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[increpare]

Disco? Very!



This past Ludum Dare birthed a wonderful wonderful game which is also a terrible terrible pun (one so obvious and enticing in its awfulness that two people chose it as their title).  Disco? Very! is this entirely beautiful game made by Tom 7.

IF YOU WANT TO PLAY IT THEN PLEASE BE CLICKING HERE (flash)

I found it a captivating, marveloquent piece of work, overflowing with soul and infinity.

Of course, there were several other games made as well for the jam.  I'm simply too much of a lazy bastard to have even played them all. Of those that I have done, though, I will point to Cardboard Adventures and Dinosaur Dance-Off as being works of extreme culturotainment value.

[increpare]

[ I asked xander, but he doesn't have permission any more, and Terry seems to be busy right now - could someone consider frontpaging this?  Not many people have signed up so far, so some extra publicity would be goood... ]



TIGJAM UK 4
Date: 4-Feb-2011 to 7-Feb-2011
Venue: CB2 Bistro, Cambridge.

A weekend of making games.  Everyone's welcome to come and make games, regardless of experience or background : )

Get tickets here:
http://tigjamuk4.eventbrite.com/

£5 each, which will go towards goodies!

Official forum thread

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=16153.0

See CB2 here: http://www.cb2bistro.com/
You'll be expected to buy food and drink at the venue.

Accommodation:
This hostel is super convenient! £16.50 per night if you organise a group room on the forum.
http://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/east-of-england/hostels/cambridge/index.aspx

Transport:
The event is within walking distance from Cambridge Train Station.
It's easy to get to Cambridge from Stanstead airport, and you can travel up from London Kings Cross or London Liverpool St rail station.

Pass the word around, and register now!

[Hach-Que]

[ This is the first Australian TIGJam so it would be good to get some publicity about it since Australian indies aren't used to having TIGJams / game jams...  and yes I stole the layout of this post from the TIGJam UK one ]

Registrations are now open for the very first triannual TIGJam OZ.  The usual "come along and make some games" applies here

Venue: Lara Community Hall, Victoria, Australia
Date: Saturday 5th February

Get tickets at:
http://tigjamoz1.eventbrite.com/

The entry cost is $20, this covers venue hire and we're also putting on lunch (chips) and dinner (pizza) as well as providing soft drink throughout the day.  There's 15 spots available, so register quick or miss out!

Links and Info

• Public Event Information Document (event information, read this page for more info)
• TIGSource Forum Topic (discussion and questions)
• TIGJam OZ blog (latest updates)

Accommodation
There's unfortunately no accommodation in Lara (although if what I've been told is true, this might be changing within 6 months or so), so if you're flying down from interstate you'll need to organize a flight back the same day or alternatively arrange accommodation in Geelong or Melbourne.

Travel
The attendance form is the best way to find out travel advice as it recommends different services based on where you say you are located.  As a bonus, we can also send you updates about TIGJam OZ after filling out the form

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Hopefully I'll see a few of you in February!

[raiten]

[<- I'm not really a manbaby, I just did an increpare and deleted my previous account because I felt like I was spending too much time reading stuff on the forums.]

[a note: this is not a "doujin" game, so if you post this I think misi would appreciate if you didn't give it that tag]

Preview: Koruruto No Saji Akuma (Koruruto's Spoon Devil) (PC shareware)

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"Q Handmade Games" aka Misi, a Japanese developer whose previous creation

was an audience favorite at the Sense Of Wonder Night in 2009, has just released a trailer for his new project. "Koruruto's Spoon Devil" would perhaps best be described as a bullet hell/danmaku arena shooter, but is a lot more forgiving than what you might expect from a game belonging to that genre.

The game features quite an original control system, which puts you in control of two characters at the same time. Kororuto the Witch, the slower and more vulnerable of the two, is controlled with the keyboard, while her lovable pet monster "the Spoon Devil" follows the mouse cursor. Both characters will automatically target the enemy closest to them and they carry separate, upgradeable weapons. They also have separate health meters, hopefully making for an interesting game of balance.

Misi hopes to give it a shareware release "as soon as it's done", with the two first levels of the game available for free.

[ink.inc]

suteF

guest review by John Sandoval



    Nothing is as it seems in the world of suteF. Though what you see is a fairly standard puzzle-platformer (crates are pushed, ledges are climbed, and exits are ultimately reached), suteF is at its core a game that takes every opportunity to mess with the player as much as possible. A miscalculated jump can trigger cracks in reality; a single step could erase your path from existence. Entire dimensions can open up from the void. And this tension, this uncertainty, this feeling that anything can happen at any time, is what makes playing suteF an experience worth having.

    The successor to creator Ted Lauterbach’s earlier work (titled Fetus), suteF places you once again in the role of an admittedly doughy little blue man named Aramas. Trapped in a hellish dimension, you must progress through five sets of levels, using your wits and Aramas’ limited skillset to solve increasingly complex puzzles and hopefully find a way out. Aramas has at his disposal three individual abilities— jumping, crate pushing, and grappling onto nearby surfaces with his trusty grappling hook. However, the game takes great delight in stripping you of any of these abilities when you least expect it, keeping you on your toes. In addition to Aramas' inherent abilities, your greatest asset in escaping the world of suteF comes from the warped nature of the dimension itself. To put it simply, walking off one end of the screen leads you to the other; falling off the bottom of the screen loops you back to the top. Exploiting these spatial impossibilities can turn an otherwise impassable chasm into a mere few steps in the other direction. The resulting puzzles are exceptionally clever, forcing the player to make full use of all of Aramas’ paltry abilities in a multitude of ways. You'd be surprised just how much gameplay suteF ekes out of these relatively simple mechanics.

    Every element in suteF is crafted to make the player feel as if the world could tear apart at any moment. From the constant screen static to sudden changes in the levels themselves, you’re never sure if what you’re playing is a glitch or the actual game. Some might call this a lack of polish-- but I feel that the game is far more interesting for it.

    SuteF is available for download from GameJolt. It takes about one to two hours to beat; the various secret levels can double that time. All in all, it’s a very, very good game.

[Peevish]

I'd actually quite like it if someone did a frontpage article on 8-Bit Funding. It's crowdfunding for indie games, essentially Kickstarter only a) game-centric and b) international.

I can't write an article myself because I have a game on it right now. But I think if I didn't know it existed, I'd want to.

[Maikel_Ortega]

I'd actually quite like it if someone did a frontpage article on 8-Bit Funding. It's crowdfunding for indie games, essentially Kickstarter only a) game-centric and b) international.

I can't write an article myself because I have a game on it right now. But I think if I didn't know it existed, I'd want to.

This would be great. I know it exists because of you, and now I want everyone to know too :D
Could be a great article, but I don't have any time right now. Anyway, I totally support the idea.

[wilbefast]

Homosexuals from space have come to our world to indoctrinate us, and the only way to stop them is by using the Vatican's giant "faith-cannon", hidden in the centre of the earth for just such an occasion...

Yes, this whole set-up is ridiculous, but that just makes it all the more effective a tool for poking fun at homophobia. What is, after all, the fear of homosexuality if not the belief that they're trying to somehow "convert" the populace?



The words "Italy" and "independent gaming" are rarely seen in the same sentence, which is a shame. We hear a lot about Scandinavia and California, and even my homeland Australia, but Southern Europe would seem to be fairly barren at first glance.

Not so.

By some twist of fate I found myself attending the first ever get-together of Italy's IGDA chapter, which took place in Verona just before the GGJ event. There was a lot of cynicism at first, a lot of complaining about Berlusconi and the the lack of public initiatives, but what gradually emerged was the kind of enthusiasm and hope for the future that's only ever seen in the underdog. And what was achieved in the next 48 hours was nothing short of inspiring. These people want to show the world that they too have what it takes, and I for one think they have a point.



But getting back to the game. The original title was actually something like "Crazy Nazi Priests". This was scrapped though after a warning from those in charge: journalists from the "Rai", one of Italy's main television networks, had come to report on the Game Jam. The sponsors (Microsoft) and organisers (Verona's "Master of Video-Game development") clearly wanted the report to focus on their own achievement, not on some scandal.

In case you don't know, the Italian media is more or less completely under the control of one Silvio Berlusconi, so this kind of rebellious Left-wing nonsense would never be tolerated on the airwaves. At least, not without the kind of "Fair and Balanced" treatment that Fox News is famous for. Perhaps this is the reason behind Paola 'Molleindustria' Pedercini's highly controversial "Faith Fighter" and "Operation Pedopriest" games.

All told Italian games seem to be becoming an outlet for social commentary that can't be expressed elsewhere. A primordial scream against censorship. And this, if nothing else, makes the Italian independent gaming scene well worth talking about!

You can find more information about the game and its authors on its GGJ page. A browser version should also be available soon.

[increpare]

Don't Flub Your Line (flash) is a gorgeous, albeit short, and rather exuberant game by the darling Noyb.  It's has been around for a while now, having its debut in  Pirate Kart II, before making its way on to Newgrounds.  

[moi]

Aha this game is great

[ortoslon]

More good Knytt Stories

Since my first Knytt Stories post, I've discovered five more good levels. Like last time, download the latest version of the game (1.2.1) to play these.


1. The Other Side by The Red Snifit. After being knocked out by a strange light, Juni wakes up into a barren, synthetic environment and sets out to explore it. The farther she goes, the harder challenges she faces. This is by far the largest level on this list.




2. Antsy by dessgeega puts you on a small uninhabited island. This playground level (you can't win) plays a lot like the original Knytt.


3. Enemy Mine by Dave Germain is an obstacle course inspired by dessgeega's Oubliette.

of both.


4. Race to the Pumpkin Patch by Healy demands both speed and precision. If you think this level is too easy, try B-Man's Monocromatica Grotta. Playthroughs of both.


5. Pestilence by Yohji is what you'd get if you put a nice level on a warm wet spot and left it to rot for a month. Playthrough.

[Fugsnarf]

NEStalgia
<NOTES>
I don't know how you put links or embed youtube videos on here, so I've made them shown just as links here. The last link could be in an anchor around the words "NEStalgia's website".
</NOTES>




I know that there are a lot of people that love retro video games and hate modern multi-player role-playing games. NEStalgia is a new online role-playing game that allows the two worlds to coexist, and it does it quite nicely!

NEStalgia uses the charm of retro video games and the great fun of a multi-player world. Called "Dragon Warrior 3 meets World of Warcraft" by its developers, a fairly accurate description, NEStalgia is an excellent online role-playing game for anybody. The game-play is very similar to the old role-playing games such as Dragon Warrior in which it shows the enemies over a simple black background and you choose your next move for the fight. It's a very familiar style to many of us and you may feel right at home fighting along side your friends in this manner.

NEStalgia is only playable on Windows via the BYOND client. You can find out more information about BYOND and NEStalgia on NEStalgia's website.

http://www.silkgames.com/nestalgia/

[ness io kain]

[If you want to post this, let me know in a PM, and I'll send you a picture for it. If you don't want to post this, you might be crazy; we don't get to hear from this man often! As far as I know, his last interview was in 2003 or something.]

Aaron Bishop is an independent game developer who may not be as familiar to members of the indie gaming community as he is to the open source software community (where his games are a bit more well-known, it seems). He is the creator of Egoboo and Soulfu, and he recently announced that he is working on a new game, plainly codenamed "Mystery Project X". I thought this might be a good time to interview him for TIGSource, but, since the details of this new project are still a secret, it is not the core subject of the interview.


MS: Some people may not be aware of who you are, since you were more prominent in the open source software community than in the "indie games scene". Can you say a few things to introduce yourself?
AB: Who am I? Well, nobody too important I guess... Really I'm kind of a hack when it comes to writing games — most of my ideas aren't original, instead they're just a bunch of ingredients that taste good in other games, all stewed together to see what we get. Probably the only thing that sets me apart from anybody else is that I'm like one of those old one-man-bands — I do almost everything myself.

MS: What are your feelings on the current status of your first project, Egoboo? Did you expect people to continue working with it for as long as they have?
AB: Hmm, Egoboo... That's a game I wrote 12 years ago after having a brief dream about what it should be like — I really wish I could go back to 1980 or so and start over knowing what I do now... Thought there would be more development over the years, but it was a bit of a mess code wise — plus the control was never well developed.
MS: Do you think the direction the game has been taken in is similar to what you would have done with it had you continued to develop it yourself?
AB: If I'd continued to develop it myself, random level generation would've been in a lot earlier — had a nice algorithm working in a little test program, but just never moved it over... Egoboo is grid-based so it's pretty easy math-wise.

MS: Have you been disappointed with the lack of continuation in the development of your second project, Soulfu? Why do you think it has not received as much attention?
AB: Nah, I'm not disappointed that SoulFu hasn't seen much development — it's really my own fault in taking so long to get it out the door... What was cutting edge in 2002 wasn't nearly as great in 2007.

MS: How was your experience with selling Soulfu? What do you think you could have done to be more successful?
AB: Well, I tried to sell SoulFu as HonorWare — where people would just send me money and type "I paid Aaron" or something like that, but it didn't work too well. Certainly could've made more doing it a different way, but it was more about trying an idea and seeing what happens. Didn't really market it either — at that point I was just trying to cut ties with it and get on with my life.

MS: You eventually released Soulfu for free, as "NiceWare". (In order to unlock the full game, players must swear that they have done something nice each time they play.) Was this your intention from the beginning, or was this because of poor sales?
AB: The NiceWare thing came about because the HonorWare thing didn't work — Plan B, so to speak. Again, it's another idea I wanted to try, and I do wonder what nice things people have done... I know my little niece gives out hugs!

MS: What are your feelings on open source games in general? Should more people be releasing the source code to their projects?
AB: My opinion as far as OpenSource games go is that the code really isn't that important -- yeah it makes the game tick, but the artwork is the real painstaking/time-consuming part of it. Back in the x86 assembler days, code was important — but now there are so many libraries (OpenGL for example) that the hard parts are done for you...

MS: What can you tell us about your next project?
AB: Mystery Project X is still under wraps — it's designed to be less artwork intensive than the last project, but will hopefully make up for that with multiplayer networking and physics modeling.

MS: How did you come to be interested in game development in the first place?
AB: I've been designing games ever since I was a little boy — it's a shame they take so long to write... I love thinking of ideas for games and have several hundred I'll never get around to (some of which are actually originalish).

MS: Do you have any interest in interacting with other game developers? Have you ever thought about attending events like GDC?
AB: The only game developer that I'd be interested in working with is Richard Garriott — though my brothers and I might get something together one of these days...

[Ethan718]

If you decide to use this, it would be awesome if you could make my name so it has a link that, when clicked goes to my blog. Thanks in advance.

Balls in Space is a 2D Flash platformer where the player fires projectiles at enemies while jumping across 25 cleverly-designed levels. It is built in Stencyl, a perhaps controversial Flash development tool, by damijin, who designed the physics puzzler Pyro and Pyro II.

The first levels of the game set the scene for the simplistic controls and addicting gameplay; the tutorial holds your hand, finally letting you go after you fully understand how to play the game. It introduces the ball-throwing system, one constant in this game with several styles of gameplay being infused in each level.

In Balls in Space, the goal of each level is to reach the end, something you've certainly seen done so many times before. However, you will be forced to take different routes in levels before reaching the end because of the ball-throwing gimmick; while in a game like Sonic, you use rings as a lifesource, in Balls in Space the collectable is actually a weapon. Thus, you have extra motivation to chase down every last ball in a level; the projectile shooting is a lot of fun, and watching the spheres ricochet from block to block, colliding into baddies, is very rewarding. This, along with a variety of levels, makes the gameplay addicting and a whole lot of fun.

At first glance, the graphics might appear to be underwhelming. The legless, simplistic, and colorless spherical protagonist isn't the most impressive you've ever seen. Nonetheless, it's evident that this is more the product of a premeditated style choice, as opposed to an incompetent pixel artist. As you continue to play the game, the style grows on you, and it eventually becomes more of a plus than a minus. The small things like blinking animations and other particle effects don't pop out as groundbreaking features, yet when you look beneath the surface it makes the in-game universe more vivacious and crisp.

Certain sound effects, such as the jumping sound, can get quite annoying after a while, and seem a little outdated. However, the music is fun and fits the theme; like the graphics, it's charming and fun. Although I wish there was a little more to the loops, it definitely isn't the type of game where you absolutely have to play muted. However, if that is something you wish to do, the mute button is very obviously placed, and the music only plays while you are in the tab with the game playing.

Getting back to the gameplay, something you might disdain is that the game only has 25 levels. Personally, this reviewer felt satisfied after the final boss. As if it were a final exam for a class, this boss was a cumulative challenge, making you use every bit of skill that you learned from playing the levels before it. Using powerups and of course, your balls, you have to finish the menacing, grimacing villain that is behind all the evil attacking our hero.

If you haven't had enough, there's always achievements to be earned and special parts of the game to unlock. There's always another challenge in this game, so if you felt that the main part of the game was a little too easy, you'll probably be happy to know that there are some truly challenging achievements and unlockables. This not only adds replay value to the game, but also forces you to become better.

If you look to Balls in Space hoping for an epic, story-driven, and visually impressive game, this probably isn't the way to go. However, if you want a fun, quick, easy-to-play Flash game, this is right up your alley. In fact, it definitely hits the target audience of Flash gamers; it doesn't take long to understand how to play, it isn't the most strategy-packed game, and it's quite rewarding. On top of that, it expands on one of the most loved genres in gaming, the 2D platformer. So what do you have to lose, go try it out!

Play Balls in Space on MoFunZone

[JasonPKaplan]

After four successful iterations of the Challenge and a total of 39 games created, the Game Prototype Challenge is coming back for version 5.  If you haven’t heard of the Game Prototype Challenge, it is a spur-of-the-moment motivator for making games, utilizing not one but two different (and slightly contrary) themes which inspires people to make interesting and different games.  Each version runs for a week, and thus far has produced a lot of very cool games for your enjoyment, which can be found on the Challenge’s website.

Now on to the good bit, the announcement of the fifth version of our Game Prototype Challenge: #GPCv5!  Due to exams and Easter, we at the Game Prototype Challenge were worried about people being too busy.  However, every single previous Challenger who we queried insisted we run #GPCv5 anyway, and so mark your calendars, #GPCv5 will run Monday, April 18th, 2011 to Monday, April 25th, 2011. Themes will be announced at noon EST on the 18th, and games due at 11:59pm EST on the 25th.

We hope to see a lot of new faces participating in the upcoming #GPCv5.  Please spread the word, and if you've been thinking about participating but haven't yet we highly encourage you to do so.  Let's make this the best Challenge yet!

Thoughts? Get in touch with us by means of any of Twitter, Facebook, or email us at [email protected] and talk to us.

[Slash - Santiago Zapata]

The 2011 7DRL Challenge is over!


The Honorable Evaluation Committee, courtesy of Ataraxia Theatre

A Seven Day Roguelike is a roguelike created in seven days. This means the author stopped developing it 168 hours after starting.

The idea behind 7DRLs is forcing developers to finish a showable product instead of adding features endlessly to their grandiose, never to be released projects, a common pattern in the roguelike development world.

This year the challenge had 99 challengers and 46 successful entries. They were all evaluated by a dedicated committee for you to pick and play! There are also short videos for part of them at roguetemple's YouTube channel.

[ithamore]

When and why did this get un-stickied?

[MaxMischi3f]

My dog is dead, my shack has been eaten by termites, someone stole my job as the village idiot, and my uncle has stolen my prized magic potatoes. The theft of my magic potatoes was the straw that broke the camels back, and so armed with a piece of my house and an obviously tenuous grip on reality I charge into what I believe to be my uncle's house to demand retribution...

Dungeon Raid from Fireflame Games is a match three puzzle game for iOS with some of the more sedimentary trappings of a rogue-like distilled into a potent and addictive formula. Every game begins with a randomized back story blurb like the one above that reads like a RPG trope mad-lib. While they have no real bearing on the gameplay, they are often times hilarious. The reasons given for my adventurer's madcap dungeon diving have included falling into a well and being raised by mole people, or accidentally stumbling drunk into into the local dungeon, to being a henchmen separated from your adventurers by a three-headed spider-bear.

The gameplay itself is an interesting take on the match-three formula. Players match three or more coins, shields, potions, or swords to gain loot and fight monsters. The matching mechanic is unique in that rather then matching three or more mcguffins linearly in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal fashion, matching is accomplished by tracing a path over the gems the players want to collect. As long as that path is unbroken and doesn't cross itself the matching can continue until you have either drawn yourself into a corner or run out of contiguous gems to collect. The matching mechanic adds a very tactile hack-and-slash feel to the combat and hoards of minions are cut down with a deft sweep of a finger.



Players also chose a character class and race, a set of perks and flaws, and a set of skills to chose from as they gain experience and levels. The skills you gain upon leveling up are randomly selected from a pool you build on character creation. This forces you to develop your character depending on the skills you've drawn from that pool. The skills are varied and deep enough that they can be combined together for some entertaining strategies. For example, one skill will turn all coins on the board into monsters, while another lets you turn all swords into coins.

If you drew this combination skills you might be led to a play style where you  hoard coins and swords on the board until they reached a critical mass and then turn them into monsters to be destroyed en-mass in a bloody harvest of loot and experience. In the early stages of the game this strategy would be nigh-unstoppable until boss monsters start to be woven into the waves of minions that flood the board when the plan is executed. The boss monsters also change or bring additional rules to the game while they're alive. Some explode after a set number of turns doing damage to you and clearing out a section of the board or change gems into additional monsters or poison potions.

Using the coins-into-monsters strategy from the previous example, you might have the poor fortune to draw the attention of a boss monster who caused damage to you for every monster you attacked. Chances are pretty good that attacking all the monsters in one turn would kill you outright from the reflected damage, however not killing all the minions in one turn would probably end with you getting you face eaten off by the slobbering hoard for the hubris of your scheming. A lot of the strategies and puzzling in the game comes from these sorts of combat situations, and building your characters skills and abilities to turn a no-win situation into piles and piles of loot.

When the monsters finally get the best of you, and they will, there's always another bright eyed adventurer stumbling into a dungeon somewhere else, and the cycle begins anew.

The game is a steal at $2.99 and is available for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

-Max Gaugush

[ortoslon]

Recent good Knytt Stories #3

Yep, five more short pretty platformers. You'll need the latest version of Knytt Stories to play these levels.


1. Dark Sea by SecretGlitch offers a mix of brutally hard but fair obstacles and amusing surprise deaths.


2. Another Strange Dream by James Orth II is a surreal level with original graphics and music.




3. Coldmist Mountain by Talps and Jetio4 is linear and hard.




4. Advanced by SecretGlitch is a little test of your platforming skills. Despite what the HUD may suggest, you have infinite lives. Playthrough.


5. Petals of a Dying Flower by Talps, because there is no such thing as too much silhouette graphics.

[BMcC]

When and why did this get un-stickied?

Possibly an accident... I put it back up, but if there was a reason it might fall back down again.

EDIT: Actually! http://twitter.com/mossmouth/status/88360733670248449