Apple is known to have poured funds up to USD 578 million to GT Advanced Technologies in Arizona, since November last year raises a presumption that they will use a screen-based Safir (Sapphire) to replace the Corning Gorilla Glass. But rumors say it will not happen in the month of May as predicted by many parties.
GT Advanced Technologies itself is known as the basic component supplier companies sapphire material that is commonly used on high-end watches have durable and scratch resistant. So far, Apple has been using sapphire to cover the camera lens and sensor fingerprint iPhone 5s. Even iWatch also reportedly will also be coated with sapphire crystals, as reported by Forbes.
electronics giant Apple seems ready to bet much if they upgrade the product to cover the iPhone 6 next screen, entirely with sapphire. Costs are rolled certainly more expensive or about 3 to 4 times more expensive than Corning Gorilla Glass material worth 3 dollars.
CEO of Apple, Tim Cook speck never disclose the data to the partner suppliers, and is still a puzzle. In other words, Apple believes sapphire crystal is ready for mass production to upgrade the smartphone screen protecting cap glass components. (Hito) Source: Forbes
Being only one guy, maintaining this blog has been tough but rewarding. Supporting developers, shining light on promising games that might go otherwise unnoticed, it's the reason why I started Indie Game Enthusiast and continue to spread the word on indie games. 33,000 views since its inception, 7,000 views in January (my best month yet), a growing following on Twitter; I don't know how those numbers compare to other sites and blogs, but it's a great personal success for me and knowing that people read these previews, impressions, opinion pieces, interviews, is what drives me to continue this work. So thank you for your continued support, I appreciate it.
However, I'm also a college student and school comes first. So I'm taking a short break from my blog until the end of March. March 22nd to be specific, the start of Spring Break. I might post a few Quick Fix articles now and then, and I'll be active on Twitter, Reddit, NeoGAF, TIGForums, and Toucharcade. Forum posts and Tweets are quick and simple, but I don't have the time to dedicate to reviews and previews at the moment. Again, thank you for your support, watch my Twitter for news and info on cool indies and promising Kickstarters, and I'll be back in March with more indie coverage.
Title: Gang Beasts Developer: Boneloaf Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Android, WiiU, PS4, XBox One In development --- Gang Beasts is a stupidly silly local multiplayer party game with doughy ragdoll physics and horrific environmental hazards. I'll be honest. I first saw a screenshot of Gang Beasts during Screenshot Saturday. It looked interesting but nothing really jumped out at me as amazing or something to be hyped about. And then I read this great RockPaperShotgun preview and realized that was a mistake. Gang Beasts is awesome.
Even in its extremely early playable alpha, the game is one of the most fun and funniest I've played in a while. RPS was right when they said "every fight turns into a desperate action sequence." Gang Beasts is pushing and prodding your opponent into an industrial grinder. It's having a four-way brawl atop speeding trucks. It's punching your opponent in the face while both of you dangle from a window washing platform. What's more, those exciting fights are incredibly simple to control - keys for movement, for punching and grabbing - and your cute colorful brawlers all have physics-based animations that add some satisfying yet oddly hilarious brutality to every fight.
And that's only the 0.0.1 alpha. Reading through the developer's IndieDB and Greenlight pages, they have even greater ambitions. A shopping mall with glass elevators to fight on top of. A hotel/casino featuring a bar for a good old-fashioned bar brawl. A construction site with destructible walls and floors to smash through. An amusement park with a Ferris wheel and roller coaster to fight on. Levels ranging from fights in the middle of freeway traffic to fights on top of a train. A single player mode with levels and bosses. Various moves like headbutts, elbows, and evasive dodges. It sounds incredibly promising and the alpha is a clear evidence that Boneloaf is well on their way to achieving those goals.
Gang Beasts is still in early development. You can download the alpha here; it's currently multiplayer-only, with up to four players able to brawl locally across several levels, but the developers plan to add AI bots and a Sandbox mode in the next build. You can learn more about Gang Beasts on its IndieDB page and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
A nuclear armageddon is no one’s dream scenario. So choose your steps carefully, it’s a small path between war and peace. FIRST STRIKE is a great strategy simulation featuring snappy gameplay and an intuitive interface that makes dropping the big one as easy as ABC. But be sure to take the right measures to guarantee your people’s safety.
Put simply, First Strike is Defcon for the mobile gamer. Where Defcon lifted its inspiration from WarGame's aesthetic, First Strike's nuclear warfare is conducted on a slick 3D globe, with your tactical strikes arcing through space. It's an experience built for mobile, with a touch friendly interface allowing you to rotate and manipulate the planet with your fingers. But aside from First Strike's stylish looks, it also promises to be a challenging strategic game, offering ten minute rounds as you research new technology and plan new strategies from expanding and conquering neighboring nations to performing recon on your enemy's resources and actions. According to the developers, this time limit put the focus on observation and fast-paced tactics and means a wrong decision could easily and quickly throw off your strategies
First Strike will be released mid-March on iPad and Android. You can learn more on the official site.
Title: Box Out Developer: DaPickyMonkey Platforms: PC Price: $6.99 --- To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect when I started playing Box Out, besides the fact that it was a precision platformer. But after my time with the game, I can say that I was quite surprised and impressed by Box Out's challenge and its twist on the switching mechanic. I think the best description of Box Out would be a more methodical Super Meat Boy mixed with the color switching mechanic of Outland, Ikaruga, Polara, but even more complex. While those games only had you switching between two colors, in Box Out, you'll be dealing with two, three, four forms at at time, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Stone can stick to surfaces but can barely move. Metal can smash through obstacles and activate certain switches but sinks in water. Fire lets you pass through flaming projectiles but water puts you out. You'll be dealing with any combination of those forms, as well as Rocket, Cloud, and more. It's this aspect that turns what was already a fun platformer into a satisfyingly solid mix of precision platforming and fast paced puzzling, as you alternate states mid jump, whiile wall jumping between spikes, and evading hazards. The charming graphics and hefty amount of content (120 levels and hard-to-reach collectibles throughout each one) round out the experience.
Box Out might not be the next SMB or Teslagrad, but it's certainly a fun solid game that offers plenty of challenge that any of fan of tough platformers would enjoy. You can purchase Box Out on Desura.
Title: Zaharia Developer: Inner Void Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Releasing late 2015 ---
Zaharia is an RPG with an oriental and middle eastern flavored setting, inspired by Middle East cultures charm and made with care to be original but, at the same time, plausible and convincing.The player will be able to create his own character and use him freely, writing his own story in the world of Zaharia without neither compromises nor constraints. While exploring the game’s world, the player will discover its centuries-old history, and will come in contact with a world radically different from the ones inspired to European Middle-Age.
In the vein of Fallout, Underrail, and the like, Zaharia is an isometric turn based action RPG. But what makes the game stand out is its setting and premise. This is far from the ruined worlds of those games or Wasteland; it's a realistic fantasy world inspired by Middle Eastern culture and architecture. This is a world on the brink of leaving the mystic ways behind and entering a industrial and technological revolution. The deserts and sprawling cities hold many opportunities to build your skills and more importantly build your reputation and define your character. Stealth and taking enemies by surprise to gain an advantage is just as important as smart dialogue choices. The combat promises to be equally realistic, casting you not as an all-powerful warrior, but a skilled combatant who can easily be overpowered if cornered and outnumbered. NPC members have beliefs of their own and may even reject your orders if it clashes with their values. And they will remember your action and decisions, so your reputation and the factions you support will play a critical role in the missions you can undertake and their outcomes.
Based on the prototype demo, Zaharia has great promise and potential. While I enjoyed the gameplay, it was the atmosphere and world that was most intriguing and it's a world I'd like to see more of. You can learn more about Zaharia here, vote for it on Steam Greenlight, and support the game on Kickstarter.
Classroom Aquatic is the world's first trivia/stealth game. Players play as an exchange student in a school of dolphins, taking a test that the player is in no way prepared for. They must resort to cheating in order to pass it!
Classroom Aquatic is quite literally about a school of dolphins. Basing a game on a pun might seem like it would have little substance for an experience, but Classroom Aquatic takes the premise and runs with it, promising to deliver a weird game with a unique core mechanic. The framework is that you're a human exchange student in this submerged school and to pass the absurdly hard exams, you need to cheat. Playing the demo (available here), I was impressed by the atmosphere and how fun the gameplay was. The surreal tone adds to the enjoyment, but the game itself has a solid foundation to build on, as you cautiously peek at your fellow students' tests, watch the teacher's path for the best moment to glance over, and time distractions with thrown erasers. While I only played with a mouse and keyboard, I imagine the experience would be even more immersive and absurd with an Oculus Rift.
While the demo is understandably bare bones, the developers plan to build on the gameplay with more environments and game modes, such a Detention where you must prevent other students from cheating off your test by tricking them with wrong answers or Science Fair which tasks you with sabotaging other science projects without getting caught. You can learn more about Classroom Aquatic at the official site, vote for it on Steam Greenlight, and support the project on Kickstarter.
Title: Retrobooster Developer: Really Slick Platforms: PC, Linux Price: $17.99 --- Cave flyers have been around for years and the focus on moving through tight spaces while also avoiding objects and enemies have proved to be a popular framework for challenging games. Now Retrobooster promises to take the genre to new heights with modern visuals and physics and the game absolutely succeeds. What stood out the most, from the moment I started playing Retrobooster, was the visuals. Now in terms of textures and other details, Retrobooster isn't exactly photorealistic, but once the bullets start flying and enemies start exploding, the game is an absolute visual treat. The particle effects, the subtle lighting playing across walls and ceilings, the realistic smoke of your thrusters against surfaces, it turns the relatively simple gameplay of evasion, maneuvering, and shooting into an intense frenzy of light and color and particles that's a joy to watch in motion. However, Retrobooster is more than a visually stylish experience; it's a challenging action game that requires skill to survive. Learning how to control your thrusters, momentum, and inertia takes practice, but once you get past the learning curve, you'll be able to weave through the dangerous traps and thread between projectiles with ease. The level design shines here, from the deadly crushers and moving gears to the claustrophobic caves and tight mazes of metal and stone to precisely move through, all while evading bullets and firing your own.
If surviving alone is too much of a challenge, you can also team up co-operatively or destroy each other in split-screen deathmatch with up to four players. But solo or co-operatively, Retrobooster is an impressive visual experience that is as fun and challenging as it looks. You can learn more about Retrobooster and purchase it from the developer's site and Desura, and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Word Mage Developer: Lazy Arcade Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $0.99 --- I've played several word games on IOS, from Bookworm to Spelltower, but none have been as intense and fast as Word Mage. Word Mage combines challenging wordplay and RPG elements better than I anticipated
Perhaps the most similar game would Spell Quest, another IOS word game with some RPG elements. But Word Mage has several elements and mechanics that make it the superior more challenging experience. The set-up is simple: your titular mage is at the top of the screen, facing off against various monsters. Chaining together letters to form words results in an attack; the longer the word, the more powerful the attack. What makes the gameplay so intense and adds a element of urgency is the timer. A bar decreases as you play, getting hit makes it reduce faster, and killing enemies restores some. When the bar is fully depleted, you fail. You really need to assess the board fast and weigh the choice of short but less damaging words over longer words that will take longer to find. It's truly a race against the clock, since the longer you take, the less time you'll have on the next wave of enemies. You need to be quick and always planning ahead, with only seconds to do so. Other elements add more complexity and challenge: you can only use words once and the board doesn't scramble, harder difficulties for each level that add more and harder enemies, leveling up, items to collect to create new powers, different powers to discover and equip.
Word Mage's passive and active abilities, such as Overcharge which makes five-letter words stop time to lightning attacks, add a strategic element not seen in other word games and the skill tree is quite varied. The charming pixel graphics, intense fast-paced wordplay, and surprisingly satisfying blend of RPG and word game makes Word Mage well worth your time. The developer will be adding more achievements and an endless practice mode in the first update and is working on an arena mode with random enemies.
Title: NeonXSZ Developer: Intravenous Software Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $19.99 (currently $9.99, 50% off) --- If there was one word to describe NeonXSZ, it would be "ambitious." A blend of Descent-style ship combat, copious loot, procedural environments, and a wide range of weapons and parts to equip, NeonXSZ is a fast stylish expansive action game. From the get-go, NeonXSZ separates itself from other games. It's not the kind of experience that will hold your hand and guide you with missions and objective arrows. Instead you're let loose in this large word of transport tunnels, cityscapes, and other open areas, with only a few tutorial messages and then free reign to go and do as you please. It's a game built on exploration, in both exploring the world to find missions and enemies to fight and exploring the mechanics. I found this worked very much in the game's favor, especially with my favorite feature: the cockpit.
Given the perspective and mechanics, the cockpit plays a huge role in combat and gameplay, and the fully interactive dashboard adds a great sense of immersion/ very screen has a function and it's fully interactive. You can rotate the digital map in the corner screen and change the secondary camera screen from front to rear view. Locking on to a target display their information on another screen. You can choose and change your weapons by selecting the icons on the center console. But beyond that integral aspect, the overall gameplay impresses as well. While the movement and controls take time to learn and adjust to, soon it'll be possible to easily skim through tight spaces or fly forward and let your momentum carry you while firing at enemies behind you. The gameplay is fast-paced and fluid, from close dogfights to distant firefights where using your displays and targeting systems is a must to blow away your enemies. The wealth of weaponry and equipment - drones, teleportation, shields, homing missiles, and more - and ship types allow you to craft the kind of playstyle.
NeonXSZ is an expansive game that really opens up once you take time to learn its system and mechanics, and should appeal to fans of deep customization, exploration, and fast fluid combat. The game is still in alpha, but is extremely playable and more content is on the horizon, such as the Combat Arenas and new areas that will be added in the next update. You can purchase NeonXSZ on Desura and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Trestle Developer: Sets And Settings Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, IOS, Android Releasing early 2014 ---
Trestle is a hectic arcade game about standing your ground, testing your skill, and grabbing as much weaponry as you can.
Sets and Settings is no stranger to quick arcade gameplay; their previous IOS release Irrupt was a fast paced game of fast timing and evasion. But their upcoming Trestle looks to take that gameplay theme, turn it up to eleven, and imbue with an expansive arsenal, a plethora of enemies, and twitchy reflex-testing action. Set on a 3x6 grid, half of this confined arena belongs to you, where you move between spaces, collect weapons and picks up, and generally just try to stay alive. The other half is where all manners of dangerous projectile-spewing, area-smashing, laser-wielding robotic enemies appear. A frantic dance of close calls, evasion, and gunfire ensues, and you'll soon learn that even your safe area isn't as safe as it appears, since enemies can damage tiles or restrict your movement with energy pillars and lasers. Luckily, your character has a wide range of weaponry at his disposal, from your standard plasma bolts and flame thrower to a deadly disc gun and missile launcher.
Trestle will be releasing in 2014, along with several unlockable characters and multiple difficulties. You can learn more about Trestle and follow its progress on the developer's Tumblr.
I'm sure many of you have had ideas for games you'd love to see become reality one day. Well now, that dream could become a reality. Indie developer Nerd Monkeys has put together the 2014 Banana Jam. What's the purpose of this Jam?
This is a challenge for a few selected IPCA students as their final project. A public poll will decide what batch of game concepts they can use to produce their project. Your submission may reach full production and be published by Nerd Monkeys, earning you a royalty of its sales! The project development will be done live and the viewers can interact with the developers.
The chosen projects will developed into prototypes, then alphas; if the alphas are promising and have potential, "Nerd Monkeys will invest to take that project into the final stage", which could see a possible release on a variety of platforms from Steam, Desura, IOS, Android, and others. Progress and development will be live-streamed through Twitch. You can learn more about the Banana Jam here, and submit your game pitch through this form. The project goes live March 4th.
Title: Xaxi Developer: Noctuelles Platforms: PC, Mac --- By now, you probably know I have a love for games with exploration and abstract visuals. After being blown away by NaissanceE's otherworldly alien atmosphere, Xaxi scratches that itch by dropping you into a weird glitchspace to roam.
Xaxi is simple but oh so pretty. Set in an expansive landscape of jagged spires and glitched plains, it's a weird and wonderful place to explore, that tone only enhanced by the sleek monochromatic style. Xaxi doesn't offer much more than a world to admire and roam, but for fans of the genre, it's an enjoyable experience that's definitely worth a try.
Nokia is a leading mobile phone brand name, which has long been in the ranks of the world's best mobile realm. His name is increasingly widely heard in all corners of the universe, by thinking about a quality brand.
Products made in the results Nokia has successfully sold and used by many small to above, with various series / types that have their production. The largest vendors often conduct an innovation, to create a mobile phone device with today's technology.
With the rapid growth of mobile technology, the company launched a new mobile phone nokia lot to be able to compete with other vendors in the market. By improving the quality, and always keep them priority service.
Below types of mobile phones sony already we collect about Specifications, Reviews, Test etc.
Tower of Guns is a game I've been enjoying very much and each build has only been better and bigger than the last. Now the game finally blows away its beta status with a new trailer and release date.
I think I said it best when I described Tower of Guns as a "mix of twitchy FPS, a roguelike, and some bullet hell in a steampunk blender" and the description remains apt as ever. You'll be able to experience the steampunk quad-jumping lead-filled mayhem for $10 (a 33% launch discount) when the game releases March 4th on Steam and GOG. Tower of Guns is currently available to purchase on the developer's site.
Look out for a SitRep on the game's progress as well.
Title: Nothing To Hide Developer: nCase Platforms: PC, Browser Releasing late 2014 --- As a fan of the genre, I've played many stealth games, from Thief and Chaos Theory to Blood Money and Dishonored. But I've certainly never played an anti-stealth game. Nothing To Hide wraps its unique gameplay mechanic in a thought-provoking framework of dystopian control and total surveillance that deserves your time and support. What is anti-stealth? It's always being seen, needing to stay in line of sight of the cameras that watch your every move. It's assisting your own surveillance by carrying these camera around, making sure you're always in sight. Slip into the shadows and you'll seen be shot full of tranquilizer darts by your unseen masters. Playing as the daughter of Prime Minister of this society, you're attempting to flee and this creates the framework of the intriguing puzzle game that is Nothing To Hide. The charming visuals belay a unsettling atmosphere, reinforced by your character's wide scared eyes and the messages that appear to you in the environments.
Nothing To Hide is currently seeking funding, hoping to gather $40,000 by March 12th. The developer's open piecemeal approach to crowdfunding, as well as sharing the source code, is another element that makes this project one worth checking out. You can play the browser demo here; while the demo already feels very polished and playable, the developer has said the mechanics in the preview only account for a tenth of the ideas he has planned, some of which include mobile cameras, camera-attracting mannequins, line of sight reflecting mirrors, and more.
Nothing To Hide is a polished promising experience that impresses with its unique anti-stealth gameplay, visuals, and atmosphere. You can learn more about the game and support its development on the official site.
Title: Bosses Forever 2.Bro Developer: TOO DX Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Browser --- Bosses Forever is stuck in Greenlight hell and that's a damn shame. I first learned about the game today, thanks to the Monthly Showcase over on r/gamedev, and it only took one playthrough to see that Bosses Forever is a fun charming challenging game that deserves far more attention.
Warning Forever was the first game I know to introduce the concept of an adaptive boss, an enemy that evolves and adapts to your playstyle. Surprisingly few games have attempted to put their own twist on the mechanic, but Bosses Forever does and does so admirably. Playing solo or cooperatively, you control your floppy haired, gun wielding character as you face off against a series of increasingly challenging bosses. The controls are simple, but very responsive, allowing you to precisely wall jump, dash, and evade the myriad projectiles that comes your way. With each new foe, Bosses Forever quickly enters crazy bullet hell territory as you deftly maneuver around missiles and all manner of bullets and explosives. And like the game that inspired its name, bosses will adapt to your tactics: if you stay in one spot, expect homing missiles soon, stick to the walls, and you'll have wall riding energy projectiles to deal with, and more.
Bosses Forever offers a challenging 2D arena twist of Warning Forever's concept that requires skill and precision to survive and is just a fun frantic experience. You can play or download the game here and vote for it on on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Gamma Void Developer: Anisoptera Games Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Open alpha in February, full release sometime in 2014 ---
Gamma Void is an action oriented space ship building and exploration game. You play as a robotic probe from a long extinct civilization, mysteriously reactivated after eons of disuse. The artifacts and memories of your civilization have been scattered and the ruins colonized. Your objective is to recover what you can and reinvent the rest. Pilot and redesign your ship, explore a dynamic ecosystem, and fight enemies. The game is set in an open, continuous, procedurally generated, and persistent world full many different types of living, growing, mostly hostile space robots. Everything in the world is made of destructible, physically interacting modular blocks.
Gamma Void caught my eye while I was perusing the latest Screenshot Saturday, and each new screenshot and piece of info only piqued my interest more. What luck, then, that the developer was taking part in the r/gamedev's first Monthly Showcase and I was able to get some great in-depth details about the game and its mechanics.
Set in a procedurally generated world of asteroids, stations, hostile plant life, various ship factions, and more, you control a lone robotic drone on a journey across this vast and dangerous place, out to find the ruins and remains of the long lost civilization that created you. It's an emergent landscape, where you could stumble upon an massive battle between two factions or watch the hostile plant life take over a station, where frontlines between faction shift over time or defeated enemies flee and return later with reinforcements. Luckily, your drone is far from defenseless; a ship building mechanic allows you to craft as simple or complex a vessel you want, from fast maneuverable and armed with railguns or a hulking ship wielding torpedoes and cannons.
Physics and destruction play a key role in travel and combat, with recoil and thrust affecting your movement, and every object consisting of modular parts that can be blown apart. A skilled player could swoop in and destroy the supporting holding a large ship together or destroy its thrusters and blow it away as it spins out of control. Your drone is equally vulnerable, but Gamma Void reveals one of its most visually stylish mechanics when your ship is damaged: regrowth. Escape from combat, hide behind an asteroid, and your drone will regenerate over time, allowing you to re-enter the fray.
Gamma Void already impressed me with its modular angular art style and its promised mix of exploration, combat, construction, and emergent AI sounds very exciting. An open alpha will be releasing very soon and you learn more about the game on the developer's site and Twitter.
Sony Mobile (previously known as Sony Erisson Mobile) is a subsidiary of the electronics giant Sony Corporation. The company's Xperia range that started off with Windows Mobile OS has moved to Android and is a significant part of the smartphone market today.
Sony Xperia is a type of mobile phone that presents made by Japanese manufacturers specs good enough amid rampant emergence of many competing smartphones with quality. This is evident from the various types of mobile phones from Sony, the Xperia smartphone must have been the mainstay for the moment.
Below types of mobile phones sony already we collect about Specifications, Reviews, Test etc.
Title: NaissanceE Developer: Limasse Five Platforms: PC Price: $19.99 (currently on sale for $17.99) --- One element I value in games, probably only superseded in importance by a game's actual gameplay, is atmosphere, the way audio, visual, and interactivity coalesce to immerse the player into a world. I've experienced the abstract landscapes of Mirrormoon EP and the typographical environments of Type:Rider but I don't think any game I've played has compelled me to explore and established a sense of place in the way that NaissanceE has. The environments are expansive, monolithic, not always in terms of being open to exploration but in terms of sheer scale. You feel small, lost and utterly alone in this world. It's a world that feels alien and weird, not in the twisting Escher-esque sense that Antichamber had, but like you just don't belong here, that this is truly not a place made for or by humans.. Even though it isn't a horror game, there's a distinct feeling of tension and apprehension of the unknown, and the unsettling sound effects add to this. You feel insignificant within the massive alien spaces, the technological canyons and geographical caverns.
The game is certainly linear, this is not some sprawling world, but you do have to find your way and it's easy to get disoriented, lost, turned around. NaissanceE accomplishes that feeling of exploration and discovery well, enticing the player with weird and intriguing architecture and structures far away and then later, you exit a corridor and you're there. It's a great feeling, that makes the game seem less like a linear adventure and more a journey where you're discovering the path. You never feel pushed or pulled in a direction, the game never takes control of your camera to direct you or tell you to head that way or in this direction. It's masterful in that aspect, subtly driving the player forward not through objective markers or compass arrows but with cues in the environment and the reward of some new area to explore.
But NaissanceE doesn't simply offer a world to walk through. It's actually a very challenging platformer and a puzzler. While the bulk of the gameplay is exploring the world, the developers have no qualms about presenting you with a tough platforming section, where timing and precision is key. Each section feels unique, with its own interesting mechanics to wrap your head around. The puzzle mechanic of manipulating light and shadow to reveal platforms or move objects is also well done and visually cool. However, those tough platforming section revealed my biggest gripe with the game and that is the checkpoints. The checkpoints aren't an issue when you're just moving through the world, but they become frustrating and feel much too spread out when you're playing areas where a missed jump can put you many minutes and several platforming sections back.
No explanations are offered, no story to why you're here or what built this otherworldy place, and none is needed. NaissanceE is all about the experience, that mysterious, engaging, ominous atmosphere that permeates every aspect of the game, and the challenges you face while traversing its cavernous spaces and claustrophobic halls. You can purchase NaissanceE on Steam.
Title: HOMEunculus Developers: University of Utah/EAE Team Platforms: PC --- Made for the Global Game Jam 2014, HOMEunculus is only a short prototype, hopefully for some future full-length game. While HOMEunculus is short, it's also one of the eeriest and most interesting takes on the first person puzzle genre I've seen in a while Mannequins are creepy. The dead eyes, the human visages frozen in expression, and games and movies have shown that they love to move when you're not looking. HOMEunculus drops you into a dark deary house, its halls filled with dozens, hundreds of staring, frozen wooden mannequins. It's just unsettling and weird in that "This is wrong" sense. What makes HOMEunculus even more intriguing is its core mechanic: press a key to bring up a pincushion doll, use the mouse to manipulate its limbs, and all the mannequins move in turn, mirroring what you do to the doll. Raise arms to unblock paths, bend them over to create a staircase of bodies. It's unique and never ceases to be creepy and unnerving.
Title: Heart & Slash Developer: aheartfulofgames Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Dec 2014 --- Back in October, I previewed Heart & Slash, a promising game I had found on TIGForums. Better yet, it even had a playable alpha and while still early, the 3D roguelike brawler's promise and potential was evident. Now the game is on Steam Greenlight and recently launched a Kickstarter. From the early alpha, the core mechanic's proved fun and filled with potential, as you executed fast paced combos with a variety of weapons. In the time since, a plethora of content has been added to the game: powerful new weapons from boxing gloves and brass knuckles to the cleaver and the decimating particle gun, new enemies and myriad variants such as rocket-firing Heavy Lifters and chainsaw-wielding BigGrunts to the aerial Flybots and agile NimbleBots, more body parts, and an improved tutorial.
Heart & Slash is planned to released in December; you can learn more about the game's development on TIGForums, vote on Steam Greenlight, and support it on Kickstarter.
Title: Maverick Bird, Flappybalt Developers: Terry Cavanagh, Adam Saltsman Platforms: Browser --- Flappy Bird needs no introduction. Both the game's rise, the media and public response, its subsequent removal, and the myriad clones that flooded the App Store in its wake has been the source of discussion and debate for days. To support developer Dong Nguyen , a Flappy Jam was started and all the dozens of games that have been submitted, I think these two stand out the most. It helps that they're from the creators of Super Hexagon and Canabalt.
Cavanagh's Maverick Bird takes the aesthetic, creativity, and awesome music of his biggest hit and molds those elements into a new Flappy-inspired reflex action game. The controls are simple: up to flap, down to dive. The physics are spot on and controls are tight, the music has the kind of beat that just drives you and easily lets you get into the zone. The gameplay is simple yet has some complexity due to the ability to dive, which allows for obstacles not possible in similar games. It's just all its elements in sync delivering some top notch quality twitch gameplay.
Similarly, Saltsman's Flappybalt puts you in control of one of Canabalt's signature birds. Rather than the usual Flappy gameplay, here your goal is to bounce of the walls, precisely timing your flaps to avoid the spiked panels that appear on the sides of the screen. It's a nice take on the mechanic and the game is very challenging.
Maverick Bird and Flappybalt are both excellent fun game that demonstrate how creativity can give a common mechanic a new twist.
