Strange Free Games: Global Game Jam Edition

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Alright, here’s a dump of all the games I ended up loving from the Global Game Jam 2012. Going in no particular order…

Susie’s Summer Home

Yay, my game! It’s a maze where you play as Suzie, attempting to escape her haunted summer house. Best played with no preconception of the game.

Largely inspired by Yume Nikki and Paper Mario. Seriously.

You Again?

Here’s a rather incomplete game that, despite seeming to have no ending, have an extremely promising gameplay. You Again? is a simple dodging game that changes music and graphics as you collect power-ups and collide into enemies. You Again? has an interesting transition: enemies makes you older, until you eventually die of old age. In the after-world, however, colliding into enemies reverses your age, therein allowing you to reincarnate again.

It’s hard not to like the excellent graphical and musical effects this game played. Where it lacks in gameplay, this game excels in presentation.

#Snake2

#Snake2 plays like a terrible Japanese advertisement, and it’s well worth your time to play it from start to finish.

Tenderizer

Typically in a game, you want to stay alive. In Tenderizer, it’s better to be dead. An excellent, moody platformer about a lone soul who wants nothing more than peace. Yet, in this grainy black-and-white world, death is the only way.

Eurydice

Here’s a call-out to my pals from IGDA DC: Eurydice is a game with absolutely no graphics, only sound.

Wait, what?

Yup, a game with no graphics. The entire game is narrated and played via audio, and you have to be careful in what choices you make. The narrator will provide the actions you can take, via a text-adventure fashion. It’ll confuse many new gamers, for sure, but the old text-based guys will feel right at home.

Immaturity

A strange game with a foreign gameplay. Immaturity is a puzzle game where your action is recorded as a ghost, and you use this to solve puzzles. It’s pretty short and uncomplicated, but as a prototype, it’s very promising.

BIG HELL

Here’s a strange HTML5 game that I personally wasn’t sure what’s going on myself. BIG HELL is a simple communication game where you talk to other characters, and learn about their story. Then…you become that person.

I’m not sure if there’s an actual ending to this game. Still, its presentation and narrative are truly commendable.

Ascent | Descent

Another call-out to my pals from IGDA Albany! What’s a game that’s programmed by you? Well, the Game of Life, of course! Ascent | Descent adds an extra twist where Game of Life are the blocks you have to use as stepping stones to your final destination.

GPS: Gracius Princess Savior

OK, I couldn’t resist this sorta-strange, sorta-not game, since it’s very fun. Here’s GPS: Gracious Princess Savior from South Korea. It’s an adorable 2D puzzle game, where death is a necessity. An all-around adorable game.

Day of our Lives

Day of our Lives is a strange visual novel, where your choices leads to a different conclusion at the end of the day. Game’s story is with little surprises: you wake up, go to high school, meet up with your girlfriend, and then the school explodes.

And then you wake up. Then go to high school. Then meet up with your girlfriend. The school explodes.

…then you wake up.

An extremely intriguing story, with a rather disappointing ending. As they say, though, it’s the journey that counts, and this game certainly has one!

Don’t be square aka “The revenge of the psychedelic boring boxes” aka “vice versa”

Most people don’t like abstract art…unless it’s moving. Well, it’s a lucky day for you guys, because D.B.S. is most definitely a moving art. Granted, the gameplay is a little pointless: collect all the shape, and move on to the next level. Worse, the game loops itself, really deprecating the art factor. Despite this, it’s a visually pleasing game, and I definitely recommend giving it a spin.

Past Life

Past-Life is another game where you have to die. Unlike the last few games, though, you trigger your own death, rather than succumb to it. It’s a very neat 2D puzzle game, where you can die only so many times.

Trapped! In the Chamber of Eternal Darkness

And my favorite game from Global Game Jam 2012 is…Trapped!

Seriously, awesome game all-around. A simple (if typical) gameplay with excellent music, artwork, and presentation. I’ve got no complaints on this game. Well done, team Miniboss of Brazil!

Note: yes, I admit, this really doesn’t classify as a strange game, but I recommend it all the same.
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Strange Free Games: Yume Nikki

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Taro Omiya

By now, you’ve probably already heard that I went to Global Game Jam 2012 to make a strange horror game. It so happens to be that the game was inspired by another free, indie hit, Yume Nikki. Be warned: this game is not for the weak-hearted. It is a terribly bizarre, alien, and grotesque game that pushes the boundaries of human comprehension.

Yume Nikki can be downloaded at its fan-page.

I’ve actually mentioned Yume Nikki in one of the Weekly Game Music post. The story behind Yume Nikki is similar to Inception. Madotsuki, a psychotic, shut-in girl is unable to or unwilling to walk out of her apartment. She takes refuge, instead, in her dreams where she travels around her scary subconscious. You can’t talk to any characters, and there’s no real enemies to speak of: Yume Nikki isn’t a fun game. If you search hard, however, you’ll find plenty of experimental implementation of horror that will linger in your memory for a long while.
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Strange Free Games: 42

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Taro Omiya

I’ll be participating in the Global Game Jam 2012 next weekend, so I’ll be late on my updates next time. Speaking of Global Game Jam, lets talk about one of the best games that came out in Global Game Jam 2011: 42. Yes, 42, the infamous joke from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’ll answer The Meaning to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Quick and fun, 42 can be played here.

42 is similar to Wario Ware Inc. series. The point-and-click flash game involves clicking the correct number or setting up the correct conditions in a short time. The game will frequently trick you, so you’ll have to be careful on how to solve the current puzzle. It’s a funny game that’ll give you laughs as well as frustrate you on its riddles.
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Strange Free Games: Every Extend

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Every game has a prototype, a small model that demonstrates how the final product plays. Here’s the prototype to a PSP game Every Extend Extra: Every Extend. A game with hypnotic music and pop visuals.

Fun at short bursts, Every Extend can be downloaded here.

Every Extend plays like a randomly-generated top-down shooter. Unlike top-down shooters, though, the only way to kill enemies (blocks) is by exploding yourself. If you manage to hit one, that enemy will explode, hitting any enemies near. By this simple chain-reaction, you attempt to extend your combo to the largest number of enemies possible. Certain colored blocks give you different power-ups: red ones increases the number of enemies, green gives you more ammo, and yellow gives you more time.
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Strange Free Games: Against The Wall

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Taro Omiya

While I usually focus on released and playable games here, I’d like to highlight this prototype with a lot of promise. Here’s Against the Wall, a first-person platforming-puzzle game about climbing a wall. It’s a surreal and acrophobic experience, strange, perilous, and inviting all the same.

The alpha build for Against the Wall can be downloaded here.

The game involves pulling pillars out of the wall through a magic wand, allowing you to jump on top of them as platforms. Although all the pillars are randomly generated, you have to understand how far and how high you jump. The serenity of correctly calculating your moves as you ascend farther up the wall is an intriguing experience.
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Strange Free Games: Left Arrow Moves Left

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Away with the flash games, and back to awesome story-telling. Here’s a student project from RPI, Left Arrow Moves Left. It’s a simple platformer where nearly every element of the game are composed of words, including platforms and walls themselves. It’ll occasionally add new items, such as the teleporting bookmark that you can throw with the spacebar. Pressing enter allows you to teleport to that bookmark.

Left Arrow Moves Left can be downloaded here.

Since it’s a student project, Left Arrow Moves Left is very rough on the edges. There’s no saving, and some paths leads to inescapable dead-ends. Despite these flaws, however, the experience is astounding. The words on the platform spell out an intriguing, lonely story. By exploring the story itself, it’s easy to lose yourself in the deep and poetic environment this game creates.
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