VENUS PATROL PRESENTS: THE VENUS PATROL TRAINING FACILITY AT GAMECITY 2012
Exciting news long hinted at that can finally be revealed: AdamAtomic’s Capsule Capsule won’t be the only Venus Patrol related activity that this year’s GameCity7 festival. As announced on the festival blog this morning, the site will be taking over a large chunk of Nottingham’s Old Market Square for an entire week, and converting it into The Venus Patrol Training Facility (featuring an amazing remixed logo by Dick Hogg).
The Training Facility, open October 20th through the 27th from 10am to 5pm, will house a number of games loosely bound together with a quasi-athletic theme from a handful of local favorites including QWOP & GIRP developer Bennett Foddy, Frobisher Says & Hohokum creators Honeyslug, and all of the games included in the recent Sportsfriends Quadrathalon.
Most excitingly, the Training Facility will house the public premiere of two games recently developed during a Danish countryside retreat controlled by trampoline jumps. The first will be The Proteus Frog God Mod, in which players instead experience Ed Key & David Kanaga’s Proteus from the perspective of the magical twinkling frogs, co-created with George Buckenham.
We’ll also be showcasing Get On Top, a new competitive trampoline game by Foddy & Joust creator Doug Wilson, where players take on the role of two sumo champs locking hands and trying to leap into the air and pin their opponent.
Videos of all of the games that will be available (and GameCity’s pithy commentary on each) are below the fold, and more details can be found on GameCity7’s website (see also: the full schedule of all other activities coming to the festival). Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
The Proteus Frog God Mod — Ed Key & David Kanaga, with George Buckenham
With Proteus, Ed Key created a game that allowed anybody, from gamers to grandparents, to explore a magical wonderland. This is its biggest failing. The Proteus Frog God Mod presents Proteus as it should be, or, perhaps, must be. With a trampoline and a Sony Move controller you will physically hop around Key’s incandescent world, and in doing so you will embody mankind’s eternal torment at the brawny hands of gravity. You will become Nauseous, and in becoming Nauseous, you will become Perfect.
Get On Top — Bennett Foddy & Doug Wilson
A re-imagining of ancient Finnish freeware Fight of the Sumo-Hoppers, Get On Top is Bennett Foddy’s extremely serious Sumo Wrestling sim that sees each player positioned on a real-life trampoline. A Move controller tracks your motion, with every bounce corresponding to a small kick of your wrestler’s feet, with the end game of pinning the other guy to the ground. How does it work? DOES IT WORK AT ALL? Come find out.
The Venus Patrol Training Facility is the ultimate test of body and soul. Football is, of course, the other ultimate test of body and soul. Science teaches us that two maximums make a negatory, and so it is that Passing Time is a football game with a minimum of interaction. Simply tap the screen to order your footballmen to pass, shoot and tackle.
Johann Sebastian Joust — Die Gute Fabrik
Inarguably a future Olympic sport, Johann Sebastian Joust is a game for any number of players, each of whom is given a Move controller. It doesn’t need a screen. It doesn’t even need any light. The only rules? Move your controller too fast and you’re out, and the last person standing wins. Now, don’t worry if you’re imagining this game encourages terrible physical violence, or cheap tricks like hiding your controller in your coat and pretending you’re not playing. Because it does. It does. And it’s beautiful.
Success at Ramiro Corbetta’s distressingly fast indie eSport Hokra requires workmanlike fingers if you want to win this game, where the first rule is that there are no rules. The second rule is that you have to put the ball in your team’s goal to win.
A side scrolling, 8-bit abstract fusion of fighting and sports, BaraBariBall is everything you could ask for in competitive gaming. The object is simple; using your character, drop the ball in the water on your half of the screen. But with the ability to air jump to your heart’s content and stun slap your rival to gain control of the objective, the only question is how long your beliefs in sportsmanship last.
“What if pole vaulters had fights?” That is the very important question asked by Pole Riders, a game of trying to nudge a ball into your opponent’s goal with a 15 foot pole. But that’s not all. Pole Riders also acts as an exploration of what a pain it is to do anything with a 15 foot pole, whether you’re performing actual pole vaults or just walking forward.
Mega GIRP — Bennett Foddy & Doug Wilson
GIRP is a game of climbing a wall but climbing haphazardly across your keyboard with your fingers. It’s amazing, and legendarily hard. MegaGIRP is the same. It’s the same. It’s fine. You’ll be fine. The only difference is – and it’s a tiny one – is that the “keyboard” is a huge modified dancemat you’ll have to pick your way across with a spider’s own alien grace. But we believe in you. You can do this.
See more posts about: Foddy, GameCity, Honeyslug, Passing Time, Proteus, Sportsfriends, Venus Patrol Presents, Venus Patrol Training Facility
