Kokoromi is a Québécois (“Quebec sauce?”) game developer collective, and they’re working with the Montreal International Game Summit and the Society for Arts and Technology to set up a “game jam” called gamma 256.
The theme is “low resolutions,” and the rules are as follows:
1. Your game’s resolution absolutely may not exceed 256×256 pixels maximum.
2. Your game must run on Windows XP and use an XBox 360 controller.
The submission period ends on November 1st. TIGForums is hosting the discussion for the competition, because we think it’s neat, okay? Head on over and make with the talkies.
A video explaining the game mechanics behind “Hermies,” jazzuo’s entry to the B-Game Competition!
The B-Game Competition has been a resounding success so far. All the entries look amazing and we’re having “tons o’ fun” on the forums. (Yes, I’m trying to make you feel silly for not having signed up yet! Why haven’t you!)
One thing I’ve been really happy about is how differently people have interpreted the theme and yet they’re still staying true to the basic concept behind “B-Games.” The entries run the gamut, from action games, to text adventures, to… Petri Purho’s word processing simulator which requires the use of a microphone?!
So you know how in Dead Rising, when you take photos, it tells you the genre? EROTICA! DRAMA! BRUTALITY! OUTTAKES! Yeah, we got ALL that, baby.
Even jazzuo, who’s amazing Sexy Hiking inspired the competition, is now getting in on the act (see the above video)!
This is your official reminder that there are exactly two weeks left to submit your game. I also wanted to let you guys know that I putting up an awesome “Making Of Grindhouse” book and a CD version of MDickie’s latest masterpiece, Reach, as the prizes for first place!
Hit the extended for a list of all the current entries:
Gamasutra reveals that all the finalists for this year’s IGF will receive help from “Game Attorney” Tom Buscaglia, with winners receiving some one-on-one consultation.
All Finalists – All finalists will receive a free copy of Buscaglia’s Game Dev Kit. The Kit contains essential information and forms for new independent game developers: Starting a company, contracts and NDAs, and advice on managing copyrights and intellectual property ($295 value).
Category Winners – In addition to the $2,500 cash prize, winners of each of the seven major awards will also receive a free one-hour consultation with Buscaglia ($400 value).
Seumas McNally Grand Prize – In addition to the $20,000 cash prize, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize winner will also receive ten hours of free consultation with Buscaglia ($4,000 value).
Nice work from Simon (source!), Steve, and Matt! The IGF is in great hands.
(Dream-Build-Play is a contest for games built with Microsoft’s XNA Studio.)
Check the results: in a surprise move, D-B-P officials have chosen 2 games for 1st place, and 2 games for 2nd place, offering XBLA publishing deals to all of them! Whoa. That’s kind of a big change to the rules. But more games is never a bad thing.
Congratulations to the winners. Dead Samurai is the one that piques my interest the most, with its gothy atmosphere and sweet, bloody action. It’s made by the guys who did the Zombie Smashers series of games, which I enjoyed.
Tim found this little gem. It’s an entry for the 3Punge (Three Minute Game Contest), where, I assume you create a game that lasts for three minutes. What caught my attention were the graphics, which frightened the hell out of me. I like that.
Under Ground the Bowling (direct link) is a bowling game where the bowling balls are people and the pins are other people waiting for the bus (who all kind of look like James Brown). It’s really pretty hilarious and has very little to do with bowling other than the score keeping. I love the main character and how crazy he looks, especially after you get a strike.
This is not a well-made game, but it is a bizarre game! Use the arrow keys to move and “z” to slap. A couple dialog boxes will pop up when you start the game. I don’t know what the first one is, but the second one asks you if you want to play fullscreen or not. Be ready to turn down your sound if you’re not into hearing men grunting over and over again at a rapid rate.
Jay is Games has released the results of its third Casual Gameplay Competition, where the theme was “replay.” Specifically, Jay was looking for games which have a lot of replay value. The winner, Gimme Friction Baby, has a genuinely interesting concept behind it, but its replay value would benefit a lot from a little more speed, in my opinion.
And there were some games in there that I felt had even better ideas, like Timebot, but perhaps less replay value. Seriously, try Timebot out, it’s a hoot. (I also reminds me, when is Braid coming out?)
The Casual Gameplay Competitions are great because it’s obvious there’s a lot of enthusiasm behind it and the games are always interesting and fun. Great job! But if we’re picking a game for having the most replay value, I’m going to have to posthumously nominate and vote for Benzido’s Too Many Ninjas (WIP), which has basically turned our Feedback forum into a crackhouse…
Competition entries for the latest Casual Gameplay Competition are coming thick and fast, and as is the norm with these sort of contests there are bound to be several standouts among all the submissions. (Sprout was Derek’s favorite from the last one.)
The “Replay” theme was imaginatively applied to at least one entry so far (Super Earth Defense Game, not unlike Historica), and if the rest of the submissions are anything like it then we’re in for a treat.
Crostar (translation), the creator of rhacp, submitted another cute and simple platformer, Nori Kuro Cat, for the 13th 3Punge contest (translation), which won 4th place. It is similar to his first 3Punge entry, Supa Kingu Rato (pictured below), in terms of aesthetics and level design. But but this time the main character is a ninja cat that belches fireballs instead of a puffy, pink head that plows through enemies with its pointy ears.
Each shot that scores a consecutive hit increases the range and strength of the cat’s firepower and fills one unit of the 3-level gauge. A miss zeros it out. Once the gauge is full, it slowly drains until the another successful shot replenishes. While at full power, a special burst attack can be preformed by pressing the down arrow and X, which is practically necessary when a wolf wearing a wood mask is hit by fully powered fireball and for finding hidden objects.
After completing the 3 levels of the easy mode, the normal mode is unlocked. However, it is necessary to do more than merely completing the 3 levels of the normal mode to unlock the hard mode, which is the only one with a boss.
It is interesting how most of Crostar’s 3Punge entries have evolved as games with a similar look and feel but each with its own unique gameplay elements. The past stages of the evolution in order of release: Supa Kingu Rato, a momentum-building platformer; Sky-Whirling Geo, an auto-scrolling, sword-slashing, wing-flapping platformer; and Round and Round the Tsuchiyui, a difficult, experimental shooter that requires lining up an enemy within the epicenter of the two circling heads to shoot it.
Tangent: entry number 2, Spirit Collect, was a challenging shoot-em-up with mediocre graphics that won third place. Some shmup fans might enjoy it, but I gave up on playing any further than a few games after watching the included replays.
Takashi’s Space is not the final frontier, but it is the winner of the of this year’s Super Game Bakedown at selectbutton (results).
I have to agree with the voters that it is better than the other two finalists
(Overlords
by Alan Gordon and bd7007
by !=). bd7007 is too short, and it has too little to it. The recommendable Overlords is a good, challenging, minimalistic strategy game that fits interestingly between the RTS and turn-based variations of the genre, and it’s the most developed entry. But I have a crush on Space and all of its large polygon goodness, so my preference for it is a bit biased.
Space is a simple game that lets you develop your own planet from resources stored inside of the surrounding asteroid ring. Not all of the game’s planned features have been completely implemented, but it shows some potential. In some ways, it reminds me of Alex
Ghignola’s rather old, 58 Kb Crystal Pixels, although Space is simpler and more playable.
Speaking of simple, Space could honestly use more development. The planet can only be built with industry or residential sections, which don’t seem to evolve. After depositing resources in the Starbase, it becomes pointless to mine
the asteroids, since the Starbase’s reserves never decease. The game lacks documentation. A save file can be created, but it isn’t loadable. And completing a planet triggers no event or in game award, which causes me to suspect that some screenshots of the game used elsewhere are either of a different version than the “final” one or rendered instead of being in game.
According to Alan Gordon’s blog entry on the contest, “simply designing and building your planet is
rewarding enough, thanks to the wonderful visuals” of Space. And I
agree with the his compliment on the visuals, since I have a nostalgic admiration for 3D games made with large polygons. But now that I’ve been playing the game for over a week and working on this post for a couple of days, my crush has waned. I still like the way it looks, and it was fun while it lasted, but, in it’s current state, it isn’t rewarding enough for a long term relationship.
