BBIAS, CAN WE STILL SPRUCE UP INDIE IPHONE SPACE GAME ARAGOM?

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3.4.2009

Brandon Boyer

3 Replies

In early February, Joel suggested the Boing Boing Internet Action Squad help out an indie dev in need, with new spaceship graphics for Peter Lewis’s iPhone space game Aragom. Fully aware that the Boing Boing Gadgets crosspost quickly collapsed into gnashed-teeth chaos, I’m just wondering aloud here if anyone ever officially got in touch with each other?

I ask this mostly because hiding quietly amongst the din were actually some quite nice suggestions: Felix Mitchell stayed true to Aragom‘s current form but provided some razor sharp and nicely luminescent detail, Tao_Art whipped up a few first 3D attempts, and, my favorite, FunnelBC (as above) took the look and feel in an entirely new direction, with a set of retro illustrated images that would truly set the game apart.

Funnel, Lewis — you guys should totally talk!

Aragom home [Stairways Software, FunnelBC’s wicked Mountain Goats poster]

Previously:
BBIAS: Let's give this indie iPhone game a better set of spaceship …

Longtime demoscene institution scene.org has announced the finalists for its 7th annual Scene.org Awards, “honoring the previous year of demoscene releases in a more formal setting, and disregarding their ranks in other competitions.”

In the main competition, my money’s on the rhythmic ribbon of Still’s “The Seeker” (above), which placed first in Intel’s 2008 Demo Competition, though all the nominees were slick in their own right.

Your games connection? “Into the Pink,” which took 2nd place at Nvidia’s NVscene competition, was put together by Plastic, the same demo group that did Linger in Shadows, the PS3 demo released on the PlayStation Network late last year.

If you don’t have the hardware to run any individual demo, be sure to click on the ‘Pouet comments’ link for each, which will link you to streaming/YouTube versions of each.

Don’t miss the other categories, either, particularly the Oldschool Platform demos, where teams are still breaking through the silicon ceilings of ZX Spectrums, C64s and Vic 20s. PwP’s fantastic Vic 20 demo “The Next Level” (above) is my favorite of the bunch.

The 7th Annual Scene.org Awards [scene.org]

One of our all-time most-popular Gimme Indie Game posts was the recent mention of Andrew ‘Runhello’ McClure’s low-res/high-concept Jumpman, and with good reason. Sure, there were several who only dropped in to mention that Jumpman was the title of a widely ported original 8-bit game (a detail we’re fairly sure didn’t escape many, least of all McClure), but this Jumpman managed to charm nearly everyone with its wickedly clever puzzler heart and more obvious nostalgic appeal.

Happily, then, that won’t be the last we see of it. The Happy Medium‘s Travis Boisvenue wrote in to mention this excellent recent interview he did with McClure which reveals that McClure’s currently at work bringing the game to the iPhone, amongst other good shoutouts to Jason Rohrer and awesomely nightmarish Famicom import Bokosuka Wars.

Granted, he does mention it more as an aside, but Boisvenue also submitted a post-interview email tidbit that confirms it’s gone a bit further than just the pipe dream phase.

McClure clarifies that “the iPhone Jumpman will have to be different, but I’m still working out the details. I suspect that the level design will have to be fairly different to make sense on the smaller screen, and probably it’s going to be more focused around individual levels instead of the ‘paths’, to make pick-up-and-play easier.”

I was also pleased to see McClure name the person that did the above YouTube trailer’s lo-fi melody: Joe Mathlete of Houston’s The Mathletes, who, as a complete aside, I very well may have met at a late 90s Joan of Arc show at Chicago’s Fireside Bowl, unless there’s more than one Mathlete in this crazy world (Joe, was that you?).

Jumpman home [Runhello, news via The Happy Medium]

Previously:
Gimme Indie Game: Runhello's Jumpman – Offworld

28 WEEDS LATER: PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES WILL INDEED FEATURE PLANTS

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3.4.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

In other PopCap goins on, as has been mentioned numerous times since posting the first image of the publisher’s forthcoming tower defense game Plants vs. Zombies, what little we’ve seen of the game has been conspicuously light on, well, actual vegetation.

But, as noted by PopCap’s own Garth Chouteau (who also submits the above pun) in the last post, there’s a good reason. Says Garth: “Lastly, I’ll just say this: the scene depicted in the screen shot is a *night* level, during which your standard ‘daytime’ plants don’t work so well…”

And on that note, has a Plants Vs. Zombies teaser been staring us in the face this whole time? As commenter Diamar pointed out: “There’s a sunflower at the bottom of PopCap’s home page, and [Bookworm star] Lex is staring at it quizzically. Good money is on it being from PvZ.”

I’ll be damned.

UPDATE: That settles that: NeoGAF forum-goer adg1034 points out that the most recent Peggle Nights bonus pack features this level above that definitively ties all of these loose ends together.

Previously:
Frond of the dead: the first look at PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies …
Details emerge on PopCap's tower defense/strategy game Plants vs …

THE GLOW, PT. 3: LITERALLY THE BEST FALLOUT 3 T-SHIRTS EVER MADE

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3.4.2009

Brandon Boyer

6 Replies

I’m having a little bit of a hard time getting over how brilliant and yet how unattainable these Fallout 3 shirts are from Famitsu’s Game T-shirt Project, particularly the “prewar dirty T-shirt” emblazoned with the Church of the Children of the Atom scrawl and sullied in your choice of dried blood or glow in the dark rad sludge.

Also available: the skull filled Nuka bottle, to the Welcome to Wasteland collage, both in normal and glow options. Every one’s a winner, except every one outside Japan.

The Fallout 3 T-shirt samples have arrived! [Famitsu, cruddy google translation]

Previously:
Serpentine, serpentine! Neil Gregory's Simple Plan T-shirt – Offworld
Only on Offworld: your first look at Panic's Noby Noby Boy T …
Screaming for Hitekkai: Meat Bun's new T-shirt designs – Offworld
Polygraph's Kakuna T-shirt casts harden – Offworld
A new Hanes Beefy-T awaits – Offworld

POPCAP’S PEGGLE OVERLOAD SPAWNS ART CONTEST

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3.4.2009

Brandon Boyer

5 Replies

PopCap’s gone full bore Peggle Overload lately, with this week’s release of the DS’s Peggle: Dual Shot (produced with the help of, and featuring levels by, Rez/Every Extend Extra/Lumines dev Q Entertainment), the official announcement that the game will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and the iPhone later this month (I can also personally vouch for its iPod port), and now this, a Peggle art contest.

I make particular mention of the latter because I’d be very pleased to see the collusion of our usual suspect designer/readers and one of our favorite inexplicable game obsessions: Olly Moss, Spacesick, Mikko Walamies — any takers? We’d love to see anyone’s entries, and the prizes PopCap’s offering aren’t to be sneezed at.

Previously:
PopCap's Peggle Extreme now free on Steam – Offworld
Aether, Peggle, Auditorium, World of Goo top 2008 JayIs casual …
Frond of the dead: the first look at PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies …

This morning’s inspiring tale of retribution and the indomitable power of the humen spirit.

More fantastic ICTION madness here.

Previously:
Doom 3: Repercussions of Evil: another Garry's Mod masterpiece …
This week on 'The Hill': Garry's Mod Madness – Offworld
Garry's Mod life – Offworld
GMod Theatre Presents: 'Grigori Grimoire' – Offworld

Chiptune scene regulars and “creators of loud, fast music with a hacked NES from 1985” Anamanaguchi have just released their latest EP, Dawn Metropolis, and — thanks to this handy embed (why don’t more bands do this?) — you can listen to it in its entirety above by clicking each of the glitch-strips.

All pixel heroics videos provided by Paris Graphics.

Dawn Metropolis home [Anamanaguchi, MySpace]

Previously:
Space invaders extreme: Hexstatic/Kris Menace arcade mashup video …
Earth invaders: Röyksopp's Happy Up Here video – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Dublab debuts Adventure's vintage arcade video …
Glorious retro carnage: Wyld File's hallucinogenic video for …
Caveat Enzo: The Lost Levels' Early Sheets video – Offworld
Listen: Leeni's 8-bit kabuki 'Underworld' – Offworld
Listen: Konjak's Legend of Princess soundtrack – Offworld
Pixelz are so small: Deerhoof's new 'Buck and Judy' video – Offworld

You’ve got to admit it’s getting better: work steadily progresses on Infinite Ammo’s “Lemmings meets The Lost Vikings meets Awesome” iPhone puzzle game Heroes & Villains, and their latest work in progress video is looking quite wicked with a properly skinned futuristic cityscape, a freshly added soundtrack and an upgraded GUI.

H+V Mo’ Gameplay Video [Infinite Ammo]

Previously:
We could be thrilled: in-depth with Infinite Ammo iPhone puzzler …
Infinite Ammo tease iPhone puzzler Heroes and Villains – Offworld
Infinite Ammo teases their Marian-ette – Offworld

WAYFORWARD REVIVING A BOY AND HIS BLOB FOR THE WII

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3.3.2009

Brandon Boyer

6 Replies

Oh, this is excellent news: the games blogs are currently all a-flitter over news from the most recent issue Nintendo Power, which is exclusively revealing that WayForward — the studio behind end-days cult hit Game Boy Color platformer Shantae, fan favorite DS remake Contra 4, and recently mentioned WiiWare horror/puzzler Lit — will be bringing a new version of obscure NES game A Boy And His Blob to the Wii.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen publisher-to-be Majesco try to revive the property: a DS version was in the works and due for release in 2005, but was abruptly dropped when the publisher was undergoing financial troubles before re-inventing themselves as a casual/Cooking Mama powerhouse.

And from what little we’ve seen (the Nintendo Power site is carrying only a pixelated teaser, but is running the above image whole), it’s looking a damn sight better than that DS version (have a look via Unseen64, but only from between your fingers), with WayForward giving it a quasi-anime/LostWinds-inspired facelift, with a reported hi-res 2D perspective.

If this is the first you’ve ever heard of the game, a little background: the 1989 original was one of the later works from early gaming legend David Crane, originally designer at and co-founder of Activision, where he created seminal games like the Atari 2600’s Pitfall.

Blob was created after leaving Activision to found Absolute, but wears its Pitfall inspiration on its sleeve (as seen above), only with the kicker that while your player was just as vulnerable to his surroundings as Pitfall Harry, he brought with him his titular invulnerable blob, which could transform itself into various protective and navigational items after eating one of a certain type of jelly bean (obviously).

Terribly challenging (especially to an 11 year old) but wonderfully inventive stuff, it’s a property and a solid gaming foundation that’s been long overdue for a loving revival, and, with any luck, WayForward are just the studio to give it its comeuppance.

UPDATE: As SonicTail noted in the comments, Nintendo Power have lifted the pixelated veil on the first two pages of the feature, which show off more of the gorgeously reserved illustrative 2D style. Click above for the full width spread.

WayForward home [via Joystiq]