From Xbox Live Indie Games, comes a tetris/puzzle fighter clone with a nice twist.
14 hours ago
Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts
Friday, January 29, 2010
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Review: Battleships Forever
Battleships Forever is a game in development by 22 year old Singaporean poly grad and indie game developer, Sean "th15" Chan. It was a IGF 2008 Finalist where it received a "Design Innovation Award".
During an interview by GameDev.net, Sean mentions that he initially started making custom maps for Warcraft 3 and then progressed to using Game Maker.
Battleships Forever is a 2D real-time strategy (although it is more tactical, with no resource gathering or diplomacy) where you control multiple spaceships and fight other spaceships. The main feature of it is that each spaceship is built from multiple modules like: turrets with fixed firing arcs, deflector shields, linking structure, etc and each can be individually destroyed. Thus, positioning is very important and you will have to decide between facing your offensive modules or protective modules towards the enemy.
There are currently 17 pre-designed spaceships that you can control and over 50 enemy designs, each with their own weakness and strength. Also, you can create your own custom designs. [Download: wyrdysm.com]
Sean has said that Battleships Forever is inspired by and loosely based on Warning Forever by Hikoza.T.Ohkubo, where the each round had only one boss which evolved based on how you killed it the previous round. [Download: cnet.com]
If you like the concept where spaceships are modularized, then you may wish to also check out another indie game, Captain Forever (US$15) which puts you in control of a single ship that you need to upgrade in battle using part from destroyed enemy spaceships.
"I like games that have depth and strategy to them and as such I try to make intelligent games. As far as possible, my design philosophy is to keep the player engaged all the time and to have a good reason for everything that exists in the game. Every gimmick, every unit, every mechanic is there to encourage a particular play style. When I make games, I think about specific scenarios that I think would be exciting." - Sean
During an interview by GameDev.net, Sean mentions that he initially started making custom maps for Warcraft 3 and then progressed to using Game Maker.
Battleships Forever is a 2D real-time strategy (although it is more tactical, with no resource gathering or diplomacy) where you control multiple spaceships and fight other spaceships. The main feature of it is that each spaceship is built from multiple modules like: turrets with fixed firing arcs, deflector shields, linking structure, etc and each can be individually destroyed. Thus, positioning is very important and you will have to decide between facing your offensive modules or protective modules towards the enemy.
There are currently 17 pre-designed spaceships that you can control and over 50 enemy designs, each with their own weakness and strength. Also, you can create your own custom designs. [Download: wyrdysm.com]
Sean has said that Battleships Forever is inspired by and loosely based on Warning Forever by Hikoza.T.Ohkubo, where the each round had only one boss which evolved based on how you killed it the previous round. [Download: cnet.com]
If you like the concept where spaceships are modularized, then you may wish to also check out another indie game, Captain Forever (US$15) which puts you in control of a single ship that you need to upgrade in battle using part from destroyed enemy spaceships.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Review: I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
This XBox 360 Live Arcade game, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 is my definition of a realy simple yet fun game.
From the title of this game (which is almost the only lyrics of the soundtrack), I think you realise what the creator of this game is implying. Games with zombies are the current fad. So yet another zombie game to join the ranks of Left 4 Dead, Plants vs. Zombies, Killing Floor, Burn, Zombie Burn!, etc
And killing wave after wave of zombies really does feel good. This game is the pure essense of it.
FYI, It's going for just 80 points (or about a dollar).
From the title of this game (which is almost the only lyrics of the soundtrack), I think you realise what the creator of this game is implying. Games with zombies are the current fad. So yet another zombie game to join the ranks of Left 4 Dead, Plants vs. Zombies, Killing Floor, Burn, Zombie Burn!, etc
And killing wave after wave of zombies really does feel good. This game is the pure essense of it.
FYI, It's going for just 80 points (or about a dollar).
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wing Commander Saga
The Wing Commander (WC) series was one of the first few that really got me into PC gaming. I would also speculate it was the reason Sound Blaster sound cards became popular too. The first WC came out almost two decades ago in 1990. Sadly, Origin who developed it is no more.
A while back a group of people got together and began work on a project to make a updated WC game, Wing Commander Saga. Using a modified and enhanced version of the Freespace 2 engine’s source code has been released to the public. It will be set in the same time frame as WC3 where humans and Kiralthi are still at war (and not WC4).
Quite an amazing piece of work from an indie team.
By the way, it will be free to play when it is done. And they expect to be done "soon". They already have a demo ("prologue") out.
While on the topic of WC, there is a "work-in-progress" remake of WC Privateer, named WC Privateer Gemini Gold, that is striving for the same missions and look-and-feel as the original.
This is done by another indie team and also available for free.
A while back a group of people got together and began work on a project to make a updated WC game, Wing Commander Saga. Using a modified and enhanced version of the Freespace 2 engine’s source code has been released to the public. It will be set in the same time frame as WC3 where humans and Kiralthi are still at war (and not WC4).
Quite an amazing piece of work from an indie team.
By the way, it will be free to play when it is done. And they expect to be done "soon". They already have a demo ("prologue") out.
While on the topic of WC, there is a "work-in-progress" remake of WC Privateer, named WC Privateer Gemini Gold, that is striving for the same missions and look-and-feel as the original.
This is done by another indie team and also available for free.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Why start this blog?
Some friends have ask why I have just started this blog about Indie Game Development in Singapore.
After reading some success stories, I have recently decided to give it a try; not for the money but simply because it is something I think I will enjoy doing.
I have been interested in gaming, and not just computer gaming. I have enjoyed playing card games, board games, table-top war games, brain games... you name, I think I played it.
When I was schooling, there were no available game-related courses, so I went into the next closest thing, IT. Got a degree and worked in a few IT companies (including NCS, Mercury Interactive, HP) doing programming, technical support, etc. Nowadays, there are private schools and even universities offering courses in computer game design, both from the computer science and art perspectives. I envision courses from the business perceptive to appear in the next 10 years, as the gaming industry is rapidly becoming more of a serious field of business.
Next question these friends of mine ask will usually be either why or what is Indie? This is a short for for independent, which means without the financial support of a publisher.
Most computer games are so huge and expensive to develop now, that they require huge amount of funding from a publisher (like Electronic Arts, Activision, THQ) in return developers get payed for work done and earn royalties, while the publishers keeps the rest of the profit (which is sometime used to offset games that make a loss). As such, some decision as when to release, what to focus on, etc are out of the control of developers.
Being independent "in my opinion" allows more creativity when designing a game, there is less pressure to keep releasing sequel after sequel just to keep profits high. Also, joining or starting up an indie game company should give a higher chance to be involve in the design process, which is really what I am interested in.
While being involve in making a game by following instructions handed down to me is something I would still enjoy, I would enjoy it a lot better having a part in the game design too. Thus, I am now searching to either join or start up an indie game company here in Singapore
After reading some success stories, I have recently decided to give it a try; not for the money but simply because it is something I think I will enjoy doing.
I have been interested in gaming, and not just computer gaming. I have enjoyed playing card games, board games, table-top war games, brain games... you name, I think I played it.
When I was schooling, there were no available game-related courses, so I went into the next closest thing, IT. Got a degree and worked in a few IT companies (including NCS, Mercury Interactive, HP) doing programming, technical support, etc. Nowadays, there are private schools and even universities offering courses in computer game design, both from the computer science and art perspectives. I envision courses from the business perceptive to appear in the next 10 years, as the gaming industry is rapidly becoming more of a serious field of business.
Next question these friends of mine ask will usually be either why or what is Indie? This is a short for for independent, which means without the financial support of a publisher.
Most computer games are so huge and expensive to develop now, that they require huge amount of funding from a publisher (like Electronic Arts, Activision, THQ) in return developers get payed for work done and earn royalties, while the publishers keeps the rest of the profit (which is sometime used to offset games that make a loss). As such, some decision as when to release, what to focus on, etc are out of the control of developers.
Being independent "in my opinion" allows more creativity when designing a game, there is less pressure to keep releasing sequel after sequel just to keep profits high. Also, joining or starting up an indie game company should give a higher chance to be involve in the design process, which is really what I am interested in.
While being involve in making a game by following instructions handed down to me is something I would still enjoy, I would enjoy it a lot better having a part in the game design too. Thus, I am now searching to either join or start up an indie game company here in Singapore
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