Posted by Eos
Sat, 23 Sep 2006 22:09:00 GMT
Yes, it’s that time of the year again – Shubun no hi, the Japanese Autumnal equinox Day. To celebrate this special occasion, I’m going to feature a game. A game “of the month”, if you will. And I use this phrase very loosely because it’s not so much an “award” as it is brownie points. Well, it’s more like pats on the head or giving a gold star to a well-deserved child or a three-dollar martini.
So without further ado, I’d like to present this three-dollar martini to Fren-ze, a vertical shooter with vivid, vibrant colours. It’s probably a bit too dazzling because my poor little blue fighter can’t seem to last 5 minutes. I blame my genetic code that lacks the SHMUP DNA that would otherwise let me do this.
Posted in Community, Shoot-em-ups, Windows | 3 comments
Posted by Shabadage
Sat, 23 Sep 2006 09:44:00 GMT
Why helllloooo, it’s your favorite sleep deprived, freeware game finding, TIGSource posting madman. And guess what? I’m here to share some more freeware gaming goodness with you. The game up today goes by the name of Acter World; and it’s a puzzle/action/platforming game, similar in feel to Bubble Bobble (Not Puzzle Bobble).
The game is about Lina, the games heroine, trying to rid the floating royal palace of an evil wizard and his goons. Armed only with a magical bubble ring, she sets off through 32 levels of solid, old school fun.
—
On a personal note; the show that MC Chris did up in Fort Collins, CO last night was awesome! If you get a chance to see this guy in concert; then DO IT! Best $12 I’ve spent in the last year or so.
Posted in Action / Arcade, Platformers, Freeware, Windows | 7 comments
Posted by Tim
Sat, 23 Sep 2006 00:59:00 GMT
Every month we struggle to come up with a proper description for this post, and always end up falling flat on our faces (well, just me).
It’s difficult to fill up an entire paragraph with anything witty unless my first name’s Derek. If only my next shareware game is Aquaria, and I’m planning to release it in Spring 2007.. then I could have mustered something funny to say in this sentence.
Oh, right. Back to the topic at hand. Game Tunnel’s Review Round-Up for the month of September is out. Mighty interesting read as usual.
This month’s pick is Gumboy Crazy Adventures, a game which I wasn’t too impressed with either. But that’s just my humble opinion..
Posted in Community | 20 comments
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin
Wed, 20 Sep 2006 11:56:00 GMT
Perhaps we need a new category for “newsgames.”
Ian Bogost of Persuasive Games has announced Airport Security, the first in a series of satirical Flash games commissioned by Shockwave.com and Addicting Games called The Arcade Wire.
The game has you managing (of course) an airport security line, removing prohibited items from potential passengers and their luggage, while keeping up with the constantly-changing security regulations.
Hooray for games with a message! According to Persuasive Games’ site, it’s their bread and butter:
“Persuasive Games is the natural choice of leading advocacy groups and lifestyle brands who want to communicate effectively through electronic games.”
On one hand, it’s exciting to see games that move beyond mere amusement, that have a message and real-world impact. On the other hand, as Ian himself admits, the vast majority of topical games are no more than passing novelties.
What do you, the loyal TIGSource readers, think? Play the game and judge for yourselves!
(Source: GameSetWatch)
Posted in Freeware, Browser Games, Social Impact | 8 comments
Posted by Albert Lai
Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:12:00 GMT
Invalid Tangram, screenshot
aside, may seem like another puzzle game, possibly asking you to complete more
and more difficult tangrams in order to escape from a diabolical room, or something.
But no! Invalid Tangram is instead a fast-paced STG/Shmup (Which one do we
use again?) developed for a Guildhall exhibition. Similar to games made by Mr.
ABA himself, Invalid Tangram is simultaneously creative and enjoyable to play
– though enemy sprites could use a bit of a makeover.
Gameplay itself is simple. Enemies come in four colors – destroying them causes
a block to fall and stack on the bottom of the screen. You, the strange tangram…thing,
can absorb similarly colored blocks to upgrade your attacks for a limited amount
of time. A more in-depth explanation can always be accessed from the tutorial
function. As it should.
Posted in Shoot-em-ups, Freeware, Windows | 3 comments
Posted by Tim
Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:24:00 GMT
Part of the Second Experimental Gameplay Competition entries held recently, String Theory is a game that can be played with either a dance pad (if you happen to own one and have it connected to the PC) or the keyboard (for us poor folks).
The objective is to keep the spider-like creature within the screen, using extendable feet to grab hold of any surface it touches. Limb can be directed by using either the mat or the numeric keypad, though elasticity and grip are lost quickly so it’s vital to keep the entity moving at all times.
Text files can be edited for an easier difficulty or just to modify screen resolution settings. An updated version is available on the same page as well, plus a sequel has been planned for release later this year.
Posted in Action / Arcade, Competitions, Freeware, Windows, Physics | 6 comments
Posted by ithamore
Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:43:00 GMT
The
Maze of Cheese (which won 2nd place last year at
Stanford’s annual student competition for their Intro to Computer Graphics)
is akin to collecting games such as PacMan and Katamari. But instead of
collecting, you must roll the jiggly Baron around to touch every yellow piece of
cheese and turn them blue as quickly as possible. The longer you take the more platforms, corridors, and stairs will grow into
structures similar to M. C. Escher’s
"Relativity" and
"House of Stairs" especially in higher levels.
The game play is simple (maybe too simple) and straight-forward, the Baron never dies, and the levels are infinite in number. It feels much like an Atari 2600 game re-envisioned for the 21st century.
Since no documentation is provided with the game, you might want to continue
reading if you don’t want to hunt for the controls. Movement is made possible by the arrow keys or with
W A S D, the space bar jumps, and
gravity is rotated 90 degrees forward with Tab
and Enter.
Other useful keys that
should be mentioned are R to reset the
Baron to his starting point, holding Ctrl
brings up a map, holding the left or right mouse button and dragging it
moves the camera, L skips the level, P pauses, the
scroll wheel rotates gravity forward and backward (rapid scrolling is useful
for "flying" through large mazes), the -
key flattens the Baron, and the = key
un-flattens him (the other keys: 1-6, H, M, `, and Esc). Flattenning the Baron and warping him around himself by jumping a few
times while rolling will make him mutate and grow into a hypercube-like form that
shows the Maze who’s cancerous.
I like the idea of having extra controls to experiment with and to discover
different ways to play a game. Mutating the Baron just a bit allows him to crawl
madly through large mazes that would take much longer to finish a piece of
cheese at a time, but it can also make him hard to control when he grows too much. What do you think of incorporating such non-traditional controls?
(Source: Slashdot)
Posted in Freeware, Action / Arcade, Platformers, Unique / Bizarre, Windows, Competitions | no comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:54:00 GMT
Just discovered a blog by Jeff Tunnell, who co-founded Dynamix back in the day (whoa, I didn’t know that!) and also Garage Games (the Torque Engine). The blog, Make it Big in Games, looks like a really great read for independent game developers or anyone interested in an insider’s look at the industry. I’m going to have to spend a night just going through the archives…
Posted in Community, Developers, Business | 8 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:25:00 GMT
Well, I guess it’s technically indie game news, so I ought to mention it… some Canuck went nuts (Joystiq) and shot some people up in Montreal, and I guess he played Columbine Massacre RPG, so there’s your “video game connection” right there. There’s really not much else to say. The reactions from all sides are pretty much what you’d expect. Jack Thompson will probably masturbate to this one for a while, although honestly I don’t think it’s going to be big news for very long.
Posted in Community | 23 comments
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin
Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:43:00 GMT
Greetings! My name is Brandon McCartin, latest and greatest most recent editor here at Ye Olde TIGSource.
Not to bump down the more exciting news, but I’ve got to break the ice with something. So, um… bump?
At its big media event yesterday, Apple revealed, in addition to increasingly microscopic iterations of its various products, some exciting news for prospective owners of the fifth-generation iPod and indie game developers alike. Videogames! On your iPod!
The games may be downloaded through iTunes 7 for a reasonable (in this case, $5) fee, just like MP3s in the days of yore. The “intuitive Click Wheel” is used as a controller.
The games featured in Apple’s announcement include gaming classics Tetris and Pac-Man, casual hits Bejeweled and Zuma, and real world favorites Texas Hold ‘Em and Mahjong.
Now if Apple would only make an open SDK available…
Posted in Mobile / Handheld, Community | 8 comments
