By Jim Rossignol on August 25th, 2009 at 1:02 pm.
Links for two different games arrived in my inbox recently, both of which use the printed page as a backdrop. In the case of super-hectic shooter Scraap (above), it’s simply a page of text for the background, but in the case of Fig.8 – a browser game on Yo! Arcade – you are piloting a bicycle through a printed technical drawing, and the type is the obstacle. Scraap is a simple scrolling shooter of the most derivative kind presented in a fresh way, while Fig.8 is a beautiful concept, and it captures that oddly dry abstraction of technical drawings in being rather dry and placid. Both games end up being a little infuriating, but it’s fun to see designers playing around with different art-styles in this manner.
25/08/2009 at 13:57 LionsPhil says:
Fig. 8 is oddly calming, and feels kind of like a Pixar credit sequence, until the inevitable increase in complexity and shameful only-know-which-way-to-turn-by-trial-and-error level design combine with the widely spaced checkpoints to turn it into frustration.
(Tip: shift-steering won’t affect your multiplier. You can reach the first non-tutorial checkpoint by entirely this mechanism. Since you’ll then crash soonafter and zero your score, however…)
25/08/2009 at 15:05 MacBeth says:
Fig. 8 is rather nice, but yes, can be frustrating. Beautifully presented though.
26/08/2009 at 08:54 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Fig.8 is quite interesting. I’d probably like it more if it would allow the player to ride around more freely. It feels a bit too confining through the forced camera motion which contrasts with the overall atmosphere of the game.