Sadly a poor embed code discourages me from posting it in here so a link to the site, CollegeHumour.com, will have to do.

A perfect video montage of the best games ever made? Or a beautiful hoax? Discuss.

Best Games Ever? Naturally….. originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Super Meat Boy is a very difficult game and it requires lots of patience (something I dont have). Here are some awesome speed runs from MicVlad, who has showcased some video from the first three worlds online.

Video Guides: Super Meat Boy Speed Runs originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Crytek  and IllFonic announced today that the CryENGINE 3 has been licensed for IllFonic’s futuristic Arena FPS Nexuiz, their upcoming release on the XBLA and PSN. Fans of Nexuiz, previously a pc only, open-source first person shooter  developed by Alientrap should appreciate the graphical update and potentially larger user-base.

“IllFonic firmly believes in bringing the consumer the highest quality games at an affordable price through downloadable distribution channels”, said Charles Brungardt, President of IllFonic. “Switching to CryENGINE 3 has helped us stay true to our vision and build the Nexuiz arenas the way we see it without any limitations.  We are incredibly proud that Nexuiz will be the first downloadable title developed on CryENGINE 3.”

“We’re delighted to have Illfonic join our community of licensees”, said Carl Jones, Director of CryENGINE Global Business Development.  “It’s exciting to see a passionate group like Kedhrin and Charles’ team working with CryENGINE 3 on such a cool title.  Nexuiz is going to deliver a game style that will be a blast for the console audience, matched with the best graphics possible on the consoles.  We’re delighted to offer our engine to teams for XBLA and PSN titles so that gamers can enjoy the quality that CryENGINE 3 can provide, as soon as possible.  Our real-time multiplatform pipeline, Live Create, is highly suited to prototyping and delivering quality for games with shorter development cycles; and you get all the benefits of the AAA features of the engine.  Nexuiz is going to be a lot of fun and we’re glad Illfonic have chosen CryENGINE 3 to deliver it in style.”

“When we were strolling around GDC 2010′s floor we stopped by the Crytek booth. I watched someone show off a few features of CryENGINE 3. Right then and there, I knew I had to have it.  It’s powerful, fast and easy to use,” said Kedhrin Gonzalez, Creative Director of IllFonic. “Crytek has been awesome to work with providing excellent support in a relationship that has really benefited us.”

Okay now for the blurb.

‘Nexuiz is a fast paced Arena first-person shooter with competitive game play built specifically for consoles. Featuring the innovative mutator system, players progress through the ranks opening up new mutators that allow players to alter the rules for each match. On launch, Nexuiz will feature multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag complete with full competitive leader boards designed for social networking. New games modes, models, and maps will be available as downloadable content post launch.

Set in a galactic war fueled for centuries by the Kavussari and Forsellians. Over time the two races entered into treaties with the Herald Accord, a union between different cultures in the galaxy. Even though peace settled across their planets, the seething hatred between the races kept the fire of war simmering under the fragile truce. Sensing their newest members could spread war throughout the galaxy; the Herald Accord gave the Kavussari and Forsellians a choice. Pit their warriors against each other in the arena rather than on the fields of war, or face total annihilation. The Nexuiz was formed, a series of battle arenas on the home planets of the Kavussari, Forsellian and the desolate planet of Atavirta.’

IllFonic will be showcasing Nexuiz using CryENGINE 3 at this year’s PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington, on September 3-5.

But if you need more information on Nexuiz now, check out www.nexuiz.com or www.illfonic.com. If you just can’t you should check out the classic version here.

…Okay, one more screenshot.

Nexuiz to be The First XBLA/PSN Title Powered by CryENGINE®3 originally appeared on: WireNinja
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In the on going quest to get away with as little work as possible without getting fired Cantyouseeimbusy.com has come up with some clever ways to play games in the office in full sight. My personal Favourite is the lander clone.

Enjoy… and don’t get caught.

How to have fun, without losing your corporate credibility. originally appeared on: WireNinja
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It’s hard not to be impressed with the sheer amount of effort put this fully working 7ft Elite costume with its facial animatronics and built in stilts. I have no idea how much this must of cost to make but goddamn it was worth every penny. Check out the ‘making of’ video and more pictures afterward.

Epic 7ft Halo Elite Costume originally appeared on: WireNinja
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On June 11, 2010 LedgeWizard Games, released their first game, Towers, for the Xbox (Live) Indie Games Platform. A unique and imaginative take on the Tower defence game that sets out to build a deep and rewarding experience without losing any of its vibrant personality.

Based in South Cornwall, England, LedgeWizard Games are a small family based team headed up by Adam Steppens who built Towers in his spare time. I was lucky enough to get an interview with Mr. LedgeWizard himself, Adam Steppens.

What differentiates Towers from other Tower Defence games?

I’ve played a number of good TDs in the past so there are obviously strong influences from some games. I’m hoping that a few of the tower designs are fairly original and that they complement each other well. Each of the towers has a few different versions that can be upgraded to individually, so, for instance, a cannon tower could be given a speed upgrade, or damage upgrade or even eventually both. Different towers have other upgrades available, though the total number for each tower has been kept fairly low so that each tower has strengths and weaknesses which have to be worked into the strategy.

There are also multiple endings based on how well you do. All are achievable and seeing one ending doesn’t lock you out from seeing any of the others. I think it’s very important for people to be able to see all of the content without being locked out for making a decision that they might regret later. That’s something for RPGs I think.

The golden rule that I eventually settled on was to keep it simple. It’s a pretty casual game that anyone can pick up and play. The variety is in the different strategies the player can come up with. Originally, different coloured wizards were going to be able to build different towers, or make it so that different objects in the world would be used for different sets of towers. It all got a little bit complicated and potentially quite restrictive. It also played havoc with the difficulty. I might something like that in a sequel. So the game basically only ever has three options. Build, upgrade and sell.

The game has a fairly sedate pace, especially in the earlier levels. The idea being that the player has a moment to think about which towers to choose and where to place them, rather than the whole game being a reaction test. However, there are times when you’ve got everything under control and just want things to move a little faster, so I added a fast forward control.

How did you get into making a game for the 360?

A friend of mine showed me a site he had been learning from, [xnadevelopment]. He’d followed a tutorial and had gotten a blue wizard to jump around whilst shooting fireballs. I was instantly intrigued and even more so when he pointed out that the software needed to get going was completely free. Needless to say, I was interested and after trying out the tutorials myself, I set about making a game myself. This would become Towers. Originally I designed it as a side on game, like old style platformers. The first step was to create a series of platforms, on which I stood a blue wizard (which I had coincidentally drawn years before, for a game I’d never made). Being fairly new to this, I was quite impressed by my little wizard standing on his ledge. Other’s not so much, but he was the starting point and when I came to sign up for the XNA Creators Club, I couldn’t use my original choices, so I went with LedgeWizard.

From that point I continued learning as I went along, not quite sure what I’d be able to do. Thankfully the XNA forums and numerous code samples are available, so with a bit of time and effort you can achieve a lot. I can’t say I never got stuck, but I persevered and I’m pleased with the way it’s turned out.

What was your favourite part of the process?

Seeing people’s reactions to the game. At one point, I had one tester playing and five other people criticising his tower placements, each asking to have the controller passed to them next, so that they could show them how it’s done. When people get out of their seats and start pointing to where they think towers should be placed it’s very cool, especially when it’s meant to be a single player experience.

Overall, the feedback I’ve received has been incredibly gratifying. As a result of the feedback, we’re even planning an update, to add multiple difficulty levels and are planning on smoothing out the difficulty curve a little. One particular level, Everwinter Trail, has been commented on a few times and is definately possible, but generally harder than the other levels around it. We’ve got some tips on our website at www.ledgewizardgames.com if people are struggling and will possibly offer walkthroughs in the future if people are interested.

What was your least favourite part?

I’m generally happy with everything that went into the game. I cut a number of items early on when it was apparent that they either bogged the game down, or made it overcomplicated. Despite this, the things that did go in took a lot longer than I’d originally expected. I think I told my wife that the game would be done in a few evenings and odd weekends over a month and it dragged out a lot more than that. To be fair, I was learning as I went along, so was essentially encountering new problems at every step. But I worked through each and every one and firmly believe the next one will be quicker. At least, that’s what I’ve told my wife.

There’s almost as much work in getting the game playing right and running smoothly as there is just getting it to work in the first place. I owe a seriously huge thank you to my testers who volunteered their free time playing and replaying the levels as I made minute changes to the levels or the controls or some other incredibly small point.

So, what are you working on next?

Loads of things! Whilst working on Towers, I kept getting ideas that either were too complex to go in and might work for a sequel or for an entirely different TD. I want to work a lot more with game generated music for instance, as it’s an area I really haven’t explored much. Also, I’ve had at least a dozen unrelated ideas. Some being clones and some being quite original. I’ll have to let you know when I’ve picked one!

I tend to create a very rough prototype (like a ghost, wearing a hat whilst wandering through a forest and being shot at by cannons) and throw it out to a few close friends, who will quite honestly tell me that it’s either a rubbish idea, or maybe that it’s got some potential . Getting people to look past placeholder graphics is tricky, plus I’m really not very good with drawing graphics yet, so they have to fill in the blanks with their imaginations.

Lastly, Some of the levels can get a bit tough, Do you have any recommended strategies?

This unintended one arose in early play testing. An interesting use of the lightning tower. Designed to have huge range and really high damage to a single target or anything standing really close. Ideal for boss monsters, since it will always output its maximum damage rather than over-killing. It also targets the monster with the most hit points remaining so that it’s not generally wasted on smaller monsters.

Most people put these towers near the centre of the screen, exposing them to as much of the monster’s paths as possible, but one tester put one right at the end of the path, covering very little ground. It turned out that the tower acted really well as a filter. The tester has put gun towers down to finish off weakened monsters that had gotten past everything else. However, gun towers get locked onto targets, shooting them for as long as they possibly can. Therefore if they start tracking something with a lot of health, weaker monsters that could easily be killed quickly will creep past. The lightning tower solved this by severely weakening or frequently killing off just the tougher monsters as opposed to the ones that the guns could quickly destroy.

Could I please just add a huge thank you to everyone who helped suggest ideas and improvements whilst testing the game. Without you guys the whole experience would’ve been a lot less satisfying and a lot less fun.

You can find and download the game from the XBox LIVE Marketplace. I highly recommend that you give it a go. Or you could visit LedgeWizard games yourself. Here.

LedgeWizard Games – Indie Developer Interview : Towers originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Fitting into the ‘Exactly what it says on the tin’ catagory of game naming,  Gratuitous Space Battles is a strategy/management/ simulation game by UK developer Positech Games. The big draw of this game is the lack of long winded building sections and the such, instead the focus is very much  on the epic space battle aspect of the genre.

This is very much a Min/Max game rather than a itchy trigger finger real time affair, as your individual ship commanders have total autonomy during the the battles.

The website proudly boasts “This is not a tactical game, it is a strategic one.”

The day will not be won by the square-jawed space heros who eat danger for breakfast but by the bespectacled shipbuilders who sweat inteligence. If you a fan of Space Sims you will have a very hard time disliking this.

For the minimun spec needed to play the game the website said this;

“We keep getting questions about the minimum spec of the game. This isn’t decided yet, but the game is being developed on a Intel Core 2 Duo Vista machine with 2 gig of ram and a geforce 8800 GTS video card. The min spec is certain to be much lower than that.”

Need to know more about Gratuitous Space Battles? Well there isn’t a demo yet, not until realease day. However when you pre-order GSB you get a Beta version. The details are here, in the meantime here is a video.

Gratuitous Space Battles – Featuring um.. Gratuitous Space Battles. originally appeared on: WireNinja
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I think it’s incredibly strange. Right now i have access to a multitude of the most advance games the human race has to offer, graphics so realistic that the outside world seems dull in comparison, concepts so fantastically advanced that I’d need seven years of intense training to get my head around them. The money needed to get this has taken a lifetime to obtain and the sheer choice of games, consoles and other such machinations I have are head spinningly vast. So why have i spent the last two hours of my life pushing a grey ragdoll down some grey stairs. This is indeed a life stealing, time waster.

This is Porrasturvat™ – Stair Dismount™

As i mentioned earlier the only goal of this game is to push a rag doll down the stairs, depending on the angle you push him from, the force and which body part you choose to push, the ashen avatar tumbles, whirls and spins down the unforgiving staircase, as his unlucky body parts collide with ground, damage is accumulated often accompanied by a scream. This is an astoundingly simple concept but my word is it addictive, somewhere in my brain my inner sadist laughs with insane glee as the ragdoll clumsily descends to his doom.

With a click of a button Mr. Dismount is back on top ready to repeat his nightmare to the end of time,  and you are ready to best your old score. For me, the high score made this game, as with all games with a highscore there is nothing more satisfying than finally besting your freind’s hard earnt top position.

Porrasturvat is an indie game made by Jetro Lauha of tAAt and it was originally released back in 2002,  since then tAAt made Truck Dismount which uses much the same concept and is working on Stair Dismount 2.

But it makes me wonder with so much technology why so few games have the soul draining addictiveness indie games have to offer. There are no jaw dropping graphics, no mind blowing concepts or any semblance of a story. Just wonderful mindless fun.

Get Porrasturvat here absolutely free.

Indie Gaming: Porrasturvat – Stair Dismount originally appeared on: WireNinja
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