Back – way back – in the halcyon days of 2007, the original Puzzle Quest was released on XBox Live Arcade. While, at the outset, it seemed like another Bejeweled clone, of which I had already played my fill, it actually housed a much deeper game, complete with RPG elements, and multiple strategies with which the game could be played. While I had vowed to swear off all match-three games due to a complete and utter addiction to PopCap’s flagship title, the addition of new and different ways to affect the board, in addition to having an actual opponent who I had to outplay, brought me back to the fold.

Fast forward to about 6 months ago, when Joel and I got a preview of the new Puzzle Quest 2, and were promised one singular thing: More. More matching, more spells, more minigames, more character options, more, more, more.

Boy, did they ever deliver.

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It’s happened again; fellow writer Chris Klimas and I, in the guise of our dynamic duo known as Twofold Secret, have released a new game.  Focused on the eternal conflict between man and robots, Sanctuary 17 is a free-to-play browser based game you could be enjoying right now.  To summarize myself:

Sanctuary was born from my desire to re-imagine one of  my favorite games from my childhood: Night Stalker (for the Intellivision).  A very simple game about a man trapped in a maze with an endless parade of deadly robots coming after him, it still managed to push my childhood fear button with great effect.  Taking those feelings – isolation, fear of what was coming next – and putting them into a larger context was the driving force behind my early designs for Sanctuary.

There is also an honest-to-goodness paper manual available for those who wish to support the game, or who have a deep and abiding love of manuals.

So, go and give it a try, and have some fun!

I have had a hankering lately to play a game that does not exist.  Specifically, a Western RPG as they used to be, before Bioware and Bethesda took up the reins of Western RPGdom.  Of course, many of you will say there is nothing wrong with those two being in charge, but I’m afraid that Dragon Age and Fallout 3 just don’t scratch that itch for me.

So, why?  Why am I dissatisfied with the current crop of Western RPGs?  What are they missing, what are they doing wrong?

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