Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: the psycho/schizo puzzling of McMillen/Good/Karpel's Time Fcuk

I knew Time Fcuk was after my one true heart on hearing the first few melancholic melodica triplets in its title screen theme, which are nothing if not lovingly lifted from Carter Burwell's score for the Coen Bros.' Fargo, and perfectly peg the pathos that begins to unfold as you start your cyclical descent into the game's world.

Created by No Quarter, Super Meat Boy, and Aether designer Edmund McMillen, programmer William Good and musician Justin Karpel -- and described only via cryptically impenetrable blurbs -- at its core, Time Fcuk is a fairly straightforward game to describe: it's a block/switch/key puzzler with a twist of inter-dimensional-spatial-chronological tearing that rips you through layers of the same room you occupy.

What sets it apart, though, is the tone McMillen has set via an in-game one-way communicator that sees an unidentified narrator constantly interrupting your thought processes with ranting inanities, cries for help, and, eventually, more deeply unsettling and I.D.-confusing asides. And there's this matter of the small growth coming from the back of your head...

The effect, if that narrator is you -- and it certainly looks like you -- echoes movies like the previously big-upped Timecrimes or basically pick any of your favorite schizo-persona David Lynch movies from Twin Peaks to Lost Highway to Mulholland Drive.

By being forced into "the box" from which you spend the game trying to escape (which you were pushed into by someone who claims to be you from some 20 minutes in the future) you come to realize that the interruptions more likely are echoes of every iteration of a loop in which you're stuck: 'you's that have been through multiple times and no longer fear your surroundings, newer 'you's that haven't yet figured out what's happening. In the meantime, you -- the you that's playing -- are acting out that transition from confusion to confidence by learning the puzzle-tricks that get you from one room to the next.

All of this is subtle subtext, and that's precisely what makes Time Fcuk so affecting. Add to that its expertly devised level editor -- which takes a page from Echochome's book and gives players a 20-level loop of random player-creations to rate for difficulty and fun, so that essentially no puzzle goes un-played -- and the gang of three have created what is easily one of the best Flash games of the year thus far.

Brandon Boyer

Shrunken Spore: Maxis unveils 2D Creature Creator

Created as a promotion for their upcoming Wii/DS Spore Hero/Arena line, Maxis has unveiled a 2D Flash version of the franchise's Creature Creator, and, while it's still a bit rough around the edges (I'm having trouble properly rotating and resizing each of its constituent parts), it's surprising for how close it comes to recreating the original experience (even moreso than the first Spore Creatures DS release).

Currently your creatures can be 'trained' in a simple object-whacking minigame, but even more impressive is the ability to save and load your creations via PNG files, as with the PC original, and all creations are stores in its own Sporepedia.

Let us know if you manage to whip up anything amazing.

Brandon Boyer

Austin Indie Summit: The successful construction of Fantastic Contraption

Watching Fantastic Contraption creator Colin Northway speak, you get the sense that he's discovered the magic formula, and despite the confidence that his undeniable success allows (he's converted, he figures, about 0.5% of the 3.1 million players he'd gained by the end of October 2008 into $10 paying customers [basically: cut those millions in half, move the decimal point one to the left, and put a dollar sign in front]), you get the sense that that success came as a surprise to him as much as anyone.

In what was easily the most entertaining session of the first day of GDC Austin's Indie Games Summit, Northway guided his audience through the rise and rise of the construction-puzzle game's development and near-instant user-crush in the form of a literally-bug-squashing timeline platformer, with his own mutton-chopped mug perfectly pixelated by I Wish I Were The Moon/Today I Die's Daniel Benmergui, and offered a number of guidelines for other developers hoping to mirror his accolades.

1.) Make your game in Flash

Northway draws a fine distinction between 'Flash games' (games where you "launch kitties into a spiky thing") and 'games written in Flash', but he's an evangelist for the platform more than anything because "the content discovery problem has been solved" compared to consoles, the iPhone, etc. Forums, emails, all pre-existing internet communities will do the work of keeping your game's name in front of other people, whereas, say, with the iPhone, "making money is hard to do if Apple doesn't spray the money hose on you."

2.) Make your game "live online"

All of those user good graces will be short lived, though, if your game doesn't make it easy for them to spread. Northway repeatedly conjured the idea of letting your game "live on the internet", something he's done by keeping user-made creations in a database accessible by a friendly URL, rather than 10-line encoded data URLs, that can be passed easily from player to player in emails and forum posts. But also, he notes, you get "no grace from people on Flash, versus a downloaded game" -- because they have no time invested in your game other than loading it in their browser, you need to "spoon feed them for the first five minutes" to ensure they don't leave as soon as they've arrived. "Take people who hate you and put them in front of your game," he said, "and write [those first five minutes] specifically to them."

3.) Leverage "pride based marketing"

Here's where Northway's advice gets more genre specific, or perhaps where it can urge designers to expand their designs to capitalize on what he's found: because Contraption lets users pass their intricately built puzzle solutions to each other, and because he's made that easier with his advice above, his players are "really keen on sharing something they've built". Using this "pride based marketing" to your advantage will "pay off so well for you in the way your game spreads."

4.) Make a free game that gives players 'a tote bag' if they pay

While Contraption asks for money as soon as you hit its home screen, the game's spread more easily because it's always been reviewed as a free game, with some 10 hours of play given away. What Northway does is give players a thing when they buy it -- in this case, access to level editors and its library of 40,000 user-made levels for that $10 fee (likening it to a PBS model of watching 9 hours of Red Dwarf, but getting spurred on to pay for that content by getting a tote bag). And while he has only converted that 0.5%, that's not far off from piracy numbers he's heard quoted elsewhere. Surprisingly, only five percent of the people who've paid have gone on to actually use the level editor, even once.

Northway saw his game go from release (with zero spent or expended in the way of PR or press outreach) to 20,000 users in his first weekend (spent lazing around on the couch) to 1.1 million in its first month (spent still working at his 'real' job, watching the first PayPal emails dinging in and saying "some human being thinks you're worth $10") to that 3.1 million before publisher inXile (also currently operating similarly viral web-diversion Line Rider) assumed control of the operation.

There seem to be other factors he doesn't mention that have aided in its success (taking something as daunting as physics-heavy construction kits and making it friendly with its flat, bubbly thick-vector interface), but, as was echoed by a number of indie devs following the session, Northway's model and story seems to be precisely the way that indie development should, as in, is meant to work.

Brandon Boyer

Austin Indie Summit: my show and tell of the New Indie Hottness

This was the surprisingly large, warm and receptive crowd that turned out for my early-morning session at the opening day of GDC Austin's debut Indie Game Summit, and the reason they're all smiling will be clear by the time you reach the end of this post.

My task for the session was to give the attendees here a snapshot of the best of what indie gaming's currently got to offer: some old and unmissable, some never before seen, and some seen, but never before played live. Here's the run down -- for reference and further research and download -- of everything I showed off.

1.) Spelunky

By far the most widely played and important indie game of the past several years (even in prelude to its upcoming Xbox Live Arcade port), I found out quickly just how hard it is to play live and talk in front of an audience, in a quasi-Game Center CX series of embarrassing failures.

2.) Glum Buster

Too few people have still taken a trip through Austin-native Justin 'CosMind' Leingang's fantastically surreal world -- hopefully playing it live gave everyone an even more compelling reason to.

3.) Alpinist

Even just the tiny shred of a teaser for Craig 'SUPERBROTHERS' Adams' indie debut was enough to impress, with his inimitable graphic style, and the promise of its simulated grueling mountain ascension.

4.) Time Donkey

The inherent charm of Flashbang's latest made it one of the most popular playthroughs of the session, judging by audience reaction. I very regretfully haven't had the time yet to do it justice here, but will surely do when GDC Austin madness dies back down.

5.) Captain Forever

As I said before, this will probably end up topping a lot of best-of-2009 lists when word reaches out further, and a round of applause rose as soon as the name was dropped. Creator Farbs was kind enough to drop off a debug build of the game for the session, which meant that I could cheat my way into demonstrating the jaw-dropping muted disco-dance-rain-of-destruction that you're ultimately fighting to build toward. Expect much more on this game here soon.

6.) Tuning

The first surprise of the show was the latest game from oft-mentioned Offworld favorite Cactus, with a rare sneak preview of his previously blogged and yet to be released "game about killing everything you love", now titled Tuning. Even with early warnings from Cactus about playing through it ahead of time to be sure I could do it justice live (which I did, I swear, and I got so far), with its constant, progressively more sadistically perception-warping, it was the second time of the morning that proved how embarrassing public play can be.

7.) Fez

And the session's biggest surprise: Polytron's Phil Fish made a guest appearance to give the first live demonstration of what the studio's been cooking up for the past few years.

The game's grown even more rich and complex than I'd expected since I last saw its 2007 Indie Games Festival debut, and impressed the crowd enough (see: the photo at top) that we cut well into the planned coffee break to hang on main star Gomez's every dimensional shift.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and putting up with what I can only imagine was a rambling, too-early, caffeine-addled, ranty awkward set of playthroughs!

Brandon Boyer

One shot: 3D Tetris

Not the Virtual Boy kind, but the Mr. Pitt's obsession kind. It's fully playable and works, actually, mostly, though tracking vertical alignment while consistently keeping your eyes crossed ups the ante considerably. [via Coudal]

Brandon Boyer

Forever in 16 seconds: Farbs teases upcoming space shooter Captain Forever

Ask just about anyone in the indie underground know which upcoming game they're most excited about and, after a lot of over-the-shoulder peeking for listeners-in, they'll widen their eyes with sincerity and quietly hiss two words: Captain Forever.

Forever's just days away from proper pre-launch and while you haven't heard much about it yet from creator Farbs (who you'll remember as the dev behind 8-bit mashup ROM Check Fail or maybe Polychromatic Funk Monkey, or, for regular Offworld readers, as The Guy Who Quit His Job Via Super Mario Bros.), he's just let slip the video above, giving you a full 15 minutes of play footage crammed into 15 seconds.

Watch this space (and his space, too) for much more of Forever's space soon.

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: the one button action film of AdamAtomic's Canabalt

Ignore for just a few minutes the fact that there's an already admittedly excellent stripped down Flash version of DICE's Mirror's Edge, because Canabalt -- the just-released Experimental Gameplay entry from Fathom and Flixel creator Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman and musician DannyB -- strips that down even further, and better.

Consider it, maybe, the souped-up Tiger/Game & Watch LCD version of Mirror's Edge, then: you have one goal, and one button, and the goal is to run, and the button is jump, and the game comes from simply maintaining breakneck momentum as you leap from rooftop to randomly generated rooftop.

Saltsman is an unabashed devotee of the Hollywood action flick, and the fact that his last recommendation was Peter O'Toole film The Stunt Man seemed somehow appropriate the instant you take your first dive through the game's opening breakaway window. And then he moves on to John Woo, scattering a flock of doves skyward as you leap to the next roof, and then like take your pick from any sci-fi action/disaster as the first crashing alien ship rumbles past the screen, or you first notice the megalithic monsters trampling the far background.

For a five-day start-to-stop development it's exceedingly confident and exceptionally accomplished: in keeping with the Experimental Gameplay's 'bare minimum' theme, there's a laundry list of things Saltsman could've added (I'm still not sure what my high score is from the 30-40 playthroughs today -- I'm too busy compulsively slamming the retry button to take the half second to notice), but nothing he could have taken away, and it's going to be quite some time before you find something so simple so thrilling again.

Canabalt [AdamAtomic, super-wide HD version for hi-res monitors]

Brandon Boyer

Ye shall receive: M.U.L.E. remake in development, iPhone version to follow

When a remake of EA's cult strategy game Archon was first announced for the iPhone, I made a humble request that multiplayer classic M.U.L.E. be next, and while I won't take even an atom's worth of credit, Raph Koster has spotted news that a remake is indeed in the cards.

Melanie Bunten Stark, daughter of original M.U.L.E. creator Dan Bunten, has just launched Ozark Softscape -- a new site dedicated to the Bunten legacy -- and joined the World of M.U.L.E. Facebook fan-page with news (from May, actually) that the licensing process was underway so that work could begin on an online version of the game. More interestingly, Bunten Stark also posted more recently to say that an iPhone and mobile version were also being planned.

There's no word on precisely who will be handling the remake, though it looks to be closely overseen by the Bunten family children, and if I could only have one re-iterated request, it'd be that whomever is involved might think about tapping Niklas Jansson and his brilliant remake character concepts (above) for the updated version.

Follow the Facebook page, the World of M.U.L.E. site proper, and the official Ozark site for updates as they arrive.

Brandon Boyer

Leaving: quitting your job via a game, part 2

The last time (well, and the first time) we saw a developer leave gainful full-time employment via a game, it was Jarrad 'Farbs' Woods with his entirely gleeful Super Mario resignation.

Ubisoft dev William David has just done the same with his Flash game Leaving, only with a wildly different take. The resignation in his resignation is drawn out in much more painful and frightened blind leaps, with more "reasonable" people forcing him to question every move, which -- having made my own plunge from cubicle life to the Great Unknown years ago -- hits home pretty hard. [via IndieGames]

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: make mine meta with This Is The Only Level & Upgrade Complete

Between 2007 and 2008 there were two games that were more remarkable for what they did than what they were, and what they were were games doing commentary on the act and experience of playing games themselves.

The first was, of course, You Have To Burn The Rope, which gave you its FAQ, walkthrough, and spoiler-alert straight up front, skipped essentially all of the formalities of the game itself, and then rewarded you with a love-song ode to how brilliant you were at doing what it wouldn't let you do otherwise. It was a one-off joke, but one smart enough to be selected for and turn heads with a selected as a finalist at the Independent Games Festival.

The second, less indie-industry-shattering game was John 'jmtb02' Cooney's Achievement Unlocked, a game that rested itself entirely on the Microsoft-created monster of playing for and focusing on the meta-game of satisfying secondary goals.

And so, a year or more on, two more games have emerged that take that meta-gaming to the next level. The first, and newest -- again from Cooney (and even starring Unlocked's now-beloved elephant), and again telling you what it is up front, is This Is The Only Level (top), which it is, though split up into some 30 takes on the same in-game terrain. Better you discover the best of its surprises for yourself, but it encapsulates some truly devious expectation-undermining throughout, and while perhaps less successful than Unlocked (wholly relying on monotony of its single task to drive its point home, where even the former rewarded careful exploration of its own single level), still will be one of the best 10 minute browser-games of the month.

And, finally, the culmination of all the games above: Antony Lavelle's Upgrade Complete, from the same author as the monochrome-navigating web series Shift (which just recently came to the iPhone, as well). The trick here: starting the game rewards you with nothing but a blank screen. No developer logo, no title menu, no loading, no nothing, and every bit, piece, and even-better-bit of the game itself has to be purchased by playing.

Obviously, the game makes the minor concession of giving you some cash to spare to get to the 'game' itself -- a simplistic top-down scrolling shooter -- but from there, every, well, upgrade, be it increasing graphic fidelity through generational shifts of 8- to 64-bit, adding sound, credits, and piecing together a deadlier ship to make collecting more money even easier, has to be earned and bought.

Like the above games, it's excessively linear by design, the game itself not actually being as important as the meta-game, but, like Burn The Rope, its true ending is similarly my-god-aren't-you-amazing cockle-warming, though this time, probably slightly undercut by the fact that you had to pay them to tell you in the first place. But what could be more meta than that?

This Is The Only Level [John Cooney]

Upgrade Complete [Antony Lavelle]

Brandon Boyer

Browser battle: Capcom, GameTap bring Street Fighter II CE to Kongregate

Just launched in celebration of the release of a PC version of Street Fighter IV: a new, browser-based Flash version of Street Fighter II CE, put together by GameTap for Flash portal Kongregate. [via Capcom]

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: World of Goo, Henry Hatsworth devs debut new games at Experimental Gameplay Project

Back in the hazy days of my stint at Edge Online -- before indie gaming had truly become a movement, certainly one fought over by console manufacturers, a time when Cave Story was still just a twinkle in Pixel's eye -- there was only one place I knew I could trust to feed me reliably worthwhile new games: Carnegie Mellon's Experimental Gameplay Project.

It was there that the dual Kyles (co-founders Gabler and Gray, of World of Goo and Henry Hatsworth renown, respectively) and their classmates laid the rapid prototyping foundation that would influence the indie scene at large (notably Petri Purho, who credits the technique for spawning his Crayon Physics).

Now, with Gabler still spinning up for 2D Boy's sophomore effort, and Gray recently departing EA for indie work, the two have relaunched the site and will be serving new, monthly seven-day challenges, with the first three games of the debut challenge just premiered.

The first, seen at top, is Gray's Frobot: Fueled by Dancing: a Robotron/Smash TV-esque keyboard/mouse-controlled shooter in which the titular 'bot is tasked with conquering salarymen with the power of funk, morphing them instantly into a series of 'solid-gold dancers', with a nicely unfolding power-up structure.

The second, above right, is Proto Shooter, an entirely mouse controlled classic 8-bit pixel shooter from EGP newcomer and World of Goo Wii programmer Allan Blomquist, and finally, below, is Gabler's Egg Worm Generator.

Technically not at all a game (and apparently salvaged from a failed attempt at a Karl Sims-inspired evolutionary shooter), Egg Worm is a generative Darwinian simulation in which creatures are given one minute to live and crawl to the right toward a green pixel. Any creature that doesn't make it is scrapped, any survivors breed their traits further and slowly grow more adept at walking rightward, a transformation surprisingly compelling to observe over time, for as entirely uninteractive as it is.

Purho and Shalin Shodan -- another former EGP co-founder and participant and later Spore API developer -- are listed as additional eventual participants in forthcoming challenges: watch the new EGP space for more information, and don't miss the archives for original EGP works, including the towering roots of World of Goo.