Games

April 17, 2008

Rokkitball on Kotaku!

Kotaku.com has posted a bit of information about Rokkitball.  If you want some shiny screens and some information about what the game is all about head over to the exclusive Rokkitball post on Kotaku.

I'd post the screenshots, but they're exclusive.  So you NEED to go over there to see them.

For ease of use, I will link to some of the screenshots below:

That's all.  Go there!

-Dr Wiley

New Screwjumper!

In case you didn't notice the box art on InstantAction for Screwjumper, it's been revamped.  Below you will see the new features in the game:

Screwjumper

 Multiplayer:

Multiplayer is all new.  This mode features a new race mode and 8 new crazy maps.  The goal, as with any racing game, is to get to the target before all of your competitors do. 

In addition to the new multiplayer version of the game, Screwjumper has also gotten tighter controls in both single player and multiplayer.  Both mouse, controller, and keyboard controllers are much more solid now.

So login and check out the new Screwjumper.

-Dr Wiley

April 03, 2008

GarageGames' Garney and BlockLand dev Hartman on GameDev.

"So you downloaded MAME and purchased licenses to every ROM for it. Now you have three thousand games, give or take a thousand. Infinite fun, right? Not exactly, but you do have access to a resource for learning some valuable lessons about game design."

Good informative read about the classics and what they can teach you. Check out the full article on GameDev.net.   

Spidy_the_game

-Dr Wiley

March 21, 2008

Legions Developer Chat

If you missed the chat with Tim Aste, Director of Fallen Empire: Legions, no worries.  You can watch it here, or you can re-watch it if you were participating in the live chat.  This was actually a huge success and a lot of fun so we plan on doing more in the future.


-Dr Wiley

March 19, 2008

Legions Q&A

Don't forget tomorrow is the day you can chat with Tim Aste from the Legions Development Team.  Following you will find some details about the event:

  • When?  March 20th at 3pm
  • Where?  I'll post the live feed and chat in this blog.  Alternatively, you can head here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/legions-live-chat
  • What?  Ask questions regarding Legions and get answers.
  • From Who?  Tim Aste will be answering those questions.
  • Why?  Because you can finally get answers to those questions you've been wondering about since the announcement of Fallen Empire: Legions.

Set your alarms, tell your friends, create accounts or get there early so you can be approved by our moderator.  Exciting times.

-Dr Wiley

March 18, 2008

MBO Tricks: Sprawl

It's here!  This is the first installment of Marble Blast Online Tricks from Hikaru501.  This video will give you some hints and strategies on the map Sprawl.  I really can't believe some of the stuff he can do.  I gave it a shot the other day and was able to pull off some of these tricks, but it'll take a bit of work for me to perfect the rest of them. 

You can catch a higher quality version on 360-live.com, or if you want to watch the lo-res version, check the YouTube video below.

-Dr Wiley

March 17, 2008

Chat with the Legions Team

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On March 20th you'll have a chance to chat with your favorite Legions developers.  This Thursday, starting at 3 pm PST, the developers will be answering questions via Ustream.tv.  The Q & A session will last approximately 30 min. long and will be recorded so you can watch it again and again. 

I'll be reminding you again as the date approaches, and giving you more details to log in, but get your questions ready now.  It should be a bunch of fun.

-Dr Wiley

March 10, 2008

Game Dev Contest Winners!

The time has come: we're finally ready to announce the winners of the 2008 InstantAction Game Developer Contest.  So here they are:

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1st Prize Winner

Cannon Battle

Developer:
Mark Thurow

Cannon Battle Video:
Gameplay Vid

Why it won:
Cannon Battle defines the kind of game we're looking for on InstantAction: a quick-play 3D RTS with exceptional core gameplay mechanics and a unique style of play.

Cannon Battle allows you to fire your artillery manually as you construct buildings and conquer territory, combining hectic reactionary tactics with the planning and strategy that RTS games are known for.

Survival/Switching Gears

Developer:
Affectworks

Switching Gears demo:
www.switchinggearsgame.com

1

Survival .plan:

www.garagegames.com/blogs/45181/14313

Why it won:
Affectworks sent us two very different games, which are both great for very different reasons.

Survival is a first person zombie-pocalypse game where building a shelter to stave off the zombie hordes is key to your survival.

Switching Gears is a platformer with a variety of polished gameplay mechanics set in a comedic robotic world.

What they win:
Each 1st Prize winner will receive one Unity Indie license ($199 USD value) and a Torque Game Engine Advance Indie license with Torsion ($335 USD value).

Grand Prize Winner

Trash: Wasted Earth

Developer:
Inhuman Games/Eipix

Trash info/screens/vids:
www.inhumangames.com/

Trash

Why it won:

Trash: Wasted Earth brings to the table everything you can do in a mainstream RTS, but does so in indie style.

Based on the popular indie game Trash, the new version looks to take it to the next level with more options, more units, more players, and improved graphics.

What they win:
The Grand Prize winner will receive one license to Unity Pro with Asset Server ($1,999 USD value) and one Torque Engine Suite, which includes: Torque Game Builder, Torque Game Engine, Torque Game Engine Advance, Torque X Pro, Torsion, Torque Network Libraries, and art content packs ($1340 USD value). Finally, and most importantly, the winner will receive an InstantAction publishing contract.

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Congrats to all our finalists, and to all those who submitted a game. It's amazing how many quality submissions we received on such short notice. Next year's contest promises to be bigger, better, and (probably what you want to hear most) longer, so start planning your submissions!

In the meantime, we're always looking for great games to add to the InstantAction library. Even if your game did not make the cut this time around, we'd love to see your game. Contact Randy Dersham (randyd@garagegames.com) for information regarding publishing on InstantAction.

The finalists for the contest provided some great links to more info about their submissions, which can be found in the comment section of the Finalist Announcement blog: www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=14327

All winners will be contacted shortly with details

March 05, 2008

ThinkTanks Mentioned on Penny Arcade

Logo

I don't know if any of you frequent Penny Arcade, but if you don't, you may want to check it out today.  In today's post Tycho compares the art direction of Battlefield: Heroes to ThinkTanks, and "it's a good thing."   

It's cool to know that Tycho has played ThinkTanks since he's also a fan of Tribes and Marble Blast.  Hopefully he'll get on InstantAction and you'll be able to play against him.  I wonder if he's any good. 

Anyway, those guys over there are extremely funny and have great comic strips 3 times weekly.  Check it out.  Laugh and cry over their musings, and be overjoyed that you can play ThinkTanks soon.

Here's something they did Tribes related a while back.  Pretty funny.  I'm tellin' ya.

Tribes

-Dr Wiley

February 26, 2008

Cyclomite and Wideload Shorts

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So while I was at GDC 2008 we had some of the guys from Wideload Shorts stop by to give some presentations about Cyclomite.  The first presentation by Scott Corley (Studio Director of Wideload Shorts) went over rather well and I couldn't help but notice a camera guy filming the presentation.  Taking a closer look I noticed that the camera had a rather well known name printed on it, Ziff Davis.  Figured cool, we'll see if anything gets posted up. 

Upon arrival back to good old Eugene, Oregon, I checked 1up.com.  Sure enough they've got an entire write-up about the game including some footage.  Coverage includes single-player and multiplayer (co-op and versus).  Read the full article on 1up.com and check out Scott's explanation of the single-player mode in the video.

Of course, if you're already in the beta, you could always log in and give it a shot yourself.

- Dr Wiley