So I’m back. It’s quite possible that no one noticed, though that is my fault. My break from blogging made me realise that I’m pigeonholing myself into one topic when I want to write about so much more. With this in mind, I’m redesigning the blog, to be more like what I want it to be. To my regular readers, thanks for sticking with me, to everyone else, please standby for awesomeness. The Portly Gentleman is here!
On Hiatus!
Hiatus! Due to things beyond my control, I need to take a break from the blog for a while, I’m sure my return will be triumphant, but until then – enjoy what’s already there. Thanks, Lucas from Gaming for the Poor!
Spelunky. Indie Indy Action!
Yes today I’m going to talk about Spelunky, the excellent and highly beloved indie game. I’ve been wanting to play this for a while, and now I’ve had the chance to, I really enjoyed it.
You’re an Indiana Jones style explorer, “spelunking” into a deep dark randomly generated cave, in hope of reaching the bottom to escape through a door. Rinse and repeat until the end of the game, collecting treasure as you go.
This game gets it’s good looks and gameplay from the platforming genre, and it’s death mechanics and level design from the roguelike genre, and it works well, with the fact that a complete playthrough without dying will take months of playing to achieve, you get a hell of a lot of unique gameplay for a freeware game, and that’s without all the times you’ll replay Spelunky, trying to beat your previous times and such.
The fact is that the game is incredibly unfair! Of course, it doesn’t come anywhere near I Wanna Be The Guy, (which will be reviewed soon!) but the randomly generated levels and restrictive nature of the screen size means that sometimes, you won’t see a death trap until it hits you, which adds a lot of pressure on the player, and sometimes gives the game a more tense feel.
Overall, I think that this game is well worth a download, and may well become a permanent game on your PC, and soon, XBLA!
Check it out: Download
On an unrelated note, if you like Serious Sam, or just like cheap games, head on over to Indie Royale and pick up the Serious Sam “lightning pack”, which features 6 games, all Serious Sam related in some way. You only have 95 hours, so hurry!
Ad Nauseam 2. I suck at this game.
Today I bring you a game by Cactus, a Swedish game developer, based in Gothenburg. I don’t know if that’s relevant, but those swedish people can be a bit wacky, just look at IKEA.
Now, I had to restrain myself here, this guy has around 45 different titles, and they are all fun, but incredibly surreal. For instance, there’s a game called Ninja flu, where ninja angels with bird flu are dropping from the sky, and you have to blow them up with missiles before they hit the ground, which isn’t a strange convoluted plot to fit the gameplay at all! (#BlatantLies.)
THAT’S NOT THE WEIRDEST PART.
Arrow key controls are too good for this game. No, you have to type what you want the ninja to do! The worst part is that you spend so much effort for such a disappointing result.
But I digress.
The game I want to share with you today is called Ad Nauseam 2. ( I’m not aware of an Ad Nauseam 1, wacky swedishness at work again, I assume.)
(Before I go any further, I should point out that this game does contain censored graphical imagery, though apparently there’s a mode of play activated with F1 tht gets rid of it, enjoy!)
I found this partly because of the research I’ve been doing into creating games, especially my shmup that I’ve been working on for the past 2 days, and partly because it’s been recommended to me by a few people, so I gave it a shot. (Pun intended? You decide.)
It’s a shmup, but not in the conventional manner. as soon as you hit enter, the game starts, no pause for you to get acquainted with what’s happening, I died before I even saw what the sprite I was controlling looked like, and apparently, this is the norm.
Once you get past this, the fun begins. 2 vaguely spherical shapes descend from the top of the screen, they have crudely drawn faces, and look ridiculous, if you ask me, though this game is quite easy on the eyes, with a good colour scheme, and some of the most awesome explosions I’ve seen in a while. They all do something different, some split into lots of bullet type cloud things, some grow arms, in fact the most traditional shmup enemies I saw were the rarest.
There are 2 modes of fire, one normal twin stream of bullets, and if you hold X, you can “sweep”, this seems to do two things, it changes your forward shot into a more powerful stream of flames, or something similar – I’m not sure. It also shoots the regular fire to the rear, though this “sweep makes you less maneuverable and runs out after a while.
Download is here : DOWNLOAD!
(Cactus keeps all his download links on one page, so you’ll have to scroll a bit to find the game, alternatively, hit ctrl & F.)
I wish I could tell you more, like about bosses and such, but as it is now, I haven’t managed to reach the first one, so I hand you the gauntlet, dear reader, if you manage to get to the first boss, tell me what it looks like on Twitter, Facebook, or Email me at el_hagrido@hotmail.co.uk!
(If there’s anything else you want to tell me, go ahead, I’m a good listener!)
First person gets a special mention in some form. Maybe I’ll create a Hall of Fame page, I don’t know.
Brogue, a Roguelike I actually like.
Roguelikes! The kind of games that frankly, I hate with a passion. I’ve tried countless different roguelikes, such as NetHack, Dwarf Fortress, and Shiren the Wanderer, but they really don’t whet my appetite as a gamer due to the inaccessibility and non-userfriendliness that plagues the genre as a whole.
Until now. Brogue is a definite roguelike in many ways, and yet, to me it doesn’t feel like one, everything is fluid and beautiful, the coloured ASCII art actually makes sense and represents what it is perfectly. It feels like you’re actually exploring a dungeon, not an ASCII representation of one.
The interface can be fully controlled with the mouse, meaning no delving into massive manuals of different keys doing different obscure actions, and equipping things is simple, with all but the Strength stat gotten rid of, to aid in ease of understanding and gameplay.
What this means, is that equipment has a minimum amount of strength before you can use it effectively, and gives a bonus, depending on how much above this minimum your Strength actually is. (You increase your Strength by using potions, among other methods, I think.)
Add scrolls and potions with potentially bizzare effects, (I myself fell foul to a potion of hallucination on my first try, and got killed by a pink jelly who to me, was a rapidly splitting ogre!) and you have the makings of an excellent roguelike that is simple to enjoy.
Download is here: DOWNLOAD!
Mega Post! (1980 Games, Indie Bundles & Construct.)
Yes, I have been absent for the past two days, but for a valid reason! I’ve been bedridden with flu, and I’ve been having a go at making my own game, I will post my current efforts tonight, probably.
First, I have an excellent website to show you, which if you read the post comments, you may have already seen.
My good friend, Justin, who runs the blog Respawn Point brought this website to my attention, it’s an excellent website called 1980 Games. As far as I can see, it’s a browser based emulator that lets you run your favourite arcade and old school games via a java plugin (so make sure your Java is up to date!)
Thanks to Justin and don’t forget to check out his blog, as I highly recommend it!
Next on the agenda, is : BUNDLES!
I’m sure many of you have heard of the Humble Indie Bundle, and the work it does for charities, gamers and developers (Unfortunately the last one ended a while ago, so you’ll have to wait until the next one comes along). I’m sure you also know that it’s a great way to save money on excellent games. What I’m betting some of you don’t know, is that there are more!
There is also IndieGala, which ended either today or yesterday, I forget, though there’s bound to be another soon, and then, if that wasn’t enough, there’s a bundle service that actually updates regularly…
Ta - Daaaaa!
Indie Royale seems to be the perfect package for me, with high quality games, a clever payment gimmick, (the website explains it better than I can!) and for the forseeable future, a release timetable of 4 games every 2 weeks, sometimes themed on the time of year. For instance, in 2 weeks, the bundle will be called the Valentine’s Day bundle.
Best part is, unless you feel extremely generous, the most I’ve seen it sell for is about £3.50 ish, which is good for us budget gamers!
Finally, I would like to talk about Construct, by Scirra.
I imagine that, like me, you play all these games and you think “Surely this can’t be so hard to make, can it?”. I decided to find out, and with a piece of free software called Construct Classic, I found out that the answer rests somewhere between sort of, and hmmmmm.
I decided to do a shmup for my first attempt at game development, and it’s harder than it looks, you have so many things that you need to tell the program to do, so many sprites to draw, it’s a real information overload. Then it clicks. Suddenly, you’re creating particle effect explosions, and bosses, and health systems, and high score screens. The list goes on.
In 2 days, I’ve achieved what I think is a passable first attempt at a shmup, nothing special, no fancy attack patterns or power ups, but a game that works, has a beginning, middle and end, and has myriad possibilities from then onwards. I really think that trying to make your own game makes you appreciate the quality of others.
So if you want to try your hand at game making, go here: CONSTRUCT CLASSIC
Of course, the program is called “Classic” for a reason, so if you want the new version, Construct 2, I believe the’re doing a Minecraft – style early adopters scheme, which basically means it costs less. I think it’s about £19.
A little taster of my game!
Action Fist. No punching required.
Another Teknopants production tonight folks, I give you: Action Fist.
They are Fisters. Action Fisters.*
Okay, so this is radically different in terms of gameplay, and so, it will require more of your attention, so listen up.
Firstly, this game offers 2 Player Co-op, which in my opinion, is an excellent idea.
This kind of fast paced gunnery and such is awesome when you have two players, some might say that plot becomes less important in a co-op mode, and that can be true, but you only have to look at the likes of Portal 2 and it’s masterful handling of the feature to see that it can be done well, and I think that Action Fist doesn’t do a bad job of it either. Together with your buddy you can jump and shoot all day long. isn’t that what any self respecting gamer wants in the end?
Other than that, this is a straight forward platform shooter, with a colour swapping gimmick that means that hitting enemies with the right colour deals extra damage, (though it can take a while to realise this.) The music is also pretty cool, and was composed entirely by the developer’s brother.
Check it out!: DOWNLOAD
*You don’t actually punch anything in the game. There’s just shooting. Lots of shooting.
Fish Face – When Fish Fingers are not enough.
Tonight’s fillet ‘o’ gaming is a little game called Fish Face.
Don't be fooled, the graphics are nowhere near as nice as this.
The premise is simple – you are a fish with a face. Not much else to it, there seems to be a loosely cobbled together plot about a “Cephalapod Princess” that you have to save, but the plot isn’t important, Fish Face is driven by it’s excellent gameplay, which has kept me amused for hours at a time.
Ol’ Fishy has some sort of super non – drowning skill, he has to force himself underwater, as soon as he stops trying, his super-buoyancy launches him into the air, with the objective being to go through the stripy hoops that have been left in the air and underwater for some reason.
This is a terrific time waster, a little distraction to keep your mind off something else, like homework – or anything else. Alien Invasion? Check. Robot Revolution? Also check.
Enjoy!: DOWNLOAD
Igneous. Lasers inside volcanoes, awesome.
Today I am going to be showing you a game called Igneous! The title captures the overall theme of the game, e.g. YOU ARE ESCAPING FROM THE INSIDE OF A FLIPPING VOLCANO!
LASERS! :O
Well, technically you’d have to call it “Volcano Escape” but I’m going off on a tangent here so I’ll carry on.
(Volcano Escape or Igneous? YOU DECIDE! Comment with your vote!)
You, the Player, are a little tiki statue man, and you are inside a volcano. I guess you are trying to escape because it’s exploding, maybe you have a DVD late for return at *Popular Video Rental Store* (Screw you, Netflix!)
Basically, you speed along these amazingly beautiful levels, (Who knew a volcano was so pretty inside?) and as far as I can see, you have to survive all the way to the end of the level, standard platforming procedure right? Wrong.
You see, the beauty of the game will be your downfall, as the chaotic nature of all the pretty explosions, lava and lasers (LASERS!) is so distracting that you will find it hard to follow the tiny tiki man’s progress. The trailer is amazing, so make sure you watch it before you download the game. (I would show it in the post, but I don’t have the money to enable vdeos right now -_-)
Now, most of the games I feature could probably run on a toaster, but this – I’m not so sure, I would suggest that you probably need a decent PC with at least 4GB of ram and a decent graphics card before you try this. I don’t want any disappointment. That would be sad, and you can’t give hugs through the Internet. (Yet…)
HOME PAGE (CONTAINS BEAUTIFUL TRAILER)
Edit: The download page has this to say about your computer specs:
“RECOMMENDED SYSTEM SPECS:
– High end Nvidia (9600) or ATI graphics card (Shader model 3.0 required)
– Dual core processor (Intel Core 2 Duo)
– 2GB RAM
– 200MB Hard Drive Space
– Xbox 360 Controller*
*Igneous only supports Xbox 360 controllers–no other gamepads will work. The game can still be controlled by keyboard & mouse. This is ONLY because we did not have the time to implement support for different brands or a pile of game controllers laying around test on (we are poor college students taking 17+ credits!).”
A’n'E Special! (Merry Gear Solid & Super Smash Land.)
Don’t you love it when you find a free version of a console game you really like?
ME TOO!
Here are a few to keep you going, because I may not have time to do a proper post tonight.
(Of course, if I do post properly, I’ll delete all this ” NO PROPER POSTAGE TONIGHT” stuff.)
Merry Gear Solid is a Christmas themed top-down pixel version of Metal Gear Solid. A stealth game like MGS with tie-ins to the plot that fans of the series will love. If you don’t love it, or haven’t played the series, it’s still an excellent game and should prove a worthy distraction should you need one.
DOWNLOAD IT (AND THE SEQUEL, IF YOU WANT) HERE!
(For those of you who say, “THIS IS A CHRISTMAS GAME, WTH LUCAS?? THIS IS LATE!”, I say to you – beggars can’t be choosers! Enjoy the game!)
Next! (also, Last!)
This is Super Smash Land.
It is basically Classic Super Smash Bros. with original music and sound effects. It features everything you’d expect from a Smash Bros. game, it’s super smashing great. I really like this game, it does what it says on the tin, and no-one can argue with that. You should definitely try it.
All the music is available for download for free (sort of) should you decide you like it enough to listen to it without the addition of Super Smash-y goodness, but you should donate really, even if it’s just a quid or two.
