You Have This Guy To Thank For A Game About Jetpacks And Lancing

Of all the games that I played at New York University’s No Quarter exhibition, the one I most wanted to take home and play with a friend was There Shall Be Lancing. Granted, Killer Queen and Bennet Foddy’s Speed Chess are a little too unwieldy to play in my small New York City apartment, But, the combat game by Sophie Houlden operates on a mechanically specific tension that keeps pulling you back. You can grab a version here if you ask nice.

Houlden wasn’t able to attend this year’s No Quarter but I talked to NYU’s Charles Pratt — who puts together the annual event — about why he commissioned the game and the importance of getting hands-on exposure for new, independently developed works.