And Yet it Moves keeps the boulder rolling by being ported to yet another platform.  Broken Rules may be busy with Chasing Aurora, but that doesn’t meant they don’t have the time to port their first game that they created while they were students over to the OnLive cloud gaming service.  And Yet It Moves scored well when we reviewed it over 2 years ago, won the IGF Student Showcase and has been featured at Indiecade.  The game has been available on a ton of platforms and services, but if you still haven’t picked it up, it’s now available on the play-on-demand streaming platform OnLive.  It’s pretty cool to get this game added to their playpack service which lets you play over 200 indie and AAA games for only $9.99/month.

For more information about this game, check out the official game’s website or check it out on OnLive Today.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Gem: And Yet it Moves makes it’s way to OnLive

Orbs are funny things. They’re often used to imply a connection to the mind, as if a gateway – think of a crystal ball for instance. After playing Catch-22, which features a prominent red orb as the surface for its gameplay, I am pretty sure that they must have a way of wiggling under your skin, past your skull and into your brain. They just must.

The exhibition at Indie Connect laid out a single pew before a monitor for Catch-22. Upon said pew was an Xbox controller. Ushered over by my colleague who insisted that I “just have to try this game”, I shook hands with the developer and then assessed the game set-up as just described. Red. Orb. You couldn’t avoid that thing glaring at you. Making matters worse, the game is accompanied by a floaty, low-beat rhythm just willing you to play the game.

Having felt the naturally hypnotic pull of Catch-22, I looked back over at my colleague who had already spent at least 20 minutes with the game – was he possessed? It’s as if the game was capable of pulling people in and then refused to let them go, instead using them to bring in more players to spread the word, in a plot to (gasp) take over the world!

Brushing that nonsense aside, I sat down, picked up the controller and then faced the orb in alls its glowing glory. Atop of that was a simple message instructing me to press the A button to begin. In terms of game design, it doesn’t get any more simple than having a one button (to control them all!) interface and that is what Catch-22 rolls out with. On the controller, this was the A button, but the iOS version will transform this to just be a simple touch of the screen.

With a gulp, I squashed the A button with my thumb and we were off! Unfortunately it wasn’t long before I found out that I absolutely suck at Catch-22 (much to the amusement of the onlookers), but I couldn’t stop playing. Here’s why: you control a small blue orb to start off with which is constantly travelling around the bigger red orb. The idea is that you collect the even smaller white orbs that appear along your path – you’ll have to press the A button to jump on occasion. There’s another stationary orb at the bottom of the red orb that you’ll have to jump over too as touching it will reset the game.

That’s your first rotation at least. Once you’ve collected three white orbs, you’ll then switch to the aforementioned green orb during a bout of elegant slow motion. As the green orb, you’ll travel the opposite way around that hypnotic red sphere with the same task – collect three white orbs. The catch is that the blue orb is actually a ghost which performs the same movements as you did when controlling it before and contact with it means the whole game will restart and your score lost. Luckily, there is some help in dodging your previous self as the orbs leave traces of their movements behind them in a faint glow – they also double up as making the game look even prettier, I imagined I was outlining the petals of a flower to have it only make my task harder when switching orbs.

That’s all there is to Catch-22. It’s not a lot but the simplicity of constantly dodging yourself back and forth, combined with the games gentle, pulsing music and hazily colored visuals makes it very alluring. When you do collide and the game resets, it’s all to easy just to press the button and start all over again and you’ll keep doing this until a big enough distraction comes along to pull you away.

The version I played wasn’t the final version but I was entirely sunk into the game, so you can imagine my shock when the developer told me they’ll have proper leaderboards so friends can compete with each other. They’ll never be able to pull themselves away! Catch-22 is due for a release on iOS initially and will cost a dollar or two, but the developer also told me that they are looking at releasing the game on Facebook for free and with the leaderboards. It seems like a solid move to me as I don’t think many people would pay to play the game on PC, but once they do (and they will if it’s free) they will never be able to tear themselves away.

You can find out more information on Catch-22 over on the game’s official website.

One of the ten finalists at the first A MAZE. Indie Connect, Chasing Aurora was noted for its sumptuous artstyle and zen-like gameplay that attested to the dream of many: flight. It’s a 2D sidescrolling aerial action game in which you control a bird attempting to piece together the light beacon as the sun sets over the picturesque Alps for the last time. The setting of the game of course being a significant European landmark, possibly giving it a cultural significance which appealed to Indie Connect’s hope to see outstanding indie titles from around the globe, but in particular from Europe.

Chasing Aurora was available to play at Indie Connect but unfortunately this was a five month old build and contained a single multiplayer mode. In this, up to four players would battle it out to hold on to the light beacon which would dangle from their determined feather bodies. Apart from flying around attempting to get away from and dodge their opponents, who could snatch the beacon by mere contact, the player could fly the beacon into a flame which would cause it to catch fire and be used as a weapon too. Immediately upon playing Chasing Aurora you get the sense of just how simple it is. The only component of control the player need to occupy themselves with is which direction they are flying – no other buttons are needed to be pressed. Whether this will remain the same throughout the game’s single player is yet to be seen, but given that a playthrough shouldn’t last longer than five hours, you get the impression that the developers are keeping the game as simple as possible.

Clemens Scott, the lead artist at Broken Rules, affirmed the direction that they are taking the game, saying that they have been letting the game develop organically as time progresses but always ensuring that the feeling of flight is achieved. So to match this, Chasing Aurora looks to be a simple but highly pleasurable experience which should relax the player by the aesthetic choice alone, but also by its gentle gameplay. Most outstanding of the game’s features are its visual merits so we took the time to ask Clemens how he developed this stunning display, what we didn’t expect was such an elaborate story.

After a while of trying several different artstyles for Chasing Aurora, Clemens said that inspiration came to him one day when he let some anger out by kicking an old closet his grandmother owned. Once he had prevented the closet from collapsing, Clemens had to restore its contents back to their appropriate places, which led him to discover a bunch of old wooden boards. These boards had some form of pattern on them upon which Clemens began to draw and it was then that he stumbled across the visual style that Chasing Aurora was to take. After taking the boards into the office and showing the rest of the development team, they were just as pleased with what he came up with so he kept working on it until it reached the state you can see it in now.

If anything, Chasing Aurora‘s artstyle is a 2D origami look with bold colors, giving it a soft, papery kind of feel. Obviously, Broken Rules have a thing for papery visuals as their first game, And Yet It Moves, was etched out like a scrap book assortment. Focusing on Chasing Aurora‘s visuals though, they are quite remarkable in still images but really brighten your eyes when you see them in action (look to the trailer above), especially when combined with the game’s aural accompaniment. Inspiration for the music in the game came from the developers Austrian roots as they use a variety of traditional xylophones played with the fingers and string instruments played with sticks, as well as the usual plucks and strums.

Understandably, when questioned about the gameplay, Clemens informed us that the team is still working on it as they try to balance a slight challenge without losing the game’s sense of flow and chilled out feeling. As said previously, the game involves collecting the fragmented pieces of the light beacon. This sends the feathered protagonists across the many faces of the Alps and past its animal inhabitants, occasionally solving simple puzzles as well as being encouraged to explore to find hidden pieces. Some replayability could be found through finding all of the pieces but the hope is that the player will want to live that feeling of elegant flight over and over again.

The single player portion of Chasing Aurora has us lusting after it but the multiplayer doesn’t feel too necessary, nor that impressive. However, Clemens did point out that much more has been added to the old multiplayer build that we played at Indie Connect, so this section of the game may yet change our minds. Whatever the case, we still can’t wait to play Chasing Aurora sometime later in 2012. Thanks to the game’s bespoke engine we can look forward to it appearing on Windows, Mac and Linux, ports to mobile and consoles will be just as easy to pursue as well, so we’re told.

More information on Chasing Aurora can be found on the game’s official website.

Broken Rules sophomore game, Chasing Aurora, is a finalist at the Indie Games Award at A MAZE. Indie Connect in Berlin.  Chasing Aurora is their upcoming aerial-action game due out some time later this year.  You may remember that IGM nominated Chasing Aurora as one of its most anticipated indie games of 2012. While it didn’t win, this new mood trailer shows off exactly why you should start getting excited for this game.

Chasing Aurora boasts a fantastic visual style that reminds me of paper cut-outs and bright construction paper.  Couple that with folky strumming of guitars and this game is already oozing atmosphere.

For more gorgeous screenshots and information, visit Chasing Aurora’s official website.

This might be a bit of a departure for many of our readers but it’s an event about indie games. As such, we’re honor bound to rant about it… positive ranting though! In any case, this weekend kicks off Lunarcade’s Indie Games Circus in Shanghai, China where a few prominent indie games will be shown off.

But first, before we get to the games, for those curious about the event here’s a brief description:

LUNARCADE is a collective that promotes independent games: games with innovative aesthetics or interaction models, developed without the support of major publishers.

During the year, LUNARCADE organizes two different kind of events: “INDIE GAMES CIRCUS“, a game night in which a selection of indie games – that share specific aesthetics, interactivity or meaning – is shown to the public, and “FACTORY”, workshops and game jams on specific themes.

The events are free and open to everyone: they aim at keeping in touch the community of game designers and authors, bringing more people into the indie game culture and helping those that want to approach indie game development.

Very noble and definitely something we can get behind. If only they ran an event in Portland. Oh well…

Here are the games being showcased in Shanghai this weekend:

• At a Distance – Terry Cavanagh [@terrycavanagh]
• WAY – Coco & Co [@waygame]
• Voxatron – Lexaloffle Games [@lexaloffle]
• Proteus – Ed Key and David Kanaga [@edclef @dkanaga]
• Chasing Aurora – Broken Rules [@brokenrules @chasing_aurora]
• Crossout – Coconut Island Studio [@coconut_island]

Good group of games being shown off. I hope those developers get some great traction in China.

The same guys also run a similar event in Milan, Italy, where it looks they are based although I can’t find any information on that event and whether it’s annual or not.

If you do happen to be in China and, more specifically, Shanghai this weekend check out the link below for more information on how to find it.

[Lunarcade]

Intro Video

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Digitanks for the PC (code is redeemable on via dev’s own site), by Lunar Workshop!

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.