Author Archives: Brandon Boyer

STEPH THIRION’S IPHONE DEBUT ELISS NOW BIGGER, SMOOTHER, AND A LITTLE LESS ABUSIVE

5.3.2009

Though I was unabashed in professing my love for Steph Thirion’s iPhone debut, Eliss, there’s no getting around the fact that our relationship (and the one she had with most others) was — to put it frankly — an abusive one.

As Thirion would go on to tell me at GDC, and has now explained fully via his new blog, a startlingly small number of people made it even halfway through the game, and a micro-percentage managed to finish it (and then, in one case, not for some 40 odd hours for its 20 ‘short’ levels).

After a period of post-conference reflection, then, he’s settled on a way to ease players in a bit more gently, and in the process, added a quarter more levels to the game. He explains:

On the original group of sectors, there was a serious jump after sector 2. Too many new things were introduced on sector 3, there was no time to get prepared for them. To fill up that missing space, four new sectors were added in between those. None of these sectors brings anything truly new compared to version 1.0, but they allow a better pacing. I also moved quite a few sectors around, to make a more logical difficulty progression, and did some tweaking in specific sectors. In the process I also added a little bonus, sector 14, which is a new thing. Also, the suns’ appearance has been modified to be spotted earlier, making the much dreaded sector 10 (which has been moved to sector 20 by the way) easier to beat.

Progress on your original game has for the most part been saved and adjusted for but in general, says Thirion, the game is “better balanced, less jumpy, more user friendly,” and therefore comes even more universally recommended than it did at last mention.

As a bonus, Thirion’s written a lovely letter to his audience here, which doubles as an illuminating look at a creator struggling with the “Fairy of Reason.”

The 1.1 update for Eliss is currently live on the App Store, or can be purchased, now at a reduced price, via this iTunes link.

The Shadow Over Eliss [Cloud Fields, Eliss home, App Store link]

Previously:

Touch me I'm slick: the shape and the sound of Steph Thirion's …

GIMME INDIE GAME: THE DEPTH-DEFYING PLANAR-PLATFORMING OF PAPER MOON

5.3.2009

Brandon Boyer

8 Replies

There was always a certain — but gentle — cloud that hung over the announcement that Infinite Ammo and Adam Saltsman‘s multi-planar fruit collecting platformer Paper Moon would be brought to Flashbang’s online portal Blurst.

Not one of quality, mind — as players had already been able to get their hands on the game after its Gamma 3D debut — but one of how properly a platformer would fit into the Blurst framework, which relies on three to five minute quick burst arcade play and generally is targeted toward high score competition and achievements.

The subsequent announcement that the game would come with a timer, I will admit, struck a little pang of fear, as I’m not generally one for having my exploration curbed by arbitrary time limits (it’s a cardinal sin up far in the ranks alongside auto-scrolling levels). But, it turns out, that fear was entirely misplaced, and, freshly released at the tail end of last week, Paper Moon is a fantastic addition to the service.

How do you morph a short platformer into a necessarily replayable experience then? The answer is branches: a few handfuls of varied paths that can be taken at several points in the game and require repeat performances to see, and a combo-meter collection system that amplifies your score as you gain the experience to better judge how best to maximize your time in an unbroken line throughout its world.

And it is a game you’ll want to play again back to back, not least because you likely won’t finish it on your first or second or even third go, and even if you do, the tantalizingly missed paths on your map screen will beckon you immediately back through.

If there are any frustrations with the game, it’s only in losing the original’s stereoscopic hook and having to rely on shading to re-orient your next potential leap with the proper paper plane (a few test-run pops also help), but again, repeat plays acclimate you to the process and reduce that end-level/nearly-out-of-time stress.

But what we gained in losing the red-blue shift and going full monochrome, and what’s underscored by Infinite Ammo co-founder Alec Holowka’s new score, is a game that’s roughly and wonderfully the stylistic equivalent of an early silent movie: an easily consumable little tale of derring-do and intrigue that’s essentially peerless in the indie scene today.

Paper Moon home [Blurst, Infinite Ammo]

Previously:

ONE SHOT: KOMADESIGN’S PLAYSTATION PORTABLE PRINT AD

5.3.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Detail of a print ad for Sony’s PSP from Andy ‘komadesign‘ Miller, co-creator (with Jeffrey Bowman) of fantastic looking UK art-zine The Wizard’s Hat, and illustrator of Chronicle/Yellow Bird’s forthcoming charity project, the Indie Rock Coloring Book (!), featuring “mazes, connect-the-dot games, and coloring pages” for Broken Social Scene, MGMT, the Shins, Devendra Banhart, Rilo Kiley, the National, and many more.

ONE SHOT: POLYTRON’S FEZ, DECONSTRUCTED

5.3.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

From Polyton programmer Renaud Bédard’s explanation of Fez‘s “non-interpolated ortographic voxels,” or, trixels (c)(tm). [via Polytron]

Previously:

ONE SHOT: A BELATED BIRTHDAY WISH FOR CAVE STORY’S PIXEL

5.3.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Following Adamatomic’s own, Cave Story creator Pixel gets a belated birthday wish from Nigoro, creator of Rose & Camellia, the best game about noble-lady inter-familial slap-happy catfighting ever created. [via Nicalis]

Previously:

THE OTHER NINTENDO CD-ROM ATTACHMENT THAT NEVER WAS

5.3.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Over at the LostLevels forum — a haven for all things both retro and long forgotten (and subsequently re-surfaced) — Frank Cifaldi’s found early record of a CD-ROM attachment for the NES in development from UK outfit Codemasters.

The article says an adapter would have let you connect your NES to any audio CD player to load included games off the disc — much the same as any early computer cassette drive — presumably in an effort to both circumvent and compete against high-cost first-party cartridge manufacturing.

Said the March 1990 magazine:

One CD containing two or three games will be the same price as one traditional cartridge game, and one three-five meg game will cost less than a comparable cartridge game. Camerica currently plans to have six CD’s available in July when the unit is released-three CD’s with two games each on them, and three CD’s, each with a three-five meg game on them.

Camerica distributed a number of similarly unlicensed Codemasters products during the NES’s lifespan, including a number of 4-in-1 game carts, but the CD-ROM attachment, obviously, was an idea shelved for unknown reasons.

The idea would resurface in Nintendo’s willingness to partner with Sony for a CD-ROM attachment for the SNES, which would, of course — as you can hear recounted in exhaustive detail via this excellent recent Edge magazine article — then dissolve into Sony’s branching off to create the PlayStation.

[Credit for the picture above goes to the entirely unrelated but too-appropriate NES PC.]

Codemasters/Samsung developed CD add-on for the NES [LostLevels]

Previously:

HEY MONTREAL: VISIT KOKOROMI’S TWO-DAY GAME JAM, CHIPTUNE SHOW

5.2.2009

Brandon Boyer

GEO-PHYSICAL GRAFFITI: VICENTE MONTELONGO’S ATARI 2600 GPS ART

5.2.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Seemingly apropos of nothing other than the pursuit of excellence, Vicente ‘mexist‘ Montelongo sends in these works of “8bit geografitti” created over the past few weeks in San Francisco’s Sunset District with nothing more than an iPhone 3G and a car stereo “blasting dub.”

Above, Atari 2600’s Pac-Man and ghost, and below, the same console’s Berzerk bot — both soon to be followed by, says Montelongo, a Pitfall! pastiche.

Pac-Man / Berzerk [Everytrail, via Mexist]

PAPER CRANES: OFFICIAL GRAND THEFT AUTO: CHINATOWN WARS PAPERCRAFT

5.2.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

First spotted when logging in to claim my “Bulletproof Hellenbach” vehicle (which you’ve still got two more days to nab) and then coincidentally submitted by Neal ‘OblivionGizmo‘ Corbett — one of Rockstar’s artists behind the creations — himself, this set of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars papercraft models, including a bust of protagonist Huang Lee himself.

There’ll be a full set of nine models eventually, including the five are released to date (which, if you’re super sleuthy, you can sneak a peek at ahead of time — I’ll only say that I’m most excited for number seven), and Corbett notes that once you’ve synced up past all the story missions, there’s an extra special set of Golden Lions as well.

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