October 28th, 2007 at 5:07 am
(adventure, fatal hearts, hanako, visual novel)
Fatal Hearts by Hanako Games has been released. It’s a visual novel with a nice variety of puzzles. The mysterious story is about two teenage girls — one goes missing, and the story proceeds at a relatively fast pace. Besides the puzzles, there are also dialogue choices, but those don’t seem to affect the game very much (at least that I could tell from the demo). EDIT: The author of the game just told me that the dialogue choices do in fact affect the game quite a bit, it’s just that you don’t see the branching and the impact of those choices until later.
To me it feels more polished and professional than previous games by the same author, but it’s probably not for everyone — it’s a visual novel with puzzles, and fairly linear even for an adventure game, but it’s well-written and has a few memorable moments and lines. Some of the puzzles were a little difficult for me, but I managed to solve them all after some thought.
Name: Fatal Hearts
Developer: Hanako Games
Category: Adventure / Visual Novel
Type: Shareware
Size: 17MB
Direct download link: Click here
Comments
October 27th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
(Uncategorized)
Ablation X development journal updated. [trailer]
Knytt Experiment: Nifflas has cancelled the full release of Knytt Experiment, and will discontinue development on Knytt Stories as well.
Release Dates
Dwarf Fortress: The new Dwarf Fortress update is very close to a release. Due out next week.
Spud’s Quest: An update for Chris Davis’ lovingly-crafted tribute to the Dizzy series will be released soon. [new features]
Adventure
Submachine 5: Mateusz Skutnik has made plans to publish Submachine and Covert Front series (four episodes) on CDs in the near future.
Machinarium: Amanita Design’s Machinarium will be released as a full game download, while the demo will be playable online.
Sydney Finds Employment: Ivan Dixon is currently hard at work on a commercial project for the last six months.
Unbound: Limpingfish’s Unbound will be released sometime in November. [Heartland Deluxe, walkthrough]
In Development
Nigoro: In the last comment of this Nigoro’s development journal entry, it is stated that both duplex and Samieru are currently working on separate games at the same time.
Gesundheit: Matt Hamill has resumed work on Gesundheit.
Articles/Updates
Arcanacra: Arcanacra updated to version 0.4.1.
Lost Garden: Daniel Cook has contributed a new article for Gamasutra.
Miscellaneous
Wonderland series: Midnight Synergy is currently celebrating their fifth anniversary with some special deals.
Poppenkast: Poppenkast has launched a new web site.
3 Comments
October 27th, 2007 at 6:15 am
(Uncategorized)
Hampa recently released Toribash version 3.0, an update to the popular turn-based fighting game with physics, dismemberment, decapitation and blood. Updates are as follows:
- removed registration key
- removed demo restrictions
- environments
- shaders (off by default)
- 2 vs 2 and 2 vs 1 battles
- black belt only server option
- added login (same username and password as the forum)
- new shop items (to be announced)
Some new bugs were found, but patches will be released in the coming weeks to address these. So basically you can get Toribash with nearly all the options enabled for free. [source: Fun-Motion]
- download page (down currently)
- Toribash web site
- forum thread
Comments
October 25th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
(Uncategorized)
In Silent Chain, you touch the enemies without touching their spikes to bind them to yourself. The more connections you have the more points you get when you connect or kill another. You can shoot the enemies too, which will make your mass decrease faster.
Controls:
Move - Arrows
Shoot - Z
Gather - X
Name: Silent Chain
Developer: cactus
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here
Online hiscore table
6 Comments
October 25th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
(Uncategorized)
A 27 MB demo for Blackwell Unbound is now available for download.
- direct download link (right-click to save)
- Wadjet Eye Games
- Spooks (freeware, walkthrough)
Comments
October 25th, 2007 at 7:11 am
(Uncategorized)
Protoganda’s graphics were inspired by old movies with special effects made without the use of computers. And to some extent by the feeling you get from watching old protoganda movies. The gameplay is a fairly straight boss fight flare, with a focus on time, rather than lives.
You start out with three minutes playtime. Defeating a boss gives you an extra fifteen seconds. Getting your ship blown up deducts forty. If the timer reaches zero, you lose.
There are two different gameplay modes, ‘absorb’ and ’shield’. Shield gives the player a defensive tool that can be used to get out of tight spots; press Z + X to repell bullets. You also get a chargeable shooting function that automatically targets the enemy. Hold X until your ship is glowing, and then release. Z fires your main cannon.
In Absorb mode, I borrowed heavily from the great Ikaruga. You can switch color to become invulnerable against bullets of the same color as yourself. Touching a bullet absorbs it, and you build up power to release a charge shot, as well as replenish a bit of time. Bullets of the color opposite to the enemy does more damage. Press the C key to release a charged shot.
There are two online highscore boards (one for each mode), and a variety of different options to extend the fun. - cactus
The bosses names are taken from a list of the 50 most common Russian family names. Press the F1 key to change resolution to 640×480 for a larger gameplay window display. Use the R key during a game to restart immediately without returning to the main menu. A sequel to Protoganda is in the works.
Name: Protoganda
Developer: cactus
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here
Shield hiscore table
Absorb hiscore table
10 Comments
October 24th, 2007 at 9:46 am
(deblob, mutantstorm)
Mutant Storm Empire: PomPom Games had recently informed Eurogamer that Mutant Storm Empire will be available on the XBox Live Arcade starting October 31st, 2007.
de Blob: This Nintendo Wii release has suffered a scheduling setback, with it’s release date moved from 2008 to 2009. The PC version is still available as a free download from the GameDev.net forum thread. [source: Joystiq]
Free Lunch Design: Johan Peitz of Icy Tower fame will release two new games very soon.
Shellblast: Shellblast can now be purchased for less than $4.95. The prequel Acidbomb is still available as a free download.
2 Comments
October 24th, 2007 at 3:08 am
(igf2008)
The full list of entries (125 in total) for this year’s IGF student competition is now available to view from the IGF main site.
- peruse the entries
Comments
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
(Uncategorized)
Neonominoes is a puzzler by Maruchu, author of the equally fun but dated Colorful Notes. Players are given a number of puzzle pieces in each level, and must find a way to place all of them inside the holes to advance.
Left click to place and right click to rotate. Menu navigation is in Japanese but shouldn’t pose a problem to players with a willingness to experiment. It is also possible to select a puzzle piece to place by choosing the option right underneath the current piece indicator, or using the mouse scroll to swap.
Name: Neonominoes
Developer: Maruchu
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Download page: Click here
[ Zip format ]
1 Comment
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:36 pm
(Uncategorized)
Note: Not an official release.
Nifflas’ Knytt Experiment is an attempt by the author to encourage user-generated content while building a coherent world for others players to explore. Anyone can create a new level and submit it for approval before inclusion into the database.
Only one small area is playable now, but if the response if positive then a proper game could possibly be released very soon.
2 Comments
