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…
The Indie Game Database got a big update this weekend. Jeff and I also had a great time on tigIRC, where we were exposed to “spider-hell.jpg” time and time again. (Among other things… shivers)
Regardless, we made a lot of progress and I’m excited to share it with you guys.
User Reviews! A long-awaited feature! Now, after you’ve rated a game, you can share you experiences with it and discuss what you liked, what you loved, and what you thought could be improved. User reviews will appear at the bottom of each game’s page, where the most helpful reviews will float to the top! Check out this review I wrote for MDickie’s Hard Time! You may be surprised to find out what I think of it! (Or maybe not at all!)
And if you click the user’s name under the review’s headline, it will take you to their profile. Right now your profile will display your avatar (if you’ve uploaded one), and your bio, along with a list of the reviews you’ve written.
User Submissions Users can also submit games from the site itself now, although an administrator will still have to view the submission and add the game manually. But it’s a great way to bring a game to our attention, and I think it’ll be a lot easier than submitting via the forums.
Also, I know a lot of people will be submitting their own games, but we ask that, if you do, please also submit a game that you enjoy that someone else made. This will increase the likelihood that your own submission will get added (the submissions page has other guidelines that will help you get your submission through).
“Remember Me” Login Some people were hoping that the site could remember that you logged in so you wouldn’t have to enter your info every time – now you can check “Remember Me” when you log in and it’ll do just that!
Lots o’ New Games! I added a bunch of new games from all of the place, including your submissions on TIGForums. The grand total now is nearly 300 (maybe 300+ by the time you read this?). Rate, tag, and review ‘em up! With the new submission system I can hopefully add games faster and more regularly, as well. Whoo hoo!
The db has been a great success so far, but these new features should make it even more fun and useful. And as usual, we’d love to hear your feedback. If you look on the left-hand side of TIGdb, you should see a UserVoice “Feedback” widget that you can click to vote on suggestions and feature requests, or submit your own.
And mad props to Jeff for working hard to implement these features. We really hope you enjoy!
Posted by Guest Reviewer
Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:19:00 GMT
[Guest Review by FishyBoy]
Cubes is an excellent online game. It can be summed up as a 3D version of the Tron lightcycles game. [Note: it’s essentially a multiplayer version of nenad’s Counterclockwise. -Derek]
You fly around, leaving a trail behind you. Hitting a trail kills you. You can move along any axis. You can also shoot at enemies, although it’s not too effective. Several power-ups are available, and you also have a boost. The world wraps around, so if you just keep going in a straight line, you’ll eventually crash. The default level is empty, although there are a few other levels with some trails already added. That’s about all of the game.
The game is simple, but it’s good fun zooming along colorful corridors, twisting about in a convoluted path and desperately hoping you don’t smash into a wall. When you first start playing it’s rather disorienting, but you get used to it pretty fast. The learning curve was only about 5 minutes for me, and in about 20 minutes I was doing pretty well. Rounds are done survival-style, and the field is pretty small, so games are fast-paced and short.
The game doesn’t have very complicated graphics, but the twisted multicolored architecture when you’re well into a round looks pretty cool. It doesn’t take a very fancy computer, either. My awful computer ran it nicely, with occasional frame rate drops.
The community is very friendly, helping out all the new and confused players. The menu mirrors the main game in simplicity, so it takes less than a minute to set your name and join a server. When there’re about 6-8 people in a room, it’s great fun, although it’s still pretty enjoyable with 2 people.
In short, it’s a fun and unique game, enjoyable on all accounts. I highly recommend it.
In Phyta, from Cambrian Games (Abraham Parangi), you control a dark sun with your mouse to direct the growth of a shadowy plant. Progress is made through its five levels by ensnaring the golden angels in the plant’s branches, which will grow more quickly toward the sun when the left mouse button is pressed.
With its clean, simplic look and play, the first game it made me think of was flOw. And the mellow classical guitar and cello duet music beautifully enhances the hole experience.
Some might find Phyta somber, a few might even consider it to be contrived, and then there are those who might consider this game as another choice example of games as art. I, however, found it to be more than ten minutes of mono no aware. Additionally, I wonder if the lack of ending beyond the abruptness of merely closing the program during the fifth level was based on a developmental or artistic decision.
Speaking of flOw, Little Fish is another game being developed by Cambrian Games with some similarities based on its description. I’m looking forward to seeing how original or imitative it is in comparison to flOw, but I’m also interested in the planet game Parangi has been posting about on his blog.
Dirk Valentine combines sweet pixel art with mustachioed gentlemen and steampunk. And a chain cannon. I feel like it could be great instead of just good if Nitrome would only:
1. Take out like 3/4’s of the messages from “Monty,” the irritating old fart that enjoys telling you things like “avoid the deadly green gas!” and basically spoiling the fun of figuring anything out for yourself for the first dozen or so levels.
2. Add a little variation in the level artwork. As good as it is, it gets a bit tedious toward the end.
I also wish that secondary objectives like collecting medals and rescuing gents were meaningful gameplay-wise, but that’s a minor quibble. Otherwise, I had a good time with this one – the chain cannon’s abilities are pretty interesting, and the puzzles inspired by them are well thought-out.
A new Orisinal game, hurrah! Sunny Day Sky is another incredibly endearing, life-affirming project from the mind of Ferry Halim (gad, what must it be like in there?). In the game you control a small bear who’s whose goal is to fly over as many cars as possible with his umbrella. By opening and closing your “brolly” you can catch some serious air. And catching tomatoes will let you stay afloat longer.
The game opens itself up to some serious combo/multiplier action. In my last game I netted nearly 500,000 points on a single jump, but it’s definitely very possible to go way, way higher! I think if the game ramped up in difficulty a bit faster, it’d be perfect.
Posted by Guest Reviewer
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:59:00 GMT
[Guest review by J. Thompson]
Sunny Day Sky is another degenerate “danger simulator” from the twisted mind of Ferry Halim. Disguised as entertainment for children, this program promotes, among other things, playing in traffic and eating “red tomatoes” (possibly a street name for meth) to gain super powers, like the ability to fly by simply holding an umbrella. Make no mistake about it, your kids are at the mercy of this foul “gamer,” who undoubtedly gets sick satisfaction from reading the obituaries of his victims. To protect them, I strongly suggest keeping them away from computers, televisions, or any other “devil boxes” where the game could be “played.”
Previous “danger simulators” by Mr. Halim include What Comes Around, which promotes animal cruelty, and Midnight Serenade, a game in which you play a stalker preying upon a young woman. Good Christians should also take note that Mr. Halim calls himself “Orisinal,” a name which is most likely shorthand for “Original Sin.” The pagan bastard.
Now give me my license back before I punch you in the goddamn face.
Mtp Target is a simple enough concept: In most maps, the penguin you control rolls down a hill, goes off a jump, and then must be put into gliding mode (CTRL) in order to be maneuvered over to the target area, usually some sort of platform. Your first few attempts at Mtp Target will most likely result in frustrating falls into the water, but if you stick with the game you’ll be landing on target in no time.
As I got better at Mtp Target, I picked up on some strategies that reveal a more competitive aspect of the game. For example, instead of racing to the landing area, more experienced players will glide in circles until everyone lands and then zoom over and knock everybody into the water, proving that even the cutest of games can provoke vulgar (not to mention hilarious) exchanges of insults.
My main problem with most multiplayer games is how long it takes to start playing; loading, finding a good server, more loading, waiting for players to join, getting utterly ravished by people who devote their lives to playing, etc. So it’s nice to see that there’s an online game out there that doesn’t take itself too seriously and instead aims for a laid-back, quick experience.
Tale of Tales’ Michaël Samyn (The Endless Forest, The Graveyard) recently put up an interview he conducted with Takayoshi Sato, the man responsible for the haunting CG work in Silent Hill, and who is now employed at Virtual Heroes, a company that makes training games for various clients (they worked on America’s Army!). Michael asks Takoyashi about Silent Hill, games and art (natch), and his decision to now work on “serious games.” It’s an interesting discussion.
And definitely check out his other interviews, which go back to May of last year, when he chatted with American McGee! In the indie gaming sphere, Michael conducted two interviews before Sato – one with Simon Carless in December and one with Jenova Chen following this year’s GDC.
Tale of Tales has a unique approach to game design and the same goes for their interviews. A very worthwhile read (and very nice to look at, of course).
Take the weapons from the Quake and Unreal Series (the shotguns, the grenade-launchers, the laser-cannons), throw in swords, over-sized wooden mallets, and grapple-hooks for good measure and give the whole arsenal to a tiny, round, and colorful race of giggling cuteness that one might come across if say… Tribbles got into a large stash of food. Now force these creatures to fight each other in battles ranging from death matches to rounds of capture-the-flag.
Well, actually, don’t do that – it’s already been done, and turned into an surprisingly polished and addictive experience.
Officially, Teeworlds (originally titled “Teewars“) is a 2d multiplayer-only platform shooter available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and with its gunning and grappling cuteness it recalls memories of games like Soldat, Liero, and the cute-but-brutal landscapes of the Worms Series. Although it’s only in version 0.4.2, Teeworlds has already shown amazing progress and is perfectly playable right now.
The controls of Teeworlds are standard controls for and big-title FPS (WASD for movement, number keys for weapons, click to fire, etc) and fit the gameplay very well. Of course, the player can remap any of these keys if need be. The customization doesn’t stop there though; each player can customize the shape and color of their individual character or even make their own maps via the map maker. Another aspect of the controls I really thought was innovative for a game of this type was the emoticon system: just push leftShift, and a circular menu will appear with several choices. Simply move the mouse over the emoticon you want to appear over your character, and release shift. Simple as that.
You can even go one step further if that level of freedom isn’t enough: Teeworlds is an open-source project, which has led to many, many, custom skins and mods on the part of the community.
Game play is easy to learn, and soon you’ll be a double-jumpin’ grapple-swingin’ gun-wieldin’ machine, so be sure to check this game out.
We're drawing robots in the forums. 
