Westen House

If you're a regular MSX news lurker, you can't have missed Santi his new homebrew game called Westen House. An MSX1 isometric view action-adventure game that should have been in MSXdev21. The game is free for download.

Software maker Santi Ontañón Villar aka santiontanon from Brain Games, known for some excellent MSX1 titles like MSXdev20's highest ranked game "The Menace from Triton", recently dropped his latest gem to the scene. Just out of no-where he presented "Westen House", an isometric viewed game like Batman and classics like Head over Heels or La Abadia del Crimen.

In Westen House, you play as Professor Edward Kelvin. You've been asked to collect the research notes of your deceased colleague Jonathan Westen before his family comes to take possession of the house. What Edward cannot imagine is that this seemingly innocent task might turn into one of his biggest adventures!

The game is available in English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese language and runs on any plain MSX1 system, whether physical of emulated. Find the ROM or its sources on Santi his GitHub page.

relevant link: Download latest compiled ROMs
relevant link: play online at TFH
relevant link: MRC forum thread

Comments (23)

By defdanny

Scribe (391)

29-09-2021, 13:28

Hi Ro, maybe you should link to the original announcement thread of santi.
It has over 100 comments and rising.

[admin:done!]

By Kai Magazine

Paragon (1428)

29-09-2021, 16:43

Exelent game!
A must-have for me.

By gdx

Enlighted (6222)

30-09-2021, 00:55

It would be nice if MSXdev gave a special prize for this game, even if it's just formal.

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

30-09-2021, 07:21

Ja, even if Santi does not participate in the competition, he is the winner.

By JGM

Master (140)

30-09-2021, 07:54

It really is a brilliant game!

By Uninteresting

Champion (352)

30-09-2021, 08:40

Maybe a special commendation (a post on the website w/o any other actual prize)? Since the game wasn't finished before the deadline and wasn't even registered, I think that'd be the best within rules. (Yes, I'm a stickler for rules.)

That said, I've already informed the organizers that I will turn down all potential prizes, but I wouldn't object if they redirected whatever I might otherwise be winning (if anything) to Santi instead. Obviously it'd be far less than what Westen House would deserve, had it participated in the competition.

By Briqunullus

Paladin (675)

30-09-2021, 09:23

That would be a strange idea. Westen House is not in the competion. Period. What do you expect from MSXdev? A grand announcement that game X is the winner of '21, but the jury likes an unregistered game better? That would be a slap in the face for game X.

It is what it is. But of course Westen House is a great game. If we the public decide to award it, then we should buy a large bottle of Champagne for Santi. Or any other prize we can think of.

(btw, had a look at the Brain Game website, what an amazing MSXdev track record that man has)

By Grauw

Ascended (10772)

30-09-2021, 09:57

Westen House looks awesome! Indeed I'm sure if it had been in MSXdev it would've given stiff competition.

(But fully agree with Briqunullus. Can we no longer release games outside of the competition?)

By Micha

Expert (103)

30-09-2021, 11:07

What a nice game it is! and what a pitty that it was too late to participate in MSXdev...
I don't want to put anyone (the MSXdev judges, other participants, Santi) in a tough spot here (and I don't expect, or even invite, anyone to comment on me and give their opinion, because I understand the sensitivity of it), but when somebody would ask me: "is it OK to make an exception for this game and still allow it for MSXdev 21?" then I would answer with a clear "Yes!"...

By gdx

Enlighted (6222)

30-09-2021, 13:45

Briqunullus wrote:

Westen House is not in the competion. Period.

I know, the developer says that didn't have time to finish otherwise he would have entered into competition. MSXdev was more or less one of the reasons for making this game.

Briqunullus wrote:

What do you expect from MSXdev?

Just a nice little encouraging message, nothing formal. This contest is here for our fun, don't have to be so serious. I'm not asking to change the rules. This game is not the only late one.

hamlet wrote:

Ja, even if Santi does not participate in the competition, he is the winner.

Not sure since the competition is tough.

By AnsiStar

Master (141)

30-09-2021, 14:31

We have rules! So this case could be easy to handle! On the other hand you can communicate to all people that are involved. First the jury of course and maybe then the great game creators which take part of this wonderful competition. If the game makers maybe have the opinion that 14 days too late is not that much…Maybe then… But it has to be a fair discussion!

Greetings from a town that does not exist!

By santiontanon

Paragon (1810)

30-09-2021, 15:04

Hahaha, thanks everyone! But I did not enter it into the competition, so, let's not make things complicated for the organizers hahaha

By 8bitsengine

Supporter (10)

30-09-2021, 22:08

I have tried the game for a week now, it's great. Thanks so much Santi

By mzoran

Master (157)

01-10-2021, 14:59

It would be unfair to bend the msxdev rules to allow this game to enter late considering two games were already disqualified for not following the rules. It is not like this gem will fade into oblivion for not being published within msxdev.
Bigger problem that I see here, is that msxdev judges are probably spending time on this game when they should be playing msxdev entries