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Month: May 2014

Review: Blue Beacon, A Retro Style Platformer By Adam Mowery

Blue Beacon by Adam MoweryDebuting on the PC and Xbox Live Indie Games—at only $1.00!—AdamTheOtaku has succeeded in adding his retro 2D platformer, Blue Beacon to the blossoming list of video games developed by Oklahomans.

In Blue Beacon, players take control of Sasha in a quest across three worlds, each with four stages, to collect three ‘Discs of Power.’ From the moment you begin the first stage you’re treated to an immediate homage of the beginning 1-1 stage to the original Super Mario Bros.—no doubt telling you what sort of game Blue Beacon will be. Continue further in the game and you’re treated to allusions of other early console platformers such as Kid Icarus, Kid Chameleon, Adventure Island, Bonk, and so on. Yet adding its own personality, Sasha collects diamonds instead of coins (with 100 granting an extra life) while enemies like Goombas and Koopas are replaced by ladybugs and pillbugs. Meanwhile each of the three worlds possesses an insect themed power-up headgear to aid Sasha in better traversing them, such as the beetle helmet to crash through obstacles, the butterfly helmet to glide short distances across terrain, and the grasshopper helmet to super jump up and over both.

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Glass Wing A Retro Style 3D Platformer Puzzle Game By From Soy Sauce

Glass Wing by From Soy SauceOne of the most promising game developers in Oklahoma continues to flaunt its game design chops. From Soy Sauce had really shone when it completed its IndieGogo funded game Spheroid earlier this year. Now it is back with a game jam game that shows just how great they can be.

Glass Wing was released a couple of weeks back as the result of FSS’s efforts to compete in a month long game jam put on by 64 Digits. As a result of this, FSS created a retro inspired 3D platformer with just the right mix of Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime style platforming.

Glass Wing stars a young woman by the name Mayfly of the Glass Wing race who is kidnapped from her home so that a demon may harvest her wings for their magical properties. Barely escaping from her captor, Mayfly must traverse the dangers of this unfamiliar realm as she attempts to restore her lost wings and return home.

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Divine Knight Continues One Game A Month Challenge For March And April

Board Game Quest by Divine Knight GamingI am continuing my coverage of Divine Knight Gaming’s effort to create one game a month, for the challenge of the same name. I missed timely coverage of March’s game and felt I better get on with covering it and April’s game before we ended up with May’s game on the docket. So with that out of the way, we have a couple of interesting games to show you.

For March, Divine Knight Gaming created a game called Board Game Quest. This game is a tactical board game prototype with a fantasy setting. Inspired by the Lego Heroica series of board games, it features four warrirors on a quest to defeat a demon at the center of the dungeon. Each character has its own unique ability that will come more into play as the game moves from prototype to full fledged multiplayer game.

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From Beneath Ludum Dare Comes Space Driller

Space Driller Made For Ludum DareGame Developer Josh Maggard is no stranger to game jams. As of this last Ludum Dare, he has participated in four of them. We wrote about his last one, Time War, last year after the jam ended. That game was pretty fun, but brutally hard, at least for me. For his latest entry, Josh has held true to the fun part while keeping the brutal difficulty toned down a bit.

His latest Ludum Dare game is called  Space driller.  The theme for the jam was “under the surface” and he held true to that theme quite well. Space Driller stars a space miner who had been separated from his team and lost in a massive system of caves and tunnels. Armed with only his trusty drill, this miner must find the path out of the tunnel and back to freedom.

It was made over a 72 hour period with Josh acting as game designer and programmer and working with two others, Dan Konves, artist and designer, and Tyler Collins, music and sound effects. This small team of developers created a great looking and sounding game. The music and sound effects really pulled you into this dark and lonely cave while the visuals brought up levels of nostalgia for adventure platforming game of old. As many of the Ludum Dare commenters have stated, this game’s roots in Metroidvania style games are firmly planted and growing well.

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