FunEffect.com

Haymaker Games -- a small indie outfit comprised of Whitney Hills (who works at Microsoft Game Studios by day), Sean Gubelman, and two freelance artists -- recently revealed Ghost Chef, which the studio promises will be a "revolution in interactive spectral cooking".

Based on this short trailer, the title looks like a time management game (e.g. Cake Mania, Diner Dash) but with ghosts -- ghosts so cute that they demanded an adorable, squeezable plushie! Hopefully someone will mass produce these in time for Ghost Chef release on Xbox Live Indie Games this fall.

The game will feature solo and co-op modes in which players can "micro-interact [their] way to glory". More competitive types can jump into the versus mode, to send their opponent's kitchen up in flames. Ghost Chef also promises "unlockable narrative vignettes and a smorgasbord of otherworldly recipes." Delicious!

[Via superannuation]

This beautiful painting is a sneak peek at Ōkami Picture Book II: Soldier from the North and the Ghost Killer. It's just one illustration from the upcoming sequel to the Ōkami picture book published late last year.

4Gamer notes that, as the Okami sequel is yet a work-in-progress, these beautiful preview images are "subject to change." Gosh, I hope not!

According to manga author/illustrator Awairo, his illustrated storybook will be released -- in Japan only! -- on March 18.

【リリース】「大神絵物語」，第二弾「北の戦士と妖怪退治」が3月発売決定 [Via Eastern Mind]

Merry Gear Solid 2: Ghost of Christmas Past is a fan-made tribute to a popular series of stealth espionage games, created by a developer who has a clear understanding and respect for canon material. Many of the tools used on the field have been renamed and redesigned with the Christmas theme in mind, but the way these equipment are handled will feel very similar to their original counterparts.

Arthur has written the storyline to be as convoluted as possible, and cutscenes do go on quite a bit, although the only real issue with the game is that about a quarter of it involves backtracking through rooms you've visited earlier in the mission. (Windows, 77.9MB)

I tagged it "masocore" up there, but Auntie Pixelante would doubtless chide me, because while You Can't Possibly Expect Me To Do That is certainly fucking hard, it doesn't quite play with expectations as much as the best masocore games do.

But still, it's an impressively sadistic little game. Completely minimal in graphics and what can hardly be characterized as a soundscape (a few bleeps and bloops), it exists purely as an exercise in evil level design.

There is what passes for a tutorial; the basics are typical (arrows to move, up to jump, double-jump permitted), and indeed the main innovation is that "dying" sends you through a wall, and if there's a health symbol on the other side, regenerates you there. But often you have to be very careful about your velocity when you die, because your "ghost" continues in the direction sent, and you may not end up in a rescueable area.

And in general, you have to have a light and controlled touch on the keys, since a few pixels in the wrong place will often kill you.

Anyone who thinks that almost all platformers are too easy will probably enjoy YCPEMTDT. The rest of us can find a masochistic amusement in it before succumbing to despair. One nice feature, though, is that all levels are accessible from the main menu, so even if you totally suck, you can check out what the harder levels look like.

We've seen a lot of inventive takes on the decades-old shoot'em up genre lately -- Broken Garden's Bible-inspired ships, Lose/Lose's "feature" that deletes your files, Boss Rush's premise allowing you play as an end-stage boss, Retro/Grade's reverse rhythm-based levels, Zeit²'s time-traveling mechanics, etc.

Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games, the developer behind Weapon of Choice and the upcoming Grapple Buggy, added a new titles to that list, Shoot 1UP, a shmup that treats 1UPs as power-ups, immediately giving you an extra ship to control, Galaga-style, whenever you grab an extra life.

As you earn more and more 1UPs and expand your fleet, your weapons will upgrade, too. You can also pick up other kinds of power-ups, like "Ghost", which temporarily doubles your on-screen fighters. If that's still not enough ships for you, Shoot1UP also feature a two-player cooperative mode that allows you and a friend to command up to 60 crafts at a time.

Mommy's Best Games expects to release Shoot 1UP to Xbox Live Indie Games in January 2010. You can watch a trailer for the title after the break:

[Via GamerBytes]

Coming this December, The Black Forest has an interesting setup. A series of 4 'episodes', one part will be released each week and feature completely different gameplay mechanics compared to the rest. Players will simply be given a small ghost-like character, which controls to use, and left to discover what game design is on offer.

Each episode of the project will not aim to be a full game, but rather "an effort to create emotional experiences that are more personal and different from the ones traditional game design has to offer". Continue reading

Mike: 7.5 The Blackwell Convergence is an old school point and click adventure game. It’s a detective story and the biggest twist is that you can control 2 characters – one a young girl and the other a film noir type detective who happens to be a ghost. The character switching and ghost mechanic [...] Continue reading