independent-games-summit
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JS Joust creator's Dog the Wag puts Moves on butts
During his Independent Games Summit presentation on "folk games," Die Gute Fabrik's Douglas Wilson presented an example of a "deliberately stupid" game that uses technology to encourage uninhibited fun among groups. You know, like the group's best-known game, Johann Sebastian Joust.Dog the Wag, demonstrated by people acting a damn fool next to the stage, is a game played using PlayStation Move controllers, tethered to player's butts. Players get on all fours, then attempt to wag their digital tails as furiously as possible to accumulate points. Occasionally, the Moves' orbs will flash, signaling that a player is vulnerable to attack. If another player manages to wrestle said vulnerable party to the ground and press a button on their Move, points are deducted.We're going to remember this the next time we're about to tell someone GDC is a more "professional" conference.
Foddy building 'Qwoperative' portal for indie flash games
During the inaugural speech at this year's Independent Games Summit, QWOP/GIRP creator Bennett Foddy explained his reasons for self-publishing his games on his own website, rather than going with a portal like Adult Swim -- reasons including better compensation, ability to freely change and update your games, and creator identification.Then, to conclude the talk, he invited other indie Flash developers to contact him if they're interested in self-publishing on a portal, and he showed a logo for "Qwoperate."Elsewhere in the talk, Foddy offered a bit of explanation for his style of game. He half-jokingly (?) said that players love being confused, humiliated, and frustrated -- essentially, they enjoy difficulty that surprises them. On the other hand, Foddy promised he would never "inflict" a tutorial, intro movie, or explanation of any kind on the players of his games. That's just too cruel for the guy who made the game about controlling individual leg muscles.
LOVE creator Eskil Steenberg on how his game differs from other MMOs
It would be an understatement to say we're excited about the upcoming massively multiplayer online game titled LOVE, and we've certainly given the title some mention here in the past. It's an MMO being developed by one person, Eskil Steenberg, featuring a rather unique art style and some interesting gameplay elements. We're always looking out for more info about the title and came across an interview with Steenberg conducted by Phill Cameron from Gamasutra, just before the LOVE creator's Independent Games Summit lecture at GDC 2009. Steenberg discusses his choice to adopt procedural generation for LOVE, which was actually the only way forward on this project. "Working alone, you simply just can't build a massive world all by yourself, so you need to do something smarter," he says. "Given that I am forced to solve this problem, I get some added bonuses like being able to constantly generate new content while the game is running." Steenberg points out another benefit to this type of game design."As it turns out I think this could be the key to gaming in the future, as the game is able to develop and change in response to the player's actions," he says. "Rather then having a few binary plot choices, the world becomes far more dynamic and responsive to your actions."
