some text, some design, on it, and it's wonderful. Also, Skippy, is it too much to ask for you to make the text green on your computer? For that authentic YOSPOS feeling, you understand.
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Sep 3, 2016 15:11
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Tasteful Dickpic posted:Something Blendo games do really well is, as Skippy said, the labeling on everything. You can see it most clearly in your co-worker's apartment, but every object has some text, some design, on it, and it's wonderful. I have three episodes recorded so far but I'll green it up!
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Sep 3, 2016 16:14
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Loving the aesthetic on this game!
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Sep 3, 2016 20:24
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God I love the way this game looks! Blendo makes some great games I think Atom Zombie Smasher is one of my favorites of all time.
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Sep 3, 2016 21:27
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well crap, beat me street date of the notorious LP market that's what I get for trying to hack together a source port of a hacking game good luck with thieving, ya dirty thief  some background, this game runs on the same engine as Doom 3 u'know from 2004? the games source code has been an obsession of mine lately but yeah labor of love is an understatement skullhead tethyis fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Sep 4, 2016 |
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Sep 4, 2016 04:36
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Is that a fact! One might argue, in that case, that this town IS in fact big enough for two let's plays of the same game, especially one that delves into the source code
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Sep 4, 2016 04:40
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I've all but guaranteed I'll accidentally be following the three month rule (in making it 64-bit clean) but I'd be more than happy to stick around and answer questions but the reason this had to made in iD4 as opposed to any other engine is the the in-game GUIs, it's really neat to see a game based around my favorite feature John Carmack too! quote:Fabien Sanglard - Is there any aspect of the design and architecture of the code you were particularly proud of in idTech4 ? skullhead tethyis fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Sep 4, 2016 |
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Sep 4, 2016 05:06
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Skippy Granola posted:I have three episodes recorded so far but I'll green it up! Oh cool, so you've recorded the whole LP already?
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Sep 4, 2016 07:46
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A hover-shack in the middle of monolithic buildings? I can testify that's EXACTLY what Portland is like.
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Sep 4, 2016 10:44
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Man this game has an extremely strong Gilliam's Brazil vibe going for it. I dig it.
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Sep 4, 2016 11:12
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Hi homies it's crime time again. Today's heist is all about  Trouble go away at nigh', an' Nell caw Mi'i So this is our second piece of kit, and our next heist, the Finger Lime Funicular, is a masterclass in whatever stupid hillbilly language Liam Neeson tried to understand in that movie. I kind of like it, even if it really feels like a tutorial. It's just three discrete little puzzles to solve, no worries. The whole setup feels a bit less organic than even The Satsuma Job, but luckily by heist 5 everything starts to flow together nicely. Incidentally, I kind of screwed up at the end of the video and said this was made in Unreal 3. That is patently false. It is actually id Tech 4 (the Doom 3 engine). This is a good and well-researched let's play. I don't know if you guys are particularly interested in big effortposts about our tech and what it's good for, so I'll keep this brief. The Weevil is used whenever a hole is too small for poncho to fit through. End of story.
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Sep 7, 2016 02:00
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weevil facts, nell' s jump is a hardcoded event, so the diminutive droid will always move 192 units(18 inches) up and 256 units(~24in./2ft.) forward; rather than setting up a idvector3 and moving along the line of impulse like every other thing that "jumps" in id4 standard. So the robot won't become a collision object and fall or bounce about every time it jumps; as it would be annoying to have to right it every time it takes a leap, but in order to return to the "collide-able" world, a timer ticks down,that is synchronized to its jump height, theoretically ending just before the robot makes contact with a flat surface, but as we saw in the video, this can go all sorts of awry if it ticks down before the flat surface actually meets its legs, leading to a stuck robot or a floating one! skullhead tethyis fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 06:03
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between Nell and the bifurcation vineyard (and SENSUAL MATH, a book on the shelf), I'm pretty invested in this world.
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Sep 7, 2016 06:35
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It seems like Blendo really came into his own with this one. I really loved Gravity Bone, but Thirty Flights of Loving burned me pretty bad. (I never thought a five dollar game could feel so overpriced.) I'm glad to see him going back to the old route of things, since this looks much better.
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Sep 7, 2016 07:38
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skullhead tethyis posted:weevil facts, That explains why I couldn't shoot her out of the sky! Nell is a funny little beast and she tends to work pretty well most of the time
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Sep 7, 2016 15:18
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What I appreciate about the weevil is that it's kind of cumbersome to use, but it a way that reinforces the old-school programming mechanics. DOS is pretty apt - yeah, you can CONTROL it, but forget a GUI, you're doing this from a command prompt interface!
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Sep 7, 2016 23:57
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The most important part of any heist is being prepared, which is why you should spend time writing a batch command to do everything for you before setting off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2urf1q4XlY It's also important not to leave Nell behind 
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Sep 8, 2016 11:26
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Faraday Cage posted:The most important part of any heist is being prepared, which is why you should spend time writing a batch command to do everything for you before setting off: That was pretty slick! I admit I felt pretty bad leaving Nell - not as bad as leaving my deck behind in heist 1-3 though. Whew, incriminating!
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Sep 8, 2016 15:19
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Thanks for bringing this game to my attention. Something about it just strikes a cord and I got to play it for myself now.
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Sep 8, 2016 16:25
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I'm liking how cozy this game has been so far, even though that's a bit odd for a game all about heists.
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Sep 12, 2016 11:45
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I totally agree. I think it's partly because you're only planning the heist in VR, so you're not in physical danger, and partly because of the morning commute sections and really good world building.
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Sep 12, 2016 12:37
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Hi folks! Time for the next heist. It's honestly pretty unremarkable, mostly because the repulsor is just kind of a dull gadget. Handy, but doesn't really have the hacker appeal of a tiny robot. In my opinion, the bank is pretty much the low point of the game in terms of creativity. It's still a fine experience, but ultimately a little one-note.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:10
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I loved that final moment, Chung has a great sense of showing off peaceful and serine moments. I'm reminded of the scene in Thirty Flights of Loving where you and one of your partners just eat oranges on the balcony of your hotel. Too few games have moments like that.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:49
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Given the global average of that last mission, I think a lot of people got a safe to the face.
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Sep 15, 2016 04:02
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Hi y'all sorry for the delay I've been streaming Mad Max mostly. This is one of my favourite levels in the game. It's basically an extended tutorial for the auto turret but I think it really wins points for how well-contained it is. There's still some really solid detail to be found, and honestly the most inspirational robot in all of fiction. I hope you enjoy it.
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Sep 28, 2016 05:17
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If this game is the Doom 3 engine, I bet the archive files are just renamed .zips, and you can extract them and dig through the textures and script files all you want.
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Sep 28, 2016 06:11
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That would take a far more savvy person than I, unfortunately. There is a steam workshop page for QC but it doesn't look like there's much there at all.
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Sep 28, 2016 18:39
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I like how when you approach the sleeping patient to download their brain the angle of the light has your huge distended shadow loom over them.
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Sep 28, 2016 20:04
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Mzbundifund posted:I like how when you approach the sleeping patient to download their brain the angle of the light has your huge distended shadow loom over them. I'm more worried about what our employer wants with three old-man brains
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Sep 28, 2016 21:30
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Skippy Granola posted:I'm more worried about what our employer wants with three old-man brains They each contain one third of the blueprint for a really fancy hat.
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Sep 28, 2016 22:47
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Each one holds part of the secret for the eleven herbs and spices?
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Sep 28, 2016 23:19
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| # ? May 6, 2024 13:33 |
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Skippy Granola posted:I'm more worried about what our employer wants with three old-man brains The first thing that jumps to my mind is 'neuromancer reference'.
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Sep 29, 2016 01:35
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