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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: Icarus
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, Justin Scott drops some archeological drama with Icarus. Why did you want to make games? I love that feeling from creating something and having it come to life. When I was young I drew levels for Mario games. When I grew up I started getting heavily involved in Active Worlds (forget Minecraft and Second Life; AW got so many things right). My entire career is computer programming, which I learned because I wanted to make games. Some people make music or pictures, I make worlds.
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: To-Fu: The Trials of Chi
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're talking To-Fu with Terry Haynes of HotGen. What's your game called, and what's it about? Our game is titled To-Fu: The Trials of Chi and it's an action-platfomer for the iPhone and iPad. To-Fu, a block of To-Fu wearing with a red head band, is the game's protagonist and is controlled using a very simple 'drag-and-ping' mechanic. The player taps and holds their finger on To-Fu, stretches him to adjust their aim and then releases their finger to make him ping. It's not unlike a rubber-band. The other unique aspect is the fact that To-Fu is able to stick to the majority of surfaces, so this forms the basis of the game's navigation. The player pings To-Fu across each level -- using the different surfaces to their advantage while avoiding the various traps. The main objective is to reach the level's exit.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Tap Them
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're talking to Jordan Morgan about tappin' that app, with Tap Them. What's your game called, and what's it about? My game is called Tap Them. There are two versions, Tap Them Pro and Tap Them Free. At its core, it's what we iOS devs call a falling-objects game. Evil circles fall from the top of the screen, and you have to "Tap Them" before they reach the bottom. During development, my family always asked "What's the story for the mean-looking circles?" and the truth is, I never had one! They were easy to make and edit in CS5, and since there are nine different types I just stuck with it. I might add a little background slapstick story behind it in the future, who knows.
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: Defy Gravity Extended
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, Fish Factory Games' Paul Fisch describes the fun of designing with a gravity gun, in Defy Gravity Extended. Why develop independently, rather than work for an established company? There are a lot of reasons to work independently. You have much more freedom to create your own vision and take big risks developing an independent game. Defy Gravity Extended is a pretty unique game, and probably too radical of a design for a large established company to implement. I think that you should always try to bring your idea to life with the minimal amount of people necessary. Braid and Cave Story were made by basically one guy. World of Goo was made by two. The more people involved in a project, the less flexibility you have. I've talked to designers who've worked on games with $10 million budgets, and they complain about the fact that they're often locked into their designs once production starts. Once you start to actually play-test your work, you realize that there are a million things that you'd like to change, but by that point there are 40 coders working on implementation, the level designers are already half done, and the high-poly models have already been received from Singapore and paid for. So you can't just pull the breaks and do a redesign, and your game ends up being worse off for it. So I say, if you can create your dream game with one or two people working in their living rooms, then by all means do it.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Sloopz
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, Where Games Come From's Ben Christey talks through the loops and lines in his iOS title, Sloopz. Do you feel like you're making the game you always wanted to play? Absolutely -- I think with mobile games there's always the desire for a game you can pick up and be into the action straight away. I'm a big fan of Bejeweled Blitz -- I used to spend an hour of tube travel each day desperate to top my friends' best scores of the week. I wanted Sloopz to have the same appeal and after finally being able to top the scoreboard of a game (I'm sure this won't last) I feel I've hit the nail on the head.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Planetary Escape
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 asteroidea duo discuss their rockin'-retro iOS title, Planetary Escape. What's your game called, and what's it about? Our game is called Planetary Escape, and it is for iPhone, iPad & iPod touch. It is a retro-styled arcade game set deep within a planet's core. Much to your dismay, the planet is gonna blow! You make the wise decision to forgo that last cup of tea, and run to your rocket. With molten lava hot on your tail, you fly your rocket through treacherous caverns of pixelated goodness, and shoot any destructible rocks in your path.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Runespell: Overture
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 Mystic Box band discuss the creation of Runespell: Overture. What's your game called, and what's it about? Our game is called Runespell: Overture. Our story takes place in England, twenty years before William The Conqueror invades it. It is an age in which Vikings and Normans still menace England, but are largely held at bay by its Saxon king, Edward the Confessor. At the heart of England a massive storm is brewing, a furious whiteout that consumes the countryside, called the "Grim Whyte." People say that gods and monsters roam the icy realm behind the storm's wintery curtains. It is within the Grim Whyte that our story unfolds.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Penny Poker
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're featuring Paul Perry's iOS app and excuse to write off trips to Vegas, Penny Poker. What's your game called, and what's it about? Penny Poker is a mobile video poker. It contains six styles of video poker: Deuces Wild, Jacks or Better, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, Tens or better, Aces and Eights, Loose Deuces and Joker Poker. It has Game Center support with global leaderboards and achievements. The same app purchase gets you both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad versions. For iPhone 4 Retina HD graphics are included. The game is really gorgeous. My girlfriend is an artist extraordinaire -- she also has an MFA -- and she is really able to create some incredible visuals. Each version has different background graphics. On top of that, the sound effects are really appealing.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Digitanks
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 Jorge "Vino" Rodriguez of Lunar Workshop about his old-school tank battler, Digitanks. What is Digitanks? Digitanks is a 3D artillery-based strategy game in which players command digital tanks to save their computers from an invasion of bugs and hackers.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Inchworm Animation
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 Bob Sabiston and about his DSiWare animation app, Inchworm Animation. What's your game called, and what's it about? Inchworm Animation. It's about $5. It's an overly ambitious paint and animation program on Nintendo DSiWare. It was just released on April 25, in the USA only for now.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Ring Theory
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 Glen DeBiasa and Matt Laverty of 4 Score Games about their unconventional match 3 game, Ring Theory. How did you or your company get started in development? Glen: I've been making computer games since I learned to program. In the beginning, it was just copying code out of a book on to a TRS-80. In college, my freshman computer professor held a contest for us to create any kind of program we wanted: I made a game. (Won $500 with it too.) Fast forward several years, and I'm working for a consulting company during the Internet boom, and they decide to make an online gaming site. I wound up creating over 40 games for that site. A couple of changes of ownership later and it became the Big Fish Games online gaming community.
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%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Trash Drop
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 Shelbey Hunt about a retro iOS release called Trash Drop. What's your game called, and what's it about? My game is called Trash Drop, it is an 8-bit arcade game for the iPhone and iPod touch. The basic premise is that when an apartment full of lazy college students didn't want to take out their trash, they piled it up on their balcony. Then one day, the balcony was full. They sent one down while the others would throw the bags down. Now you are trapped, trying to dodge the falling trash bags. You thought you were going to take out the trash but little did you know, the trash was going to take you out.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Helena the 3rd
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 Brandon Smith of Only Human studios about his Blaster Master-inspired Helena the 3rd. How did you or your company get started in development? I first started the game as a hobby, on an airplane flight to Colorado. I found the current team members through various internet forums, and I want to say they've been more helpful and dedicated to the project than I ever could have hoped for.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Poker With Bob
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 animator Dustin Adair, founder of Scary Robot Productions about his maiden game: Poker With Bob. How did you or your company get started? I am a character animator for film and television and I've been working in Los Angeles for over a decade now. I've worked on a wide range of projects but when a friend of mine was once viewing my demo reel he commented that I had animated a lot of "scary robots" (Cylons and Terminators, for example). It was then that I decided to name my company after that fact and Scary Robot Productions was born. Poker With Bob is my company's inaugural creation.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: The Fish Dies in the End
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 computer scientist Gutenberg Neto about his charmingly-named game, The Fish Dies in the End. How did you get started? I always wanted to develop games and a few months ago, after finishing my Computer Science degree and with years of programming experience in unrelated fields I thought that I finally had enough ability and knowledge to make a game. Being an iPhone gamer enthusiast and having recently bought a MacBook, the choice of making an iPhone game was relatively straightforward.
