One of the ten finalists at the first A MAZE. Indie Connect, Chasing Aurora was noted for its sumptuous artstyle and zen-like gameplay that attested to the dream of many: flight. It’s a 2D sidescrolling aerial action game in which you control a bird attempting to piece together the light beacon as the sun sets over the picturesque Alps for the last time. The setting of the game of course being a significant European landmark, possibly giving it a cultural significance which appealed to Indie Connect’s hope to see outstanding indie titles from around the globe, but in particular from Europe.

Chasing Aurora was available to play at Indie Connect but unfortunately this was a five month old build and contained a single multiplayer mode. In this, up to four players would battle it out to hold on to the light beacon which would dangle from their determined feather bodies. Apart from flying around attempting to get away from and dodge their opponents, who could snatch the beacon by mere contact, the player could fly the beacon into a flame which would cause it to catch fire and be used as a weapon too. Immediately upon playing Chasing Aurora you get the sense of just how simple it is. The only component of control the player need to occupy themselves with is which direction they are flying – no other buttons are needed to be pressed. Whether this will remain the same throughout the game’s single player is yet to be seen, but given that a playthrough shouldn’t last longer than five hours, you get the impression that the developers are keeping the game as simple as possible.

Clemens Scott, the lead artist at Broken Rules, affirmed the direction that they are taking the game, saying that they have been letting the game develop organically as time progresses but always ensuring that the feeling of flight is achieved. So to match this, Chasing Aurora looks to be a simple but highly pleasurable experience which should relax the player by the aesthetic choice alone, but also by its gentle gameplay. Most outstanding of the game’s features are its visual merits so we took the time to ask Clemens how he developed this stunning display, what we didn’t expect was such an elaborate story.

After a while of trying several different artstyles for Chasing Aurora, Clemens said that inspiration came to him one day when he let some anger out by kicking an old closet his grandmother owned. Once he had prevented the closet from collapsing, Clemens had to restore its contents back to their appropriate places, which led him to discover a bunch of old wooden boards. These boards had some form of pattern on them upon which Clemens began to draw and it was then that he stumbled across the visual style that Chasing Aurora was to take. After taking the boards into the office and showing the rest of the development team, they were just as pleased with what he came up with so he kept working on it until it reached the state you can see it in now.

If anything, Chasing Aurora‘s artstyle is a 2D origami look with bold colors, giving it a soft, papery kind of feel. Obviously, Broken Rules have a thing for papery visuals as their first game, And Yet It Moves, was etched out like a scrap book assortment. Focusing on Chasing Aurora‘s visuals though, they are quite remarkable in still images but really brighten your eyes when you see them in action (look to the trailer above), especially when combined with the game’s aural accompaniment. Inspiration for the music in the game came from the developers Austrian roots as they use a variety of traditional xylophones played with the fingers and string instruments played with sticks, as well as the usual plucks and strums.

Understandably, when questioned about the gameplay, Clemens informed us that the team is still working on it as they try to balance a slight challenge without losing the game’s sense of flow and chilled out feeling. As said previously, the game involves collecting the fragmented pieces of the light beacon. This sends the feathered protagonists across the many faces of the Alps and past its animal inhabitants, occasionally solving simple puzzles as well as being encouraged to explore to find hidden pieces. Some replayability could be found through finding all of the pieces but the hope is that the player will want to live that feeling of elegant flight over and over again.

The single player portion of Chasing Aurora has us lusting after it but the multiplayer doesn’t feel too necessary, nor that impressive. However, Clemens did point out that much more has been added to the old multiplayer build that we played at Indie Connect, so this section of the game may yet change our minds. Whatever the case, we still can’t wait to play Chasing Aurora sometime later in 2012. Thanks to the game’s bespoke engine we can look forward to it appearing on Windows, Mac and Linux, ports to mobile and consoles will be just as easy to pursue as well, so we’re told.

More information on Chasing Aurora can be found on the game’s official website.

With Ludum Dare’s 10th anniversary just passed, it seems appropriate to talk to one of the people who have turned it into the great 48 hour game jam event that you know it as today. We’re of course referring to Phil Hassey who is one of the gentlemen behind Ludum Dare as well as being a well known solo game developer. In fact, Phil is such a big part of Ludum Dare that his bio on the site reads: “Phil was instrumental in the big switch from Ludum Dare’s random unfinished compo websites and webhosts, to WordPress and the custom code we run today. If the website is working, chances are he fixed it. Phil also tends to pick up the slack when Mike is .. slacking.”

As part of an interview in which we chatted about his upcoming release, Dynamite Jack – which is itself created out of a Ludum Dare project from 2005 – I took the opportunity to talk to him about his involvement in Ludum Dare and how he has seen it grow since he got involved as one of the main hands in 2007. Phil also talked about his ideas on game development, the role of game jams and marketing your indie game too, but we’re saving that for later.

“It was back when I made Galcon, [Ludum Dare] was just kind of falling apart because there was no one running it”, Phil says as he reminisces. “So I stepped up to take charge, then Mike [Kasprzak] joined in to help MC the thing. That’s actually worked out really well because there’s quite a lot of tech work and quite a lot of MC’ing work to be done to keep it running. But the whole thing just blows me away – like this past Ludum Dare I think we’re going to hit 1200 games by the end of the day.”

This interview was conducted before all of the submissions were in and the final count is actually 1401 games, which is a tremendous effort from everybody involved. The target for Ludum Dare 23, in order to celebrate its 10th anniversary with style, was 1000 entries. So as you can see, that has been blown out of the water.

“It’s so awesome to be able to help out and create this opportunity for so many people to just make games and learn that they actually can make a game. That’s one of the things when you’re a hobbyist developer, like myself who doesn’t have any AAA background or anything, you make a game and never release it because you’re just screwing around with it forever. But with a game jam you’re given a 48 hour limit and you actually get something completed…It’s great to see so many people getting involved and making the games they want to make.”

We then steered Phil towards talking about how he has seen Ludum Dare grow while he’s been behind all of the tech side of the event and helping plan things, before anyone else who is currently part of the organization of it all.

“It was in 2007 that I started working on the site, so December 2007. When I started that’s when we began to use WordPress and keeping track of everything. So it was back during Ludum Dare 10 that I started out and if you look at [this page] you can see how much it has grown. I think Mike came in around 11 or 12 and just having the competition more consistent helped the site grow and you can see it growing steadily until about Ludum Dare 18.”

“About then, Notch, well he’s actually been doing them since about Ludum Dare 15, but 18 was after his rise so around then he started promoting the jam just by tweeting about it as he was continuing to compete in it. You can really see how that made it explode, just by the numbers – 18 had 200 entries, the next one had 280, then 350, then 600, then 900; and now we are about to hit 1200. Between just having the competition be more consistent and having Notch promote its existence, Ludum Dare has grown like crazy and it’s pretty exciting.”

So according to Phil, who is one of the main driving forces behind Ludum Dare, you can all blame him and the other Ludum Dare organizers as well as Notch for its growth, particularly in the last five years. Of course, it’s the huge and ever-growing indie development community that makes the figures rise and it’s great fun seeing what can be achieved together. Phil also mentioned that it feels like indie games in general have grown a lot since about 2007, his focus in particular being the arrival of the iPhone and how this has attracted a whole new wave of game developers.

If you were a part of Ludum Dare 23, feel free to post your game in the comment section below.

We’ll have the rest of our lengthy chat with Phil Hassey published in Issue 22 of The Indie Game Magazine.

The gifts that Adventure Game Studio, a freeware SCUMM-like creator, has given us are numerous. They include Egress from Krams Design, and the John DeFoe series by the notorious Yahtzee Croshaw, not to mention hundreds more. However, the best gift it has given the gaming community is an environment where creativity in game design and writing can be expressed and has fostered such hits as Gemini Rue, one of IGM’s Game of the Year Editor’s Choices for 2011. It is from this fertile field that the much-anticipated Resonance will be sprouting in 2012. Vince Wesselmann, who cut his teeth on previous AGS titles such as Anna and What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed, has devoted his spare time over the past few years to this game, which is also his first commercial endeavor.

This article is for Insiders Only, please head over to IGM to become an IGM Insider to read the rest of the article.

More information on Resonance is available on the game’s official website.

Gaijin Games is bringing us a sequel to one of their most popular games with BIT.TRIP Runner 2…and *gasp* the art style has drastically changed. CommanderVideo is now in full 3D and the blocky pixel graphics of BIT.TRIP past are nowhere to be seen. Everyone can debate this choice in the comments section, but I believe that the change is for the better after having played the game in all its eye-popping glory!

Runner 2 features the same basic controls and mechanics of the first game, but feels even more charming because of the new graphical look. Dropping the now cliché style of many indie games, 8-bit sentiments, Runner 2 attends to a smoother and more vibrant feel – if anything, it’s easier on the eye. I remember playing the original Runner and find that my eyes would go haywire afterwards due to the amount of concentration required to succeed. Of course, you can play the game blind as has been showcased before now, so you may not see that as an excuse – but I’m just happy to report that as a man who tends to stare at the screen, Runner 2 isn’t burning my eyes out so much.

Though the original Runner was full of joy and character, the backgrounds and foregrounds in Runner 2 feel as if they are are brimming with even more charm. Of course, the star of the show, CommanderVideo is now much more impressionable and a bit of a show-off too. He not only runs, but moonwalks, skips and simply exudes more personality than he ever did in the original. I still love him though, despite his newly found ego, in fact I may just love him a little bit more. Best of all, his rainbow cloak is as sleek as ever and obtaining it is as challenging and therefore rewarding as it has ever been.

I could probably rant on a little bit more about Runner 2 but in all honesty, the only major changes (at least so far) are showcased in the gameplay you can already see. From being able to get hands-on with the game, I can confidently say it already plays great and the music sounds fantastic. This sequel looks to be a natural upgrade of the franchise; it’s more polished but doesn’t mess much with the original formula and that’s just fine with me.

For more information on Runner 2, check out the game’s official website.

This week marks the relaunch of Game Tunnel.  Game Tunnel was one of the first indie game review sites that we acquired late 2011 in hopes of restoring it to some of its greatness.  The biggest thing that we learned is that GT’s monthly round-up review concept is incredibly antiquated.  People don’t want to check websites once a month – they want constant up-to-date content and community features.  This has all lead to a brand new version 3.0 GameTunnel.com.

What’s New?

• New Design with a focus on a Game Reviews & Community
• Community Features – We completely integrated with Buddypress so you can message other users, create your own profiles, activity feeds, groups, etc.
• New User Voting System – You can review and vote on each game – Top rated games are shown in the sidebar
• Game Try/Buy links right in the sidebar that link to Steam, iTunes, or the Developer’s website – making games easy to play or buy
• We’re looking to open Game Tunnel up as a premiere game review aggregator.  If you have a blog/website where you review mobile, Xbox, or even mainstream games, please contact us and we’ll talk about getting your articles pulled into Game Tunnel and linking back to your own website.

What’s the Same?

• There’s still a focus on indie game reviews
• All of the old articles, round-ups, and Game of the Year articles are still there.

What’s Gone?

• The infamous Monthly Round-up – this massive article with 4 panelists & 10 game reviews was a pain to manage/organize and complete every month.
• Crappy permalinks with /?page_id in them

It’s not every day that a platformer actually impresses me. When I initially started to do my bit as part of the indie press, I ran into a constant barrage of platformers: some good, some great, others bland. This influx of platformers — which, lets be honest, is a genre favorite — is sometimes what leads (or attracts?) other gamers away from the indie scene; it is this idea that every indie game is a platformer, a bland Mario knockoff with about as much character as a cardboard box. Fortunately, with Super Meat Boy and Lumi and a host of truly remarkable platformer games, indie devs have brought about a greater interest — and, in turn, a greater tolerance — for this incredibly simple, yet tasteful genre that possibly marked the first gaming experience for a large number of us.

In any case, I’m a stranger to Smudged Cat Games, even to the seemingly well-received The Adventures of Shuggy. But this whole 2D retro pixellated style — at least the one carried by Gateways — is right up my alley. These are the kinds of games I originally came into this scene for, but strayed from in fear of getting sick of them. So, naturally, the first question I had to ask myself was about what set Gateways apart from every other indie platformer out there. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were a number of answers, and that the game is indeed fun. It follows the story of Ed, an inventor whose experiments have run amok. Your main objective is to guide Ed out of his lab.

Gateways is a lot like Portal. I don’t want to demean its originality, the developer’s creativity, stir anyone’s panties into a bunch, so on and so forth. I just mean that, simply put, you have a “Gateway Gun,” and this gun creates little gateways, or portals, as you traverse the one large map of the game, filled with its multitude of brain-bending puzzles and twists. This portal mechanic is a welcome mix into the platformer genre, one that you may have encountered before in other games. But Gateways takes it even further by offering a number of power-ups. In lieu of having actually experienced every single power=up (this is a preview, after all, and the game is far from release), the developer’s explanation should suffice:

“After the basic gun, you acquire a gun that creates two gateways of different sizes, passing through one way shrinks Ed to half his size, and the other way makes Ed grow to twice his size. Then, you find a gun where one gateway doesn’t just connect to the others location but also its time, allowing Ed to travel back in time and encounter earlier versions of himself. Finally, the last gun manipulates gravity, so passing through allows Ed to walk along walls and on ceilings.”

Now, that does sound a little complicated, in all honesty. The initial gateway mechanic is expectedly fun, but I always develop a sense of anxiety when I realize later in-game puzzles will be, well… hard. Of course, that anxiety is part of the fun — the “how the hell am I going to figure this game out?” sensation really does bring out the best in the gamer, because it often forces you to think outside the conventional box. Likewise, that “aaaahhh!” moment where you discover the answer to a puzzle that’s been destroying you is a moment like no other.

And Gateways is friendly to the gamer compared to other platformers. It has a map, which tells you where your next objective lies, where you are, where there are solvable/unsolvable puzzles — which, I should mention, are distinguished by your obtaining of orbs and spending them. These orbs are scattered throughout the level and there are plenty of them, but I think you would still have to choose wisely as puzzles cost 10 orbs to distinguish solvable from unsolvable (meaning you need to complete another objective or puzzle before taking that one on) and another 30 or so to watch the solution of the puzzle. In any case, it’s most fun to try and solve the puzzle yourself, regardless of how long it takes, but it’s nice for the gamer to have the ability to watch the puzzle solved for them — at a reasonable cost, of course. There are various save points and help points strewn across the map as well to help you record your progress and clue you in on the use of weapons, commandsand so forth. Point being, essentially, that Gateways wants you to solve the puzzles and it wants you to enjoy yourself while doing so.

I appreciate Smudged Cat’s take on the puzzle-platformer. Gateways seems very promising and its slated release for PC/Xbox makes me wonder which one I’ll choose — it’s great as a sit-down mouse & keyboard kind of platformer, but it seems primed for a controller. Its demo is a strong indicator of what’s to come: a memorable puzzler with depth, something that is often missing in a sea of seeming clones that is the platformer genre.

You can find out more information on Gateways over on the official website.

PAX East started yesterday and the good news is that Indies are well represented. I’m working on more in-depth previews of all the great indie games here, but I thought it would be nice to give everyone a quick overview of Day 1 of PAX East.

8:30 AM: Arrived at Boston Convention Center and sat in the media line for over an hour.  1 Check-in Guy is not enough for hundreds and hundreds of journalists.

9:50 AM: Got a whole 10 minutes of early press access to the expo floor!

10:00AM: Met with Ronimo and played Awesomenauts. This multiplayer tug-of-war was intense and well-polished.

10:50AM: Hit up Retro Affect and starting snapping pictures in Snapshot. This game continues to be one of my personal most-anticipated games and my play session was over way too quickly.  Look for this title to release in the next 2-3 months.

11:20AM: Spoke to Strange Loop Games about Vessel and got my Indie Mega-Booth passport signed by telling them what i would use a Fluro if I owned one – my answer: “Clean my House”

11:40AM: Stopped by Pocketwatch games to speak to Andy Schatz and play Monaco.  They blew out a monitor and had to deal with the emergency.  Got a chance to play later on in the day.

Noon: Waited in line a bit to play Capy’s Super Time Force – Holy Sh!t this game is awesome!  So far this play session is still a highlight. Grabbed some gameplay video and will post later.

1PM: Met with Phoenix Online studios to check out their upcoming Adventure game Cognition.

2PM: Lunch

2:30PM: Played some 4-Player Monaco

3PM: Met with Arcen Games and played some Valley without Wind.  This game has so many features that I actually felt overwhelmed.  The developer went on to explain that each randomly generated continent can be completed in 10-20 hours… and then you can sail off and start another continent with higher level spells, enemies etc.  Game hits steam next week.

4PM: Played Guacamelee and used some chicken magic.

I should have previews of all the games posted some time tomorrow – with the remainder of our coverage hitting the site on Monday.

Though the quality and scope of indie games is changing every day, the common misconception is that ‘indie’ means ‘small’. While that is typically true when describing their development teams, it isn’t always indicative of the games themselves.

Eyesodic Games is challenging that very stereotype with Days of Extinction, an ambitious open world game currently in development. In an attempt to figure out exactly what Days of Extinction is all about, I got in touch with Dan Kenny (DK), developer at, and founder of, Eyesodic Games.

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IGM: Tell us, what exactly is Days of Extinction?

DK: So, Days Of Extinction is our first open world RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world. In our game, the apocalypse occurs due to an alien UFO crash landing and the alien DNA mixing with human DNA causing mutations, so, for us, it was like looking at an alternate style of the Roswell alien crash and seeing what would happen if it was never covered up.

The style of the world is borderline sci-fi, so although the world will look somewhat normal, like our own, some elements may seem a little more out there. For instance, most homes in the game come equipped with emergency cryostasis units in a reinforced basement of the house. It seemed to fit well with the world style and culture we had created as it gives a sense that, no matter what happened, people could just freeze themselves until things were OK. In the game, your character put himself into cryostasis along with his very sick wife in hopes that when you woke up she could be cured, but, when you do wake up, you find this apocalyptic world, and your wife is missing.

As we enter April we find ourselves thinking, “hmmm, what games come out this month?” So, naturally, we’ve decided to round up some of the many indie games that are coming out in April 2012 for ourselves as well as you of course. While this list is far from comprehensive we would love for it to be! So if you know of any indie games coming out in April 2012 that deserve to be on the list then give us a shout in the comments or email us at editors@indiegamemag.com and we’ll add them!

So here we are, the big list:

April 1st

• Super Daddio Free (Android)

April 2nd

• Syder Arcade (Windows, Mac)

April 3rd

• Wheels Of Destruction (PSN)

April 5th

• Blast Ball (iOS)
• Saturday Morning RPG (iOS)

April 11th

• Legend Of Grimrock (Windows)
• The Splatters (XBLA)
• Avernum: Escape From The Pit (Windows)

April 13th

• Fez (XBLA)

April 16th

• A Valley Without Wind (Windows, Mac)

April 19th

• MacGuffin’s Curse (Windows, Mac, iOS)

April 20th

• ORION: Dino Beatdown (Windows)

April TBA

• A Virus Named Tom (Windows)
• Terraform (Windows)
• Fruit On Rails (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Thomas Was Alone (Windows, Mac)