Blush – Released. Rejoice!

By: Xander

On: March 3rd, 2009

Flashbang Studios’ latest title Blush is out!

Swim! Collect Eggs! Destroy Jelly Fish! Extend Tentacles! Marvel at funky lighting effects! Earn Achievements! HIGHSCORE!

It feels like an arcade take on the inital stage of ‘Spore’. A cross between ‘Velociraptor Safari’ and ‘Flow’. It’s simple to play. It’s fun. And it looks mighty pretty.

Honestly though, lets not ruin this with words. Just enjoy TIGers!

(Also apparently there are some video issues, especially with VISTA and Geforce 8000 series users. Using ‘Q’ to alter the quality should alleviate the problem however)

TIGdb: Entry for Blush

Posted in Action, Browser Games, Freeware, Windows | Tags: FlashbangStudios

Masna

This has to be Blurts’s best game! =D
Adamski

Is this to do with Sperm reaching the egg? I put the character in the image with the “collect” eggs, and got that result :O
Data

Really quite a nice package. Although at first glance it seems a bit (flOw) derivative, the physicsy tentacle-swinging mechanic is novel and adds great feel to melee and reward (egg) collecting. Music/audio and the colorful volumetricky gfx/art rounds it out deliciously.

Also, sucks that flashbang made this in less time than it’s taking me to push out a new build of CC ;(
http://www.adamatomic.com/ Adam Atomic

Tentacle Fierce Kick! EX FOCUS TENTACLE
UltimateWalrus

Wow! Very nice gameplay, graphics, everything is great — I love the concept and the game world :D :D :D

It’s very addictive. The combat in this game is so cool. So simple yet there’s such a “visceral” feel to it. I think this may be better than Velociraptor Safari! And it is way better than Flow for sure.
Cobalt

I thought I was looking at a pink light on a piece of paper when I first saw the picture. Those really *are* funky lighting effects!
Bubbinska

Very smooth gameplay, you can chain together “attacks” and collection very fluidly. It’d be nice to have a little indicator of where the nearest drop-off point for eggs is, I’ve frequently found myself completely lost, or upon finding one will tend to stay very close to it so I don’t lose track of where it is.
Loki

Im completely baffled by how the drop offs work, ive stood by the bright mushroom things waiting for something to happen, and felt moderately disappointed when nothing did.
What am I doing wrong.

(Also, i beat a sea serpent without any increased abilities.)
UltimateWalrus

@Loki, the bright mushrooms aren’t the dropoff points. The dropoff points look like a big rock formation in the shape of a “C” with a bright circle in the middle.
matias

lovely, I dislike the time limit though.
Alehkhs

Damnit Xander….

Well, there goes my write-up plans for *this*…
UltimateWalrus

I just realized this game is incredibly immersive… I almost feel a psychological “shock” when I stop playing the game, like all the sudden I’m in the real world again. Awesome :)

Don’t forget to right-click on the game and click “fullscreen…” otherwise you’ll be playing in a hideous browser window that totally ruins the experience
http://lumberingdream.com/ !CE-9

The Music!
Xander

@Alehkhs: Haha! Sorry, I was up late for the launch anyway so I figured I’d post (Not before Rock Paper Shotgun fired one out about a minute after launch.)

If you want to carry it on in more detail/review it then go for it. This was seriously just an announcement.
Super anon

I’m using Vista and a 8600GTS card. I get to the loading screen and it says 100%, but nothing happens. Pressing Q does nothing either.

Fantastic :P
Ezuku

Hmm.

The game has a lovely feel to it, but I just feel that the game lacks finishing.

For example, the game is far too easy, and there’s really nothing more to gameplay then just swimming around wacking guys with your tentacles. In all honesty, collecting the eggs is probably more time consuming than killing.

Also, there’s a real lack of anything much to do in the game. Sure, you can basicially just swim around having fun, but I found that eventually that just became old, especially since there was no challenge. Maybe if the game was more difficult, or if the score was more of a driving factor…
squidlarkin

Score *is* the driving factor, obviously. Did you notice there’s a time limit? And a leaderboard?
http://randomzoo.com/ Random

That screenshot is gorgeous… going to have to give this a try. Looks like yet another great game from Flashbang! Keep it up folks
Owlet

Its damn good for a browser game, i must admit.
Ezuku

Yeah, but… the score just didn’t really drive me in this case. And the time limit felt arbitrary. Maybe if the time limit was more effectively integrated into the gameplay, eg instead of a hard cut off, nastier and nastier badguys spawned or something.

I think score may have been more of a driving factor if things weren’t so “mysterious”, eg all the combo bonuses were explained, the value of each of the eggs explained, etc, etc. That said, maybe it’s just not that sort of game where score’s supposed to be an issue.
AmnEn

Gets stuck on loading :X
Malasdair

Ditto, mine just pretends to load. Used a couple of different browsers. Here’s hoping Flashbang is able to fix the problem!
Super anon

If it gets stuck loading, try another browser. It won’t work in Firefox on my machine for some reason, but in IE it’s fine.
Derek

That screenshot… er… reminds me of something! :3

Wonderful game – definitely my favorite Flashbang release to date. And I remember seeing the prototype at TIGJam! Great job, guys!
Diggs

flOw Rip-Off!
http://www.roachpuppy.com IceNine

It wouldn’t let me click on any of the menu items until I went fullscreen.

Not too crazy about the gameplay for the same reasons as Ezuku. I really liked the music and art style though.
ZeroNumber

@Ezuku

I agree. I felt pretty underwhelmed by the game. It looks and sounds great, fine. But there is so little to do that it becomes incredibly repetitive. Swim over here, make circle motions with the mouse, drop off eggs. The combo system for combat also seems really lacking, because enemies are usually so far and few in between that I spend most of my time finding things to kill.

Then I try to explore the environment and I get cut off. Speaking of the environment, the place seems so cut-and-paste sometimes, because, aside from the enemies (eels up top, crabs and clams below) and the fact that there’s a bottom and the top gets lighter, there is no difference in any area. I would have liked there to be some variety, or something.

Plus, the system requirements make it so that I can’t even use this to kill time at work. I have more fun playing Dolphin Olympics than this, and they have the same score/time limit gameplay basics.

I don’t know. It seems like it’s gotten way more praise than it deserves. Maybe something like this flips some people’s pancakes, but I’ll pass.
The Man in the Street

Very cool game.

All of Blurst’s games are great, but they would be REALLY great if they were more storyline centric, instead focusing on points and getting higher scores. For instance, this game really reminds me of Ecco The Dolphin, and I’m just thinking of how a webbrowser based, Ecco-esque game that I could log onto and play every so often from my last savepoint would be really awesome.
The Man in the Street

* edit of previous post *

I meant “instead **of** focusing on points and getting high scores”
pnutz

Very fun! And it actually works with my old ass laptop, unlike Minotaur or Downhill Bowling. Hooray for low quality options!
ssid

I don’t like the time limit, either. It’d be nice if either the time limit could be extended w/ performance, or just do away with it altogether with increasingly difficult bad guys.
Phasma Felis

I really, really wish this had more goal-oriented gameplay, instead of just “Versus: The Clock!” It’s a fantastic, beautiful, immersive game, but losing all my progress every four minutes just kills any long-term interest for me. It’s like trying to play Spore with no savegames during a brownout.

I could play this for
Phasma Felis

whoops

…I could play this for *hours* if it was more like Flow, slowly feeding and growing as you explore the beautiful world.
Phasma Felis

Also: having to stop for the “You got hurt!” and “You got an egg!” messages every single game would get old *really* fast.
timmy

hmmmm….. It feels like a demo, there is so much more you could do.
Jade

how about a stand-alone version ?
ithastobesaid

Aquaria ripoff!
http://blurst.com Matthew

‘Also: having to stop for the â€œYou got hurt!â€ and â€œYou got an egg!â€ messages every single game would get old really fast.’

These popups messages appear on your first two games only.
WineBlood

Woah.. This looks really beautiful and it’s fun to boot! I think it’s the most artistically complete game from Blurst as of now. Can’t wait to see their next creations!
Ape

I’ll pass on the unity engine browser plugin.
MikeK

Ape: Seriously you could be up and running in the game in the time it took you to post your lil comment.
Xander

Not to mention the benefits of the engine are certainly worth the hassle.
Phasma Felis

@38: Hm, I saw them twice, but I might have logged in after the first one. Fair enough.