Posts from ‘Sim’ Category
Orbitals
By: Alehkhs
On: February 21st, 2011
For Android users who would prefer to get their physics-based kicks from a simulation with a cluttered interface rather than by flinging colorful birds at colorful pigs, Orbitals might just be the overlooked charm you missed.
Dwarf Fortress v0.31.19
By: Derek Yu
On: February 17th, 2011
A new version of Bay12Games’ ambitious roguelike/sim Dwarf Fortress has been released. This is the first release of the “Caravan Arc”, which deals with trade and economy, and includes the addition of trade routes and several industries, like farming, crafts, and animal husbandry. Apparently trolls can be sheared for their wool now, raising some very serious questions about troll anatomy in the world of DF.
The Polynomial
By: ithamore
On: December 18th, 2010
I first played Dmytry Lavrov’s The Polynomial (and enjoyed it for an hour or so) a year ago after it was posted as an earlier build on the Indiegames.com blog. Now I’ve rediscovered its latest rendition while I was searching for a new indie game to play, and I’m quite happy to be reacquainted with it and to experience all its new improvements. The video above explains most of the basics, so you could just watch it if you don’t feel like reading the rest of the review of this tripy, gorgeous game.
Mount & Blade: Warband
By: Derek Yu
On: April 1st, 2010
TaleWorlds is calling Mount & Blade: Warband a sequel, but perhaps “stand-alone expansion” is more accurate? In any case, Warband does add a lot of exciting new features: 64-player multiplayer battles, overhauled graphics and combat, political intrigue, and romance, among other things. What hasn’t changed? Sweaty, grunty, bearded bastards riding around on horses, stabbing and clubbing each other in a fashion more realistic than any other game you’ve played!
You can purchase Warband for $30 as a digital download – the original game is not required. There is a demo available from the TaleWorlds website.
Planet M.U.L.E.
By: Paul Eres
On: February 16th, 2010
Planet M.U.L.E. is a remake of the classic economic multiplayer game M.U.L.E., and done with permission of the Bunten family. If you didn’t play the original the video above explains some of the basics. I’ve really been having a lot of fun with this game; it’s most fun if you play with people you know (I’ve been playing with #tigirc folk Mr. Podunkian, Eva-Jolli, Ortoslon, BlademasterBobo, Dragonmaw, etc. — thanks for helping me learn the game). It’s a beautiful design, it’s one of the few games that feels like it takes intelligence to do well in.
There’s quite a lot of complexity and that comes out of the game’s rules, with a large number of possible strategies. There are a few optimum strategies that you’ll gravitate towards after you’ve seen how the experts play the game, but even those tend to be undermined by the actions of new players who don’t really get the game (or parts of it), so sometimes the player who winds up winning is the person who can figure out the psychology of the worst player and take advantage of that player. Alternatively, sometimes a bad player can ruin the game for everyone else by having the entire colony fail (although that’s rare).
There are a lot of cosmetic and minor rule changes from the original, but for the most part I think they make sense and are improvements. For instance, the time counter during auctions now counts down faster if nobody is moving, instead of forcing everyone to wait when it’s clear nothing else will get done that auction. And the game seems to be (from its blog) in active development, with more improvements released periodically.
The main negatives are inherent in it being multiplayer-only: you sometimes have to wait ages for strangers to play with if you don’t know anyone willing to play it with you, and when someone loses their connection or leaves the game they’re replaced with a boring bot (which seem to have only basic AI and will always lose if you know what you’re doing). The ranking system is also kind if simplistic; it’s based on total wins rather than any kind of Elo-style rating system, which I think would be more appropriate.
If any of you are interested in playing the game with other people but don’t know anyone with the patience to learn such a nonstandard game, come to the chatroom #tigirc on irc.esper.net and see if anyone there is interested.
Stonesense – Dwarf Fortress Visualizer
By: Derek Yu
On: November 3rd, 2009
Now this is a dream coming true right here! Stonesense (alpha) is an open source isometric visualizer for Dwarf Fortress, created by jonask and Solifuge. It can run side-by-side with the venerable roguelike/sim to provide a graphical view of the game. The sprites are being contributed by various members of the DF community.
Here’a video of the mod in action:
Thanks, Michael Komalarajun, for the heads-up!
Darkwind: War on Wheels
By: Derek Yu
On: October 7th, 2009
Darkwind: War on Wheels is a physics-based, turn-based, squad-based vehicular combat MMORPG with a real world timescale and detailed economic simulation. And as improbable as that sounds, it’s apparently quite real. Shaun (udm on the forums) writes:
I haven’t played Darkwind yet myself, but I’d be impressed if the game lived up to even half of what it claims to be on the website! I will point out that character permadeath and persistent NPC gangs are two of the game’s features. I just thought those sounded particularly interesting.
If you’re interested, you can try the game for free for an unlimited amount of time. Buying a subscription, however ($20 for 3 months, $34 for 6 months, $58 for 12 months), enables you to buy, sell, trade, and customize cars, own facilities, and participate in subscriber-only events, among other things. And if you subscribe now, your subscription is free until October 19th.
TIGdb: Entry for Darkwind: War on Wheels
Video after the jump:
Minecraft Survival Mode Preview
By: Derek Yu
On: August 25th, 2009
Here’s a preview of Minecraft‘s Survival Mode, which paid customers will get to try out in a week’s time (September 1st). A lot has been added since we first posted about the game, like swimming cave pigs. That’s right, swimming cave pigs. And they have a taste for flesh, but only if it comes in a Hot Pocket.
Anyway, read more about the upcoming release here.
Touch KO Released
By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)
On: August 14th, 2009
Adam and Matt from Flashbang Studios, The Brothers Mechtley, have released a side project they’ve been working on since January: Touch KO, an iPhone boxing sim that quite reminds me of Fight Night, with its hilarious ragdoll knockouts and everything. From the video it looks to be polished and fun—if I had an iPhone, I’d be playing it right now! You can find the App Store link here.
In semi-related news, Matt has announced he’s leaving the world of indie games to pursue a career in super science, going for his PhD in Astrophysics at ASU. Next thing you know he’ll have his own island fortress and army of spider robots and all that. (That’s what scientists do, right?)
Matt: You have been a consummate gentleman, and you will be missed! Best of luck to you, sir.
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