Seen@GDC Europe: Achtung Arcade is a little box of fun
Stowed literally in a corner of GDC Europe 2013 is Achtung Arcade, an adorable miniature machine put together by the man who made McPixel, the game notable both for being the first Steam Greenlight success to make it to Valve's portal, and for being bonkers. Just like McPixel, Achtung Arcade is kind of out there.
Achtung Arcade is based around 17 of Mikolaj Kaminski's Flash games, mostly weird game jam creations like Ninjanoids - which is exactly what it sounds like, Asteroids with ninjas instead of meteors - and Spy Trouble, a platformer with lots of deadly lasers. The cabinet includes a grand total of 505 variations of the 17 games, with different versions featuring changes like "glitchy pixels" and different skins.
"I don't have any game in the works as far as to be able to show it at expos or events. I decided to put an arcade machine that can house all my small games and Flash games," Kaminski told us. "These kind of games are way different from the big games that you make. Flash games, the games that you don't have to worry about them being good, or marketable. These are just games, that we love."
Most of Achtung Arcade's 17 games are available on Kaminski's website, but some are exclusive to the device, like the aptly named Number 2, a game that sees you guide fecal matter through a line of intestine while trying not to touch the sides. (Don't pooh-pooh it before you've tried it.) Achtung Arcade made its debut at a Berlin game show earlier this year; Kaminski plans to add more exclusives to it, and even hopes other game makers will add their own creations to it as he continues to tour it wherever he can.
Will Kaminski bring it to Gamescom this week? At the moment he doesn't have a booth, but he's hoping someone will let him find somewhere to put Achtung Arcade. After all, as he pointed out, it's not like it takes up much space.
