One of the things I have noticed about the gaming industry is that programmers often have the best ideas for original game mechanics.  Unfortunately, programmers rarely have the design skills to flush these ideas out into great games.

Nodes is a very original concept created by programmer, Eggy. According to his blog, Nodes was built as a bit of an experiment with some of the programming features in Flash.  How does it stack up against other programmer-concept games?

Art-wise, it’s pretty simple;  Shiney circles, red lines, generic background texture and uninspired menus and interfaces.  It still looks better than most games developed by non-designers, but the art was developed by ShibbyMedia, so I was expecting better.

Sound-wise, there is nothing special here.  The music gets old after a few levels, and the ONE sound effect is rather long and annoying as well.

The gameplay is really all that matters though and this is a brilliant brain-teaser concept.

You have movable nodes that are all connected by lasers beams, and static nodes that star out blue.  The goal is to position the nodes so that the lasers pass through all the blue nodes, turning them red.

This is the type of thinking man’s game I typically enjoy, so when I started this game I really liked it a lot.  Then I kept winning….and winning… without any challenge.  I realize I’m a smart guy, but I’m pretty sure a chipmunk with downs could master this game.
The level design is where the lack of a designer really shows.  Each level is unique, to be sure, but none of them are really well thought out.  There are so many ways to solve each level that I found myself inventing a challenge and trying to do it with the least amount of laser lines possible. As you can see in my screenshot, even as far as level 20, I was able to easily solve the puzzles and still have extra nodes I didn’t need.

Because this WAS designed as an experiment, you really can’t expect a big production, and like I said.. the IDEA is awesome.  I hope Eggy does a second version with more challenging levels and maybe some bonuses for unused beams, so players can really test their minds and compete for high scores or something.

At the end of the day, this is really a tech demo and not a polished game.  But tech demos can still be fun, so go check it out.

[ Play Nodes ]

Over the years we have seen several people attempt to make an epic RPG in a web-based format. Most of them have been pretty lame.

Aaron over at flashportal.com turned me on to an overlooked RPG game called Max Mesiria RPG, so I took a few hours and delved into it.

The game looks really nice.  It has a classic RPG style, but doesn’t rely on outdated 16-bit sprites, rather, all the level art is rendered in full resolution and plenty of color, making them almost look like carefully painted scenes.  Even the character art and variety is pretty impressive as you delve into the game.

Unfortunately the game seems to be running an unusually low framerate, and the animation suffers for it.  Some of the frame-by-frame work on the battle-mode enemies is impressive, but the main character comes off choppy and lazily animated, which is a big contrast to how well drawn he is.

The sound in the game is certainly above average, with well produced music… although a few of the music loops do get annoying after a few minutes.

The gameplay isn’t anything fantastic, but as far as RPGs go, it’s not bad.  The game is split into multiple parts, which contain different chapters of the story.

The first part isn’t very impressive. It’s pretty slow, and the random battles are very annoying as you wonder aimlessly for some menial tasks.  It was almost slow enough to make me skip the second part, but I kept playing to give the series a fair chance.

I was actually glad I toughed it out because part 2 actually got interesting. You start to get more of a scope on the world the game takes place in and get drawn a little more to the character.  The random battles are still annoying, but that’s true of pretty much any old-style RPG.

While I still am not super-satisfied by the overall quality of the game, I am anticipating part 3 and hoping it continues to improve with each on-going chapter.

If you really like classic RPG games, like I do, you should give this game a shot.  If you aren’t a fan of the genre, you will probably find this game about as enjoyable as watching grass grow.

[ Play Max Meseria RPG ]

While I typically refuse to review my own games, This little gem is going to be an exception. Generic Defense Game was built and distributed as an experiment to get some insight on the current state of the independent web-based gaming community.

Because of the nature of this game, I am actually going to review/score the actual experiment rather than the game itself.

The experiment was to create a game in a genre that has been completely over-saturated with carbon copy games, and distribute it to see how much money and popularity I could exploit from it. I wanted a game that would both mock this type of game, but would also make no pretenses at being original in any way. And so the concept of ‘generic’ defense game was born.

Within 2 days of starting, I had the basic engine for a run-and-gun shooter game, and so it came time to decide on what you would be defending, and what you would be defending from. I knew that I had to use zombies, because it’s illegal to hate a zombie game. But I didn’t want to just straight up copy other crappy games, or the experiment wouldn’t stand out enough to make a point. So I toyed with some other retarded objectives… and decided I would just make the game so generic… ALL my objectives could be dumped in.

As I started having fun with the overall ridiculousness of the game, I figured I may as well add a mouse-only mode and spliced in a turret defense system. From that point I started getting carried away designing mediocre weapons (the pellet gun is an obvious tip to this part of the design), generic texture filled backgrounds.. and minimally animated bad guys, which I could copy and paste and do some small tweeks for even more generic bad guys.

For the audio, I used a bunch of generic gunshot sounds, recorded some lame death grunts, and raided the Newgrounds Audio Portal for some royalty free music. It didn’t sound too bad in the end, but I assure you… there wasn’t much effort in the sound production.
Once I had it all together, I knew the game was starting to step beyond the original scope… but I didn’t care, I was having a good time just making something stupid. I did make sure to not add in any back-story, or actual ending… lest we end up with a polished action game rather than a generic game with minimal substance.

Now it was time for phase 2, securing some money and getting the game distributed. I was going to approach a site like Armor Games or Crazy Monkey Games for a sponsorship, but I decided to have a chat with Greg from Kongregate about the game first. I knew the other sites may not ‘get it’, and would just fork over money so they could stuff their game libraries a bit more with exclusively branded content, then spam it around the web and enjoy the kickbacks.
I needed a partner that could provide the same level of branding, but still let me control the experiment in a few ways. Kongregate got the concept and was more than willing to sponsor the game for more money than these types of games should ever warrant. They also allowed me to include Mochiads (in-game advertisements) in versions of the game that would be distributed, which was another experiment I had been dying to try.

The ads in the game were a real surprise to me. I did not expect the high level of performance the would ultimately yield. For the most part, developers can probably make a lot more money with these types of advertising than they can with a typical sponsorship. It’s amazing to me that more people aren’t taking advantage of them.
Once the sponsorship and advertising was secured, it was time to distribute the game. With some suggestions from Tom Fulp of Newgrounds.com, and some assistance from the Kongregate and Newgrounds communities, I was able to get the game posted on a lot of high-performance game sites and even got it through on Digg.

The launch of the game was a massive success… half the people hated it… half the people loved it… half found it too hard…. half found it too easy… EVERYONE played it.

By the first weekend of the launch, the game had been featured on most of the sites I submitted it to, and the in-game ad was making about as much money as all the advertisements on psychogoldfish.com combined. In 3 weeks, I was able to create a game that was popular enough to generate a generous sponsorship, and a long-term revenue stream from in-game ads.

So the experiment was a huge success… but at the same time… the findings are disturbing to me.

Some people are wondering what actually inspired this experiment. Obviously, making money is a big part of it all… but it really started the day I reviewed “Endless Zombie Rampage“. This game, while not the worst defense game, was the proverbial ‘last straw’.

I have been in this industry for nearly a decade, and I was there to see it rise from a small group of people making games just for fun, and producing really original and entertaining work. Now, a lot of commercialized sites have made it possible to earn a pretty good living in this industry without having to build your own income generating websites. These commercialized sites kicked off a whole new generation of talent, and really helped to raise the bar in quality…at least.. that was how it started.

Today, everyone from high-school kids to seasoned vetrans, are whipping off generic games (not just in the defense genre) because the big commercial sites will dish out $500 or so, for pretty much anything that works (and even some things that don’t). The casual players tend to stick to these commercialized sites, because they brand all the games they sponsor to the degree that the players feel these sites are where all the games are coming from. For many casual players… these are the only sites they check for new games.

This is great for these sites, as they build strong user bases, and stronger revenue streams. This is good for the developers because they can earn sponsorships without having to put fourth a great deal of effort. This is bad for the industry because the quality content is being buried by the quantity content.

Anyone old enough to remember the Atari 2600 will probably have, at least, a basic recollection of what happened to the game industry back in the 80’s. What started as an industry with a few brilliant games, swept into a viable market where commercialized publishers with no hands on ties to the industry wanted to get their piece of the pie. They contracted massive quantities of generic games and clones of popular titles to the point consumers no longer knew the good games from the bad. The big companies were able to put out small games at bargain bin pricing, which is where a lot of the gamers at the time went to find new games. After a while, people stopped enjoying the games, and didn’t bother looking around to find the good titles, rather… they just quit buying in general.

I see the similarities between the piles of generic games that almost killed the gaming industry in the 80’s, and the generic titles that are being produced today. Eventually the casual players are going to lose interest, and only the established companies (the nintendos of the indy community, if you will) will have a shot at staying alive.

This experiment has completely validated that it pays more to make a bunch of generic games, then it does to push the envelope. It’s no wonder nobody in the media takes this section of the game industry seriously, the industry doesn’t take itself seriously, save for a handful of sites like Newgrounds and Kongregate.
Check out the game, and let me know what you think about the current state of indy web-games.

[ Try Generic Defense Game ]

Since the genesis of web-based gaming, many artists have tried to create expressive art that can only be found in the independent scene.

Edward, by Buzzwerd and TrueDarkness, is a game that takes classic platforming, and tries to present it in a very artistic and profound way. But does it truly feel like a work of art, or did it fall shorter than a midget on a banana peel?

The look of this game is really quite appealing. All the characters and levels are very stylized, using a classic vector look and minimalistic coloring. While this style is usually used to cut corners in art production, it mostly works well for this game.

Throw in an excellent selection of musical scores that further breath an air of atmosphere into the game and you almost have a breath of fresh air with this game (this is also a pun because Edward uses hot air to attack his enemies… GET IT!?!?).

With all of this visual and audio stimulation going the right way, it’s very unfortunate that this midget game had to step on the banana peel.

The storyline in this game starts out somewhat deep, hitting on themes of dark vs light, blind vs enlightenment… etc. It’s all rather emo. What really makes this attempt at profoundness even more off the mark is the in-game text that comes from Edward himself. When you kill enemies he says random things that seem like they were scripted by a 14 year old AOL chatter. It adds a huge degree of immaturity into a game that tries so hard to act grown up, but really it just wants daddy’s approval… WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME DADDY… WHY??????????????????

Okay… so as bad as the themes and dialog are… they aren’t what keeps this game from truly shining. As always, it all comes down to the gameplay and how fun the game actually is.

In this game, you move around… you jump… and you shoot air waves. That’s it. The enemies are not really challenging, especially since you can fire as fast as you can mash a space bar, and there’s really nothing interesting in the way of powerups.

The movement seems to try and make you feel like you are rolling and that you need to pick up steam to get around, which is a nice concept, but ultimately makes this game unresponsive, especially in areas where you need to act quickly to take on swarms of enemy robot thingies.

The levels are pretty well designed, and that is about the only thing that adds a challenge to the game. But after a while, all the levels start feeling the same…. you go up… you hit a switch… you go back down and progress…. rinse, repeat…

I did really love the concept of dying in this game. Rather than having extra lives, you actually fight the reaper to reclaim your progress in the living world. This would have been really cool if it wasn’t hampered by a super long death animation, and a really easy, but painfully drawn out battle with death.

If you die in this game… just stand in front of the reaper’s chest and jump/shoot.. he’ll never hit you, and eventually he’ll do the one attack that drops his defenses. Of course… he rarely does that attack, so it’s gonna take a while.

So all in all… this is not the little game that could…. but at least it tried. In the end… it’s just a mediocre platforming adventure, but it could be worse…. it could be a mediocre defense game right?

[ Play Edward ]