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Great Adventures: Lost in Mountains is a bit hard to classify. It's not as deep as a sim game, nor as hectic as a time management game, but there's no denying that the cheerful aesthetic and likeable characters lend the game a certain appeal in spite of the fact that it has little to no long-term replay value.

In Great Adventures you control two characters: a woman who's smart, nimble and good at crawling through small spaces, and a man (presumably her husband) whose talents include fixing mechanical gadgets and moving heavy objects. Alternating between the two characters is the key to solving the various situations and puzzles that the game throws at you.

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Via RockPaperShotgun, a trailer for Ludosity's upcoming puzzler Bob Came in Pieces was recently released. The game is due to land on 21st December and is really rather good fun. I've been meaning to write about it, so now is as good a time as any!

There are some very clever ideas to be found here. The idea is to fly your little ship around collecting coins and pickups, then reaching the portal at the end. What makes the game so interesting is the ship workshop - at points in each level, you can enter the workshop and edit your ship by sticking parts all over it. Need to press a button through a tight gap? Grab those pipes, nail them all to the side of your ship in a straight line, and fit them through the gap. Of course, this is completely unbalance the whole ship, so you'll need to put some rubbish on the other side of your ship too to level it out.

There are other gizmos to attach too, like the traction beam for grabbing objects, which make for some great puzzles. The level design is great for the most part too, while the art style is very fitting for the game's concept and atmosphere. I think for this kind of game, my number one concern is always how the control of the ship feels, and fortunately Ludosity have created a really fluid movement that feels great - I always felt in control.

So it's a 2D puzzle game revolving around building and rebuilding your little ship to get through every situation. No word on price yet, but you can be assured that this is one to look forward to. Continue reading

In Mountain Maniac you control a man with a hammer whose single aim is to destroy the town at the foot of a mountain for points. He does this by smashing boulders with his instrument of doom, sending them down the mountain Pachinko-style while crushing everything that stands in its way. Occasionally the police force or a yeti might try and stop him, but you can use the mallet to protect yourself by swinging it at them as well.

There is a certain percentage of town destruction that you must achieve to pass each level, and failure to do so equates to a loss of a precious life. An online high score submission feature is included as well, although players must first register for an Adult Swim account before they can post their best achievements up on the site. Continue reading

In Deflectorpool you control a paddle used to bounce balls coming from the top of the screen. Scoring is done by collecting balls of the same color with the round attachment connected to the bat. You can switch colors by holding down the left mouse button and touching any ball of a different color to convert.

The more balls you string up before changing colors, the more points you gain from a higher combo count. Some water will be drained whenever you complete a combo, which is something players have to be good at if they want to prevent the green liquid from overflowing and ending the game. Continue reading

In Gravmari you control the Playertoid, a sphere that has to absorb asteroids and small planets to grow and fuel itself. There are only grey space rocks to collect at first, but soon you'll be able to absorb moons and orbiting planets after playing for a couple of minutes. The Playertoid can also eject mass at the press of a button to propel itself in the direction of your choosing.

Windows only. Continue reading

One of the projects I regretfully neglected to mention in yesterday's post about Ontario funding locally developed games was Office Yeti. Metanet Software already announced the title a month ago, but its concept warrants repeating here:

"Office Yeti, which we’ve been prototyping lately, is a single-player action/puzzle/simulation game in which players assume control of a yeti who works in an office.

But, you may be asking, how did HR come to inadvertently hire a yeti? Why a Yeti, and not a Sasquatch? Is this all some sort of hilarious inside joke?

For now these questions will all remain unanswered; the important point is that you’re a tiny little character in a tiny little simulated office building full of even tinier characters and objects, all of which are going about their business more or less oblivious to the fact that you are, to put it bluntly, non-human. Just like in an office in real life!"

The N+ developer recently added a teaser image (above) to Office Yeti's official site, which puts a bright tie on the hairy creature and sends him into the big city. The Yeti seems ready for his office job... But is his office job ready for a Yeti?

The other Metanet project in the works, Robotology (which I brought up a few weeks ago), also received a new teaser image showing the Department of Robotology's coat of arms -- it looks like a group of mechs that attach to form a Voltron-esque robot and fight giant space monsters. I assume the game's nothing like that, but one can dream.

Destroy the Level is a side-scrolling shooter in which you have absolutely no control over the ship at all. The brain roughly moves in a straight line, and it's your job to prevent it from crashing into any obstacles in its path. This is done by using your mouse to drag objects away, demolish buildings, and even divert missiles headed towards the brain.

Red objects cannot be dragged, but you can still use other objects to shift them around by force. There is only one short level to play in this build, but Destroy the Level is already proving to be one of the highlights in Muse Games' Unity 3D game development competition. (requires the installation of the Unity browser plug-in to play) Continue reading