Especially in combination with the "time limit" of each level juggling the items makes sense. Just recently I tried to get a shotgun, an idol and a girl to the exit, when suddenly the music started to slow down. It took me quite a while to get along, and then I just had to leave the girl behind and stick to my precious shotgun :D
But, I guess the problem is that usually I'd also want to get everything to the exit, and most of the times it works. Yet, even though it works, it's not really that much fun.
So, I'd say that being able to at least stash a single item would be a nice compromise. I think this is especially true when I have that pickaxe. I don't find it particularly useful, so when I already have a weapon I usually don't want to drag it along with me by juggling the two, but I'd love to be able to still carry it with me without much of a hassle. Apart from the girl also the idol could be made "unstashable", so as to keep the dynamic of prioritizing one over the other at times.

Eeh, no. It's kinda ridiculous, many of the weapons look nearly the same, like the rocket launcher and the minigun. More obviously the animations, of that Scout girl running with a bat (and just that, too), the Soldier rocketjumping, etc. Or what about the splatter effects. Much of it all looks nearly identical to TF2.

Anyway, I guess it's still more refreshing than the 1000th Korean Counter-Strike or Battlefield rip-opff
I find it interesting that there's such a huge amount of Korean online shooters and all of those I've seen nearly use the exact same concepts, mainly Counter-Strike's. Though, I've also seen a Call of Duty 4 rip-off. And many of them even seem to be rather good, so the developers themselves appear to be somewhat talented. But, apparently their market just calls for very competitive online shooters, so they copy the best of the west or so.

It's out on Steam for 30 $ / €

Naturally, right after posting this I beat the level easily. Still, I also feel that it's probably too hard for me in general, but I'll go on playing.

So far I've played for a bit and liked it, but nearly instantly stopped when I got to the level with only the brown breaking blocks. Unless I'm missing the easy solution for that level, you have far too few time to get the pushing and then jumping right, several times. I'll give it another go, but if I didn't misjudge the level then it's far too hard for me.

It really looks a lot like a bug to anyone playing, because there's nothing to indicate that it's intentional other than level design (which, most levels can be broken really easily using this "feature")

Well, there's a level that says in big, even red letters "HOLD UP" Granted, though, it could be made more clear.

Was really impressed by the demo, but $30 requires multiplayer or something for the longevity.  What'll Diablo 3 be, you think, for example?

You can't just compare the two that way. Maybe for you, personally, yes, but you can't just say that Trine is too expensive because there are better games for a similar price

At least for me, there will likely be longevity in playing levels again, as the physics-based puzzles and generally dynamic situations, as seen in the demo, can be played in very different ways. So, I guess I will actually care about finding all potions and treasures in the levels, replaying the levels if I missed something and possibly even replaying the levels just for the fun of it.

Still, I think I also won't buy it right away, it's not exactly the right time for me, but I guess Trine's price will not be dropped very soon. As the developers stated, there is likely going to be a "weekend deal" for Trine, but they didn't make it sound like that would happen close to its release. They also said that while online coop may be a possibility, and that it will logically be judged mainly on how well Trine sells, it wouldn't just take 1 or 2 months to develop, but a lot longer than that. From the way they wrote that, I guess it's much more likely that there will be a sequel to Trine which features online coop, rather than Trine itself. Anyway, they were also pretty honest, saying that nobody should buy Trine because of the possibility of online coop, but rather because of what it already offers now.

Woah, just had my best run by very far, at around my 180th death. For the first time I even got to the 4th world and had a crazy shotgun Yeti-killing frenzy before that, consequently unlocking a room (That's pretty fun, too ). Too bad I got caught in flight by an arrow trap which shot me right into one of those spike blocks, killing me :|
Still, after some frustration this is surely motivating me to go on trying.

My only real complaint is with the critters in vases. By now I know that I better whip each vase instead of throwing them into walls and risking to get caught off guard by a spider, but I still occasionally get hit by the critters when I'm standing just not quite far enough away from the vase when breaking it and killing the critter. I think this is really needlessly adding to frustration and I'd prefer if the snakes and spiders inside couldn't hit me the moment I kill them, anyway.

And speaking of bugs, on this "awesome run" I had, I also for the first time had this black borders bug, making most of the tiles directly above the ground appear absolutely black during level transitions and in the score room. Not even restarting the game helped, only after a reboot it was gone.
Also, a friend of mine is having more severe problems with black tiles in the game, and from what I could gather in this thread that problem isn't too uncommon. Is there any way to fix it?

I also found what I think is simply a design oversight: When you jump and then hang onto a liana while sprinting, you will also be able to jump off it at a higher speed, no matter if you're still holding the sprint button or not. You can't jump onto it at normal speed and then jump off it at the higher speed. I'd reckon the same applies to ladders.
I think this either shouldn't be possible at all, or the speed when jumping off should be determined by whether or not you're holding the sprint button when actually jumping off the liana/ladder.

I think you shouldn't take any extreme steps here when it isn't necessary. I'd guess that Dante16 has learnt his lesson. Maybe he hasn't, but at least give him a chance to prove that he might have, before trying to lynch him. If he actually redesigns it, then I see nothing wrong with it, because I guess then it will be as much a rip-off of Tumbledrop as that is a rip-off of Totem Destroyer, or whatever was first. If this does end up in the AppStore and can still clearly be considered a rip-off, I guess only then is the time for you to commence your holy war.

The day night effects are implemented in the latest version. And I'm pretty sure Paul wants to move on to other things. This next version will probably be the last.

I see, thanks.
Fair enough, Saucelifter! is obviously a very complete game already

Uuh, that's pretty cool, nice video
Unexpectedly, I am actually getting an iPod Touch in about two weeks, and I've already got the Lite version sitting on my PC, waiting to jump on it I've been in a free app download frenzy last night, and from what I've seen Saucelifter! still appears to be one of the few really polished and fitting cheaper games for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Considering that you also mentioned day/night effects, does that mean that the upcomming version won't be the final one?

I just noticed that to me this "teleport pad" on the ground looks a bit strange. I actually liked the base that used to be at the place in Choplifter, but the whole change of theme and thus making it a teleport pad is also great. I just think that maybe it could be enhanced, because it strikes me as a bit odd that the aliens have installed a whole pad there in the ground. Maybe it could be some kind of fancy static translucent beam, that only lights up a lot more as the prisoners are teleported up.
Of course, the pad is not a "flaw" in my opinion, it's just a little less ideal than the other designs in my yes

Anyway, great work! I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Trine will cost $20 on the PS3, that's 2/3 of the PC verion's price: http://www.vg247.com/2009/06/29/trine-ps3-price-half-that-of-pc/
It's quite disappointing that this step was seemingly necessary. But, anyway, I won't be complaining, I think that even the highest normal price of 30€, the one european PC gamers will have to pay, is very justified

To be fair, though, Tumbledrop itself wasn't the first game in the "genre" at all, was it? So, I don't think the very concept behind that other game is more of a ripoff. Of course, the design obviously is, and Tumbledrop is special in that regard and also feels to me like the most charming one of the bunch because of its design

The slow start also gives players a chance to rack up danger points by scraping the slower rocks...

Frankly, I totally forgot about the "danger points" when I played the game. That might indeed make the slower parts a lot more interesting. I'll give the game another go later

If you were interested in the debate of Braid's pricing on Xblox Live! Arcade last year, you should visit the official Frozenbyte forums or the Steam forums to see another interesting variant of that. A lot of discussing and complaining is going on because of Trine's price (30€ in europe), which is set close to that of other "big" games. Commonly people feel that Trine is just not a "big enough" game to have such a price tag. On the other hand, the developers actually confirmed that playing through the game once will take about 7-9 hours, which is not any different from all those other big games.
Another point is that the game is coming to PlayStation Network for a supposedly similar game. People are complaining that it's just not reasonable to release a game in that "environment" for such a high price, while most other games are so much cheaper.
Lastly, a major complaint is that Trine will not offer online coop. The developers have stated multiple times that they simply didn't have the time and money to implement it and still make the game of the quality it has now.

I find it all quite a bit sad. Surely, I'd love to be able to play Trine online with friends, as offline coop will hardly be an option for me. But, in my opinion that doesn't detract from Trine's seemingly great value as a singleplayer game alone. I am pretty certain that Trine will be more fun than many "triple A" action games I've bought for a higher price in the recent years.
I'm just hoping that Trine will be the success it seemingly deserves to be, and that maybe the developers will be in the position to add online coop later on.


By the way, could somebody from America please tell me what pre-purchasing Trine on Steam costs right now? There is a bit of confusion because in Germany the price is currently set at 30€, but there has been talk of that only being the pre-purchase price and that it will be higher later on. Though, I'm guessing that the price is currently only lower for Americans. So, I hope somebody here can clear that up for me

I also remember a game where you built a space-station out of simple platforms, and you built turrets (maybe buildings too?) on those platforms, and units, and you could move the whole station around against the enemies' space-station. Your units would then proceed to jump from your station's platforms to the enemies' and it was pretty cool. For some reason, I associate the game name with something like "Life and death" but that probably wasn't it.

Any help?

While I don't even have the slightest idea what that could be, it sounds damn cool!
What were the graphics and the interface like? Did you have a topdown view, or a perspective from the side?

It does actually sound like some cool and very possible custom level for Clonk, but I guess you would've remembered if it wasn't a stand-alone game but merely a level for another one

Worked fine on Win XP for me. The loading time when starting the game was unexpectedly high, but I've never used an Atari in any way, so I don't know if that's usual or not.
The only actual problem I had was that the arrow keys seemed strangely unresponsive in the main menu. In order to move the cursor I had to hold the up or down arrow key for a very short time, just quickly pressing them didn't work. It was easy to get used to that, but at first I thought the controls weren't working because I seemingly couldn't use the arrow keys. Pressing the spacebar worked as usual and thankfully during the actual game all keys were ideally responsive.

The game was fun, but I thought that the pace ramped up too slowly. It did get quite frantic towards the end of each wave, but the beginning half was a bit boring. I only got to the 4th wave, though.
But, I'm not really a sucker for simple highscore-based arcade games in general, so I might not be the most suitable person to talk about that

People who are complaining that a $6 game does not provide as much play time as a $60 dollar game really have something wrong with them. I guess it's because it was advertised as 40.

That's what I ment to say. Surely 15 hours of fun play time out of a $6 game is excellent, it's just still disappointing if you were promised more than twice that

Also, fun fact: Reflexion is made by TIGer goldbrick (buick).

Yup, I linked to the thread because of it Also Saucelifter was presented here, forgot to link to it: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=5802.msg186506#msg186506

I will get an iPod Touch soon myself. So, I can't tell you about games I've played, but I can tell you about some games I've found which I think look pretty good

Reflexion is Breakout with the cool twist that you can create the "paddle" anywhere. Looks way more interesting to me than any of the actual clones.
Glyder looks like a simple but very chilling game in the vein of Pilotwings. You are a winged person and just fly around using the accelerometer, collection some orbs or flying through loops.
Castle of Magic is said to be a charming and certainly good looking platformer. It looks a bit generic to me, but it seems to be very well done.
Saucelifter is a retro remake of Choplifter, and it looks very polished and smooth to play.
Zenonia is an apparently well liked classic action RPG, maybe somewhat similar to Zelda, or probably rather Diablo in a scenario like Zelda's. I've heard about some disappointment in the game's length, as the developer said it's got around 40 hours of play time whereas it's usually only around 15 or so. Other than that it's being praised a lot.
Vector Tanks, simply a Battlezone remake. But the neat control scheme makes it look quite fun to play, despite all the simplicity.

Maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to compile a proper list of what I found fun

This was a perfect demo in that I wanted more, more, MORE! The mechanics introduced are just enough to scratch the surface of the possibilities. If you hit 'I' you can go to the characters' information. You can see that there are at least 8 abilities that each character can obtain, as well as a *ton* of inventory slots (I got a ring that increased the character's energy by 5%), so there is a lot of opportunity for development. I'm excited!

Weren't there just 6 skill slots? And 3 of those were arranged parallel to the others. Anyway, this is not about a huge plethora of different abilities, but rather few ones which are very useful in most situations Judging by the trailer it really does get a lot more interesting once you got the improved skills.

On the other hand, the score table on the load screen showed that after playing through the demo level I got about a 10th of all experience potions and experience from killing enemies. So, I guess the complete game will not be so very long, but I'm sure it will be enough

I just noticed that the demo actually includes coop-play! So, just grab a friend or even two, drag them into your dark gamer's lair and activate player 2/3 controls in the options

Oh hey, Joe: That thief looks also quite stylish swinging around on a chain - and she's a sexy woman! Beat that.