Just strip off the artsy-fartsiness and you're left with a platform game in which the character has triple jump and gliding capabilities. For each level, after you get to explore it a bit, eventually you come across 3 items. You then have to retrace your steps back to the start of the level, but you have a different set of rules (go back quick, don't touch the darkness that suddenly covers most of the level etc). It's this last bit that made the game interesting for me really; you can replay the game with different choices each time.

I'll admit that I'm not exactly sure how much of the game is altered depending on your choice, but it's a very interesting concept I think, and requires some skilled level design.

Anyway, nice gfx, above average mechanics, nice innovation and the music was alright too.

Do the screenshots look glitchy? Well, that's because the game is like that. It's a 3D game, you get this low poly girl walking around the rooms, trying to find the exit (and some red orbs along the way). All the action is being watched by security cameras, hence the washed out video effects. It actually looks much better in-game (plus it covers most of the code's glitches ;)).

Thankfully even though the cameras are in fixed positions like alone in the dark, at least they rotate, tracking the character as it moves around the rooms, making it much easier to navigate. Because of the fish-eye effect of the camera though, you get some distortions and might find some turns difficult to perform. Especially when you get to some levels with narrow pathways (falling over them = instant death) it becomes frustrating. Another problem that was very apparent while I was playing was the low frame rate I got in this netbook, but that's my own tough shit I suppose! (a couple of rooms were very difficult though, and the low frame rate didn't help at all).

Anyway, I played it to the end and liked it. It's a very bare bones game, without tons of background scenario and whatnot. Instead of a big budget game which has lots of boring in-between areas you have to travel through, in this game you get straight to the juicy level bits and try to finish them. No jumping is involved, just walking around (and sometimes avoiding some enemy drones).

And that's it I suppose :)

A really nice point'n'click adventure in claymation. Neverhood fans, dig in. The rest, stay clear!

A game for the observant people, look around the level, find hints for a 3-digit number and enter it to unlock the next one. Lots of creativity there - nothing too difficult but still a nice challenge :)

(on a side note, Unity games these days tend to stress out my laptop a lot - and it's not a good laptop to begin with)

And, to wrap it up for this LD, here's another weird one: Instead of a single character jumping around platforms, this time you control lots of them, one at a time, throwing a single item around, trying to make it reach its destination. Different characters have different walking speeds and throw curves, so the puzzles become really interesting really soon. Love the gameplay :)

Play

Can't get enough of platformers, me (or so it would seem :)).

Great co-op platformer in which both characters have extra abilities and both lack something the other character has. Nice puzzles in there, it kept me entertained during the whole game.

Run, jump, avoid stuff, rearrange blocks so you can reach unreachable platforms, and that's it! Minimalistic artwork, but the end bit was funny, worth playing it just for that alone :)

Right, Back to LD48 :)

Run, jump, stop time, step on everything while time is stopped without dying, and that's just about it. I really like the ambiance this game has, reminded me a lot of Another world. Story's nice as well.

A very original concept, a capital I whose vertical bar you can change the size using up and down. Turns out you can use that as a mechanic for jumping and avoiding objects. Couple that with some fun levels and sort-of-narrative between screens ("Then...", "Thus...", "A few seconds later...") and you get a very interesting game :)

Oh crap, I still haven't finished with my LD faves and there are some newer nice games.Oh well, I suppose I'll catch up with them somehow.

This one's nice. Simple concept that combines the basic platformer gameplay with the PacMan wrap around points. Enjoyable :)

Another click-on-screen-to-help-the-character-reach-the-end-of-the-level-without-dying kind of game. Easy puzzles, loved the graphics - lots of cute animations :)

Venture in a cave with the aid of your trusty torch. But look out, as evil bats want to steal it from you, and you can't really make it without it - your sanity goes out to vacation in a short time! So, tread carefully and have fun :)

Right, after wandering around at the beginning without knowing what to do, I had a look at the competition entry notes, and realized a couple of things I suspected. Firstly, as per the instructions, you have to collect all 4 photos scattered in the map. But you soon notice that your energy bar is decreasing. Then you might notice that it recharges when you're around people. But, stick close to them too much and something that looks like skulls accumulates above your energy bar. Get 4 of those and you're dead. Also you can drop your aura and you can use that to recharge your energy, without the need for people. But you have to collect some pictures first.

Lovely gfx, interesting gameplay once you get the hang of it.

Very nice idea. Each screen you have to select between 2 pickups depending on the position you are. You either have to defend yourself or attack. Cute!

Play

Another Ludum dare 48 hours challenge happened last week. 352] entries this time, and I really start thinking about participating in the next one (besides, it'd be massively cool if there was an entry that ran only on Atari there :)). This time the theme was "It’s Dangerous to go Alone! Take this!", so lots of games with easily guessable titles :). Also, powerups!

Anyway, here are a few pickings that caught my eye, starting with this:

I only had a brief play so far, but it just looks so damn cool! It's a standard platformer with powerups hidden in various corners of the map, so you have to get a specific powerup in order to be able to explore the rest of the map. Check it out, if only for the way it draws the gfx :)

Not much to say, another relatively easy point'n'clicker with cute gfx and sound (also the puzzles are fun!)

Gotta love Nitrome, every game they release they find a new way to show their logo on screen, most of the times using the game's mechanic! Always makes me smile :).

Anyway, onto the game itself: you have an ugly sprite that has a drill attached to its head, and you can walk around a planet and chop off pieces of it in stripes. What's left of the planet is then stitched together. There are some enemies and other stuff to avoid, which makes it a fun little game.

Heh, synchronicity or what? Sort of a tie-in with our recently released Downfall, here's a two player variant of the same idea. You need to fall faster than the other player (AI) and collect stuff and powerups along the way as well. It would certainly be fun with 2 real life players :)

Play

Okay, the screenshot totally doesn't do it justice!

To keep this short, it's another one-button-game where you control a small box jumping over hurdles. The screen is split in 3 horizontal bars, so you get 3 challenges per screen. When you die (and you do that a LOT) you respawn at the start of the current challenge. Immediately. So you must keep on your toes. The game isn't that big, but the real challenge is to finish it without dying too much :). Graphics are minimal, music is awful, but the game is very addictive. Just try it!

"Instantly playable" and "instantly enjoyable" are 2 phrases I've come to expect with Bart Bonte games. Simple and fun games, easy to pick up and play. This one reminded me of Eko's H2O for the Atari Falcon and DOS PC (which in turn sort of reminded me of Lemmings) i.e. try to pour particles into designated areas by drawing walls, etc. I haven't finished it yet, but there are a few twists in the original gameplay, but I expect well thought out stuff as usual. Dig in!

A nice whatnot - top down game which makes you find your target amongst the crowd and shoot him/her dead. Just watch out for the cops and the henchmen. Use the innocents for cover!

What's this, another platform game? With tongue-in-cheek humour and trying to containt a critique of modern life anxieties in big corporations? (oh and it kind of reminds me of elevator action or spy's demise :))

Eh, whatever, as far as I'm concerned they can keep the philosophical bit for themselves, I enjoyed it for the graphics and mechanics!

[

Warning forever in flash? With smaller, pixelly graphics? And it actually plays well?    

(this one's for ChrisTOS, one of the rare times I find a proper shemup in Flash :P)

Play

Here's another game done in Unity (yes, I can't stop thinking that it's awesome compared to Flash, then again what isn't? :P). Basically it's an FPS with a lot of emphasis given on sound: The town you live in is ridden with ghosts and you only have limited protection from them. The radio you carry emits a very strong noise when ghosts are around, and the only way to counter it is to do what the game's title says. Of course the ghosts won't just go away after a period of time, so you have to stumble in the dark until the radio lowers the noise levels again. And then you open your eyes and might end up in the water drowning, or if you're lucky, at some part of the town.

A very neat idea, reminded me of Radio Silence, and I totally dug the rendering style and sound.

Play

< ggn > http://www.kongregate.com/games/rdlr/jetpack-hero - haha, brutal!

< sh3-rg > OH YES!

< sh3-rg > SUPER FLY JETPAC!

< sh3-rg > with a hint of canabalt

< sh3-rg > lovely :)

< ggn > yeah :)

< sh3-rg > it's nowhere near as fun as canabalt or superfly, but it's interesting

< sh3-rg > I think the gameplay needs a little adjustment

< sh3-rg > or maybe not...

< sh3-rg > but it seems too random

< sh3-rg > (brids)

< ggn > yeah

< sh3-rg > birds

< ggn > but it's fun

< ggn > maybe if the birds moved slower

< sh3-rg > there's something just not quite right

< ggn > well, when you press space you get a full burst of the jetpac

< ggn > that makes it a bit uncontrollable

< ggn > if you, say, only want half the boost, you just can't have it

< sh3-rg > yep, it needs to kick in, rather than jus tON/OFF

This is like a mini Civilisation meets minesweeper. Explore the land, build troops, defend yourself from the enemies and generally have fun :)

Another simple concept, it's a maze game where the walls aren't shown. Which would be simple enough, except that the walls are tagged with a colour. If you touch a wall, then only itself and the tiles marked with the same colour light up (and a distinct sound plays). So you need to move along and touch other parts of the maze to reveal the rest of the map. Of course you need to keep this in your mind because as soon as you leave the wall, everything goes dark again. Twisted!

Right, here's another platformer! (hehe sorry, it's the way the tabs are open in my browser, honest :P)

This one's a more traditional one though, reminding of all those flip-screen platformers of the 80s. Borrows some elements from Solomon's key (at least up to where I played it, from what I gather there are 3 other abilities to get which possibly change the gameplay). Cute game!

So here's this paleolithic guy getting sucked into a time traveling tunnel and ending up in the modern era. He runs around trashing things, jumping into stuff, and learning about the modern world. Trophy/achievements nutters will fall in love with this! As you see in the screenshots below, the trophies' names awarded are ludicrously fun. And since you're on a time limit, you have to hurry up, which makes for frantic gameplay!

Lots of nice ideas stuffed into this. Incredible work! (ranked #1 in the compo too :))

(btw, apologies, my reviews today come out really crap, just try the games, yeah?)

Another Ludum dare came and went. Theme this time was: Discovery. I took a look at some of the online games today (from the top 20 entries, not enough time to check out everything!) and I'll look at some offline stuff tomorrow.

Anyway, off we go with a real fresh and brilliant concept! It's a platform game!!!!!!!

But wait, there's more!

You are this lovely pixelly robot that jumps around some dungeon or something. Only, you can't walk where there's no light, you then explode. You have a beam that you can rotate around yourself. If this touches another light source, then a disc of light instantly surrounds you. There are unlit and lit sources, and you can touch either of them for some light. The goal is to move from one light source to the next (which is unlit). When you touch an unlit source, it becomes a checkpoint, and occasionally you get another robot. What happens then is that you can control both robots and in addition with the robot's beam touching a light source, having a robot's beam touch another robot that's currently lit generates light as well. Oh yeah, only the original robot (or mother robot, geddit?) can activate a light source, which makes for some very devious level design.

....eeerrrr right that must read dead confusing (and some dirtier minds should have even worse thoughts right now :)). It's a really awesome concept though, fits right with the compo's theme, and you should really try it out because it rules!