Category: Free

The Entire Screen of One Game Will Destroy You

Made for Ludum Dare 31’s “Entire Game on One Screen” theme, Tom7’s The Entire Screen of One Game is a joke. It’s a joke that goes, and goes, and goes until your head hurts and you can’t take it anymore.

You control a tiny colored block that can jump around while the screen is constantly zooming out. Once it zooms out enough, the screen is filled with a different color, your original block is zoomed out to a tiny dot, and the new screen becomes the focus of your control. It keeps zooming out, and you realize you’re in control of several screens, with the game playing out inside each of them. Uhhh…got it?

The whole thing makes about as much sense as the last couple of sentences, but you really have to see it for yourself.

If you want to be left utterly bewildered and a little impressed, check out The Entire Screen of One Game for free. It’s a fascinating concept, and the closest thing I can compare it to is BRICKbricksmashSMASH, which is similarly mind-bending. Keep it up you monsters of design, keep it up.

December 14, 2014
Birdsong is Screen-Sprawling Metroidvania

Ludum Dare always produces some of the year’s most interesting games, and Ludum Dare 31 is already shaping up with some excellent entries. December’s theme, “Entire Game on One Screen,” has already given us Birdsong, a visually striking Metroid inspired adventure. Developer Managore won 1st place Overall in Ludum Dare 29, and this one’s already shaping up to be a top contender.

Birdsong starts off as seemingly a traditional platformer for the first couple of seconds. As you begin to move across the screen, your view is zoomed out and warped, until you can see the entire world map stretching around you to the edges of the screen. It’s a brilliant effect, made better by the shock of the fake-out introduction.

It helps that it’s a well-done Metroidvania as well. You control a little bird, and have it hop through levels, dodging spikes and other obstacles. As you explore, you’ll find items that increase your jump height to expand your traversal skills, and others that allow you to build checkpoints in difficult locations.

The game’s biggest strength is in it’s totally unique visual effect. Every part of the level can be seen from anywhere, and walking simply wraps the screen around in front of where you’re moving. The furthest parts of the level taunt you from the opening moments, and finally making your way there feels like an accomplishment as you look back on where you’ve been.

When the Ludum Dare awards start coming around, I guarantee you’ll be hearing more about this one. Check out Birdsong on its Ludum Dare page, and check out the rest of the several hundred entries based around LD31’s theme. Designing around constraints always brings out creativity, so enjoy the new ideas while they’re fresh!

December 14, 2014
Gravity Bomb is like a Geometry Wars demake

I’m on the record as saying that Geometry Wars’ Pacifism mode is the greatest arcade game of all time. It isn’t hard to lose hours to it, always chasing the next highest score on the leaderboard. You’ll beat that score, you just have to wait until you’re in the zone. Then it’s two hours later and you give up and pass out because it’s 4 am.

It’s incredibly simple, doesn’t take long to fully understand , and impossible to put down once you know the rules. ABA Games‘ newest arcade title, Gravity Bomb, gives me a strikingly similar feeling. (more…)

December 8, 2014
Petrichor – A Rainy Daydream

Petrichor is an experimental point-and-click platformer, and I liked it quite a bit. According to the developers’ TIGSource page, Petrichor refers to “the pleasant smell of rain on dry ground.” Naming the game after such an ephemeral sense may seem odd, but it’s also a really solid name for a game, especially when it’s this apt. Petrichor is dripping (literally) with atmosphere, as you trek through a rainy night on an adventure. I recommend you play through the game before venturing too far into this post, because much of what makes it special is how easy it is to pick up and understand.

You’re a girl of unknown origin who starts off in a cave next to a fire, taking shelter from the drizzle outside. You soon find an umbrella, and a piece of paper outside the cave. Shreds of paper you find give upgrades when brought back to a campfire, so collecting them is the focus of the game to expand your verb set. You begin earning skills like jumping and climbing, and end up with more advanced techniques, that utilize the umbrella to its fullest and sometimes physically impossible abilities. Also, the right-click will always make the girl pull out her umbrella, and you’ll do it like a million times because of how cute it is.

Very little text appears in Petrichor, reminding us that smart game design through, well, playing a game, still exists. When you learn how to play by yourself without the bitter reminder of a developer holding your hand, you’re doing it right. Most of the game is linear with a few puzzles thrown in, and the game has a very chill, relaxed pace that lets you feel reward by each little accomplishment. My biggest complaint comes from the amount of backtracking that’s required, so much so that I ended up getting lost and reaching a game-breaking bug (that has since been fixed) a little over halfway through. I gladly played through again though, and recommend others to do the same.

The atmosphere extends beyond the limited tutorials and elegant art, as the use of sound deserves a special mention. The ever-present sound of rain is always calming, but the music played under it is very reminiscent of the traveling music from Skyrim. It’s soft, wistful, and added to my desire to explore this world. The track also builds as you become more powerful, and fades as your adventure reaches its end. Here’s a small detail that a lesser developer would have overlooked: The rain effect becomes muffled as you go in and out of caves. Neat!

Petrichor is a very interesting little thing that’s hard not to want to share. It’s short, clocking in at around 20 minutes, and leaves you with a desire to talk to someone else about it. I really have no idea what happened in the last 5 seconds. I’m not sure if any of its mysteries have answers, the developers seem to be a fascination with mystical, magical yellow objects for some reason, but the game’s atmosphere is worth your time by itself. The game’s TIGSource page seems to hint at a mystery or two, but I have no idea if there’s more there to find.

You can try Petrichor on PC for free right now, and the game is currently being developed for mobile platforms as well. You can also read more about the development of Petrichor and chat with the developers on its TIGSource page. Go solve those mysteries!

December 8, 2014
Super Skeleman – Subversive Skills

Super Skeleman is the new hotness if you’re looking for a polished, free 2D platformer. This year has filled up fans hungry for fantastic indie platformers, and developer Ben Allen’s newest game only adds to that delicious stew.

Like most games that grok that Metroid flow, you start with a simple jump and grow onward from there. Super Skeleman stands out not only because of its great soundtrack and stylish VVVVVV-esque look, but because of the subversive platforming abilities you collect. See a ledge too high to jump up? Don’t look for a double-jump, try finding the backflip ability instead. Want to cross that pit of spikes? Try the Mario-inspired dive-jump upgrade to soar across.

Allen says that the game is “pretty heavily inspired by 3D Mario games”, so the fun bounciness of jumping should be expected. The game never feels too punishing, so it’s a quick game to satiate your platforming appetite. Super Skeleman’s just a nice, refreshing game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Can’t we have more of those?

If you’re ready to dive and backflip through another great platformer in 2014, check out Super Skeleman on its Gamejolt page for free.

November 30, 2014
Games of the Month – June 2014

So how about that Shovel Knight? Thankfully, June wasn’t a totally dry month other than our favorite Shoveler, but it sure came pretty close. I played way fewer games this month than usual, and hopefully I can dig up a bigger selection sometime this month. But, yeah, Shovel Knight is really good everybody.

Shovel Knight

It’s Shovel Knight. I’ve said more than enough about why I love the game in my review, so I’ll keep this brief. It’s an excellent platformer that feels like it jumped straight out of the late 80’s. Shovel Knight is as smart as it is cute and funny, and brings back really fond memories of blasting through robot masters and whipping walls to find secret chickens. It’s nice to have some of that back, if only briefly.

1001 Spikes

Another blast from the past, 1001 Spikes goes out of its way to be difficult. There are traps spread through each of it’s numerous levels, and your job is to somehow navigate past all of them, Indiana Jones style. You’ll die, again and again, (maybe even 1001 times) but you’ll keep coming back. Each trap has a logic behind it, and it laughs in your face as it destroys you as you run to the exit. If you’re up for some more old school action, with a few cameos from platformer heroes of yore, 1001 Spikes is the second best retro inspired indie platformer of the month. Who would have thought?

Level 2: The Virus Master

And now for something completely different. Have you ever played a music video? Maybe. But was it metal? Not like The Virus Master. It’s a shoot-em-up set to metal, and characters even animate to the music. It’s half watching some really cool stuff happen on-screen, and half trying your best to make sure it all explodes. You’ll play through it again and again to reach the highest score and the hidden level, but it’s so satisfying you won’t mind at all.

Honorable Mentions:

Coming Out Simulator 2014

Just play this.

July 10, 2014