By John Walker on January 20th, 2010 at 10:48 am.
Limbo looks amazing. We’re all certain we’ve posted this video before, but there’s no evidence of that on the site. Indeed, the short clip is three years old, but Limbo is up for the Technical Excellence award at this year’s IGF, and the trailer is haunting and brilliant. So throwing caution to the wind, risking that snorted comment, below you can see why it’s been nominated, and join us in wanting to see whether the game is able to pull of such seemingly natural movement. I mean, when he jumps, he jumps like he doesn’t have springs in his shoes and isn’t made of floaty polystyrene. That alone makes this game stand out.
Oooooh.
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Silhouettes are sorely underused in games so I thoroughly approve of this. In fact, the only other game I recall using em is Blade Master or something for the Amiga, which was pants.
edit: http://hol.abime.net/138 Blade Warrior. Total bobbins but the screenies looked nice.
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I agree entirely; the silhouette on a 2D platformer looks marvellous. Shank also uses a bit of silhouetting as well, with the sun behind the avatar.
But I am definitely buying this when it comes out.
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Nostalgia lol – yeah blade warrior looked great, although it was super basic, going thru some kind of outdoor maze- confusing and i never got anywhere.
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I’ve been trying to get a hold of these guys for these past 2 years but, sadly, no replies. I mean, except from that beautiful trailer, I have no idea what the game is about, who are the guys behind it, how far in development it is…
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It’s a Danish indie company. They did some playtesting some time in the fall, a mail went out at the university about it, and a bunch of my fellow students went to play it. I didn’t sign up though, but I heard it plays quite impressively.
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Fancy that.
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This thing has been in ‘limbo’ forever. I’m glad to hear it’s still alive.
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Hrrrm, see: when a real person gets to play this they’re going to play it as a normal platformer, spamming jump and knocking into things and falling over and generally acting a bit hyper-active – you know, like a gamer – and then all that gorgeous quiet atmosphere will be gone. Unless there’s a mechanic that rewards you for playing in that quiet style, the joys suggested by that video might be lost.
But, you know, if you play it as an atmosphere generator then blimey – that’s lovely.
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That is sorta what I was thinking,. all the moves and jumps seem to line up perfectly,. what if they dont’? if those glitchy ‘deep animation platforming’ issues are adressed this will be very cool,. if not then the gameplay becomes more of a ‘do it the way the animator intended or fail’ affair and that ain’t no fun,. a demo will tell..
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I guess it will be interesting to see whether the stumbling human-ness of the main character is just an atmospheric addition, or something that player is going to have to take into account.
I don’t really have an issue with either to be honest; even if it’s just the animation style that the designers chose it’s still a valid choice that I think I’ll enjoy.
And if it goes over some people’s heads then, well, it’ll be their loss, not mine.
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Reminds me of And yet it moves.
Sure looks fine.
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Wow. Looks interesting…
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I’ve been name-dropping Limbo in comment threads whenever appropriate. And now it’s exactly appropriate: Limbo looks enchantingly beautiful and there’s a little silhouette on my heart waiting to enfold it.
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That’s the first time I’ve seen a platform game where I’ve been genuinely worried what would happen to a character if he got crushed in a clockwork mechanism. Looks a bit like a lo-fi Ico.
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bookmarked this a couple of years ago, i thought it would never see the light. I’m glad it has!!
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the trailer hasn’t changed since then though…
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Limbo of the Lost?
Hurr durr, someone had to say it.
Be the way, what happened to the thieving moron that collated the aforementioned game? Seems he disappeared from the face of the Earth instead of being properly put in jail.
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When I saw this in my feed I was hoping for more Limbo of the Lost news :/
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It looks like that fappery created by LucasArts recently, bout some little girl and tetris blocks.. what was it called again? Except this looks and plays better probably.
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I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s cost an obscene amount of money to develop, at least for an indie game. I bet not many IGF contestants have cost several million dollars so far.
And being the cynic that I am, that makes me wonder if we’re seeing another DNF-like project endlessly guzzling up money because no one has the guts to decide which way to go or when to ship it.
Of course, it could just be that the “indie” label is a bit misplaced, and they’re just aiming bigger and “more professional”.
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There is a new trailer for the game on YouTube, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URcvdDtnM_0
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You are doing it incorrectly.
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That was supposed to be a reply to Finstern. Sorry.
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Instant buy when (if?) this hits Steam.
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Adding to want list.
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Considering some aspect of this was achieved in Shadow of the Colossus to a weaker degree but in 3d, as well as the advances made by Euphoria tech in recent years.. Quite believably real. I do not anticipate the game being any less than the video shows – How natural it looks depends upon the player, though. Anyone can act like an idiot.
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It’s been forever since I subscribed to the mailing list in the official site and never got a single update on the game’s progress. Glad to see it’s not dead, though.
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I’ve no idea if it’s any fun to play, but that’s absolutely gorgeous.
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It’s almost done. The game is very different from the teaser. It’s much better. A friend of mine has play tested the whole game. It’s about 5 hours worth of gameplay, but really awesome.
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WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE SAW? WHAT HAPPENED? TELL ME!
Nice, now I’m stuck in the Limbo of not knowing for months/years mayhaps.
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Bugger, bugger, bollocks. Looks like I’ll just have to reboot development work on Silhouette before we enter the inevitable territory of the internet crying rip-off. Regardless, it does look pretty freaking cool.
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Looks too slow for me… like one of those platform games where the run speed is ridiculously annoying and you just want to move to the side of the screen already. Waiting for the screen to catch up (rotate) where you want it to could be frustrating, also… one hit death? one chance failure? memorisation trial and error gameplay??
Hmmm it does look fantastic though.
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Does “Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet” qualify as good use of Silhouettes?
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Especially if that shadow planet is really just part of the planets crust, floating around in a husk like world – each planetoid, or shall we call them crustlets supporting a vastly different, wonderous ecosystem and culture.
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Looks pretty similar to Feist, which I like better by the way.
http://www.playfeist.net/
Limbo = Silhouettes + Cute + Physics. Yes, it’s pretty, but I think forgettable and will end up on a shelf quickly.
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