''Host Master and the Conquest of Humor'' is a free

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

, written by

Klint Honeychurch Klint Honeychurch is an American graphic designer, video game designer, programmer, and writer. He designed Double Fine's free Adobe Flash games: the graphic adventure '' Host Master and the Conquest of Humor'', sports game parody '' My Game Abou ...

and game developer

Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...

, with gameplay and art by Honeychurch and music by Bert Chang. The game was published by

Double Fine Productions Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American First-party developer, first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double ...

, of which Schafer is president, and was originally playable on their website.

Gameplay

Both the plot and gameplay of ''Host Master'' feature substantial amounts of

metagaming Metagame, Hypergame, or game about the game, is an approach to a game that transcends or operates outside of the prescribed rules of the game, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by th ...

. The style is a direct pastiche of the

Lucasarts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...

SCUMM

s, of which Schafer was one of the principal creators. The game uses Schafer himself as the protagonist, placing him backstage at the

Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were ...

, which he hosted in 2009. Schafer is unprepared for the event, and must scour his dressing room in an attempt to find jokes for his speech, a search which becomes increasingly implausible and comedic over the course of the game. The player can voluntarily finish the game at will; ending the game with most or all of the jokes found has the Award ceremony go well; ending with few or no jokes found has the award ceremony go so poorly that a riot breaks out which spreads into the downfall of civilization. Footage of the game was screened before Schafer's actual appearance at the awards. The graphics, interface, puzzles and sense of humour are all directly modelled upon Schafer's own Lucasarts games, which include '' Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle'', and '' Full Throttle'', as well as writing credits on the ''

Monkey Island ''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games in the series were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth installment of the franchise was developed by Telltale Games in collaborat ...

'' series. The dialogue in particular is notable, featuring Schafer's trademark wit and clever asides.

Reception

Due to its association with Schafer, as well as the Game Developers Conference, ''Host Master'' received substantially more media attention than is usual for an online Flash game. It was reported on by

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won ...

's gaming subpage Offworld,

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

and Jay Is Games, with GameSpot remarking that 'although the graphic adventure genre has fallen into a rather small niche, Schafer and developer Klint Honeychurch clearly remember how to do the format justice'Sinclair, Brendan (March 24, 2009)
"GDC 2009: Double Fine offers free Tim Schafer sim"
, ''Gamespot'', retrieved on 02/04/09

References

External links

* {{Double Fine Productions 2009 video games Adventure games Double Fine games Flash games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in 2009 Video games set in San Francisco