By John Walker on January 12th, 2011 at 3:19 pm.
NightSky – the latest game from micro-platforming supremo Nifflas, is out now. And if that’s not exciting enough news for you, there’s a demo to try to get you there. The full game is £10, but the demo – it’s free! Crazy. Once more it’s physics platforming, this time rolling a metal sphere through levels in a peculiar dream world. Knowing that it’s Nifflas, through Nicalis, should be all the information you need. The original trailer is below.
12/01/2011 at 15:22 polyorpheus says:
It’s probably an unfair comparison, but the similarities to Limbo are pretty obvious. I’ll give it a go nonetheless.
12/01/2011 at 15:59 nayon says:
Development on this game was started waaaaay before Limbo was announced, and when I saw Limbo I thought it looked similar to this to be honest.
12/01/2011 at 16:08 jolson42 says:
Personally, I’m not sure of the timing, but I think it looks more like Trundle on iOS.
EDIT: Though, after doing some
very poorresearch on the topic, it looks like Trundle came out early 2010, and there were screenshots of what would become NightSky in 2009. So, yeah.12/01/2011 at 18:26 nayon says:
This game was announced (with a few screens) around 2007.
12/01/2011 at 15:31 Rond says:
Within a Deep Forest is much-much better. And free.
12/01/2011 at 15:40 Level85nerd says:
Reminds me of World of Goo, great!
12/01/2011 at 15:52 jymkata says:
It does the Braid backtracking at the endgame cop-out, but unlike Braid you don’t feel like you’ve earned what you get.
But apart from the last level, it’s super worth your money.
Just set it to US, not UK, so you pay $10, not £10
12/01/2011 at 16:04 Dominus says:
also get the music from this game, it is fantastic!
http://schlarb.bandcamp.com/
12/01/2011 at 16:11 Jonathan says:
Coming in 2009? Really?
Though I don’t mean to complain — I love Nifflas games. Knytt and Within a Deep Forest are both wonderful.
12/01/2011 at 16:38 Sam Crisp says:
It’s more like Gish rather than Limbo or World of Goo.
Although it does have gravity flipping segments similar to Limbo.
12/01/2011 at 16:43 Jahkaivah says:
This game has balls.
12/01/2011 at 19:21 frags says:
One glowing ball and other smaller black balls.
12/01/2011 at 16:45 Shagittarius says:
Really lame. Not even worth playing the demo.
12/01/2011 at 16:55 Sam Crisp says:
Although I’m not a fan of physics puzzle games, Nifflas’ two coming projects sound promising. The Great Work is supposedly almost complete. Video here. And working title (at least I hope) KnyttWaDF is “a hybrid somewhere between Knytt and Within a Deep Forest, and contains game mechanics from both, and have a story that’s also connected to those games”. No video, but some screenshots and info can be found here.
12/01/2011 at 17:13 Brumisator says:
Eh, it’s okay, I wouldn’t spend money on it, though.
In the same genre, I like Gish a lot more.
Also, having some kind of indication about what powers are available would be useful.
12/01/2011 at 18:37 Tscott says:
I liked the demo, but think I’d prefer some gamepad support for this game. Seems like a such a natural fit for the game, that I’m surprised it’s not included as an option.
12/01/2011 at 23:16 Stuk says:
I’m not sure why the comments here are so negative, I think it’s absolutely lovely. If you liked any of Nifflas’ previous games (especially Within a Deep Forest) you’ll love this. It’s got Nifflas’ classic ambience, with more detail than I’ve seen in his other games. On the Normal level the challenges vary between simple and… challenging and, like World of Goo, it looks like it’s going to introduce more interesting mechanics as the game progresses.
There are some small frustrations, such as having to restart at the beginning of each three level sequence, but Nifflas is a developer well worth supporting in my opinion. And he’s stated on the forum that if you buy the Windows version, you’ll get the Mac and Linux ones when they’re released.
13/01/2011 at 00:26 Shazbut says:
Agreed
13/01/2011 at 00:07 MadTinkerer says:
Really? All those other Indie games mentioned and no Gumboy, the only other game I know that has physics-based platforming and a main character that is actually a spinning ball? It’s neat because instead of running sideways and/or jumping, you actually spin. Like this game. Why am I the only one who remembers this!?!
I’m not saying Night Sky is “unoriginal”, but if this was 1991 and everyone was ooh-ing and ah-ing over Sonic and no one remembered Super Mario Bros. 3 from the previous year, that would be fucking tragic.
This is a trend I’ve noticed with Indie games. The best of the best Indie games are remembered for years. Anything less than the best of the best is forgotten after no more than a year. Meanwhile mediocre AAA games are zombified by their publishers from the dead remains of their developers (all fired long ago) and sent shambling off to the bargain bins at the local Genericmart. And sure, it’s nice to find a copy of NOLF 2 when you had long given up all hope of getting one, but does anyone even remember that Duck Doom ever existed?
But I digress.
EDIT: Not that NOLF 2 is mediocre. I was just using a real example of something I managed to buy long after the developers were all gone on to other companies.
13/01/2011 at 10:29 KillahMate says:
I remember Gumboy Crazy Adventures just fine, it was a good game that just sort of missed that first big indie wave. A lot of people here would have liked it. But it’s not a direct comparison because you weren’t just a ball in that one.
13/01/2011 at 15:44 Giaddon says:
I also immediately thought of Gumboy. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
13/01/2011 at 04:38 bill says:
I hope it’s not like gish. I got that in the indie bundle and it’s the only one that’s no fun and frustrating as hell.
13/01/2011 at 10:39 Initialised says:
Want this on android
13/01/2011 at 19:30 captain fitz says:
Dusky balls? Sounds like my friday night.