Well folks in case you haven't heard, LIMBO is out on Xbox Live today. I posted about the game by Playdead back in December, saw it in action on the floors of GDC, and have been waiting to play it myself for what feels like ages. It's getting rave reviews across the board (with a stunning metacritic score of 92!) so do yourself a favor and play it.
Play it for me too since, *long-awkward-frustrated-sigh*, I am currently unable to download it. No ethernets in the .tiff domicile. Stupid stupid .tiff (calling internet provider now).
Nintendo is doing a terrific series of mini-video-tutorials featuring some of my favorite indie game developers using WarioWare: D.I.Y. to create custom "micro"-games. I'm buddies with both the Gaijin folks and Mr. Carmel, so I'm really getting a kick out of watching them demonstrate their game-making. They all do a great job!
Here's Ron Carmel of World of Goo fame showing how to make his game, Suck Goo!:
...and here's the Gaijin team (Mike, Alex, and Chirs) with their Commander Video game, FIRE BAD:
Along with these fellows, the D.I.Y. community is producing some really neat micro-games out there. Steph just got a copy yesterday, so once he's
busy with his iPad I'll steal his DSi XL and try to make a game too!
Watch this video and I bet you'll say to yourself 'I've never seen anything like this before', because boy, that's how I felt. Craig D. Adams, the mastermind pixel artist behind Super Brothers, collaborates with musician Jim Guthrie and Capy Games to give us Sword & Sworcery EP, an adventure/action game that's coming to the iPhone sometime later this year. The atmosphere captured here is absolutely magical, with so much personality and presence in every pixel. Enjoy the above trailer and follow it up with a clip of the protagonist sword fighting with a booby bear. Could you ask for anything more?
I have a good, shivery feeling this is going to be an instant favorite.
A week or so ago Steph Thirion, creator of the esteemed iPhone game Eliss, posted a teaser of his new game Faraway on his website. Faraway was selected as one of six games to display at the Gamma IV party last night, chosen for it's unique use of one-button gameplay.
Now of course I'm a little biased here, but I think Faraway is pretty swell. Using only one button you swing a speeding comet around stars in an infinite galaxy, only stopping to connect constellations in tiny space pockets. Completing complex constellations gives you more points (and more time), and you can pick up power-up 'asteroids' to help you play a little longer. It's challenging at first to get adjusted to the star swinging, but once you get it you can really soar in space.
I took a few photos of people playing the game last night, so here's a sneak peek at Faraway! They're not perfect photos (especially the second one, the game's not that blurrrrry) and you can't see much, but it's something! I'm looking forward to it being released to everyone, and GDC folks, don't miss your chance to play it on the expo floor!
UPDATE: Touch Arcade posted Steph doing a video tutorial of the game, which shows a lot more than my wimpy photos do!
For as long as I've known Rich Grilliotti of PixelJam Games he's been a big fan of comic artist James Kochalka's works. Turns out that Kochalka is a fan of PixelJam too! With the help chiptunes artist Mark DeNardo, who composes most of the music featured in PixelJam games , PixelJam and Kolchaka united this past weekend and are now in the process of developing a Glorkian Warrior game! Excitement! I can't wait to see what comes out of this.
