Indie

Dyson

Nabeel Burney 1 Comment

I’m not a big strategy gamer, in general, but I’m fascinated by both turn-based and real-time strategy games. I like the idea of a world simulated on a macro level, in which units and vehicles and structures all interact in the tens, hundreds, thousands. So even though I don’t quite have the tactical mind required to keep control of the vast numbers of entities, I still am intrigued by seeing the results of my strategizing and planning unfolding before me, complex and unpredictable.

But I also like the simple, the minimal. I love small indie games, with the most rudimentary visuals and focused purely on gameplay. The more successful ones often employ clever techniques to produce appealing graphics to overcome the lack of manpower and budget.

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Dyson is described by its developers Rudolf Kremers and Alex May as an “ambient real-time strategy game with abstract visuals”. Originally created in one month for submission to a procedural generation competition at TIGSource a couple of years back, the game quickly caught the attention of the community and soon was nominated for awards at the Independent Games Festival. The team have expressed plans to expand on the game and so continue to update the build on their site – the current version available being the one they showcased at IGF.

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Getting Out of Hell Soon

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Out of Hell, a true dinosaur of an Unreal Tournament 2004 zombie mod – from times before Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor, or even Zombie Panic or Brainbread for that matter – is one of those interesting projects that simply refuse to wither and go away. After all, most hobby mods such as these rise and fall over the course of mere months, but not Out of Hell: This particular game has been in the making, without a public release (sans one antiquated preview demo), for more than six years!

There is, however, a perfectly understandable explanation for the lengthy development arc: The mod is the work of one single man, Long “Chicken+Ribs Combo” Nguyen, with additional music from Justin Lassen. It’s very refreshing to still see one-man army -style modding: Where today’s game engines may already be too complex and unmanageable, UT2k4 is still workable enough for one single man.

More information, screenshots and a new preview trailer after the jump!

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An Iterative Approach to AGS

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Ben304 (author of Annie Android and Shifter’s Box) is currently doing something on his blog that warrants a mention, even if I’m not yet quite sure as to what is going on. This may turn out to be the very point of this exercise: Alienation, uncertainty, disconnection… on the outset, though, it seems as though he’s developing an adventure game thru iteration.

So far, Ben’s released six versions of the “game”, each of which have come with a new background screen to play. From the third Interactive on, you can choose which scene to play; in many ways, his approach comes close to the episodic model, but releasing the game iterated like this, erasing the previous version as he goes, does make the overall procedure a lot more eerie than it normally would. The game’s unorthodox hues and uniform palette do further contribute to this feeling, as do the barren, mountainous locations.

The game seems to be about a person trying to uncover deeper meaning – a raison d’être – in the form of “the essence” or “the source”. At the beginning of the first Interactive, the main character comes close to this source, close enough to begin a quest, a hunt for the truth.

There are temporal layers and distortions in the storyline, and while Ben304 does promise more storytelling and gameplay in subsequent versions, another tangible aspect of the project is the exhibition of meaningful feedback and responses from events and actions: There is a definite emphasis on positioning, movement and object states, as there is no inventory or control switches, just one-button point and click.

All things said, what I especially enjoy about the project is its lack of continuity: The scenes are both self-contained and related in narrative and geography, but what is normally sandwiched in-between screens seems non-existent. Interesting concept, check it out!

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Gruesome

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

Gruesome is a roguelike in which you play the Grue. Instead of conventionally exploring dungeons to find treasures and slay enemies, you play as the enemy, hiding in the shadows waiting for explorers to stumble into your slavering fangs. Each floor of the dungeon has a few adventurers wandering around, carrying torches that deal a fatal flash if you are caught within the radius. You cannot step into the light willingly, nor can you advance on an adventurer – they must fall into you inadvertently.

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Downfall Review

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Before reading our review of Downfall below, you could also view an alternate take on the game in the form of our interview with the game’s developer Remigiusz Michalski. The interview contains intriguing side-to-side comparisons of Michalski’s work-in-progress sketches turning into the full-fledged game.

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The Davises are on a holiday road trip from London, but find themselves in pouring rain and lost in a tiny rural village in Devon, South West England. Suddenly Ivy’s not feeling well, and as the couple stops for a much-needed breather, Joe Davis decides to seek for medical help and a place to stay overnight at a nearby hotel. With the couple’s relationship already under some considerable strain, the hotel seems to exude unexpected hostility, and the foreboding little town seems blanketed in dirty secrets.

Joe suddenly finds himself falling, all too conveniently, into the role of the problem-solver.

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