By John Walker on April 23rd, 2013.
Metroidvania meets Gradius sounds like the sort of thing you could only wish for, chin leant your your interlocked fingers, elbows on the windowsill looking out into a rainy day. But by crikey, that’s what Gamesbymo are up to with A.N.N.E. A 2D pixel art hybrid of ship-flying shoot-em-up and physics puzzles, and on-foot platforming that promises Metroid-like progression. Wants.
By John Walker on April 22nd, 2013.
Gadgets are clearly the best things there are. And it is they that Tom Francis highlights in the latest trailer for Gunpoint, accompanying the news that the game is going to be available on Steam. When? He still isn’t saying, the scamp. But he will tell you all about the gadgets.
By John Walker on April 19th, 2013.
Scandinavia really is becoming a hotbed of fascinating indie projects. Yet another studio has spawned in Sweden, this time emerging from the likes of Grin, Gameloft and Media Molecule, called That Brain. And this team of just two has already got a long way into an impressive looking single-player airship game, 20,000 Leagues Above The Clouds. You can see the first footage of the mission-led trading/exploring below, and indeed find out how to join their team – they’re hiring.
By John Walker on April 19th, 2013.
Just look how great PC platform gaming is right now! We’re just inundated by lovely, interesting games. Yesterday I was being charmed by Ecotone, then hankering after some Rogue Legacy, and now I’m being challenged by the mad difficulty of the gorgeous RunRabbitRun. A completely free, entirely mad running-and-jumping game that is making me invent new swear words.
By John Walker on April 18th, 2013.
My arrival to Rogue-likes was a late and timid one. I’m a wimp, and fear the ASCII. But games like Spelunky and Dungeons Of Dredmor are my happy place, so the sight of Rogue Legacy has me biting at the screen to get to play. A 2D procedurally generated platformer, packed with dangers of death, but this time should you die, you pass on your knowledge to your children. Children who are… unique.
By Craig Pearson on April 18th, 2013.
I played a beta of Monaco about, ooh, two years ago. Back then, I was already impressed with the top-down steal(th) game’s interesting take on co-op thievery. It was one of those games that already felt complete, and I expected a few months more polish was all it needed. Craig of two years ago was such an optimist! Well, we all know the truth, and the game did not make my launch window. I was made to look a fool! But I can’t stay mad at Monaco. It will finally be out on April 24th, and there’s a trailer showing of where all that time was spent.
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By John Walker on April 18th, 2013.
The route to a successful indie platformer these days is to come up with a unique gimmick, or a unique twist on an old gimmick, and do an incredibly good job of applying it to your world. Sundae Factory’s Ecotone is a touch braver than that. It’s taking every platforming gimmick, and using one per level. And from the demo version that’s playable on their site, they’re doing a damned good job of it.
By John Walker on April 17th, 2013.
You need a new puzzle platformer to fill four hours of your life. I have one. This is synergy. High fives in an orderly queue. Plazma Being is the terrible name for a deceptively tricky little puzzler from first-time dev, Felix Wunderlich. (Also, coincidentally, winner of Today’s Best Name.) You, as you may have guessed, play a blob of plasma. What you might not have intuited is that you’re captured by aliens, cast on a planet with an unfamiliar force called “gravity”, and trying to find your way out of there.
By John Walker on April 12th, 2013.
There are two choices here. You can take my word that it’s worth playing this year-old free first-person puzzle game Good Morning, Commander, and approach it as unknowingly as I did (thanks Indiegames.com, who spotted it last week). Or you can have a bit of convincing from the words below, that shall still not contain any major spoilers. Decide… NOW!
By John Walker on April 11th, 2013.
You wait thirty years for a indie game project to be barraged by fans after saying they were going to charge for DLC and then changing their minds as a consequence, and then you forget how this sentence even began. In the case of Squad, who make the ship-building-and-flying space sim Kerbal Space Program, this occurred after fan misinterpretation of the promise that all “updates” would be free. For 3 Sprockets’ Cubeman 2, it was the use of in-game purchases in promotional material for the main game that caught players’ ire. Both have had diplomatic changes of heart.
By John Walker on April 10th, 2013.
How do you feel about thruster-based games? Me – I’m terrified of them, bringing back haunting memories of endless hours, days, months, failing at Moon Cresta. Oh God, Moon Cresta. Just the name evokes some mad synaesthesiac response, let alone those hateful, HATEFUL Atomic Piles. Oh man, I need a hug… Sorry, far off track. My traumatic Speccy past aside, Flowstorm is absolutely nothing like Moon Cresta, thank all that’s holy. But it is a game about manoeuvring a little rocket ship THAT’S A DANGEROUSLY SIMILAR SHAPE TO MY NIGHTMARES, through ludicrously tight curvy corridors. And what’s rather pleasing to discover is that’s a game about skidding, as much as it is thrusting. (Missus.)
