Square is a small experimental flash game made by Etienne Perin. A little variation of the “Snake-game” category. In Square you do not fight against the length of your own tail like in Snake-games, but against black blocks on the field and time constraints. A well executed and fun to play game. Just check it out.
Monday, 8th August 2011 – this is the day, the game Trauma from Krystian Majewski will be finally available in the public! I already played the game and enjoyed this unconventional gaming experience very much. And I think you will do as well.
We continue with the good news: The game Trauma is available for Win PC, Mac OS-X and Linux systems. The game is available in Steam as well (including Mac). And the game is available for only 5 Euros and with no DRM. That sounds like a fair deal!
Here is the official website traumagame.com, Twitter-Account @traumagame and a little bit of pre-release chit-chat at Krystian’s GameDesignScrapbook-blog.
PS: You can experience this game at the Notgames Festival on the 15. / 16. August 2011. In the CologneGameLab, just at the same time the GDC Europe and Gamescom is in town!
Just in case that you missed this app: don’t miss this app! It’s the newest artistic approach from Björk, who decided to walk new ways once again. Not only musical, but also in the format of choice: The new album “Biophilia” comes as a whole iOS app (so iPhone, iPod and iPad). It tells a story about the universe, the creation of it and is very strange and unique. The app itself is something like a 3d-browsable small universe, where you can visit stars and planets that represent the single tracks from the album.
But there is more to it! Every track has lots of information like lyrics, background text, a visual music score with lyrics (!) and also a music score of each single track to play along (!!). On top, there will be a special-made mini-game or interactive animation for each single track. The app comes with one initial track for free. All other tracks will be available by in-app purchases. There is the option to pre-order all tracks and mini-games for 7.99 Euro as in-app purchase.
Just in case you missed the beta of the game FRACT: just don’t miss it. FRACT is a somehow abstract adventure game, that plays in a virtual world, reminding of TRON or something like The Sentinel, Rez or Darwinia. It is not only the look, but excellence also comes from the sound-design. Extremely well made sounds totally support the games experience. (The game was selected as one of the Independent Games Festival student showcase winners as well.)
For my opinion the riddles are a little too abstract, but walking through this designed landscape alone is worth the try. The beta is available for download the the FRACT website, is available for Mac or PC (and is about 170 Megabytes, just in case you ask). The game was made by Richard E. Flanagan, linger in his portfolio as well!! (via)
Once again Cologne, once again “digital games meets art, culture and business”: In November 2011 the second edition of the “Next Level Conference” will take place at the Abenteuerhallen Kalk – a very nice locations, that hosts the demosceneparty Evoke as well, the Gloria Theater and the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum. In panels, performances and workshops you will learn lot about games, art, sound, teaching with games and the business around games as well. Next Level is about connecting creatives and supporting artful use of the medium game. One partner this year is the SoundTrack_Cologne, who care about music and sound in films and games. Read all about the festival-program at the opulent Next Level Conference Website.
CityHero, the game that you play with your friends and your city, is finally available in the AppStore! The game is a little like a mix of Foursquare (checkin-based stuff), Monopoly (become the greatest and richest) and Sim City (build the most interesting town). One of the main goal is, to build the city with the highest value. You also play with your friends: if with them or against them – this depends on your choice! There is a global hiscore-list and a hiscore-list of your friends.
Gameplay: You basically do checkins at real places to earn virtual money: the so called coins. With that coins you can buy yourself real-places in the city, that go directly into your personal virtual portfolio: displayed as iso-view. Now every item in your city has a coin-value – calculated upon the number of actual checkins. So the price of each item in your portfolio changes every day! At the same time: if somebody checks-in at a place you own, you will earn some money automatically. So having popular places is the key, to get successful in the game.
Socialize yourself: CityHero is also a social tool. You can use CityHero, to check-in at Facebook Places, Foursquare or post your checkins to Twitter. You can browse your surroundings and get dynamic information, i.e. from Facebook. You can also use CityHero to check, if your friends are nearby. So lots of stuff to explore!
I am one of the developers and co-founders of CityHero, so there is a very good chance, that you get exclusive and news early on CityHero on this blog Digital Tools – besides the CityHero-Website, CityHero-Twitter or the CityHero-Facebook page.
Right at the moment, the app is currently available only with a German UI. That means, that you can play the game on the whole world, but the UI is in German. But we are already working on the localisation of the UI in other languages.
Gameduino is currently a Kickstarter-funded-project. It is a game-controller concept, that is build upon the open-source Arduino microcontroller-platform.
“Gameduino connects your Arduino to a VGA monitor and speakers, so anyone who can write an Arduino sketch can create video games. It’s packed full of 8-bit game goodness: hundreds of sprites, smooth scrolling, multi-channel stereo sound.”
This sounds great. You can still support this project by spending funds at Kickstarter.
(via)
