Site Downage (Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:43:00 +0000)
Hey, guys – the site’s been going down so often lately that I’m going to suspend the updates until we get it fixed. I’ve been talking about it with Jeff, and we’re going to try and find a permanent solution for this annoying problem sometime in the next week or so. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Lightmare (Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:03:00 +0000)
Lightmare is the latest release from Edit Mode Games (aka Kevin Oke). Like Kevin’s other games (most notably, the Robotron-inspired satire Consumer CULTure), Lightmare is simple in concept and execution, but saddled with ample amounts of charm. I really like this description of one of the obstacles in the readme:
The goal of the game is simple. As a hungry vampire, you must avoid light and cars to reach the vial of blood at the end of each stage. Apparently man-made light hurts vampires as much as the sun does! That’s got to make life difficult for a modern-day bloodsucker (and for the people playing as one in a video game).
TIGdb:Entry for Lightmare
MageGuild 1.0 (Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:55:00 +0000)
A couple of neat roguelikes went 1.0 recently. One is Legerdemain, which we covered previously on TIGSource. It’s a story-based, IF-influenced RL, and is definitely worth checking out.
The second is MageGuild, which, as you may guess, is a magic-centric dungeon crawl. My experience playing wizard classes in roguelikes is that it’s generally too complex for my tastes. Reading books, having spells fizzle, getting my ass handed to me by weak enemies – I like sorcery about as much as Conan the Barbarian, which is to say, put that staff away and give me a sword to cleave a mage in twain with!
So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that MageGuild is one of the more easy to get into RL’s that I’ve played. The interface is clean, the controls are simple, and there’s a tutorial. The game also supports mouse control and graphical tiles (I may make a tileset, actually!).
What makes the game interesting is its focus on mixing spells and potions. At the beginning of the game, you pick up to two schools of magic that will decide which spells you can learn. Then during the game you can combine potions with a variety of objects to create new ones. Want to become a werewolf? It’s as easy as mixing a Potion of Change with some Hair of Wolf.
Having only made a few runs into the dungeon, I can’t comment too extensively on this system, but my initial impression is quite favorable. It’s a pretty fast-paced roguelike that encourages experimentation without being too overwhelming to beginners. I recommend trying it. (Keep in mind that it requires the .NET framework!).
TIGdb:Entries for Legerdemain, MageGuild
(Source: Slash, via Temple of Roguelike)
Quite Soulless (Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:12:00 +0000)
Quite Soulless is what I imagine The Divine Comedy would have looked like if Dante Alighieri was a basement programmer and he was eating mushrooms and drinking Mountain Dew all day. As the old adage goes: “May you live in interesting times, with interesting games.” (Currently downloading the 600 MB demo, what!)
(Source: Paul, via this thread)
Noitu Love Fanart (Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:05:00 +0000)
I just noticed that there’s this amazing Noitu Love fanart on Joakim Sandberg’s website. Um, wow. I think I’m in love. With the artwork, that is, not… okay, yeah, I just fell for a video game character. That hasn’t happened to me since Phantasy Star II.
The artist is Halil Ural, aka MrDream.
And since I’ve still got some space left, you should also check out this samurai (pizza?) cat from Overgrowth, which is looking better and better every day.
More, eh? Digs furiously into pants. Alright, here’s a series of Mario/Cave Story mashup mockups from arundhir. Okay, that’s all I got. Go home, kid! I said, go home!
Crayon Physics Deluxe Available For Pre-Order (Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:59:00 +0000)
There’s a brand spankin’ new website for Crayon Physics Deluxe. You can now pre-order the IGF award-winning physics game through PayPal, for $14.95 ($5 off the full price). That will also get you into the beta, whenever it starts. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that Petri can get this game out in 2008! That would pretty much cap off what I feel is the best year for independent gaming yet. Wouldn’t it?
100 Click Games in 10 Minutes (Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:32:00 +0000)
Following up Paul’s 100 Game Maker Games in 10 Minutes video is this new video from CTCodemonkey, which shows 100 finished games made with Multimedia Fusion or other Clickteam products. The download links for each game are here.
And Paul has collected a bunch of similar videos (including his Game Maker one) here.
(Thanks, AuthenticKaizen!)
Qwop (Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:14:00 +0000)
I’m not sure I could explain, in words, what Benzido’s Qwop is about any better than the above screenshot can. This must be what it’s like for a baby to try and walk!
TIGdb:Entry for Qwop
Live from TIGJam:UK (Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:45:00 +0000)
Second stream after the jump!
Cortex Command Build 22 (Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:25:00 +0000)
Happy day! A new build of Cortex Command is out! This version features a ton of new additions, not the least of which is a completely new campaign mission that has you infiltrating a cave full of zombies to retrieve a data disk. Arne’s custom background graphics for this level are a-mazing.
Other additions include a 2x scaled-up windowed mode, a ton new actors and weapons, and improved AI. The movement and HUD seem to be a lot smoother to me, as well, although I think I missed a couple of builds in-between. Overall, though, it just feels a lot more polished.
But yeah, God, everything about this game – the style, the complexity – captures a lot of what made PC gaming fun for me back in the day. It’s great to see all the pieces really start to come together. Go grab it!
