ShellBlast, the sequel to Ac!dbomb, is today’s Game Giveaway of the Day! To call this puzzle game an advanced version of Minesweeper seems like a disservice, but then again, it doesn’t seem entirely inaccurate. It’s fun, in any case, and my only real complaint with the game thus far is that completing missions feels anticlimactic. But hey, I guess that’s kind of the nature of bomb diffusal, right?
The full version of ShellBlast is ordinarily a measly $5, so if you really enjoy the game, you should shell out some cash for it (wink)!
Note: so in order to qualify for the giveaway, you must actually install the game before the time ends. Simply downloading the installer is not enough.
Jayisgames’s 4th Casual Design Competition is over, and as usual, the results are quite impressive! The winner of the competition is The Tall Stump, a puzzle platformer that has you searching a giant tree stump for a mad magician who’s turned your girlfriend into a square. (I hate it when that happens!)
Oh, and hats.
Overall, it’s a highly enjoyable game. Both the platforming and puzzle solving are fairly light, but well-designed, with plenty of humor sauce liberally applied (what?). If there’s one niggle I have with the game, it’s that the coin-activated save points seem superfluous and merely add to the frustration as opposed to making the game more challenging or fun. ‘Tis a small qualm, however.
If you want to see all the entries, Jay and his crew did full write-ups for each one. See them all right here (long load). Congratulations to JIG and all the entrants!
Content Directors for this year’s IGF, Steve Swink and Matthew Wegner (a.k.a. Flashbang Studios), have recently released a quirky, physics-based puzzle game called Splume, made in only four short weeks as part of a new development path experiment they’re conducting. In Splume you shoot balls that attach to other balls… and… wait, why am I describing this when you could simply watch the video, or, in just a few more mouse clicks, play the game? Here’s what’s important: It’s fun and polished and free.
So apparently Flashbang will continue releasing compact games like this for some months, then decide which games are the best to flesh out into “full” versions. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
Splume has an online scoretable, level editor, and live feed of recent play history across the galaxy. Check it out. And enjoy.
About a week ago, a mysterious individual by the name of “MisterX” posted about this game in the comments for Launchball. Not only is a great idea for a puzzle game, but it’s been implemented really well.
Click Drag Type 3 is a rather nifty little flash puzzle game by Simple Andy. The player may click, drag, and type – from there, you’re on your own. Each puzzle is different from the last: the point of the game is to work out what the items in front of you do, and how to interact with them to solve the puzzle.
Having trouble? There’s a full walkthrough on Jay Is Games here.
Launchball is an educational game designed to teach kids about physics, and is part of an interactive gallery called “Launchpad” at the London Science Museum. Essentially, it plays like The Incredible Machine, only using realistic lab apparatus instead of toasters and fishbowls and so on. Whenever you complete a level, you’re given a nifty bit of science trivia as a reward (like that very random bit about Newton to the side). Once you’ve completed them all, you can move on to creating your own!
It’s excellent! The graphical and musical style is minimal and elegant (and I might add, gorgeous), the interface is juicy and responsive, the puzzles are engaging – the whole thing just feels slick and professional to the last detail. Digg’s rather taken with it too: they managed to crash the Science Museum website last week (though they tend to do that quite a bit, I hear), and more that one person over there has described it as better than Halo 3 (for whatever that’s worth). Well worth checking out!
In Hoshi Saga 2, you are presented with a series of mini-games and the object of each is to find a hidden star. How the star is hidden and how you find it varies with each game. It’s kind of Wario Ware-ish in that the fun comes from figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing (minus the time pressure).
The levels are presented in a grid, and at the end of each row and column is a hidden mini-game that can only be accessed once every other game in the row/column is beaten. Beating all the hidden games unlocks the credits.
The games are all very clever, and beautifully presented. Quite lovely!
Created to introduce prospective students to the curriculum of Shibaura Institute of Technology, Grow Island is another fantastic addition to Eyezmaze’s Grow series of games. Um, wow, yeah – sign me up for the class where I pave a railroad in a giant robot!
As usual, a walkthrough is provided by the readers of Jay is Games!
Bloxorz has you flipping a block around – either along its long or short edge – to drop it in the hole. There are 33 levels of totally gnartacular block-flipping action.
Polychromatic Funk Monkey made it’s way to the feedback section of our forums, and boy, is it swell! Pick up color blocks and drop them to get to higher areas. Collect “telefunks” to increase the number of blocks you carry (to a total of 10). Telefunks also serve as warp nodes, and trust me, you’ll need to warp back and forth plenty as you’ll often get stuck.
This game grew on me like a mold. There were countless times I thought I’d trapped myself for good, or had no good way up, only to find that, with a little ingenuity I… could… do it! The levels are randomly generated, so I wonder if it is ever possible to get completely stuck. But regardless, the feeling of accomplishment at making it to the next telefunk is tremendous.
Clever game, great presentation. The only thing missing is some actual funk. Where’s James Brown at?
Gameplay video courtesy of Soldat Movies in the extended:
