Because it’s always a great day when new Superbrothers art comes your way, presented here is Vending Machine, a new illustration for a Washington Post article profiling Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, in-game economist for Eve Online, and newly hired Valve economist Yanis Varoufakis.

For those that may not have been tuned in, one blessed weekend this past June the art/game/music communities joined together in celebration of Superbrothers/Jim Guthrie/Capy’s #sworcery with an all-out remix & original illustration fest.

Though the “A/V Jam” tumblr has been quiet since, new updates are freshly rolling in, and are, as witnessed with Dan Almasy‘s submission above, already as stunning as ever. [via #sworcery A/V jam]

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month — both local and global, and both indie and occasionally a bit-bigger-budget — for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed.

In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are be presented here on Venus Patrol for your reference, each fully-annotated, -linked, and off-the-cuff blurbed, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

(more…)

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month — both local and global, and both indie and occasionally a bit-bigger-budget — for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed.

In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are be presented here on Venus Patrol for your reference, each fully-annotated, -linked, and off-the-cuff blurbed, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

(more…)

AUSTIN INDIE SUMMIT: MY SHOW AND TELL OF THE NEW INDIE HOTTNESS

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9.15.2009

Brandon Boyer

5 Replies

This was the surprisingly large, warm and receptive crowd that turned out for my early-morning session at the opening day of GDC Austin’s debut Indie Game Summit, and the reason they’re all smiling will be clear by the time you reach the end of this post.

My task for the session was to give the attendees here a snapshot of the best of what indie gaming’s currently got to offer: some old and unmissable, some never before seen, and some seen, but never before played live. Here’s the run down — for reference and further research and download — of everything I showed off.

1.) Spelunky

By far the most widely played and important indie game of the past several years (even in prelude to its upcoming Xbox Live Arcade port), I found out quickly just how hard it is to play live and talk in front of an audience, in a quasi-Game Center CX series of embarrassing failures.

2.) Glum Buster

Too few people have still taken a trip through Austin-native Justin ‘CosMind’ Leingang’s fantastically surreal world — hopefully playing it live gave everyone an even more compelling reason to.

3.) Alpinist

Even just the tiny shred of a teaser for Craig ‘SUPERBROTHERS’ Adams’ indie debut was enough to impress, with his inimitable graphic style, and the promise of its simulated grueling mountain ascension.

4.) Time Donkey

The inherent charm of Flashbang’s latest made it one of the most popular playthroughs of the session, judging by audience reaction. I very regretfully haven’t had the time yet to do it justice here, but will surely do when GDC Austin madness dies back down.

5.) Captain Forever

As I said before, this will probably end up topping a lot of best-of-2009 lists when word reaches out further, and a round of applause rose as soon as the name was dropped. Creator Farbs was kind enough to drop off a debug build of the game for the session, which meant that I could cheat my way into demonstrating the jaw-dropping muted disco-dance-rain-of-destruction that you’re ultimately fighting to build toward. Expect much more on this game here soon.

6.) Tuning

The first surprise of the show was the latest game from oft-mentioned Offworld favorite Cactus, with a rare sneak preview of his previously blogged and yet to be released “game about killing everything you love”, now titled Tuning. Even with early warnings from Cactus about playing through it ahead of time to be sure I could do it justice live (which I did, I swear, and I got so far), with its constant, progressively more sadistically perception-warping, it was the second time of the morning that proved how embarrassing public play can be.

7.) Fez

And the session’s biggest surprise: Polytron’s Phil Fish made a guest appearance to give the first live demonstration of what the studio’s been cooking up for the past few years.

The game’s grown even more rich and complex than I’d expected since I last saw its 2007 Indie Games Festival debut, and impressed the crowd enough (see: the photo at top) that we cut well into the planned coffee break to hang on main star Gomez’s every dimensional shift.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and putting up with what I can only imagine was a rambling, too-early, caffeine-addled, ranty awkward set of playthroughs!

ONE SHOT: A PEEK BEYOND THE PEAK OF SUPERBROTHERS’ ALPINIST

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6.29.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

…something… lies beyond the summit of Craig D. Adams’ Kurosawa-inspired in-progress work Alpinist (which is mountain-high on my most anticipated list), as shown at Toronto’s recent Hand Eye Society event.

MOUNTAIN GAME: CRAIG ADAMS’ KUROSAWA-INSPIRED ARTSY DESIGN, ALPINIST

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5.11.2009

Brandon Boyer

4 Replies

The folks at Artsy Games Incubator have been doing a wonderful job recapping Toronto’s recent indie-all-star Artsy Game meetup, but it wasn’t until today’s entry that my ears perked up in a big way.

While Craig ‘superbrothers‘ Adams’ demoed his parodic and metaphorical A Hit Videogame on day three (the premise: a one-button baseball game that quickly devolves further away from predictable — like game development itself — at the cheering of industry executives), his day four game took a more serious turn.

Known for now as Alpinist, Adams’ game design takes its inspiration from ‘The Blizzard‘, one section of Kurosawa’s multi-part film Dreams. The game would see one player making an agonizing climb up a mountain during a blizzard, with, AGI notes, Prince of Persia-like precision jumping that takes into account gale force winds, and meters for your “body temperature, alertness and coherence.”

Adams is, of course, the artist behind the previously blogged Dot Matrix Revolution video and upstart the1console blog and the DESIGN REBOOT HD video which animated Braid creator Jonathan Blow’s provocative Montreal Game Summit lecture for futher discussion.

Alpinist currently still exists in design only, but hopefully we’ll see much more of it some time soon.

Round 4, Session 4 Recap [Artsy Games Incubator, superbrothers, the1console]

Braid creator Jonathan Blow’s session at the 2007 Montreal International Games Festival (one given before his game had been released, and one I covered for Gamasutra) was somewhat of a minor landmark for the industry — a lecture specifically designed to incite both developers and the public at large to think differently about the subtle messages games were sending to the average consumer, and an invitation to give people more ‘nutrition’ than the ‘cheap drugs’ they were more often being fed.

Amongst many other things, as you’ll hear above, Blow singled out games like World of Warcraft, arguing that exceptional action is meaningless in it and games of its ilk — that the true lesson it was teaching is that “running the same treadmill” as the everyone else would net you success and reward enough.

To spread awareness about the lecture (the full audio of which Blow posted to his site soon afterward), Toronto designer Craig ‘superbrothers‘ Adams (recently covered for his work on art/games blog the 1console) has posted DESIGN REBOOT HD, an animation inspired by the talk, created “just in time for GDC.”

More than a simple tribute, though, Adams hopes bringing the lecture back to light will inspire further discussion: he’s posted his own lengthy summary of and reaction to the talk, and called on a few select people to comment publicly (myself included, which I intend to do shortly after the frenetic whirlwind of GDC itself, when I’ve had time to re-parse and re-think the myriad issues Blow raised) — the results of which will continue and evolve via the DESIGN REBOOT site.

DESIGN REBOOT HD [Superbrothers, music for the video by the formerly-Momus-hyped duo Super Madrigal Bros.]

Previously:
The 1console future: Toronto designer Superbrothers goes games …
Xbox Live Arcade hit puzzler Braid coming to PC in March – Offworld

THE 1CONSOLE FUTURE: TORONTO DESIGNER SUPERBROTHERS GOES GAMES

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2.23.2009

Brandon Boyer

3 Replies

Several months back you may have spotted, as I did, designer Craig ‘Superbrothers‘ Adams’ excellent pixel-art computer history video ‘Dot Matrix Revolution.’

Adams and I made some silent but knowing pact to become PlayStation Friends at its debut, but until this morning I was unaware he’d made a bold and beautiful move into the games sphere with The 1 Console.

What’s that? Adams explains:

THE 1 CONSOLE is an epic barebones blog-type thing on the topic of videogames.

THE 1 CONSOLE is a fevered dream-vision for simple minded utopists.

THE 1 CONSOLE is a public mental health issue.

THE 1 CONSOLE is constantly seeking worthwhile experiences.

THE 1 CONSOLE is designed for play with SUPERBROTHERS.

Currently up for your dense and info-rich perusal, Superbrothers’ breakdown of thatgamecompany’s new fl0wer, gorgeous 1console crew portraits with top games of this and last century, and a write-up on Adams’ recent Toronto games shindig.

The shindig brought together local indie names like N+ creators Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns for “some friendly chatter… [and] access to a series of carefully selected platform videogames on a variety of consoles and displays,” and, should it continue, will be the second strongest reason for me to visit the city soon, just below stalking Edgar Wright and co. as they continue filming the new Scott Pilgrim film.

The 1 Console [Superbrothers, thanks Adam!]