THE SPACES BETWEEN: THE IPHONE’S FIRST DESIGN-NERD GAME, KERN

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2.16.2009

Brandon Boyer

4 Replies

I’m every bit as much a design nerd as I am a game one, and clearly I’m not alone: architect/designer Jason Franzen and musician/programmer Adrian ‘Rust Cycle‘ Johnson have created Kern, the first game that manages to build fun out of the bane of every typographer’s existence.

The game’s hook is quite simple: upper-case Helvetica words fall slowly from the top of the screen, and you drag a missing letter from each to its properly kerned spot. The closer you are and the faster you manually drop the word, the better you do. Miss your goal by an inch and you lose a life… errr, ligature, which you can gain back by being right on the spot.

The game’s beautifully designed (all on a grid, natch) but quite simple in its current form: FORMation promise more music and online leaderboards in a later update. The group’s also behind Eye vs. Eye, a two player game where you mix RGB values to sight-match colors, and will be releasing Hexxis in the near future, which I can’t help but think will be something on the order of bit Generations’ Dialhex/Art Style’s Rotohex.

Hit the jump for the full Kern trailer.

SPACE, THE FINAL FONT TIER [FORMation, App Store link] (more…)

I’m getting so many vibes from this latest ‘story’ trailer it’s hard to tell them apart, but they’re all meshing in a very pleasing way: I see Worms, Defender, Patapon and a healthy dose of vaguely Castle Crashers style, and that’s just a cursory look.

Due for a downloadable WiiWare release in coming months from upstart Ronimo Games, Swords and Soldiers will be the Wii’s first big real-time strategy game, and its hook is that you do it all on a 2D sidescrolling plane.

For the skeptical, it should also be noted that Ronimo might be unproven in the commercial game space, but the team is the same behind de Blob, or rather, the original student team that created the 2006 prototype for the City of Utrecht (and they’ve even kindly linked my original writeup for Edge magazine), before THQ picked up on its brilliance and would turn it into one of the publisher’s leading original IP franchises, with a current Wii and iPhone release and sights set on an eventual DS version.

Swords and Soldiers home [Ronimo Games]

Having mastered the art of the vectorbeam and procedurally generated cities, where next for Introversion? Courtesy a blog post by company programmer Leander ‘elDiablo’ Hambley: augmented reality.

Hambley shows off the first experimental baby steps to get the studio’s global thermonuclear war sim Defcon literally running on the desktop, and explains:

DefconAR was originally just gonna be a cool little toy for us to use in the office to wow people who came to see us. Who’d have to hide the Defcon screen from your boss when playing Office mode, if there isn’t even a window open for it? Have a small tile on your desk, wearing some AR goggles, and no one would know. Obviously there isn’t much to it at the moment, I still need to spice up the world rendering, and then add in some actual content, but just imagine how this would look with nukes flying over the globe in realistic arcs, and maybe even 3D mushroom clouds.

Hambley makes no promises as to whether the self-admitted “silly thing” will ever see the light of day, but in my head it does look amazing.

Tom!]

Previously:
Introversion playing with fire with unbeatable DEFCON AI – Offworld
What's he building in there: Introversion's Subversion – Offworld
The art of vector-war – Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked – Offworld

‘Y’ is right. The wait until Thursday is going to be excruciating.

o–o [Namco]

Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
Ask a stupid question: Takahashi finally ‘explains’ Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) – Offworld
Another new look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Noby Noby Boy stretches further into February – Offworld
It don't mean a thing: another last look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Why can't I stop: Noby in the sky with stripes – Offworld
Today’s drip-fed Noby dose: Noby tastes the rainbow – Offworld

That IG Fun have been planning to bring BioShock to mobile phones (including the iPhone) has been known since shortly after the iPhone itself launched, but — I must admit — the news came with a healthy dose of skepticism, not least because the game’s original product page didn’t inspire much confidence.

But, over the past year, the developer has been hard at work at downsizing all of Rapture into its handheld form, and, via the latest news from UK outlet PocketGamer, you can see the results above. The trailer, shown at Mobile World Congress, actually might not be the latest footage (it appears to be the same ‘alpha footage’ shown at the CTIA expo in September), and is obviously shown optimized for standard mobiles, but still gives us a good taste of what to expect from the iPhone version: that is to say, not a fair bit off its console counterpoint.

PocketGamer also has the game’s initial direct feed trailer that hammers that point home, with the only question now being one of control. From everything seen so far, it’s clear that IG Fun are hoping to stay as true to form as possible, but doing first person right via touch alone has been a notoriously tricky venture. However, with IG Fun due to speak at this year’s GDC, it shouldn’t be much of a wait to see their plan of attack.

Previously:
Come to Big Daddy – Offworld
I feel a wreck without my little china sister – Offworld

IPHONE’S SECOND PUZZLEQUEST CHAPTER COMING AS FREE UPDATE

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2.13.2009

Brandon Boyer

Leave a reply

Most all of the charges leveled against the iPhone version of Infinite Interactive’s sadistically addictive puzzle/RPG PuzzleQuest — primarily its anti-aliased-to-illegible text and sluggish reaction time — have been fixed in subsequent patches, but the one aspect still held against it is its price.

Offered originally as a three chapter download, with the first set at $9.99 and the later two to be determined, the game was theoretically set to be one of the most expensive titles on the platform, all things being equal.

But it seems publisher Transgaming has relented to the App Store’s still wildly unsettled economy and announced, reports PocketGamer, that the game’s second chapter will be available as a free addition to owners of the game’s first chapter. The new chapter has just been submitted to Apple for approval and should be set live in the near future.

Presumably, the first and second chapter together will be the equivalent of the game’s original console and handheld release — and will match the current price of Steam’s PC version — with the third chapter equating to the Revenge of the Plague Lord expansion released last July for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions.

No matter how the game’s pricing eventually shakes down, PuzzleQuest is still one of my iPhone’s most played, and is an essential download particularly for those that haven’t experienced it 1-4 times before on its various other platforms.

Second chapter in Puzzle Quest trilogy to be free [PocketGamer, PuzzleQuest: Challenge of the Warlords home, iTunes link]

Previously:
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 1: PuzzleQuest hit the iPhone …
You're my obsession: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix demo goes live – Offworld

Somewhat lost in the ComicCon shuffle (and certainly off my radar until just now) was perhaps the most appropriate game to make its debut at the convention: following directly in the footsteps of Sega’s 16-bit brawler Comix Zone is another game breaking out of the comic’s proverbial box: Unbound Saga, which will be published, fittingly, by Dark Horse Comics exclusively as a downloadable PSP game via the PlayStation Network.

The game, developed by Vogster Entertainment (the same studio behind Tecmo’s overlooked 2008 light hearted real-time-strategy DS game Robocalypse), sees protagonist Rick Ajax struggling against ‘The Maker,’ a Looney Tunes-like omnipotent hand that draws the obstacles in Rick’s way.

In a recent talk with MTV’s games blog, Vogster producer Mike Kennedy promises the game will be steeped deeply in comics culture, saying that the game’s titular fictional comic “has been around since the ’70s in one form or another. They’ve kind of weathered some ups and downs in the industry; they’ve had their black-and-white version, their manga version, their foil cover Jim Lee version in the ’90s. So the idea is that [the video game] is their latest reinvention.”

Gritty with a satirical and self-parodying bite, then, which is just how we like our grit.

Unbound Saga [Vogster]

So, you’ve seen the now daily feed of inexplicably captivating but unapologetically surreal Noby Noby Boy videos, you’ve read my best attempt to unravel the mysteries behind the game, and now you want the explanation direct from Keita Takahashi’s mouth.

Right, good luck: Sony’s PlayStation blog has hunted him down to ask why he made the game, and his response, an unwavering, “Seriously, I don’t know.”

But know, at least, that your baffled attempts to explain its appeal and its play are right in order with his wishes:

I wanted to make a game that cannot be expressed by words in the first place. By making an undefined and ambitious game, I want the player’s reaction to be something like, “I don’t know why, but it’s somehow interesting. I can’t stop playing.” In that way, I would feel I have succeeded at creating what I wanted, that is, creating something that’s not easily describable.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a game’s eventual public reaction than the game itself (what’s the sound of a million gamers simultaneously scritching their heads in confusion?), but this is coming dangerously close.

Noby Noby Boy is… [PlayStation.Blog, o–o]

Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) – Offworld
Another new look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Noby Noby Boy stretches further into February – Offworld
It don't mean a thing: another last look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Why can't I stop: Noby in the sky with stripes – Offworld
Today's drip-fed Noby dose: Noby tastes the rainbow – Offworld

Just overlook a few parts, like the floppy-rubber-masked Overwatch, the, uh, not quite so menacing headcrab zombie flash at the end: the Purchase Bros.’ “Escape From City 17” short, for a team that heretofore were basically unheard of, is as strong a debut as you could ask for.

Their Coke Babies short, seen here, is actually quite nice as well.

Purchase Brothers channel [YouTube, via MeFi]

Previously:
A fresh look at Black Mesa's Half-Life remake – Offworld
How evergreen, City 17 – Offworld
Celebrate Half-Life anniversary for less than a dollar – Offworld
Black Mesa in motion – Offworld
Olly Moss brings a touch of class to Black Mesa – Offworld

LISTEN: DOUBLE FINE’S PSYCHONAUTS SOUNDTRACKS GO ‘E’

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2.13.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Being a double-strong supporter of basically everything Double Fine related, I was happy to see this morning that the Brütal Legend developer has just released its original Psychonauts soundtracks to essentially every digital music retailer on the face of the earth. But let Double Fine head Tim Schafer do the explaining in his own inimitable fashion:

Sure, you already own the Psychonauts Soundtrack and also the Original Cinematic Score… But you have them on deadly plastic discs that spin at dangerous speeds and must be read with eye-burning lasers. What were you thinking??

For your own safety I insist that you purchase a new, safer, ELECTRONIC copy of the soundtrack, from one of these reputable cyber-vendors. That’s right, Psychonauts is EVERY-EFFING-WHERE! You thought you were done buying it but now you must buy it again! And again! (Or, if you don’t want to buy it again, at least go there and give it a five-star rating!)

Quickly, before your eardrums calcify and your retinas detach and all of the other horrible things that happen to mortals.

Let me take you away from all this Death [Double Fine]

Previously:
Double Fine Open the Psycho-pedia – Offworld
Countdown to Brütality – Offworld
Brütal news is now: EA to publish Brütal Legend – Offworld