With just one more friday afternoon left to squandor before the holidays, I thought I'd try to direct you to something especially satisfying to fill the hours until home.
Just-in-time for Christmas, indie-developers Flashbang studios have pulled out the stops to deliver an early present.
Flashbang are purveyors of browser-based games which in Hollywood would be described as 'high-concept'. With a back-catalogue that includes Jetpack Brontosaurus and Off-Road-Velociraptor Safari, expectations were understandably high when the title of this new work was announced.
Minotaur China Shop is a brilliant work that casts you in the role of the titular mythical beast. Having finally found yourself in the position of which you have always dreamt - merchandising ceramic goods, you now have to try to reconcile your responsibility to the customer experience and success of your business, with your innate, crippling rage. It's an impossible dream of course, and the unresolvable tension between your raging mass and the demands of fine china sales lie at the heart of this very funny game.
As various other mythical beasts stream into the store, you are charged with collecting a specific item ("they don't want a plate,
they want that plate") they want from your shelves as quickly as possible. You must get it while avoiding knocking over any of your stock.
Should you (and you will) topple any items to the floor, you are faced with a choice : knuckle-down and try and satisfy more customers to make up for the shortfall, or fly into a blinding rage and attempt to destroy as much of your store as possible in order to make an insurance claim. As a raging, mythical beast - it's surely not a difficult decision?
Minotaur China Shop was developed using the Unity engine, which does mean you'll need to download a small browser plug-in, but I can assure you it's well worth it. What could easily be a slight, if amusing sketch is actually a beautifully realised example of the kind of game you should be demanding in your web-browser.
Next week? You'll have to make do with your Christmas presents. Have a splendid holiday!
Play Minotaur China Shop
