James Paige

In the year of 2020, one of my favorite ways to relax and de-stress was to read web comics and graphic novels. So for New Years 2021, here are some of my favorites, and why I love them

Missing Monday – by Ellie Skinner

Why I Love It

Missing Monday is above all else a love story, a story about two people who want to be together, and about the things which make a relationship complicated. Many of those obstacles are the mundane, highly relatable circumstances that might be faced by any young people trying to make their way through life, balance priorities, and find the time to spend with each other. However, at least one of those complications is a magic door that leads to other worlds.

One thing I love about Missing Monday is the kind, gentle, sincerity of the characters. Something about the story makes me think that it is happening in a slightly better world than the real one we live in– a world that, while not perfect, has just a little bit less room for sorrow, and just a little more room for happiness– and given the multiple-worlds aspect of the setting, I can’t rule out the possibility that it might actually be true.

Another thing I love about Missing Monday is the way it juxtaposes the normality of a very human love story, with the strangeness of the things which lie beyond and between the doors.

Read it at https://www.missingmondaycomic.com/

Read my Book! – James Paige

In the year of 2020, one of my favorite ways to relax and de-stress was to read web comics and graphic novels. So for New Years 2021, here are some of my favorites, and why I love them

PREQUEL – by Kazerad

Why I Love It

PREQUEL is the tale of a fantasy Cat-person who is on a quest to become a wizard, and maybe a hero, and to make better choices in life, and to make some money that she doesn’t have to be ashamed of, and to avoid spending any of it on booze, and to not get killed by monsters, and to make some real friends, and did I mention making good decisions for a change instead of terrible ones?

Prequel is a bit of an odd duck, in that it is technically a fan comic. The whole think takes place in the Fantasy world of the Elder Scrolls Games series, however, I think this comic manages to do things with the universe that are even more fun than the official properties that it is based upon.

Also, in a special way, it is sort of a game in of itself, and not just a comic. In the same style made famous by MS Paint Adventures, PREQUEL is a user-driven comic, and as as such, its readers can also choose to be its players, and its artist also plays the role of the gamemaster.

At the end of every episode, readers can use the chat box to “Submit Command” and then these suggestions become the protagonist’s inner thoughts, urges, intuitions, hunches, inspirations, second-guesses, and self-deprecating cat puns.

The result is very funny, very creative, and on rare occasions, (possibly by accident) inspiring.

Read it at https://www.prequeladventure.com/

Read my Book! – James Paige

In the year of 2020, one of my favorite ways to relax and de-stress was to read web comics and graphic novels. So for New Years 2021, here are some of my favorites, and why I love them

BACK – by Anthony Clark and KC Green

Why I Love It

BACK is the tale of a mysterious cowgirl who traverses a desolate landscape fraught with peril in order to fulfill her destiny to END THE WORLD. Somehow it feels like Stephen King’s Gunslinger by way of Garfield — No, I kid, the fantastic artwork in BACK does not bear any comparison to the relatively dull Garfield, other than the fact that Agatha’s eyeballs do rather resemble the lasagna cat’s for whatever reason (my delight. The reason is my delight.)

Another thing I love is the series of increasingly epic battles with the evil King’s bizarre henchmen, and I would be remiss if I failed to mention the creepy and/or silly cults, and the way Clowns are treated like a fantasy race a la Elves and Orcs.

It’s wonderful, and it is very close to reaching its final conclusion, so if you like comics with a well-planned arc from beginning, middle, and end, with satisfying conclusion, read BACK. That conclusion is almost here, and I can hardly wait!

Read it at https://www.backcomic.com/

Read my Book! – James Paige

In the year of 2020, one of my favorite ways to relax and de-stress was to read web comics and graphic novels. So for New Years 2021, here are some of my favorites, and why I love them

Harpy Gee – by Brianne

Why I Love It

It’s a story about Harpy, an Elf who is living in a human town, and it is full of adventures, friendship, crushes, magic, silly delicious food nonsense, and both battles with monsters, and trying to keep your friend’s secret that they ARE a monster!

The artwork is vibrant and colorful, and full of life and joy. The character’s facial expressions and body language especially make me love this comic. They all emote happiness, disappointment, excitement, concern, annoyance so wonderfully.

It is also relentlessly cute! Even the horrible monsters whom Harpy occasionally needs to battle are simply adorable!

Read it at https://www.harpygee.com/

Read my Book! – James Paige

Hey! I forgot to mention, I wrote a novel!

It is titled “Thief, Acolyte, Consort” and it was published in May of 2020.

It is a fantasy story about a woman who arrives in a new city looking for a fresh start, and finds magic, adventure, danger, and love.

There are links for buying both the e-book and the paperback here: https://james.hamsterrepublic.com/writing/ and there is also a pretty large free-sample of the e-book available here, if you want a taste of what it is like: (smashwords e-book sample)

I made a little game for fun, and to practice my C# skills. What better way to have fun with C# than with Unity3d?

This game is called Mantle Moon Sea, and the idea of the game is that you are piloting Bob the Hamster’s submarine through the ice-caves of a frozen moon. You collect treasure, bump into harmless jellyfish, explore maze-like caves, and generally have a relaxed time. Oh, and you also pump the pristine ocean full of floating science buoys.

The music is Bilinsky by rocavaco (CC-BY), and my oldest daughter made all the jellyfish noises for me.

• Download Mantle Moon Sea from Google Play for Android
• Download Mantle Moon Sea for Windows
• Download Mantle Moon Sea for Mac
• Download Mantle Moon Sea for Linux

Paladin Traducer is a color-matching tile game with some RPG elements.

Depending on which types of units are included in the matches you complete, they will launch attacks against the Paladin. Multiple attacks will raise your damage multiplier, but completing matches without any attacks will reduce your damage multiplier.

You cannot lose– the goal of the game is to defeat the Paladin as quickly as possible, getting the highest score.

I created this game for the Slimesalad One-Month All-Mouse Left-Click OHRRPGCE Game Contest (2015)

You can download it from here:

Download from Google Play Store

My biggest source of inspiration was Swoc: of Swords and Blocks by Baptiste Villain. It is a great game, with similar but more complex gameplay mechanics. In SWOC, your player tile deals special attacks against enemy units, whereas in Paladin Traducer there is one single enemy unit (the Paladin) and you control all the other Puzzle Demon tiles.

The music was created with Ben “GreaseMonkey” Russell‘s autotracker.py

Mr. The Hamster’s Math Class is an educational game.

Repetition and memorization is very important for learning the foundations of simple math. This game tries to make memorizing simple math fun, so that children can have a solid foundation to stand on when they more on to understanding the more advanced concepts that build on top of the basics.

Download: (Windows) (Mac) (Linux) (.Zip) (OUYA Console coming soon!)

Siiiiiizle! Siiiiiiizle! I am the high priest of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Cooked-At-Less-Than-144-Degrees-Fahrenheit. I am here to decry the heinous heresy against my dark and salty master.

(Windows Version) (Mac Version) (OUYA Console Version) (Zip File)

The blasphemer who created this game has updated it yet again! That makes twice in one month, and now this farce contains even more Hamster-Triumphing-Over-Bacon mockery.

I was willing to overlook the old 2009 version of this game, since its lack of a real save-game feature made it unlikely that any player would progress far enough to permit the player to complete the desecration of the image of my Thinly-Sliced-Pork-Lord.

Here is a short list of the new outrages committed by the new version of this game:

=NEW FEATURES=
Save-game support!
Sound Effects
Different colors for each floor
Now has a “good ending” and a “bad ending” depending on whether you save-scum
You can make donations from the main menu

=NEW ITEMS=
Chalk (draw permanent marks on the floor)
Jiffy Potion (fast walking for a limited time)
Scroll of Repel (drive away enemies for a limited time)
Maul of Wall-Whacking (breaks cracked walls)
Scroll of Telepo (Teleport)
Wavy Sword

=NEW ENEMIES=
Monocular Blarb
Meat Man
Crypt Yuk
Jelly Coiler
Doom Sponge

=BALANCE=
Rebalanced enemies (slightly easier)
Buffed the Scroll of Burning
Slightly reduced the size of the two largest dungeon levels
Fixed Soma potion to work properly

Please join me in NOT playing this game.

Last week I finished a new game for the 2012 Week Long OHR Random Collab Contest. This was a collaboration, and my randomly chosen team-mate was Sid “Thespazztikone” Tyler. He happens to be a master at making maptiles, which is one of my biggest weakpoints, so I was very happy to be teamed with him, and he didn’t seem too mad about me hogging all the plotscripting and textbox-writing fun.

The game we made is called The Death of Von Stabbingmore, and you can download it from here: slimesalad

The game is intended to be in the style of a point-and-click puzzle-adventure, although there is no pointing and clicking. All the controls are the standard OHRRPGCE interface for running around the map and fighting RPG battles. The puzzles are all built into the battles, requiring you to use the correct sequence of commands to win. I tried to make the dialog funny, and based on reactions I have gotten to it so far, I think I succeeded.

The game uses tall hero walkabouts, based on the WalkTall tech demo scripts that I wrote a few months back. In writing this game I found a fixed a few bugs with the OHR’s support for modifying walkabout sprite slices.