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.

Endeavor

By: ithamore

On: December 15th, 2010

Endeavor is a Metroidvania with multiple endings and a story about a dwarf who is asked by his dead father to try to gain the strength and wisdom to obtain a treasure that has been handed down their family for generations. After learning the basics while exploring your home land the story takes a sudden turn (or literally a fall). It is up to you to choose what to do from there.

Zillix started making the game for the October challenge at  Ludum Dare and as a sequel to his mini-LD entry, Summit. Earlier this month he got Endeavor sponsored by Newgrounds, and he also has it up at Kongregate (where it is doing quiet well in the monthly ranking contest for new games).

I like the slightly obscured look of the tiny pixel art and the variety and quality of the music. It took me an hour or two to finish the game the first time, but the length was significantly shorter when I started over to get the other endings. I also enjoyed the non-linear, power up encapsulated exploration so much I highly recommend Endeavor.

TIGdb: Entry for Endeavor

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

REDDER

By: Paul Eres

On: March 11th, 2010

REDDER is a game by Anna Anthropy / Auntie Pixelante, with music by Amon26. It’s an exploration platformer focused around an alternating green/red block switch mechanic, similar to the mechanic used in the third pendent dungeon in the SNES classic A Link to the Past.

I found the colors very nice (even though the backgrounds are often just gradients, there’s a lot that can be done with just gradients of color), and the exploration of a fairly large world excellent. In a few ways the game resembles VVVVVV, but only in basic structure: a world of screen-sized rooms, numerous checkpoints, things to collect, but is more non-linear, slower-paced, and not as focused on challenge (you won’t die very often if you’re decent at platformers).

I’ve played through many of her other games (When Pig’s Fly, Calamity Annie, Mighty Jill Off, Invader), and so far this one’s by far my favorite; maybe you guys will agree.

Umbrella Adventure: The Castle of Cake

By: Paul Eres

On: February 5th, 2010

Q: Umbrella Adventure? Is that the super-secret unique new game project I hear you have in the works? Is there anything you’d like to share with us about it? Please?

A: Oh, it’s not super-secret, it’s just that no-one asks. It’s called Umbrella Adventure: The Castle of Cake, and centres around a gopher, his umbrella, a very talented but slightly insane unicycling weasel, an emotionally fragile talking fairground hook-headed rubber ducky, and the heinous theft of several hundred very delicious cakes. Before I lose the entire audience I should probably add that the musical score is performed by a friend of mine on acoustic guitar and is superb, and that all the graphics are hand-drawn. […] It’s every bit as serious as it sounds.

(From an Abandonia: Reloaded interview of Srehpog conducted in 2006.)

Umbrella Adventure has a huge world; you collect new abilities and cakes. My own experiences with the game were pleasant but not entirely pleasant. I liked the soundscape, the stylistic hand-drawn art, the size of the world, the basic structure of the game, and much else. I didn’t like the controls, that there was no way to quickly travel across the huge world (that I ever found – there actually was a way), that you often had to get past the same obstacles and enemies again and again, and that there was no real motivation to collect the cakes other than that they could be collected. I make a habit to finish every game before I review it, and so far this game has taken me the longest time to finish (by far) — about three months, as much because of frustration and difficulty (and my own poor platforming skills) as game length.

The game goes like this: you play, die a bunch of times, see a bunch of cakes you can’t reach, finally after much difficulty get a new ability, and then either backtrack to get the cakes you missed or just continue on; I usually just continued on, because there there is no functional use of collecting the cakes. Occasionally a puzzle appears which you either get stuck at forever, figure out, or ask for help on. And the world just keeps getting bigger: this is definitely a game for the people who felt VVVVVV wasn’t worth the $15 (and this one’s free). It’s much more of a world that you leave and return to occasionally over time, each time seeing a new part of it, or getting a new cake.

Srehpog, of HiVE, is also the developer of Ark 22 and Sushi! Waxy’s Sushi Party. Trivia: Ark 22’s characters were originally all gophers, like the main character in Umbrella Adventure.

You see, the feeling I felt playing this game at first… not a very good feeling. The deaths that occur with blind jumps, not being able to attack in mid-air… and shortly dying afterwards, … it was punishment. Very unintuitive. And you know what, fuck that shit… but then I felt like I wasn’t being fair and gave it another go. And that is when I discovered magic, no… not magic, but something close to it, or maybe a bit far, you get the idea. Because you see, magic is very special, and there is only one magic, and I already possess it. rediscovering magic would be pointless! like giving birth to the child you already gave birth to… why two of the same child? Are they twins? Or maybe two-headed… no… this is scary.

(From an eva-jolli review of Umbrella Adventure.)

La-Mulana – Coming Winter 2009

By: Xander

On: July 27th, 2009

Did it just get awesome in here?

Tormishire Trailer

By: Shabadage

On: August 18th, 2008

James is hard at work on his new game Tormishire, a rather nice looking Metroidvania-styled game. For those unfamiliar, James is the creator of the game Satan Sam that made rounds on the internet a few years back.

“How does that tie in?” you may ask.

“Why it’s a spiritual sequel, and it’s not already on TIGS! I also felt that this post was very short!”

Fortunately, for those of you UNFAMILIAR with Satan Sam, you can find it at his site here!! Trailer goodness time!

James’s Blog!

I Wanna Be the Guy!

By: Xander

On: January 13th, 2008

I Wanna Be the Guy is hard. It’s really really hard, and what’s shown in this screenshot is one of the easiest sections of the game. If anyone is curious there are 87 spikes on that one screen, and each will kill you if you even scratch it. Not even a simple death either; You will blow up in a shower of messtacular gibbination. And I love it.

IWBTG is a 2D-Platformer from hell, via Kayin Nasaki, where you play ‘The Kid’ on his Metroidvania-lite quest to become ‘The Guy’, eponymous hero of platformerdom. I say Metroidvania-lite, because unlike many exploratory platformers this lacks any kind of character upgrades, meaning you’re stuck the way you are for the entire game.

It’s actually pretty lengthy even without considering how often you’ll have to repeat screens over and over again. Save points are placed pretty generously throughout if you’re playing on ‘Medium’, but that doesn’t do much to alleviate the frustration. Everything will kill you; Spikes, Moons, Bullets, Fire (Naturally), Blanka, Celings, floors, walls, walls-with-wheels-AND-spikes, Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku (But no shoryuken? Yet..) and heat-seeking apples (Well, they’re more like giant cherries – Kayin).

It’s a game of madness, memorisation and hatred. And I love it. The deathtraps are often-times hilarious, and boss fights are the height of precision and persitence. It’s not perfect, but then it was never meant to be, and any glitches are encouraged to be exploited just for the game breaking the laws of common sense to blow your carcass across the screen in wonderous fury. I can’t guarantee you’ll enjoy it, but I can guarantee it’s something you wont be forgetting anytime soon.

There’s a few download mirrors on the site, and for the sake of saving their bandwidth it’s encouraged for you to download the demo version which is smaller (and most players won’t pass the demo area before they lose their minds probably), and saves are compatabile with both versions anyway.

PROTIP: Use ‘S’ to skip cutscenes. Provided you make it to a boss, it’ll save yourself a lot of manly tears.

New The Underside Vid

By: Derek Yu

On: November 21st, 2007

Pixel called…

…he wants his Arrested Development DVDs back. Seriously, you said you were going to return them a month ago!

(Source: Tim!)

Hasslevania

By: Derek Yu

On: November 20th, 2007

I’m a bit torn about Hasslevania, Del Duio’s Castlevania parody game. On the one hand, it’s a pretty sloppily-made platformer that suffers from bad controls, poor collision detection, and some really frustrating design decisions (e.g. not being able to heal at save points). It’s also a 140 meg download, 120 of those megs being cheesy voiceovers (I’m not kidding).

On the other hand, it’s pretty obvious that the creator had a lot of fun making the game, and it comes through when you’re playing. For all the flaws, the little touches he added do sparkle on this rough gem. And as dumb as the jokes are, I actually enjoy the sense of humor this game has. “Rovert Bellmunt” complaining to Dracula’s lawyer at the entrance to the castle? C’mon, that’s chuckle-worthy.

On the other other hand (yes, I have three hands (one of which is a penis)), I have the high jump boots but I’m totally stuck and why oh why does it cost 2 hearts just to do a high jump I can’t get past these spikes FUCK I have to wait another minute before the game over screen passes.

Screw this game.

(But thanks, Koholint!)