Nice, a game where the goal is to be hit by enemy fire! In IndestructoTank A.E. you play the titular tank (heh). Your goal? To get hit by bombs, missiles, and what have you, and get propelled into the sky, whereupon you can unleash havoc on your foes by bouncing around on top of them. Combos earn you experience points which can then be spent to buy more enemies. The game ends when you run out of fuel.
But I thought tanks are supposed to have guns? IndestructoBuggy, more like? Ah well.
Ainevoltas 2 is a fairly recent release from Alastair “alspal” Jack, the creator of Final Vision. If you played the latter you can expect a similar experience – simple platforming with a very basic story and some RPG elements. That doesn’t sound like much, but FV was a fun game and so is this. The simplicity and brevity of both games definitely works in their favor. I also rather enjoy the deadpan dialogue.
In Ainevoltas 2 there are four main stats you can upgrade: health, strength, recover, and jump. It’s pretty straightforward, but at a certain point you can join a guild and it becomes more interesting from then on. There are other surprises in the game which should tickle you with their surprisiness.
This year at the Tokyo Game Show, they will be hosting a new event called the Sense of Wonder Night 2008 (inspired by the Experimental Gameplay Projet), which will focus on the most awe-inspiring, innovative games that elicit a “sense of wonder” in those who experience them. Up to ten games will be selected for the event, and there are no explicit restrictions on who produced the game or when the game is/was made available to the public. It seems to be a drive for reinvigorating the gaming industry by calling for the greatest originality from those with the freedom to be innovative whether it be doing so independently or within the commercial mainstream.
How is TIGSource absent of what could be the greatest independent post-apocalyptic sandbox-game ever!?
Ska Studios, the maker of the soon-to-be released XBLA game “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” holds the title for perhaps the greatest free zombie game to date. Survival Crisis Z mixes the free-roaming, do-what-you-want aspects of games like Grand Theft Auto, and the post-apocalyptic zombie/infected scenario from movies like 28 Days Later and I am Legend.
The game has two main game-types: story and arcade. In arcade it is very simple: you will simply run around the streets of a city as the only survivor, facing ever increasing numbers of zombies until you die. This mode often only lasts a few minutes, and offers rewards for high-scores ranging from new mini-games available from the menu to a character editor for the campaign.
On to story mode:
As the main Character, you roam the city, trying to survive the outbreak in hopes that help will arrive. You aren’t alone either: other survivors like yourself have formed into clans, and the city’s police force has even set up a few strongholds.
For awhile, the city might seem peaceful almost, with only one ore two of the infected attacking at once. But wait until nightfall, and the streets will literally be crawling with them. Will you stay with other survivors in a stronghold? Or will you try to keep moving or hole up by yourself?
The “living city” aspect of SCZ is amazing, better even than many commercial games that have attempted the same thing: you’ll come across police patrolling the street, or even walk straight into shootouts between fighting factions. You can even interact with these factions by visiting various strongholds and ask for a job. These jobs range from simple “take this package across town” to rescue missions to even taking out entire other factions’ strongholds. As you do these missions, the various factions of the world will treat you differently based on how much they like you.
You don’t need to follow any sort of storyline however (although, if you want to escape the city, you will have to at some point), and there are plenty of things to do. You can simply explore: looting bodies as you go around the randomly-generated city, or even venture into the dark sewers and try to flush out the zombie invasion. Or you can run a personal trade-route: purchasing supplies for cheap at one stronghold, and then traveling to another where they will fetch a better price. You can use any money you get to purchase new weapons, supplies, or training. Yes, I said training. SCZ has a rpg-like system of several skills that you can develop. From personal healing to bomb-making, these skills can then be used in numerous ways to your advantage.
During all your travels throughout the city, you’ll even begin to pick up other lone survivors like yourself, who will travel along with you and even fight alongside. You’ll have to keep an eye on their health however: if they are bitten and not treated within a few hours, they might turn on you and attack.
The zombies of the game range from the fast, newly-infected variant from 28 Days Later, to the slow, shambling-yet-hard-to-kill version from the Zombie films of old. There exploding zombies, child zombies, dog zombies, giant zombies, and of course zombies that you always think you’ve killed, and then they get back up and attack again (much like those damn “magic” birthday candles).
Another fun aspect of the game is that you (and any “crew” that you have collected) can attempt to take over other stronghold for yourself. Sometimes this entails protecting it against a massive flood of the infected, and sometimes you must kill the current owners who are less than pleased to be evicted…
There are three “campaign/levels” in the game, and each is progressively harder than the last. So if you want an awesome survival-horror game for free, and you’re not a fool with Vista such as myself, look no further than Survival Crisis Z (or if you have Vista, do as I do and throw SCZ on a thumb-drive and play it on a friend’s computer with XP).
Also, although this version of SCZ doesn’t have multiplayer, who knows what lies around the corner...?
EDIT: for Vista users, there is a supposed fix, although it has only worked for some of those who have tried it. See the comments for this post if you want to try it for yourself.
Low-poly lovers rejoice! 8bit killer is a NES-style FPS made in Game Maker that features a 64-color palette, 32×32 pixel textures, and an energetic chiptune soundtrack. The game pays wonderful homage to the platform shooters that inspired it, employing linear levels along with the Wolfenstein-esque maze levels. It works pretty well.
There are, I believe, 4 areas in total, with 3 stages in each area, with every 3rd stage being a boss battle. Six weapons. The variety of enemies and textures in the areas I’ve played so far is surprising.
8bit killer is a very fun and polished game. I also love the look of Locomalito’s current projects, a platform game named Grialia and a Gradius-inspired shoot ‘em up named Hydorah. They’re definitely a developer to watch out for!
(Note: the game uses standard WASD + mouse FPS controls. Press “Enter” at any time to toggle between 1x and 2x resolution.)
Iffermoon is the latest RPG from Scott Cawthon, also known as Scott Games. If you’ve played The Desolate Room and Legacy of Flan 4: Flan Rising, then you should rightly expect another very unique experience from Scott. Iffermoon is definitely very different from your average fantasy RPG.
It’s also by far Scott’s most ambitious project. Dinost is an extremely detailed world, both in conceptualization and realization. Moving around the gorgeous environments and interacting with its unusual denizens, I felt like I was someplace rich in history… and the large backdrops that extend far into the distance give the impression that the world is physically vast. I also really dig Scott’s 3d pre-rendered graphics, which remind me a bit of Hiroshi Yoshii.
Unlike the other games, which were viewed from a top-down perspective, Iffermoon is 2d side-scrolling. You can enter new areas either by walking off either the left or right side of the screen, or by taking some sort of transportation (hot air balloons, pipes, elevators, etc.). Battles, which are by and large are voluntary, happen in real-time, with party members moving and attacking automatically. You can, however, direct the battle by setting combat stances and using special moves that have various effects. Combining these moves is essential to winning in battle.
Unfortunately, Iffermoon suffers from fairly prodigious loading times during transitions between areas, menus, and battles (at least, on my rig). This is probably fallout from the enormous, high-resolution sprites on every level. There is also some tedium involved in gaining the necessary amount of “favor” with someone to enable them to join your party. These quests generally involve walking to some location, collecting X number of items, or killing X number of monsters.
But in my opinion, it’s a small price to pay to experience one of the few RPG worlds that feels genuinely unique from head to toe. And the relative open-endedness of the journey is quite refreshing, also.
Jimmy’s Lost His Toilet Paper, and you’ve got to go find it! This is a new 7-day game from Petri “Fuck Yeah!” Purho. In each level you’ve got to roll up the loose toilet paper and head toward the exit, a task which is made much more difficult by platforms, crates, and other obstacles. The concept is not only incredibly cute, but it works great in practice, and creates some interesting (and challenging) physical puzzles. I’d love to see Petri polish it up a bit more (Ã la Crayon Physics)... for one thing, it could definitely benefit from some kind of save feature/level select screen.
And the clarion call goes out for next year’s Independent Games Festival! The IGF is one of the best parts of GDC, and it gets bigger and better every year. Definitely try to submit something, if possible, and, barring that, make an effort to attend the conference. You will never see things the same again. (And that’s just if you go drinking with Phil Fish, pictured at right.)
The two big changes to IGF this year are the new judges (including 2d Boy’s Kyle Gabler and Kloonigames’ Petri Purho), and the addition of an Innovation Award to the Main Competition.
Here are the important dates:
July 1st, 2008 – Submissions are Open November 1st, 2008 – Submission Deadline, Main Competition November 15th, 2008 – Submission Deadline, Student Competition January 5th, 2009 – Finalists Announced, Main Competition January 19th, 2009 – Finalists Announced, Student Competition March 23rd-27th, 2009 – Game Developer’s Conference 2009 March 25th-27th, 2009 – IGF Pavilion @ GDC March 25th, 2009 – IGF 2009 Awards Ceremony
As usual, IGF submission is $95. See the website for more details!
Treasure Seas Incorporated is a game from Felix Wiesner over at Mausland Entertainment. It’s an Arcade/Adventure game with RPG elements about deep-sea treasure hunting, with the player using a miniature submarine to plumb the depths in search of gold. But Neptune isn’t just handing out gold for free: the depths are full of deadly obstacles such as giant sharks, absolute darkness, and crushing pressure. Who knows what might gaze back at you from the abyss…
If all three of your submarine pilots become lost to the sea, your exploring days are through.
What I found most interesting about this game was its incorporation of Role-Playing elements into the gameplay. As the player, you can use the gold you’ve recovered to outfit your submarine with upgraded equipment, allowing you to gather more gold. These upgrades include improvements of the sub’s air-supply (for staying down longer), pressure-plating (for diving deeper), and propeller (for moving faster).
The more you refit your sub, the more gold you can get. Get enough gold and maybe you’ll earn a spot on the online Hall-of-Fame.
So take one last glance at the surface, and prepare to dive. Good hunting…
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Gish Cryptic Sea wgah’nagl fhtagn.”
