Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:36:00 GMT
Cursor*10 is an amazing little doujin flash game that asks “Cooperate by oneself?!” You have 10 little cursors and you have to make it up to the 16th floor. I’ve made it to the top and my high score is 183. I think that’s pretty good (i.e. I know you can beat me)!
By the creators of the Xananeko games.
(Thanks, arrowhen! Via Sensible Erection [NSFW].)
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:00:00 GMT
Next-Gen has an interesting look into the correlation between casual game reviews and casual game sales. Not surprisingly, bad reviews don’t really impact the sales of casual games, since ostensibly casual gamers don’t read reviews. (And if we’re talking about IGN, then that’s probably a good thing.)
What I find amusing, though, is how callous the perceived attitude is toward casual gamers by the people who publish them. Here’s a quote from EA Casual VP, Russell Arons:
Geez. I realize that no one is forcing people to buy casual games and that a lot of people enjoy them. Regardless, I’m looking forward to the day when women aged 25 to 34 are not viewed merely as apathetic cash cows with money-laden milk udders, content to chew whatever gaming cud you give them.
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:24:00 GMT
Russell Carroll, all around nice guy, marketing director at Reflexive, and the webmaster of Game Tunnel, has an interesting op-ed on Gamasutra called “Cloning Created the Casual Business.” In it he talks about the impact of cloning on the casual games industry (now apparently worth $2.25 billion).
Russ reveals that the average Hidden Object game on Reflexive sells roughly 3 games to the sale of every average “original” title. I think this indicates that clones can sell. It doesn’t, however, convince me that they sell better than original games (note: which is not the argument Russ is trying to make), since a number of important comparisons are overlooked, such as the sales of clones to the originals that spawned them. Nor does it speak to the quality of the original games that didn’t sell so well. I think clones are just easier to make, and probably give a better return on investment than your average original game, which is why people make them.
It’s interesting to note that Digital Eel, the developers behind Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, have just made two more of their games free, and have also released a $10 casual matching game, Soup du Jour. The game has a neat physics-ey aspect, but it seems like quite a deviation from their other games, so I wonder…
My attitude about casual games has vacillated from derision, to indifference, to some appreciation (for bringing in non-gamers to the fold, so to speak). Now, I think it’s a bit of all three. I still hope that “core” and “hardcore” developers will not see casual cloning as an easy way out. My belief is still that a good original game will outsell any clone, and creating an original title has side benefits, like curing cancer.
I’m serious, they did a study where they placed two monkeys with cancer in a basement and had them make games. One monkey made a clone of Diner Dash, and the other made an original title about dealing with cancer as a monkey. The Diner Dash monkey died after a week with a tumor the size of a minivan, and the other monkey survived and lived a long and prosperous life! Look it up on the internet.
Anyway, thanks, Russ, for the article, and I hope to see more like it!
Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT
This game’s nothing too special. I don’t even know if it’s technically indie, either. I just wanted to draw your attention to the cartoon it’s based on, a series of shorts made for MTV Japan about two rabbits trapped in a Russian prison.
Hit the jump for the first episode.
(Source: selectbutton forums)
Read more...Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:52:00 GMT
FreeRice is a website that tests your vocabulary, and for every word you get right, its many sponsors (Apple, American Express, Macy’s, etc.) will donate 10 grains of rice to the The United Nations World Food Program. To date, the site has donated 1.3 billion grains of rice, and the rate at which rice donations are growing each day reminds me of the chessboard story.
I always jump at the chance to improve my vocabulary, and it’s nice to know it’s contributing to something good. It’s fun, too! The site automatically adjusts its level based on how many correct/incorrect guesses you make. You viviparous stentor, you.
And coming up next: World of FreeRiceCraft. 10 grains of rice for every goblin smashed. You heard it here first!
Posted by Derek Yu Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:56:00 GMT
Jayisgames’s 4th Casual Design Competition is over, and as usual, the results are quite impressive! The winner of the competition is The Tall Stump, a puzzle platformer that has you searching a giant tree stump for a mad magician who’s turned your girlfriend into a square. (I hate it when that happens!)
Oh, and hats.
Overall, it’s a highly enjoyable game. Both the platforming and puzzle solving are fairly light, but well-designed, with plenty of humor sauce liberally applied (what?). If there’s one niggle I have with the game, it’s that the coin-activated save points seem superfluous and merely add to the frustration as opposed to making the game more challenging or fun. ‘Tis a small qualm, however.
If you want to see all the entries, Jay and his crew did full write-ups for each one. See them all right here (long load). Congratulations to JIG and all the entrants!
(Source: GameSetWatch)
Posted by BMcC Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:47:00 GMT
Content Directors for this year’s IGF, Steve Swink and Matthew Wegner (a.k.a. Flashbang Studios), have recently released a quirky, physics-based puzzle game called Splume, made in only four short weeks as part of a new development path experiment they’re conducting. In Splume you shoot balls that attach to other balls… and… wait, why am I describing this when you could simply watch the video, or, in just a few more mouse clicks, play the game? Here’s what’s important: It’s fun and polished and free.
So apparently Flashbang will continue releasing compact games like this for some months, then decide which games are the best to flesh out into “full” versions. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
Splume has an online scoretable, level editor, and live feed of recent play history across the galaxy. Check it out. And enjoy.
Posted by Derek Yu Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:53:00 GMT
In The Visitor you take control of an alien slug, hellbent on Earth’s ruination. And bursting out of as many stomachs as possible! SPLURT!
It’s a rather short, not-too-tough flash game that is mostly about hotspot hunting, but the great graphics and wicked theme make it a gaming intestinal tract worth bursting out of (weak analogies ftw).
(Source: Kotaku)
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:39:00 GMT
I have contention with today’s Game Giveaway of the Day, which is described as follows:
Puzzle Mania: Chronicles of Unicorn is a unique game combining new but recognizable gameplay and perfect plot which will take you through all the game levels to the aim of your journey!
This part is mostly okay. The game is indeed unique, and the gameplay is certainly new and recognizable. Unique and new in the sense that I have never played a game where you solve jigsaw puzzles in order to find a unicorn. Recognizable in the sense that I have seen a jigsaw puzzle before. Just once, when I went on a trip and stayed in a cabin which smelled like wood.
I have a problem with the word “perfect,” though, because even though the plot is indeed amazing and incredible (because it involves finding a unicorn), is it perfect? That’s a bit of a stretch, for any game. I think it also places undue pressure on our children to try and attain a level of superiority that is reserved for unicorns.
Thankfully, the plot does take you through all the game levels. Thank Jesus!
Each stage is unique and does not repeat throughout the game, as well as the form of puzzles for each level. Mini-games which are an integral part of the Puzzle Mania world are prepared for you between the game stages.
Mmm, yes, the stages do not repeat. That is good. That always pissed me off how in Donkey Kong, after you beat stage four you’d have to go back to stage one. That was just some bullshit. I shot someone with a handgun the first time I found that out.
Mini-games are good, too. The way potato chips are good in between breakfast and lunch. Just give me some micro-games in between the mini-games, and I’ll be fit to be tied.
But your main aim is to rescue the last survived unicorn!
This is the part I have a contention with, because the “screenshot” clearly shows that the unicorn is right there, on the title screen! That was easy. But then when I load up the game itself, the unicorn is gone.
They photoshopped the damn unicorn. They tricked me.
So don’t be fooled, my friends – Puzzle Mania: Chronicles of the Unicorn contains very little actual unicorn.
(Also, you can totally see his dick up there.)
Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:30:00 GMT
5 Differences is an animated take on the “Can You Spot X Differences Between the Two Pictures?” game that you often see in the comics section of the newspaper. This time you click the differences (on either picture).
I wouldn’t have found it worth mentioning, except that the scenes, which mostly feature silhouetted characters, are fairly striking! And it’s as fun to play as the analog versions (take to mean whatever it means to you). Some music would have been nice, though – why not?
There are a dozen or so levels in the game.
