Cockpit Competition: Voting!

By: Derek Yu

On: April 15th, 2009

Voting has begun for our TIGSource Cockpit Competition! This was an interesting theme because it implied the use of 3d graphics, or at least pseudo-3d graphics. There’s a great mix of 2d, 3d, and pseudo-3d games amongst the whopping 41 finished entries for this compo. There are even a couple of text-based cockpit games!

You can view and download all the entries here. There are a number of videos for games in here. There’s also a really good post-mortem thread here. Thanks to Fuzz for compiling all the entries and videos!

And thanks to everyone who participated in the competition, especially the entrants! The world of cockpits will never be the same again.

Pax 10, IndieCade Call for Submissions

By: Derek Yu

On: March 13th, 2009

The Penny Arcade Expo (September 4th-6th) and IndieCade (October 1st-10th) are looking for independent games to showcase this year. The deadline for PAX submissions is May 9th, and the deadline for IndieCade submissions is April 30th.

IndieCade entrants are also eligible to appear at the various other expos that IndieCade participates in, including E3 and SIGGRAPH.

BeeWare

By: Derek Yu

On: March 3rd, 2009

The website of the 2BeeGames competition takes a slight dig at the IGF by saying “unlike some events where every judge plays only a few games, our judges will play each and every game to determine the finalists (up to 10).” However, developers that are interested in the compo should be more mindful of this part of the official rules:

It goes on to say that the “Contest Entities” do not waive any “rights to use similar or related ideas without any restriction whatsoever.” In other words, if you enter the competition (just enter, not necessarily win), you are giving the casual games publisher Zoo Games a license to not only market and sell your game all over the world, but also make knock-off games using your ideas.

Classy stuff!

(Thanks to the various folks that pointed this out.)

Cockpit Compo!

By: Derek Yu

On: February 20th, 2009

After a brief intermission, we is back with another competition in the hizzle f’shizzle… say hello to the TIGSource Cockpit Compo! We’ve all seen games that featured a cockpit of some kind – some of us have even played and loved a game with a cockpit in it. But let’s face it, it’s still a relatively underused concept in games.

Whether you’re in a plane, a car, a mech, or even a human being, cockpits act as a powerful HUD or second screen between you and the rest of the game. They can be props that add a sense of dynamism and realism to a game, and they can provide visual data. They can also be interactive. As usual, we’re keeping the rules pretty vague for this compo – how can you make a cockpit work for you?

The competition begins this Sunday, and ends on March 29th, a week after GDC. See the compo page for rules and examples!

Love Letter Competition: Voting

By: Derek Yu

On: February 18th, 2009

Stephen “increpare” Lavelle threw together an impromptu competition for Valentine’s Day last week, and it ended this evening. The theme was “love letter,” as in make a game about love, the lack of it, or anything in between, and address it to your significant other, the internets, or nobody in particular. In other words, it was a fairly open topic, and as usual, the thirteen entrants took advantage of that to produce some wildly different stuff!

You can play all the entries here, and then cast your vote for the one that wooed you the most.

Hope everybody had a great V-Day!

GDCA Finalists Announced

By: Derek Yu

On: February 12th, 2009

Here’s some exciting news: a number of independent games have been nominated for Game Developers Choice Awards this year, including Braid, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, and N+. Braid is nominated for a whopping 5 awards, second only to Little Big Planet (with 7). These awards are Best Game Design, Best Writing, Best Debut, Innovation, and Best Downloadable Game.

You can find the full list of nominees here.

Rock Boshers

By: Derek Yu

On: February 10th, 2009

Rock Boshers is a top-down demake of the 2001 first-person shooter Red Faction, by Volition. The project was originally developed for last year’s Bootleg Demakes Competition, but its author, Dugan (aka “moogled”), only recently put the finishing touches on it. And the extra time really shows – this is an impressive effort, especially considering it’s his first Game Maker release.

Boshers incorporates both Red Faction’s destructible terrain (for which the latter is best known), as well as its Martian setting, but while playing I was most often reminded of Dead Rising, a game where zombies are constantly swarming and your immediate goal, more often than not, is just to make your way through a crowded passageway. All the enemies and traps in RB are deadly, but your most hated foe is going to be the zombie spawn point, which spits out brain-eaters at a prodigious rate, quickly filling the tight areas that you’ll have to navigate on your way to the next key or exit. And no, these spawn points can’t be destroyed!

There’s a lot to like about this game, to be sure. For one thing the graphics, which are inspired by the ZX Spectrum, are outstanding, and have a lavish amount of detail. Rock Boshers also features two multiplayer modes (on and offline), as well as a hidden Asteroids-style minigame, which is unlockable after you beat level 10. All in all, it’s a pretty polished and entertaining game that’s made even better by the sometimes frustrating level of challenge (should you like that sort of thing).

TIGdb: Entry for Rock Boshers

Make My Head Grow / 4’33” of Uniqueness

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: February 8th, 2009

Make My Head Grow is a two player competitive game of head-smashing and box-pushing, made within 48 hours, that recently cleaned up at the 2009 Nordic Game Jam. I find its gameplay remarkably disturbing.

(Thanks Renaud!)

While I’m here, I might as well post Petri‘s “experimental art game” entry (which apparently Heather and ’ Site">Cactus contributed to) called <a href=“http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/4mins33secs” title=“4’33” of Uniqueness">4′33″ of Uniqueness. It makes me feel a little bit sad.

Check out Kokoromi’s site for more info and also pictures as well!

Commonplace Book Compo: Results!

By: Derek Yu

On: December 24th, 2008

Finally, for my ultimate Christmas Eve post, here are the results of our creepy-crawley Commonplace Book Compo! The winner, by a sizeable margin, is Kyle Pulver’s Verge. A well-deserved win by the former Vice President of RomeoPie Software.

The top 10 games were:

1. Verge, by Kyle Pulver

2. From Primordial Egg, by Fifth

3. Eversion, by Zaratustra

4. This Cursed Rock, by deadeye

5. Lost in Eldritch, by Bob le Moche

6. My Entry, by cactus

7. Herbert West in ‘Carrion Re-animating!’, by captainbinky

8. The Clatter of the Keys, by Pishtaco

9. The Lake, by agj

10. Doorror, by Pencerkoff

Please check out the rest of the entrants, too! Congratulations to all the entrants for making this a memorable couple of months. May an Old One crawl down your chimneys and bring you each the gift of a quick death tonight. Merry Cthulhumas!

EnvComp: An IF Environment Competition

By: Derek Yu

On: December 17th, 2008

To quote Pacian: