ONE SHOT: DANIEL BRESSETTE’S LE PETIT HYLIAN
Daniel Bressette masterfully mashes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with Majora’s Mask, a combo we didn’t really know we really wanted until just now. See Bressette’s portfolio site for a whole load of more amazing games-related art.
See more posts about: Daniel Bressette, One Shot, Zelda
VIDEO: READ-ONLY MEMORY WRAPPING SENSIBLE SOFTWARE ART BOOK CAMPAIGN
With less than 48 hours remaining on his Kickstarter campaign, London designer Darren ‘Wallzo‘ Wall has just put together the above awesome pixel-animation to remind people that the time is nigh to order a copy of his Swiss-minimal ‘definitive biography’ of foundational UK indies Sensible Software, featuring a guest appearance by company co-founder Jon Hare.
If you missed it the first time around, the previously-featured campaign — which has since managed to get the necessary funding to move forward — includes backer rewards starting from a copy of the limited-run book itself serving as a visual history of the Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder developers, as well as a 12-inch EP featuring studio recordings of songs from the above. See more about all of the above at the project’s Kickstarter page.
See more posts about: Kickstarter, Read-Only Memory, Sensible Software
PRINT GENESIS: DAN CLARKE’S MEGA DRIVE TRIBUTE SILKSCREEN
If you find yourself with a 841×594mm space on your wall that needs filling, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive fan site megadrive.me has just released an ultra limited hand-screened print that pays minimalist homage to the system, designed by Dan ‘everythingyoutouch‘ Clarke (who I’ve had a secret design-crush on since 2010).
The prints are available direct from megadrive.me for £30 only, and released in an edition of just 100, so you should probably get on that if you love what you see. [via Cory Schmitz]
See more posts about: Dan Clarke, Prints
ADD IT UP: CANABALT, SOLIPSKIER DEVS (RE-)ANNOUNCE IPAD PUZZLER HUNDREDS
One of the iPad games I’ve been dying to get my hands on for nearly a year now, Semi-Secret’s Hundreds has officially been announced with this awesomely designed new website, following a quick blip appearance during last year’s IGF (where it managed to land an honorable mention in the mobile category).
Based on an original concept from Solipskier and Gasketball designer Greg Wohlwend, Canabalt & Capsule developer Adam Saltsman has been vastly expanding on the concept, and the pair have brought in Scott Morgan, better known as local-favorite ambient musician Loscil (who you also heard contributing tracks for Osmos), turning an ultra-minimalist design into a gorgeously & mysteriously presented package.
The conceit is as simple as it can be: flat-colored circles slowly meander across the single-screen stages, harmlessly bouncing off one other, each with a digit in its center. Touching each circle inflates it, and each stage is complete when the added total of all digits equals 100.
The trick? No circle can touch another while it’s being inflated, meaning you’re forced to find perfectly timed moments to inflate when there’s no danger of a collision, something that’s clearly harder to do as the circles grow larger.
You can try a very early concept of the game Wohlwend submitted in 2010 at Newgrounds, but bear in mind that the game’s grown a hundred times more complex in the two years since, with Saltsman adding some truly devious wrenches into the works, as well as a layer of opaqueness that hints at a deeper narrative happening within the game, as seen above.
The game’s making its public debut at IndieCade this weekend — LA locals should make a beeline to it in anticipation of its release in coming months.
See more posts about: Adam Saltsman, Greg Wohlwend, Hundreds, Loscil
ONE SHOT: WILLIAM CHUA’S NIGHTMARE OF THE ICE CLIMBER
Going up against polar foes armed only with a wooden hammer isn’t as easy as we’ve been led to believe, as proven by William ‘xiaobaosg‘ Chua. The design (with tattoos based on other Ice Climber characters) is up for a vote to be included in Threadless’s catalog here, or available as a print directly via Chua by following instructions on his Facebook.
See more posts about: Ice Climbers, One Shot, William Chua
ONE SHOT: BOTJIRA’S MAGIC-SPREADING PYRO
A paper-cut tribute to the Pyro we honestly sort of wish we hadn’t met, by the artist known simply as Bot. Procure a Balloonicorn buddy of your very own with a quick stop to Valve’s Team Fortress 2 shop.
See more posts about: Bot, One Shot, Team Fortress
VENUS PATROL PRESENTS: 10 MINUTES MORE OF TEKNOPANTS’ SAMURAI GUNN
My original writeup on Teknopants’ brilliant upcoming brawler Samurai Gunn managed to drum up quite a bit of the attention it so richly deserves, with a number of people commenting that they very much wanted more video. And so, presented here is ten-ish more minutes of the other matches held at the game’s first ever official tournament at this year’s Fantastic Arcade.
Above you can see how the action expands as the number of players increases to three, with some more 2-4 player matches included below the fold. As before, click the ‘gear’ at the bottom of the player to up the resolution to 720 or 1080p for the best pixel clarity, and enjoy the ongoing commentary by Karakasa Games‘ Wiley Wiggins & Vlambeer‘s Rami Ismail.
For more information on the game itself, browse through the original post about the game.
See more posts about: Fantastic Arcade, Samurai Gunn, Teknopants, Venus Patrol Presents
ADVENTURE ELECTRIC: THE ON/OFFLINE AWESOMENESS OF JIM MUNROE & MATT HAMMILL’S GUILDED YOUTH
Officially — and easily — the best thing I’ve played today, from seemingly out of nowhere comes Guilded Youth, from writer and designer Jim Munroe and illustrator Matt Hammill (known best for his gorgeously illustrated puzzler Gesundheit). Originally conceived of at Toronto’s TOJam, Youth is another in Munroe’s series of interactive-fiction-plus type games that combine text-adventure tradition with illustrated & sound enhancements, like his excellent & understated 2008 suburban adventure Everybody Dies.
Guided Youth is brief enough that delving too far into its story & structure would give away the ghost, so suffice it to say that it’s one of the most evocative portrayals of our collective disaffected BBS-enhanced adolescence I’ve experience in a game, effortlessly giving surprisingly rounded life to characters you only know briefly via a few descriptive lines and Hammill’s skilled caricature.
In short: eke out a half hour to play through this now via Munroe’s site, and get a bit more background from Munroe afterward.
See more posts about: Guilded Youth, Jim Munroe, Matt Hammill
HEY PHILADELPHIA: VISIT THE PUNK ARCADE THIS FRIDAY AT LITTLE BERLIN
This Friday, Philadelphia art gallery Little Berlin will be hosting the opening of their Punk Arcade exhibition, a new “alternative arcade” initiative meant to travel and expose a number of locales to the new underground of indie game creators.
Curated by Sarah Brin & Lee Tusman, the Little Berlin arcade will include: Anna Anthropy’s Keep Me Occupied (originally part of RPM Collective’s mobile Oak-U-Tron 201X cabinet), Lindsay Grace’s Big Huggin’ (pictured below), JW Nijman’s Tennnes, Ryan and Cassie Creighton’s Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure, Hannah Epstein’s The Immoral Ms. Panic, Messhof’s Jetpack Basketball, and Increpare’s Can You Jump It 3D, pictured in its new cardboard home at top.
In addition to the arcade opening, starting Friday, October 5th, from 6PM to midnight at Little Berlin’s 2430 Coral Street location (continuing each subsequent Saturday to the end of the month), the gallery will also be hosting a Glorious Trainwrecks workshop on October 20th from 2-4PM, where attendees can make their first games in under two hours using MIT’s game-maker Scratch.
RSVP for the opening via Little Berlin’s Facebook event, and visit their website & the official Punk Arcade tumblr for more information.
See more posts about: Anna Anthropy, Glorious Trainwrecks, Hannah Epstein, Increpare, JW Nijman, Lee Tusman, Lindsay Grace, Messhof, Philadelphia, Punk Arcade, Sarah Brin, Untold Entertainment
EYES ON THE PRIZE: PROTEUS, JOUST, FEZ NOMINATED FOR 2012 GAMECITY AWARD
Now in its second year, the GameCity Prize is meant to do for the videogame world what British institution Tate does for the art world with their Turner Prize, by choosing a shortlist of “the most brilliant, interesting and meaningful” games from the prior year and having them judged by “cultural commentators” from outside the games industry — to give the broader world a perspective on what’s happening in games somewhat underneath the surface.
This year, the just-announced shortlist includes a number of familiar faces, including Polytron’s Fez, Ed Key & David Kanaga’s Proteus (at top), thatgamecompany’s Journey (above), and Die Gute Fabrik’s Johann Sebastian Joust, up alongside more mainstream entries like Catherine, Super Mario 3D Land, and Mass Effect 3.
This year the top prize will be chosen from the list by a jury chaired by the film maker Lord Puttnam and including Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway, comic artist David Gibbons, UK designer Wayne Hemingway, BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, writer Ekow Eshun, actress Louise Brealey, actor Charlie Higson and BBC Radio DJ Jo Whiley.
The winner will be announced on October 24th at a ceremony at GameCity, where Venus Patrol will be attending with AdamAtomic’s Capsule, as well as a few more surprises up our sleeves… Visit the GameCity Prize website to learn more about the Prize & its nominees and jury.
See more posts about: Fez, GameCity, Johann Sebastian Joust, Journey, Proteus