That's a good question! Steam aside - do we really need yet another games portal? There's already quite a few - realarcade(BOO!) bigfish, arcadetown etc. Trouble is, they all cater to the middle aged woman crowd who lap up those zen-state inducing casual puzzle games. Even steam is now moving into this space with its Popcap deal.
Manifesto appears to be taking the angle: Screw casual, there's other indie games out there that we should be looking at. I totally agree, and its nice to make the distinction between indie and casual games for those (like me) who can't be bothered with the casual space, but want somehting a bit diffrerent. Whether this will be enough to differentiate them from sites that just carry everything, only time will tell. I do think Manifesto have made a good start by securing these games in particular:
Starscape My favourite indie game of all time, but I shan't go on about it as it's been covered enough by Slashdot. Starscape does not appear to be available anywhere else but Manifesto.
Alien ShooterSwitch off your brain! Here comes the Gore! I can't help but revel in painting the backdrop with alien blood!
Uplink Once again, not a lot needs to be said about this title as it's been covered to death right here on slashdot.
It remains to be seen whether Manifesto can acquire enough of these titles, or even whether that many great examples exist.
I have to say, not many indie games are that good, and it's simply a complete pain to try and find the good ones. For that reason, I think the Gametunnel roundups are excellent. Every now and then the big mainstream gaming sites will latch onto something like Darwinia and proudly boast their credentials as supporters of innovation and the little guy, but we forget that Gametunnel is always there first, sat in the trenches sifting through the mud (which unfortunately there's a lot of) to find the few fun nuggets of indie game fun.
I'm glad they do because it's only through them I've found the last 3 game purchases I made.
Re: GreyWolf3000
Thanks for trying to explain, but it still doesn't explain the vitriol displayed by the Linux community. If I'm correct: you are saying that the Linux community hates this, because someone else might do the same thing for free.
It just doesn't make any sense to me why someone might hate a software developer for actually charging for their work.
I guess I must be missing something - but it's something I'd like to understand.
I don't understand why people are against this kind of thing, and yet I see a lot of people in the linux community being anti - 'closed source paid programming' (to use the above term.)
Why? I genuinely don't get it - someone is providing a product they have invested their time and effort in; where is the evil in that? I don't see how people can be expected to work for free when there is no open source equivalent of housing and food;) I know some people manage to, but we don't all have funding from a government/company/rich person, and yet we still have to eat.
This is a genuine question to the Linux community, from someone outside it.
You mean 'New Infogrames Games' of course....
on
New Atari Games Revealed
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Sigh, just because they bought the name, doesn't mean the have to whore it about the internet.
If there's an Xbox version, is there a PC version, and if not, why not?
In the meantime the indies are filling the gap: Hamsterball and Super Gerball (yup Gerbils...)
Not particularly original, but then I suppose Monkey Ball wasn't - just loads of fun.
Maybe a lot of people don't care and aren't interested in these sort of games - but I always like to support the little guy, and I really hope this opens up the 'cash pot' for all those little indie developers out there. Of course, I suspect there will be an army of middle men in the way, as this article by one of the guys from garage games points the way of the future for indies. I also hope it opens up the market for some of the less casual indie games out there. All the stuff popcap does is pretty banal (but fun in a mindnumbing way). I've heard that hamsterball will be on there, which is a cool game I own and love. Maybe that will leave hope for some of the other good shareware games to end up on XBoxLive, not just the coloured block pushing clones. Crimsonland, SpaceTripper or Gish on Xbox? Yeah, I'd buy...
I wonder what percentage the little developer gets though? Maybe I'll hold off until I know - I can always buy direct from their website - I'd rather support them and their future endeavours than all the sharks in between.
I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)
I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)
Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:
Stick it in DVD players if it's cheap enough
on
Dreamcast On a Chip
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I've always thought it would be superlative if there was a standard games platform available on DVD players. This could be it - with wirless controllers you'd have a fantastic platform for games. I'd love to see it adopted as some kind of DVD player standard.
In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, one can gain an advantage by turning off all foliage rendering. This means anyone hiding in long grass is easily spotted.
Some mods just turn foliage off for everybody. It's so boring that the problem of cheating in online games means the game has to run for the lowest common denominator.
It always seems like the developers get the flak for this too: yet what are they supposed to do? The whole situation is getting like that with cracks - the only way for developers to 'fix' things is by constant updates. Such a shame but I suppose that's the way of the world - a couple of idiots ruining everyone else's fun.
OR: come up with your own story and characters, THEN you are truly golden.
So much effort went into this, but why didn't he just come up with his own ideas instead of ripping off other people's? He would not have problems if he had his own story, characters and world and only used Chrono Trigger as the inspiration for the gameplay mechanic. Then we would have even more respect for what he was trying to achieve.
Of course 3D games are better! they have an extra D! I'm not going to pay the same price for a game that has one less D in it!!!
This mentality amongst (particularly young) gamers drives me nuts. I have nephews who won't even play a game if it was released last year. If a game is good, it doesn't stop being good over time.
Actually, game software is on sale or return. When it gets to the end of it's shelf life, the retailers ask the publishers if they want to pick it up. Of course, the publishers don't want the stock back, so they either leave it (in which case the retailer tries to get shot of it in a bargain bin whilst making a bit of money back) or it is heavily discounted.
The food chain goes:
Retailers-Publishers-Developers-Development Staff.
Atari are dead, and I wish people would remember that. Atari is really Infogrames, run by Bruno Bonnel, who is one of the Games Industry's biggest morons. Why does anyone care what that pillock thinks? I'm just waiting for the French government to stop bailing out his failing company (I assume Infogrames is so universaly despised that they had to buy a credible name like Atari and ruin that too.) so I can watch them slide away into oblivion.
Darn, I get so angry when I hear the good name of Atari abused by that bubble-headed retard.
I was considering buying an Xbox when this came out. I was really looking forward to it.
Maybe it makes sense, the Japanese xbox market is small, and I've heard from several places that cel shaded games are unpopular in the West. What a shame, I love cel shaded games. Maybe there will be a pc release one day...
I bought this before the demo was even out, and have played it through. I have to admit to being a bit dissapointed - the game is such a great idea, but the implementaion is really flawed:
Menus are a bit ugly and are strangely non-intuituve (minor and easily forgiveable)
The jump system is truly awful - it can take ages to build up the proper jump height, and it is easy to make a mistake. Really unforgiving. I'm sure they could easily fix this, but that would probably mean redesigning the levels
crossing over certain parts of walls when your are in the sticky mode can just mean you get stuck
Levels are pretty dull - sometimes you just fall though a hole, go over a gap, and that's it -the end!
As it is, I don't think Gish is really a finished game, and it really annoying -you can see how great this game can be. I hope the people who make it have another go, and get some decent levels made for the game. Gish 2 (or even 1.5!) could really be a good game. Perhaps if they fixed the jumping and released a level editor that would help someway too.
I really think Adrenaline Vault should change its name to Viagra Vault. It seems like all the staff lately have had children or some kind of mid life crisis, and seen the 'error of their ways'
I'm way over 30, and have kids, but it hasn't turned me into the moral saviour of the planet. My kids know that if they misbehave I will take time off work to follow them around and publicly embarrass them in front of their friends - that has a greater influence than any game, and any law the government can pass.
I love this pic from their visit to ECTS (is this in London?)
and the comment: 'I wouldn't be so upset about the Audi if I had that...' Do you think he means the car or one of the girls?
This is the best though (sorry, I realise this isn't hotties.slashdot.org, but I couldn't help myself...)
I can't blame Savage for trying to get free publicity, but I think there are more deserving people who could put the money to good use. Looks like a two tier system might be the way to go for the future of the IGF.
Yeah, it's easy, but it doesn't make you look big. Though I was expecting this outcome, it still sucked. I always thought the IGF was there to 'help the little man', but it seems not. I don't see an easy resolution though: how do you define what we all know in our hearts to be 'indie developers' -small teams of 1-4 people living off next to nothing and working out of a spare bedroom.(usually)
Check out these photos and these photos from diygames for the kind of thing I mean. Those guys are true indie developers!!
Just a few of the studios that were lost (as touched on in the article)
Also, Infogrames (I won't sully the name of Atari by using it) pulled the plug on it's UK studios. Core has been pulled apart and is left with a far smaller development staff and a custodian manager.
It seems like the UK games industry may go the way of the UK film industry, the investment just isn't there unless Hollywood (EA let's say!) decide to pay for it. Let's face it, UK development is wholly reliant on US money. Maybe the independent movement will be it's only saviour as it seems to have been with the UK film industry.
It's the same premise. Although tranquility introduces the concept of needing to bounce off and through things to gain height (i.e it introduced that vital element to all games: gameplay )
So as a comparison Tranquility trounces it. Although to be honest I'm not a fan of Tranquility: perhaps the name and description on the site made me expect some trippy mindless departure from reality (like Rez maybe) but the game is actually very frustrating to play. Particularly during any level where you have to bounce though spinning polygon staircases: when you fall off before reaching the top you can't help but reach for ALT+F4...
Slashdot Mirror
- Starscape My favourite indie game of all time, but I shan't go on about it as it's been covered enough by Slashdot. Starscape does not appear to be available anywhere else but Manifesto.
- Alien ShooterSwitch off your brain! Here comes the Gore! I can't help but revel in painting the backdrop with alien blood!
- Uplink Once again, not a lot needs to be said about this title as it's been covered to death right here on slashdot.
It remains to be seen whether Manifesto can acquire enough of these titles, or even whether that many great examples exist.I have to say, not many indie games are that good, and it's simply a complete pain to try and find the good ones. For that reason, I think the Gametunnel roundups are excellent. Every now and then the big mainstream gaming sites will latch onto something like Darwinia and proudly boast their credentials as supporters of innovation and the little guy, but we forget that Gametunnel is always there first, sat in the trenches sifting through the mud (which unfortunately there's a lot of) to find the few fun nuggets of indie game fun.
I'm glad they do because it's only through them I've found the last 3 game purchases I made.
Re: GreyWolf3000
Thanks for trying to explain, but it still doesn't explain the vitriol displayed by the Linux community. If I'm correct: you are saying that the Linux community hates this, because someone else might do the same thing for free.
It just doesn't make any sense to me why someone might hate a software developer for actually charging for their work.
I guess I must be missing something - but it's something I'd like to understand.
I don't understand why people are against this kind of thing, and yet I see a lot of people in the linux community being anti - 'closed source paid programming' (to use the above term.)
;) I know some people manage to, but we don't all have funding from a government/company/rich person, and yet we still have to eat.
Why? I genuinely don't get it - someone is providing a product they have invested their time and effort in; where is the evil in that? I don't see how people can be expected to work for free when there is no open source equivalent of housing and food
This is a genuine question to the Linux community, from someone outside it.
Sigh, just because they bought the name, doesn't mean the have to whore it about the internet.
Oh no, it does doesn't it..
If there's an Xbox version, is there a PC version, and if not, why not?
In the meantime the indies are filling the gap:
Hamsterball and Super Gerball (yup Gerbils...)
Not particularly original, but then I suppose Monkey Ball wasn't - just loads of fun.
Hmmm, I wonder if SuperRatBall is taken as a url?
Maybe a lot of people don't care and aren't interested in these sort of games - but I always like to support the little guy, and I really hope this opens up the 'cash pot' for all those little indie developers out there. Of course, I suspect there will be an army of middle men in the way, as this article by one of the guys from garage games points the way of the future for indies. I also hope it opens up the market for some of the less casual indie games out there. All the stuff popcap does is pretty banal (but fun in a mindnumbing way). I've heard that hamsterball will be on there, which is a cool game I own and love. Maybe that will leave hope for some of the other good shareware games to end up on XBoxLive, not just the coloured block pushing clones. Crimsonland, SpaceTripper or Gish on Xbox? Yeah, I'd buy...
I wonder what percentage the little developer gets though? Maybe I'll hold off until I know - I can always buy direct from their website - I'd rather support them and their future endeavours than all the sharks in between.
I'd rather sit on my ass in front of the tv, eating a fat burger and playing online soccer than actually go outside.
There's scary people outside, the government told me so..
I generally follow the shareware games industry, because in the past I've found some incredible games. This year has not been too exciting though. The above mentioned Wik looks ok though (Bit like Bionic Commandos?)
I think Gametunnel's Game Of The Year article has a more interesting round up though (and you can avoid sections you aren't interested in like 'puzzle' and 'arkanoid'!!)
Be warned though, it has awful layout - to find the winners, you have to scroll to the bottom, and you have to look thought ten pages of runners up for the overall game of the year! -Awful!!
Here's the winner links:
Action Game of the Year(Alien Shooter)
Adventure Game of the Year(Starscape)
Arkanoid Game of the Year(Break Ball 2: Gold)
Puzzle Game of the Year(Dungeon Scroll)
Strategy, Sports, RPG, SIM Game of the Year(Samurai)
Best Graphics of the Year(3D Airstrike: Operation W.A.T.)
Best Sound of the Year(Dr. Blob's Organism)
Most Original Conspet of the Year(Train Tracking)
Best Non-Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Mage Bros.)
Best Networked Muliplayer Game of the Year(Orbz)
Independent Game of the Year(Starscape)
I've always thought it would be superlative if there was a standard games platform available on DVD players. This could be it - with wirless controllers you'd have a fantastic platform for games. I'd love to see it adopted as some kind of DVD player standard.
In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, one can gain an advantage by turning off all foliage rendering. This means anyone hiding in long grass is easily spotted.
Some mods just turn foliage off for everybody. It's so boring that the problem of cheating in online games means the game has to run for the lowest common denominator.
It always seems like the developers get the flak for this too: yet what are they supposed to do? The whole situation is getting like that with cracks - the only way for developers to 'fix' things is by constant updates. Such a shame but I suppose that's the way of the world - a couple of idiots ruining everyone else's fun.
Not much to say here other than it's great to see people keeping this genre going in a world of licensed games.
If only more big sites would cover this kind of thing. Respect to Diygames and Slashdot for always putting in the effort to cover these genres.
OR: come up with your own story and characters, THEN you are truly golden.
So much effort went into this, but why didn't he just come up with his own ideas instead of ripping off other people's? He would not have problems if he had his own story, characters and world and only used Chrono Trigger as the inspiration for the gameplay mechanic. Then we would have even more respect for what he was trying to achieve.
Of course 3D games are better! they have an extra D! I'm not going to pay the same price for a game that has one less D in it!!!
This mentality amongst (particularly young) gamers drives me nuts. I have nephews who won't even play a game if it was released last year. If a game is good, it doesn't stop being good over time.
Actually, game software is on sale or return. When it gets to the end of it's shelf life, the retailers ask the publishers if they want to pick it up. Of course, the publishers don't want the stock back, so they either leave it (in which case the retailer tries to get shot of it in a bargain bin whilst making a bit of money back) or it is heavily discounted.
The food chain goes: Retailers-Publishers-Developers-Development Staff.
Atari are dead, and I wish people would remember that. Atari is really Infogrames, run by Bruno Bonnel, who is one of the Games Industry's biggest morons. Why does anyone care what that pillock thinks? I'm just waiting for the French government to stop bailing out his failing company (I assume Infogrames is so universaly despised that they had to buy a credible name like Atari and ruin that too.) so I can watch them slide away into oblivion.
Darn, I get so angry when I hear the good name of Atari abused by that bubble-headed retard.
I was considering buying an Xbox when this came out. I was really looking forward to it.
Maybe it makes sense, the Japanese xbox market is small, and I've heard from several places that cel shaded games are unpopular in the West. What a shame, I love cel shaded games. Maybe there will be a pc release one day...
Was Outrun 2 in the arcades running on Sega's Xbox based arcade hardware?
In which case, I wonder how hard the XBox port really is? and what's involved?
- Menus are a bit ugly and are strangely non-intuituve (minor and easily forgiveable)
- The jump system is truly awful - it can take ages to build up the proper jump height, and it is easy to make a mistake. Really unforgiving. I'm sure they could easily fix this, but that would probably mean redesigning the levels
- crossing over certain parts of walls when your are in the sticky mode can just mean you get stuck
- Levels are pretty dull - sometimes you just fall though a hole, go over a gap, and that's it -the end!
As it is, I don't think Gish is really a finished game, and it really annoying -you can see how great this game can be. I hope the people who make it have another go, and get some decent levels made for the game. Gish 2 (or even 1.5!) could really be a good game. Perhaps if they fixed the jumping and released a level editor that would help someway too.I really think Adrenaline Vault should change its name to Viagra Vault. It seems like all the staff lately have had children or some kind of mid life crisis, and seen the 'error of their ways' I'm way over 30, and have kids, but it hasn't turned me into the moral saviour of the planet. My kids know that if they misbehave I will take time off work to follow them around and publicly embarrass them in front of their friends - that has a greater influence than any game, and any law the government can pass.
In my opinion, was 'The New Zealand Story'
This guy has been working on a port, and if there's anyone I can petition to help him release it or publish it (Taito?) then I'll be doing so.
Nothing beats a kiwi with a bow and arrow!
Haha! yeah poor guy
I love this pic from their visit to ECTS (is this in London?) and the comment: 'I wouldn't be so upset about the Audi if I had that...' Do you think he means the car or one of the girls? This is the best though (sorry, I realise this isn't hotties.slashdot.org, but I couldn't help myself...)
I can't blame Savage for trying to get free publicity, but I think there are more deserving people who could put the money to good use. Looks like a two tier system might be the way to go for the future of the IGF.
Yeah, it's easy, but it doesn't make you look big. Though I was expecting this outcome, it still sucked. I always thought the IGF was there to 'help the little man', but it seems not. I don't see an easy resolution though: how do you define what we all know in our hearts to be 'indie developers' -small teams of 1-4 people living off next to nothing and working out of a spare bedroom.(usually) Check out these photos and these photos from diygames for the kind of thing I mean. Those guys are true indie developers!!
- Rage
- Hotgen
- Kaboom Studios
- Computer Artworks
- Mucky Foot
- Crawfish
- Attention To Detail
- Silicon Dreams.
Just a few of the studios that were lost (as touched on in the article)Also, Infogrames (I won't sully the name of Atari by using it) pulled the plug on it's UK studios. Core has been pulled apart and is left with a far smaller development staff and a custodian manager.
It seems like the UK games industry may go the way of the UK film industry, the investment just isn't there unless Hollywood (EA let's say!) decide to pay for it. Let's face it, UK development is wholly reliant on US money. Maybe the independent movement will be it's only saviour as it seems to have been with the UK film industry.
It's the same premise. Although tranquility introduces the concept of needing to bounce off and through things to gain height (i.e it introduced that vital element to all games: gameplay )
So as a comparison Tranquility trounces it. Although to be honest I'm not a fan of Tranquility: perhaps the name and description on the site made me expect some trippy mindless departure from reality (like Rez maybe) but the game is actually very frustrating to play. Particularly during any level where you have to bounce though spinning polygon staircases: when you fall off before reaching the top you can't help but reach for ALT+F4...