joystiq-indie-pitch
Latest
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Bam fu
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Bam fu is a two-, three- or four-player game on one device where you tap on pebbles – a fancy word for the buttons in this game – as quickly as you can to make them your color. Other players are trying to do the same and the colors change in a cycle, so the pebbles will definitely not stay on your color for long. The game goes on with you trying to reclaim your pebbles as fast as you can, until all, or almost all, pebbles are your color. That's when you win. What's the coolest aspect of Bam fu? We think that the coolest aspect of the game is that you can play it with everyone. Any gender, age or language; literally everyone! The rules are so simple that it doesn't take more than a second to get them. In fact, we are yet to find a player who doesn't skip the the tutorial. Plenty of thought has gone into small details to keep things simple. For example, we are using the fingers on the hand to count your points, so it's immediately clear that you play to five. We have also made the game accessible to colorblind players, which was a challenge for a game than distinguishes between players by color. This is why the pebbles were designed to point toward a player's corner.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Guacamelee
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Guacamelee! is all about kicking ass and saving the girl. Sell Guacamelee in one sentence: Guacamelee is a Mexican-themed cross-platform cooperative multiplayer metroidvania dimension-swapping brawler. Warning: reading this sentence out loud may cause seizures or loss of bowel control.%Gallery-185263%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Back to Bed
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Klaus Petersen and Bedtime Gaming talk about artistic IGF student finalist Back to Bed. Check out the Kickstarter here. What's your game called and what's it about?Our game is called Back to Bed. It is a 3D puzzle platformer, wherein the player has to help a sleepwalker reach the safety of his bed by navigating him through a surreal and dreamlike environment.How did you hear that Back to Bed was an IGF Student Showcase finalist and has that changed how you approach the game's development?Well, we just read it on one of the game news sites, when the student showcase "winners" were announced, which of course caused celebration.But yes, the IGF nomination changed alot of things. Besides giving the team a giant boost, it also gives us the great window of opportunity to show our game to a lot of people. It also builds up a little pressure, I guess. But it's just things like this that makes the long hours during crunch worthwhile.%Gallery-179506%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Triple Town
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Spry Fox's David Edery discusses the real impact of social gaming with his Facebook and mobile title Triple Town, which launched on Steam this month. What's your game called and what's it about?Triple Town is an original puzzle game about building a city. It's basically a re-invention of the match-three genre; instead of matching three-plus objects to clear a space, you match three-plus objects to create higher-level objects. Trees becomes huts, mansions become castles, etc. Meanwhile, giant bears move around the board blocking your progress. It seems simple at first, but this is a game that requires extraordinary practice and planning skills. Many people played for months before building their first castle (and there are two tiers beyond that!). We've heard Triple Town described as "the Civilization of match-three games" and we really like that. Triple Town won a bunch of awards in 2011 and we've been updating and improving it ever since!Are you trying to break Triple Town out of the "social game" box with the Steam launch?Not really; it's been doing fine as a single player game on mobile for over a year now. The goal of the Steam launch was to bring a flavor of Triple Town to people who might not otherwise have heard about it, to offer a full-screen and offline mode, and to satisfy fans who wanted an all-you-can-eat version of the game with absolutely no IAP in it.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Kaiju Combat
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, former Godzilla dev Simon Strange is back to bring some mega-monster pain to Kickstarter with Kaiju Combat. What's your game called and what's it about?The game is Kaiju Combat, an online multiplayer game with behemoths fighting in destructible city environments.What inspired you to make Kaiju Combat?Sunstone Games is almost entirely made up of ex-Pipeworks employees, who made the very popular Godzilla fighting games from 2002 - 2007. We get messages every few days asking about a sequel, so making a game like this has always been something we've considered. The rise of Kickstarter funding this year presented a real opportunity to get the game made on our own terms – that's been the missing piece before now.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: FTL: Faster than Light
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Justin Ma and Matthew Davis of Subset Games describe their quick rise to space roguelike-like fame with FTL: Faster than Light, which recently launched on Steam for PC and Mac. What's your game called and what's it about?Justin Ma: Our game is called FTL: Faster than Light and we've been describing it as a "spaceship simulation roguelike-like." The focus is on managing a spaceship and her crew as they explore a randomized galaxy. Combat requires you to control the crew to keep your ship running and fight off intruders, balancing your power distribution, and trying to wreak havoc on the enemy ship. In between fights the game is filled with "choose your own adventure" style text-based events with many possible outcomes.Matthew Davis: The core game can be compared to something like Weird Worlds or Flotilla where the player is travelling to various star systems, encountering events and upgrading their ship. But the combat is focused on the ship interior as opposed to "dogfighting" in space.What's the coolest aspect of FTL?Justin: Each element of the game is pretty simple on its own: Blast doors can restrict enemy movement on your ship; oxygen can be vented by opening the airlocks; fire spreads through open doors. When all of these interact you can get some amazing and unpredictable situations. Your crew might be trapped putting out a fire in the weapons rooms while at the same time boarders are trying to break the doors down because they're suffocating after mistakenly sabotaging your oxygen system.%Gallery-166005%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Minke Rescue
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Leigh Marlow of The Apptivist Studio presents a game with a greater purpose -- to stop the violent whaling in Antarctic waters -- named Minke Rescue. What's your game called and what's it about?Minke Rescue is a new iPhone game. You play the part of a minke whale in the beautiful and harsh Antarctic Ocean. Best of all, it's only $0.99 -- and 30 percent from every game purchased goes directly to Sea Shepherd.What inspired you to make Minke Rescue?I wanted to raise awareness and funds for specific causes that I'm passionate about. However, I'm not noted for my cake making, t-shirt designing or car washing, nor do I have a sufficiently cashed-up network of friends to host a (successful) charity ball.In early 2010, after acquiring my first iPhone, I soon discovered the power of apps -- how regularly I was willing to spend small amounts of money -- and how addictive the very best apps can be. An ah-ha moment occurred and my direction was set -- to create a cool little iPhone game that benefited Sea Shepherd. The key ingredients were that the game had to be fun, addictive and not too preachy.The best part is I get to combine my passion for gaming and my passion for the environment.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Life is Crime
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, crime bosses Pete Hawley, Mikey Ouye and John Harris of Red Robot Labs take the street to your phone in their location-based, real-world social title, Life is Crime. What's your game called and what's it about?Mike Ouye: Our game is called Life Is Crime. It's a free-to-play, social, location-based crime-themed mobile game for Android and iOS. Players commit virtual crimes at real locations, visiting their local bar, coffee shop and bank to perform missions, sell contraband and fight with other players. The more active players are, the more turf they control and the higher their criminal reputation becomes.How vicious is the crime-app competition on mobile devices, and how do you feel Red Robot Labs is faring?Mike Ouye: We took a unique approach by launching on Android first, then approaching the iOS market, and so far it has paid off. Life Is Crime has over a million downloads on Android since its launch at PAX West in August 2011. This created momentum so that when it released on the iTunes App Store January 5th, it rose to the number two on the Free Apps list.Pete Hawley: As for Red Robot Labs, our company has expanded into the UK, joining forces with Supermono, and continues to grow rapidly here in the US. In fact, we're still hiring, so if mobile gaming is your thing you should come work for us!We're hoping that location, high polish, and innovation will help set us apart.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Curio
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Rube Rubenstein from BrainBlast Games shows us the crazy side of 2D sidescrollers with Curio. What's your game called and what's it about? The Game is Curio and it's about Ron Templeton III's plight. Everything that happens in the back story, which you unlock as your progress, will lead up to where gamers first meet Ron, though it doesn't stop there. This battle that fans undertake in Curio is, has been and will be lifelong for Ron.What inspired you to make Curio? 2D side-scrollers are age-old and a genre we are crazy about. They are not always easy, but we wanted players to focus intently on keeping Ron sane, while always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Also, I was born in a mental asylum and Victor Radar down the hall from me, so it just seemed like a natural and familiar backdrop. Sometime creative juices flow easiest when the subject matter is personal.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: EvilQuest
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, the founders of Chaosoft Games, Forrest McCorkle and Josh Ferguson, discuss the goodness in going evil with their classically inspired title, EvilQuest. What's your game called and what's it about?Forrest McCorkle: Our game is called EvilQuest and it's about an extremely sadistic evil knight named Galvis that is trying to destroy the world. At the start, the character is merely trying to conquer the world, but fails to do so when he is defeated and captured by the dominant kingdom in the game world. In prison, he switches his goal from conquering the world to annihilating it, and also learns a possible means of accomplishing this goal. Of course, he eventually finds a way to escape and from there it's up to the player to see this quest to fruition.How important was it to have original artwork, animation and music in EvilQuest?Josh Ferguson: It was of critical importance -- it was never an option to consider using someone else's material. Quality graphics draw people into a game, while quality gameplay keeps them there. We tried using our individual talents to create both. We wanted an original look and feel while staying true to the sprite-based JRPG style of the early Squaresoft games. As for music, that was a part of the project that we just had some fun with.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Sean Wilson of international indie studio Button Mash Games explains how his iPad title, Forbidden Island, is contributing to the tabletop game's renaissance. What's your game called and what's it about? Forbidden Island is an iPad board game where one to four adventurers cooperate to capture the four ancient treasures hidden on a sinking island. As the game progresses, parts of the island sink into the ocean, making it more difficult to collect the treasures. The game is based on the award-winning board game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Gamewright. How were you able to create a licensed game as a brand new indie company? This was really a combination of confidence and luck. We reached out to Matt Leacock, the original game designer, and expressed our interest in making the game. We created a small gameplay demo and explained our passion for the project and Matt put us in touch with Gamewright. They believed in our enthusiasm and plans for the game so they agreed to work with us. They gave us the freedom to take the game design in the directions we believed were best, but pushed us to reach further than we would have if we didn't have any outside feedback. The game has tons of improvements directly because of their ideas.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: QUBE Adventures
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Klaus Silveira stretches our imaginations with a slingshottable, lovable cube named Qube, in the iOS title QUBE Adventures. What's your game called and what's it about?QUBE Adventures is a simple physics game that has QUBE, a small rubber cube with an intriguing wish for adventure, as the protagonist. The main objective of the game is to help QUBE get through the doors of the world beyond the clouds by throwing him around dozens of platforms, jumpers and more.What inspired you to make QUBE Adventures?I always enjoyed physics-based games and the gameplay possibilities that physics provides. As an indie game developer, I wanted to create a game that had an interesting mechanic, with addicting gameplay. I came up with QUBE, which reinvents the slingshot mechanic and mixes it with traditional platforming elements. It's meant to be a difficult game, easy to pick up yet impossible to master. I always disliked casual games and how they build their relation with the player: praising his small acts, congratulating the player for nothing, being a boring flatterer. I wanted to create a relationship just like old NES games did: put the player on his knees, make him beg.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Control and Conquest
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Eric Goldberg wants to get you off the couch with an RPG that uses GPS to make IRL things more exciting, and he calls it Control and Conquest, from Grind Factory. What's your game called and what's it about? Our game is Control and Conquest and it's all about going out and playing -- quite literally. We want to encourage (but not force) our players to go about town, crawl the dungeons of their neighborhood, and treat the game as an augmented-reality layer on their normal world. At its core, it's a fantasy RPG with location elements, territory control, a battle system and mini-games. And epic beards!
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Love+
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Fred "Trunks" Wood educates us on that thing we all need with his 8-bit inspired platformer, Love+ -- read on to learn how Trunks makes Love. [Fred "Trunks" Wood could use some Love (left), and James Bennett's music station.] What's your game called and what's it about? My game is called Love+. It's a stylish indie platformer with a retro visual style that comes straight out of the 8-bit generation, a clever checkpoint mechanic and a smooth soundtrack by James Bennett. The idea of the game is to get from the start to finish of each level with as many lives intact as possible.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Soldiers are Dreamers
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Peter Willington makes the transition from game critic to developer with Soldiers are Dreamers. What's your game called, and what's it about? The title of my game is Soldiers Are Dreamers, taken from the poem "Dreamers" by Siegfried Sassoon, a celebrated World War I poet. It's inspired by war but I've tried to be as ambiguous as possible when it comes to the actual message and meaning. I really want those that experience it to make their own interpretations on what the narrative itself is.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Lodestone
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Collin Chandler talks innovation in iOS with Lodestone. What's your game called, and what's it about? The game is called Lodestone, which is a naturally occuring magnetic stone. The concept is simple: Stay within range of a magnet, and use the magnets to move around the screen. Touching the left side of the screen pushes you away from the magnets while the right side pulls you towards the magnets. Collect the golden magnets to win the level. There are natural hazards to avoid like rocks and trees, and a pond you can sink into. You also have to make sure you stay in the boundaries of a magnet tower. If you stop moving you're stuck and have to try again.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, in a three-part series we're featuring the creators of the Serious Sam indie series. Today, it's Brad Johnson of Be-Rad about his recent iOS and Android release, Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack. Why be independent rather than try to work for someone else? Been there, done that. Bosses aren't for me, unless it's a boss battle. Being independent puts me in control of the whole development process so I can set my own schedules and create what I want to create. Sometimes I have flashbacks of working overtime for my old employers and I want to scream "FREEEDOOOOOOOOM!!!" like William Wallace did at the end of Braveheart, but then I snap out of it and realize where I'm at and am thankful I'm doing my own thing.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Serious Sam: Double D
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, as part of a three-part series, we're featuring the creators of the Serious Sam indie series. Today is Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games, talking no-joke gun-stacking in Serious Sam: Double D. What's the name of your Serious Sam indie offering, and how does it play? Serious Sam Double D launches Sam into the second dimension and grants him actually-over-the-top abilities, like the Gun Stacker, which is a suite of robotic arms that allow him to carry all of his guns at once [Ed. note: Or carry all of his chainsaws, a feature added thanks to commenter greyson97 on this Joystiq article, because that's how indie development rolls]. Sam fights Mental's hordes in new temporal dimensions, encountering classic enemies like the evil Kleer skeleton and the headless Kamikaze, but also new, deadly oddities like the jet-packing Chimputee, and the bristling Etanoh Salvo Spider. Sam must disable teleportation beacons placed in each time period before his hordes completely invade and wipe out civilization.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Wizard's Castle
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, we ask the father and son duo behind Wizard's Castle how working with family can help (or hurt) a fledgling indie title. What's your game called, and what's it about? Wizard's Castle -- for iPhone 4 and HD for iPad 2 -- is a match and remove game for all ages. The player enters the castle to find that the friendly Wizard has cast a spell and colored, magic balls are raining down from the ceiling. The goal of the game is to prevent the room from filling up with balls during each three-minute round. Players match and remove balls by touching groups of two or more balls of the same color. While manageable at the lowest levels, the game quickly presents a difficult challenge to both hand-eye coordination and finding a winning strategy.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Choplifter HD
Being a giant, beloved video game site has its downsides. For example, we sometimes neglect to give independent developers our coverage love (or loverage, if you will) as we get caught up in AAA, AAAA or the rare quintuple-A titles. To remedy that, we're giving indies the chance to create their own loverage and sell you, the fans, on their studios and products. This week we talk with inXile president Brian Fargo about his company's reboot of a familiar franchise, Choplifter HD. What's your game called, and what's it about? Our big project for 2011 is Choplifter HD for PSN, XBLA and PC. We are taking a fresh approach to the classic helicopter rescue game Choplifter that was a huge hits in the '80s. People in the industry have really fond memories of the game and we intended to do it justice. In fact I brought the original creator Dan Gorlin on as a consultant he said it looks like the best adaption he had seen yet. It will be a very entertaining game.%Gallery-126541%