IndieCade provides a plethora of unique projects, some that even go beyond the popular platforms we’ve come to expect video games to be delivered to us on. In fact going outside the box in that direction is a major way indie developers can show off their experimental prowess and creativity. So when I had an opportunity to play and watch a game on one of the three currently existing custom-built tables, I was immediately intrigued.

Black Bottom Parade falls into the (perhaps) budding genre of interactive tabletop, and it’s very cool stuff. The game is played on a custom built 57″ by 36″ prototype “gestural input” display, and involves players swiping controllers across the display in an attempt to maintain balance on a wobbly platform. How this is done in BBP is by having players direct the three band members (who simply walk endlessly in any direction you gesture them to) in an attempt to maintain symmetry on the platform.

The controllers are akin to large, upside-down shot glasses that you use to swipe (gesture) across the band members on the table to keep the platform balanced. In the sessions I observed and played, two players had to work together cooperatively to keep a handful of NPCs from falling off. It’s not as easy as it sounds, as many times your partner’s actions won’t necessarily coincide with your own unless you’re actually working together. To allow for co-op play the table is multi-touch, so there should conceivably be a way for more players to get in on the action based on how many functional controllers you have. Which in my estimation would be an awesome mess at first that would evolve into potentially some really cool teamwork.

Visually, the title paints a macabre meets Mardi Gras feel, as the band trio you control leads a pack of freshly deceased across the River Styx. The colors tend to the cool side (mostly lavenders, dark reds, and purples) to bolster the Underworld feel, but I (blindly) wonder if these colors were also selected due to how easy on the eyes they are when viewing the display.

The team from Savannah College of Art and Design–students from both Atlanta and Hong Kong–made it clear they have created the balancing game more as a proof of concept for the gestural input display table. The title is simple in concept, and has been created to demonstrate the viability of the platform first and foremost. So while the gameplay itself may not sweep anyone off their feet, the possibility of what game development could do if they got into creating  on the platform is what gets me really excited.

We’ll have some more media for Black Bottom Parade from this past weekend to share as we work through several hours of panel discussions and gameplay footage for this week. For now here’s a video of the alpha build in action. (For more information, check out interactive designer Daniel Plemmons’ page for the game):

Let me get this out of the way right now: previewing A Valley Without Wind was difficult. Not for any negative reasons, mind you, but simply because accurately describing the game within a reasonable amount of words was a very daunting task. While the game mirrors some high level genres (like the platforming genre, for instance) the over all game itself is whole heartedly unique. I’ve also not been able to fully explore the title in all its grandness. As such think of this as merely “part 1″ in a series of beta previews I plan on doing as I play the game more.

A Valley Without Wind is based around a world called Environ which was destroyed by an unknown cataclysm with only small mini-civilizations left in the aftermath. Essentially you’re playing in a world that’s very rudimentary in technology and civilization scale, but where burned out and destroyed husks of towering buildings from the civilization prior.

You start out the game by selecting one of a few different characters with varying looks and minor attribute changes. Some have more health, some have more magic points, etc. Really it all depends on your style of play. I ended up choosing a more magic based class because I typically prefer to do high amounts of damage very fast rather than worrying about survival.

After a brief tutorial the game just sort of sets you loose. No real direction, or quests other than to get experience, find better books to learn spells, and scout for ingredients to make said spells. Sounds simple right? That’s what I thought…

What ultimately makes the game so unique and complicated is a few things:

First, the entire game is procedurally generated similar to Minecraft but obviously in a completely different sort of gameplay. I only use the comparison because “procedurally generated” and Minecraft seem to be synonymous at this point. But what this ultimately means is that each time you start up a new world there will be different places to explore, different dungeons to loot, etc. No two games will ever be alike.

Second, while the game does have a crafting system it isn’t for buildings or structures as with a game like Terraria (which also happens to be a side scrolling patformer) but for spells. Throw in a raw saphirre and a walnut, for example, and you can create a spell called Tidal Pulse which does exactly what you sound like. Exploring caves, dwellings and going after bosses around the world will lend you better ingredients and books which will allow you to craft bigger and better spells. Oh and the spells are pretty freaking awesome…

Finally there’s the whole civilization expansion and building aspect of the game. As if the game couldn’t already be enough, Arcen Games decided to take on an almost strategic type level to the game where you’re charged with scouting out potential resources and defending your village from invaders. This is all done in an overhead world map that’s turn based. Incredibly, it all works! Despite being a departure from what you’d expect out of the game upon first jumping in, the turn based strategic part of it works incredibly well and brings a whole new level of depth to an already deep game.

So now you can kind of understand what I was getting at with my first paragraph. It’s almost left me guffawed at the thought of previewing, let alone reviewing, the title.

But really, at the heart of what A Valley Without Wind is about, at least for me, is exploration and it does it phenomenally. There is so much to do and see in this game that I’d be surprised if 100 hours allowed you to explore even half of it and I’m quite uncertain on just how large the map is itself. All I can tell you is that I’ve spent about an hour on each individual tile exploring all the buildings and killing whatever bosses lie within.

That’s not to say the game is perfect. In fact, I can definitely see how the title could scare away more than a few gamers just by being too much and too complicated. There’s a lot to learn about the game within the first few minutes you start it up. But those who have the patience can expect one incredibly deep journey.

A Valley Without Wind is currently in public beta which you can be apart of if you pre-order the title. The full version isn’t expected to be released until Q1 2012.

This preview is just a glimpse at a small fraction of the game which I’ll continue playing on a regular basis and bringing updated previews as I explore more of the game. Think of this preview as more of an introduction to what awaits.

[A Valley Without Wind]

While you are at it, add A Town Far Away, Black Hole, and American Splendor to that list, too. All of these served as inspiration for the team of Keys of A GameSpace, an expressive game whose development was lead by French Professor Sébastien Genvo. The story of a young man and the lives around him unfolds in this point-n-click game, with a few puzzles that are elementary to solve. The game keeps you more intrigued about unraveling the character’s past than it does gripping you with gameplay.

I feel that Genvo’s team largely achieves its goal of showing how games can be a major medium of expression. Be forewarned, the topics dealt with in the game are for a mature/adult audience. You guide a man from his childhood to adulthood, help him earn his first kiss, and ultimately find out where the father that abandoned him went to and make a life-altering decision with a pair of scissors.

The music and art is pretty spot-on. A gorgeous piano plays at times; other moods usher in fitting melodies. The colors are lush; however, the animation is a little crude, but not central to the game. I found the faceless protagonist eerie at first, but reconciled that in order to immerse a gamer into the role, it was a smart art design.

My only gripe with the game mechanics is that I had to right-click to select a “hand” motion, left-click to open a door, and then right-click again to walk through the door. Going through doors is a central plot device, and maybe it was a metaphor for people willfully choosing something, but following through with it; however, I just found it slowed down the pace of the game.

I also could have done without the creepy fetus, then again I suppose that says more about me. The English translation also had a few bumps. Most did not disturb the flow of the story, but I felt a few times as if something was lost in translation.

Can you spot all the hints at the adolescent’s sexuality?

At first after completing the game, I wrestled with the protagonist being a gamer/game developer. I wondered why he couldn’t be just a normal guy neglecting his wife. I felt this would immediately alienate the people that would play the game: namely, gamers. Then I realized that having the story center around a gamer is effective for the point behind Keys of a GameSpace.

I walked away with thinking the lesson is that people have choices in life as they do in games. These choices have consequences. Just as gamers analyze what to do in a situation on a game, they should do so in real life when confronted with certain issues or challenges.

The developers’ thoughts clarify one of take home points : “We also hope that our game will help the victims of psychological distress and that it will make some individuals think twice before they try to commit terrible crimes. These individuals will be able to experience through our game the consequences of their wrongdoings.”

I created what the developers describe as the only possible paradoxical ending out of the four possible ones. Maybe it was because I felt it was a game, just as I wouldn’t in real life jump on a turtle and make it pop out of its shell.

Maybe it was because I don’t think what I did in the game was a crime…

Tell us in the comments below what ending you achieved after you play Keys of A GameSpace (PC only) for free.

Joe Danger is back: And this time he’s in a movie! Joe Danger: The Movie is the sequel to the 2010 PSN outbreak hit, Joe Danger, from UK indie studio Hello Games. From what I’ve seen so far, fans of the first are going to very pleased with what they have in store for us with the sequel. Here’s my hands on impressions from Eurogamer Expo 2011.

The original Joe Danger saw the somewhat washed-up stuntman rebuilding his reputation as the greatest stuntman alive, and it looks like all his hard work has paid off, because now he’s got a movie deal. This time round the game takes place on the set of the greatest action movie never made, with Joe in the lead role. Whether it’s arctic-espionage missions, or runaway minecarts, you can expect plenty of classic movie style scene’s being re-enacted in brightly coloured sidescrolling platformer style.

Following the success of their first release, Hello Games have tooled up from a team of four to a team of ten, and it seems like the amount of content in the levels has increased by a similar proportion. I saw cities full of crosstown traffic, giant robots in the background, enemy skiers throwing bombs at your from the background. Everything is as bright and as bold, and filled with bright colours, and there has been a notable bump in graphical quality.

But the big new standout feature is the mix of different vehicles. In the first game, our Joe was motorbike-bound, but now he can use a wide variety of vehicles, all with their own physics and control nuances, but using the same basic control layout. New vehicles that we’ve seen so far include a Minecart, Skis, a snowmobile, Jetpack, and instead of his old stuntbike, there’s a policebike.

The different vehicles shift the emphasis between different style of challenge, where the Jet Pack is much like constantly boost jumping in the original. You can switch between the different vehicles mid-track too.

It’s all looking fantastic so far. It’s packed plenty of new features and ideas, and I can’t wait to see what else they come up with..

Check back later for my interview with Hello’s head-honcho, Sean Murray, and see our review of the original game here.

[Hello Games]

Terry Cavanagh is back to break your brain again, albeit in the nicest possible way. Rather than tough as nails 2D platforming, like the fabulous VVVVVV, At A Distance is an asymmetric two player first person puzzler, with platforming elements, and it’s a little bit confusing.

At A Distance is a game of two sides, where one player is a small person inside a set of puzzle cubes, and the other is a big person, who gets to arrange the puzzle cubes for the small player. Hidden inside certain puzzle cubes are keys, which the small player has to collect, which in turn lets the big player access new areas, and find new puzzle cubes. The workload when it comes to puzzle solving is fairly even shared between both players, and without good communication neither player would be able to work out what’s going on, never mind find solutions.

Around half of the game is what you do on screen, and the other half is communication with your partner. Once both players have got to grips with the basics, the level of language required to effectively work together is actually fairly simple: It’s mostly going to be sharing information like colours, directions and descriptions of puzzle cubes.

Rather than using standard polygons and textures, At A Distance has a pointillism-esque array of rasterised pixels. It really stands out visually: I don’t think you could mistake this for any other game. All the components of the levels are relatively rudimentary and blocky, but Terry’s knack for efficient and economic level design is back in full force, as he manages to conjure several really impactful areas, just with simple constituent parts. There’s a few hints to perhaps a bit of storytelling, rather than just the mostly contextless puzzle solving the game feels like for the majority of the time, but there wasn’t anything concrete I could decern from my playtime.

I’d love to go into more detail about some of the clever tricks waiting for you in At A Distance, but half of the joy is in discovering them yourselves. Towards the end of the section I played, there’s a nice little subversion of the traditional first person jumping puzzle. Clever stuff.

I’ll be speaking to Terry later on during the Expo to find out more.

[Distractionware]

Trailer

The neon twin stick shooter’s renaissance continues, as UDK-powered spherical arena shooter – Waves – blasts onto the PC. Squid in a box had the latest build of Waves on display at Eurogamer Expo’s Indie Arcade, for all to see. I spent some time with it (and clocked up the highest score at the Expo!) and here’s what I think so far:

The first thing I noticed about waves is just how slick it is. The HUD, sound, graphics and animation are all fantastically put together. Waves is entering a highly competitive field, with dozens of high quality shooters in this vein having came out in the last few years, but the visual polish on display here is easilly in the “best in category” range. If you like shiny neon againsnt a black backdrop, you’re in for a real treat.

The enemy placement and movement patterns seems dead set on surround you with baddies from all sides, squeezing you into tiny deathtraps as they close in on you. It’s intense, but very satisfying when you slip out of a ring of enemies closing in on you, then take them all out in a few seconds when they converge on your previous position. If it all get a bit too hectic, a click of the right mouse button temporary slows everything down, giving you a moment to catch a breathe.

Using WASD for movement and the mouse for 360 degree aiming gives you a nice freedom of movement and really precise aiming. You get an aiming cursor, and a line to show you current aiming trajectory. I’m sure it will work well with a controller too, but unlike some similar shooters, I didn’t feel at all hamstrung by using keyboard and mouse.

There’s quite a few clever enemies. There’s the usual assortment of lesser threats and cannon fodder, mixed in with a few more dangerous nasties. You’ll definately want to watch out for the massive cube, he’s a bit of a bastard. He can only move vertically and horizontally, and has slightly delayed reactions, but once he’s got you in he line of sights, he can move really quickly. The hive-like hexagons are one’s to watch for too, as they multiply over time, taking up more and more space on the level.

It’s all highly entertaining stuff, and one go was just not enough. I’ve only played one of the five different game modes so far, but if twin stick shooters are up your street, then Waves looks like it ticks every box.

Waves is due out by the end of the year, and it’ll be purchasable direct from squidinabox.com, and from Steam.

[Waves]

Trailer

[Correspondent Ken Ellis made the rounds all over the main hall and up through Indie Alley at PAX Prime last month. Over the next couple weeks he'll be passing on his thoughts and impressions on as many as his brain and notepad can recall. Next up, hands-on plus video footage of Polytron's Fez.]

A 2-dimensional game in a 3-dimensional world. Did I dimension this game is awesome?

Fez was at this year’s PAX and we were able to get a little hands on look at the game. While it may look like a simple side scroller game, the depth of level and genius use of space puts this game way past its supposed side scroll buddies.

The premise of Fez is that a three dimensional being approaches our fez wearing hero and tell him that he is needed to stop a threat to the world. Not only that it, the being bestows upon him the ability to see and adjust the 3rd dimension. This comes in real handy since the game can’t be won without this ability! The game revolves around you turning the entire world to move around, explore, and find new areas. Any platform may have completely different attributes on each side, and what looks impossible from one angle may be the simplest solution on another. Everything that can combine on one side does combine. So two platforms that do not connect on one world angle may appear as a land bridge on the opposite side.

To advance through a level you have to pick up eight golden cubes to form a larger cube that will open a door to a new world. They can be found anywhere from chests and walls to secret rooms hidden in houses. There is no time limit to find them and you are given infinite lives to find them all. The game focuses entirely on exploration and puzzle solving, and is certainly no Super Meat Boy in terms of gameplay.

Fez releases later this year.

[Correspondent Ken Ellis made the rounds all over the main hall and up through Indie Alley at PAX Prime last month. 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, hands-on plus video footage of Marc Ten Bosch's innovative platformer Miegakure.]

Showing in a small corner of the PAX show floor at the Spy Party booth for a single hour was the latest playable build of Miegakure. DIYgamer was there and able to come back with some footage of one of the most interesting indie games on display this year.

Miegakure is a medieval Japanese themed game about moving through and exploring a world that is a representation of the mathematical concept of what travel through the 4th dimension would be like.  The game plays like a 3-dimensional platformer, but at a press of a button space folds and you enter the area in between points in the world. Then you can travel to other areas, or bring objects to those areas and find a 4th dimensional route to the goal in the level.

From what we saw the game is purely exploratory. So while there are NPC’s around many levels, there are no expressly violent enemies fighting you. The challenge is moving through the extra dimensions. Thankfully, some levels have maps of each area available in the level so you can see where you are and where you would be if you traveled to another area.

Confused YET?! Well, don’t be. We were able to get a gameplay video of yours truly skipping through the 4th dimentions.

No word on when the game will come out, but a tentative “sometime 2012″ was rumored around the area via digital distribution for PC and console platforms.

When Minecraft blew up last Summer it arguably became the most successful, best selling indie game of all time. From it’s humble origins, Minecraft became a global sensation that had the heads of all major game studios reeling over the success of a singular developer. Looking back, it’s not terribly surprising that Minecraft was so successful… As children many of us grew up on the imagination inspired by Legos and other “create your own anything” type toys. Minecraft simply took that to the extreme.

But as with Legos, without any sort of direction, the game sort of lost its edge. You can only amuse yourself making castles and mines for so long before you realize that none of this is going anywhere. This is why Minecraft’s 1.8 Adventure Update is so important to the future of the franchise.

As the name suggests Minecraft’s Adventure Update brings with it some important new ideas to the game, chief of which, in my opinion, is the hunger meter and experience bar. Revealed by Joystiq earlier today in a preview, these two additions to the game bring with it a radically altered method of play in Minecraft’s survival mode. The hunger meter, as one would expect, will deplete itself over time. When it’s reduced to zero your health will begin to suffer for it. This makes food actually mandatory and useful throughout the game. The XP bar, on the other hand, grows with each new enemy you kill by collecting experience orbs. With each level gained (done so by filling the bar) you’ll acquire skill points to spend.

Unfortunately, as far as we’ve been told, the skill points won’t be able to be used initially. Instead you’ll just be able to save up your points to spend when Mojang does eventually implement something. Still, I think it’s an important development and one that was definitely needed. Character progression was completely lacking in either story or physical abilities/traits prior. This will hopefully make it so that players have a bit more purpose when they’re exploring deep down into the underworld.

Aside from that here’s a list of other 1.8 changes we can expect (courtesy of Reddit):

• More distinct biomes, often separated by rivers and mountains now.
• The Enderman, a non-aggro monster which will only attack you if you look directly at them with your crosshairs.
• Silverfish mob, not much is known yet.
• Larger oceans with more islands.
• NPC Villages! No characters yet however.
• New lighting effects for lava and torches.
• Tables.
• Glass panes instead of blocks.
• “Dead Mine Shafts.” Randomly generated dungeons that feature rails, torches and pillars.
• “Creative Mode” which will allow you to fly, hover, insta-destroy and spawn items.

All very exciting!

Are you looking forward to a specific feature, or is there something missing in 1.8 you’d like to see? Sound off in the comments!

FIFA 11 came out almost a year ago… and I haven’t stopped playing it. What keeps me so engaged in the world of football (or soccer, if you’re from the U.S.), is simple: It’s my favorite sport. I’ve been playing football and football simulation games since I was a wee lad, and it’s one of few areas of interest that I feel I have some sort of expertise. In the lull that is pre-season, where — aside from a few cup matches and friendly games — there is almost no action besides transfer rumors, it helps to keep yourself engaged.

New Star Soccer 5 will launch on August 11, days before the 2011-2012 football seasons begin, and I have been lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of the game for a preview. Let me go ahead and clue you in: It’s awesome! Fortunately for New Star Games, the fifth entry into a superb indie sports series seriously gets it right — on some levels, even better than triple-A FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer can ever hope. Of course, it aims for a different experience than the football sims which, quite literally, wish to simulate real-life soccer. NSS5 leaves all the pretentious bullshit behind and instead is a concentrated, focused effort at pure fun.

You see, things in NSS5 aren’t so black and white. You don’t just play games, win or lose, get traded/trade players, and work from season to season. There’s a lot more shit that happens in-between. When you think of a “star” soccer player you think of a celebrity, right? So what do celebrities do? They not only impress in the way they play the sport, but they’re also personalities. NSS5 is all about personality. You’re going to have to choose between hanging out with friends or meeting with your boss, and depending on which one you choose you’ll have to deal with the repercussions (e.g. your boss hates you and therefore you don’t get playing time, or your friends hate you and you’re seen as a social outcast). Likewise, you need to hang with teammates to strengthen bonds with them and — should you wish to — delve into a relationship as well. And let’s not forget that you have to train and acquire higher levels of kickassery in your football skills.

NSS5 doesn’t strive for normalcy and perfection, but rather it prides itself in outrageousness. Most of your actions are based off of the energy you have. You want to be at a healthy energy level before going into a game so you can give a hundred percent. But of course, drinking with friends and training drains this energy, and you’re going to have to plan accordingly before diving headfirst into games. If you’re tired, you can buy NRG drinks, but your NRG drinks will only go so far before your stomach acts up on you. You’re also likely to get injured if you don’t rest properly. Shit, you can even drink beer or ‘roid up if you want to — but be prepared to face the repercussions!

It’s not the most realistic graphics engine, no. You’re not here to out-Messi anybody, no. Your struggle here is mostly against yourself, not other teams. How wisely will you spend your time? Will you choose to strengthen your ties in your social life or your occupational life or will you train? Will you hit the casino and gamble all your money away or spend accordingly? You really are a celebrity football player… and holy shit, is it fun.

Expect a full review of New Star Soccer 5 as its launch date of August 11th gets closer. You can pre-order the game with Premium Access at only $15, saving 5 bucks. A Premium account gives you access to the beta too… so you can play the game before it comes out. Are you ready to be a star?

[New Star Soccer 5]