FLASHBANG’S TIME DONKEY PROTO MASHES CURSOR*10, WARIOWARE, RAVING RABBIDS
And Flashbang’s other five day prototype: Flashbang’er Steve returns to the studio’s action/animal roots with Time Donkey, a game pitched as “Cursor*10 meets WarioWare meets Raving Rabbids” (the first point at which my ears pricked up).
As illustrated above, the game follows a donkey unstuck from linear time working with former warped versions of himself to accomplish real-world/Blurst-world goals, like, for example, saving neanderthalish ur-donkeys from a horde of velociraptors, or “picking up dynamite for Guy Fawkes” (that was the second point).
Basically, big yes to all of that.
Blurst home [Flashbang]
Previously:
Gimme indie game: Yoshio Ishi's Cursor*10 2nd session – Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery …
Gimme Indie Game: the flails and flagellations of Flashbang's …
See more posts about: Blurst, Flashbang, Offworld Originals
INDIE FRIENDLY WEB/IPHONE/WII DEV KIT UNITY GETS PC SUPPORT
While I don’t normally dig too far into nuts and bolts tech here, in snooping around the indie development scene I’ve heard nothing but stellar things about crossplatform 3D development app Unity, and chances are you’ve played a game powered by it, even if you were unaware.
Most notably, Flashbang’s 3D web output — Minotaur China Shop, Blush, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari — as well as their iPhone games like Raptor Copter, H.Grenade’s upcoming Circuit Strike.One, Infinite Ammo’s Gamma 3D entry Paper Moon, and Filthy Grip’s IGF nominated FEIST were all built with the tech.
So just a note to curious indies, then, to say that the latest version of the engine, Unity 2.5, has just added a long-awaited Windows version of the app to its indie-budget-priced offering. You’ll still need (as you would regardless) a Mac for the separate iPhone package, and Wii support is available only by special request, but if you’ve been waiting for Windows to get your feet wet with the web, that wait is up.
Unity3D [Unity]
Previously:
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery …
Gimme Indie Game: the flails and flagellations of Flashbang's …
Riding the iPhone's Raptor Copter – Offworld
H.grenade reveal iPhone shooter/hacker Circuit Strike.One – Offworld
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
SWINGERS ONLY: FLASHBANG’S WRECKING BALL PROTOTYPE CRANE WARS
Speaking of Flashbang, I’ve been remiss in mentioning their latest prototyped game they’re showing off via their Blurst Blog: Crane Wars. While the game was only a few days into development (and the video above shows a more intimate look at internal meetings pitching additional gameplay ideas and direction), it’s already being driven down a road very pleasingly reminiscent of Rare’s Nintendo 64 underdog hit Blast Corps meets more tangible physics.
In the spirit of even further openness, Flashbang have also already uploaded one stage of that prototype to the web, which you can play here and send feedback to the studio. Flashbang’s Matt suggests the trials below:
Re-stack the buildings. Try to make a giant tower!
Pick up buildings and chuck them at other buildings.
Ram through buildings and watch them gib!
Try to carry a building carefully through the town.
Game Prototype: Crane Wars [Blurst, game trial]
Previously:
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery …
Gimme Indie Game: the flails and flagellations of Flashbang's …
Riding the iPhone's Raptor Copter – Offworld
See more posts about: Blurst, Flashbang, Offworld Originals
REAL WARS: WARHAMMER MEETS ARMYMEN IN AUGMENTED REALITY
Although clearly a work in progress, French designer Frantz Lasorne‘s ARToolkit built augmented reality concept appears to be some of the most sensible and achievable game design I’ve seen for the still-budding tech, and more than anything, makes me lust for an animated real-world Advance Wars.
There’s many more screens, concept art and presentation slides on the project via Lasorne’s site. Interestingly, he’s taken criticisms of its war-game hook quite heavily to heart, and posted an additional extensive thesis about the game on its vimeo page.
Real Virtual Playground [Frantz Lasorne, via an email tip I seem to have lost!]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
MORE DETAILS ON CASTLE CRASHERS DEV’S CUTELY CHAOTIC GAME #3
With Behemoth’s just-announced ‘Game #3’ on display at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, occasional IGN contributor Anoop Gantayat has posted a few scarce new details based on his playtest.
Most notably, he clarifies (as I pondered yesterday) that the game is indeed currently split into four varying minigames:
Block painting game:
As players run around the play field, they turn any blocks that they touch to their own color. The goal is to do this for more blocks than your rival. You don’t have to do anything to the blocks to change their color — just walk over them or bump into them from the side or below.
Soccer game:
Players attempt to knock a soccer ball into a goal. This is done by simply bumping into the ball or punching it.
Gold collecting game:
There’s a giant goldfish floating about the stage. When struck, it releases gold. The goal is to collect as much of the gold as possible.
Soul collecting game:
In this mini game, when an enemy is defeated, his soul floats away. Collect an opponent’s soul, and you get big points. If you lose your soul, you can chase after it once you’ve respawned, assuming it hasn’t already been taken.
Behemoth’s Dan Paladin clarified, though, that “the game is super early and that everything being shown was just for sample purposes, as a means of seeing how people react.”
Here’s hoping Behemoth will be carting the demo Xbox 360 with them to next week’s Game Developers Conference.
Hands On: Behemoth’s Next Game After the Last Next Game [andriasang.com]
Previously:
Precious stones: the cutie chaos of Behemoth’s Game #3 – Offworld
There will be jewels: Castle Crasher devs tease new game – Offworld
How Castle Crashers was almost a Muttpop/Lucha Libre game – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
MORE ON NGMOCO’S IPHONE FPS LIVEFIRE AND IN-GAME BUYING POWER
Following yesterday’s big Apple conference reveal, ngmoco have returned home with a more detailed look at their plans for the iPhone 3.0’s new in-game purchases, push notifications, and multiplayer options.
On their newly announced online multiplayer shooter LiveFire, which (as I expected) will use a refined version of DropShip‘s faux-dual-analog controls “for simultaneous movement, look/aim, crosshair zoom and jump (using shake),” ‘ngmofo’ Chris explains its Xbox-Live-esque push invites:
Say I’m in a multiplayer match getting handled by some highly-skilled players from somewhere in the world and I really wish one of my friends was in there helping me out Just open your friends list (this functionality is enabled by ngmoco’s networking platform that ships in TouchPets) from within the game, tap on a friend’s badge and the game sends them a call for help via push notification. When your friend accepts the invite the game launches automatically and you can fight alongside a buddy instead of a stranger.
He also headed off complaints about purchasing power beating out player skill, with the more monetarily endowed being able to buy stronger weapons and dominate the game (and echoed the same sentiments for Stumptown Game Machine’s pet sim Touch Pets Dogs):
The design direction is to allow players to earn credits within the game that can be used to redeem upgrades in the form of new weapons, armor and other gear to modify their capabilities in combat. The more you play and the greater your skill, the more credits you will earn relative to players who rarely play — not unlike an EXP system. So it’s fair to assume that dedicated players will have some pretty awesome gear earned during the course of playing…
Take comfort in knowing that you will be able to earn enough credits through normal gameplay to buy that rocket launcher in-game without paying extra for it… We will probably end up with traditional expansion packs for LiveFire as well as individual player upgrades you can purchase from iTunes instead of earning them all through gameplay achievement. But we’ll definitely allow players to have a meaningful, balanced and fun gaming experience directly after download from the app store. We’ll closely consider each decision related to In-app Commerce to ensure we’re doing the right thing for the game.
You can see Apple’s entire presentation streaming here, with ngmoco’s contributions coming about 50 minutes in.
Commerce, SDK 3 and more in LiveFire and Touch Pets Dogs [gamemakers @ ngmoco:)]
Previously:
iPhone 3.0: ngmoco show off new FPS, Touch Pets Dogs microtransactions – Offworld
Ngmoco: Rolando sequel coming, Touch Pets Dogs announced – Offworld
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando – Offworld
Ngmoco tease spherical 3D tower defense iPhone game Star Defense …
ngmoco shows off iPhone's Dr. Awesome, Dropship – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
IPHONE 3.0: NGMOCO SHOW OFF NEW FPS, TOUCH PETS DOGS MICROTRANSACTIONS
I suspect we’ll be hearing much more about this soon, but at Apple’s ongoing conference announcing and demonstrating the features of the new iPhone 3.0 OS, ngmoco’s Neil Young has just showed off what the changes mean for the games sphere.
In particular, Young showed the iPhone’s long-promised and now official push notifications integrated with Stumptown Game Machine‘s virtual pet sim Touch Pets Dogs. The game has promised to be a social experience since it was first announced, and Young showed the game’s new ability to pop-up pet play-date invites in real time, outside the game itself.
Ngmoco have also just announced a new online multiplayer first person shooter, LiveFire, including, quips engadget, in-game chat.
Both games will take full advantage of iPhone 3.0’s other major new feature: the availability of new downloadable content purchasable entirely in-app, demonstrated by new custom clothes packs for your Touch Pets, and, apparently, new weapons for LiveFire bought on the fly while you play.
The latter, especially, is somewhat of a game-changer for the device: even though Apple has announced that only paid apps will be allowed to charge for in-game DLC (which seamlessly uses your same iTunes account for the transaction), the new feature could be a boon for the type of microtransaction-based games that have increasingly dominated the casual PC space — sell the framework for 99 cents, make that several times over with new custom content.
Touch Pets Dogs home [ngmoco, photo snippets via engadget]
Previously:
Ngmoco: Rolando sequel coming, Touch Pets Dogs announced – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
PRECIOUS STONES: THE CUTIE CHAOS OF BEHEMOTH’S GAME #3
As promised, Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid devs The Behemoth have posted their first “super early” look at their next still-untitled game, and more than anything, I’m just dying for the explanation behind that violently psyche-rending green jewel MacGuffin.
Otherwise, I’m seeing very happy hints of N+‘s wall-sliding physicality meets Smash Bros‘s out and out competitive chaos meets Zelda: Four Swords‘ reluctant coopertition spread among what appears to be a number of game modes (paint the wall/ball games, or is everyone just frantically trying to escape? While holding the jewel?).
There’s almost nothing not to like.
It’s a trailer. [devblog.thebehemoth]
Previously:
There will be jewels: Castle Crasher devs tease new game – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LAYOFF: FINANCIAL CRISIS THROUGH A MATCH-THREE CASUAL GAME LENS
Persuasive Games head Ian Bogost points us to LAYOFF, a match-3 casual game that attempts to drive home the realities of the credit crunch and its effect on the average worker by making each play-piece an individual with a back-story visible just before you swap them over to “lay them off.”
Once laid off, rather than disappearing, the players congregate disaffectedly at the unemployment office at the bottom of the screen, and bonus matches are “rewarded” with white collar financiers who can’t be removed from the board.
Bogost adds:
All that notwithstanding, I found the rule preventing “suits” from being laid off to be forced. The idea that the white-collar is unaffected by the current economic downturn seems disingenuous, even if there are portions of it (AIG anyone?) who are surely acting in their own interest alone.
The game’s the latest from Mary Flanagan and her team at Tilt Factor/Values at Play, two organizations that share a similar mentality to Bogost’s timely and topical Persuasive output.
LAYOFF [Tiltfactor, via Water Cooler Games]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: Persuasive Games' experimental Jetset – Offworld
On wires and pumps: Persuasive Games talks Jetset, App Store …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LISTEN: THE OCARINA OF RHYME MASHES ZELDA WITH AESOP ROCK, DRE, JAY-Z
It’s a secret to everybody why Team Teamwork’s “Ocarina of Rhyme” — mixing Zelda’s Nintendo 64 soundtrack with under/overground hip-hop stars like Dre, Clipse, Common, Aesop Rock and DOOM — works so phenomenally well, but it does.
Stream it below or over here, download it via this SendSpace, while it lasts.
Ocarina of Rhyme [8tracks, Team Teamwork MySpace, via .tiff and Gus]
Previously:
Listen: Tugboat's 8-bit Jay-Z, Kanye, Chamillionaire medley – Offworld
Listen: Ghostface/DOOM's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars theme …
Offworld: Music Archives
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
