Pony Island and The Hex

This fall it’s all about the distortion of innocence–and its unexpected resurgence.

We’re looking at two games by Daniel Mullins, Pony Island and The Hex, and anticipating a third, Inscryption. What’s the connection between them? We don’t really know yet. But as the new game’s description helpfully says, it’s going to be even less about ponies.

Tune into the audio here. You can also get involved at our classroom page on patreon.

Pony Island Discussions, Selected References

Week 1 – Fix Start Menu

• My Little Plato, Little Inferno, The Secret of Monkey Island and the adventure genre

Week 2 – Passwords

• Settlers of Catan, Adventure of Link, mirror mode a la Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Mario Kart 64? Startropics’ snowman?

Week 3 – Run With the Speed of a Thousand

• Infinite Jest, De anima, Avicenna and Averroes, MissingNo, Goat Sim, emergent gameplay, Mario flagpoles, Foucault’s Pendulum, Knights Templar and Baphomet, Jim Sterling and PewDiePie

For The Hex, we’ll cover one character/genre each week, plus an extra discussion on the endgame

Week 1 – In a Forgotten Corner of the Video Game Universe

• We talk secret endings and best openings, Evoland, walking sims: Dear Esther, Ether One, Mind: Path to Thalamus, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, What Remains of Edith Finch, and the game as short story collection/ novel of ideas. And from the after-class chat: On ratings and reviews in the strange case of Fallout 76

Week 2 – Hot Strawberry Pie

• Jeremiah and Lazarus, a Steambot Crusader? Undertale’s dummy, race in games, Street Fighter and Super Smash meta, the search for balance in an OP world, and best villains

Week 3 – A Gift Kraken

• Zelda (ears), EarthBound (treehouse) and Magic: The Gathering (Kobolds, sweaty). Livestream lingo (#freebandito) and the dilemmas facing girl gamers. The Sphinx, Oedipus, and The Hobbit’s riddles. The void, Sartre’s hell, self-harm, Charon, fishing, coins, crunch, MissingNo (again), doppelganger fights, the mimic mirror, the metaphysical status, ie. existence and essence, of game characters. Catharsis. As I Lay Dying. Bugs and features, bugs and patches. Remember Reboot?

Week 4 – Hologram Concierge

• The Lamia, birdcages and urns, The Hulk/The Thing, Rocky, Taft, Fallout, The Road, gore and mods

Week 5 – Artifact Heist

• Modern Warfare/ Halo, CD Projekt Red’s woes, Ben’s approaches to gaming, Spec Ops: The Line, Papyrus, CS Lewis on maturity, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Triforce, PUBG /Fortnite Errant Signal, Artifact, community v civil society, Clue

Week 6 – Lionel Wants This

• Video game bathrooms, The Beginner’s Guide, Dostoevsky’s Demons/The Possessed, Satan in Pony Island and Lou Natas in The Hex, Id Engine, Gretchen in Faust, Standard Library quirks, Sauron, Endervale, Back to the Future II, Arcade Bartenders, “God is dead”

Week 7 – Beneath the Surface

• Final secret guide and writeup (Biggest spoilers possible)

Interviews with Daniel Mullins

Chistopher Herman and Jon Romo

Tim Leftwich

Designing a Story Across 6 Genres – talk at DevGAMM

Subpixel

Additional Recommended Reading

The Best New Videogames Are All About… Videogames

From Failed Kickstarter to Career-Defining Success: The Story of Pony Island

How Pony Island teaches players to break a game

Pony Island is the Closest We’ve Come to a Real Life Polybius

Barth, Lost in the Funhouse

and for the intrepid, Milton, Paradise Lost (especially the first few books, with Blake’s and Lewis’ takes for good measure)

and of course, Goethe, Faust