Posts Tagged ‘games’

G.W.A.T. (Gratuitously Weird Automated Toys) – bot vs bots?

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

May26 What’s the world’s fascination with bots?  Do we see a future where most machines will take over tasks we find mundane, boring, or dangerous.  Or Tiny droids that will enter our bodies and repair us or augment us?  Virtual pets or companions where the real thing is just not practical or safe?  All these things and more.  I think we’re mostly in convenience.  So what are the main sources of bot love?  Firstly Star Wars, with those loveable droids C-3PO and R2-D2.  Ever since the late 70’s they’ve been ingrained into our consciousness.  Movies, cartoons, toys, even cereal has had these two little guys.  We can hardly think of a world without them.  Secondly, the Japanese.  Their love of technology has spearheaded efforts to make robots, walk, talk, and even think, and inspired the world’s culture.  Granted things like Transformers was a Japanese and American co-creation, there’s no doubt about the influence the Japanese had on them.  In fact it was a Japanese toy line that some guys from Hasbro bought, and based a whole franchise around.  Okay with that spirit I present my next review for a game called G.W.A.T. which stands for a Game Without A Name.

What I think of it:  GWAT needs a lot more work done on it before it can be thought to be fun. Edit:  After playing it a little bit more I started getting the hang of it.  It’s not really a bad game, but there are some things that could be improved.  More after the break.

The Break.

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Triumph of Time by Muku

Monday, May 25th, 2009

MiniReview6SS Here’s an interesting and original game.  It’s called the Triumph of Time by muku for the Ludum Dare 48 hour compo #14.  Place pylons around a sun to build up barriers against a purple anti-matter cloud.  The only thing that can stave off this onslaught of the ‘purple cloud’ are particles through each of the barriers using the pylons.  The only way to get the particles is by placing pylons around a sun.  Place pylons by left clicking.  Space to pause/un-pause.  You can also scroll and zoom.  The graphics are somewhat abstract but makes you think of older games that didn’t have the graphics power.  I could see this game run on old consoles and computers if the author chose to write it for them.  There’s some background music, but apparently not really any sound.  The version I played was the post-competition version, where the author added a tutorial mode and a level editor.  The thing is very very simple to play but is also very difficult to master.  I couldn’t even finish the first tutorial level.  Thankfully, the first actual level is a little more forgiving, probably because of the shape of the game board which can differ from level to level.  I still didn’t “win’” in the sense of actually accomplishing the goal of the level (save 60 quadrants) but I did manage to save something like 35 or 36.  If he could ramp the difficulty way down I think it would be a really fun game.

Name: Triumph of Time

Developer: muku

Bunny Press by Notch

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

MiniReview5SS

Bunny Press by Notch is actually quite an original and fun game.  Essentially you want to get to the goal, except, you have one or more ‘advancing walls of doom’.  You have bunnies lots of bunnies.  You also have boxes and boulders (or cannon balls or ball bearings or marbles or bowling balls or [insert perfect spherical device here].  Sometimes there are carrots in the way and you have to cause the bunnies to eat the carrots to get you through the tight spaces.  Sometimes you need a key.  Sometimes they are so thick they impede your progress and you need to use them round things to squash the bunnies to help you get through.  All in the name of Science.  Actually just kidding about the science part.  The bunnies and your character get squished by spikes, and the bunnies by the boulders with blood splatters and stains on the ground.  It’s not gross though as it’s cartoony and comical.  The game is quite fun.  Use the arrow keys to move.  There’s flash and downloadable versions of it, I played the flash version which includes a level reset button, which I guess the downloadable (or compo) version doesn’t include.  Still it’s a fun game, and you should try it.

Name: Bunny Press

Developer: Notch