Another indie-focused tool that could end up producing good things: Austin’s Gendai Games has been plugging away for some time now on GameSalad, a visual drag and drop tool that lets the programming challenged piece together their own games, but retains the ability for more experienced developers to drill even deeper and modify code.
They’ve just announced an open beta of the tool, which currently is Mac only, and will eventually let you port creations to the iPhone (a feature due before the package’s official launch), on top of its current web embedding export tool.
While I’ll obviously be making my way to Giant Robot/Attract Mode’s art and indie game exhibit Game Over/Continue? and the usual lineup of games industry parties, the other GDC-week event I’m most looking forward to is DUTYCYCLE II, a San Francisco showcase of chiptune artists set to take place Saturday, March 28th at the Space Gallery SF.
The DUTYCYCLE folks have also just written in to let me know that they’ve just released a free EP of the artists performing that night, which is as diverse as you’d want it to be, running the gamut from ambient bleeps to hip-hop blips.
The DUTYCYCLE site has more information on the show, which starts at 8pm at Space Gallery’s 1141 Polk St. location, and the above video offers a recap of their last show. If you’ve seen Reformat the Planet, you’ll immediately recognize the shirtless antics of now SF-based Starpause.
Sometimes I wonder if they do it just to torture me: former Aquaria devs Infinite Ammo, currently at work on the iPhone’s Heroes & Villains, have posted a new image to flickr simply labeled ‘??? modeling.’
I’ll take a wild stab now and presume the image is a full level map of Power Pill, their iPhone collaboration with Fez developer Polytron that was just teased yesterday — it certainly looks the part of a twisted cavern without the layered-paper rendering.
I wouldn’t hazard many more guesses, but on a night’s reflection on that first teaser and combined with the above image, I’m wondering how much the game might have in common with under-rated Game Boy Advance/GameCube import Kuru Kuru Kururin (YouTube gameplay): I certainly wouldn’t mind a touch enabled version done up in Polytron’s signature retro-futurist styling.
While we all wait for James Kochalka’s teenage superhero team the Superf*ckers to deliver another game review after their Killzone 2 debut, you can get acquainted with their underachieving superpowered exploits via this theme song video that’s just made its way to YouTube.
Once you’ve done that, it’s highly, highly recommended that you follow up with Top Shelf’s series of comix: it’s the epitome of Kochalka Quality.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
