Posted by BMcC
Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:25:00 GMT
Spurred on by the success of their first-person survival horror game/tech demo Penumbra, Frictional Games has announced they’re developing a full commercial trilogy of games in the Penumbra universe, the first of which being Penumbra: Overture.
The game is due to drop “Q1” 2007, which I guess is Spring, but I don’t really know and I don’t feel like Googling it even though I could’ve done just that instead of typing this exposition.
Through a deal with Lexicon Entertainment the game will be available “in stores world-wide” for a retail price of €19.99 (or $328.35 USD). Now you can pay to have Penumbra crash your system! Ha ha, I kid. You go, Frictional Games!
Posted in Adventure, Windows | 2 comments
Posted by Albert Lai
Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:05:00 GMT
It is with mild trepidation I unveil my own, personal project, Legion
of Literacy, a website that provides a place for amateur developers and
wanna-be developers alike to congregate and do what they do best laze around
create a game! It is oriented more towards the people who are unable to find
a team to work together, rather than established coders and designers who have
no trouble getting a team together (though they’re welcome too!)
The idea is that game proposals are submitted to the main forum, and then developers
(artists, coders, writers, etc.) sign up for the ideas that they wouldn’t mind
working on. It’s all hopelessly utopian and I do a better job explaining it
on the site than in this tiny box of text.
Most of the framework had been laid down, and only a community separates this
website from bleak abandonment and hasty abandonment!
Posted in Developers, Community | 8 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:15:00 GMT
When the God of Indie Games Journalism requests something, you give it to him, by himiny!
Here’s a little teaser video that shows off some of the gameplay in the first part of Aquaria. Some of you were wondering how things move ingame. Hopefully this will convince you that it’s pretty fluid (har har)!
We mention on the game’s site that we’re using voicework in lieu of text-based dialogue (which you have to sit and click through). You’ll hear some of that in there, also. The actress is Jenna Sharpe, and the work she’s done for Aquaria is fantastic.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this little glimpse at the game (still in progress)! As we get closer to our expected release date, you can expect a lot more media and info.
Posted in Previews | 24 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:16:00 GMT
Old news, but for the sake of completeness… I’ll have to be honest, despite the good things I had heard about the game, I avoided Ninja Loves Pirate precisely because because of the ninja/pirate/zombie/robot theme. I understand it was made for a Gamedev.net “4 elements” contest. So I just wish the 4 elements were something else, like old ladies, Willem Dafoe, absinthe, and child soldiers.
The presentation is, of course, gorgeous, but the gameplay is fun but far from perfect. Case in point: there’s this one part during a quest where you’re supposed to hit a switch to create a bridge over a pit, but it looks (falsely) like you can leap over the pit with Ninja. Small unbalances like that add up to make the experience feel sloppier than it should.
But it’s worth a download, certainly!
Posted in Platformers, Windows, Freeware | no comments
Posted by Tim
Fri, 06 Oct 2006 03:51:00 GMT
So far only a couple of screenshots were posted for Aquaria. Perhaps we can coax Derek to post a boss screen capture, one creature design or two, maybe even a short gameplay video while we wait for the highly anticipated spring release? (hint, hint)
I’m actually quite tempted to add a new category entitled Aquaria.
On another note, is someone working on a translation for La-Mulana yet? It’s been getting a lot of rave reviews though the game is pretty hard for non-Japanese speakers.. (La-Mulana download link)
Posted in Previews | 11 comments
Posted by BMcC
Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:11:00 GMT
This just in from our man who likes Japan, Shih Tzu:
The 12th annual Interactive Fiction Competition started October 1st and runs until November 15th. The IFComp is a community-driven competition of homebrew text adventures in the style of the old Infocom games (think Zork).
Everyone is encouraged to download the games and rate as many as possible.
Also! Defcon has been reviewed by The Onion A.V. Club, “proving
once again that they are totally deliciously indie.”
Thanks, Shih Tzu!
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Windows, Competitions | Tags IFComp | no comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:21:00 GMT
The creator of Line Rider makes this declaration at the beginning of his game’s description:
“Its not a game, its a toy. What i mean is there is no goals to achive and there is no score.”
It’s an interesting distinction he’s making, but it’s not enough to prevent me from posting it on TIGSource. Which stands for The Independent Gaming Source, not The Independent Toy Source. That would be a different acronym…
You get what I’m saying here?
In any case, Line Rider is only beta and it’s pretty fun, if a bit unwieldy. Draw lines and have a little guy ride them. Ride them so dirty.
With a little imagination and determination, you could even come up with scenarios like this.
Posted in Browser Games, Unique / Bizarre, Casual | 13 comments
Posted by BMcC
Tue, 03 Oct 2006 08:17:00 GMT
Gotta hit my quota!
Here’s an average little shmup called PixelShips Retro. You select a spaceship and fly around shooting other spaceships that don’t look like your spaceship.
Now, I was interested in this game at first. The developer was all like, “160 ships to collect! 80’s style original graphics and sound!” And the intro screen was pretty rad.
However… the game is rough around the edges. Real rough. That, and the developer decided to push it as heavily-crippled shareware. Disappointment!
So many indie developers complain about how few shareware games make real money, but look at how many are just simply unprofessional. My theory is, great games will sell. Will time prove me right?
Posted in Community, Shoot-em-ups, Windows | 14 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:26:00 GMT
GameSetWatch has an interview with Joseph White of Lexaloffle. It’s a fairly low-key interview with not too many surprises. Except for the part where Joseph goes nuts and hurls a chair at the interviewer’s head. BOTH OF THEM.
Posted in Interviews | 1 comment
Posted by dessgeega
Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:42:00 GMT
defcon and dot fighters are both out. go play.
update: mirrors for dot fighters on the independent gaming forums.
Posted in Strategy, Fighters | 24 comments
