Posts from ‘Platformers’ Category
Vessel
By: Alehkhs
On: March 1st, 2012
Vessel, Strange Loop Games’ gorgeous physics-based puzzle adventure platformer, has been released and is available for purchase on the developers’ site or the game’s Steam page (there is also a demo on Steam).
Three years in the making, Vessel puts the player in the shoes of inventor M. Arkwright as he controls liquid automatons known as Fluros and tries to complete his greatest invention, the mysterious “Accelerator.”
Strange Loop Games estimates about 10 hours of gameplay, and I can easily see myself getting immersed in such a colorful world (let alone one with liquid physics, one of my weaknesses!). And for the aurally stimulated, the game is scored by composer Jon Hopkins (Monsters).
Alientrap Announces Next Game: Apotheon
By: Alehkhs
On: February 23rd, 2012
Alientrap, the two-man team behind last year’s Capsized, has just announced its next project: Apotheon. As an “an open world, action/stealth, 2D sci-fi sidescoller game,” Apotheon sports a unique art style that mimics classical Greek pottery and promises to “have both a sprawling, open-world singleplayer campaign where you climb your way to the top of Mount Olympus, gaining divine power and deadly enemies along the way, and online multiplayer battles with tactical bronze-age combat (spears and arrows!).”
Alientrap has only revealed two screenshots at this point as well as the game’s synopsis:
“Apotheon is a 2D platform action-rpg set on the rich stage of ancient Greek mythology. Hera, the queen of Olympus, has overthrown her husband Zeus, and taken his throne as ruler of the Gods. Bitter and scornful towards the race of mortals, she launches a murderous campaign to scour them from the earth. As humanity’s last champion, you must pass through the land of the dead, infiltrate Mount Olympus, and end the wrath of the Gods. With sword, spear, and shield in hand, you will sneak, conspire, loot, and battle your way through majestic palaces and chthonic depths as you climb towards godhood. Only by stripping the old gods of their powers, and taking control of the elements as your own, can humanity hope to survive the coming oblivion.”
Recent Good Knytt Stories #5
By: Derek Yu
On: January 30th, 2012
[This is a guest post by ortoslon.]
Here’s an hour’s worth of jumping, climbing and gliding. As usual, you’ll need the latest version of Knytt Stories to play these levels.
1. Snow Machine by RichardJ is short, scenic and devoid of challenge. Playthrough.
2. The Dying Core by Egomassive puts you through lasers, water, lava and spikes. Custom music tracks set the tone for each trial. Playthrough.
3. White City by Headgrinder has you exploring nooks and crannies of an abandoned floating city. Playthrough.
4. Do Not Pick Up The Key by Talps is a hard level about temptation. Do not watch the playthrough.
Gameplay Trailer: Gunpoint
By: Derek Yu
On: January 23rd, 2012
Tom Francis has turned to the dark side – in his spare time, the PC Gamer UK editor has been developing his own game, Gunpoint, a noir-ish stealth title that involves, among other things, knocking people through plate glass windows and playing around with high-tech electronic gizmos. Check out the above video, in which Tom talks us through the first few missions. It was posted a couple months ago, so the question of whether to charge for Gunpoint has been mostly answered (yes, but at a low price, with a substantial free version). That said, I don’t think developers have ever been adverse to hearing from more people who want to pay for their games.
Gunpoint is a finalist for the IGF Excellence in Design award.
Dustforce
By: Derek Yu
On: January 22nd, 2012
The levels in Dustforce aren’t long or particularly difficult, but my progress has been really slow. This is due in no small part to the results screen, where, if you’re like me, you’ll likely spend an inordinate amount of time checking your ranking, checking your friends’ rankings, watching replays, and formulating plans to improve your run. Case in point, I probably replayed the tutorial level a dozen times alone before I was satisfied enough to move on to the rest of the game.
I’ve seen Dustforce compared to Super Meat Boy as an “ultra-hard platformer”, but the point of both games seems different. The challenge of Dustforce isn’t so much to beat each level as it is to beat them well, achieving S ranks in both completion (debris cleared) and finesse (number of deaths), and doing it as quickly as possible. This point is driven home by the climbing and dashing mechanics that are based around speed, and the fact that enemies end combos and slow you down, but never outright kill you. You also get keys for SS ranking that will unlock more levels in the hub world.
The controls feel great (gamepads supported) and the levels are designed well around the game’s purpose and your character’s moveset. Watch the replays of the highest scorers and you’ll see some amazing precision, but even with just a little practice you TOO can feel like a ninja! The graphics, which are stylistically too close to free Flash web games for my taste, nonetheless animate extremely fluidly and support the acrobatics nicely. No complaints about Terence Lee’s soothing soundtrack, though, especially “9-bit Expedition”, the song that plays during the tutorial.
Aside from a few interface issues I ran across, I’m having a wonderful time with Dustforce. It’s a great release to ring in the new year with.
TIGdb: Entry for Dustforce
Hydra Castle Labyrinth
By: Derek Yu
On: January 10th, 2012
Hydra Castle Labyrinth is a nice Galious-like by E. Hashimoto (aka “Buster”), who also made Akuji the Demon. The game was released last year and has been fully translated into English by Gary the Krampus.
Recent Good Knytt Stories #4
By: Derek Yu
On: November 17th, 2011
[This is a guest post by ortoslon.]
Ahead lie four platformers that can be beaten in under ten minutes each (by me, that is). As usual, you’ll need the latest version of Knytt Stories to play these levels.
1. Oxi by Harumbai is a hard level that packs great graphical variety and detail into ten screens and forces the player to backtrack just enough to appreciate them fully. Playthrough.
Trailer: Incredipede
By: Derek Yu
On: September 18th, 2011
Colin Northway, creator of the popular physics game Fantastic Contraption, unveiled his latest project at Sense of Wonder Night in Tokyo last week, as part of the Tokyo Game Show. Incredipede is a physics-based platformer where you control a little creature that can be built and rebuilt using jointed limbs and muscles. The game will put various obstacles in front of you that you have to overcome with your creations. From the looks of it, you’ll have a lot of options in terms of what you can make and how you want to get past each obstacle!
Colin has made it clear that Incredipede is very much work-in-progress, and the graphics do not reflect the final look of the game. A video of his SOWN presentation can be found below (the noisemakers are provided to the audience to sound their approval).
Closure Coming to PSN
By: Derek Yu
On: September 17th, 2011
The puzzle-platformer Closure is coming to PSN in 2012, according to creators Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe. The game, which began as a Flash project on Newgrounds, treats darkness as empty space, and all of its puzzles revolve around that concept.
The team is planning on released PC and Mac ports of Closure some time after the PSN release.
HACK9 & HACKER9
By: ithamore
On: September 8th, 2011
HACK9 by wahiko is a relatively old Cave Story inspired platformer that is more difficult than it should be. I liked the basic gameplay and the variety of music, but grinding shouldn’t be a core requirement for getting through a Metroidvania. Additionally, there is so much Japanese dialogue in the game that it’s easy for players of other first languages to not know what to do next.
For months it sat ignored on my hard drive after I gave up on exploring the game’s world, since I couldn’t unlock any areas beyond the default availability. However, one dedicated player (nintendofan100) made a video walkthrough, with aid of some helpful comments on the Indiegames.com Blog post on HACK9, which has made the game much more accessible and has allowed me to appreciate the game more.
The video at the top, however, isn’t part of the walkthrough linked before but was chosen to present how confusing the game’s language and design barriers can be and because it contains the game’s audio (unlike the walkthrough).
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