And the 100th post is...

I just finished playing this and I had to share. It is an excellent spy thriller viewed from a first-person perspective with an aesthetic reminiscent of the CG anime TV series and PS2 game, Gregory Horror Show and Team Fortress 2, all rendered lovingly in the Quake 2 engine. Yes, the quake 2 engine. It also won arthouse game of the year over at Game Tunnel if that sort of thing wags your tail. The creator of the game Brandon Chung who is the developer at Blendogames seems to have a series of games that look just as interesting, so I highly recommend checking out his website.

I have recently been taking a lot of issue with people who in my eyes focus too much on the narrative elements of videogames and not enough on the actual ludic elements, but in this case, the actual experience of playing the game, from the art direction to the music to what actually happens in the game, all work together to form something a lot more than if the game was solely about its game mechanics. AND, it is something that could only work in videogames. He works very well with the unspoken rules of videogames and subverts them for the purposes of the experience I am assuming he wanted to give the players.

Anyway, it will not take much of your time I promise. I don't want to say much about the game as a lot of it is from the experience of playing it so go play!

Oh! And speaking of Gregory Horror Show, it is actually pretty funny.

Brain Damaged Toon Underworld and more Cactus Goodness

Cactus, who is one of the more prolific and recognisable indie game developers out there teamed up with Ville Krumlinde to form LoFi Minds, an independent game development outfit based in sweden and this

 

is their first game. Which is still in development, and I am sure I have talked about even if briefly on the blog before.

Looks awesome huh? Now, I don't want anyone coming on here and saying how it looks like snes graphics or whatever. You obviously need to broaden your appreciation for videogame art styles. Realistic 3D is not the only way to make a modern game look! Go have a look on their website to see more screenshots and some gameplay videos. They are also planning on making it a high definition release which is really cool. 

Cactus has made a lot of cool games such as Clean Asia, Mondo Medicals, Mondo Agency, Ad Nauseam 2, Psychosomnium and a LOT more. You can find most of them on his website. 

I find him a major inspiration in terms of what I actually would like to accomplish with the games I make, in terms of having a distinct aesthetic, and being able to put out prototypes without fear. Would probably lead to me finishing games quicker. 

Anyway, just putting his name out there for people who might be interested in trying out some indie games. All of which are free!

He also has a compilation of 17 (!) of his best games in one handy zip file which weighs in at a modest 45mb.

Enjoy!

The above image is from this thread where there are more examples of fanart inspired by Cactus' games.

Auditorium

 

Auditorium is a very atmospheric music/puzzler type flash game. From what I understand on the website, it is a demo of the game which they actually hope to be able to port to the iPhone (excellent idea!) and various consoles.

The game is a great way to waste a couple of minutes and the music is awesome. You can check it out here

xWUNG

Lo-Fi Minds just released a new flash game called xWUNG. I love the music and art style for it. Then again, I love Cactus' design. Always seems fresh and retro at the same time. Can't wait for their major game in development, Brain Damaged Toon Underworld to be done and released.

Rescue the Beagles: The Review

Ok, time to finally put up this review as it has been long overdue.

Rescue the Beagles was created as an entry into the TIGSource's Procedural Generation Competition that finished not too long ago. It also emerged as the winner out of some quite worthy entries. You can check out all the other entrants here.



Rescue the Beagles started pretty well for me. The menu screen is really simple, and has the wonderful background art as its background. The pixel art is also very nice and the music set the tone for the excellent ingame music.

The aim of the game is rescue the titular beagles from the evil forces of cosmetic testers while navigating a procedurally generated three-tiered landscape and avoiding lawyers, radioactive lip balm and giant yeti-looking creatures. I shouldn't forget to mention that you can defeat all the enemies (except for the lip balm, 'cos that would just be weird) by well aimed throws of owls...or their poop...yeah.

If you're like me, once you read that and see what it looks like, you would be drawn in like a fly to a fly zapper.

And after my first couple of play throughs I was hooked! The fact that Bibi could serve as a spotter of beagles and in that way collaborate with me was also a major plus.

The pacing of the game, the graphics, the sound, it all comes together to form quite an interesting arcadey title. The integration of an online high score table is also a definite plus.

Sometimes I do feel like whatever code was used to generate the levels may be a tad unfair, but that could also be me just being crap of course. I also feel that it requires a few more animations to help players get feedback about certain activities. The falling distance of the player is very short and it takes some time to be able to gauge a safe distance to fall reliably. The addition of a panic animation or something similar could alert the player to the fact that they may be about to bite off more than they can chew. And maybe some sort of indicator could be used to let players know when they are close to losing a beagle.



Aside from those little niggles, I am quite happy with the game. It is perfect for a 5-10 minute break, and there is enough depth in the level flow and control schemes to allow for 'advanced' play.

You can get it here.

Finished!

I just finished one of the stories in Knytt Stories! This one was called 'The machine', and although it wasn't hard, I felt like I had to mention this simply because even though I have had Knytt Stories and its predecessor, Knytt, I haven't been able to keep at any of them until I completed them. It was simply enough for me to soak in the music and atmosphere. I felt like I didn't need to finish.

Well, that was until today really. I saw the end coming, and I went to pull the lever. The pay-off was very nice too. Moving through the world I had just saved was a really great experience and a perfect ending in keeping with the mood of the game.

This got me thinking about completing games and the huge pile that I still have to finish on my PC. Console games are easy enough for me to complete. I got my ps3 not long ago and I have already finished Armored Core 4, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Metal Gear Solid 4, Dynasty Warriors 6 and Call of Duty 4. That's a lot of games to finish in less than a month.

Unfortunately, on the PC it is a different story. I have loads of games sitting and waiting for me to complete them. There's Half Life 2: Episodes 1 & 2, loads of indie games (the aforementioned Knytt can finally be removed from that list!), Planescape torment and Diablo 2(both of which I was playing through again although I have never finished the latter), Grim Fandango (first time through, haven't finished yet), Far Cry (stopped once they began to introduce xxxxxxx), and Sins of a Solar Empire (which I got from a friend).

I think what it is is that I no longer have my PC in my house. I game during breaks (and sometimes when I really should be working)at work and it really cramps my style. A lot of these games require quite a commitment of time and more importantly me entering a mindspace that is quite frankly incompatible with the work environment. It's quite interesting to me that I can watch anime or even a movie in bits, pausing whenever I have to get back to work, but I can't do the same with a videogame. Once I pause a game a couple of times to work, I lose interest in going back in. It begins to feel like work I don't have to do. Figuring out the puzzles and going through the motions of actually playing and entering the game's space just fill me with a sense of dread that I have to overcome if I want to progress.

It requires a really compelling reason for me to continue that will make me forget or in fact not even have those thoughts at all. A recent game like this was Shadow of the Colossus. The boss fights were just the right length for me and since there were no levels, moving around to the next colossus was not only stress free, it was actually a very moving experience in a way.

IGF 2009 Competition

Just to let everyone know that the Independent Games Festival 2009 Competition has started receiving entries. I am going to try and get something together (maybe!) in time for the competition.

I am currently working on an IF project tentatively titled 'Phantom'. If that goes well, I might delve into game maker and see whether I cannot make a spin-off of the universe I am building in that.

Here's some of the more important information regarding the competition taken right off their website.

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; important dates for IGF 2009 are as follows:

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


For a complete list of IGF 2008 event information, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.

If you think you might enter, say something in the comments.