Previews!

By: Derek Yu

On: February 9th, 2010

The Behemoth’s “Game 3” is now officially called BattleBlock Theater (website under construction).

On the Super Meat Boy front, here’s a sneak peek at Chapter 2, which takes place in a haunted hospital. Lots of hypodermic needles abound! Possibly inspired by Edmund’s gruesome surgery? More videos of this chapter can be found at IGN.

Notch has been hard at work on Minecraft. This fan-made video shows off some of the new additions to the game, including crafting, farming, and DYYY-NO-MITE!

Sky Invader is a really nice-looking MMF2 game that’s in early development. In the game you control a giant alien spaceship against an army of Earth defenders. Clement, the creator, promises in the YouTube comments that the final game will be “more tactical than shooter”. Thanks to the Pixel Prospector for prospecting this one!

Lots of progress on Michal “Soldat” Marcinkowski’s Link-Dead. Michal’s been working hard on AI lately – the above video shows him fighting one of his new bots, which has pathfinding and cover/reload logic. (The graphics are still procedurally generated.)

Also, no videos but… fans of Gesundheit! and Cortex Command will be happy to know that their creators are updating once again.

Thanks for tuning in!

The Making of Gesundheit!

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: September 17th, 2008

Matt Hammill, funky, fearless creator of IGF Student Showcase nominated Gesundheit!, has been a busy, busy man. After IGF (which was fun, man — sucks I got sick!), he finished school, joined an animation studio, and even released a children’s book. Which is all thoroughly rad (congrats, Matt!), for sure, but, let’s be honest, what we here at TIGS want is more of that super cute, hand-drawn, homemade gaming goodness. Thankfully, he’s been “pluggin’ away” at that too!

Just recently he did a little making-of feature on Gesundheit! for Game Developer Magazine’s fall Game Career Guide, which you can find right here. It’s got design sketches, fun mock-up artwork, and useful reflections on the game development process, specifically working with AGS. Groovy.

Update: He’s also got a collection of misc. game art he’s done up on his personal site. Bonus grooviness.

GDC: Some Developer Photos

By: Derek Yu

On: February 20th, 2008

I am so damn tired, but enjoy some photos from the first couple of days of GDC Proper. The IGS sessions have ended (Brandon will be posting about those later this week), and tomorrow the expo hall will be open. We got to sneak an early peek at the IGF Pavilion tonight, though.

IGF 2008 Student Showcase Finalists

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: December 30th, 2007

IGF 2008 Student Showcase Finalists:

• Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Empyreal Nocturne
• Galaxy Scraper
• Gesundheit!
• Mayhem Intergalactic
• Poesysteme
• Polarity
• Ruckblende
• Synaesthete
• The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom
• Flipside (Half-Life 2 Modification)
• Foamzilla (UT2004 Modification)

Oh man, Crayon Physics is up for the Student Showcase Award and the Grand Prize? Impressive!

But I gotta say, I’m rooting for Gesundheit! on this one. That game is just so well put together. I’d love to see Hammill come away with a win. Not anything against Petri, of course! He can have the Grand Prize as a consolation. :)

www.igf.com

TIGSource Interview: Matt Hammill

By: Derek Yu

On: December 21st, 2007

Matt Hammill is one-man-show behind the beautiful action/puzzle game Gesundheit!, Comic Dice, and other fun, nifty things. Recently, Steve “moshboy” Cook took the opportunity to ask this talented Canadian illustrator/game developer a few questions about life and the pursuit of gaming.

Read More…

2008 IGF Student Entries Announced

By: Derek Yu

On: October 23rd, 2007

And there are a whopping 125 of them this year! Holy crap.

You’ll note that there are a couple of familiar faces in the crowd: Petri Purho’s Crayon Physics Deluxe, and Matt Hammill’s Gesundheit!

EDIT: Oops, and how could I miss Space Barnacle, by our very own Golds! (Thanks, Xander!)

(The screenshot is taken from the aptly-titled The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.)

Comic Dice

By: Derek Yu

On: June 12th, 2007

Matt Hammill, the illustrator and creator of Gesundheit, has released a fun little toy called Comic Dice that generates a random comic. Not really a game, per se, but I found it quite fun! Wish there was an option to roll all three dice with one click.

(Source: Timmy)

Gesundheit!

By: Derek Yu

On: March 20th, 2007

Gesundheit! is a beautiful little game (or should I say 12-level demo), and it’s not surprising, considering the creator is professional illustrator Matt Hammill. With “handmade scratchboard graphics and a soundtrack filled with toy instruments,” Matt has created a world that seems like it could stretch far beyond the simplistic gameplay. Which isn’t to say the single-level puzzle-solving is bad by any stretch of the imagination. But with a game that looks and sounds this good I really want to play a full-scale adventure. Maybe next time?

(By the way, I had no idea you could make a game like this with Adventure Game Studio.)