Fract Beta

By: ithamore

On: June 14th, 2011

The beta for Fract has been out for a while, but the news of “official” production beginning on the full game and the addition of Henk Boom (of Pax Britannica fame) to the husband and wife studio has gotten me all excited about it again (even though it isn’t expected to be finished until early 2012).

It’s a first person adventure game with an electro, Tron-ish theme in both look and sound that hooked me from the beginning. The beta is short if you can quickly figure out the puzzles, but Richard Flanagan says it’s only a “slice” of what he has envisioned for the full game. Also, I hope the final puzzle wows you as much as it did me the first time I hit the play button.

Fract’s beta was  made in Unity and comes in Mac and Win flavors. However, it is only downloadable, since it’s a hefty 117 MB (a heads up for those of you who have to consider bandwidth caps).

Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure

By: Derek Yu

On: May 24th, 2011

Ryan Henson Creighton took his 5-year-old daughter Cassie to TOJam and together they created Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure. Such heights of adorableness are rarely encountered. You can read all about this cute collaboration here.

Semi-Review: S:S&S EP Micro

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: April 26th, 2011

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro (i.e., the iPod/iPhone version of the acclaimed game) was released the other day, so it should be available all over the modern world by now. Believe it or don’t, this is the creators’ preferred incarnation of the title, and only $2.99 USD to boot — a superb joy-to-dollar ratio if you ask me! Additionally, the original iPad version has now “gone universal,” which, I’m not sure, but I think means you princes and execs and pro athletes out there loaded enough to own multiple iDevices needn’t purchase it again. Truly now is the time of miracles!

I had actually managed to borrow an iPad and play through a pre-release copy of the game last month, fully intending to compose TIGSource’s very first Real Review, but Derek (presumably unaware of this) banged out some little blurb of a post ahead of me, stealing the heck out of my thunder. At any rate, it’d be a bit foolish writing a full-on review now, with so much said on the game’s behalf already. (Check Google to see what I mean.) So, as a compromise, this’ll be half review, half straight-up gushing. Sorry, it can’t be helped. *ahem*

Consult The Megatome the extended if you dare care…
* Now featuring TIGSOURCE EXCLUSIVE tidbits direct from the superbrother himself!

Read the rest of this entry »

Preview: Blockade Runner

By: Alehkhs

On: April 24th, 2011

It’s undeniable that Minecraft is currently a large force in the indie gaming world, and while the topic of any new Minecraft-inspired games is a fanatically touchy subject with many gamers, I am always excited to see where developers might expand the gametype to next: It’s an important part of the advancement of game to take some already established ideas and use them in new environments. Last week, Ace of Spades utilized the place/destroy nature of voxels in a trench warfare game of capture-the-flag, and last week the formula began, quite literally, traveling to a new frontier.

Inspired by both the open-source Infiniminer and the wildly popular Minecraft, Blockade Runner aims to have players constructing spacecraft – complete with electronics systems, engines, crew stations, weapons batteries, and more – in a zero-g environment, then using them to explore the universe, either peacefully or struggling against fellow players. The game will also include a fluid algorithm for liquids as well as gasses, so if an enemy weapon happens to breach your ship’s hull, you’d better seal the hole quickly before all your air escapes into the vacuum of space.

Currently little more than an early (very early) prototype, Blockade Runner is being actively developed by ZanMgt, a dev-team comprised of six siblings. Their development schedule is split into 6-month release cycles, with weekly updates in between each major release. The current build (Release 1, Week 2) mainly only allows allows for the placement and removal of blocks of varying texture. Next week’s build plans to add propulsion systems to the ships.

Time will tell if Blockade Runner will soar to its full potential, but I’ll certainly be following the development closely.

Game Site

Preview: Terraria

By: Alehkhs

On: April 23rd, 2011

Little is known for sure concerning upcoming, relatively unknown yet already highly anticipated indie title Terraria, as the developer was caught unprepared when Minecraft developer Notch posted a link to the game’s trailer on his Twitter account, sending hundreds of interested gamers its way. To help introduce curious followers to the project, developer Andrew “Redigit” Spinks (of Super Mario Bros. X) has begun slowly releasing a series of gameplay videos of a co-op session between him and a dev-team member.

The videos show multiplayer arcade-style, side-scrolling action set in a randomly generated world with destructible terrain, resource gathering, a large crafting system, fluid mechanics, plenty of monsters to fight, and much more. Despite Notch’s linking to it – and many people immediately comparing it to the similar Minecraft – the gameplay and art remind me much more of the side-scrolling, resource-gathering gameplay of the CLONK series. For that reason, I for one am eagerly awaiting further information concerning Terraria.

Gemini Rue

By: Derek Yu

On: March 10th, 2011

Gemini Rue is a new sci-fi adventure game created by Joshua Nuernberger and published by Wadjet Eye Games, which developed The Shivah and also published Erin Robinson’s Puzzle Bots. The story revolves around two people: an ex-assassin searching for someone on a bleak, rainy planet, and another man who wakes up in a hospital after having his memories wiped.

Adventure Gamers has called this “the best Wadjet Eye title to date”, noting that the game has easy puzzles and a compelling storyline that you can play through in around 7 to 8 hours. I played through the demo myself, and it was intriguing enough that I’ll probably buy the full version for $15 to find out what happens next. The full version also comes with in-game director’s commentary, which I’m curious about.

TIGdb: Entry for Gemini Rue

AGS Awards 2010

By: ithamore

On: February 20th, 2011

The nominees for the AGS Awards for 2010 have been up for a while, and now you can vote for them on the forums, which requires registration. Voting will close on March 4th at 23:30 GMT, so there is plenty of time to try all the games if you haven’t played any of them yet and are planning to vote. Otherwise, you could simply enjoy the nominees of last years best AGS games.

If you usually don’t play adventure games, I would recommend the games nominated as the Best Short Games, since they are small enough to give good, quick examples of what AGS games are like. I’m currently working through the Best Games of the Year (pictured above: Eternally Us, Journey Down: Over the Edge, Snakes of Avalon, and Technobabylon – Part I and Part II), since I’ve only finish 3 of them so far.

(A special thanks to Frank00 for informing us about the awards.)

PAX 2010: The Witness

By: Derek Yu

On: September 7th, 2010

Those of you who went to PAX last weekend may have inadvertently missed out on a chance to play Jonathan Blow’s next game, The Witness, which sat quietly at an unmarked table next to two other indie games: Chris Hecker’s Spy Party and Andy Schatz’s Monaco.

According to Jon:

I had several reasons for wanting to show the game this way. Firstly: At a show full of companies trying to capture your attention and sell you things, I wanted to do something that is subtle, and a surprise — if you notice it, and decide to investigate, you find something unexpected.

Also, I wanted people to be able to play the game for as long as they want, not feeling pressured to stop playing because of a huge line of antsy people waiting behind them.

Stephen Totilo, who recognized it for what it was and took the above footage, did a nice write-up of his experience, saying “this is a game for the patient, the un-flustered and the observant”. Apparently so!

Puzzle Bots

By: Derek Yu

On: May 14th, 2010

In Erin Robinson’s latest game, Puzzle Bots, you control a team of small robots as they go on adventures in and around Dr. Hugo’s factory. It’s a spiritual sequel, or commercial upgrade ($15), to Erin’s freeware adventure game Nanobots, which comes recommended, and is being published by Dave Gilbert’s Wadjet Eye Games (best known for The Shivah and The Blackwell series). This game was put together by people who love the adventure game genre and it shows.

So I was critical of Wadjet Eye’s Emerald City Confidential because I felt it pandered too much to a casual audience. Well, I do think Puzzle Bots is also aimed at a more casual crowd, too – while there are some tricky puzzles at the end, the majority of the game is pretty easy, and made easier by the lack of inventory and a generous hint system (which inexplicably has a recharge period that is very short). Also, each of the robots can only perform a single action, instead of having two like in Nanobots. That said, I wasn’t really bothered by it. Whereas ECC felt quite intrusive with its hand-holding, in Puzzle Bots it’s mostly handled within character. Makes a big difference.

And I did really like the characters in this game. The humans are cartoony and somewhat archetypal but have enough nerdy, game-informed quirks to make them endearing. The voicework is consistently good. The robots did not feel quite as fleshed out as the ones in Nanobots personality-wise, but were nonetheless cute and chirpy and pretty hard not to like.

The consistent humor, the interaction between the humans and the robots, the play on differences not only in physical scale but how humans/robots see the world, and the way the story unfolds as it’s passed between these two groups, is what really makes Puzzle Bots shine. As someone who thinks highly of challenge and mechanical depth, I’m almost loathe to say it, but I think the game’s non-intrusive casualness is actually a selling point for this game, because I was eager to watch the story unfold in a timely manner. Which isn’t to say that the puzzles aren’t interesting – there are some clever ideas (especially later on) and it’s fun to make the robots work together. It’s just easy, that’s all, and that kind of jives with the game’s pacing.

Technically, the game has some hiccups. The animation, especially for the humans, feels jerky – the number of frames used would be adequate for pixel art, but is jarring for large, hand-drawn characters (I did appreciate how large the sprites were). There also aren’t enough facial animations, so you’ll see disparity between what’s being said and how the characters are talking. The robots, which are smaller, animate more smoothly than the humans but also have some weird moments when they’ll slide across the screen in a straight line instead of hopping, flipping, or whatever else they should be doing. Finally, there are some places where characters or the environment interact in a way that is slightly counterintuitive to either reality or the puzzle at hand.

Nanobots is a really fun adventure game, and this extends on it in a lot of ways that fans of that game will appreciate. The mediocre animation, technical issues, and too-compressed story makes Puzzle Bots feel kind of rough, but the creator’s personality and enthusiasm comes through crystal clear, which is the most important thing for this indie game (and I’ll take roughness over slick-to-a-fault any day). It’s lighthearted, fun, and very charming. I hope it does well because it’d be great to see the ‘bots (who are, DAWWW, way too cute) continue their adventures.

TIGdb: Entry for Puzzle Bots

Hero Core Trailer

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: April 10th, 2010

Hero Core is the next game from Iji creator Daniel Remar, due out May 1st. Sequel to his retro-inspired action/adventure Hero, it features an open map, a bunch of secrets, multiple difficulties and modes (that even change the layout of the game), an alternate “retro” language setting, and “up to two colors simultaneously!” Well, right on!

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: DESTROY CRUISER TETRON ONCE MORE