Hypnagogic State

Say, it’s only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea..

But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me…

So begins Paper Moon, a side scrolling platform game with a dreamlike, black and white style that evokes Little Nemo, if animated by Tim Burton. The objective is to navigate the little boy through the popup book style environment, collecting apples, cherries, and banans along the way. Certain interactive elements may be “popped” in and out to provide ledges to stand on or knock enemies out of the way. The enemies, which include bats and mysterious robed figures, can’t be killed by jumping on them. Jump over their heads or kill them by running an interactive object into them (careful, the objects can also kill you).

But with unlimited lives, your main enemy will be the timer. The game starts with 5 minutes on the clock. Slight time extensions are possible when you collect the clocks hidden within and at the end of each level.

The game has five minilevels, though only four need to be played to get to the end. Checkpoint flags are triggered within each level to give you a place to restart from after you’ve been killed. The limited time frame often makes it more practical to kill yourself and return to the flag than to try and navigate a complicated barrier.

Requirements: This browser game is hosted by Blurst and requires the free, easy to download Unity Web Player.

Controls: Use the left and right arrow keys to progress backward or forward, respectively, and the up arrow to jump. The spacebar pops shaded items in and out of the scenery.

Alternate Controls: Use the A and D keys to progress backward or forward, respectively, and the W key to jump. The X key pops shaded items in and out of the scenery.

Credits: Developed by Flashbang Studios and Infinite Ammo

Are you the type of gamer who moves your head in the direction your character/creature/car is moving? Did you think that motion sickness was the one thing missing from old school Tetris?

First-Person Tetris caters to both of these underrepresented groups. Whenever you hit the space bar to turn a block, the screen turns in the same direction. It was easier than I expected to adjust to the direction changes. But if you, like me, tend to make quick last minute adjustments of blocks, it may be a dizzying experience.

Tuper Tario Tros. is the stripy love child of Super Mario Bros. and Tetris. Mario can scurry along the first level as normal until he reaches the pictured block blockade. Mario will make his best “wtf?” noise and a screen prompt urges you to hit space, putting you- and poor, helpless Mario- into Tetris mode. Position the blocks quickly to clear the way for Mario to hop on through. Don’t drop blocks on the little guy. It will kill him. Don’t let the scenery move by and leave him behind. That will also kill him.

There’s finally a version of Left 4 Dead that my poor system can handle without stuttering. Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead has two difficulty levels, co-op mode, and sweetly nostalgic 8-bit zombies. Free to download from Eric Roth Games.

(h/t: Girl Gamers Suck , ironic website name is ironic)

The 2010 Independent Games Festival finalists have been announced. The list, courtesy Rock Paper Scissors:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:

Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)

Excellence In Visual Art
Shank (Klei Entertainment)
Owlboy (D-Pad Studios)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Limbo (Playdead)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)

Excellence In Design
Miegakure (Marc Ten Bosch)
Star Guard (Sparky)
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard For Gravity (Dejobaan Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios)

Excellence In Audio
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Shatter (Sidhe)
Closure (Closure Team)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)

Technical Excellence
Closure (Closure Team)
Limbo (Playdead)
Heroes Of Newerth (S2 Games)
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Vessel (Strange Loop Games)

Nuovo Award
Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui)
A Slow Year (Ian Bogost)
Tuning (Cactus)
Closure (Closure Team)
Enviro-Bear 2000 (Justin Smith)

No surprise that Super Meat Boy made a strong showing. SMB and Trauma look amazing but I will reserve my support for after they’re available to play. I do own Cogs, though, and can attest that it is one of the best sliding tile games I’ve played. And that isn’t meant as a backhanded compliment.

The Amanita Design Christmas Pack features Machinarium, Samorost 2, the soundtracks to both games, and some high res images for $10. That’s a savings of 60% off on a pack that includes a game that showed up on every best indies of the year list. Deal available until December 25th.

Steam has indie titles for up to 80$ off. A few of the deals:

Trine $7.99

Samorost 2 $2.49

Eufloria $9.99

Osmos $4.99

Crayon Physics Delux $9.99

World of Goo $4.99

Machinarium $9.99

Braid $2.49

Cogs $4.99

You can access all of the games from the Steam Indie main page. Deals run through January 3rd.

The Zombie Experiment is a community developed and financed game with a good cause. A $10.00 donation gets you into the community boards, where you can make suggestions and interact with other members. You will get a copy of the game for free when it is released and have your board username listed in the credits. 25% of the donation money and the eventual game sales will be donated to Team Fox, Michael J. Fox’s charity for Parkinson’s Disease.

The arena style shooter game play looks like it will have a fun, tongue-in-cheek style. The story:

Welcome to G.A. Romero Comprehensive, a typical suburban school that covers grades 6-12.
Unfortunately, unbeknown-st to the students and faculty, something far more sinister than mere teen hormones lurks beneath the unassuming structure.

Deep underground lies a secret research lab. Crazed but brilliant scientist Dr. Alexander Boyle performs twisted research experiments here, using sewer rats, stray cats and dogs, and even lost bums as his test subjects.
Matters come to a head when Boyle perfects a technique for sustaining life past total brain death—and creates zombies as a result!

When his newest test subjects demonstrate that the alteration can be transmitted through blood or saliva, Boyle realizes he has gone too far. But is it too late? He struggles to create a cure as the zombies break free of his control and go on a rampage, working their way up to through the sewers and toward the unsuspecting school above.
Fortunately, four figures stand in the zombies’ way:

• Jimmy Murphy is a brainiac, a bit of a geek who loves to explore on his own and to create wild inventions.
• Barb O’Dea is a Goth who just wants to be left alone—and is more than happy to vent her rage on anyone who invades her privacy.
• Mr. Savini works in the school cafeteria—but is that really who he is? He seems to know an awful lot about weapons, tactics, and combat for someone whose job is dishing up meat loaf!
• Ms. Burns is the sixth-grade Civics teacher, a bombshell all the boys have crushes on and a former political activist who still enjoys getting up in arms when she feels strongly about a cause.

These four each discover the zombies below, and fall into the role of humanity’s defenders, blocking the zombie invasion and searching for its cause—and a possible solution.

At this date, the Experiment has raised $2,185.29 towards the production costs. Click here if you would like to get in on the braiiiiiny action.

The hell week known as final exams is over and there was much rejoicing (yay). I still have day job to tend to but I don’t mind that much. It’s sciencey and leaves time for flash games.

Flash games like the minimalistic, black and white styled Gimme Friction Baby. Shoot balls into the air and they will inflate where they stop. Each ball starts with a 3 on it, indication the number of times it must be hit before it dissolves away. Game over if a ball comes bouncing back across the line.You might see that Game Over screen a lot.

The game is similar to Bubble Cannon in play but Gimme Friction scores higher points in style and complexity.

Play Gimme Friction Baby online for free.

I started playing Farmville tonight, succumbing to months of peer pressure. It’s…brightly colored? Sims-like? Mostly pointless?

Orwellian?

I am writing this down because I am afraid, and want documentation lest one day I vanish into thin air. I sense there is a strong force stirring up and I do not know where it comes from, or worse yet, where it is headed. Am I too blame? All I wanted was a pretty farm, an efficient one that was also aesthetically pleasing, but I worry these days that I am being punished. Was I abusing my power?

…I don’t want to leave my farm, but maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe I should get together a bunch of friends who are willing to relocate to a place where we have more control, and are allowed to have slaughter houses and smoking houses. I want to till plots that are not shaped as squares– is it so hard to ask for a tool that creates triangular plots? I also want to have a storage space for seasonal items so I don’t have to throw away my Halloween decorations, and some more clothes for myself. But all of these things depend on Zynga. I am the farmowner, yet there is very little control that I have.

Direct2Drive has the DRM-free Best of Indie Bundle Vol. 2 on sale for $24.95. The pack contains seven games: Crayon Physics Deluxe, I-Fluid, Aaaaa!, And Yet It Moves, Acceleration of Suguri, Aquaria, and Project Aftermath. The total value of the games is nearly $95 so it is a great deal even if you’re only going to play two or three of the games.

Sale ends on 11/16.

(h/t: Indie Games)

Cogs was released in the spring but I hadn’t heard of it until I was going through the IGF Main Competition entrants earlier this week. I finally got around to downloading the demo yesterday and played with it off and on all night. Though the sliding tile puzzle nature of it had me hesitant, I was hooked by the second puzzle.

This steampunk stylized game involves arranging cogs/pipes/both in such a way that they turn another cog/direct steam through pipes/turn a wheel/strike a bell with a hammer to play a specific tune/etc. In order to proceed to future levels, you must collect a certain number of awards, which are given for speed and number of moves. A sense of urgency is created by the rather loudly ticking clock that doesn’t exactly aid your concentration (I turned my volume off after a while).

Countdown clock aside, the puzzles in Cogs are varied and fairly challenging. The game quickly introduces 3D cube puzzles in which each side must be solved and connected for the objective to be met. The demo contains the first 8 puzzles and I found myself working hard just through those levels.

There are two modes of play: Inventor and Challenge. Once you have conquered a level in Inventor Mode, that level also unlocks in Challenge Mode. But Challenge mode imposes tight regulations on time or number of moves.

Cogs was produced by Lazy 8 Studios and is available for $9.95 from Steam, Direct2Drive, and GamersGate.

See also:

Independent Games Festival: Auditorium