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Nov 29, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
Interview
As September came to a close, I attended this year's Portland Retro Games Expo, which as the name implies is a gathering of retro gaming enthusiasts and developers looking to create games for them. Along with a plethora of artists, pinball machines, arcade cabinets, and free-play gaming setups, the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad) hosted a large table where attendees could try out a handful of games made by local indie developers.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
Those who attended the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this past September remember how incredible the event was. Plenty of vendors and artists, arcade cabinets galore, a pinball alley the likes of which I'd never seen, and who could forget the Saturday afternoon fire alarm? When the alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the building temporarily, I was in the middle of my best run yet in an indie game called Retromine.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
During my time at Portland Retro Gaming Expo, I came across a uniquely inspired RPG. Finding its home on the Playdate, a small handheld console featuring a crank on its side, Initial Daydream is inspired by the NES era of games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
During my time at the Portland Retro Games Expo, Portland Indie Game Squad hosted a myriad of unique indie games with developers based in the PNW. Among these, I got to try out a game I thought only existed in my dreams. Super Dungeon Designer is a Zelda-inspired dungeon builder where players can create their own dungeons and share them with other players.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
A year ago, I wrote my first story for SUPERJUMP reviewing Fort Solis. In it I praised the game for its thriller elements: it nailed the ominous, barren atmosphere of Mars, along with the stellar acting of Roger Clark, Julia Brown, and Troy Baker to make up the main trio. However, I harked on the game’s short list of traditional gameplay mechanics, consisting of walking around, picking up items, and a short list of quick-time events.
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Jul 3, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
At the height of the 2020 quarantine, I started tracking my games. I had ample time to play and finish them, but as time went on and we slowly shifted back to reality (or whatever our warped perception of reality is now) this only became harder to do. Jobs came and went. College transitioned back into the classroom with few remote options. I realized just how long some games can be.
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Apr 8, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
If you’ve been a fan of Pokémon for even the shortest amount of time, chances are you’ve heard somebody mention a “Nuzlocke” at least once. This self-imposed set of rules has been influential for an enormous chunk of the community, focusing on turning a children’s RPG into something thought-provoking, challenging, and consequential. Since the origin of the Nuzlocke in 2010, Pokémon fans have iterated on the rules even further and spread their ideas all over the internet.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
medium.com | Lawrence Adkins
A Dive into the Games I’ve Been Playing in the First Quarter of the YearWith 2023 well out of the way, this end of winter has led me to a small handful of games that entered my already extensive library at the beginning of this year. I finished two games in January, nothing in February, and hspent most of my March playing games that don’t have concrete endings. Nevertheless, I’ve played enough of these games to sit down and reflect on them sometime later. So, here’s my year so far.
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Mar 25, 2024 | 
medium.com | Lawrence Adkins
Since its reveal trailer in May 2023, Dragon’s Dogma II has had fans waiting in anticipation. Capcom fans rejoiced at the revival of a series that hadn’t seen the light of day since 2017, and fans of high fantasy worlds would continue to thrive after already getting massive releases like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring. Fast forward to now, and public reception has been mixed.
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Jan 15, 2024 | 
superjumpmagazine.com | Lawrence Adkins
Since the COVID-19 global pandemic, third places have become scarce. Third places, a term describing places for people to congregate, socialize, and spend time away from work or home, have slowly become less and less accessible due to things like inflation and the rise of remote and hybrid work. They're important for fostering social engagement within communities and giving people the psychological comfort and identity that is crucial to managing one's mental and emotional health.
