56Kmodern » 2009

Enviro-Bear 2010

56K — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:22:12 +0000

Nature is an endless circle. Four seasons, life, death, high and low tide, you know: that sort of analogy. Enviro-Bear 2010 might be the first game to add the roundabout to those well known symbols. It is, in its own words, a game with a bear in a car. But it is far more than that. It is a futurist manifesto about the relation between nature and technology. And, well, about nature using technology to run over and eat nature. While the basic rules of nature and technology stay intact (hibernation, can’t go into reverse when the car is still moving forwards, food makes you fat), it shows how easily this delicate equilibrium can tip over, creating the worst of two-front wars possible: Nature using technology to fight nature using technology (Two bears in two cars) – with the underlying eternal struggle of nature vs. nature underlying (badgers, food).

Also, bears don’t normally have such flexible and long arms, else they could easily reach up to trees and grab the honey without having to climb clumsily – parking their cars on the hiker’s parking and going home to the city for hibernation.

The Company of Myself

56K — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:21:53 +0000

Intriguing title, although the game is exactly what the title promises. This is an introspective 2D platformer, with a main character who is alone. He is pondering switches, flowers, walls and forcefields. The levels are built like diaries, the somewhat grave soundtrack, combined with the Victorian era clothing of the main character add to the somehow moribund nature and atmosphere of the game. The formal language stays that of a standard platform game. Switches, flowers, walls and forcefields.

Now, what makes the game special isn’t so very special at all anymore, but still special enough to mention: You have to interact with your past self. You are so alone that nobody but yourself can help you. The Company Of Myself. Braid showed us how possible that is, yes. It is nicely implemented, though, the dialog keeps you playing, and soon you will be stacking your current selves on top of your past selves that have faded away for the good cause.

Dot2Hato

56K — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:11:31 +0000

You will have to figure it out for yourself. The metaphors repeat to soon, and it all goes by so quickly. Dot2Hato. A million little pixels, schematic figures and triangles that bring you a little closer to understanding what interactive art might have been before the invention of the computer and might again become some day.

The other games on Yoshio Ishii’s development blog are also very special. He just keeps on inventing, and in almost every single one of his games there is more creative potential than in your average industry title. And more than in your average highly praised Indie game as well.

Today I Die

56K — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:29:30 +0000

A game about the daily choice of waking up or dying. Daniel Benmergui leaves it up to you which part of your possible day you want to explore. The dead part, the painful part, the dark part? After all, life is also a semantic choice. In Today I Die, you are drowning.

All the choices are laid out in front of you, as a jigsaw puzzle of symbols you have to decode. Decode them like it were in a dream. Stay tied to that lethal dream and let the decision that has already been taken evolve. You have to look at things from all possible angles because you have already killed time.

You want to take back your decision? Then you have to fight for it. Caprice is not very highly regarded here. Become the metaphor and survive.

Things I never did

56K — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:38:59 +0000

Oh, how all the beautiful things in life fade away eventually! How all the struggle is in vain! Things I Never Did is Scott Warren‘s take on the baroque subject of vanitas, compiled in a short platform game. You start out as a dynamic young lad with incredible jumping and running skills; no coin is too high up, no ladder is too steep for you, the world is full of opportunities. Things pass by so quickly, you can’t even think of having a look at the big picture, at the greyed out platforms, all that counts is your pleasure.

But things start changing. Your physical strength decreases, you start to become more aware of all the barriers and obstacles you have to overcome, and things that were once important for you start to lose colour and significance. Now all there is left for you to do is think about what you’ve missed. Things I Never Did. And you will never be able to go back and do them.

On this journey of life in 2:00 minutes you are accompanied by a pretty gawky string soundtrack that bears a slight reminiscence of the popular Jeopardy “time is running out” theme. Don’t feel mocked.

Recession

56K — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:16:41 +0000

Navigating a maze in search of shiny treasures is one of the archetypical joys of computer gaming. You avoid monstrous enemies, bag the gold and run. But little did you know how much such an operation can cost – when you add up cargo costs, ammunition, equipment and medical bills, the biggest and most successful treasure hunt can leave you game over.

Francis Coulombe has built a simple platform game, reminiscent of the good old days of labyrinth treasure hunts, around the idea that virtually everything costs money, except walking left and right. You start with a small budget and should immediately go for the really valuable stuff and not waste your time on copper and bronze. Shooting costs money, jumping costs money, enemy collisions cost money.

And, due to those times of global economic instability, Recession has been equipped with another feature that will make you want to make money quick: As time passes, the exchange rate goes down, and soon all those glittering prizes and shiny treasures you collect are not gold anymore.

Recession is currently work-in-progress, once it is finished, I will update sceenshots and links.

RunMan: Race Around The World

56K — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:40:50 +0000

I am a big fan of simple games that are bloated with overly complex theoretical constructs to make them special in a certain way. I like to see video games as a means of transporting intricate social or cultural issues. But sometimes, I only demand of a game to be fast, nice and groovy.

And if that game is so chock-full of fast paced niceness and groovy guitar picking and friendly graphics, I can hardly resist. And if I am then challenged to show that I am the fastest that ever was on earth, I am going to be the first off the mark, believe me! RunMan: Race around The World by the two coolest kids on the block, Tom Sennett and Matt Thorson, challenged me to do so. In every way.

The file header reads “I will be the fastest!”. The helpful information in a convenient textfile reads

RUN! DON’T SLOW DOWN! DON’T HIT THINGS! POP THE BALLOOOOOOOOOOONS

RUN! DON’T SLOW DOWN! DON’T HIT THINGS! POP THE BALLOOOOOOOOOOONS”

The conclusion I draw: Sometimes, you don’t need to read Plato or Aristotle to progress in your personal pursuit of happiness. Sometimes you just have to RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!

Ergon/Logos

56K — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:26:36 +0000

Your first decision: jump or run. You can’t do both. You can not Jump&Run. Genre convention #1 deconstructed along the way, 30 years of continuous jumping and running, gone at a single blow. Molleindustria’s Paolo Pedercini manages to break the strongest and most widespread stereotype about video games so easily in his current work Ergon/Logos, you barely notice it at first. But if you notice, a whole avalanche of game stereotypes are waiting to be explored by you, the one who is in control.

Ergon/Logos captures all the conventions, clichés and, quite surprisingly, even some of the game mechanics of one of the oldest genres in video game history in plain text. As the player, you control the direction of the leading character’s stream of thought. Feeling quite the daredevil today? Great, then jump over pitfalls, grab the lovely maid and do not look left or right, for all your possible failures are already lined up in font size 72 at the side of the path to glory.

But if you feel like exploring the poetry within jumping, running and failing, then please fail. You will not regret it.

$Trade$

56K — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:47:36 +0000

Some years ago, the New York Stock Exchange finally installed a defibrillator. The heart attack rate had become 60 percent higher than the national American average. Good for those dealing in Hewlett-Packard stock: They had recently bought Heartstream Inc., a company specializing in defribrillators.

In $Trade$, there are no defibrillators to save you. Once you’ve ruined your health, the trading fun is over. The latter consists of the most basic bodily functions of a stock broker: buy, sell and sleep. Can you overcome your own greed and stop buying when subprime loans have smashed the stock price? Can you resist selling at outrageously high prices when your health has already dropped below ten, and you are desperately in need for some sleep?

If the answer is no, you should probably stay away from Wall Street. If the answer is yes, stay away from there, too. Why not become a mercenary, or a getaway car driver?

How My Grandfather Won The War

56K — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:35:57 +0000

Old men love to tell stories. About how they got that girl that is now your grandma, how they caught the biggest fish and, of course, how they won the war. Those memories rarely reflect the actual truth, but how could they? Your memories are yours and yours only, and you can remember things any which way you want to.

Bean‘s grandfather remembers things a bit differently. Even more differently than you might have expected. In the cardboard WWII plane epos How My Grandfather Won The War, you make the world good again. Simply by removing or killing evil? No. You paint over it. With your rubber-cord-plane.

A beautiful allegory to rose-colored memories: You are the one who has to rose-colour the past you don’t even remember correctly anymore. Were there really squids?