What We’re Playing: RunRunRunJump
The Global Game Jam was last weekend, and a lot of amazing games were made (for a recount of how one went down check out Jason’s awesome dev blog). A full run down of the more interesting Boston offerings is coming soon, don’t worry!
The current front runner for our favorite GGJ game? That would have to be RunRunRunJump, a delightful and short game by Owen Macindoe, Scott Macmillan, Daniel Perry, Alex Schwartz, and Stephie Wu. The game is a simple platformer, but what is interesting is that the environment literally tells you what to do – if the ground says run, then run! If it says jump, then jump! The soundtrack is especially amazing as it is self referential as well – listen for a few seconds and you’ll know what I mean.
Of course, the theme of the game jam was deception so you should expect a couple of twists to be thrown at you as the game goes on. Keep playing though – the victory screen at the end of the game makes it all worthwhile.
One important thing to note is that the game requires the Unity web player to work, download it here. And then go play RunRunRunJump!
February 3, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: game jam, global, jump, run, runrunrunjump, unity
What We Played in 2009
2009 was an awesome year for games! And we played a lot of them! Here’s a recap of the great games we played this year. If you haven’t tried them yet, now’s your chance! They are all FREE and just waiting for you to enjoy them.
Our year started off with a great little platformer called Eversion that has a scary twist (a retail version is in the works). We then laughed a ton while living out the Olympic dreams of QWOP. There were a few fun games in the Boston Global Game Jam, and The Redistricting Game taught us about how messed up our current electoral system is.
The Legend of Princess gave us a glimpse of what could have been a sequel to Zelda 2 (on the NES), and Dino Run ate up a bunch of our time as we ran away from Armageddon with our dinosaur brethren. Speaking of dinosaurs, have you checked out Robot Dinosaurs that Shoot Beams When They Roar yet? It’s a pivotal work in gaming. Gemcraft is an addicting little tower defense game with a fun chromatic twist, and Facade is an older game (2004 or 5, I think) but still a lot of fun to play today.
Effing Hail is a neat little flash game where you destroy buildings, airplanes, and satellites with hail, or if you are in a more constructive mood you can try building with Grow Cube. Don’t Eat the Mushroom (and Knytt Stories) is a hilarious game about what happens when you do (or don’t) eat the mushroom, and is a must play for any serious gamer. Finally this year we enjoyed racing through the apocalypse in Canabalt, and subsequently relaxed with the music of Auditorium.
These were all terrific games, if you haven’t tried them yet be sure to go play them all now!
December 28, 2009 | | Comments (3)
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: 2009, Auditorium, Boston, Canabalt, cube, Dino Run, dionsaurs, don't eat the mushroom, effing hail, eversion, free, fun, game jam, Games, GemCraft, global, grow, legend, mushroom, princess, QWOP, redistricting, roar, robot
Game ideas born at the lunch table
I know that a lot of the people reading this are game developers who make games themselves. So to that audience I ask, how often do you find yourself sitting around, talking with friends, and coming up with hilarious ideas for weird little games? If you’re like me then it probably happens a lot – I find that at GAMBIT we discuss weird concepts for little games all the time, especially when we’re eating lunch. Normally these ideas are funny in theory but would probably be terrible in execution, however this time I think that we came up with something that could actually be both funny and enjoyable to play.
So I think we’re going to try to actually give it a shot, and maybe put on a small game jam to make the game a reality. I won’t spill the beans about what the idea is about, but I will say that it involves explosions. I’ll either post a link to the results in a few weeks, or I will come back on the blog and admit, head hanging heavy in shame, that we did not succeed in making the game because we are super lame. Stay tuned!
June 29, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Games, Random
Tags: challenge, explosion, GAMBIT, game jam, MIT
What We’re Playing: Boston Global Game Jam Games
Last weekend was just chock full of games, with MIT’s battlecode final tournament, the robotic competition final tournament (post coming soon), and of course the Global Game Jam, the latter of which produced a bunch of terrific games!
The full download list for all the games made at GAMBIT are posted here. Of special interest in my opinion is Move Mouse to Fulfill Destiny, an artistic title by Dan Roy, Will Jennings, and Filippo Beck Peccoz. You can read the description about how you are a farmer making friends, but if you ask me it’s much more fun to just play without thinking too much. The Beat is an interesting two player puzzle game which is all about timing your actions with the actions in the world, and was made by Marc Flury, Jesper Juul, Van Nguyen, Randy O’Connor, Filippo Beck Peccoz, and Daniel Costello. You can’t play it alone so be sure to find a buddy! It has an especially entertaining “scream” option, which doesn’t seem to accomplish anything but sure is fun to do.
Of course there were several other games made at GAMBIT, and hundreds made all over the world! Check out as many as you can at the GGJ game browser.
February 5, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Events, Games, What We're Playing
Tags: art, game, game jam, global, What We're Playing
Global Game Jam, Next (not this) Weekend
Some people play games, some people make games, and some people lock themselves in rooms for a weekend and go crazy trying to spit out a game in a short period of time. Yes, of course I’m referring to Game Jams, one of the most fun things you can do if you’ve got some free time and an itch to make something new and different. This time the Jam is of a Global flavor, and teams from around the world will be making games at the same time. Just think about it! Nerds in California, Japan, Singapore, and Sao Paulo will all be trying to one up Braid and World of Goo in the same weekend.
The Boston branch of this Jam is being graciously hosted by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab (of CarneyVale: Showtime! fame) and will take place this next weekend, from Friday Jan 30th to Sunday Feb 1st. Follow the shiny link for details on this awesome event. (more…)