Monday 16 September 2013

LA game space game pack

so a while back i helped support LA game space and while i didn't give much i did give enough to get the game pack reward.

essentially it was a handful of games (25 i think) made by indie developers.
some are short
some are long
some you can even get outside of the pack.

but considering i talk about things i finish... i figure may as well talk about all these games... it'll also be an incentive to play them all.

So... first up.

Alphabet by Keita Takahashi and Adam Saltsman

this game is actually shown twice in the pack, one on it's own and another in the experimental games pack 1.
the point of the game is to move the letters from one side of the screen to the other, holdign a letter make that one letter run, tapping it makes them jump. there are many letters on screen at a time and most keyboards only let you hit a few keys at a time.
there are fruit that temporarily change everyone into the same letter and obstacles alogn the way.
there are 10 stages.

The good - interesting concept, nice visuals
the not so good - sometimes the 'physics of the letters is odd and there are a lot of high barriers that are really hard to get past simply cause you don't have control of the trejectory of the jump.
the bad - the song that plays... mybe it's cause kids singing equals nails on a chalkboard to me but i just found it grating and it kinda soured the entire experience.
oh and it's like... 10-15 minutes tops... like the entire game.
granted it did have the date registered so maybe it randomizes daily? i really don't know and more importantly don't care... it was cute and an interesting concept piece but i'm probably never going to play it again.

Control by Kieran Nolan
this is kinda what i expect some of the games to be...
Control is a Meta game where you use a hand to hit buttons on increasingly more complex controllers.

um... maybe it's the artist in me, but if you have to claim your thing is a meta experience to make it 'good' or 'thought provoking' then there is a good chance that it is neither.

thats not to say i hate all things 'Meta' every once and a while it can be really good (the last unicorn anyone?) but it can so easily slip into being a pretentious piece of shit... especially if you have it in the description that it is in fact meta....
 
"oh but it's meta cause the control scheme is rediculous! and it's about controllers! thats so witty"
no... no it isn't.
"oh but it uses the dial up sound at the start to make anyone who hears it want to punch the screen! so clever!"
no, it's there so that people turn it off without playing it... you con't critique something you haven't experienced so it's a way to stop people from reviewing their shit.

I'm sure Keiran Nolan put a lot of work into this, i commend the effort since i could never even make something like this.... but it's still a pretentious piece of hipster shit and it's not witty, clever or meta... no matter how much you claim it is.

Coureur des Bois by Tamaz Kamenczy

it's uh... about..... um... a canoe going down a river with beasts on either side... it has a lot of flashing imagery so if you have epilepsy avoid at all cost.

otherwise i just don't get it... but it does have a neat look i at least feel like they tried with it.
but i'm starting to think 'indie' type games are not my thing.

Depth by Vince Mckelvie
so far my fav.
depth is a puzzle game where you use depth perception to create platforms and clear stages. mechanics are introduced slowly enough to not overwhelm but quick enough to not insult anyones intelligence.
it's got a very basic look but i think it works really well.
the only thing i don't like is the perspective/controls, i don't play a lot of first person games and i can't seem to get a feel for where my avatars feet are so i kept on missing jumps so for me that made it a bit stressful but i'm guessing for those that like wasd controls and first person perspective they would probably find this pretty fun.

Electronic Fortune Teller "sweet n fun" by  party time hexcellent!
i need an nes emulator to play this one and i'm too lazy to go find one at the moment so.... i'll come back to this


i will update this as i go through the pack.

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