By Alec Meer on November 7th, 2011 at 9:43 am.
One of the many things about indie gaming that makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and like maybe the world isn’t about to end in war and poverty and climate change and giant ant invasion after all, is that even established names in the field can’t resist getting involved in gamejams. Take Knytt Stories creator Nifflas, for instance, who’s co-developed a rather impressive, Unity-powered Marble Madness-esque game in just 48 hours for the recent Exile Game Jam. True, it’s hardly busting that micro-genre wide-open, but it’s pretty, it’s tight and it’s the kind of thing someone would charge £2 for on iPhone – a deft example of rapid development talent, and yours for no-pennies. Take a look at it below, or play it in your browser here.
Oh, and there’s a second new Nifflas game, concerning the embroidered cowboys you can see above, which you should really take a look at…
Here’s a quick sampler of the Big Sea:
Offline versions available here, if you’re grumbling about the browser thing.
Also new from Nifflas (co-developed with Sara Sandberg) is multiplayer duelling game Six Shots of Whiskey. It’s vaguely analogous to somethnig like Barcode Battlers back in the day – basically, top trumps created by typing in character names and the game then generating stats based on that. But it’s when the battles happen that the sheer joy begin – embroidered art depicts a duel between two cotton cowboys. Ideally played between two people, but it all happens on one screen so you can tap in two names and see who wins without having to bother with any of that tiresome communicating with other human beings nonsense.
07/11/2011 at 10:24 Jonathan says:
Hmm, I’d been thinking of using cross-stitch squares in place of oversized pixels for a game, but could never come up with a game that would be appropriate for.
07/11/2011 at 10:24 asshibbitty says:
Weh kicks butts in the knee.
Butts is dead.
07/11/2011 at 10:50 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
I love Nifflas. Big Sea seems a bit like Night Sky without fancy Graphics but with 3D
reminds me I have yet to finish his take on Mass Effect “Saira”.
07/11/2011 at 12:19 Quxxy says:
Try: “Nifflas” vs “A Puppy”
07/11/2011 at 12:35 Jesse L says:
I can’t find anyone capable of defeating ‘Gojira’.
07/11/2011 at 12:45 Shazbut says:
“Shazbut” worked. I wonder what the best possible character is. Is there any way of finding out?
Edit: – It seems the numbers are just jumbled around, so that no character is any better or worse than another but just has different strengths and weaknesses. I was hoping to find some killer word that couldn’t be defeated.
07/11/2011 at 13:45 Jesse L says:
But the scripting for the name is the same every time. ‘Shazbut’ spends almost all its time shooting things in the eye, whereas ‘Jesse’ spits and punches – a notably less effective strategy!
07/11/2011 at 13:54 origo says:
This is easy :D
Gojira vs Zerg – loss
Gojira vs Terran – win
Gojira vs Protoss – loss
And that leads me to starcraft balancing question:p
Zerg vs Terran – win
Zerg vs Protoss – loss
Protoss vs Terran – loss
Protoss needs buff, it seems, terran is surprisingly weak at TvG.
P.S. found unique name – whiskey. He surely drags all duels to eternity, and wins most of ‘em.
07/11/2011 at 17:16 YogSo says:
@Shazbut: “I was hoping to find some killer word that couldn’t be defeated.”
Haven’t tried it, but what about “Muad’Dib”? ;-)
07/11/2011 at 14:15 BAshment says:
Its like a spherical version of edge, played in a digital seaside arcade.
07/11/2011 at 21:37 pertusaria says:
I’ve got stuck what seems pretty early on in The Big Sea. Thumbs up to this, though, and any other decent Marble Madness-alikes out there. I have many fond memories of that game.
09/11/2011 at 02:17 gwathdring says:
BF3 shot the hell out of MW3, Greebo shot first, Labor and Lib-Dem kicked each other in the knees a bunch, and Batman killed Superman with a shot to the eye. Clearly, this is the one and only necessary decision engine.
09/11/2011 at 02:37 gwathdring says:
Also, Nurture won hands down.