There’s no shortage of colored block puzzle games on the iPhone, but Shibuya stands out from its brethren. Whereas most color-matching puzzlers are defined by their intuitive “pick up and play” nature, Shibuya goes for a unique gameplay system that will have you spending a good amount of time practicing the basics.
The great thing about the PAX 10 is not only being able to meet people who are passionate about making games, but are equally as passionate about the games themselves. Take for example Erin Robinson, the designer of Puzzle Bots. This point-and-click adventure game takes you on the journey of five tiny robots as they traverse the often-treacherous robotic labs. The twist here is that while you are raising sunken toy ships or trying to escape from flooded tubes, there’s a bigger story involving the inventors outside of these puzzles.
Small tasks lead to big results as the group argues, works out a twisted love triangle, and tries to solve a mystery. This all culminates in a rather light-hearted story that fits the rich environments and clever puzzles.
I can hardly get my friends to agree on what to put on a pizza let alone create a game in the span of a month. Plane Weaver is a rather clever student project that comes to us from Denmark. In this platform-puzzlier, you must save your brother’s soul from a giant machine bent on taking over the world.
Remember the name Brian Provinciano. Why? Because he's been laboring for years working on Retro City Rampage. You might not have heard of this game yet, but you're going to. It'll be coming to the Wii and "other platforms" sometime later, and when it does, you're in for a treat. Somehow Brian has figured out a way to plug an 8-bit stream directly into the gaming / pop-culture center of your brain, and turn it into this magical video game.
Fowl Space was a lovechild of boredom. While in class, two of the developers started passing designs back and forth. Somewhere in the middle of all that ink and crumpled paper, a chicken in a space helmet was born and thus we have Fowl Space. The story follows a chicken that wants to destroy the sun only to find it inhabited by lingerie-loving Vikings – and then things get crazy. This rather easy to control platform-shooter is filled to the brim with style, off-colored humor, and frantic action.
Developing a real-time strategy game is challenging enough when you've got money and a publisher behind your efforts, because even then you have to contend with the tried and true big boy franchises, like Starcraft, Civilization, Age of Empires, and the like. All of which just had or are about to have new releases. So how do you do it when you're an indie developer?
If you're anything like Longbow Games, you just put your head down and churn out your own product. Hegemony: Philip of Macedon is what came out of their efforts, and when I first walked by their booth I did a double take, thinking that no indie game developer could produce an RTS title that looked this polished.
Not every indie game seeks to reinvent the wheel. Some of them are still out there to prove that games are all about fun. They don't have to be filled with innovation or present something that nobody has thought about before. If there wasn't at least some form of imitation in many games, then we would have a very slim selection of games to choose from.
Altitude is all about that. It's a very simple 2D flying platformer that has the added bonus of perk, rewards, and a leveling up system. You can progress from Airman all the way to General as you pilot your way through simple game modes like Team Base Destruction, Ball, Team Death Match, Free For All, with a variety of one life left alternates.
You wake up on an island suspended in the void. There's been a calamity and you need to figure out how to put the world back together. Moving around causes items, steps, pieces of the environment, and even the very ground you tread on to spring out of the void. Welcome to Bastion, Supergiant Game's first title.
Lending to the game’s unique style, Greg Kasavin, the team’s creative director, explained that it was part of their 'fog of war.' By never seeing what's around the corner until you turn it, players must always keep alert for unseen foes or new areas to explore. He also mentioned that the unique style gave the team room to play around with the concept in different ways during later levels.
You may have seen how the X-Play debut of the new League of Legends trailer gave me chills. I admit it, I'm easily made cold, one of the reasons I now reside in sunny Los Angeles. However, what's great about this trailer is that, even without knowing which champion could do wield power, it was still exciting. So much so it got me to play the game, which I suppose is the whole point of making a trailer like this.
If you missed it, check it out and be sure to watch it again after you've played the game, which if you haven't yet, you're foolish as it's free-to-play and available at the official site.
Debuting late last year during a flood of holiday game releases, League of Legends unfortunately flew under my radar. To rectify that problem, I dove in recently and found myself quickly hooked on this quality free-to-play action/strategy game. What got me interested in the game was the CG trailer showcasing the in-game champions, which is debuting on X-Play as we speak (look for it online tomorrow morning). It gave me the chills, but I'm a dork.
In the meantime, the president of Riot Games and executive producer on the game, Marc Merrill, dropped by to chat about the origins of the game, the ongoing community support and the future for season one. Up till now, it's been merely pre-season and now the competitive play is really about to begin, with a worthy $100,000 prize on the line as well. Want some more insight into the game? Here you go:
For more on League of Legends or play it for free right now, head on over to the official site. And watch out for anyone playing Taric; it just might be me owning your team!
Activision caught some by surprise when CEO Bobby Kotick announced the company's very first indie gaming competition back at DICE in February. The details on the contest have remained a mystery, but Activision pulled back the curtain this morning, revealing what's at stake for indies.
Do you love science, and games that are a little off the beaten track? Well, check this out. Kevin Pereira tells us about Atomic Puzzle, a game that allows you to move atoms in sequence to make molecules merge in just the right way. It's science-riffic, and it's all indie, which should move your gaming street cred a little closer to perfection.
In this edition of Indie Games, Kevin Pereira gives us the scoop on the game GPS Mission, which involves creating outdoor GPS missions and having friends and neighbors play them, all on your mobile device. Check it out if you want to learn about something new, cool, and indie!
Even though indie game developers have more avenues to sell their wares that never before, there's still so much we don't know about them. And by them, I mean the people behind the games, the hard-working game developers. Indie Game: The Movie, currently in development digital film studio BlinkWorks, hopes to pull the curtain back on the indie community -- but they need your help.
Far be it from me to tell you how to spend your money and your time, but you really should check out the Humble Indie Game Bundle. The download pack for PC and Mac contains five award-winning indie games (World of Goo, Aquaria, Lugaru HD, Gish, Penumbra: Overture), and cost whatever you want to pay... and it's for charity. So this is the perfect opportunity to give some indie games a spin and help people.
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