FunEffect.com

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: Gamasutra speaks to Hello Games about Joe Danger, a chat with the developer of Solium Infernum, two more IGF finalists featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and Brendon Chung confirming that Flotilla should be out sometime in March.

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Hello Games Talks Joe Danger
"Gamasutra speaks with Hello Games about capturing the joy of motorcycle toys in Joe Danger, their Seumas McNally Grand Prize-nominated contender."

Gamasutra: Going to Hell with Vic Davis' Solium Infernum
"Vic Davis talks to Gamasutra about his hellish PC strategy game Solium Infernum, and why he wants to make games that drive away ninety percent of the player base out there."

GamerBytes: Developer Reflections - Mommy's Best Games
"Nathan Fouts made the journey to full time indie development back in 2008, and his first title Weapon Of Choice was a critical success but had troubles on the Xbox Live Indie Games space. We ask Nathan what he's learned over the past year, and what his plans are in 2010."

GameSetWatch: Morsel Team on Bringing Indie Colors to Kaleidoscope
"This interview with the trio of game creators at Morsel provides a look at Kaleidoscope's premise, execution and the often elusive goal of calling attention to the finished product."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: IGF Factor 2010 - Aaaaa!
"If you put your heart, soul, and a heaping heap of your own character into a game, people will respond well."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: IGF Factor 2010 - Rocketbirds: Revolution!
"Rocketbirds: Revolution! has been nominated for three IGF awards - Excellence in Audio, Visual Art and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. As the big night approaches it's time to sidle up to Ratloop Asia and desperately resist any chicken-based gags."

TheGamersHub: PixelJunk Interview
"We got a chance to talk to Dylan Cuthbert and ask him a few questions regarding Q-Games, their ideas and how they came up with such innovative games such as PixelJunk Eden."

TheGamersHub: Developer Interview - Charlie's Games
"Charlie's Games is a small indie PC development company with its' sole developer, Charlie Knight, bent on delivering the most addicting fast-paced amazing gaming experience that's available this side of a controller."

TheGamersHub: Blendo Games Interview
"Blendo Games is a one man development studio developing the XBL Indie exclusive Flotilla, an ambitious action real-time strategy game from Brendon Chung. We also talk about his future works Atom Zombie Smasher and about the possibility of bringing the game to the PSN service." Continue reading

[This is a guest review by Guert.]

What if you could jump off a skyscraper, plummet down toward the ground at incredible speed, caress the buildings, and live to tell the tale? What if, while diving, you could give thumbs up to fans and flip off protestors? AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, the latest title from Dejobaan, is a skydiving stunt game staged in a futuristic universe. You step off the ledge of a skyscraper and, as you plunge through the floating buildings, you try to earn points by falling close to the structures, earning “kiss” and “hugs” bonuses. For extra points, you can crash through bonus plates, give thumbs up to your fans watching you jump and flip off those who don’t like the show.

The experience is fun and it’s quite satisfying to avoid the buildings and occasionally crash head first into them for a nice excruciating death. The game controls are difficult to get into but once you do, you can start performing some high-paying stunts. The game has a good dose of humor and doesn’t take itself too seriously. For example, the “grab” screen, where you can purchase the full version, has a funny narration that explains the role of pixies in the development of the game. However, some jokes seem funnier on paper. For instance, the game features a meditation video that allows you to meditate in front of your screen. It sounds funny when it’s said out loud but when you experience it in game, it just feels out of place. The visuals are good but sometimes feel amateurish, mostly because it features generic fonts and a few simple “photoshopped” pictures. The audio is also good and fits the game very well. The ergonomics, most notably the menu flow, could have been a bit more polished, but it’s not troublesome.

Aaaaa!!! is a fun game that would benefit of an extra layer of polish. The concept is fun and the experience is entertaining. You can grab the demo, as well as the full game, on Dejobaan’s official website. The demo features 9 levels, the meditation video, and a bunch of hint boxes that tell you fun facts about the game and skydiving. And for those wondering where they may have seen this game before, it’s one of this year’s IGF contestants.

TIGdb: Entry for Aaaaa!!!

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days, as well as any notable features on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The delights in this edition include an exhilarating basejumping game, a mini-Ludum Dare competition entry played on Wikipedia articles, an action game set in the days of King Arthur's rule, and two browser creations created with the help of Adam Saltsman's Flixel framework.

Game Pick: 'Aaaaa! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity' (Dejobaan Games, commercial indie - demo available)
"Dejobaan's Aaaaa! is a fantastic title which is perfect for jumping (quite literally) straight into for a quick game or, as the case may frequently be, staying up until a ridiculous time in the morning playing 'just one last level' over and over. Simply put, this is nothing but pure, unadulterated fun and never tries to be anything else."

Game Pick: 'Wikirunner' (Doches, freeware)
"Wikirunner is a chase game inspired by Jeremy Bushnell's Wikipedian Tag. Created for Mini Ludum Dare #12 (the theme was 'Wikipedia'), two players are given a random Wikipedia page each, and then 'the chaser' must try to navigate his or her way to the same page as their opponent, while 'the runner' must try to stay off the same page as the chaser for as long as possible. The game can be played in a 2-player hotseat style, or 1 vs AI, or AI vs AI (if you want to watch how the program thinks)."

Game Pick: 'Knight of the Living Dead' (Pistachio Productions, freeware)
"Knight of the Living Dead tells the tale of brave Sir Galahad, who has been called upon to defend Camelot from the vilest of evil - zombie knights. Armed with only his trusty sword and a handful of regenerating spells, Galahad must survive ten waves of zombies and defeat the final boss in order to restore peace to the land."

Game Pick: 'Station 38' (Pat Kemp, browser)
"Station 38 is a mouse-based action game where you are in control of a robot that can only jump in short bursts. Players have to be very careful while navigating around tight corridors, as our robotic friend tends to get hurt rather easily after falling from a great height or colliding with a wall at high speed. Plasma barriers that damages the robot on contact are also introduced in subsequent levels, making the challenge of getting to the transporter location in each area slightly more difficult than it already is. "

Game Pick: 'Refuge' (noonat, browser)
"noonat's Refuge is sort of a physics-based Missile Command-style game created for a recent Ludum Dare competition, where players have to defend their city from an alien invasion with the help of a turret that fires only one bullet at a time. Luckily for you, any alien that is incapacitated by your shots will also knock out all other invaders that it touches on the way down."

The proper launch trailer for Dejobaan Games' Aaaaa! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. Spelt adrenaline wrongly, though...

As Mike says, Aaaaa!'s a great game, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it won a couple of awards later this year or the next. Continue reading

A couple of weeks ago, the guys at Dejobaan Games started taking pre-orders for upcoming basejumper AaaaAetc - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. Not only will those who pre-order the game bag themselves a $10 discount off the final $25 price, but every supporter will also receive a 'Pre-Release' copy of the game (which is essentially a beta version which includes 30 of the eventual 80 levels) and 'exclusive content'.

While it's in no way feasible to write a review off of this unfinished code, it'd still be nice to know whether it's worth forking out $15 for, right? Welcome to my pre-review for Aaaaa! which, in a nutshell, goes as follows: Buy this game. Continue reading