Solium Infernum
By: Derek Yu
On: December 9th, 2009
Now this is how I like to imagine Hell: filled with bizarre demons and monsters, yes, but also rife with nefarious politics_. Cryptic Comet’s Infernum.html">Solium Infernum is a turn-based strategy game where you control one of up to six archfiends vying for control of Hell. The goal of the game is to have more prestige than your opponents by the end of the game. Combat definitely plays a crucial part in this, but it’s only one of many ways to further your means. In fact, you can’t even engage another archfiend unless they’ve declared a vendetta against you, and goading them into one can be even more fun than fighting…
I’ve only played the demo myself, but the few reviews I’ve read seemed giddy about it, and I can see why – SI offers up a version of Hell that is as dark and compelling as any I’ve seen in a while (it reminds me of Wayne Barlow’s novel God’s Demon, which is a good thing). The theme lends itself really well to the strategy, which is as much about intrigue and political posturing as it is moving troops around. I also have to give credit to artist Matt Bradbury for doing a fantastic job on the flavor art in the game.
Solium Infernum can be played single player, although the AI feels a bit lackluster (this has been addressed somewhat in patches following the game’s release). Multiplayer is handled through hotseat or play-by-email (PBEM). If you’re a fan of turn-based strategy games, you should check it out. Here’s a handy (and entertaining) tutorial to get you started.
Time-permitting, I’d really like to take a closer look at the full version ($30) and try multiplayer. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.
TIGdb: Entry for Solium Infernum
Assemblee: Part Two
By: Guest Reviewer
On: December 6th, 2009
Greetings citizens of Tigville! I am Lord Andy of Whitshire. Duke Derek is tending to important matters in the shires of Mossmouth, and asked me to deliver this news in his stead:
“Our cup hath overfloweth with an amazing amount of awesome entries to Part 1 of Assemblee competition. But the journey is long, and we must persist. For ”http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=9600.0">Part 2 now awaits brave adventurers.
To assist ye in your task, I, Duke Derek, have linked to resources on the Part 2 page which shall aid in collecting the materials required for building your game.
And so I send ye forth to now assemble. Good luck young ducklings.
-Duke Derek of Tigsourcia"
I trust ye all know what to do…
DESIGNERS AND PROGRAMMERS, ARE YE READY?!!
Who is Infinite Ammo?
By: Derek Yu
On: December 5th, 2009
“This piece was put together by an exceptionally talented duo – James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot of ”http://www.blink-works.com/“>Blink Works media. It premiered last night with a party at IMAX as part of a showcase of Winnipeg-based New Media companies.”
This video got me all kinds of emotional. Fuckin’ love you guys, man!
Igneous
By: Derek Yu
On: December 4th, 2009
Igneous has been described on the forums as “what 3d Sonic should have been” and I can see why – it moves fast and it looks really good. Going Down in Flames, the four-man development team from Digipen, have done a great job loading the game up with special effects. It’s impressive how much is going on at any given moment… especially since you’ll be flying by at a high clip.
I gotta say, though, I prefer Sonic’s 90’s ‘tude to the tiki totem’s lack of personality. And at four levels, the game is relatively short (the first level is more or less a no-level). Still… it moves fast and it looks really good!
TIGdb: Igneous
Natural Selection 2 – Spark Editor
By: Derek Yu
On: December 2nd, 2009
Though the original intended release date (Fall 2009) has come and gone, Unknown Worlds is still hard at work on the sequel to their ground-breaking FPS Natural Selection. Last week they released a pre-alpha which contains a work-in-progress version of the Spark level editor as well as a good deal of the game’s environmental art. UW is comparing Spark Editor to Google’s SketchUp, and indeed, it looks quite intuitive, if the video tutorials are any indication.
Players who pre-order NS2 will get access to the pre-alpha as well as any other pre-release goodies. You’ll also be supporting a small team of five people in their quest to make a great game, so that’s nice!
Also: pictured above is one of the first in-game screenshots from NS2, depicting a skulk’s eye (skulk’s mouth?) view of a vent and another skulk. For those of you not familiar with Natural Selection, the game pits two very different teams, human and alien, against each other, and combines the first-person shooter and real-time strategy genres. For another screenshot and some more information about the game’s ongoing development, check out this post.
Gamma 4
By: Derek Yu
On: December 2nd, 2009
Kokoromi Collective has announced that Gamma 4 will be a part of next year’s GDC in March. The theme is “one-button games” and entries must only use a single button on the Xbox 360 controller. Windows and Mac OSX games are both accepted. The submission deadline is January 31st.
Also, it’s not related to Kokoromi or Gamma, but OneSwitch.org is a website dedicated to single-button games and interfaces designed for the physically-handicapped.
Osmos
By: Derek Yu
On: November 27th, 2009
The concept behind Osmos is quite simple: bigger motes can swallow smaller motes. Most motes just float around, but the player and other intelligent motes can propel themselves by “farting” (my term) out smaller motes, becoming smaller in the process. Farting can also be used to push things away.
The execution of Osmos is extremely well-done. In the hands of another casual developer the motes might have had bug-eyes and squeaky sound effects, but the creators wisely went with a minimal and organic design which is very effective. Despite the simple graphics, there’s a lot of detail to the motes, which react to their environment by pulsing, glowing, and animating in various ways. The coolest effect, in my opinion, is how the motes change color depending on how much bigger or smaller than you they are. It’s really satisfying when you swallow a large mote and watching the whole screen turn from a malevolent red to a peaceful blue. You are now the king!
Osmos is a competitive Petri dish. The mechanics create a lot of interesting dilemmas and the graphics and music make the deceptively serene world come to life. The different game modes pit you against a variety of challenges that are well-suited to the mechanics – some of the levels get quite tough. I really enjoy this game. The chill atmosphere and abstract graphics shouldn’t fool you into thinking that it’s necessarily slow-paced or boring.
The game’s been out for awhile, and right now it’s on sale at Steam for a dirt-cheap $2. You can also support Hemisphere Games by buying it direct from them for the full $10.
TIGdb: Entry for Osmos
Driftmoon Preview
By: Derek Yu
On: November 26th, 2009
Driftmoon is a new top-down RPG project by Ville Mönkkönen, the creator of the survival game Notrium. Although it’s early in development, there is a playable preview (35 MB) of the game available from the game’s website. Driftmoon is in the final round of the second 2BeeGames competition.
There are some neat things about the preview. For one thing, the graphics are nice. I also like the way you can push and drag objects around and the Notrium-inspired survival elements are cool, too. The dialogue, leveling system, and puzzles feel a bit tacked-on, but hey, it’s just a preview! And it’s fun, besides.
Level Up!
By: ithamore
On: November 25th, 2009
Level Up! is a platformer with light RPG elements by Duncan Saunders that uses an interesting ability mechanic and is a good addition to the ranks of Flixel powered games.
This snippet from the game’s page at Newgrounds sums it up well:
“Inspired by Upgrade Complete, This game is a tribute to anyone who has ever sat there playing a game doing the same repeatable set of actions in order to get a arbitrary number to go up… You can gain levels in just about everything you do, from Jumping to Taking Damage to standing still and doing nothing at all… There is a catch though. Every night a re-occurring nightmare will rob you of everything if you can’t survive it.”
The Independent Gaming Source: A community of independent game developers and players.
TIGForums DevLog Magazine
TIGForums Image Crawler:
