Posted by Tim
Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:23:00 GMT
Escape the room games are rubbish. Click on the screen randomly to uncover a bunch of items, then combine all of them to form a key. How MacGyver manages to trap himself in his own room will forever remain a mystery.
If searching for objects and adding them to a bottomless inventory tickles your fancy, then Duty and Beyond is just the game for you. There are plenty of items to collect as you embark on a quest to deliver a pizza. The protagonist isn’t helping matters at all, taking small bites out of the customer’s order periodically.
So forget those lightweight flash efforts and join the pizza delivery guy on a virtuous mission, while keeping himself well fed in the process.
Posted in Adventure, Windows, Freeware | no comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:17:00 GMT
Ah, the Metroidvania / Castleroid / Roidcastle / Metrocastle game… when they were in vogue in the freeware community, you’d see announcements for one of these pop up like every month at least. But the projects got scrapped faster than you could say “non-linear platforming action-adventure RPG.” Seriously, where the fuck is Chaos Gate? That game looked pretty sweet.
Skyhammer is another fatality in the now-dwindling (I think) Castlemetro genre. Which is a shame, because like A Game with a Kitty (the creator’s previous release which you can find by the same link), this game boasts some very well-executed gameplay. The ~45 minutes that there is of it, at least. Check it out.
Posted in Platformers, Windows, Freeware | Tags Bernie | 9 comments
Posted by dessgeega
Sat, 29 Jul 2006 03:26:00 GMT
black cat’s pengo-inspired push-push penguin just received an update – one which includes an online high score table.
it’s a very swell game which adds bubble bobble-ish collection elements and charming sprites from army of trolls to sega’s original pushing penguin game. and it has cooperative two-player play, too-often lacking in contemporary games. if that doesn’t win your heart, i will sweeten the deal: both of the players are penguins.
Posted in Remakes, Multiplayer, Highly Recommended, Freeware | 3 comments
Posted by Tim
Sat, 22 Jul 2006 11:29:00 GMT
Does look like Invader, doesn’t it? Though both are charming in their own ways.
Poyo is a platformer consisting of fifty levels, which was created by Lazrael in under one month using Game Maker. Consider this: the only actions available to the titular character are walking, jumping and warping. Yet it will still stump a few players especially in later stages.
Warping is an essential skill to master, and most of the puzzles involve pulling off a succession of moves correctly.
Cave Story. Within a Deep Forest. Eternal Daughter. Poyo comes pretty close to joining this elite circle. Perhaps the author’s next attempt?
Other works include Pozzo – Jello Crusade and Flapper.
Posted in Platformers, Highly Recommended, Windows, Freeware | Tags Lazrael | 11 comments
Posted by Tim
Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:49:00 GMT
Certain indie game developers enjoy a challenge, for example limiting themselves in terms of development time (e.g. LudumDare) or working with a single theme (Monthly AGS Contest). They are then often critized for attempting incomplete, unplayable or buggy entries.
So it’s not surprising that games like Invisible Vision or Illegal Communication will be ignored by most. And only because they don’t look appealing at all from the screenshots. Style don’t get you points like they used to, back when the early video game consoles were popular.
This particular experiment from cactus is a love hate relationship, as evident from the following forum topic. I assume that most people will not enjoy playing it as well, which is a shame since the reward will only be revealed near the end. No instructions were provided, leaving you to discover or solve puzzles by trial and error.
Try it for yourself. If you dislike it, then there are always other quality indie games. Though there’s not many like Illegal Communication, that’s for sure. Except for CyberSpace Assault, perhaps.
Proceed with a clean mouse. What else can I say, a brilliant but misunderstood game.
Posted in Platformers, Puzzle, Windows, Action / Arcade, Freeware | Tags cactus | 28 comments
Posted by Brien
Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:00:00 GMT
The Blob is a game about painting a city with a rolling, growing ball of paint. It reminds me of (here it comes) Katamari Damacy and to a lesser extent of Mario Sunshine. I can’t believe I just wrote that. You must be sick of inane Katamari comparisons. Every single game with a rolling or growing character, someone’s gotta mention KD.
Right, so now that’s out of the way. I have a lot of good things to say about The Blob. The physics are handled by ODE, graphics by Ogre; both are employed beautifully. Every corner of the game is pretty and sparkling with polish. I really like the pixel shader work as the buildings are repainted. The jiggling paint ball feels right and is intuitively controlled with just the mouse. What else? Oh yes, it’s fun.
My main problem with it is that it weighs in at a prohibitive 97 MB. There’s also only one level and little reward for completing it but they explain themselves:
“The game was a school project for an outside client. The station area of the city of Utrecht in The Netherlands is getting a thorough face-lift, as the station and many buildings around it are being rebuilt. Our task was to make a game that plays in the station area as it will be ten years from now, so that while playing, the audience is informed about what is going to happen. The game was to be played in a centre with information about the changes, but also be downloadable for players at home. This means the main target audience will walk by, play for a few minutes, and then walk on, but it should also be fun for people who download the game.”
I say it’s worth it. So download (97 MB) it. Or go to their project page on gamedev.net to read more, to download the Dutch version, and leave the team feedback.
Posted in Windows, Action / Arcade, Freeware | 9 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 18 Jul 2006 02:07:00 GMT
“An experimental shoot-em-up. An experimental shooter with minimal art assets. Use your different weapons to destroy the waves of ships. The longer you last, the harder it gets. 20 stages in total, each 1 minute long. If you die you lose your score and retreat one stage. Enemy ship configurations are partially random.”
From the creator of Fleafall comes this lil’ mini-shooter. Although at first glance it seems quite simple, you’ll soon realize that you can’t just hold down the fire button(s). Enemies can set up shields to block your shots and sometimes won’t put down their guard unless you ease up on the firepower. I still don’t think I’ve quite figured out what’s going on exactly.
Negatives: the controls feel a bit floaty to me, and it can get quite annoying trying to get past those damn shields after a while.
Posted in Shoot-em-ups, Windows, Freeware | 1 comment
Posted by Albert Lai
Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:29:00 GMT
Now, we’ve seen a few gems these past few days. To quote Derek:
Cortex Command is what I would call a … “gem.”;
Some of you might ask yourself, “What is left? How can I complete my line of
two begging to be destroyed in a fashion that Popcap games has cloned more times
than Hitler?"
Well,
ask no more! Lyle in
Cube Sector is a nifty game that should follow up nicely for fans of Metroid
and Cave Story. Lyle, you see, is an average boy of dark skin with neon green
hair, and has lost his kitten. To retrieve it, he has to go through all sort
of hijinks, throwing blocks, kicking blocks, jumping by throwing blocks while
in mid-air, and so on. All in the name of finding his cat again.
What a nice
boy.
Posted in Platformers, Highly Recommended, Windows, Freeware | 16 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:13:00 GMT
Cortex Command is what I would call a “hidden gem.” Or at least a potential one, since it’s not finished yet. BUT, the creators have recently committed themselves to working fulltime on it, so things are lookin’ up!
Think Liero meets Soldat meets some other stuff. There’s a basic demo of the game available (see the devlog) that lets you play two players splitscreen. Movement is fairly rough, but it’s impressive (and quite fun) to see the characters walk, crawl, and blow up using ragdoll-style physics. Support the development of this game!
Graphics are by the inimitable Niklas Jansson (aka Prometheus), of whom I am a huge fan.
Posted in Platformers, Multiplayer, Highly Recommended, Windows, Freeware, Previews | Tags DataRealms | 9 comments
Posted by Tim
Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:33:00 GMT
Old news to some, but since it’s not on TIGSource yet (and we can never get enough of KC, can’t we) let’s talk a bit about Val & Rick. (direct download)
As translated by the2bears, Mr. Cho says: “Val & Rick was a sample game for people who want to create their own shmup, and I released it on the forum for shmup developers.” Makes you wonder what other goodies he has posted on this mysterious forum.
Back to the game. Val & Rick is probably the precursor to Gunroar, featuring similar controls but in a different environment. Only 2D sprites and backgrounds are used in what seems like a tribute to Xevious and Star Soldier.
It could be a prototype although the game is pretty much complete and bug free. No information page was ever made for it either. Press the Z key to shoot and hold down the X key to fix the direction of your aim.
A power-up icon in the shape of a tiny ship named Rick will appear if you collect enough blue orbs from defeated enemies, which is indicated at the bottom left of the screen. This will cause your ship to go into hyperdrive, that is until all energy is spent or your spacecraft takes damage from enemy bullets. Each successful hyperdrive attempt increases the counter by another hundred.
The X key can also be used to drop bombs on grounded objects. Tap the P key to pause. The closer your ship is to the top of the screen, the faster it scrolls.
For another excellent Star Soldier tribute, visit Studio SiestA’s Soldier Force page. This one is going to cost you, but it doesn’t disappoint. (just ask dess!)
(Image from the2bears)
Posted in Shoot-em-ups, Windows, Freeware | no comments
