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Canabalt dev forms indie studio Finji, taking semi-publishing role
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman and wife Rebekah Saltsman have created a studio focused on making "new kinds of games with ethical business models" that they call "Finji." Finji will offer both development and publishing services as they collaborate with other game creators. Their first commercial project is Capsule, which is available now from the Humble Store. When the Saltsmans aren't developing, they'll be working with creators like Scott Benson and Alec Holowka on their upcoming game, Night In The Woods. Finji will be there, as Adam Saltsman wrote on the studio's Tumblr page, to "help pick up some of the admin and production work." Finji will also help distribute the game on desktop and mobile platforms. Finji is self-funded; no Kickstarter campaigns or big-name investors. Adam Saltsman wrote that this means the studio can operate as its creators see fit, and judging by some of his statements, the business will run with an air of respect. "People that choose to support our work by purchasing our games are not a resource to be mined," Saltsman wrote. "Our goal is to make the best games we can and price them in such a way that our audience can afford to buy them and we can afford to continue making games." [Image: Finji]
The iam8bit Entertainment System's homemade console premieres in Los Angeles
The iam8bit gallery in Los Angeles premiered its latest video game-related art show last night, called the iam8bit Entertainment System. The centerpiece of the show was Travis Chen's homemade two-player console, which is a custom-made PC running MAME encased in natural bamboo, with two homemade controller boxes playing three different indie games: Canabalt's two-player version, the Sportsfriends bundle's BaraBariBall, and Chen's own Adventure Time game jam game, Bad Atticube. Chen is a former Neversoft developer who now works on both iOS games with Scopely and his own indie creations, including the recent Typing Karaoke. iam8bit pitched the new show to him as "being kind of like a mock release of a game console" (in the shadow of next week's E3 and its two new consoles), and Chen said he emailed iam8bit co-founder Jon Gibson to say, "Jon, I'm building the console." Chen's work is impressive: The "iES" wood case was laser-cut (though Chen says some sanding was needed to bring it all together), and the front of the console has an LED screen that shows various ASCII text. There are colored buttons on the top of the main unit, and pressing those changes whatever's shown on the screen, from crazy visualizers to a running dialogue between the console and its player. The console is being offered for sale in the gallery, and Chen says if it does sell he wants to customize it for the buyer. But if it doesn't sell, Chen has other plans in mind. "I want to enter it into Indiecade and maybe even the IGF," he says. "Not too many guys are entering hardware, and I think that's really interesting; the idea of indie hardware." The iam8bit Entertainment System, and the rest of the work in the show, will be on display through June 30 at iam8bit.%Gallery-190691%
'Alphabet' made by Takahashi and Saltsman for LA Game Space backers
Alphabet (written by its creators as A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈) is a new game put together by Katamari Damacy's Keita Takahashi and Canabalt's Adam Saltsman. It was created for the bundle of indie games being given away to Kickstarter backers of the LA Game Space.The mysterious Alphabet will be shown off later this week in Austin as part of "Juegos Rancheros," an event for the game development community. Also on display will be Takahashi's Tenya Wayna Teens, which involves two players – with sixteen buttons each – trying to avoid awkward social mishaps while trying to express teen love.Alphabet, whatever it is, will be rewarded to backers as a playable game for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
NYC Museum of Modern Art opens game collection with 14 classics, exhibiting in March 2013
Given the subject matter, this is usually where the author waxes philosophical about whether -- having been accepted by a major international museum -- games are indeed "art." We're gonna skip that needless exercise today and simply tell you that the New York City Museum of Modern Art is officiating its intake of 14 video game classics as the start of an ongoing gaming collection, set to go on display in March 2013 in the MoMA's Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries -- the same galleries that house an original iPod and more. The games range from Buckner & Garcia inspiration Pac-Man to modern classic Portal, and even includes some lesser known gems (vib-ribbon, anyone?). The MoMA blog calls this initial selection just the "seedbed" for a chunkier collection of around 40 titles, all of which will be part of a "new category of artworks" at the iconic museum. Head below for the full first 14.
Katamari and Canabalt creators make a game just for LA Game Space
LA Game Space has 10 days to reach its Kickstarter goal and is half way there, with $125,000 more to go. Today it's sweetening the deal for potential backers: Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy, and Adam Saltsman, the (running) man behind Canabalt, are teaming up to create a game just for people who back the project.Anyone who pledges $5 or more to the LA Game Space Kickstarter will get Takahashi and Saltsman's game – whatever it turns out being – for PC, Mac or Linux. This is on top of the reward for pledges of $15 and more, which offers 30 new games from prominent indie developers such as Hotline Miami's Cactus, Steve Swink of Scale, Ben Esposito of Unfinished Swan, and Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward in collaboration with QWOP's Bennett Foddy, among others. Check out the entire list on on the Kickstarter's main page.LA Game Space is looking to create a hub of game creation in Los Angeles, featuring development tools, pseudo classrooms, mentorship and networking opportunities, along with game development workshops streamed, for free, around the world. We interviewed co-founder Adam Robezzoli in a special episode of the Super Joystiq Podcast; give it a listen right here.
Humble Android Bundle 4 adds Canabalt, Cogs, Swords & Soldiers HD and more
In typical Humble Bundle fashion, the initial lineup of great games included in Humble Android Bundle 4 has had even more great games piled on top of it. Five more games are now included to previous purchasers and those who pledge more than $6.25 from here on out – Canabalt, Cogs, Swords & Soldiers HD, Zen Bound 2 and Avadon: The Black Fortress.Avadon: The Black Fortress is a tablet-only, class-based tactical RPG from Spiderweb Software; Cogs is the acclaimed 3D puzzle game from Lazy 8 Studios where players must move pieces around on a 3D cube. Swords & Soldiers HD is Ronimo Games' casual-friendly side-scrolling strategy game where you manage unit spawning and steamroll everything in your path.Zen Bound 2 is an artistic 3D puzzler where players are tasked with wrapping as little twine as possible around wooden objects to complete beautiful, simple sculptures. Finally, Canabalt is Adam Saltsman's excellent free-runner about standing up to the government and hating boxes. Oh man does that game make you hate boxes.And as with the original lineup, each of these new games also include their respective soundtracks.
Beatshapers Indie Bundle drums up attention on PSN
The Beatshapers Indie Bundle is part of the PSN drop this week, including five games "from famous independent game makers" for $6.99 in the US store and €5.99 in the EU store. The bundle features Wizorb from Tribute Games, Canabalt from Adam Atomic, Enigmo from Brian Greenstone, Galcon Labs from Phil Hassey and BreakQuest from Felix Casablancas.While you're checking out the high-profile finds from Tuesday's PSN lineup, don't forget about the big little guys in the Beatshapers Indie Bundle.
Influential indies on the brouhaha around Ouya
The Ouya, a $99 Android-powered console whose prototype has raised $4.9 million in 7 days on Kickstarter, is a mystery wrapped in a sleek silver box. Many players seem to gravitate toward the idea because of its price point, while it would appear developers, especially indies, are backing it for its open hardware.But those are just appearances – we want to know what prominent and plucky indie developers actually think the Ouya can do for the industry. So we asked a few, including Minecraft's Markus Persson, The Binding of Isaac's Edmund McMillen, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and five other indie starlings. Their thoughts are collected below in the order each developer responded to the email thread, because that seems more fair than arranging them by "best hair" or something.A few of the indies are tenuously linked to the Ouya and have already been quoted on the Kickstarter itself, or have a game listed in the mock-up images, but none of the following developers have seen or played the Ouya. These are initial reactions to an idea, and speculation about a rapidly evolving industry:
Canabalt iOS update might add local multiplayer, hardcore modes
Outside of workshopping "challenge maps" for Canabalt, creator Adam Saltsman has been pretty mum on any kind of updates or changes for the free-runner ... until now. Rather than do a sequel, Saltsman is considering a free update that would add local multiplayer for up to two people, eight new hardcore game modes with corresponding leaderboards, and achievements for Game Center.Saltsman also kinda joked about Canabalt without rooftops, as seen in the image above – sounds great to us because maybe then we'd stop jumping into walls. This was more of a hypothetical than anything, though Saltsman hasn't officially ruled it out. Maybe it'll be the most hardcore mode of them all: You spawn and then immediately fall to your death.
PSN Tuesday: Wheels of Destruction, I Am Alive, Canabalt
Sony's Spring Fever promotion brings Wheels of Destruction and discounts on various Mortal Kombat DLC, neither of which sound very "spring"-like to us. Outside of the promotion (but vaguely more appropriate giving its life-affirming title) is I Am Alive, out today on PS3.In Minis news (yes, really) Canabalt is now available, though it doesn't show up on the Vita's PlayStation Store. Hopefully it can be transferred from PS3, because we would very much like to run and jump forever on the Vita's lovely screen.
Adam Atomic workshopping Canabalt 'challenges'
You can now play Canabalt in multiplayer (in the Windows/Mac/Linux version, available right now for literally any price in the Humble Android Bundle). But developer Adam Saltsman is still thinking about how to enhance the running/jumping/dying experience, polling Twitter followers about the "vague, mysterious ideas" shown on his Professional Game Designer Whiteboard.The whiteboard depicts some kind of "challenge" mode, which features a map. This opens up the game to all kinds of uncomfortable change, like the potential for movement in another direction. After all, that map isn't a straight line that goes on forever. Or maybe it's a set of specific, creator-designed Canabalt situations arranged within a map display. Something like that.
Humble Bundle for Android #2 brings Canabalt to Android
If you have an Android phone, you've probably been eagerly awaiting this day: the day when Semi Secret Software's auto-runner Canabalt jumps through a window and lands on Android. Not only is it out today, it's part of a new Android-focused Humble Bundle.Other games in today's pay-what-you-want charity collection include Zen Bound 2, Cogs, and Spiderweb's Avadon: The Black Fortress. Those who pay over the average also get Swords & Soldiers.Though it's an Android bundle, buying it gets you access to all the games across PC, Mac, and Linux as well, plus soundtracks for everything but Avadon. And, of course, you get the positive feeling of contributing to charity or whatever.
Humble Bundle brings Canabalt and more to Android
January saw the release of the first ever Humble Bundle for Android, and now the organization is back with a first of another sort for the platform -- five of them, in fact. The second mobile-focused Humble Bundle sees five games making their Android debut, including iPhone favorite Canabalt (now with a two-player mode and Android-exclusive 3D option), plus Zen Bound 2, Cogs, Swords and Soldiers and Avadon: The Black Fortress HD (the latter specific to Android tablets). Along with those comes a beta version of Humble Bundle's own app (up from an alpha release before), which makes it a bit easier to download the games and check for updates since all of this is handled outside of Google Play. As with all Humble Bundles, you can set your own price for the bundle, with an amount of your choosing going to the Child's Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you'll also get desktop versions of all five games for Windows, Mac and Linux. A Steam key is included with all purchases over $1 as well (although it doesn't yet include Canabalt), and they've even thrown in soundtracks for three of the games for good measure.
Canabalt makes the jump to PlayStation Minis
Canabalt, the deceptively addictive single-button platformer from Adam Saltsman, is available for PS3, Vita and PSP as a PlayStation Mini in Europe right now, and is set to hit next week in the US. Canabalt costs £1.74/€1.99/AU $3.45.Canabalt has already made its run as a free Flash game and an iOS title, and Saltsman (or Mr. Atomic, as we assume he sometimes prefers) is hard at work on the official iOS movie tie-in game, The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire.
PSA: Venus Patrol exclusives released to Kickstarter supporters
If you donated $25 or more to the Venus Patrol Kickstarter fundraiser back in September of last year, check your email: Gun Godz, the retro hip-hop FPS developed by Vlambeer of Super Crate Box fame, and Capsule, the "minimalist sci-fi/survival-horror" title from Canabalt's Adam Atomic are both waiting for you.As we found out late last year, Capsule's heavily stylized visual aesthetic and atmospheric, claustrophobic sound design are best enjoyed while wearing headphones in a darkened room, as are Gun Godz's Wolfenstein 3D-inspired graphics and Doseone-infused hip-hop soundtrack.%Gallery-141893%%Gallery-141928%
Daily iPhone App: Blot
There's a lot of buzz around cloning apps lately. Zynga recently received some flak for making a clone of Tiny Tower, and there's a big lawsuit around Triple Town and its clone Yeti Town. I would argue that there's a right way and a wrong way to clone an idea. Blatant rip-offs are obviously wrong. The right way is to lovingly borrow some of the core mechanics of a certain game, but add in your own aesthetic, insight, and style. Blot is an example of the latter. Ostensibly, it's a clone of the very popular Jetpack Joyride. You play as a little ink blot that's flying along, tapping the screen to make it rise, fall and collect power-ups and coins. One could argue that Blot is a ripoff of Jetpack Joyride, but aesthetic is unique, combining some beautiful hand-drawn environments with a bouncy, joyful soundtrack. The game employes new ideas, too. For example, the inky spot can combine with colors for extra abilities, and the upgrade system is even more complex than Jetpack Joyride's, allowing you to pick up mechanics that can completely change the way the game is played. I would also argue that Blot's rewards are too spaced out. Even after several runs, I haven't collected enough coins to "buy" anything interesting. But everything else in the game is very well done, and the little add-ons (like Blot's hilarious costumes) are worth chasing down over time, even though that curve is steep. Blot is available now for US$0.99 as a universal app. It does borrow from Jetpack Joyride and what you might call the "hover Canabalt" sub genre, but its infectious style and unique features make it worth a download.
Buy your very own copy of Canabalt for C64
Paul Koller's C64 port of Canabalt was already pretty cool (if you're the kind of person who thinks a new Commodore 64 game is cool, a group that we begrudingly recognize doesn't include everyone). Now it's even cooler within that very specific niche, as it's available on a real C64 cartridge. RGCD has the real, physical release of C64anabalt available in limited quantities for around £20, in your choice of two versions: one with a SID conversion of Danny Baranowsky's original soundtrack, or one with the music from the indie game ThrustBurst for some reason.
Portabliss: Jetpack Joyride (iOS)
Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in, with our Portabliss column. In each installment, we'll tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Jetpack Joyride. The free NES games in Nintendo's 3DS Ambassador Program arrived at an awkward time, because the standout of that group for me, Balloon Fight, is now getting overshadowed by the many jetpacks of Barry Steakfries. Like Halfbrick's Monster Dash before it (and Balloon Fight's "Balloon Trip" mode long before that), Jetpack Joyride takes the autorunning genre defined on iOS by Canabalt and adds a few kinks. Unlike Monster Dash, however, Jetpack Joyride is deep, with a mess of power-ups, vehicles, and mechanical and aesthetic additions. I was repeatedly taken aback by how fleshed out Halfbrick has made its latest iOS game, and repeatedly charmed by the studio's presentation. Nods to past Halfbrick titles abound (beyond the main character's return from previous iOS games), and the inclusion of an entire vehicle poking fun at the iPhone's most popular franchise lends an extra layer of levity to the already cheeky proceedings.%Gallery-131935%
Daily iPhone App: Baby Monkey (going backwards on a pig)
There's two ways to do this. I could tell you that Baby Monkey is a terrific running game, with a really fun double-jump mechanic, bright and colorful graphics, and the catchiest theme song I've heard all year (the game itself is based on Parry Gripp's song). I could say that it's got full Game Center integration, and is available in the App Store for just 99 cents right now. And I could tell you that it's a must-buy title with lots of fun and replay value. Or, I could just tell you that it's got a baby monkey that rides backwards on a pig. Either way, you should be on your way to the App Store to pick it up right now.
Walk with me through the MoMA's 'Talk To Me' gaming exhibit
This past Wednesday evening, high-brow gaming mag Kill Screen teamed up with a handful of developers, several sponsors, and New York City's Museum of Modern Art to celebrate "Talk To Me," an exhibit at the MoMA focusing on "Design and the communication between people and objects." Kill Screen's "Arcade" event brought together games from a variety of well-respected developers to highlight that very concept. We headed over to the "Arcade" event and snapped a mess of photos of both that night's happenings and the exhibit itself -- a virtual walkthrough, if you will. "Talk To Me" will be on display at the MoMA through November 7, so you still have a few more months to head over and experience it firsthand if you like what you see. Sadly, there won't be a variety of games strewn throughout the museum when you visit, but perhaps playing Canabalt on your phone as you peruse the exhibit will offer some minor verisimilitude.%Gallery-129438%
