[DIYGamer correspondent Ken Ellis made the rounds all over the main hall and up through Indie Alley at PAX Prime this past weekend; attending several appointments with developers and demo sessions for dozens of games in the process. Over the next week he'll be passing on his thoughts and impressions on as many as his brain and notepad can recall. Next up, his hands-on time with Feel Every Yummy's Word Fighter.]

PAX Prime offered up a plethora of unique Indie games this past weekend. One of my stand out games by far during the expo was PAX 10 finalist Word Fighters.

Word Fighters is a game from Feel Every Yummy that, at first glance, may remind you of Puzzle Fighter but what Tetris was to Puzzle Fighter, Scrabble is to Word Fighter. Expressly a multiplayer game, the title pits a selection of six fighters against each other in a boggle/scrabble style battle royal. Each player must choose one of six embodiment’s of famous authors such as Edgar Allen Poe, Agatha Cristie, and H.P. Lovecraft and use a tile set of random letters to write out words to attack your enemy with.

The letters work on Boggle rules in which the word that is written must be made of letter tiles that are touching each other and if a word is used twice it does much less damage. Along with this, the game touches on Scrabble rules where each letter has a certain number value associated with it. More commonly used letters get a point value of 1, and less common letters such as Q and Z get points of 10. The higher the point value of a letter, the stronger the attack of the word. To spice things up even more, each character has three powers that they can use to buff up their own attacks or screw with the other player. Some of these powers include adding triple power to their words, hiding letters from the opponent, stealing the other players powers, and forcing the other player to spell everything backwards.

As of right now there is no single player mode planned with the release, but a brief demo of one was available at PAX. Instead of it being a player vs. computer fight, the single player mode would be the player being attacked by a hoard of monsters while having to use their words to stave off the mob of creatures. It is possible that some monsters would be immune to certain types of words such as nouns and verbs, but nothing is finalized. It was actually very fun, but will only be created if their is a big enough call for it from the fans of the game. So really its up to the players if they want it or not.

Word Fighter is releasing later this fall and only on the Iphone, Ipad, and Android devices due to its touch screen format of play. Any word-o-phile or boggle fanatic should check this gem out.

[Feel Every Yummy]

Roguelikes are all the rage right now in the indie gaming community. largely because they follow a fairly simple game design which promises fun for the already established user base which loves said game. It seems like every other day we’re being contacted about this roguelike or that roguelike. Unfortunately, there’s just no way for us to cover them all.

Today’s roguelike, Legend of Yore, stands apart from most others in the genre in that it’s charming, fun and, most importantly, free. Not to mention, of course, that developer Kevin Glass also took the effort to make sure it played on damn near every single operating system worth mentioning: Windows, OSX, Linux, iOS and Android are all supported.

Aside from that there’s really nothing that makes Legends of Yore all that different. Which isn’t a bad thing! Some times you just want to hop into a roguelike and mess around for 20 or 30 minutes. This game is perfect for that!

Check out the trailer below and, should you find it worthy, hit up the link below to download.

[Legends of Yore]

Trailer

[Earlier in the month we were able to stop by IndieCade's mobile game jam, hang out, and chat with various developers (and other people of interest) about what they're working on and the event as a whole. During our rounds we were able to get the camera rolling a few times and churned out a few video interviews to share. We'll be diving into the event's outcome more when we get back from PAX Prime, but for now enjoy another helping of our video content and an exclusive look at the jam.]

Interview with Developers David Leonard and Michael Lewis

Interview with Akira Thompson and Chris Bell of IndieCade

Interview with Andy Doe of LG Electronics — Sponsor of Event

Had a chance to stop by USC’s campus this past weekend to chat with those participating in the IndieCade Mobile 3D Game Jam, a two-day event sponsored by IndieCade partner LG Electronics. We popped in for a couple hours during the morning of Day 2, a little after everyone had gotten underway as they made their second-half push toward completing a game in an insanely short amount of time.

Throughout the rest of the week, we’ll be posting articles and video interviews coming from different participants in the jam. While we’re editing/transcribing away to get those ready, I’ve posted photos we were able to grab while on the scene. Kevin Harland, a friend and default camera man for DIYGamer, took the time to snap some excellent shots of everyone in action (click to supa-size):

If you’re looking to relive the intensity of the Electric Daisy Carnival, this probably won’t do it. I mean, chances are you were impaired in some way, sweating to the bone, and surrounded by tens of thousands of other house music and electro fans — that can get a person going. Instead, ReRave from Step Evolution aims to get you into a groove and doin’ some good-old reaction-based rhythm gaming. If it’s not your cup of tea, especially with the kind of music provided — which tends to be electro, house, euro dance, and so on — then you’re probably not going to enjoy the experience unless you absolutely love rhythm games and must own every single one.

But we all know that’s not how music games and its fans go. More likely than not, you had some reason to keep playing Guitar Hero, all 426941 of them; you either liked the music a lot, or you had a newfound love for rock-n’-roll, or whatever. If you dig electronic music, you’re probably going to like ReRave. It is indeed a challenging and worthwhile new venture into rhythm gaming on mobile and tablet platforms, and it looks pretty too.

So let me explain how this one works. The game uses a power button as your symbol for a note. The power button spins counter-clockwise and as it hits the 12 o’clock mark you must tap it. There are 4 kinds of notes that you’re going to have to track: Tap Notes, Omni Taps, Holds, and Follows. Tap notes are self explanatory… Omni taps are when you have to tap multiple notes at the same time … Holds require you to hold the power button to complete a full rotation… and follows simply have you follow along the power button tapping notes as it moves around the screen. I might just be terrible at explaining this, or maybe you understood what I said; either way, it’s going to take one or two songs to get used to, and it’s a good idea to take a look at the tutorial beforehand.

Once that’s over with, you can get to playing and it’s pretty much like any other rhythm game, but ReRave tries to integrate some social components. I don’t mean Facebook and Twitter, I mean you can create an account and thereby track your progress seeing how you stack up against friends and strangers. There’s leveling and a total of 118 awards — achievements, really — to unlock, so that’ll keep you going for a bit. Step Evolution has three songs you can start with and many more available to download in-app. There are 2 free song packs, but 9 others you’ll have to pay for ranging from $0.99 to $2.99 (usually 2 to 5 or 6 tracks). This is probably where most gamers will find they have a problem with ReRave. Again, though, you’re paying an initial $1.99 to download the app and it comes with 3 songs plus 2 free packs totaling 10 songs altogether. That’s not so bad and — assuming you like electronic music — you may even want to purchase some of the other packs.

I’ll outright say that I’m really not a fan of the music in this game. I do enjoy some electronica and house, but I did feel that some tunes were cheesy and even uninspired at times. Fortunately for house fans, I shouldn’t be the one judging this genre, so it is your opinion that counts here and your willingness to play ReRave to see whether it’s a good enough go-to rhythm game for electro fans. Step Evolution latched onto something smart: the popularity of this genre seems to be rising, but does this really mean ravers are also ReRavers? We’ll see!

[ReRave, Step Evolution]

[DIYGamer obtained a free copy of the game for review purposes. This in no way affected the outcome of the review. ReRave was reviewed on iPad, but is also available on Android.]

Kairosoft, maker of the hit iOS sim Game Dev Story, has released its latest title Pocket Academy–available now on the App Store for $4, and supporting both Japanese and English.

The education system sim has you acting as principal of your school; hiring teachers, recruiting students, and competing with other schools in your district. Level different stats, create classrooms and other facilities, decide on really odd things like “this week’s hot couple”, and more. All on your iOS device.

Game Dev Story ($2), and their other offering Hot Springs Story ($4) are still available on the App Store as well. If you’ve yet to try a Kairosoft game, these folks make them as addictive as they come.

Here’s some iOS sized screens:

[Kairosoft]

(Good) news coming out from developer Mobigame this week, as they’ve revealed their latest game Edge Extended. The title will be landing on the App Store later this summer–barring any absurd, outlandish, and unfounded objections of course.

The follow-up to Edge will be a new offering as opposed to a direct sequel of the dev’s oft-talked about for the wrong reason iOS puzzler. There’s to be ”new levels and new ideas,” and other than that, well we don’t know (seriously the image above is all we visually have to work with.)

Guess we’ll just have to see when it arrives in the next month or two. You can always grab Edge on the App Store for $3 in the meantime. If you were one of the many who missed it during its initial release and subsequent pulling and re-releasing frustrations, it’s there now and definitely worth a look.

[Mobigame]

[Source: GameSetWatch]

Ska Studios’ incredibly successful I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1, which is still one of the best-selling and highest-rated titles on Xbox Live Indie Games to date, is coming to the Windows Phone. Now, admittedly, I’m a little disappointed. Seeing as how I don’t own a Windows Phone (and don’t plan on it), I would like to have found out that the game would also be released on iOS. Unfortunately, no such luck. So, Windows Phone owners, this is pretty much the only reason I envy you.

Actually, to be honest, I hate you. Why? Because the game isn’t simply a port. Ska Studios unveiled two additions to the WinPho version of IMAGWZII, the “ENDL3SS ZOMB1ES!!1″ mode and the “all-original tale of Time Viking.” What the latter means exactly or when the game comes out is not certain, but we know it will be in 2011. For those of us wishing for an iOS or Android release, there may be hope on the horizon. It’s uncommon for Microsoft to loosen their grip on “exclusives,” (if we can even call Z0MB1ES that) but XBLIG titles have a history of making it onto other platforms. Keep your fingers crossed, people!

[ZOMB1ES on teh phone.]

The DIYGamer contingent of Arsen, Johnny P and I are having a blast this week in and around E3. We’ve been checking out a bevy of titles and chatting it up with several developers, interest groups, and other enthusiasts from all around the world. The indie contingent is indeed stronger than ever my friends!

I’ve talked to so many awesome people this week, I believe a new profile feature would do us some good. Look for that along with a ton of other E3-related content to come in thick over the next couple weeks from us; along with the usual news info and game recommendations. Which reminds me, have you had a chance to say hello to our veteran writer/DIYGamer rookie James Murff? Well why not? He knows the games, y’know.

Oh yeah…this is an Indie Links post! Here’s the on-topic stuff our peers are up to around the expo as well:

PixelJunk lifelike Revealed (Indie Games Blog)
“Kyoto-based independent developer Q-Games has two PixelJunk series titles on display at E3 this year. PixelJunk SideScroller is a straightforward continuation of the PixelJunk Shooter series, patterned after the on-rails unlockable level at the end of PixelJunk Shooter 2. The art design is familiar and the music is again by High Frequency Bandwidth. Q-Games’ other title is quite a bit more out of the ordinary. In fact, company president Dylan Cuthbert was careful to emphasize that it is not a game at all, but a music visualizer and generator. The lower-case title of PixelJunk lifelike is meant to emphasize its experimental nature.”

Exclusive: Magicka Tweaks Skyrim’s Nipple (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“Arrowhead and Paradox are a cheeky bunch. Magicka’s irreverence became infamous in the moment they announced DLC for a fantasy magic game themed around the Vietnam War. Their cheeky approach has continued, after they learned a while back that the Paradox booth at E3 would be immediately next to Bethesda’s megabooth. The result? See below for the full version.”

Minecraft coming to 360 and Kinect this Winter (Joystiq)
“Man, Mojang’s little indie darling is getting some major mileage with the gaming industry’s biggest players. The Microsoft E3 press conference brought the announcement that Minecraft would be making its way to Xbox 360 with some unexplained Kinect support this Winter. No other details were announced, but we’re thrilled to punch trees to extract logs using our real hands.”

Hands-On Impressions of Minecraft: Pocket Edition (Indie Games Blog)
“Seeing Notch at E3 was a bit of a surreal experience, something that may have had a lot to do with the multitude of fans that were swarming him relentlessly. It was something right out of Hollywood, a red carpet moment transplanted into the Xperia Play booth at E3. Like clockwork, cameras would flash and people would declare their undying adulation. The only thing that could have made the illusion complete would have probably been Notch in a Calvin Klein suit and a matching sneer. Fortunately, the Swedish developer retained both his hat and his unassuming demeanor.”

BattleBlock Theatre E3 Update! (The Behemoth)
“You’re going to be hearing a lot of specifics this week. Stories about Nintendo’s new console, Halo Part 12, and a ton of other bullet point listed stats and facts about all the upcoming and greatest things ever created. We don’t have any of that really, in fact all we have is our new website for BattleBlock Theater.”

Torchlight 2 preview: Embers only (Joystiq)
“Runic Games is showing Torchlight 2 on the floor of E3 this week, and we’re just as busy as you are looking at all of this E3 news, so we’ll get right to it: It’s great. All of the things you loved about the first Torchlight are back, polished and updated, along with one of the most long awaited features of the game, co-op multiplayer. Not a lot has changed, but not a lot needed to — this is Torchlight with a lot of smoothing, a great graphical upgrade, and a whole lot of fan lovin’.”

Desktop Dungeons Demo Playable During E3 (TIGSource)
“For the next three days, you can try out a browser-based build of Desktop Dungeons (Unity plugin required). This is the demo that QCF Design is showing off at E3.”

PixelJunk Sidescroller Previews: Joystiq — Indie Games Blog

Keeping to their word, Cipher Prime has offered up the first in a series of free monthly content releases for their hit music-powered iPad title Pulse. The update, available now for owners of the game, adds four new levels with tracks provided by four separate guest artists that collectively “allow for an awesomely eclectic yet cohesive gameplay experience.”

Despite near critical acclaim, the developer made it clear that the one piece of negative feedback received was a lack of content. It’s something they’ve apparently been planning to remedy from the get go with the free monthly content releases. Even cooler, they’re getting a major helping hand from many of the indie musical artists/groups local to their home base of Philadelphia. Growing two indie scenes at the same time? Impressive.

Seems like the game still has a lot of room to blossom, and will continue to expand as long as CP keeps up the motive and means to do so. Love me some post-launch development.

[Cipher Prime]