IGM - Riding The Space Wave: Ryan Vandendyck On Waveform

Eden Industries is a newly formed independent game studio on the block, currently hard at work on their debut game, Waveform. Completely unlike anything we have ever seen before, Waveform has you controlling the amplitude and wavelength of a wave of light as it travels through space. The idea is collect and void certain objects along the way; the game is simple but progression bleeds into a steadily growing complexity.

 The game’s head developer Ryan Vandendyck found the time in his busy schedule to sit down with us and talk about Waveform; everything from how it started off as a part time project to it’s final destination on Steam in February 2012. Read on to find out how, of all things, Mario helped shape Waveform to what it is today, as well as how important community feedback was to altering the design and ideas present in Waveform.

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IGM - Pudding Panic Review

For once, I saw a wobbly green jelly and I didn’t immediately want to just gobble it all up. Instead, Pudding Panic‘s frightened (and tasty) protagonist has my deepest sympathies. The poor little bugger never knew how terrified he would be as he alighted the haunted house ride of his greatest nightmares. If it was possible to hug a jelly without destroying it, then I definitely would. The best that we can all do though, is to help him get through the ride without being scared to death; such is the premise of Pudding Panic.

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Hooked Gamers - Why Naughty Dog(s) Shouldn't Play With Guns

Since debuting with Crash Bandicoot in 1996, Naughty Dog have gone from strength to strength and have picked up quite the following on the way. With three well-loved franchises under their belt, history suggests that their next move is to create another new franchise. What that might be, I can only guess at but whichever direction they decide to go, I’m hoping that they drop guns completely in their next game. Why? Because they don’t do guns all that well, because it is beginning to spoil my fun and because they have a track record of making great games that focused on other things than guns.

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Hooked Gamers - Serious Sam 3: BFE Review

As a whole generation of gamers grows older, we can mark this year as a threshold. It is the swivel point at which we filter out old gaming practices from earlier decades, in a harsh but fair sentiment. As part of this, we all desperately placed our hopes in Duke Nukem Forever to prove that the classic first-person shooter can be brought with us into the forthcoming decade. Disgracefully, it only moved towards hammering another nail in the coffin. Due to this mishap, it seems that Serious Sam 3 may be the last chance for the classic uber-masculine, twitch shooter to survive the cull. All that back-pedalling does not exactly get us started in the right direction though.

 
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IGM - Waves Review

Rolling around in digital excrement may not be the best way to describe Waves. Perhaps surfing the ripples of electronic water, or riding the silky flow of the River Lethe. Ah yes, that would do; for supping from Waves would induce a certain forgetfulness due to its epileptic, tooty-fruity extravagance, as was the suffering of those who drank from the Lethe. Genius.

 
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Hooked Gamers - What Type Of Skyrim Player Are You?

Bethesda's magnum opus, Skyrim, is one of the most vast cRPG's ever made. With a huge variety of things to do, and just so much of it, there are clearly several different ways to play the game. It's a tradition with RPG's to cast player's into different categories. See if you spot any similarities in your own play style with the few we have listed below. Keep in mind what this may say of your own personality as well.

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IGM- Saving Morons To Save The Industry: Simon Dean On Folk Tale

Being part of the game development industry as it was just blooming, Simon Dean was disappointed when budgets began to soar, risk taking went amiss and creativity dwindled. Recent trends and available avenues in indie development ignited that spark of enthusiasm once again though, and Simon was encouraged to create his very own development studio called Games Foundry, despite being absent from the scene for over a decade. The recently formed collaboration of developers under Simon have been working on their first project and are just starting to unveil its shining glory unto the world. Folk Tale is a comedy, fantasy RTS that has its players attempting to save a town of morons from themselves, as well as the tide of monsters ready to bash their thick heads in.

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IGM - inMomentum Review

Speed running is one of the oldest community driven practices in gaming. It requires a high level of skill and hours upon hours of practising. It could even be considered an art form in itself, and it is exactly this premise that inMomentum is fuelled by. Since competing in community made speedrun levels of Quake, gamers have been waiting for another chance to show off their skills in a finely tuned realisation of the sport, and inMomentum might just be the game they have been waiting for.

 

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IGM - Ignite Review

Screeching wheels and burning rubber has taken a backseat to pedantic stats fiddling in the racing genre recently. Surely the thrill of the race should always be the focus in a game; the big titles pretentiously adhere to the label ‘simulator’. How fancy. You know what? Keep your fine tuning, posh voiced narrators and la-di-dah pitstop cutscenes; you’ll find me on the track actually having some fun in Nemesys Games‘ Ignite.

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Hooked Gamers - Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Review

Croteam have committed an admirable deed by letting smaller developers create a game based around their Serious Sam franchise, even if it does double up as a clever marketing ploy. There have been some wacky and adorable creations as a result, and considering they are all based on the same source material, there is a fair bit of variation as well. Random Encounter looked to be another exciting and creative spin on the Serious Sam franchise. It takes the cult FPS and weaves it into an RPG of some sort. Sceptical? Believe us, so were we.

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IGM - Neon Zone Review

Neon lights are usually associated with exquisite night time entertainment, of a varying sort. There is an allure about that fuzzy, colourful glow that just invites you in, as if emitting a trance-inducing radiation. If a survey was taken asking people what distracts them the most, neon lighting would probably come just under “shiny things”. House On Fire‘s smartphone game, Neon Zone, has had us staring at it’s beautiful visuals for long enough now so that we can give an assessment. The task is trying to pen up this review without glancing over at the game again for fear of not being able to tear our eyes away for another hour or so. Must. Not. Look. At. Distracting. Lights.

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Hooked Gamers - Grand Theft Auto V Preview

Grand Theft Auto IV was announced back in March 2007. The hype surrounding Rockstar's more gritty realisation of their figurehead series was unmatched. Until now. Grand Theft Auto V has officially arrived with the announcement trailer and the first flood of details. After all the rumors being built up by eager fans for the last year or so, what is this mammoth title all about?

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IGM - To The Moon Review

Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy. Such as Johnny’s impulsive wish of going to the moon, despite not being able to give reasons why. Perhaps it is dementia, or the culmination of a life lived full of regret; but Johnny’s last dying breaths are spent upon calling the people capable of delivering the impossible. To live our dreams. It sounds pretentious at best, but nothing will prepare you for the magnitude of the journey in To The Moon. Grab the nearest box of tissues.

 
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Hooked Gamers - The Book of Unwritten Tales Review

Point-and-click adventure games, good ones that is, are very rare nowadays. You really have to search for them as they apparently lie beyond the realms of mainstream interest. That is a huge shame really, if for no other reason than that the genre has always provided an unparalleled humour. Perhaps it is their relative slow pace, or their naturally clunky gameplay when compared to other genres that deemed them unsuitable for today's gamer. Whatever it may be, they have been cast out of the sphere that is currently occupied by shooters and sports games, and discouraged to ever attempt a comeback. On the bright side, there is hope coming from the likes of Germany-based King Art Games. Their original release of The Book of Unwritten Tales in 2009 was met with great success in their native country, but they wanted to expand the experience to English speaking players and set out to localise the game.

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IGM - Friday Fiver: Five Games For Under £5 Each!

Sometimes I feel I do not play enough games. Other times I play lots and don’t bother to write anything about them. To resolve this issue, I have vowed to produce a weekly feature for you every Friday. The goal is to review five games that cost under £5 every Friday. I would like to think that if any of these games gets a shining review then you would be inclined to have some weekend gaming fun with it. If that is achieved, then at least this has a further, more grandiose point to it.

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Hooked Gamers - Dark Souls Review

Reputation can hold a foreboding presence. It is passed around by word of mouth and is digested as an underlying anticipation. It brings fear and excites the mind with illustrious thoughts and runaway fantasies. Rarely does the arrival of the reputed object deliver to the promises of the hushed whispers that so eagerly painted its ominous being. On occasion though, the reputation is surpassed by the material embodiment; its presence chokes the throat. Such is the case with Dark Souls - an unrelenting experience that only the audacious should dare enter.

 
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IGM - Orcs Must Die! Review

Spiky floor or wall-mounted blades? Which would spice up the castle interior more? This is not a sadistic version of The Sims at discussion here. No. This concerns the art of orc killing; a most vivacious sport to suit any young, sprightly mage. In Orcs Must Die, the consideration of your interior design is a most vital practice, especially as you will be spraying chunks of green flesh and red gore all over the walls. Good luck removing those stains. You could look upon the struggle of the last survivor of the Order as he battles a massive army of orcs as quite epic. But the truth of the matter is, there is way too much fun to be had here than to worry about whether you are fighting for some noble cause. Blood squelching, skull crushing fun, that is.

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IGM - Xotic Review

 Xotic sticks out like a sore thumb amongst other shooters. A simple glance at a screenshot will prove this. There are colours barfed up everywhere and it appears that more familiar weaponry such as a standard barrel-and-trigger gun, has been replaced with a large fly. You are bound to question exactly what it is that you are looking at and how many drugs you have taken. But while Xotic may look a million miles away from your typical shooter, it is arguably more of a shooter than the current majority in the genre. You are probably more interested in the fly though, aren’t you?



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Game Tunnel - September 2011 Independent Games Round-Up

Welcome to the September 2011 Independent Video Game round-up, the latest in our long-running panel that reviews all the latest Indie games. We passed on doing a video feature for this round-up, but if you want us to bring it back just sound off below. We hope you enjoy this very close match-up of some excellent indie games. Seven of the ten games received an award this month and some of the top games scores were very close! Needless to say, there are always great independent games out there to find. We hope you enjoy reading reviews from each of the panelists on all 10 games in the September Independent Game round-up.

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IGM - Gemini Rue Review

After Gemini Rue delivered its final message about the human condition, I found myself sat upright before my monitor as the end credits rolled, applauding. But what was it that had caused me to feel the need to demonstrate a physical appreciation of the game in a room occupied by only myself? Mental disabilities aside, let’s just say that Gemini Rue is a poignant package that commands the respect it deserves.

 
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