Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 06 May 2009 02:34:00 GMT
For those who were unable to attend, and those who want to relive the magic:
Also, the GDC Vault has released 3 videos: Jason Rohrer’s IGS session, titled “Beyond Single-Player,” The Indie Game Maker Rant, and The Game Design Challenge: My First Time, which features Heather “moboid” Kelley and Erin “The Ivy” Robinson. Thanks, Simon!
Hopefully more is on the way!
Posted by Xander Tue, 05 May 2009 00:37:00 GMT
Just a quick one today! Altitude is a self described ‘Fast paced aerial action game’, which is quite an apt summary really. The focus of the game is multi-player where you and a number of buddies pilot one of five different planes, of which there are two variants of each featuring different weapon load-outs, in an attempt to either take out the enemy fighters or deliver a package from their base to the enemy base. Oddly the package seems to explode on contact, damaging their base. Why would they try to deliver explosive devices in such a dangerous fashion?
One of the interesting draws of the game is that success in either dogfighting or playing payload paperboy yields XP, which is used to either unlock the planes for use or one of a number of ‘perks’ which can be customised on aircraft to confer various bonuses. I’m personally a sucker for any kind of persistant elements in games, especially multiplayer action games so this is definitely a plus for me. The frame-work holding it all together is fairly swish too, with an in-game friends system including a group chat function if you’d like to plan things out in advance, or a drop-in function if you just want to dive into a friends game and howl lead through the skies as quick as you can.
The game strikes me as overall a very nice product. It doesn’t quite set itself apart from the pack, but it does provide a very complete package that seems well supported with updates handled by the game on booting. There’s a demo available on the site, as well as the full version for $20 (both Linux and Mac machines are supported too), with demo access restricting you to only two planes and two perks though otherwise it allows you to play just the same as anyone else online. It’s well worth a playthrough with its quickly gratifying pick-up-and-play style, and to further sweeten the deal the full version will be unlocked for everyone this coming weekend to get a full taste of the product. With that, there’s no reason not to give it a chance. To the skies!
Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 04 May 2009 12:21:00 GMT
The results of our Cockpit Competition are in, and the decisive winner, with nearly 15% of the votes, is Justin “Crackerblocks” Smith’s Enviro-Bear 2000: Operation: Hibernation. What else can I say about this game except that it was “bear-y” well made! HAW.
Really, though, the basic concept is enough to make me bust a gut, but what I really love is the look on the bear’s face as he’s grabbing at things in his car. It’s a great use of the theme, too, since it’s very hands-on (paws-on?). Humor, style, creativity, interesting mechanics, and wildlife in motor vehicles – this one’s got it all.
Here are the top ten entries of the compo:
1. Enviro-Bear 2000 – Crackerblocks
2. Okkuplektor – 0rel
3. Star Cannon – tocky, compound, and EEsoteric
4. vectorLocust – jph wacheski
5. Cockpit Crash 1984 – David Pittman
6. Flying Dutchman – astrofra
7. Vessel-IV – muku
8. Aqua Kitty Sub-Sub – moogled
9. Landfall – toastie
10. Viewpoints – agj
To be honest, when I announced the compo I wasn’t sure whether the implied third dimension of theme was going to be a problem for people. Thankfully, I was rightly shamed by the 41 games which got submitted. This was a really fun one to watch develop!
Congratulations to Justin and all the other entrants! Many thanks to everyone who participated and/or helped out with the competition. Coming up next: the one you’ve all been waiting for…
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Sat, 02 May 2009 13:40:00 GMT
I’ve been having trouble recovering from GDC, and getting things in order after moving, and I regretfully missed posting about the new Paper Moon yesterday, but here’s something! A trailer for Cactus’ new game, “a game about killing everything you love.” It looks mind-blowing. Cactus is unstoppable.
There are some screenshots of this and other WIP games of his over on his blog.
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 01 May 2009 22:17:00 GMT
Great news – Paper Moon has been released on Blurst! The game, which features lovely black and white paper cut-out graphics, began as a short demo for Gamma 3d, but has been fleshed out in a collaborative effort between IA and Flashbang Studios, and makes use of Blurst’s recently added online leaderboards. Big pimpin’ Adam Saltsman (Gravity Hook) was responsible for much of the game’s original graphics.
As much as I enjoy Flashbang’s games, variety is the spice of life and Paper Moon is a great addition to their growing arsenal of fun, Unity-based web games. I hope there are more collaborations on the way!
Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:52:00 GMT
First up, the fantastic-looking Gratuitous Space Battles, from Positech Games (Democracy, Kudos). Wow. Amazing. Scale.
Next is Oddbob’s SYNSO: Squid Harder, the sequel to the retina-obliterating arena shoot ‘em up Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!. (Source: the2bears)
Finally, a very early preview of Bullet Candy 2. Charlie, the creator, has also released a new version of Space Phallus with two new levels. (Source: the2bears)
Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:15:00 GMT
Introversion’s Chris Delay posted a rather sobering series of articles reflecting on the team’s difficulties over the past couple of years, including the apparently lackluster reception to Multiwinia. It’s very honest, heartfelt, and revelatory. Thanks for sharing this, Chris.
I’ve always been of two minds towards Introversion. On the one hand, I’m a big fan of Darwinia and grateful for what Introversion has done with their early success to help popularize indie games and pave the way for other developers. On the other hand, the slogans, expensive cars, and general attitude of the marketing and business arm have always rubbed me the wrong way. Everyone’s allowed their fun, of course, but I couldn’t help but feel like there was almost a Romero-ness to it all… like someone I admired was telling me to “Suck It Down™,” or whatever.
So reading Chris’s latest posts, I’m reminded of Ion Storm, the story of which I read once a year as a reminder that things can always go in another direction (and it just so happens that my yearly reading came this past week). I don’t say that with any kind of satisfaction… I’ve met and spoken with Chris before, and it’s obvious he is just a shy and talented guy who enjoys programming and making games. Nor are the lessons to be learned necessarily the same – I just think both tales are really relevant to indie developers and important to keep in perspective as the scene grows ever larger.
Anyway, here’s hoping that the rest of the year is good for Introversion, and for everyone! Time to put the nose to the grindstone (or rather, keep it there) and make some cool games.
(Thanks, Lucaz! Via TIGForums.)
Posted by Derek Yu Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:31:00 GMT
Faith Fighter, the controversial browser-based fighting game where you could pit your favorite deities against each other Primal Rage-style, has been pulled from the creator’s website, following a brief statement from the Organization of the Islamic Conference condemning the game as being “incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians.” Molleindustria, who also developed the game Operation: Pedopriest, explains why they removed the game, citing a failure on their part to communicate the inherent irony of the game, which was created shortly after, and partly as a response to, the uproar over the Danish newspaper cartoons which depicted the face of the prophet Muhammed.
A more detailed write-up can be found here, on the liberal news and opinion blog The Huffington Post. Faith Fighter can still be played on Newgrounds.
TIGdb: Entry for Faith Fighter
Posted by Xander Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:19:00 GMT
Farbs, who created the VGNG Competition winning ROM CHECK FAIL has released a new game intended to be A message for 2K Australia, his current employers.
All I can say is that it’s good to see more from Farbs, and I somehow get the feeling that we might just see more from him yet.
Somehow…
Posted by Paul Eres Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:04:00 GMT
From almost out of nowhere, Glum Buster is released. CosMind spent about four years working on this game, with little hype—no trailers, not many previews. Only a few people even really knew about its existence, such as the IGF judges (it had been an entry) and the members of the small Game Maker community Eo (since he posted a small demo of it back in 2005 for other members there to be amazed at). But those people have been quietly looking forward to this game’s release for a long time. Accompanying its IGF entry description was a small rhyme and nothing else: “Cheer up, dear friend, or they may come. And take you where the glum is from.”
The game itself is a platformer with interesting environments, mechanics, and ideas—CosMind describes it as something from his daydreams, for ours. From the conversations I’ve had with him on the Eo forums, he has very strong and unique ideas about game design, so it’s not surprising that the game is fairly different from other platformers in its atmosphere and level designs.
I don’t want to say too much about the game because discovering it is part of the pleasure, but at the same time I want to express my enthusiasm for the game because so much care and work went into it and because it offers a unique play experience (the closest comparison is Seiklus, but comparing a game as unique as this to any other game feels wrong almost). The best moment for me was when, after the first few screen-size small stages, a large world opened up, and a grasshopper appeared that I could ride on, and I lost the ability to fly, and the sky went from its menacing red with many moons to a bright blue and a grassy castle, and I realized Glum Buster’s world was much bigger than I had ever imagined.
