Time Fcku Trailer

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: August 11th, 2009

Time Fkcu, a new game from Edmund McMillen, Justin Karpel, and William Good made for the Power of 3 event over at Newgrounds, is coming out September 1st. According to Edmund, “Time Cfuk is a game about stasis, it’s a game about perspective and viewing both sides of the story from afar, it’s a game about blocks, platforms, drinking, high school reunions and work time fun.” He goes on to say, “Time KcuF is not an art game.” Well, what is, anyway? Wait, don’t answer that.

Read more here. Watch more up there.

Tasty Static

By: Xander

On: August 8th, 2009

PhoenixJ’s Tasty Static is an affectionate abstract send-up of shareware classic Skyroads. The goal is to race against time and your own life bar to the end of a course of obstacles. Arrow keys control movement and speed with space being the jump button, but it does become slightly more complicated than that, with various tiles restricting certain actions. That, and there are a number of quirks to the control scheme which need to be mastered to beat the tougher levels, such as bouncing into another jump for extra height. The game is set into a series of progessively tougher challenges, each broken up into a set of three under similar themes like RED 40 or CLASSY, with approapriate aesthetic hints to each one.

As you complete levels you unlock extras such as an FPS view, a variety of skins for your ship and even lasers to fire. Not sure what the purpose of those is yet, but when faced with any decision in life generally ‘The one with more lasers’ is the best answer you can give. There’s also a level editor built into the windows version (MAC/Linux versions are also available), and new levels can be down/uploaded from/to the site made by the community, if the substantial main campaign somehow isn’t enough with you.

The difficulty can be fairly extreme, and though the process is streamlined to minimise downtime it can still be a frustrating experience like its predecessor. Then again there really is nothing like these two games, and with a great soundtrack spread with new music for every themed stage the experience is incredibly well rounded, and a freeware joy for anyone daring enough to try to master it.

Upgrade Complete!

By: Xander

On: July 14th, 2009

Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently posted about an interesting little flash game entitled Upgrade Complete. It’s a simple shmup where the aim is to blast everything onscreen to hell, collect money to upgrade and keep on killing. The difference here is that you use the money to upgrade everything, and I mean everything. The main menu only has two buttons until you buy more. Like how it appears in the screenshot? That’s the final upgrade of the graphics engine. You even have to buy the music and the mute button seperately.

It’s a bizarre game that’s ultimately varied in the satisfaction the player feels from it, which I can only really equate to playing ‘Ginormo Sword’. Simply put, the game itself is pretty boring as the enemies don’t fight back at all, and the only real measure of entertainment comes from just how much you enjoy a persistent upgradable experience. There is something so curiously brilliant about the way everything slowly builds together around your gameplay. Customising your ship with lightning cannons and missle launchers as well as upgrading each one to launch volleys of firepower in seconds is quite a lot of fun even though there is no real grand goal and each level features no great challenge to overcome. It is a game that completely depends on your own involvement to turn it into something above your initial perceptions.

Something worth playing if only to discuss why the hell it’s worth playing then…

Blueberry Garden

By: Xander

On: June 10th, 2009

After a failed start this monday, the IGF 2009 winning Blueberry Garden has finally been released by Erik Svendäng. This is notable especially because I can’t recall the last time a grand prize winner was released in the same year that it actually won the prize! I kid of course, and truthfully it’s interesting for something like this to have earnt such a prestigious award as unlike previous titles such as Aquaria or Crayon Physics it’s pretty hard to talk about. You play the bird-man pictured above and simply explore the world however you desire in an attempt to partly play around with the world and experiment with it, and partly to figure out if there is some sort of conclusion. As play begins you are given an image of a tap flowing water, and from there on your task is to do what you will with that information.

It plays similarly to a platformer however you have the ability to pick up and eat different kind of fruits which bestow extra abilities, such as an air bubble around the protagonist. You can also fly, which takes away some of the usual expectations of a platformer clearly. You can’t fly straight upwards though, only on roughly a 180 degree angle with a little leeway on either side. Similarly to Takahashi’s ‘Noby Noby Boy’ its hard not to suggest to people to buy because of the incredibly cheap price point of $5, and whilst it’s hard to really tell people specifically what there is to do in the game there’s certainly a lot to enjoy here. The atmosphere is great and the music is a complete joy, as well as the sheer surreal juxtapositioning of a minimalistic terrain crossed with wonderfully vibrant vegetation and the occasional gigantic block of swiss cheese.

There’s a demo on Steam at the moment, which I hear mixed reports on whether it actually works or not, so at the very least you should play it to see whether you find it interesting or not. Ultimately though at just $5, no bad can come of that purchase, and if its really your curiosity that’s pursuaded you to play the game then that’s exactly the kind of mindset the game desires of you. It’s a game that fully deserves the recognition it received at GDC, and it truly deserves just as much today.

The Thrill of Combat

By: Derek Yu

On: June 1st, 2009

Messhof’s first shareware title, The Thrill of Combat, is a cooperative helicopter surgery simulator, where the goal is to incapacitate unwilling donors and harvest their organs to meet your quotas. I know, it sounds almost too good to be true.

The game is disorienting as hell, even more than Party Boat, which I now realize was the warm-up version for babies and little girly people. In TTOC there are more flashing lights, the controls are even more drunk, and the screen zooms in and out in a way that would make it hard to navigate even if you could fly straight in the first place. Meanwhile, you have to zap people and dodge missiles… and eventually drop the helicopter’s gunner so that he can harvest the organs in splitscreen. If you have a friend around, one person can control the helicopter while the other controls the gunner. (But I can’t imagine this makes it much easier.) Once the gunner has collected enough organs, the helicopter needs to pick him up and take him to the boat to offload them. Then land. And repeat.

Many of messhof’s games are a good fit for the gallery setting, and this one’s no different. It’s stylish, provocative, and made for two people to play while others watch. And everyone will be puking at the end of the night. $5 is a fair admission for this game, provided you are prepared for a physically demanding experience.

TIGdb: Entry for The Thrill of Combat

Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!: Squid Harder

By: Xander

On: May 19th, 2009

Oddbob’s insane arena shooter SYNSO!:SH has been released for the public in beta form, with a more complete version being released sometime during the week with an extra world and a more thematised soundtrack. What’s here though is damn fun, and pretty simple to get to grips with. Simply plug in your controller of choice, or use the typical ‘Arrows + Z Key’ to move and fire as I’m sure you’ve done before. There’s nothing specifically different about SYNSO compared to other arena shooters, but its pretty damn enjoyable all the same. The visuals seem intent in blowing whatever grey matter you’ve been invested in saving these past years right out your ear canals, and the same goes for most everything else about the game.

You have a single life and a choice between four worlds as 1-4 Minute long survival challenges. The goal is simply to score as much as you can within the space of time without causing Squidageddon. What’s quite refreshing is the complete lack of any power ups, as your ship is outfitted with a large auto-firing cannon anyways so the instant you start playing everything becomes a fight to survive, rather than slowly warming up as you have to rebuild your arsenal each time. Also there are plenty of options available so you’re free to lower the challenge by eliminating pesky collisions or up it by including heavy motion blur and attempting to get your own upchuck out of the keyboard as you try to comprehend the smorgasbord of colour you have unleashed upon your own monitor. And once your keys have dried out and any bile has been carefully chipped off, the full release will probably be out and it’ll be time to do it all over again! Fun times!

(Source: That IndieGames site what writes about indie games.)

Cactus’ Next Game?

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: May 2nd, 2009

I’ve been having trouble recovering from GDC, and getting things in order after moving, and I regretfully missed posting about the new Paper Moon yesterday, but here’s something! A trailer for Cactus’ new game, “a game about killing everything you love.” It looks mind-blowing. Cactus is unstoppable.

There are some screenshots of this and other WIP games of his over on his blog.

Triptych

By: Xander

On: April 5th, 2009

Why yes, Increpare is at it again. Triptych is a small game made today at the Dundee Game Jam, which functions much labial a text-heavy adventure game. Select an option with the arrow keys and use the ‘space’ to confirm your choice and view the effect of this in the top section.

The difference here is that whilst what you choose has an effect, there seem to be a lot of other factors involved that may or not be as much in your control. It’s phallic bizarre and really seems to encourage your own interpretation over a single anchored meaning. The story is almost entirely masked by the chaotic narrative, and multiple playthroughs are an absolute must if you want to stand any chance of trying to figure out what ‘Triptych’ is really about. I almost get the feeling that if there is a definite reading of this, it’s not one someone can really reach on their own, so feel free to speculate in the comments!

(Thanks to the ever observant Indiegames!)

TIGSource Comicompo

By: Xander

On: April 4th, 2009

So TIGSource, do you like things? Things that are awesome?

Good! Because this is definitely something awesome. Even the alt-text says so. Comicompo is actually a project that started last year and is only now available in all its anachronistic entirety! ‘Comicompo’ is a community comic project, where anyone who wants to participate can draw a page which eventually becomes part of a whole issue of.. something. I say eventually because this apparently took an entire year to complete due to a number of complications along the way. The theme set at the start was ‘Indie Dreams’, focussing on the unconscious ponderings of the pictured protagonist before leading into a fantastical explosion of everything and nothing.

It’s a sweet community project that everyone should check out, especially because the website suggests the next Comicompo will begin sometime soon, so register your interests in the forums! Everyone is welcomed regardless of talent and government sponsored mental health sanctions. So get ready for something special! Something great.

Something awesome…

Eliss

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: March 19th, 2009

Here’s another grab from Brandon’s Blog — an iPhone game called Eliss, which has you splitting, merging, and moving colored planets to “keep up harmony in an odd universe.” Brandon does a lovely job of describing the experience, so I’ll just link you to that.

Up for this year’s IGF Mobile Design Innovation award, Eliss seems well deserving of it, with creative use of the iPhone’s hardware (particularly multi-touch) and super-slick style to boot. You can find it in the App Store here.

(Why, thanks again, Offworld!)