The Swapper

By: Derek Yu

On: June 8th, 2013

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of puzzle platformers (or even puzzle games, to be honest), but when they’re good, they’re good. With The Swapper, Finnish studio Facepalm Games has not only uncovered a fun new mechanic but also crafted an extremely intriguing science fiction tale around it. Though the central themes may not be completely original to sci-fi, the way they come into focus as you solve puzzles and explore the beautiful claymation world is deftly executed. This is a great example of how to tell a story with a challenging game.

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Gunpoint

By: Derek Yu

On: June 4th, 2013

Gunpoint was released on Steam yesterday. The brainchild of PC Gamer UK editor Tom Francis, Gunpoint is a stealth game where you play a freelance spy who has to steal sensitive data for his clients. To finish your missions, you’ll have a variety of gadgets at your disposal, the foremost of which is a Crosslink device that will let you rewire lights, switches, cameras and doors. The other gadgets are acquired optionally and offer the player more ways of achieving his or her goals.

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Starseed Pilgrim

By: Derek Yu

On: April 16th, 2013

IGF 2013 Excellence in Design nominee Starseed Pilgrim was released on Steam today (Steam releases were offered to all the nominees this year). This unassuming and enigmatic puzzle platformer has become a hit with a number of indie game developers, including Bennett Foddy (QWOP) and Braid creator Jonathan Blow, who called it his game of the year for 2012. Since so much of the enjoyment from Starseed comes from figuring out how the game works, it’s hard to describe even the basic goals without spoiling it. If that sounds fun to you in and of itself, you should probably give it a go.

2x0ng

By: ithamore

On: March 31st, 2013

This is Xong. This is 2x0ng. Any questions?

However, for your enlightenment:

I hope you enjoy it. It’s quite difficult, but quite beatable, and there’s a proper ending movie and everything.

Also,  please use this link if you care about bandwidth restriction, have a heart, or …: 2x0ng at IndieDb. And more of David O’Toole’s games can be found here on his site.

Gameplay Trailer: Banished

By: Derek Yu

On: March 23rd, 2013

Banished is an upcoming city-building simulation where you manage the lives of exiled colonists in a remote wilderness. According to the game’s website: “The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource. They are born, grow older, work, have children of their own, and eventually die. Keeping them healthy, happy, and well-fed are essential to making your town grow. Building new homes is not enough—there must be enough people to move in and have families of their own.” Townspeople can have a variety of occupations, from hunting to blacksmithing, and sustainable practices will be necessary to survive the harsh environment.

Amazingly enough, Banished is being developed by a single person. The game is due on PC in the latter half of 2013.

Driftmoon

By: Derek Yu

On: February 26th, 2013

After 7 years of development, Ville and Anne Mönkkönen have released Driftmoon, an adventure/role-playing game set in a charming and colorful fantasy world. The game comes with development tools that you can use to create and share mods. Also, a large demo is available to try out and includes the full editor.

You might remember Ville as the creator of the survival game Notrium from 2003.

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Jelly no Puzzle

By: ithamore

On: February 23rd, 2013

Jelly no Puzzle is the latest difficult puzzle game from Qrostar. It shares some similarities with his earlier Hanano Puzzle but has enough changes in the gameplay to make it a new challenge.  Mainly, the jelly blocks push each other instead of being switchable.

Qrostar is still making tweaks to the game before finalizing it, but I found the current version very playable. The latest improvement-in-progress should help to compensate for colorblindness through adjustments made to the color values. So, if you have something to report or a comment to share with him, you can head over to his diary to post it. That’s also were you can find a link to download alternate versions of levels 38, 39 and 40 that were replaced during development.

UnReal World is Now Free

By: Derek Yu

On: February 22nd, 2013

The cult classic survival roguelike UnReal World is now donationware as of version 3.16. Creator Sami Maaranen cites faster releases as the reason for the switch, saying “massive AI, end-game and graphics improvements are underway and I’d like to keep releasing new versions whenever substantial new features are up and running”. People who already own a full license to the game are still entitled to free updates should it ever revert back to a paid scheme (a possibility that Maaranen acknowledges).

Although it’s a lesser-known roguelike, UnReal World has garnered a cult following for its complex combat and survival systems, as well as its unique portrayal of Finnish history and mythology. Unlike many dungeon crawlers, UW is extremely open-ended, allowing the player to play a number of non-combat roles such as hunter, hermit, fisherman, or trader. More often than not, the elements are your worst enemy, and understanding how to survive in an Iron Age Finnish wilderness is one of the game’s major challenges.

Trailer: The Witness

By: Derek Yu

On: February 20th, 2013

This is the first official trailer for The Witness, a first-person puzzle game by Jonathan Blow and his new team. It was shown today at a Sony press event where they unveiled the PS4, the only console that the game will launch on. The other two launch platforms for The Witness are PC and iOS.

Antichamber

By: Derek Yu

On: February 11th, 2013

It’s maybe easiest to compare Antichamber to Portal, but it actually reminds me more of The Manhole, an old children’s adventure game where a boat ride down a river might take you into the teacup of a character you were chatting with earlier. Like that game, Antichamber is constantly subverting your expectations about what is possible, especially with regards to physical space, and gives you a relatively large amount of freedom to explore its interconnected world. However, whereas The Manhole was goalless and sometimes completely random, Antichamber has a logic behind it – a method to its madness – that makes it such an interesting puzzler (and a technical marvel, as well).

There’s no story to speak of in the game and barely even any text. Instead, proverbs are found on posters as you play, encouraging outside and inside the box thinking in life and acting as simple metaphors for the game’s puzzles. Antichamber is almost self-referential in this sense, since, according to its press page, the development got its start 7 years ago through “a series of naive programming mistakes” made by its creator, Alexander Bruce. And just as Bruce must have undoubtedly felt surprised, frustrated, and ultimately elated during his development of the game, so should fans of puzzle games that end up playing this terrific title.