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Dangerous Girls vs. the Goliaths
By Corvus | January 14, 2009
The Writers Guild of America revealed its nominations for best video game writing of 2008.
The list contains AAA titles that I think I’m going to decline commenting on–Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Fallout 3, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Command & conquer: Red Alert 3.
But there’s a game in the list that is decidedly not a AAA title. It’s an indie game and a very good one, to boot. It’s called Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble (DHSGiT) and it’s the labor of love of one Keith Nemitz, a man I’m proud to call a friend.
DHSGiT is an inspired non-combat RPG. It’s set in the 1920’s make their way through school, flirting, lying, taunting, and parleying your way to popularity, gathering boyfriends and uncovering mysteries along the way. With a board game style, clever dialog, and a fresh take on the RPG structure, DHSGiT is quite possibly the most deserving game in this list of nominees.
My congratulations go out to Keith and his co-writer Adrianne Ambrose for the well-deserved and incredibly exciting recognition as they add the WGA Best Video Game Writing nomination to the growing list of critical acclaim DHSGiT has garnered. The previous honors include–Most Innovative Game by the Casual Game Association, Gold Award for #1 game of the month, by GameTunnel.com, Finalist in the IndieCade international games festival, Adventure G.O.T.Y., Innovation G.O.T.Y., and #4 G.O.T.Y, by GameTunnel.com, and two honorable mentions in Gamezebo.com’s year-end wrap-up.
If you’re not familiar with DHSGiT, you should definitely give the game a look. It’s available for $20 for Windows or OS X (I’m still trying to get Keith to release a Linux version) and a free demo so you can sample the gameplay before slapping down your cash.
What are you waiting for? Stop reading and go play!
Tagged:dangerous high school girls in trouble, game writing, indie-games, wga. | 6 Comments »
January 14th, 2009 at 8:13 am
To be honest, the name made me skip this (anything with “girls” in the name makes me think of games with “imagine” in the name, in the current DS shovelware climate… a crude filter, but effective nonetheless). But, hearing the WGA nod, and your ringing endorsement, I will definitely check this out.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:19 am
This is awesome news! I detest award ceremonies precisely because they have a tendency to pile accolades on the feet of people who have *already* achieved success – which I find redundant, and faintly repulsive. (I’m not sure this is a rational disgust, however, so much as a knee jerk reaction).
But here we have recognition for something far outside the norm! I hope they can back up this nomination with an actual win!
Awesome!
January 14th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I was pleasantly surprised to see DHSGiT on that list too. I hope they get the recognition they well deserve.
FWIF, I’m believe the nominations are only open to games written primarily by WGA members, which precludes a lot of titles. Perhaps more indie developers we see WGA membership as a path to recognition. Do you know if they DHSGiT folks had WGA membership from previous projects or did they get it specifically for this game?
January 14th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I actually have the official word on that, Nels. Evidently they don’t need to be full members, only agree to join the Game Writing Caucus, which they can do without paying fees or meeting contract requirements.
January 14th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
RPS has a great interview with Keith up. Go give them all some love!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
This was a fun game, and I hope there is a Linux version released. I tried the demo version *cough* while I was at work (don’t tell!), but I only run Ubuntu at home. Lot of commercial Linux games being released these days, which is great.