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Articles
dessgeega’s reviews:
soldier force, within a deep forest, bullet candy
Peter Mackay’s reviews:
Spooks, 5 Days a Stranger
Quotes
Digg
“Recently posted on the invaluable Indygamer blog, a list of the Top 20 freeware adventure games from 2006, listing all kinds of interesting AGS and other-style adventure games from this fascinating niche community.” (originally featured on GameSetWatch)
Kotaku
Indygamer’s Top 20 Free Adventure Games as featured on Kotaku.
GameSetWatch
“The frankly awesome Indygamer has just listed its Top 10 shooter remakes for 2006, PC indie game stylee, cutely described as ‘Ten of the best freeware remakes from last year which involve firing shots at foreign objects.’”
“The Indygamer weblog continues to do sterling work reviewing awesome PC indie titles…”
“The ever-reliable IndyGamer, which really does a good job of keeping up with the insanely busy indie games scene…”
“…our favorite TIGSource offshoot, the Indygamer blog, which was rating and linking to an insane amount of indie titles…”
“Tim W. is really showing how much indie content is out there (a LOT!)”
“To be honest, there are so many great free PC indie titles being released nowadays that we just can’t keep up - we leave that to folks like the Independent Gaming…”
Darren Gladstone’s 1UP Blog
Senior Editor, Games for Windows magazine
“Where’s my next Katamari Damacy? Where’s the next Defcon or Darwinia. Right now, they are hiding out on indie gaming sites like Indygamer.blogspot.com or tigsource.com. Hell, I spend more of my time these days playing free games and shareware than full-priced megabudget titles.”
From 5 Things I Hate About Gaming
John Bardinelli (JayisGames editor)
“They (IG) supply an enormous amount of news and reviews in a quick, easy to digest format. No fluff, just info.”
From the article, Top 5 Freeware and Indie Gaming Websites
Planetfreeplay
“The Independent Gaming Blog… really good blog, I suggest you check it out” - Moshboy, Podcast Episode 1: Intro
Andrew Wooldridge Dot Com
“This site comes up short in the area of web design - but you’ll never notice that because you will be busy reading the dozen or so posts a day the author makes. This is a no-nonsense independent gaming site that covers everything from Klick n Play games to Point-and-click Adventures to Shmups. Definitely a site to check obsessively every few hours to see what’s going on in the indie gamer realm.”
Permalink, My All Time Favorite Link Series No. 2
Special Features
Top 10 Freeware Platformers 2006
Top 20 Freeware Adventure Games 2006, Part 1
Top 20 Freeware Adventure Games 2006, Part 2
Top 20 Freeware SHMUPs 2006, Part 1
Top 20 Freeware SHMUPs 2006, Part 2
Top 10 Freeware Arena Shooters 2006
Top 10 Freeware Shooter Remakes 2006
Upcoming Adventure Games of 2007
A selection of AutoFire 2007 Competition Entries
FAQ
Japanese Games
How do I run Japanese games on my system?
How do I unzip .RAR and .LZH files? Why do I keep getting errors while trying to extract files?
How do I navigate/find the files to download from the Japanese Vector site?
Controllers/Keyboard Mapping
How do I configure a game to accept input from my PC game controller?
How do I configure the JoyToKey software?
How do I emulate an autofire function using the JoyToKey software?
Game Maker Programs
How do I enable the full screen mode for a Game Maker program?
How do I make Game Maker programs work under Windows Vista?
Japanese Games
How do I run Japanese games on my system?
Open the control panel located under your start menu, then select regional and language options. Choose the languages tab and check the box for East Asian languages installation. Select the advanced tab next and choose Japanese as the default language for non-Unicode programs.
You will then be prompted for the operating system installation CD. The computer has to be restarted once the entire process is completed.
How do I unzip .RAR and .LZH files? Why do I keep getting errors while trying to extract files?
Download and install 7-Zip in order to extract .RAR and .LZH files, especially zipped Japanese games. This powerful program is free and the download size is under 1MB. If it still doesn’t work, try downloading the game again.
How do I navigate/find the files to download from the Japanese Vector site?
Here’s an article to help you find your way around the Vector site, the largest repository of Japanese freeware games and demos. Fortunately the entire process of downloading a file only involves four clicks.
Controllers
Press the Shift and Alt key simultaneously once to swap the Y and Z keys. Useful for shooters which uses the Z, X, C key configuration. [credits to Syrion]
How do I configure a game to accept input from my PC game controller?
How do I configure the JoyToKey software?
How do I emulate an autofire function using the JoyToKey software?
There’s an excellent article about the JoyToKey software on the One Switch web site, providing instructions on how to configure the program to accept input from PC game controllers. JoyToKey also offers a solution for emulating an autofire function and substituting keyboard button commands with mouse controls as well.
Game Maker Programs
How do I enable the full screen mode for a Game Maker program?
Simply press F4 to switch between full screen and windowed mode. This is a standard function for Game Maker programs.
How do I make Game Maker programs work under Windows Vista?
Here’s a tool to convert games created with Game Maker versions 6.0 and 6.1 into a file that is compatible with WIndows Vista. [credits to Xander]
Walkthroughs
Sam and Max Episode 1 - Culture Shock
Episode 3 - The Mole, The Mob and The Meatball
Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth
The White Chamber: International Edition
Scratches walkthrough by Graham
Scratches walkthrough by MaGtRo
James Whitehead Interview
The New James Whitehead
James Whitehead was responsible for developing the New Satan Sam, which was most memorable for its adorable pixels and ridiculous amount of levels. Most other developers would have started on something slightly smaller for their next project but not James. Not content with how the New Satan Sam performed, he returned with an improved engine and a whole new bag of tricks up his sleeve in the form of a work in progress game called Tormishire. From the first glance (and bear in mind that there isn’t even a playable demo available yet), it is easy to see that Tormishire eclipses the New Satan Sam in every way possible, from its size, level design (with many multiple routes and sub-quests planned) and graphical appearance (which is absolutely stunning by the way). It doesn’t really take much to realise just how passionate James is about Tormishire. You wouldn’t expect anything less from someone that spends so much time and effort on the development process. And this makes James all the more pleasurable and interesting to interview. So without further ado..
Give us some background about yourself..
My name is James Whitehead. I’m 21 and currently live near Manchester in England. I’ve just graduated university and heading back to college to start work as a lecturer.
What systems did you own and videogames did you playing growing up? How have they influenced you?
I grew up on the Amiga. I think we got an A600 when I was about 6 years old and I still used it frequently until the N64 era. Games like Turrican, Flashback and the whole public domain scene really inspired me at a young age. Turrican 1 and 2 are easily my biggest influences just for the soundtrack and level design. Factor 5 really did produce something spectacular there.
At what point did you become interested in game development? Why did you choose MMF as a game development tool?
We didn’t have many NES games since the Amiga was the console in our house. Through boredom I used to draw my own NES carts and design boxes for them. A few years later we bought our first PC and ordered Klik and Play from some magazine. Then it all started! Picked up the Games Factory in high school, then MMF1.5 during college, MMF2 at university. I’ve taught myself bits of other languages too but to get a game finished quickly MMF2 is my preferred application.
Where did the concept for Tormishire come from?
During The New Satan Sam development I planned on breaking the linear design with a sprawling world map where levels would be represented as dungeons. I split this game into The New Satan Sam and Red Lands - the working title for a new adventure game using the Sam engine. I ended up scrapping the whole thing and starting afresh, basing it around a neat little physics engine. I decided to split the game completely from Sam and start with a whole new game.
So how far into development did Red Lands get? What made you decide to scrap it?
I suppose it was more a transition than a scrap, so much that the player sprite is still called “Sam 2″. I just felt I could build a much better engine (more efficient), since Sam’s was a bit of a bad performer, system wise. I built everything around a unified physics engine this time round and there’s a much more consistent feel throughout the gameplay for it.
Do you have any other abandoned projects?
Madventures of the Love Rockets was an RPG I started a few years ago. It was similar to Golden Sun in gameplay but the project just lost steam and it was cancelled. This was my first project that Mr. Pineapple produced music for and has been essential contributor to my games ever since.
At what point did you decide to make it shareware?
The decision to make it shareware didn’t come lightly, it’s all down to the scope of the project. It’s definitely the biggest game I’ve worked on and it does take up a huge chunk of the day just making this. The full version will come with at least 1 other short game too, but I’ve only just started work on it so even I don’t know the full details. Um, stay tuned!
Tormishire will be your largest project to date with multiple paths to take, also creating a large replayability factor. Do the features that you add to your projects stem from things that you, yourself would like to see in videogames?
I love replayability, whether it’s achieved through unlockable playable characters or new modes. Because of the nature of Tormishire, there will only be a few unlockables but the replayability here lies in the diversity and optional areas. I want to make something truly giant in terms of level design. I’ve also always wanted to play a game where the player can get hopelessly lost but still find a sub-quest and to change the overall story through their own choices. It’s a complete nightmare to design and code since you have to take so many items and previous stories into account but it’s worth it.
What has the development process been like so far?
It’s been good and bad. Team Fortress 2 and Knytt Stories don’t help much! I normally get around 2 - 4 solid hours a day working on it, more if I’m doing the concept art pieces or music. Music is terrible for me. I can only get musical inspiration when I’m as far from my computer as possible.
Since all I have to do now is expand the game, I just sit down, put on some Tangerine Dream tracks and get designing!
Have you experienced any unique challenges in the development process?
The online side of the things have been a constant source of troubles. It’s something I’ve always wanted to put into a game but too overwhelmed by it. It’s certainly a challenge for me but I’d get bored otherwise. Once I got the online parts sorted I went ahead and added in custom servers for anyone to run.
Best and worst aspects of developing games - what are they and why?
Level and enemy design is something I enjoy doing. I’m a media artist by trade so I like to fuse together everything I’ve been brought up with, trying to create games as good as those I played growing up. I can’t stand bug testing but that’s been solved by a very helpful group of testers.
Since Tormishire is your most ambitious project to date, do you find it hard to keep motivated throughout such a long development process?
Motivation is certainly hard to keep up, whenever I get tired of a certain area and design I’ll just switch to another area or shake up the current layout a bit. It’s all down to moderation. Spending all day just designing levels breaks my eyes, doing more than 1 track a day makes all the tracks sound too similar.
Do you always feel that all the blood, sweat and tears are worth it in the end? What is the best reward about creating games like this?
Oh they’re always worth it. I don’t play that many games really so it’s how I spend my free time. For Sam it was seeing guides popping up, knowing that people had played the game and uncovered every inch. Just little silly things like that really.
You have stated that this will be your last game. Do you think that the game development bug will catch you again? Do you ever catch yourself thinking about projects beyond Tormishire?
Tormishire will definitely be my last game of this scale, at least on my own. I’ll probably throw out some smaller games for my solo work. I’d actually love to make something beyond Tormishire pushing it into a series of sorts. But I don’t want to plan ahead just yet!
So game development isn’t something that you would like to make a career out of? Just as a hypothetical, what if the release of Tormishire went really well and you made a decent amount of money, would this make you re-evaluate things?
I wouldn’t mind a career in the industry. If Tormishire did perform well, then I’d just grab a bunch of the most creative people I know and get us producing games. I suppose we’ll see what happens next year round!
Are you entering IGF?
I have entered Tormishire yes and I’ve been working my socks off to get a proper demo together! It’s certainly given me a nice solid deadline to work towards.
In the indie community, exploration platformers seem to be more in fashion then ever. Have you had the chance to play many of these? Do you have any favourites? (Knytt, Knytt Stories, Alex Adventure, Lyle In Cube Sector).
I adored Knytt. I linked it to my friends and demanded they play it. Nifflas achieved something great with that style of his. I’m a sucker for these stylized platform games! I really enjoy these and hope designers can take note that there’s an army of players screaming out for these games.
Little Gods Interview
Interview: Jason McIntosh, Developer of Little Gods
By Tim W.
August 25, 2005
Little Gods could possibly the the best Breakout clone to come out of an independent developer this year. Grim Inventions uses the classic gameplay concept featured in Pong and Breakout to create their debut title, but with all sorts of extras and unlockable contents added by the developers for a rewarding gameplay experience. Also noteworthy is the graphics and audio treats that will keep fans glued to their monitor screens for some time.
We caught up with Jason McIntosh of Grim Inventions recently to talk about their latest release.
INTRODUCTION
Tim: Hi Jason. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. To start off, could you tell us about the people involved in the development of Little Gods?
Jason: There’s me and Greg Tice, who did the art from concept to completion. Michael Huang (http://www.gamenoise.com/) did about 1/2 the sounds (the impressive ones, like the sounds of powers activating), and I did the rest. I licensed the music from shockwave-sound.com (nothing to do with the Shockwave you’re thinking of).
I’m just your typical spikey-haired, black wearing, loud music-playing, rebellious father of three who happens to also make games. My only significant game development experience is an old total conversion for Quake II called Dawn of Darkness. Incidentally Greg worked with me on that, too. (Along with a huge team of guys, so don’t go thinking we did it by ourselves.) If you dig really hard, you can still download Dawn of Darkness.
Greg is your typical black-wearing, loud music-playing, rebellious art genius. He’s living in London to finish up art school.
Tim: Any story behind the name Grim Inventions?
Jason: It’s an expression of my taste for dark, creative works. We’re not really living up to it yet, but I’m building slowly. You’ll probably see our games become less mass market and get a lot darker and more story-oriented as we achieve more financial independence. Right now I just want to feed the kids. They eat like locusts.
Tim: Any previous projects?
Jason: We had a few partial/prototype games and a couple mods of various types that may later become full games.
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Tim: How long did it take to develop Little Gods?
Jason: It took us about 1 year, although only about 6 months once I got Torque2D since the game art was mostly done by then. I had created my own engine in C++ but then decided to license Torque2D because it lifts the burden of maintenance and bug-fixing a lot so I can focus on the games more.
Tim: How about the engine and tools used?
Jason: A lot, actually. Torque2D, Eclipse editor, vaseline, Visual Studio 2003, Paint Shop Pro, clay and resin, Wacom digital tablet, and a whole lot of caffeine. About a mountain of caffeine.
Tim: Can you share with us your thoughts on the torque engine?
Jason: If you don’t want to work a certain way or are a stubborn goose, then it won’t float your boat. If you can adapt to its way of doing things, it will serve you pretty well. Torque2D isn’t quite feature complete, but overall it’s a very nice, shiny piece of work.
ARGUS TEACHES MULTIPLICATION FACTS
Tim: Do tell us a little about your other project, Argus Teaches Multiplication Facts.
Jason: Originally I made that for the my kids, and it turned out nice so I asked Greg to hook me up with some art, and we put it out for sale. I learned my math facts all over again while testing it. So I know it is effective!
Tim: How was the response for that game?
Jason: It’s a specialized product in a very hard to reach market, so it’s been rather slow, let’s say. Mac users seem to really like it, though. All sales are from the Mac version. I don’t know what that means about PC users.
Tim: Any knowledge from developing Argus that proved useful when creating Little Gods?
Jason: Yes, everything I did in Argus helped me with Little Gods, so that’s the real payoff. I learned Torque and got the work done a lot faster because of it.
LITTLE GODS
Tim: How does your working schedule sounds like, while doing development for Little Gods?
Jason: Let’s see. I punt the kids onto the bus, kiss my lady as she heads off to work, walk bleary-eyed to my office downstairs, miss the chair when I try to sit down, fall straight on my ass, wake up immediately when I hit the floor. Then I plug into the caffeine I.V., fire up the editor and start coding.
Tim: What was the biggest difficulty you’ve faced while developing the game?
Jason: Making it to the end. Really, there were a lot of times I want to poke out my own eyes because I was so sick of the game, but the professionals finish–and so I had to put new batteries into my cyborg clone and let him do most of the real work.
Tim: Were there any other names considered for the game? Why did you choose the name Little Gods?
Jason: Little Gods refers to the fact that you have god-like powers but you aren’t really a deity. The characters in the game are only given their powers by Pillboa (the big kahuna of the realm), so they’re kind of Rental Gods, if you prefer that name.
Tim: How did the idea for Little Gods came about? And what was your inspiration for making the game?
Jason: The gameplay was developed organically, but started based on an old Amiga game I made about 6 thousand years ago. I usually got new ideas while about to fall asleep after an 18 hour programming massacre and then forced myself to rise and write it down. I think a lot of weaknesses in the interface are from these changes that came late in the process.
Tim: What about the story? Did you ever had plans to include cutscenes to tell the story?
Jason: There was a Story Mode in the game that told the story of each character, why they were in this place doing this ridiculous ritual with these little pillbug creatures (the balls). The story is basically that your character has died and really screwed up something, and by a strange twist of fate you landed in this realm called The Everything where you have a chance to get your life back and live it the right way this time. So that’s what the duel is about. You are fighting to get your life back for one reason or another, and each character has a story about this. I took out Story Mode because it was taking too much time to develop. Secondarily, the stories I created were really too serious and dark for this game.
We considered doing some comic-style stuff, but probably won’t. That idea is not dead, though, so you can expect some of our later work to include that type of thing as promotional material.
Tim: The music, the production style, it’s kind of like something that Tim Burton would do if he ever produced a game. has anyone else suggested this as well?
Jason: That’s very flattering to hear! But it’s really just a combination of my tastes and Greg’s style. I knew I didn’t want any techno or loud rock and roll music. I wanted something totally different to disarm players with. And the art style was a decision to try and balance a dark look with cuteness. Greg is very good at that.
Tim: Could you describe a little about the game modes available for those who are reading this interview and have not experienced the game itself.
Jason: The main game is basically Pong. You knock the ball back and forth and try to make your opponent miss so you get a goal. But also it’s like Arkanoid because there are bricks in the middle that you can smash up to get trinkets and goodies from. But as a whole it’s like neither, because the bricks in the middle move and respond to what you do, and then you can invoke your god powers and affect your opponent or the balls to help win the match.
The unlockable modes are pretty simple but offer a new kind of challenge for the levels. For instance, Rapid Attack is a mode where you go really, really fast and so do the balls. The rounds are over quick because you usually can’t get the balls fast enough, but it’s a lot of fun to try.
Tim: Will mouse controls be implemented? i noticed that this option wasn’t available for players.
Jason: I’m still debating with myself about it.
Tim: I kept expecting to hear voice or some sort of speech from the characters. Was this ever considered for the game?
Jason: We had all kinds of stuff planned, but time killed most of it. I wanted to have blurbs for each character at the end of a round when they won or lost to give them more personality. We just ran out of time.
Tim: Any thing you’re particularly proud of about Little Gods? Something that you didn’t think was possible for this project but you’ve accomplished it in the end? Or a feature that other paddle games do not have, that would probably be copied by other developers.
Jason: The whole 2-player aspect is quite an attraction to me. It’s a lot more fun to play with a group of people, because the game is as fun to watch as it is to play. That’s something I didn’t discover until a group of us played it and even the people who weren’t playing had a really great time. There’s stuff you won’t see if you are playing because you get focused on the action, but every arena has special events and randomized visuals that make it fun if you happen to see
them.
Tim: What was the single hardest thing to implement while developing Little Gods?
Jason: The only struggle that we had was controlling the scope of the design. It could have spiraled into some huge Massively-Multiplayer RPG Pong thing, but I forced myself to keep it lean and trim off stuff we didn’t absolutely need. That’s very difficult!
Tim: Are there easter eggs or hidden secrets in the game?
Jason: There are 2 cheat codes in the full version.
Tim: In the game, it was mentioned that there were free stuff to download from the web site. are you referring to the gallery or is there something special?
Jason: There will be downloadable objects you can drop into the game. We’re going to have a character or two, probably a power or two, and definitely some levels.
FUTURE PLANS
Tim: What can we expect in the next patch? bug fixes? or some new features?
Jason: I’m going to work on making the game more configurable and easy to learn. We’ll also be tweaking levels and making new levels.
Tim: Was online multiplayer ever considered?
Jason: Yes, but I like the interaction of face-to-face gameplay since you can slap your opponent when you beat them.
Tim: What is next for Little Gods? Expansion packs?
Jason: There is an expansion pack coming if the game sells significantly: 2 new characters, 2 new arenas, a bunch more levels, and new game objects.
Tim: How will new arenas be distributed? And will it be offered for free?
Jason: Arenas probably won’t be offered for free. They require a lot of art and effort. Hopefully some creative and patient players will create more levels for it, which we hope to host and let other players download.
Tim: How much participation can we expect from the fans? Besides creating arenas, is it possible to create new characters as well?
Jason: You can only create new levels with the editor.
Tim: Are you planning any contests for arena designs? prizes?
Jason: I’m kicking around some ideas but it’s too early to say.
Tim: Future projects from Grim Inventions?
Jason: Our next game is going into pre-production soon. It involves a 1910-era setting and… insects. That’s all I can say right now.
Tim: How well do you think Little Gods will fare? What are your expectations?
Jason: I don’t expect a runaway hit, but it might do ok.
Tim: The character designs for Little Gods were very impressive. Will they appear in other games from Grim Inventions? Did you ever had any plans for a comic based on the characters, perhaps to flesh out the story?
Jason: The characters won’t be reused, probably. We have so many ideas it’ll be difficult to stick with any single one unless it’s really a big hit.
Tim: Any recent independent title you’re enjoying or have an eye on?
Jason: I really liked Oasis and Trade Winds 2.
Tim: Is there some dark secret about Little Gods that you wouldn’t mind sharing with us?
Jason: The darkest secret about Little Gods is that I wanted to wear a beanie the whole time I was programming. Maybe for the next game.
Tim: Anything you’d like to say to convince others to try out the game?
Jason: Little Gods takes some effort since it’s got depth, but it pays back your effort with addictive fun. That sounded like marketing hyperbole, but it’s true!
Tim: Any advice for other indie developers out there?
Jason: I’m not successful so I shouldn’t give any advice, but my one insight is that you really are better off sharing the pile of cash with someone who compliments your talents. Synergy is the term that comes to mind.
Tim: Alright, thanks for spending time with us to talk about Little Gods. I hope your game does well enough for you to consider a sequel.
Jason: Thank you!
Evil Invasion Interview
Interview: Lesha, Developer of Evil Invasion
By Tim W.
August 21, 2005
Evil Invasion is the latest challenger for the throne currently occupied by Crimsonland as the king of top down shooters. And judging by the gameplay, the ruler may well be usurped from it’s position by a new underdog.
We caught up with the Lesha from VHGames for a little chat about their new title.
INTRODUCTION
Tim: Could you tell us a little about your development team?
Lesha: There’s five of us and we’re all working in the game industry. We’re hardcore gamers; we love playing games as well as developing them.
Tim: Is this your first project as a team?
Lesha: As a team, this is our first project. We developed it during our free time. We started out just to have fun developing a game, but when the game attracted very positive feedback from others, we decided to put all our effort into it to create the final release.
THE GAME
Tim: First off, why was Evil Invasion chosen as the title? Were there any other names considered?
Lesha: It just sounded right. That was the first name we came up with and we stuck with it, since it perfectly describes the gameplay.
Tim: (Laughs) I agree. How long did it take to develop the game? Tell us about the development process.
Lesha: Most of the design and programming were done by me. We spent about one year developing Evil Invasion.
Tim: Evil Invasion have been compared to Crimsonland quite often. But before that similar controls were first introduced in Robotron: 2084 and became popular when it was used again in Smash TV. Have any of your team members ever played those classics?
Lesha: Most of us played classic games on the Sinclair platform 
Tim: I was quite impressed with the number of spells that were available. Besides using Blizzard’s classic as a template for some of the spells, do you draw inspiration for the spells from any other titles?
Lesha: We considered a lot of magic systems actually. Generally speaking, the game was designed without using any particular reference - the spell system is basically a combination of features from other good games.
Tim: I like the fact that your character cannot specialize in one offensive spell because of the protective auras. But what if the character only uses their skill points on two missile spells?
Lesha: All spells and skills are divided into 2 major section:
- damage or instant killing spells and skills
- protective spells and skills
Using just damage spells will work fine in the beginning - but when the hero reaches a higher level (about 35) - it will be impossible to stay alive without protective (or non-damage) spell and skills.
Current game balance perfectly prove this.
Tim: In quest mode, all the accumulated skills are taken away before the start of each stage. What is the reason behind this design decision?
Lesha: Each quest is about eight to twenty minutes of play time, so we have decided to give players a chance to explore different combinations when creating heroes.
Tim: Does the gods in Evil Invasion have names?
Lesha: They are still unnamed.
Although it’s quite clear which elemental nature are represented by them.
Tim: Any easter eggs or hidden secrets in the game?
Lesha: A couple exists.
FUTURE PLANS
Tim: Have you considered having monsters drop items for players to collect and equip?
Lesha: We have received such suggestions from some of the feedbacks. It will require considerable amount of work, though. Perhaps in the near future.
Tim: Any future plans for Evil Invasion? Perhaps new features to be introduced in the next patch?
Lesha: We’re currently working on minor bug fixes and balancing the gameplay system.
We do have plans to include a random map generator, and day/night cycle.
Tim: Wow, cool. How about two-player mode? Will it be considered for future versions? Other modes?
Lesha: Yes, there will be a two-player mode soon. If the game design has enough features for multiplayer, why not?
Tim: Will Evil Invasion be ported for the Mac?
Lesha: Most likely. The game architecture consists of two modules, logic and engine.
Logic is divided into graphics engine (using DirectX) and some platform-dependent stuff. Game code is clean, using class hierarchy (written in C++) and well-documented.
So, it’s really quite easy to do a Mac (Linux) version.
Tim: Any particular independent title you’re currently enjoying?
Lesha: Recently, it’s Wik and the Fable of Souls.
Tim: For your fans, what is your next project? Will it be another top down shooter?
Lesha: Evil Invasion II, definitely! Expect all sorts of new features as well.
Tim: Anything you’d like to say to fans of your work?
Lesha: We have a forum on our site. It’s http://www.vhgames.com/
Everyone is welcomed to drop by and discuss about Evil Invasion!
Tim: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak to us.
Lesha: Thank you!