Posts from ‘Macintosh’ Category
Lone Survivor
By: Derek Yu
On: March 27th, 2012
Jasper Byrne released his horror-themed adventure Lone Survivor today. The protagonist, an unnamed masked man, must escape a disease-ravaged city filled with monsters and hallucinations. You can play the demo online at Kongregate. The full version costs $10.
TIGdb: Entry for Lone Survivor
DoomRL 0.9.9.6
By: Derek Yu
On: March 13th, 2012
Version 0.9.9.6 of Kornel Kisielewicz’s DoomRL was finally released this month. If you haven’t played the game in awhile, there’s lots of new content, from new level features, skills, and challenges to high-quality audio upgrades. This is also the first graphical release of the game, and includes my graphics (tiles and title screen) and mouse support.
Players who prefer ASCII graphics will still be able to play 0.9.9.6 that way.
Dys4ia
By: Paul Eres
On: March 10th, 2012
Dys4ia is a new game by Anna Anthropy / Auntie Pixelante, developer of REDDER, Mighty Jill Off, Calamity Annie, When Pigs Fly, and other games, and who is also just about to release a book on independent game development, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. Dys4ia is an autobiographical game about transgenderism and hormone therapy. The music is by Liz Ryerson. From Anna’s blog:
“dys4ia is the story of the last six months of my life: when i made the decision to start hormone replacement therapy and began taking estrogen. i wanted to catalog all the frustrations of the experience and maybe create an “it gets better” for other trans women. when i started working on the game, though, i didn’t know whether it did get better. i was in the middle of the shit detailed in level 3 of the game, and at the time i had no idea what the ending would be; it was hard to envision a happy ending.”
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup v0.10: “Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus”
By: Paul Eres
On: March 5th, 2012
TIGSource hasn’t covered Crawl since 2007, back with Linley’s Dungeon Crawl, and it’s changed a lot since then. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is the living branch of Linley’s Dungeon Crawl (the original branch hasn’t been updated since 2003). Most fans of roguelikes have played it or at least know about it, but for those seeking to get into roguelikes this is a good place to start. Ortoslon got me into this particular game, and it became the first roguelike I ever finished (albeit as a Minotaur berserker, one of the easiest combinations to beat the game with).
The new update added (among many new features) a new species, octopodes, which can wear eight rings, but can’t wear armor except hats. In Crawl, species matters a lot more than starting class, class just determines which skills and items you start with, but is non-binding because you can always learn other skills and find other items: so you can begin as an elven fighter but then find a spellbook and decide to focus on magic anyway. Your species determines how fast you can increase different skills (varying from -5 to +5 learning rates), your movement speed, body size, metabolism, whether you have horns or claws or other features, and so on. If you get into the game you’ll probably try out all the species at least once, but then stick with a few favorites.
Teaser – Octodad: Dadliest Catch
By: Alehkhs
On: March 5th, 2012
Indie studio Young Horses has released a teaser trailer for their sequel to 2010’s fumbling physics game, Octodad. Titled Octodad: Dadliest Catch, this sequel continues the story of an octopus posing as a human as he tries to accomplish everyday tasks with, and for, his oblivious human family. No task is easy however, when all you have to work with are boneless, suction-cupped arms. Additionally, there’s now a catchy theme song that I’ll no doubt have lodged in my head for quite some time.
The original game is still free for download, and anyone who hasn’t hopelessly smacked every household object in the room onto the floor while trying to turn off an alarm clock played it yet should go give it a try.
The teaser trailer states that Octodad: Dadliest Catch will be arriving on shore in 2013. As a fan of the first game and all things cephalopod, I’m looking forward to getting my two, perfectly human hands on it.
Starfarer 0.5a
By: Derek Yu
On: February 14th, 2012
Starfarer is a promising real-time tactics RPG that’s currently in development. The latest pre-order build, 0.5a, was released today, bringing the game one step closer to the open-world space opera that its developers have planned. Previous iterations of Starfarer have let you choose from a number of scripted missions, but in 0.5a you can finally tackle a basic campaign map that lets you expand your fleet (through purchase or capture) and level up your crew. No matter how large your fleet is, though, you’ll always control a single character and ship, directing your allies through a detailed tactical map.
The game already offers quite a bit in the way of customization to your fleet, from types of ships (large capital ships to tiny fighters) to weapons and armor, down to even the personality and experience of the crew. The final release, though, sounds like it will be a dream for fans of space combat and trading games like Escape Velocity Nova – whether you want to be an ace pilot, the admiral of a large fleet, or something in-between, there will be plenty of ways to make your (permanent, meaningful) mark on the galaxy. On top of that, Starfarer’s devs seem committed to making the game friendly for modders, with fans already creating their own ships and missions.
The final price of the game is set at $20, but you can pre-order it right now for $10 and receive the current build as well as all future updates.
Dwarf Fortress 2012
By: Alehkhs
On: February 14th, 2012
A new release of Dwarf Fortress has arrived from the Mountainhomes!
Release 0.34.01 fleshes out world generation (including massive cities complete with sewers, dungeons, catacombs, marketplaces, and outlying farmland), creatures (including werewolves, vampires, mummies, and necromancers capable of raising the dead), and many other features.
Click here for a more comprehensive list of changes and additions.
(Image Source: Fault, of the Bay 12 Forums)
Review: Katawa Shoujo
By: Derek Yu
On: February 8th, 2012
[This is a guest review by Tof Eklund.]
“Everyone wants someone there to pull them up, out of their self-pity.” -Hisao Nakai
Katawa Shoujo is a visual novel that takes place at a school for the disabled. The game’s protagonist, Hisao, arrives there reluctantly after a long hospital stay for life-threatening arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). His first episode occurred when a girl at his school confessed to him, setting the tone of heartbreak, isolation, and the difficulty of human connection for the game. Thus the game’s logo, a yellow heart criss-crossed with bandages: wounded and frightened.
This is a relationship/dating sim game, but it is closer in feel to Evangelion than any of the “harem” anime and manga (Tenchi Muyo, Love Hina) that it may seem, on casual inspection, to resemble. Each of the girls that Hisao can wind up falling in love with at Yamaku Academy has a different disability, and that, combined with the fact that there is (semi-)explicit sex in this game, is the reason some people have dismissed it, unplayed, as a fetish-fest.
Humble Android Bundle
By: Derek Yu
On: February 1st, 2012
The Humble Bundle guys have launched a new pay-what-you-want bundle aimed at Android users. The games included are Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD, Osmos HD, and the puzzle game EDGE. World of Goo is available as a “beat-the-average” bonus game. If you buy the bundle you’ll receive the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of these games, as well.
Katawa Shoujo
By: Derek Yu
On: January 28th, 2012
Katawa Shoujo (lit. “Cripple Girls”) is a visual novel that was developed by Four Leaf Studios, an “international team of amateur developers”. Based on a sketch by doujinshi Raita Honjou (who’s also the character artist for Valkyria Chronicles), the game takes place in a high school for disabled teenagers. 4 years in development, Katawa Shoujo was released early this year and the team disbanded soon after.
I haven’t played it, but most of the comment threads about the game seem to start with someone wondering out loud whether it’s as perverted and exploitative as it sounds, to be answered by fans who claim the subject matter is treated tastefully and that the actual sex, which is minimal, takes a backseat to the development of the characters and their relationships.
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