Posted by Xander
Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:11:00 GMT
After a failed start this monday, the IGF 2009 winning Blueberry Garden has finally been released by Erik Svendäng. This is notable especially because I can’t recall the last time a grand prize winner was released in the same year that it actually won the prize! I kid of course, and truthfully it’s interesting for something like this to have earnt such a prestigious award as unlike previous titles such as Aquaria or Crayon Physics it’s pretty hard to talk about. You play the bird-man pictured above and simply explore the world however you desire in an attempt to partly play around with the world and experiment with it, and partly to figure out if there is some sort of conclusion. As play begins you are given an image of a tap flowing water, and from there on your task is to do what you will with that information.
It plays similarly to a platformer however you have the ability to pick up and eat different kind of fruits which bestow extra abilities, such as an air bubble around the protagonist. You can also fly, which takes away some of the usual expectations of a platformer clearly. You can’t fly straight upwards though, only on roughly a 180 degree angle with a little leeway on either side. Similarly to Takahashi’s ‘Noby Noby Boy’ its hard not to suggest to people to buy because of the incredibly cheap price point of $5, and whilst it’s hard to really tell people specifically what there is to do in the game there’s certainly a lot to enjoy here. The atmosphere is great and the music is a complete joy, as well as the sheer surreal juxtapositioning of a minimalistic terrain crossed with wonderfully vibrant vegetation and the occasional gigantic block of swiss cheese.
There’s a demo on Steam at the moment, which I hear mixed reports on whether it actually works or not, so at the very least you should play it to see whether you find it interesting or not. Ultimately though at just $5, no bad can come of that purchase, and if its really your curiosity that’s pursuaded you to play the game then that’s exactly the kind of mindset the game desires of you. It’s a game that fully deserves the recognition it received at GDC, and it truly deserves just as much today.
Posted in Adventure, Windows, Abstract, Swedes | Tags ErikSvendang | 38 comments
Posted by Paul Eres
Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:04:00 GMT
Light of Altair by brothers Tom and Simon de Rivaz (SaintXi) is a strategy space colonization game. In a lot of ways it’s like a simplified Civilization set in a future space-age setting, although not quite in the way that Alpha Centauri was Civilization in space. You set up colonies across several worlds and asteroids at once, gradually building up power, food, colony happiness, defense fleets, your technology level, and expanding and exploring the solar system: each chapter is largely set in a different solar system (although there are some chapters where you have to manage colonies across several solar systems at once). It’s addictive in the way that Civilization was addictive.
I particularly liked how you could zoom in and out so far: zoom in very close to a colony and see all the details, or zoom out and see the star system from afar, fluidly. I also like the designs of the different star systems, it feels like a space game: you can see asteroid belts flying by behind your planet and so on.
Although the level of polish in the game is generally very high for an indie game, there are a few typos (especially the prevalent use of it’s for its), and I felt the story was a bit uninteresting. I also apparently don’t share the developers’ tastes in music. I’d also have liked to see a multiplayer mode (that was a lot of the fun of the Civilization series). Another thing is, I couldn’t help but mentally compare the game to Alpha Centauri (one of my favorite games), and often Light of Altair would remind me of just how good that game was. But it’s still an interesting experience in its own right: you couldn’t rotate the 3D world you just colonized while watching the other planets go by in the background in Sid Meier’s game.
Currently it’s on sale on Steam for $12.
Posted in Strategy, Windows | Tags SaintXi | 15 comments
Posted by Xander
Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:24:00 GMT
Little Wheel is a delicate point and click adventure where you play the role of a robot who is jolted alive by a bolt of lightning and tasked with finding out how to revive the rest of his robot civilisation. It seems perfectly pitched as a coffee break style game, with the relaxed atmosphere and jazz music along with the cool visual style and smooth gameplay. There are no ‘hidden pixel’ puzzles, most interactive elements are highlighted and usually it’s simply a case of just hitting the correct buttons in the correct order.
It’s an experience which is all too brief, but as I said there’s something quite amicable about its brevity. Everything about it just seems so delicately formed, even the protagonist who goes through a suprising amount of physical stress despite the short ride. It’s a wonderfully relaxing little game, so if you’re having a rough day at all now’s the time to put your feet up, get a mug of your favourite brew and of course, save the world.
(Source: Indiegames.com)
Posted in Freeware, Adventure, Browser Games | 19 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:13:00 GMT
Now that Classics Week and E3 are over, I’d like to come back to Tim Langdell for a moment, because I personally consider it to be not only a fascinating topic, but also an important one that raises a lot of issues important to the community, including intellectual property and the role of the IGDA. A lot has come up since my last post, and unfortunately, it’s spread relatively thinly across a number of interesting discussions. I’m going to do my best to summarize and provide links to source material so that people can have a better understanding of what’s going on. I make no pretensions about my personal feelings on the matter, but please consider that anything that I say for which I do not explicitly provide a source are my own opinions. I will try to make it as clear as possible when they are.
Also, apologies to the readers who come here looking for news on new games to play and are uninterested in this story. There will be some very soon, and I’ll hide the rest of the post under a jump so that you can easily and quickly move on.
Read more...
Posted in Community, Business, Developers | Tags Edge, EdgeGames, Mobigame, TimLangdell | 123 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:16:00 GMT
I’ll end Classics Week with John Calhoun’s Glider PRO (1991), seemingly one of the few early Macintosh games that has enjoyed both a strong community and lasting presence. In it you play a paper airplane that flies in and around a house or set of houses. You can move left and right but have to depend on air drafts (usually provided by vents in the floor) to lift into the air. The goal is to collect all the stars in each house, and avoid hitting obstacles.
I hadn’t played Glider PRO before tonight, but now that I have I can safely say that it is a wonderful game. Slumberland, the only official level (or “house”) packed with Glider PRO, is challenging and also rewarding to play – getting to a new part of the house is a lot of fun due to all the mundane-yet-exciting things you can encounter as you fly from room-to-room. As much as I do enjoy the bombast of modern games, there’s something timeless about the way some of these older games can conjure thrills from, say, getting a box of rubber bands to fling from your Glider. No cutscenes, no tutorials every time there’s a new thing… just a paper airplane and a house to explore. And for a game with such simple basic mechanics (only the arrow keys are used) there really is a lot that you can see and do, and many surprises in store.
The Mac OS9 version of the game comes with a house editor, which was unfortunately not ported to the OSX version. If you have an Intel Mac, you’re out of luck. But there are a handful of downloadable levels available from the official website and the fan sites linked on it.
Windows users can try out the archaic black and white version of the game, called Glider 4.0 (also obtained from the official site linked above).
Note: According to Ted Martens, the original Glider PRO only let you see one room at a time (on OSX you can see as much as the screen allows). He recommends lowering your resolution to play it as it was meant to be played.
TIGdb: Entry for Glider PRO
Posted in Highly Recommended, Freeware, Action / Arcade, Macintosh | Tags JohnCalhoun | 23 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:56:00 GMT
I decided we’ll have one last day of Classics Week before we return to new news. There are a few interesting games people mentioned that I wanted to cover before we go!
Man, seeing this (submitted by Bood_War) brought back a crusty memory or two. The Adventures of MicroMan is moderately fun but not a terribly exciting game series by today’s standards. However, it’s notable for being (I think) one of the earliest platformers on Windows 3.1 to feature smooth animation and sound effects, thanks to creator Brian Goble’s Windows Animation Package (WAP). You probably saw the game on one of those 1000-in-1-type Windows CDs back in the day.
You can download the shareware version of the first adventure and find out more about it on Andrew Turnbull’s MicroMan fan page. Classic DOS Games also has a shrine that includes walkthroughs for the first two games in the series (adventures three and four were planned but ultimately unreleased). Also, a new version of MicroMan is being sold by Brian’s casual games company HipSoft ($19.95).
TIGdb: The Adventures of MicroMan
Posted in Platformers, Windows | Tags BrainGoble | 26 comments
Posted by Guest Reviewer
Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:50:00 GMT
[Guest announcement by jstckr]
Sometimes it’s hard being European. There’s Japan to the East, obscured in a haze of gigantic robots, explosions and awesome flu mask fashion accessories. To the west lie the expanses of America, presided over by the regal Derek Yu and guarded always by the mighty fists of David Whitlark. What do we have to show for ourselves? Countless failed empires, some french guy riding a bicycle with a baguette under his arm, and questionable musical adventures like Eurodance.
Well, Europe, your fortunes are about to change. It’s time to stand up and be counted. We give you…
This summer, from Friday, July 31st to Monday, August 3rd, an indie game jam will be taking place in the lovely city of Berlin, Germany. Cunningly titled the Berlin Indie Game Jam, it offers the opportunity to meet a bunch of awesome, like-minded people and work together with them on some cool games, as well as participate in a smattering of events such as 3-hour game development competitions.
We’ll be kicking back on the second floor of the lovely St. Oberholz café. The café not only guarantees a smooth atmosphere to jam and work in, but also offers an assortment of beverages and tasty foodstuffs to help you ward off death by starvation or thirst.
Tickets are limited, and cost 5 Euro each. More information about the jam and further discussion can be found here.
Posted in Multiplayer, Community, Nerd Love | Tags TIGJam | 26 comments
Posted by Paul Eres
Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:49:00 GMT
The Exile games are RPGs in the Ultima style: make a party, crawl through an enormous world, gain stats, talk with people, kill thousands of monsters, and so on. Very addictive. They were later remade as the Avernum series, although some don’t like the remade games as much as the original ones (especially the remade graphics perspective).
My absolute favorite part of the game is how detailed the world is, how each NPC has custom text and feels like a real person, with their own lives and backgrounds. The story is written in third person, like a fantasy novel, which is odd for a game but works well here.
Jeff Vogel released the first Exile game back in 1995, making him one of the most classic indie developers still actively making games (he’s still releasing new ones, Geneforge 5 is the latest). The original shareware Exile trilogy was released between ‘95 and ‘97, and the free and open source Blades of Exile game (where users can create their own campaigns) was also released in ‘97.
Of the original three, the first one is a bit dated, so I actually recommend beginning with the second or third one, or with the free Blades of Exile, since the GUI and so on are much improved on over the first one. For instance, to ask a character about a specific thing involves clicking on a word in the second and third game, but manually typing that word out in the first game. Even the demos of the shareware ones are quite lengthy, and offer at least 10-20 hours of gameplay each.
These were some of the first indie games I ever played, they existed before the term ‘indie game’ was even commonly in use. One of my fondest game-related memories is, back on Windows 3.1, noticing that the graphics to Exile 2 and 3 were stored in simple .bmp format, and going into MS Paint and manually editing the appearance of a few of the character sprites, customizing them for my characters, such as replacing a staff with a sword, or recoloring red clothes to blue.
Posted in Highly Recommended, RPG | Tags SpiderwebSoftware | 18 comments
Posted by Paul Eres
Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:29:00 GMT
Just a quick note, the Path now has a demo. It’s not a part of The Path itself, but a new prologue chapter. It’s 56 MB and available for Windows and Mac. Now those in the comments section who complain about it not being a game can at least play first it to make sure :)
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Games and Art?, Windows, Macintosh | Tags TaleOfTales | 46 comments
Posted by Guest Reviewer
Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:16:00 GMT
[This is a guest review by Duckmeister.]
GeneRally is a top-down, offline multiplayer racing game by Hannu and Jukka Räbinä that would remind one of Micro Machines. You can play with up to 5 other players, either human or AI, and drive until you cannot drive any longer. At the surface, it’s just that simple, a couple of guys sitting around the computer playing a straight-forward racing game. But once you look deeper, you start to see all the work that was put into it.
I’ll show you a glimpse at some of the features in this game. There are changeable difficulty levels for the AI players. Extremely customizable driver profiles, with custom colors, controls, and full statistics. 50+ tracks and 8 cars, plus thousands of community-made tracks and cars. Semi-realistic physics. An extremely detailed track and car editor. Ghost car (for time trials)! Full mod support! Changeable timescales! Completely customizable race conditions, like how much a full tank of fuel weighs, or how fast the tires wear off and the fuel burns up. That’s right, for such a minimalistic racing game, there are pit crews and pit stops! The list goes on and on…
Basically, GeneRally is everything you want in an arcade racing game and more. If you like Micro Machines, or just fun games in general, you’ll like GeneRally. It’s got features you’d never expect in a minimalistic racing game (like pit crews), full statistics, and some of the best and smoothest offline multiplayer I’ve seen. As a bonus, the full mod support, with the very much alive community means the replay value is endless.
Try this game out, you will not be disappointed.
TIGdb: Entry for GeneRally
Posted in Windows, Racing, Multiplayer, Freeware | 16 comments
