Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:54:00 GMT
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!
(Source: Tim, via IndieGames.com)
Posted in Highly Recommended, Browser Games, Adventure, Puzzle | Tags AmanitaDesign | 9 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:55:00 GMT
Sometimes you just want a good, brainless dungeon crawl. Monsters’ Den lets you put together a party of four characters (chosen from the requisite fantasy classes: warrior, cleric, mage, ranger, rogue) and then head into the dank, randomly-generated dungeons of wherever to do battle with all manner of grisly monsters.
The game mechanics are very simple – just click around the map to explore new rooms, collect treasure, and engage the denizens of the dungeon. Combat is tactical in the sense that your party’s formation (set before each fight) determines who can hit or get hit by whom, but overall it’s pretty fluffy (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). After fighting, you get to collect the requisite loot, which is never in short supply when you throw in all the treasure chests lying around – after level one you’ll have a lion’s share of interesting weapons and armor.
So yeah, Monsters’ Den is just a really stripped down RPG, and it’s really pretty enjoyable as that. And the randomization, character creation, and various difficulty modes (with and without permadeath) give it quite a bit of replayability. I had a good time with it, okay!
EDIT: Apparently, the game is extremely similar to the more polished
FastCrawl, which is downloadable shareware ($20). See comments.
Posted in RPG, Browser Games, Casual | 16 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:38:00 GMT
Grow Nano Vol. 3 is a new mini Grow game from Flash developer Eyezmaze. The mechanics should be familiar to Grow fans – pick the items in the right combination to win! The goal of this game is to heal the developer, who is suffering from illness in the game, and also in real life. Get better soon, Eyezmaze!
(Source: Alec Meer, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
Posted in Highly Recommended, Browser Games, Puzzle, Casual | Tags Eyezmaze | 7 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:40:00 GMT
Damn it, it’s another “tower defense” game, albeit a pretty good one. In Protector your “towers” are various mages, and knights (called “dexers”). As you can probably guess, your opponents have various strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited by strategic placement of your troops, who level up during battle. Unlike most TD games, this one lets you see what kind of enemies you’re going to go up against in a given scenario, letting you plan ahead a bit more.
This game’s strengths lie in its polish – the graphics are really nice and even though each scenario is tuned toward a certain strategy, there’s definitely enough flexibility to keep it fun. Unlockable skills that grant bonuses during battle and give you access to new troops add some incentive to keep going.
If you dig these types of games, you should get some enjoyment out of Protector. Otherwise, it doesn’t add that much new to the genre.
(Source: Sensible Erection [NSFW])
Posted in Browser Games, Casual, Strategy | 14 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:26:00 GMT
There’s a new indie MMO in the works that’s got people talking. It’s called Lila Dreams:
...the game is a 2d, side-scrolling platform game that takes place in the mind of an 11-year old girl named Lila (pronounced, LEE-lah). As she drifts through life, players (as a race of mental entities called “Memekins”) must deal with the emotional storms and actually guide her through events which could crush her or save her. There will be plenty of actiony combat, some RPG-lite elements (but no level grind), exploration galore, and other non-combat activities like gardening in the soil of Lila’s psyche.
Well, the concept is certainly damn cool! As well as the concept art (no screenshots yet). I’m really curious how players can interact with one another as “Memekins.”
Lila Dreams is being developed by a small team of three, and will be published by Kongregate as part of their Premium Games service. As revealed in this recent interview with Wired, the game is browser-based and will be free to play, with micro-transactions as the primary source of funding for the developers.
No hints about a release date, although Creatrix has said that they will probably launch with 30% of the game’s planned content in, with the rest to come if it does well with players.
Posted in Browser Games, MMOG, Previews | Tags CreatrixGames | 16 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:09:00 GMT
StormWinds is a more action-oriented take on the ol’ “Defend the Castle” theme, letting you man up to four turrets to take down waves of flying/rolling contraptions. Turrets gain levels during battle and can be upgraded between waves. There are two types: active (which you control), and passive (which you don’t).
The game is beautiful, and really polished, but the actual gameplay feels repetitive. Unfortunately, the variety of options and opponents is fairly limited (although it can be expanded for $5 by buying the deluxe version). It gets most interesting when, in later campaigns, finding enemy weak points becomes more important to winning. I wish there were more tactical situations like that.
A lot of the fun of these types of games comes from the progression and upgrades. “Can I make a castle so impenetrable that I don’t even have to do anything myself?”
I appreciate that StormWind is trying to make a more active game, but to make it truly compelling for me, the action has to be much more interesting.
(Source: Jestyr, via Sensible Erection [NSFW])
Posted in Browser Games, Casual, Action / Arcade | Tags HeroInteractive | 10 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:45:00 GMT
Coil is an experimental Flash game with no instruction or clear direction.
Please keep an open mind while playing.
A bizarre game that definitely shows off Edmund’s talents as an artist and game designer. He and programmer Florian are in top form with this lovely little piece. I’m inclined to think you’ll agree (provided you don’t get stuck too early on).
The game is controlled with the mouse only.
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Highly Recommended, Browser Games | Tags EdmundMcMillen, FlorianHimsl | 63 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:09:00 GMT
Basho Kioku is a fun memory game from the developers of Cursor*10 and xananeko. A grid of 36 tiles confronts you, and in each level you are shown a subset of those tiles which you can click. The goal of the game is to click every tile once, and just once, without running out the timer. Six markers can be used to help jog your memory.
A simple idea that is implemented well. I actually managed to beat it with a score of 11100. I credit Brain Age for my amazing victory!
(Source: Jay is Games)
Posted in Browser Games, Casual, Doujin | Tags Nekogames | 15 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:54:00 GMT
Sweet Raptorchrist, it’s here... and it’s even more incredible than you imagined.
(Thanks, Dan!)
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Highly Recommended, Browser Games, Physics, Action / Arcade | Tags FlashbangStudios | 60 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:03:00 GMT
Robot
and the Cities that Built Him is a 7-day prototype Flash game by Kyle Gabler of 2d Boy. In the game you play a deadly robot going on some kind of coke binge. The robot attacks automatically (LASERDEATH!), and the gameplay involves moving him about, and managing his laser charge and various upgrades.
I think this is the only game ever created while listening to Bette Midler’s version of “From a Distance” on loop for a week. It’s also one of my only games involving genocide. What is man? What is machine? What does it mean to be human? Perhaps from a distance we’re not so different from giant kill bots? Can a computer make you cry? Yes, if it has lasers.
It’s a neat concept – it just feels a little bit unfinished. Probably because it is! There are only two robot available for purchase in-game, currently.
In other 2d Boy news, World of Goo will be hitting PC and Wii first (soonish, I hear), followed shortly thereafter by Mac and Linux. You can pre-order the PC version now for $20.
Posted in Browser Games, Casual | Tags 2DBoy, KyleGabler | 12 comments
