The A MAZE. Indie Connect festival is fast approaching and so the entries have to be whittled down to the 10 finalists. Talking of which, they have just been announced so it’s time to give them a look!

After receiving many entries for the prestigious The Most Amazing Game award which will be presented at the Indie Connect festival in Berlin, April 26-27th, the judges have played the games and gone through the difficult process of narrowing down to just 10 finalists. The winner of the award will received €5000, the chance to attend European Indie Game Days and to distribute the game on Little Indie.

But who are the 10 finalists of which we speak? Scroll down dear and you will see:

• ASDFPLANE

“Each player has a keyboard, and the keyboard is mapped to the screen. To fly, hit letters that point towards your intended direction. If you get shot you have a chance to survive by typing REPAIR. To get a highscore you have to keep your plane on screen while shooting down other players.”

• Beatbuddy

“Beatbuddy is the first music action-adventure. Being in control of the music creature Beatbuddy you work your way through a song and bring back the music. Since all the multi tracks of each song are translated in interactive game mechanics you’re able to experience music in
a different way.”

• Botanicula

“Botanicula is point’n’click exploration game created by Amanita Design and Czech band DVA. It’s about a bunch of five friends – little tree creatures who set out for a journey to save the last seed from their home tree which is infested by evil parasites.”

• Chasing Aurora

“Chasing Aurora is an explorative 2D aerial action game about the dream of flight. Drop from the cliff and ride the wind from peak to peak. Fight for the beacon of light with up to three friends in the hostile environment of the Alps.”

• Flight Of The Fireflies

“Flight of the Fireflies is an experimental video game where you guide a swarm of musical fireflies on an atmospheric journey through places and emotions. Unlike most video games, the focus is not on the challenge – but on the experience.”

• ibb and obb

“ibb and obb is a cooperative game for two. Work together in this non-newtonian world. In the bottom half of the world gravity is reversed, enabling ibb and obb to walk on both sides of the horizon. Find your way surfing on gravity, soulhopping enemies and collecting diamonds.”

• Loop Raccord

“Loop Raccord is a video editing game about synchronizing a chain of video clips in order to create an illusion of continuous movement between them.”

• Proteus

“Proteus is a game about the joy of immersion and self-directed exploration, set on a surreal procedurally-generated island. Ruins and strange creatures draw the player into the four seasons of the world and everything around you adds a voice to the dynamically-mixed soundtrack to your wanderings.”

• Tiny And Big: Up That Mountain

“You are Tiny, a technophile guy with a ray cutter, a gripping device and a fine attitude towards the world. But now your nemesis Big stole the only heritage your grandpa left you: A nice pair of fine rib underpants! And he‘s surely up to no good, why else would he take them up that haunted mountain…”

• Where is my Heart?

“Where is my Heart? is loosely based on Bernhard Schulenburg’s experience of a sunday hike, which he went on with his mom and his dad. They got lost in a forest and confronted with this problem they came to face each other’s negative personality traits.”

More information on the A MAZE. Indie Connect festival can be found on the event’s official website.

A couple months ago we wrote about Beatbuddy’s submission to the IGF. Back then we didn’t know too much about the game other than indie developers Threaks had dubbed it the first music action adventure game. Well, that was enough to draw us in… Now they’ve released their first trailer and it’s pretty much everything I hoped for.

The game seems to work with everything in it following a beat. So, for example, that NPC patrolling is doing so along with the music. You, as Beatbuddy, can then hit him to create a further score in the song.

It’s tough to imagine just what will be in Beatbuddy. While we’ve seen the trailer, the overlapping song makes it a little challenging to discern the actual in game music from what’s just there for the trailer. However, according to IndieGames.com the player does indeed create music as he goes throughout the game. Apparently as you play you’ll be stringing together a chorus by completing mini puzzles throughout each level.

Beatbuddy is certainly one of the more interesting and ambitious IGF titles we’ve seen this year and I can’t wait to wrap my ears around it.

Beatbuddy is currently planned for a PC and mobile release with the Unity Engine, although a Xbox 360/PS3 release has not been entirely written off.

[Threaks]

Trailer

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Well it’s finally come! The day when the IGF shows its hand and reveals all the wonderful indie games that are attempting to get some recognition for their games. Unfortunately, not every indie game can win. That said, however, we here at DIY HQ are going to strive to bring you the most coverage for IGF submissions between now and sometime next year.

So, with that said, I’ve already found my first official pick… a small action-adventure platformer called Beatbuddy, by small German-based indie game company Threaks.

Beatbuddy is an interesting idea because it takes the traditional action-adventure platformer and infuses it with music. In a sense you control your character with music. The official description does a better job of explaining it:

Beatbuddy is an innovative music adventure in which the player can move freely within the music. The gamer navigates the Beatbuddy avatar through a musical course of obstacles. The level structure and specific arrangement of the gaming mechanisms is built upon the respective piece of music. Through this unique connection of music and gaming, Beatbuddy facilitates a sense of rhythm and playfully conveys knowledge about the structure and organization of music.

I’m dying to get my hands on it right now. Unfortunately, I can’t even find a gameplay trailer yet. I’ve gone ahead and contacted Threaks for more info and will update you when I get some. Until then, this is definitely one game I hope makes it to the higher echelons of the IGF competition, catchy rhythms and all.

[Beatbuddy]

Teaser Trailer

Threaks will exhibit the Beatbuddy prototype for the first time in public at Gamescom 2011, but here is an early look at Threaks’ charming creation:

I asked Threaks’ Wolf Lang if the game would be based around procedurally generated content, as seems to be the case from new music games such as Dejobaan’s Kick It to Sony’s decade old Vib-Ribbon. “Since we want to depict certain songs from certain artists, we build the levels manually with a set of tools that we developed. But the gamer though is able to play his own (mix) of the track since Beatbuddy is a non-linear music game.”

As a bonus treat, Lang provided a handful of photos of a more recent build of the game. If I were to offer any criticism, I would say I hope to see a little more color injected into the game, such as the color seen in the main character’s house and the fiery creature. I really like the 2D art in Beatbuddy overall so far!

Look for more news this August when Threaks debuts Beatbuddy (and hopefully announces its intended platforms) at Gamescom!