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Humble Bundle celebrates IndieCade: Proteus, Ibb & Obb
This week's Humble Weekly Bundle is courtesy of IndieCade, the annual independent games festival being held in Los Angeles this week. The IndieCade 2 bundle features seven PC games and benefits both developers and the IndeCade Foundation, and it ends next Thursday, October 16. Three of the games are available to all donors: Cube and Star, Lyne and Ian Bogost's A Slow Year, an IndieCade 2010 award-winning game. Those that spend at least $7.25 as of this writing will receive Ibb and Obb as well as Proteus, the former as a "Best Friends Forever Double Pack" that includes a second Steam key to give to a friend. By dishing out at least $8, players will also get Dinosaur Polo Club's Early Access game Mini Metro and Incandescent Workshop's Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator. The latter is a multiplayer-only game, which is why it will also come with a second Steam key for fellow starship troopers to enjoy. The final tier gives players four more copies of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator in addition to all the other games listed, for $17. [Image: Humble Bundle]
Indie game bundle and documentary series Super Game Jam out now on Steam
Hotline Miami publisher Devolver Digital has launched the first episode of Super Game Jam, a documentary series that pairs up indie developers for a collection of collaborative game projects that are playable via Steam. Super Game Jam's premiere episode stars Ridiculous Fishing's JW Nijman and Ibb and Obb creator Richard Boeser, a pair of real-life friends who have never previously worked on a game together. Given 48 hours to design a game based on the prompt "breaking up," the pair produced the unconventional racer Navigator, which is now available for play as part of Super Game Jam's initial wave of content. Future episodes will feature developers like Sos Sosowski (McPixel), Jonatan Söderström (Hotline Miami), and Tom Francis (Gunpoint). The next entry in the series, which will team up Impetus creator Dominik Johann with Shelter's Christoffer Hedborg, will launch next month. [Image: Devolver Digital]
Ibb and Obb bringing its gravity-twisting co-op to Steam
Ibb and Obb makes the jump from PS3 to Windows PC on May 26, although in its world a jump is no simple thing. Gravity goes up as well as down in Sparpweed's platformer, which makes for all kind of bizarre puzzles. Luckily you have a local or online friend to help you navigate Ibb and Obb's colorful worlds. Technically, you can play game alone by controlling both characters on the keyboard, but Sparpweed says doing things that way is akin to riding a seesaw solo: "...it'll be very hard and simply less fun." To encourage you to find a co-op pal, Sparpweed's offering a two-in-one pack at a "strong discount." We'll have to wait a little longer for specific prices, though. Update: Not that much longer, evidently. Ibb and Obb will cost 12 bob, er, dollars as a single game - that's 10 euros across the pond. The two-in-one Best Friends Forever pack is $14, or 12 euros. [Image: Sparpweed]
PS Plus adds Resogun, Contrast and Ibb and Obb this week
This week's PS Plus goodies, a mixture of freebies for subscribers on both PS3 and PS4, have been posted. Ibb & Obb, a gravity-based co-op puzzle game, will be offered on the PS3 side, while PS Plus members who grab a PS4 at launch on Friday can download both Resogun and Contrast gratis. Resogun is Housemarque's voxel-based shmup where players, navigating a closed 2D plane, attempt to save citizens from the clutches of evil invading aliens. Contrast, from Compulsion Games, centers around two main characters: an older girl named Dawn that players control and Didi, a younger girl who has just lost her mother. In addition to the free games, PS Plus members can also indulge in a special starter pack for free-to-play shooter Warframe. The pack includes both premium and free currency, a weapon mod pack and three-day boosts for both experience and credits. Finally, tomorrow will yield its annual slew of discounts for PS Plus and base PSN users alike. Beyond Good & Evil HD, Divekick, Street Fighter X Tekken and Outland are just a few of the games up for sale. You can peruse the full list over on the PlayStation Blog.
PS Plus delivers Dragon's Dogma, Soul Sacrifice, free PS4 games in November
Sony unveiled next month's PlayStation Plus lineup, announcing that subscribers will receive a slate of free games for the PlayStation 3, PS Vita, and PlayStation 4 in time for International Turkey Day. Sony's subscription service hosts its first batch of PlayStation 4 freebies in November, as early adopters will receive free downloadable copies of Compulsion Games' shadowy puzzle-platformer Contrast and Housemarque's Defender-like shoot-'em-up Resogun. Contrast serves as a last-minute replacement for Driveclub, which was originally scheduled to take part in next month's PlayStation Plus lineup before its recent delay. Capcom's Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen and Sega's Binary Domain headline November's PlayStation 3 offerings, joining Sparpweed's co-op action game Ibb and Obb. PlayStation Vita owners can expect to see Sony's Monster Hunter-inspired action-RPG Soul Sacrifice, along with an upgraded HD version of Just Add Water's Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. PlayStation Plus members in Europe receive Konami's Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in next month's package, along with Remember Me, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD, and MotorStorm RC.
PSN Tuesday: Tales of Xillia, Dragon's Crown, ibb & obb
This week's PSN content jamboree is headlined by a pair of Japanese games: the beautiful beat-em-up Dragon's Crown from Vanillaware and Namco's surprisingly charming JRPG, Tales of Xillia. Rounding out this week's high-profile games is ibb & obb, the long-awaited co-op puzzler with an emphasis on gravity from Sparpweed Games. PlayStation Plus members can snag a free copy of Hitman: Absolution, which kicks off a solid month of free content on PS Plus. Subscriber discounts extend to the Rayman series today, Escapevektor, Superfrog and more – the full list of content can be seen over on the PlayStation Blog.
Ibb and Obb 'hoping' to drop onto PSN in May
Ibb and Obb's long journey may finally be over in a month or so's time. We should temper some caution when the word hope is involved, but developer Sparpweed has "hope" it'll come good on its projected spring window and bring the gravity-focused co-op game to PS3s via PSN in May.Talking of hope, Vita owners may share the hope of Sparpweed's Richard Boeser that the indie platformer is a hit. Boeser says that, "depending on how well it does," Sparpweed can consider bringing the game to the Sony portable too.Ibb and Obb first caught our attention back in 2008, which gives you an idea of how long a journey it's been for the platformer, and for Boeser himself. He shares both his and the game's beginnings, and how they made their way to today in what's a good read on the PlayStation Blog, just as the above video on the game's various prototypes is a good watch.
PSN co-op platformer Ibb and Obb postponed until Spring 2013
Promising PSN platformer Ibb and Obb, previously expected to release later this year, is now scheduled for Spring 2013. Developer Sparpweed revealed the delay on the game's Facebook page, noting that while it's almost completed there are understandable concerns about releasing a small indie game during the silly season that is Q4. The delay also allows Sparpweed to introduce online as well as local co-op.Based on what we've seen so far, Ibb and Obb looks to be worth the wait. In fact, we've already been waiting since 2008 when the game first showed up at Indiecade. It's set in what Sparpweed calls a non-Newtonian world, with gravity operating in opposite directions on different sides of the ground. Confused? No worries, there's a handy gameplay video just above.
Ibb and Obb: the ten-second preview
Ibb and Obb is a PSN (for PS3) platformer built around the idea of who characters who can occupy either side of the screen, divided by a line. In essence, they can walk above or below the ground, turning upside down when they pass through certain portals. Players have to cooperate, sometimes on opposite sides of the screen, sometimes on the same side, in order to pass obstacles -- and when one dies, the other does too.In the sequence captured above, players each have to run past the three enemies, then jump over the sawblade guy. The first player to get across has to wait, avoiding another enemy, for the second player to arrive, at which point they have to cooperate to boost one up through the portal. Then the enemies can be killed from below.I watched a pair of GDC attendees work on this sequence for a good five minutes. When they finally got through it, they got up and left, leaving me alone to check out the game for myself. Which would have been great, except I was alone, without a co-op partner. This brief video probably captures the experience better than my own playthrough and writeup would have, anyway.
Co-op platformer Ibb and Obb takes both high and low roads to PSN in 2012
We haven't heard anything about Ibb and Obb since Indicade in 2008, but we're so, so glad to be reminded by this video.Now due to premiere on PlayStation Network this year (with a PC release to follow), Ibb and Obb is a co-op platformer that presents two worlds with opposite gravity on either side of a line, both full of geometric shapes and contrasting color gradients. In other words, the middle of the screen is the ground, and gravity is opposite on both sides. Just ... watch the video.Ibb and Obb is designed to be played by two, with local co-op built in. According to a YouTube comment by developer Sparpweed, "We want to patch online co-op as soon as we're ready with that."
IndieCade: International Festival Finalists #16-20
All week, Joystiq will be revealing the 25 finalists for the IndieCade: International Festival of Independent Games, set to take place October 10 through 17 in Bellevue, Washington. The winners will be announced on October 11.ibb & obb (website)The pictures do not do ibb & obb justice. Without motion, it just looks like a colorful sidescroller in the vein of Yoshi's Island. In motion (as seen in the video above), the game is an inventive co-op platformer that also plays a bit with gravity. The project was made by Richard Boeser as a graduation project for Industrial Design at Delft University of Technology.%Gallery-32692% Psst ... There's more inside.
