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 ]

While many games have edgy titles with clever word-play, or fancy buzz words, ‘Endless Zombie Rampage‘ (by Sean McGee)  is so much more than a mere title.  It’s a complete description of all the game has to offer.  Endless zombies….

You will have to forgive my cynicism, you see… after playing ‘The Last Stand‘ my hopes for the defense game genre were sparked after having been extinguished for years. Then I played this pile of mediocrity and it pissed on the embers of my newfound hope, leaving only a smelly column of urine steam.

First, lets explore the graphics in this game.  They are okay, but there is NO variety here.  There is a base that’s got no detail… the hero who’s legs only move front to back no matter what direction you walk, and the zombies, which are all the exact same sprite with some color swaps.

Like ‘edgy’ games of the 90’s, this game relies on blood to make it ‘cool’.   Well, if blood is enough to make a game good in your opinion, this game deserves to be published on every major console, because it has plenty of that. Unfortunately… if blood is the only reason you buy a game… you can’t play it anyway because you are 12 years old and the ESRB rating would be too high for you.

The sound on this game is on par with any generic defense game… it has gun shots… blood splatters and one background loop.  The loop is actually decent… a nice moody ambient deal that would work well with a better game.

At it’s core, this game is just a generic bit of crap whipped off in no time at all to get some money from CrazyMonkeyGames, one of many sites (*cough*ArmorGames*cough*) that is more concerned with branding a large quantity of games rather than being associated with quality.  Not that there is anything wrong with that… if it makes money, it’s hard to fault them for it. I just can’t help to think back to the old Atari days when publishers used to shell out for any crappy old game too. The strategy almost killed an entire market.

In this game, you run around a big patch of dirt and aim with whatever gun you happen to have, at generic zombies.  They take a lot of ammo to put down, and the reload times are just painful. The mechanics keep you frustrated rather than satisfied with shooting the crap out of whatever you can.

The zombies are all the same, barring some variances in their speed and health.  AI-wise… there is nothing special about any color of zombie.

When you survive a day, you are rewarded with exp points that you can cash in for weapon upgrades.  While this feature COULD have been enough to make a player strive to unlock things, the rate at which you are rewarded is slower than a paraplegic track star with downs.  It took till about day 4 before I could get a weapon that was going to be any better than my basic pistol, and after all the mundane repetitiveness I had to endure to get that far, the novelty of having a new gun was short lived. Don’t bother trying the other game modes if you die… they aren’t really any different… the zombies just change their primary target.

On that note, dying in this game is actually a relief.  You can quit playing… and while you don’t feel like you accomplished anything, you at least have some closure.
I would be willing to bet that if this game wasn’t a ‘zombie’ game, it wouldn’t have nearly as much publicity.  You see… you HAVE to like zombie games.  If you admit to finding the zombie genre boring and over-saturated, all the Romero and Resident Evil fanboys will harass you endlessly on your local bbs, and your e-reputation will be destroyed. That would be a shame…
Reflecting on this game… I can’t honestly say it’s really ALL that bad… I’m just disappointed… again.

Give it a try and tell me what YOU think.

[ Survive the endless repetition! ]

I have never been a big fan of stationary defense shooters.  Most of them are simply the same thing over and over with little to no variety, and no real sense of accomplishment.  Today, I decided to give one of these games a try…

The Last Stand, by Con-Artists, is a zombie survival game where you stand behind a barrier and shoot zombies.  Yep, it certainly sounds boring already doesn’t it?

As I played this game, my first thoughts were… “Oh joy… another over-rated, generic defense game!” and I started shooting zombies with little enthusiasm.

Then as I finished the first round I fixed up my barricade, and found some other survivors….

As I continued to mash my mouse, I started to appreciate the artwork.  The zombies are all quite unique, using a variety of interchangeable parts to randomly generate several types of zombie.  The background changes from night to day as time goes by, and overall, it’s a nice looking game.

A few levels in and I started getting a nice crew of survivors, and had picked up some new guns, including a bad-ass shotgun.  I started becoming interested in seeing what everything else was like,

I hadn’t really given the audio much thought, but I suddenly became aware of the eerie ambient music that was playing.  It really helped set the mood, and managed to convey a sense of urgency without relying on a fast tempo.  I also noticed that, while the weapon and death sounds were all okay, there was a lack of zombie moaning and chatter from the defending humans.  This didn’t really hurt the game so much as keep it from feeling more like a movie.

Then I got the chainsaw.

While the gameplay starts out as any generic defense shooter, you begin to realize the weapons are all balanced in different ways.  Some are more offensive, like the hunting rifle which lets you kill efficiently from long-range, and some are defensive, like the chainsaw, which converts your barricade into a big-ass meat grinder.

The way the zombies vary in speed, and some even charge at your perimeter, keeps you on your toes as you have to decide what part of your base to defend, and how to defend it at any given time.

This game is so much more than a frantic shooting game, it has a real element of strategy to it that I actually found enjoyable.

As I finally realized this game was great, and that I was having fun… I survived day 20, and won the game.

In spite the fact I was angry that my fun was over, I can’t help but smile.  This title reminded me that you can never judge a game by it’s genre.

[ Play The Last Stand ]

That’s right folks, WGM has just hit the benchmark of 100 reviews!

Since this is such a special occasion, I thought that I would review something from another special occasion, Pico Day 2007.

Pico is the mascot character of Newgrounds and has been around since the beginning of the web-game industry.  The original Pico game, Pico’s School, was a revolutionary piece of independent work that not only aided in catapulting Newgrounds to the top of the independent flash scene, but also inspired an entire generation of up-and-coming game developers, including myself.

April 30th is Pico day.  While it’s not the TRUE anniversary of the original game (mostly due to the fact nobody can recall the exact date) is IS the birthday of Pico’s creator, Tom Fulp. This year marked the 2nd annual celebration of Pico day.

Newgrounds put up $15k in prize money and a bunch of other great giveaways for members of the community who submitted pico-themed flash movies and games.  While a ton of great content was submitted on that day, only one could be the best game in the show: Pico’s Surprise Party.

Pico’s surprise party is an incredibly fun game that really captures the spirit of the original pico game.  It’s short, it’s numerous, and it’s damn fun! The story starts out with Pico’s friends luring him out of class so that they can spring a surprise party for him on his birthday.  Just like in the original Pico game, a group of social outcasts, this time the nerds, decides to unleash their fury on the popular kids.  The nerds show up at the party before Pico and proceed to slaughter all the guests.  When Pico shows up, he’s pissed…..
The graphics in this game are fantastic.  The stylized characters and backgrounds really make this game feel animated and really help illustrate the contrast between child-friendly cartoon visuals, and rated-R blood and violence, a theme that was also at the core of the original Pico.

The sound effects are all pretty decent, although there’s not a lot of variety.  But who needs variety in a game where all you do is shoot the crap out of people?  Okay… so maybe some variety in the music would have been nice.  The one techno loop that plays over and over gets old pretty fast, and doesn’t actually stop during cut scenes or boss fights.

The way this game plays is the real draw.  It starts out like a typical run and gun game, but once you start playing you realize there is so much more to it.  Pico can not only run and jump, but can also do a delayed back flip in the air, and a commando roll for dodging projectiles.  These maneuvers are critical to avoiding enemy attacks.  When you are clear to attack, the game also has auto-targeting, allowing you to keep your focus on evading attacks rather than lining up your shots.  Every enemy feels like a miniature fire-fight, and that makes things a lot more fun than you typically get from a run and gun game.

The game is pretty short, but the challenge of it stretches the playtime out to an enjoyable 20-30 minutes.  You will probably die a lot, but you can continue as much as you need to to get through the game and enjoy everything it has to offer.

This is possibly the perfect tribute game to the legendary Pico franchise, and even if it weren’t a pico-related game, it would still be a ton of fun!

[ Play Pico's Surprise Party ]

A 20th century propeller powered bomber from the future is sent back in time to battle futuristic alien invasion from beyond Pluto…. or something. With a premise like this, how can you possibly go wrong?

B29 Assault is a modern classic. The overall look is a combination of classic 2-d, arcade-style sprite work and arial photography, resulting in a rich looking aerial combat game with plenty of varying scenery and lots of cool explosions.

The sound effects in the game are all great. It really helps the game feel like a classic arcade game, but the music could have been a bit better.  While it’s not terribly annoying, it is the same generic techno crap people have been using in flash-based games since the dawn of Fruity Loops.

The gameplay is certainly unique for a game of this genre.  While typical top-down air-shooters only allow your plane to shoot in one direction, B29 Assault lets you use the mouse to aim special weapons.  Not only that, but it’s rather intuitive with it, allowing you do do things like draw a line for a force field or drag a missile locking path across enemy fighters.

Simple touches like changing direction after beating a boss help make the game feel like a constant adventure rather than a series of levels. The variety in weapons isn’t massive, but it’s enough to keep things interesting, as is the variety in enemies and bosses. The game is really fun, and the varying waves of attack, and the difficulty of the bosses keeps it challenging.

B29 Assault may have a plot thinner than an OJ Simpson alibi, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from checking it out.

[ Play B29 Assault ]

Just over a month ago I reviewed a game called Crusader Tank. The game was fun but had a few flaws, and didn’t really have much in the way of visual variety.

Gametop (the creators of Crusader Tank) has just released a new game, and it seems they have made a lot of improvements in “Holy War: Invasion”.

But were they enough?

First, let’s just get the fact out of the way that this is pretty much the exact same game as Crusader Tank.

The graphics are the same bitmap rendered stuff you saw in C.T., only with a few new objects… oh and the ground is green instead of brown now.

You obviously don’t play as a tank in this game, rather as an armor-clad engineer with a big gun. Still, it’s the same top-view, run and gun play you experienced in C.T.

While this game is pretty much 90% recycled, it does have a lot of small improvements I feel I should point out.

First, the health, weapon and progress displays have been completely redesigned to fit vertically on the screen. This makes them easier to read during gameplay, and the visual quality of the guages are much nicer.

You can also toggle weapons as you get them. The weapon upgrades in each level are still present , but now you can jump from your gun to missiles on the fly when you need to take out a heavy tank quickly.

The sounds are about the same, although the music isn’t quite as annoying this time around.

A nice new touch is that the level scrolls slower when your character is at the bottom of the screen, giving you a way to change the pace when you get swarmed.

Perhaps the best change to the game is the inclusion of W,A,S & D being able to control your movement. This makes it much easier to move around and fire with the mouse for laptop users.

The difficulty of the game has been pushed up just a bit, so there is a little more challenge in this game, which would have made the game more interesting had I not gotten bored with this game style playing Crusader Tank for 20+ minutes a mere month ago.

If you are like me and you played Crusader Tank to the point of boredom, you probably will find this game lacking in any relevant improvement to the core gameplay. However, if you missed C.T., I would highly recommend playing this game instead. It’s addressed all the flaws C.T. had, except repetitive gameplay.

I’ve never had a problem with people rehashing a game engine. Sonic the Hedgehog had like 4 good games on the Genesis with pretty much the same game. SEGA just made sure to make compelling changes to each sequel to keep things fresh.
If it don’t FEEL like a new game, it ain’t a new game.

[ Play Crusader Tank... err ... Holy War: Invasion ]

Awww man, I loves me some side scrolling shooters, and Agent Wing Defenders (final) by Lan is a great addition to the many that are out there.

Graphics are very well done and I’d suggest trying it out on high quality as I encountered no slow down on my lil comp. While everything looks prerendered, I like the pixelish looks to it, making it seem ever more like a classic scroller. Good cut scenes and thank god you can skip them. After playing several times you already know what’s going on and don’t need the tips or the story line so much.

From the main loop to the explosions, the sound comes through all around. A “turn off sounds” button would have fleshed it out completely but no other real complaints.

What makes a great 2d side scrolling shooter? Play the game and you’ll see. The gameplay is top notch with a very easy to control plane and a good fire rate. Nice option on being able to use the arrows or WASD to move, with A for shields S to shoot (arrows) and H for shield and J to shoot (WASD) with ENTER to pause. The waves start out easy, so don’t worry about power ups, as they will come and when they come you’ll need them. As you can see in the screen shot, there’s some fun enemies. I won’t give away to much except I’m gonna be late for work from this one. GO GO GO GO GO!

[ Play Agent Wing Defenders ]

Five ’til by JMTB02 is a nice addition to the “4 sec games” genre but with an actual plot and a bit more than 4 seconds to know what the hell is going on. Around 30 seconds per level, which is nice for old and bitter people like me.
Nice action and decent art. While it could be spruced up art wise it in no way detracts from the great game play. Some better backgrounds and better explosions would flesh it out more, but you’re going so fast trying to get crap done you hardly notice it, unless some dumb reviewer mentions it then you can’t help but notice.

Sound effects and audio are well played except after I beat the game and listened to the end music for 10 minutes before I closed the window. Other than me zoning out, nothing annoying with what you hear.

ANGRY FIST SHAKING MOMENTS: for some parts where you have to use the mouse I REALLY wish I could see what part of the icon that got changed I’m actually using. The wire cutting took me several tries because it’s different than the glass cutting. Not sure if that’s just a minor bug but yeah, on the wire cutting it should show where your actual arrow cursor is for the hit area, where you click.

Other then that, game play was freaking great. Combining several different aspects of game play I loved helped. I like this approach better then the 4 sec games (which I won’t link cause I don’t want to remember that much to beat a game) as you get some time to learn the controls. I might just be old and bitter though. I also like how if/when you lose a level you start back with the same amount of time remaining when you started that part. Great game to play and get better at, mostly for me since I want to get better then a -C, haha.

[ Play Five 'til ]

It seems like everyone is doing mouse shooter games these days, which is cool with me, because some of them are actually damn fun.

Crusader Tank is a solid game where you play as a super tank sent to infiltrate the territory of some cult or other… the story was a bit too nerdy for me to bother reading in great detail…

Anyway, it’s a fun game and it looks pretty good too. The art is all rendered with high detail, and there are some nice touches like enemies being able to hide under the trees and such. The only thing I didn’t like was the variety in level art. Sure the actual layouts of each level change up drastically, but it’s always the same tree, oil tank, and dirt art over and over again, without so much as a pallet shift or anything to even TRY and make it look different.
The sound effects are pretty solid as well, but holy crap does the music ever want to make you want to stab your eardrums with a magnetic phillips-head screwdriver. The same short song loops non-stop for THE WHOLE GAME.

Ear-rape aside, the game is still rather enjoyable. While the game visually and audibly does not change much, the difficulty and strategy does. As you progress you run into bigger and badder enemy types, and you have to avoid barricade walls that will destroy you on contact.

I didn’t find the game terribly difficult, although the controls were rather uncomfortable. using the arrows AND the mouse on a laptop is a fast way to get carpal tunnel. If you have a separate keyboard on a desktop, this probably won’t bother you though.

While this game has several drawbacks, I still found myself playing for 20 minutes before my hand was too cramped to continue. The fun is there, I just hope you like the color brown.

[ Play Crusader Tank ]

varStudios has been developing visually stunning vector-style games for some time. Games like Neon and Lumination put them on the map for as some of the best mouse-busting game designers in the web-game industry.

Abstract Sea, their latest game, continues the tradition of stunning your eyes and busting your mouse.

I REALLY wanted to love this game. As a designer myself, I really can appreciate the overall style of this game, and fired it up with high hopes.

What I found was a game that certainly delivered artistically, but fell a bit short in the fun department.

The game is straight monotone color. Everything is all on the play area, from battleships to the score display, nothing is segregated. The explosions look very cool with the spinning boxes that fly off of enemy ships as you blast them into the sea, and all the alpha effects just look great. The game is just gorgeous.

Even the sound is great. The music isn’t really anything special, but the effects really help the game. Your bullets make no sound unless they hit something, which is a huge help when you are evading and firing at the same time.

You can watch your own boat while listening to the sounds. If your bullets go quiet, you know can move your attention to aiming for a split second, then resume a defensive watch. Not a lot of games use sound to this degree, and it’s just another thing that made me want to love this game.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is simply a recycled single screen 360 degree shooter game. There’s not a huge variety in the weapons you can get, although this may be due to the simplistic vector style art. There is a good AMMOUNT of weapons, but they don’t really FEEL all that unique, and the single color blocks used to represent your bullets is probably the reason for this.

The other thing that gets old is the variety in enemies. I think there are severl types of boat, but in the frantic assault they all tend to look the same and only vary in minor ways such as overall armor and the amount of shots they can fire.

I tried to give this game a long thorough play, and I really did have fun with it for a few minutes. But after the initial enjoyment wore off, and the variety screeched to a halt, I just got bored and let the enemy ships sink me.

I think this is still a good game to waste time with, but beyond killing a few minutes, there’s not much to this game to keep you coming back.

[ Play Abstract Sea ]