Penny Arcade Adventures Hits XBLA in 2008

By: Derek Yu

On: August 27th, 2007

…along with the PC, Mac, and Linux! Not sure if it’s a simultaneous release, however.

Still rather ambivalent about this one, but it’s looking better all the time. One thing that still irks me is how brown the screenshots are, compared to the colorfulness of the comic strip. I understand that they’re going for a steampunk/noir vibe but… okay, I’m going to stop complaining until the game is released! I’m sure it’ll be fun and funny regardless.

(Source, including image: Game|Life)

An Untitled Story

By: Derek Yu

On: August 27th, 2007

An Untitled Story is the long-awaited platform game by Game Maker developer YMM. It’s almost impossible not to compare this game to Knytt and Seiklus, since it shares a lot of visual, thematic, and gameplay ideas with those classic games. If you’re fans of either of those classics, you’ll probably appreciate this one.

One thing to consider, however, is that An Untitled Story puts a lot more emphasis on upgrading and hardcore platforming skills than those other games. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of exploring and finding fun little areas… but if precision jumping isn’t your bag, well, you ain’t gonna get too far in this game.

Overall, I like the graphics and the atmosphere and the challenging platforming bits. It can be really frustrating at times, but there’s a lot of content here, and it’s well worth the $1 (or more) donation to get in.

(Thanks, ChevyRay, for mentioning this game in the forums!)

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Trailer

By: Derek Yu

On: August 27th, 2007

Holy sh… an independent video game from comic book artist Michel Gagné?!

Click here for the trailer. Coming in 2008.

(Thanks for the news, Chrissketch!)

Van Damnation

By: Derek Yu

On: August 26th, 2007

In issue #192 of Electronic Gaming Monthly, web funnyman Seanbaby penned a feature titled “”http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141721">The Worst T.V. Games of All Time." In the intro to this feature, he made this statement:

I’m here to tell you, in the spirit of The B-game Competition, that the Van Damme game WAS MADE, and it is called Van Damnation. It was put out two years ago as a limited release, but, with Oddbob’s help, it is now being made available to the public once again. Rocky, the creator of the game, is also the mastermind behind another classic B-game – Pillar Killer.

(Now if only someone would make a game based off of either 1. Bloodsport, 2. Hard Target, or 3. both.)

ProTip: Read the readme or you will not get anywhere in this difficult game of timing and dong punches!

Download here (from Oddbob) or here (from me). The game is 2 megabytes large.

The Desolate Room

By: Derek Yu

On: August 24th, 2007

To say that The Desolate Room is not your typical RPG would be an understatement. I’m actually having trouble deciding what I should say in this post, because I don’t want to spoil the experience for you.

I’ll say this much: the game “happens” in three different places. The first is an island, where a lonely, egg-obsessed coffee machine robot resides. The second place is a virtual world. The third is the past… in the memories of other, long-dead robots. The way the coffee robot, the long-dead robots, and the three places connect to each other is a great bit of storytelling. It’s not complex or anything… just thoughtful and well-done.

The game begins on the island, and you play as the coffee robot. PLEASE don’t let the rather mundane fetch quests in the first part of the game (or the overall clunkiness of its presentation) deter you from continuing! It picks up quite quickly from then on and I promise that (some of) you will really dig the battle/experience system, which is evenly-paced and quite satisfying (and a little overwhelming at first).

If you are at all interested in RPG’s or unique, emotional narratives, this game is worth a look for you. It’s sad and strange and not a little bit scary. When you realize what the title of the game means, it’s a genuinely chilling moment. I’ll be thinking about this game for a while.

Click here (The Daily Click) for a more thorough explanation of the story and about how the game mechanics work.

The Making of Guxt

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: August 24th, 2007

Pixel recently posted a little “making of ”http://homepage2.nifty.com/rochet/storage/guxt_1020_wz.zip" title=“Direct link to Guxt” >Guxt" feature on his website, which Shih Tzu was kind enough to translate to English for all us gaijin. Thanks, Shih Tzu — you rock!

The feature, er, features screen grabs of the game in development, with notes describing what was being worked on at each point. It’s a pretty cool window into the acclaimed game designer’s creative process and an interesting read for folks wondering what it’s like to make a game. (Man, I would love to see an afterword for Cave Story as well, or maybe a postmortem or two!)

View the translated Making of Guxt online here.

Download the zip (with bonus screen grabs!) here.

Thanks again, Shih Tzu! Excellent work, as always.

Logi-Gun

By: Derek Yu

On: August 23rd, 2007

I thought I was pretty much over grappling platform games, but once again, screenshots have deceived me. The grappling gun is only one of six guns in Logi-Gun, a pretty darn awesome puzzle platformer from Darklink570. Each of your six weapons is introduced via a training mission (I like how you’re cockteased by getting to see the weapons in the level before you can use them), and they’re quite varied in their usage.

I have to say, some of the puzzles are really, really devious, but I never found myself too frustrated, which is testament to the designer’s prowess. Okay, well a couple of the puzzles with the bow and arrow made me punch myself in the face in anger, but that’s about it! Otherwise, it’s a downright splendid game.

Note: I ran into a serious bug in level 1-5: “Polarity for Dummies,” that kept me from progressing. I exited the level on the second screen by pressing ESC, and when I reloaded it, I started on right side of the first screen without my polarity gun. I haven’t heard about this bug anywhere else, but be careful anyway! You may want to back up your save game before that point. I’ve already messaged Darklink570 about it. (This bug has been fixed by Darklink570 and the download at the above link now includes the patch.)

(Thanks to ChevyRay from the forums!)

Forbidden Love

By: ARelativelyHotGirl

On: August 23rd, 2007

“Sandra Richardson … fits the mold of the new gamer. The 55-year-old Bloomington, Ill., resident started playing online casual games about a year and a half ago when her kids left home.

She’s bought 40 online casual games so far…"

(San Jose Mercury News)

“For males, you are probably going to want to look for games involving challenge.”

“men like games where you destroy things”

“Everything degrading women will also pretty much ensure it has a male audience.”

(IndieGamer)

Indie Gaming Cosplay (LOL)

By: Derek Yu

On: August 22nd, 2007

Now that is some sweet cosplay right there. Mm-mm! That is like cosplay with gravy all over it. The kind of gravy that has chunks of meat in it because it’s too good to be regular gravy!

I’m completely serious. That is an awesome Castle Crashers costume. See the whole set here.

(Source: insert credit)

Got me wondering, though. Is there any more indie game cosplay out there? Where are those jubilant court jesters willing to uplift the spirits of us independent gaming enthusiasts with their unique brand of fan service? Send me some links to pictures, and I’ll collect them here. Because I promised myself one post on cosplay and that was IT. So it has to be good.

Pillage the Village

By: Derek Yu

On: August 22nd, 2007

Pillage the Village is the spiritual sequel / literal prequel to Defend the Castle. The story explains why your antagonists in DtC are angry with you in the first place… apparently you went around throwing people into the air and slamming them into the ground, occasionally crushing them with their own houses and casting wicked spells on them.

And that’s how the game plays, basically. Prevent the villagers from escaping to the left and right sides of the screen by hurting them mercilessly with simple physics. In between rounds, you can buy magic spells with your dirty blood money. It’s fun, it’s simple, it’s relatively inventive. And the game does a good job of introducing new villager types to make your life harder (God how I hate those dopes with the parachutes).

Beware some of the technical issues, though. Occasional ads displayed between levels can cause the game to hang if you have Firefox with Adblock, or Safari. The game will also churn on slower computers. Look out! (XGen Studios has since contacted me to tell me that they have since fixed these problems.)

By the way, Jay is Games (source) describes this game as “a smashmortion of click-tastic mayhem!” (Snicker, he said smashmortion.)