Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin
Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:32:00 GMT
You may have seen this reported elsewhere, but “arthouse” game creator Jason Rohrer is hard at work on his first retail release, a turn-based, two-player strategy game for the Nintendo DS “about diamond trading in Angola on the eve of the passage of the Kimberly Process.” This first struck me as a heavy subject for a handheld game, but the fact of the matter is there are countless games about counter-terrorism, war, monsters, death… I’m apparently just a bit desensitized to certain topics!
I asked Jason for more details on the game and he was kind enough to oblige. Pictured above is his paper prototype of the game. He’s still ironing out the design, but he got approved as a developer by Nintendo last week and programming should begin soon. He was reluctant to describe the gameplay itself this early, which is understandable, but he says there are no big surprises here, so all will be revealed before release. Oh, and he’s making every bit of the game himself, right down to the box art.
Jazzuo, the creator of Sexy Hiking, Star Wars: Episode VII, and Hermies, would like to tell you about the two games he created with Mo’Minis, a platform for rapid development of mobile games. (via TIGForums)
Free from Gandreas Software, this iteration of the father of dungeon crawling is advertised as being faithful to the original. This version is controlled via touch using a ‘Commands’ menu for actions such as opening doors and climbing stairs, although these actions also have a gesture-based ‘hotkey’ for those of us just barely patient enough to play a traditional roguelike.
Playable in both the original ASCII as well as a nice tileset.
iPhone developer Lazrhog has announced that he is planning on porting Kenta Cho’s abstract shoot ‘em ups, rRootage and Noiz2sa, to Apple’s popular handheld platform (with Cho’s permission). The games will be released via the App Store as free downloads in the next few weeks, and the source code will be made publicly available.
WARNING: Reading this post frightens me—and I just wrote it. Focus on the iSplume part, OK?
iSplume (that’s Splume for iPhone/iPod touch, kids) is now available for purchasing in the iTunes App Store... for, like, three bucks. (What’s that, a pack of gum nowadays?) And it incorporates all that touch screen and tilting wizardry I’ve been hearing so much about. It’s even getting mentioned alongside the likes of Spore: Origins in press releases and such. (Which means something, I think?) Quick tangent: What the heck could Spore: Origins be about, anyway? Doesn’t Spore have you starting out as a single-celled organism? We developed the theory on Skype the other night that this “Origins” installment will have you starting out playing as God or The Big Bang or the primordial ooze itself or something. Of course, going from God to microorganism would be a bit of a letdown, wouldn’t it? I’m just saying… I’m glad I’m not the one to have to answer these questions!
Splume (which you can play here) was the first release in a series of games started as an experiment in rapid development by the gentlemanly and modern gentlemen at Flashbang Studios, who went on to craft such indie touchstones as Off-Road Velociraptor Safari and Jetpack Brontosaurus, as well as host the first annual TIGJam. (For future reference, you can find their weirder, mostly dinosaur-themed games over at their new site, called Blurst—I guess maybe to create some distance from Flashbang’s more “casual” reputation?)
Dang, this might be the best TIGS post I’ve ever written. I mean, look at all the formatting. And the video! I’m going to take this moment to point out that my first article on TIGS was also the first (yes, in the world) to break the news of gaming on the iPod, and now it’s like the gosh-darned Golden City of Milk & Opportunity over there! I humbly accept all credit for this and wait patiently for the numerous parades in my honor.*
Hrm, I just noticed we haven’t yet posted the first gameplay video from Jetpack Brontosaurus. Shameful! Dare I create a new article? No, that’d make for one-too-many videos on the front page… Okay. I’ll stash it after the jump. With a secret TIGJam-related note!
Everyday Shooter, Jonathan Mak’s acclaimed musical shoot ‘em up, is heading to PSP, according to a Sony press release announcing the new PSP-3000. Players can buy an “Entertainment Pack” which includes the new PSP, along with a 4GB Memory Stick and a voucher to download the PSP version of Everyday Shooter from the Playstation Store. The entire bundle is $200.
No word on how much the game will cost alone, or what Jon’s involvement with the port is.
Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Romeo on a mobile phone? Could Juliet and the Pie Devil be nearby? Could this mean the long-awaited Multimedia Fusion 2 Java runtime, which François announced at last year’s Click Convention, is finally nearing release? Daddy, why is there hair growing where there wasn’t hair before?
Whoa, hold on there, young buckaroo (Kyle Pulver)...
Yes, before there was RomeoPie Software, there was Romeo and the Pie Devil, a simple platform game that came with the original Klik n’ Play. Ostensibly the brainchild of Clickteam Overlords François and Yves, this game stole the hearts of many a Klik’er, what with its charming graphics and… Pie Devil. Seriously, we love Romeo and the Pie Devil.
Now The Daily Click (the premiere Click website) is purporting that the images and video of this game was brought to them by a “source who claims is on the inside” (cybernetic ninja spyssasin). Is it real? No one knows for sure, but you can check out another image here, and there’s also some in-game footage in the latest Klikcast (at around 6:40 minutes left).
But now that I think about it, there’s no way François and Yves would allow such a thing to be leaked, unless…
Unless they wanted it to be leaked! Good Pie Devil, they’ve been orchestrating this entire thing from the very beginning!
POWDER’s been around for quite a while, but I noticed it just hit version 1.0 this year, so I took it for a spin (it’s currently at version 1.04)! The developer, Jeff Lait, created it so he could have a roguelike to play on his Gameboy Advance, and primitive versions of the game were only available for that platform. Now, however, you can also play the game on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, DS, and even PSP!
POWDER is a graphical roguelike, and it’s much smaller in scope than most games in the genre (which typically try to throw the proverbial or literal kitchen sink in there). The game also includes a mouse-driven interface and a tutorial that walks you through the basics, so I’d recommend it readily to beginners… and to veterans of the genre, too! If you’re looking for some lighter fare (or something to play on the go). It’s quite fun.
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Gish Cryptic Sea wgah’nagl fhtagn.”
