If you’ve ever played a game by developer Cactus, you’ve had the opportunity to sample some of the best, and most bizarre independent games available. Cactus simply has that ability to take you to places few others can, and then he promptly leaves you there to fend for yourself.
Thus, it is with some sadness that the following shows up on his blog:
Whatever is best for the prolific developer is of course what he should do, whether or not he continues to make games. But I know I’m far from alone in saying that his strange touch would be greatly missed throughout the indie gaming world.
In order to get this blog up and fully running the way I want I’m going to be spending time this week deleting a lot of the old posts. The first to go will be the music posts which are all mostly blocked by YouTube these days anyway. I’m going to keep JE up for a bit so I can make sure I get a the chapters copied down and saved somewhere safe, but pretty much everything not game related is going to get erased.
It’s been a while since my JiG review of MoneySeize and I STILL can’t put this game down!
MoneySeize is a platform game of the ridiculously difficult variety. You play Sir Reginald MoneySeize and your goal is to collect 1000 gold coins so you can build the world’s largest tower. Getting these coins isn’t easy as they are scattered about in fifty plus rooms filled with traps, enemies, and perilous jumps that will challenge even the most adept of platform players.
What makes MoneySeize so good? Lots of things really. The controllers are fast and loose, but responsive like a finely tuned sports car. As such, once you’ve acclimated yourself to the gameplay, it hardly feels like you’re even using your hands but instead controlling little MoneySeize with your mind. This is handy considering that the levels are viciously difficult and often times collecting all the coins will have you relying more on muscle memory than anything else.
Yes, you’ll die, and die often. There will be rooms in which you will rack up deaths in the hundreds before you’ve cleared out all of the coins. But what really makes this such a delicious challenge is that many concessions have been made to allow the player to take this game at his or her own pace.
First, you are granted access to several rooms at a time as opposed to being forced to play all the levels in order. This means that if one particular level is frustrating you to no end, you can take a break by playing another level that will frustrate you to know end and have you pining for the last room that was making you pull your hair out.
Second, as long as you make it to a room’s exit alive, you can save your progress for that room. That means you get to tackle rooms at your own pace. If you’re a platforming god, you can feel free to scoop up most or all the coins in a level in one shot. If you’re like the rest of us, you can nickel and dime your way through a level until it’s finished.
The ultimate effect is that MoneySeize at first looks impossible, but you eventually come to realize that if you just stick with it long enough, you can overcome. Now, I’m not suggesting you may not want to throw your laptop or keyboard through a window from time to time, but the rest of the time you give to MoneySeize will be time well spent.
UK based developer, Megadev, has some big news coming. The sequel to its awesome match-3/rpg mash-up, Knightfall, should be dropping very very soon over at Armor Games.
The first Knightfall featured innovative game play and more than a few twists on the old match-3 puzzle genre. We have quite a bit of faith that Megadev took the old formula and ramped it up to make a game that’s bigger and better in just about every regard.
Jonas Kyratzes remains one of my favorite indie developers. He is, in my estimation, among the best story tellers in the world of independent gaming, so I’m sure you can imagine my excitement upon learning about this upcoming release.
My anticipation is redoubled considering that not too long ago, Kyratzes actually hinted that he might give up making games completely. This would, of course, be a great loss to we who travel off the beaten path to get our gaming fixes. It’s unclear whether this is his swan’s song or not, but at least we get to enjoy his vision for at least one more title.
Without playing, my initial thoughts are somewhat mixed. The story behind Phenomenon 32 is intriguing. In an alternate Earth, a “reality bomb” is developed and its hellacious power is unleashed upon the world. Nearly all of humanity is wiped out with the exception of a small cadre of colonists on the moon. The tentative fate of mankind is further threatened when the moon colony begins to run out of resources. The only way to save the last of humanity is to send a mission back to the Earth to collect supplies if any remain.
It’s an ambitious plot, and one that Kyratzes is well equipped to deliver. But I also have to admit some apprehension. Kyratzes usual millieu is that of the point and click adventure. Phenomenon 32 is a metroidvania style platformer, and this means that Kyratzes finds himself in a field full of excellent titles. The thing about point and click style games is that there’s only so much you can do with the actual gameplay and the focus usually centers around the plot and puzzles. With platformers, the gameplay is the focus, and the most well intentioned platformer can be sucked under into mediocrity by poor controls.
Seeing this movie alleviates much of my fears, though. From the look of things, this game appears to be smooth as silk. From these few minutes of footage, it looks like Kyratzes is seeking to meld his trademark excellence in creating the perfect atmosphere, with high quality platforming action and discovery.
In other words, this game simply can not drop fast enough. We need to get our grubby little hands on this as soon as possible! Stay tuned here, or keep your eye on Kyratzes’ website for when it drops.
In short, yes. I’ve been contemplating bringing it back for a while now, but if I do it will look a little different than it has in the past. If I come back, it will be almost completely as a gaming blog. I’ve got a lot of different things going on right now, so there may be more of this in the future, but just know that I may be digging out the old bilateral defibrilators on this thing.
Ahem. It seems that this announcement is long over due, for which I apologize.
I will for the foreseeable future, not be updating here at ADITMO. This is because my work at Jay is Games has become essentially a second job for me. As my parents are coming to visit, I’ve been quiet there for a while, and will continue to be so until June 11th, but otherwise I’m a regular writer, a member of the helpsquad, one of the perveyors of JiG’s metaplace, etc., so on and so forth. It’s very rewarding work that I’m quite passionate about. I’m also working on trying to get an editorship there as well as working behind the scenes on a project that I hope comes to fruition.
So, I’m getting paid to write, I’m getting paid to play video games, and I love it, and for that I have no problems letting this place fall into decay.
Also, if you have a twitter account, look me up. My username is PROTIPZ. So follow me, where I talk about games, politics, and the usual grind of trying to convince my body to get up and do something non couch related before 1 in the afternoon.
First, if this is your first foray into Journey’s End, please go check out the table of contents and start from the beginning!
Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted a chapter for Journey’s End, hasn’t it? The interesting thing about this chapter is that it was actually written months ago, but my focus on the presidential election drew all my energy and attention away from this story.
I had initially planned on making this chapter much much longer, but what struck me upon reviewing it in the process of writing it is that ending it exactly where I did just seemed to make sense.
Here we are introduced to yet another integral character to the story who I think I will ultimately add a little spice and comedy to the mix. Given the nearly saccarine sweet character of the relationship between Lindsey and Trevor, I think I would be in danger of having something so sweetly dull it wouldn’t be worth it. But this character kind of becomes the needed voice of dissent as the plot begins to take a more solidified shape.
As for Chapter 10, don’t hold your breath. Much has been written, but it is also a much longer chapter than this one is, and I haven’t even started contemplating how to continue writing it. Before that happens I have to get myself back in the habit of spending a little time in Journey’s End in my head.
The story so far and the actual chapter below the jump!
