Platform: Windows — A king has been murdered, and his heart, which holds the power of all creation, stolen by a being known as Final. Take control of one of six bizarre, unique characters and battle your way to get it for your own means in this incredibly dark and violent free indie fighting game. Tagged as: aborghi, action, download, fighting, free, game, horror, indie, rating-r, retro, versus, windows

Games featured this week: Wizardry 6; Wizardry 7; Wizardry 8 — Here's a bit of awesome news for retro RPG fans. GOG.com has released three Wizardry games, proving that the first person role playing game will never, ever die! Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant come as a single package, while Wizardry 8 is sold by itself. Released between 1990 and 2011, these titles are part of the Dark Savant trilogy and share a lot of common themes between them. They also happen to be some of the most complex, most satisfying role playing games ever made. Tagged as: download, dungeoncrawler, game, gog, indie, rating-o, retro, rpg, wizardry

Platform: iPad, Mac, Windows — Frozen Synapse puts you in control of a squad of armed troops and gives you the ability to precisely map out their actions and movements. Once you have settled on a game plan, you and your enemy's commands are then played out simultaneously in real time (the game's defining feature) and hopefully the resulting encounter leaves you with more men standing than the other guy. Tagged as: download, game, ios, ipad, mac, mobile, mode7, multiplayer, rating-o, simulation, strategy, tablet, windows

Platform: Flash — The same ol' same ol' is exactly what you want when you're in the mood for light, casual puzzles in a minimalist setting. Hottategoya follows up the similar rooms series by stepping up the navigational obstacles which test your powers of observation. Solve three codes, open three doors and, quicker than you can say dèjá vu, you'll have that same great feeling that comes from a successful escape. Tagged as: browser, escape, flash, free, game, hottategoya, japanese, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, windows

Platform: iOS, Android — From the creator of the SQUIDS series comes a truly casual, but also truly addictive, casual brawler. Simply swipe to attack as you learn to chain together powerful abilities and combos to defeat your foes, earning upgrades to become even more powerful, in a game dripping with charm... and satire! Tagged as: android, arcade, fighting, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, rating-y, tablet, thegamebakers

Games featured this week: The Yawhg; Dungeon of Elements; Don't Starve; DreadOut; Submachine 6; Crypt of the Necrodancer; The Kingsport Cases; — Mario and Tetris team up to take on dungeons, you've got a trip to Indonesia coming up, there's something horrifying and wondrous right beneath your feet... and the Yawhg is coming... Tagged as: blog, linkdump, news, previews

Platform: Android — Good news, clockwatchers! The sun is setting and it's time to go home. The problem? Your ride, the elevator, isn't working. So poke around the office, find clues and helpful objects, and drag them into action in this quick, fun escape from Afro-Ninja. The neatly rendered visuals and perfectly casual puzzles equal a quick payday of fun. Tagged as: afroninja, android, escape, free, game, mobile, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, stanner, tablet

Platform: Flash — The scores have been tabulated and the results are in: the overall winner of the minimalism-themed Ludum Dare 26 72-hour Game Jam is Leaf Me Alone, a retro Metroidvania-style platformer by Mark Foster and David Fenn. Now, "minimalism" and "Metroidvania" aren't two words that usually go together, but Foster and Fenn has put together a wonderful little world for a pixelated-blob-type-thing to explore, if one that could use a little more direction from time to time. Tagged as: browser, dfenn, exploration, flash, free, game, linux, ludumdare, mac, metroidvania, mfoster, pixelart, platform, puzzle, rating-g, retro, windows

Rereading yesterday's post I hate the sound of it. I come off as one of those "Look at how my hard work paid off" types and that's not how I feel. How I really feel is lucky that I'm able...

Platform: Flash — IT CAME FROM BEYOND THE... uh... well, we're not sure exactly. But in this over-the-top arcade action game, the country is being ripped apart by a monstrous snake... which happens to be you! Gather power-ups and destroy everything in sight in your effort to cause as much carnage and damage possible. It may be on the simple, repetitive side, but with a fantastic presentation and fast-paced gameplay, it's still a lot of fun. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, framallo, free, game, linux, mac, mmartinez, rating-o, windows

Platform: Flash — Once upon a time there was a little alien meeting his girlfriend in the park. But then there was some candy, and a world that you can flip along its axis, and then there was Flip and Go, an adorable puzzle platformer by Lampogolovii. Tagged as: achievements, browser, flash, free, game, lampogolovii, linux, mac, platformer, puzzle, rating-g, windows

I’ve been trying to use my participation in One Game a Month to take each game project and try to learn one new aspect of game development in its development.

One thing I’ve never done is make a platformer. I figured that it would take some time to figure out the jumping physics and timings and collision detection with the ground versus a wall versus a floating platform, and I had no interest in pursuing it during a Ludum Dare compo.

That said, my project for May was meant to be an attempt at capturing the feel of a game I used to play a lot as a child. Frogs and Flies for the Atari 2600 used to keep my sister and me occupied for many an afternoon. Looking at Google Image Search, I can see that I’m not the only one who has ever wanted to make a game like it.

Oh, well. The important thing is that this is an opportunity to limit the scope of the game while I try to code up some jumping physics. The ground is static. There are no platforms to leap onto.

Unfortunately, due to day job crunch and various other responsibilities, I’ve only been able to dedicate a few hours to this project all month.

You can see the current status in this May #1GAM demo video, as it would be more interesting to see a box jumping around than a still screen:

I had some trouble with the jumping being inconsistent. Since I was using fixed-time steps, it made no sense to me why one jump would reach a different height than another.

Then I found that I wasn’t handling the jump states very well.

Jumping has three states: NOT_JUMPING, JUMPING, and FALLING.

In my code, if you hit and hold the spacebar, the state would be JUMPING and you could control how high you jump by how long you hold the key down.I f you let go of the spacebar, the state would change to FALLING. Once you hit the ground, the state changed to NOT_JUMPING.

For some reason, holding the spacebar down for the entire jump resulted in inconsistent heights reached. Imagine playing Super Mario Bros and getting frustrated that taking the same action results in randomly not being able to jump high enough to get to the next platform. What gives?

The video shows a white and gray box on the left side to indicate the max jump height and the last jump height respectively as I tried to figure out if it was a real or merely perceived problem.

I realized what the problem was eventually. Gravity was always being applied to the vertical velocity of the frog, even when it was on the ground. So in one update, the frog’s position hasn’t changed, but it’s velocity has. The next update, the position would change due to the velocity, and so when it fell below the ground, I’d reset the velocity and the position.

So while the player wouldn’t see any change in position, as it is a static box, there’s a 50% chance that the spacebar would be pressed while the player’s velocity is lower than 0, and the velocity of a jump was added to the player’s velocity instead of being assigned to it, which would have masked the issue (or solved it in the first place, if you prefer).

I changed the code so that gravity is only applied if the player is not in the NOT_JUMPING state, and everything worked much more consistently.

Then I added a direction and provided horizontal impulse as well, so each jump not only moves the frog up but also left or right. I want the player to use small jumps to move about, and bigger jumps to try to catch flies, similar to the advanced mode on the Atari 2600 game.

I’m pleased with how the jumping feels, although I find it awkward to figure out how to manipulate the relevant variables to get the jump how I want it. Gravity, initial jump impulse, additional jump impulse if you continue holding the spacebar during a jump, and time all conspire to say how fast and how high you jump, and I’ve been under time constraints to do the probably simple parabolic math that I’m sure it involves.

Like my past few months, I’ll probably have to limit the scope of this project significantly if I want to get it completed before the end of the month. I still need to add flies and way to catch them. I probably won’t have time to implement falling off the lily pad or day/night cycles. Even though I have a week left, it’s a rough week.

How’s your #1GAM project going?

My May #1GAM’s Progress is a post from: GBGames - Thoughts on Indie Game Development

Platform: iOS — Logistics is a physics puzzle game from Robb Akerson. Using only the most basic features from building games such as The Incredible Machine, it's your job to move objects around the screen, one piece of candy or one block of ice at a time. It takes a bit of fiddling to make sure everything is in the right place, but Logistics is built with casual players in mind, providing a good logical challenge but never making you feel frustrated. Tagged as: free, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, physics, puzzle, rakerson, rating-g, tablet

The Energy Hook Kickstarter may not be up there with Brian Fargo's stuff but for what's pratically a one-person shop it's doing quite famously. So people are asking me if I had any secret sauce. Strategically, I think the Spider-Man...

Platform: Flash — If you're tired of all those physics platformers with jumping balls, try one with a rolling smiley! Absolutely no bouncing involved! Instead, good ol' gravity keeps our yellow hero firmly on the ground, and your task is to get him to the exit, avoiding all manner of dangers along the way, and eating magic mushrooms to get special powers. Tagged as: action, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, platform, puzzle, rating-g, trinbox, windows

Platform: Flash — A ninja protecting himself with bubble wrap? Check. A strange line of leaping dancers? Yep. Some dude with a green face peering at you through a hole in the wall? Okay. Small blue men doing...something to a vase? Yeah, Detarou's back with another surreal room escape. Tagged as: browser, detarou, escape, flash, free, game, humor, japanese, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-y, surreal, weekday-escape, windows

Platform: iOS, Unity — CastleMine from Mugshot Games combines tower defense with a little bit of old fashioned digging. Instead of mapping out mazes for creeps to crawl through or building balloon things on green green grass, you get to dig underground one block at a time. Uncover extra gold deposits, additional resources, or even nests of enemies as you attempt to defend your castle from the threat from below. Tagged as: browser, defense, demo, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, mugshotgames, rating-y, tablet, towerdefense, unity

Platform: Flash — The year is 1978. A child has found a video game they've never heard of before. but he doesn't realize that things on the other side of the screen lie waiting for him to play it. Misadventure is an action-adventure horror game by Mike Houser, done in the retro style of a 4-bit Atari game gone horribly wrong, and its atmospheric creepiness more than makdes up for a little directionessless in its gameplay. Tagged as: action, adventure, atari, browser, flash, free, game, horror, linux, lovecraft, mac, mhouser, pixelart, rating-r, retro, windows

Platform: Flash — Raise money to save a forest from being cut down. It's a good cause so it should be easy, right? Wrong! Pick up your trusty clipboard and beat the streets talking to people and trying to stir them into donating to meet your goals. But be warned... getting people to open their wallets is harder than you think when your confidence, trust, charisma, and even job is on the line in this unique simulation/arcade game. Tagged as: arcade, browser, flash, free, game, jlango, linux, mac, rating-y, simulation, strategy, unique, windows

Basically I’ve mostly been doing one thing since the last update. It’s just that it’s quite a complicated thing

Here’s what I’ve done:

- Read in the xml animation file for Earth and got it working. The original game has a complex animation system that can handle way more than most normal animation systems. I’ve had to write code to read and interpret the xml file and make it work with my sprite engine. This was not easy and there’s still a lot to do.

- Read in the xml sprite files for Earth and got it working. Each sprite, which I’m calling a “game object”, can be made up of several animated sprites, or even several other game objects. This was also pretty complex especially when some parts of a game object control other parts of a game object!

- I made a test screen to show the animations and sprites that I’ve read in. This has proved very useful and I’ve made a video about it (see below).

- Finally I made code to create individual “instances” (that’s a programming term) of a game object using a template that has been read in from the sprite xml file. The in-game aliens are now instances based on a template and you can see that they animate and blink in the video I made.

Video!

This is my first developer video diary. In it I show of the game a little bit and then talk about the test screen I made to test animations and game objects (sprites).

I Hope you enjoy it!

Next up

- Keep going with the xml interpretation code. There’s still a lot to do such as making the aliens move around, making them fire, making the player ship animate as it moves, making particle effects for firing etc. All of this is controlled via the vast xml files that Cas and Chaz (the original developers) made. So I’ve got my work cut out for me!

Games featured this week: Omega Crisis; Star Relic; Gravitee 2 — Captain's Log: Stardate: 52120.13: The Vault Commander wishes to share some of the greatest space games from the JiG archives. As this is well within the parameters of our five year mission, this week in The Vault, we now present a few classic action, strategy, and physics titles. End transmission. Tagged as: blog, browser, thevault

Platform: iPad — If Beret Applications' Demon Chic were a person it would be a Brooklyn-dwelling record store clerk riding a fixie to a farmer's market while listening to Yo La Tengo. It would be of the species Homo ironicus—in other words, the creature popular culture has dubbed the hipster. Yet, astonishingly, the game is neither as insufferable nor pretentious as this analogy would suggest. Instead this mobile piece of art instead is an entirely successful marriage of action RPG gameplay with an absurd, darkly funny, and frequently touching story. Tagged as: beretapplications, game, ios, ipad, mobile, narrative, rating-r, roleplaying, surreal, tablet

Doing an AMA on Reddit right now. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1ep0ed/i_invented_the_swinging_in_spiderman_2_now_im/

Platform: Flash — Disaster Will Strike 2 is the second installment of Anton Koshechkin's physics puzzle series where you destroy prehistoric eggs using landslides, earthquakes, epidemics, and bees. Yes, bees. Tagged as: akoshechkin, browser, chainreaction, flash, free, game, linux, mac, physics, puzzle, rating-y, windows

Platform: Flash — Kingdom of Liars is the second in the series of dark fantasy point-and-click adventures and the plot is only getting thicker in the city of Ashbane. Kingdom of Liars 2 features what Hyptosis is best known for: world-building, colorful characters, humorous descriptions, intriguing twists... and smacking players with a "To Be Continued" just as things are getting good. For a short trip, though, it's an excellent one. Tagged as: adventure, browser, fantasy, flash, free, game, horror, hyptosis, linux, mac, oddfellowfloyd, pointandclick, rating-o, windows

Games featured this week: Last Train to Timbuktu; NonoCube; Sparkle 2; Pudding Monsters — Such a friendly edition of Mobile Monday, this is. Everybody's our friend, especially those who deliver good games to us. We also seem to have a penchant for puzzle games, which are basically brain BFFs. Tagged as: blog, mobile, mobile-monday, news, previews

Platform: iPad, Windows — This barbecue is being crashed by some seriously unruly lizards of the prehistoric sort! Most gophers would turn tail, but you're not giving up your delicious steaks without a fight! Plan strategically and make use of a variety of clever tower types to defend your 'cue against incoming dinos of all sorts, ranging from hordes of sprightly compys to enormous bosses in this indie defense game. Tagged as: defense, download, firehosegames, game, indie, ios, ipad, mobile, rating-g, realtime, steam, strategy, tablet, towerdefense, windows

Platform: Mac, Windows — Princess Isabella has been turned to stone by an evil witch, who is now after Isabella's daughter. The witch sends thee spectral hounds to hunt down young Bella and imprison her fairy godmothers, leaving her without protection. Bella must find a way to defeat the evil sorceress and lift the curse which permeates the kingdom in this magical hidden-object adventure. Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, casual, collectorsedition, demo, download, game, gogii, hiddenobject, mac, princessisabella, rating-y, windows

Platform: Flash — Sudoku hits the streets in Skyscrapers Light, another installment of the Conceptis Light series. In this logic puzzle, the numbers on the outside of the grid tell you how many "buildings" are visible from that side of the grid, if each number inside the grid represented a building of that height. Are you streetwise enough to rebuild the city? Tagged as: browser, conceptis, conceptislight, flash, free, game, linux, logic, mac, puzzle, rating-g, sudoku, windows

Platform: iOS — The woods are no place to be stranded in. You can lose your way; you can lose your mind; you can even lose yourself. Developed by Simulated Culture, Rootwork is a new strategic card game that drops you into the heart of the deepest, darkest forest and challenges you to make it out safely. However, a stray critter or a thorny bush are the least of your troubles here. These woods are full of dark forces and malevolent spirits, and at the center of the dark maelstrom is "She." Who is She? That's uncertain. But these are Her woods, and if She wants you to stay lost forever the odds are stacked against you. Tagged as: card, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, rating-y, simulatedculture, strategy, tablet

Just a few hours away - I'll be on the Colony of Gamers In-Game Chat podcast tonight (Saturday, May 18th) at 7 PM CST. Come join me and ask questions! http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=29116 The show runs from 6 to 8, if you...

Platform: Mac, Windows — Everyone in town knows to stay out of the forest, but what do you do when the forest won't stay out of the town? Enter this surreal fantasy in Mad Head Game's next hidden object adventure, where only you can save the town—as soon as you can find the pieces to your magic amulet and piece it back together again. Explore gorgeous environments, customize your game settings, and encounter many uniquely logical search scenes and puzzles in an engaging story that is much more than what words can describe. Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, casual, collectorsedition, demo, download, fantasy, game, hiddenobject, hybrid, mac, madheadgames, puzzle, rating-y, riteofpassage, surreal, windows

Platform: Flash — Over eight years ago, Metanet Software gave us N, a minimalistic high-difficulty platformer download featuring a ninja hungry for gold and not-dying. That agile ninja returns in N v 2, featuring another 500 levels full of tempting gold ambrosia and enemies out to thwart your not-dying efforts, right in your browser. Grab a friend and discover once again how a tiny ninja in a deadly world could create quite a compelling and tricky challenge. Tagged as: action, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, metanet, multiplayer, ninjas, physics, rating-g, windows

Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux — Mr Rescue! Help! A bunch of people are trapped in a burning building and only you can save them! Now that you're inside, it's time to be a hero. Mr. Rescue is a simple but amazingly charming action game from Tangram Games. You control the well-protected Mr. Rescue himself as you spray water on fires and climb through a burning building to save the innocent people inside. The best part? You rescue them by throwing them out the window! Tagged as: action, adventure, download, free, game, indie, linux, mac, tangramgames, windows

Platform: Flash — When your lightbulb bursts, you might head to the store to get a new one, but that's only because you're not nearly as funky and awesome as the two old ladies starring in this point-and-click adventure. Despite suffering from some bizarre leaps of logic, a unique style and fantastic soundtrack make this short game worth checking out. Tagged as: adventure, browser, flash, free, game, kkonwerski, linux, mac, mlachowicz, pastelgames, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, tkuczma, windows

Platform: iOS, Android, Unity — You know what your average tug-of-war game needs? A table instead of a rope. At least that's what Otto Ojola thinks, and he's turned the idea into Tug the Table, a simple yet wonderful fighting game that manages to be reminiscent of Wrestle Jump while still being unique. Tagged as: android, browser, fighting, free, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mac, mobile, onebutton, oojala, rating-y, tablet, unity, versus, windows

Games featured this week: Dormant Sky; Among the Sleep; Pandora: Purge of Pride; Town of Salem; Alone in the Park; Damned; Road Not Taken; Rom Check Fail; Contraption Maker — Play with a human head! Experience terror as a toddler! Accuse your friends of being murderers before they do the same to you! This week's Link Dump has a little something for everyone... especially if you're just a little bit weird. Tagged as: blog, linkdump, news, previews

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Platform: iOS — A lot of kids who grew up with RC cars turned into today's gamers. That's a dangerous blanket statement to make, but you can't argue there isn't some overlap. After all, isn't driving a radio controlled car around the living room kind of like a video game? And didn't playing with RC cars and video games make your parents mad? Looking to bring those two worlds together, Paladin Studios, the team behind Momonga Pinball Adventures, has released Nikko RC Racer, a wild and untamed arcade racing game that's about as close to driving the real thing as you can get. Tagged as: action, arcade, free, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, paladinstudios, racing, rating-y, tablet

Platform: Flash — The Earth has become too small for Bob the snail. He dreams of space travel, and what do you know, he gets a call from the snail army, asking him to go on an interplanetary mission. Help Bob stay alive as he battles gravity, aliens, and laser beams in this wonderfully entertaining puzzle game. Tagged as: akovalishin, browser, flash, free, game, hunterhamster, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, snailbob, windows

Platform: Flash — Ever been attacked by a giant doily from outer space? At the very least, that's how we're choosing to interpret Connor Ullmann's bullet hell shooter Obsolescence. You'll face ten waves of kaleidoscopic bosses with lots of guns and shields to destroy as you blast your way to their cores. Your laser is always firing, so you can focus on moving around and staying alive... if you can. Tagged as: action, browser, bullethell, cullmann, flash, free, game, linux, mac, rating-g, shooter, windows

Platform: Android — One night, Luke decided to go out and visit the love of his life. But an unfortunate note on the door informs him he's now alone in this world. To console himself, Luke wants nothing more than to stare at the stars. With all the buildings in the way, though, how can he? That's where you come into play. Luke at the Stars is a simple but charming puzzle game that's all about moving buildings out of the way so you can get a good view of the sky. Tagged as: alpacateam, android, demo, game, mobile, puzzle, rating-g, tablet

This means Linux support is happening, along with the new zipping and retracting / extending features of the energy line. If you've been holding off because you wanted to make sure Linux support was in there, you're good to go....

Platform: Flash — 8-bit-lovers worldwide having been searching for the next lost retro work, and Watergate: The Video Game, could very well be that. Now some may claim that this point-and-click adventure game, was only recently developed by Samuel Kim, which is why things get so hilariously surreal. A wry combination of video game parody, pop culture riffing, and political satire, Watergate tries to be a lot of things, and it generally succeeds. Tagged as: adventure, browser, flash, free, game, humor, linux, mac, parody, pixelart, pointandclick, politics, rating-r, retro, skim, windows

Platform: Flash — You are a little white ghost – check. You want to be a big, important demon – check. You must defeat other demons to succeed – check. You can only reach them by beating levels where lots of pixels fly around and try to kill you – che... Wait, what? Ghostly Me is a tricky platformer in which you jump over, under and across moving obstacles on your way to fiendish fame. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, pixelart, platform, ppllaayy, rating-g, windows

Platform: Flash — Join Yuri's chirpy hide-and-seek playing bunch of baby birds in the park playground, where they've nestled into every possible hiding spot waiting to be discovered by you. Your goal is easy: click anywhere you think a baby fowl could fit, pick-up and properly use a smattering of objects, and collect all ten chicks before you can find the exit and escape. Tagged as: browser, escape, flash, free, game, japanese, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, weekday-escape, windows, yuri

Platform: iOS, Android, Mac — Money, or freedom. Which will you choose? McBank: The Puzzle of Money and Freedom uses stark, humorous imagery wrapped around a series of quick puzzles that play on the theme of the uneven distribution of wealth and power in modern society. Even though most of the world's money is controlled by a relative few people, the masses continue to support them with their purchases and actions. McBank forces you to to choose with each level you complete, and the results aren't always pretty. Tagged as: android, demo, download, game, honeytribestudios, indie, ios, ipad, iphone, kindle, mac, mobile, narrative, parody, puzzle, tablet

I did a Q&A for The Jace Hall Show. More interviews coming! Shogun Gamer is on deck, and I'll be a live guest on the Colony of Gamers broadcast this Saturday at 7 PM CST / 5 PM PST. And...

Platform: iOS, Android, Flash — Move fast! No, faster! No, even faster! Available in your browser or on your mobile device, Mini Dash is a challenging one-hit K-O platformer full of missiles, buzzsaws, daring jumps, and more that will test your mettle over and over. Tagged as: action, android, browser, flash, game, highdifficulty, ios, ipad, iphone, ipod, mobile, platform, playcreek, rating-y, tablet

Platform: Javascript — Darkness has overtaken the land, bringing with it unspeakable beasts, but one woman is no longer content to cower inside. In this open-source retro RPG adventure demo made in just one month, go on a classic quest to find the source of the dark infestation and get more powerful along the way. Engaging and addictive but challenging too, it's a simple, streamlined experience you can jump right into anytime. Tagged as: adventure, browser, cbellanger, demo, free, game, javascript, linux, mac, rating-y, retro, rpg, turnbased, windows, yubatake