Take the weapons from the Quake and Unreal Series (the shotguns, the grenade-launchers, the laser-cannons), throw in swords, over-sized wooden mallets, and grapple-hooks for good measure and give the whole arsenal to a tiny, round, and colorful race of giggling cuteness that one might come across if say… Tribbles got into a large stash of food. Now force these creatures to fight each other in battles ranging from death matches to rounds of capture-the-flag.
Well, actually, don’t do that – it’s already been done, and turned into an surprisingly polished and addictive experience.
Officially, Teeworlds (originally titled “Teewars“) is a 2d multiplayer-only platform shooter available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and with its gunning and grappling cuteness it recalls memories of games like Soldat, Liero, and the cute-but-brutal landscapes of the Worms Series. Although it’s only in version 0.4.2, Teeworlds has already shown amazing progress and is perfectly playable right now.
The controls of Teeworlds are standard controls for and big-title FPS (WASD for movement, number keys for weapons, click to fire, etc) and fit the gameplay very well. Of course, the player can remap any of these keys if need be. The customization doesn’t stop there though; each player can customize the shape and color of their individual character or even make their own maps via the map maker. Another aspect of the controls I really thought was innovative for a game of this type was the emoticon system: just push leftShift, and a circular menu will appear with several choices. Simply move the mouse over the emoticon you want to appear over your character, and release shift. Simple as that.
You can even go one step further if that level of freedom isn’t enough: Teeworlds is an open-source project, which has led to many, many, custom skins and mods on the part of the community.
Game play is easy to learn, and soon you’ll be a double-jumpin’ grapple-swingin’ gun-wieldin’ machine, so be sure to check this game out.
Posted by Jordan Magnuson
Wed, 14 May 2008 20:54:00 GMT
I know, I know, we’re all mature independent gamers here, and we know The Indie Canon like the back of our collective hand; and yes, Open Liero was mentioned here a scare half year ago. Well I’m sorry, but here’s the thing: is there any one here who is really going to stand up and say that Liero doesn’t deserved to be mentioned at least every few months on any self-respecting indie site? If there is one person out there who reads this post, and has not yet played Liero, and plays Liero as a consequence, then this post was not in vain.
So many clones, but there’s only one original; and here’s dos box, for sound.
If I had a million dollars for every time I had fun playing this game, well, I would be richer than Bill Gates—and that’s a lot of millions.
Edit: despite my [snobbish?] loyalty towards the original, it’s true that OpenLieroX is perhaps the definitive version of this game. Download it here.
Oh, man, this game is fun! Trials 2 Second Edition is a physics-based motorbike game that’s reminiscent of the classic Elasto Mania. The series began with two Flash games, Trial Bike (and variants) and Trials 2. Trials 2 SE, however, is a downloadable commercial title with really nice 3d graphics and many more options (although the 2d gameplay remains more or less unchanged).
The goal of each track is to make your way from one end to the other. In between, you’ll be jumping gaps, popping wheelies, doing loop-de-loops… and probably smashing your poor rider into every surface along the way. Have you ever fallen face-first into a tire fire? I’ll bet even Travis Pastrana hasn’t.
Thankfully, this is another game where losing can be as entertaining as winning (hurray for 3d ragdoll physics!). Also, checkpoints are placed liberally, and restarting is as easy as hitting a button. Trials 2 Second Edition is surprisingly frustration free.
The full version of the game is $19.90 USD, and gives you 40 tracks, 3 game modes, 25 achievements, and the ability to maintain a profile and compete with other players for online ranking. One of the coolest features of T2SE is that, when comparing scores, you can click an icon next to a player’s name to either watch a replay of their best run (complete with key presses), or to race with their “ghost.” You can also create and join teams and compete as or within a group. (Which reminds me, team “TigerSauce” is looking for members! The password is herebeowls.)
On the Cryptic Sea blog, programmer Alex Austin explains that the physics for our favorite ball of tar have changed quite a bit in Gish 2. Gish is now composed of 128 independently moving particles, as opposed to being a single, deformable object. The possibilities for this, of course, are tremendous!
Just got around to trying the Facewound alpha, which was released by Garry Newman (of Garry’s Mod fame) a couple weeks ago. The game, which was a few years in the making and a few more years abandoned, is very much incomplete… and is a bit dull if you play it straight (that is, without enabling the various debug features). But try pressing a few keys and all of a sudden you can fly through buildings (“V”) and wield everything from chainsaws to crossbows (“N” for credits, “B” for the buy menu)! Now we’re talkin’!
It also comes with a level editor and a slew of unfinished maps to play with. Facepunch forum members have already started modding the game, with some interesting results. To play custom maps, simply copy and edit one of the two “JumpTo” batch files in the main directory of the game.
Definitely nice to have a violent, technically-advanced side-scroller to tide one over until the release of Berserker/Link Dead (both of which are currently being retooled)!
Walaber, the developer behind Jello Car and numerous other physics-ey games, has released Gymnast for the PC (the Xbox version will appear on Xbox Live Community Games). Playing the game requires a joystick with twin analog sticks, as well as Microsoft’s .NET 2.0 Framework. The analog sticks are used to separately control the arms and legs of your gymnast.
It takes quite a bit of time to get used to moving your character with the sticks, but thankfully, even failing is quite entertaining! The awkward spills and deadpan expressions of the characters definitely gave me a few chuckles. After some perseverance the controls start to feel pretty natural.
The game comes with two modes (Challenge and Gymnast), a replay feature, and a level editor. Hit the jump for a fun video of someone playing a custom level they made.
This came out a while ago, but it’d be a shame if anyone missed out on it… Phun is an incredible 2d physics sandbox developed by Emil Ernerfeldt for his Master’s of Science Degree at Umeå University, Sweden. The game lets you create objects of any size or shape and then hook them up to springs, chains, and other objects (all the while tweaking variables like density, bounciness, and friction). But what really makes Phun so “phun” is how intuitive the interface is – it’s super easy to use and even lets you undo and redo. No need to worry about making “mistakes.”
I remember spending a lot of time as a kid playing with stuff like Kid Pix on the computers at my school. Not to knock Kid Pix, because it was pretty awesome, but if Phun had been around back then, I probably never would have gone home.
(Note: To make water, just right-click any object and “liquify” it. This isn’t explained in the in-game help, so it took me a little while to figure it out.)
Walaber, the creator of the squishy physics-based game JelloCar, has released a trailer for his next game, titled Gymnast. The game, which is controlled by twin analog sticks, will be released for free on the PC and Xbox 360.
It looks really ace, I must say! For more information on the game, hit up Walaber’s Gymnast thread on Fun-Motion.
