I'd like to welcome you all to the official SMAC Gamer Blog! What is SMAC Gamer? It's an acronym, but I suppose you could call it an "Undertale" level of acronym where it doesn't stand for what you'd think it does. It actually means "Steamy Mac And Cheese Gamer."
Why such a weird name? I'll tell you. There is more to the meaning of my name. It is called Steamy Mac and Cheese Gamer because all of the games I download are off of Steam. So, as you can probably already tell...Steamy (because the platform I use is Steam) Mac (because I play games on a Mac) and Cheese (because let's face it, I'm a pretty cheesy guy) Gamer (because I'm a gamer). Pretty self-explanatory, huh?
Now, with that out of the way, I suppose I should answer the not-so age-old question, what is the true purpose of this blog? The reason why I started this blog is because I am a passionate indie gamer, however, I play games on a Mac...a 'not so" popular laptop for gaming. There are a lot of Mac users out there, but due to its simplistic design, it isn't considered a very popular gaming computer. However, that doesn't mean there aren't any games you can play on the Mac. On the contrary, you can find MANY great games for the Mac, but they can be challenging to find.
This blog is going to have two major missions. The first is to review Mac games from Steam, providing an informative medium on the quality of these games. However, my second mission is also to have a general discussion about indie games in-general. Half of my posts will be reviews while other half will be general indie game discussion topics.
Ultimately, I expect this blog to run on a "Nostalgia Critic" type schedule. For those who are unfamiliar with who the Nostalgia Critic is and what that means, I'll explain. Nostalgia Critic is an online media reviewer who primarily reviews older movies or shows, hence the name "Nostalgia Critic." However, he doesn't review every week. One week he will review, the next week he will put out a topical discussion video. I expect to be doing the same. I plan on doing one entry a week with a review one week and a discussion topic the next. Now, with that out of the way, I would like to give you all a bit of a sneak peek into my background as an indie gamer.
A History...
I'll come out and admit, I have not been an indie gamer for very long. In fact, I actually didn't start playing indie games until 2014. While I've been playing video games for more than 20 years, I spent most of that time playing console and handheld games. For the most part, I am primarily an RPG gamer, but I've been known to play action, sports, and FPS games from time-to-time. I'll admit, I had a COD phase in my gaming history, but it was a phase that lasted for just a few years.
Truth be told, I actually looked down upon indie games for the longest time because I graphically compared them to AAA platform games. However, as I approached my late 20s, I became quite disenfranchised with many AAA games. COD became unbearable to play online. Final Fantasy, a franchise I grew up and admired started putting out lackluster titles and haven't been putting out as many. To put it bluntly, I lost my inspiration to play console games.
One thing I have to admit is that I am a fan of Let's Plays and Streams. I've enjoyed watching the likes of Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and Cryaotic to name a few...but to be honest, my favorite Let's Play channel on YouTube is Game Grumps. At any rate, in 2013 JonTron (the founder of Normal Boots and co-founder of Game Grumps) left the channel and was replaced by Dan Avidan and Ross O'Donovan. With that move, Game Grumps added a new show on the channel called Steam Train. I was reluctant to try this show at first because as I stated in my history, I didn't have a passion for indie games, let alone being a Mac user wouldn't help matters. However, I gave this show a chance and low-and-behold, Ross O'Donovan exposed a whole library of fantastic games available on Steam...and not only available on Steam, but available for MacBook!
With Steam Train piquing my interest in indie games (in addition to other LPs like Markiplier and Cryaotic), I decided to finally try this thing called "indie gaming." I got myself a Steam account and downloaded two games to try it out. Let me tell you guys something, the two games I downloaded and played could not have been better choices to get me started as an indie gamer, because those two games I downloaded and played were "To The Moon" and "Dust: An Elysian Tail." I can honestly say I could not have picked two better games to get me started as an indie gamer. These titles were absolutely stunning to play. Not only did they get me hooked, but they had me...hook, line, AND sinker. I won't go into too much detail about these games at the present moment because I do plan on reviewing these two games and I'd like to save my best material for them.
Reviews and Scoring Structure
My reviews will include a score and grade. I will use a scoring system out of 100 and the grades I assign are based on your traditional school grading system with a classification. This formula will be as follows...
90-100 - A
- 90-100 - Masterpiece
80-89 - B
- 85-89 - Great
- 80-84 - Very Good
70-79 - C
- 75-79 - Good
- 70-74 - Decent
60-69 - D
- 65-69 - Fair
- 60-64 - Average
0-59 - F
- 50-59 - Mediocre
- 0-49 - Poor
That is why I would like to start off the first month of my blog with a bang. We're going to go with a theme in the first month of SMAC Gamer. So, for the month of June, the first month I'll be running actual content, I'd like to call it "Freebird Games Month." Next week, we're going to open this blog with one of my favorite games of all-time and the game that got me hooked to indie games..."To The Moon." See you then!
Coming Next Week...SMAC Gamer Reviews: To The Moon
