Digital

By: Terry

On: March 14th, 2010

[This is a guest article by PerrinAshcroft. If you’d like to contribute a guest article to TIGSource, go here.]

Digital: A Love Story is a free to download interactive story by Christine Love available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The game is set in 1988 and you begin the game with a threadbare interface closely resembling the Amiga’s workbench. To progress through the game you must use your modem to dial into bulletin board systems (BBS), make friends and enemies, download utilities, hack into protected system and commit phone fraud to make long distance calls. The game has a wonderful retro feel that’s going to tug strings of nostalgia for anyone who built up astronomical phone bills dialling into BBSs back before the internet became so widespread.

Parallels can be drawn to Introversion’s Uplink but Digital is very much its own experience. While Uplink was driven by the game elements of upgrading your deck and breaking into systems in a cool cyberpunk-esque world, Digital keeps its focus on characters and storytelling and draws instead from the unglamorous nerdy reality of the pre-internet digital world. The tools at your disposals are primitive, but are interactive enough that it doesn’t just feel like passive story.

I don’t want to elaborate too much on the content of the story as finding that out is what makes this game worth playing, but the story is really well structured and paced taking you through quite an emotional three-act tale in only a few hours. While the primary story is a fairly serious affair, Christine is smart enough to include humorous side plots such as getting into arguments with Star Trek nerds, a level of attention to detail that keeps the world interesting.

On a technical level I was very impressed once I realised the game was built with Ren’Py, a python based tool for building Japanese style visual novels. The game has been customised to the point where it’s unrecognisable from most projects build using those authoring tools. The interface is slick, the graphics are retro in a perfectly fitting manner and it includes a fantastic ambient soundtrack.

A game like this is unlikely to appeal to everyone, heavily story driven games are not to everyone’s tastes. But for those of you willing to spend a few hours, working slowly through an intriguing piece of interactive narrative there is a lot to enjoy about this title. I considered nit picking at a few minor issues but it seemed silly when for the most part this is a game with a specific purpose in mind and it executes it brilliantly. Ultimately for me, when the ending finally came it was a truly emotional moment where I just didn’t want to let go but knew I had to.

GDC 2010: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

By: Derek Yu

On: March 14th, 2010

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is an iPhone game collaboration between superbrothers (aka Craig Adams), singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie, and Capybara Games, the creators of Critter Crunch. These two videos are from the GDC build of the game, where the player engages in some exploration and combat. I got a chance to try it at the IGF Pavilion, where S&S EP was being shown for winning IGF Mobile’s Achievement In Art award. It’s great – the stylized art, the evocative audio, and the detail in each area makes you excited to see what’s coming next. The combat was also fun, if simple.

The combat video is after the jump:

(Source: GameSetWatch)

AGS Awards 2009 – Winners

By: Derek Yu

On: March 7th, 2010

The winners of the AGS Awards 2009 have been announced. These are the best Adventure Game Studio games as voted on by the AGS community. The big winners are Zombiecow’s Time Gentlemen, Please! (Best Game, Best Gameplay, Best Dialogue Writing, Best Non-Player Character), Team Effigy’s The Marionette (Best Original Story, Best Background Art, Best Music, Best Tutorial or Documentation), and Ben304’s Shifters’s Box – Outside In (Best Puzzles, Best Short Game). There are a lot of other games and awards, so check out the award page for the full line-up.

Thanks, bicilotti, for the heads-up.

Refugee

By: fuzz

On: February 18th, 2010

“I WAS A TORTURE VICTIM BEFORE I STARTED TORTURE MYSELF”

Ah, Vasily Zotov, our constant purveyor of autobiographical, surrealist snippets of something-or-other. In preparation for his upcoming trial, which will determine whether or not he’ll be granted asylum in the U.S., he’s released the first chapter of his newest puzzle game, Refugee. It’s in the same vein as Space Spy, but with better music and bigger explosions. This one attempts to encapsulate his feelings on the corruption of power within Homeland Security, although there’s not much of that as of yet. You can expect more levels to be added in the coming weeks, provided that he comes out of his trial unscathed. Come for the “crazy juridicial prostitutes”, stay for the B-Game appeal of this absurd experience.
Let’s hope Thursday’s trial works out for Vasily; he seems a reasonable guy, if a bit out of the ordinary, and it appears that a return to Russia would do far more harm than good.

You can play Refugee here, while the trailer can be viewed here.

The Marionette

By: Guest Reviewer

On: January 19th, 2010

[This is a guest article by Shade Jackrabbit. If you’re interested in writing an article for TIGSource, please go here.]

Recently Team Effigy released the final version of their adventure game The Marionette. After three years of development it is now playable, and it is quite interesting. Taking the role of Martin, a struggling sculptor in the big city, you begin by simply opening a letter. Soon you are transported into a surreal mystery of ghosts and the past, which you must solve if you ever want to get back home.

It’s a great-looking game for one, deciding to go with a painted look as opposed to photographic or pixelized. The soundtrack is really good as well, and apparently you can get a copy of it if you send in a donation. The game has been self-rated as 16+ due to content, as there’s some very violent imagery as well as more mature themes. It’s also a bit of a downer so I don’t recommend playing it if you want to have a really fun time.

Still, it has a really good story, so this is a definite play for you adventure fans out there.

Wake

By: Xander

On: January 16th, 2010

Boss Baddie, the two man team behind exploratory platformer Lunnye Devisty have announced their new project to be released within the next coming weeks.

Wake is being pitched as a kind of survival platformer inside a sinking ship. As an engineer on board you have to make your way to the top of the ship in order to escape, whilst numerous obstacles line the path. The biggest of these is of course the rising sea level, which is the only element of the game capable of killing you. There’s also a scoring system in place which awards you based on how long it took you to escape and whether you fainted along the way (as well as other unknown objectives), so it appears that simply surviving isn’t the whole experience.

There’s also a ‘Rolling Demo’ available, but after the 40MB download there really doesn’t seem to be any real point to it. I suppose it’s meant to give you an idea of the atmosphere, but there didn’t seem to be anything to be gained from watching it that wasn’t conveyed simply by the screen shots. Still I’m pretty excited about the survival game concept, so looking forward to seeing more soon.

The Release Date of P.B Winterbottom

By: Xander

On: January 15th, 2010

As reported today by the ever lovely Destructoid, The Misadventures of P.B Winterbottom will finally be released on the XBLA come Febuary 17th for 800MS points, which is probably something like $10. As I understand it the game is good enough to be deserving of any quoted sum. Regardless of your stance currently though a demo will naturally be released on the same day so if you aren’t happy putting down the money straight away then be sure to check it out then!

The one major grievance is that there doesn’t seem to be any news of a PC release. Given the amount of XBLA titles we see make the jump to PC, with relative ease too, it’s rather disappointing. Still it’s been a long road for The Odd Gentlemen and I’m glad they’ve finally reached the end of it. Expect impressions come release day.

Space Spy: Now with Sound!

By: fuzz

On: January 7th, 2010

I posted about the bizarre adventure game Space Spy a while back, but now it is finally finished. Vasily Zotov has added an extra level entitled “Portrait of Isabel Bronzina” as well as creating music and sound effects to complement the visuals. Most of the sound effects appear to be recorded from life, which adds a realistic touch to what is otherwise a completely fantastical experience. The music is very dramatic and atmospheric, perfectly suiting the style of the game, but the final level and the ending are what really make this worth downloading again. A chilling indictment of the American justice system, “Portrait of Isabel Bronzina” portrays a soulless judge sitting at a desk surrounded by framed paintings. As she speaks, her head fluctuates between large and small, and she throws paintings at the protagonist, and indeed anything in her way. By bringing a particular painting to her and plugging in two electrical cords, the ending is triggered. Suffice it to say that the final cinematic is likely one of the best endings in any game ever released. Vasily is currently looking for a publisher, with the ideal goal of having Space Spy released with Verizon Wireless, but for now you can play the game on PC or in-browser with the Unity Web Player, although the online version does not contain sound.

Space Spy can be downloaded here, while the newest trailer can be viewed here. If you’d like to see what feedback the game received from IGF judges, you can see a selection of comments here.

PS: I’m a new editor at TIGSource; you may know me as Fuzz from my previous guest articles and from my account on the forums.

Bob Came in Pieces – Released

By: Xander

On: December 22nd, 2009

Bob Came in Pieces is a puzzle adventure game released today by Ludosity Interactive.

Though there’s no demo available at the moment, the trailer does seem to be reason enough to be interested in this game. The basic idea appears to be that you use your ship in order to solve immediate puzzles in an attempt to accomplish your greater goal of collecting all the parts of your ship in order to return home. However, the more pieces of your ship you recollect the more you can alter the actual ship itself to better solve the puzzles. This could mean improving your score on earlier levels, or perhaps entirely alternate methods of solution through far more imaginative machinations.

The presentation appears to be pretty solid, with some nice looking ice effects and physics, and at less than $10 the overall package is rather tempting. Hopefully a demo is the next logical step from the developers, but I think the price point is quite well-pitched to my own curiosity so if nothing else I’ll hopefully have something more to say later on.

ASCII in HD

By: Alehkhs

On: November 23rd, 2009

Xbox Live is starting to look up; with well established Indie names making their way to the Xbox in the next year with Polytron’s ‘Fez,’ and Derek Yu’s ‘Spelunky,’ heading to the XBLA in 2010, and XBLIG starting to have actual, non-massage games, the Xbox is slowly becoming an Indie portal.

However, even with these fine names coming to XBL, there’s a few things I demand before I will consider XBL a true host to the Indie community.

First and Foremost: Roguelikes, and lucky me – not one, but two roguelikes are headed to XBLIG this winter.

First on the list: ASCII Quest, from Jade Vault Games

ASCII Quest was born out of an epic goal, yet as an indie title, quickly ran into restraints. “We realized that the game would require way too many assets; [we were] really interested in making an RPG, but full graphical RPGs take a lot more work than we had time for at the moment,” explained president of Jade Vault Games, Daniel Hanson. “I found a couple online articles on roguelike development, and that inspired me to make a quick prototype. I had begun to notice that there were many people who were asking for a roguelike on Xbox LIVE Indie Games, and realized that there was a market for this kind of game.” Thus began ASCII Quest.

Obviously, aside from crossover pc users, a roguelike will be a new experience for many console players. To this end, ASCII Quest aims to be an “easy roguelike, one that anyone could pick up and play.” Rogue veterans need not worry however, for there are several difficulty levels. The hardest of these levels incorporates several extra features, or rather, it takes away a feature (saving) in leu of another (an online high-score list, the Hall of Heroes).

Although a roguelike might seem a simple project for first-time developers, developing one for the Xbox presented some issues. Hanson explains, “Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of implementing a roguelike on Xbox 360 is creating an approachable control scheme. PC roguelikes are fond of using most of the keys on the keyboard. Instead of having a universal action key, a separate key is used for each specific action (drinking potions, equipping weapons, and so on). Obviously, this isn’t very feasible when most people have only an Xbox controller. Even something as simple as movement is difficult to get right. Roguelikes are turn-based games, and movement occurs on a tile grid.” In answer, Hanson and his crew have opted for a ‘universal action button.’

“The left thumbstick or DPad is used to aim this cursor around the character. Then the player must press the ‘A’ button to confirm movement in that direction. This ensures that all movement is precise and in the direction that the player desires, which is important in a turn-based game. Movement is also used to perform many actions; to attack an enemy, simply bump into it. In fact, bumping into anything will perform the default action with that entity (open doors, talk to NPCs, and so forth). To pick up items or to walk up/down stairs, stand over it and press ‘A.’”

With the implementation of simplified controls, as well as multiple difficulty levels, ASCII Quest will hopefully be welcomed by players on XBLIG, RL veterans and newcomers alike, when it releases this December for 80MSP ($1US).

[Game Page]

The second roguelike headed to XBLIG is Dungeon Adventure, by UberGeekGames

Dungeon Adventure‘s development was inspired by the developer’s first taste of the RL community. “I picked up Rogue on the iPhone by chance one day, and became completely addicted to it. I’ve been a longtime fan of RPGs and adventure games, but am always sad when I reach the end of a game since there usually isn’t much more content once you’ve completed the main story arc,” said UG.

Like Hanson of Jade Vault, UG understands that there are obvious reasons no one has put a RL on Xbox yet. “Roguelikes are usually regarded as niche games. But,” adds UG, “I think they have a very wide appeal.”

“I’m trying to bridge the gap between hardcore ASCII roguelikes and more casual gamers,” says UG. Dungeon Adventure incorporates several aspects that might make it a bit easier to pick up; the most noticeable is the option to use a graphical tileset rather than the standard ASCII characters. This graphical set doesn’t break the old-school feel of the game, but will definitely make it a bit easier on players eyes, especially for those newcomers who might never have seen a traditional roguelike before. There is even an option to use your XBL avatar as the player sprite, should you so desire it.

As for the issue of controls, UG has put a ton of time into making sure the player has several options concerning how they want to control the game. Besides the ‘standard’ method, using only a few of the buttons on an Xbox controller, UG has also incorporated the Xbox ChatPad as well as USB keyboards. “And I’ve spent a lot of time just playing the game with each input device to make sure the control scheme is comfortable and easy to use on all of them. This is something that I notice is lacking in a lot of games, especially in Indie games – the developer adds buttons for new actions and features as they are made, and since they are playing the game throughout its development cycle it’s very hard for them to realize that someone who’s never seen the game before may have a problem memorizing a wall of button prompts!”

“One of the most difficult things to get right was movement. Roguelikes demand precise, octo-directional, digital movement, which analog thumbsticks aren’t suited to at all. That probably took an entire month alone just to perfect, but it was well worth it! There are two different control schemes, one where you move the thumbstick or DPad in the direction you want to go, and another that I call Sure-Move, where you use either the thumbstick or DPad to highlight the direction you want, and hit A to move. This is also why I highly recommend hooking up a ChatPad or USB keyboard when playing, since there is just no substitute for the tactile feel of a keyboard when moving around.”

Dungeon Adventure is set to arrive on XBLIG this winter.

[Game Page]