Indie Game Hunt

Energy Hook is the spiritual successor to Treyarch’s Spider-Man 2, the game that got 3-D web-swinging right (and the game IGN called “Grand Theft Spider-Man”). In fact, it is being developed by Jamie Fristrom, who was technical director and designer on Spider-Man 2, and the very person who created the web-swinging mechanics. He also  worked on the awesome Die by the Sword, as well as Torpex Games’ Schizoid, and was the designer of sixty second shooter (Deluxe).

Energy Hook is an all-out action game centered around an extreme sport of the future, in which thrill-seekers use an “energy gauntlet”—a device originally designed for use in construction—to grapple and swing through urban obstacle courses in underground competitions (the first rule of Energy Hook is…) You’ll leap off of skyscrapers, run along building walls, perform aerial tricks, and even use a jetpack.

The game is well along in development, and you can support it in two ways:

1. Vote it up on Steam Greenlight.

2. Pre-order a copy on Kickstarter.

If you peruse the Kickstarter page, you may notice that the campaign’s goal is only $1. This is not a traditional funding campaign; this is really a chance to pre-order the game for $10 (or more), get access to the alpha release, and fund the inclusion of more content. Sounds like a good deal to me!

In Pandora: Purge of Pride, you play as a proper Victorian-era lady named, appropriately enough, Pandora. She is in a spot of trouble after having opened a certain container that her explorer husband brought back from Greece. Now the Seven Deadly Sins have infested their mansion, and it’s up to Pandora to get them back in the box (the jar, actually).

Playing from Pandora’s first-person perspective, you must make your way through the mansion, platforming and solving puzzles. The magic coursing through the house has given you the ability to jump higher and further than normal, and each time you defeat one of the Sins, you are granted an additional power that lets you manipulate objects in a certain way (push or pull, slow down, multiply, etc.) Each power will be essential to solving the next set of puzzles. 

The graphics are gorgeous, drawn in a unique paint and ink style (kudos to artist Jill Sauer). I got a chance to play the PAX demo build, and the gameplay is solid while the puzzles are tricky. The platforming is smoother than most of what I’ve encountered in other first-person games, and the powers are fun to use. Pandora periodically comments on her situation, and the voice acting is genuinely good.

With a cool concept, lovely presentation, and well-designed puzzles, Pandora is a game to which I’m really looking forward. Development team High Class Kitsch has a Kickstarter campaign underway, and they’re seeking a mere $5,000 to help complete the game. 

As of this writing, the team has raised over half the money in pledges, and there is a little less than half of the crowdfunding campaign left to go, so it would be a great time to support them on Kickstarter. There are also some nice stretch goals in store, including Occulus Rift support at $20,000. That mat actually be a bit of a stretch, but the basic goal is definitely attainable.

Go on and pledge; let’s help Pandora get those Sins back in the box! 

Rogue Legacy is up for pre-order, for Windows and Mac (Linux will come later). It’s ten bucks, and you’ll get the soundtrack for free. Pretty good deal, I’d say. 

Rogue Legacy, by the talented crew at Cellar Door Games, is a sidescrolling roguelike-like imbued with the humor and creativity for which the developer is known. Levels are procedurally generated, there are 8 different classes, skill trees, and tons of loot to collect. The “legacy” part of it comes into play when your character dies. Yes, there is permadeath, but your child will carry on adventuring for you. To make things more interesting, your offspring have different genetic traits, ranging from color-blindness to gigantism.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a playable version of this! In the meantime, we can all go vote it up on Steam Greenlight.

Oh, did you catch the shout-out to Cellar Door’s most classic adventure game at the end of the trailer? Nice.

expalt:

Hello! Last weekend at the Toronto Independent Game Jam I (Mathew Kumar, in case you’re lost) and a team of developers—Capy’s Vic Nguyen and Frankie Leung, Andrew Carvalho (previously of Queasy Games) and Shaun Hatton (offsite as “DJ Finish Him”)—created Knight and Damsel, which I describe as a “competitive two-player feminist puzzle platformer.”

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My only question is: When can I play this?!

Moon Rift is a 2.5D platform shooter with procedurally generated levels and weapons. What this means, in practical terms, is there are a gazillion guns, each with different characteristics and effects.

Guns will come in handy as you scour a ravaged earth for fragments of the shattered moon. You see, the moon was riven by a terrible cataclysm and bits of it have fallen to the earth, causing pockets of chaos to erupt. Naturally, this means you’ll have to kill a lot of different things. Told you guns would come in handy!

You’ll gain experience and level up. You’ll learn new abilities and get access to higher-level guns. In addition, each moon fragment can be refined into a moon stone, which can then be used to power yourself up some more, or to alter an ability you already have. 

Developer Sam Hutcher’s done all the code, art, and sound for this game himself, and I’m excited about the results. Moon Rift will be released on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. The expected release date is November of 2013. Check out the official Moon Rift website, and pledge your support on Kickstarter. 

kanyequest3030:

Check out the new Alpha Trailer!

Alpha coming May 12 2013.

This trailer has been submitted to the Release Something Weekend event on RPGMaker.net.

Kanye West finds himself teleported via wormhole to the dystopian world of 3030, where he must do battle with clones of long-dead rappers and find his way home. Genius. 

Kanye Quest 3030 is a freeware game being made in RPG Maker VX Ace. I can’t wait to play the alpha release (hopefully) later this month!

Follow the game’s development on tumblr and on on rpgmaker.net.

Freaky Green Sunshine just became one of my favorite projects on Steam Greenlight. It looks reminiscent of something like Shadow Complex, which is a good thing, but dig all of the different and disparate gameplay elements going on in this video. And that music really does it for me, too.

The creation of GrimArch Studios, Freaky Green Sunshine is a story-based action/adventure game made with the Unreal Development Kit. Some of the awesome features include day/night and weather cycles, an upgrade system, environmental interaction, memorable characters, voiced dialogue, and puzzle-like boss fights.

The story is complex and a little insane. It begins when a helicopter crashes into your living room and entangles you in a plot involving brainwashing, the mysterious Abbage Foundation (manufacturer of foundation makeup), and an alien planet orbiting Earth—exuding the green light that gives the game its title.

The humor, creativity, and energy on display in this game make me happy. Vote it up on Steam Greenlight and follow its development on IndieDB.

Here are some screenshots from Ivan Zanotti’s A Case of Stress, which I previewed before. It’s a game about a game developer who plays a game. Notice the two different perspectives in the shots: top-down 2nd person and 1st person POV. I’m guessing that the majority of these images represent the game-within-the-game played by the main character.

Consider yourself tantalized. I certainly am, The (real life) developer has assured me that a release of the first episode of A Case of Stress is imminent. My breath is bated! 

Hey, isn’t it about time Jake Clover released a new game? Well, it’s certainly time to post a video of another of Clover’s works-in-progress. This one is currently titled Super Racing and, yes, it’s a racing game—one as only Jake Clover could deliver. Your goal is simply to keep your car ahead of the pink dotted line, and you’ll be smashing other cars off the road in order to do this. The explosions are spectacular (Clover always does such pretty destruction) and there is a convincing quality to the way the cars move. The roaring engines are loud, and the impacts feel solid. This is one of the nicest looking 2-D racing games I’ve seen. 

C’mon Jack, release it!