Resurrected Entertainment

Archive for the 'Indie Games' category

The Ouya is coming, but are you excited enough?

June 19, 2013

Ok, so there isn’t a whole lot to be excited about in terms of a revolutionary hardware platform, but I think the people behind the Ouya seem to have made a nice machine. Yes, it runs Android, and no it’s not a phone. Unfortunately, there are a number of people making that comparison, and yes, there are Android phones out there with better hardware, but the Ouya is not a phone. It’s a stable Android platform which game makers can target like a console. This is something that has dogged the Android development environment for years because of the rapid and large scale changes to the Android SDK after every major version and the hardware offerings themselves. It’s hard work to ensure your latest Android game runs flawlessly on the numerous bits of Android jetsome floating about in the market, and wouldn’t it be easier if the hardware platform didn’t change on a weekly basis? The Ouya tries to solve this problem as well as giving Android gamers a better gaming environment than a phone, which I am sure is something you think is pretty special, but it does lack a bit of flexibility in the input and output arena. It’s also a beautiful platform for Indie developers looking to release cool software for your living room; I am sure there are lots of opportunities just waiting there for creative programmers looking to take a slice of the Android pie. Think about it, what other options were there for you to release software on a computing device in the living room? The Xbox 360, the PS3, the Wii U? These are great platforms but I would hardly call them accessible to very small development companies. Not to mention, these platforms are only interested in releasing games for the most part. There is the odd piece of software like Netflix, but the bulk of 3rd party offerings is in the entertainment market.

2D Boy’s Upcoming Game

December 5, 2007

The World of Goo has a tentative release date of February 14 or Valentine’s Day, whichever comes first. This game looks interesting, although there aren’t very many details. The video kind of fills in some of the void, but I certainly like what I’ve seen so far! Indie (independent developers) developers have been having a great time these last couple of years. Due largely to the sales channels created by companies like Microsoft for their Xbox 360 Marketplace, or even Nintendo’s Wii – although they haven’t seemed to really use it to its full potential yet. As a company of two, Ron and Kyle seem to be creating something unique and interesting. I can’t wait to try it! Maybe I’ll put my money where my mouth is and pre-pay for an indie game which hasn’t been released yet…

Crayon Physics Deluxe

December 4, 2007

There is a game in development right now which can take objects drawn with “Crayons” on screen and apply physical properties to that object. Influences like gravity, collision with other objects, friction are all applied once the object is drawn. You can even draw a a small hole on the object which can represent axial mobility. For example, draw a circle with a small hole in the center and it can act as a wheel, connect two wheels together with the frame of a car and it becomes a car. The object of the game seems to be about collecting stars by drawing objects and getting them to interact together so that the stars can be collected. Pretty neat idea!