Nifflas+2: 6 Shots of Whiskey / The Big Sea
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.