In the future, all worlds will be cuboid. At least, that seems to be the way things are going. After the enormous success of Minecraft, everyone wants a slice of that chunky, malleable environmental pie. First seen back in March, Planet Explorers caught our eye – similar in style to the upcoming Starforge, although with less of a focus on physics, and more on large-scale construction and defensive elements. The first playable alpha build has now been released via IndieDB, and is free for all to download. Here’s the V0.1 trailer to give you an idea of what to expect:

The very first impression the game makes is a technical one. The Unity engine really is ubiquitous now, isn’t it? It’s used in so many high-profile indie games – including Starforge and many of the 7DFPS entries – but it still feels surprising to see it, for some reason. The technology behind it is now solid enough to rival UDK and Cryengine, so it’s no shock, but it feels odd to see that familiar Unity configuration box pop up at startup. Right now, there only seems to be one playable character model – a human female – which I quickly recolored orange with green hair, because Oompa Loompas Vs Dinosaurs IN SPAAAAACE is a great concept, and you know it.

Despite being a first Alpha build, there’s already a fully narrated intro, showing you crash-landing tragically on a tropical planet during a colonization mission. From there, you begin the tutorial. This game definitely identifies itself as an RPG first and foremost. Traditional MMO-esque controls, and a wounded-but-talkative survivor of your crash is nearby to walk you through the basics of survival. In short: You’re kinda screwed. You’re on a beautiful, lush planet (and currently on a wide open plain with scattered trees) full of hungry dinosaurs, and all you have is a glowing blue sci-fi survival knife.

With not many other things to do, I hastily chopped down some trees in an optional first-person view, and (naturally) used the conveniently produced blocks to assemble a house for my ailing companion. The building interface is quite elegant – you can only lay blocks in straight lines, but as many as you like, and stacked on top of each other if you want. It’s not difficult to quickly draw out an enclosed little building. It feels a bit more like building in a strategy or management game than in a Minecraft clone. This hints at what the later stages of the game might play like – there’s less micromanagement of inventory here, and more building.

Your injured friend will give you a few basic quests – once you’ve gathered some wood with your knife, you’re given the blueprints to assemble an axe. The axe lets you gather wood more efficiently (you get more units of wood per tree chopped), and that lets you start putting up walls. You soon upgrade to being able to place defensive arrow turrets. Clearly, you’re assembling things using a pocket Replicator, as an intelligent auto-tracking arrow turret made entirely out of wood strikes me as a little silly. Very useful, though, as it’s quite easy to get a lot of dinosaurs chasing you, and melee combat is exceptionally slow and clunky.

I’ve not played much further beyond basic fortifications and defenses at the moment, but if the trailer above is any indication, things escalate quite impressively, with larger dino-aliens able to knock down buildings. Guess there’s a reason for those noisy cannon turrets as well as upgraded melee combat gear later on. I’ll be digging deeper into this over the coming week, and seeing what depths this early build holds. It’s pretty clearly a clunky Alpha build right now, but there’s an impressive amount of content and gameplay here already. Grab the latest build off IndieDB and give it a shot. Just be warned – it seems a little crash-prone in windowed mode. Full-screen seems to alleviate that somewhat.

So far, Planet Explorers plays weirdly like a blend of Minecraft, Starforge, an MMO and a Tower Defense game. It’s like a great big grab-bag of potentially addictive elements. It’ll be very interesting to see whether they can blend them in the right quantities to make a compelling whole, though. Pathea (the developers) estimate that the game will remain in Alpha through the summer, and graduate to Beta testing sometime in the Fall/Autumn. The final version? Well, maybe by Christmas, if we’re lucky. This one looks to be worth keeping a close eye on, though.

Gahlmac Game Studio has shot an arrow through the hearts of Rayman: Origins and Abe’s adventures in Oddworld, crafting a gorgeous metroidvania out of the resulting splatter. No, Exodus is not violent nor nearly as messy as that scene describes. In fact it is magnificently prim unlike its many predecessors. Place it in a frame and hang it up in an art gallery and it wouldn’t go amiss. Passers by would likely chortle at the suggestion that it isn’t finished yet, that is, until they see the honest look in the claimant’s eye.

Upon closer inspection the makeup behind this artistry is inconsistent – not in quality but in method. Watercolors make broad, abstract strokes in the background and unfortunately lack some depth. The more alluring fore is finely detailed, painterly so, with leafy cushions and stringy webs decorating the scene with an unbridled elegance. Grass sways, branches rock and butterflies, well, flutter with the smoothest of animation. Then there is the most prominent layer, containing the Na’vi-like (Avatar, not Zelda) main character alongside its foe; fleshed with the help of computer technology but with flawless animation as a result. It’s quite the combination and blends rather well.

It’s rare but becoming more common that indie game enthusiasts are treated to a visual pudding such as the one present in Exodus. So blame us not for gorging when we have the opportunity. Fate tempts a danger though, for sacrifices are often made in other departments when one is so vivid. Naysayers be distraught! For what can be surmised from playing Exodus in its first alpha release is far from disappointing. And it’s likely that we haven’t yet seen all that even this small snippet has to show, given that there are many hidden areas to explore.

Without the proper introduction to the game yet in place, we’re left to interpret intercom chatter with a fellow alien stuck in a stasis pod like the rest of the species, picking up the pieces of the story as we go. The trapped alien informs us that three Extractors must be traversed in order to obtain their gems, hidden inside. Only when these are under our possession will the gates to the city Exodus open and our heroic tale come to an end. Essentially, we’re the only hope for our species so we best make haste, and carefully! So off we trot, and sneak, and jump. Not many dangers come across as being so deadly; merely snoozing in the sun or harmlessly flapping overhead – why was our higher up telling us to so cautious? But when provoked, even the slightest, these creatures will panic and aim to defend themselves as if part of a real ecosystem. About the only exception to this provoke-for-danger system are the spiders which cast a line towards you and reel you in for the nibble regardless of how hostile you seem. Fortunately the alien bi-pedal which we steer comes naturally armed with a claw.

Being a game of jumps, the biggest threats are long falls, lava and spikes. Survival can be made easier by collecting a trail glowing essence, which can be spent to upgrade every aspect of the alien protagonist. Peril is had upon death, as all the collected essence is lost but can be reclaimed if the site of death can be reached again. Later, being able to double jump and attack in different ways allows new places to be opened up which weren’t previously accessible, as the metroidvania sub-genre demands.

The alpha demo is more limiting than that though, offering a rounded experience, including a trip through one of the much harder Extractors. While exploration outside is quite pleasant, these foreboding deathtraps serve to show up the game’s more clunky side at this stage. This concerns the platforming side of things mostly. Landing in between rows of spikes passed the check of excellence. So too did the dodging of a huge swinging blade. Then came more awkward design, which relies on mid-air jumps and timing which can’t be judged – leaving the player with no way of avoiding death at times.

Then there was the boss fight, which seemed initially pretty difficult, but after learning the pattern of attack necessary, it was actually fairly easy. Given that this is the finale of the alpha demo, things were clearly not as polished as the rest of the experience, as proven by a background tile misalignment. Was the alpha demo a little rushed in its final stages? If so, this means that changes are very plausible and that our worries of harmful level design may be alleviated in the future. Crossing our fingers is hardly a leap of faith – not with such finesse already on display.

You can play the Exodus alpha demo for yourself by downloading it from this page. Look out for updates on the game’s development on the developer’s official website.

Chrome Hounds was both one of the most pleasant surprises, and most crushing disappointments of this console generation. An advanced-beyond-it’s-time semi-MMO mech warfare sim with an incredibly flexible robot contstruction lab, and a persistent campaign that split players between three warring nations, with the goal being conquest of the continent every few weeks, followed by a server reset.

It was a great game when it worked, but it failed to sell. In part, due to terrible reviews; despite being an entirely online game, with singleplayer consisting entirely of a couple of tutorial missions, several big-name sites and magazines reviewed it purely on the basis of the offline content. On top of that, the game had balance and gameplay issues that weren’t easily addressed due to Microsoft patch certification policy, and SEGA’s (the publisher) unwillingness to bankroll further support. Did I also mention that it was by FromSoftware, the studio behind the Souls series?

Enter two-member indie outfit Bombdog Studios, and M.A.V. – Modular Assault Vehicle. They’re pretty open about what this game is: an indie PC version of Chrome Hounds. Anyone familiar with CH’s hexagonal-mount weaponry and mech assembly screens will spot the resemblance immediately. Currently in public Alpha form, anyone who wants to take a peek at the game can grab the latest demo build and give it a test-drive. Right now it’s a little bare-bones, but the core elements of the mech lab are in there, with a variety of core chassis types, including tracked and bipedal designs. There’s a singleplayer test-field where you can try out your designs.

There’s masses of potential here. It sounds like they’re shooting for a familiar blend of solo and multiplayer action, as in CH. It looks like most of the core features are already in place already, even if it’s nowhere near completion. Right now, the movement speed (at least on the biped model available right now) is a little fast compared to the heavyweight stomping of CH’s mechs, but the impressively nuanced gunnery, with each cluster of weapons having a mounted camera from which you aim, is fully intact. Unlike many mech combat games, Chrome Hounds was often about long-range engagements. The vehicles were more akin to walking/rolling battleships than anything, capable of shelling targets from miles away, giving it a more weighty, authentic feel than most. If they can recapture that magic, I’ll be a very happy geek indeed.

The game runs on Unity, which has proven itself a very powerful and flexible engine in recent months, and the current build has very low system requirements, so there’s not too many obstacles between you and just downloading/trying the Alpha demo. Development of the game currently seems very active, with the latest build being released just today. Even in this extremely early state (a mere 20 or so weeks into development), the game boasts an impressive 86 weapon types, many of them immediately familiar to Chrome Hounds veterans. There’s basic tracked and legged chassis types available, and random bots to scuffle with, so it should give you some idea of how the core gameplay is shaping up.

Of course, it goes without saying that Bombdog have a long road ahead of them. Reaching the heights of CH at its strongest is just the first step. While a great game when it worked, it had a fair few issues that eroded away at its online player-base. If M.A.V. can address those and bring balance to what was previously a quite abusable construction engine (improbable wobbling artillery mechs and cockpits hidden behind heavy plate armor were among the issues), then this game might just have legs. Big, stompy metal ones at that.

One thing is for sure: Knitted Pixels‘ upcoming title, Defenders of the Last Colony, is looking pretty promising. It seems that the developers are keen genre-mashers, their latest game being part twin-stick shooter, part tower-defense strategy, part arcade clone and all cosmic light show. Games like these make me wish I’d signed up to Galaxy Defender Training when I was still young enough to do so. It excites me – all the guns, the machismo, the desperate heroics in the face of an incalculable and unstoppable evil… but I know, if I’m honest with myself, I’d probably have spent the whole time in the vastness of space worrying if the cat was still okay.

Playing through the beta, it’s clear that Knitted Pixels have a solid vision, one that only ever gets obscured by the phenomenal amount of silvery space missiles you get to fire out once you’ve spent enough time not dying. Cooperative play is to be a big part of the game, allowing up to four players to fight together on one solitary screen. This functions alongside several game types which will provide variety to the endless shooting: ‘Survivor’ will let you test your mettle against an onslaught of enemies, whilst ‘Invader’ and ‘Sidescroller’ modes provide some seriously old-school flavour. Alternatively, you can apparently fight it out between yourselves in ‘Versus’ if your sense of companionship deteriorates enough during the course of the game.

The campaign mode seems to be the main focus, though, and is shaping up to be heavily story-driven as you battle waves of enemies in defence of humankind’s last colony. The idea in each level is to give yourself long enough to recharge the mothership shields as you prepare to jump forward from planet to planet. Clearly, this doesn’t always work out. Those alien bastards are pretty relentless and, as of now, the difficulty curve is pretty wonky.

It’s clear the structure of play hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet – there’s no tutorial available or indication of how long the campaign might last – but the beta does give a fair impression of quite how frantic and rewarding play becomes when holding off the horde. And Defenders looks beautiful – it remains sharp and colourful despite the havoc playing out onscreen and those backgrounds… well, just ogle the images posted here.

So, the building blocks are in place and it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on Defenders of the Last Colony if the idea of co-op 2D blasting gives you chills. There’s plenty of polish left to add before a full release (on both PC and XBLIG), but the potential for mass destruction alone or with friends is palpable. No release date has yet been announced besides the inevitable-but-unhelpful ‘2012’ indication on the website. However, the beta is open for everyone to play and you can grab your copy from the Knitted Pixels website, here, to tide you over until that day arrives.

Yarr, me hearties! New indie game on the starboard bow! Or was it port? I can never remember which. Either way, Windward is a rather fancy-looking multiplayer-centric nautical action game running on the Unity engine, and being developed by Tasharen Entertainment. It’s still early days on the project, although players can jump in and try it out in the form of a public alpha build. It even handily runs in a browser window.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so 15 minutes at 30 frames a second must be a grand epic, right? Here’s IGM contributor Tanoy Sinha with his video hands-on with the current version of the game:

Looking interesting. Kinda like a blend of Sid Meier’s Pirates! naval combat and DOTA-style team warfare. We – and hopefully Tanoy – will be keeping an eye on this one as it develops further.

Normally when people think about game development, in my experience they tend not to think of academia within the same frame of reference beyond research into graphical processing. However, a few programs exist to promote artistic expression in interactive media, and one institution to focus on gaming art is the intercollegiate collaborative entity that is the Danish Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment or DADIU.

From 2005 until the present, DADIU’s goal has been to support research and creative endeavors for students and professionals who want to forward the medium past industry trends and towards more variety of artistic expression. From last fall’s semester, we now have a demo for Blackwell’s Asylum (formerly just Blackwell, and not to be confused with the Blackwell franchise of adventure games), from a small team under the title of BlackPipe.

Horror has never been my cup of tea, unfortunately, but with my recent determination to dive into more varieties of gaming experience, I’ve added several horror titles to my “to play” list, including the much-discussed Amnesia, and the classic point-and-click Dark Seed. With my limited exposure to Amnesia so far, I’m seeing some similarities in terms of tone, but nothing much beyond that.

To specify – the environment consists predominantly of fairly narrow, dimly lit, corridors. Said corridors make up the titular Blackwell women’s asylum, in which the protagonist is an inmate. One night, while sedated up to the eyeballs, our heroine escapes her room and cautiously wanders the halls, avoiding wardens’ needles and the ear-ringing tones they produce.

Sneaking around seems comparable to Amnesia in that you must avoid huge, lumbering enemies that will disable you instantly if they catch you, and you have to hide in darkened cabinets and under beds, desks, and couches to avoid being seen. However, unlike Amnesia, there are no puzzles beyond waiting for warden Snidely Whiplash to pass by so you can calm your breathing and move on towards an exit.

The experience of traversing these claustrophobic halls is intended to be visceral and a familiar emphasis is placed on sound and lighting to create atmosphere. The experience, however, is noticeably less frightening, and exactly why is ineffable. To attempt to explain why, one reason is that the persistent distortion effect reminds me of similar effects in other games in which they indicate drunkenness. This certainly works with the horror trope of distorted perceptions, and is doubly effective when the room around you suddenly changes when your back is turned, which happens in several instances.

Another possible reason for the lack of a significant gut reaction on my part was the aesthetic, which relies on hard angles and jagged lines both for the environment and its low-poly-count models. The environment is sufficiently distorted to feel oppressive and unfamiliar in order to provide a sense of unease, which is laudable. However, the whole premise feels rather forced in the following sense: your enemies are nurses (whose features you can see very clearly, and) who (supposedly) care for your health and wellbeing, so unless you can pre-set yourself into a fearful state of mind, I believe you won’t get much shock or disquiet here.

It’s not explicitly stated by the developers, but it’s altogether possible that the premise is based on the story of investigative journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (aka Nellie Bly), who faked insanity in order to investigate the inhumane treatment of patients at a women’s lunatic asylum on Blackwell island. If this is the case, it might warrant a bit of a tonal shift towards more overt, violent, physical horror given the conditions she described being subjected to.

All of that being said, the visual and gameplay core of Blackwell’s Asylum is solid, if slightly tonally varied, so it should be worth keeping an eye on. No full release date is set, and details are rare about the development team as well, so keep a blurry eye open for any further details should they emerge.

Consisting of a couple of ex-members of the Bionic Commando team, Might and Delight are a Swedish studio of 14 developers who have created what seems to be one of the next big platformers coming out of the indie scene. Pid is likely to sit among the likes of Braid and Super Meat Boy upon release, due to its unique art style and distinct game mechanics, not to mention its intuitive feel. Following the story of a young boy named Kurt, the player must overcome the obstacles of a robotic world which is under the command of an all-controlling power. Every movement and motion of the world’s inhabitants is under intense scrutiny from security cameras and bots. What the game is truly an allegory for remains to be seen, but its impending release has us excited because Pid is a joyous little trip through a strange and sordid land.

Housed in its XBLA publisher D3′s kiosk, I picked up the Xbox controller on the E3 show floor expecting a good old-fashioned platformer. I wasn’t too far off: this is indeed a platformer and functions like so. However, Pid‘s main action consists of using what could be described as an instrument which shoots light beams. These light beams are your means of travel through the volatile environment and, although at first uncomfortably strange, they will eventually become second nature in your time with the game.

You can only have two active light beams at a time, which means you will have to be precise with your selection. As the robots in the world of Pid are at war with each other, there’s a sense of impending doom for Kurt. This aids in the developing of a sense of urgency; Kurt just wants to get home to his family. For the most part, though, you can take your time with the stages/levels and will want to do so to avoid dying repeatedly. While you’re doing that, the game is rather superbly creating a forlorn atmosphere.

While initially Pid‘s light beam mechanic is introduced rather lightly and simply as a means to roam the environment, later power-ups such as a slingshot will help you better your platforming skills by allowing you to shoot light beams in places that were once unreachable such as ceilings. This promises to be good news for campaigning hopefuls – who are promised 10 hours of gameplay if taking their time with the game. And even though the slingshot can be regarded as a weapon, it really isn’t one. In Pid, you want to avoid direct confrontations and focus on avoiding obstacles safely instead.

Might and Delight will also include a co-op mode in Pid in which Kurt will play alongside a female friend named Aurora. The two will be able to aid each other in puzzles but with one catch: they are unable to spam light beams and will only be able to shoot one at a time (for each). The co-op game mode will be same-screen and, provided both gamers have good chemistry with the in-game mechanics, should last a couple hours less than the single-player. With a delightful and luminous art design, Pid promises to likely be a hit on Xbox Live Arcade, as well as on PC and PSN. In 15 minutes of play, I was intrigued and really wanted to finish the story, but I will have to wait for my chance just as the rest of you this summer.

For more on Pid, check out the official website.

We mentioned in our quick overview of the games on show at the IndieCade booth at E3 that Steve Swink’s Scale sounds like a promising idea, but little is actually known about it, despite it having been in and out of development for a while now. The principal behind it, we’re told, is that you can manipulate the environment through shrinking and growing it. From this central idea, the gameplay wraps itself around and many different puzzles will be born. Having one strong mechanic such as this usually proves successful – look at Braid and Portal for two of the best known examples. Surely we’re desensitized to such clever ideas now though? Our reaction to seeing Scale in action proves that may not be the case.

As this is the first time Steve has ever shown off Scale to the public, he wants to make sure that it is clear that everything is placeholder for now. The colorful presentation with the blue sky and green islands will stay, and things will just look different by the time the game has finished, which Steve says might be another couple of years away yet. Scale is first person and, yes, you do have a gun in your hand. The ammo, if you like, in this case is something called ‘Scale Juice’. With this, you can shrink and grow objects at will. If you shrink an object, you gain more juice and by growing it you’ll lose some. This restriction is necessary so that puzzles can be based around it, and also so that players cannot go mental and just grow every object out of proportion.

Steve’s interest in the the scaling mechanic comes from his observation of the effects size can have on human perception. His example is that a normal-sized chair is boring; make it huge, however, and some may call it art or at the very least will gaze in amazement. Similarly, shrinking a chair becomes something you want to pick up and examine, even play with as part of a doll house. So how does this translate into the game? Things start off simple, as is always the case; players will be gradually introduced to the kind of things they can achieve through shrinking and growing objects. Something may be blocking a tunnel, in which case you should shrink it so it is no longer a problem. If there’s a ledge you cannot reach, then simply jump on the small pillar in front of it and then grow it so that is lifts you up to the desired height.

A little further into the demo, things get a little more interesting as more physics-based considerations hinge off of the scaling. Of course, as an object gets bigger they gain mass and can be used to weigh down a button on the floor. Momentum is next, with a ball gaining speed the bigger it is and the slower the smaller it is. As movement is introduced, certain obstacles have to reduced in size so that others can get through, thus gradually making the puzzle elements slightly more frantic. Though not implemented in the game yet, Steve also showcases his plans with a dollhouse – something that seems to be a central motif – having the player grow it to go inside and grab another doll house, bring it outside and then put the first dollhouse inside the second dollhouse. Obviously, it needs some work, but there’s something in there.

Another idea brought to the table by Steve evolves from his thinking that the player is creating worlds which were not accessible before. When you grow something that was initially inaccessible to due to the size of the player’s character, you will find new discoveries. For instance, imagine a creature blown up to a much bigger from of itself. You could then enter into its mouth and discover a whole new reality. This is the kind of thing Steve is thinking up in terms of level design now that the gameplay is more or less sorted. His ideas regarding creatures are actually much more exciting than the puzzles based around lifeless objects. In the demo, he scales up a butterfly and jumps on to reach an area across an open stretch of sky, being careful to shrink obstructions on the way. He also amused himself with the idea of making the player have to create a huge spider, just to tease arachnophobes. Futher still, a fresh take on enemies in Mario-like style: stomping on, say, a Goomba’s head would kill it, providing you’re the right size in relation to it so that the mass provides enough downward force.

While all of this is very exciting, Steve went one step further to showcase what we have all been waiting to see – something that makes your lower jaw just every so slightly drop. He built a Grand Canyon level just to showcase how far he was taking the mechanic. How do you pass over the Grand Canyon? By shrinking the entire world, of course, and simply stepping over it. Pretty exciting stuff. It was then that Steve brought in his latest consideration – the manipulation of time. He says that by shrinking the land like he did with the Grand Canyon actually opens up the game to time-based puzzles, because you can skip needlessly long treks by making the distance each step makes bigger. Travelling up mountains can literally be managed with just one step, if you manipulate the land in such a way.

The IndieCade demo was being played with a PC, so a PC release for Scale seems very likely. Steve cannot say anything about any other platform at the moment in time, as that’s not on his mind, but he seems up for a release on consoles, though. We’re pretty sure that once the necessary people see it, Scale will easily secure a console release in some form or another. There’s no official website for Scale yet, but there will be very soon, and you can catch a quick Q&A about the game on this page for now.

Queasy Games’ PlayStation Vita title, Sound Shapes, was one of the more noticeable indie titles on the E3 show floor, along with Retro City Rampage. Unlike Retro, however, Sound Shapes is a PS exclusive. At least, for the time being. It operates excellently utilizing the familiar PlayStation controls and its sleek look and feel on the Vita were not matched by any other platformer at the show. Sound Shapes is cut clean with precision, as each stage and level has its own design and music. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the game is that Deadmau5 will actually be contributing music to it… that’s a pretty big thing for an indie, right?

There may be naysayers who claim Sound Shapes is far from independent given its publishing deal with Sony, but Sony Santa Monica has always been friendly to indies throughout the years. In fact, Queasy have been in league with Sony since Everyday Shooter – which goes all the way back to 2007, to give you some context. Queasy has a respectable repertoire of indie titles, and it’s not as if they’re some big-time AAA developer: Sound Shapes will do a good job of showing you their originality and drive. Its controls and mechanics are simple and intuitive enough for nearly any gamer to pick up and play.

As a small globule, you traverse each stage and solve fairly rudimentary platformer puzzles. Now, I say “rudimentary” but that doesn’t mean that the platforming is as easy as can be - Sound Shapes often requires precision and good timing. The blob’s regular form allows him to stick to most surfaces, but when players press the right trigger, they are then able to turn into a much more free-roaming, ball-like being. This allows for quicker travel but obviously a lack of stickiness. It’s actually nice to see that the game requires a healthy balance of both in order to be successful.

The Vita desperately needs games like Sound Shapes, which is billed as a musical platformer. If anything, Queasy Games is trying especially hard to make Sound Shapes into a brand new type of platforming experience. While I’ve yet to play all of the final product, the game is headed in the right direction. Each node you pick up in a level contributes to the music of that level, adding a note to the robust backtrack of the area as each measure wears on, eventually culminating into an electronic opera. Queasy are also aiming to allow gamers to create their own music and send it to each other as Sound Shapes boasts its own editor.

This editor has probably played a role in different artists contributing their work to the game. For example, Jim Guthrie has a couple of tunes in Sound Shapes, and the art design of the level in which his music plays features an authentic Superbrothers art set-up that pays homage to the incredibly successful iOS/Mac/PC title Swords and Sorcery EP. With other artists, like Deadmau5, on board, it is this sort of variation which will allow Sound Shapes to set itself aside as a true “musical platformer.”

Finally, it’s really worth mentioning that Sound Shapes utilizes the Vita’s touch controls in an intuitive fashion, especially when building your own musical creations. Swipes and taps on the front and back touch screen will aid you in placing your notes and deciding their movements, and the game’s optimized system will ensure you’re not ridiculously out of rhythm – so even if you suck at rhythm and/or music, you would probably have to try to make an awful song in Sound Shapes. If you do make a bad song, though, remember that each time a measure plays, you have the tools in your hand to make that experience better.

Sound Shapes is primed for release on August 7th for $14.99 on the PlayStation Network. Check out more details here!

Despite being picked up by Sony Online Entertainment, Acony Games’ Bullet Run - previously titled Hedone - retains its indie-ness, at least according to senior designer Iain Compton. The frantic free-to-play first-person shooter is a step up when it comes to F2P PC shooters, with superb graphics and gameplay that are touted to welcome casual and hardcore fans alike. The premise is that you’re on a multiplayer game show in which you have to look as stylish and badass as you can while taking your opponents out. Promising varied class loadouts and twitch shooter gameplay, Bullet Run was one of the many pleasant surprises on the E3 show floor. Fitting with the rising trend, Acony Games are adopting the free-to-play model with Bullet Run and are building up for a (apparent) July release.

In Bullet Run, your experience points are not really experience points so much as they are “fans” – kind of Super Monday Night Combat-esque. Each level you gain is basically another level of fame, leading you toward unlocks and kill skills such as berserker mode or heal, allowing you to strengthen your build and turn into a crowd favorite. It’s important to be a crowd favorite, too, because you’ll be playing against 10 players, or “contestants”, on the opposing team when the game is full. As you can imagine, there are thousands of customizations available to the player, so you can make it as much your experience as you want it to be. What makes Bullet Run incredibly fun is that the maps are not particularly difficult to traverse. So you’ll rarely be stuck looking for someone to kill as opponents will be everywhere!

Of the two modes that will be available at launch: Team Deathmatch and Dominion, I played the former. TDM in Bullet Run works pretty much the same way as any conventional first-person shooter. Dominion is also rather self-explanatory to those familiar with the formula: cap a point, move to another point, cap that point, and so on. In the 15 or so minutes I spent playing the game, I had what seemed to be a bit of a Scout-ish loadout that was definitely assault-oriented. It helped me get into the game. Bullet Run is indeed incredibly fast-paced and this is where fans of that type of gameplay will derive a lot of pleasure.

The Acony team includes developers who have worked on other F2P shooters like APB and BattleForge, but it seems they have learned from past mistakes and polished a very presentable experience. It’s the little things in Bullet Run: like the commentary in the background as you blast your way through the other team; like the active reload mini-game that keeps your fingers attentive even during a breather; and definitely the celebrations and taunts you can perform after humiliating your opponent, leaving you open to get killed just for that extra bit of fame.

Bullet Run is an amalgam of great ideas in first-person shooters and I have no doubt that as a free-to-play title backed by (in terms of marketing but not development) Sony Online Entertainment, the game will garner a strong community presence. While Bullet Run may not add all the freshest ideas of the genre, it does one thing exceptionally well: it fools you into believing you are playing a 60-dollar multiplayer AAA FPS… but in reality you haven’t paid a goddamn dime and are having the time of your life.

You can find more on Bullet Run on the official website. Sign up for a key to the beta!