Oh boy, I’ve wanted to cover this one for ages! Perhaps you’ve seen it on the list of IGF entrants...
Goo! is a new and strange action/strategy game from PillowFort (previously Amorphous Games), which is actually TIGS regular Aubrey Hesselgren and Tommy Refenes (Bezzy and Tommunism on the forums, respectively). In Goo! you control an amorphous blob of goo trying to overwhelm and absorb opposing blobs of goo as they try and do the same to you.+ Actually, that’s just one of the many play modes planned for the finished game, but whatever. Watch the video.
Now, this video isn’t a trailer exactly—it’s more of a live demonstration. It shows off some of the modes, skins, procedural effects… and touches on many coming additions.
Check it out!
This is definitely something to keep an eye on. Show some love, people.
SEXY UPDATE: Oops, nearly forgot—you can follow Goo!’s progress (and read up on its storied past) over at its development blog. Until the new PillowFort site goes up, that is!
First off apologies for my recent absence, and by recent I mean for about the last month. I’ve moved into University for my second year and things are a little crazy. The good kinda of crazy. Science of Sleep kinda crazy.
To catch up I had a quick browse of the IGF Entries this time around, and came across a game I’d forgotten about for some time. Battleships Forever! A great space-based tactical RTS which borrows aesthetic influences from the classic boss-battler Warning Forever. Created by Sean “th15” Chan, it heavily features ship-to-ship combat, where design of each craft is incredibly intricate. Much like ‘Warning’, each ship is made of of individual pieces and weapons, which can be destroyed however you wish to provide yourself the best advantage in combat.
Battle is relatively straight forward mouse control, to move you click the ships and then the area you wish to travel, however holding it in-place there allows you to change your ships facing direction as you do so. Positioning is crucial to doing well at the game as the usage of deflectors, which render certain areas of the ship invulnerable, become your biggest defensive asset as well as your most common obstacle. Used well, it can defend a single ship with ease. Used damn well, and as illustrated above you can create a fleet that causes red-shirts to wish they were back in that Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment.
(Hit the extended for less front-page hogging text!)
You can stop speculating, because the list of entrants for the upcoming IGF has been unveiled! And whoo boy, the competition is going to be fierce this year, guys and gals. There are a whopping 173 games battling for the 5 main prizes, which is around 30 or so more than this year’s. A cursory glance tells me that the quality of the games is generally very high. It’s a diverse group, too.
Many of the titles I had expected to see, many of them I recognize but didn’t realize were being entered, and many of them are comin’ straight outta left field. A good portion of the games entered this year are from TIGSource regulars, too. That’s great! I can’t wait to get my happy little digits on them and start playing.
Being able to participate in IGF is an amazing experience. I wish you all the best of luck!
Good ol’ Simon Carless has unveiled IndieGames.com, a new informational site about indie games. Right now it seems like it’s just a great place for newcomers to the scene to see what’s up? Also featuring the “50 Really Good Indie Games” list that you guys helped compile! Whoo hoo!
What better way to spend a quiet Sunday evening then to watch a panel from this year’s Independent Games Summit, featuring Jon Blow, Jon Mak, Jenova Chen, and Kyle Gabler! This panel was one of my favorites of the summit. Each of the panelists came from a different perspective… together they really got at what was exciting about indie games for me. The four P’s, yo: passion, personality, and potential. And Pinnovation.
But yeah, I can’t believe Steve dissed me so hard at the end. Unfortunately, I don’t remember my question. I think I was going to ask Jon Mak about what hair products he uses…
The Independent Games Festival is announcing the first ever indie mobile competition to promote handheld games and developers! That includes everything from cellphones to Palm to DS and PSP. Actually, they seem pretty open about what a handheld device is, so presumably some prankster could submit a pencil and a Post-It with an empty Tic-Tac-Toe grid on it… don’t do it!
The prizes for the competition total $20,000, with a $10,000 Grand Prize and a host of other major prizes for innovation and great execution in mobile game development. The deadline to enter the competition is Monday, October 22nd 2007, and judges will be trying playable version of all games submitted.
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.
Videos of the Independent Games Summit are starting to go up! Here’s a postmortem from Gastronaut Studios, the creators of Small Arms, which, contrary to my belief, is not a game about Tyrannosaurus Rexes trying to slap each other.
“The creators of Xbox 360 Live Arcade stand-out title Small Arms, previous veterans of XBLA from their work with Fuzzee Fever on the original Xbox Live Arcade, talk about what went right and what wrong during the development of the frenetic multiplayer shooter, giving plenty of insight into developing indie games on console.”
Running IGF must be no easy task, especially when you’re also updating GameSetWatch multiple times a day. It’s good to hear that superdudes Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink are directing this year’s festival (with Simon still as Chairman). And the 2008 site’s just gone live, so check it out!
Other changes to the festival, after the jump (via Matt):
