You know that annoying person who likes to say that there's nothing new under the sun?
Well slap 'em. And then show them Dream of Pixels.
Human history is the history of innovation. We've always built on existing ideas to create something entirely new. It's what we do and it's why life never gets boring.
Dawn of Play, the team behind Dream of Pixels, took Tetris, turned it upside down - both literally and figuratively - and created something entirely new.
A wall of blocks moves down the screen. A single tetris piece appears in the top left of the screen. Taping anywhere on the wall removes that shape so long as it can fall off the bottom of the screen - it can't be blocked by a block below. Keep chopping away to remove full lines and buy yourself more time. If the screen fills up you loose.
That's it. It's beautiful. And it's great. Play it.
Dream of Pixels is available on iOS and Android for free with ads, or for €2.15 (on GooglePlay at least).
Eliss Infinity released today on iOS. The iPad/iPhone puzzler was inspired by the simplicity of Tetris according to one-man developer Steph Thirion (@stephbysteph).
You can watch an excerpt from the Indie Game The Movie special edition below about Thirion, his inspiration and his struggle to get the game finished.
Eliss was an early iOS game, using multi-touch in innovative ways. Now it's back - the full original game with a new endless mode and various tweeks. It's hard to explain but difficult to put down - watch the video and if you like what you see you can pick it up in the app store for €2.69.
Bastion’s most distinguishing feature is also its weak point. The game’s narrative style conspires with bite-sized level design to undermine an otherwise excellent experience.
Image: supergiantgames.com
Bastion was the debut release from Supergiant Games. But it was also their second, third and fourth title. Since its launch on XBox Live Arcade in July 2011 the game has surfaced multiple times, first on Chrome, then through Steam and most recently on iPad.
Becasue of this protracted release schedule, the game has generated quite a bit of buzz.
And not without good reason. Bastion may seem like a straight-forward brawler, but it hides a few surprises.
Image: supergiantgames.com
It’s stunningly beautiful for a start, with strong vibrant colours and detailed (if slightly sluggish) animations. The game’s art-style is impeccable, at times reminiscent of 16-bit Japanese work at its best. Think Chrono Trigger but with a distinctly modern style.
The game-world responds dynamically to player action, emerging out of the void and building up brick by brick as you progress. It's visually striking and masks the linear nature of the levels.
And it's all in service of the game's story. Bastion is set in a world destroyed. It's up to the protagonist to make that world whole again. He’s literally pulling the environment back together again around him. And piecing together the history of the land and the calamity that destroyed it.
Image: supergiantgames.com
So far so archetypal-hero-on-a-quest-to-save-the-world. What sets Bastion apart is its storytelling. This isn't gameplay book-ended with a few lines of dialogue. An unreliable narrator in a one-sided conversation with an unknown individual describes your every action as you progress.
And occasionally it works. One scene revels the hero’s background; a series of combat scenarios crafted to represent the nightmares he has about his past. The short section is compelling, both in gameplay terms and in the ideas it communicates. It’s a rare moment of concentrated storytelling from the developer.
When extended across the seven or so hours you’ll spend with Bastion the conceit breaks down. Games are most often played in fits and starts; in the stolen hours a person finds where they can. Bastion's short levels lend themselves to that style of play but the complexities of the story are at odds with the design.
Image: supergiantgames.com
It isn't always possible to make time for a game. Bastion’s form of storytelling places too much responsibility on the player to engage with it.
Important plot points are buried in frantic combat scenarios, or in moments while the player is otherwise distracted by the environment or the art.
This form of embedded story isn't always suited to the medium of videogames. It works best where the player is actively engaged with it; exploring abandoned homes on Halflife 2’s Highway 17 for example. Rather than communicating with you, Bastion is talking at you. The narrator speaks whether you care to listen to him or not.
Image: supergiantgames.com
Worse yet Supergiant Games change Bastion’s rules on occasion to cater to the story. In a scene towards the end of the game, the protagonist effectively becomes invincible in service of an idea intended to be impactful, but which comes across as annoying drudgery.
It would be unfair to knock Bastion for trying something new in a medium dominated by mindless shooters but Supergiant may have bitten off more than they could chew with this novel approach to story-telling. The quality achieved in every other aspect of this debut title only makes the failure of the story to hit home that bit more unfortunate.
Niamh Houston wasn't even born when the Game Boy launched in 1989. But that hasn't stopped her creating music with the aging hardware. Using the stage-name Chipzel her work recently featured in the iOS hit, Super Hexagon. The game sold over 10,000 copies in its first three days.
Sometimes things don't go according to plan. This blog was supposed to catalogue a year of intense retro gaming. This was meant to be my opportunity to catch up on all those classics I've missed. Instead I'm living out of a hotel in Singapore. A plesent experience no doubt, but not conducive to gaming. Now on my third weekend here I find myself slightly under the weather. I'm cooped up inside rather than out seeing the sites. So I've dipped into my Steam account and tested the waters with a couple of gems. One old, one new, both thoroughly enchanting.
Pretty Sweet, no?
Singapore is a city of contrasts. It's population is diverse. Its streets hide hindu temples, British colonial facades and modern towers of glass and steel. The rich are rich and the poor are poor, but the same could be said of anywhere. The people are obsessed with technology - Samsung and Apple branded tablets and phones are everywhere, but oddly gaming has almost no visible presence. Except, of course, for that guy in my office with the plushy cactaursitting on his desk. None of this bothers me of course. I'm not in the market for new releases. The lack of Gamestops littering shopping centres is no concern of mine. I've got Steam loaded up with classics from the Hackett Out pile of shame. But where do I begin? Two Player Productions are documenting the making of Double Fine Adventure. It's Tim Shafer's latest(Monkey Island, Grim Fandango) and it's being funded through Kickstarter. The passion of the Double Fine team is something else and while watching it, I've been thinking about their 2006 release, Psychonauts. I bought Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil and Shadow of the Colossus all on day one. I take nerd-pride in having sought out these much loved but under-played classics. Psychonauts is another one of thosegames. Of course, I didn't own an original XBox. That's my excuse, but it's been six years. Never having played Psychnauts is damaging my street cred.
Psychonauts's clunky camera and overwraught opening hour did drive me towards a more carefully designed modern release however and I'm now playing them both. Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP is something of a revelation on PC. I played the original iOS release but it bored me. I lately took to lsitening to Jim Guthrie's simply outstanding soundtrack and it drew me back to the game. The control implimentation for mouse is lacking, most notably in combat where I would have tweaked the configuration somewhat, but seeing the Superbrothers artwork on a 13" rather than a 4.3" screen has made all the difference. The care and love that exudes from every aspect of the game is tangible.
I'll be back to outline my thoughts on Psychonauts. I'm here for another five weeks, rattling around this hotel suite. In between swimming in the roof-top pool, sipping beers in street-side bars and eating delectable €2 meals from the hawker centres, I'm sure I'll fit in the time to complete Double Fine's platformer. And maybe work through Deus Ex too. That is, of course, if the outstanding 10000000 on iOS doesn't eat up my every waking second. Get it!
Progress. I’ve gotten my hands on a new console, and this weekend I’ll try rescuing the old one. I’ve also had a look at my shelves to see where I should begin working through the backlog.
Here’s a list of the titles I’ll be digging into over the next few months. I've at least started the vast majority but a few have never been touched. Some, I invested quite some time into before getting bored or distracted. I abandoned others because they were too difficult. It’s been 17 years and I still haven’t finished The Revenge of Shinobi. A few simply outstayed their welcome - good ideas strained through repetition.
Some of the games on this list are a source of embarrassment. I haven’t finished Super Mario Brothers, for example. I’ve never played Super Metriod or Deus Ex or Psychonauts. I consider myself a well rounded gamer and these are blatant gaps in my knowledge that I look forward to filling.
But they’re not all gems. There are games on this list that I don’t want to go back to. Final Fantasy XII and Prince of Persia (2008) were both unique takes on their respective series’ but were largely largely uninspired. I sunk hours into both in good faith but they just never clicked.
Any suggestions? There are over 40 games listed below. Even if they aren’t all classics, I certainly won’t run out of things to do:
