Gods Will Be Watching (PC)

The original Jam game was so good, and so difficult and it was amazing that they could do all of that with one frame. Their original indiegogo campaign to fund GWBW as a full blown project were smashed in no time and a partnership with our favourite Indie producers "Devolver Digital" has really helped them reach new potential and new audiences. So far the game is amazingly difficult again, I've already turned it to easy (like I said, growing older puts strain mostly on your time; less time to slug away at difficult games, I just want the experience and even playing on easy with the short spurts I can put in before the next 'domestic distraction' makes the game plenty hard). I love what they have done with the narrative - a mixed flashback - and some scenes have been as difficult to play as anything Telltale Games has thought up. I am also glad that they didn't add any voices, reading the dialogue makes everything have more impact.

As much as I loved the original I didn't preorder this until a a week before the actual release - ever since Diablo III I've been so cautious of preorders and would rather wait to see how the game is received. Anyhow, this is what I am playing right now - and I could really use a break from 'Out There' after my last devastating game over..... 

Timberman (iOS)

Timberman is the new Flappy Bird - at least that's what some people have been saying  and despite it's "Canadian" theme it's made by Pawel Jedrysiak of Poland (where I am told it also has trees and people that cut them down) It has quite a few similarities with Flappy Bird too: a difficult game with a simple premise, leaderboards, randomly generated levels, "retro" graphics and one hit insta-deaths.

You tap the left and right sides of the screen to chop a chunk out of the infinity-tree avoiding the branches and keeping an eye on a timer. You can set your own pace but that timer can only be replenished by moving quickly so you have to choose your poison; either move fast and dangerously or carefully and run down the timer.

The free version is plagued by these terrible commercials that can only be removed with the tiny X. The 'gold' version only costs a buck and has a few perks (more trees and lumberjacks) but also removes the ads so anyone who is going to play even over 2 hours of this should definately just pay the dollar and be done with it (I just had to post this example of one of the ads because seriously "You can be a Hero..." Does that look like a HERO to you? and does it look like something you WANT to play? Strange....)

Also in the free version there are three landscapes that you chop in and after you die, as was with Flappy Bird, you are going to want to try straight away again because you were "so close" to that highscore. 

I wonder where the concept of the game came from and I wasn't able to find anything online. I would guess that it started with the idea of tapping left and right on the screen and having something in the middle that advanced towards the player which that player also dodged something....but why lumberjacks? I'd really like to ask Pawel about that.

Some of the new lumberjacks can be unlocked with a highscore or simply by chopping a lot of wood; A Trapper in a racoon fur hat,  Sir Tim (-ber?), Mr.Tree (Mr.T), an indian, and a hockey player to name a few. You can unlock "Jason" of horror film fame simply by liking the game on Facebook. Some are far more difficult to unlock like "Mr.President" - who requires you to get the score of 600 three times in a row!

Dr.Jones is also in there (who I personally believe should be a playable character in pretty much EVERY single game) and there is an homage to the most famous of the one-button genre "Lazy Bird."

If you're game is popular you're going to get cloned and I found quite some ugly screenshots to show you just the kinds of clones that are floating around on the App store. A developer named Oliver Joyce wrote an article about making his own clone (and the nature of cloning) worth reading here.

For a moment this afternoon during my lunchbreak I was tempted to buy the Gold version of this game (or at least just leave the free version on my phone, its just tiny right?) but then when I looked over at all the other icons of Flappy-esque and twitchy one-button games I have already got myself into I thought better of it. I need to stop playing time wasting games like this. 

When I got back to my computer and began to read things like: the game "you'll hate yourself for playing" or "frustratingly addictive as Flappy Birds" or this article titled "senselessly addictive or just senseless" - I decided I am going to have to delete this.....just after I beat my own highscore (Come on 300!)

Here's a link to Timberman's official page.

And another link to Pawel's company "Digital Melody".

Out There (iOS)

Few games lately have grabbed my attention and held it like 'Out There.'

I have been watching it since its release but it took my brother to visit (playing it on his android phone) and then a board gaming night (where we played 'Space Alert') to finally get me into the mood to really dig into it.

I turned it on today around lunch; am now on my fourth attempt and have loved every minute (every hour actually, I've clocked 4 I think). Each time getting a deeper understanding of the game and getting a little further. 

One of my favorite sci-fi movies is Duncan Jones' "Moon" and this game touches on the same vein and I'm loving it. And until we get a beautiful point-and-click (fan made) version of that movie, this will do...

Firstly the visuals stand out: comic book style eye-popping colours accented with clean fonts but it won't be out done by the sound and music which seems to hold the game in its magical and lonely space journey. I'd love to upload all the screenshots I've been taking but am afraid to ruin the mystery for the players I know who are currently enjoying 'Out There' or who might be (should be) now considering it.

Log entries happen every time you enter a new star system (or dungeon - because the game design is rooted in the Rogue genre) and are interesting, humorous, believable and realistic as they become more and more bizarre the longer our lone hero is isolated in space.

The pace of the game really fits me well at the moment too: no timers, nothing that requires speed. If my kids (or my boss) come to interrupt my game I can simply close the app and continue where I left off - there are no battles (that I have seen) in the way that FTL or Star Command have. The excitement comes instead through the decisions and discoveries you make and risks you take and there are many.

The most original idea is learning an alien language; the more you encounter an alien species the more you learn, slowly working away at it, piece by piece, word by word. It's refreshing and clever and adds to the isolation and strangeness in this deep space adventure.