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Review: Chains January 5, 2009

Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a comment

Game: Chains
Version: Full version
Platform: Windows

Chains is a very surprising little puzzle game. I’ll admit that when I installed the game, I was expecting something like one of those flash games where you click on colored balls and they vanish, with more to take their place, until you either clear them all, or die of boredom. And at first, in level one, Chains isn’t entirely unlike those games, but I noticed something different was happening. When new balls fell into the play field, the old balls were being pushed around. Physics?!? Splendid!

As early as level two, you get to see why this makes the game so much better. The balls are filling up a tank with a detachable bottom. The bottom is held up by a counterweight, and if you let the tank fill up with too many balls, they’ll spill out and you’ll lose them. Lose too many, and you have to start over. In another level, the balls are pouring out onto two sides of a beam. If you let one side grow too heavy, it’ll lean the beam too far in that direction, so you have to clear both sides at the same time. As you might guess, this can become very hectic, and it’s alot of fun.

I did have a little trouble with the difficulty curve, though. Level four is another interesting twist. You are presented with a tube, and balls flow from the top to the bottom, and you need to keep the flow going for five minutes to win. The catch is that there are some unmovable obstructions in the tube, and the balls you are presented with come in lots of different sizes. The big ones just won’t fit. If you don’t clear them early enough (often while they’re still falling) you can find yourself getting into trouble pretty easily. I’d played the level about a dozen times, and didn’t get beyond a minute and a half, and that was on the easy setting. But I persevered, and eventually managed to get better and better until I made it through. I’m glad I did, because the levels just get better the further you get into the game.

Overall, I’d say that Chains is definitely worth your time. Grab the demo!

Review: Kivi’s Underworld December 29, 2008

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Game: Kivi’s Underworld
Developer: Soldak Entertainment
Version: Full version
Platform: Windows, also available for Mac OSX

Kivi’s Underworld is a hack ‘n’ slash game from the creators of Depths of Peril. If you’re a fan of PC role playing games, Kivi’s may immediately remind you of Diablo or Icewind Dale. But after playing for a little while, you’re going to realize that you’re playing something different. Where are my experience points? How do I change my armor? Where is my spellbook? Nowhere! This is a different experience, and it’s really refreshing.

Instead of controlling a single character that you spend hours tweaking and equipping, Kivi’s is built around unlocking lots of unique characters that each play differently. Switching to a new character can completely change the way you play a level, and you’ll need to play each level again to fully experience everything. Upon completing a level, you earn points based on your performance. These points can be used to upgrade your stats that effect all of your characters at once.

The combat system is simple, but includes plenty of strategy. Each character has a unique activated ability, and a special passive ability. Additionally, you will find special powerup items around the levels that can be used to give your characters temporary boosts, replenish health, or attack enemies. Even early in the game, combat is fast and furious. Saving your powerups until you need them, and conserving your mana until need your special abilities is crucial to success.

The game has a great presentation. Screenshots do not do the game justice, because they’ve done a really good job with character animations and particle effects here. (Check out the Youtube video below.) The default graphical settings are tweaked low so that the game will run on a large range of computers, so make sure you increase the resolution and turn on the effects. The sound effects and music are excellent too. My favorite thing is the voiceover while tells the story between levels. We need more voice acting in PC games!

I’m really happy with Kivi’s Underworld. I’m impressed with what Soldak has managed to put together in such a short time period. This is a great game, and an excellent value. Grab the demo now!

Top 10 Xbox Live Community Games

Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , 1 comment so far

It’s the end of the year, and that means top ten lists of all sorts of things are popping up everywhere.  In that spirit, here’s my list of the top ten XBLCG games released so far.

  1. Blow

    2. Blow is a puzzle game that reminds me of games like Lemmings, The Incredible Machine, or Eets.  It’s one of the best games I’ve played this year, and if you like puzzle games and own an Xbox 360, it deserves your immediate attention.

  2. Johnny Platform’s Biscuit Romp

    3. As you might know by now, I’m very partial to platformers.  JPBR is a single screen platformer, with a total of fifty-five levels.  That’s quite alot of gameplay for two hundred Microsoft Points.  I thoroughly enjoyed the game and hope that the creator gives us a sequel.

  3. Biology Battle

    4. This game draws alot of comparisons to Geometry Wars, and rightly so.  Biology Battle is a very high quality dual-stick shooter that is alot of fun to play.  It has high quality visuals, great audio, and a nice sense of humor.  While the game is fun in single player, it truly shines in multiplayer.

  4. Word Soup

    5. While I’m not normally a big fan of word games, this game has easily earned a spot on my list.  My wife and I have spent many hours passing a controller back and forth trying to beat each others score.  (She wins most of the time.)

  5. CarneyVale Showtime

    6. Here’s the big winner of this years Dream Build Play competition.  As soon as you fire it up, you’ll notice that it is polished to a glow.  The creators have paid alot of attention to the details here, and it really shows.  I’m surprised this one didn’t get picked up for release as an Xbox Live Arcade title.

  6. Ultratron

    7. I’m a big fan of the titles from Puppygames.  This is a port of their game of the same name.  Just like the original, it’s a great game and having access to the Xbox 360 controller only makes the game even better.

  7. Duotrix

    8. Here we have a falling blocks based puzzle game where you have to control two play areas at the same time.  As you might imagine, this can become pretty intense, pretty quickly.  Add in powerups and powerdowns, and you have a very interesting game.  Watch out for that mystery powerup!

  8. Artoon

    9. Artoon is a platformer that is sort of a modern reimagining of Q-Bert.  You control Art, and he is constantly bouncing, and you need to control him to make him bounce on platforms in the correct order and the correct number of times to keep your score multiplier going.  Each world has a different visual presentation, and makes the game feel like you are playing through different pieces of digital artwork.

  9. Classicard

    10. I really like playing spades and hearts. I’m not terribly good at either, but they’re fun. Classicard has both of those, plus euchre, knockout, and some other games I’ve never heard of. It’s a very solid single player game, but even better it includes up to four player gaming on Xbox Live. This is very well made and an incredible value.

  10. Bloc

    11. Everything I wrote about Bloc in my review is still true.  It’s a good game.  A recent update from the creators have made the game even better.

Review: Bloc November 19, 2008

Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , 2 comments

Game: Bloc
Developer: Metacreature Games
Version: Full version
Platform: Xbox 360, Community Game

Long time readers might remember that I used to write the occasional review of indie games that I enjoyed. Well, that feature is back. Today’s game is Bloc, one of the launch games in the Xbox Community Games program.

At first glance, Bloc looks like a dual-stick shooter, like Geometry Wars or Robotron. But as soon as you fire it up, you’ll realize that’s not what’s going on here at all. Instead of firing in the direction you aim the right thumbstick, you fire by pressing one of the colored face buttons, and your ship launches a missile of that color. You destroy enemies by hitting them with their matching color. The trick is that you rotate your ship with the triggers or bumper buttons, and that might mean you start firing in a direction you didn’t expect.

And that’s the innovation in Bloc. Instead of thinking “press up to fire up,” you have to “press red to fire red.” But my brain just can’t do it! I’m so terrible at this game, and yet I just keep coming back. I think that’s a sign that the creators have done something right. If you’re like me and just can’t get your brain wrapped around the colors (and believe me, I’ve tried), you can go into the options and turn on “Color Assistance.” It adds the letters A, B, X, and Y, onto the appropriate colors. I’m guessing this mode was added to help colorblind players, but it helps me a ton.

Also, for added silly fun I recommend getting out your guitar controller, and giving that a go. You have four color buttons, and your fifth fret button rotates your ship. You control with the dpad on the guitar. It really changes the game up a bit.

I’ve had alot of fun with this game, and I recommend it. The demo is up on Xbox Live now. If you have an Xbox 360, go give the demo a try.

Some press

Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , add a comment

Purchased November 15, 2008

Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , 2 comments

Today I was lucky enough to make it into the final round of users who received early access to the New Xbox Experience.  That means I was able to buy Being today!

While I realize that this stuff isn’t likely to make me rich, and it’s not the start of a new career, it’s definitely made me very happy.  This has been a dream of mine for a very long time, and I’ve finally gotten off of my behind and made it happen.  Thank you very much to all the people who helped make this possible!

It will be awhile before I have anything to show off from my next game, but I’m already experimenting and learning the things I’ll need to bring it to life.  I’m not stopping now!

Being on Community Games November 7, 2008

Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , 5 comments

I didn’t think it was possible to be more excited than I was when I posted the approval letter. But this totally trumps it. The ZMan from thezbuffer.com captured some screens of what Being looks like in the Community Games section on the Xbox 360.

Thanks, ZMan!

(Click for larger images.)


Being is approved

Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , 3 comments

I just got the most awesome email ever. I had to run around giving high-fives to everybody I work with. Allow me to share.

Dear Chounard,

The XNA team is delighted to tell you that your community game has been approved by your fellow Creators. You should see the game appear within 48 hours of the time of this message on the community games area of Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Your game should also show a status of “Approved” in your Creator profile at http://creators.xna.com within that timeframe.

If you receive this email, but do not see your game in either location within the approval timeframe, please use the feedback form on the creators.xna.com site to let us know, so we can track down any issues.

Since you are now a successful game author, you might consider sharing your tips and tricks on forums.xna.com, celebrating, or just bragging a little. :)

Thanks again for making our community great!

The XNA Team

Before and after October 30, 2008

Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , add a comment

My wife has given me the final level of Being.  The game is now very close to 100% completion.  While she always plays down just how much work she’s done to help make the game a success, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you some before and after images of the final level.

It took me a long time to piece these images together, but if you notice any oddities, it’s probably because I was rushing to get them stitched together.  I think you’ll agree that it’s a pretty amazing difference.

Please note: These screens are taken from the level editor, and there are some game play objects missing that are added by scripts while the game is running. (Switches, platforms, the final enemy, etc.) So if it’s looks like there are things missing, that’s why.

Before and after - click for bigger versions (WARNING! Very large images.)

 

Platformers October 21, 2008

Posted by Jesse in : Uncategorized , add a comment

I haven’t been doing much real game development work lately. I wrote a prototype for a puzzle game, but it was a failure. While I might revisit it someday, it’s certainly not my next game. Instead, I’ve started work on my next platformer. I don’t need to prototype that, because Being was the prototype.

But instead of working, I’ve been playing other platformers.

All of these games are free to download and play, and I highly recommend them.