By John Walker on March 21st, 2013.
While the trailer is from a couple of months back, this is the first time we’ve encountered partly hand-drawn platformer Shu. Scottish indies Secret Lunch are going to reveal more of the game at next week’s GDC, but the footage released so far is too gorgeous not to share.
By John Walker on June 25th, 2012.
Twas on Saturday that I found myself boasting on Twitter about how great RPS is, even on the weekends. Because it is! But there was one thing missing. As Thais Weller pointed out, Danilo Dias and Pedro Paiva’s sprite platformer Oniken wasn’t mentioned. It was a gross oversight, and I can only apologise. You have to give this trailer a view.
By John Walker on June 20th, 2012.
I’ve previously hypothesised that one day every novel platforming mechanic will have been thought of, and on that day we all have to pack up and go home. We’re not there yet, but even Spin Spin‘s creator Chris Hughes admits it’s borrowed its core idea from And Yet It Moves. Although never mind, frankly, as it’s done so nicely here in this bite-sized web-based episode. It’s your afternoon tea distraction.
By John Walker on May 3rd, 2012.
It’s scientific fact that sheep go to heaven, while goats go to hell (see below), so it seems quite some predicament that there are a number of sheep trapped within a hellish underworld of pixelated puzzles. Thank goodness you are a goat, accompanied by an occasionally hat-wearing mouse, who can save them. Through the masterful art of jumping and pushing buttons. Escape Goat (winner of the Best Game I’ve Seen In A While Award) has been a bit of a hit on the Xbox’s obscured Indie Live Arcade, and is coming to PC next month.
By John Walker on March 1st, 2012.
InMomentum, the runny-jumpy leap-em-up from Digital Arrow, is getting its first major patch. Which brings me to the realisation that “runny” isn’t a good word to describe a game. Ew. However, it does mean the game is getting a bunch of new content, maps, as well as tweaks and improvements.
By Craig Pearson on February 25th, 2012.
Alientrap’s new platform game, Apotheon, is pretty. A 2D platform action-RPG set in Greek mythology, where you’ll fight your way to the top of Mount Olympus. It’s the age old tale of a champion fighting for humanity against the wife and usurper of Zeus, Hera. We’ve all been there, battling Greek gods, stealing their powers, controlling the elements. I was doing just so last night, cleverly disguised as eating pork dumplings and prawn crackers while slumped in bed rewatching Doctor Who. If you squinted, you’d have seen the truth.
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By John Walker on February 23rd, 2012.
Chinese IGF winner, Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory is having a commercial release. From S. Korean indie team Turtle Cream, it’s a 2D platformer starring a cube of sugar, fighting against his fate. But, and I’ll never get tired of typing this, with yet another awesome twist idea. Here each screen exists in two versions, constructed from a grid of tiles that are flipped in blocks of four when the cube walks past them. So as you walk along a platform, you may replace it with empty space, deadly spikes, or key elements to completing the screen. It’s a brain-hurtingly interesting idea, and it looks utterly lovely, as you’ll see below.
By John Walker on February 22nd, 2012.
I have come to the conclusion that indie developers will never run out of cool new ways to meddle with platforming standards. The latest I’ve encountered is Swindler, from the pixel masters at Nitrome (check out why we rate them). Here you appear to play a blob of snot, who is able to let loose from his own ectoplasmic entity a long, stretchy green string, tied to a post at the top of a level, and then extended or contracted. However, rather than moving him about the world, you move the world about him.
By Craig Pearson on February 20th, 2012.
In my life I’ve shot about 100 bullets and taken about 12 billion photographs, so why are the stats in games skewed towards bangthings? I’ll tell you why: Gov’t funded Big Ammo have been lobbying to have guns replace photographs in all games. Doom was originally about photographing demon families for their Christmas cards, until the developers were visited in the dead of night. Then it mysteriously became about killing things with bullets. Check the game code. It’s all in the code, people! Well brave soldiers Retro Affect are fighting the good fight with Snapshot, their bullet-free platform game where you use photos of the environment to solve puzzles. Five minutes of Zapruder-beating footage is right here. You can’t stop the signal!
By Craig Pearson on February 10th, 2012.
This is swish. Platform game Backworlds has just released a demo, and I’ll urge you to play it because, yes, it’s been released as a prelude to asking you for money to help the game to be finished (also known as Crowdschafering). But it’s also a pretty, painterly puzzle game with bags of potential. It’s just a few licks of a brush away from greatness.
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By Craig Pearson on February 7th, 2012.
Shoot Many Robots has a directness I can appreciate. When I eventually make a game, I’ll call it “Craig Make Gun Bangs”: it will have no story apart from a bit that says “he puts a bullet in his gun” in Comic Sans, and then a few seconds later “bang” spelled out in bullet holes. I reckon Ubisoft will pick it up like they have this four-player Borderlands-esque platform game. Sure, mine won’t have pretty graphics, charm, wit, or be anything more than an idea scribbled in crayon on a cereal packet, but then they already have that in Demiurge’s game.
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