Posted by Derek Yu Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:37:00 GMT
Here’s a new preview trailer of Positech’s upcoming strategy game, Gratuitous Space Battles. Man, this looks so beautiful. But I can’t help but feel like the opening tagline, “Imagine tower-defense with space fleets,” is doing a bit of disservice to the concept…?
(Source: Steve Swink, via his Twitter)
Posted by Lorne Whiting Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:28:00 GMT
Arthur “Mr. Podunkian” Lee released a new The Underside demo into the hungry claws of the indie games community recently.
I personally have nothing but words of cloying praise for the game, I mean, except for the tutorial phase but that’s been talked about enough. But yeah, it’s bitchin’, and obvious that Mr Lee put a lot of love into the game. The demo’s about twice as long as the last, and features such awesome things as beating a turnip launching flower with a baseball bat, and murdering no-good cheats in order to steal their improvised grappling hooks.
Though it’s fairly linear at this moment, all the areas blocked by signs and pig-cops will supposedly be places you can explore later.
Anyway, check it out, it’s pretty goddamn awesome, and the Ruins (pictured) has some super-bitchin’ music.
Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:01:00 GMT
Dammit, I did not realize that the latest Attract Mode/Giant Robot gallery game was premiering last night at the GR2 store in Los Angeles. Jottobots is a team-up between the illustrious indie game developer Kyle Pulver (Bonesaw, Snapshot) and developing indie gamer and renowned illustrator J.Otto Seibold. Are there any photos up from the event?
Posted by Derek Yu Sat, 30 May 2009 11:08:00 GMT
I know we’ve been going crazy with the trailers lately, but what the hey. It’s been a busy week and I haven’t had much time to play. Playable games coming soon!
Let’s start it off with a little cactus. Trailer music by The Death Set.
Dean Dodrill’s Elysian Tail: Dust is an XNA fighting game with some really gorgeous animation. And furries. Currently in alpha state.
Here’s a preview of the next Blurst game, which is coming out next month. Music by Alec Holowka.
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 29 May 2009 01:38:00 GMT
The final deadline for this year’s Swedish Game Awards (i.e. Ragnarök) has just passed, and the winners will be announced soon. Tim W. picked out a few cool trailers for IndieGames.com and here are my three favorites of those:
Bloodline Champions is a really nice-looking team-based multiplayer game that’s made for professional competition. It’s inspired in part by DoTA and League of Legends. No release date.
Paperworld is a “friendly and cozy” simulation game that has a fantastic papery look. That’s about all there is to know about it at this point.
Unlike a lot of the other entries, Haven and Hearth is playable, although in an alpha state. It’s an MMORPG based on Slavic and Germanic folklore where the player’s actions can have a permanent effect on the game world. Read the about page on the site, it sounds very interesting.
Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 27 May 2009 22:54:00 GMT
BREAKING KOTAKU EXCLUSIVE! Natural Selection 2, the sequel to the popular multiplayer Half-Life mod, is slated for a Fall release on Steam, according to its developers. The original game blended FPS and RTS mechanics and featured two very different playable teams – the alien Kharaa and the human Frontiersmen. NS2 will maintain the same basic mechanics, but with some new features (and obviously much prettier). It’s now running on an unnamed proprietary engine, with Valve’s Source engine having been dropped due to the cost of licensing.
This is great news, as the development has been through some rough times, with its creators selling a Sudoku puzzle game to make ends meet at one point.
(Source: Alec Meer, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
Posted by Guest Reviewer Tue, 26 May 2009 18:35:00 GMT
[This is a guest review by Craig Stern. Submit your own reviews to TIGSource here (forum membership required).]
Word has it that Blossomsoft has confirmed a sequel to its well-received indie RPG Eternal Eden, creatively named Eternal Eden 2.
The original Eternal Eden is a JRPG take on the Eden myth from (you guessed it) the Bible. Although a straightforward RPG Maker game in many respects, Eternal Eden stands out largely because it encourages player exploration. There are no randomized battles – you can walk around to your heart’s content without fear of being attacked, provided you’re nimble enough. Enemies are visible as clouds of smoke wandering somewhat aimlessly across each area. So long as you don’t walk into them, they will leave you alone. Additionally, items and loot are hidden in nooks and crannies all over the place, discoverable only by walking over them and pressing the space bar. The game informs you that it is essential to gather these in order to survive, and given how difficult some of the in-game battles are, I reckon that’s correct. Between avoiding enemies and searching for pick-ups, Eternal Eden occasionally feels more like a slow-paced game of Pac-Man than it does a JRPG. This is a good thing – it helps keep Eternal Eden from feeling too same-y. (The game does encourage you to fight monsters, however, via special treasure areas that open up only when you’ve cleared an area of enemies.)
Eternal Eden is not without its flaws. It relies heavily on pre-packaged RPG Maker graphics, and the in-game writing is sometimes quite clumsy. For instance, while searching for someone you know near the beginning of the game, one of your companions helpfully suggests that you kill every monster in the area in order to make her appear. Why a person in the world of Eternal Eden (who, come to think of it, has never even seen monster-containing smoke clouds before) would think those two things are related, much less announce it aloud without prompting, is beyond me. Presumably, this dialog is in the game because no rational player would ever make that connection either.
In spite of its flaws, Eternal Eden is on the whole a well-produced game with some innovative features and an interesting premise. It seems that the sequel is going to have its share of twists as well. Blossomsoft has described the forthcoming EE2 thusly:
Influencing the course of future events by learning of them in advance could make for a really interesting gameplay mechanic. The way I imagine it, however, it would take some strong non-linear writing to make it interesting and non-gimmicky. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how Blossomsoft makes it work. In the meantime, you can decide for yourself whether the original Eternal Eden is worth your $19.99 by downloading the demo, which lets you get as far into the game as you can in the span of an hour.
TIGdb: Entry for Eternal Eden
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Wed, 13 May 2009 18:26:00 GMT
Oh. My. Goodness.
Blaster Master meets Bionic Commando, with sexier physics and disturbing visuals? Yes, please. Not only is this the best XNA Community game I think I’ve ever seen (though, I’ll admit, my experience with XNA games is limited), it may be the best game ever? (Sure, I’m exaggerating here. But only slightly.)
My very first thought when I saw this was, “Hey, that looks like one of Arne’s concepts!” Could this be the dream game he’s been waiting for? I mean, supposedly it “features dynamic decision branching, and multiple, story-driven endings.” Does that mean free-roaming exploration? I sure hope so.
Find more at creator Nathan Fouts’ website, Mommy’s Best Games.
Also, his dev log can be found here, and is now added to the DevRoll, natch.
(Thanks again Offworld!)
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Tue, 12 May 2009 16:30:00 GMT
There was a contest going on to pick the name of 1-4, but it looks like the entry period is now over. (Sorry, folks!) Anyway, you can still find more about the game here.
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Sat, 02 May 2009 13:40:00 GMT
I’ve been having trouble recovering from GDC, and getting things in order after moving, and I regretfully missed posting about the new Paper Moon yesterday, but here’s something! A trailer for Cactus’ new game, “a game about killing everything you love.” It looks mind-blowing. Cactus is unstoppable.
There are some screenshots of this and other WIP games of his over on his blog.
