FunEffect.com

Mike: 6 When I visited Labyrinthica’s website, the screens immediately reminded me of the Legend of Zelda. Ultimately, the game is a more generic hack and slash game. The hand drawn cutscenes and in-game characters look nice, but the dungeons themselves are sparse and boring looking. I realize they’re randomly generated, but there could’ve been [...] Continue reading

[Here's info on the latest issue of the evergreen Game Developer magazine - and it's a bumper GDC-distributed issue, actually, which you'll get in your attendee bag at the show this week, if you didn't get a copy in the mail already!]

The March 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine, the sister print publication to Gamasutra and the leading U.S. trade publication for the video game industry, has shipped to print and digital subscribers and is available from the Game Developer Digital service in both subscription and single-issue formats.

The cover feature for the issue is an exclusive postmortem of Naughty Dog's cinematic action game Uncharted 2. The article, crafted by designer Richard Lemarchand, offers insight on the challenges and successes experienced by the Sony-owned studio. It is introduced as follows:

"Uncharted 2 is Naughty Dog's latest foray into what they call the cinematic action genre. The game released to nearly-universal acclaim, and here they discuss everything from multiplayer mechanics, to over-ambitious scope, to the power of playtesting."

Also featured in the issue is the second roundup of dirty coding tricks, straight from the programmers who have employed them:

"In our second installment of Dirty Coding Tricks, programmers share their last-minute kludges and hacks all in the name of getting a game out the door. Lessons abound for coders and the non-technical alike."

In addition, experienced producer Matthew Burns talks to numerous studios to get the lowdown on the various production methods employed throughout the industry:

"Production methodologies differ from company to company. Here, Matthew Burns explores the disparate tactics of Harmonix, Treyarch, and Valve, to determine some best practices."

Other notable features include Brent Friedman's proposal of a simple scripting language to power conversation systems, and an interview with Blade and Soul art director Hyung-Tae Kim.

And as usual, our regular columnists contribute detailed and important pieces on numerous areas of game development -- this issue, we include Bungie's Steve Theodore on the art job market, Jake Cannell on virtual textures, Maxis' Soren Johnson on theme versus meaning, LucasArts' Jesse Harlin on SoundSeed, Matthew Wasteland with his monthly humor column, the Good Job! column on industry career moves, and more.

Worldwide paper-based subscriptions to Game Developer magazine are currently available at the official magazine website, and the Game Developer Digital version of the issue is also now available, with the site offering six months' and a year's subscriptions, alongside access to back issues and PDF downloads of all issues, all for a reduced price. There is now also an opportunity to buy the digital version of March 2010's magazine as a single issue.

Shiromaru is a 2D action game in which you attack enemies by commiting suicide and causing a chain of explosions. The longer the chain reaction, the more extra life items appear for you to collect. Certain enemies glow brighter than the rest, indicating that you should aim for them for a larger explosion and a better chance to create longer chains.

This demo features three levels to play and an extra hard mode with just the first stage to sample. The game isn't particularly difficult to beat, but one cool thing about it is that you can die even at the title screen. Download it here or here. (Windows, 21.0MB)

Vessel is a 2d action and puzzle game played in a physically simulated world, built on a physics and fluid engine featuring the unique ability to simulate characters composed entirely of fluid. Intended platforms are PC and console, and release date is not yet set (still in production). Visit http://www.strangeloopgames.com for blog and more info Watch [...] Continue reading

You Cannot Die is a Western-themed action game that Matt Leffler is currently working on, with a demo of first area already available to download and try out. Here you play as a colonist who had just regained consciousness in a deserted area on the planet Mars, with no recollection of the events that led to his current predicament. The only way to survive in this barren wasteland is to scavenge for items that can be used as weapons or as means of protecting yourself, since the knife in your possession isn't particularly useful during frenetic gunfights.

There is one small quest that you can complete in this test build. You'll need to have the XNA Framework already installed on your machine to get the game to run. Continue reading

Wavespark is a simple one-button action game created by Nathan as part of his weekly game release initiative, where your objective can be anything from reaching checkpoints to scoring bonuses depending on which game mode was chosen by the player. Pressing any button adds extra weight to the circular object, and if you're in the air this causes the ball to hit the ground a lot harder than it usually does. By increasing the gravity pull while travelling down a steep slope, you will gain speed much faster than if you let it occur naturally.

A browser capable of running Java applets is required to play this game. Continue reading

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days 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 a puzzle-based roguelike with an emphasis on managing resources, a single-button Flash action game, a pair of platformers made for the recent Global Game Jam 2010 event, a one-button remake of Civilization, and a space trading strategy game with shoot 'em up elements.

Here's the highlights from the last seven days:

Game Pick: 'Desktop Dungeon' (Rodain Joubert, freeware)
"Desktop Dungeon is a puzzle-based roguelike with an emphasis on resource management, where the health of your adventurer is restored by walking into unexplored rooms or corridors. You can choose to engage an enemy immediately upon finding them, or save the tougher encounters for later after you've gained some battle experience with weaker inhabitants of the dungeon first."

Game Pick: 'One Button Bob' (Tom Vencel, browser)
"One Button Bob is a single-button action game in which you have to help Bob survive an obstacle course to reach the treasure he desires. The control scheme is switched around in every room, meaning that you could be running away from a boulder, climbing a set of ladders or jumping from one platform to another as you venture further into the cave."

Game Pick: 'Where We Remain' (Twofold Secret, browser)
"Where We Remain appears to be a simple 'save the girl' Zelda-style adventure at first glance. Yet look a little closer, and you'll find that there is so much more to it. Trapped on an island by a mysterious being, our hero must find his sweetheart and rescue her. But is there a way to escape the island?"

Game Pick: 'Super Space Rogues' (Ted Lauterbach, freeware)
"In Super Space Rogues you play as a trader who owes a big sum of money to an alien overlord, and must find means to repay him back or suffer the consequences. This basically involves mining asteroids for precious minerals to be traded at a friendly spaceport, or destroying pirate ships and making off with the loot that they drop."

Game Pick: 'Press Tilda' (Press Tilda Team, browser)
"Press Tilda is a Unity-based puzzle platformer in which you can bring up a console to type in commands and change the layout of a level directly. By typing in certain keywords, players can swap the position of their character with another item in a stage, send an attack order to one of the robot guards, push objects or even set them on fire."

Game Pick: 'War and Peace' (Stéphane Bura, freeware)
"War and Peace is a one-button remake of the classic strategy game Civilization, created by created by Stéphane Bura as a submission for the Gamma 4 game showcase competition. The technology tree which was the highlight of the original series has been distilled down to just two branches of research, and your task is basically to choose whether to dedicate all of your resources into developing war machines or encourage the cultivation of technology advancements."

Game Pick: 'Boxplode' (David Newton, browser)
"Boxplode is a neat little puzzle game created by David Newton, in which the player's objective is to destroy all boxes with numbers on them by causing a series of explosions to blow everything up. The chain of explosions work like a domino effect, and you have a limited number of clicks to clear all blocks in a single level to progress."

Game Pick: 'depict1' (Kyle Pulver, freeware)
"Created by Kyle Pulver (with Alec Holowka providing the ditties), depict1 is a platformer which will hurt your head lots, but probably also make you smile too. An unknown announcer barks orders at you, which you need to follow... maybe. The whole game is pretty much an incredible mind-bork."