Uin

By: Derek Yu

On: April 20th, 2010

Uin

Matt Aldridge, aka “TheAnemic”, aka “biggt”, is best known in the Game Maker community for creating the enigmatic La La Land series of games. In an old interview with Matt regarding the never-released La La Land 6, he explained that the La La Land games “were made after intensively working on another game. I became overwhelmed with the pressure of knowing that I may never finish it. That’s a horrible feeling, especially when you put so much heart into it. These games were like the byproduct of that.” The La La Land games have since become cult hits amongst cult hits, drawing praise from indie developers like Jonathan Blow, Auntie Pixelante, and cactus for their dreamlike qualities.

It’s with that backdrop that we come to Uin, Matt’s first release since La La Land 5 in 2006. Uin is a much more traditional and full-featured game than La La Land, but is still really weird and can be as frustrating as it is surprising. That is due in no small part to the fact that very little is explained about how the game works… whether this is a Good Thing™ or not is up to you, but I’m finding it to be quite enjoyable.

That’s about all I’ll say about Uin. (Note: the download is .zipx, which requires WinZip to unpack. Alternatively, I’ve put up a .zip here.)

TIGdb: Entry for Uin

  • ortoslon

    screenshot broken

  • Skofo

    WinZip… almost as old school as Game Maker!

  • Paint by Numbers

    Oh Lord, La La Land rocks my socks off, and the screenshots this guy has posted are rocking my socks all on their own. Downloaded, unzipped, haven’t fixed errors yet, so I can’t say how good the actual game is.

    Not that there’s any chance of it being unpleasant. I honestly can’t fit my head around that idea.

  • Paint by Numbers

    And yeah, I know, rabid fanboyism.

  • Roger Ebert

    Um… you guys know this isn’t art right?

    Hello? I said it’s not art…

    IT’S NOT FUCKING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

  • art

    _–noun_

    1. the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced (Merriam-Webster’s)

    2. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. (Dictionary.com)

    3. not a video game (Ebert)

  • Bundt

    That was kind of an anticlimatic ending I got… D: But I didn’t unlock the special section of the main menu :(

    Anybody know if there’s multiple endings or something?

  • paul eres

    la la land rules.

    ortoslon, however, says this game requires grinding to beat. i don’t mind grinding if it isn’t too much; how is it?

  • A UNICORM

    _**SPOILERS**_

    http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3108/uinbitchscreen.png

    this screen is a bitch i can’t pass it consistently and the times i do manage i only have one or two health to face the boss with

    wat do

  • t maxwell smith

    oh brilliant brilliant brilliant!

  • jc

    Game seems to crash every time I exit, but that doesn’t seem to be a real problem.

  • Shanethe13

    I played this game a while ago, and it is definitely worth a download. It takes about two and a half hours to beat, and is an instant classic in my books.

  • UltimateWalrus

    i can’t figure out where to dig at the start

    i pushed down freaking everywhere

    am i retarded?

  • Barold

    when I quit the game it messes up

  • Maimed Fox

    @UltimateWalrus: You have to unlock the digging ability before you can dig. I couldn’t figure out what was going on either.

    I finished the game but didn’t unlock the special option either :( Maybe the “awoH” written on the rocket has some kind of significance, but I dunno.

  • UltimateWalrus

    i think i r 2 dum 2 ply dis game

  • Jeff

    Test

  • http://nuclearheart.com/ !CE-9

    this. was. fantastic.

    the game’s world is weird (great artwork, on par with that of David Firth), but it makes sense and is a pleasure to traverse and left me wanting more.

    the amount of information given is not a lot, and I’m absolutely lost on how to unlock the specials. some of the game mechanics could have been further explored (has the second attack got any use?).

    the (very) ending probably isn’t the most climatic and clever one ever, but it helps a great deal to tie the experience together.

    I wonder where the soundtrack is from (one of the tunes is from Cactus’ Clean Asia) – it’s brilliant and I couldn’t imagine better addition to the game’s atmosphere.

  • Nick

    What are you supposed to do with the egg? I don’t get this.

  • raigan

    ARGH, MY EYES!! What has happened to the site?!?!

  • alastair

    I heard it became white

  • sumitpo

    has someone unlocked the special section? I’m really interested what’s in there

  • Bundt

    @Maimed Fox: Turn it upside-down, it says “Home”, although I don’t think it has any significance besides decoration… :(

  • superflat

    Is this theme is just an accident / bug?

  • Soli

    How many shots does that stupid bird take?!?!

  • rodnonymous

    lead that bird to the black hole+

  • GoSign

    Re: this post’s surroundings.
    Uh, TIGS? It’s about 20 days too late for this. This is a joke, right?

    (I fear and loathe change.)

  • cecil

    what the hell happened to tigsource? why is the layout ugly (broken?)?

  • Jeff

    Don’t worry. It is a temporary theme during an extended maintenance.

  • Soli

    http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3108/uinbitchscreen.png

    Made some progress but now I’m stuck there (above picture) as well. I tried killing all the enemies in the neighboring area to see if it would do anything, now I have these electric octopi chasing me that I don’t think I can kill. Help anyone?

  • Bundt

    It’s actually possible to make it through that maze without getting hurt (or without getting hurt much), just it’s kind of hard. It might help to keep in mind that the head of the character seems to have a smaller hitbox than the feet, so put priority in keeping the feet away from spikes rather than the head, as strange as that sounds :P

    Also, you can kill the octopi…

  • goo

    new layout looks great, keep it.

  • sumitpo

    Don’t shoot the octopi whenn they are awake, and try to give them full load just when they appear.

  • Soli

    Killed all the Octopi, made it though the maze finally, ugh, seriously hated that, not fun at all, it would be different if there was any skill involved, but it’s like 90% luck. Sailed my boat got 2x jump, now I’m at a goofy ass giant worm I haven’t figured out yet. I shoot the thing in its mouth, then it spits crap out and usually shortly after I die because of the crap it spits out.

  • sumitpo

    Don’t want to spoil much, but with the double jump you can kill some enemies in the very beginning

  • Sciere

    I got to the part past the underwater maze, where you meet that guy again inside the fish, and nothing further happens from there (boat? double jump?). I still miss some species and I also haven’t used/unlocked any chests. Unfortunately, I can’t get back to the starting area again after dying because the checkpoint thing to the left has been activated and I keep respawning there. Deactivating it doesn’t help. Is there any way further/back or did I just get stuck permanently?

  • LSK

    Sciere: There’s an exit on the bottom side of the screen with the electric maze. It’s just below the last spot where you’re in danger of electrocution. After that, you’ll find the boat, and be able to progress.

  • Xab

    Here’s a tip: Digging in certain places will give you an extra health bar. The tall guy sells 5 “treasure maps” hinting their locations.

  • Soli

    What is with the teeth(?) that the giant worm spits out. I’m sure they must have something to do with the battle cause you can kick them around and such.

  • Xab

    Soli: They’re just for show, like the moles that roll around.

    You can unlock special mode by not killing anything before you enter the whale. I don’t think you can win special mode though :/

  • Soli

    So what do I do about the worm thing then? I kill it, but it always reappears! Can I not do anything about him yet?

  • Bundt

    …Wait, Xab, how does that work? Don’t you need to beat up the spiders to get the dig ability so you can get the push ability to push the egg? D:

    @soli: HINT: it’s not a boss

  • Bundt

    …And on top of that, can you even hatch the egg without killing the nuthatch? o_o

  • Bundt

    …Triple post, but… just got it.

    The power of posting. 8D;

  • Sciere

    LSK: thanks!

  • http://shigi.wordpress.com Laura

    @Jeff: Ah, that is good to know… the black version of TIGS was much easier on my eyes.

  • Soli

    Cannot get to the first boss with more than 2 bars of life and that just isn’t cutting it. That part gets me every time, there is absolutely no room for error and if you get hit once, you get hit 3 times. Frustrating. Is it possible to get more health bars before that boss fight via the treasure maps you can buy? I’ll start over and try that if I can.

  • http://elvisbrevi.blogspot.com Elvis Brevi

    good game…

  • LSK

    Bundt, do share how you did it.

  • LSK

    Bundt, do share how you did it.