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Best of the Rest: Jessica's picks of 2014
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Threes Threes is ingenious. Its simplistic presentation belies beautiful, thoughtful design and butter-smooth mechanics. Threes isn't a matter of "less is more," it's fully encapsulated and pushed to the limits of what it intends to do, providing hours upon hours of repeated gameplay on that four-by-four tiled screen. On top of the brain-teasing numbers game, writer Asher Vollmer, illustrator Greg Wohlwend and composer Jimmy Hinson infuse Threes with personality, giving the numbers voices and faces, and tipping Threes from "Fun" to "Absolutely adorable. And, of course, fun."
Watch a robot play Threes better than you can, live on Twitch
Threes is the adorable, addictive puzzler from Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer, neither of whom are robots. Team Colorblind is the studio behind Aztez, the bloody beat-em-up in development for next-gen platforms and Steam, and no one in that group is a robot, either. Threesus, also known as Threepio, is a robot, and it's playing Threes live on game broadcasting platform Twitch right now - and it's doing a really good job. Matthew Wegner, one half of Team Colorblind, designed the robot playing Threes, while Way designer Walt Destler programmed the AI's logic. We enjoy Threes very much, but we've never reached the ridiculous numbers this robot can. A lot of other people haven't, either: Less than half of players have seen the tile 384, but Threepio has made it to the thousands. So far.
Threes slides to Android, provides numbers about the numbers
The addictive, number-pushing puzzler Threes is now on Android, following its launch on iOS in February. It's currently 33.3 percent off on the Google Play Store, or $2, and it features all of the minimalistic design and party personalities of the original game. The port was handled by Hidden Variable Studios. Threes creators Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer put together an infographic with some scintillating stats about the game in its first month on iOS, including the following information: Of all players, 47 percent are from the US, while 14 percent hail from China – but in China, only 2 percent of players paid for the game, putting the supposed piracy rate at 93 percent. Each day, Threes fans play a cumulative 11 years, for 327 years in total so far. The current high score is 808,989, held by chu121su12, and the highest tile players have reached is 6,144 (six players have seen it). Less than half of players have seen the 384 tile, while more than 70 percent have reached the tile previous, 192. Check out the full infographic after the break (click to enlarge). Wohlwend and Vollmer launched Threes on iOS first simply because of time and resources – and because of uncertainty about the game's success, Wohlwend told me. "Releasing on multiple platforms would be really overwhelming and take us too much extra time to coordinate," he said. "It seems like we could have in hindsight, but at the time just before release on iOS we were really uncertain about Threes. It could go either way and so we do all we can, when we can. I think this is the case for just about every indie developer out there. When you release a game, you have no real data about if those many months of work will connect with people. So staying in that vacuum, with an unreleased game, and assuming that it's worth it to port it to every platform, can be a huge trap." The team hasn't released information about how many players have gotten their paws on Threes, but given the new port and celebratory infographic, we're guessing Wohlwend and Vollmer's bets paid off. [Image: Greg Wohlwend]
Threes browser game will ensure you get absolutely no work done
Attention hungry iOS Threes addicts and sad Android users: You, too, can play Threes all day long with the browser game, designed specifically for those who want to spend hours avoiding actual work (or those who forgot their spectacles at home). Seriously, open this game only if you're OK with not doing anything productive the rest of the day. You already opened it? Oh, man. We warned you. Threes comes from artist Greg Wohlwend and designer Asher Vollmer, and it's a brilliantly simple premise: On a four-by-four grid, slide numbers together to create larger numbers, all divisible by three. One and two make three, three and three make six, six and six make twelve, and up from there, squishing together the same, three-based numbers to achieve the high score. The Threes browser game doesn't include the amiable chatter and unique personalities of each number featured in the iOS version, but it has the option to play the game's music. The big version comes from Angela Li, @angelaconstance on Twitter, and it's been approved by Wohlwend and Vollmer. "We're really flattered that a fan would take the time to put Threes in the browser like this," Wohlwend tells Joystiq. "It's a fan-made, free game that doesn't try to profit from our hard work on Threes. We're currently trying our hardest to stay focused on the next update as well as on porting to Android. While the obvious feelings of 'uh-oh, people really want to play Threes everywhere' kind of permeate our thoughts more and more, and it's hard to focus on what we need to because of that, we feel this homage was done with the right kind of heart." [Image: Angela Li]
The floating, fragile indie bubble
Days after Braid hit Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, we posted a story titled "Why should we care about Braid?" We liked the game and felt the need to explain: It was a simple platformer made by a handful of people, it was pretty and it had solid controls. This wasn't a review of Braid. It was a defense of the emerging indie industry, and an analysis of why a truly good, independent game deserved adulation, because some of our readers were uneasy accepting them as legitimate products. Now, we're writing about Sony dedicating a large chunk of its E3 2013 press conference – the one just prior to the launch of the PS4 – to indie developers. We're writing about Indie Megabooth being the largest display at PAX. We're writing about Vlambeer, Klei, Hello Games, Dennaton, Fullbright, Polytron, Chris Hecker and Team Meat without having to remind readers who they are or why they matter. We're writing about Flappy Bird. We're not just writing about the existence of Flappy Bird – a free, tap-to-fly, pixelated mobile game from a young developer in Vietnam – we're writing about Flappy Bird spawning game jams and knock-offs from Fall Out Boy. "The biggest change now is that it is so much easier to make games and it is so much easier to find an audience for games," Braid creator Jonathan Blow tells me. "This means a lot more people can build games and make a living off it, which is nice. However, it also means there is not so much of a crucible against which people refine their skills, so if one really wants to become a top game developer, a lot of motivation is required above and beyond that which gets one to 'baseline success.'"
Portabliss: Threes
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. Imagine a house party in a minimalist, white studio apartment, where the easy, simple decor belies a mixed group of partygoers. For some, introductions and flirtations come effortlessly, while others are more shy. For all the many people, the atmosphere is one of constant effervescence and the collective always mingles as one, its faces and sounds shifting and changing as the night bubbles on. Now imagine that as an addictive puzzle game with numbers. Don't worry if you cannot, because Threes already exists. To casually glance at Threes, you wouldn't sense its foxy personality. In its heart of hearts, the iOS game is a matching puzzler with numbers, which sounds like the opposite of sexy. That said, even when you discount its style, Threes isn't a conventional matching game.
Indie puzzler Threes comes to iOS at 33% off, naturally
Today marks the debut of Threes, a new iOS puzzle game that asks players to combine adorably anthropomorphic numbers into even larger, potentially cuter numbers. Developed by Ridiculous Fishing artist Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer, formerly a designer at thatgamecompany, Threes was built from the ground-up with accessibility in mind. "Threes is a game anyone can play anywhere," Wohlwend told us in an interview last month. "It's the first game I've ever made that didn't rely at least partially on reflexes in some way. It's purely turn-based and rewards a lot of thought between each move." Vollmer added, "It can be played for ten seconds or two hours at a time. There's no hidden or memory-based information, which means it can be picked up at any point in the game. The difficulty of the puzzle always keeps up with the skill level of the player." To celebrate the game's launch, Threes has been marked down to $2, or by 33.3 percent, a figure that is both numerically apropos and only available for a limited time. [Image: Sirvo LLC]
Addictive iOS puzzling comes in 'Threes'
Threes, due out on February 6, is an addictive little iOS puzzler from Ridiculous Fishing artist Greg Wohlwend and former thatgamecompany designer Asher Vollmer, both of whom collaborated on Puzzlejuice back in 2012. It's another tile-based puzzle game, asking players to squish numbers together across a 4-by-4 grid to make larger and larger numbers, each divisible by three. The numbers themselves have personalities and backstories, and even voices, some of which are provided by fellow indie developers. It's surprisingly adorable, for a game starring numbers. "Threes is a game anyone can play anywhere," Wohlwend tells Joystiq. "It's the first game I've ever made that didn't rely at least partially on reflexes in some way. It's purely turn-based and rewards a lot of thought between each move. Those aspects will make for a puzzle that'll live in your pocket forever." Vollmer and Wohlwend have found a sweet spot in mobile gaming, offering customizable challenges for players of all ranges, Vollmer says: "Just a quick glance at the app store charts will show you how popular puzzle games are .... I kept the idea of how gigantic and diverse the audience is in the forefront of my mind while designing Threes. It can be played for ten seconds or two hours at a time. There's no hidden or memory-based information, which means it can be picked up at any point in the game. The difficulty of the puzzle always keeps up with the skill level of the player. I believe anyone with a critical mind will enjoy the game – it's just a matter of getting it in their pockets."
Don't quit your day job: Wohlwend's cautionary post on going indie
Greg Wohlwend has been a full-time independent developer for six years, working on games such as Solipskier, Puzzlejuice, Hundreds, Ridiculous Fishing, and doing the art for Indie Game: The Movie. He enjoys his work and "wouldn't trade it for anything," but it's not an easy ride, and it's not for everyone, he writes on his blog. The post is called "Don't quit your day job," and it offers candid advice for anyone considering the jump from part-time to full-time indie development. He notes that full-time indies are so close because they understand each other's struggles, how tiring a job it actually is. It's not always a glamorous rockstar lifestyle, he argues. "'I could be Indie Game: The Movie!'" Wohlwend imagines a part-timer saying. "You could and that's awesome. But also, that's a movie. A movie can't really get at the dejected-forehead-on-desk-praying-it'll-be-over-soon feeling that lies within. Depression that won't let you fix anything in your life other than your game. An immortal solitude that's safe yet destructive. The constant worry that the game isn't fun enough. It's not ready to show yet. You'll convince yourself that what you're doing is all for the good of the game. It's all necessary. These chest pains that won't let you sleep will someday be worth it. It's not good enough (even though it's great). It's really good (even though it's shit)." Having a part-time job, something that gives your mind a break and forces social interaction, can be a cleansing thing, he says. "Going Indie is amazing," Wohlwend writes. "I want way more of us to do so. But it's a serious life decision and not always the best way to make more games." A few independent developers share Wohlwend's perspective, and they offer their own input on Twitter, in response to his blog post. See a few pulled tweets below, and take a deep breath before you take the indie plunge.
Minimalist iOS game Hundreds sells 100,000 copies
Hundreds, the minimalist mobile game from Canabalt's Adam Saltsman and Gasketball's Greg Wohlwend, sold its 100,000th copy on Sunday, sending Saltsman into fits of sentimental, blog-based joy."I don't want to downplay, for us, the financial importance of this success; we basically went broke making Hundreds so it's a pretty big deal that it didn't flop," Saltsman writes. "That said, even if it was the kind of money where we could go buy sports cars or whatever (and it's not!), there is this other, at least for me, way more important thing going on, which is less about finances and more about, 'Holy crap, 100,000 people have played Hundreds.'"Hundreds has a simple premise and interface: Players tap various circles, turning them red and increasing their size and numerical value, in an attempt to accrue 100 points on-screen. If a red circle hits another object, it's game over. Hundreds is $5 on the iTunes App Store, optimized for iPhone 5, and for iPad and iPod Touch in iOS 5.0 or later."Folks who haven't played a game since Tetris are trying out Hundreds and liking it," Saltsman writes. "And we're getting this response for a minimalist game that we made utterly without compromise. Every value we had going into this project we carried all the way through to the end, and in spite of that, or, I am tempted to think, because of that, Hundreds is resonating with more people than we ever allowed ourselves to imagine."So that feels really good. Thank you, everybody, for trying out our game and diving into our puzzles and giving us your time. Thank you so much!"
Canabalt, Gasketball creators launch minimalistic mobile game, Hundreds
Adam Saltsman, also known as Adam Atomic, also known as "the dude who made Canabalt," launched Hundreds, an iOS game co-created by Gasketball's Greg Wohlwend, on the App Store today. It's 40 percent off through January 10, currently running $3.The goal of Hundreds is simple: build up at least 100 points between the shifting circles on-screen, though if a red, growing circle hits another object, you lose. If you're intrigued, play Wohlwend's original Flash version for free on Newgrounds. The iOS version of Hundreds is universal and adds new modes and mechanics.
Try Semi Secret's 'Hundreds' in Austin this Sunday
Hundreds, the new iOS game from Semi Secret Software (Canabalt) and Greg Wohlwend (Solipskier), will be on display for the public this weekend in Austin, TX, at Juegos Rancheros, the monthly Austin indie game get-together.Hundreds is a game in which you hold numbered bubbles to grow them (both in size and number) in an effort to add up to 100, without letting any bubbles touch while you're growing them. It seems much easier to understand in motion than to explain, so watch the video. And go see it!
You light up my life: What Steam Greenlight is for indies, from indies
Steam Greenlight isn't for everybody. Literally – five days after pushing Greenlight live, Valve implemented a $100 barrier to entry in the hopes of eliminating the barrage of prank game ideas by people who don't "fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight."Before the fee, it was difficult to know what Greenlight was going to mean for the indie community, since its "new toy" sheen hadn't yet dissipated. It's even more difficult to gauge what Steam itself wanted Greenlight to accomplish, with or without the fee.In its launch announcement, Valve says Greenlight will serve "as a clearing house for game submissions" and "provides an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans." If that sounds a lot like Kickstarter, it's because it sounds a lot like Kickstarter. This isn't a bad thing; it equates Greenlight to something that has run the online course and has experienced public showdowns and successes, something known.While a few developers benefit from the high-speed, viral-hinged community vetting of crowd-sourced creative sites, even more have failed. Still, sites such as Kickstarter truly can help raise awareness for a legitimate project, even if that interest doesn't transform into cash. In this sense, Greenlight has an advantage, in that it's not trying to raise money. It only wants attention.Developers want their games to reach astronomical levels of awareness as well, and recently this translates into a fixation on one particular service for the success or failure of their projects – Kickstarter, and now, Greenlight. Hundreds of pitch emails switch from titles such as "Snappy the Turtle, a new indie adventure game" to "Kickstart Snappy the Turtle" or "Vote for Snappy the Turtle on Greenlight." This shifts the focus away from the game itself, in both the mind of the developer and the person receiving the emails.Since most people receiving the emails are video games journalists and potential publishers or fans, it's safe to say they don't particularly care about Kickstarter or Greenlight – they care about the game. So should the developer, more than anything.Those who have succeeded on the development side offer a unique perspective on Steam Greenlight. We asked a few what they think about the service, the $100 and its impact on indies: Adam Saltsman, Markus Persson, Edmund McMillen, Christine Love and a group discussion among Rami Ismail, Zach Gage, Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter. Their thoughts are below.
Portabliss: Puzzlejuice (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: Portabliss. Usually, if an iPhone game is crippled by its control scheme, I won't recommend it here. Most of the time, awkward controls are enough to get me to stop playing a game, and not bother with it. However, Puzzlejuice's concept is so strong and so irresistible that I continue playing it, over and over again, despite there never being a time I'm not fighting with the controls. And I'm going to tell you to play it, even though you're going to be annoyed by the controls too. I think that's indicative of strong game design.
Puzzlejuice summoned to App Store tomorrow
Greg Wohlwend, part of the team behind the amazing iOS version of Solipskier and the upcoming Ridiculous Fishing, has a new game coming to the App Store tomorrow. Puzzlejuice, a collaboration with Asher Vollmer, retains the neon color scheme of Solipskier, with a combination of falling-block and word gameplay. We don't really understand it, but it appears that you direct Tetris-like blocks into a pile, then tap them to reveal letters, then select words within those groupings of letters. We look forward to figuring it out tomorrow, when the game will be released for $3.
