The Summer of the Gnomes

The first Bundle In A Box is over, I took a few (tiring yet wonderful) days off and now I'm joyfully returning to my dear and humble Gnome's Lair. And do I have things piled up for you to enjoy dear and most loyal of readers! First of all there will be reviews; reviews of games I love and am taking my time with.

Reviews of such generally brilliant offerings as The Sea Will Claim Everything, Resonance, A Valley Without Wind, Dark Scavenger, Unity of Command, The Journey Down and maybe a few more. I will though change the way I review or write about stuff as I frankly don't really feel like judging games as products; not that I ever did, but I sure feel like it sometimes felt like I did.

What's more, I'm thinking of writing a few articles on older games, designing games and other less news-oriented stuff, which I'm mostly keeping for my delightful job over at the IndieGames Blog.

Oh, and as I am actually working on a couple of games with Kyttaro Games and our next bundles, I'll try and see whether I can finally release a small, personal game during this very summer. Not particularly optimistic on this front, but, well, one can always hope.

That's all for now I suppose. Cheers reader!

A Post-Bundle Lair

The good news is that the very first Bundle In A Box is successfully over and that I have already started working on the next bundle. The excellent news, on the other hand, is that I will actually be taking a few days off, hopefully away from all sorts of digital devices. Before I go though, here are a couple of newsbits I'd like to share:

Jonas Kyratzes has finally unveiled the excellent Lands of Dream site, where he has also made sure even the misguided souls that missed the bundle can buy the utterly brilliant The Sea Will Claim Everything. Oh, and do expect a detailed review of the game some time during the summer.

The indie-loving, game-designing Captain D has released (for the negligible price of $0.99)

Captain Disaster: The Compact eBook Edition. The book comes filled with 11 short stories and something tells me it will have something to do with a forthcoming indie adventure game.

Now, if you'll excuse, I have to pack. See you all in a few days!

The Box Is About to Close

Well, it was exhausting and it wont be over for another 20 or so hours, but I have to admit that helping run Bundle In A Box - Adventure Bundle was rather exciting. Also exhilarating and at certain times bordering on infuriating. Still, I do believe we managed to put on a great bundle with some excellent games, that will hopefully help both the charity we had chosen and indie developers themselves.

Now, there are two things I want to ask of you precious reader: vote on the Indie Dev Grant poll and help us spread the word for those final hours of the bundle. It's not as if every mainstream site mentioned it or anything...

Thanks!

Adventure Lantern In A Box

The June issue of adventure gaming's finest online magazine (yes, yes, that would indeed be Adventure Lantern) has arrived and can be downloaded for free over at the mag's site. 

The issue sports an interview with your truly regarding a certain bundle, an amazing interview with Chris Jones on the forthcoming Tex Murphy, a chat with Steve Hoogendyk on Lilly Looking Through, a fine selection of news and reviews of The Sea Will Claim Everything, The Journey Down HD,  Ben There, Dan That! and Dead Mountaineer's Hotel.

A fine and varied read indeed, I'm sure you would agree. Wouldn't you reader dear? Good.

Smudged Cat Games (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

David of Smudged Cat Games, an indie PC and XBLIG games developer, has written games like The Adventures of Shuggy, Timeslip and Gateways, but feels he's never really managed to reach a wider audience. He'd love the grant in order to be able to carry on making the indie games he loves. Games like a sequel to Shuggy.

"Unfortunately sales of my games aren't really strong enough for me to do so much longer", says David and goes on to add: "I've got a baby now so it's looking ever more likely that I'll need to abandon indie development and get a 'regular' job. Give me the grant and help me continue to make great games like Gateways".

Novastar (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Nathan of Binary Freeze is applying for the Indie Dev Grant, as he's trying to start developing indie games full time. He's been learning programming, graphic design, and music composition, with a heavy emphasis on developing games for almost 9 years now. What's more, he's getting married on June 9th, and in the coming fall his wife and he will be starting a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration majoring in Entrepreneurship, specifically for starting an indie game studio.

Recently Nathan released Arena of Fire on Microsoft's Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace. Designed as a test, it was his first game developed on Windows and he wanted to go through a complete development-release cycle.

Lately, Nathan has been working on a top-down space exploration action-adventure game codenamed Novastar. Its major focuses are missions, exploration, and space combat. Some planned features include: 4-6 coalitions (2 major, 2 minor, 2 other), lots of spaceships to purchase or commandeer, many weapons and ship upgrades, and multiple singleplayer storyline endings. He's also been wanting to add online multiplayer and missions to accommodate 2+ cooperating players. Although he has developed a physics engine, he does not yet have the resources to focus on this as a major feature. Moreover, he seems to be running out of time.

"With getting married, and moving in the middle of June, I can't afford to continue pursuing my passion of development full-time. I hope to get funded so that I can continue on my game, and provide a great resource for others", says Nathan.

He then adds: "Finally, one of my dreams, in being a game developer, is to empower and help realize the dreams of my family and friends. My sister is an aspiring sci-fi novelist. I have hired her and given her the creative freedom to do the storyline, history, and background. This has the possibility of turning into a short novels project, and the higher development of a sci-fi world. And again, I've been in contact with a music composer, whom I quote, 'I just think it would be cool to be able to have my stuff in a video game!'".

Here is an early video of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v8FETS6R08&feature=youtu.be.

Perling (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Chris is working on a game codenamed Perling. It is an 8-directions arcade shooter based in a completely randomly generated world (the name comes from the Perlin noise generator). The world is randomly populated with various things and the way in which they behave is also randomly generated (as a crude example, a dog might be really aggressive towards you on one level, or, a crab might try its hardest to get set on fire and chase after anything). The levels will also feature randomly generated quests.

All of this is generated by the level name the player specifies at the start. This can be a single word, or a full-on sentence. 

Chris likes the idea that people will, through experimentation, find really fun levels and share them with friends. Something along the lines of "You should totally play 'Secret Cow Level', there's this island full of dogs and if you get too close, they vomit up cats and then fight amongst themselves!".

Here is a very early glimpse of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kme3ZKx26w. 

The game in being created in Monkey and is aiming for a XBLIG, PC/Mac, Android, iOS and PS Vita release.

As for the grant... On to Chris: "I guess I am not comfortable saying I SHOULD get the grant, but I'd certainly love to get it :) I work on Perling part time and I would really love to be able to work on it full time. I am trying to scrape some money together that will leave me secure financially for a few months and this would certainly help".

Spellirium (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Ryan Henson and Untold Entertainment would apparently love to be the recipients of the Indie Dev Grant. They are working on a graphic adventure / word puzzle hybrid called Spellirium, which handily can be found over at http://www.spellirium.com. 

According to Ryan the game is shaping up nicely, but it's very slow-going, and the team has to keep taking contract work while trying to squeeze out enough of a margin to keep working on Spellirium. "Most of the time, the contract work we take is just barely enough to keep the lights on, so Spellirium sits collecting dust. We were originally funded by the Ontario government to work on Spellirium, but the project scope and our own admitted lack of experience running large-scale projects saw the money run out quickly with very little to show for it" says Ryan. Now that they are apparently back on track, they're dedicated to being far more careful with money and project management. 

As for the game itself it takes a fun word-building grid and folds it into a puzzle-based adventure story. To shear a sheep, you have to spell synonyms for "cut": TRIM, CLIP, CHOP, TRIM, etc. To defeat a two-headed monster, you have to spell palindromes. To turn a wheel, you have to spell words across, down, back and up in a circular motion. To defeat a green monster, you have to spell words using only the green tiles. These challenges are all tied into a story about a post-apocalyptic world that's been busted back to the Dark Ages, where reading and writing have been outlawed. You play Brother Todd, an apprentice Runekeeper, who is tasked with curating a secret underground library of "findage" with writing on it. When the other Runekeepers go missing and one turns up dead, it's up to Todd and his motley band of companions to unravel the mystery. 

Spellirium: It's the End of the Word as We Know It.

Dwarf Miner (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Triston has thrown his hat in for the Indie Dev Grant! The project for his entry will be the first game he has ever made and one that he has been developing on the side in his spare time: Dwarf Miner. You can already play the work-in-progress demo of the game and read a post on the Stencyl community forums about it here.

Why does he need the grant though? Well, for obvious reasons: "This grant would afford me the ability to not only work on the game more;  I'd also be able to hire a a couple people to help with art and music".

Karst (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Minionworks Games are a small basement operation in Victoria, BC (Canada). They have been working full-time for just over a year now on their headliner game, Karst. It's a first-person physics puzzle game, with a survival-game ambiance and unique graphics. 

Here's what they are saying: "We really love what we're doing, and will keep making games we think you'll love for as long as we can; but we could use your help. For more information on us and our games, check out our site".

Head of the Gorgon (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Project Overboard is all about creating Head of the Gorgon, which is a graphic adventure game re-telling of the myth of Perseus, with a visual style that matches ancient Greek blackfigure pottery. It will be very faithful to the myth, but also pretty jokey. It can also be described as The Greekest of Monkey Islands. 

All of the money for Head of the Gorgon will go to charity.

Find out more about it by watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On4qdBc3gzE.

Backworlds (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Juha Kangas is one of the developers on a game called Backworlds (www.backworlds.com). The team were nominated for the 2012 Independent Propeller Awards in three categories and also selected for the Nordic Game 2012 Indie Night. There is a trailer of the game you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auZ4Llk3EAU.

Juha is "interested in the grant so that I can continue working on this game as much as possible, as I will otherwise have to start working full-time for others and thereby having less time for Backworlds. My co-developer already works full-time on other things, but he will continue with that and have Backworlds as a hobby".

45 A Day Project (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Ben Simms is working on a game that, as you can see from this link, is progressing along nicely. It obviously bears resemblance to Jetpack Joyride, but, unlike Jetpack, Ben wants to make a game that appeals to both old school gamers wanting a story and social gamers wanting something to pick up and play. The game will try and stand out based on its unique story, themed acts and ranking system.

Laser Missile Bomb (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Tyler Owen is the sole developer (artist, programmer, and designer) for a puzzle game called Laser Missile Bomb which he's frantically trying to finish. The game is aiming to be unlike any puzzle game out there right now, and you can play its early beta version over at www.lasermissilebomb.com.

Here's what Tyler also let the BIAB team know: "If I were to get the grant I would be able to release the game without the need for a sponsor and I could pay the composer for his continuing work on the music. There are currently 13 levels in the beta demo, but I have plans to release 25-30 in the final version".

Fallen Light (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.] 

Andrew Pelzer is working on Fallen Light; an ambitious, multi-platform 2D-sidescroller RPG using the Construct 2 engine that will hopefully break the barriers dividing casual and hardcore players.The focus of the game is on giving tools to the players so that they can form their own enjoyable experience, roam and interact with the world, and actually craft both their experience and even the world itself. Said game world will be built from the ground up offering an incredibly flexible and deep storyline.

Fallen Light is aiming at providing with a strong story, a great game and a rich community, while serving as a learning tool for the developer and a showcase of both Construct 2 and HTML5. The game will most probably be released for free and the grant will provide it with the funds required for assets, domains, security, servers, promotion and extra developers.

Here are some noteworthy features the game will strive for:

- Modified Personality System : Based on how you treat the world around you, the world itself will evaluate your actions and respond.

- Point System : Straying from the stale Strength or Intelligence this system has been expanded. Several places to enter points offering huge character customization and fine-tuning options.

- High Level Characters : Level caps being set too low cause characters to not branch out enough from one another. Content will spread out throughout the game discouraging the formation of end-game necessity.

- Classes with Depth : Instead of declaring yourself a Warrior, Rogue or Mage, new systems are being focused on, that will let you choose a more flexible layout for your character.

- Freedom with Consequence : Being latched down and forced to move as the game wants you to is just you watching your character play. Break from that. With no defined path you are your own legend. Make yourself worth being told. However, make sure you plan ahead because the game will fight back.

Visit the Fallen Light facebook page at http://facebook.com/fallenlight.

Sevnborne: Fortress of the Demon King (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Zed (@dedhedzed), whose real name isn't exactly Zed and who runs the Games by Zed site is apparently throwing himself "upon the mercy of the voting public to try and salvage a career from the wreck that is [his] daily life... Bloody hell, that sounds depressing, doesn’t it? Must lighten that up".

Happily he did lighten the mood by reminding us of his most famous game so far: the Intense Staring Simulator. He then added: "I’m relatively well-known for entering Ludum Dare, multiple times, and other such gamejam things. I do a lot of ‘messing about’, which goes a long way to explaining why I am where I am, career-wise. I’ve never had the time or resources to be able to sit down for an extended period and develop one title to full ‘commercial’ quality, which is something I’m optimistically hoping to rectify, with the Indie Dev Grant".

The game he is submitting is called Sevnborne: Fortress of the Demon King. It’s a narrative-driven, dungeon crawling twin-stick shooter that owes a lot stylistically to Gauntlet and Smash TV, and thematically to Terry Pratchett’s universally loved Discworld series. 

Here’s a breakdown of its key features:

·         Fast-paced twin-stick shooting action, with pickups and three levels of attack power for added depth and strategy.

·         A whopping 200 levels, with (technically) 200 more in a ‘remixed’ European Extreme difficulty mode, which offers a complete overhaul of enemy placement and challenge, rather than just bumping up the enemy’s ‘HP’ stat.

·          Hundreds of optional collectibles ranging from jewellery to weapons, and hand-written notes, each with a robust and comedic description.

·         A (hopefully) well-written, comedic plot with fully voice-acted dialogue in several inter-level cutscenes, telling the story of ‘Raika Sevnborne’, an orphan and wizard’s apprentice who must leave his relatively comfortable home life, where his biggest challenge is washing up dishes, to rescue his Master from the malicious Demon King Malleus, all with his transgender demon sprite friend Pixie in tow.

·         20 boss fights and 15 original enemies for added variety throughout the monstrously large number of levels.

The current state of the game is basically a debug room that shows off the main gameplay mechanics, allowing you to spawn enemies in a safe environment. Watch an early video of the project here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK9rMa55WiI&feature=youtu.be 

Under the Ocean (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Under the Ocean (link) will be a direct sequel to Under the Garden and is being developed by Paul Greasley and Michael Reitzenstein with music from Chris T Geehan. It will of course be a platformer/survival game and it will use all the grants it can get to be an even better game.

Have a look at two devlog videos:  Part 1 & Part 2. Oh, and do visit http://underthegarden.com.

Dungeon Hearts (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Christopher Pavia, the artist/designer/programmer for Dungeon Hearts, is asking for a bit of funding to help him hire people for the parts of the process he's not so great at. He maintains a development blog over at www.cube-roots.com where you can see plenty of artwork and find out quite a bit about the game.

Dungeon Hearts could best be described as a blend of the ever-escalating pace of Canabalt, the puzzle/action hybrid style of Puzzle Quest, and the nostalgia of old-school Japanese RPG’s such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. A brave party of adventurers dashes quickly from battle to battle, using a match-3 puzzle system to defeat their opponents. Mastering the balance between offense and defense is key. Between each battle, the player must quickly level up the warriors, as each encounter is more difficult than the last. As the party wades through wave after wave of enemies, they must adapt to the twists and turns thrown at them as the gameplay evolves. If they can survive long enough, they may encounter the Dark One himself! 

Here's a most enlightening development video.

Untitled Metroidvania/RPG (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.] 

Dustin Booher is currently working on a still unnamed open world, metroidvania RPG, but, as his puts it, "at 0$ my funding is a little low". The Indie Dev Grant could thus really make all the difference in the world. Oh, and the game is to be heavily inspired by Cave Story.

It's A Ruff Life (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Stephen Sanders (Design/Script/Programming/Voices), Jake Singer (Color) and Elizabeth Drybread (Art) are working on It's A Ruff Life; a family friendly adventure that aims to entertain children and parents alike in the same way the old Humongous Entertainment adventures did.

It's all about a young puppy named Alfie on an adventure to find his tennis ball. The game will come with a lively cast of characters including Meekers the mouse, Nikita the kitty, and Colonel Butsnifs, owner of a giant doghouse next door to Alfie.

As for the Indie Dev Grant? Well and to quote, it "would allow us to buy better software and equipment in order to bring better quality voices and music to the game. It would allow us to hire a musician to score the game. Also, it would allow us to make making this game our job and thus give us more time to work on the game and shorten the production cycle in order to get it done faster".

Here's an audio promo: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25802922/RuffLifeVoicePromo.mp3

Jack Houston and the Necronauts (Indie Dev Grant)

[Gnome's Lair and the Kyttaro Games blog are presenting the Indie Dev Grant nominees that Bundle In A Box will be funding. Voting for the indie dev that will get the grant will begin on Monday June 4.]

Warbird Games and game-loving* film writer/director Stacy Davidson (of Shadow of Lost Citadel and Star Wars fan-adventure Han Solo Adventures fame) are working on a 1950's pulp sci-fi inspired point & click adventure experience called Jack Houston and the Necronauts! 

What will they do with the grant money? Well, here's what Stacy told us: "I will be able to pay artists to help visualize the world, a world class composer (who happens to be a good friend of mine and will give me a tremendous break!) to record a riveting score, voice talent to contribute to the characters and, quite frankly, I will be able to put aside my video work and go full time designing and coding Jack Houston without starving and having my lights turned off!"

*Has tested games for Origin Systems in the QA department where he served on the teams for games like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Ultima Online & Ultima Ascension. Later still, he joined GarageGames and contributed to the 3D modeling on Jeff Tunnel's update of The Incredible Machine titled Chain Reaction.