BIT.TRIP CORE

Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Wed, 13 May 2009 18:00:00 GMT


BIT.TRIP CORE, game number two in Gaijin Games’ series of slick retro-yet-modern rhythm games, makes me glad I hooked up my Wii again last week. This is what the inside of Phil’s head must look like. Coming out “Summer 2009.” (Hey, that’s this summer!)

Check out the first BIT.TRIP game, BEAT, if you haven’t yet.

(Thanks Offworld!)

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Relay for Life - Indie Music Cancer Drive

Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:01:00 GMT

Relay for Life


Last year, Josh “TwiTerror” Whelchel and the independent game community raised over $800 for Relay for Life, a program sponsored by the American Cancer Society to help patients with cancer and to honor those who have died. Josh did this by selling copies of the very excellent Spirit Engine 2 soundtrack for $5.

For this year’s Relay for Life he’s hoping to raise even more by giving donors (of at least $10) a digital soundtrack that will contain music from a variety of talented musicians, including Kyle Gabler (World of Goo), Alec Holowka (Aquaria, Paper Moon), and my good buddy David Saulesco (Eternal Daughter). If you donate $25 or more, you’ll receive the soundtrack on disc. Not only that, but Josh will throw in a free copy of his upcoming album for anyone who donates $10+!

It’s a fantastic deal by itself. The fact that you get to beat up cancer at the same time makes it a must-have! Let’s try to blow Josh’s $1500 goal out of the water!

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Mo' Indie Game Soundtracks

Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:35:00 GMT

Ruff ruff... ruff?!

Following on the heels of The Spirit Engine 2 soundtrack, which was released last week by Josh “TwiTerror” Whelchel, here are some more free indie game tunes:

World of Goo OST (2D Boy)

Legend of Princess OST (Joakim Sandberg)

Nanosmiles OST (Dong) – via PAUSE

Immortal Defense OST (Studio Eres) – via PAUSE

For your listening pleasure.


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Auditorium Released

Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:24:00 GMT

Auditorium

The full version of Auditorium, the popular music-based puzzle game, has been released, and can be purchased for $11. It features 70 plus levels spread across 15 acts.

(Thanks, anonymous manbaby!)

TIGdb: Entry for Auditorium



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TSE2 - Selections

Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:50:00 GMT

The Spirit Engine 2 - Selections

Josh “TwiTerror” Whelchel has just released The Spirit Engine 2 – Selections for free (as torrent or direct download). “Selections” contains 22 songs from the massive 101 song soundtrack of TSE2 (which is available for $16). You can read a highly favorable review of the latter on RPGFan.

There’s also this great live recording of a 28-track TSE2 arrangement, for those interested. Thanks, Josh!

TIGdb: Entry for The Spirit Engine 2

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darkRun

Posted by ithamore Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:43:00 GMT

darkRun

darkRun, about which you can read more in the Feedback forum, is a stylish, arcade, music game by JLJac where the player collect dots while avoiding circles that sing and dance as they pull the player toward them with their localized gravity. The synergy of its neon graphics, music, and audio is delectable, and its use of gravity gives it that nice extra touch of flavor. It has even been compared to Blast Arena Advanced.

There are framerate issues, which has already been discussed a bit, and an ugly version has been released to help out slower computers. However, when darkRun slows down, it actually makes it a little easier to get a higher score on an older computer than a newer one. Also, this is JLJac’s first game in Flash, which seems quite impressive for a first try. Lastly, you might have to adjust you monitor to be able to read the in-game instructions.

Read more...

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Auditorium (Demo)

Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:05:00 GMT

Auditorium

I think Cipher Prime’s Auditorium is a rather perfect little game. The goal of each level is to fill each of the Audio Containers by directing “The Flow” toward them with Controls that can manipulate it in various ways. To successfully fill a Container you have to make sure The Flow is the same color.

What I really like about the game is how it sort of evokes this kind of harmony between… well, harmony and disorder. Succeeding at the game doesn’t require any kind of real precision – as long as enough of the right color of Flow is touching an Audio Container, it will fill up. As the website states: “Auditorium is about the process of discovery and play. There are no right or wrong answers; there are many ways to solve every puzzle.” By the third Act (Spring, my favorite), you’ll see that it becomes less about pointing The Flow as it is giving it room to dance.

But as the Audio Containers fill up, they start to play their music, and putting it all together there is a real feeling of orderly creation. Despite the fairly cold, minimalist graphical style of Auditorium, it feels like a pretty naturalistic game. Is this what Steve Jobs’ brain looks like?

Three Acts in the demo, but there plans to do 20 Acts for the full game. The creators are currently reviewing their options to put the game on a console, or on iPhone.

TIGdb: Entry for Auditorium

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Tap Tap Dance

Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT


TIGSource’s own Mark “Golds” Johns has been crunching hard for a while now—during Gamma, even!—on Tap Tap Dance, the sequel to Tap Tap Revenge, the number one most downloaded free game for the iPhone (or so I’m told). And now his hard work has paid off.

I applaud Mark for the extra effort he gave in turning what would have been another Guitar Hero Cash-In with a ridiculous title into what is now a Legitimately Cool Game with a ridiculous title.* Ten thousand TIGS Points to you, sir!

Apart from the improved graphics and gameplay, Tap Tap Dance features exclusive tracks and custom Boss Stages for select songs. Kind of, like, interactive music videos. For example, Daft Punk’s Technologic takes you through a History of Technology as you play and Justice’s Phantom Pt II gives you a 2001-inspired laser light show. (Oh, and did I mention Cactus himself contributed a characteristically trippy stage?) Check it out.

* Seriously, though, there must have been better contenders than “Tap Tap Dance.” C’mon, now!

EDIT: Oops, I neglected to mention Kevin “Greater Beast” Coulton’s involvement in the project as well, because I am a big jerk. Go Kevin, go!

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DrPetter's musagi

Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:18:00 GMT

musagi

DrPetter, the creator of sfxr and 116 unfinished games (and some pretty cool finished ones), put out a free music app that’s been floating around in an incomplete (but functional) state for awhile. musagi is a sophisticated music editor and synthesizer that I warrant could compete with commercial music editors should DP decide to rub out a version 1.0. It certainly feels intuitive and easy-to-use for even a newb composer like myself.

There are a few rough spots in the program, but most can be worked around. For example, I had problems loading songs until I realized that it was the “Parts Window” that was screwing it up and making it crash. Once I made sure to close that before loading songs, I was gold. Diamond Rider “remixes” flowed from me like fine brandy.

Anyway, I’m hoping that this post will help inspire DrPetter to clean musagi up, because it would most certainly be a boon to all of mankind. Also check out his article repository, where you can find some learnin’ words about sfxr, musagi, and sound/music in general!

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Plus - Free Indie Soundtracks

Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:19:00 GMT

Plus / Rescue the Beagles

II (“Pause”), the retro/chiptune music label and community, has launched a new section to their website called Plus, which is specifically devoted to free indie/doujin game soundtracks. So far there are only two albums available, the Rescue: The Beagles OST, composed by Disasterpeace, and the Another Bound Neo (doujin FPS) OST. Label co-founder and artist Phlogiston says more are on the way, but he’d love to see developers contact II and release their soundtracks. You might recall that Phlogiston is the musician behind cactus and VilleK’s Brain Damaged Toon Underworld, among other things. He’s also collaborated with the chiptune music collective 8bitpeoples.

Great idea! Developers, submit your music – I hope to see many more games on there in the future. And definitely poke around the rest of the II catalog, too.

(The Rescue: The Beagles album art displayed above is by the very talented Annabelle Kennedy. Full version of the artwork can be seen here!)

TIGdb: Entry for Rescue the Beagles

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