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IGM’s Week-Long Developer Contest – May 3rd!

Sam Adonis — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 04:52:34 +0000

The Indie Game Magazine and IndieGameStand have teamed together, and are proud to announce the first ever IGM Developer Competition! Between May 3rd and May 10th, any one signed up for the IGM Community forums will be able to participate in a contest to create small games that fit our theme. The best entries will be featured in a game bundle at IndieGameStand for a “pay what you want” price, with proceeds going to a soon-to-be-announced charity.

We will announce a theme on May 3rd, and the developers will start work on their prototypes on May 6th!

This is a great time for us at The Indie Game Magazine, and we look forward to seeing what everyone is capable of creating! If you are interested in learning more, why not introduce yourself and ask whatever questions you have over on our forums.

But I can’t do How can I enter?

People are looking for someone like you! We have a team building thread where plenty of people are posting what their skills are, and what they need. So post your own skills, and send whoever a message to ask about a team effort!

I have a great idea for a game I’ve been meaning to make. Do you think it will fit the theme?

It might! The theme is still a mystery, but if you are able to justify it to us when you submit your entry, that’s fine with me.

Where do I sign up?

Just post in this thread to let us know you’re interested. We need a proper tally of people who want to join the contest so we can plan properly.

I’m so excited now!

Not as much as us!

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‘Overgrowth’ Alpha 197 Adds Arena Mode And More

Emerson Smith — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 02:39:12 +0000

Overgrowth is one of those games that seems to have been in development forever. Announced in 2008, this compelling action game developed by Wolfire has seen a number of development milestones as the game has become more and more complete.

What used to be weekly alphas provided with a video have now become much more spaced out. Written bug-fixes and changelogs have now become common. However, their most recent update includes a video demoing some very exciting new improvements and features.

The in-house developed Phoenix Engine has seen a lot of optimization in the last month and the developers are finding ways to make the entire game and editor work better and more efficiently. Now Overgrowth works a lot better on many types of computers. In addition, the scripts have been reorganized so that scripts can attach themselves to levels and characters, making modding an easier affair.

The most exciting feature, however, is the new arena level. This level generates an enemy with randomized attributes to make them more aggressive or defensive, as well as a few other attributes that keep what enemy you face varied enough to always keep you on your toes. As you defeat enemies, the difficulty progresses upward based on your performance and will generate increasingly more difficult enemies.

Hopefully, this will find itself a place in the final game as either a mod or a full game mode so that once the campaign and challenges have been completed, there’s still a near infinite supply of bunny butt-kicking action to be had in Overgrowth‘s unparalleled combat system. You can find out more by visiting the official website.

Zero To Hero: ‘Captain Disaster’ Gunning For 2012 Release

Richard Glenn — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:15:32 +0000

If there’s one thing that this trailer has crowbarred into my blackened mind, it’s that the galaxy can muster a collective scream of terror if the one thing standing between its residents and catastrophe is an emaciated numpty from Birmingham.

Captain Disaster, a point-and-click adventure game undergoing development in the capable hands of David Seaman (no, not THAT David Seaman), along with his accomplices, Taxler Endiosk and Robert McManus, looks set to weave a tale of menacingly cringeworthy comic silliness with a novelty sketch of a male reproductive organ etched in for good measure. It follows the exploits of the hapless titular protagonist, who’s saddled with the unenviable task of having to sort out an intergalactic kerfuffle of epic proportions.

As we’d expect from a point-and-click title, Captain Disaster will be kitted out with a bucketload of interactive puzzles and a cast of larger-than-life characters off which Disaster can execute his humorous behavioural folly. The game’s comedic prowess is upheld by what promises to amount to heaps of fully-voiced dialogue and a host of spasmodic set-pieces, following in the footsteps laid out by the laugh-a-minute adventure titles of gaming reverence.

To find out more about the Adventure Game Studio-developed Captain Disaster, have a good, hard look at its official website.

‘Perspective’ Combines First Person Puzzles With 2D Platforming

Chris Priestman — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 20:22:53 +0000

We’ve just written up a post about the Develop Conference Indie Showcase which highlights the 10 finalists fairly and squarely, because that’s the right thing to do. However, out of those familiar games comes a DigiPen student creation that we’ve never met eyes with before but its blown some minds around here, thus making it very worthy of its very own post. Remember the first time you saw Fez in action and the 2D world suddenly became 3D? Well, take that to the next level and that’s what we’ve got going on here.

Perspective takes what would otherwise be a fairly typical 2D platformer and once again shoves it into a 3D world. This one isn’t confined to the four faces of a cube though, instead, the player is given control of the camera from a first person perspective. While doing this, the screen 2D character is locked in place and once the perspective has been shifted, they can then be unlocked and travel across the world. It’s basically like walking through a 3D level but having to bring a little 2D person with you, sort of.

As usual, these kinds of things always come out like nonsense when futilely explained with words such as this, so you better watch the trailer. You really should!

Impressive, no? We’ll pursue the student developer of Perspective if we can to find out how they pulled this rather marvellous feat off, and to see when are where it might be playable. It is a DigiPen student project which have a good track record of releasing excellent games for free, so we can’t see this being any different.

‘IGF 2013′ Changes Outlined – No More Re-Entries From Previous Finalists

Chris Priestman — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:40:36 +0000

Many have been anticipating this year’s letter from the IGF Chairman, Brandon Boyer, as it was evident that some vital changes were needed to how some of the festival’s systems worked. Controversy arose when Fez won the Grand Prize this year and all the monetary benefits for doing so, despite having picked up a $2,500 for being the winner of the Excellence of Visual Art prize in 2008. The argument was pretty obvious – there are many other indie games in need of the money so why should a single game pick up two lots when so many others are deserving of it?

As was outlined in last year’s letter the changes to the rules regarding finalist re-submissions, which were clearly needed after IGF 2012, will now be going into place. This means that previous IGF finalists are not allowed to re-enter the same game in the years following. Due to this, you should now consider when you submit your game, for if it is submitted early and becomes a finalist but doesn’t win due to not being polished (let’s just say), then you’ll kick yourself as you can’t enter that game when it is finished.

More controversy was met with IGF 2012 as it seemed that the games were not being judged equally, with some games not even being played. Again, it was clear that some changes needed to take place in how the IGF operates. This has been acknowledged by making some major upgrades to the judging process which has caused the opening date for submissions to be later this year. They will now be open in July but the deadline will remain the same at October 17th for the Main Competition and October 31st for Student. We’re not sure what these changes are but hopefully it means that the process gives every game an equal chance – perhaps a public vote will be integrated somehow?

Other points are that the IGF Mobile category has been abolished, with the reasons being that mobile games have become so integral to the industry now they don’t need special treatment. The number of finalists in each category has risen from five to six to make up for the loss of the Mobile category. Lastly, the winner of the Student category will win $1,000 rather than the previous $500 amount.

So, what you should be doing now is preparing your games for submission – the deadline hasn’t changed remember! Look out for futher information on IGF 2013 over on the official website.

Portal-Inspired ‘Vicinity: Warp Reality’ Released As Freeware

Chris Priestman — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:02:45 +0000

Joining the long list (and always getting longer) of games inspired by Portal is Vicinity: Warp Reality which takes many elements from the infamous puzzle platformer, including a female AI assistant and a room-based design. Chell is swapped out for Claire and the Portal Gun some physics manipulating gloves referred to as the Dynamic Force Manipulator. There are portals, but they merely act as a means to travel from level to level.

The plot goes that Claire seeks to claim the Control Cube and to do so she needs to pass through a facility full of puzzle rooms. I’m not sure what kind of security system that is, apart from an entertaining one, but it does seem to be popular when protecting artefacts of scientific interest. Aiding Claire is an AI called A.D.A; an awkward anagram which stands for AnDroid Assistant. She likes to point out the obvious but doesn’t do much else, unfortunately.

Though the inspiration is Portal, the puzzles are fairly different, though use a similar mechanic. Maybe. If you consider using a portal a method to teleport yourself, then what you end up doing a lot of in Vicinity isn’t so far away. When there’s an unreachable platform, it usually means there’s a means to teleport yourself, which is done by casting a digital equivalent of yourself to where you want to go. There’s also some ball work to be done at times, which is quite reminiscent of The Ball, unsurprisingly. Pushing and pulling huge spheres around to open up exits – pretty standard stuff.

You have to give it to the student group of five who made the game though, they’ve not done a bad job. Though their inclusion of what are presumably hidden pies is a bit odd and exists to only reference Portal further, it would seem. You can try out Vicinity: Warp Reality for yourself by downloading the game from this link. More information can about the game can be obtained from the official website.

You may be interested in:

No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: World of Goo Announced for Android.

You HAVE To Watch The ’7DFPS Challenge’ Keynote

Chris Priestman — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 04:38:32 +0000

You HAVE To Watch The ’7DFPS Challenge’ Keynote

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June 8th, 2012 | By Chris Priestman

So the first ever 7 Day First Person Shooter Challenge, or 7DFPS, is about to start in a couple of hours and you need some pumping up right? Of course you do. The organizers have just released the keynote video and its just a little bit amazing/fantastic/awesome/epic/inspiring.

With some prep talk from a number of developers behind some high profile first person shooters and a very memorable input from Cactus as you’d expect, this is just something you have to see. Even if you’re not going to join in with the challenge itself.

If you have no idea what we’re on about – 7DFPS was set-up in order to find something fresh within one of gaming’s most over saturated genres. How to do such a thing? Make a bunch of developers spend a whole week of their lives trying to make such a game. There’s plenty more information over on the official website, for now, just watch the keynote already!

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That’s A Fact: ‘Apple Jack 2′ Coming To XBLIG June 14th

Richard Glenn — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 22:06:02 +0000

Economically efficient indie studio My Owl Software has announced that its winsome puzzle platformer, Apple Jack 2, will be landing on the Xbox Live Indie Games service on Thursday 14th June at a more than reasonable price of 80 Microsoft Points.

Among the plentiful attractions on Apple Jack 2‘s menu are a 60-strong assortment of rapturous and vexing levels, a motley crew of antagonistic monsters and a combo system to make the staunchest of die-hard Mortal Kombat aficionado leer in a fit of submissive entrancement. And there’s some fruit in there too because goodness knows we’d rather not have Vitamin C deficiency get in the way of our platforming jollity.

Giant pandas, time reversal and the blissful tones of Ennio Morricone – could you ask for more? OK, maybe it could do with more unicorns and a Brian Blessed voiceover, but we’re just being picky.

But what’s even more impressive about the Apple Jack 2 project is that it’s serving as a continuation of My Owl’s commitment to zero-budget video game development. If that’s not a clear enough derivation of the common noun phrase, let me spell it out in plain English for you. The game cost nothing to make. We’d call it a shoestring budget, but given that a shoestring requires some level of monetary exchange, that probably wouldn’t do this particular metaphor justice.

Look out for Apple Jack 2‘s arrival next week, exclusive on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. In the meantime, more information and footage from the game is available on My Owl’s official Blogspot page.

Digital Sprint: ‘Runner 2′ Will Be A Wii U Launch Title

Chris Priestman — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:05:23 +0000

After much teasing from the folks at Gaijin Games, they’ve finally decided to drop the news that Runner 2 will be coming to the Wii U. Can’t say it’s much of a surprise really, considering the original game was released on WiiWare to much success. It will be released as a launch title of all things, offering first time buyers of Nintendo’s new console a chance to run across the screen with Commander Video, dodging the obstacles and obtaining his all important rainbow cape.

Of course, with the announcement comes a few more details that should most certainly interest you. For a start, Runner 2 will come with a number of retro levels which will be playable on the Wii U Game Pad itself. As announced at the Nintendo conference at E3, the game will also be able to utilize HD graphics – a first for one of their consoles. On top of that, music will be provided by none other than Disasterpeace, who most recently scored Fez.

That up there is presumably one of the retro looking levels that Gaijin mention. Another cute detail is that there will be 10 unlockable characters in this sequel, including CommandgirlVideo, Unkle Dill and Whetfahrt Cheesebörger. The one thing we’re looking for is a release date but of course that hasn’t been revealed due to Nintendo keeping their mouths shut on the release date of the console. Slow clap Nintendo.

If you want to find out some more information on Runner 2 then you should head on over to the official website. Don’t expect to find out too much more yet though. Otherwise, why don’t you check out some alpha gameplay below if you haven’t already.

All Or Nothing: Iain Lobb Goes All In With ‘Super Gun Kids’

Chris Priestman — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:28:42 +0000

As an indie game developer you have to make all of the important decisions by yourself, and often this involves taking a risk. Iain Lobb, creator of Flash games, has made a decision recently that has forced him to make a lot of cutbacks. While working on his sidescrolling puzzle platformer Alice: Beyond The Looking Glass he started to doubt the integrity of the project and pretty much decided to postpone development while the visual artist made some necessary amendments.

Iain also wanted to start working with “MOAR GUNS” and so he returned to Super Gun Kids and this time he’s giving it everything he’s got by going full time indie. Scary stuff. Super Gun Kids is a sidescrolling shooter, simply put. The emphasis is on a large range of weapon and enemy types. Zombies and ninjas are prominent in these early stages, as well as shotguns, pistols, automatic rifles, explosives and flammables. There’s also a shop where players will be able to sell weapons and get new ones at their own disposal.

Despite the focus on what could be classed as a violence-heavy game, Iain is not keen to throw gore all over the place. As such, he as settled on small pink splats which apparently indicate life force rather than blood. Iain also revealed that Super Gun Kids will support two player as well, and had to tackle the issue of how far apart each player could get. The solution was to zoom the screen out and once the limit is reached, the second player is then teleported back to player one.

You can see in the picture gallery below how things are starting to shape up for the game; the style is certainly there, the inventory is coming along nicely alongside the rest of the HUD. Check out Iain’s development blog for more updates of this type.