Yo, I’m in Washington right now for PAX (first time)! The show starts tomorrow, but today I got to attend a Microsoft event where some indies were in attendence. Slick Entertainment was one of the teams present, and they were showing off Scrap Metal, a “cars with guns” racing game that’s coming out to XBLA next year. As a fan of Rock n’ Roll Racing, RC Pro AM, Off Road, etc., I’m very excited about this one. The handling and physics felt great, and the action was raucous.
The inimitable and cheeky Introversion guys were also present and had Darwinia+ available to play. This game includes both the IGF award-winning Darwinia as well as Multiwinia (shown in the video above). I enjoyed Darwinia a lot but hadn’t ever played Multiwinia, mostly due to my aversion to multiplayer-only games (this might change now that I’ve tried Left 4 Dead 2). But hell, Multiwinia is great fun in singleplayer mode against the computer, too. I’ll be looking forward to grabbing D+ for the full experience.
And finally… Fez wasn’t on hand at the event, but it is coming out for Live Arcade in 2010 and there is some new footage of it in this episode of G4’s Electric Playground (around the 6:00 mark).
A while back we previewed a great indie co-op RPG, Wanderlust: Rebirth, shown here in a great tongue-in-cheek trailer (hooray for TIGSource citing!)
Recently, development for this project has picked back up, and an official demo has been released. The demo is a big update from the version we previewed, and now includes several new features.
3 Chapters
4 Bosses
Items to craft & collect
Dedicated Hosting options
New “Crawl” Game Mode: Where you can fight unlimited waves of enemies who increase in difficulty each level. After each level you get treasure and/or tokens for you and your team.
The team continues to work hard on the project, and I look forward to seeing the game reach completion.
First of all, Derek Yu’s super popular platformer-roguelike Spelunky has finally reached version 1.0! I’m assuming everyone here has played the game. If not, give it a try already—it’s one of the best freeware titles ever, absolutely.
You can find the latest version here, at Spelunky World.
The other, almost bigger news is: Spelunky will be coming to XBLA in 2010. Derek says, “it’s going to be much more than a straight port of the PC game – I’m planning on stuffing it with new graphics, audio, and other features for XBLA users.” The game will be developed under his new label, Mossmouth. (Support of the original will continue, of course!)
All in all, pretty exciting. Check Spelunky World for more information as it’s released.
Time Donkey, the latest game from Flashbang Studios (and the 9th on Blurst!), has been released. In the game you play as a donkey working at a fast food joint who discovers a portal and becomes "trapped in the very fabric of time itself, doomed to relive the same 30 seconds again and again."
It mostly plays like your standard 3D platformer -- running, jumping, collecting tacos -- but the trick here is that you can press R to jump back in time and try again, while "ghosts" of your previous tries play out. You can then interact with them, allowing you to reach new areas and such. It's a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get a handle on the controls and start planning your moves, it's quite fun. (And pretty darn hilarious!)
The music is, of course, by the indefatigable Danny B.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei (A Werewolf Thriller) is a fun flash game from Waremsoft in which you play a character on “a bloody quest to rescue the girl that hurt you from the hands of the planet’s dominant race: The werewolves.” Sneak by the werewolves and tackle them when they’re not looking—and enjoy the glorious blood effects as you mutilate them where they stand. (They seem pretty evil, so I guess that’s okay?)
Play Vox Populi, Vox Dei here, on Kongregate. (Requires Flash Player 10.)
Adam Atomic and Danny B are at it again with Canabalt, a flixel powered one-button platformer. Your incredibly suave protagonist continually runs to the right and all you are required to do is hit the jump button, varying timing and length in order to avoid the obstacles in your path.
So it’s a simple game to play then, but so much of the game is executed gloriously. The atmosphere is fantastic, with the multitude of greys creating a distinct world that’s easily identifiable even when your hero is at his fastest. The scheme even flows into the browser window itself, which frames the game in a similar style, which is a great touch. The wide resolution of the game also helps with seeing the oncoming obstacles without having to slow the game down to help you cope with the pressure.
The sensation of speed throughout is intensely gratifying. It’s often been said about the classic Sonic games that the speed sections were simply rewards for careful platforming and beating enemies, but here the whole game feels rewarding. He doesn’t take long at all to build up speed and it just increases as he tears across randomly generated rooftops. I also love the feeling of being out of control of the character, which sounds fairly silly, but it conveys the feeling of speed akin to say a runaway train. There’s no way to stop him, the best you can do is use the one button you have to get the hell out of the way of anything that will put a premature end to your rush.
For more information on Tim Langdell / Edge Games, visit our Edge Games Info Page. There’s also a long-running thread on the conflict with Mobigame in the forums.
I cannot say what this means for the future of Edge.
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:11:00 GMT
More hot trailer action! In Another Brothel, the film noir-style, box-spawning, hooker-saving platformer from Miroslav and Sereneworx (originally by Hideous) is coming out this year, to a browser near you. I wish I had more to link to, but I guess for now you can pester them here.
TIGJam 2, follow-up to last year’s extra awesome TIGJam in Phoenix, is coming up fast! October 9th—October 11th are the dates, homies. Reservations will begin soon.
Watch TIGJam.com for more information as it’s released!
(There’s also a forum thread here, if you have any questions.)
A quick news bite for anyone following 
