Abducted is an upcoming horror adventure game from Sunside Games. In Abducted, players find themselves abducted by aliens and taken across the universe. The goal of the game is to escape and find a way back home, but Sunside Games is not going to make things easy. Combined with environmental challenges and extraterrestrial horror, Abducted features a deep storyline that focuses on free-form conversation, allowing players to learn as much, or as little, as they desire. Planned to be released in six episodes beginning this June and releasing every seventy-five days, Sunside Games has opened pre-orders for the first episode of Abducted.
“The vision for Abducted is as an episodic adventure,” explains Richard Cowgill, Abducted’s lead designer, on the game’s Greenlight page. “Not episodes that take years to make, but instead are produced in a rapid, high quality fashion like a modern TV show (Dexter, True Blood, etc). Each episode will be meaty, with its own arc, its own story and construction. There will be a lot to do, see and experience.”
Sunside Games developed Abducted using their in-house engine Radiance, which they previously used while developing Crowfor iOS devices. The developers at Sunside Games have over thirty years combined experience in the video game industry, and have worked on titles like the Borderlands series, and the Battlefield 1942 modification, Desert Combat.
Pre-orders for Abducted are being taken on the official website, and buyers have three options to choose from: the Collectors Edition ($39.99), the standard edition ($24.99), or the first episode alone ($7.99). Pre-ordering the Collector’s Edition gets buyers into the Beta tests that Sunside Games is planning to take place in June. Look for episode one, later this summer.
To end the week I thought I would pull yet another game from the Ludum Dare competition. I know I have covered this competition a lot lately but with all the awesome games that have been generated for it I feel this is completely justified.
Today’s game is EraserLand by Little_Polygon and it’s a rather interesting little experiment. The whole idea of EraserLand is to remove certain aspects of the screen to meet certain win conditions, which you find in a very trial and error manner as you wildly erase all manner of things before finding the true way to win the level.
Although a very short game and a game that often feels like it lacks direction the idea is very nice, and something rather different. The style and gameplay really make for a very fascinating game from start to finish.
Average play time – 5 minutes
EraserLand is a very well thought out game that brings about some rather novel puzzles and some even more creative solutions to the game. In many ways it’s great to see a minimalistic game encourage even more minimalism by making it the main mechanic for the game.
If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!
Anomaly 2 is a sequel to the critically acclaimed Anomaly: Warzone Earth. Maintaining the core elements of the original, Anomaly 2 adds new features to the single-player campaign and puts player’s skills to a test in a completely unique experience: the tower defense vs. tower offense multiplayer mode!
Residue is an intelligent, story-driven 2D platform adventure in which you control three different characters, exploring an abandoned excavation site in the remains of the Aral Sea in present-day Uzbekistan. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea is now an arid wasteland, a victim of decades of Soviet cotton irrigation. To some, it is the prime example for humanity to stay out of nature’s business. To others, it’s a world waiting to be saved.
Today I revisit the Ludum Dare competition once more trying to cram in as many great games as possible. Today’s game is cGame from deeJayUA and this game is rather different.
In cGame you must look at the colour grid and remove the most common colour from the grid. Although this alone can be quite difficult you must also select the correct RGB colour code, this makes finding the specific colour on later levels quite the chore indeed.
Each level the RGB codes become more complex creating more variables and therefore more verity greatly increasing the difficulty. It really is quite the ingenious game as it forces you to match the correct colours to your grid.
cGame is a very simplistic and minimalistic game however it does offer a great deal of fun from the get go offering fun challenging puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty as you progress.
Average play time – 10 minutes
If you’re a fan of brainteasers cGame should be right up your ally as it offers many substantial fun challenges. cGame offers a unique experience that should keep any puzzle fiend happy for a substantial amount of time.
If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!
Today’s Indie Links include games you should have on your radar. Which, to be honest, really isn’t different from any other day.
25 indie games that should be on your radar (ArsTechnica)
“One of the best things about travelling to shows like PAX East and the Game Developers Conference is the chance to check out titles from off-the-beaten-path, independent developers. While shows like E3 are overwhelmed by the presence of multi-million dollar booths from huge publishers, the early-in-the-year shows make a point of highlighting some of the most original and promising game ideas from game makers without big contracts or salaried positions behind them. Freed from the financial responsibilities of the major AAA publishers, these are the titles that are most likely to truly break new ground in gameplay, aesthetics, and subject matter.”
Anna Anthropy and the Twine revolution (The Guardian)
“There’s a growing realisation that games can be as much about personal expression as they are about shooting stuff. We talk to prolific designer Anna Anthropy about her reluctant role at the centre of an emerging scene based around free game making tool, Twine.”
Tigsource Devlog: Dom2D’s Visual Showcase of Awesome New Games, Issue #14 (Venus Patrol)
“This week’s selection shows some love for pixel art, with fourteen games in development showing true skill with the pixel brush! We have Chasm in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign, Tale of the Stolen Rainbow creating an epic Zelda-like adventure with minimalist black and white pixels, and then there’s The Bitter End.. oh wait, it seems to have been made in Hexels!”
Recommended Game: Reunion, A Short Horror Experience (Independent Gaming)
“Explore a dark forest and the darkness of the human mind. In these woods, nothing is as it seems. Reunion is a short horror game that surprised me with its creepy atmosphere, genuine scares, and shocking ending. You control a father searching a forest at night for his son, Waleed, who has fled from home. You must navigate the darkness, using the circle of light surrounding you and the sounds of the things in the woods to stay on a safe path.”
The Long And Brainy Road: An Organ Trail Diary Part 3 (RPS)
“The Organ Trail: Director’s Cut is a zombie pastiche of the old favourite edugame, The Oregon Trail, where you had to get a family of settlers to Portland, Oregon, past the perils of the unconquered western USA. In the Organ Trail, players must get themselves and up to four friends all the way to Portland Oregon without losing any of their innards to rampaging zombie hordes. They’re both mainly asset management games, with bastard-hard minigames included. “
Itano Alpha Flight and Heart Breaker (Indie Gamer Chick)
“Here’s some quick thoughts on a pair of recent XBLIG titles, Itano Alpha Flight and Heart Breaker. They suck. My boyfriend says I’m not allowed to leave it at that, so I guess I’ll explain why.”
Humans Must Answer (PixelProspector)
“Humans Must Answer is a really promising horizontal shmup with fine visuals and fun looking gameplay that features a nice selection of weapons.”
Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a game that has sat in my Steam library for as long as I can remember. I think I picked it up in some indie bundle from a few years ago, but I honestly cannot remember. The only thing I knew about it was that it involved the tower defense genre, and because of that, I had very little interest in the game. My issue with tower defense titles is that I find them dull. Being stuck in an area and forced to watch as units scurry down a predetermined pathway is just incredibly boring for me. I prefer making on-the-fly decisions, being rewarded with bright explosions, and namely not being anchored to one location. To my amazement, Anomaly 2 delivers all of that.
How Anomaly 2 works is that it inverts the tower defense mechanic, so that it is the player’s job to get their convoy through the tower-filled gauntlet, and to the objective at the end. There are multiple pathways through every level, and players get to customize their convoy along the way. The enemies, just like a typical tower defense game, have plenty of towers at their disposal, and it takes an apt player to know what unit to use against what sort of tower. Knowing what to use when isn’t difficult thanks to a handy tactical map that players can pull up whenever they like. It shows not only the enemy positions but also allows players to alter their convoy’s route on-the-move. You, are the TomTom.
From what I’ve gathered with my five-ish hours within Anomaly 2, the human race is on the rebound after getting their butts kicked by some sort of robotic alien species that the humans have cleverly taken to calling “The Machines”. The last bastions of humanity have banded together in convoys to keep on the move, always running from their robotic pursuers. Hope for humanity remains in the mystery of Project Shockwave, a weapon which has the potential to wipe out the alien aggressors. The initial levels of Anomaly 2 involve seeking out the remaining scientists responsible for Project Shockwave and looking after their well being, to ensure their research does not go to waste.
While the story isn’t anything special, it really just serves as an excuse to fill a post-apocalyptic Earth with really badass robots. These machines are Decepticon-caliber cool. Unfortunately, they do nothing but try and kill you through the entire game. Fear not, for you have some pretty neat tools in your arsenal as well.
Players control a little commando future-soldier who they can order around the map. The soldier is not limited to the roads, so he is able to run anywhere the player wants him to. However, the enemies will target the soldier if he strays too far from the convoy, so it is generally a good idea to stick close to your little armada. The soldier is armed with some enhancements that play out to be crucial as the game progresses and the gauntlet becomes tougher to get through. One ability, for example, drops an area-based healing effect, that causes friendly units passing through to quickly regain their health. Another ability allows the soldier to drop an EMP bomb and disable enemy towers, knocking them offline until the convoy units engage them. While being a pretty straightforward mechanic, it really helps to keep the monotony of typical tower-defense games, at bay.
The convoy units themselves are not helpless, though. In fact, these units will do the majority of the work…as long as the player helps them stay alive. So far, every convoy unit has an alternative form. Take, “The Hound” for example: in its default form, it sports a big mini-gun that gradually powers up to full-speed, dealing massive amounts of continuous damage. This is great, if there is simply one enemy after another to take down. But, if there are two enemies across from one another, switching The Hound into its secondary form transforms the vehicle into a bipedal machine which sports a flamethrower on each arm, allowing it to roast two nearby enemies at once.
Some enemy towers are great at countering specific vehicle forms, so players have to literally stay ahead of the game by constantly checking the tactical map to know what is coming. Heading down a road unprepared will certainly get you killed.
Anomaly 2 is not your typical lazy tower defense game. It’s badass, action-packed, and you’ll only survive by the skin of your teeth. With four difficulty settings that can be switched at the start of every level, the game ensures that all types of players will be able to find a challenge within the game’s hostile, ice-covered, environments.
Anomaly 2 is set to be released May 15th, pre-ordering through the official website gets buyers some pretty neat bonuses.
Indie platformer Cloudberry Kingdom will be published by Ubisoft, coming this summer (Polygon)
“Indie side-scrolling platformer Cloudberry Kingdom will be published and distributed by Ubisoft this summer, the company announced today. Developed by Pwnee Studios, and successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter last summer, Cloudberry Kingdom will feature levels that randomly generate each time you enter, presenting players with new challenges for each playtime, and adjustable difficulty ranging from casual to hardcore. Levels will adapt to the player’s skill level and the abilities of the in-game characters. Players will also be able to create their own characters and challenges.”
Guacamelee review: Wrestlevania (Joystiq)
“Is there anything more paltry than the video game chicken? Guacamelee lets you kick the poor featherballs, lock them in your log-like luchador arms, and pile-drive them into the ground so hard they bounce around the room. In the presence of a protagonist, the only thing worse off than a chicken is a vase.”
Monaco review: A good day to spy hard (Joystiq)
“I’m a terrible thief. If ever there were an investigation into a string of high-profile burglaries in my neighborhood, all I’d have to do to clear my name is invite some police officers to sit down, get comfortable, and watch me play Monaco for five minutes. The officers would see my glowing, pixelated character get caught on the walls around doorways while running away from hordes of angry guards with guns; they would laugh as I rushed into rooms full of alarms and set off every single one; and they would leave soon after I forgot, again, that my character could dig through walls, hack locked doors or easily knock out unsuspecting enemies, and I’d be a free woman. Just like I’d planned all along.”
The State of XBLIG RPGs (Independent Gaming)
“RPGs are powerhouses of both the AAA and the indie game industries. That’s no different on the Xbox Live Indie Game Marketplace, where they’re some of the best games on the service. Like RPGs? Here are some XBLIG suggestions for you.”
The Prisoners May Be Innocent in One of 2013′s Most Interesting PC Games (Kotaku)
“I’m already on-record about how fascinating Prison Architect is. Seriously, it’s SimPrison—or ThemePrison, if you will—made by people who seem to be damn near fearless about making video games about uncomfortable topics.”
Indiemon: Earth Nation (Indie Gamer Chick)
“I have an idea for a children’s game. In it, you’ll play as a pre-pubescent lad who will wander the world making animals fight for sport and for fame. You’ll start with one enslaved creature (possibly an adorable mouse-lightning bolt thing, something that just oozes cuteness) and then randomly fight other adorable creatures along the countryside. During a fight, right at the moment before your huggable little animal buddy delivers a merciless death-blow to the creature it just beat into a pulp, you’ll capture the creature in a cage way too small for it to possibly live comfortably in. You’ll then force it to fight creatures that you wish to enslave, with your ultimate aim being to capture one of every creature like some deranged, asexual Noah.”
Getting a start in making games, from the man behind Thirty Flights of Loving (IndieGames.com)
“This week I [was] fortunate enough to be featured in The Humble Weekly Sale. My email inflow has skyrocketed, and amongst them I get a fair amount of messages like this: I’m a student in high school and I’m really interested in making games, but I have no clue where to start. I was wondering if you could offer me some insight into where to start? Everyone’s brain is wired differently. For me, my best suggestion boils down to: Make stuff. Then make more stuff. If you’re not into brevity, I’ll get more specific.”
SoundSelf is an exploration game where players use their voice to explore a world of sound and visuals. Each tone will navigate players through tunnels of light, shapes, and into a meditative trance. The result is an elegant symmetry of image and sound that takes advantage of loopholes in the way players perceive the world around them.
