Latest Posts

By Rich

Tags

social arcade, video

Posted in

Cool Links

1 comment

Social Arcade keeps on growing

6th Nov 2008

1

I’ve blogged about Social Arcade before, the 100% Flash based game development system that runs on Facebook. It was entered into the Facebook fbFund program along with 600+ other apps. 25 apps won, and Social Arcade was one of them. Today they had to submit their pitch for the next round (the prize being a cool $200,000). Only 5 apps will get that far, and having seen what Social Arcade can now do, I sincerely hope it’s one of them.

Watch their new pitch video below (the HD version is here)

Social Arcade – Facebook App from Richard Vanner on Vimeo.
By Rich

Tags

8-bit rocket, arcade

Posted in

New Releases

3 comments

Jack’s Beach Blitz

31st Oct 2008

3

Jack’s Beach Blitz is a new game from the fine folks at 8-bit Rocket. They have been posting about the development process for a few weeks now (you can read it all on their blog). Originally starting life as a Pacman styled game, it’s now much more of Gauntlet meets Wizard of Wor. You play Jack, a slightly cycedelic coloured orange who has to traverse each level, blasting the baddies, teleporting, picking up bonuses and ultimately trying to collect your girl before pegging it to the exit.

Monster spawning generators can be shot (but take a lot of your limited ammo supply), you can also pick-up power-ups such as freeze or instant kill. But without taking out at least a few of the generators they just keep on coming! They also move pretty speedily (as do you), so you don’t really have time to run away from them. Thankfully they are pretty dumb, so more often that not you can evade them quickly, but if you don’t do something about the number of them you’ll soon get overwhelmed.

Graphically it’s obvious the 8-bit Rocket team could do with a talented artist onboard (sorry guys!). The graphics are far from terrible, but do get cluttered on later levels and have that “grid like” look to them, which a skilled pixeller can avoid easily. In-game the animations are cute, and things move along at a very nippy pace. The main menu is a bit of a jumble though, with mixed visual cues. Some careful spacing here would do wonders. It was also really quite hard to visually differentiate between something that would do you damage, or do you good, so that was more trial and error.

As for the audio – it’s great 🙂 Lots of big sounds and rolling effects. Glad to see you got to use that music too guys!

Aesthetics aside it’s the gameplay that counts, and JBB has in this in spades. There’s a nice puzzle element (unlock things that block your girl), there’s the solid arcade element (shoot, and shoot fast + avoid) and there’s the whole time aspect too. Take too long and you’ll be swamped.

It’s nice to see a real solid arcade blaster out there. Give it a play!
By Rich

Tags

arcade, game, halloween, pumpkin dash, reaction

Posted in

Games

4 comments

New Game Release – Pumpkin Dash

24th Oct 2008

4

I wanted to create something quick and fun for Halloween, so I came up with Pumpkin Dash.

You are a candy collecting pumpkin, and you must zoom around the graveyard collecting as many sweets as possible while avoiding everything else. Skulls, ghosts, bats and tomb stones are out to get you.

The Witches Hats will give you either a trick or a treat when collected – so it’s up to you if you dare take them!

I had fun writing this, definitely my fastest turn-around for a game yet (although I could still do better if I didn’t tinker so much!)

Update: You can now play this game on Kongregate.
By Rich

Tags

demo, flash10, gym, squize

Posted in

Demoscene

2 comments

651:Announce Demo by GYW

21st Oct 2008

2

squize and ngfx of Gaming Your Way infamy have released a lovely little Flash demo called 651: Announce. It’s a typically old-school demo but with a lovely modern feel to it. squize pumps out the polys with some smooth PV3D sections (you ought to try Away3D mate!) and while the different parts feel slightly disjointed (few transitions from one to the other) they each stand up well in their own right. From pretty rotating plasma, to gunmetal spheres and the neat voxel landscape trip right at the end, this is well worth watching.

Oh and squize: Thanks for the greets 🙂 and I was glad to see you got this released! Surprised you managed it so quickly given how you admitted you like to procrastinate about these things rather than do them 🙂

You’ll need Flash Player 10 to view it: http://blog.gamingyourway.com/content/binary/index651.html
By Rich

Tags

Games, music, video games live

Posted in

Music

0 comments

Video Games Live: Volume One

20th Oct 2008

0

My lovely wife bought me the Video Games Live: Volume One CD around a year ago from Amazon, and they only just received stock of it and shipped it! But it arrived today and was waiting for me when I got home from work.

All I can say is WOW! It is incredible. I’ve never been to a Video Games Live concert, and there is one coming up soon in London at the end of October which I sadly can’t make, but I’ll be sure to get tickets to the next one as soon as they return! The CD is stunning. Think lots of game music as performed by a full-on orchestra, with wonderful vocals.

The CD opens with the Kingdom Hearts music, which blends nicely into the Warcraft Suite, and it doesn’t let-up from there. The Civilization IV Medley by Christopher Tin is nothing short of beautiful, with an incredible African theme. The operatic God of War montage sends chills down your spine, and I’ve not even mentioned the music from Advent Rising, Tron, Halo or Castlevania.

If you treat yourself to one CD this Christmas, consider this one! It’s truly stunning. Game music like you’ve never heard before (unless you’re lucky enough to have been to a VGL concert of course, in which case I’m extremely jealous of you 🙂 )

There are over 2000 videos from VGL on Youtube here. Just watch this and tell me that’s not a great concert to be at? 🙂