By Alec Meer on July 18th, 2011.
Ooh, this is clever. It’s the new free web game from Littleloud, they of The Curfew and Bow Street Runner. Like those, Sweatshop‘s noble aim is to expertly mate education and social conscience with smart and satisfying game mechanics. In this case, it’s a canny twist upon tower defence games that also highlights the abject horror and terrible exploitation of sweatshop factories – and the most dangerous enemy in the game is your own impulse to succeed.
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By John Walker on April 18th, 2011.
Apparently there’s some comic called Thor. We’ve never heard of it. And now there’s to be a movie based on the little-read book.* To accompany the film comes a little bit of PC gaming advertising from Littleloud, in which as Thor you must thwack enemies with the power of your might hammer. It feels like an iPhone game, and I’ll bet my bum it is one too. You have a limited number of hammers to chuck at a level of static enemies, and the occasional lightning bolt with which to STRIKE THEM DOWN. I imagine that’s how someone in a comic might say it.
By Kieron Gillen on August 14th, 2010.
The Curfew’s been in Beta for a few weeks now with all the four episodes running, but they’ve been a bit twitchy. However, as the end of its Beta approaches, it’s basically in a good enough state for me to feel happy to link to it – which is pretty much what Curfewer in arms Simon Parkin said last night. As in, my saved game for the end of episode one works and I got all the way through it with only a couple of eyebrow raises. For those who the loading is still iffy – and it’s always been fine for me – I’ll say two things. Try loading it and leaving it running in a tab for a while, because I vaguely recall it having some streaming tech. Give the game a chance to get ahead, and it could be smoother. Secondly, they’re planning a full 700Mb Download of it for September, which will obviously solve everything. What’s the Curfew? Well, it’s… oh, let’s hand over to Simon’s short description…
EDIT: But see the edits at the bottom of the post too…
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By Alec Meer on July 29th, 2010.
The Curfew, a free educational online game from Channel 4, launches today in Britain. The narrative-led investigative puzzle game is designed to teach political awareness, documenting as it does a near-future society dominated by an oppressive government, and asking the player to make decisions that reflect their own political opinions and meaningfully affect other characters in the world.
The Curfew is developed by LittleLoud and written by Kieron Gillen, a highly-respected international game critic, journalist and Marvel writer who AAAAARGH NO I CAN’T DO THIS AAAAAAAAARGH.
Kieron’s written a game, love ‘im. I know, our Kieron – he wrote words and everything, and they weren’t even about Iceman throwing an icicle at The Thing’s the solar plexus. Politics! Drama! Intrigue! Moral dilemmas! Clever Kieron! It’s out now. Go play it.
Kieron has put more details into the comments thread below.
By Kieron Gillen on June 30th, 2010.
We’ve previously discussed the graphic-adventure-for-web I wrote with Littleloud for Channel 4. Anyway, since then, they’ve lobbed up four interrogation-scene character trailers to introduce the main cast. And you’ll find them below. Out towards the end of next month, and available free to play online to everyone.
And I’m not saying any more to avoid spoilers. Yes.
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By Kieron Gillen on June 17th, 2010.
Videos of Littleloud’s contribution to Channel 4′s British Indies initiative has surfaced online. The Curfew is a graphic adventure set in the near future with a satirical Civil Liberties theme, built on the technology which powered the previous BAFTA-winning Bow Street Runner. There’s a minor conflict of interest on this one, which I should probably make clear before progressing: I wrote it.
So – er – yes. Explanation of the game and the videos follow…
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By Kieron Gillen on April 12th, 2010.
RPS had a splendid meeting today. Amongst our many conversation topics was the matter of conflicts of interest, and what should we do about them. Well, declare them, obv. And so I’m leaping at this chance to double down by posting this Unity-powered Iron Man webgame. Not only do I scribble comic stories for Marvel, but I’ve worked for Littleloud on another game. Oh noes! Anyway, this rail-shooter ties in with the forthcoming movie, and continues the adventures of Iron Man. He’s an American industrialist who was bitten by a radioactive household tool, and thus gained the proportionate powers of of an iron. This includes, removing creases, burning holes in expensive suits and suffering sexist accusations that using him is women’s work. It’s an efficient enough rail shooter with multiple weapons and a very light upgrade system, and the biggest problem is that the play area is surrounded by buttons leading to other parts of the site, so a misplaced click takes you there and lose your game. While approved by sponsor Dr Pepper, you suspect the delectable Miss Pepper Potts is going to be disappointed on Tony’s annihilation of everything with a barrel or tyres which looks at him funny. Iron Man Go!.
By Kieron Gillen on September 7th, 2009.
Sometimes, the future creeps up when we’re not looking. Part of me wonders whether this will be part of it. Channel 4, after some impressive successes with webgames like the Bafta Award Winning Bow Street Runner and the Tim Stone admiration winning 1066 have decided to spend a load more on making games, reports Develop. Key quote…
The move is part of a £4.5m fund – half of which is finding its way to UK independent companies such as Tuna Technologies, Beatnik Games, Zombie Cow Studios, Six to Start, Preloaded and Littleloud to fund projects up to £800,000 in size.
Go read the rest of the interview with Alice Taylor to see the full story. Some thoughts and noting of conflict of interest follow…
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