This Week's Waste of Time

"If you have a minute, I'd like to tell you a bit about myself." That's how this week's free browser video game begins. The Company of Myself is a prime example of how a simple story can make all the difference in a quick-play game.

I'm not going to go so far as to say that all arcade-style games need to tell an engrossing tale; Tetris did just fine without giving us the back story of where the falling blocks came from. However, if you're not creating one of the best games of all times, does it really hurt just to toss a simple story to the running and jumping. Look what it did for Super Mario Bros.

Here's a perfect example: The Company of Myself – created by Eli Piilonen with art from Luka Marcetic and perfectly moody music from David Carney – doesn't do much more than Cursor*10 or Rabbit Wants Cake did before it, but add a simple and engaging tale of mind and love lost and you have a reason to slog through some of the more difficult levels.

Click here to play The Company of Myself.

Enjoy.