The first episode of Telltale Games’ Strong Bad game (for attractive people) was released yesterday, for PC and WiiWare. Titled “Homestar Ruiner,” the episode kicks off the all-new misadventures of Strong Bad, a popular character from the Homestar Runner cartoon. This episode can be yours for $8.95, or you can pre-order the entire 5-episode series for $34.95.
I haven’t tried it yet, but the 3d cel-shaded graphics look great and I’m hoping that Snake Boxer 5 is a playable Videlectrix game.
To help inaugurate their new company, called Zombie Cow Studios, Dan Marshall and Ben Ward have released Ben There, Dan That!, a freebie adventure game starring none other than… them. It will sit side-by-side with Gibbage, their popular multiplayer deathmatch game (which is now half-price at £3/$6).
Ben There, Dan That! is funny, self-referential, and dutifully pays homage to all the Lucasarts classics (while poking a bit of fun at them). Definitely worth a look if you like old-school adventure games. Or humor. Or things of that sort.
By the way, whether or not they were a product of laziness, I absolutely love the walking animations.
Wanderlust: Rebirth was conceived on August 1st, 2006, the mutt offspring of a half-dozen radically different games ranging from fantasy games like Zelda: Four Swords and Diablo to more modern games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and Project Gotham Racing.
Natural Selection would never have let something this mutated take a step past the womb…
But now, nearly two years later, with the release of the 2 chapter Beta release,
Wanderlust: Rebirth is a creature of beauty. The two lead developers, Matthew Griffin and Jason Gordy, along with the 4 other members who make up “Team Wanderlust,” have carefully pruned and manicured their dream co-op RPG into a fantastic creature torn straight from the old quarter-guzzling arcades of youth.
I won’t lie – W:R can be a frustrating game from a single-player point of view. It’s not impossible to play alone, however you’ll struggle to find comfort in that fact the tenth time you get killed by a gang of gladiators. But then again, W:R was meant to be a shared experience, and with four different character classes to pick from team-work makes for a much more enjoyable experience than one might encounter alone.
W:R begins with the player(s) arriving at an invitational arena tournament in the city of Westhaven, and it is here that they will first taste combat against such enemies as wolves, gladiators, and eventually even go toe to toe with a bear. Combat begins as just a typical hack ‘n slash, but as the player advances in the game, they can unlock new attacks and spells. Another interesting aspect of W:R’s combat system is the “Tide of Battle,” which changes as players hit or get hit more in battle, giving damage and health bonuses and penalties based on how well a certain character is doing. If a character does well enough and the Tide of Battle is on their side for long enough, they can charge up a Soul Charge, which can then be released to perform a special ability, such as increasing teammates’ chances to do a Critical Hit or resurrecting dead players. The Tide of Battle affects all participants, including the game’s AI, and an AI that is doing very poorly may even try to flee from the players’ characters.
Upon being declared the champion of the tournament, the player is approached by a messenger of the king and invited to a celebration at the castle and… this is the end of chapter 1. At the end of each chapter, all participating players are graded according to what “awards” (achievements such as high-hit combos or dealing massive damage) they received throughout the chapter, how many times they died, and other items such as side quests performed and finding hidden coins throughout the chapter. This scoring determines how many Character Points (CP) the player receives. These CPs can then be used to upgrade the stats of the character or to develop new skills and attacks, making the character more powerful. Another item to note is that a “100%” can be earned on each chapter, not only for playing it with 1-2 players, but again for playing it with a party of 3 or 4 players, so you can “max” out each chapter with up to 2 gold stars.
So, since this is only an “open Beta” release, what is already available, and what can players look forward to in the final release? Well, as of right now, players can only play through the first 2 of 14 proposed chapters, but you can play any of the four classes. These classes include the Fighter, the Alchemist, the Healer, and the Elementalist. While the Fighter class is more of a simple hack-and-slash, the Alchemist throws “potions” which work as grenades, damaging, stunning or otherwise affecting enemies. The Healer… as her name implies, has the ability to heal, yet can also strike down her foes with holy spells. Whether it be simply healing her party members, buffing theirs stats with enchantments, or summoning a guardian angel to fight by their side, this is one character not to be overlooked. Last but not least, the Elementalist is the mage-character: by chaining together runes from a circular menu, the Elementalist can summon spells ranging from ally creatures to flaming meteors from above. Each party member has a different role, and as a result the make-up of a team determines their fighting style in the campaign.
In reference to the 2 chapters available at the moment, the promised size of the entire W:R world is amazing, and the world map shows just how many opportunities are possible for exploration and quests when the final version comes out. According to Jason Gordy, the first two chapters playable right now cover only about 2% of the total explorable space.
W:R isn’t totally about co-operating however, and there is currently a simple PvP system present in the game under the title of “Champion Training.” Here, you can fight against other player in a number of arenas, rather than fighting alongside them as in Story Mode. Players can use any character or class they want, and once in combat, they will have all of their character’s possible abilities/attacks/spells unlocked, whether they have unlocked them in Story Mode or not. While this PvP mode is still rather young in development, the team plans to implement a more-involved mode in future releases.
Every aspect of the game shines. Most prominently of course is the art of the game, such the colorful and incredibly detailed pixel-art done by Gordy and which is reminiscent of old SNES or Gameboy RPGs. It really brings a sort of nostalgia to see such dedicatedly designed pixel-art. Also, not to be overlooked, the amazing hand-drawn portraits and cut scenes done by artist Aaron Connell add great atmosphere by providing detailed vistas of the world of Wanderlust.
Another facet of the artistic polish this game has received is in the sound aspect. While not over powering, the audio of W:R has been worked into a powerful ambiance. The music, provided by Skyler Stone, provides a nice slice of the culture and mood of W:R, and the wonderful sound effects by Cole Medeiros really make combat come to life, as each slash of the sword and each cast of a spell sounding natural and clear. Again, it all brings a sense of the games of old.
Also notable about Team Wanderlust is perhaps its most unusual member. As a hacker of W:R who continually riled up fellow game players, Charles Daffern soon drew the attention of Griffin and Gordy who quickly brought him into the team to act as “security tester,” promising to make this game perhaps the most hack-resistant GameMaker project to date.
Even the matchmaking system employed by the game works well. Griffin and Gordy have chosen to utilize Reflect Games’ “Reflect Account System” to provide an easy way for players to group up online. Once in game, player communication is easy and very well done, with player chat appearing similarly to how it does when talking to an NPC; with a speech-box appearing next to the speaking character’s portrait. W:R is also full of cute humor and subtle (and not so subtle – yes, this means you Jar-Jar!) homages to popular culture and earlier games. Players of the developers’ earlier title – Wanderlust: The Online Adventure (which had an epic following over at GMC, with a thread of 147 pages) – will also find many references in
Wanderlust: Rebirth.
With its fantasy setting and co-op slashing, W:R’s origins can easily be drawn to games like Zelda and Diablo, but where do games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and PGRacing come in? Well, Rainbow Six: Vegas’s heavy co-op gameplay inspired a similar stress on teamwork in W:R, and Project Gotham’s influence comes from its “Kudos” system, which rewards players for good driving, regardless of how they place in the race. In W:R, exp is gained mainly through teamwork, rather than per kill. Griffin and Gordy mixed and matched these different traits and ideas to create what they hope will be a “focused co-op experience.”
“We’re making the co-op RPG that we want to play,” says Griffin. “Turns out, other people want to play it too.”
How is TIGSource absent of what could be the greatest independent post-apocalyptic sandbox-game ever!?
Ska Studios, the maker of the soon-to-be released XBLA game “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” holds the title for perhaps the greatest free zombie game to date. Survival Crisis Z mixes the free-roaming, do-what-you-want aspects of games like Grand Theft Auto, and the post-apocalyptic zombie/infected scenario from movies like 28 Days Later and I am Legend.
The game has two main game-types: story and arcade. In arcade it is very simple: you will simply run around the streets of a city as the only survivor, facing ever increasing numbers of zombies until you die. This mode often only lasts a few minutes, and offers rewards for high-scores ranging from new mini-games available from the menu to a character editor for the campaign.
On to story mode:
As the main Character, you roam the city, trying to survive the outbreak in hopes that help will arrive. You aren’t alone either: other survivors like yourself have formed into clans, and the city’s police force has even set up a few strongholds.
For awhile, the city might seem peaceful almost, with only one ore two of the infected attacking at once. But wait until nightfall, and the streets will literally be crawling with them. Will you stay with other survivors in a stronghold? Or will you try to keep moving or hole up by yourself?
The “living city” aspect of SCZ is amazing, better even than many commercial games that have attempted the same thing: you’ll come across police patrolling the street, or even walk straight into shootouts between fighting factions. You can even interact with these factions by visiting various strongholds and ask for a job. These jobs range from simple “take this package across town” to rescue missions to even taking out entire other factions’ strongholds. As you do these missions, the various factions of the world will treat you differently based on how much they like you.
You don’t need to follow any sort of storyline however (although, if you want to escape the city, you will have to at some point), and there are plenty of things to do. You can simply explore: looting bodies as you go around the randomly-generated city, or even venture into the dark sewers and try to flush out the zombie invasion. Or you can run a personal trade-route: purchasing supplies for cheap at one stronghold, and then traveling to another where they will fetch a better price. You can use any money you get to purchase new weapons, supplies, or training. Yes, I said training. SCZ has a rpg-like system of several skills that you can develop. From personal healing to bomb-making, these skills can then be used in numerous ways to your advantage.
During all your travels throughout the city, you’ll even begin to pick up other lone survivors like yourself, who will travel along with you and even fight alongside. You’ll have to keep an eye on their health however: if they are bitten and not treated within a few hours, they might turn on you and attack.
The zombies of the game range from the fast, newly-infected variant from 28 Days Later, to the slow, shambling-yet-hard-to-kill version from the Zombie films of old. There exploding zombies, child zombies, dog zombies, giant zombies, and of course zombies that you always think you’ve killed, and then they get back up and attack again (much like those damn “magic” birthday candles).
Another fun aspect of the game is that you (and any “crew” that you have collected) can attempt to take over other stronghold for yourself. Sometimes this entails protecting it against a massive flood of the infected, and sometimes you must kill the current owners who are less than pleased to be evicted…
There are three “campaign/levels” in the game, and each is progressively harder than the last. So if you want an awesome survival-horror game for free, and you’re not a fool with Vista such as myself, look no further than Survival Crisis Z (or if you have Vista, do as I do and throw SCZ on a thumb-drive and play it on a friend’s computer with XP).
Also, although this version of SCZ doesn’t have multiplayer, who knows what lies around the corner...?
EDIT: for Vista users, there is a supposed fix, although it has only worked for some of those who have tried it. See the comments for this post if you want to try it for yourself.
Treasure Seas Incorporated is a game from Felix Wiesner over at Mausland Entertainment. It’s an Arcade/Adventure game with RPG elements about deep-sea treasure hunting, with the player using a miniature submarine to plumb the depths in search of gold. But Neptune isn’t just handing out gold for free: the depths are full of deadly obstacles such as giant sharks, absolute darkness, and crushing pressure. Who knows what might gaze back at you from the abyss…
If all three of your submarine pilots become lost to the sea, your exploring days are through.
What I found most interesting about this game was its incorporation of Role-Playing elements into the gameplay. As the player, you can use the gold you’ve recovered to outfit your submarine with upgraded equipment, allowing you to gather more gold. These upgrades include improvements of the sub’s air-supply (for staying down longer), pressure-plating (for diving deeper), and propeller (for moving faster).
The more you refit your sub, the more gold you can get. Get enough gold and maybe you’ll earn a spot on the online Hall-of-Fame.
So take one last glance at the surface, and prepare to dive. Good hunting…
The creator of Which Way Adventure has another flash based Choose Your Own Adventure game out, entitled Get Lost. It seems to have been created as a promotional game of some sort for E4, but don’t let that put you off – if you liked the original, you’ll love this. It’s full of the same random, inexplicable humour and little details that made Which Way Adventure so much fun.
Today’s Game Giveaway of the day is definitely worth a look – it’s Fatal Hearts, an edgy adventure game from Hanako Games, the makers of Cute Knight. For the next seven hours or so, it’s free.
Paul Eres (who recommended the game on the forums, thanks!) points to this description of the game by the author, which should give you some idea of what you’re in for:
It’s an adventure game that looks at first like it’s for 11 year old girls but is really about (and these are the developer’s words from the GMC thread): “(possible controversial elements – underage romance, underage sex (implied), same-sex romance, occultism, nazis (implied), violence (implied), blood (sometimes shown), suicide, ritual sacrifice, grisly murder committed by player, not being clear about what’s good and what’s evil… This is NOT an E-rated game! )”
Amanita Design, the creators of Samorost and Samorost 2, have released a new project, made for the BBC. Questionaut is a beautiful quiz game with some adventure and puzzle elements to it. The questions, which cover topics ranging from writing to math to science, are aimed at 11 year-olds, so they’re a bit on the easy side… but the entire production is so lovely that it doesn’t really matter.
And they’re still working on Machinarium, which is due at the end of 2008 but really couldn’t come fast enough!
Just a heads-up: Adventure Game Studio 3.0 was finally released last week. This long-awaited update to the popular game development program offers a host of new features, not the least of which is a totally revamped editor that has tabbed windows similar to Firefox.
So yes, if you needed a reason to start your big adventure game project, here it is!
Okay, the forums should be okay for the time being, but we're moving to a new server soon. We'll keep the extension on the Bootleg Demakes Compo, and give you guys until September 7th!
